A Treatise on Earthly-Mindedness

by Jeremiah Burroughs

Book Overview

Jeremiah Burroughs is one of the most beloved of the seventeenth-century English Puritans. In this important work, Burroughs shows from Scripture the great sin of thinking as the world thinks rather... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1877611387
• ISBN13: 9781877611384
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Soli Deo Gloria Ministries
• Length: 259 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

A very great danger throughly exposed

A book such as this would scarcely be attempted in our day. Another title for the book could be 'The Nature and Enticements of Worldliness'. This book will probably not have a wide readership and that is sad. R.C.Sproul makes an observation in the the introduction that the content of this book is too alien to modern Christianity,and I think that assessment is right on target. Should a book such as this be overlooked or ignored in our day? Is its content Biblical and relevant enough to warrant a larger audience? Jeremiah Burroughs exposes many of the evils and dangers of being earthly minded. One of the evils brought out by the author is that earthly mindedness is the root of apostasy. He cites the example of Demas. Demas became an apostate,Why? The apostle Paul said that Demas forsook him because he loved this present world. Are there not any Christians in our day in danger of becoming apostates because they have an inordinate love for this world? If the answer is no to that question then this book would be irrelevant for today. You could probably put on a blindfold and point to almost any part of this treatise and you would find something that needs to be shouted from the rooftops in this generation. I did not use the blindfold method but I would like to give this example from p.2"This is the great difference between a wicked man and a godly man :one minds earthly things,and the other has its conversation in heaven. " Comments such as this are quite foreign to Christianity in this present age. What our generation needs is not only many that would be interested in reading and absorbing a book like this ,but that God would be pleased to raise up those who could write a book that has such great spiritual weight.

A rare topic; a rare treasure

Sproul's rather unpromising foreword to this book begins, "my guess is that few people will ever pick up this book and read it." The sad thing is, he's right: "Its theme and content are too alien to modern Christianity to evoke much interest". When was the last time you ever saw a book written to address the problem of worldliness?Burroughs book is nonetheless a real gem. Out of print from 1649 until now, its message needs to be read again in an age where worldliness abounds in the professing church. There are actually three treatises in one book here: the first is "A Treatise of Earthly-mindedness", the second is "A heavenly Conversation", the third is "On walking with God". Each call the believer to focus not on earthly things but on heaven. Burroughs exposes the emptiness of worldly pleasures in favor of the heavenly vision that we all should have, and in good Puritan fashion, manages to lucidly address a hundred other essential topics in passing.The unbeliever will be left confused by this book. It will make little sense to him. Sadly, many believers will also take one look at the title and find its message too convicting for comfort. If you are ensnared by the materialism of the world, this will be good medicine for your soul. It is not an exaggeration to say that there is more solid content in one page of Burroughs than in an entire volume by many a contemporary Christian author.