If riches increase, set not your hearts upon them: so if friends increase, set not your hearts upon them, but trust in the living God, let it be the living God that you rest on even for all outward things in this world.
Jeremiah BurroughsRead
You may think you find peace in Christ when you have no outward troubles, but is Christ your peace when the Assyrian comes into the land, when the enemy comes?...Jesus Christ would be peace to the soul when the enemy comes into the city, and into your houses.
Interpretation
True peace is not dependent on external circumstances but comes from within, especially in the face of adversity.
Jeremiah Burroughs emphasizes that genuine peace is rooted in one's spiritual relationship with Christ, rather than in the absence of challenges or troubles. This quote illustrates that true tranquility can only be achieved through faith, especially during trying times when external conflicts arise.
In practice
During a sermon discussing the importance of faith in tough times.
If riches increase, set not your hearts upon them: so if friends increase, set not your hearts upon them, but trust in the living God, let it be the living God that you rest on even for all outward things in this world.
Now this is a mystery to a carnal heart. They can see no such thing; perhaps they think God loves them when he prospers them and makes them rich, but they think God loves them not when he afflicts them. That is a mystery, but grace instructs men in that mystery, grace enables men to see love in the very frown of God's face, and so come to receive contentment.
The fact that we are living does not mean we are not sick.
Night was a very different matter. It was dense, thicker than the very walls, and it was empty, so black, so immense that within it you could brush against appalling things and feel roaming and prowling around a strange, mysterious horror.
Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.
Whenever power is used for evil, it becomes diabolical; it must be used for good only.
A rarer spirit never Did steer humanity; but you gods will give us Some faults to make us men.
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
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