The Works of Jeremiah Burroughs 9-11, Treatise 2 · Chapter 13
CHAP. XIII.
What work the Saints and Sons of God do when they purifie themselves. First, A gracious heart is willing, and takes pains to know the worst of its self. Secondly, A gracious heart, 1 Joyns and sides with every Truth: 2 It will seek to maintain every Truth: 3 It will apply the Truth: 4 It submits to the Truth: 5 It will hold the Truth on the heart when the heart would be weary of it. Thirdly, A gracious heart, sets on work all the ability it hath for the opposing of sin. Fourthly, A gracious heart takes up every duty God requires.
BUt now the main thing in this Point about purifying themselves is this, To shew what work the Saints do when they purifie themselves: Those that are the Sons of God, and have this Hope, do purifie themselves: What is the work of a gracious heart when it is purifying of its self?
First, Such a heart is truly willing, yea, and takes pains to know the worst of it self, and to find out all the secret corners where any filth of heart may possibly lie: that's the first work of a Saint when he goes about to purifie himself; he doth not lie down sullenly and heavily, and say, Lord I can do nothing, it must be thy work to sanctifie me; no, but he doth stir up, and is doing, and falls about the work, he finds that he hath abundance of sin and uncleanness; the first thing that he doth, he falls to searching, Oh that I could come to find out where all the poyson of sin doth lie, there are many windings and turnings in my heart, and a great deal of filth lies there; as in a mans garments, ther's not only filth and dirt gotten, but if you should rip the garment, and look into every seam and fold, there you would see the dust gathered: And so it is in the heart, one that is a gracious heart will purifie himself, he doth not only take notice of sins that are plain in view, that every one can see as well as himself, but he will get into his own heart and be searching and examining every faculty of soul, what sin there is in my mind, and what mistakes of God, and the waies of God; are not some mistakes in my mind the cause of some evil that is in my heart and life, and what there is in my conscience, and in my thoughts; Oh the abundance of evil that there is there, there quickly he will find a sink of sin in the life. Sin in the affections, how they are carried upon wrong objects, and taken off from the right object, and if upon the right, yet they are fickle and unconstant in that way; and sin in the members of the body, the very eyes, and ears, and hands, and fe…t; the soul I say will be searching and trying what filth it can find in every secret corner; it takes pains, and makes it to be the work to find out all, and he is not troubled if any body will come and tell him that they are afraid that if he will examine his heart in such and such a thing, that he shall find a great deal of filth that he knew not of before: now one that is gracious, will be glad that he may be any way helped to find out any filthiness that before he did not see in himself; would any body be offended with one that should come and tell you that there is a spot in your face? he would thank you if you would tell him of that; so a gracious heart would thank any that shal help him to find out his corruptions.
The Second thing that a gracious heart doth in purifying its self is this, It doth joyn and side with every Truth of God, by which it doth come to be sanctified: every Truth though it be never so hard a truth unto it, and seems to be never so terrible, yet blesses God for every Truth, is glad of it, he is glad it is a Truth, and that it pleases God to reveal such a Truth unto him; before I knew this, there was a great deal of evil that lay in my heart, and it was like to lie longer, but I hope this Truth will help me against many corruptions in my heart, that I understood not before.
And in his joyning side with every Truth, he is not only glad of it, but will seek to maintain every Truth of God that makes against his corruptions: Many men and women when they come to some conviction of some Truth that works against some of their corruptions, if they should come into any company, and hear any body object against it, they are secretly glad that they have an Objection against it: but now a gracious heart when it hath gotten a Truth that doth tend much to the sanctification of it for the purging out of corruptions it will maintain the truth against Objections.
In the third place, It will apply the Truth, it will lay it to the sore; it will not keep it only in the understanding, soaring aloft, but applies it, and laies it home to the heart, Oh my soul, take thou notice of this Truth, it concerns thee neerly, and so laies it upon the sore wherein it knows it self to be most guilty.
And then fourthly, It submits to the Truth, it's the Truth of God, and though it will pluck away such a corruption wherein I have had so much content, yet it is the Truth of God, and I will submit to it.
Yea Fiftly and lastly, It will continue and hold the Truth upon the heart, when the heart would be weary of a Truth, somtimes you will find it, if you observe but your own hearts, in applying some Truths, your hearts through the corruption of them will be weary of some fearching Truth, and will be ready to cast it off; but then a gracious heart holds it up, and will have the Truth continue upon his heart, for the corruption is not eaten out. A Child that hath a plaister upon a sore, if it smart a little will be ready to pluck it off; but let it stay on til… is well, and then it will fall off on its own accord: So a heart that doth desire to purifie its self, keeps on the Truths of God though they be painful to the corrupt man, yet it keeps them on to draw away the corruption that is in the soul: And that's the second work of one that doth purifie himself; that is, Joyns side with every Truth of God that makes against his corruptions.
The Third thing is this, A gracious heart, it sets on work all the ability that it hath for the opposing of sin in the soul, will let none lie idle; if God hath given unto it any parts of Nature, Memory, Natural Understanding, Natural Judgment, it even stirs up al them; and if there be any common gifts of Gods …pirit, it stirs them up all to get out the sin that is in the soul; it doth not hold it a light matter, as most people do, We are all sinners, and God be merciful to us, & I would we could do better, and such kind of words, and so makes sin as a light thing; and he hopes he shall do so no more; but what dost thou do to get out thy sin? dost thou stir up all that is within thee? all thy parts and common gifts, and all thy graces, and set them all on work that thou mayest purge and clense thy heart from thy sin? and all is little enough, for sin doth so twist its self into the hearts of the children of men, and leaven them, that it's all little enough to get out the corruptions from the soul: Indeed there's no such need of such a stir to keep the soul from the acts of gross sins in the world; that may be done without such a do: but if thou wilt come to purifie thy self as Christ is pure, there needs all this ado, and a gracious heart finds the need of all this; and that heart that doth not find the need of this, it hath cause to suspect its self that it doth not understand the way of God in the hearts of the Saints.
The Fourth thing that the heart doth in the purifying of its self, is, To take up every duty that God requires, and delight in all means and helps that God doth afford unto him, and make use of them all this way… to clense it from its sin, to take up all duties; do not think that because Christ must work all, therefore what need we perform any duties, and account them duty-mongers that shall make conscience of duties; but it may be those that do slight them so, they have not found the benefit of them themselves, and therefore they think that others should not make such conscience of them, as appears in the loosness of their carriage; observe the waies and the lives of those that do slight duties so much, how quickly unclean they grow; there is not that graciousness in them converse as formerly: But now the Saints do find that in duty performed in a holy way, that by them they draw nigh to God, and have communion with God, and so find that God conveys himself through those to them, clensing of the heart.
You will say, Can Duties clense the heart?
They are the Pipes and Conduits through which God is pleased to convey himself, and grace and power for the clensing of the heart; God conveys his Water through these Pipes for the clensing of the heart, & therfore a gracious heart will set upon every duty; if it hath tryed one and cannot find power by that, it fals to another, & every Ordinance, and ordinary & extraordinary Duties; as you know there's some things so foul that ordinary things wil not serve to clense them, you have the washing of things, and you have the scowring of them; some things you may wash, but all the water in the world will not make them clean, but they must be scowred: So there's a clensing of the heart by ordinary duties, and by extraordinary duties: and make this to be the a…m and end of the heart in the use of means to clense sin, Wherefore do I come to the Word? Oh that the Word might meet with my sin, and that God would bless the Word for to convey somthing to my soul to clense it, to purifie my heart; it comes to the Word for that very end that it might get sin clensed; when it comes to the Sacrament, it is to that very end; Oh I have such and such corruptions that prevail against me, and I cannot get power over them, and now I come to this other Ordinance to see what the blood of Jesus Christ will do for the clensing of my soul; and the soul before it comes to such an Ordinance propounds this end to its self. I appeal to your consciences when you go to prayer, can you say that this is one great end that you go to prayer, Oh that by his Ordinance of God I might get some power against such …corruption? over my passions, over my deadness of he…, over my corruptions? and so when I go to the Word, I go for this very end: Now as you propound this to your selves, so if you indeed follow this work of purifying your hearts as you ought, when you are at the Duty, you do observe there the way of God towards you, whether God doth come in to you, according to what you do desire, whether you do feel God taking off your hearts from your sin, and letting in somthing of his spirit into your souls to strengthen you against it, and then after you have done, you look back to see what you have got; suppose you pray against passion, what have you got by it? are you more humbled? and then thou should'st be troubled in thy heart because God doth absent himself from thee, and not grant unto thee that which thou aimest at. Thus a Christian doth purifie himself, and will not have sin to lie quiet in his heart, he hath a working heart against his sin.