People You’ve Maybe Never Heard of But Should: Jeremiah Burroughs

Mike Leake

Jeremiah Burroughs was born sometime around 1600.  He went to college at Emmanuel College in Cambridge in 1617 finally graduating with a Master of Arts in 1624.  His tutor was another famous Puritan–Thomas Hooker. 

He began his ministerial “career” as an assistant to Edmund Calamy in Suffolk.  Here he and Calamy vehemently opposed King James’ Book of Sports, refusing to read “the king’s proclamation in church that dancing, archery, vaulting, and other games were lawful recreations on the Lord’s Day.”  Eventually he moved to Norfolk where he served as pastor until 1636 when he was suspended for refusing to read the Book of Sports, bow at the name of Jesus, and read prayers rather than speak them extemporaneously. 

From 1638-1640 the ejected Burroughs ministered in the Netherlands with other Congregationalist pastors.  By 1640 he returned to London and became a very popular preacher.  He pastored two of the largest congregations in London: Stepney and St. Giles, Cripplegate.  Burroughs remained in London until his death in 1646.  He died two weeks after a fall from his horse. 

Why You Should Know Him:

He’s a Puritan with a stately mustache an awesome hat and what appears to be double-jointed fingers, what more do you need to know to be inspired to read him? 

Not only did Burroughs pave the way for great mustaches but he was also had a great influence on the Westminster Assembly.  He was one of the few Independents that opposed the Presbyterian majority.  Yet he did so with his typical moderate and irenic spirit.  Those of us churches that come from an Independent strain of Puritanism owe a great deal to the work of men like Jeremiah Burroughs who paved the way for a middle-ground between Presbyterianism and the more chaotic Brownism. 

Though Burroughs is worth studying for his historical value and influence on Westminster the greatest reason to get to know Jeremiah Burroughs is his prolific writing career.  (Actually his books are really nothing more than a compilation of his sermons).  One of Burroughs’ works that has had a great influence on me personally—and many other believers—is his Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. 

Burroughs’ writing contains within it an engaging Christian spirit and a steadfast dedication to the gospel.  He writes like many of the Puritans of his time, in that he will tear open up your soul with the Law and then apply the gospel for healing. 

Sample:

As far as God sees Christ in anyone He accepts them. If Christ is not there, no matter what they have, He does not regard them. Christ is all in all, even in the esteem of the Father Himself. He was the delight of the Father from all eternity, Prov.8:30, and the Father undertook infinite contentment in Him upon His willingness to undertake this blessed work of the redemption of mankind. God the Father is infinitely satisfied in Christ. He is all in all to Him. Surely if Christ is an object sufficient for the satisfaction of the Father, much more, then, is He an object sufficient for the satisfaction of any soul.

I will give you just this note: if it were your last time to pray to God and your everlasting estate depended on God’s mercy, should you seek God never so earnestly, if it is only in a natural way as your Creator, your condition would be very dreadful and you would perish eternally. If God should lay any of you upon your sick or death beds and you should cry to God for mercy, be sure to take Christ along with you and look upon God through Christ, or else all your cries will be of no avail. Luther said that God looked upon outside of Christ is most dreadful and terrible. And it proves a great deal of ignorance in us when we think we can go to God and find mercy in Him without considering Him as a God that will be reconciled to us only through His Son.

Both selections are from Christ is All in All an excellent piece worthy of your reading.

Further Reading:

Joel Beeke’s Biography from Meet the Puritans is helpful and also includes a listing of his Modern Reprints available for purchase.  (NOTE: I’m indebted to Beek’s biography for much of the material above). 

The full text of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is available for free here. 

You can find almost anything you want to know at the Jeremiah Burroughs Homepage.  Phil Simpson has also written a biography that I may try to check out at some point.  You can buy that biography here.

I’ve also quoted and written a few things from Burroughs on my own site—a search on Borrowed Light will yield you some fruit.

Luther on Wrongly Reading the New Testament

Mike Leake 2 Comments

“It has become a deplorable custom that the Gospels and the Epistles are treated like law books, in which one is to learn what we are to do, and in which the works of Christ are presented as nothing but an example held before one’s eyes.  Wherever this errant opinion remains within the heart, there neither gospel nor epistle can be read usefully and in a Christian way; such readers remain nothing but heathen,  as before.”

Luther rightly sees that all of the imperatives (do this!) are grounded in the indicatives (Christ did this).  Reading the New Testament any other way is to read it sub-Christianly. 

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On a lighter note, if you are looking for a great way to insult friends consider the Luther Insult Generator. 

Help Borrowed Light Make the Final Four and Keep the Terrorists from Winning

Mike Leake 2 Comments

Thanks to your help Borrowed Light made it into the Sweet 16 in the SBCVoices Blue Collar Blog Madness.  What is at stake is a coveted spot on the Voices Watchlist.  Trust me you want Borrowed Light to be on that Watchlist and not those jokers that I’m going up against.  I already outed them as kitty haters.  You don’t want these type of writers to be featured on Voices. 

So here are the steps to follow. 

Step One: Go to SBC Voices Blue Collar Blog Madness Sweet 16.

Step Two: Scroll down to the Midwest division and vote for Borrowed Light.

Step Three: Share this page and/or the SBC Voices Sweet 16 page on Facebook and encourage your friends to vote for Borrowed Light. 

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To further motivate you I have found a little bit of dirt on my opponents in the Midwest Division:

The Truth about Joe Blackmon: This has been confirmed by both Jared Moore (of Harry Potter Bible Study fame) and snopes.com  Joe Blackmon is the inspiration for the Lord Voldemort character from Harry Potter.  I don’t watch Harry Potter but I hear he’s a bad dude.  Do you really want someone whose name ought not even be spoken to be on the SBC Voices Watchlist? 

The Truth about Frank Gantz: After slowly rewinding the Zapruder film I discovered what appeared to be a small child near the grassy knoll during the famous Kennedy assassination.  Through high-tech research and computer technology that you wouldn’t understand I was able to enlarge the photo and age it to see what this little tot would look like in our day and age.  To my shock it was a picture of Frank Gantz.  Yes a young Frank Gantz was the shooter on the grassy knoll.  You don’t want to vote for this guy.

The Truth about Andrew Wencl: After a rather lengthy and expensive research project on Ancestry.com I have been able to determine that Andrew Wencl is the nephew of Frank Stallone.  I’m not sure what this means but I doubt you want to vote for the guy.  I was hoping for something a little more sinister, but perhaps Andrew is so sneaky and devious that he bought off the folks at Ancestry.com.  Regardless, unless you want to see tons of posts giving homage to Frank Stallone I wouldn’t bother voting for this Andrew fella. 

From the Pen of Newton: Turning the Gospel into the Law

Mike Leake 1 Comment

…it is common and easy in a dark hour to turn the gospel into a covenant of works.”  -John Newton

These words from Newton come in the context of counseling what appears to be a discouraged Joseph Symonds.  Symonds seems to be struggling with what I have experienced both in my own life and in counseling other believers in the way of the gospel. 

In dark times many believers begin to turn the gospel into law.  They chastise themselves for not being what I word term “gospely enough”.  Rather than living in the freedom that Christ has already purchased these believers despair over their imperfections, their lack of spiritual experiences, their feelings of doubt and restlessness, and their shamefully meager love for Christ.  As this despair takes root the believer can conclude that he/she must not be truly saved because he/she does not have the gospel flowing through their life as they should. 

Newton’s counsel is again solid. 

“If a fear of being deceived, a mourning under a sense of vileness, a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, a sense of the evil and danger of sin, a persuasion of the preciousness and suitableness of Christ in his offices, etc; if these are not spiritual experiences, I know not what are.” 

Luther rightly said that “it is the supreme art of the devil that he can make the law out of the gospel”.  One of the most deadly things that believers can do to hinder their spiritual growth is to neuter the gospel by making it a checklist to perform rather than a Person to savor.  Newton’s very biblical counsel (See Colossians 3:1-4) is to look not on self and your level of “gospel-centrality” but to look on Christ the author and finisher of our faith. 

Evidences, as you call them, are of use in their place; but the best evidence of faith is the shutting our eyes upon our defects and our graces, and looking directly to Jesus as clothed with authority and power to save to the very uttermost. 

It’s foolish to look to yourself and try to determine whether you are gospely enough.  Don’t seek rest in your level of gospel centrality, rest in Christ.  “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”.  Therefore, stop analyzing the dead man and exult in the hope of life that we have in Christ.