A30574:612
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth, & tenth chapters of…
An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth, & tenth chapters of the prophesy of Hosea being first delivered in several lectures at Michaels Cornhill, London / by Jeremiah Burroughs ; being the seventh book published by Thomas Goodwin ... [et al.]An exposition with practical observations continued upon the eighth, ninth, & tenth chapters of the prophesy of Hosea being first delivered in several lectures at Michaels Cornhil, London / by Jeremiah Burroughs ; being the seventh book published by Thomas Goodwin ... [et al.]
London: printed by Peter Cole, 1650
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.
But (you will say) Is all mourning forbidden? that here the holy Ghost should say, Their offerings should be as the bread of Mourners. Christ saith, blessed are the Mourners, and the Sacrifice of God is a contrite heart.
It's true, an evangelical sorrow is accepted, but that hath sweetness in it, it is not bitter, that's not a dejected spirit, it's not a mourning that causes dejection or sullenness, or straightness of spirit, but that mourning doth enlarge the heart and makes it active for God;1 hence in Ezra, 9. 5. although we read before that Ezra was astonished at the sin of the people, yet saith he, at the 5. verse, I arose from my heaviness at the evening sacrifice, when the time came that I should sacrifice unto God my heaviness did not hinder ⟨p. 169⟩me in holy duties. But how many are there that sink down in their heaviness, and when God calls upon them for any duty, they cannot arise, they are so over-burdened with heavy spirits? There they sink down in a sullen way,2 and shall God accept of such a service as this is? You may please your selves in it and think it is humiliation, but there may be much pride in dejection; there is none so proud a spirit as the Devil is, and yet no spirit so dejected as the Devil is.3 Lead we know it melts soonest, but it consumes in the melting: and many times there may be such a spirit that may be ready to sorrow upon any occasion, and to melt, but it's such a melting as consumes the strength of it that it is unfit for any service that God calls for, now such services as you in such a mourning way tender up to God are not accepted of him, Remember this text, Their offering shall be as the bread of mourning.