Burroughs, Jeremiah. Contentment, Prosperity, and God’s Glory. Edited by Phillip L. Simpson. Kindle ed, Puritan Treasures for Today: Reformation Heritage Books, 2013.

Jeremiah Burroughs (c. 1600 – 1646) was an English non-conformist writing in the 17th century; that his words retain their relevance in 21st century Australia speaks to his pastoral insight and wisdom.

The book being reviewed, Contentment, Prosperity, and God’s Glory, is an amalgamation of the original appendix to The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (1651) and a sermon preached to British Parliament in November 1645. Whilst I have not read Rare Jewel, Burroughs explains in his introduction that the starting point for both works is Philippians 4:12:

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

In Rare Jewel, Burroughs addressed the concept of being abased and suffering need; here he takes up the subject of ‘abounding’ – of knowing how a Christian should live in the midst of prosperity.

Whilst the language has been thoroughly and carefully updated by editor Phillip L. Simpson, there is no disguising the fundamentally Puritan methodology that underpins the study: identify the major areas of the topic, then enumerate each subtopic, leaving no stone unturned. Thus, there are 10 evidences that a man has learned to be full, 5 difficulties of learning this lesson, 4 evidences that demonstrate the difficulty of learning etc. Lists, lists and more lists! Having said that, the argumentation is much less dense than, say, John Owen or Richard Baxter.

Overall, Burroughs issues a challenge to those of us living in relatively prosperous circumstances to avoid taking our prosperity for granted. Rather, we must be careful to ensure that we are not ensnared by our wealth and contentment and start following idols (as did both the Israelites and Solomon). As he writes, ‘The devil can prevail more in his temptations with fullness than with want and emptiness. Why? Because although there are temptations in a poor condition, they are not so pleasing to a man’s own nature as the temptations of a full condition’ (40). This is a message that ought to be heard today.

N.B. a copy of this ebook was supplied for me to review, but the opinions expressed above are my own.