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
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
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
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
the way to that Mat. 5. 3. Blessed are the poor in Spirit It is not Blessed are the worldly rich Nor Blessed are the Glorified only But the reason is For theirs is the Kingdom of heaven that is in title but not in possession ver 2. Blessed are they that mourn And why are mourners blessed For they shall be comforted Luk. 6. 24 25. Wo unto you that are Rich for ye have received your consolation Wo unto you that are full for you shall hunger Wo unto you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep Wo unto you when all men speak well of you c. that is Wo to you that place your comfort and felicity in Riches and Fulness and Mirth and the Applause of men Yea though you possess the things you desire yet wo to you because you shall miss of the true and durable felicity Thus also run all the rest of the blessings in Matth. 5. Blessed are the meek Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness Blessed are the merciful Blessed are the pure in heart Blessed are the peace-makers Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake that is When you are so firm in the faith and so far in love with me and the heavenly reward that you can bear all these revilings and slanders and persecutions you are Blessed even when the troubles are upon you So that you see here that our present Blessedness consisteth in Mortification to present things and Hope of future And from the future the Reason of our present blessedness is fetcht They which hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled The merciful shall obtain mercy The pure in heart shall see God The peace makers shall be called the children of God The persecuted shall have the Kingdom of heaven Indeed to the meek it is promised in present that they shall inherit the earth as Psal. 37. 11. had before said that is It shall afford them accommodations for a travailer which is all that is desirable in it or can be expected from it For godliness hath the promise of this life and of that to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. Yea moreover there is a special promise to the meek above those godly persons that are most wanting herein For their passage through this world to heaven shall ordinarily be more peaceable and quiet to them then other mens They do not so molest their own minds and vex themselves nor make themselves troubles nor provoke others against them as the passionate do and commonly they are either loved or pittyed or easilyer dealt with by all So that you may see throughout the Gospel that our present blessedness is in Mortification and Hope as the way to our future blessedness which consisteth in fruition And therefore it is a a very great errour in Believers when they overlook the blessedness of a Mortified state and can see little in any thing but sensible fruition and rejoycings When you are low in afflictions and grieved for your corruptions and fill the ears of God and men with your complaints though you have not then the joyful sense of the Love of God yet me thinks you might easily perceive your Mortification And will that afford you no refreshing Do you not feel that you are Crucified to the world and your desires after it are languid and life-less Can you not truly say that the world is Crucified to you and that you look on it but as a Carkass as an empty lifeless and unsatisfactory thing Would you not gladly part with it for more of Christ Could you not let go credit and wealth and friends so that the Kingdom of God might be more advanced within you and you might live more in the Spirit by a life of faith Could you not be content to be poor in the world so that you might but be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him Why do you not then consider what a blessed condition you are in and that your Mortification is a Mercy that leadeth to salvation and as sure a token of the Love of God as your most sensible joyes Did you ever mark and conscionably practise that command of Christ Mat. 5. 12. to the persecuted reviled slandered Believers Rejoyce and be exceeding glad mark what a frame your Saviour would have you live in for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you So when you are poor and afflicted and have hearts that set light by earthly things in comparison of God and Glory you have cause to Rejoyce and be exceeding glad though you live under sufferings for thus it hath been with the true Believers that have gone before you SECT XXVI I Come now to the second Branch of the Observation which is that When Believers Glory in their own Mortification it must be as it is the fruit of the Cross of Christ that so all their Glorying may be principally and ultimately in Christ and not in themselves They must take heed of ascribing the honour to themselves or of resting in themselves but all their observation of the graces that are in them must be in pure respect to him that is the fountain and the end that we may thankfully acknowledge our receivings and admire the eternall Love which did bestow them and the compassions and merits of our Crucified Redeemer and the powerfull operations of his Spirit in our souls and so may be carried out to Love and Duty in the sense of our receivings and may live to the praises of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light And that you may see how great reason there is for this and so may be kept from glorying in your selves I shall open the cause to you as it lyeth both on Christs part and on ours What he is to us and what we are to our selves Consider 1. It was Christ and not we that wrought our deliverance by the wonderfull work of our Redemption Long enough might we have layen in prison before we could have paid the utmost farthing and long might we have born the wrath which we deserved before we could have done any thing to merit or any way procure our deliverance Had we wept out our eyes and prayed our hearts out and never committed sin again this would not have made satisfaction to God for the sin that was past Long enough might we have lain in our blood if this compassionate Redeemer had not taken us up and undertaken the cure Had he turned us off to any creature we had been left helpless Had we looked on the right hand for some to deliver us or on the left we should have found none Besides him there is no Saviour Isaiah 43. 11. Acts 4. 12. And moreover the way he hath
to give up your selves to pleasures and recreations and you think that you may do with your own as you list as if it had been given you to gratifie the flesh The words that converted Austin never suâ—k yet into your hearts Rom. 13. 13 14. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof You never felt the meaning of those words Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live But to turn my Complaint into an Admonition I beseech you consider what you are and what you do 1. How unlike are you to Iesus Christ your pattern that denyed himself all the Honours and Riches and Carnal delights of the world Read over his Life and Read your own and judge whether any man on earth be more unlike to Christ then a voluptuous worldly Gentleman Especially if Malignity be added to his sensuality 2. How unlike are you to the holy Laws of Christ. Are his precepts of Mortification and Self-denyal imprinted in your hearts and predominant in your lives Is a beast any more unlike a man then your hearts and lives are unlike Christs Laws 3. How unlike are you to the Antient Christians that forsook all and followed Christ and lived in a Community of Charity And how unlike to every gracious soul that is dead to the world and hath mortified his members upon earth and hath his conversation in another world Are you not such as Paul wept over Phil. 3. 18. Whose God is their belly who glory in their shame and who mind earthly things and that are enemies to the Cross of Christ. though perhaps you are no enemies to his Name Believe it Gentlemen whatever your thoughts of your selves may be you will find that no Religion will save you that stoopeth to the world and is but an underling to your fleshly interest 4. How unlike are you to your Profession and your Covenant with God and to your Confessions and Prayers to him Did you not renounce the flesh the world and the Devil in your Baptism Do you not still Profess that heaven is best and God is to be preferred and yet will you not do it but let your own Professions condemn you Do you not ordinarily confess that the world is vain and yet will you shew your selves such Dissemblers as to love and seek it more then God As if there were no more Power in the Spirit of Christianity then in the Opinion of Zeno the Philosopher who having oft said that Poverty and Riches were neitheâ— good nor bad but things indifferent was yet dismaye when he heard that his farms were seized on by the enemies the Prince having sent one with the report to try him telling him when he had done that Now Riches and Poverty were not things indifferent How oft have you prayed to be saved from Temptation and yet will you still date upon your snares and fetters and shew your selves such hypocrites as to love the temptations which you pray against 5. You are guilty of a double injury to God in that you are obliged to him as his Created subjects and yet more obliged by your Riches and Honours which he hath given you for your Masters use To whom men give much from them will they expect the more Luke 12. 48. For a servant that hath double wages to abuse you for a friend that hath received double kindness to prove false to you for a Commander in the Army to betray his General is sure an aggravation of the crime Must God advance you highest and will you thrust him lowest in your heart Must he feed you with the best and cloath you with the best and will you put him off with the worst Have you ten times or an hundred times more wealth from him then many an honest heavenly Believer and yet will you Love and Serve him less 6. Is it not pitty and shame that you should thus turn Mercies themselves into sin and draw your bane from that which might have been a blessing Will you be the worse because God is so good to you Must he give you health and time for his service and give you such plentiful provision and assistance and will you be worse in health then others are in sickness and worse in Plenty then others are in want Is not this the way to dry up the streams of Mercy when the more you have the worse you are 7. You exceedingly wrong the Church and Common-wealth For it is for the publick good that you are advanced and you should be a blessing to the Land And will you cast away that time and wealth upon the flesh which you have received for such noble ends Rob not the Church and Common wealth of what you owe it by engrossing it to your selves or consuming it on your lusts 8. Great men have a great account to make You shall shortly hear Give account of thy Steward-ship for thou shalt be no longer Stewarâ— If God have entrusted you you with a thousand pound a year it is not the same reckoning that must serve your turn as would serve his turn that had but an hundred Your improvement must be somewhat answerable to your receivings Do you need to be told how sad a reckoning it will then be to say Lord I imployed most of it in maintaining the Pomp and Pleasure of my self and family even that Pomp of the world and those sinful lusts of the flesh which in my Baptism I forswore and the rest I left to my children to maintain them in the same pomp and pleasure except a few scraps of my Revenews which I gave to the Church or poor 9. Your wealth and greatness do afford you great opportunities to do good and to further the salvation of your selves and others and worldliness and sensuality will rob you of these opportunities O how many good works might you have done to the honour of your Lord and the benefit of others and your selves if you had made the best of your Interest and Estates The loss of the Reward will shortly appear to you a greater loss then that which you now account the loss of your estates 10. Your worldliness and sensuality is a sin against your own experience and the experience of all the world You have long tryed the world and what hath it done for you that you should so over-value it You know that it is the common vote of all that ever tryed it sooner or later that it is vanity and vexation And have you not the wit or grace to learn from so plain a teacher as Experience yea your own experience yea and all the worlds experience 11. You sin also against your very Reason it self and against your certain knowledge You
know most certainly that the world will serve you but a little while You know the day is hard at hand when it will turn you off and you shall say I have now had all that the world can do for me Naked you came into it and naked you must go out of it Haud ullas portabis opes Acherontis ad undas And then you shall more sensibly know what you now so overvalued and what you preferred before God and your salvation then now I am able to make you know O what low thoughts will every one of you have of all your pomp and pleasure your vain-glory and all your fleshly accommodations when you perceive that they are gone and leave your souls to the â—ustice of that God whom for the love of them you wilfully neglected If poor men of mean and low education were so soâ—â—ish as not to know these things me thinks it should not be â—…ith you that are bred to more understanding then they 12. Lastly you sin against the most plain and terrible passages of Scripture seconded with dreadful judgements of God inflicted either upon your selves or at least on others of your rank before your eyes You have read or heard the words of Christ Luk 9. 25. For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself and be cast away And Luke 12. 33 34. Sell all that you have and give alms provide your selves baggs which wax not â—ld a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approacheth neither moth corrupteth For where your treasure is there will your hearts be also You have heard there the terrible Parable of the Rich man Luke 12. 16 17 18 19 20. which endeth with Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided with this general application So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not Rich towards God And you have heard that more dreadful Parable Luke 16. of the Rich man that was cloathed in purple and fared sumptuously and what was his endless end You have heard the difficulty of the salvation of the Rich. Luke 18. 24 25. How hardly shall they that have Riches enter into the Kingdom of God Because they are so hardly kept from loving them inordinately and trusting in them You have heard how fully Christ is resolved that no man can be his Disciple that forsaketh not all that he hath for him Luke 14. 33 26 27. And if you go never so far in your Obedience and yet lack this one thing to part with all in affection and resolution and practise when he requireth it and follow Christ in sufferings and wants in hope of a treasure in heaven its certain that Christ and you must part Luke 18. 22. You have heard the terrible passages in Jam. 5. 1 2 c. and abundance such in the word of God And yet are you not afraid of worldliness or sensuality You have seen in England the Riches of abundance quickly scattered that were long in gathering and God knows how many lost their souls to build that which a few years wars pull'd down And yet when you have but a little breathing time you are at it again as eagerly as ever as men that knew no greater good and are acquainted with no better and more gainful an employment Gentlemen do you know indeed what it is that you make so great a stir for which you value at so high a rate which you hold so fast which you enjoy so delightfully You do not know I dare say by your using of it that you do not know it Or else you would soon have other thoughts of it and use it in another manner Come nearer and see it through and look into the inside Consult not with blind and partial sense but put on a while the spectacles of faith go into the Sanctuary and see the end Nay Reason it self may tâ—ll you much of it When you must part with it you 'l wish it hang'd loose from you and not been so glued to you as to tear your hearts You feel not what the Devils lime-twigs have done till you are about to take wing either by an heavenly contemplation or by death and then youâ—l find your selves entangled The world is like to bad Physitians quoâ—um successus Sol intuetur errores autem Tellus operit The earth beareth yet all the good it doth you but Hell hath hidden from you the mischief that it hath done to millions of your Ancestors and therefore though this their way was their folly yet do their posterity approve their sayings Psal. 19. 13. Dic miâ—i saith Bernard ubi sunt amatores mundi qui ante pauâ—a tâ—n pâ—…nobiscum fuerunt Nihil ex ejâ— remaâ—sit nisi cinâ—â—â—s vermes Attende diligenter qui sunt suerunt siâ—…ru commederunt biberunt riserunt duxerunt in bonis dies suos in puncto ad inferna descenderunt Hic caro eorum vermibus illic anima eorum slammis deputatur donec rursus infelici collegio colligati sempiternis ignibus in volvantur Who would so value that which he must eternally complain of and not only say It hath done me no good but also say It hath deceived me and undone me I would not thank you to make me the Owner of all your Lands and Honours to day and take it from me all to morrow What the better now are your Grand fathers and great Grandfathers for living in those houses and possessing those lands and honours and pleasures that you possess Vnless they used them spiritually and holily for God and heaven and the common good they are now in hell for their sensuality upon earth and are reaping as they have sown Gal. 6 7 8. and paying dear for all their pleasures Their bones and dust do give you no notice of any remnants of their honours or delights and if you saw their souls you would be further satisfied It may be there stands agilded Monument over their rottenness and dust and it may be they have left an honourable name with those that follow them in their deceit and so might the tormented Rich man with his Brethren Luke 16. who were following him towards that place of torment A just judgement of God it is to to give up men that choose deceit to be thus befooled That they should not only despise the durable Riches and choose a dream of honour wealth and pleasure here but also that their end may answer their beginning they should also take up with a picture of honour and felicity when they are dead That their deceived posterity may see a guilded Image bearing an honourable mention of their names and hear them named with applause and so may be allured thee more boldly to go after them And so a shadow of wisdom and vertue hath a shadow of surviving Honour for its Reward which alas neither soul nor body
it executed its deceits We must give it the Gall and Vinegar of penitent tears and threatned judgements The vvorld thus despised and rejected Christ making him a man of sorrows and acquainted with our griefs they hid their faces and esteemed him not Isa. 53. 3. He had no form or comeliness in their eyes and when they saw-him there was no beauty that they should desire him Vers. 2. So must we despise and reject the world and hide our faces from it and not esteem it disdaining even to look upon its pomp and vanity and to observe its gawdy alluring dress or once to regard its enticing charms We must think it all into a loathsom vanity till there appear to us no form or comeliness in it nor any beauty for which we should desire it and wonder what they can see in it that so far dote upon it as to part with Christ and salvation to enjoy it The world did even triumph over a crucified Christ and shake their heads at him and say He saved others but himself he cannot save And we must triumph through Christ over the crucified world and say This is it that promised such great matters to its deceived followers that men esteemed before God and glory and now as it cannot save them from the dust or the wrath of God so neither can it save it self from this contempt that Christ doth cast upon it Cast down this Idol out of your hearts and say If he be a God let him help himself Lastly the world when they had crucified Christ did bury him and rowl a stone on his Sepulcbre and seal it up and watch it with souldiers to secure him from rising again if they could And we must even bury the crucified world and be buried to the world and lay upon it those weighty considerations and resolutions and seal thereto with Sacramentall obligations and follow all this with persevering watchfulness that may never permit it to revive and rise again And thus must we learn from the Cross of Christ how the world is to be crucified as it used Christ we must use it For it is the whole course of Christs humiliation that is meant here by his Cross the rest being denominated from the most eminent part and therefore from the whole must we fetch our pattern and instructions by the direction of the Allegory in my Text. SECT V. BUT it will not be unprofitable if we more particularly and orderly acquaint you with those Acts which the crucifying of the world to our selves doth comprehend over-passing those by which Christ did it for us on the Cross till anon in the due place 1. The first act is To esteem the world as an enemy to God and us and so as a Malefactor that deserveth to be crucified And this must not be only by a speculative-conception but by a true confirmed practical judgement which will set all the powers of the soul on work It is the want of this that makes the world to Live and Reign in the hearts of so many yea even of thousands that think they have mortified it A speculative Book-knowledge that will only make a man talk is taken instead of a practical knowledge Almost every man will say The world is a great enemy to God and us but did they soundly and heartily esteem it to be such they would use it as such Never tell me that that man takes the world for his deadly enemy who useth it as his dearest friend Enmity and deadly enmity will be seen Here is no room to plead the command of loving our enemies at least no man can think that he must love it with a Love of friendship and therefore with no love but what is consistent with the hatred of a deadly enemy This serious deep apprehension of Enmity is the very spring and poise of all our opposition We cannot heartily fight with our friend or seek his death There must be some anger and falling out before we will make the first assault and a settled enmity before we will make a deadly war of it This apprehension of enmity consisteth in an apprehension of the hurtfulness of the world to us and of the opposition it maketh against God and our salvation and of the danger that we are in continually by reason of this opposition So far as men conceive of the world as Good for them so far they take it for their friend and love it For no man can choose but love that which he seriously conceiveth to be Good for him This complacency is clean contrary to the Christian hostility But when we conceive of it as that which we stand in continual danger of being everlastingly undone by this will turn our hearts against it It undoes men that they have not these apprehensions of the world and that deeply fixed and habituated in their minds For it is the Apprehension or Iudgement of things that carryeth about the whole man and setteth awork all the other faculties Quest. But what should we do to be so habitually apprehensive that the world is our enemy Answ. 1. You must be sure that you lay up your treasure in heaven That you are so convinced by Faith of the Glory to come and of the true felicity that consisteth in the fruition of God as that you take it for your Portion and make it your very End And when once you have laid up your Hopes in heaven and see that there or no where you must be happy this will presently teach you to judge of all things else as they either help or hinder the attainment of that end For it is the Nature of the End to put a due estimate upon all things else And it is the property of the chief Good to denominate all other things either Good or Evil and that in a greater or lesser measure according as they respect that chiefest Good For there can be no Goodness in any thing else but the Goodness of a Means And the means is so far Good as it is apt and useful for the attainment of the End If once therefore you unfeignedly take God and Glory for your end and felicity you will presently fall upon enquiry and observation what it is that the world will do to help or hâ—nder that felicity 2. And then you need but one thing more to the discovery of the Enmity and that is the Constant experience of your souls A real living Christian doth live for God and is upon the motion to his eternal home There is his heart and that way his affections daily work When he findeth his soul down he windeth it up again and straineth the spring of faith and love And therefore his life and business being for heaven he cannot but be sensible of the rubs that are in his way and take notice of those things that would stop him in this course Whereupon he must needs find by constant experience that the world is that great Impediment and so must
the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory The world is too low to be the joy of a Believer His higher Hopes do cloud and disgrace such things And as these forementioned Passions in the Concupiscible so also their contraries in the Irascible must be Crucified E. G. 1. A man that is Dead to the world will not Hate or be much Displeased with those that hinder him from the Riches or Honours or Pleasures of the world He makes no great matter of it and taketh it for no great hurt or loss And therefore rather then study revenge he can patiently bear it when they have taken away his coat if they take away his cloak also He doth not swell with malice against them that stand in the way of his advancement or hinder his rising or riches in the world He will not envy the precedency of others nor seek the disgrace or ruine of them that keep him low No more then a wise man will hate or seek to be revenged of him that would hinder him from climbing up to the top of a steeple or that will take a stone or â— bush of thorns out of his way 2. A man that is Crucified to the world will not avoid or flie from any Duty though the performance of it cross his worldly commodity or hazard all his worldly interest He seeth not reason enough in worldly losses to draw him to the committing of sin to avoid them An unmortified man will be swayed by his worldly Interest That must be no Duty to him which casteth him upon sufferings and that is no Good to him which would deprive him of his sensual Good And that shall be no sin to him which seems to be a matter of Necessity for the securing of his hopes and happiness in the world Whatever is a mans end he puts a Must upon the obtaining it and upon all the Means without which it will not be attained I Must have God and Glory saith the Believer whatever I want and therefore I Must have Christ I Must have faith and love and obedience whatever I do And so saith the sensualist my life and credit and safety in the world Must be secured whatever I miss of and therefore I Must avoid all that would hazard or lose them and I Must do that which will preserve them whatever I do The worldling thinketh there is a Necessity of his being sensually happy or at least of preserving his life and hopes on earth But the mortified Christian seeth no Necessity of Living much less of any of the sensual provisions which to others seem such considerable things And hence it is that the same Argument from Necessity draweth one man to sin and keepeth another most effectually from sin He that hath carnal Ends doth plead a Necessity of the sinful means by which he may attain them And he that hath the Ends of a true Believer doth plead a Necessity of avoiding the same sins which the other thought he must needs commit For Heavenly Ends are as much croft by them as earthly Ends are promoted by them We find a rich man in Luke 18. 23. that had a great mind to have been a Christian And if he had lived in our daies when the door is set a little wider open then Christ did set it there are some that would not have denyed him Baptism but would have let him in But when he heateth that the world must be renounced and Christ tells him of selling all and looking for a reward in another world he goes away sorrowful for he was very rich The man would have had pardon and salvation but he must needs be Rich or at least keep something And they that are so set upon it that they must and will be rich do fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. And he that maketh hast to be rich shall not be innocent Prov. 28. 20. But the Crucified world is a dead and ineffectual thing It cannot draw a man from Christ or duty It cannot draw a man into any known sin so far as it is Crucified It is as Sampson when his hair was cut its power is gone Thousands whose hearts were changed by grace could sell all and lay the price at the Apostles seet and could forsake all and take up their Cross and follow a Crucified Christ to the death and could rejoyce in tribulation and glory that they were counted worthy to suffer though he that was unmortified do go away sorrowful Worldly Interest doth command the Religion and life of the unmortified man because it is the predominant Interest in his heart But its contrary with the mortified Believer His spiritual Interest being predominant doth Rule him as to all the matters of this world 3. If you are Crucified to the world your care for worldly things is Crucified It is not in vain that Christ expresly commandeth his Disciples Take no thought for your life What ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet for your body what you shall put on Mat. 6. 25 31. And Phil. 4. 6. Be careful for nothing And 1 Pet. 5. 7. Casting all your care on him for he careth for you I know this is a hard saying to flesh and blood and therefore they study evasions by perverting the plain Text and would null and evacuate the express commands of Christ by squaring them to that carnal interest and reason which they are purposely given to destroy But you will say Must we indeed give over caring I answer 1. You must be in care about your own duty both in matters of the first and second Table and how to manage your worldly affairs most innocently and spiritually and to attain the Ends propounded in them by God But this is none of the care that is now in Question 1 Cor. 7. 32. There is a necessary caring for the things that belong to the Lord how to please the Lord and that even in your worldly business But 2. You may not care for the creature for it self nor for the meer pleasing of the flesh As it may not be Loved for it self so neither may it be cared for for it self And 3. When you have used your utmost care or forecast to do your own duty you may not be Anxious or Careful about the issue which is Gods part to determine of As God himself appeareth in Prosperity or Adversity you may and must have regard unto the issue But for the thing it self you must not when you have done your own duty be any further careful about it God knoweth best what is good for you and how much of the creature you are fit to manage and what condition of body is most suitable to the condition of your soul And therefore to him must the whole business be committed When you have committed your seed to the ground and done your duty about it you must have
they are animated by God then it is to ride a dead horse where you may spur long enough before you are one mile further on your way While your friend is living you may delightfully converse with him but when he is dead you will have little pleasure in his company the corpse of the most learned man will actively teach you no more then a block Were it the wiâ—e of your bosom who through prudence and beauty were never so lovely to you when her carkaise is left without a soul you will hasten to bury it out of your sight and would be loath so much as to keep it in your house much less in your bed and bosom as heretosore He that knoweth not that God is the Life and Soul of all our Blessings doth neither know what God is nor what a Blessing is They are but the empty casks and shells and not the Blessings themselves without him You have the Burden and not the Benefit You must carry them but they can do nothing to the supporting of you It s the absence of God that denominateth them Vanity and Vexation and it is he only that can make them strengthening and consolatory That must have some life in it that must be pabulum vitae and must sustain our lives Souls cannot feed upon meer terrene corporeal things any more then the body upon meer spirituals As we have both a soul and a body to be sustained so have we a sustenance suitable to them both even the creature animated by God or God in and by the creature How great then is your sin that destroy your blessings by depriving them of their Life and that in a sort destroy the world to your selves by separating it from its soul and so most â—ainously injure God and rob your selves of the comfort of all and turn your blessings into burdens and your helps into hinderances and snares to your souls Have you lived so long in the School of the world yea and of the Church too where you have not only the Library of Nature but supernatural Revelations to teach you to understand it and yet do you not know a word or letter You do but lose and abuse the creatures of God if you see him not in them and if you be not in the use of them led up to himself The heavens declare the Glory of God and the â—irmament sheweth his handy work Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge there is no speech or language where their voice is not heard their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world Psal. 19. 1 2 3. and yet poor carnal wretches will not understand them All the works of God do praise him for he is righteous in all his waies and holy in all his works Psal. 145. 10 17. and yet the wicked will not understand O how many talents must the ungodly be accountable for as having neglected them and perverted them from the prescribed use Every creature that you see is a Teacher of Divine things to you and you shall answer for your not learning by them Every creature is an Herald sent from heaven to proclaim the will of your Maker and your Duty and you gaze upon the Messenger and note his garb and hear his voice and never understand or regard his Message I would you did but consider what you lose by this your folly and what life and sweetness there is in creatures which the heavenly believer draweth forth and you have no taste of And till the Spirit of Sanctification have fitted you to such a work you are never like effectually to taste it For it is not every flie that can suck honey from the sweetest flower though the Bee can do it from that which we call a stinking weed An ignorant Country-man hath a Meadow that aboundeth with variety of herbs he can make no other use of them then to feed his cattle with them Or if he walk into his garden he can only smell the sweetness of a flower but a skilful Physitian that knows their use can thence fetch a medicine that may be a means to save his life But the Believing soul can yet go further and there find that which may further his salvation If you have a Lease of your Lands or a pardon for your life that 's written in an excellent character There 's a great deal of difference between another mans delight in viewing the character and yours in considering of the security you have by it for estate or life But the difference is much greater in our present case between those that have only the superficial sweetness and beauty of the creature to the pleasing of the flesh and those that have God in it to the spiritual refreshing of their souls Believe it Sirs it is not a small sin to pervert the whole creature that 's within our reach to a use so contrary to that which it was appointed to as foolish worldlings do not only to lose that use and benefit of the creatures which we might have but to turn all into poison and death to our selves Not only to rob God of that Love and Honour and Service which they should procure him but also to turn all this upon themselves I tell you this will prove no venial sin 5. And your Guilt herein is further aggravated in that you do hereby as much as in you lyeth frustrate the works of Creation and Redemption For God made all things for himself and you use nothing for him The Redeemer hath reprieved and restored the creature for its primitive use that God might yet have the Glory of his works and yet you will not give it him but when you pretend to know God you Glorifie him not as God but become vain in your imagination your foolish hearts being darkned as Paul tells them Rom. 1. 21. And what doth that man deserve that would as to the use destroy all the world and frustrate all Gods works both of Creation and Redempion 6. Herein also you are guilty of Enmity against God For this is the greatest wrong that an enemy can do him to rob him of the glory of his Goodness and Power and to preser his creatures as if they were more amiable then himself You cannot dethrone him from his glory but you may possibly deny him the preheminence in your hearts You may deny him the Kingdom within you but you cannot dispossess him of his Eternal Power or Kingdom without you The worst enemy that God hath can do him no harm but this is no thanks to you he will not be beholden to you for it You may as truly shew your Enmity by wronging as by hurting And what greater injury can you offer to the Almighty then to set up the silly creature in his stead and give it that Love and Service which is his due 7. Moreover you are guilty of wilfull self murder you choak your selves
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
men can be guilty of such sins as these Answ. Through the remnant of their corruptions and the power of temptations even learned godly men may be made the powerful Instruments of Satan to shatter and destroy your reputation for ever on earth and make even Countries and Kingdoms to believe that of you from Generation to Generation which never entred into your soul and by their means if you were persons of so much note you might be recorded in history to posterity as guilty of the crimes of which you were most innocent yea much more innocent then the reporters themselves So that it will be the work of Christ at the day of Judgement to clear the names of many an innocent one that hath gone under the repute of an Heretick a proud malicious man an Adulterer a Deceiver and a meer unconscionable and ungodly person even from age to age and that among the godly themselves by receiving the slander at first from some one that had the advantage to procure a belief of it It s like it was a seeming godly man that had been Davids own familiar friend in whom he trusted and which did eat of his bread Yet was he used in this kind by such Psal. 41. 6 7 9. And Psal. 55. 12 13 14. he saith It was not an enemy that reproached me then I could have born it neither was it he that hated me that did magnifie himself against me then I would have hid my self from him but it was thou a man mine equal my guide and mine acquaintance we took sweet counsel together and walked to the House of God in company Obj. But perhaps you may think I le walk so carefully and innocently that no man shall have any matter of such reproach Answ. 1. There is none of the imperfect Saints on earth that can be free from giving all occasions of reproach 2. And were you perfectly innocent it would not free you Nay your innocency it self may be the occasion of those reports that proclaim you wicked For it is not that which really is a fault but that which they think so that is the matter of such mens accusations The Apostles of Christ that walked in such eminent holiness and self denyal and consumed themselves for the good of others could not escape the tongues of slanderers but were accounted as the very scum and off-scouring of all things and as a by-word and even a gazing stock to Angels and men And the blessed Son of God who was holy harmless undefiled and separated from sinners was yet reputed one of the greatest of sinners and Crucified as such And he that could challenge them which of you convinceth me of sin was commonly defamed of what he was innocent of If Iohn came fasting they say he hath a Devil If Christ eat and drink temperately with sinners that he might take opportunity to feed their souls they say Behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber a friend of publicans and sinners Mat. 11. 18 19. They that saw him eat and drink with sinners had so fair a pretence to raise their reproach that they might the easilyer procure belief though it was perfect innocency it self which they reproached The best men on earth have ever had experience that there is no caution that can defend from a slanderous tongue As Erasmus once calumniated saith Fatalis est morbus calumniandi omnia Et clausis oculis carpunt quod nec vident nec intell gunt Tanta est morbi vis Atque interim sibi videntur Ecclesiae columnae quâ—m nihil aliud quam traducant suam soliditatem pari malitia conjunctam c. How oft was good Melancthon fain to complain that there is no defence against a quarrelsom slanderous tongue and the too much sense of it did almost break his heart Obj. But at least I can say as the Philosopher If they will reproach me and speak evil of me I will so live that no body shall believe them Answ. Wherever there be men to make the report there will lightly be enough to believe it And if they that know you will not believe it yet that 's but a few to the most of them abroad that hear of you and know you not You may see then by this time if Reputation with men be the thing you over-value what a vain uncertain thing it is and how easily God can make your sorrow arise even from thence where you expected your vain applause And you will find by experience if you do not prevent it that while you over-value this or any earthly thing you are in the road to these afflictions It is Gods ordinary dealing with his children and frequently with others to punish them by their Idols and to make them sickest of that which they have most greedily surfeited of Could you but Crucifie the world and use it for God it would have no power thus to vex and crucifie your minds It is you that sharpen it and arm it against your selves and give it all the strength it hath by your over-valuing over-loving it It s like a Spaniell that will love those best that beat him but if you cocker it it will fly in your faces Obj. But I may fall under all these afflictions whether I love the world or not Answ. 1. But your perverse affections do provoke God to multiply such afflictions Had you not rather bear a smaller measure and taste of a cup that hath less of the gaâ—â— 2. And if you were but Crucified to the world the same Afflictions would be as nothing to your mind which now seem so grievous to you and cast you into such vexations and discontents If it did as much to your flesh it could not reach the heart and if all be sound and well within it s no great matter how it is without The very same kind of affliction whether it be poverty sickness slanders or other wrongs are as nothing to a man that is dead to the world which seem intolerable to unmortified men For the heart and soul of the unmortified are the seat and subject of them when the mortified Christian hath a Garrison within and blots the door and keeps them from his heart What great trouble will it be to any man to part with that which he doth not care for especially while he keepeth that which hath his heart It s no great trouble to a worldling to want the love of God or communion with him nor to be without the life of grace nor to lie under the burden of the greatest sins and to be the slave of the Devil because he is dead in sin and dead to God and the things of the Spirit and therefore he perceiveth not the excellency of them but is well content to live without them And if spiritual death can make men so contented without the great unvaluable treasure and can make men set light by God and Glory What wonder if they that are dead to the
censure them because they cannot prove them to be such Deceivers When yet the very bent and course of their lives proclaimeth them worldlings to almost all men but themselves who by the just but heavy judgement of God are given over to that blindness as not to see that damnable sin in themselves that the enemies of Religion see with scorn and their most impartial friends do see with lamentation but seeing it are not able to remedy for worldliness is the commonest badge of an Hypocrite and where there is a false heart at the bottom and but an hypocriticall faith and an hypocriticall love to God and the life to come there will be no effectual resistance of the world but all exhortations do come upon so great disadvantage with such souls that usually they are lost and leave them as they find them If any covetous scraping earth-worm whether he be Gentleman Tradesman or Husbandman do feel his conscience at the reading of this begin to stir I beseech him if there be any hope of such hypocrites to hearken to it in time and regard a little more the warnings of his friends and not to be so stiffly confident of his innocency nor yet to think himself free from hainous gross and scandalous sin as long as he is a covetous worldling If covetousness be idolatry and the sin of those with whom we may not so much as eat and if the covetous shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven and be such as the Holy Ghost doth joyn with thieves and the vilest sinners who then but an Infidel can think that it is not a scandalous sin and such as will be the damnation of all that be not throughly cured of it See Eph. 5. 5 6 7. 1 Cor. 5. 10 11. Psal. 10. 3. 2 Tim. 3. 2. 2 Pet. 2. 14. Luke 16. 14. Mark 7. 22. 2 Tim. 3. 2. Ier. 8. 10. 6. 13. David prayeth God to encline his heart to his testimonies and not to covetousness Psal. 119. 36. and now men think they may be enclined to both and that they have found out the terms of reconciling heaven with earth and hell I marvail these men will not see their own faces when the Prophets and Christ himself do hold them so clear a glass Ezek. 33. 31. They come unto thee as the people cometh and they sit before thee as my people and they hear thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousness Mat. 13. 22. He that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choak the word and he becometh unfruitful I know the men that I am now speaking of have many excellent gifts and in other respects do seem the forwardest for godliness in the Countrey but the more is the pitty that men of such parts should be rotten-hearted hypocrites and damned for worldliness after so much pains in duties For an heathen may as soon be saved as a worldling When they have prayed and preached and cryed down prophanness let them hear what the Lord saith to them Luke 18. 22 23 24. and there see again their faces in that glass Yet lackest thou one thing even such an one as none can be saved without even a Love to God and Heaven above earth sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come follow me And when he heard this he was very sorrowful for he was very rich And when Iesus saw that he was sorrowful he said How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God Set not then so high a value on a full estate Let your conversation be without covetousness and be contint with such things as ye have and trust your selves on the security of his promise who hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. It is not for nothing that Christ himself hath given you so many and so terrible warnings to take heed of this sin As Luke 12. 15. Take heed and beware of covetousness for a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things that he possesseth As if he should say While you think you are securing your well-being you do not secure your Being it self When you have done all to provide for the delights of your life you are never the surer of life it self Read the following passages in the Text and let them warn you or condemn you If such admonitions as these will not take from the mouth of him whom you call your Lord and from whom you profess to expect your Judgement What have we then further to say to you or how should our warnings expect entertainment with you Yet I shall do that which is my duty and leave the success to God I do therefore again in the name of God advise and warn you to Take heed of having too pleasant thoughts on a prosperous state Long not after fulness and plenty in the world Be not too eager for accomodations to your flesh A Coffin of two yards long will shortly hold it and be room enough for it And will nothing but well built houses adorned rooms the neatest cloathing and plentiful possessions serve you now How sad a mark is this of a soul that never had a saving taste of the everlasting riches Away foolish children and stand not building houses with sticks and sand Home with you to God and remember where you must dwell for ever When you have feathered your nests and made them as you would have them you must leave them before you are well settled and warm in them And if it comfort you to think that you leave them to your children remember that you leave them the fruit of your sins and bequeath to them the snares that undid your souls that so they may become the heirs of your wickedness and be deceived and destroyed by the world as you have been This is your great care for them and this is your kindness to them I have told you once already from God that this your way is your folly though your posterity be like to approve your sayings because you do so much to make them of your mind Psalm 49. 13. For though your inward thoughts be that your houses shall continue and you hope to leave a name behind you yet man being in honour abideth not but is like the beasts that perish When he dyeth he shall carry nothing away his glory shall not descend after him though whiles he lived he blessed his soul and men praise them that thus do well to themselves yet shall they go to the generation of their fathers and shall never see Light Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish Vers. 11 12 17 18 19 20. Though the ungodly prosper in the world and encrease in riches yet he
nor to labour after eternal things Christ telleth them that One thing is needful and would have them choose the better part which shall not be taken from them But they believe not Christ but hearken to their flesh and it telleth them that its Another thing that is needful and perswadeth them to choose the worser part which will shortly be taken from them Christ biddeth them Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life Iohn 6. 27. But venter non habet aures the flesh understandeth not such exhortations A greedy appetite is the reason that it judgeth by An hungry belly is not filled nor quieted with arguments They must have their present wants supplyed let what will become of their immortal souls And thus the Rich have so much to look after that they cannot have while to be diligent for their souls And the Poor have so much to seek after that they cannot have while And so the world abuseth them that Have it and that Want it As if two men that had forfeited their lives were travelling to London for a pardon and the one goeth so fair a way that he forgets his business and sitteth down picking flowers in the way and the other meets with so fowl a way that he thinks he is excused because he must take heed of being wet or dirtyed O Sirs if the world be Crucified to you how can it have such power over you as to cause you to neglect your greatest Lord and your immortal souls If indeed you are Dead to it and alive to Christ let it be seen in your families and be seen in all your duties and conversation Let the greatest persons that enter into your families attend the worship of him that is Greater or let them not be attended Neglect them that will neglect the service of God Remember that the fourth Commandment requireth you to see that the Sabbath be sanctified even by the stranger that is within your gates as well as by your selves and the servants that are in your houses If you have carnal Gentlemen at your table or are at theirs do not be your selves so carnal as to be ashamed of holy discourse in their presence or to suppress any speech that may tend to edification and to the honour of your Lord. Let them all know that you have greater matters to do then to attend and humour them and that you have a Master that must be Pleased whoever be displeased Take heed also that the world do not cause you to neglect the opportunities which are before you for your own advantage Miss not a Sermon which may be profitable to you without Necessity Miss not the help of private Instructions and Conference and other edifying Sacred duties without necessity Omit not any of your secret addresses to God without Necessity And take nothing for a Necessity but that which is at that time a greater duty then that which you do Omit I know that Works of Necessity and Mercy may be done even on the Lords day and acts of Worship may be delayed on such occasions for God will then have Mercy and not Sacrifice But Mercy on our own and others souls in seeking their relief must not be neglected for lower things And look not only to the Matter but the Manner of your duties that Worldliness do not destroy the Life and Vigour of them Turn out all thoughts of earthly things when you approach the Lord in holy worship Provoke not his jealousie by presenting before him a distracted mind or lifeless carkaise O what sleepy frozen duties do many professors offer to the Lord even from week to week because their hearts are so distracted by the world that they are to seek when God should have them 5. IF you are Crucified to the world take heed that you use no unlawful means for the procurement of worldly things Stretch not your consciences for the compassing of such ends Lay still before you the Rule of Equity Do as you would be done by Put your brother with whom you deal in your own case and your selves in his and so drive on your bargains in that mind If you did thus you would not sell too dear nor buy too cheap you would not make so many words to get his goods for less then the worth nor to sell your own for more then the worth Nay you would not take more then the worth if by ignorance or necessity your brother should offer it you nor give less then the worth though through ignorance or necessity he would take it The love of money hath so blinded many that in selling they think it to be no sin to take as much for a commodity as they can get and in buying they think it no sin to get the commodity as cheap as they can have it never once asking their own hearts How would I desire to be dealt with my self iâ— it were my own case Nay Covetousness is the common cause that maketh most of the world cry out against Covetousness When men are like ravenous greedy beasts that grudge at every bit that goes besides their own mouths they will reproach all that cross their covetous desires If they cannot by words perswade a tradesman to sell his ware at such rates as he cannot live by they will defame him as a covetous griping man and all because he fitteth not their covetous desires and all that will escape their censure of being covetous must shut up their shops ere long to the defrauding of their creditors If a Physitian that hath been a means to save their lives do demand but half his due it being the calling which he liveth on they will defame him as Covetous because he contradicteth their covetous desires and would have any thing from them which is so near to their hearts Let a Minister but demand his own which was never theirs but is his by the Law of the Land and they will reproach him like Quakers as a covetous hireling and if he will not suffer every worldly miser to rob him they will defame him as if he were sick of their disease So far are they from the Primitive practise of selling all and laying down at the feet of the Apostles that they would steal from the Church those Tenths which neither they nor their Fathers before them had any propriety in any more then in the Lands of any of their neighbours as in the case of Impropriators they are forced to confess Let a man give all that he hath to the poor and he shall be defaâ—â—ed as covetous because he will not give more then all I or if he give to nineteen and have not wherewith to satisfie the twentieth he that hath nothing or less then he expected is as much unsatisfied and as forward to speak evil of him as if he had given to none at all And usually so unreasonable are these covetous expectations that you may sooner displease ten of theâ—
profess themselves so Religious if you have any moderation left will you soberly answer me these Questions following Quest. 1. Is it the Hearts or the Outward actions of these professors that you perceive this covetousness by If it be the Heart you are slanderers and self idolizers For the Heart is open to none but God and will you make your selves Gods and that when you are playing the part of the Devil This hath been the tricks of Satans instruments in all ages When they are not able to say of the godly that they are swearers or drunkards or adulterers or stealers or lyars or slanderers as they themselves are they presently go to their hearts which are out of sight and say They are covetous and proud and the like For there they know that none but God is able to justifie them But common reason might also have taught them that none but God is there able to accuse them For how know you mens hearts but by their professions or by their lives But if you say It is the Life you judge by I demand what is it in the lives of such men that proves their covetousness If it be oppressing deceiving injustice or unmercifulness I would demand of you in the second place Quest. 2. Is it all or some of them that you thus accuse If you know some few to be such what is that to the rest But this hath been alwaies the trick of the malignant If they see one professor fall or prove an hypocrite they cry out They are all alike If you could but see their hearts they are all such Chrysostom and other of the Fathers tell us that this was the use in their daies and no wonder if it be so still What if there be one Cain in Adams family It follows not that Abel or Seth were like him What if there were one Cham in Noahs Ark will it follow that they were all alike or that his family was no better then the rest of the world which was drowned What if there was an Absalon in Davids family What if there was one Iudas among the Disciples of Christ Will you say therefore that all the rest were such or that Christs Disciples were as bad as others or his family no better then the rest of the world But I would further ask you Quest. 3. Is it the course of their lives that you judge by or is it some one particular action He that is not blind may see that the course and drift of their lives is less earthly and more heavenly then other mens And God judgeth of a man by the scope of his life and not by one single action and so must we The very bent and drift of your lives is worldly If a man come into your family what shall he see but worldliness If one fall into your company what shall he hear from you but about this world If one observe what you do from year to year he may see that you lay out your selves for the world You cannot refrain upon the Lords own day but you are minding it and talking of it You savour not any other discourse The very talk and labour that is laid out about another world is troublesom to you and its this that makes you dislike the godly You cannot say so of the course of their lives If once any of them have fallen by temptation into a miscarriage will you judge of all their lives by that Do they not lament and bewail it as long as they live after and avoid it more carefully for the time to come What if Noah were once drunk in his life will you judge of his whole life by it or say that he is as bad as the rest of the world What if Lot be given over to a temptation What if Abraham did once tell a lye or equivocate and Isaac do the like in a fear What if Moses did once provoke God What if David did once commit an hainous sin Or Peter did deny his Master in his fear Will you either judge of all other godly people by them Or will you judge of the course of their lives by one action which they bewail and lament as long as they live And can you see no difference between a Worldly action and a Worldly life Quest. 4. I would further know of you Whether you have gone to them in love and admonished them of their sin when you judged them to be guilty and heard them speak for themselves If not either you are incomperent judges or else you draw the guilt upon your selves and make the sin your own as the express commands of God will tell you in Levit. 19. 17. and Mat. 18. 15. If you have admonished them and they repent not why do you not tell the Pastors of the Church that they may admonish them and seek their reformation This is Christs order But you will not you dare not do this lest for want of proof you be proved slanderers and the shame of your accusations fall upon your selves You think you may whisper behind mens backs or accuse them in general without naming any particular fact and not be proved lyars But this will not hold long Quest. 5. Moreover I would know of you when you accuse men for not being more bountiful in your eyes Do you know of all their works of charity Are you acquainted with their bestowings Sure you are not For God hath commanded them Matth. 6. 1 2 3 4. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven therefore when thou doest thine alms do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do c. But when thou dost thine 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 This command they make conscience of and how then can you be meet judges of their alms Quest. 6. Also I would know Are you certainly acquainted with their particular estates and do you know how able they are to give If you do not you are no competent Judges How oft have I known men reproached for unmercifulness and for not being more liberall when they have been so low in their estates that they were not able to maintain their families or to pay every man his own and yet they that knew not this did back-bite them as covetous Quest. 7. Furthermore I would know Are you sure it is not Satan within you that prompteth you to these accusations Hear my evidence and judge He is called in Scripture the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12. 10. and he is described to be a Lying malicious spirit If therefore it be a Lying malignant malicious spirit then certainly it is the spirit of Satan And 1. We have cause to believe that it is a Lying spirit by these evidences following 1. We find
Tempter is hereby disarmed and he is disabled from doing that against you which with others he can do The Living world is the Life of Temptations As a Bear for all his strength and fierceness may be led up and down by the nose when by a ring the cord is fastened to his flesh So the Tempter leadeth men captive at his will by fastening together the world and their flesh He finds it no hard matter to entice a sensuall worldly mind to almost any thing that is evil Bid him lye or steal and if it be not for shame or fear of men he will do it Bid him neglect God and his worship and he will do it Bid him hate those that hinder his commodity or speak evil of them that cross his desires or seek revenge of those that he thinks do wrong him herein and how quickly will he do it The Devil may do almost what he list with those that are not Crucified to the world They will follow him up and down the world from sin to sin if he have but a golden bait to tice them But when the world is Crucified to you what hath he to entice you with The cord is broken by which he was wont to bind and lead you Can you tice a wise man by pins and counters as you may do a child If he would draw you from God he hath nothing to do it with for the world by which he should do it is now dead If he would tice you to pride or ambition or covetousness or to sinful means for worldly ends he hath nothing to do it with because the world is dead The Devil hath nothing but a little money or sensual pleasure or honours to hire you with to betray and cast away your souls And what cares a mortified man for these Will he part with Christ and heaven for money who looks on money as other men do on chips or stones It is the frame of mens hearts that is the strength of a temptation To a man that is in love with money O what a strong temptation is it to see an opportunity of getting it by sin But what will this move him that looketh on it as on the dirt in the streets To a proud man that is tender of his reputation in the world what a troublesom temptation is it to be reproached or slighted or slandered and what a dangerous temptation is it to him to be applauded But what are these to him that takes the approbation and applauses of the world but as a blast of wind As Christ saith of himself Iohn 14. 30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me that is He cometh to make his last and strongest assault but he shall find no carnall sinfull matter in me to work upon and he cometh by his instruments to perscute me to the death but he shall find no guilt in me which might make it a glory to him or a dishonour to me So in their measure the mortified members of Christ may say When Satan cometh by temptations the world is dead by which he would tempt them and he shall find little of that earthly matter in them to work upon and to entertain his seed and therefore when he afterward cometh by persecution he will find the less of that guilt which would be the oyl to enlarge and seed these flames Your innocency and safety lyeth much in this Mortification Benefit 4. ANother Benefit that followeth our Crucifixion of the world is this It will prevent abundance of needless unprofitable cost and labour that other men are at You will not be drawn to run and toyl for a thing of nought When other men are riding and going and caring and labouring for a little smoak or a flying shadow you will sit as it were over them and discern and pitty and lament their folly To see one man rejoyce that hath got his prize and another lament because he cannot get it and a third in the eager pursuit of it as if it were for their lives While they live as if they had forgotten the eternal Life which is at hand will cause you to lift up your soul to his praises that hath saved you from this dotage The world worketh on the sensual part first and thereby corrupteth and as it were brutifieth our very reason and the whole course of worldly designs and affairs even from the glorious actions of Kings and Commanders to the daily business of the plow-man and the beggar are all but the actions of frantick men or mad men I say so far as the affairs of the world are managed by this sensuall unmortified principle a sanctified Believer can look upon them all as on the runnings or tumults of children or ideots or on a game at Chests where wit is laid out to little purpose Mortification will help you to turn your thoughts and cares and labours into a more profitable course So that when the end comes you will have somewhat to shew that you have gained when others must complain that they have lost all their labour and worse then lost it What abundance of precious time do other men lose in dreaming pursuits of an empty deceiving transitory world When God hath taken off the poise from you of such unprofitable motion and taught you better to employ your time Many an hundred hours which others cast away upon worldly thoughts or discourse or practises are redeemed by the wise for their everlasting benefit Benefit 5. MOreover this Mortification Will help you to prevent a great deal of sharp Repentance which must tell unmortified worldlings of their folly When they have run themselves out of breath and abused Christ and neglected grace and either lost or hazarded their souls they must sit down in the end and befool themselves for losing their time and lives for nothing When God hath given a man but a short life and laid his everlasting life upon it and put such works into his hand as call for his utmost wisdom and diligence What a sad perplexing thought must it be to consider that all or most of this time hath been cast away upon worldly vanities If a man shall run away from his own Father and serve a Master that at last will turn him off with nothing but shame and blows will he not wish that he had never seen his face Such a Master all worldlings and sensualists do serve And he that got most by the world among them shall wish at last that he had never served it When the mortified Christian that slighted the world and laid out his care and labour for a better may so far escape the bitterness of such Repentings and be glad that he hath chosen the better part That is not the best meat that is sweetest in the eating when afterward it must be vomited up with pain because it cannot be digested The sparer dyet of Mortified men will prevent such after pains and troubles Benefit 6.
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
so as that we give the Glory to God and not to our own corrupted wills 6. And when we are called hereto we must do it very cautelously as Paul doth 1 Cor. 4. 4. I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified Signifying that we do it with holy intentions for the good of the hearers and the honour of God as he doth 1 Cor. 4. 1 2 6 8. to the end And 2 Cor. 2. 5 6 c. 1 Cor. 9. throughout 2 Cor. 3. 1 2 c. And we must so do it as to confess it is like to folly it being the custom of proud fools to be boasters of themselves And so Paul when he is called to mention his priviledges calls it his folly in this sense 2 Cor. 11. 1 17 19 23. lest others should be encouraged to sinfull boasting by his example if he did not brand it by the way with the note of folly though it was but materially so in him being the matter that folly is by others exprest in but formally in the proud 2 HAving told you How we may Glory in our own Mortification I shall next give you the proof of the point that we may so do And first it is proved by the example of Paul himself both here in my Text and in many other places 2 Cor. 5. 11 12 13. 2 Cor. 11. throughout 2 Cor. 12. throughout Vers. 5 6. Of such a one will I glory yet of my self I will not glory but in mine infirmities that is not in any thing that seemeth to advance me in the eyes of the world lest it should seem a carnal Glorying or men should be drawn thereby to overvalue me but in such things as men rather pitty or villifie for even my worldly meanness and contemptibleness and sufferings for Christ though before God these are honourable and therefore I will glory in them openly as secretly I may do in all other graces So it followeth For though I would desire to Glory I shall not be a fool for I will say the truth But now I forbear lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be or that he heareth of me And so Vers. 9 10 11. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me that is that my Glorying may magnifie that Power of Christ that is manifest in sustaining me and not my self therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake for when I am weak that is in the flesh and the eye of the world then am I strong that is in the Spirit and the work of Christ I am become a fool that is like a fool in Glorying Ye have compelled me For I ought to have been commended of you For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest Apostles though I be nothing Yea 1 Cor. 9. 15. he saith he had rather die then any should make his glorying void concerning his self-denyal for the advantage of the Gospel 2. I also prove it thus We may and must glory in the blessed effects of the blood of Christ. Or else we shall not give him his honour But our own Mortification is one of the blessed effects of the blood or Cross of Christ therefore we may must glory in it 3. We may and must glory in the certain tokens of the Love of God But our own Mortification is one of the certain tokens of the Love of God therefore we may and must glory in it 4. We may and must Glory in Christ dwelling in us and the effects of his indwelling For if we may glory in Christ Crucified then also in Christ as our Head to whom we are united and from whom we receive continual influence and communication of graces But our own mortification is the certain fruit of Christ dwelling in us therefore we may glory in it 5. We may glory in the image of God upon our souls For as it is our glory so it is the livelyest representation of God himself But our Mortification is part of Gods Image upon us therefore we may glory in it 6. We may glory that we are the temples of the Holy Ghost and that the Spirit of Christ is in us and we may glory in his fruits and works But our Mortification is a principal fruit of the Spirit which sheweth that he dwelleth in us therefore we may glory in it 7. There is no doubt but Christians may glory in the cessation of their sin against God and that as to the dominion of sin they do not dishonour him by breaking his Laws abusing his Son his Spirit and his Mercies as formerly they did But all this is conteined in our Mortification therefore we may glory in it 8. No doubt but we may glory in the Honour of God when his wisdom and goodness and power are demonstrated to the confusion of his foes and the encouragement of his people but this is done in the Mortification of his Saints In them he conquereth and in him that loveth them they are super-victors Rom. 8. 37. If we must glorifie the workman as such then must we also glorifie the work If Moses and all Israel must sing such a song of praise to God for overthrowing Pharaoh and his Hoast in the red Sea much more must we sing his praise that conquereth Satan and all our corruptions And the work it self must be magnified in order to the Conquerours praise If Deborah must sing Gods praises for the conquest of weak men much more must we for the conquest of the world by faith and for subduing the powers of darkness to us There is more of Gods love and power seen in the Spiritual victories of a poor mortified Christian that is taken no notice of or despised in the world then in the bodily conquests of the famous Princes of the world who most of them perish everlastingly after all because they are conquered by the world and their own flesh Though it be the design of the Devil and the slanderous world to obscure or villifie the work of grace on the souls of the sanctified yet must it be the care of Believers to counter-work them and maintain and manifest the lustre of that grace to the glory of the author He that magnifieth the Cure doth honour the Physitian but he that slighteth or disregardeth it doth dishonour him To debase the work of Creation is a reproach to the Creator yea to over-look it and not admire and magnifie it is an injury to him To villifie the work of the Redeemer is horrible insidelity and ingratitude and to slight it and not to magnifie it is damnable And must it not be so then to villifie or not to magnifie the works of the Sanctifyer Why should it not be our duty to magnifie the work of Sanctification as well as the work of Creation and Redemption Especially when it is the end which the other
you By this then you may perceive in whom you should glory 8. Moreover without Christ you cannot make use of the Grace that he hath given you The life and comfort of your grace is in the exercise To draw forth your Faith and Love and Joy into exercise is the way to encrease them and to shew you experimentally their nature truth and worth and to attain their ends And without Christ you will never do this You may lie as if you were dead and dry and withered if he do but withdraw his quickning influences For without him you can do nothing Judge then by this in whom you should glory 9. Yea further as you cannot do these of your selves so neither can you go to Christ your selves for strength to do them You will not so much as move a hand or lift up your voice to cry for help For the nature of sin is to make the sinner willing of it and unwilling to be delivered from it You would rather God would let you alone and thus you would continue 10. Yea more without Christ you would not so much as understand and be sensible of all this misery and disability in your selves You will think your selves well when you are next the worst and give no one thanks that would pitty or help you So that lay all this together and judge in whom it is that you should Glory 11. And indeed the very nature of all your graces if you have any will lead you from a glorying in your selves to a glorying in Christ. Repentance will lay you low and make you vile in your own eyes and loath your selves for all your abominations Ezek. 36. 31. Self-denyalis a great part of the new creature Faith leads you out of your selves to Christ. Love will carry you quite above your selves to God And so it is with other graces To live in your selves upon your selves and to your selves is the state of the unsanctified To live in Christ and upon Christ and to Christ is the state of all his living members So far then as you are new creatures this Law is written in your hearts and I have the less need to teach you this lesson and perswade you to the practice of it because you are really taught of God to Glory in Christ and not in your selves 12. To conclude even Nature and Common Reason may teach you that you have little cause to glory in your selves For it may easily tell you that you have nothing of your selves and therefore nothing that is originally your own Who knows not that we have our being and all the means of our well-being and every thing that is worth the having from God alone As Nothing could not make itself to be Something so neither can that dependent Something uphold it self or carry on it self unto its End What hast thou which thou hast not received And if thou hast received it why shouldst thou glory as if thou hadst not received it 1 Cor. 4. 7. To such poor empty unworthy worms as we are one would think it should be an easie thing to know that we have nothing but what we have of God For whence else should we have it In him we live and move and have our being and of him and by him and for him are all things and therefore to him must be the praise for ever Rom. 11. 36. Not therefore to our selves but unto him must we give the glory Psal. 115. 1. Though Nature cannot lead us to Christ it may tell us that we are creatures and have nothing but from the bountifull hand of our Creator It is therefore against this Nature and Reason to Glory in our selves Use. SEE then that you abhor all self-advancing thoughts And receive no Doctrine that gives the glory of Christ unto your selves They are miserable that are made irreligious by their pride But they are more miserable because more uncurable that make themselves a Religion by their pride and frame to themselves both Doctrines and Devotions whose tendency and use is to keep alive this devilish sin You do not believe well nor repent well nor pray well nor do any Christian duty well if you be not more humble in and after it then you were before It s a sad case for a man to preach himself and pray himself into hell and to strengthen the bonds of sin and Satan by his devotions And yet proud Devotions are as ready a way to this as you can devise If you read or confer or preach or pray with a mind that is lifted up and glorieth in it self you do but serve the Devil with the name of God and his holy Ordinances And therefore we have seen by sad experience in a multituâ— of sects and horrible delusions of late in this Land that none run to such dreadfull outrages in sin nor go so far against the Lord as proud self-conceited professors do As you love your souls take heed of being conceited of your own understanding or worth and of being proud of your supposed holiness or abilities What fearfull ends have we seen of such If indeed thou art a Christian thou must become as a little child and learn of Christ to be meek and lowly and be a servant to all And lay thy self still at the feet of Christ as sensible that all the sin is thine but the good is his from whom thou didst receive it Thou canst destroy thy self but in him is thy help Thou hast the skill and ability to set thy own house on fire but it s he that must quench it or repair it Thou art wise to do evil but thou hast no knowledge to do good but what he giveth thee Thou hast the art of stabbing thy self but not of curing thy self He must do that for thee or else it must be undone You can snarl and ravel the state of your own souls but it s he that must untye the knots which thy folly and carelesness have tyed Thou canst with Ionas raise the storm and cast thy self over-board but it s he that must provide the Whale to receive thee and bring thee to the Land Remember therefore that though thou be a vessel of mercy it is the fountain that filleth thee and not thy self Thou canst scarce more dishonour thy qualifications and actions and consequently thy self then to say they are thine own and originally from thy self For sure all that is thine and from thee will be like thee and therefore must be weak and bad as thou art When ever therefore thou gloriest in thy graces do it but as the beggar gloryeth in his alms that ascribes all to the giver or as the patient gloryeth in his cure that ascribeth all to God and the Physitian or as a condemned rebel doth glory in a pardon which he ascribeth to the mercy of his Prince I durst not have told you as I did before of the duty of Glorying in your Crucifixion to the world without adding this caution to tell
you whether all must be referred and how little you are beholden for it to your selves Meet every thought of self-exalting with abhorrenceâ— and give it no other entertainment in your souls then you would give the Devil himself who is the Father of it For casting down Christ will prove the casting down of your selves and he that exalteth himself shall be abased SECT XXVII I Come now to the third and last branch of the Observatition viz. that To Glory in any thing save the Cross of Christ and our Crucifixion thereby is a thing that the soul of a Christian should abhor Here I shall shew you what it is that is not excluded from our glorying in these words And then what it is that is excluded and conclude with some Application 1. It is none of the Apostles meaning in these words that we may not Glory in God the Father For his love to the world was the cause of their Redemption And his pleasure and glory is the end of Redemption and was intended by Christ and must be intended by us As Iustine Martyr saith he would not have believed in Christ himself if he had led them to any but the true God So I may say Christ had not done the work of Christ if he had intended any End but God and had not brought up all to God 2. When it is said that we must Glory only in the Cross of Christ the meaning is not that we must not also Glory in his Incarnation and holy Life and Resurrection and Intercession and every part of his Mediatorship For the Cross is not here put as Contradistinct from these but all these are implyed in his Cross as having their share as well as it in the work of our salvation 3. Nor is it the meaning of the Apostle to forbid us to Glory in the promise that Christ hath made us and in the glad tidings of the Gospel For this brings the blessed news to our ears this is the joyful sound the voice of Love the Charter of our inheritance and therefore sweet to all the sons of Life 4. Nor is it any of the Apostles sense that we may not Glory in the Spirit of Christ as magnifying him for the work of illumination and Sanctification As it was an high sin in Ananias and Sapphira to lye to the Holy Ghost and as it is the unpardonable sin to blaspheme the Holy Ghost So it must be a great duty to honour and magnifie the Holy Ghost And therefore it should make us tremble to hear some prophane men abuse the Holy Ghost in deriding his works saying These are the Holy Brethren these are the Saints these have the Spirit 5. Nor yet are we forbidden to Glory in the effects of the Cross of Christ upon us for these you find are included in the Text even our Crucifixion to the world thereby And the other effects of it even our Justification Adoption and the rest may be Gloried in as well as this that is here named as the Apostle doth Rom. 8. 30 31 32 33. to the end yet still referring all to God in Christ. 6. Nor are we forbidden to Glory in the helps of our salvation the Ordinances of God and means of Grace so we give no more to them then their due and look at them but as the appointed means of God that can do nothing but by him 7. No nor is it unlawfull so far to Glory in our Teachers as God hath sent them and qualified them for our good and as they are the Messengers of God and instruments of the Spirit So did Cornelius glory in Peter Acts 10. and when the Apostles brought the Gospel to Samaria there was great joy in that City Acts 8. 8. And the Apostle commandeth the Churches to know them that are over them in the Lord and submit themselves and esteâ—â— them highly in love for their works sake 1 Thes. 5. 12. 8. Nay we may Glory even in honour and riches and other outward things as they are the effects of the Love of God and the blood of Christ and as they reveal God to us or furnish us for his service and the relief of his people and any way further the Ends of our holy Faith In a word we may glory in any thing that is good as it stands in its due subordination to Christ ascribing to it no more then belongs to it in the relation and not separating it in our thoughts or affections from Christ but carrying all the Glory ultimately to God and making the creature but the means thereto And thus we may not only praise the Physitian but the Medicine the Apothâ—caâ—y the handsom administration the glass that it is brought in the silver spoon in which we take it and all this without any wrong to the Physitian or danger of displeasing him if we respect every thing but as it stands in its own place So much to shew you what is not exexcluded 2. But what is it then that we may not Glory in As I told you in the beginning not in our selves or any creature as opposite to Christ or separate from him or any way pretending to be what it is not or do what it cannot But let us enter into some particulars 1. Have you dignities and honours and high places in the world Do others bow to you and have you power to crush them or exalt them at your pleasure Glory not in it as any part of your felicity A horse is stronger then a man The great Mogal and the Turkish Emperour and many another Infidel Prince is a thousand fold beyond the greatest of you in Power and earthly dignity and yet what are they but miserable wretches Your power will not conquer death nor keep off sickness nor keep the stoutest of your Carkasses from corruption When a man shall see you gasping for breath and yielding your selves prisoners to unresistible death and closing those eyes that look so haughtily then who can discern the Glory of your greatness Who then will fear you or honour or regard you further then your deserts or their interests lead them Your flatterers will then forsake you and seek them a new Master When they are winding your Carkass and laying it up for rottenness in the dust what signs of your power will then appear Will your corpse have any reverend aspect How many have been spurned when they were dead that were bowed to while they were alive There are many in Hell and there will be for ever that were greater men then you on earth The higher you clime the lower you have to fall If the breath of a thousand applaud you now perhaps a million may reproach you when you are dead However it is not the applause of men that will carry you to heaven or abate the least of your pain in Hell Glory not then in worldly honours or greatness But rather rejoyce that you have enough without all this in God How well thinks the
shall be beaten with many stripes Luke 12. 47. But if your Love and Obedience be answerable to your knowledge glory rather in that 3. Have you done many works of mercy to others Have you given all you have to the poor have you converted many souls Are you publick mercies to the place where you live Give God the Glory of so great a mercy But take heed of giving the Glory to your selves And take not the outward works alone so much as for certain Evidences of your happiness 4. Have you extraordinary experiences of Mercy and extraordinary feelings of comfort in your selves Rejoyce in in them as Gods mercy and give him the Glory But remember that these are no certain Evidences of your safe condition Many have been wonderfully saved from death that will not be saved from hell And many large comforts have ended in eternall sorrows 5. Have you a living faith and a soul abounding in the Love of God and emptyed of Self in Christian humilty and exercised in holy walkings and conflicts for Christ and looking with hope to the Joy that is set before you What then shall I say to you Glory in this blessed work of Grace this image of Christ this heavenly nature and conversation and this foretaste and earnest of everlasting life But sure I need not bid you give not your very Graces the Glory due to Christ. For this were to prohibit you a contradiction it is the nature of them all to carry you to Christ and to cause you to deny your selves You cannot exercise these Graces but you must do it Do I need to desire you that you make not your own faith the matter of that Righteousness which must answer the Law when faith it self is a Receiving of another for our righteousness Or need I advise you that you trust not in your Love and Evangelical Obedience as a satisfaction to Gods Justice or the matter of that righteousness which must answer the Law when that Love and Obedience is nothing else but a Love to him and an Obedience of him that hath satisfied for us and is become our righteousness Do I need to perswade the humble so far as they are humble not to be proud of their own graces or works or the self-denying not to glory in themselves The nature of the new creature and the annointing that is in you doth effectually teach you all these things and you have already learned them Yet because you are sanctified but in part you have still need of warning and therefore I require you that you objectively abuse not these Graces of Christ for actively you cannot seeing Grace is that as Austin defineth it qua nemo malè utitur Should you think you merit by denying merit or should you think you have somewhat to Glory in with God because you have denyed your selves and your own worthiness or should you trust in those acts as the matter of your Iustification against that Law whose nature is to distrust in all that is your own and thus to trust in Christ alone you would be guilty of the most sacrilegious robbing of Christ and of an impious abuse of the most precious graâ—â—s contrary to their nature and ends and of the most absurd and sensless abuse of your very Reason by palpable contradiction To conclude I now beseech you all take heed of your Glorying internally and externally Let the blinded worldling glory that he hath the world but do you glory that you need it not and can be without it and are heirs of a better world Let sensual wretches glory in the pleasing of their flesh but do you glory that you are able to deny it its desires and to please your Lord. Let the deluded ambitious ones glory in their honours but learn you to pitty them in the height of their prosperity and glory in the durable prerogatives of the Saints Let natural men glory in their health and natural Life but glory you in a readiness to die and be with Christ and in the Believing expectations of the Life everlasting Let hypocrites glory in their evading of sufferings But do you glory in tribulations and infirmities and that you are accounted worthy to suffer for Christ. Let Phariseâ—s glory in their superstitions and ceremonies and self-righteousness but glory you in Gospel simplicity and in the righteousness of Christ Isa. 45. 24 25. Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousness and strength even to him shall men come c. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Iâ—r 4. 2. The Nations shall bless themselves in him and in him shall they glory Let the pomp and fulness of a flattering world be the glory of the worldling But let the despised humility and hopes of true Believers in the lowest ebb of worldly accomodations be our greater glory For God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty and base things of the world and things that are despised hath God chosen and things that are not to bring to nought things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence But of him are ye in Christ Iesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption that according as it is written He that Glorieth let him Glory in the Lord. 1 Cor. 1. 27 28 29 30 31. And believe this As Carnall Glorying is childish against our own reason and daily experience and will shortly make all that used it ashamed so the spiritual glorying of the mortified Believer is also rational and manly and will never make him ashamed but end in the perfect endless glory Fix then your resolutions with this mortified Apostle God forbid that I should Glory save in the Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ by whom the world is Crucified to me and I unto the world FINIS This was reached â—t an Asâ—â—ze at â—orcester before the â—udges and therefore here are these passages suited to that occasion Leg. Eâ—as Epist. ad Alphons valet de annuli sui â—iâ—â—llo Cl. Alex. Paedag. l. 2. c. 1. The whole Book is worth the reading by such