Jeremiah Burroughs Quotes

“Faith has this excellency, that it is able to bring life out of death, light out of darkness. It has a kind of creating virtue.”

“When God has given you your heart's desire, what have you done with your heart's desire?”

“No soul shall ever come to Heaven, but the soul which has Heaven come to it first.”

“A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage, but all the world, and ten thousand times more, will not content a Christian for his portion.”

“Temptations will no more prevail over a contented man, than a dart that is thrown against a brazen wall.”

“Did God give you more prosperity before? It was to prepare you for affliction.”

“Not one hair falls from your head, not a sparrow to the ground, without the providence of God.”

“Contentment is an inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, the whole soul, judgment, thoughts, will, affections and all are satisfied and quiet.”

“I have what I have from the love of God.”

“This is how you honour God, that you can turn this way or that way, as God calls you to it.”

“A godly man in the midst of the waves and storms that he meets with can see the glory of heaven before him and so contents himself.”

“Before your conversion, before God wrought upon your souls, you were contented with the world without grace, though you had no interest in God nor Christ; why cannot you now be contented with grace and spiritual things without the world?”

“We should study Christ, and praise and bless God, and have our hearts enlarged for Jesus Christ. This is the duty of believers to whom God has revealed Christ as wonderful.”

“When you sailors see the haven before you, though you were mightily troubled before you could see any land, yet when you come near the shore and can see a certain land-mark, that contents you greatly.”

“In the hearing of God's Word we profess our dependence upon God, for the knowing of His mind, and the way to eternal life.”

“Here we see the infinite love of God, that He has been pleased to think of us poor creatures from everlasting.”

“There is more good in contentment than there is in the thing that you would fain have to cure your discontent.”

“If the children of God have their little taken from them, they can make up all their wants in God Himself.”

“A contented man, just as he is the most contented, so he is the most unsatisfied man in the world.”

“They are full of outward comforts—they have their friends and children, they have estates, they have their tables well-furnished, and all the things that one would think would make the heart of almost any man content.”

“Isn’t it also a great evil for someone to possess a large estate and yet not know how to use it for God?”

“My Brethren, look upon every duty of Worship as a great thing which you must be intent in your thoughts about, and not give way to the wandering of your thoughts.”

“So God has his file in heaven where all faithful prayers are kept on record.”

“That it pleases God to accept the will for the deed is one of the privileges of the saints that comes by the covenant of grace.”

“You will say, “When we come to heaven, we shall be above the malice of all the wicked men in the world.” No, there is a time when the saints shall be above the malice of wicked men upon this earth.”

“We should desire to see God honored upon the earth where He has been dishonored.”

“But on the contrary, if the Lord do let thee lye in the filth of thy sin, it is an Argument that he never set his heart upon thee.”

“I beseech you observe this; Take heed for ever of reasoning with Temptation, of consulting and casting about in your thoughts, what will become of it? what trouble may come by this if I hearken not to this?”

“As for the things of the earth, I do not set store by them, whether I have much or little; but hide not Thy commandments from me, Lord!”

“The creatures suffer for us; why should not we be willing to suffer to be serviceable to God?”

“Though we meet with travellers' fare sometimes, yet it should not be grievous to us.”

“Thus are we to submit to the disposal of God in every condition.”

“You may open the treasuries in heaven; and it shall never be in vain.”

“As the dust of the earth is the most sluggish, dead element of all, so earthliness in the heart makes the heart sluggish, dead, and lifeless to any holy and spiritual duty.”

“I mention this now to show the danger of a full condition so that if you are not someone who has learned how to be full, you may plead with God to teach you how to be full.”

“There is no more to do , either believe and be saved, or believe not and be damned.”

“But the main thing is, all that we do it must be acted by the Spirit of God; it is not enough to have true silver and gold, but it must have the right stamp, or else it cannot go for current coin.”

“By that which has outwardly appeared, who would think that a few people that were contemptible to the world were actually God’s pleasant portion?”

“The Church did never shine more bright in holiness, then when it was under the greatest persecution.”

“The Lord cuts off the spirit of Princes: the word is, he slips off, as one should slip off a flower between ones fingers, or as one should slip off a bunch of grapes from a vine, so soon is it done.”

“Yet further, such is the deceit of a man’s own heart, as a man may suffer much out of the pride of his heart: as a man may serve himself, in serving God, so he may seek himself in denying himself in that which is the cause of God.”

“When there was a spot in the bodies of men, they were to come to the Priest to discern whether their spot were the spot of Leprosie, or no.”

“How near the enemies of God’s people are to ruin and destruction.”

“They may go about their business in peace, and God provides for them.”

“Now, I am discontented and murmuring because I am afflicted; but this is why you are afflicted: God would humble you.”

“The dangers that men in a prosperous position have more than others should be considered by those who are lower.”

“A Christian makes over his will to God, and in making over his will to God, he has no other will but God's.”

“Lastly, would you not have your portion in this world, be willing to cast away whatever of your portion you have got sinfully.”

“But if there is anything else that your soul is set on as the highest good, that’s your god, and it’s worse than bowing the knee.”

“Upon our little, short, uncertain inch of time, depends matters of more consequence than ten thousand, thousand worlds are worth, and if we miscarry in this little time of our lives, we are lost and undone forever.”

“Have good thoughts of God and make good interpretations of His dealings toward you.”

“So also will the warmth of prosperity cause one to shed the graces he held tightly in times of adversity.”

“O, it is a blessed thing to give all to God, to let God choose our inheritance.”

“Many carnal men that have great inheritances other ways have nothing to do with the promises of the saints.”

“Here is a worth of the Lord indeed, bright and glorious in the shining beauty of his faith, set out unto us in the full expressions of it by the Holy Ghost himself.”

“So all the promises that God hath made to any of his people, though never so long ago, faith fetches out the comfort of them, as if they were made now to us.”

“Christ takes them, and with his own blood cleanseth them: and will never leave washing and cleansing of the soul, till he hath cleansed it from all its spots, and presented it before the Father.”

“There is no work that God has made—the sun, moon, stars, and all the world—in which so much of the glory of God appears as in a man who lives quietly in the midst of adversity.”

“You must make God's providential will and his operative will, your will as well as God's will, and in this way you must come to contentment.”

“All the monarchs and princes on earth have not that excellency in them that one poor child or servant has that is gracious, and belongs to God.”

“But now there are other of God’s saints that trade with God for great things—for immortality and glory and a kingdom, and the crown of eternal life.”

“So that our seeking of God is not only a duty, and beneficial to us, but it is a high privilege purchased by the blood of Christ.”

“It is naturally true that as we are of the earth, so we are earthly and have our spirits engaged to the things of the earth.”

“Does not godliness have the promises of this life as well as of that to come?”

“No man can attain to the grace of Christian contentment if he is unable to handle his affliction; he must understand and know his affliction, or he cannot come to Christian contentment.”

“Another mysterious way a godly person learns how to abound is this: by sanctifying all that he has by the Word and prayer.”

“Why, you shall find likewise in Psalm 60 that David has as much of the blessing of God in his prosperous state as in his afflicted estate.”

“Jehoshaphat was found guilty in joining himself to wicked men too much, the Prophet comes and saith to him, Wouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord?”

“Who shall go down to Hell to know there, whether that place be prepared for him or no?”

“Christ is the one that the Lord prophesied of in Paradise formerly .”

“How welcome will that day of Christ’s espousal and coronation, be to his love–sick spouse, as the dove with the olive leaf was to Noah, or the reappearing of the star to the wise men!”

“And he says to me, write, blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the lamb.”

“Luther says, it was no less miracle to overcome the flame of lust in this temptation, then it was for those three men to be kept safe in the fiery furnace.”

“Hence in the sixth place from all these it follows, that faith is an overcoming grace: this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, saith Saint John, Epistle 1 chap. 5. v. 4.”

“If it is such a foul, spreading, staining spot, how is it that men and women cannot see it for what it is?”

“Now this I say, Those that are in the greatest torment of conscience for their sin, they are in a better Case than those that go on most conceitedly, and boasting in their sin.”

“It is a blessed thing for a Man or Woman in power, to think it is more Glory to use their power to cross their passion, than to use their power to revenge them that cross them.”

“Grace teaches us how to make a mixture of gracious joy and gracious sorrow together—how to moderate and order an affliction so that there shall be a sense of it, and yet for all that contentment under it. 1.”

“The great design God has in afflicting you is to break and humble your heart.”

“I am discontented and would fain have a certain thing and afterwards I have it: now does this prepare me to be contented in other things?”

“Why, Jesus Christ had dishonor put upon him; he was called Beelzebub, and a Samaritan, and they said he had a devil in him.”

“If you could only cure your disquiet, if you could but quiet your own hearts and get them into a better frame of contentedness under God's hand in affliction, then you would find God's presence with you.”

“Thirdly, if we consider that relation that the saints have to God, they are the nearest relations that can be expressed — of children to parents .”

“Again, God is a great God that we call to, and it is fit for us to wait, and to wait long.”

“A full condition is in danger of hindering those graces that are distinctly Christian.”

“Nay saith God, I will not stand so much upon the purification of the Sanctuary if they have prepared their hearts to seek me.”

“The Lord intends to glorify Himself so much in the church and though I dare not tell you the time, yet there’s nothing to the contrary that it’s possible it may be in your days and that you may live to see these times.”

“It is nature that causes the one kind of nobility, but it is the grace of God, a sparkle of the divine nature, a ray of the very glory of God himself, shining into the soul, that is the cause of the other.”

“Christ is a Covenant-Head, the Head of the Covenant of Grace.”

“Indeed the spiritual part of godliness consists in this one thing, as in any: in the preparation of the heart for the presence of God in Holy duties.”

“There's much difference between the sins that are in wicked men, and the sins that are in the Saints.”

“Sometimes we are afraid God is departed from us, and it is merely because we are afflicted.”

“There is an affliction upon you and that is grievous; but there is a murmuring heart within, and that is more grievous! 2.”

“Therefore it is said of Abraham that he sought a city that had foundations.”

“That’s the great evil of earthly-mindedness; it hinders the great benefit of the Word, and there is much evil in this.”

“Ordinarily, people do not let their spirits out to only a little joy, but they let them out to such an extent that they have no command over their spirits.”

“But do you ever find it to be the case that those who did not seek God before were drawn to God by a full condition?”

“If God takes away my life, then God will rather have his honor from my soul to join with angels and saints, he would rather honor himself that way than in employing me any further in this world.”

“Now when we come to worship God, we must consider that we are to tender up our service to God, who is the great King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.”

“There are an abundance of sermons in vain when only goods things are commended to people, and they are taught what they should do, but not the way how , and the manner , and where they should have strength to do it.”

“Job scraping on the dunghill, and Jeremiah sticking in the mire in the dungeon, yet they had more glory and beauty on them, then the great ones of the earth when they sat on their thrones.”

“There ’s no difference between a king and the poorest and meanest person when they go to heaven .”

“A self-denying man will stand by God’s cause and people, when others shrink for fear and shame.”

“This temptation many times is strong, it hath always been the way of the enemies of the truth to come with this argument to those who are weak; Such and such have yielded, and will ye stand out?”

“One would wonder that any soul that knows what it is to deal with such an infinite holy God as the Lord is, one would wonder what should uphold the soul, seeing it is so defiled, and has nothing but spots in everything!”

“It was from the Lord! one would think that this were a Saint! what an obedient man was this to the word of God? and yet this was a wicked man, an unregenerate man.”

“So I may say to every soul, wash thy heart from thy spots; thou wilt wash thy face and hands dayly, O that dayly there might be a washing of thy heart!”

“You may think when you have sinned, it may quickly be made up again: Every Fool can sin, can be drunk, be unclean, and wicked; but when you have sinned, how will you get it away?”

“Though they were as Iron that reasoned against Jeremiah, yet Jeremiah was to be as Steel when Iron Strikes against Steel.”

“It is not enough for your tongue to be silent; but your soul must be silent.”

“Where are you going?” So may a man that has his portion in this world say at his death, where is this poor soul of mine going?”

“The word that we translate “church” is a company that is called out from the world.”

“You bestow upon this world that which might bring you to heaven.”

“While fullness may deaden the graces of other men, fullness will strengthen the graces of someone who knows how to be full.”

“Learn that man is born to hard work, and even the greatest on the earth are not exempted.”

“Therefore if it is not in vain for the wicked to seek the Lord, much less is it in vain for the seed of Jacob to seek him.”

“It is that which is the principle of eternal life, wherever it is, it is that which will grow up to eternal glory.”

“Let us deny our selves, and then we are as God would have us to be; we shall make high account of God, and find great sweetness in the things of God.”

“I remember I have read of an old strumpet that had a false Glass continually to look in, and that presented her beautiful unto her self, and she would never look upon any other.”

“Look what the difference is between the Scar of a wound that is almost healed, and a filthy putrified sore in the flesh; that difference there is between the sin of the Saints, and the sins of other men.”

“Mark how God brings the deliverance of his people from the fear of his wrath, as an argument to strengthen them against all other fears.”

“And the nearer we come to learning to deny ourselves as Christ did, the more contented shall we be.”

“We should look at all our outward prosperity as a preparation for afflictions .”

“When you are alone you should spend your time in holy meditation, but you are spending your time in discontented thoughts!”

“I have learned to be contented; what lessons have you learned?”

“Therefore think thus with yourself: Lord, why may not this affliction work as great a good upon me as afflictions have done before?”

“It is a strange expression concerning the presence of God, in that he makes his people his habitation.”

“When did you ever come from an ordinance of God and say, O it was a brave day to me.”

“If I did call to God in the time of affliction that God did send for trial, it may be God would hear me.”

“Therefore, by comparing these two Scriptures, you see that those who have most of the precious things of this world are the most likely to be shot at; the devil shoots at them more than he does others.”

“Some are able to continue in the state they were in before—that is, their former humility, heavenly-mindedness, and holiness remain even after their promotion.”

“But what if God will not give you a heart, but will harden your heart and give you up to yourself?”

“Again, Christ takes all the prayers of the seed of Jacob, and tenders them up to his Father for acceptance.”

“It may be that his estate, his houses, his lands are worth somewhat, but what is his heart worth?”

“How welcome will that day of Christ’s espousal and coronation , be to his love – sick spouse , as the dove with the olive leaf was to Noah , or the reappearing of the star to the wise men!”

“When the mind of the hearer is good, it easily assents to the word of truth, says Chrysostom.”

“It is beneath true nobility of spirit, to aim at no higher pitch in your desires and endeavours, then to provide for your own ease and safety, when public causes for God and his people call you out to venture your selves.”

“The boasting in our selves, in regard of our services or sufferings, makes both us, and all that we do or suffer, to be vile and base in the eyes of God and man.”

“And then yet further, know, that through the righteousness of Christ, thou art looked upon thy self, in the point of Justification, without spot too.”

“But the right understanding of the particular way of God in His providence towards His people and saints is a notable lesson to help us in the art of contentment.”

“There is no condition that a godly man or woman can be in, but there is some promise or other in the Scripture to help him in that condition.”

“Though it is true, whatsoever is in God is God himself— yet we conceiving of God according to our manner of speaking, there is something of God that appears most excellent and glorious.”

“Some who are washing themselves in the Thames River go a little way at first, and then venture a little further and further, and at length, they are over their heads and ears.”

“Likewise, God highly esteems those who constantly render to Him the rent of praise and honor for the many enjoyments they have in this world.”

“There is no more to do, either believe and be saved, or believe not and be damned.”

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.”

“Therefore, the reason why the people of God many times are divided and not united is because they are carnal .”

“You may say, “But while I wait for the riches of Heaven and the promises, in the meantime I don’t have very much riches at all.” If you are under age, God is your guardian, and God will be accountable to you for everything.”

“If the public good falls, shall I think to enjoy my ease and my peace, my estate and my honour upon good terms?”

“And this, if it lies upon the heart as it should is a sad consideration to humble the proudest heart in the world; to think that thou livest, and God has no glory by thee, though this be the End for which God made the world.”

“A Christian ’ s grateful endeavor should be to get his will to submit to God .”

“Such things as cause others to be dejected and fretted and vexed, and take away all the comfort of their lives make no alteration at all in the spirits of these men and women.”

“There is no attribute of God that is but continually working good to every saint of God.”

“I can find in Scripture that an afflicted condition has been blessed by God, so that it has been an occasion to turn some to God.”

“The only way to keep sweet contentment and comfort in Christian societies is to make the best interpretations of things we can.”

“Take heed of being ashamed of Jesus Christ in any service of his; his service in the meanest works of it, is a greater honour to you, then you can be to it.”

“Necessity takes away the honour of an action; to do a thing when we must needs, when we are forced to it whether we will or no, though the thing be good we do, yet the honour of it is lost in great part.”

“Many people think to wash away their sins with their sorrow; But they must know, there is something beyond sorrow, it is onely the blood of Jesus Christ, can cleanse and take away this stain.”

“There is this strength in sin in the soul, that all the terrors in the world will not breed a divorce between sin and the soul.”

“Again when you go about any work that is difficult, take heed of any disorderly working of your heart about that work.”

“Thus, you see that contentment brings comfort to a man’s life [and] fills it full of comfort in this world; the truth is, it is even a heaven on earth .”

“Thus, many will say that you must be content: “This is the hand of God and you cannot help it.” Oh, but this is too low an expression for Christians.”

“Do you look upon your condition with an evil eye now because God was once good to you?”

“Think to yourself: though they are above me, yet they are in more danger than I am.”

“But the great thing in the first place that a godly heart minds is the dew of heaven, and then secondly the blessing of the earth.”

“There’s nothing which will make the spiritual heart of a father or mother more willing to depart from this world, than to find grace wrought in their children.”

“Lord, we are being forced to do what is contrary to our nature; we were never made to be serviceable to the lusts of men.”

“If a man should enjoy many mercies and does not understand them, he has not learned how to be full.”

“Remember, one of the ways of knowing how to be in want is by having our afflictions sanctified to us.”

“The Fifth Note is this, That the beginnings of things of high concernment, do meet sometimes with great difficulties and interruptions.”

“We are resolved, that what ever the Lord shall teach us to be his ways, we will submit unto it.”

“A prayer with vain thoughts is like beer or wine that is dead, and has lost the spirits.”

“Secondly, heaven is the place of God’s residence, because he communicates himself most there.”

“And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”

“What if thou shouldst see God in his infinite glory, majesty, holiness, and justice?”

“A man that is able to deny himself in prosperity, will be able to believe in adversity; if he be prosperity proof, there is no fear but he will be adversity proof too.”

“For I am ready not to be bound only, but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

“When God would show the brand of a wicked man, He instances the sin of murmuring in a more special manner.”

“Thus, we do not always have summer, but winter succeeds summer; we do not always have day, but day and night; we do not always have fair weather, but fair and foul.”

“So, in the things of the earth, an earthly-minded man or woman has his thoughts filled with distracting cares about the world.”

“Likewise, if a man who is born with a great inheritance turns out to be a fool, you know that he will squander his estate.”

“No, you have not learned how to be full until you have learned how much you really need for your own use.”

“The tongue is said to set the whole course of nature on fire: the word in the original is the wheel of nature.”

“The Condition of this world is such, as indeed, it is not fit to have a Saint in it without spots.”

“Be not thou a terror to me, for thou art my hope in the day of evil.”

“And therefore do not stay for anything else: If thou dost but venture upon Faith, thou needest not take care as those Women did, who shall roll away the stone.”

“I need not be discontented and say, “My debt is not paid, and I am not satisfied.” Yes, you are satisfied, for he to whom you made over your debt is satisfied.”

“There is such unruliness in our thoughts and affections that our judgments are not always able to rule our thoughts and affections.”

“What is Heaven, but the rest and quiet of a man's spirit; that is the special thing that makes the life of Heaven, there is rest and joy, and satisfaction in God.”

“Can you ever tell of a work of God separating you from the world, that when you wentest according to the world, God gave you a mighty call that made a separation between you and the world?”

“As the people of God call God their habitation, so God calls his church his habitation.”

“A spiritual heart reserves the chief strength of it for higher things.”

“Now, for instance, when you say you will be merry and go visit your friends and have good cheer, God allows you to do so, as long as you know how to make good use of it.”

“Many of you have at one time or another solemnly promised this to God: that if He would preserve your wealth or perhaps restore you to the enjoyment of it, you would render it back up to Him to honor Him with it.”

“Admire at this you that have not been guilty of one sin but of millions .”

“This is a most admirable Scripture: Mark how God lifts up himself in his Glory, so great a God, as the Heaven is my Throne, and the Earth is my Foot-stool, where is that house that ye will build unto me?”

“I have called you from the chief men of the earth, I left them, and called you, and said to you, you are my servant.”

“Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and leave not unto thine own understanding.”

“But may we not take the comfort of those blessings that God gives us.”

“But the Saints when they sin, they are put upon the seeking after Christ, and praising of him so much the more.”

“How much more shall the Blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your Conscience from dead works, to serve the Living God?”

“O that day! when shall that day come that my soul shall never sin more against that God that I do love?”

“And what a company of most miserable wretches have we in this world?”

“As the Naturalists observe the reason why the Lion hath that courage and boldness, is, because he hath a heart compacted and filled with strong spirits.”

“You complain that you cannot think on good things, but if you begin to think of them a little, soon your thoughts are off from them.”

“I am a stranger in the earth”—what then?—“then, Lord, let me have the knowledge of your commandments, and it is sufficient.”

“Yet when Christians come to visit one another, they say, 'Friend (or neighbor), you must be content.' Must be content is too low for a Christian.”

“As there is not so much in a shadow as in the image, so there is not so much in the image as in the thing itself.”

“With most men, their promotion succeeds their former state—that is, the nobility of their character is left behind, along with their former position.”

“But now a man that is eminent in the world and godly too, his grace is like a diamond on a crown that is so conspicuous before the world that the world takes much notice of them and gives glory to God for it.”

“Now you seek God, but this is in your affliction, and will God regard you now?”

“When the glory of God appears, then all flesh, and all worldly glory, is but as grass, as the flower of the field, as a contemptible thing.”

“But, if as soon as you hear a truth that comes near to you, your heart throws it off and it will not abide with you at all, it is a dange r ous sign that your sickness is a sickness to death.”

“Christ hath fiery eyes that will pierce through and through thee, will see a great deal of difference between the sin of one, and the sin of the others.”

“And so the Scripture holds forth this idea - that some men the Lord has taken advantage against for some smaller sin, and other men the Lord has spared when they have been guilty of some greater sin.”

“It's true, the Lord will not charge these spots upon thy soul that art in Christ; yet he doth expect that thou shouldst be humbled for them.”

“Seventhly, sin is more opposite to mans good than affliction, because sin brings guilt upon the soul.”

“He will not suffer his people to be tempted above their strength.”

“There are commonly many foolish attitudes that a discontented heart is guilty of.”

“I say this text of Scripture in Numbers clearly holds forth that the Lord brings the plague upon men for this sin of murmuring; he does it in kingdoms and families, and on particular persons.”

“You are of the same body with them, they and you make up but one mystical body with Jesus Christ, and if they are happy you must needs be happy.”

“Indeed, the denying of a petition, it is a dishonor and a confounding of the face; but God will not confound the faces of his people.”

“If a man had a golden mill, he would not use it just to grind dirt, straw, and sticks in.”

“But if a single aggravating circumstance arises that displeases them, they are thrown into such an angry and fretting condition that they lose all the benefit of their comforts.”

“We will give ourselves liberty to rejoice, and we will enlarge ourselves in our joy.”

“What should a Child love most but to be in the presence of his Father?”

“He lets wicked men go on a great while and does not come to judgment for sin, but stays until all come together, until a great sum of wrath and judgment come together.”

“It is true that the work of the New Jerusalem will be brought to pass by the almighty power of Jesus Christ, yet He requires that H is saints should put their hands to the work.”

“What is all the world now to such a soul? where is all the bravery of it, or the malice and opposition of it?”

“Christ has fiery eyes that will pierce through and through you.”

“One man sins against God, and what hath he to cover his sins?”

“So Hope, sometimes it is to prop the soul, at other times it is to be a Helmet.”

“Smoke, the sooner it ascends the sooner it vanisheth: so the greater men are in their power, the sooner they perish. 4.”

“Your Maker has the absolute disposal of you: will you strive against Him?”

“For though I am crossed in some one particular thing, God attains His end—at least, His end may be furthered in a thousand things by this one thing that I am crossed in.”

“Now a contented man has his desires satisfied, God satisfies them, that is, all considered, he is satisfied that his circumstances are for the present the best circumstances.”

“And it causes many distractions in duty, it unfits for duty, and when you come to perform duties, oh, the distractions that are in your duties, when your spirits are discontented!”

“W hen you come to the service of God, if you think to limit God in his service, this is but a natural service .”

“A Christian comes to contentment not so much by way of addition, as by way of subtraction.”