The Works of Jeremiah Burroughs 9-11, Treatise 2 · Chapter 21
CHAP. XXI.
An Exhortation to put away sin.
Exhortation.
LAst Use. If this be so, That thy Hopes cannot stand without purifying thy self, and the laboring for the greatest exactness; to be pure as Christ is pure, cannot stand with the walking in the way of sin, of filthiness and corruption; Oh then away with thy sin, wilt thou yet dare after the knowledg of all this, wilt thou yet dare to please thy self in any way of wickedness? shall not thy heart from this day forwards be set against every false way? shall it not go away with such resolutions? Well, the Lord forbid that there should be any one beloved▪ in that I should entertain again; for time to come it shall be the uttermost degree of strictness and holiness that I will endeavor after, even to purifie my self as Jesus Christ is pure, for I have read that there can be no Hopes of Heaven and Eternal Life without purifying my self, and endeavoring to purifie my self even as Jesus Christ is pure; I will never cry out of strictness or preciseness and Puritanism again, but I will set my self with all my power to imitate the pattern of Jesus Christ the Holy One: Will you go away with such resolutions as this is? Oh blessed be God then that ever you lived to hear or read of this Point; and there's a great deal of strength in it to cause you to cast away your beloved sins with indignation, and even say, get you hence, what have I to do any more with Idols, this lust, that corruption? because otherwise they will disappoint you of all your hope of Eternal▪ Life that you expect. If you had a dear friend that were willing to set you up in trading, and whatever you would you might come to him for; but if he should say thus to you, I require this at your hands, do not accompany with such a fellow, if you do keep company with him you shall never see my face; now would not this be an argument to perswade you to cast off the company of any one if you had a friend that might enrich you? God saith in the same manner, if you be one that hath Hope; the truth is, you have Hope in God to have all the Riches that there are in God himself that you are capable of, and God is willing to bestow them upon you, I but saith he, do not you accompany with such a one, let not your heart entertain such a wicked lust as you find so sutable to your nature, for if you do, you shall never see my face, you shall never see any good in me, nor in my▪ Son; now will you yet venture upon any beloved sin for all this? is there so much good to be had in any corruption as to countervail the loss of your Hopes? Truly, when I meditate upon this Point, I see God, and even hear him crying to wretched and wicked sinners that live in wickedness, and wallow in their filthy lusts, God is crying to them, Oh wretched sinner, if ever thou would'st have any part in me, to have any good of all the Riches that I have in Heaven or Earth, then cast away thy beloved sin saith God. And so from this Point Christ doth as it were cry to sinners, Oh wretched sinful men and women, would you have any hope ever to enjoy any good in what I have purchased by my blood? if you would have any hope for the enjoyment of it, cast away your sins, cast away your wickedness; yea, your very souls are before you crying to you, would you have us not perish eternally? would you have us to have any hope of seeing the face of God with joy, and to have happiness when we are departed from this Body? then cast away such and such beloved corruptions, for our seeing the face of God with joy cannot stand with them. Now that soul that after all this shall yet keep any way of wickedness▪ any beloved sin still, how just were it with God▪ with Jesus Christ, with the Saints and Angels, and their own consciences to cry to have Justice proclaimed against this soul, It is infinitly righteous that this man or woman should perish eternally; one day it will be so. But when you hear that your hopes cannot stand without purging your souls, and aiming at the uttermost purity; yet if your hearts be so knit to the love of any base corruption, that you wil venture all: this wil be the condition of every wicked man and woman that shall go on in wicked waies after the reading of these Sermons: If thou should'st be so desperately wicked as to say, for all this I'le venture, I'le venture to see whether the hopes of good in Christ & my lusts wil not stand together; Oh devilish heart! thou that darest put such a thing of such infinite consequence to the venture, if thou dost so, even the Saints and Angels, and thine own conscience shall eccho forth to God, Just art thou O God to sink such a soul in eternal despair, because he had such a love to his lusts as he would venture his soul for them, and therfore just it were that he should be eternally sunk down into …deous darkness among damned Spirits for evermore.
Now the Lord give you hearts to consider of this while yet you are in the Land of the Living, for while we are alive this time is the time of raising our Hopes; whatsoever thou art now, yet while the Lord gives thee life, there is a possibility for the raising of thy Hopes; but if God had cut thee off in thy sin, thou had'st been lost and undone for ever: Consider therfore what the Lord preacheth to thee here, seeing that the Hopes of the Saints about the glory of Heaven is such a Hope that whosoever hath it doth purifie himself even as Jesus Christ is pure.
FINIS.
MR Burroughs on
FAITH,
HOPE, And
Walking by FAITH.
THE ELEVENTH BOOK OF MR Jeremiah Burroughs. Viz.
THE SAINTS Walk by Faith on Earth: BY Sight in Heaven.
Published by
Thomas Goodwyn,
William Bridge,
Sydrach Sympson,
William Adderly,
William Greenhil,
Philip Nye,
John Yates.
LONDON: Printed by Peter Cole in Leaden-Hall, and are to be sold at his Shop at the sign of the Printing-press in Cornhil, neer the Royal Exchange. 1654.
COLE. 1216.
THE SAINTS WALK BY FAITH on EARTH: BY SIGHT in HEAVEN.
2 COR. 5. 7.
For we walk by Faith, not by Sight.