A85953:720
Gospel-revelation in three treatises, viz, 1 The nature of God. 2 The excellencies of…
Gospel-revelation in three treatises, viz, 1 The nature of God. 2 The excellencies of Christ. And, 3 The Excellency of mans immortal soul. By Jeremiah Burroughs, late preacher of the gospel at Stepney, and Giles-Cripple-gate, London. Published by William Greenhill. William Bridge. Philip Nigh. John Yates. Matthew Mead. William Adderly.Gospel-revelation in three treatises, viz, 1 The nature of God. 2 The excellencies of Christ. And, 3 The Excellency of mans immortal soul. By Jeremiah Burroughs, late preacher of the gospel at Stepney, and Giles-Cripple-gate, London. Published by William Greenhill. William Bridge. Philip Nye. John Yates. Matthew Mead. William Adderly.
London: printed for Nath. Brook, 1660
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Treatise 3 › Sermon 10: The Tenth SERMON ON The Excellency of the Soul.
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.
Now then having done with that point, we are to come to the last thing; That as the loss is great, as in all the respects I opened, so it is such, that suppose a man to have gained the whole world in a way of the loss of his soul, yet that gain will never recompense it; Job 27.8. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God takes away his soul? There are some men that seek the world, and yet lose both the world and their souls, they neither gain the world, nor their own souls; and some there are that do gain the world and their souls both: But there is no necessary connection between either gaining the world, or losing ones soul, or losing the world, and gaining the soul, but one may be severed from the other.
NOw then having done with that point, wee are to come to the last thing; That as the loss is great, as in all the respects I opened, so it is such, that suppose a man to have gained the whole world in a way of the loss of his soul, yet that gain will never recompence it; Job 27.8. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though hee hath gained, when God takes away his soul? There are some men that seek the world, and yet lose both the world and their souls, they neither gain the world, nor their own souls; and some there are that do gain the world and their souls both: But there is no necessary connexion between either gaining the world, or losing ones soul, or losing the world, and gaining the soul, but one may bee severed from the other.
But suppose God should let a man gain what he will (though many men seek for gain by sinful ways, and God crosses them in it, they have not their gain, and yet they are damned eternally for seeking gain) but suppose a man had gotten all the world, as he would desire, and yet this man wicked and losing his soul, he is a most miserable man: Now this is the thing that I have to do, to show unto you what a poor gain a man hath that is wicked, though he hath got the world, when he hath cast up all his reckonings, it may be said of him, as we usually say of men that have got little, They may put all their gain in their eye, and never see the worse: So certainly, if thou hast sought after gain in this world, in such a way as thou hast not provided for thine own soul, when thou comest to sum up all thine accounts, thou wilt see that very little is got: There are many ways whereby a man may come to see all the glory in the world to be but darkness: By seeing the glory of God, the glory of Christ, and the infinite consequence of an eternal estate; those three things make the spiritual man to look upon all the glittering vanities of this world, but as mere darkness, and as nothing: — But now there be three other things that may help a natural man to see the things of the world to be as nothing, and the gains of it to be very poor gain, (I mean one that is not sanctified, that hath no grace.)