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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A77983 Four books on the eleventh of Matthew: viz: I. Christ inviting sinners to come to him for rest. II. Christ the great teacher of souls that come to him. To which is added a treatise of meekness and of anger. III. Christ the humble teacher of those that come to him. IIII. The only easie way to heaven. By Jeremiah Burroughs, preacher of the Gospel at Stepny and Cripple-Gate, London. Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680. 1659 (1659) Wing B6072_pt3-4; Wing B6116_PART; Thomason E965_1; ESTC R207640 203,123 309

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what is it that is in thee amiss What is it that thou wouldest fain have the word come close unto to help thee against What is the speciall corruption thou wouldest have the word to mortifie in thee If now you set your selves before you come to the word to examin your hearts and when you are there to attend to the word as that which is your life upon which your eternall estate depends and so to sanctifie the name of God in his word and not to dare to cast off any truth knowing that your Soul may lie upon that very truth and to drink in the word of God in every thing that is revealed according to Gods mind this will be a very hard thing you will complain of almost an intolerable Burden But now a gracious heart finds more ease when it Sanctifies God in the power of Godliness in hearing the word than in a formall Duty Alas when such a one comes in a formall way and goes away and gets nothing such a one is troubled at such a Sermon it brings more Burden and grief to such a heart to come to the word and not find profit by the word than any other thing can do almost nothing can be more difficult than this You find no difference you come to the word and you get nothing and you go away with as much comfort as at other times it is as easie to you but now a Gracious heart cannot find ease except he finds Christ in the Duty but you can find ease in holy Duties though you never find Jesus Christ in holy Duties I appeal to you if this thing God would be pleased to settle upon the hearts of Men and Women it might be a very great settlement to their hearts you perform holy Duties What is the ease in holy Duties meerly the performance of the Duty but now if your ease were that which is the ease of a true Gracious heart it comes from the meeting with Jesus Christ in holy Duties And so for the Sabboth how easie is it to keep the Sabboth to do as the most it is easie Why Because you do not now work in your calling as other daies you do and you put on your best Cloaths and come and meet with your Neighbors and so you come to Church and home again and have better fare at your Tables than other daies and somtimes walk up and down the Fields this is easie But now the Saints find the ease of the Sabboth to be this that whereas upon the week day I am busied about other things and so have not that immediate Communion with Jesus Christ as at other times now upon the Sabboth my Soul comes to enjoy more immediate communion with Jesus Christ when I awake I am put upon it more to mind spirituall things to prepare my heart for him And now this whol day is dedicated for my converse with Jesus Christ and it is no more to me but the very Type and forerunner of that eternall Sabboth that I hope to enjoy in the highest Heavens hereafter and so it is easie to me Now methinks whatever trouble I have in the week time in my business in my calling the Sabboth day that refresheth me again and makes me fit for my calling and my heart that was so perplexed with outward crosses and with the troubles of the world that did so dead and dul my Spirit the Sabboth quickens me again and adds new strength again for I have found Christ refreshing my Soul Now is there not a wide difference between the ease of a carnall heart and a Gracious heart in holy Duties The one meerly mistakes the Yoke of Christ And so for the Sacrament It is an easie thing for a man to come in his best Cloaths and take a piece of Bread and a cup of Wine but he knows not what is the power of Godliness in such a holy Duty he thinks that the outward coming to the Sacrament makes amends for all though he hath been a wicked carnall wretch the week before now if he comes to the Sacrament the meer performing the Duty that makes amends though there be no preparation before no spiritualness in the Sacrament no discerning of the Body of Jesus Christ and the Mysteries of Jesus Christ no closing of his heart with Jesus Christ in the Sacrament no engaging his Soul to God no renewing his Covenant with God as he comes to receive the Seal of Gods Covenant with him no such things But now a Gracious heart cannot find ease in taking the Sacrament except it find Christ the ease it hath in the Sacrament it is in preparing the Soul for communion with Jesus Christ it is in the exercise of Faith and repentance the more Faith is exercised and the more Repentance exercised the more the heart is broken in the Sacrament the more ease a man hath and the more he gets his heart engaged to God in the Sacrament and the more he hath renewed his Covenant the more ease he hath I when a man can go to the Sacrament and do this O! this is a good day indeed And indeed this I am speaking upon is as great a point of Religion for the helping of you to know the frame disposition of your hearts how things stand between God and your Souls as any thing I know What it is in holy Duties that brings most ease to your Souls whether it be the bare externall performance of them or the spirituall performance of them is the power of Godliness in them that holy Duties for the matter of them cannot satisfie your heart except you find your hearts sanctified by them and Gods name sanctified ●n them that is the second note of difference between the ease a carnall heart finds in the waies of God and the ease a gracious heart finds CHAP. CXXXVII Containeth a third and fourth Difierence between the ease of a Hypocrite and true Beleever in the waies of God For 1. They are easie even to the Corruptions of a Hypocrite 2. He takes up the waies God partially THirdly Another Difference is this The ease a carnall heart finds it may not only stand with the ease under the Yoke of sin to the Flesh but the truth is even the Duties of Religion are easie to their corruptions to their very corruptions not only may stand with their corrupt waies but are easie to the very corruption it self to the very sinfull distemper of their hearts this is a very evill and vile ease for to perform holy Duties so as to be easie to the very flesh to the fleshly part Indeed the Yoke of Christ is easie unto the Saints but it is not easie unto the flesh I mean to the corrupt part it is not easie to that I but the waies of Religion to carnall hearts is easie to their very corruption to their corrupt part For First There is agreement enough between any Duty they perform and their secret sins they can
humbled for our sins in an evangelical way as wel as performe duty in an evangelical way Now evangelical humiliation it is a sorrow for sin not that we might purchase p●●don for that sorrow as we must not perform a duty to think to purchase Heaven neither must we sorrow for sin to think to satisfie for sin and to purchase pardon for our sin but our very sorrow for sin must have a sweetness from Christ in it it must be out of love our very mourning must be a fruit of love and not come from the fear of being destroyed eternally for such sins that is legal sorrow I have sinned against God and therefore am afraid that God will destroy me eternally and therefore I am sorry No but I have sinned against the Lord a gracious and a merciful Father and the Lord yet hath made a Covenant with me that he will not take advantage of my sin that he will not destroy me and therefore my soul mourns and laments the rather for my sin that I have sinned so much against the grace of the Gospel as I have done Sorrow evangelically and then your sorrow wil have more sweetness in it then all the joy that the men of the world have when all their Corn and Wine and Oyl is encreased not only when God lifts up the light of his countenance but even the very sorrow of your heart for sin may have more sweetness in it then all the men of the world have when their Corn and Wine and Oyl encreaseth Many Christians have much bitterness in their sorrow but certainly Evangelical sorow the tears of it is Rose water that hath a great deal of sweetness it is sweet both unto God and sweet unto the soul even while the soul is sorrowing there is sweetness in the heart and this is the difference between legal terror and Evangelical sorrow the one hath nothing but bitterness and gal in it and the other nothing but sweetness That is the first thing Secondly Another way to facilitate and make easie that we do is this Labor to keep our hearts in a constant readiness and preparation to every duty Duties are very hard because we fall upon them unprepared we are not in a readiness continually unto every good work you know when you are set about any work and if you have many things to prepare and to look for when you should go about your work it will go off but heavily and it will be more troublesom but now when every thing is prepared in a readiness then how soon and how easie doth the work go on when you are going to Sea there is making a great deal of preparation aforehand now when the Ship is rigged and trimmed every thing ready then you are at an instant able to put off and set saii and go away when al things are ready you go off with ease If you would entertain Guests if they come upon you suddenly and you have nothing ready what a deal of stir is in the house what running up and down this way and that way but now if things be ready when they come they are entertained with a great deal of delight and all things in the house are in order and things go off very easily and there is no trouble in it Truly thus it should be with a Christian he should not only perform duties now and then but his life should be a constant walking with God so that he should be alwaies in readiness for every duty that God requires of him so it comes to be easie As now for the duty of Prayer you should keep your hearts in a praying frame continually and then prayer would be easie it would be an easie thing for you to pour forth your souls to God when you keep your hearts in a praying frame all the day long It may be when you go to prayer you find a great deal of trouble within you your thoughts wander and your affections are dead and dul and you rise up discouraged But what is the reason you do not keep your heart all the day long in a praying frame in a heavenly temper and frame in the day time and therefore when you come to pray at night there is no readiness in your hearts to the duty but you are altogether indisposed to it And so to come unto the Sacrament you find it a great labor and toyl to prepare for the Sacrament as you should I speak of those that make conscience of preparation many times they find it a mighty toyl a hard work I but Christians should keep themselves alwaies in a Sacramental disposition a Sacramental frame alwaies having their spirits savoring of the meditation of the death of Jesus Christ that nothing should be more familiar to a Christians Soul than the meditation of the death of Christ and of discerning the Lords Body and the Covenant of grace and giving it self likewise to God in a Covenant of grace this should be continually and then if you should receive the Sacrament every day you might be fit for it or every week you would be fit for it Now People think it a great matter and make a great deal of do about receiving of it often whereas the truth is the Saints of God they should be in as great a readiness to receive the Sacrament as to hear the word or to pray and that would be a mighty ease unto them therefore if things were as they should certainly it would be more convenient to have it more ordinary and constant every Lords day the Sacrament The Christians in the primitive times would receive it every day in the year and they kept their heart in readiness to such kind of duties let it be what work it wil be You should be patient in affliction if affliction come upon you and your heart is not in a readiness to alter your condition Oh! it wil be a grievous burden to exercise patience it wil be a hard thing for you now you should keep your hearts ready for every condition that is the true work of grace in the Soul to keep the soul in a constant bent Godward and that Soul wil do things very easily Somtimes you have much ado with your children when strangers come to keep them in good order the reason is you neglect them at other times and that is the reason that they trouble you when strangers come but keep them in a good order at all times and then you wil have them right at those times So it is with the heart keep the heart prepared and ready to every good work and then every work wil be easie Object But you wil say That is a great deal of toyl and labor to keep our hearts alwaies bent and ready to good works To that I answer at first it may be some labor and toyl but those that have once got their hearts into a readiness find it not so hard but have a great deal