A30566:412
Christ inviting sinners to come to him for rest
Christ inviting sinners to come to him for rest by Jeremiah Burroughs.Christ inviting sinners to come to him for rest by Jeremiah Burroughes.
London: printed by Peter Cole, 1659
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The Fifth Misery.
The Fift Misery.
Fifthly, There is this Evil in the burden of Legal performances: that those that perform Duties merely in a Legal manner they do not keep any proportion in the ways of God and in their Duties, but merely according to the ⟨p. 69⟩stirring of conscience, if conscience be awakened & stirred then they are careful to perform duties, but if conscience do not stir them they are careless again & therefore those that do perform Duties in this manner, you shall not observe an evenness in their ways, but sometimes they are very strict and dare not for their Lives omit any Duty, but at other times they are loose again, for it is according to the beating of their consciences, they do not work according to the new Nature, for that which works according to a new Nature works in an even way, wherein is a proportion between one Duty and another, and this may be an argument of trial whether that that you do be from the change of Nature, or from other principles; if there be a proportion between one duty and another, you be not very forward in something and backward in another, that is a sign it is done from a new Nature, but if you make conscience of some thing, and at other times in other things take more liberty this is a sign that what you do is but Legally done, and this must needs be burdensome: as it is a burden to a man to go upon uneven ground one Leg up and another down, so for a man to perform Duties up and down, forward and backward, here is a Great deal of burden in that way, whereas those that come to perform Duties by the spirit of God, in them their way is made even for them; not but that Gods people may sometimes be better then they are at other times, yet there is generally an evenness and proportion between their actions.
Fifthly, There is this Evil in the burden of Legal performances: that those that perform Duties meerly in a Legal manner they do not keep any proportion in the waies of God and in their Duties, but meerly according to the