be in Heaven from whence it is that he expecteth his Saviour to change his vile earthly body and make it like to his glorious body Phil. 3. 17 18 19 20 21. If indeed you have laid up your treasure in heaven where rust and moath corrupt not and where thieves do not break through and steal let it appear then by the effects For where your treasure is there will your heart be and where your heart is that way the Labours of your lives will tend I shall reduce my Exhortation to some particulars 1. IF you are Crucified to the world be sure that you seek it not nor any thing in it for its own sake but only as a means to higher things The sincerity of your hearts doth lie much in this and the life of your souls depends much upon it Labour in your lawful callings and spare not so you exclude not your spiritual work It is not your Labour that we find fault with But if the creature be the end of any Labour you may better â—it still and spare your pains or rather speedily change your intentions If you overtake the hastyest traveller in his journey and ask him why he takes all that pains he will not say it is For Love of the way that he travaileth in but for Love of the place to which he is going or the persons or things which â—e there expects So must it be with you if you are the heirs of heaven I blame you not to be glad of a fair way and to love it rather then a foul one but it is not for the love of the way that you must travail He that runs in a race doth not bestow all that pains for the Love of the path which he runs in but for Love of the Prize which he expecteth at the end And he that plougheth and soweth doth it more for Love of the crop which he hopeth for then for Love of his labour He that saileth through the dangerous Seas performeth not his voyage for Love of the Sea or of his Ship but for Love of the Merchandize and Gain which he seeketh The Carryer that goeth weekly to London with your wares doth not take all that pains for Love of the carriage or of the way but of the gain which he deserveth So must it be with you in all your worldly business When you seek for credit or pleasure or maintenance in the world it must not be finally for the Love of these but for the End which they are given for and which your hearts and lives and all must be devoted to Your hearts will as soon deceive you in this as in any thing if you do not watch them with jealousie and diligence How quickly will the heart begin to Love the creature for it self that seemed once to Love it but for God Look in what measure you love your wealth your houses your recreations your friends for themselves and because they accommodate the flesh so far you wrong God and abuse them to â—dolatry And if your Love do begin in greater purity if you be not watchful it will quickly degenerate to a carnal Love Many a Scholar that at first desired Learning to fit him for the service of God and his Church doth by suffering carnality to insinuate and prevail lose much of the purity of his first affections and in time grow more cold and regardless of his first ends and loveth common Learning meerly for it self and for the delight of knowing or which is worse to get him a name among men It s common with men that need recreation for their health when they set upon it as they think but to fit them for their duty to fall in love with it afterwards to the perverting of their hearts the wounding of their consciences the wasting of their time and the neglect of that work of God for which it should be used We should take our meat and drink and cloathes but to strengthen and â—it us for the service of our Master but how quickly do we turn them to the gratifying of our flesh and so the service of another Master It s too frequent for young persons of different sexes to Love each other at first as Christians only with a chast and necessary Love but when they have been tempted awhile to an imprudent familiarity their Love doth degenerate and that which was Spiritual becometh Carnal and the Serpent deceiveth them to the corrupting of their minds and it s well if it proceed not to actuall wickedness and the undoing of each other Many a poor man thinks with himself If I were but out of debt or could but live so as to serve the Lord without distractions and had such and such necessities supplyed I would not desire any more or care any further for the world But if their desires be granted them they find themselves entangled and their hearts deceived and they thirst more after fulness then before they did after necessaries And many a one thinks I care not for riches or honours but only to do good with and if I had them I would so use them But when they have their desires the case is altered the flesh then hath need of it and can spare for God as little as other men because it loves it better then before and pretendeth to have more use for it then formerly it had Watch therefore over your deceitful hearts and be sure to keep up the Love of God and actually intend him in all that you have or do and be not withdrawn to carnal affections 2. IF you are Crucified to the world be not too eager for it As God hath promised it you but as an appendix to your felicity and as an overplus to the great blessings of the Covenant so must you desire it but as such And as God hath promised it you but with certain limitations so far as he shall see it good for you and agreeable to his greater ends so you must desire it but with such limitations I observe many to have so much reason as to put up their prayers for outward blessings with those limitations and will not for shame express themselves in absolute peremptory language when yet there is apparent cause to fear that they limit not their desires as they do their words nor do they submit so freely to the disposal of God in their hearts as they seem to do in their expressions and so they make their words to be modest while their desires are inordinate their language to be chast while their hearts are committing adultery with the world their expressions are pious while their affections are idolatrous And so their prayers are made monstrous while the soul of them is so disagreable to the body Be ashamed and afraid to desire that which you are ashamed and afraid to ask You dare not say to God in your prayers Lord I must needs have a fuller estate I would fain be rich and be somebody in the
the lice or worms from eating him alive God useth to pour contempt upon Princes when they will not know and submit to the everlasting King He taketh himself as engaged to break down all that would usurp his honour and tumble down the Idols of the world therefore hath he alway so abhorred the two grand abominations Pride and Idolatry above other sins For he will not give his glory to another He will not with patience hear it spoken of an Idol These are thy Gods O Israel that brought thee out of Egypt The first Commandment is not meerly a precept for some particular act of obedience as are the rest but it is the fundamentall Law of God establishing the very Relations of Soveraign and Subject And as this is the first and great command and that which virtually containeth all Thou shalt have no other Gods before me or Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart So he that breaketh this is guilty of all When the Parent of the world would needs become as God he made himself the slave of the Devil You see then I hope sufficient reason why the world must be abhorred and crucified when it is made an Idol and would become our God and why this Crucifixion of it is of absolute indispensable necessity to salvation If it had kept its place and distance and would have been only a stream from the infinite power and wisdom and goodness and a Messenger to bring us the report of his excellencies and a book in which we might read his name and a glass in which we might see his face then might we have esteemed and magnified it But when the Devil and the flesh will make it their bait to draw away our hearts from God and to steal that love desire and care which is due to him and begin to tell us of Rest or Satisfaction or Felicity here its time to cry out Crucifie it crucifie it When it would insinuate it self into our bosom and get next our hearts and have our most delightfull and frequent thoughts and become so dear to us that we cannot be without it when it is the very thing that our minds are bent upon and that lifts us up when we have it and casts us down when we want it and thus disposeth of our affections and endeavours its time to lay such an Idol in the dust and to cast out such a Traytor with the greatest detestation As we our selves shall be exalted if we humble our selves and brought low if we exalt our selves so must we cast down the world when it would exalt it self in our esteem and the right exaltation of it is by the lowest subjecting of it unto God For whoever hath to deal with Infinite Power must think of no other way of exaltation 3. The world must be abhorred and crucified by us as it standeth at enmity to God and his holy waies It is become through mans corruption the great seducer and an impediment to our entertainment of heavenly Doctrine and a means of keeping the soul from God Yea it is become the Interest of the flesh and is set in fullest opposition to our spiritual Interest In what degree soever the world would turn your hearts from God or stop your ears against his word or take you off from the duty which he prescribeth you in that measure must you seek to crucifie it to your selves If Father or Mother would draw us away from Christ though as parents they must be honoured still yet as enemies to Christ they must be contemned When your honours would hinder you from honouring God and your credit doth contend against your conscience and your worldly business contradicteth your heavenly business and your gain is pleaded against your obedience it is time then to use the world as an enemy and to vilifie those honours and businesses and commodities A tender conscience that is acquainted with a course of universall obedience will take notice when these worldly interpositions and a vocations would interrupt his course and a soul acquainted with an holy dependance upon God and Communion can feel when these enticing and deluding things would interrupt his Communion and turn his eye from the face of God and therefore he can feel by the advantage of his holy experience when the world becomes his enemy and calleth him to the conflict 4. The world is to be crucified as it is the matter of our flesh-pleasing or the food of our carnal affections and the fuel of our concupiscence The grand Idol that is exalted against the Lord is Carnal Self This is the God of all the unregenerate This hath their hearts their care their labours The pleasing of this flesh is the end of the unsanctified and therefore the summary capital sin which virtually containeth all the rest Even as the Pleasing of God is the End of every Saint and therefore the summary capital duty which virtually containeth all other duties The world is an Idol subservient to the flesh as being the matter of its delight and the means by which its End is attained as in the contrary state the Mediator is subservient to the Father as being the matter of his delight in whom he is well-pleased and the means by whom he obtaineth his Ends in making his people also well-pleasing in his eyes The Devil also is an Idol of the ungodly but that is in a suberviency to the world and to the flesh as by the bait of worldly things he pleaseth the flesh as in the contrary state the Holy Ghost is in office subordinate to the Son and to the Father in that he bringeth us to Christ by whom we must have access to the Father In the Carnal Trinity then you may see that as the flesh is the Principall and Ultimate End and hath the first place so the world is the nearest means to that End and hath the second place and as there is no coming to the Father or Pleasing him but by the Son so is there no way of Pleasing the flesh but by the world So that by this you may perceive in what relation we stand to the sensual seducing world and on what grounds and how far it is necessary that we crucifie it The fixed determination of our Soveraign is that if we live after the flesh we shall die but if by the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live Rom. 8. 13. To live after the flesh is by loving the world and enjoying it as our felicity and to mortifie the deeds of it by the Spirit is by withdrawing this fuel and food that doth maintain them and by crucifying and killing the world as to such ends Our work is to put on the Lord Iesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13. 14. It is the world that is this provision for the fulfilling of our fleshly lusts So far therefore as the flesh must be mortified the
as you were to it he would never have deceived you He would havâ— received your departed souls and made you like Angels and raised your bodies to glory at the last and perpetuated that Glory Will your Riches or Pleasures or Honours do this He would have rescued you from the devouring flames which your inordinate love of the world will bring you to O miserable change to change God for the world it is to change a Crown of Glory for a Crown of thorns the love of our only friend for the smiles of deceitful enemies Life for death and Heaven for Hell O what thoughts will arise in your hearts when you are past the deceit and under the sad effects of it and shall review your folly in another world It will fill your consciences with everlasting horrour and make you your own accusers and tormentors to think what you lost and what you had for it To think that you sold God and your souls and everlasting hopes for a thing of nought More foolishly then Esau sold his birth-right for a mess of pottagâ— If the Sun and Moon and Stars were yours would you exchange them for a lump of clay Well sinners if God and Glory seem no more worth to you then to be slighted for a little fleshly pleasures you cannot marvail if you have no part in them SECT XIX IF Reason and Scripture-Evidence would serve turn I dare say you would by this time be convinced of the necessity of being Crucified to the world and the world to you But sensuality is unreasonable and no saying will serve with it like a child that will not let go his apple for a piece of gold But yet I shall not cease my Exhortation till I have tryed you a little further and if you will not yield to forsake the world you shall keep it to your greater cost as you keep it against the clearer light that would convince you of your duty 1. As you love God or would be thought to love him love not the world For so far as you Love it you Love not him 1 Ioh. 2. 15. As ever you would be found the friends of God see that you be enemies and not friends to the world For the friendship of the world is enmity to him Iam. 4. 4. You are used to boast that you Love God above all If you do so you will not Love the world above him And then you will not labour and care more for it then for him Your love will be seen in the bent of your lives That which you Love best you will â—eek most and be most careful and diligent to obtain As they that love money are most careful to get it so they that Love heaven will be more careful to make sure of that As they that love their drink and lust will be much in the Ale-house and among those that are the baits and fewel of their lust So they that Love the fruition of God will be much in seeking him and enquiring after him and much among those that are acquainted with such Love and can further them any way in the accomplishment of their desires If you Love God then let it be seen in the Holy Endeavours of your lives and set your affections on things above and not on the things that are on earth For that which you most look after we must think that you most Love Can you for shame commit Adultery with the world and live with it in your bosoms and yet say that you love God 2. As you Love your present peace and comfort see that you love not but Câ—ucifie the world It doth but delude you first and disquiet you afterward Like wind in your bowels which can tear and torment you but cannot nourish you And if God do love you with a special Love he will be sure to wean you from the world though to your sorrow If you do provoke him to lay wormwood on the breasts and to hedge up your forbidden way with thorns when you find the smart and bitterness you may thank your selves It is the remnant of our folly and our backsliding nature that is still looking back to the world which we have forsaken that is the cause of those successive afflictions which we undergo Did you Love the creature less it would vex you less but if you will needs set your minds upon them and be pleasing your worldly sensual desires God will turn loose those very creatures upon you and make them his scourges for the recovery of your wits the reducing of your mis-led revolting souls Are you taken up with the hopes of a more plentifull estate and think you are got into a thriving way How soon can God blast and break your expectations By the death of your cattle the decay of trading the false-dealing of those you trust the breaking and impoverishing of them by contentious neighbours vexing you with Law suits by corrupted witnesses or Lawyers that will sell you for a little gain by ill servants by unthrifty children by thieves or souldiers or the raging flames by restraining the dew of heaven and causing your land to deny its increase and make you complain that you have laboured in vain How many waies hath he in a day or an hour to scatter all the heap of wealth that you have been gathering and to shew you that by sad experience which you might have known before at easier rates At the least if he meddle not with any thing that you have yet how quickly can he lay his hand upon your selves and lay you in sickness to groan under your pain and sin together and then what comfort will you have in the world when head ake's and back ake's and nothing can ease you When pain and languishing make you weary of day and of night and weary of every place and weary of your best diet your finest cloathes your merriest companions Where then is the sweetness and beauty of the world Then if you look on house or goods or lands how little pleasure find you in any of them Especially when you know that your departure is at hand and you must stay here no longer but presently must away Oh then what a carkaise will all the glory of the world appear and how sensibly then will you read or hear or think of these things that now in your prosperity are very little moved by the hearing of them Is it your children that you set your hearts upon in inordinate Love or Care Why alas how quickly can God call them from you by death and then you will follow them to the Church-yard and lay them in the grave with so much the sadder heart by how much the more inordinately you loved them And perhaps God may leave them to be Graceless and unnatural and make that child by rebellion or unkindness to be the breaking of your heart whom you most excessively affected If it be a wife that you over-love you know not but they
that goeth believingly into the Sanctuary may see their end Surely they are set in slippery places and cast down into destruction How are they brought to desolation as in a moment and consumed with terrours Psalm 73. 12 17 18 19. And in that very day do all his thoughts perish Psalm 146. 4. Then shall they eat the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices for the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Prov. 31. 32. See then that you be not eager for prosperity and if God cast it on you use it with fear And if ever you feel the creature begin to grow too sweet and delightful to you then spit it out as the poyson of the soul and presently take a mortifying antidote before you are past remedy As you feel the working of poyson by its burning or griping or other effects agreeable to its nature by which it seeketh the extingushing of life so you may feel when the world is poyson to your souls by its creeping into your affections and insinuating into your hearts with present delight or future hopes by seeming more Lovely and more Necessary then it is As soon as ever you feel it thus creep into your hearâ—s its time to rise up against it with holy fear and to cast it out if you love your souls And that which I would advise you to at present when the world hath got too deep into your hearts before you are aware is this Do something extraordinary in such a necessity for its crucifixion and your recovery Though a careful diet may serve to preserve health while you have it yet if you have lost it and sickness be upon you you must have recourse to Physick for your cure If honour or preferment or house or land or friends or gain or recreations begin to seem too sweet and dear to you and your hearts begin to hug them with delight or make out after them with keen desires you must now have recourse to extraordinary helps and in particular try these following 1. Withdraw your selves to some more frequent and serious meditation of the brevity and vanity of the world then you have been used to steep your thoughts longer in mortifying considerations till the bent of your hearts begin to change 2. Be ofter with God in secret and publick prayer and give up a larger portion of your time to holy things then ordinarily you have done that acquaintance with heaven may wean your mind from earth and the Love of God may drown your worldly Love When you have taken any extraordinary cold you will get nearer the fire then ordinary and be longer at it and drive it out by heating things And when the world hath insinuated into your affections and chilled and cooled them to God and heaven its time to draw nearer God then before and to be longer with him and to strive harder in every duty then you did till spiritual life do work more vigorously and expell that earthly distemper which had possessed you 3. And at such a season let prayer be furthered by fasting and extraordinary humiliation which may help down the flesh which causeth you so much to over-value the world Even an Aâ—ab found some ease by a common humiliation when he had taken a mortal surfeit of Naboths Vineyard and his Blood Much more may a true Christian find much help by special humiliation when he hath surfeited on any creature whatsoever 4. And I think it would be a very good course at such a time as that to be at some more cost for God then you were before When you feel your love to the world increase Give somewhat extraordinary then to the poor or to pious uses according to your ability Yea what if it were so far as might a little pinch your selves This were a real opposition to the world and you might turn a very temptation to a gain and get much good by occasion of a sin It might do much to dis-hearten and repell the tempter when he seeth that you over-shoot him in his own bow and make such use as this of his temptations as to do the more good and use your wealth the more for God and deny your selves more then you did before If you would but faithfully practise these few directions you would find it the surest way of recovery when you begin to be infected with this earthly disease Direct 10. THE last Direction that I shall give you for the Crucifying of the world is this Be sure to keep off the means of its livelihood and keep it still under the mortifying means Lay siege to it and stop up all the passages by which the worlds provision would come in and keep it still under the strokes of enmity and the influence of that which is contrary to it Some particulars I will but briefly mention 1. Keep a constant guard upon your senses for this way the world creeps in to your hearts It is by gazing on alluring objects or hearing or tasting or the like that the flames of concupiscence are kindled in the heart By gazing upon beauty or comliness of perâ—â—n the heart of the wanton is infected with lust and so incited to the damnable practises of uncleanness The sight of the cup doth set an edge on the desires of the drunkard and the sight of enticing meats doth awaken and enrage the appetite of the gluttonous and by the presence of the bait their disease is set awork as worms in the body are by some kind of food Clemens Alexandr saith of these men that their disease is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is A madness about the throat And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is A madness in the belly And saith of them that are given to fulness or fineness of diet for the pleasing of their bellies that they are ruled by a Belly-Devil which saith he is the worst and most pernicious of all Devils Lay siege then to this belly-Devil and starve him out It is by the sight of gawdy fashions and curious apparel that the minds of vain effeminate persons are provoked to desire the like And the sight of pomp and honours doth kindle the fire of ambition and the sight of buildings and money and lands doth help to provoke the desires of the Covetous See therefore that you alwaies keep a watch upon your eyes Let them not run up and down like a master-less dog nor roul as the eyes of the lascivious that are hunting after the prey of lust If you have cause to pray as David Psal. 119. 37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity You must practise according to your prayers and endeavour your selves to turn them away Have not the best of us as much reason as Iob to make a Covenant with our eyes Iob 31. 1. What wonder if the Garrison surrender not where the besieged have free passage and continual supplies And what
THE Crucifying of the world BY THE Cross of Christ. With a Preface to the Nobles Gentlemen and all the Rich directing them how they may be Richer By Richard Baxter 1 JOHN 2. 15. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world If any man Love the world the Love of the Father is not in him LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nevill Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster and are to be sold by him there and by Nathaniel Ekins at the Gun in Pauls Church-Yard Anno Dom. 1658. To my Worthy FRIEND THOMAS FOLEY Esquire SIR UPON a double account I have thought it meet to direct this Treatise first to you First because the first Embrio of it was an Assize Sermon preached at your desire when you were high Sheriff of this County which drew me to add more till it swell'd to this which some of my Brethren have perswaded to venture into the open world Secondly because God hath given you a heart to be exemplary in Practising the Doctrine here delivered And I think I shall teach men the more successfully when I can shew them a Living Lesson for their imitation I never knew that you refused a work of Charity that was motioned to you but oft have you offered me that for the Churches service which I was not ready to accept and improve I would not do you the displeasure as to mention this but that forward Charity is grown so rare in many places that some may grow shortly to think that we preach to them of a Chimaera a non-existent thing if we do not tell them where it is to be seen Especially now Infidelity is grown up to that strength that Seeing is taken by many for the only true informer of their Reason and Believing for an unreasonable thing And I take my self to owe much thankfulness to God when I see him choose a faithfull Steward for any of his Gifts It s a sign he meaneth Good by it to his Church Some Rich men sacrifice all they have to to their Bellies which are their Gods even to an â—picurian momentany delight and cast all into the filthy sink of their sensuality These are worse then Infidels defrauding their posterity and swine alive but worse then swine when they are dead Some Rich men are provident but its only for their posterity The ravenous bruits are greedy for their young Some will begin to be bountifull at death and give that to God which they can keep no longer as if he would be thus bribed to receive their souls and forgive their worldly hearts and lives Some will give in their life time but it is but part of their sinfull gains like the Thief that would pay Tythes of all that he had stolen Some give a part of their more lawfull increase but it is against their will it being forced from them by Law for Church and Poor and therefore properly it is no gift Some will give freely but it is on some corrupt design to strengthen a party or a carnall Interest or make their way to some preferment Some give but only to those of their own Opinion and not to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple Some give in Contention as the troublers of the Church of Corinâ—h preacht to add affliction to our bonds As many of the Papists that think by their works of Charity they are warranted uncharitably to slander almost all besides themselves as if we were all enemies to Good works or solifidians that took them for indifferent things or made them not our business Yea the best work that the Jesuites ever did even the preaching of the Gospel to the Heathens they would not endure us to joyn with them in where they could hinder us unless we would do it in their Papal way Some will do Good to stop the cries of a guilty Conscience for some secret odious sin which they live in Some will be Liberall with the Hypocrite for applause And some will give with a Pharisaicall conceit of merit even ex condigno from the Proportion of their work to the Reward as the greatest Popish Doctors teach Some through meer fears of being damned will be liberall especially out of their superfluities choosing rather to forsake their money then their sin Some do pretend the highest ends and that it is Christ himself to whom they do devote it but they will part with no more then the flesh can spare And that they may yet seem to be true Christians they will not believe that any thing is a duty which requireth much self-denyal and standeth not with their prosperity in the world And some will give much out of a meer natural kindness of disposition or upon meer natural motives though not as to Christ nor from the Love of God nor from that Spirit of Christian special Love by which the members of Christ have their Communion What excellent Precepts of Clemencie and Beneficence hath Seneca Yea what abundance of self-denyal doth he seem to join with them And yet so strange was this highest naturalist to the truest Charity or self-denyal that it is self that is his principle end and all For a man to be sufficient for himself and happy in himself without troubling God by prayer or needing man was the summ of his Religion Pride was their master vertue which with us is the greatest vice And for all his seeming contempt of Riches and Pleasures yet Seneca keeps up in such a height of riches and greatness as that he was like to have been Emperour And sometime to be Drunken he commends to drive away cares and raise the mind pleading the example of Solon and Arcesilaus confessing that Drunkenness was objected even to Cato their highest pattern of vertue affirming that the objectors may sooner make the crime honest then Cato dishonest Among all this seeming Charity and Self-denyal that proveth not a sanctified heart how excellent but too rare is the true self-denyal and charity of the Christian who hath quit all pretence of Title to himself or any thing that he hath and hath consecrated himself and all to God resolving to imploy himself and it entirely for him studying only to be well informed which way it is that God would have him lay it out And among these Saints themselves how rare is that excellent man that is Covetous and Laborious for God and for the Church and for his Brethren And that doth as providently get and keep and as Painfully Labour how rich soever he be and as much pinch his flesh in prudent moderation that he may have the more to Give and to do good with and make the best of his Masters stock as other men do in making Provision for the flesh and laying up for their posterity Sir as far you have proceeded in this Christian art you are yet in the world among the snares and lime-twigs of the Devil in a station that makes salvation difficult and therefore have need of daily watchfulness
best condition to him that best accommodateth and advantageth him for Gods service He taketh the fleshes Interest to be none of his Interest and therefore that which only concerneth the flesh concerneth not him And therefore he looketh in this regard upon an high estate or a low as Nothing to him Let God dispose of him as he please that 's Gods work and not his He hath learned in whatever estate he is therewith to be content He knows how to be abased and he knows how to abound every where and in all things he is instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need Phil. 4. 11 12. If you applaud and honour him he takes it but as if you breathed on him at the best it is but a sweeter kind of breath And if you vilifie and reproach and unjustly condemn him he takes it for no great hurt For with him it is a very small thing to be judged of man and at mans barr for he that judgeth him is the Lord 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. Nay what if I said that if you imprison him threaten him torment him yea put him to death he doth not much regard it nor make any great matter of it so far as he is Crucified to the world How joyfully could Paul and Silas sing in the stocks when their bodies were sore with scourging Act. 16. What a rapture of joyful praises did the Apostles break forth into when they were threatned by the Priests and Elders Acts 4. 21 24. I will add but two more instances Dan. 3. The three Jews that were threatned with a furnace of fire are accused for not regarding the King vers 12. and their own answer is vers 16 17. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter If it be so the God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thy hand O King But if not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy Gods And sure they that would not accept of deliverance when they were tortured Heb. 11. 35. did set little by it in comparison of that better Resurrection which they hoped for As Christ said of Satan The Prince of this world hath nothing in me Iohn 14. 30. So in our measure so far as we are dead with Christ the world hath nothing in us no interest no carnal life to work upon and therefore is unable to do any thing with us Our undue estimation of the world is Crucified This is the first part 2. If we are Crucified to the world our inordinate cogitations of the world are Crucified We must not give it that room in our fancies or power over them as they have with other men We should not indeed allow the creature one thought either for it self and terminated finally in it self nor as separated from God Much less should we have so frequent and so pleasant or passionate thoughts of it as most have But of this more in the Application 3. To be Crucified to the world is to have Affections dead about worldly things That which is vile in our estimation will be uneffectual in our Affections I shall briefly instance in some particulars 1. Our Love to the world is Crucified if we be Crucified to the world As this is the great Affection which God claimeth for himself and which he maketh the seat of his most excellent grace so is it that which he is most jealous of and will least allow the creature to partake of and the mis-imployment of it is the greatest sin as the right imployment of it is the greatest duty 1 Iohn 2. 15. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world This is a plain and flat command If the world be not apprehended by the understanding to be our Good it will not be embraced by the will nor be Loved Perhaps you will say Though it be not our chief Good yet it is Good and therefore may be loved though not châ—â—sâ—â— loved To which I answer that in the senses before disclaimed it is none of our Good at all It hath no Goodness to us in it but the Good of a Means which is respective to the End and therefore we must have no Love to it but that which is due to the Means God therefore being our End we must Love the world only for his sake as it cometh from him and leadeth to him The least love to the world for it self is Idolatrous As you may not allow another woman the least Conjugal affection though you allow your wife more without some guilt of unchastity so you may not in the least measure love the creature for it self without some guilt of spiritual unchastity If God must be loved with All the heart and soul and strength then there is none lest for any co-partner whatsoever When we love any thing but as a Means it is more properly the End that we love in that very act And therefore some Philosophical Divines affirm that Nothing but the ultimate End is properly loved so that the Love which we give the world in a due subordination to God is not so properly a Love to the world as to God and therefore it taketh not from God the least part of that which is due to him But if we love it in the least measure for it self or with any co-ordinate Love so much as we allow it is robbed from God 2. Hence it followeth when our love to the world is crucified that our Desires after it is crucified also Before we thirsted after Pleasures or Honours or Riches but now this thirst is abated for when we obey the Call of Christ Isa. 55. 1. and have freely drunk of the living waters we thirst our former thirst no more according to the measure in which we partake of him but his Spirit will be a well of water in us springing up to everlasting life Iohn 4. 13 14. The distempered appetite of a Carnal man is so eager after worldly things that his heart is set upon them which Rom. 8. 5. is called his minding the things of the flesh But the mortified Christian as such hath no mind of them His appetite to them is dead and gone He cares not for them Now he perceiveth that they are not Good for him his heart is turned against them 3. When we are Crucified to the world our expectations of Good from the world are Crucified Before we looked for much from it we thought if we had this Pleasure or that Honour if we had such lands buildings friends or provision then we were well or at least much better then now we are O how Good did we think that these were for us And therefore we still lived in Hope of more But when we are Crucified to the world we give up these Hopes We see then that we were deceived we did but hope for nourishment from a stone The
breasts are dry which we thought would have refreshed and satisfied us When we see that the world is an empty thing a cask a picture a dream a shadow we turn away from it and look no more after it but look for content in something else As a child that seeth a painted Apple may be eager of it till he try that it is favourless and then he careth for it no more or if a beautiful crab deceive him when he hath set his teeth in it he casteth it away So when a Christian findeth the folly of his former expectations and tasteth the vexation of the creature which he was so greedy of and withall is acquainted by a lively faith where he may be better away go all his expectations from the world and he promiseth himself no more content or satisfaction in it This is a notable part of Mortification As it is the Hopes of some Good that sets men awork in all endeavours so take down their Hopes and all the wheels of the soul stand still If it were not for Hope we say the heart would break And therefore when all our Hopes from the world are dead the very Heart of the old man is broken and all his worldly motions cease Then he saith It s as good sit still as labour for nothing I despair of ever having contentment in the creature I see it will not pacifie my conscience it will not save me from the wrath to come it will do nothing for me that is worthy my regard and therefore let it go I will follow it no further It shall have my heart no more Before he had many a promising delightful thought of the creatures which he could not reach He thought with himself If I were but thus placed and settled once if I had but this or that which I want if I were but here or there where I would be if I had but the favour of such or such an one how happy were I how well should I be I would then be content and seek no more But when faith hath mortified us to the world we see that all these were foolish dreams we knew not what it was that we Hoped for and then we give up all such Hopes for ever Such pleasing thoughts of any worldly thing while you want it or of any place or Condition which you are absent from and such promises and hopes from any worldly state or person or thing doth manifest that so far you are alive to the world and is a folly of the same nature with theirs that Idolize the world when they do enjoy it For one man to say If I had this or that I were well and for another that hath it to say Now I am well Soul take thy Rest do both shew the same Estimation and Idolatrous Love to the world in their hearts though one of them have the thing which he loves and the other hath it not And to be so pleased with the very fancy and conceits of those worldly things which they never had seems worse then to be pleased with it when they have it I pray you lay this well to heart that I say to you Despair utter Despair of ever being contented or well in the world or made happy by the world in whole or in part is the very life of Christian Mortification It is the nature of a Carnal heart to keep up his worldly Hopes as long as possibly he can If you beat him from one thing he runs to another and if he despair of that he looks after a third and thus he will wander from creature to creature till Grace convert him or Judgement condemn him If he find that one friend faileth him he hopes another will prove more faithfull and if that prove a broken reed he will rest upon a third If he have been crost in his Hopes of worldly contentment once or twice or ten times or an hundred times yet he is in Hope that some other way may hit and some more comfort he may find at last But when God hath opened a mans eyes to see that the whole world is Vanity and Vexation and that if he had it all it would do him no Good at all and that it is a meer deceitful empty thing and when a man is brought to a full and finall Desparation of ever finding in the world the Good that he expected then and not till then is he Crucified to the world and then he can let it go and care not and then he will betake himself in good earnest to look after that which will not deceive him When a worldling is in utmost poverty or in prison he may part with all his worldly contentment at the present but this is not to be Crucified to the world For still he keeps up his former estimation of it and Love to it and some Hope perhaps that yet it may be better with him Yea if he should Despair of ever being Happy in the world if this proceed not from his Disesteem of it and the change of his Affections but meerly because he would have the world but sees he cannot this is far from the nature of true mortification 4. If we are Crucified to the world our Delight in it is Crucified It seemeth not to us a matter of such worth as to be fit for our Delight Children are glad of toyes which a wise man hath no pleasure in To have too sweet contentful thoughts in the creature and to apprehend it as our Good and to be rejoyced in it is a sign that so far we are not Crucified to it It is not able to Glad a mortified heart so far as it is mortified though the Love of God that is manifested by it may make him glad And this is it that Paul disclaimeth in my Text God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Christ. If he were the Lord of all the honours or wealth of the world he would not Glory in them If he had all the Pleasures that the flesh can desire he would not glory in them If he had the common applause of all men and every one spoke well of him if he had all things about him suited to a carnal hearts content yet would he not glory in it No more then a grave and learned man would glory that he had found a counter or a pin Ier. 9 23. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom nor the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that gloryeth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord that exercise loving kindness judgement and righteousness on the earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. Jer. 4. 2. The Nations shall bless themselves in him and in him shall they glory Isa. 41. 16. Thou shalt rejoyce in the Lord and glory in the holy one of Israel Isa. 45. 25. In the Lord shall all
Sanctity and to true Christianity it self They confess they should be all contemners of the world but God forbid say they that none but such should be saved But I tell you God hath forbidden already by his Laws and God will forbid hereafter by his sentence and execution that any other but such should be saved Do you think in good sadness that any man can be saved that is not truly dead to the world and doth not despise it in comparison of God and the great things of Everlasting Life Let me satisfie you of the contrary here once for all and I pray you see that your flesh provoke you not to mutter forth such unreasonable self-delusions any more 1 Ioh. 2. 15. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him what can be spoken more plainly or to a worldly minded man more terribly 1 Ioh. 5. 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith Jam. 4. 4. Know ye not that the Friendship of the world is enmity with God Whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Will not all this serve to convince you of this truth Rom. 8. 5 6 7 13. For they that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit For to be carnally minded is death but to be spirituall â—â—nded is life and peace Because the carnal minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Gal. 5. 16 17. 6. 8. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Col. 3. 1 2 3. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affection on things above and not on things on the earth For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth Matth. 6. 19 20 21 24. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for your selves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the ore and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon Matth. 10. 38 39. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall finde it Mat. 16. 24. If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Luk. 14. 26 27. If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple Verse 33. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple Heb. 11. 13 14 15. and to the end But I will cite no more Here is enough to convince you or condemn you If any thing at all be plain in Scripture this is plain that every true Christian is dead to the world and looks on the world as a crucified thing and that God and the life of glory which he hath promised have the Ruling and chiefest interest in their souls Believe it Sirs this is not a work of supererrogation nor such as only tendeth to the perfecting of a Christian but such as is of the essence of Christianity and without which there is not the least hope of salvation SECT XIV Use 2. BY all that hath been said you may perceive what it is to be a Christian indeed and that true Christianity doth set men at a further distance from the world then carnal self-deceiving Professors do imagine You see that God and the world are enemies not God and the world as his Creature but as his Competitor for your hearts and as the seducer of your understandings and the opposer of his interest and the fuel and food of a fleshly minde and that which would pretend to a Being or Goodness separated from God or to be desirable for it self having laid by the relation of a means to God To be a Friend to the world in any of these respects is to be an enemy to God And God will not save his enemies while enemies An enmity to God is an enmity to our salvation for our salvation is in him alone If then you have but awakened consciences if the true love of your selves be stirring in you and if you have but the free use of common reason I dare say you do by this time perceive that it closely concerneth you presently to look about you and to try whether you are crucified to the world or not Seeing my present business is for the securing of your Everlasting Peace and the healing of your souls of that which would deprive you of it let me intreate you all in the fear of God to give me your assistance and to go along with me in the work for what can a Preacher do for you if you will do nothing for your selves How can we convert or heal or save you without you I do foresee your appearance before the Lord a jealous God that will not endure that any Creature should be sweeter and more amiable to you then himself I do foresee the condemnation that all such must undergo and the remediless certain misery that they are 〈◊〉 know there is no way that the wit of man or Angels can devise to prevent the damnation of such a soul but by Crucifying the flesh and world by the Cross of Christ and dethroning these Idols and submitting sincerely to God their Happiness This cannot be done while you are strangers to your selves and will not look into your own hearts and see what abominable work is there that you may
the world to come What do you daily labour and live for Is it for God or your carnal selves What interest is it that is predominant in you Know but that and know all AND now I shall apply my self to those of you that are guilty in whose souls the worldly Interest is predominant and in whom the world is not Crucified by the Cross of Christ but rather Christ again Crucified by the world I have no mind to dishonour you or exasperate you but if faithfulness to Christ and you will do both there 's no remedy I do here prefer an Indictment against you in the Court of your Consciences and before this Congregation the Articles I shall distinctly read And first I require you study not a defence excuse not extenuate not your crimes but confess your sin freely and condemn your selves impartially and return to God and forsake them speedily or you shall do worse Self-condemnation may be saving and preventive and the Death of sin thereupon may be the life of your souls But if this be neglected and you hold on a while till the great Assize you shall have another kind of charge then this even such an one as shall appale that face that now can merrily smile at the accusation and such an one as shall bring down the stoutest of your spirits and make the hardest heart to feel and the stubbornest of you all to stoop and tremble O how easie is it to hear your sin and danger from such a worm as I or to hear your state discovered and your selves condemned by a Minister of Christ in a Pulpit but how dreadful will it be to hear all this from the Lord of Glory and that when the case is past remedy which now might have been remedyed if you would and if your obstinate hearts had not resisted The General charge that I put in against you is That you are Carnall flesh-pleasers and have loved and lived to the world which you should have Crucified and have not lived as Devoted unto God nor hath he been your End or his Interest predominant in your hearts and lives I speak only to the guilty and for Evidence of the fact I need none but your Consciences seeing it is only to your Consciences that I accuse you which are acquainted or should be with the whole But lest Conscience it self should be bribed and corrupted I shall besides all that is before said produce a little Evidence more 1. If indeed the world be Crucified to you what meaneth your eager pursuit after it Are not your thoughts contriving for it and your wit and interest all improved for it Are not those taken for your chief friends that further your advancement or worldly Ends and those for your chief enemies that hinder it most Is it not in your mind in the night when you awake and in the day when you are alone Do you not rise earlyer for your worldly business then for prayer or any holy exercise Ask your family whether you do not ofter call them up to work then to pray and whether you drive them not on harder to your own service then to Gods and whether you examine them not strictlyer about your business then about the matters that their salvation doth depend upon and whether you be not more deeply offended with them for crossing your commodity then for sinning against God Ask your neighbours whether you talk not with them many hours of worldly vanities for one hours serious discourse about the life to come What a stir do poor men make to be rich or to live in some content to the flesh and what a stir do rich men make to be richer or to keep that they have and yet have they the face to pretend that they are Crucified to the world 2. If you are dead to the world how comes it to pass that it hath so powerful an influence upon your judgements and that you change your minds as your carnall Interest doth change and can set your sails to any wind that is like to drive you to the harbour as you call it but indeed upon the sands of your worldly ends What would you not give in troublesom times to know certainly which will be the prevalent side that you might resolve what side to take your selves and perhaps what Religion to be of or to seem so to be Among all the Books that are written if there were but one that taught the art of growing rich or a Directory for obtaining dignities and honours in the world how eagerly would you buy it and how diligently would you read it more diligently then you read the Bible or any Book of that nature If preachers did teach you the way of prosperity and advancement and could tell you how to be all great and honourable in this world O how early would you come to the Congregation how attentively would you hear how retentively would you remember and how faithfully would you practise Then how beautiful would the feet be of them that bring you the tidings of such good things What honourable persons should Ministers be and how well worthy of your Tythes and more Then you would not swell against their Doctrine or Application nor cavil at them instead of understanding them nor scorn them as men of a useless office nor take them for your enemies nor refuse to come to them and ask their advice Wretched Hypocrites It is our office to help them to the Everlasting Kingdom and the more diligent we are in this the more they hate us if we send for them to Instruct them personally or catechize them or help them in the matters of salvation they scoâ—n to come and ask us By what Authority we send for them But if we could teach them all to be Princes or Lords or Gentlemen yea or but to get a few shillings more then they have none would draw back None of them would ask us By what Authority do you send for us Had we but money enough to feed them all O what good men we should be and how many friends should we have and how easily might we perswade them If one man had all the money in the Land and could secure it and the disposal of it from violence what might not that man do and who is it that would not be on his side except those few that have Crucified the world The multitude would even follow the man that hath money as an horse will follow him that hath his provender and yet they will hypocritically pretend to be Crucified to the world But if indeed they are so how comes it to pass that Conscience is so often stretcht and wracked to make it own a gainful cause and that many that have seemed godly can break over all bounds of Law and Charity Friendship and Religion to attain the dignities or riches which they so desire and will tread down the nearest friend and Christ himself as much as in them lyeth if he
course to overcome the world then hearing and reading the Directions of the Word of God and praying to God for assistance against the sin that they are guilty of I see them take pains to learn those Instructions that should cure them of worldliness and are glad to fasten them in their memory and I hear them warn each other to avoid it and begging of God that he would destroy all the remnants of it in their souls And I see others follow the world and live a careless life and use none of these means Which of these shall I think in reason doth take the course to conquer the world Quest. 12. Moreover if these men are as bad as you make them then sure they are none of the people of God but a pack of hypocrites then they are not Saints indeed And then the thing that I would know of you is Which be the Saints of God if these be not and where shall we find them I hope you know that God hath his Saints on earth yea that none but Saints shall be saved For it is expressed in Scripture over and over Heb. 12. 14. and in many other places As I said The Communion of the Saints is an Article of your Creed Tell us then where they are if these be not they Will you go to the Quakers or to the Papists Monks and Nuns for them Or whither will you go Or will you say that such as you are the Saints that reproach holiness and refuse to lead an holy life Is idle worldly discourse a better sign of a Saint then keeping holy the Lords day and labouring for salvation Is ignorance of the Scripture or neglecting it a greater sign of a Saint then meditating in it day and night Read the first Psalm yea all the Scripture and then judge Quest. 13. Do you think if any of them miscarry it is because they are too much Religious or rather because they are too little Surely it is the later For as I said their Religion severely condemneth covetousness and therefore if they were more Religious they would be less Covetous And he that is most godly is least worldly and ordinarily he that is most ungodly is most worldly Quest. 14. Is it not then evident that other mens sins should move you to be the more Religious and careful of your selves and not the less If you see them stumble you should look the better to your feet and not cast your selves headlong from the Rock that you should be built upon You should think with your selves If such men are so faulty for all the pains they take how much more pains must I take to escape such faults If they that run so hard shall many of them miss of the prize by coming short it is a mad conceit of you to think to win it by sitting still or doing less then they that lost it Quest. 15. Lastly I would advise you to consider Whether God that justifieth his servants will suffer you to condemn them And how you can answer the challenge Rom. 8. 32 33. And when Christ hath shed his blood to Absolve them whether is it likely that he will take it well at them that vilifie them Be it known to the faces of all their enemies that The Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautifie the meek with salvation Psal. 149. 4. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy Psalm 147. 11. He is nigh to all them that call upon him to them that call upon him in truth Psalm 145. 18. The Lord preserveth all them that love him but all the wicked will he destroy He suffered no man to do them wrong yea he reproved Kings for their sakes saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm Psalm 105. 14 15. He that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye Zech. 2. 8. For all their infirmities its dangerous vilifying a people so dear to the God of heaven They shall shortly hear that joyful voice Rev. 12. 10. Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the Accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them before our God day and night And then they that joyned with the Accuser in his work shall be joyned with him in the reward Mat. 25. 41 45. The very coming of the Lord to Judgement will be to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe 2. Thes. 1. 10. And what then will be the doom of those that vilified them whom Christ will be glorified and admired in you may read and tremble in Vers. 6 7 8 9. But again I charge you all that fear God that you learn by the accusations of malicious men and take heed as you love God your selves or others of giving them ground of such reports And though I know that the wicked are absurd and unreasonable 2 Thes. 3. 2. and that you will never be able to stop the mouthes of all such men till Grace or Judgement stop them yet see that you walk circumspectly in such evil daies and give no offence to Iews or Gentiles or the Church of God If you are Christians indeed you cannot take the Riches or Honours of the world to be matters of so much worth or weight as to be preferred before the honour of your Lord and the good of souls It will grieve you more to hear the reproaches of the ungodly against the waies and servants of God then all your wealth will do you good Doth it not go to your hearts to hear poor blinded sinners on all occasions reproaching your holy profession and saying There are none more proud and covetous and unmercifull then these Professors of so much strictness and holiness Though for the generall it be a malignant Satanicall slander yet take heed as you love the honour of God and of his holy truth and waies and the souls of men that you give not occasion of such reproach SECT XXII Vse For Consolation and further Perswasion HAving said this much to you for the Crucifying the world and the using it as a Crucified thing I shall here briefly enumerate some of the great benefits which will follow to your selves where this is done And this I shall do in order to these two ends conjunctly 1. That those to whom the world is crucified may lay to heart the greatness of the mercy be thankful to God that hath done so much for them There is the greater need of encouragement and comfort to the soul in our Crucifixion to the world because it is a state of so much suffering to the body and a work that requireth so much self-denyal and patience Who will be perswaded to cast all over-board and forsake all the pleasures and profits of this world but he that knows of somewhat to be got by it that will make him a gainer or a saver in the end