A77983:275
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.
Besides, What you might have been in regard of poverty, in regard of pain and sickness, you now are comfortable in your Houses, and sit with wives and Children, and delight one in another, you might have been in extremity of torment and pain, you might have lost your senses, and lost your limbs, and a Hundred such things might be named, that if you would give your meditations out upon these things, you might find enough to keep your hearts low before God.
Besides, What you might have been in regard of poverty, in regard of paine and sickness, you now are comfortable in your Houses, and sit with wives and Children, and delight one in another, you might have been in extreamity of torment and pain, you might have lost your senses, and lost your limbs, and a Hundred such things might be named, that if you would give your meditations out upon these things, you might find enough to keep your hearts low before God.
Thirdly: And the third head is this, If God hath made any change in your State, What a trouble it put Heaven and Earth unto, that the Son of God must take your nature upon him, and die, and be made a Curse, to deliver you from that condition? Now this is a mighty humbling consideration, for if a Man or Woman had done any such thing as deserves punishment, though they be delivered, yet if they know that the deliverance cost abundance of trouble, for a Child to think, my Father might have cast me off, and I might have been a lost Child, I but what a deal of charge and trouble have I put my Father to? I have been a trouble to the Family, and to my Friends: So here, God hath not cast us down to Hell as he might have done; But O! what a deal of trouble have we put God unto, & Heaven unto, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, must come and be made a Curse for me? the thoughts of this should humble us, it is true, to consider of the torments of Hell is very humbling, but to consider of the way of Gods delivering us from those torments, is as great a means to humble us as any thing in the world.
Thirdly: And the third head is this, If God hath made any change in your State, What a trouble it put Heaven and Earth unto, that the Son of God must take your nature upon him, and die, and be made a Curse, to deliver you from that condition? Now this is a mighty humbling consideration, for if a Man or Woman had done any such thing as deserves punishment, though they be delivered, yet if they know that the deliverance cost abundance of trouble, for a Child to think, my Father might have cast me off, and I might have been a lost Child, I but what a deal of charge and trouble have I put my Father to? I have been a trouble to the Family, and to my Friends: So here, God hath not cast us down to Hel as he might have done; But O! what a deal of trouble have we put God unto, & Heaven unto, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, must come and be made a Curse for me? the thoughts of this should humble us, it is true, to consider of the torments of Hel is very humbling, but to consider of the way of Gods delivering us from those torments, is as great a means to humble us as any thing in the world.