A30585:484
Gospel-worship, or, The right manner of sanctifying the name of God in general and…
Gospel-worship, or, The right manner of sanctifying the name of God in general and particularly in these three great ordinances, viz. [brace] 1. hearing of the Word, 2. receiving the Lords Supper, 3. prayer / by Jeremiah Burroughs ; being the second of the seven volumes lately published by Thomas Goodwin ... [et al.]Gospel-worship, or, The right manner of sanctifying the name of God in general and particularly in these three great ordinances, viz. [brace] 1. hearing of the Word, 2. receiving the Lords Supper, 3. prayer / by Jeremiah Burroughs ; being the second of the seven volumns lately published by Thomas Goodwin ... [et al.]
London: printed by Peter Cole, 1653
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.
why, the word is appointed to open mens eyes, but here the Prophet is sent to shut their eyes that they might not be converted; this is dreadful, this is for the punishment of some former neglect of the word of God sent unto this people; above all Judgments you should be afraid of this; It is not so much that a fire should be upon your houses, as that God should make his word to be a means to harden your hearts. In Ezek. 14. we have a dreadful expression to this purpose, by the Prophet there, where the Lord saith, The people did come to enquire of him, with setting up their Idols in their hearts, but saith God, I will answer them according to their Idol. If men come to the Ministry of the word with their beloved sins, and resolve that they will not part with them, the Lord many times in his just judgment suffers some things in the word to be accidentally a means to harden them in that sin of theirs. I will answer them according to their Idol: Those men are in a dreadful estate whose hearts come to be hardened by the word.
9. Ninthly, If thou doest not sanctify Gods Name in the hearing of the word, what comfort canst thou ever have by the word in the day of affliction? Certainly when the day of thy affliction comes, then there is nothing can comfort thee but the word: Unless thy Law had been my delight (saith David) I should then have perished in mine affliction: But thou having been exercised in the word so much, and Gods Name not sanctified, thou must not expect to have thy soul comforted in the day of thy affliction. No marvel then though the word hath been applied again and again to your hearts, and nothing would stick: I remember it was an expression of one in a great deal of terror of conscience; many came to apply comfortable Scriptures to him, and he himself for a while did take those Scriptures and lay them upon his heart to pacify his troubled conscience, but a little before he died, he cries out with a most fearful terror, There is a fair Plaster made but it will not stick on, it will not stick on so died despairing: so there is in the word such a plaster as may help a wounded and troubled conscience, but canst thou expect that hast not sanctified Gods Name in thy life