will let no other prosper under them They draw as much as they can to themselves For themselves is their care and daily labour Psal. 49. 18. They all mind their own things but not the things of Christ or their Brethren Getting and Having and Keeping is their business and as swine are seldom profitable till they die Benefit 12. THE last Benefit that I shall mention is this If you are now Dead to the world and the world to you your natural Death will be the less grievous to you when it comes It will be little oâ— no trouble to you to leave your houses or lands or goods to leave your eating and drinking and recreations to leave your employments and company in the world for you were dead to all that is worldly before Surely so far as the Heart is upon God and taken off these transitory things it can be no grief to us to leave them and go to God It is only the remnants of the unmortified flesh together with the natural evil of death that maketh death to seem grievous to Believers but so far as they are Believers and dead to the world the case is otherwise Death is not neer so dreadful to them as it is to others except as the quality of some disease or some extraordinary dissertion may change the case Or as some desparate wicked ones may be insensible of their misery How bitter is the sight of approaching death to them that laid up their treasure on earth and placed their happiness in the prosperity of their flesh To such a fool as Christ describeth Luke 12. that saith to himself Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry thou hast enough laid up for many years How sad must the tidings of death needs be to him that set his heart on earth and spent his daies in providing for the flesh and never laid up a treasure in heaven nor made him friends with the Mammon of unrighteousness nor gave not diligence in the time of his life to make his Calling and Election sure To a worldly man that sets not his heart and hopes above the face of death is unspeakably dreadful But if we could kill the world before us and be dead to it now and alive to God and with Paul die daily it would be a powerful means to abate the terrours and a certain way to take out the sting that death might be a sanctified passage into life So much of the Benefits of Mortification AND now what remains but that you that are Mortified Believers receive your Consolation and consider what the Lord hath done for your souls and give him the praise of so great a mercy Believe it it is a thousand fold better to be Crucified to the world then to be advanced to prosperity in it and to have a heart that is above the world then to be made the possessor of the world And for you that yet are strangers to this mercy O that the Lord would open your hearts to consider where you are and what you are doing and whether you are going and how the world will use you and how you are like to come off at last before you go any further that you may not make so mad a bargain as to gain the world and lose your souls O that you did but throughly believe that it is the only wise and gainful choice to deny your carnal selves and forsake all and follow Christ in hope of the heavenly treasure which he hath promised And let me tell you again as the way to this That though melancholly may make you weary of the world and stoicall precepts may restrain your lusts yet it is only the power of the Holy Ghost the Cross of Christ the belief of the promise the Love of God the Hopes of the everlasting invisible Glory that will effectually and savingly Crucifie you to the world and the world to you It is a Lesson that never was well taught by any other Master but Christ and you must Learn it from him by his Word Ministers and Spirit in his School or you will never Learn or Practise it aright The second PART Of the CHRISTIANS Glorying SECT XXIII HAving thus dispatched the first part of my subject concerning a Christians Crucifixion to the world by Christ and his Cross I come to the second Part concerning the Glorying of a Christian The Iudaizing Teachers did Glory carnally even in a carnall worship and carnall priviledges and in the carnall effects of their Doctrine on their Proselytes but Paul that had more to Glory in then they doth disclaim and renounce all such Glorying as theirs and owneth and professeth a contrary Glorying even in the Cross of Christ and his Mortification The Observation to be handled is that True Christians must with abhorrency renounce all Carnal Glorying and must Glory only in the Cross of Christ by whom the world is Crucified to them and they unto the world In handling this I shall briefly shew you 1. What is included or what we may Glory in 2. What is excluded or what we may not Glory in For the former here are two things expressed in the Text in which a Christian may and must Glory 1. The Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. Our Crucifixion to the world hereby So that the Positive part of the Doctrine containeth these two branches which I shall handle distinctly before I speak to the Negative part 1. True Christians that are Crucified to the world and the world to them by the Cross of Christ may and must Glory therein 2. Yet so as that their Glorying must be principally in Christ and their own Mortification must be Gloryed in but as the fruit of his Cross. For the first Part it must be understood with these necessary limitations 1. As Glorying signifieth a self-ascribing and Proud conceit of our own Mortification and is contrary to Christian self-denyal and humility and Glorying in God so we must take heed of it and abhor it 2. As Glorying signifieth any outward expression of this inward pride either by words or deeds we must also avoid it with abhorrence 3. So must we also do by all unseasonable offensive ostentation which may seem to others to savour of Pride though indeed it proceed from a better cause 4. But as Glorying signifieth the apprehension of the Good of the thing and our Benefit by it and the due Affections of Content and Joy and Exultation of mind that follow thereupon thus must a Christian Glory in his Mortification by the Cross of Christ. We commonly call this act a Blessing of our selves in the apprehension of our case As the carnal ungodly world do Bless themselves in their Possessing carnal things so may a Christian bless himself that he is Crucified to them that is he may rejoyce in it as a great blessing of God that tendeth to further blessedness 5. And when we are called to it we may express to others our Glorying herein But
as Lovely that is as Good For it is impossible that there should be an act without its proper object Nothing but appearing Good is Loved If a lost condemned sinner have no hope given him of Gods Reconciliation or his willingness to receive him to mercy it is ex parte objecti an impossible thing that the mind of that sinner should be reconciled to God And therefore the Gospel publisheth Gods Reconcilation to sinners viz. his universal Conditional Reconciliation before it beseech them to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. And before they believe we cannot give any one man the least assurance that God is any more reconciled to him then to others that are unconverted or that he is any willinger to Receive him then others This therefore is the great observable means whereby Christ by his Gospel recovereth the Heart of a sinner unto God even by turning the frowning countenance of God by which he deterred the guilty into a more Lovely face as being Reconcilable and Conditionally Reconciled to the world through Christ and so become to all the sinful sons of Adam a fit object to attract their Love and draw off their hearts from the deceiving world to which they were revolted and as being actually reconciled to all true Believers and thereby become a yet more powerful attractive of their Love 7. It doth also more fully reveal the face of God the object of our Love and the transcendent Glory that in him we shall enjoy 8. And it disgraceth the creatures which have diverted our Affections that we may be taken off our false estimation of them 9. It earnestly perswadeth and solliciteth us to obey and calls on us to turn from the world to God 10. It backeth these perswasions with terrible threatnings if we do not forsake the creature and return 11. It prescribeth to us the standing Ordinances and Means by which this work may be further carryed on 12. And lastly it directeth us to the right use of the creatures instead of that carnal enjoying of them that would undo us By all these means which time doth permit me but briefly to mention the Gospel of Christ doth tend to Crucifie the world to us and to recover our hearts to the Chiefest Good And besides all this which the Cross and the Doctrine of Christ do to this End that you may yet fullyer perceive how much it is the End of Christs very office and the execution thereof let me add these two things 1. That it is the End of Christs providential dispensations 2. And the work which he sendeth the Holy Ghost to perform upon the souls of his Elect. 1. As the Mercies of God are purposely given us to lead up our hearts to him that gave them So when we carnally abuse them and adhere unto the creature it is the special use of Affliction to take us off If the rod have a voice it speaks this as plain as any thing whatsoever and if it reprehend us for any sin it is for our overvaluing and adhering to the creature The wounds that Christ giveth us are not to kill us but to separate us from the world that hath separated us from God 2. And that this is the very office or undertaken work of the Holy Ghost is past all controversie His work is to sanctifie us and that is by taking us off the creature to bring us to be heartily Devoted unto God Sanctification is nothing else but our separation from the creature to God in Resolution Affection Profession and Action So that in what measure soever a man hath the Spirit in that measure is he sanctified and in what measure he is sanctified in that same measure is he crucified to the world For that is the one half of his Sanctification or it is his Sanctification denominated from the terminus à quo as many Texts of Scripture do manifest By this time I hope it is plain to you that Mortification is of the very being of Christianity and not any separable adjunct of it and that if you profess not to be Dead to the world you do not so much as profess your selves Christians SECT XIII 1. AND as you see that the Christian Doctrine teacheth this So 2. It is thence clear without any more ado that wherever the Cross and Doctrine of Christ are effectuall the world is Crucified to that man and he to the world There are some great Duties which a man may possibly be saved though he omit them in some cases but this is none such It is a wonder to see the security of worldlings how easily they bear up a confidence of their sincerity under this sin which is as inconsistent with sincerity as Infidelity it self is ◠If they see a man live in common Drunkenness or Adultry or Swearing they take him for a prophane and miserable wretch and good reason for it When in the mean time they pass no such sentence on themselves who may deserve it as much as the worst of these It is one notable cheat among the Papists that occasions the ruine of many a soul that they make a Religious mortified life to be a work of supererrogation and those that profess it and some of their own inventions with it which turn it into sin they Cloyster up from the rest of the world and these they call Religious people and some few even of these that are either more devout or superstitious then the rest they call Saints So rare a thing is the appearance of Religiousness and Sanctity among them that it must be inclosed in Societies not only separated from the world as the Church is but separated as it were out of the Church it self And yet the common people are kept in hope of salvation in their way By which means they are commonly brought to imagine that it is not absolutely necessary to salvation to be a Religious man or a Saint or one that doth really renounce and crucifie the world but that these things belong to certain Orders of Monks and Fryers and that it is enough for other men to honour these devout and mortified Saints and to crave their Prayers and do some lower and easier things And indeed their vows of Chastity and separation and unprofitableness and other Inventions of their own they may well conceive unnecessary to others being noxious to themselves But they will one day finde that none but Religious men and Saints shall be saved and that every true Member of Christ is dead to the world and not only Monks or Votaries or such like And a Conceit too like to this of the Papists is in the minds of many of our Auditors They think indeed that those are the best men that are resolved contemners of all the Riches and Honours and Pleasures of the world but they think of them as the Papists do of their votaries as People of a higher pitch of Sanctity then the rest but think not that it is essential to
insist on that which you dare not stand to And be of that mind which then you must condemn your selves Do you think that this is a reasonable course to be ventured on in so great a matter Quest. 9. MY next Question is this Do you ever mean to Repent of your fleshly and worldly-mindedness or not If you do not it seems you are far from a Recovery Many an one perisheth with bare uneffectuall purposes of Repenting but those that have not so much as such a purpose are graceless indeed But if you do purpose to Repent I would further ask you Do you think that is a right mind or a wise course which must be Repented of If it be right and wise what need you to Repent of it If it be not wise and right why will you now retain it yea and wilfully maintain it against the perswasions of God and man Doth not this proclaim that you are wilful sinners and that you know you sin and yet will do it even against your own knowledge and conscience that you know the world to be a deceitfull vanity and yet for all that you will stick to it as long as you can with the neglect of God and the true felicity And can you expect mercy and salvation that wilfully and knowingly do set your selves against it and reject it Quest. 10. MY next Question which I desire you to answer is this Do you in good sadness take the world for your enemy or for a hindrance to you in the way to heaven If you do not why did you in your Baptism renounce it and promise to fight against it And why have you professed since to stand to that Covenant And how then can you believe the word of God which so often telleth you what a hinderance Riches and Honours are to mens salvation But if indeed you believe that the world is your enemy and hinderance why then will you love it and be impatient if you want it and take such pleasure in it and desire to have more of it Do you love to have your salvation hindered or hazarded and will you love and long for that which is an enemy to it I think the way to heaven is hard enough to the best They need not make it harder then it is and be at so much labour all their lives to make themselves more enemies and more work and to block up the way while they pretend to walk in it O the hypocrisie of a carnall heart How notoriously do mens lives contradict their tongues When they will call the world their enemy and vow to fight against it to the death and at the same time will labour for it and greedily desire it as if they could never have enough That they will make so much of it as to neglect God himself and their salvation for it and make it the greatest care and business of their lives to get and keep it and all the while profess that they take it for their enemy This is dissembling beyond all bounds of shame Remember this when you are impatient of your low estate or contriving further accommodations to your flesh or hunting after a full estate Are these the signs of enmity to the world Do you hate your salvation that you so love the hinderers of it Either live as you profess or profess as you live Quest. 11. YET further I demand Whether indeed you do intend to Renounce your Christianity and all your hopes of heaven or not If you do you know whom to blame when you are deprived of it And I could wish you would first find out some better way or something that may be of valuable consideration to repair your loss But if you say you have no such intent I further ask Why then do you do it and do it after so much warning Do you disclaim your Christianity in the open light and yet say that you intend no such thing You cannot do it against your will And that it is in effect a Renouncing or Denying your Christianity yea and your salvation is plain For your Christianity containeth a Renouncing of the world and therefore it is part of our Baptismal Covenant If then you return to the world which you renounced you forsake your Christianity Had you rather forsake the world or Christ One of them you must forsake For he hath told you that Except you forsake all that you have you cannot be his Disciples Luke 14. and that you cannot serve God and Mammon Had you rather renounce the world or your salvation One of them you must let go For God hath said that the love of the world is enmity against God â—nd that if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him If therefore you will still say You hope you may keep both What do you less then give God the lye If you will still adhere to the world and yet say that you do not renounce your Christianity or Salvation you may as well say that though you joyn in Arms with open Rebels yet do you not forsake your Loyalty to your Prince Or though you live in Adultery yet you do not forsake your conjugal fidelity and chastity and that you do not cast away your life though you take poyson when you know it to be such or though you commit those crimes which must be punished with death I beseech you consider well Why you forsake Christ and why you will destroy your selves before you do it past remedy Quest. 12. MY last Question which I desire your answer to is this Do you indeed think that God is not better then the world and that Heaven is not more desiarble then earth and an endless glory then a transitory shadow Or is there any comparison to be made between them Have you considered what a sad exchange you make O unthankful souls Hath not God done more for you then ever the world did He made you and so did not the world He Redeemed you when none else could do it He preserveth you and provideth for you and all that you have is from his bounty He can give health to your bodies peace to your consciences salvation to your souls when the world cannot do it If the world be better then God in prosperity what makes you call upon God in adversity When any torment seizeth on your bodies or death draws near and looks you in the face then you do not cry O Riches help us O Pleasures or Honours have mercy upon us But O God have mercy upon us and help us Can none else help you in your distress and yet will you prefer the creature in your prosperity Ah poor deluded souls that follow the world which will cast you off in your greatest need and neglect him that would be faithful to you for ever The time is coming when you shall cry out The world hath deceived me I have laboured for nought but if you had been as true to God