The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment – Jeremiah Burroughs (concise)

Christian contentment is defined as that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and takes satisfaction in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition. This “rare jewel” is not merely a natural patience or a stoic indifference but a spiritual mystery that must be learned in the school of Christ. To understand this grace, one must look at it as a heart-work where the soul is not just silent outwardly while boiling within, but truly stilled in its depths. Contentment is not opposed to a due sense of affliction or making an orderly moan to God, but it is diametrically opposed to murmuring, fretting, tumultuousness of spirit, and desperate risings of the heart against God. It is a habitual frame of the whole soul—judgment, thoughts, will, and affections—that finds its satisfied quietness more from an inward disposition than from any external arguments.

The Art and Mystery of Contentment

The most crucial takeaways of Burroughs’ work lie in the “mysterious” way a Christian attains this state, which often involves paradoxes that the carnal mind cannot grasp.

– First, a contented Christian is the most contented man in the world, and yet the most unsatisfied man in the world. While he is satisfied with the meanest condition for his passage through this life—even a crust of bread—he cannot be satisfied with the whole world for his portion, as only God Himself can fill a soul capable of God.

– Second, contentment is achieved not by addition, but by subtraction. The world thinks contentment comes by adding more to one’s estate to match one’s desires; the Christian, however, finds contentment by subtracting from his desires to match his current condition. By lowering his heart to a low estate, he achieves an evenness that brings rest.

– Third, a Christian finds ease not by getting rid of his burden, but by adding another burden. When the soul is heavily burdened by affliction, the “art” is to burden the heart with sin. The more the soul is weighted down by the sense of its own corruption and unworthiness before God, the lighter the outward affliction will feel by comparison.

– Fourth, grace provides the power to metamorphose the affliction. Contentment is not the removal of poverty or pain, but the turning of that poverty into spiritual riches and that pain into a sanctified benefit. Like Christ turning water into wine, grace turns the “water” of affliction into the “wine” of heavenly consolation.

– Fifth, contentment is found by performing the work of one’s current condition rather than making up the “wants” of that condition. Instead of musing on what he lacks, the believer focuses on what God requires of him now, serving God’s counsel in his generation.

– Sixth, the gracious heart attains rest by melting its will into the will of God. It is not enough to merely submit; the Christian desires what God desires, acknowledging that his good is more in God than in himself. By making over his will to God, he is satisfied whenever God’s will is done.

– Finally, a Christian lives upon the secret dew of God’s blessing. He fetches strength from Jesus Christ to bear his burdens, drawing from Christ’s fullness when his own natural strength fails. He learns to enjoy God as All-in-All, even when the “pipes” of creature comforts are cut off, going directly to the Fountain for his satisfaction.

The Lessons Learned in Christ’s School

Burroughs outlines several “lessons” that Christ teaches to bring the soul to this state of learning:

1. The Lesson of Self-Denial: This is the “A-B-C” of Christianity. The believer learns that he is nothing, deserves nothing, can do nothing, is vile, and that if he perishes, it is no loss. One who is little in his own eyes sees every affliction as small and every mercy as great.
2. The Vanity of the Creature: The soul learns that there is no proportion between an immortal soul and the worldly things it seeks. Seeking contentment in the creature is like a starving man gaping for the wind.
3. The One Thing Necessary: The soul realizes it is not necessary to be rich or honored, but it is absolutely necessary to have sin pardoned and God as a portion. This weighty concern for eternity swallows up smaller worldly disquiets.
4. Relation to the World: The believer is instructed that he is a pilgrim, traveler, and soldier. A traveler does not expect the comforts of home at an inn; a soldier is content with hard fare in the field.
5. The Burden of Prosperity: Skill in contentment requires understanding that wealth and honor are burdens involving trouble, danger, duty, and account. A king must give a greater account to God for his kingdom than a poor man for his cottage.
6. The Knowledge of Providence: This involves understanding the universality, efficacy, and variety of God’s works. Nothing happens by chance, and every “wheel” of providence is connected to a thousand others; stopping one would disrupt God’s entire eternal plan.

The Source and Origin

1. Natural stillness arises from a person’s natural constitution or temper of body. Some individuals are simply born with a more quiet or less violent disposition. It can also be produced through a “sturdy resolution” or the “strength of natural reason,” much like the heathen philosopher Socrates, who maintained his countenance through morality rather than grace
   
   Gracious contentment is a “spiritual mystery” that must be learned in the “school of Christ”.
   It is an inward disposition caused by the grace of God in the heart rather than external arguments or natural temperament
   
2. Activity vs. Dullness
   Those with natural stillness are often “dulled” and unresponsive to spiritual things.
   Burroughs notes that people with this natural quietness often lack “quickness or liveliness of spirit in what is good”.
   
   Conversely, gracious contentment makes the heart “very quick and lively in the service of God”. Far from being a sluggish state, the more a gracious heart is contented, the more fit and active it becomes for God’s work.
   
3. Sanctifying God’s Name
   A naturally still person may remain quiet under a trial but is not active in “sanctifying God’s name” during that affliction.
   
   A person with gracious contentment is actively concerned with God’s honor during a trial. This involves acknowledging that God is blameless and righteous, and finding “honey in this rock” by seeing the goodness and wisdom in the affliction itself.
   
4. Reaction to Sin
   Burroughs provides a “note of difference” regarding sin: those who are contented in a natural way are often just as contented when they sin against God as they are when they suffer outward crosses. They under-react to both personal affliction and the dishonoring of God
   
   A gracious heart is contented with its own afflictions but “mightily rises when God is dishonored”. Such a person is patient regarding their own pain but “lion-like” and zealous when it comes to defending God’s name.
   

The Excellence of Contentment and the Evil of Murmuring

The excellence of this grace is found in its ability to give God the worship due to Him. Contentment is “soul-worship,” a crouching at God’s feet in submission that is more valuable than any external act of prayer or hearing a sermon. It is the beauty of grace that makes a man quiet in tempests, showing the glory of God more than the sun or stars. Furthermore, contentment delivers the soul from an abundance of temptations, as the Devil “fishes in troubled waters” and finds the easiest prey in discontented hearts.

Conversely, murmuring is a great evil that argues for much corruption in the soul. It is a brand of a wicked man and is often described by God as rebellion. Murmuring undoes one’s prayers because it contradicts the professional submission to God’s sovereignty expressed in petition. It is a foolish sin that yields no profit, only making the affliction heavier. Most dangerously, it provokes the wrath of God, who has at times sent plagues and fiery serpents as a direct judgment for this sin.

Crucial Directions for Attaining Contentment

To reach this “Rare Jewel,” Burroughs provides practical directions that serve as the book’s primary takeaways:

• Look within for the cause: No external propping will keep a ship steady without inward ballast; contentment must be an internal grace.
• Do not grasp too much of the world: Those who walk among thorns unnecessarily should not complain of being pricked. Avoid pursuing more business or worldly weight than God calls you to.
• Be sure of your call: Knowing you are where God would have you provides a fortress of quietness in any trouble.
• Walk by rule: Order yourself by the Word of God, and God will take care of you.
• Exercise much faith: When reason is at a “nonplus,” let faith get on the shoulders of reason to see the land ahead.
• Be spiritually minded: Those lifted above the earth need not fear the “snakes” of murmuring that crawl below.
• Do not promise yourself too much: If you do not aim too high in your worldly expectations, you will not fall hard when disappointed.
• Mortify the heart to the world: Crosses do not break the bones of those who are dead to the world.
• Do not pore over afflictions: Looking constantly into the “fire” of your trials will hurt your spirit; instead, look at the mercies that help and heal.
• Make good interpretations of God’s ways: Love “thinks no evil”; if there are ten interpretations of an affliction and one is good, take that one.
• Disregard the fancies of others: Discontent often comes from what other men think of our condition rather than what we actually feel; do not make the people’s imaginations the lords of your comfort.

Conclusion: The Saint’s Duty in Extremity

In times of great danger or “extremity,” the duty of the saint is to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord”. This is not a sluggish standing still but an obediential and believing quietness. Even when the sea is before us and the enemy behind, we must settle and compose our hearts by working arguments of faith upon them until they are silent to God. In the greatest straits, God intends to humble His people, delight in their faith, and reveal the wickedness of the adversary. The sight of salvation after such straits is a glorious thing, and the more difficulties we endure, the greater the “sapphires and precious stones” of the mercy to come. Ultimately, the man who possesses a contented spirit can never truly be said to be in want, for he has Heaven on earth.

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Who is Jeremiah Burroughs?

Jeremiah Burroughs was an English Congregationalist Puritan preacher, Westminster divine, and one of the more moderate Independents of the 17th century. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, but because of nonconformity he eventually left the established church and later ministered in Rotterdam during persecution. After returning to England, he became a well-known London preacher and served in the Westminster Assembly, helping shape the theological discussions of the era. He died in 1646 after complications from a riding accident.

Burroughs preached the sermons that became The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment in 1645, during the English Civil War and while serving in the Westminster Assembly. They were later published posthumously in 1648 (some editions note 1651 printings as well). People were anxious, displaced, and unsettled. In that setting, Burroughs took Philippians 4:11 as his text because believers needed to learn how to rest in God’s providence when everything outward felt unstable. That is one reason the book still feels so modern: it was born out of social instability, fear, and personal affliction, the very things that still expose discontent in us.