A30592:292
Moses his choice with his eye fixed upon Heaven, discovering the happy condition of…
Moses his choice with his eye fixed upon Heaven, discovering the happy condition of a self-denying heart, delivered in a treatise upon Hebrews II, 25, 26 / by Jeremiah Burroughs.
London: printed by John Field, 1650
Moses his Choice. › Part 1 › Chapter 11: Afflicted godliness, is better then delightful wickedness.
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.
Besides, the afflictions of Gods people are in their 1season; it is now the very season to be afflicted, and shall we be troubled to have affliction in its season? this time of our life is appointed for this end, it is our winter time; will a man be troubled to see frost and snow in winter time? It is better to see frost and snow in winter time, then to see the corn blooming or earing ⟨p. 113⟩in January and February: so while we are in the body, the winter of affliction is in season, it is not the time to be delivered from affliction now, that is hereafter, and therefore why should we be troubled that we meet with affliction?
- 16.
Lastly, these afflictions that you say will discourage, 1they will bring forth a gracious end, they are but as a dark entry into your Fathers house, a dirty lane to a Palace; do but shut your eyes, and there will be a change, and as a Martyr said, Though we have an ill breakfast, we shall have a good dinner: Now put all these together, what great matter is there to discourage any from the ways of God?
- 17.
But now come to the other part: A gracious heart 1discourses of the ways of sin, what if I should choose the pleasure of sin, and should go on that way? 1. If I go on in those ways, I shall be sure to go on in a way of direct opposition against the God of all the world, and so treasure up to my self the wrath of an infinite God. And is it nothing for a poor creature to go on in a way of opposition and enmity to an infinite Deity? how much better were it for me if I had never been born, then thus to do? 2. I shall be sure to have no peace in those ways, in my own spirit, in conscience; I shall have within me a conscience galling, girding, and lashing of me, the worm gnawing of my heart, my conscience continually damping of my soul, telling of me, Surely I am not in those ways an immortal soul should walk in; I shall never have any pleasure, but when my conscience shall be stopped; and what cursed pleasure is this for a man that he can never have it, but only when he can stop his conscience? if his conscience had but