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
unthankful to your own Parents disobedient to your superiours unfaithful to your equals and unmerciful to your inferiours There is no trusting a worldling he will sell his friend for money He careth not to wrong you in your life your chastity estate and name for his lustful ambitious and covetous desires For he directly breaketh the tenth Commandment which is the sum of the second Table requiring us to regard the welfare of our neighbour and not to maintain a private selfish interest against it So true is that of Paul 1 Tim. 6. 10. The love of money is the root of all evil As adhering to God is the sum of all Duty and Spiritual Goodness so adhering to the creature instead of God is the sum of all wickedness and disobedience And seeing all this is so I require you here in the name of God to cast out this wickedness and cherish it no longer Bring forth that Traytor that hath dethroned God in your hearts and exalted it self and let it die the death It subverteth Common-wealths and all societies it causeth perjury perfidiousness and sedition it raiseth wars and sets the world together by the ears it overturneth all right order and strikes at the heart of Morality it self and would make every man a Woolf or Tyger to his brother It is a murderer of your own souls and the cause of cruelty both to the souls and bodies of others It is a lyar that promiseth what it cannot perform It is a cheater that would deceive you of your everlasting happiness and tice you into Hell by pretences of furthering your profitâ— and contents It causeth parents to neglect the souls of their children and children to wish the death of their parents or be weary of them or disregard them and causeth Law-suits and contentions between brother and brother and neighbour and neighbour and fills the heart with rancor and malice and turneth families and Kingdoms into confusion it maketh people hate their Teachers and too many Ministers to neglect their flocks It adulterously seeketh to vitiate the spouse of Christ and take up the heart which was reserved for himself It robbeth him of his honour of our affections and obedience and Sacrilegiously defaceth the Temple of the Holy Ghost It will not allow God one free thought nor full affection of your heart nor one hour entirely improved for his honour This is the World and thus is it used by sensual men Judge now whether it deserve not to die the death and to be cast out of your souls and wherher we have not reason to say Crucifie it Crucifie it Ask me no more What evil it hath done You see it is such an enemy to the God of heaven that if you cherish it and let it live in your hearts you are not friends to Christ or your salvation Away with it then without any more ado and use it as the world did use your Lord and as it nailed him on the Cross so go to his Cross for a nail to fasten it and for strength to Crucifie it that you may be victors and super-victors through him that loved you and overcame the world for you Choose not to be slaves when you may be free-men and triumphers Take warning by all that have gone before you serve not a Master that casteth off all his servants in distress and leaveth them all in fruitless complaints of its unprofitablness Think not to speed well where never man sped well before you nor to find content where none have found it If all the worlds followers complain of it at the parting take warning by them and foresee the end Find out one man that ever was made happy by the world in a true and durable happiness before you venture your own hopes and happiness in such hands Put not your selves and all that you have in such a leaking vessel that never yet brought man safe to shore Will neither the experience of your own lives nor the experience of all the world before you delivered in the history of so many thousand years be a sufficient warning to you to avoid the snare What will you take then for a sufficient warning Were not reason captivated one would think that a walk into the Church-yard might satisfie you The sight of a grave or of a dead body should kill and disgrace the world in your eyes Do you see where you must lie and what that flesh which you so regard must be turned to and what is the most that can be expected from the world and in how poor and despicable a case it will then leave you and yet will you doat upon it and neglect and lose the life everlasting for it Will you be wilfully seduced by the vain-glory and oftentation of blinded worldlings when you are certain before-hand that they will not be long of the mind themselves that now they are Name me one man if you can that rejoyceth in his worldly prosperity now and speaketh well of it who rejoyced in it and spoke well of it two hundred years ago It s a child indeed that would have an house builded by every fine flower that he seeth in his way and forgetteth his home his friends and his inheritance When its two to one but the flower will be withered before his house be finished and the pleasure will not answer the trouble and cost Indeed if the world were a better place then that which we are going to I could not then blame any to desire to keep it as long as they can And yet if it were so the certainty of our removall should make us less regard it and look more to the place where we must evermore remain Much more when our home doth exceed this world in worth as much as in continuance It s folly enough to set a mans heart upon the fairest Inn that is in his way but to prefer a swine-stye before a Pallace where his Father dwells and his inheritance doth lie is somewhat worse then meer folly and its meet that such be used according to their choice It s meet indeed that we be patient in our Wilderness and murmure not at God for the sufferings that it casteth us upon But to love it better then the promised Land and to think or speak hardly of our happiness it self and those that would lead us to it this is unreasonable The Israelites were never so foolish as to build Cities in the Wilderness as desiring to make it their fixed habitations but contented themselves with moveable tents What a curse were it if God should put you off with earth and give you no other treasure and felicity but what it can afford You might well then look on your Inheritance as Hiram did on his twenty Cities in Galilee 1 King 9. 11 12. and disliking it call it the Land of Cabul It is the description of miserable wicked men to have their portion in this life Psalm 17. 14. Suppose you had the most that you
is the better for You see that all your wealth and honour will not preserve your Honourable Corpse from loathsom putrefaction How much less will it keep your guilty souls from the place that you have here been purchasing by your Mammon Sic metit Orcus Grandia cum parvis non exorabilis auro If this be your Wealth and Honour and Delight the Lord deliver me from such a selicity Haec alii capiunt liceat mihi paupere cuâ—…u Securo charo numine posse frui For what is the hope of the hypocrite though he hath gained or scraped together as the Hebrew may be turned when God shall take or pull away his soul Iob 27. 8. The triumphing or praise of the wicked is short or but at hand and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment Job 20. 5. Yea one would think that the very troubles and smart that in this life accompanyeth your wealth and honour in the getting and keeping and the gripes of conscience that the fore-thoughts of the parting hour and your heavy reckoning must needs mix with all your pleasure and vain glory unless you have laid asleep your wits besides your experience of the emptiness and deceit of all that you have overvalued I say one would think that this much should somewhat allay your thirst and calm your minds and make you think of a better treasure Sure I am that God would do ten thousand fold more for you and be better to you and yet because of some fleshly arguments you are turned away from him He cannot be thus loved and delighted in and sought and yet he offereth more for you then the world doth Saith Augustine Ecce mundus turbat amatur quid si tranquill us esset formoso quomodo haereres qui sic amplecteris foedum Flores ejus quomodo colligeres quia spinis non revocas manum And it is just that they should have a bed of thorns that wilfully make choice of it Seneca thus justifieth God that though he give men such perplexities and vexations it is nullis nisi optantibus only to them that will needs have it â—o and are choosers of their own distructions Choosers do I say Yea and will compass Sea and Land for it Stretch conscience for it till it tear or can stretch no further Oppress and defraud for it some of them break Vows and Covenants for it sell God and Heaven for it scrambling with such distracted violence for the smoaky honours the nominal wealth the intoxicating pleasures of a few hasty daies that they care not what they part with for them nor who they bear down that standeth in their way Quid non mortalia pectora cogit Auri Sacre fames And is Christ worth no more then to be sold with Judas for so base a price Is our heavenly birth-right a thing so base or the promise of our immortal Crown so uncertain as to be parted with on Esau's terms Is God and Endless Glory worth no more then this comes to Propter nummos Deum contemnere saith Hierom to despise and cast off God for a thing so base is the basest kind of despising him The Idolators that villified him by making images of him were askt To whom will you liken me saith the holy One Isa. 40. 18 25. And these sensual and covetous idolators must be asked Whom will you match with God or set up against him and prefer before him What will you choose if you choose not him What shall be your portion instead of heaven Doth it excuse you that the world hath so lovely an aspect Yes if God be not more amiable then it and if his face and favour be not more desirable Doth it excuse you that the Baits of the world are pleasant and that it offered you fair Yes if God had not out-bid it and offered you ten thousand times more Doth it excuse you that the world is near and certain and heaven uncertain or out of sight Yes if you are beasts that have no Reason to know what will be but only sense to feel what is or if God have not given you an infallible promise befriended by Reason sealed by multitudes of uncontroled Miracles and transcribed on his servants hearts and if the Greatness of the Glory promised were not sufficient to do more at a distance with a man of faith and reason then childish trifles near at hand as the Sun at a distance giveth us more light then a glow-worm that is hard by Yea and if the world which you think so certain were not certainly transitory and vain so that he that gets it is certain shortly to be no gainer and he that looseth it to be no looser You look on a poor praying self-denying Believer but you look before you on a Saint that shall raign with Christ and judge the world when he cometh to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe 2 Thes. 1. 10. You see them sow their seed in tears but see it not springing up nor do you foresee the joyful harvest You see them following Christ through tribulations bearing his Cross and despising the shame but you see them not yet set down with him on their thrones The sight you see but the triumph you see not You see them tost at Sea but you know not how sure a Pilot they have nor do you see the riches of their fraight You see sickness or persecution unpinning their corruptible rags and death undressing them but you see not the cloathes which they are putting on You see them laid asleep by death but you see not their awaking nor the rising of their Sun when the Righteous shall have dominion in the morning The man that is dead to the world you see but you see not the life that is hid with Christ in God nor their appearing with him in Glory when Christ who is their life appears Your unbelieving souls imagine there will be no May or harvest because it is now Winter with us You think the Rose and beautious flowers which are promised us in that Spring are but delusions because you know not the vertue of that life that 's in the root nor the Powerful influence of that Sun of the Believers You see the dead body but you see not the soul alive with Christ retired into its Root You see the Candle put out and know not whether the flame is gone and think not how small a touch of the yet living soul will light it again And so on the other side you look on the swaggering Gallant but you look not on the ulcerous soul you hear them laughing and jesting in their jovialty but you hear them not yet groaning in their pains you see them clambering into the seat of honour but see them not cast into the grave you see them run and ride in pompe and pleasure following the delights of the flesh attended by their followers that honour and applaud them but you see them
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
cadit nec procul à paupertate discedit Sen. No man doth dissemble lie oppress defraud for love of Poverty but thousands do it for love of Riches Neminem vidi tyrannidem gerere propter Paupertatem plurimos vero propter divitias saith the Cynick citante Stob. Poverty is one of the cheapest medicines for the mind and Riches a dear deceit A Philosopher calls Poverty a self-taught vertue and Riches a vice to be acquired with great labour and diligence Poverty is a Natural Philosophy an effectual doctrine of temperance and Riches a Nursery of Pride voluptuousness and every vice And Paul comes near it and speaketh more cautelously yet home enough that The love of money is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. and therefore is it self a transcendent evil Sweet healthful Temperance is cheap and may be maintained without any great revenews it is killing luxury excess and pride that are so dear and require so much for their maintenance Our journey is not of such small moment nor our way so fair nor our day so long nor our strength and patience so great as to encourage us to loâ—d our selves with things unnecessary Christian living is daily sighting And we use not to fight with our Riches on our backs but for them He that swimmeth with the greatest load is likelyest to sink Men fancy that evil in a low estate which else they would not feel and when they have pickt a causless quarrel with it and undeservedly fallen out with it they speak abusively of it and of God himself for casting it upon them Men love Riches so well because they love sin so well Did poverty accommodate mens vices and feed and satisfie their sinful lusts as well as Riches it would be loved as well And if Riches did starve up luxury and voluptuousness as much as Poverty they would be as much abhor'd Few men speak highly of Honours or Riches or Pleasures at the last nor hardly of a low or suffering state And the last judgement is commonly the wisest Let not therefore the fear of Poverty deter you from good works Yea rather give speedily and do good while you have it before all be gone and you be disabled Saith Nazianzen Orat. de Amor. Pauper Deo grat tudinis ergo aliquid tribue quod ex eorum numero sis qui de aliis bene mereri possunt non qui aliorum beneficentia opus habeant quod in alienas manus non oculos conjectos habeas sed alii in tuas Da operam ut non solum opibus sed etiam pietate non solum auro sed etiam virtute â—is locuples Cura ut proximo tuo idcirco praestan ior sis quia benignior Fac calamitoso sis Deus Dei miserecordiam imitando Nihil enim tam Divinum homo habet quam de aliis bene mereri If you have no pitty on others have some on your souls Give not all your Lands and wealth to your flesh and your posterity Give some of it to your souls by giving it to God Shall your bodies have it and your souls have none or but a little Hoc solum quod in opibus bonum est lucremur nempe ut animas nostras in eleemosynis acquiramus facultates nostras pauperibus impertiamus ut coelestibus ditemur Animae quoque partem da non carni duntaxat Deo quoque partem da non mundo tantum Ex ventre aliquid subtrahe spiritui consecra Ex igne aliquid eripe ac procul à depascente flammâ reconde à tyranno eripe ac Domino committe Da exiguum ei à quo multa habes Da etiam omnia ei qui omnia donavit Nunquam Dei munificentiam vinces etiamsi omnia tua bona proijcias etiamsi te etiam ipsum bonis tuis adjungas Nam hoc quoque ipsum Accipere est nempe Deo donare saith Gregory Nazianz. ubi sup Of any kind of covetousness there is none more plausibly pretended against works of Charity then that of some Ministers that can spare no money because their Libraries are yet unfurnished with many Books which they would fain have Yet here we must see that greater works be not for this omitted Saith Seneca de Tranquil Studiorum quoque quae liberalissima impensa est tamdiu rationem habebo quamdiu modum Quo mihi innumerabiles libros bibliothecas quorum Dominus vix tota vita sua indices perlegit Onerat discentem turba non instruit multoque saitius est paucis te authoribus tradere quam errare per multos Studiosa haec luxuria imo ne studiosa quidem quoniam non in studium sed in spectaculum Paretur librorum quantum satis sit nihil in apparatum Vitiosum est ubique quod nimium est Yea more let me tell you all and beseech you to consider it It is your duty even to pinch your flesh and spare it from your back and belly that you may have wherewithall to do good It s no thanks to you to relieve others out of that which you need not your selves and to give God that which your flesh can spare Such liberality may stand with little suffering or self-denyal and therefore will be but a poor proof of your grace Had I ten thousand pound a year I should think it my duty for all that to pinch my flesh that I might spare as much of it as is possible for God David would not offer that to God which cost him nothing 2 Sam. 24. 24. If you fare the hardlyer and go the plainer in your attire and deny your selves that which is for any needless pomp or ostentation or splendor in the world that you may have so much the more to do good with you deal then like good husbands for God and your souls and faithful Stewards Why should a covetous Miser pinch his flesh more to gather Riches for himself and his posterity then you should do to gather it for God and to expend it on the Church and poor Be as frugal as they but not to the same end so you use it for God and your poor Brethren an honest parsimonie and gathering is a duty and such an holy covetousness is so far from condemnable that it is the truest Charity which God and all wise men will most applaud I do not mean only to deny your flesh in gross excesses but to pinch it by a just frugality and abstinence And yet you shall not say that I am drawing you to extreams I would not have you so far pinch your flesh as to disable it for duty but to deny it whatsoever doth not some way help it for duty that we may not feed our own unnecessary delights though with a seeming decorum moderation while so many about us are pinched with the want of necessaries and so many publick excellent works are calling for our help The flesh is to be tamed and humbled and brought in subjection and scanted when
But I should rather refer it to the later though in sense the difference is small because the one is implyed in the other The further explication of the Nature of this Crucifixion and the influence that Christ and his Cross have thereinto and how they are the Causes of it must be further spoke to in the handling of the Doctrines which are as followeth SECT II. Doct. 1. THE carnall Glorying of worldly professors is a thing detested and renounced by the Saints Doct. 2. A Crucified Christ or Christ and his Cross is the Glorying of the Saints Doct. 3. The world is Crucified to the Saints and they to the world Doct. 4. It is by a Crucified Christ or by Christ and his Cross that this is done But because our limited time will not allow us to handle each of these distinctly I shall reduce them all to one Generall Doctrine which is the sense of the Text. Doct. THE world is Crucified to the Saints and the Saints are Crucified to the world by the Cross of Christ and therefore in it alone must they Glory abhorring the Glorying of carnall men THE Method which I shall observe as fittest for your Edification in handling this Doctrine is this 1. I shall more fully shew you Negatively what it is not and Affirmatively what it is to have the world Crucified to us and to be Crucified to the world 2. I shall shew you How this is wrought by the Cross of Christ. 3. I shall give you the Reasons which prove that so it is 4. I shall give you the Reasons why it must be so 5. I shall make application of this first part of the Doctrine And then handle the latter part as time shall permit I. THere are few Doctrines of faith or waies of holiness but have their extreams which men will reel into from side to side when few will consist in the Sacred mean The purblind world cannot cut by so small a thred as the word of God directeth them to do and as all must do that will be conducted into Truth We have much ado to take men off these vanities but yet when many of them are convinced and see that the world must be cast aside they mistake the nature of holy mortification and embrace instead of it some superstitious and cynicall conceits in which they are as fast bemired almost as they were before I shall therefore first tell you what is not the Crucifixion which we are to treate of 1. It is not to think that the world is indeed Nothing and that in a proper sense our life is but a dream Nor yet sceptically to take the being and modes of all things as uncertain Nor to imagine that sense is so far fallible that a man of sound sense and understanding may not be sure of the objects conveniently presented to his sense There still remaineth one Argument which the Scepticks were never able to confute but will make them at any time to yield the cause Even to scourge them as fools till they are sure they feel it But we have few of these to deal with the Scepticism of our times being restrained to those things which closelyer concern the matter of salvation 2. Nor is it any part of the meaning of this Text that we should entertain a low and base esteem of the world or any thing therein as in its Natural state considered it is the work of God For though man be eminently created in his image yet all his works are like him in their measure and therefore have all an excellency to be admired It cannot be that infinite wisdom can make any thing which shall not have some impressions and demonstrations thereof Nor can Goodness make any thing but what is Good And never did the Almighty make any thing that is absolutely contemptible Nor any thing so mean which can be done by any other without him so far unimitable is he in the smallest of his works Nor did he ever make any thing in vain but those things which seem small and useless to us have an unsearchable excellency and usefulness which we know not of If the unskilful have the modesty to believe that the smallest string in an Instrument of Musick and the smallest pin in a Watch have their use though he know not of it we have great reason to think as modestly of the frame of all the works of God And those things that in themselves considered are small yet respectively and virtually may be very great The heart may do more to the preservation of life then a part much bigger and the eye may see more then all the rest of the body besides And the order location and respects of several parts doth give them such an admirable usefulness and excellency which none can know that seeth not the whole frame Yea our own selves souls or bodies considered as the workmanship of God must not be thought or spoke contemptibly of For so by all that we say against the work we do but reproach and dishonour the work-man In all our self-accusations and condemnations we must take heed of accusing or condemning our Creator Our Naturals therefore must be honoured while our Corrupt Morals are vilified We must disgrace nothing that is of God but only that which may be truly called our own Nor in the accusation of our Own must we by reflexions and consequences accuse that which is Gods as if the fault in the Original were his By giving us our Natural free-will which is a self-determining power he made us capable of having somewhat in Morality which we may too justly call our own And our loss and want of Moral freedom which is but our right Dispositions and Inclinations were not to be charged ultimately on our selves if the foresaid Natural freedom did not make us capable of such a culpability It s a strange way that some men have devised of magnifying the Creator by vâ—â—ifying his works and it s a strange conceit that all the praise that is given to the creature is taken from God They would not do so by man The praise of an House is taken to be no dishonour to the Carpenter Nor the commendation of a watch a dishonour to the watch-maker God did not dishonour himself when he said his works in the beginning were all Good He would never have been a Creator if all the Good which he made and Communicated had been to his dishonour When there was nothing but himself in being there was nothing but himself to be commended but doubtless God intended his Glory by his Works and all that is in them proceeding from himself the praise of them redoundeth to himself In a word we must be very careful of Gods interest in his creatures and take heed of any such contempt or vilifying of them which may reflect upon himself 3. The Crucifying of the world to us doth not consist in our looking upon it as an useless thing or laying it aside as
world also must be mortified 5. Moreover the world must be Crucified to us as far as it is presented to us as an independant or separated Good without its due relations unto God It is God only who is the Absolute Necessary Independant Being and all creatures are but secondary contingent dependant Beings whether Univocally or Equivocally or Analogically so called with God let the Schools debate To look on the creature as a separated or simple Being or Good is to look upon it as God And here came in the first Idolatry of the world When Adam had all his felicity in God and had the creature only as a stream and means and when all his affections should have been centred in God and he should not have viewed one line in the volume of nature without the joint observance of the Center where it was terminated Contrarily he withdraws his eye from God and fixeth it on the creature as a separated Good and desiring to know Good in this separated sense he made it an Evil to him and knew it to his sorrow And so forsaking the true and Al-sufficient Good he turned to a Good which indeed as conceived of by him was no Good and knew it by a knowledge which as to the Truth of it was not Knowing but Erring And in this course which our first progenitors have led us into the carnall world proceedeth to this day The creature is near them but God is far off A little they know of the creature but they are utter strangers to God And therefore think on the creature as an independant separated Good And you must carefully note that the dependance of the creature on God is not to be fully manifest by the dependance of any creature upon another The line is locally distant from the Center and the streams are locally distant from the spring though they are contiguous and have the dependancy of an effect But God is not locall and so not locally distant from us The nearest similitude is that of the bodies dependance upon the soul which yet doth fall exceeding short In God both we and every creature do live and move and have our being As no man of reason will talk to a corpse nor dwell and converse with any man meerly as corporeall without respect to the soul that doth animate him nor will he fall in love with a corpse so no man that is spiritually wise so far as he is so will once look upon any creature much less converse with it or fall in love with it barely as a creature conceiving of it as a thing that is separated from God or not positively conceiving of God as animating it and as being its Alpha and Omega its Beginning and End its principall efficient and ultimate Finall cause at least For this were to imagine the carkaise of a creature and to conceive of it as such a thing as is not in being For out of the God of Nature the creature is Nothing nor can do anâ— thing for there is no such thing even as out of Christ the Lord of spiritual Life and Grace the new creature is nothing and we can do nothing for there is no such new creature You have here the very difference between a Carnal and a Spiritual life The Carnal man doth see only the carkaise of the world and is blind to God and seeth not him when he seeth that which is animated by him But the Spiritual man seeth God in and by the creature and the creature is nothing to him but in God As an illiterate man doth look upon a Book and seeth only the leâ—ters and taketh pleasure in their shape and order and falls a playing with it as children do but he seeth not nor understands the sense and therefore if it contained the noblest mysteries or the greatest promises even such as his life did depend upon he loveth it not in any such respect nor doth he for that delight in it but let a learned man have the perusing of the same Book and though he may commend the clearness of the character yet it is the sense that he principally observeth and the sense that he loveth and the sense that he delighteth in and therefore as the sense is incomparably more excellent then the character simply considered so is it an higher and more excellent kind of knowledge and delight which he hath in the Book then that which the illiterate hath And indeed it is an imaginary annihilation of the Book and of every character of it formally considered to conceive of it as separated from the sense for the very essence of it is to be a sign of that sense and therefore as the illiterate cannot see the sense for words and letters the wood for trees so the literate can see no such thing as words without sense nor would regard the materials but for this signifying use I have expressed the similitude in more words then I use in such cases because it much illustrateth our present matter It was never the mind of God to make the great body of this world to stand as a separated thing or to be an Idol He made all this for himself The whole Creation is one entire volume and the sense of every line is God His name is legible on every creature and he that seeth not God in all understandeth not the sense of the Creation As it is Eternal Life to know God so this God is the Life of the creature which we know and the knowing of him in it is the Life of all our knowledge The illiterate world doth gaze upon the creatures and fall in love with the out-side and materials and play with it but understandeth not a creature By separating it in their apprehensions from God the sense they do annihilate the world to themselves as to its principall use and signification There are two Texts of Scripture among many others of which I have often thought as notable descriptions of a carnal mans life the one as to the privative part and the other as to the positive One is Ephes. 2. 12. which calleth them Atheists or without God in the world They see and know somewhat of the world but God they neither see not know They converse with the world but not with God All their affections are let out upon the world but God hath none of them All their business is about the world but they live as if they had nothing to do with God As a Schollar if his Master should stand in a corner of the School to watch what he will do will behave himself while he seeth him not as if he were not there he will play with his fellows and talk to them as if there were no Master in the School So do the ungodly live in the world as if there were no God in the world they think and speak and deal with the world as if there were nothing but the world for them to converse with As for
good is Nothing to us Let a needy soul betake himself to the world for comfort under the burden of sin for quiet and true peace to a wounded conscience and you will find it can do Nothing Seek to it for grace or strength against corruptions and temptations and you will find it can do Nothing Cry to it for succour in the depth of your affliction and at the hour of death and try whether it will present you acceptable unto God and bring your departed souls with boldness to his presence and you will find that it can do Nothing Whatever it promiseth and what ever it seemeth to deluded sinners when you look for any real good from it you will find it can do Nothing And therefore you may well take it as a meer Nothing to you 2. And in esse objectivo we may make Nothing of it by excluding it from any room in our souls as to those acts that do not belong to it 3. And as a separated being independant as to God so it is indeed Nothing for there is no such thing Much less as it is a separated Good or felicity to man Annihilate then the world to your selves When it would appear to you to be what it is not and would promise you to be what it cannot let it be as Nothing to you Conceive of it as of a shadow or a thing that seemeth to Be and is not Could you once make Nothing of it it would have no power over you nor any unhappy effects upon you You would not dote upon a known Nothing nor change your God and Glory for Nothing As Iob saith of the wicked Iob 27. 19. he openeth his eyes and he is not so we may say of the world when we open our eyes we shall see that it is not that which before seemed Nothing to us will appear to be All things and the world that seemed all things will be Nothing The summe of all that hath been said is this The opposing world must be apprehended as an enemy to God and us and so far Hated The glozing world appearing as our felicity or a competitor with God must be conceived of as Worthless and Contemned And the world as it would appear as a separated Good being any thing to us or having any thing for us out of God must be annihilated in our conceptions and taken as Nothing SECT VI. VVE are next briefly to shew you how it is that we are Crucified to the world having shewed you how the world is Crucified to us And in general the meaning is that we are as Dead or Crucified men to it in regard of those forementioned unjust respects in which the tempter would present it to us So that Crucified here is put for the absence of that Action and worldly Disposition which carnal men are guilty of So that it is a Moral and not a Natural death that is here mentioned and observably differeth from a Natural in these respects 1. A Natural death destroyeth the very Powers or Faculties of Acting But a Moral Death only destroyeth the Disposition and Action it self but not any Natural Power 2. A Natural death is Involuntary and in it self is neither a vertue nor a vice neither Morally Good or Evil. But a Moral death is principally in the Will it self and nothing is more voluntary and so it is the principal virtue or vice To be dead in sin and to God is the summe of all Evil And to be dead to sin and the world in Christ is the summe of Moral Good 3. Natural death hath no degree of life remaining saving of the separated soul. But Moral death may consist with much of the contrary life For it is denominated from the predominant habits of the soul which may stand with much of the contrary habit though subdued We cannot therefore gather that Paul was absolutely free from all sin because he was dead to it or crucified to the world For this is a Moral death consisting in a conquest of the enemy who may be said to be dead because he is overcome and consisting in the prevalent Habits of the soul which yet may have too much of the remnants of their contraries More particularly 1. If we are Crucified to the world our undue estimation of the world is Crucified We have no Idolizing over valuing regard to it in that measure as we are dead to it As the world do not Regard the works of the Lord Psal. 28. 5. Isa. 5. 12. So the Saints do not Regard the things of the world The life of faith doth so elevate their spirits that they are mounted up above the creature and look not upon the world or look upon it as a despicable thing They are above that which is the delight and imployment of others and that which the sensual call Felicity they still call Vanity And as a mans stomack abhorreth that which a dog or a swine will greedily devour so the soul of a Believer doth despise and abhor the delights of the ungodly As Pride makes the Rich look contemptuously and disregardfully upon the poor So the holy elevation of Believing souls doth make them look contemptuously and disregardfully upon all the glory of the world As faith doth bring them up to God and make him their Object and their All So doth it make them somewhat like him and minded as he is minded And as God regardeth not persons Deut. 10. 17. nor accepteth the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more then the poor Iob 34. 19. but is pleased more in the least of his image on the humble faithful soul then with all the glittering glory of the world so is it in their measure with his people Where they see nothing of God they feel no substance but so far as God appeareth to them in any creature or action or any means or benefit which they possess so far they perceive some substance in it As the natural man Receiveth not the things of the Spirit nor can know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. So the Spiritual man hath shut up his senses to the world and lost his perception of them because they are carnally so discerned The carnal man hath his senses quick in discerning and savouring the things of the flesh but to the things of the Spirit he is dead and sensless And contrarily the Spiritual man is dead and sensless to the things of the flesh and hath no savour in those things that are other mens delights Rom. 8. 10 5 6. He tasteth no more sweetness in their pleasures then in a chip He wonders what they can see or taste in the things of the world that they so run after it To be Rich or Poor do but little differ in his eyes To be high or low is all one to him considering these things as accomodations of the flesh though still he valueth any condition according to the respect it hath to God and so that is the
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
can expect in the world would you be contented with this as your portion What is that you would have and which you make such a stir for Would you have larger possessions more delightful dwellings repute with men the satisfying of your lusts c. Dare you take all this for your portion if you had it Dare you quit your hopes of the life to come for such a portion You dare not say so nor do it expresly though you do it implyedly and in effect O do not that which is so horrid that your own hearts dare not own without trembling and astonishment I pray you tell me do you think that a sufficient Portion which the Devil himself would give you if he could or is willing you should have He is content that you enjoy your lusts and pleasures he is willing to let you have the honours and fulness of the world while you are on earth He knows that he can this way best deal with your consciences and please you in his service and quiet you awhile till he hath you where he would have have you He that told Christ of all the Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them would doubtless have given him them if it had been in his power to have obtained his desire Though you think it too dear to part with your wealth or pleasures for heaven and to be at the labour of an holy life to obtain it the Devil would not think it too dear to give you all England nor all the world if it were in his power that thereby he might keep you out of Heaven And he is willing night and day to go about such kind of work that may but attain his ends in devouring you If he were able he would make you all Kings so that he could but keep you thereby from the Heavenly Kingdom Alas he that tempteth you to set light by heaven and prefer this world before it doth better know himself to his sorrow the worth of that everlasting glory which he would deprive you of and the vanity of that which he thrusteth into your hands As our Merchants that trade with the silly Indians when they have perswaded them to take glass and pieces of broken Iron and brass and knives for Gold or Merchandize of great value they do but laugh at their folly when they have deceived them and say What silly fools be these to make such an exchange For the Merchants know the worth of things which the Indians do not And so is it between the Deceiver of souls and the souls that he deceiveth When he hath got you to exchange the love of God and the Crown of Glory for a little earthly dung and lust he knows that he hath made fools of you and undone you by it for ever Do you not think your selves that it is abominable madness in those Witches that make a Covenant with the Devil and sell their souls to him for ever on condition they may have their wills for a time I know you will say it is abominable folly And yet most of the world do in effect the very same God hath assured them that they must for sake him or the world and that they must not love the world if they will have his love nor look for a portion in this life if they will have any part in the inheritance of the Saints He offers them their choice to take the pleasures of Earth or Heaven And Satan prevaileth with them to make choice of Earth though they are told by God himself that they lose their salvation by it And here you may see what advantage Satan gets by playing his game in the dark and doing his work by other hands and keeping out of sight himself and deceiving men by plausible pretences Should he but appear himself in his own likeness and offer poor worldlings to make such a match with them how much would the most of you tremble at it and abhort it And yet now he doth the same thing in the dark you greedily embrace it If you should but see or hear him desiring you to put your hands to such a Covenant as this is I do consent to part with the love of God and all my hopes of salvation so I may have my pleasures and wealth and honour till I die Sure if you be not besides your selves you would not you durst not put your hands to it Why then will you now put both hand and heart to it when he plaies his game underboard and implicitly by his temptations doth draw you to the same consent What do the most of the world but prefer earth before heaven through the course of their lives They prefer it in their thoughts and words and deeds It hath their sweetest and freest thoughts and words and their greatest care and diligence and delight And what then do these men do but sell their salvation for the vanities of the world Believe it Sirs if you understood the Word of God and understood Satans temptations and understood your own doings you would see that you do no less then thus make sale of your precious souls And it is not your false Hopes that for all this you shall be saved when you can keep the world no longer that will undo the bargain If the Law of the Land do punish Murder and Theft with death he that ticeth you to commit the crime doth tice you to cast away your life and it will not save you to say I had hoped that I might have plaid the thief or murderer and yet be saved O Sirs if you knew but half as well what you sell and cast away as the Devil doth that tempts you to it sure you durst never make such a match nor pass away such an inheritance for a little earthly smoak and dust SECT XVIII Use of Exhortation MEN Fathers and Brethren hearken to the word of Exhortation which I have to deliver to you from the Lord. I know that this world is near you and the world to come is out of sight I know the flesh which imprisoneth those souls is so much inclined to these sensual things that it will be pleased with nothing else But yet I am to tell you from the word of the Lord that this world must be forsaken before it forsake you and that you must vilifie and set light by it and your heart and hopes must be turned quite another way and you must live as men of another world or you will undo your selves and be lost for ever If you have thought that you might serve God and Mammon and Heaven and Earth might both be your End and Portion and God and the world might both have your hearts I must acquaint you that you are dangerously mistaken Unless you have two hearts One for God and one for the world and two souls One to save and one to lose But I doubt when one soul is condemned you will not find another to be saved I
must plainly tell you that the case of multitudes not only of the sottish vulgar but of persons of Honour and Worshipful Gentlemen is so palpably miserable in the eyes of impartial discerning men that we are obliged to lament it We hear you speak as contemptibly of the world in an affected discourse as any others but we see you follow it with unwearied eagerness You dote upon it You contrive and project how you may enjoy it You think you have got some great matter when you have obtained it A filthy stir you make in the world some of you to the disquiet of all about you that you may be richer or greater then you are It takes up your heart your time your strength and visibly it is the very work you live for and the great game that you play and the main trade that you drive on and all your Religious affairs come in but on the by and God is put off with the leavings of the world And if you are low in the world or miss of your desires and suffer in the flesh you whine and repine as if you had lost your God and your Treasure If you will deceive your selves by denying tâ—is that bettereth not your case Neither God nor any wise man that seeth your worldly lives and how much you set by worldly things and how little Good you do with your wealth and how much the flesh and your posterity have as devoted unto them and how little God hath devoted unto him I say no wise man that seeth this will believe that you are mortified heavenly men I do here proclaim to you this day from the Word of the Lord that this your way is your folly Psalm 49. 13. Luke 12. 20. and that you are at present in a damnable condition that you are the enemies of God whoever of you are friends to the world and that if you love the world the love of the Father is not in you 1 Iohn 2. 15. and that you must in Affection and Resolution forsake all that you have in the world and look for a Portion in the world to come or you are not Christians indeed nor can be saved Luke 14. 33. It would grieve the heart of a Believing man to see how desperately many civil ingenuous Gentlemen and others delude and destroy themselves insensibly You will I hope all cry shame upon a common swearer drunkard or whoremonger you will hang a Thief a Murderer or a Traytor But you seem not sensible of the misery of your own Condition that are perhaps in a more dangerous case then these I beseech you consider Is not that the most sinful and dangerous state where God hath least of the heart and the creature hath most What know you if you know not this Why it is apparent that there is less Love to the world in many an one of the forementioned wretches then in many Civil Gentlemen that live in good reputation in their Countrey and little suspect so much mischief by themselves That is the most wicked man that hath in his heart the strongest Interest which is opposite unto God and all that is not subordinate is opposite Sin hath not so deep and strong an Interest in some Muderers that kill a man in a passion in some swearers that get nothing by it but swear in a passion or in some thieves that steal in necessity as it hath in many that seem sober and Religious I say again the greater creature â—nterest the more sinful is the estate Alas Sirs the abstaining from some of these crimes and living like Civil Religious men if the world be not Crucified to you and you to it doth but hide your sin and misery and hinder your shame and repentance but not prevent your damnation Nay the very Interest of the flesh it â—elf may make you forbear disgâ—acefull sins and so that may be finally your greater vice which you so much glory in and which is materially your duty All the privâ—ledge of your condition is that you shall serve the Devil in more Golden setters then the poorer and contemned for t of sinners and that you may be the children of wrath with less suspition and that you may go to Hell in more credit then the rest and by your self-deceit you may keep off the knowledge of your misery and the disquiet of soul that would follow thereupon till death make you wiser when it is too late And is this a benefit to rejoyce in Indeed you have your Good things in this life you may be cloathed in the best and fare deliciously and when you are in Hell Torments where you would be glad of a drop of water your kindred on earth may nevertheless honour your name and little suspect or believe your misery And this is the Priviledge that you have above more disgraced offendors You leave a better esteem of you on earth when your souls are in Hell I But alas if a Pope should Saint you and his followers pray to you and worship you as its possible they may do this will not ease your torments I confess I am sensible that this kind of discourse is not very like to please you but it is not my errand to Please but to Profit For my part I bear you as much respect as you are Magistrates or otherwise qualified for the common good as others do But I must deal plainly with you in hope of your recovery or at least of the discharge of my own soul. I confess to you I look upon a worldly Prince or Judge or Justice or Gentlemâ—n or Freeholder yea or Minister as men as wicked before God and in as damâ—able and dangerous a case to their own souls as the thieves that you burâ— in the hand and hang. I am far from extenuating their sin or misery but I am shewing you your own Your sin may be as deep rooted and the interest of the world may be more predominant in you then in them Your lands and houses and hopeful posterity and the other provisions that you have made for your flesh may have more of your hearts then the world hath of the heart of a poor prisoner that never had so much to Idolâ—ze Believe it Gentlemen Christ was not in jest when he so often and earnestly warneth men of your quality of their everlasting peril Even more then ever he did Adulterers or Thieves It s not for nothing â—â—â—t he tells us how the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choak the word that it becometh unfruitful Luke 8. 14 Mat. 16. 2â— The Pharisecs that were covetous derided Christ when others did believe Luke 16. 14. They cannot be true Believers that receive Honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God only Iohn 5. 44. that is who prefer the former It is not for nothing that Christ assureth you that it is as hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God as
as you were to it he would never have deceived you He would havâ— received your departed souls and made you like Angels and raised your bodies to glory at the last and perpetuated that Glory Will your Riches or Pleasures or Honours do this He would have rescued you from the devouring flames which your inordinate love of the world will bring you to O miserable change to change God for the world it is to change a Crown of Glory for a Crown of thorns the love of our only friend for the smiles of deceitful enemies Life for death and Heaven for Hell O what thoughts will arise in your hearts when you are past the deceit and under the sad effects of it and shall review your folly in another world It will fill your consciences with everlasting horrour and make you your own accusers and tormentors to think what you lost and what you had for it To think that you sold God and your souls and everlasting hopes for a thing of nought More foolishly then Esau sold his birth-right for a mess of pottagâ— If the Sun and Moon and Stars were yours would you exchange them for a lump of clay Well sinners if God and Glory seem no more worth to you then to be slighted for a little fleshly pleasures you cannot marvail if you have no part in them SECT XIX IF Reason and Scripture-Evidence would serve turn I dare say you would by this time be convinced of the necessity of being Crucified to the world and the world to you But sensuality is unreasonable and no saying will serve with it like a child that will not let go his apple for a piece of gold But yet I shall not cease my Exhortation till I have tryed you a little further and if you will not yield to forsake the world you shall keep it to your greater cost as you keep it against the clearer light that would convince you of your duty 1. As you love God or would be thought to love him love not the world For so far as you Love it you Love not him 1 Ioh. 2. 15. As ever you would be found the friends of God see that you be enemies and not friends to the world For the friendship of the world is enmity to him Iam. 4. 4. You are used to boast that you Love God above all If you do so you will not Love the world above him And then you will not labour and care more for it then for him Your love will be seen in the bent of your lives That which you Love best you will â—eek most and be most careful and diligent to obtain As they that love money are most careful to get it so they that Love heaven will be more careful to make sure of that As they that love their drink and lust will be much in the Ale-house and among those that are the baits and fewel of their lust So they that Love the fruition of God will be much in seeking him and enquiring after him and much among those that are acquainted with such Love and can further them any way in the accomplishment of their desires If you Love God then let it be seen in the Holy Endeavours of your lives and set your affections on things above and not on the things that are on earth For that which you most look after we must think that you most Love Can you for shame commit Adultery with the world and live with it in your bosoms and yet say that you love God 2. As you Love your present peace and comfort see that you love not but Câ—ucifie the world It doth but delude you first and disquiet you afterward Like wind in your bowels which can tear and torment you but cannot nourish you And if God do love you with a special Love he will be sure to wean you from the world though to your sorrow If you do provoke him to lay wormwood on the breasts and to hedge up your forbidden way with thorns when you find the smart and bitterness you may thank your selves It is the remnant of our folly and our backsliding nature that is still looking back to the world which we have forsaken that is the cause of those successive afflictions which we undergo Did you Love the creature less it would vex you less but if you will needs set your minds upon them and be pleasing your worldly sensual desires God will turn loose those very creatures upon you and make them his scourges for the recovery of your wits the reducing of your mis-led revolting souls Are you taken up with the hopes of a more plentifull estate and think you are got into a thriving way How soon can God blast and break your expectations By the death of your cattle the decay of trading the false-dealing of those you trust the breaking and impoverishing of them by contentious neighbours vexing you with Law suits by corrupted witnesses or Lawyers that will sell you for a little gain by ill servants by unthrifty children by thieves or souldiers or the raging flames by restraining the dew of heaven and causing your land to deny its increase and make you complain that you have laboured in vain How many waies hath he in a day or an hour to scatter all the heap of wealth that you have been gathering and to shew you that by sad experience which you might have known before at easier rates At the least if he meddle not with any thing that you have yet how quickly can he lay his hand upon your selves and lay you in sickness to groan under your pain and sin together and then what comfort will you have in the world when head ake's and back ake's and nothing can ease you When pain and languishing make you weary of day and of night and weary of every place and weary of your best diet your finest cloathes your merriest companions Where then is the sweetness and beauty of the world Then if you look on house or goods or lands how little pleasure find you in any of them Especially when you know that your departure is at hand and you must stay here no longer but presently must away Oh then what a carkaise will all the glory of the world appear and how sensibly then will you read or hear or think of these things that now in your prosperity are very little moved by the hearing of them Is it your children that you set your hearts upon in inordinate Love or Care Why alas how quickly can God call them from you by death and then you will follow them to the Church-yard and lay them in the grave with so much the sadder heart by how much the more inordinately you loved them And perhaps God may leave them to be Graceless and unnatural and make that child by rebellion or unkindness to be the breaking of your heart whom you most excessively affected If it be a wife that you over-love you know not but they
world do set as light by such in inconsiderable vanities And if the dead in sin can bear so easily the greatest misery that man on earth is ordinarily capable of as the slavery of the Devil the guilt of sin the curse of the Law the danger of damnation c. what wonder then if they that are Crucified to the world can bear a little poverty or sickness or reproach which is to the other but as the prick of a pin or the scratch of a thorn to a deadly poyson or a stab at the very heart 3. But yet this is not all Your inordinate love of any thing in the world will not only embitter your lives but it will be the horrour of your souls at death and judgement And therefore as ever you would leave the world in peace and as ever you would appear before the Lord your Judge with comfort and as ever you desire that the creatures should not be your Tormentors take heed that you do not over-love them now but see that they be Crucified to â—ou You cannot possibly be sensible now what a pang of horrour it will cast you into at the last when you shall see the world leaving you and see what it was that you ventured your souls and their everlasting welfare for O with what grief and tearing of heart do earthly minded persons part with the world When you are dying that one thing that had your heart will more torment your hearts to remember it then all things else will do Nothing is such a terrour to the thoughts of a a dying covetous man as his money and lands and worldly wealth Nothing so vexeth the ambitious as to think on that shadow of honour which he did pursue Nothing doth so torment the filthy fornicator as the remembrance of that person with whom he committed the beastly sin All other persons or things in the world will not then be so bitter to you as those that stole your hearts from God but at judgement and in hell the remembrance of them will be a thousand fold more bitter And who would now prepare such misery for themselves and glut themselves with that which they can no better digest or bear What wise man would not rather be without the drunkards cups then be fain to spue it up again and part with it with so much sickness and disgrace And why should you desire to be drunk with the profits or pleasures of the world when you know before hand with how much shame and trouble of conscience you must cast it up again at last 4. But yet this is not the worst but if you will needs live to the world you must take it for your portion and look not for any more And therefore as ever you would not be deprived of your hopes of eternal life and be put off with the earthly portion of the wicked see that the world be Crucified to you and you to the world How poor a portion is it that worldlings do possess Even like Nebucadnezar that had his portion with the beasts Daâ— 4. 15. How soon will all their portion be spent and then they will feed with swine yea and be denyed these very husks For they are set in slâ—ppery places and are brought to desolation in a moment Psal. 73. 18 19 20. O how much better a portion might you have had if you had not refused or neglected it when you had your choice Me thinks in your greatest pleasures and abundance it should astonish your souls to think This is my portion I shall have no more When you are past this life and entring into Eternity then where is your â—ortion Alas saith Conscience I have had it already I cannot spend it and have it too You know what you have now but what shall you have hereafter to all eternity Your Portion is almost spent already and what will you do then Oh then to think that the Eternal glory of the Saints might have been yours it was offered as freely to you as to them but you have lost it by preferring the world before it and that after a thousand convictions of your folly O what a cutting thought will this be Luke 16. 25. To remember that you chose your good things in this life will be a sad Remembrance when all is gone The Lord is the protion of his Saints inheritance Psalm 16. 5. even their portion for ever Psalm 73. 26. their portion in the Land of the living Psal. 142. 5. and this was it that encouraged them to labour patience and hope Psalm 119. 52. Lam. 3. 24 25 26. But for the worldling The heaven shall reveal his iniquity and the earth shall rise up against him the increase of his house shall depart and his goods shall slow away in the day of wrath This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the heritage appointed to him by God Iob 20. 37 38 39. If you can be content with such a Portion make much of the world and take your fleshly pleasures while you may But if you hope for the everlasting portion of Believers away with the world and Crucifie it without any more ado and set your hearts on the portion which you hope for SECT XX. HAving said as much as is suitable to the other parts of this discourse to perswade you to be willing to Crucifie the world I shall next give some Directions to those that are perswaded and tell you by what means the work may be done And I beseech you mark them and resolve to practise them Direct 1. OBserve and Practise the Direction intimated in the Text. It is the Cross of Christ that must Crucifie the world to you It s thither therefore that you must repair for help An Infidel may fetch such weapons from reason and experience as shall wound the world and diminish his esteem of it and make it less delightful to him But it is only the Cross of Christ that can furnish us with those weapons that must pierce it to the very heart Or if the Unbeliever were deprived of all earthly delight and brought into despair of ever receiving more comfort from the world as it is with many of them in some extremity and with all at death yet he himself is not Crucified to the world Though his delight in it be gone yet his love to it is not gone Though he be out of Hope of ever having content in it yet his desires after it are the same If he call it vanity and vexation as the Believer doth it is because it denyeth him his desires Not because he takes it heartily for an Enemy but for an unkind Lover that dealeth hardly with him that hath given it his heart If he look upon it as Dead and unable to help him yet doth he behold it as the carkaise of a friend with grief and lamentation It is his greatest trouble that the world cannot give him that which he would have And therefore he
their fancies some false alluring picture of the world and make it seem to be what it is not and therefore they admire it So that the right way to rectifie your Affections is first to rectifie your Conceptions I would not have you think worse of the world then it deserves but only perswade you to judge of it as it is Do not dream of a Pallace in the air and then be enamoured on the matter of your dreams You think the world is some excellent thing and will do some great matters for you and that they are happy men that abound with its riches and honours and delights I beseech you Sirs return to your wits I told you before that those that have tryed the world think otherwise of it They that have seen the utmost that it can do do shake the head at it as the blind unbelievers did at Christ when they see him hanging on the Cross. Why then should you be of so differing a mind Come nearer and consider what it is that you admire Is it not the great Deceiver of the Nations the bait of the Devil by which he angles for souls If you should fall in love with a post that were drest in the finest cloathes it were a disgrace to your understandings And what course should we take to quiet and rectifie the mind of such a lover but even to undress the post and take off all the bravery and shew it you naked and when you see it is but a post me thinks you should not be fond on it any more Do so then by the world which you more foolishly admire It s cloathed with Riches and Honours and Delights it s adorned by the great applause of its followers there is such running after it and courting it that you think sure all this ado is not for nothing But take off all these befooling gawdes and strip it of these ornaments and then see how you like it But perhaps you 'l say How should I do that Why 1. Consider frequently of how little moment these things are as to you You have matters of everlasting life or death salvation or damnation to look after and what is riches or vain pleasures to this These are not the things that must denominate you happy or unhappy You do not stand or fall by them They are but by-matters that are promised you as an over plus so far as shall be fit but your life or death consisteth not in them Should a man that must be for ever in Heaven or Hell and hath but a little time to determine which it must be should such a man spend that little time about riches and pleasure Can you have while at the door of Eternity to hunc after the delights of the flesh and study after the prosperity of this world Why do not dying men do so then Why do they not bargain and deceive and contrive for their lusts and worldly accommodations No they have then no list to them then they have other things to think of And why not now as well as then O Remember how little matter it is Whether you go poor or rich to the grave This is not your concernment and therefore let it not take you up unless you will wilfully neglect your selves 2. And then forget not the brevity of your worldly possessions Remember whenever they are presented to you in their beauty that all this will be but for a little while The very est beggar in the Town that is not a fool had rather be as they are then to have an house full of Gold till tomorrow and then to be stripâ— of it all again Remember the pleasures of sin are but for a season By that time the feast is done you are as hungry as before by that time you have done laughing the matter of your miâ—th is turned into sorrow and the jest is cold and the game is at an end The hour is almost come already wherein you shall say of all your pleasure It is past and gone And will you trouble your selves and ruine your poor souls for such a fleeting transitory thing Will you be at so much cost and labour to build an house that before you have finished it will be spurned down by death in a moment O that you would but still think of the world as it is and take off the gloss and wash away the painting which deceiveth you and look on it naked as shortly you shall do and then it could not have that power to bewitch you as now it hath but you would see that your Interest lyeth not in it and that you have greater matters that call for your regard and this is the way to Crucifie you to the world Direct 3. THE Crucifying of the world doth very much depend upon the Crucfying of the flesh For I have told you before that the flesh is the master Idol and the world is but its provision and the Devils bait And therefore it is the life of carnality that is the life of the world in you When men have an Appetite that must needs be satisfied and must have the meat and drink which it desires and it is as much to them to deny their appetites as if it were some great and weighty business these beasts are far from Crucifying the world For they must needs look after provision for these Appetites He that must have the sweetest morselâ— and the pleasants drink must needs look after provision to maintain it And he that hath a Proud corrupted mind that must needs be somebody in the eyes of others and therefore must needs be cloathed with the best and placed with the highest and keep company with the greatest or the idlest and merri est companions this man doth think that he must needs have provision to maintain all this No man doth admire the world but he that Judgeth by his fleshly Interest and is a sâ—ive to his sensuality Set Reason in the throne let â—aith illuminate and advance it subdue your inordiâ—ate seâ—â—ual desires And then the world will wither of it self The servants will hide their heads or comply if the Master be once conquered Nay you may then press the world upon a better service Remember that your sensual Appetite was made in order to the preservation of your Natures and to be ruled by Reason if therefore it would become the predominant faculty and would take up with its own delights as your end and would rebell against its Guide and Master its time then to use it as a rebell should be used and with Paul to buffet it and bring it into subjection And if you can do this the work is done It s a childish if not a bruitish thing and below a man to be captivated unto sense It s the content of the higher faculties that are the pleasures of a man The pleasing of the throat is common to us with the swine It s the basest Spirit that makes the greatest matter
MOreovor where the world is Crucified A great deal of self-tormenting care and trouble of mind will be prevented You will not live such a perplexed miserable life as worldlings do Even in your outward troubles you will have less inward trouble of soul then they have in their abundance They are like a man that is hanged up in chains alive that gnaws upon his own flesh a while and then must famish What else do worldlings but tear and devour themselves with cares and sorrows and scourge themselves with vexatious thoughts and troubles If others did but the hundredth part as much to them against their wills as they wilfully do against themselves they would account them the cruellest persons in the world Paul saith of men that are in love with money that while they covet after it they do not only err from the faith but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they pierced themselves through and through and stab'd their own hearts with many sorrows A worldly mind and a melancholly are some kin The daily work of both is self-vexation and they are wilfully set upon the stabbing and destroying of themselves But it is not thus with the Believer so far as he is mortified Will he vex himself for nothing Will he be troubled for the loss of that which he disregardeth The dead world hath not power thus to disquiet his mind and to toss it up and down in trouble When it hath power on his body it cannot reach his soul. As the soul of a dead man feeleth no pain when the corpse is cut in pieces or rotteth in the grave So in a lower measure the soul of a Believer being in a sort as it were separated from the body by faith and gone before to the heavenly inheritance is freed from the sense of the calamities of the flesh So far as we are Dead we are insensible of sufferings Benefit 7. ANother Benefit that followeth upon the former is this We shall be far better able to suffer for Christ because that sufferings will be much more easie to us when once we are truly Crucified to the world What is it that makes men so tender of suffering and startle at the noise of it and therefore conform themselves to the times they live in and venture their souls to save their flesh but only their over-valuing fleshly things and not knowing the worth and weight of things everlasting They have no soul within them but what is become carnal by a base subjection to the flesh and therefore they savour nothing but the things of the flesh All Life desireth a suitable food for its sustentation A Carnal Life within hath a Carnal appetite and is most sensible of the miss of Carnal commodities But a Spiritual Life hath a Spiritual appetite And as Carnal minds can easily let go Spiritual things so a spiritual mind so far as it is such can easily let go carnal things when God requireth it When you are Dead to the world you will easily part with it For all things below will seem but small matters to you in comparison of the things which they are put in competition with If you are scorned or accounted the off scouring of the Town you can bear it because with you it is a very small matter to be judged of man 1 Cor. 4. 3. If you must endure abuses or persecutions for Christ you can do it because you reckon that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed Rom. 8. 18. You can let go your gain and account it loss for Christ yea and account all things loss for the knowledge of him and suffer the loss of all things for him accounting them but as dung that you may win him Phil 3. 7 8. If you knew that bonds and afflictions did abide you yet none of these things would move you neither would you account your life it self dear to you so that you may finish your course with joy Acts 20 23 24. So far as you are dead to the world and alive to God it will be thus with you When they that are alive to the world are so far from being able to dye for God that every cross doth seem a death to them I have many a time heard such lamentable complaints from people that are â—aln into poverty or disgrace or some other worldly suffering that hath given me more cause to lament the misery of their souls then of their bodies When they take on as if they were quite undone and had lost their God and hope of heaven doth it not too plainly shew that they made the world their God and their heaven Benefit 8. MOreover if indeed you are Crucified to the world your hearts will be still open to the motions of the Spirit and the motions of further Grace And so you will have abundant advantage both for the exercise and encrease of the graces which you have received The earthly minded have their hearts locked up against all that can be said to them Never can the Spirit or his Ministers make a motion to them for their good but some worldly interest or other doth contradict it and rise up against it But what have you to stop your ears when the world is dead The word then will have free access to your hearts When the Spirit comes your thoughts are ready your affections are at hand and all are in a posture to entertain him and attend him and so the work goes on and prospers But when he comes to the worldly mind the thoughts are all from home the affections are abroad and out of the way and there is nothing for his entertainment but all in a posture to resist him and gainsay him O what work would the preaching of the Gospel make in the world if there were not a worldly principle within to strive against it But we speak against mens Idols against their Jewels and their Treasure and therefore against their hearts and natures And then no wonder if we leave them in the jaws of Satan where we found them till irresistible merciful violence shall rescue them But so far as you are mortified the enemy is dead contradictions are all silenced opposition is ceased the Spirit findeth that within that will befriend its motions and own its cause the soul lyeth down before the word and gladly heares the voice of Christ And thus the work goes smoothly on Benefit 9. MOreover when once you are Crucified to the world you are capable of the true spiritual use of it which it was made for Then you may see God in it and then you may savour the blood of Christ in it Then you may perceive a great deal of Love in it And that which before was venemous and did endanger your souls will now become a help to you and may be safely handled when the sting is thus taken out Before it was the road to Hell and now there is some taste
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
Christian can I spare all these tedious troublesom employments these complements these applauses this sumptuous provision and retinue and all this stir that they make in the world How easily can I spare their Titles and Obeysances When I look up at them as on the pinacâ—e of a steeple I bless my self that I am below them on saâ—er ground I have more leisure to converse with God in my solitude then they have in a crowd Rejoyce that you neither need nor desire such a sâ—ate but find Christ enough for you in a lower condition and nothing without him enough in the highest That you are above these empty childish honours when those that possess them may be enslaved under them That you have the dignity of a Son of God a Member of Christ and an Heir of Heaven and have an heart that can contentedly let other men take the dignities of the earth It s more to have the world and the Kingdoms and glory of it under your feet by the Spiritual advancement of your souls then to be the Monarch of the world 2. Have you abundance of earthly Riches and provision for your flesh So that you want nothing but have the world at will Glory not in it as the least part of your felicity This will not keep your souls in your bodies nor take away their guilt nor open to you the gates of heaven You may want a drop of water in Hell for all your riches on earth If you scape that danger no thanks to your riches If ever you get to heaven you must be beholden to Christ to save you from your riches And when all 's done you will have a harder journey and a greater load to burden you then others and will be saved with very much ado Glory not then in these but rather glory that you have a taste of higher and sweeter things which take off your minds and make you look on these as chips To have an heart that cares not for wealth or honours but can rejoyce in poverty and daily reproaches is a thousand times greater mercy then to have all the wealth and honour of the world 3. Have you convenient habitations for buildings and rooms and walks and lands and neighbourhood Glory not in them as any of your felicity They are baits to tice your hearts from God But rather rejoyce that you have a building not made with hands eternall in the heavens and that you can be contented till you come thither with any thing in the way and make shift with inconveniences for a little while Heaven wants no furniture nor hath any encumbrances nor inconveniences If a winding sheet and Coffin be room enough when we are dead we can endure sure to be somewhat straitened while we are alive seeing we are dead to the world while we live in it O what is the most sumptuous Palace to the meanest room in our Fathers house The green and flourishing earth in Summer covered with the more glorious spangled Firmament is a goodly structure but far short of that which the poorest Saint shall have with God 4. Have you comelyness of body have you beauty or strength Glory not in it It is but warm well coloured earth The pox or other sickness can quickly turn your beauty to deformity If age do not wrinkle it death will dissolve it The comelyest and strongest body will shortly be as homely and loathsom a thing as the dirt in the streets and as the carry on in a ditch The stoutest youth and the neatest dâ—mes must come to this there 's no remedy And is such a body a thing to be Gloried in No but glory rather in your assurance of a Resurrection when your mortalâ— bodies shall put on immortality and your corruptible incorruption and and death shall be swallowed up in victory and when you shall shine as Stars in the Firmament of your Father and be subject to heat and cold hunger and thirst and weariness no more And that in the meanâ—time you can tame this flesh and use it as a servant and instead of caring for its inordinate provision can lay out your care for a more during substance 5. Have you comely apparel for the adorning of your bodies Glory not in it This is so childish that it s below a man and therefore so sinâ—ull as to be unbeseeming a Christian The emptyest person may have the best attire It is not your out-side that shews your worth The Philosopher asks the Question Why women are more addicted to look after neat attire then men and he answereth Because nature is conscious of their want of inward worth it seeks to make it up with somewhat that is borrowed It may make a man suspect that somewhat is amiss within when there needs all this ado without They are not alway the best horses that have the neatest trappings A fool may be as bravely drest as a wise man and few but fools and children do admire you or think you ever the better but many an one will envy you and many take you to be the worse A graceless soul will be but sorrily covered with neat attire And whatever you hang without we all know that there 's dung and filth within Pauls shop hath comlyer Ornaments then these 1 Tim. 2. 9. Let women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety not with broidered hair or gold or pearls or costly array but which becometh women professing godliness with good works learning in silence with all subjection Glory in the whole rayment of the Saints even the righteousness of Christ lest when you go naked out of the world as you come naked in your souls should be found naked before an holy jealous God 6. Have you health of body and feel no sickness Glory not in it It will last you but a while Your oyl will be spent ere long and your candle will go out You must know what pains and death are as well as others A little cold or heat or a thousand accidents may quickly change the case with you Many that were young and lusty go to their graves when some that were more likely to have gone before them are left behind But first or last we must all away Rather glory in a healthfull frame of soul that Christ hath cured you of your worldliness and pride of your self-seeking and passion and fleshly lusts For this will be a more durable health then the other 7. Have you Nobility of birth are you descended of worshipfull or honourable Ancestors Glory not in it We are all made of one common earth There is as good blood in the veins of a beggar as of a Lord. This is but a remnant of your Ancestors honour Perhaps the favour of some great men might bestow it on them at first without desert Or it might be the Consequent of a little riches though ill got However the merit descendeth not to you and therefore its little honour that comes
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