A77983:122
Four books on the eleventh of Matthew
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 easy way to heaven. By Jeremiah Burroughs, preacher of the Gospel at Stepney and Cripple-Gate, London.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.
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.
when Nathan came to him when he would have built an House to God, in 2 Sam. 7. the Lord bids Nathan go to him and say to him, I have taken thee from the Sheep-fold verse 8. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the Sheep-cote, from following the sheep, to be Ruler over my People, over Israel. Now David was not offended at this, but he blessed God at verse 18. He went in and sate before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto? stands a wondering at Gods mercy, that God had brought him so far as he had done, unto such a comfortable condition, as indeed the Lord had brought him to. And so Paul in 1 Tim. 1. 13. he looks back to what he once was, saith he, who was before a Blasphemer, and a Persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained mercy▪ because I did it ignorantly in unbelief, and the Grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus, who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecutor. And so he saith of himself, that he was the least of all (which afterwards we shall further make use of) the least of the Saints. Thus one that is lowly in heart, is willing to rip up his former life, and consider what a poor wretch once I was, what an Ignorant sottish Creature I was, knew nothing of God, nor Christ, ⟨p. 545⟩nor the things of eternity, I was not able to open my heart to God in Prayer any further than I had learned it, and could look upon a Book. What a mercy of God is it, in that God hath showed himself further to me; and so the heart works upon the low condition that once it was in. And so in Ezek. 16. when the Lord would humble his People, there the greatest part of the Chapter is spent in showing what they were. Thy Father was an Amorite, and thy Mother an Hittite, showing thereby, that the Lord would have us look back to what once we were, that thereby our hearts may be kept low. And indeed by this means an humble heart sees how strange the workings of God was towards it, and what it might have been at present, had it not been for the mere mercy of God. This is the thing, wherein the frame of an humble heart consists in respect to it self, it looks back to the poor mean condition that once it was in.