Secondly, The designs of God in all the sharp afflictions he exercises his children with, as (1.) the purging away of their sins, Isa. i. 25; (2.) the making of them more partakers of his holiness, Heb. xii. 10 ; (3.) the trial of their graces, Job xxiii. 10; (4.) the communication of more of himself and of his love to their souls, Hosea i. 14 ; (5.) the multiplying of their spiritual expe- riences, 2 Cor. i. 4, 5 ; (6.) the crucifying of their hearts to the world, and the world to their hearts, Gal. vi. 14 [margin, Nam finis dat amabilitatem et facili- tatem mediis] ; (7.) to draw them to look and fix their souls upon the great concernment of another world, John xiv. 1-3 ; (8.) that heaven may be the more sweet and precious to them at last, 2 Cor. iv. 16-18, Rom. viii. 17, 18; how sweet is a calm after a storm, and summer days after long winter nights ; (9.) to make them more and more conformable to Christ their head, Rom. viii. 17 ; (10.) that sinners may at the last be found dumb and speechless, 1 Peter iv. 17, 18. Now, is there not enough in these glorious ends and designs of God to make his people sit mute under the sharpest trials ? Surely there is. Why then don't they sit silent before the Lord ?
Thirdly, All the mercies you enjoy, were first the Lord's before they were yours, and always the Lord's more than they were yours, 1 Chron. xxix. 14. ' All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.' The sweet of mercy is yours, but the sovereign right to dispose of your mercies is the Lord's. Quicquid es debes creanti; quicquid potes, debes redimenti (Bern), whatsoever thou art, thou owest to him that made thee ; and whatsoever thou hast, thou owest to him that redeemed thee. Say, as Jerome adviseth a friend of his (in the like case), Thou hast taken away whom thou hast given me : I grieve not that thou hast taken them, but praise the Lord that was pleased to give them. You think it but just and reasonable that men should deal with their own as they please ; and is it not much more just and reasonable that God should do with his own as he pleases ?
Fourthly, That God that has taken one, might have taken all ; there are several left, though one be taken. Job, you know, was a nonsuch in his generation, and yet the sentence of death was passed upon all his children at a clap ; and under this said clap Job does not blaspheme, but bless ; he does not murmur, but worships ; he accuses not God, but clears God of injustice
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under saddest and severest strokes of justice, Job i. Geographers write that the city of Syracuse in Sicily is so curiously situated, that the sun is never out of sight : though one mercy be gone, yet you have several that remain, and this should make you mute.
Themistoclcs invited many philosophers to supper ; the owner sends for one half of those necessaries that he was using. Can you endure this disgrace ? said the philosophers. Yes, said he, very well, for he might have sent justly tor thorn all. The application is easy. Oh ! let not nature do more than grace.
Fifthly and butty, Under sharp afflictions, we ought carefully to look that natural afflictions don't hinder the exercise of gracious dispositions. Though we may weep, yet we may not weep out either the eye of faith, or the eye of hope [margin, 1 Thes. iv. 13j : though you may water your flowers, yet you may not drown your flowers. They that wept, yea, that wept much, yet said, The will of the Lord be done [margin, Acts xxi. 13, 14]. Jacob doated too much upon his Joseph, and his affections were too strong for his judgment, when, upon the sight of the bloody coat, he refused to be comforted, and said, I will go down into the grave unto my son, mourning [margin, Gen. xxxvii. 33-35]. And David was too fond of his son Absalom, when, like a puny baby, he wept and said, 0 my son Absalom ! my son ! my son ! Absalom ! would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my son! my son! [margin, 2 Sam. xviii. 32, 33]. The Egyptians mourned for Jacob seventy days, but Joseph (though he had more cause) mourned but seven days ; because he had more grace, and better hopes of Jacob's eternal welfare, than the infidels had. In the midst of all your tears, keep up the exercise of grace, and then you shall not mourn that you have mourned.
That your own is no sooner in your hand, is only from the remissness and dilatoriness of him into whose hands you had ordered the copy.
To conclude : that you and I, and all others (into whose hands this sermon may fall) may live up, and live out, the following discourse, under all the changes that has or shall pass upon us, is the earnest desire and hearty prayer of him who is your entire friend and servant in our dearest Lord.
III. The < Epistle' prefixed to the ' Works' of Dr Thomas Taylor, of « Alder- manbury, London,' (folio, 1653), bears the name of Brooks, only in common with Gouge and Calamy, Jackson, Ashe, Caryl, Manton, Greenhill, Strong, Griffith, Venning, and Jemmat. The first signature is that of Dr William Gouge ; and probably the ' Epistle' was drawn up by him, and simply signed by the others. Yet does there seem touches from the hand of Brooks.
IV. ' Gospel Fear ; or the Heart trembling at the Word of God evidenceth a blessed frame of spirit. Delivered in several Sermons from Isa. lxvi. 2, and 2 Kings xxii. 14. By Jeremiah Burroughes.1 " His mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation," Luke i. 50. " Work out your own salva- tion with fear and trembling," Philip, ii. 12. London : Printed by J. D. for B. Aylmer at the three Pigeons in Cornhill. 1674.' 12mo.
To The Reader. — Christian Reader, — These following sermons are the labours of that prince of preachers, Mr Jer. Burroughs, who is now a shining sun in that upper world. But they that ai-e taken out of this valley of Baca, and carried up by troops of glorious angels into the highest heaven, stand in no need of the praises of men, having the fruition of the eternal God. And therefore I shall wheel about to these choice sermons that are here presented to thine eyes.2 In
i Died Nov. 14. 1646.— G.
2 Chrysostom, in his learned oration compiled upon the death [of] Philogonius. Melanch- ton saitli of Pomerauus, He was the grammarian ; of himself, that he was the logician ; of
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