Jeremiah Burroughs (c.1600–1646) on Hosea 11:4 and the Difference in the Love of God

Again, He loves thee with the very same Love wherewith he loves Jesus Christ himself; In John 17, about the latter end, That thou mayest love them with the same Love wherewith thou hast loved me, saith Christ to the Father. Oh! to have the same Love that the Father loves Christ withal, Is not this a strong Bond to bind thy heart to God? If God had loved thee only so, as to give thee an estate and honors here in this world, this is no other love but that the Reprobate may have, and will this Love satisfy thee? Oh! the difference between the Love of God to his Saints, and the Love of God to other men! he loves the great ones of the world that are wicked with no other love, but with the love that he loves a Reprobate; but he loves the Saints with the same Love wherewith he loves his Son, and this Love will bring thee one day, to be one with the Father and the Son, and is not here a strong Bond of Love to gain thy heart to Himself?

Jeremiah Burroughs, An Exposition with Practical Observations Continued Upon the Eleventh, Twelfth & Thirteenth Chapters of the Prophesy of Hosea (London: Printed by Peter Cole, at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil, near the Royal Exchange, 1651), 82–83. Some spelling updated.

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Jeremiah Burroughs (c.1600–1646) on Hosea 9:15 and the Difference Between Temporal and Everlasting Love

And I will love them no more.

By [Love] here is meant, the communication of outward good things, for that carnal hearts account to be the only love of God: Indeed if they may have but outward prosperity here in this world, they make that an argument of God's love unto them: Well (saith God) though you have had many such kind of arguments of my love, (such fruits of my love) yet I will love you no more, I will take away all those privileges and good things that you have enjoyed, There are privileges and good things that you have enjoyed, There are privileges and good things that come from no other love but that which may be taken away; Oh! let not us be satisfied with those, let us be satisfied with nothing else but that which comes from everlasting love. You may have your outward estates, you may have comely Bodies, Health, Strength, Success in your labors, comings-in plentifully, yea, you may have Church Privileges, and yet all this [does] not come from the everlasting love of God, that can never be taken away; these fruits of God's love may be taken from you, and God may say as concerning all these, I will love you no more: but there are fruits of love, the sanctifying Graces of God's Spirit, the fruits of Electing love, and God can never say of these, I will love you no more.

No more.

After many deliverances that this people had in a way of love, God resolves with himself that he will have done with them, he will love them no more, he will deliver them no more: God may withdraw the sense of his love from his people for a while, but he manifests his love again, the afflictions of the Saints they are but a little cloud that soon passes over, the Sun soon breaks in again upon them, and Love shines; but the Sun of the wicked and ungodly sets, and never rises again: this is dreadful when a man's ruin, or a people's ruin is thus sealed by God, whatever mercies you have had heretofore, yet now there's an end of all, Adieu mercy, adieu love, I had gracious manifestations of them once to my soul, but they are now gone, I must never enjoy them more, now God hath changed his administrations towards me, I must expect nothing but wrath, the hand of his sore displeasure to cause ruin, and to be sunk everlastingly: Oh! let thy provocations of God be no more, do not thou add unto them; I have dealt falsely with God, dallied and trifled with the Lord, many times promising fair, but when I was delivered then have dealt wickedly with thee; but no more Lord: Oh! take heed, if thou addest any more unto thy wickedness lest that this dreadful sentence be pronounced in Heaven against thee, I will love thee no more. The words are in the Original, I will add no more; I have done enough already, I will do good to this wretched creature no more; my Goodness and Mercy hath had their turn, no more; Spirit strive with them, no more; Ordinances, no more do them any good; Mercy meddle no more with them, I will love them no more.

Jeremiah Burroughs, An Exposition with Practical Observations Continued Upon the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Chapters of the Prophesy of Hosea (London: Printed by Peter Cole, at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil, near the Royal Exchange, 1650), 274–275.

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Note: Compare this verse (Hos. 9:15) with Jer. 16:5. Observe the interconnections between Burrough’s notion of temporal love, common mercy, common grace, the goodness of God, and the Spirit striving in order to do good to those that ultimately perish (i.e., the non-elect). These theological associations are typical in Puritan theology. The idea of the Spirit of God striving with men goes back to Genesis 6:3. Again, to show the associations in Reformed and Puritan theology, observe these comments upon that text in Matthew Henry and John Calvin:

Note, 1. The blessed Spirit strives with sinners, by the convictions and admonitions of conscience, to turn them from sin to God. 2. If the Spirit be resisted, quenched, and striven against, though he strive long, he will not strive always, Hos. 4:17. 3. Those are ripening apace for ruin whom the Spirit of grace has left off striving with.

—Matthew Henry on Gen. 6:3

For as long as the Lord suspends punishment, he, in a certain sense, strives with men, especially if either by threats or by examples of gentle chastisement, he invites them to repentance. In this way he had striven already, some centuries, with the world, which, nevertheless, was perpetually becoming worse. And now, as if wearied out, he declares that he has no mind to contend any longer. For when God, by inviting the unbelievers to repentance, had long striven with them; the deluge put an end to the controversy.

—Calvin on Gen. 6:3

The point of the Spirit’s striving is, of course, in order to “try to win them,” or to “turn them from sin to God” through an “invitation to repentance.” God was merciful, lenient and patient with them in order to bring them to salvation through repentance. This all accords with the Reformed and Puritan understanding of God’s revealed will.

Jeremiah Burroughs (c.1600–1646) on Hell as an Infinite Ocean of Scalding Lead

It is a notable speech Augustine [Serm. 66. ad fratres in Eremo¹] hath: Go, (says he) and mark and attend the Sepulchres of rich men, and when you see their rotten bones, consider who they once were, and know they do cry unto you; O you men, why do you seek so much to satisfy yourselves in these fading things, and heap upon yourselves vexation, to attain happiness for yourselves in these things? Consider our bones here, and be struck with astonishment, to abhor your luxury and covetousness; for, says he, they cry thus to you, You now are, and we were, and time will be, when you shall be what we are.

And then consider with yourselves, what a doleful condition that man is in, that hath set his heart upon things that are for a season: When those are at an end, he may say, How the thoughts of my heart, and all my hopes are at an end; now I must bid an eternal farewell to all my comforts, to husband, and wife, and neighbors, and friends, and companions; I shall never meet with you more, and never have mirth and jollity, and sporting, and gaming any more, but I must bid farewell to all, and Sun is set, and the season is at an end for all my comfort, and before me I see an infinite vast Ocean, and I must launch into it; Lord, what provision have I for it? What a dreadful shreek will that soul give, that sees an infinite Ocean it must launch into, and sees no provision that it hath made for it? Indeed those that die, and are bespotted, and know nothing of this infinite Ocean that they must launch into, they are never troubled; but those that die, and their consciences are enlightened, they have given a most dreadful shreek, to see themselves launching into an infinite Ocean of scalding Lead, and must swim naked in it forever.

1. Sermones ad fratres in Eremo was apparently a spurious collection of sermons attributed to Augustine.

Jeremiah Burroughs, Moses His Choice, With His Eye Fixed Upon Heaven: Discovering the Happy Condition of a Self-Denying Heart (London: Printed by Thomas Ratcliffe for R. Doleman, and are to be sold by Thomas Vere at the Angel without Newgate, 1660), 326–327.

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Jeremiah Burroughs (c.1600–1646) on God Begging

This Westminster divine wrote:

Sixth encouragement may be, He sends his Ambassadors to woo you to come in, and tells them they shall not take a denial at your hands, 2 Cor. 5. 20. They entreat and beg as in his Name, nay it is the beseechings and entreatings of God himself, as if a King should send one of the Attendants on him to a poor condemned Prisoner, and say, Go tell such a one that he must come for his pardon, and tell him, I beseech him, and take no denial of him, I beseech him to come in; would not this manifest the great willingness of the King to pardon; God does so, he sends his Ministers and beseeches you to come in and take a pardon; 'tis as certain God speaks thus by his Ministers, as if you heard God speaking by himself, this should move you to come in, Christ begs and entreats you to be reconciled, that his blood might not be shed in vain: seeing it is so, that God begs of thee to come in, why shouldest not thou come in, and take pardon of thy sin, Why cans't not thou come in and give up thy self and all thou hast and are to him?

Jeremiah Burroughs, Gospel Remission, Or a Treatise shewing that True Blessedness Consists in Parton of Sin (London: Printed for Dor. Newman, and are to be sold at his Shop at the Kings Arms in the Poultry, 1674), 216-217. [Some of the spelling has been updated]

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Burroughs is one among many sovereign grace advocates that I have documented who have used this begging metaphor. The other names include Augustine, Hugh Latimer, Samuel Rutherford [Westminster divine], Thomas Manton, John Trapp, Sydrach Simpson [Westminster divine], Robert Harris [Westminster divine], Theophilus Gale, Isaac Ambrose, Stephen Charnock, John Flavel, Richard Sibbes, John Shower, William Gurnall, George Swinnock, Ralph Venning, Daniel Burgess, Samuel Willard, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Solomon Stoddard, Samuel Davies, Andrew Gray, Ralph Erskine, Charles Spurgeon, Thomas Chalmers, Walter Chantry, Erroll Hulse and John MacArthur.

Burroughs on Hosea

Jeremiah Burroughs' Exposition Upon the Prophecy of Hosea is available at the Internet Archive.

Jeremiah Burroughs (c.1600–1646) on 1 Peter 3:18-20

That is vainly made use of by some, to prove that Christ's soul did descend into Hell, to go and preach to the damned in Hell, but certainly that is a vain conceit, if you observe the text, you shall find that this is the meaning of it, observe the 20th verse, It was to those spirits which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God, waited in the days of Noah. Those spirits that did live in the days of Noah, and Noah's preaching unto them; Now (the text says) they are in prison, Jesus Christ went and preached to the spirits that were disobedient in the times of Noah, that now are in prison. How did he go but by his Spirit? By his servant Noah, [by Noah]. The preaching of Noah was the preaching of Christ.

Jeremiah Burroughs, Gospel Reconciliation, Or, Christ's Trumpet of Peace to the World (London: Printed by Peter Cole, 1657), 285–286. I have updated some of the English.

Burroughs, Flavel and Howe are all in agreement on this text.

Jeremiah Burroughs (c.1600–1646) on Means to Draw Sinners to Christ

Secondly, In that Christ that is God-man, in one person, calls us to come to him: hence we have this Meditation, That certainly, the Lord is infinitly inclined to do good unto the Children of men, this is a mighty encouragement for all poor Souls to come to Christ, for when thou hearest, that Christ the Son of God is made man in one person, by that thou mayest gather this for thy encouragement, that certainly God is infinitely inclined to do good unto the Children of men, God would never Have wrought so strange a work, as to unite our Natures into one person with his Son, if he had not meant to do some infinite good unto mankind; the Lord hath given a most evident demonstration of it, in uniting mans Nature to his own Son. As if the King should be pleased to marry his Son to one that is the nearest Kinswoman you have, you would by that gather such an argument as this, and all your friends would conclude, surely the King doth intend much good to this family, that he is strongly inclined to prefer this family: So when God is pleased to marry his Son to our flesh, Yea, to take our Nature into a nearer union with him, then the Wife is taken into the Husband, we may gather this argument, and conclude, Surely, God doth intend much good unto the Children of men, and therefore come.

Thirdly, From this consideration, who Christ is, God manifested in the flesh, we may gather this encouragement to come to him, That the Lord in uniting the divine Nature with the Human in Christ, hath done already a greater work for the Children of men, than the saving of their Souls comes to; the saving of thy Soul is a difficult work; thou thinkest thus, Alas! for me to come and think to be saved by Christ, this is too great a thing, too good to be true, it is not possible that ever such a poor sinner as I am, should be raised to the glory that I hear of in the word, that God will raise his Saints unto, thou thinkest that the Salvation of thy Soul is so great, and so mighty a thing, and therefore that perhaps doth somewhat discourage thee in coming: but then, when thou hearest what Christ is, and how God hath united the divine and human Nature together in one person, from thence thou mayest gather this encouragement, that God hath done a greater work than to save thy Soul, for so it is: It is a greater work for God to unite the divine and human Nature together in one person, than to save all the Souls in the world. As if Christ should say thus, Oh, Come to me, know what I am, I am the Son of the Father, of the same Nature and being, and I am likwise made man, God the Father hath united my divine Nature to your flesh, and in this he hath done a greater work than the saving of your Souls, in this he hath shewed what intentions he hath for the good of mankind, and in this the terror of the almighty is taken away, and therefore come to me, that is the first Argument, come to Christ.

ARG. II.

Secondly, Come to Christ, Why? For Christ hath come to you; do you come to him, for he hath come to you; that Christ might come to you, he hath even come, as it were, from the Bosome of the Father, and for a time was willing to have his glory Eclipsed, to come into this world, to be in the form of a Servant, to be in a mean condition here in this world, Christ hath suffered more in coming to you, than you can possibly suffer in going to him, Christ is content to come from the Father to you, what is it that you can go from to come to him. He is said in the Book of the Canticles, to come leaping over the Mountains, he comes leaping over all difficulties to you, if you think there are some difficulties in your going to Christ, know, that there was far greater difficulties that lay in the way in his coming to you, but whatsoever there was in the way, he was resolved to go through them all, and did come, and was here in the world, in the flesh, that he might save you, and he that is thus come to you, calls you to come to him.

ARG. III.

Thirdly, You must know, That Christ is the great Mediator that is set between God and the Children of men: it is he that hath undertaken the great work, the greatest work that ever was in the World, to Mediate between the infinite offended God, and your sinful wretched Souls, for through your sins there was such an infinite distance made between God and you that it was impossible you should ever have gone without this Mediator. It is an argument of mighty use, if rightly understood, and throughly considered of, the vast distance that sin hath made between God and sinful creatures, that they can never come to God, but through the glorious Mediator that is come into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, that was made by God the Father the Head of the second covenant, and hath undertaken to make up all the wrongs that our sins have done unto God, to pacify the wrath of God, and to satisfy the justice of God, it is he that hath undertaken to make peace between the Father and you, and it is he that calls unto you to come to him. If there were a company of Prisoners in danger of Death, and one should come to the Prince to mediate for them, to make peace between the Prince and them, one that the prisoners should know to be the only Son of the Prince, the delight of his Soul, and he is sent by the Prince himself to come to make peace and undertake it for them, and he comes unto the Prison doors, and calls to the Prisoners lying in their dungeon, and saith, arise, and come to me, hearken what I shall bring to you, observe my direction, and peace shall be made between the Prince and you, you shall have pardon, you shall have your lives; would not this stir them up to hearken unto him, and greedily to come unto the grate? Christ is come for this very end, this was the work that God the Father sent him into the world about, to be a Mediator between himself and poor, wretched, sinful creatures, and now he comes unto them, calls unto them and says, come to me, If you did but know what Christ was, and what his work was in coming into the world, it could not but mightily draw your hearts to come to him when he calls.

ARG. IV.

Fourthly, Come to me saith Christ, for if ever there were any that deserved to be hearkened unto, and to come unto when he calls, certainly I deserve it; For I have not only come to be a Mediator, but the truth is, it hath cost me my blood, I have manifested such Love unto you, that I have laid down my Life for you, I have shed my most precious blood, I have been willing to be made a curse, and all for the saving of your souls; my Love hath been more to you, then to mine own life, for that was laid down for you. I have undertaken, indeed, to mediate between my Father and you, but it hath cost me much, yet in Love to you I have thus done, all my blood is shed, the work is done, the price is paid, Come to me that you may have Life. And this is the meaning of that forementioned place, The Servant is bidden to go and invite the Guests, for all is ready, so here, the work is done, Christ hath done the work, there could not be that argument to our fore Fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they could not have such an argument to draw them, Christ could not say to them, Come to me, for I have not only undertaken to Mediate between the Father and your Souls, but I have laid down my life for you, shed my blood for you, I have paid the price already for you, I have purchased your Souls, I have done the whole work, it is finished. But now there is this Argument to draw your Hearts to Christ, for the work is finished, the greatest work that ever was, or shall be undertaken in the World, the greatest work of all is finished, and upon the finishing of this work, Christ calls you to himself, and saith, Come to me.

Jeremiah Burroughs, Four Books on the Eleventh of Matthew (London: Printed by Peter Cole, 1659), 159–163.

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