If you’ve never met him, may I introduce you to Jeremiah Burroughs. He was an English Puritan pastor who lived from 1599 to 1646. He was baptised in 1601 and went off to study at Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1617. Tutored by Thomas Hooker, he emerged in 1624 with a Master of Arts degree. Although, I understand he was forced to leave the university on account of his non-conformity to the Church of England.

His first post was to be as an assistant of Edmund Calamy in Bury St Edmunds for about 4 years until 1631. From there he was appointed Rector of St Margaret’s, Tivetshall in Norfolk where he pastored the Church until he was suspended in 1636 and deprived in 1637 due again to non-conformity to some of the Bishop’s regulations. Soon after he went to be the teacher in an Independent English Church in Rotterdam, Netherlands from 1638 to 1641/2.

After this time abroad he returned to England to the Civil War which broke out in 1642. He served in London as a preacher at Stepney in the mornings and St Giles, Cripplegate in the afternoons. Burroughs became known as “the morning-star of Stepney.” He took up a place as one of the members of the important Westminster Assembly (which later produced the excellent Westminster Confession and Catechisms). You may like to see if you can spot him here, apparently he’s at the front right stroking his beard! However, he was deeply troubled by some of the disagreements that took place there. A contemporary, the Puritan Richard Baxter, said of him:

If all the Episcopalians had been like Archbishop Ussher, all the Presbyterians like Stephen Marshall, and all the Independents like Jeremiah Burroughs, the breaches of the church would soon have been healed.

He died on 14th November 1646 aged 47. Here was a man who had to leave university, his job and his country. He returned to a Civil War and was saddened by disagreements amongst some of his godly contemporaries. Yet, Burroughs was a man who was content. He realised that Christian contentment was indeed a rare jewel, and in 1648, two year after his death, his book a Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment was first published based, I think, on some of his sermons. He understood the truth about Biblical contentment, and took the following verse as his text:

I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Philippians 4:11b, (KJV)

I’ve started reading The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment and will hopefuly be posting some juicy quotes over the coming days and weeks. In the meantime - if you’ve never read any Burroughs - then here is a great place to start - his four paragraph (nice and short!) summary of the gospel courtesy of the Ligonier Blog.

Sources:

• Jeremiah Burroughs on Monergism.com
• Introduction to The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Michael Boland (Banner of Truth)
• Memoirs of the Puritans: Jeremiah Burroughs on A Puritan’s Mind
• The Jeremiah Burroughs Homepage
• Jeremiah Burroughs on Wikipedia

Thanks to Wikipedia for the picture.

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