commendation but may possibly be as injurious to his Moral Honesty as any other sort of Tyranny and might have learned of his chiefest Master Seneca de Tranquil Anim. that the free City of Athens could less endure Socrates then the Tyrants and did put him to death whom they had tolerated Nunquid potes invenire urbem miseriorem quam Atheniensium fuit cum illam triginta tyranni divellerent Mille trecentos ciâ—es optimum quemque occiderant Socrates tamen in medio erat Et imitari volentibus magnum circumferebat exemplar cum inter triginta dominos liber incederet Hunc tamen Athenae ipse in carcere occiderunt Et qui tutò insultaverat agmini tyrannorum ejus Libertatem libera civitas non tulit Gentlemen for the Lords sake for your souls sake for the Churches and the Gospels sake for your Countries sake and the spritual and corporal good of thousands awake now from your sloth and selfishness from your Ambition Voluptuousness and sordid Worldliness and give up your selves and all that you have to God by Christ and to the Common Good and make the best of all your faculties and interest for the high and noble Ends of Christians And convince all self-conceited founders or troublers of the Common-wealth that you have hit the way of a true Reformation without any alteration of the form by correcting your selves the principal Materials And let them see by your seeking the weale of all that your form is as truly a Common-weale as theirs and that they absurdly appropriate the Title to their own If you deny us this on you shall lie the blame and shame and not on our want of a Popular form But because I have gone so far with you by perswasion though yet I doubt whether indeed you will be perswadedâ— I shall not leave you till I have added the â—â—st part of my task which is to set some Rules and Matter for Good works before you that if you are but willing you may set your money to the happyest usury and that upon the best security 1. For General Rules Aime at no lower an ultimate End in your Charity then the Pleasing of God and move from no lower a first moral Principle then the Love of God within you Seek not self while you seem to Deny it Give and do good to Christ in his servants 2. Consider therefore of mens Relations to Christ and understand where his Interest lyeth in the world Avoid both their extreams that would have you do Good to none but Saints and that would have you do it to all alike As God hath a special Love to his children and yet doth Good to all his mercy being over all his works and as he is the Saviour of all men but especially of them that Believe so must you Love all men as men and Saints as Saints and do Good to all men but especially to them of the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10. The New command of special Love must not be thought to abrogate the old Commandment of common Love even of Loving our neighbour as our selves You must do Good to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple and to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet Mat. 10. 42. and yet take the wounded man for your neighbour that you see lie in your way Luke 10. 30. I know the Serpentine seed had rather you would kick against the Pricks and tread down Christs interest then there to lay out your greatest Charity But its God that you have to reckon with who judgeth not as they The Philosopher being asked Why all men were more ready to give to the halt and blind then to Philosophers answered that They thought they might come to be halt and blind themselves but were never like to be Philosophers So I may say of many that would be content that you feed the common poor with bread but the Disciples of Christ with stones They think they may be poor themselves but they are never like to be Christs Disciples Nay some of them such as Clem. writes in his mock fides divina will perswade you that its a sottish thing to conceive that any have Christs Spirit now that work not Miracles and that he hath no Church Ministry or Saints that is that Christianity is not the right Religion unless it had present Miracles to warrant it And then you might be excused rather for your uncharitableness to it then for your Charity But wisdom is justified of all her children And the mouths of her enemies will be quickly stopt and they shall then know that Christ is Lord and Iudge without either faith or further Miracles 3. When you have two Good works before you prefer the Greater and choose not the less 4. Caeteris Paribus let Works of Spiritual and everlasting concernment be prefer'd to those that are meerly temporal 5. And let Works for the Publick Good of Church or Common-wealth be preferred before private Works 6. Let God have All in one way or other even that which your selves and families receive Take it but as your daily bread to support you in his service Do not limit God or tie him to any part Take heed of Reserving any thing from him or of halving with him as Ananias and Saphira He deserveth and he expecteth all That which he hath not you have not but Satan hath it You lose it if you return it not to him And now in the Conclusion I shall presume though I foresee I may incurr a censure for it to give you a Catalogue of some of those good works which are seasonable in our daies by which you may make your reckoning comfortable And do not think that God is beholden to you for it if you perform them all but take it as the happyest bargain that you can make and thankfully take the opportunity while it is offered you remembering that there is no such security nor advantage to be made of your money in any way as for God and that it is more blessed to Give then to Receive Say not another day but that you had a price in your hands if you have not an Heart you must suffer with the unfaithful A Catalogue of seasonable Good Works presented to them that are sanctified to God and dare trust him with their Riches expecting the everlasting Riches which he hath promised and are zealous of Good Works and take it for a precious Mercy that they may be exercised therein 1. ENquire what persons burdened with children or sickness or on any such occasion labour under necessities and relieve them as you are able and find them fit And still make advantage of it for the benefit of their souls instructing admonishing and exhorting them as they have need If you give them any annual gift of cloathes bread or money engage them to learn some Catechism withall and to go to the Minister and give him an account of it Some I know that set up a monethly Lecture to be
he was very Rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful he said How hardly shall they that have Riches enter into the Kingdom of God Luke 18. 21 22 23 24. Read and consider Luke 12. 15. to 49. And Luke 16. 19 to the end Luke 14. 33 26 27 28. So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my Disciple Eph. 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to Good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Jam. 2. 14. What profiteth it my brethren if a man say he hath faith and have not works Can faith save him Tit. 2. 14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and sanctifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of Good Works 1 Tim. 6 17 18 19. Charge them that are Rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertainty of Riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy that they do Good that they be rich in Good Works ready to distribute willing to communicate Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Heb. 13. 16. But to do Good and to Communicate forget not for with such sacrifice God is well pleased Luke 16. 9 13. I say unto you Make you friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon who will commit to your trust the true Riches ye cannot serve God and Mammon Psal. 41. 1 2 c. Blessed is he that considereth the poor the Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble c. Read Deut. 15. 7 8 9 c. 2 Cor. 9. 8 9 c. Dan. 4. 27. Lev. 23. 22. Prov. 22. 9. Prov. 28. 27. He that giveth to the poor shall not lack but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse Read Isa. 58. throughout Jam. 1. 27. Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world Jam. 5. 1 2 3 5. Go to now ye Rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you your Riches are corrupted and your Garments moath-eaten your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire Ye have heaped treasure together for the last daies Ye have lived in pleasure on earth and been wanton you have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter 1 Joh. 3. 16 17 18. We ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren but whoso hath this worlds good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels from him how dwelleth the Love of God in him My little children let us not love in word nor in tongue but in deed and in truth Gal. 6. 6 7 9 10. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all his goods or good things Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Let us not be weâ—…y in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not As we have therefore Opportunity let us do Good unto all men especially to them who are of the houshold of faith Eph. 4. 28. Let him Labour working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth Mat. 10. 41 42. He that Receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward And whoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward Read 1 Cor. 9. 4 5. to 16. Mat. 25. 40 45. Verily I say unto you in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of those my Brethren ye have done it unto me Verily I say unto you in as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me Mat. 6. 3 4. But when thou dost alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth That thy alms may be in secret And thy father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly But this I say Brethren the time is short it remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passeth away 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. THE CONTENTS THe Text opened Doctrines deduced and Method propounded pag. 1. to 5 What is not this Crucifying of the world by way of Caution to avoid extreams Sect. 2. p. 5 In what respects the world must be Crucified to us 1. As the creature would be mans felicity or any part of it Sect. 3. p. 10 2. As it is set in competition with God or in the least degree of co-ordination with him p. 11. 3. As it standeth at enmity to God and his waies 4. As it is the matter of our flesh pleasing and fuel of conscupiscence 5. As an Independant or separated good without its due Relations to God p. 14. 15 Eph. 2. 12. Psal. 39. 6. 73. 20. considered p. 18 19 The different successes of sanctified and unsanctified studies and knowledge p. 17 21 The creatures Aptitude to tempt us is inseparable p. 22 Wherein the world's Crucifixion consisteth as to our acts We must use the world as it 〈◊〉 Christ Sect. 4. p. 24 More particularly 1. To esteem the world as an enemy to God and us Sect. 5. p. 31 How this enmity may be apprehended p. 32 2. A deep habituate apprehension of its worthlesness and insufficiency p. 33 3. A kind of Annihilation of it to our selves p. 35 How we must be Crucified to it The difference between this and Natural Death Sect. 6. p. 36 1. Our undue Estimation of the world must be Crucified p. 37 2. And our inordinate cogitations 3. And affections p. 39 1. Our Love 2. Desire 3. Expectations 4. Our Delight p. 43. So in the Irascible 1. Displacency and hatred c. p. 43 4. Our inordinate Seeking and Labour p. 47 Divers Objections and Questions answered Sect. 7. p. 48 How the Cross of Christ doth Crucifie the world And 1. How it is done by the Cross as suffered by Christ Sect. 8. p. 50 2. How by the same Cross believed in and considered p. 54 3. How by the Cross which we suffer in Obedience and Conformity to Christ p. 57 The point proved by experience Sect. 9.
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
not yet gasping under the pangs of death nor laid in the dust as still as stones You see their beauty and glittering attire but you see not the pale and ghastly face that death will give them nor the skulls that are stript of all those ornaments you smell their perfumes but you smell not their putrefaction you see their lands and spacious houses and sumptuous furniture but you see not how narrow a room will serve them in the grave nor how little there they differ from the most contemptible of men Nay more you see them with Ahab going forth to battle and leaving the Prophets with the bread and water of affliction but you see them not yet returning with the mortal blow you see them in their honours and abundance but see them not on Christs left hand in judgement you see them cloathed richly and faâ—ing deliciously every day but you see them not in bell torments wishing in vain for a drop of water to abate their flames you hear them honoured and hear their words of pride and ostentation but you hear them not yet crying out of their folly and bewailing their loss of present time and lamenting in vain the unhappy choice that now they make Sirs believe it future things are as sure as present These things are no fables because they are not visible yet You see not God and yet he is the Principal Intelligible object you see not your own Intellectual souls and yet you know you have them by the Intellection of other things You see not your own eye-sight and yet you know that an eye-sight you have by the seeing of other things If there were not an Invisible God there would have been no visible creatures Visibles are more vile and are for I visibles that are more noble Our visible Bodies are for our Invisible Souls This visible life is the womb of everlasting life that is Invisible we are hatched by the Spirit in this shell till we are ready to pass forth into that glorious light that here we see not I beseech you Gentlemen awake and be not so lamentably deceived as to think that your honourable Pleasant Dreams are the only Realities O no! it is the last awaking hour that will shew you the now unconceivable Realities You are now but as in jest in your pomp and pleasure but you shall then be in good sadness in your pains and loss if Sanctifying Grace do not prevent it by putting you out of your feasting vein and making you in good sadness to be men of Real Faith and Holiness and lay about you for the Real Ioies Believe it Sirs the life of Christianity is not a bare Opinion It is a living by faith upon a life invisible and so serious resolving a Belief of the Truth of the everlasting blessedness as purchased and given bâ— Iesus Christ to persevering Saints as effectually turneth the affections and endeavours of the man to the Loving and seeking it above all this world It s one thing to take God and heaven for your portion as Believers do and another thing to be desirous of it as a reservè when you can keep the world no longer It s one thing to submit to Heaven as a Lesser evil then hell and another thing to desire it as a greater Good then earth It s one thing to lay up your Treasure and Hopes in heaven and to seek it first and another thing to be contented with it in your Necessity and to seek the world before it and give God that the flesh can spare Thus differeth the Religion of serious Christians and of Carnal worldly hypocrites But I shall break off my Admonition and end with some Advice Direct 1. Look upon this world and all things in it with the fore-seeing eye of Faith and Reason and vallue it but as it deserves And then you will neither be eager after it nor too much delighted in it nor puft up by it nor will it so prevalently entice you to venture or neglect eternal things Did you know and well consider but what an empty fading thing it is you could never be satisfied with so poor a portion nor quiet your souls till you had assurance or sound hopes of better things Nor would you take such pleasure in childish trifles nor debase your selves to be so inordinately imployed about such low and sordid matters while God and your eternal happiness are laid by You take not your selves for the basest of men much less for bruits or ideots O then do not make your selves the basest and do not unman your selves and brutifie your immortal souls A heathen could say Nemo alius est Deo dignus nisi qui opes contempsit If you would be Rich choose that which will make you Rich indeed make sure of his favour that is the absolute Lord of all and then you can want nothing whatever you may be without And if yet you thirst for worldly Riches or inordinately Love them and tenaciously keep them from your Masters use remember that this discovereth your disease and therefore should mind you rather to cure it then to feed it It is not money nor any thing in this world that will cure such an empty depraved soul. As Seneca saith If a sick man be carried about whether in a bed of gold or a bed of wood his disease is carried with him It is not a golden bed that will cure a diseased man Nor is it all the gold or honour in the world that will help such a deluded soul as thinks this world will make him happy Get but the cure of your Carnal minds and a little will serve you For it is your sinful fancy that would have much and not your nature that needs much Saith Seneca Si ad naturam vives nunquam eris pauper si ad opinionem nunquam eris dives Exiguum natura desiderat Opinio immensum He is not the poor man that hath but little but he that would have more Nor is he the Rich man that hath much but he that is content with what he hath If you pray but for your daily bread be not such hypocrites as by the bent of your desires to cross your prayers The nearest way to Riches saith the Moralist is the contempt of Riches and saith the Christian to be Rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised all that Love him Jam. 2. 5. The greatest Riches are got proportionably on the easiest terms Loving the world will not procure it but Loving God will procure the everlasting fruition of his Love Millions love the world that miss of it but no man misseth of God that Loveth him above the world Buy not these gawds then at a dearer rate then you may have the Kingdom If you have not enough make sure of heaven and that will be enough for you and get a cure for your diseased minds which is easier and more profitable then to fulfill them No man saith Seneca
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
by it is evident that this is a damning errour for any man to feign a Christianity to himself that excludeth Mortification or is separable from it in a capable subject When men look at a predominant fleshly interest or worldly mind as they do at some particular sin consistent with true faith I say this is an errour about the very Essence of Christianity and which hazards their salvation 2. And that it is the end of the Cross of Christ and his Doctrine to Crucifie the world to us and sanctifie us to God I have already manifested in part and shall now further manifest 1. It is the end of Christ and his Cross and Doctrine to recover Gods Interest in the souls of men But it is by mortification as a part of true sanctification that Gods Interest in mens souls is recovered Therefore c. As God could have no lower ultimate end then himself in our Creation so neither in our Redemption Christ himself as Mediator is but a Means to God who is our End he is the way to the Father and no man cometh to the Father but by him Joh. 14. 6. He is the Truth that revealeth the Father and the Sun of the world which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world Joh 1. 9. revealing to us both the End and Means That as there is no light in the earth but what is communicated by the Sun which enlighteneth some by the Moon at midnight and some by its direct approaching light at the break of day before they see the Sun it self and others by its glorious rays when it is risen and visible to them and hath also in it self an objective sufficiency to enlighten those that shut their eyes or want eye-sight by which they should receive it Even so is Christ the Sun of the Redeemed World which actually affordeth all that Light to all which they do possess even some to all that have the use of Reason which hath a tendency to recovery and he hath an Objective sufficiency to the saving illumination of those that through their own fault are never so illuminated The pure Godhead is the Beatifical Light to be enjoyed for felicity The Mediator is the Mediate Light to shew uâ— the way to God And in these two consisteth Life Eternal to Know God the Beginning and End who himself hath no Beginning or End and to know Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to â— call us to himself Ioh. 17. 3. Whether he that is now to us Mediâ—tor acquisitionis will also hereafter be Mediator fruitioâ—is and whether the glorified do only see the Godhead in the glass of the glorified body of Christ and of the most glorious effects which then they shall partake of or also shall immediatly beheld it in it self and see Gods essence face to face I shall not presume to determine while Scripâ—â—â—â— seems so silent and learned conjectures are so much at odds But as he is the Redeeming restoring Mediator it is that we speak all this while of Christ And â—o his Office is to recover Gods Interest in the souls of men Now his Interest lyeth in our Estimation and our Love And these the world hath dispossest him of It is therefore the work of Christ to pull down this Idol and set up God in the throne of the soul. And therefore though faith be the principal Mediant using Grace yet Love is the most principal finall enjoying grace and more excellent then faith as the end or that act which is next the end is more excellent then the means 2. It is the End of Christ his Cross and Doctrine to Heal us and to save us to Heal us of our sin and to save us from it and its destroying fruits But by sanctification and so by mortification doth Christ thus Heal and Save us If health be worth nothing the Physician and all his Physick is worth nothing The Health of the soul objectively is God and formally is its Holiness or perfect Disposedness and Devotedness to God of which anon These therefore doth Christ come to restore And therefore he comes to call us off the Creature and bring our affections back to God 3. It is the End of Christ his Cross and Doctrine to conquer Satan and destroy his works and with him the rest of the enemies of God and of our salvation But the world is one of these enemies and the Means by which the Devil doth prevail therefore it is Christs End to overcome the World and cast it out of the hearts of men Luk. 11. 22. Ioh. 16. 33. 1 Ioh. 3. 5 8. He was manifested to this end to take away our sins and destroy the works of the Devil And therefore he causeth his followers to overcome him 1 Ioh. 2. 13 14. And herewithal observe that it is essential to the Relation to respect the End to the Physiâ—ian that he be for the health of the Patient and to Christ the Redeemer that he be the Saviour of his People from their sins and the Restorer of their souls to the Love of God So that Christ is denyed and made no Christ where Mortification and Sanctification are denied He is not believed in as Christ where he is not believed in for these Ends. And therefore he that cometh not with this intent to Christ that he may restore the Image of God upon him and bring him off from the Creature unto God that he may live to him doth not come to Christ as Christ and is not indeed a true Christian. The Doctrine of Christ doth lead us from the world in these several parts of it and by these steps How the Cross doth it I shewed before 1. It declareth to us what God is and what man is and so that God is our absolute Owner and Governour and that he is the only Primitive simply necessary being and that man was made by him and therefore for him and disposed to him 2. It declareth to us that the state of our integrity consisted in this closure of the soul with God 3. It sheweth us that our selicity consisteth in his Love and in the fruition of him by a mutual complacency 4. It sheweth us that our first sin was by turning from him to Carnal self and to the world 5. And that this is our lost estate wherein both sin and misery are conjunct to Adhere to self and Creatures and to depart from God 6. It sheweth us what Christ hath done and suffered to Reconcile God to us and open us a way of admission into his presence and how far God is Reconciled to us and thus Revealeth him in the face of a Mediater as Amiable to our souls that so we might be capable of loving him and closing with him again For if he had remained in his wrath he would have been the object of our hatred or meer terrour at least and not of our Love And no man can Love him that is not presented to him and apprehended by him
as Lovely that is as Good For it is impossible that there should be an act without its proper object Nothing but appearing Good is Loved If a lost condemned sinner have no hope given him of Gods Reconciliation or his willingness to receive him to mercy it is ex parte objecti an impossible thing that the mind of that sinner should be reconciled to God And therefore the Gospel publisheth Gods Reconcilation to sinners viz. his universal Conditional Reconciliation before it beseech them to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. And before they believe we cannot give any one man the least assurance that God is any more reconciled to him then to others that are unconverted or that he is any willinger to Receive him then others This therefore is the great observable means whereby Christ by his Gospel recovereth the Heart of a sinner unto God even by turning the frowning countenance of God by which he deterred the guilty into a more Lovely face as being Reconcilable and Conditionally Reconciled to the world through Christ and so become to all the sinful sons of Adam a fit object to attract their Love and draw off their hearts from the deceiving world to which they were revolted and as being actually reconciled to all true Believers and thereby become a yet more powerful attractive of their Love 7. It doth also more fully reveal the face of God the object of our Love and the transcendent Glory that in him we shall enjoy 8. And it disgraceth the creatures which have diverted our Affections that we may be taken off our false estimation of them 9. It earnestly perswadeth and solliciteth us to obey and calls on us to turn from the world to God 10. It backeth these perswasions with terrible threatnings if we do not forsake the creature and return 11. It prescribeth to us the standing Ordinances and Means by which this work may be further carryed on 12. And lastly it directeth us to the right use of the creatures instead of that carnal enjoying of them that would undo us By all these means which time doth permit me but briefly to mention the Gospel of Christ doth tend to Crucifie the world to us and to recover our hearts to the Chiefest Good And besides all this which the Cross and the Doctrine of Christ do to this End that you may yet fullyer perceive how much it is the End of Christs very office and the execution thereof let me add these two things 1. That it is the End of Christs providential dispensations 2. And the work which he sendeth the Holy Ghost to perform upon the souls of his Elect. 1. As the Mercies of God are purposely given us to lead up our hearts to him that gave them So when we carnally abuse them and adhere unto the creature it is the special use of Affliction to take us off If the rod have a voice it speaks this as plain as any thing whatsoever and if it reprehend us for any sin it is for our overvaluing and adhering to the creature The wounds that Christ giveth us are not to kill us but to separate us from the world that hath separated us from God 2. And that this is the very office or undertaken work of the Holy Ghost is past all controversie His work is to sanctifie us and that is by taking us off the creature to bring us to be heartily Devoted unto God Sanctification is nothing else but our separation from the creature to God in Resolution Affection Profession and Action So that in what measure soever a man hath the Spirit in that measure is he sanctified and in what measure he is sanctified in that same measure is he crucified to the world For that is the one half of his Sanctification or it is his Sanctification denominated from the terminus à quo as many Texts of Scripture do manifest By this time I hope it is plain to you that Mortification is of the very being of Christianity and not any separable adjunct of it and that if you profess not to be Dead to the world you do not so much as profess your selves Christians SECT XIII 1. AND as you see that the Christian Doctrine teacheth this So 2. It is thence clear without any more ado that wherever the Cross and Doctrine of Christ are effectuall the world is Crucified to that man and he to the world There are some great Duties which a man may possibly be saved though he omit them in some cases but this is none such It is a wonder to see the security of worldlings how easily they bear up a confidence of their sincerity under this sin which is as inconsistent with sincerity as Infidelity it self is ◠If they see a man live in common Drunkenness or Adultry or Swearing they take him for a prophane and miserable wretch and good reason for it When in the mean time they pass no such sentence on themselves who may deserve it as much as the worst of these It is one notable cheat among the Papists that occasions the ruine of many a soul that they make a Religious mortified life to be a work of supererrogation and those that profess it and some of their own inventions with it which turn it into sin they Cloyster up from the rest of the world and these they call Religious people and some few even of these that are either more devout or superstitious then the rest they call Saints So rare a thing is the appearance of Religiousness and Sanctity among them that it must be inclosed in Societies not only separated from the world as the Church is but separated as it were out of the Church it self And yet the common people are kept in hope of salvation in their way By which means they are commonly brought to imagine that it is not absolutely necessary to salvation to be a Religious man or a Saint or one that doth really renounce and crucifie the world but that these things belong to certain Orders of Monks and Fryers and that it is enough for other men to honour these devout and mortified Saints and to crave their Prayers and do some lower and easier things And indeed their vows of Chastity and separation and unprofitableness and other Inventions of their own they may well conceive unnecessary to others being noxious to themselves But they will one day finde that none but Religious men and Saints shall be saved and that every true Member of Christ is dead to the world and not only Monks or Votaries or such like And a Conceit too like to this of the Papists is in the minds of many of our Auditors They think indeed that those are the best men that are resolved contemners of all the Riches and Honours and Pleasures of the world but they think of them as the Papists do of their votaries as People of a higher pitch of Sanctity then the rest but think not that it is essential to
according to his Laws Know therefore whom the Law condemneth or justifieth and you may know whom Christ will condemn or justifie And seeing all this is so doth it not concern us all to make a speedy tryal of our selves in preparation to this final tryal I shall for your own sakes therefore take the boldness as the Officer of Christ to summon you to appear before your selves and keep an Assize this day in your own souls and answer at the Barr of Conscience to what shall be charged upon you Fear not the tryal for it is not conclusive final nor a peremptory irreversible sentence that must now pass Yet slight it not for it is a necessary preparative to that which is final and irreversible Consequentially it may prove a justifying Accusation an Absolving Condemnation and if you proceed to Execution a saving quickning death which I am now perswading you to undergo The whole world is divided into two sorts of men One that Love God above all and live to him and the other that Love the flesh and world above all and live to them One that lay up a treasure in earth and have their heart there The other that lay up a treasure in heaven and have their heart there One that seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness another that seek first the things of this life One that mind and savour the things of the flesh and of man the other that mind and savour most the things of the Spirit and of God One that account all things dung and dross that they may win Christ another that make light of Christ in comparison of their business and riches and pleasures in the world One that live by sight and sense upon present things Another that live by faith upon things invisible One that have their conversation in Heaven and live as strangers upon earth Another that mind earthly things and are strangers to heaven One that have in resolution forsaken aâ— for Christ and the hopes of a treasure in heaven Another that resolve to keep somewhat here though they venture and forsake the heavenly reward and will go away sorrowful that they cannot have both One that being born of the flesh is but flesh The other that being born of the Spirit is Spirit One that live as without God in the world The other that live as without the seducing world in God and in and by the subservient world to God One that have Ordinances and Means of Grace as if they had none The other that have houses lands wives as if they had none One that believe as if they believed not and love God as if they loved him not and pray as if they prayed not as if the fruit of these were but a shadow The other that weep as if they wept not for worldly things and rejoyce as if they rejoyced not One that have Christ as not possessing him and use him and his name as but abusing them The other that buy as if they possessed not and use the world as not abusing it One that draw near to God with their lips when their hearts are far from him The other that Corporally converse with the world when their hearts are far from it One that serve God who is a Spirit with Carnall service and not in Spirit and Truth The other that use the world it self spiritually and not in a carnall worldly manner In a word One sort are children of this world and the other are the children of the world to come and heirs of the heavenly Kingdom One sort have their Portion in this life And the other have God for their Portion One sort have their Good things in this life time and their Reward here The other have their Evil things in this life and live in Hope of the Everlasting Reward I suppose you know that all this is from the word of God and therefore I need not cite the Texts which do contain it But lest any doubt I will lay them all together that you may peruse them at leisure Matth. 22. 37. 10. 37. 6. 19 20 21. 6. 33. Iohn 6. 27. Isa. 55. 1 2 3. Rom. 8. 5 6 7 13. Phil. 3. 9 10 11. Mat. 22. 5. 2 Cor. 4. 18. Heb. 11. 1. throughout Phil. 3. 19 20 21. Psalm 119 19. Heb. 11. 13. Luke 14. 33. 18. 22. Iohn 3. 6. Ephis 2. 12. 1 Cor. 10. 31. Psalm 16. 8. Ezek. 33. 31 32. 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. Iohn 2. 23 24. Psalm 78. 35 36 37. Iohn 15. 2. 1. 9 10 11. Mat. 15. 8. Psalm 73. 23 24 25. 1 Thes. 5. 17 18. Phil. 3. 21 Matth. 15. 9. Iohn 4. 22 23. 1 Gor. 10. 31. Luke 10. 8. 20. 34. Rom. 8. 16 17. Psalm 17. 14. 16. 5. 73. 26. Luke 16 25. Mat. 6. 5. 5. 12. Luke 18. 22. In these Texts is plainly contained all that I have here said to you Well then Beloved Hearers seeing you that sit here present are all of one of these two sorts let conscience speak which is it that you are of These are the two sorts that shall stand on the right and left hand of Christ in Judgement They that gave Christ his own with advantage and lived to him and studiously devoted their Riches and other Talents to his use as men that unfeignedly made God their End these are they that are set on the right hand and adjudged as Blessed to the Kingdom which they so esteemed And those that hid their talents by keeping or expending them to their private use denying them to Christ and living to themselves these are they that are set on the left hand and adjudged to the everlasting fire with the Devils whom they served It is a desperate mistake of self-deceiving men to think that a state of Holiness consisteth only in external worship or that a state of wickedness consisteth only in some gross sins I tell you from the word of God the difference is greater and lyeth deeper then so If you would know whether you are Christians indeed and shall be saved the first and great question is What is your End What take you for your portion And what is it that hath the prevalent stream of your desires and endeavours As it is not every step that we set out of the way to heaven that will prove us ungodly so is it not any Religiousness whatsoever that standeth in a subserviency to the world that will prove you godly Would you know then what you are And whether you are in the way to Heaven or Hell And what God will judge of you if you so continue Why then deal faithfully with your selves and answer this question without deceit What is it that hath your Hearts your very Hearts What is it that is the matter of your dearest Love And what the matter of your chiefest care What is it that is the very bent and scope of your life Is it for this world or
with that which should be your food you turn your daily blessings to your bane by dropping your Poyson into the cup of Mercies which bountiful providence putteth into your hands There is not a surer way in the world to undo you then by Turning to the creature and forsaking God You cry for more of the world and you are unsatisfied till you have it and when you have it you do but destroy your souls with it by giving it your hearts which must be given only unto God What a stir do men make for temptation and destruction What cost and pains are men at to purchase them an Idol and to make provision for the flesh to satisfie its desires when they confess it to be the greatest enemy of their souls Like a man that would give all that he hath for a coal of fire to put into the thatch even such is your desires after the world and the use you make of it 8. What abundance of precious time and labour do you lose which might and should be better spent Doth not this world take up the most of your care and strength and time You are about it early and late It is first and last and almost alwaies in your thoughts It findeth you so much to do that you have scarce any time so much as to mind the God that made you or to seek to escape the everlasting misery which is near at hand It hath taken up so much of your hearts that when God should have them in any holy duty or service for his Church you are heartless When you shall see your accounts cast up to your hands as shortly you shall see it though you will not now be perswaded to do it your selves and when you shall there see how many thoughts the world had in comparison of God and how many hours were laid out upon the world when Gods service was cast by for want of time and how near the creature was to your heart while God as a stranger stood at the door And in a word how the world was your daily business while the matters of God stept in but now and then upon the by you will then confess that you laboured in vain and that your life and labour should have been better employed Hath God given you but a short uncertain life and laid your everlasting life upon it and will you cast all away upon these transitory delights How short a time have you for so great a work and shall the world have all Oh that you did but know to how much greater advantage you might have spent this time and labour in seeking God and an endless Glory One thing is needful make sure of that and waste not the rest of your daies in vanity What wise man would spend so precious a thing as Time is upon that which he knows will leave him in Repentings that ever it was so spent The world doth rob poor sinners of their time but when they see it is gone and they would fain have a little of that time again to make preparation for their everlasting state it is not all the world then that can bring them back one hour of it again Certainly such a loss of time and labour is no small aggravation of a worldlings sin 9. You are also guilty of the high contempt of the Kingdom of Glory while you prefer these transitory things before it Your hearts and lives speak that which you are ashamed to speak with your tongues You are ashamed to say that Earth is better for you then Heaven or that your sin is better for you then the favour of God but your lives speak it out If you think not your present condition better for you then heaven why do you choose and prefer it and why do you more carefully and laboriously seek the things of earth then the Heavenly Glory If your child would sell his inheritance for a cup of Ale you would think he set light by it And if he would part with father and mother for the company of a beggar or a thief you would say he had no great love to you And if you will venture your part in heaven for the pleasures of sin and will part with God for the matters of this world would you have him think that you set much by his Kingdom or his love O the unreasonableness of sin the madness of worldly fleshly men Is it indeed more desirable to prosper in their shops their fields and their pleasures for a few daies or years then everlastingly to live in the presence of the Lord Shall Christ purchase a Kingdom at the price of his blood and offer it us freely and shall we prefer the life of a bruit before it Shall God offer to advance so mean a creature to an heavenly station among his Angels and shall we choose rather to wallow in the dung of our Transgressions Take heed lest as you are guilty of Esau's folly you also meet with Esau's misery and the time should come that you shall find no place for Repentance that is for Recovery by Repentance though you seek it with tears Contempt of kindness is a provoking thing For it is the height of ingratitude And especially when it is the greatest kindness that is contemned As it will be the everlasting imployment of the Saints to enjoy that felicity and to admire and praise that infinite Love which caused them to enjoy it So will it be the everlasting misery of the damned to be deprived of that felicity and to think of their solly in the unthankful contempt of it and of the excellency of that Kingdom which thus they did contemn God sets before you Earth and Heaven If you choose earth expect no more And hereafter Remember that you had your choice 10. To make short of the rest of the aggravation of your sin and sum it up in a word Your Love of the world is the sum of all iniquity It virtually or actually containeth in it the breach of every command in the Decalogue The first Commandment which is the foundation of the Law and especially of the first Table is broken by it while you make it your Idol and give it the Esteem and Love and Service that is due to God The second third and fourth Commandments it disposeth you to break While your hearts and ends are carnal and worldly the manner of your service will be so and you will suit your Religion to the will of men and your carnal Interest and not to the will and word of God The name and holy nature of God is habitually contemned by you while you more set by your worldly matters then by him His holy daies you ordinarily violate and his Ordinances you do hypocritically abuse while your hearts are upon your covetousness or sensual delights and are far from him while you draw near him with your lips Worldlinys will make you even break the bonds of natural obligations and be
insist on that which you dare not stand to And be of that mind which then you must condemn your selves Do you think that this is a reasonable course to be ventured on in so great a matter Quest. 9. MY next Question is this Do you ever mean to Repent of your fleshly and worldly-mindedness or not If you do not it seems you are far from a Recovery Many an one perisheth with bare uneffectuall purposes of Repenting but those that have not so much as such a purpose are graceless indeed But if you do purpose to Repent I would further ask you Do you think that is a right mind or a wise course which must be Repented of If it be right and wise what need you to Repent of it If it be not wise and right why will you now retain it yea and wilfully maintain it against the perswasions of God and man Doth not this proclaim that you are wilful sinners and that you know you sin and yet will do it even against your own knowledge and conscience that you know the world to be a deceitfull vanity and yet for all that you will stick to it as long as you can with the neglect of God and the true felicity And can you expect mercy and salvation that wilfully and knowingly do set your selves against it and reject it Quest. 10. MY next Question which I desire you to answer is this Do you in good sadness take the world for your enemy or for a hindrance to you in the way to heaven If you do not why did you in your Baptism renounce it and promise to fight against it And why have you professed since to stand to that Covenant And how then can you believe the word of God which so often telleth you what a hinderance Riches and Honours are to mens salvation But if indeed you believe that the world is your enemy and hinderance why then will you love it and be impatient if you want it and take such pleasure in it and desire to have more of it Do you love to have your salvation hindered or hazarded and will you love and long for that which is an enemy to it I think the way to heaven is hard enough to the best They need not make it harder then it is and be at so much labour all their lives to make themselves more enemies and more work and to block up the way while they pretend to walk in it O the hypocrisie of a carnall heart How notoriously do mens lives contradict their tongues When they will call the world their enemy and vow to fight against it to the death and at the same time will labour for it and greedily desire it as if they could never have enough That they will make so much of it as to neglect God himself and their salvation for it and make it the greatest care and business of their lives to get and keep it and all the while profess that they take it for their enemy This is dissembling beyond all bounds of shame Remember this when you are impatient of your low estate or contriving further accommodations to your flesh or hunting after a full estate Are these the signs of enmity to the world Do you hate your salvation that you so love the hinderers of it Either live as you profess or profess as you live Quest. 11. YET further I demand Whether indeed you do intend to Renounce your Christianity and all your hopes of heaven or not If you do you know whom to blame when you are deprived of it And I could wish you would first find out some better way or something that may be of valuable consideration to repair your loss But if you say you have no such intent I further ask Why then do you do it and do it after so much warning Do you disclaim your Christianity in the open light and yet say that you intend no such thing You cannot do it against your will And that it is in effect a Renouncing or Denying your Christianity yea and your salvation is plain For your Christianity containeth a Renouncing of the world and therefore it is part of our Baptismal Covenant If then you return to the world which you renounced you forsake your Christianity Had you rather forsake the world or Christ One of them you must forsake For he hath told you that Except you forsake all that you have you cannot be his Disciples Luke 14. and that you cannot serve God and Mammon Had you rather renounce the world or your salvation One of them you must let go For God hath said that the love of the world is enmity against God â—nd that if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him If therefore you will still say You hope you may keep both What do you less then give God the lye If you will still adhere to the world and yet say that you do not renounce your Christianity or Salvation you may as well say that though you joyn in Arms with open Rebels yet do you not forsake your Loyalty to your Prince Or though you live in Adultery yet you do not forsake your conjugal fidelity and chastity and that you do not cast away your life though you take poyson when you know it to be such or though you commit those crimes which must be punished with death I beseech you consider well Why you forsake Christ and why you will destroy your selves before you do it past remedy Quest. 12. MY last Question which I desire your answer to is this Do you indeed think that God is not better then the world and that Heaven is not more desiarble then earth and an endless glory then a transitory shadow Or is there any comparison to be made between them Have you considered what a sad exchange you make O unthankful souls Hath not God done more for you then ever the world did He made you and so did not the world He Redeemed you when none else could do it He preserveth you and provideth for you and all that you have is from his bounty He can give health to your bodies peace to your consciences salvation to your souls when the world cannot do it If the world be better then God in prosperity what makes you call upon God in adversity When any torment seizeth on your bodies or death draws near and looks you in the face then you do not cry O Riches help us O Pleasures or Honours have mercy upon us But O God have mercy upon us and help us Can none else help you in your distress and yet will you prefer the creature in your prosperity Ah poor deluded souls that follow the world which will cast you off in your greatest need and neglect him that would be faithful to you for ever The time is coming when you shall cry out The world hath deceived me I have laboured for nought but if you had been as true to God
callings and about all the creatures Think with your selves Here is now a lesson in my hands if I can but learn it Here is somewhat that may shew me both God himself and my duty if I could but skilfully open it and understand it And so bethink your selves What it is that God would teach you or command you by that creature and especially to what use he requireth you to put it And remember that if you should think of God all the day long and yet not intend him and refer your labours and your riches to his service and give them up to his use this is not sanctifying God in the creature but hypocriticall abusing of him For it is not all thinking of God that will serve the turn 6. As you use to take account of your servants how they do your work so I would advise you every night or as often as you can to take an account of your selves as you are the servants of the God of heaven and ask your Consciences What have I done this day for God and how have I observed and sanctified him in his works So much for the fifth Direction Direct 6. REmember alwaies that the world is the enemy of your salvation and that if you be damned it is like to be through its enticements and therefore labour to be alwaies sensible that you go in continual danger of it And this will make you use it as an enemy and walk in a constant fear least it should over-reach you And see also that you endeavour as clearly as you can to find out wherein its enmity doth consist and then you will perceive that it is especially in seeming more Lovely then it is as it is the fewel of concupiscence and the provision of the flesh And when you understand this you will perceive that your danger lyeth in over-loving it and that it killeth by its embracements And this will direct you which way to bend the course of your opposition and what you must do to be saved from its snares To call the world an enemy is easie and common but so far as your very hearts apprehend it as an enemy so far you are out of danger of it An easie enemy that is conquered by understanding that it is an enemy And the way of its conquest is by enticing men to take it for a friend And also remember how great a part of your Christian life consisteth in keeping up the comâ—ate with this enemy and how certainly and miserably you will perish if you be overcome Direct 7. TO â—e much in the house of mourning and see the end of all the living will help us towards the Crucifying of the world Go among the sick and hear what they say of the world Stand by the dying and see what it will do for them and think now whether God or the world be better Look on the corpses of your deceased friends and think now Whether the soul be ever the better for all the riches and pleasures of the world Take notice of the graves and bones of the dead and think what a worthless thing is the world and all the glory and delights that it affords which will so turn us off and leave our bodies in such a plight as that Take notice of the frailties and diseases of your own flesh that tell you how shortly it must lie down in the dust And then compare this world and that to come where your abode will be everlasting It s a shame for a wise man to live as a stranger to so great a change and to look so much after a world that he is leaving and so little after the world that he shall abide in Direct 8. IT will much avail to the Crucifying of the world to you that you study the improvement of all your Afflictions Do not repine at them and think them a greater evil then they are but believe that they are a special advantage to your souls for the mortifying of your inordinate affections to the world and if you have but the wisdom and hearts to make use of them they may do you more good then all the prosperity of your lives hath done If you fall into poverty or fall under slanders or reproach from men if your friends prove false to you if those that you have done good to prove unthankful if the wickedness and frowardness of men do make you even weary of the world remember now what an advantage you have for Mortification When you have experience it self to disgrace the creature to you and your very flesh doth seem to be convinced Now see that you observe the teachings of this providence and come off from the world when you see it is so little worth and set as light by it as it doth by you Bethink you now that God doth this to lead you to himself and thankfully accept his call and close with him as your portion and be content with him alone and let them take the world that can get no better You see that adversity will make even a worldling speak hardly of the world as men will do of their friends when they fall out with them How much more should it help the gracious soul to a fuller sense of its vanity and nothingness and of the necessity and excellency of more certain things It s a great sin and folly in us that we strive more to have afflictions removed then sanctified and so we lose the gain that we might have got Though affliction alone will do little good yet grace doth make such use of affliction that thousands in heaven will have cause to bless God for them that before they were afflicted went astray and were deceived by the flatteries of the world as well as others Abundance that have been convinced of the vanity of the world have lingered long before they would forsake it till affliction hath rowsed their sleepy souls and by a lowder voice hath called them away Direct 9. BE very suspicious of a prosperous state and be more afraid of the world when it smiles then when it frowns Some are much perplexed for fear left they should not stand in adversity that too little fear being ensnared by prosperity They are afraid what they should do in a time of tryal and do not consider that prosperity is the great tryal Adversity doth but shew that love of the world which was in mens hearts in time of prosperity When men forsake Christ for fear of suffering and because they will not forsake the world they do but shew the effects of that disease which they had catcht long before When the world pleased them they fell so deep in love with it that now they will venture their souls to keep it It is prosperity that breeds the disease though adversity shew it Love not the world and you will easily part with it and so will easily suffer for Christ And prosperity is liker to tice your Love to it then
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
perswade you to part with it to supply his wants At least you will never be perswaded to part with all and follow Christ till the Belief of a Treasure in Heaven do perswade you to it Luke 18. 21 22. Can you say from your hearts Let all go rather then the Love of God And in a case of tryal do you certainly find that There is nothing so dear to you which you cannot part with for God and the hopes of everlasting life This is a sign of an effectual Faith For neither nature nor common grace did ever bring a soul so high 3. It is also a certain evidence of unfeigned Love For wherein is Love so clearly manifested as in the highest adventures for the person whom we Love and in the costlyest expressions of our Love when we are called to it Then it will appear that you Love God indeed when there is nothing else that you prefer before him and nothing but what you lay down at his feet When the greatest professors that love the world do shew that the love of the Father is not in them 1 Iohn 2. 15. So far as it is loved 4. To be Crucified to the world and alive to God is the very Honesty and Chastity and Iustice of the soul. This is your Fidelity to God in keeping the holy Covenant that you have made with him in Christ. This is your keeping your selves unspotted from the world and undefiled by it When the friends of it live in its Adulterous embracements Iam. 4. 4. Thus do you give the Lord his own even both the creature and your hearts when worldlings do unjustly rob him of both This is the great command and request of God Prov. 23. 26. My Son give me thy heart Give him but this and he will take it as if you gave him all For indeed the rest will follow this But if you give the world your hearts God will take all the rest as Nothing Benefit 2. THE second Benefit is this If you are truly Crucified to the world Your minds will be free for God and his service When the minds of worldlings are like imprisoned hampered things What a toylsom thing is it for a man to travail in fetters or to run a race with a burden on his back But knock off his fetters and how easily will he go and take off his burden and how lightly will he run Do you not feel your selves that the world is the clog of your souls and that this is it that hindereth you from duty and hindereth you in duty and keepeth you from the attainment of an heavenly conversation When you should chearfully go to God in secret or in your families the world is ready to pull you back Either it calleth you away by putting some other business into your hands or else it dulleth and diverteth your Affections so that you have no heart to duty or no life in it or else it creepeth into your Thoughts in duty and taketh them off from the work in hand and makes you do that which you seem not to be doing And if you shake off these thoughts and drive them out of your way they are presently again before you and meet you at the next Turn But in that measure as you have Crucified the world you are freed from these disturbances The Apostle Peter describeth the miserable estate of Apostates 2 Pet. 2. 20. to be like a bird or beast that had escaped out of the snare that he was taken in and after is taken in the same again Having escaped the pollution of the world c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are again entangled therein as a beast in a snare that cannot escape or help himself So 2 Tim. 2. 4. its said no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So that you see that the world is a snare that entangleth mens souls and holdeth them as in captivity The table of the wicked becometh a snare to them and so do all the bodily mercies which they possess But the mortified Christian may look back on all these dangers and say Blessed be the Lord that hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped Psal. 124. 6 7. Oh with what ease and freedom of mind may you converse with God in holy Ordinances when you are once disâ—entangled from this snare Now that which formerly drew off your hearts and clog'd your affections is Crucified and dead that enemy that kept your souls from God and was still casting baits or troubles in your way is dead As the Apostle saith of sin Rom. 6. 7. He that is dead is freed from sin So I may say of the world He that is dead to the world in that measure as he is dead to it is freed from the world Let us therefore lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and then we may run with Patience the race that is set before us Heb. 12. 1. This makes a poor Christian sometimes to live in more content and comfort in the depth of adversity then he did before in the midst of his prosperity because though his flesh hath lost his soul hath gain'd though he want the fleshly accommodations which he had yet the world is now more Dead to him then before and so his mind is freer for God and consequently more with him How blessed a life is it to converse with God with little disturbances and interruptions A runner in a race is willing to be rid of his very cloathes that should cover him and keep him warm because they are a burden and hinderance to him in his race But the lookers on would be loath to be so stript Take away prosperity from an unmortified man and you take away the comfort of his life When if the same things be taken from the mortified believer he loseth but his burden How readily will that man obey that is dead to the world when he is commanded to do good to relieve the poor according to his power to suffer wrongs to let go his right to forgive and requite evil with good to forsake all and follow Christ. When to another man these duties are a kind of impossibilities and you may as well perswade a Lyon to become a Lamb or a beast to die willingly by the hand of the Butcher as perswade an unmortified worldling to these things They think when they hear them These are hard sayings who can bear them Or at least they are duties for a Peter or a Paul and not for such as we There is a very great part of Christian obedience that will be easie to you when you are Dead to the world which no man else is able to endure nor will be perswaded to submit to Benefit 3. ANother Benefit of this Crucifixion is this The
of heaven in it The stones and earth are useful for you to tread upon though they are unfit for you to feed on or too hard to rest upon So though the world be unfit to Rest or feed your souls it may be made a convenient way for you to travail in It is unmeet to be Loved but it is meet to be Used when you have learned so to use it as not abusing it When self is throughly down and denyed and God is exalted and your souls brought over so clearly to him that you are nothing but in him and would have nothing but in and with him and do nothing but for him then you shall be able to see that glory and amiableness in the creature that now you cannot see I or you shall see the Creator himself in the creature Benefit 10. WHEN once you are truly Crucified to the world You will have the honour and the comfort of an heavenly life Your thoughts will be daily steeped in the Coelestial delights when other mens are steept in Gall and Vinegar You will be above with God when your carnal neighbours converse only with the world Your thoughts will be higher then their thoughts and your waies then their waies as the heaven where you converse is higher then the earth When you take flight from earth in holy Devotions they may look at you and wonder at you but cannot follow you for whither you go they cannot come till they are such as you You leave them groveling here on earth and feeding on the dust and striving like children or rather like swine or dogs about their meat When you are above in the Spirit on the speedy wings of Faith and Love beholding that face that perfecteth all that perfectly behold it and tasting that Joy which fully reconcileth all that fully do enjoy it which we must here contend for but none do there contend about it What a noble employment have you in comparison of the highest servants of the world How sweet are your delights in comparison of the Epicures O happy souls that can see so much of your eternal happiness and reach so near it Were I but more in your condition I would not envy Princes their glory nor any sensualists and worldlings their contents nor desire to be their partner I could spare them their troublesom dignities and their burdensom Riches and the unwholsom pleasures which they so often surfet on and the wind of popular applause which so swelleth them Yea what could I not spare them if I might be more with you O happy poverty sickness or imprisonment or whatever is called misery by the world if it be nearer Heaven then a sensual life and if it will but advantage my soul for those contemplations which are the imployment of mortified heavenly men Yea if it do but remove the impediments of so sweet a life I know by some little too little experience I know that one hours time of that blessed life will easily pay for all the cost and one believing view of God will easily blast the beauty of the world and shame all those thoughts as the issues of my dotage that ever gave it a lovely name or turned mine eye upon it with desire or caused me once with complacency to behold it or ever brought it near my heart O Sirs what a noble life may you live and how much more excellent work might you be employed in if the world were but dead to you and the stream of your souls were turned upon God Had you but one draught of the Heavenly consolations you would thirst no more for the pleasures of the world Yea did you but taste of it as Ionathan of the honey from the end of his rod 1 Sam. 14. 27. your eyes would be enlightened and your hearts revived and your hands would be so strengthened in your spiritual warfare that your enemies would quickly perceive it in your more resolute prevailing opposition of their assaults And experience will tell you that you will no further reach this heavenly life then you are Crucified to earth and flesh God useth to shew himself to the Coelestial inhabitants and not to the Terrestrial And therefore you will see no more of God then you get above and converse in Heaven And if faith had not this elevating power and could not see further then sense can do we might talk long enough of God before we had any saving knowledge of him or relish of his Goodness And doubtless if we must get by faith into Heaven if we will have the reviving sight of God then we must needs away from earth For our hearts cannot at once converse in both Believe it Sirs God useth to give his heavenly Cordials upon an empty stomack and not to drown them in the mud and dirt of sensuality When you are emptyest of creature-delights and love you are most capable of God And fasting from the world doth best prepare you for this heavenly Feast Let Abstinence and Temperance be imposed upon your senses but command a totall Fast to your Affections And try then whether your souls be not fitter to ascend and whether God will not reveal himself more clearly then before It may seem a paradox that the vallies should be nearer Heaven then the Hills But doubtless Stephen saw more of it then the high Priests And Lazarus had a fairer prospect thither from among the dogs at the Rich mans gate then the Master of the house had at his plentiful table And who would not rather have Lazarus's sores with a fore-sight of Heaven then the Rich mans fulness without it yea with the fears of after misery A Heavenly life is proper to the mortified Benefit 11. MOreover those that are Crucified to the world are most fruitfull unto others and blessings to all within their reach They can part with any thing to do good with They are rich to God and their Brethren if they be rich and not to themselves If a mortified man have hundreds or thousands by the year he hath no more of it for himself then if he had a meaner estate He takes but necessary food and rayment he shunneth intemperance and excess Nay he often pincheth his body if needfull that he may tame it and bring it into subjection to the Spirit and the rest he layes out for the service of God so far as he is acquainted with his will Yea his necessary food and rayment which he receiveth himself is ultimately not for himself but for God Even that he may be sustained by his daily bread for his daily duty and fitted to please his Master that maintaineth him If they have much they give plenteously If they have but little they are faithfull in that little And if they have not silver and gold they will give such as they have where God requireth it But the unmortified worldling is like some spreading trees that by drawing all the nutriment to themselves and by dropping on the rest
do tend to and that without which we are uncapable of sincere magnifying either Creation or Redemption 9. It is certain that we may Glory in the healing of our diseases and recovery of our depraved miserable souls He that must be sensible of his sin must needs be sensible of the mercy of the deliverer It cannot be that we should be obliged to mourn for sin and yet may not Glory in our deliverance from it Nature it self constraineth us to lament the known unhappiness of our souls as well as the wounds and calamities of our bodies And therefore the same nature must needs teach us to rejoyce and glory in our spiritual recovery 10. If we may Glory in our Remission or Iustification then by proportion or parity of reason we may also glory in our Mortification For both are ours by gift and neither are deserved by us But it is past doubt that we may glory in our Pardon or Justification therefore we may also glory in our Mortification 11. Undoubtedly we may glory in the ruine of the enemies of Christ and us How can a souldier be obliged to fight and not to glory in the victory or good success But our Mortification is the ruine of Christs enemies and ours therefore we may glory in it 12. We may glory in that which tendeth apparently to the good of our Brethren yea to the common good of Church and Common wealth For he that is bound to Love his Brother and the Common-wealth is bound to rejoyce and glory in their benefits But certainly the mortification of every individual member doth tend to the good of each part and of the whole Oh how profitably should we converse together if it were not for this sin How peaceable and edisying and comfortable would our conversation be to all about us We should not then tempt them to sin by our example nor disturb the peace of families or neighbourhoods by the distempers of our souls and lives â—or draw down Gods judgements on the places where we live No wonder if all about them be the worâ—â— for one unmortified man and if the Ship be in sudden danger till Ionah be cast over-board or if Israel be dismayed for Achans sin And all that are about them may fare the better for a mortified Believer In this respect therefore we must glory in our mortification 13. It is certainly lawfull to glory in that which is the earnest of our heavenly everlasting glory or a note or evidence of our title to it For it cannot be that Felicity can be desired as Felicity which is with our highest affections and endeavours but we must needs glory in that which assureth us that we shall attain it But our Mortification is a certain sign of our title to it and an earnest of it And therefore we may justly glory in our Mortification 14. Lastly it is undoubly meet that we glory in that which is Pleasing to God our Father For the Pleasing of him is our ultimate end and the doing of his will is the whole work of our lives And therefore if we may not glory in that we may glory in nothing at all Even Christs own Sacrifice and Merits and holy Life are therefore to be extolled because they were fully Pleasing unto God and the full Commendation which the Father giveth him was This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3. 17. Now it is certain that God is pleased also with the mortified souls and lives of his people and that through Christ they are amiable and acceptable to him 1 Cor. 7. 32. 1 Thes. 4. 1. 2 Tim. 2. 4. Heb 13. 16. They that walk with God by faith have this testimony as Henoch had that they please God Heb. 11. 5. Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God and whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight 1 Iohn 3. 21 22. To this end is all our wisdom and knowledge that we may walk worthy of the Lord in all well-pleasing being fruitful in every good work Col. 1. 9 10. He is not a Christian that Rejoyceth not in that which is pleasing to the Lord. The Righteous Lord Loveth righteousness Psal. 11. 7. And he Loveth a chearfull giver 2 Cor. 9. 7. And shall we not glory in that which is beloved of God You see then the truth of the point is most evident SECT XXIV Use 1. THE first Use that we shall make of this part of the Observation before we proceed to the explication of the other parts is To inform us of the mistake and injurious dealing of some misguided ones commonly called Antinomians who tell us that we must look at nothing in our selves nor fetch comfort from it and earnestly exclaim against the Preachers of the Gospel for teaching men to look at any thing in themselves and to take comfort from the Evidence of their graces and tell us that we must look to Christ alone and call all those Legall Preachers or Professors that be not of their mind in this But you may see by what is said before that they speak against the clearest fullest Evidence and that the whole stream of Scripture beareth down their opinion And therefore it is sad that when they go against the light of the Sun they should be so confident as to accuse their Brethren of darkness and so rash as to censure them as Legalists and ignorant of the righteousness of Christ. Let us a little distinguish and all the mists of their accusations will vanish and the case will be clear 1. We must distinguish between Carnal Self which we are called in Scripture to deny And Self as it signifieth our personal being And this we are commanded in Scripture to Love and Cherish For we must Love our neighbours but as our selves and a man must cherish and nourish his wife but as his own body and love her but as himself for no man ever yet hated his own flesh Eph. 5. 28 29 33. And Self in the third sense as taken for Renewed Self that certainly none is bound to hate Now in the first sense its true that we must look at Nothing in our selves for comfort that is at nothing in our carnal selves But of self in the other two senses we must further enquire 2. We must distinguish between that which is both in our selves and of our selves originally and that which is in our selves but not of our selves but of God by Christ Or only of our selves in subordination to Christ. The former sort we have small reason to glory in for it is our sin and shame But the later we may glory in for the glory redoundeth to the author 3. We must distinguish between Looking at something in our selves with a mistaking eye as judging it Meritorious or to be more our own then it is And looking at it with a right judgement and saying
taken is wonderful There are unsearchable wonders of Love and wonders of Iustice wonders of Wisdom and wonders of Power It s the admiration of Angels the study of all Saints to know the height and breadth and length and depth and when they have all done they find that the Love of Christ surpasseth knowledge As all other knowledge of arts creatures languages is nothing in comparison of the knowledge of a Crucified Christ so our own knowledge is too narrow to comprehend the greatness and too dull to reach to the bottom of the mysterie of this design of the heavenly Love Eph. 3. 17 18 19. When Christ hath posed men and Angels with wonders in our Redemption And when we have done nothing in it our selves its easie to perceive in whom we should Glory 2. Consider also that it is Christ that God hath advanced to this Glory and it is the magnifying of him that is designed by God and not of such as you It s true that he intendeth to Glorifie us with Christ and that in some participation of his Glory But that is not by ascribing merit and power and wisdom to us nor by praising us for that which indeed we have not but it is by communicating some of the Spirit of Christ unto us and letting us see the glory of our head Though we may see the brightness of the Sun and have the comfort of its raies yet that doth not make us Suns our selves So though we shall be where Christ is and behold his Glory 1 Iohn 17. 24. and exercise our selves in his eternal praise yet all this is but a derived dignity communicated to us by the aspect of our Lord and therefore it will not be our work to praise our selves but him Rev. 5. 9. Him hath God advanced to be a Prince and a Saviour Acts 5. 31. and made him head over all things to the Church Eph. 1. 22. and delivered all things into his hand 1 Joh. 13. and given him all power in heaven and earth Mat 28. 18. a name above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee shall bow Phil. 2. 9 10. and to this end he dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord of the dead and of the living Rom. 14. 9. So that the exalting of the Redeemer is a more principall end in the work of Redemption then our exaltation and in ours we are passive receiving the dignity which from him is communicated to us but Christ with his Father is the fountain and end of his own glory 3. Consider also your Debasement in condemnation and humiliation is the designed way to the glory of your Redeemer and in it your own glory This is his honour that when the Law had condemned you he absolved you by his Ransom and when you were dead in trespasses and sins he quickned you through the riches of mercy and the great Love wherewith he loved you Eph. 2. 4 5. you must be sick before he can have the honour of curing you He will â—ay you at the feet of God in shame crying out Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called a son make me one of thy hired servants You shall call your selves foolish disobedient even mad and the greatest of sinners Tit. 3. 3. Acts 26. 11. 1 Tim. 1. 15. If therefore you begin to glory in your selves you contradict the glory of Christ and consequently hinder the glory you should receive from him You have but the benefit of receiving his alms and therefore must stand in the posture of beggars but it is he and not you that must have the honour of giving it You must be Nothing that he may be All or else you will be Nothing indeed You must not Live but Christ in you or else you will not Live indeed Gal. 2. 20. You must be found in him not having your own Righteousness which is of the Law or works but the Righteousness which is of Christ by faith or else you will lose your selves and your righteousness Phil. 3. 9. And thus the just being dead in themselves must live by faith but if any be lifted up his soul is not upright in him Heb. 2. 4. Christianity therefore teacheth you to glory in Christ and not in your selves 4. Consider it is Christ and not you that revived your souls when you were dead in sin and Crucified you to the world to which you were alive You might have rotted and stunck in the grave of sin if he had not called you out You saw the spectacles of Mortality before your eyes and you could say The world is vain before But yet it lived in your hearts till power came from Christ to kill it Words were but wind you would never have let go your bone of present worldly pleasure if Christ had not taken it out of your jaws by shewing you the hopes of greater things Long might you have heard Sermons and yet have been carnal still if his Spirit had not entered into your hearts Seeing then it is he that hath done the cure so far as it â—is done it is in him that you must glory and not in your selves 5. Consider if yet he should deal with you according to your deservings the remnants of your sin would bring you to damnation If yet he did not hide your nakedness and by his intercession procure you a daily pardon you would every day be your own distroyers nay you would not be an hour longer out of hell If he did not bring you before his Father you could have no access to him in any of your addresses Your sacrifices would be cast back into your faces as dung if the merit of his sacrifice made them not accepted So that by this you may see in whom you must still glory 6. Now you have a little grace you cannot keep it of your selves Now you are made alive you cannot keep your selves alive If you be not preserved by him that did revive you and kept by his mighty power to salvation and if he be not the finisher of your faith who was the author of it how speedily how certainly would you prove apostates and undo all that hath been so long a doing If then you stand not on your own legs but are carryed in his arms you may see in whom it is that you should glory 7. Nay more if you were left to your selves but to resist one temptation it would bear you down You now think of many sins with an holy scorn But the filthyest of those sins would become your pleasure if you were forsaken by Christ. You now look on whoredom and gluttony and drunkenness and ambition as dirt and dung But if Christ should forsake you this dung would you feed upon and as dogs you would eat up the filthyest vomit that ever you did disgorge your selves of and as swine you would choose that mire for your bed and rest in it till hell awaked
that way That 's your chief honour which is most your own and least borrowed from others The deserving Son of a beggar is more truly honourable then the undeserving Son of a Lord. Glory rather that you are born again not of the flesh but of the Spirit not of corruptible seed but incoruptible the word of God that endureth for ever Your first birth how noble so ever makes you but children of wrath and slaves of Satan But your new birth is the truly honourable birth which makes you partakers of the Divine Nature the Sons of God the heirs of Heaven and Co-heirs with the Lord Jesus 1 Pet. 1. 23. Iohn 3. 6. 1. 12. Rom. 8. 17. 8. Have you friends that love you and are able to countenance you and are daily tender of you and helpful to you Bless God for them but glory not in man For Cursed is is he that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and withdraweth his heart from the Lord Jer. 17. 5. Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Isa. 2. 22. Your best friends are uncertain and quickly lost and may turn so unkind as to break your hearts Or if their minds prove constant their lives are uncertain and the dearer they were to you with the greater grief you will lay them in the grave Or if you fall your selves into sickness they will prove but silly comforts to you They can but look on you and be sorry for you but that will not ease your pain nor succour you Oh how much more cause have you to glory in such a friend as Christ that will save you from sin and wrath and Hell In such a friend as God Almighty that can rebuke your diseases by a word Or make them tend to the cure of your souls and that will stick to you when others leave you with whom you must dwell in heaven for ever 9. Have you the pleasantest meats or drinks that your appetite desires the easiest lodgings the easiest lives the pleasantest recreations or companions Glory not in them These are the most desperate bait of the Devil and the common ruine of the world To take your fill and please your flesh and fit your lives to its desires is the very way to hell and the property of the slaves of Satan Your sweet meat will have sowre sauce If you live after the flesh you shall die but if by the Spirit you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live Rom. 8. 13. You know what became of him Luke 16. that was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared deliciously every day It s a heavy case to have your portion and all your good things in this life Rejoyce rather that you have conquered the desires of your flesh and have brought it into subjection That you are Masters of your appetites and can eat and drink to the glory of God and that you can deny your ease and endure hardness as a soldiour of Christ That you have pleasanter recreations in the waies of life and sweeter comforts then the flesh can have any and that you have delights that are more durable and meat to eat that others know not of Rejoyce that you have conquered the flesh your greatest enemy and so have escaped the greatest danger For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. 10. Have you the love of your neighbours and do all men men speak well of you Glory not in it as any of your felicity For it will be wo to many that are as well spoken of as you The world is not so wise nor so good that a man should much rejoyce in its good word Are they learned men that extoll you yet do not Glory in it They may boast you into Pride and Hell but they cannot add a cubit to the stature of your worth They see not the state of your soul and therefore you may be miserable when they have said their best Are they godly men that admire you and speak well of you yet Glory not in it as any certain Evidence of your felicity They speak as they think and may easily be deceived They are not your Judges As their hard thoughts cannot condemn you so their good thoughts or words cannot justifie you with God Oh Glory rather in Gods approbation who knows your heart to whose judgement it is that you stand or fall who judgeth not by outward appearance but in righteousness If he say Well done good and faithfull servant his words will be life to you but a thousand others may say so and do you no good at all but hurt 11. Are you famous for Learning and have you great parts in knowledge and utterance Glory not in it as any of your felicity or evidence thereof There are learneder men then you in hell the greatest knowledge of common things hath much sorrow and sheweth you so much of your ignorance and what is yet beyond your reach that it disquiets you the more Much more may you Glory that you know Christ Crucified and that you know your interest in the Love of God and can Love him whom you know without which all your knowledge would make you but as sounding brass or a tinckling Cymball Of all these together I may say Ier. 9. 23 24. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts let not the wise man Glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweh me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness judgement and righteousness 12. Have you spiritual mercies as well as corporall Take heed in what respect you Glory in them For example 1. Have you abundant and excellent means of grace Have you Ministers and holy Ordinances and Christian Communion in the purest order Glory in them as Gods mercies and helps to higher things But not as your felicity or a certain Evidence of it For many are first in these respects that will be last in respect of life Eternal The greatest fall is from the highest Mercies And many that had the chiefest place in the Church will have the â—orest place in hell Abominable Sodom will scape better then many hearers of the Gospel But Glory in this that you have the Spirit of the Gospel and that Christ within you that is preached in the Gospel 2. Have you much understanding in the Doctrine of the Gospel and are you eminent teachers of it to others Glory in it as an opportunity of serving your Lord and doing and getting good But not as a certain Evidence of a good estate For many shall say Lord have we not preached in thy name whom Christ will not own because they were workers of iniquity Mat. 7. 22. And he that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not