Books Page

15 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Puritan, Thomas Wolfall

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Burroughs, Ecclesiastes, Jeremiah Burroughs, Pemble, Puritan, Puritan books, Solomons Recantation and Repentance, The Doctrine and Practice of Mortification, The Seamans Direction in the Time of Storm, Thomas Wolfall, William Pemble

There are three entire books upon the books page.

https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/books/

First is The Doctrine and Practice of Mortification by Thomas Wolfall. The book appears to be a basis for John Owen’s later and more famous book by the same title. The book has remained unpublished since 1641.

Second is William Pemble’s Commentary on Ecclesiastes, SOLOMON’S RECANTATION AND REPENTANCE: or, The Book of Ecclesiastes Briefly and Fully Explained. The book has remained unpublished since the 17th century.

Third is a booklet by Jeremiah Burroughs called The Seaman’s Direction in Time of Storm.

I have formatted and modernized the books in varying degrees (as noted) together with notes. The books are free to use. However, they may not be sold under any circumstances.

Human beings are of inestimable value

27 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in Puritan, Richard Baxter

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A Christian Directory, Anthropology, Brooks, Burroughs, Creation, creator, Evangelism, free will, God, Gospel Revelation, Happiness, Jeremiah Burroughs, joy, Precious Remedies Against Satans Devices, Puritan, Richard Baxter, Self-Examination, Sin, soul, Thomas Brooks, worth

In the first part of Christian Directory, Baxter lays out “Directions” to the unbeliever. Yet, before he begin his directions, he lays a series of 18 propositions or presuppositions as to the state and thinking of an unbeliever. Baxter describes these presuppositions as “nothing … but what I may suppose to be in a heathen”.

The presuppositions are laid out by chain without reference to Scripture. He merely seeks to describe the general sort of belief which could be held by anyone without reference to a particular religion.

He begins with the presupposition that his reader is a rational human being with “reason and natural free will.”

The second step is certainly the most difficult for unbeliever to accept and the most important element in his chain. Baxter will define a human being as a creature made for the Creator, alone:

[I suppose that] you understand that you are made on purpose to love and serve your Maker, to be happy in his love and glory forever. Now, if you don’t know this much, you don’t even know that you are a human being. In fact, you don’t even know what a human being is.[1]

Baxter says, Whether you like it or not, you are of incomprehensible value: You were created for no lesser purpose than to pursue happiness which can be found only in the Creator. You are man for your Maker. Until you understand this basic point, you cannot even begin to think to rightly.

It is a common canard that Puritanism was glum and repressive. However, even the barest reading will demonstrate the constant theme of joy, enjoyment, love, happiness. Consider the first question of Shorter Catechism, which tells us that we were created to “glory God and enjoy him forever.” Now one may deny that enjoyment could be had in God. Yet one cannot fairly claim that the Puritans did not seek joy.

Second, Baxter, like the other Puritans, had an extraordinarily high view of human beings. They believed and taught that God created human beings for no lesser purpose than for constant joyful relationship to God.

Consider when a person comes to the Whitehouse. A common citizen may be permitted to take the tour. But if an “important” purpose comes to the Whitehouse, that person may be permitted greater access – perhaps even access to the President, himself. Select persons are actually invited to be with the President. An inner circle may be friends with the President.

Baxter defines humanity in the highest possible means. A human being is created not for access to mere kings, queens, presidents, celebrities. Human beings exist for God: to be brought into God’s family as dear children.

This makes the sin so crushing, so terribly wrong. It is an act beneath any woman or man. Thomas Brooks, another Puritan, wrote:

Solemnly to consider the dignity of the soul. Oh, the soul of man is more worth than a thousand worlds! It is the greatest abasing of it that can be—to let it dote upon a little shining earth, upon a little painted beauty and fading glory—when it is capable of union with Christ, of communion with God, and of enjoying the eternal vision of God.

Seneca could say, ‘I am too great, and born to greater things, than that I should be a slave to my body.’ Oh! do you say my soul is too great, and born to greater things, than that I should confine it to a heap of perishing earth.

Plutarch tells of Themistocles, that he accounted it not to stand with his state to stoop down to take up the spoils the enemies had scattered in flight; but says to one of his followers, ‘You may have these things—for you are not Themistocles’. Oh what a sad thing it is that a heathen should set his feet upon those very things upon which most professors set their hearts, and for the gain of which, with Balaam, many run the hazard of losing their immortal souls forever![2]

In the book, Gospel Revelation, there are nine sermon by Jeremiah Burroughs on the excellency of the human soul. The first sermon in that series is entitled, “The Soul is Worth More Than all the World.”

Baxter thus begins his evaluation of the unbeliever with the presupposition that the unbeliever is of inestimable worth. Thus, the trouble does not lie in the value of the human being, but in the human being’s inability to realize his own worth.

[1] I have modernized Baxter’s language throughout.

[2] Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.

Jeremiah Burroughs, The Seaman’s Direction.12

27 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by memoirandremains in Ministry

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Burroughs, Chrysostom., Jeremiah Burroughs, Ministry, The Seaman's Direction in Time of Storm

FOUR SPECIFIC ELEMENTS OF APPLICATION:

DECREE, COMMAND, THREAT, PROMISE

First Application: The Word of God=s Decree:

But thus much for the application generally, but more particularly from these four considerations of that word they come to fulfill, from the first the word of his decree.

The Certainty of God Fulfilling His Decree

Hence we learn the certainty of the fulfilling of all God=s Decree; all creature work for this end. We may purpose and decree things, but every little thing is enough to hinder, but the word of God=s decree shall stand forever, heaven and earth, and air and seas; and all creatures must work and give forth all their power and efficacy for this. Therefore, certainly none can fail.

See the as Fulfilling God=s Decree

Whatsoever fall out by the wind, take notice of it as the fulfilling of the Word of God=s decree and make use of it accordingly: Do not think it came by ill hap [bad luck], or chance, or only through unskillfulness or neglect of such or such, so as to think if these things be taken heed of another, there need be no fear taht such things will fall out again. Yes, if this came to fulfill the Word of God=s decree, however such and such means furthered it, although they had not been, God could have had many other ways to have fulfilled this Word of His, and so may do some other time when such means shall not fall out.

Second Application: The Word of God=s Command

From the second, the Word of His command:

The Sovereignty and Greatness of God

Here learn the sovereignty and greatness of God that has these creatures at His command. Who is this, said the mariners concerning Christ, whom the storm and the winds obey? So let us, who is this Lord, how great is His command? Who are you then that dare resist the command of this God? Shall heaven and earth, seas and wind, fulfill God=s Word and are you he that dares to stand against it?

Job 38:1-2, it is said, that God spoke ot Job our of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens counsel? Now the Lord speak to your heart out of every stormy wind: Who is this that dares stand out against My command, great things have yielded and do daily yield to God=s Word. As in Psalm 29:5-7, It [the voice of God] breaks the cedars, it divides the flames of fire. What a heart then you have that dares, that can stand against it?

God Commands Boisterous Winds B and Lusts of the Heart

Seeing the boisterous winds obey the word of command, when you feel boisterous raging lusts [any very strong desire; not merely sexual desires] in your heart, look up to God; cry to Him to give out a powerful word of command to still them:

Likewise, O Lord, you who rules the raging sea and the tempestuous winds B and they are still B O that you would rebuke these raging distempers of my heart, which raise a grievous tempest in my soul, that they may be still.

Chrysostom^{^[1]} upon the 8^th [chapter of] Matthew, speaking of those winds that raised tempest upon the seas, which endangered the ship wherein Christ and His disciples were, makes use of an allegorical sense comparing the ship to the Church, and those winds to the devils that raise tempests to endanger the Church. Certainly the lusts of a man=s heart are more dangerous winds; they raise a tempest more dangerous than all the devils in Hell are able to raise. But the Lord that is able to still the one, is able to still also the other. In Psalm 65:7, these two are put together:

The stilling the noise of the sea,

The noise of the waves,

And the tumults of the people.

It is the same power of God that does both, and the same power that must still the tumult of a man=s own heart.

Third Application: The Word of God=s Threat

Use 1: God=s Threats will be Fulfilled

How sure then are God=s threats to be fulfilled, when all God=s creatures are appointed to see them fulfilled. Every creature stands ready as if it said, Lord shall I go to make good such a threat gone out against such a man, for such a sin committed at such a time? If God said to the winds, Go, puruse him, attach him, never cease until my word be fulfilled against him B certainly they will go and will fulfill God=s Word to the utmost; although it be for your utter ruin and sending you down to your own place.

Although some Word of God=s threat may seem to lie as it were dead awhile; yet God has ways to raise it up and to make it good to the full and among other means this creature is often used for this end. [As it says in] 1 Samuel 3:12,

In that day, say the Lord, I will perform all the things which I have spoken against Eli.

The words are, I will raise up all the words I have spoken against him: It may be there has been some word of threat lain long against thee. Now the winds are sent to raise up this word, let it lie never so long, it must rise at the last: All the powers in heaven and earth will work to raise it up. Rather, then it shall always lie thus, it certainly must rise at one time or another.

And, as it is [in] verse 19 [of 1 Samuel 3]:

None of the Words of the Lord shall fall to the ground

The expression is metaphorical from a dart cast at an enemy: if it be by a weak hand or not directed right, instead of sticking in the thing it is cast at, it falls to the ground. But God=s words spoken by the prophets shall do so, they will be as darts that shall certainly stick in the sides of wicked men and none of them shall fall to the ground. And among the other means, the mighty winds are sometimes used by God to carry the dart of the Word of His threat strongly upon conscience; to make it stick fast and to abide until it fulfills God=s purpose and not fall to the ground.

Use 2: See Your Fragility Before God

Here you see what a dangerous thing it is to be, especially to go to sea under the power of a threat: As soon as God has you at sea, if He calls for a wind out of the treasures of His wrath, and bids it fulfill such a threat, where are you? It is a bold adventure for you to put out to sea before you have cleared all with God against your own conscience: If all be clear, then the blessing of Zebulon in Deuteronomy 13:26 may be upon you,

Rejoice, O Zebulon

in your going out.

Zebulon was the mariners= tribe and his blessing was to rejoice in his prosperous voyages, in his expectation of them: to rejoice when he went out, when he set to sea: If before your going out you have made all peace between God and you, so that there be no word of threat to fulfill upon you, then B but not before – you can rejoice at your going out.

Use 3:Consider the Cause of the Threat

When you are in any danger in regard of stormy winds, consider, advise with your conscience what threat it is, against what sin of yours the Word of the Lord has gone forth: that this stormy wind comes to fulfill.

Conscience will tell you: Here is a terrible tempest and it comes to fulfill the Word of the Lord B the Word of the Lord that you have slighted, contemned, despised. Now comes this tempest to put honor and majesty upon that Word and to fulfill it. It cries out against you, the Word of the Lord, the Word that you heard on such a day, against such a sin, in such a place. You have escaped it all this while, you thought yourself free from it, out of its danger; but now it pursues you, it comes in this stormy wind to be fulfilled on you.

You thought the Word was but as wind, and that wind should shake no corn. As [in] Jeremiah 5:13:

The prophets shall become wind.

Now they become wind, indeed. I remember I have read a story that Hospinian^{^[2]} in history of the Jesuites relates of Henricus a Jesuite at Ingolstate, who said in his sermon that it was no good sign of a catholic to joy much in hearing of sermons; but rather the sign of a heretic who delight themselves with those things as the ape with a nut. For, he says, sermons pass away presently as win. But his delight was to hear many masses: This is a distinguishing sign between a Catholic and a heretic; fit for a Jesuit to give. Such vile and unworthy thought have carnal hearts [concerning] the Word.

But it is indeed and shall be wind that shall shake your heart one day; although for present it seems to be hardened rock. In Isaiah 63:6 we read fo a threat that their iniquities like the wind should take men away. The guilt of your iniquity together with the stormy wind is like to take you and carry you away to your own place. When the stormy wind blew so as it endangered those mariners in the 1^st [chapter] of Jonah, the says,

They consulted to cast lots, that they might know for whose cause it blew.

It is good for you when you are in a stormy wind to consult with your own heart: is not this tempest raised against me for my sin? Surely if you would ask the question to your own heart, for what cause is it that it is so dreadful, the answer will be, it is because you have not fulfilled the Word of the Lord by humiliation before it, by obedience unto it, and therefore it comes now to fulfill the Word of the Lord upon you.

Use 4: Learn to Have High Thoughts of the Word of the Lord

If ever you have escaped dangerous tempests,

learn forever to have higher thoughts of the Word of the Lord than you have;

To reverence it

to humble your soul before it

to obey it.

Oh, let me fulfill the Word fo the Lord

Now by humiliation

by obedience

That the stormy wind

Does not do it

[Which shall be] more grievous to me.

If you dare resist this Word, when the Lord shall have raised against another stormy win, caused His terror to be upon you, it may be then you will cry

O Lord, now I will fulfill your Word

Lord deliver me

And I shall be more careful forever to fulfill your word

Your Word that commands me to sanctify Your Name

Your Word that commands me to be chaste and sober and religious;

Lord, if my life be spared

It shall appear I will regard Your Word more than ever I have done.

God may then answer,

Nay, this stormy wind shall fulfill My Word

I will rather have My glory out of You

By fulfilling My Word upon you by this Tempest

Then expect from you what you will do to the fulfilling of it.

It may be some of you have heretofore in your distress thus promised the Lord, and the Lord has heard your cries and has spared you. If God has been gracious to you, do not now return to folly. The first time as I remember that Pharaoh acknowledged taht he had sinned was upon the dreadfulness of the tempest. In Exodus 9:27 we read

Though I have sinned, the Lord is righteous

I and my people are wicked.

So it may be you have don, but take need now it be not with you as it was with Pharaoh; as we see in verse 34, when he saw the tempest was over, he sinned yet more and hardened his heart.

You are delivered from the tempest.

Do not now sin more.

Do not harden your hearts.

Oh let conscience now plead with you for the fulfilling your own word.

Take heed now.

Do not thrust away conscience

when it comes upon you

to put you upon

what you have promised to God in your distress.

In 1 Timothy 1:19, the Scripture speaks of some who have made shipwreck of faith, and put away their conscience. When you have escaped one shipwreck, take heed of a worse shipwreck, namely that of faith and of putting away conscience. The word that is here translated put away is more than putting; it is thrusting away, casting away with violence. The same word is that is translated in Romans 12:13 as cast off works of darkness, when temptations to the work of darkness come. It is good thrusting them away with violence. But take heed you do not do so with your consciences they have come upon you, urging on you performance of tha tyou engaged yourself to God in the time of danger.

It may be in time of danger, you cast out your goods to save your lives. Now cast your lusts [strong, passionate desires to sin] to save your souls. Either your sins or your souls must perish. Know that though you forget your promises, yet God looks after them, and will call to account what becomes of them. They are to be seeds of a godly life.

Now then take heed that when you vow to and covenant with God, you do not sow the wind. That phrase the Scripture uses for losing our labor, when nothing comes of our endeavors; as in Hosea 8:7. But that is not all, that no good comes from promises; but certainly if in them you sow the wind, there will something come of them B if not a harvest of a reformed life, yet reap you shall: You shall reap the whirlwind; they will be the seeds of most dreadful miseries to you afterwards.

That one Theodericus answered to Sigmund the emperor when he would know of what what he should to be happy, may I say to you, Consider, he says, what you would wish you had done at such and such times when you had grievous pain of the stone and gout, and do that now. So I say unto you, would you be happy, consider then, when you have been in grievous storms and dangerous tempests, what would you wish you had done: do that now. When company, when temptations draw [you] to evil, consider then: Will this be my joy if ever God brings me into grievous tempests again? Would I have done this at that time?

At such times, men are convinced of the ways of God, and could wish themselves godly. Yea, I remember I have read of an expression that Xenophon^{^[3]} has, that all men in their failings desire for the companions to have been men rather religious than atheists, because of their often dangers and fears; by reason of tempests. Now your hearts rise against them, but at such a time you could be glad to be with them, and to be as they are; except you be atheists yourselves.

O labor now to be such as then you are convinced is the best and most safest to be: religious. If it be good then, it is good now. There has been much fear struck into your hearts at such times, but know there may be much trembling at God=s great works, and yet God [is] not feared. As at the giving of the law, the people were terrified when tehy saw and heard those terrible things at Mt. Siani. And yet afterwards, God says, O there were a heart in this people to fear me. God does not own all that scaring of theirs before for any true fear of His Name.

The Lord therefore grant, that that fear which in such times has possessed your heart, may prove and appear to be not so much the fear of dangers, as the true fear of the great God appearing to you in such great and dreadful works of His. That if there were any stirrings in your consciences before now by such a sight of God causing His fear to be upon you, those beginnings may be brought forth to a good and blessed issue. That though your hearts stuck before, and could not be brought off without much ado to anything that was good; yet that now his work of God may bring them off; and now there may be an everlasting divorce between your hearts and those evils which before did cleave so close and fast unto you.

As we read in Psalm 29:

The voice of the Lord in tempest

causes the hinds [female deer] to calve.

Now they are creature that do not calve without great difficulty, but the fear that is upon them at such times causes them to bring forth their young: You have had many stirrings of heart, but yet nothing has come of them. The Lord cause the fear of His great name now to be effectual; that those stirrings may bring forth something for the honor of God and your own peace.

Use 5: Take Notice That God Fulfills His Word by the Stormy Wind

Let us take notice of God=s fulfilling His Word by this stormy wind:

What word of His was fulfilled among us,

Whatsoever hurt has been done by it,

Whatsoever judgment has befallen any upon us

It is for the fulfilling some Word of the Lord.

The Lord give you all hearts to fulfill that work of humiliation and obedience that this work of the Lord calls for from you. There has not been known in these parts in the memory of man the like effect of a stormy wind, as this has brought forth. We read of that wind in 1 Kings 19, where the text says,

God was not in the wind.

We cannot say so of this, for verily [truly] God was in the wind B and that very remarkably: O that He might be honored in it; that as in nature strong winds clear the air from corruption, so this may be so blessed by God to cleanse your conscience from some defilement.

Use 6: The Word of God=s Promise

From the fourth particular, the Word of His Promise.

When you have prosperous winds, look at them as coming to fulfill a word of mercy. As in Psalm 89:8-9

Who is a strong Lord like unto you

Or to they faithfulness round about you.

You rule the raging of the sea

The waters arise

You still them.

The Psalmist acknowledges the word of God in ruling and stilling the waves of the sea (which He does especially by the use of the wind, as a fruit of God=s faithfulness); that is ordered by God for the fulfilling of His promise.

If you can take this as a fruit of the promise, how comfortable will it be unto you. God=s riding upon the cherub, and flying upon the wings of the wind are put together in Psalm 18:10. The cherubim did cover the mercy-seat: When He comes to you upon the wings of the wind, this must needs be full of comfort.

You mariners, if you be gracious and godly, whensoever you see the Lord coming to you in the winds, you may see Him likewise upon the cherub B His mercy-seat; and what encouragement is this in the ways of god. Others see Him coming from His throne of justice, dividing the flames of His wrath. If God has fulfilled any word of mercy by a prosperous wind, let it engage you to Him forever, and cause you to improve that mercy you have by it for God.

As we read in Deuteronomy 33:19, that Zebulon the mariners tribe, as you heard before, when they had a prosperous voyage, they should call the people to the mountains of the Lord there to offer sacrifices of righteousness, because of the fulfilling of God=s promise to them, that they should suck the abundance of seas.

Has God given you the blessings of the seas? Then stir up one another to come to the mountains of the Lord, that is, to the Church of God, to offer sacrifices of righteousness to give God the praises due unto Him

^{^[1]} A famous preacher of the ancient world; his name means Agolden-mouth.@ He lived from c. 347 – 407. He was the ordained bishop of Constantinople in 398.

^{^[2]} Rudolf Hospinian, 1547 – 1626. It appears that there are two copies of a portion of Hospinian=s history still in existence: The Jesuits Manner of Consecrating both the Persons and Weapons Imploy’d for the Murdering Kings and Princes by Them accounted Hereticks Being Matter of Fact. Translated out of Hospinian’s History of the Jesuits. The book was originally prinited at Zurich in the year 1670. Imprimatur, November 16, 1678, Dublin. There is also a copy of the reprint by Joseph Ray at Colledge‑Green, for Joseph Howes and William Winter, booksellers in Castle‑street, 1681. One copy is in the British Library. One copy is at the Huntington Library.

^{^[3]} A Greek soldier and historian; lived c 430 – 354 B.C.

Jeremiah Burroughs, The Seamans Direction.11

23 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by memoirandremains in Preaching

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Burroughs, Jeremiah Burroughs, Preaching, The Seamans Direction in the Time of Storm

Second Use: It is Not for Nothing That Such Winds Arise

If the winds be for the fulfilling [of] God=s Word, and that in those several ways; [then] let us learn that when any great winds and tempests arise, it is not for nothing that they arise: there is some special reason God has for the raising and continuing of them.^{^[1]} God has always some special aim in them for fulfilling of some word or other of his.

Many people when they hear of and feel grievous tempests, boisterous, violent winds, think and say, There is conjuring abroad, and that is all the use they make of it.^{^[2]} God is neglected, He is not so much as once mentioned by them. I find a canon in a council^{^[3]} above 1000 years ago made against such as shall attribute tempests, thunderings, and lightings to the Devil B as if He caused them. Whosoever believes, says the council, as Priscillianus did, let him be anathema.^{^[4]}

It is true, if God will permit the Devil, he has much power over corporal things, to make great changes in them; to do great things by them, as we know what he did by God=s permission against Job: when his children were feasting, there came, as the text says, Job 1:19, a great wind and smote the four corners of the house. It is observed by some there was a special work of the Devil in drawing the wind round about the house. How could one wind else take fours corners of the house? Origen^{^[5]} thinks those winds were only the Devils themselves cluttering about the house and striving who should do mischief soonest. The same word in Hebrew that signifies wind signifies also a spirit.

Certain it is, if God should let him loose, he [the Devil] were able to overturn our houses every day and suddenly destroy us all. But howsoever God may permit him sometimes as his executioner, yet the supreme cause of raising and ordering is God B for special ends, which the Devil is forced against his will to further. And there is not the least vapor, or any o f the most contemptible creature that has any power over, but by permission: And therefore, neither angel nor devil nor any power in Heaven or Earth can raise or continue any win, but as an instrument of God.

When God has some work to do for the fulfilling [of] His Word, it were a great shame for any who profess godliness to be afraid of the Devil in this kind. The Devil, says Tertullian, has no power over swine much less over God=s sheep: What God has to do in that proportion He raises the wind, according to the expression you had before that God had weights for the wind B add to this place, Psalms 78:50: He weighed out a path for his anger: for so are the words in your books [Bibles]. It is only He made a way to his anger. But consider then these two places together, thus, God first weighs a path for his anger (how much He intends to execute), and then he weighs the means, that is the winds, according to the former expression of Job: just enough for the execution of the anger and no more, and so proportional to them: and this, beyond all second causes, makes the winds greater or less, continuing a longer or shorter time; which few think of.

^{^[1]} This is a common teaching among the Puritans: seeing God as lying behind what happens in the world. While is difficult if not impossible to know why God has brought a particular event at a particular time; we can always be certain that God is behind that which occurs. Richard Rogers, in his commentary on Judges (1615) wrote: Moreover, we must mark that which is set down her in this first verse (of chapter 3): That the the Lord is said to have held these nations still in the land, which was to the exceeding sore vexing of his people: to teach us, that the raising, remaining, or removing of troubles, they are all of the Lord and by his appointing; even by his will and of his wise disposing, whether we respect the whole church or any part or member of it: and they come not by chance, or a man=s ill fortune, as the ignorant people speak (neither is there any such thing) but as the Lord himself says in the prophet Amos, there is no evil in the city, that is, no trouble, but I Lord have sent it. And if it were otherwise, the best people, as the worst are, should (by their afflictions) be at their wits end. We may not therefore rest ourselves in the second causes, neither vex ourselves about them (as we do too oft), which is a spurning against the Lord, but patiently bear them: see that whatsoever the instrument be, it is certain [that] the Lord is the overruling cause ….@ (139).

Thomas Brooks helpful book The Mute Christian Under the Smarting Rod discusses this matter at great length and to good effect.

^{^[2]} Some people thought that witches could use the power of Satan to cause storms.

^{^[3]} A rule made by a council of church leaders.

^{^[4]} An article about Priscillianus can be found here: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wace/biodict.html?term=Priscillianus%20and%20Priscillianism,%20Priscillian.

^{^[5]} An early Church father. For a short biographical sketch, see here: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wace/biodict.html?term=Origenes,%20known%20as%20Origen.

Jeremiah Burroughs, The Seamans Direction.10`

23 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by memoirandremains in Preaching

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Burroughs, Glorifying God, Jeremiah Burroughs, Preaching, The Seamans Direction in the Time of Storm

The first “use”:

Use^{^[1]}

First Use: To Have High Thoughts of the Lord

For use, and that first more generally: That we may learn to have high and honorable thoughts of the Word of the Lord, seeing God has such glorious ways for the fulfilling of it. Where the Word of the Lord is, there is power. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of his Word.

God prizes every tittle of his Word above Heaven and Earth. He had rather lose Heaven and Earth than any part of his Word. Howsoever, you prize it at a low rate, and are not willing to lose a base lust [sinful, degrading desire], the least outward advantage for the Word, God will shake the heavens and earth for the fulfilling of his Word; yea, rather dissolve them and bring them into nothing rather than He will not fulfill every particle of it.

If God has made these his glorious work, to be subservient for the preservation and accomplishing his Word, then surely his Word is high above them. Wherefore, although much fo God=s Name be in these, yet there is more of his name in his Word: Hence it is that excellent place in Psalm 138:2, Thou hast magnified thy Word above all they Name; God=s work is honorable and glorious. See, Psalm 111:3.

But his Word is in a special manner the very glass [mirror/reflection] of his holiness and glory, in which we behold his glory with an open face, and so are changed into the same image from glory to glory, 2 Cor. 3:18. And if God=s name be more in his Word than in his works, a gracious heart will see God the more there and fear God as appearing there more than in anything else.

As we read of Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-12, although the mighty wind and fire passed by, yet his heart was not taken with fear so much as when the still voice came, because, the text say, God was there. Although the voice was a still voice, yet because God was there more in than in the other; therefore, Elijah feared more. This place of Scripture is abused by man who bring it against ministers preaching the law in a zealous manner, making God to appear terrible to sinner. They say God was not in the fire nor in the whirlwind, but in the still voice. But it is clear, there can be no such inference gathered from thence, as many seek to gather, fo even in this still voice, God came with a message of most fearful wrath against the people:

Go, saith he, and anoint Hezael, Jehu and Elisha, that he that escapes the sword of Hazel, Jehu may slay, and him that escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall slay.

See what a terrible threat was this taht came from God appearing in the still voice. And Elijah himself after God=s appearing thus in the still voice was no less terrible in his iministry than before. For in 2 Kings 1 we how severe and fiery he was. He prayed for fire to come down from heaven to destroy the captain and his fifty. And again, the second time, for fire to come from heaven to destroy the second captain and his fifty. He ceased not unti lth ethird came in a way of submission. And indeed, that manner of God=s appearing to Elijah, first in the mighty wind, then in the earthquake, then in the fire, and at the last in the still voice was to show Elijah how He would have him to appear in his ministry. Namely, first in terror, and then more mildly. And in that it is said that God was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in the still small voice, it was to show you that Elijah and so other ministers of God should be to the people as that mighty wind, as the earthquake and fire, till God appears in them. Then to be as a still small voice unto them: But this is by the way, for the clearing of this Scripture from the abuse of it.

^{^[1]} Puritans typically included a section entitled AUse@ which set forth the practical applications of the doctrine taught earlier in the work.

Jeremiah Burroughs, The Seaman’s Direction.10

23 Friday Dec 2011

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WHENEVER GOD SENDS A STORMY WIND,

HE SENDS IT TO FULFILL HIS WORD

The second point follows, Fulfilling his word.

Doctrine: Whensoever God sends a stormy win, He sends it to fulfill his Word.

The winds you heard before God=s messengers, this is evermore their errand: to fulfill his word. There is a fourfold word of God that they are sent to fulfill:^{^[1]}

First, The Word His Decree

The word of his decree: What He has purposed, determined to bring to pass. This is one creature the Lord calls forth out of his treasure to fulfill this. And, therefore, is shall come at that time, at that place, and work in that power and abide that time, that shall be most fit for the accomplishment of this word of his decree.

Second, The Word of His Command

The word of his command: If God call for it, it must come. God speaks to it, it shall go and prosper to that He sends it for. It is one of God=s hosts, at the beck of this great Lord of Hosts, and for the fulfilling this and the other word, the winds are called-for out of his treasury of wisdom and power.

Third, The Word of His Threat

The word of his threat: Whatsoever ill God has threatened against sinners, that comes under the power of this creature to be an executioner of it. Hence, in Jeremiah 51:1 it is called a destroying win. And in Ezekiel 13:13, a stormy wind in my fury. If there be any threat against any man in a ship or any that have interest in it, the Lord many times sends his winds to fulfill that word of his. When Jonah sinned against God in flying from his presence, the Lord raised a tempestuous wind to follow after him, as a pursuant that would never down [quit] until it had arrested him and made him to know that it was sin against the Word of the Lord. That wind and tempest that is now up may be a fruit of God=s displeasure for such or such a sin of thine. It may be committed long since, and so it comes out of the treasury of God=s wrath.

Fourth, The Word of His Promise

His word of promise to convey a blessing: And thus they come out of the treasury of God=s mercy to fulfill that word of promise. All things shall work together for good to them that love God. Godliness has the promise of this life and that which is to come. When God enters into covenant with his people, a second causes are linked together to work good unto them. As Hosea 2:21-22, I will hear the and they shall hear the earth. And so it is true of all other; that which is said of the clouds driven about by the winds is also true of the winds themselves, Job 37:13, He causes it to come whether for correction or for mercy. Sometimes for correction and sometimes for mercy.

^{^[1]} Burroughs provides four reasons given in Scripture for why God has sent such winds. Ed.

Jeremiah Burroughs, The Seamans Direction.9

22 Thursday Dec 2011

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Question: But how are we to praise God in this stormy wind?

Answer:

First,

By raising our thoughts to the contemplation of the His greatness and majesty in it, so as to fear and to tremble before Him.

O Lord, how you are clothed with glory and majesty

Who would not fear and tremble

Before such a God as you are?

The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness, Psalm 29:9. That is, the wild beasts of the wilderness B and shall it not shake our hearts? Shall our hearts be more hard and stupid than the hearts of those wild and savage beasts of the wilderness?

It shakes the most lofty cedars: What are our spirits? How lofty? How hardened with pride and folly, if they do not shake, if they tremble not before such a God as this?

It is a notable speech of Elihu in Job 37:1,

At this also my heart trembleth,

And is moved out of his place at this

At what is it that he heart trembles?

His voice roareth

He thundereth with the voice of His excellency,

Job 37:4.

God thunders marvelously with His voice;

great things doths He which we cannot comprehend,

Job 37:5.

Out of the south commeth the whirlwind

Job 37:9.

The wind passeth and cleaneth

Job 37:21.

Wherefore, upon this great work of God and other [works] he concludes in verse 22:

With God is terrible majesty

Touching the Almighty

We cannot find Him out.

He is excellent in power

Men do therefore fear Him

[These lines are taken from Job 37:22-24.]

It is a time now indeed to fear the Lord,

To lie down with low humbled trembling hearts before Him.

It is no time to vex

And fret

And rage

As is the practice of some when grievous tempests and storms arise

And put them out to trouble and danger

They vex and rage against the Winds

When seas cause the winds to rage

Their hearts are in as a great a rage as the seas

Swearing and cursing most dreadfully in their rage

Their cursed hearts foam out with filth

According to that description of the wicked which we have in Isaiah 57:20-21

The wicked are like a troubled sea

When it cannot rest

Whose waters cast out mire and dirt

There is no peace, saith my God

To the wicked.

Oh the abominable mire and dirt that is cast out by such hearts at such times, when God calls fore the most fear of Him, trembling before Him, subjection unto Him, what is that but even to dart up our arrows against the heavens, and to fly even in the very face of God, Himself.

I have read of a people in Africa, who being troubled with strong winds, driving heaps of sands upon their fields and dwelling places, they gathered an army to fight against them (the winds), but with so evil success [such a bad outcome] that themselves were buried under the hills of sands driven upon them by the win.

It is no less madness in these who curse and rage in times of tempests. There are fighters against God. It is the infinite patience of God that that cursed breath the comes from them at those times is not stopped.

Answer

Second

Let us praise God in this stormy wind, by considering what poor creatures we are, how infinitely we depend upon this God that appears so much above us in it, we see howHe can make a vapor terrible to us so much us in it, we see how He can make a vapor terrible unto us, so that we cannot stand before it. We see at what advantage He has [over] us by the winds: to overturn our houses, to dash our ships in pieces by it.

Mark how Job was affected when God spoke to him from out of the whirlwind, Job 38:1, compared with Job 40:3-4: The Job answered the Lord, that is, when the Lord had spoken to him out of the winds,

Behold I am vile, what shall I answer thee?

I will lay mine hand upon my mouth:

Once I have spoken, but I will not answer,

Yea, twice, but I will proceed no further.

And again, compare Job 40:6 with Job 42:5-6: The Lord speaks to him again out of the whirlwind.

That God delights to make use of this creature to speak to men by to humble them, you heard before. But here you see the effect of this, what power there is in it to do that which God intends by it. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear (says Job), but not mine eyes have seen thee, wherefore I abhor myself in dust and ashes.

This makes a Job, a holy, godly man, to abhor himself in dust and ashes before this great God.

Answer

Third

Let us upon this labor to purge our hearts, and keep them cleansed from guilt, that the terrors of God in this and other of His works may not overwhelm them and sink them. It is a blessed thing to be able to look upon God in these His glorious works with comfort and peace, if there were no guilt in our hearts (although they would be moved with reverence of God in His great works); yet, all the tempests in the wold could not shake them with such terror as to hinder their comfort, peace, their sweet rest and response in God; yea, they would rather rejoice the heart, they would raise it to bless itself in this God as their the God of its comfort and of all its good: Were it not for vapors, for wind got into the earth, all storms and tempestuous winds without, would never make an earthquake were our spirits clear within. Whatever comes [from] without would never cause any slavish despairing, sinking heartquake in us.

Pliny says the eagle is not afraid of thunder, the greatest tempests of thunder do not frighten her; whereas other fowls shake and tremble at it; and other beasts of the field get into their shelters. Thus spiritual hearts who converse much with God and keep themselves up on high, they are not terrified with such things as fill the hearts of others with amazing terrors. Hearts that are heavenly are like the air above the middle region B free from tempests and storms.

It is very observable which we read of David in Psalm 18: He there sets out the glory of God in the earthquake and deadly tempests.

Then the earth shook and trembled;

the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken,

because he was wroth.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,

and fire out of his mouth devoured:

coals were kindled by it.

He bowed the heavens also, and came down:

and darkness was under his feet.

And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly:

Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his secret place;

his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

At the brightness that was before him

his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.

The LORD also thundered in the heavens,

and the Highest gave his voice [Psalm 18:7-13]

Yet observe in verse 16, David draws comfort out of this

He send from above

He took me

He drew me out of many waters.

These grievous tempests, these dreadful storms where not to overwhelm me, to sink me in the waters; but the Lord took me, that God who appeared thus dreadful in these storms and tempests; yet this god took me and drew me out of many waters. And in verse 19:

He delivered me,

Because he delighted in me.

Answer

Fourth

Give glory to God in blessing His name for deliverance from those fearful judgments that He makes tempestuous winds and storms the executioner of upon many others. Some of you it is like may say, and have said, except the wind had been turned at such a time I had been lost; we had certainly been all cast away. Then where had you been now, it may be from those dreadful waters you might have sunk into the lake of unquenchable fire; you might have been swallowed upon of that infinite ocean of God=s eternal wrath. But God preserved you, and you are alive and yet enjoy the day of grace.

The goodness of the Lord has been to you that which He promised in Isaiah 32:2,

A hiding place from the wind

and a covert from the tempest.

It is the free grace of God towards you. Only His goodness that has been your safety; for what could you do to help yourself? It may be you cried and prayed to God, but what could your prayers do, who are and it may be still are a profane and wretched creature – the course of whose life is a way of enmity against the great God of the whole world?

It is reported of Bias the philosopher, who sailing among a company of rude [uneducated] mariners, they being in danger by a storm, the mariners fell on praying and crying out to their gods. Bias calls to them to hold their peace lest the gods should hear them and so they should all fare the worse for their sakes. The worst that is in such dangers will cry out and sometimes fall on praying. But how should that praying be accepted that comes out of that mouth, out of which so many oaths came awhile since, which is defiled with so many blasphemies and yet not purged by repentance?

Wherefore whensoever you have been delivered and others have perished, admire at the free grace of God towards thee. Give him the glory of it, and let God be thus praised in the stormy wind.

Answer

Fifth

Give God the glory of this work of His, by seeking Him for the raising, ordering and stilling the wind, according as your occasion is.

I have read of people who erected an altar to the winds, and once a year spent a whole night in their devotions to the winds, to seek calm winds, because of the great hurt they often suffered by them.

But we have learned otherwise, namely, to look beyond the winds to seek God, acknowledge Him [as] the raiser and orderer of them. This is part of that divine worship that is due to God, that He should be acknowledged and sought in these things. Although it be but a common work of His providence. YetHe expects to be sought to in it. Prayer has shut the heavens and opened them. Prayer has power over heaven and earth, and air and seas and winds. It has power to prevail with God, much more power over any creature whatsoever.

We read in 1 Samuel 7:9-10, when Samuel offered to God but a sucking lamb [a very young lamb, still nursing], presently a grievous storm arose, The Lord thundered with thunder upon the Philistines.

And Revelation 8:4-5: And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel=s hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

All the devils in Hell have not power over the winds that the prayers of the saints have.

We have a famous story of the power fo the prayers of the Christian soldiers in the army of Marcus Aurelius, which story is record in Eubesius. The soldiers were praying to God in a time of great drought, when the army was like to perish for thirst, they procured [from God] a great tempest against their enemies which put them to flight and overthrew them and [brought] a refreshing rain to their own army. Whereupon they were called the Lightening Legion, upon which Aurelius was much moved and favored the Christians much after it and wrote in their behalf, acknowledging it to be the hand of God as the fruit of their prayers.

If prayers have power over the rain, over thunder and lightening, then surely over the stormy wind. If therefore you seek not God in this, if you think it is nothing that prayer can do, you are more heathenish and fuller of atheism then most of the rude [uneducated] heathen.

Matthew 8:24-25, When a tempest arose, Christ was awakened.

When a storm arises, God must be sought.

Answer

Sixth

Consider if storms and tempests in the air be so [word is illegible], what then are the storms and tempests of God=s anger in the execution of the dreadful judgments upon nations and kingdoms, and how terrible are storms and tempests raised and raging in men=s consciences.

For the first, Isaiah 28:1-2: The Lord pronounces a woe against the drunkards of Ephriam, whose glorious beauty is as a fading flower

Behold the Lord hath a mighty strong tempest

A destroying storm

And a flood of mighty waters.

The clouds gather apace and hang exceeding black and dreadful over many places, as if God had reserved us some fearful stormy days. God=s way has been in the sweet calm of peace for a long time, in the sweet sunshine of His mercies. But Nahum 1:3,

The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind

And in the storm

Yea, even that God that is slow to anger, yet hath His way in the storm, and in that way God is seeming now to come.

Elijah could foresee a great rain by a cloud no bigger than a man=s hand. We may foresee not only rain, but the great storm and tempest of God=s displeasure gathering, nearby clouds that arise which are bigger than a man=s hand, for behold the heavens are black: We have feared the gathering of them often, but because they have been dispelled we have promised peace to ourselves. God has His times too, so to gather them, that they shall not be scatted until they fulfilled His Word:

The prudent man foreseeth the evil

And hideth himself

Proverbs 22:3

Evil men understand not judgment:

but they that seek the LORD understand all things.

Proverbs 28:5.

What are the thoughts, the fears of those who do most seek the Lord? Observe what they do if they understand anything of God=s mind B then a storm is coming. It observed of bees, that before a storm you may see them come apace [return quickly] to their hives. What are the hives of the saints but the public temples of God. These have the promise of God to be a place of refuge a covert from storm (Is. 4:6). These are the chambers God calls His saints into:

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers,

and shut thy doors about thee:

hide thyself as it were for a little moment,

until the indignation be overpast.

For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place

to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity:

the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

Isaiah 26:20-21.

These are the palaces to which God call you. If you think yourselves so settled in your places as that you cannot stir, take heed lest the storm be to you as it is threatened in Job 27:21:

The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth:

and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.

You know the speech of Elijah to Ahab, when he sees the clouds arise, make haste, lest the rain prevent^{^[1]} you, 1 Kings 18:44.

So I to you, make haste lest the storm prevent you. When an enemy takes in a town by storm, it is very terrible. Oh how dreadful then will it be to that people whom the Lord shall come against as an enemy, and after many offers of conditions of peace rejected from Him, He shall take them in by storm. It is the pride of men=s hearts that is the cause they fear not this. Wherefore, my prayer shall be according to that of the Psalmist in 83:15:

Lord, make them afraid of thy storm

I do not, I will not pray as in the former part of the verse,

Lord persecute them with thy tempest.

Oh no, if it may be the Lord keep it from them. Neither do I pray, Lord make them afraid with your storm, but Lord make them afraid of your storm.

For the second, how terrible are storms raised and raging in men=s consciences?

When the wrath of God in a man=s soul shall persecute him as the wind, as Job complains in 30:15

Terrors are turned upon me

They pursue my soul as the wind

And in Job 9:17:

He breaketh me with a tempest.

When God shall say to conscience, go persecute them with your tempest, and make them afraid with your storm; after great calms there arise grievous storms: many of you have had a long calm of peace and prosperity, you may expect a storm coming.

God who is aid in Psalm 107:29 to make the storm a calm, can as soon make your calm a storm. The vapors that cause the tempest arise insensibly, but when they grow to a tempest, they have mighty power. So sins are committed and multiplied insensibly. They lie by heaps in the conscience. You feel nothing of them now, but at last if you look not to it, they will cause a dreadful tempest and especially when the hearts of men are most swelling with pride.

Mariners observe that usually before great tempests there are great swellings of the sea. It is so usually before great conscience tempests: the more swelling any wicked man=s hear is, the nearer, the more dreadful is the tempest like to be. Many of you have in your time been in most fearful tempests, that have made your hearts to ache within you. But you must look to another manner, a mor dreadful tempest when not vapors in the air but the wrath of an infinite God in the conscience shall shake and rend your hearts, the terrors of the Lord following you will cause another manner of rage in the heart than ever stormy wind caused in the mighty waters.

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest:

this shall be the portion of their cup.

Psalm 11:6.

It is called the portion of their cup, says Saint Augustine upon the place, because of the just measure and proportion God=s justice observes in dealing out punishment to sinners. As we heard before, God is said to have a weight for the winds. So for this storm and tempest that comes upon the wicked, the Lord weighs it; it comes upon them proportionable to their sin. Were you ever struck with fear when you have seen the huge floods of water rolling and raging in the seas, being driven by mighty winds? What fear then will possess your hearts, when you shall see the floods of ungodness come upon you, you will the terrors of even Hell then compass about?

It is an expression of David in Psalm 18:4-5:

The sorrows of death compassed me,

The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

So Arias Montanus turns it, howsoever he may mean of ungodly men, yet the word bearing the other reading, we also apply to the ungodliness of men, then the sorrows of Hell compassed me. The Lord give you a heart to foresee this storm and to prevent [go before] it.

We read in Exodus 9:20, when God threatened to send upon Egypt a fearful storm of hail, those who feared the Word of the Lord made their servants and cattle to flee into their houses. So this day you hear from the Lord a storm threatened, let every soul that fears the Word of the Lord seek to flee into a shelter. There is no other shelter that can keep it off, but only the Lord Jesus Christ. That which is said in Isaiah 32:2 is true of him, a man shall be a hiding place from the wind and covert from the tempest.

Answer

Seventh

Let us yet rise higher in praising God in the stormy wind by considering in our heart, if God be so dreadful now in this one creature, how dreadful then will He be when He shall appear in all his power in all his wrath, his justice and holiness, what shall the glory of the great God be hereafter B of which [glory] the Scripture speaks so much? WhenHe shall cloth himself in glory and majesty, in the full brightness of them; when the heavens shall depart like a scroll; and the elements melt with fervent heat; when all the wold shall be on fire about him, the voice of the Lord has shaken the earth. But, says He, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also Heaven. That will be a dreadful day indeed, when the stars so Heaven shall fall unto the earth as a fig-tree casts her untimely [unripe] figs when she is shaken by a mighty wind; when every mountain and island will be moved out of their place; when the kings of the Earth and the great and mighty men shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks and mountains (Rev. 6:13-15).

A stormy win that shakes off the fruit of trees here, we account great. But such as shall shake the heavens and cause the stars to fall as the fruit, the untimely fruit of a fig-tree, how dreadful must that needs be B beyond all comprehension. And yet, such a stormy win will God one day appear in his glory, when not only children and women, and a few fearful shall be afraid B but the kings and the captains and the great ones of the earth shall tremble and hide themselves, and with the mountains to fall upon them, and the hills to cover them from the wrath of the Lord.

Conclusion

Thus, I have endeavored to show you how you should glorify god in his work: to be moved with in a sensitive way [pertaining only to the senses], that is no more than the brute beasts are: the swine will run up and down and cry in a stormy wind B yes, even when it is [only] coming, being sensible of it before you are. But Job 35:11, God teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the fowls of the heaven.

Therefore, God looks for another manner of glory from us men, than from them [the beasts]; and more from Christians than from men. God has given to the reasonable creature to search out the cause of things. We must take heed we do not stay [remain in one place] until we arise to the supreme, the highest cause.

Philosophers dispute the inferior causes.^{^[2]} It is devilish knowledge that in the contemplation of nature holds in nature, and keeps us from God, as Calvin says [when commenting] upon Psalm 29. And further he has this expression, If one desires to know a man, [and] he neglects the looking upon his face and fastens his eyes upon his nails, his folly is to be derided. So, he says, while men wholly mind the inferior causes of things as works of nature only, neglecting God as the highest cause of all.^{^[3]}

And in this our giving glory to God, we must labor to be as spiritual as we can, then the work will abide upon our hearts. But if we be only moved in a sensitive way, the impressions will soon vanish and come to nothing.

^{^[1]} Here Aprevent@ means come prior to you.

^{^[2]} A philosopher would here include what is now known as a Ascientists@. Ed.

^{^[3]} Here is an important point in understanding Burroughs= thought: Burroughs wholly supports scientific investigation into the nature. Yet, the purpose of such investigation B just as it is in the whole of life B is to better understand God. To understand the physical universal and to explain nature is describe things which glorify God. It would be as if a man were to give a present to a friend. The present is not an end in itself, but it is a means to an end to engender joy in the beloved. But if the friend were to receive the gift and to reject the friend, the purpose of the gift is lost. Ed.

Jeremiah Burroughs, The Seamans Direction.8

21 Wednesday Dec 2011

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God Raises Great Works to Command Our Attention and Respect

Works that are ordinary we little mind God in them.^{^[1]} Hence the Lord, because He would be minded [thought of] by us; He comes many times in strange [unusual] and terrible [terrifying, frightening, awe-inspiring] ways to us in His creatures, raising them higher than the ordinary, putting more majesty and terror in them than ordinary B as He has done in this [the recent storm]. Shall He not be magnified and praised in this?

The Deception of Sense & the Glory of God

It is the lowest honor that we can be give to God, to be moved by such works, wherein His glory comes apparently and powerfully to the sense. There are other manner of things of the glory of God ,which appear to raised reason B were it that the eye of reason were clear B and but elevated in a natural way to that height it is capable of. Yea, to that height it might be, were it not so much drowned in sense as it is, there were high and glorious of God to be seen by it, that might make us fall down upon our faces and adore Him.

The Eye of Faith & the Glory of God

But how great then are the things that appear to the eye of Faith?

Those are things to take up the heart indeed,

To fill the heart with astonishment

To draw it up with ravishment,

To overpower it with glory and divine luster of them,

To satisfy it with admirable infinite contentment

Those things are things fit for Angels to pry into

For the most spiritual raised heart to contemplate in

For by them

Saint are filled with the fullness of God

As the Scripture says in Ephesians 3:19.

In those things especially a Christian should be exercised.

The glory of God in these creatures

Is for the lowest

The meanest [most common; not cruel]

The dullest of all

For children

For those who are not out of the school of nature

Yea for those who are in the lowest school of nature.

Therefore, it is a good observation of Jerome^{^[2]} upon that place in Matthew 8 when Christ rebuked the winds and calmed, the text says that the men were afraid. The men, said Jerome, that is, the mariners and others which were in the ship B not the disciples B of if any shall contend and think that they were the disciples, yet are they are called the men, because they knew not our Savior.

God Speaks in His Creatures

The works of God have a voice as well as His Words, in Exodus 4:8: If they will not harken to the voice of my first sign, they will harken to the voice of the latter. God speaks by this voice [nature] to these who are must full of hearing. God has another voice to speak to His saints; the voice of the Word; yea, a more inward secret voice, the voice of His Spirit. Although, He speaks to them likewise by His other voice [that is, natural events]. Wherefore not to hear the voice of His works, this argues a heart desperately sottish [like a drunk] and even altogether living without a God in the world.

Those who are exercised in the highest things fo God should not neglect these, but they must be spiritual in beholding the glory of God in them B in a higher way than other are or can be.

They should fill their hearts with spiritual mediations raised from them,

They should look upon the power and glory of God in them,

as the power and glory of that God in whom their souls have special interest,

the power and glory of their Father

As in Psalm 48:14, This God is our God forever and ever. The beginning of the Psalm is, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And among other subjects of His praises, in verse 7, he instances this, Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind, and his conclusion is this, God is our God forever and ever.. This power is that which is engaged to work all the good that god intends, or hath promised unto His people. This glory is that which shall put glory upon His saints forever, all contained in this

This God is our God forever

^{^[1]} When surrounded by the normal sorts of things in our life B such as own bodies, the sunshine, et cetera B we normally don=t pay much attention and rarely give God the deserved glory.

^{^[2]} Church father, 347-420.

Jeremiah Burroughs, The Seaman’s Direction.7

21 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Preaching, Quotations

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Biblical Counseling, Burroughs, Creation, Glory of God, Jeremiah Burroughs, Preaching, Quotations, The Seamans Direction in the Time of Storm

APPLICATION

A REBUKE TO THOSE

WHO WILL NOT GLORIFY GOD IN HIS CREATURES

If God be so glorious in this creature [the wind], hence those who are justly rebuked, who hear and feel, yea, and see in the effect of it so much of God, and yet do not give him glory of it.

They do not give Him the glory of it,

They do not praise him in the stormy wind,

they can speak of it

And tell you how it was

How suddenly it came

How strong it blew

How it rent their sails

And split their masts

And tore their cables and their anchors

How it smote upon their houses

And made their beds shake under them

How dreadful the noise of it was

With what violence it came

As if the house would fall upon them

How their hearts did even shake within them for fear

But not a word of God in all this.

They say not in their heart,

Let us now fear God that raises, continues, calms these winds.

Let us now fear Him howsoever heretofore, we did not fear Him^{^[1]}

And although heretofore we were profane and vile

and lived without God in the world,

Yet let us now fear this God who is

Great in power

Glorious and excellent in His workings

In the heavens

The Earth

And seas.

When does any word come from men to put one another onto the fear of God upon this [blowing of the wind]?

God is to be Honored in All His Works

Brethren, God is to be honored in the least of His works. How much more is God to be honored in those works that have power and majesty in them.

We take God=s name in vain,

if when He appears in His great works,

We adore Him not

We fear Him not

We magnify Him not

We praise Him not.

We are much led by sense

If we take not notice of His glory

To have our hearts wrought upon when comes to our senses

And that in such a powerful and glorious way

It is a sign that are hearts are exceedingly stupid

That they are much estranged from God.

Second Causes are no Reason to Ignore God=s Work

Those works that we see the second causes of^{^[2]}, we scare mind God in them at all.^{^[3]} Although God should not be the less minded [thought of], because of second causes; seeing all the power and efficacy of the second cause is in the virtue of the first, as it has no being by it, so it is not able to stir without it.^{^[4]}

But now as for this creature, the stormy wind, we know but very little; scarcely anything of the second causes. And therefore, if God be not acknowledged and praised in this, in what shallHe be acknowledge and praised?

^{^[1]} Even though we didn=t fear Him before, let us fear Him now.

^{^[2]} ASecond causes@ are the natural mechanism which Acause@ the wind.

^{^[3]} Many atheists or agnostics point to second causes, natural law, as proof that God is not needed in our understanding of the world. For example, Christopher Hitches in his book, god is not Great, writes on page 282, AThanks to the telescope and the microscope, [religion] no longer offers an explanation of anything important.@

This belies a pagan understanding of divine interaction with the physical world. As we can see from Burroughs= book [among other sources], Christians did not previously believe that natural events B like wind B did not arise without natural causes. Christians believed that God works in and through Anatural@ causes. This is not surprising, since the Bible portrays God as a God of order and law. That being so, what would expect God=s interaction with nature to be?

^{^[4]} Second causes, like the temperature and pressure, would not exist or function without God=s support. Think about: What makes gravity continue to work, moment by moment? There is nothing in nature which can cause itself to continue be and function. Jesus, Aupholds the universe by the word of his power@ (Heb. 1:3; ESV).

Jeremiah Burroughs: The Seaman’s Direction.6

17 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by memoirandremains in Uncategorized

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Burroughs, Jeremiah Burroughs, The Seaman's Direction in Time of Storm

A Creature Sent to Humble Men

This is a creature that God delights to make use of, when he should speak to men, as to humble their hearts before him. Thus he did when he intended so to speak to Job, as to humble him so thoroughly as he might be prepared for deliverance; He speaks again and again out of the wind; chapters 38 & 40.

As an Image of God=s Grace

Christ makes use of this creature in setting out [drawing a picture] the freeness of God=s grace in the great work of regeneration, John 3:8: The wind bloweth where it listeth [desires], and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it commeth, nor whither it goesth, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

And God made us of this miraculous work of His in sending the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, Acts 2:2. There was the rushing of a mighty wind, and filled all the house where they were sitting, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost. Here was a mighty, glorious, blessed breathing, that came upon the Apostles with this mighty rushing win.

Although there cannot be expected such a filling with the Holy Ghost accompanying this mighty rushing wind that we have had. Yet, if God blesses this B His Word added to it B there may be some work of the Holy Ghost upon the hearts of some: not only at this time, but occasioned by this thing. Yea, the work of God in the wind making way for the Word of the Spirit to enter into your heart. Thus you see what use the Scripture makes of the winds, to set out the Glory of God.

But further, there are six things wherein the Name of God is be praised in the Wind:

The Nature of the Creature

If we consider the nature of it, what it is: It is a creature heard, felt, but little understood. Some guessings there are at it, but what it is, is a great secret in nature. Some say it is only air moved up and down. Other, vapors raised up to the middle region and thereby the cold beaten back, and so moving in the air collaterally. Hence there are no winds above some mountains which reach beyond where these vapors ascend and beaten back, as that mountain Olympus, where the footsteps of ashes strewn abide from year to year. Vapors thickened are clouds, vapors in the clouds rolling when they are heat incensed and break forth they are lightening and the breaking of the clouds by them, thunder-crack. If the vapor be beat back, before it be thickened then it is wind; if after the thickening, then it is rain; if congealed on high then it is snow, if not congealed on high till it come to the lower part of the air, then it is hail.

The reason that is given of the collateral motion is the vapors being so light as they cannot descend far, yet being beat down, and likewise met with by other vapors, hence they are forced to move in a collateral motion in the air.^{^[1]}

Pliny, a great teacher out of the secrets of nature, in his Natural History, L.2. c. 45, speaks very doubtfully of the wind, whether it be, says he, the spirit of nature that engenders all things wandering to and fro, as it were in some womb, or rather they air broken and driven by several influences and rays of the straying stars and planets and the multiplicity of their beams. Plain it is that they are guided by a rule of nature, not altogether unknown, although it may be not yet unknown.

This diver into secrets confesses ignorance in this of the winds, and although he had not confessed it, yet that which he says of the nature of them, would have discovered [shown] all his knowledge of them to be ut a wild guessing.

There is much wisdom in finding out the nature of creatures so far as they may be known. God may have much glory in our sight of His working in them. Pliny in the 46^th chapter of the forenamed book, speaking further of the winds, marvels that in so blessed a joyous a time of peace, as he says he was, wherein they had a prince that took such delight in the progress of all good arts, and gave such great rewards to learning, that yet men searched after knowledge of things no more than they did. Whereas others before them sought out the secrets of nature, for no other reward than to do good unto posterity. But now, says he, men=s manners are waxed [grown] old and decayed, the minds of men are blinded and bent upon nothing but covetousness:

This is his complaint, much more cause have we to take up this complaint against Christians who have other motives to provoke them to pains to find out the glory of God in the creature B than the heathen could have B and if we labor to see God in His creatures, so as to give glory to Him, there is another manner of reward that we may expect than any they could have to encourage them: Howsoever, if we cannot get the knowledge of the secrets of Nature in this creature [the wind], wherein certainly there would be much of God discovered unto us: Yet we may all behold so much of the power and majesty of God in it, as to cause us to fear Him. And this is true wisdom beyond all the knowledge of the secrets of Nature: For so we have it in Job 28:8, after the glory of god was shown in the winds (v. 25) as in other creatures. The conclusion unto man, he said, Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

God is Praised in the Raising of the Wind

God is praised in the rise of them. The raising of the winds is a great work of God. We can see no cause fo the sudden raisings of them. How calm and still is the air for the present, and how suddenly do the winds raise. Psalm 107:25, He raiseth the stormy wind. Our Savior says, in John 3, they blow where they list [desire]; no man knows whence they come nor whither they go. We see the winds arise many times when there are no clouds to beat back any vapors by the thickness and coldness of them. The second causes that God uses in this are hidden from us only. We are sure of the supreme cause: it is He that raises the stormy wind.

God is Praised in the Power of the Wind

God is praised in the power of them. They are a mighty force, Psalm 48:7, Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.

Of power and force to turn over ships, houses, rend trees, to raise dreadful waves; yea, they rend the very earth, the mountains and the rocks, as in 1 Kings 19:11. There was a strong wind that rent the mountains and tore in pieces the rocks. This is the hand of god whereby He overturns the mountains by the roots, of which Job speaks in chapter 28:9. This is the voice of the Lord that breaks the cedars, yea the cedars in Lebanon B the strongest cedars of all. This is the voice of the Lord that shakes the wilderness of which the Psalmist speaks, Psalms 29:5 & 8.

Sabellicus, a historian, tells of many thousands of soldiers of Cambyses being at dinner in a sandy place, of a sudden a tempest arose and covered them over with sand and chocked them that they perished. That a vapor should have such strength sets forth the mighty power of God; what is weaker than a vapor, and yet many together, how dreadful are they!

The waters are called mighty waters, and yet what is weaker than water, but much congregated has a mighty force, that carries with it as much majesty as any creature whatsoever. Yet a vapor is a weaker thing than water. Yet many of these joined B how fearful is the force of them in the wind! God is able to use them for great things, to daunt the proudest, stoutest spirit under heaven, to shake as the Psalmist says, the cedars in Lebanon; not only literally but metaphorically the highest and loftiest spirit that is:

How dreadful then is the power of God Himself which has nothing in it but infinite, and so much as no addition can be made, of any of the weakest things have such an amazing strength, then that which is so great as no addition can be made and all in it infinite: Oh, how full of glory and majesty is that power.

The natural cause of the power of the winds that men give is from the kind of vapor of which they are. The more earthy vapors are and hot, the stronger the winds. Hence many times summer winds are exceeding strong. And many times in hot countries, because the earth is more open, and the Sun having power to draw up more gross earthy vapors, there are mighty, tempestuous winds, exceeding strong whirlwinds, according to that Job 37:11, Out of the sourth commeth the whirlwind, the southern parts are hot.

God is Praised in the Variety of the Winds

God is to be praised in the motions of the winds: Ecclesiastes 1:6, The wind goeth toward the south and turneth about unto the north, it whirleth about continually, and returneth again according to its circuits. It has its various circuits appointed by God which way it shall turn, although their motion seems exceeding unsteady and changeable, up and down without any certain rule. Yet they observe their circuits wherein they run their compass as God appoints them. In some places of the world their motions are steady and constant, which mariners call their Trade Winds.

God is to be Praised in the Use of the Winds

God is to be praised in the use of the winds. God has made them to be of great use in the world: Seneca calls them a mighty benefit of nature, although many times much hurt comes by them. As he says … it was uncertain whether it had been more profitable for the commonwealth that ever he was born, or that he had not been born [whether it was better for the country whether he was born or not]. So says he of the winds, in regard of the harm that comes by them, it may be questioned whether the good or the hurt be the greater. But he means principally the hurt that comes by the abuse of them in navigation. For instead of furthering men to pass up and down into one-another=s country, they carry them to war one with another.

God gave the wind that the good of countries might be made common B not to carry armies, horsemen, weapons, pernicious to nations. Thus he [Seneca says], but howsomever as himself says, we must not account those things to be good, which by ill use turn to hurt. It is true of this work of God, as in all other creatures, they are of special use in many ways, as great blessing to us, as

Clearing the Air

For purging the air, much infection of the air is driven away by them. The air is cleansed and kept sweet with the motion of them, which otherwise would corrupt as the standing waters do. Job 37:21, The wind passeth and cleanesth. So Jeremiah 4:11, A dried wind toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse. God threatens afflictions to come in wrath, not as the wind comes to fan, and cleanse the air, but as a whirlwind to destroy.

Scattering Clouds

For the scattering of clouds here and there, up and down in the world. By them God shakes as it were His waterpots, by which he waters the gardens of the Earth. As Job 37:11, Also by watering he wearieth the thick clouds, he scattereth his bright clou, and it is turned around by his counsels, and this is done, by the breath of God, as it is in verse 10.

Bringing the Seasons

For altering of seasons, for bringing cold or heat. As Job 38:9-10, Out of the sourth commeth the whirlwind, and cold out of the north, by the breath of God frost is given and in ver. 17, He quieteth the earth by the south wind, he brings warmth that way.

Navigation

Fro the navigation in which art there is much of the wisdom of God seen, and if it be rightly used, the goodness of God to mankind is very great in it.

In the 28^th chapter of Isaiah from verse 24 to the end, the Lord challenges to himself the glory of teaching the plowman the art of plowing the ground and threshing out the corn [various grains], his God, says the text, in verse 26, doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him; and in verse 29, This also commeth from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in council and excellent in working. Now if this art be from the Lord, and if God shows himself wonderful in counsel and excellent in working of this, how much more is that excellent art of navigation, whereby men come even to subdue the seas to themselves, to find out and draw forth the riches of them, whereby they pass up and down over the whole world, to see the ways of God and the riches of god throughout the Earth; whereby several parts of the world are known to each other, and communicate each to another the wonderful blessings of God. Surely it is God that instructs men in this, it is He that gives them understanding and in this much more is the Lord wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.

How little of God in the great works of nature should we know and enjoy where it not for the art of navigation; but what were man=s skill or industry therein if God did not further it by the use of winds.

The works of God are very observable in these two works of nature:

A. The one in scattering of springs and currents of waters up and down in secret veins and in open passages of the earth to make [it] fit for habitation, and the other

B. In appointing the various motions of the winds to work up and down upon the seas, to make them fit for navigation.

Fulfilling His Word

That use we have here mentioned in the text, fulfilling his word, of which in the next point.

The Glory of God Appears in Stilling the Winds

A great work of God appears in stilling the winds and calming them as he pleases. No man knows whither they go. When Christ rebuked the winds and bad [told] them be still, Mark 4:39, The wind ceased and there as a great calm. In Isaiah 27:8 we read, He stayeth the rough wind.

Many times when it is most rough and boisterous, stays it on a sudden [quickly, immediately]. So as mariners may see much of the hand of God in it to towards them, in which God is much to be praised; for by this the Lord rules the raging sea.^{^[2]}

Mark how the Psalmist magnifies God in this work, Psalms 8:8-9:

O Lord of Hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee

Or to thy faithfulness round about theee.

Thou rulest the raging of the sea,

When the waves thereof arise thou stillest them.

Howsoever natural causes may be used by God for this, yet we must acknowledge God in them; and his work above them in stilling the winds and seas.

The natural causes that are given are the spending of vapors, or the vanishing of those clouds that beat them down, or the consuming of those vapors they meet with that kept them from falling or constraining the earth that no more arise. Something there is in this else: Hence rain often assuages the winds, by condensing and pressing down those vapors that before moved collaterally but let God still be praised, and have glory above these.

^{^[1]} Even though Burroughs= science is dated, it is important to note that he fully understands the movement of the air to be the result of ruled, natural processes. At the same time, Burroughs has no problem seeing these natural processes as the work of God B and hence, as a messenger of God. Ask the question this way: If God were to act, what would it look like? Why would an act of God not look like a natural process?

^{^[2]} John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace and many other hymns, letters and sermons, cites a storm B and its stilled winds B as an instrumental cause of his conversion from Awretch@ to Christian. You can find more concerning his conversion at http://www.johnnewton.org/Articles/72948/The_John_Newton/Resources/Psalm_107_23.aspx.