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THE SAINTS' HAPPINESS: Being 41 Sermons on The Beatitudes
JEREMIAH BURROUGHS (1599-1646) edited by Don Kistler, Foreword by John Gerstner
THIS BEAUTIFUL VOLUME HAS ARRIVED AND READY TO SHIP!!!
These are the last sermons this great Puritan preached before he died of tuberculosis in 1646. Burroughs was a member of the Independent faction of the Westminster Assembly. Though he died at a relatively young age, the amount of material he left behind is staggering.
This book was first published in 1660 by some of Burroughs’ friends and admirers, of which there were many. It was reprinted in 1867 in the Nichols Series of Puritan reprints and that edition was published again 1987 by Soli Deo Gloria. This is the first ever modern edition of this classic work.
It is perhaps the greatest tribute to this man that his contemporaries held him in such high esteem. No less men of renown than Thomas Goodwin, William Greenhill, William Bridge and Edmund Calamy published six volumes of his writings after his death because of their regard for his piety.
Burroughs’s irenic personality, noted by many who knew him, is clearly exemplified in his decision to exposit the Beatitudes (originally given in forty-one sermons and compiled into Saint’s Happiness) as found in Matthew 5, which extol meekness, mercy, and peacemaking.
"I suspect that our Lord's BEATITUDES were never more Scripturally, poignantly and practically expounded than in the pages that follow. Truly it is a blessed exposition of the 'Blesseds.' Study this book if you want a refresher course in the whole Bible." -from the Foreword by John Gerstner
The Original Letter to the Reader is as follows:
"READER,—although all men desire happiness, and nothing be more needful to be known, yet great are the mistakes of men thereabout. It is not in sensual pleasures—if so, Dives had been happy, Luke xvi., and those [who] made their bellies their gods, Phil. iii.; it is not in honors—for then the dragon and the beast should have been happy, Rev. xiii. 4; it is not in riches, James v. 1; it is not in habits or acts of moral virtues—then heathens had been happy, and Paul in his pharisaism, Phil. iii.; it is not in knowledge, Eccles. i. 18, nor in contemplation of divine things—for then Balaam had been so. Num. xxiv. 3, 4, and Plato whose contemplations were such; it is in none of these, but in what is laid down by the Lord Christ and held forth in this ensuing work. Some deny saintship and happiness to be in this life, but David confutes the one, Ps. xvi. 3, and Christ the other. It is true, perfect happiness is not attainable in this life, because there is a mixture of sin, vanity, and misery with every condition and thing we enjoy; the best of men having more wormwood than wine. Yet there is a true blessedness in this life, which consists in those qualifications, actions, and sufferings, which have a clear, certain, and strong tendency unto perfect happiness, and may be called seminalis or radicalis heatitudo. Such are the beatitudes here mentioned, and many elsewhere in holy writ, as delighting in the law of God, Ps. i. 2; fearing the Lord, Ps. cxii. 1; being undefiled in the way, Ps. cxix. 1; and such men are blessed, but not simply blessed for the qualities had, things done or suffered, but because they lead up and issue into perfect blessedness at last.
Reader, the times are perilous; a sentence of death is over most, if not all thy comforts; how soon thou mayest be stripped of thy seeming happiness, thou knowest not. If thou hast not a part in these Christian beatitudes, thou art a miserable man, thy life is a dream, and thy death will be dreadful. Here is propounded unto thee not that the world calls blessedness, or what thou thinkest so, but what the blessed Son of the blessed God hath pronounced so, and will be found in life and death to be so; reckon and make that therefore thy blessedness which the Lord Christ himself accounts and calls blessedness; and then let times, troubles, and changes be what they will, thou art a blessed man, shalt so abide, and have a blessed end. The reverend author of these sermons, Mr. Jeremiah Burroughs, did so, being the subject he preached on before his death.
These sermons of his have lain thirteen years complete this very day in the dark, for he died the 14th day of the 9th month, 1646; but by the help of that hand which took most of those sermons [that] are already in print, are now brought to light, discovering themselves to be the genuine issue of such a parent, the face of whose spirit is lively represented in them. Reader, the aim of those [who] do publish them is that thou mayest know, desire, and attain true blessedness in these unhappy times, and have thy thoughts, affections, and actions suitable unto such a happiness, which that thou mayest have, and they may be, is the earnest desire of William Greenhill, William Bridge, Philip Nye, John Yates, William Aderly, Mathew Mead."
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Life of Jeremiah Burroughs
Foreword by John H. Gerstner
To the Reader (see above)
Sermon 1 The Preface to the Sermon
Sermon 2 The Scope of the Sermon
Sermon 3 A Description of a Poor-Spirited Man
Sermon 4 Promises to the Poor in Spirit
Sermon 5 Comfort to the Poor in Spirit
Sermon 6 Godly Mourners Shall Be Comforted
Sermon 7 The Folly of Men Rebuked Who Are All for Mirth
Sermon 8 How Mourners Should Order Their Mourning
Sermon 9 The Comforts of Mourners for Sin
Sermon 10 An Exhortation to Mourners for Sin
Sermon 11 How to Mourn for the Affliction of Saints
Sermon 12 Meek Persons Subjects for Christ to Comfort
Sermon 13 A Reprehension of Professors Who Are Not Meek
Sermon 14 Rules and Helps to Christian Meekness
Sermon 15 Times of Righteousness Promised to the Church
Sermon 16 The Desirableness of the Object Hungered After
Sermon 17 Comforts to Those Who Hunger
Sermon 18 The Excellence of the Righteousness of Sanctification
Sermon 19 They Who Hunger Are Blessed for the Present
Sermon 20 Rules to Help Souls in the Way of Hungering
Sermon 21 Considerations to Support the Hearts of Those Who Hunger After Righteousness, Yet Lack Growth in Righteousness
Sermon 22 The Several Workings of Mercy in the Heart
Sermon 23 Comforts to Those Who Are of Merciful Spirits
Sermon 24 Motives to Show Mercy
Sermon 25 Wherein a Pure Heart Is Blessed
Sermon 26 Uncleanness of Heart the Cause of Error
Sermon 27 Wherein the Sight of God Appears to Be Such a Happy Thing
Sermon 28 The Order of This Beatitude
Sermon 29 Blessed Are They Who Make Peace Between Man and Man
Sermon 30 The Difference Between Independency and Presbytery
Sermon 31 What the Mystery of Godliness is in Adoption
Sermon 32 Disciples of Christ Must Expect Persecution
Sermon 33 Reasons Why Righteousness Must Expect to Suffer
Sermon 34 Principles for Suffering
Sermon 35 Some Headings From What Has Been Said About the Blessedness of Persecution
Sermon 36 A Word of Use to Those Who Are Reviled
Sermon 37 Saints Should Take Heed They Suffer Not for Evil Truly
Sermon 38 Some Arguments for Helping Saints to Suffer
Sermon 39 How Professors Are Said to be Unsavory
Sermon 40 To Be the Light of the World is a Great Honor
Sermon 41 Uses We Are to Make of the Ministry of the Gospel
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