devour widows houses after all their preaching and praying there is none that are more cruel and close handed or ready to over-reach or deceive then they nor any that are more greedy for the things of the world In answer to this Objection I shall first say somewhat to the Professors of Religion and then shall speak to the objecters themselves First you that profess the fear of God take notice I beseech you of this accusation and though it may shew you cause to pitty malicious slanderers yet let it provoke you to search your hearts and lives and see that you give not cause for this reproach As for those worldly time-serving hypocrites which in all places creep in among the Saints and do but serve themselves of Christ let them know that God will one day require an account at their hands of all these scandals which they have caused in the Church and the ruine of poor ungodly souls that are dasht in pieces and cast themselves into hell by stumbling at this stone which their worldly practises have laid before them If you would needs be worldlings you were better have kept in the world among worldlings then to have crept into the Church of Christ and brought thither your scandalous worldly lives to the dishonour of that Religion which condemneth your practises and you Did not Christ warn you to count your costs and never to dream of being his Disciples unless you could forsake all and follow him under the Cross in expectation of a promised treasure in Heaven â—s there any thing that Christ did more peremptorily require of you then to Renounce the world and deny your selves if you would be his Disciples And yet will you come without this wedding garment and bring your base and earthly minds among his servants and cause his truth and his house and followers to bear the reproach of your worldly baseness I tell you it is like to cost you dear that you have cast this dishonour on the name of God and caused the damnation of the impious reproachers The wrong you have done to God and men you shall certainly pay for in everlasting misery unless a through repentance do prevent it And I fear it is but few of these worldly Hypocrites that ever truly do repent But woâ— to them by whom offence cometh It were good for that man that he had never been born 2. And as for you that truly fear God I beseech you let the slanders of wicked men awake you to an holy jealousie of your selves You see what their eye is upon Take heed then how you walk you hear what it is that offendeth them As far as is possible avoid all occasions of such offence Take heed in your bargaining buying or selling how you carry your selves toward them and what you say If all the actions of your lives were right save one they will reproach you for that one If you speak but one rash or unhandsom word they will forget all the rest and remember that one and traduce you as if all were like that one See therefore that you walk and speak by line and rule And remember that it is not an ordinary measure of charity and good works that is expected from you according to your abilities by God and man If you love those that love you what Reward have you do not even the Publicans the same And if ye saluâ—e your brethren only what do you more then others do not even the Publicans so But saith Christ I say unto you Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust Mat. 5. 44 45 46 47. Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 6. 15. Your actions and words are observed and scanned more then any other mens For malice is quick-sighted and of a strong memory And you are the Light of the world A City that is set on an hill cannot be hid Mat. 5. 14. Take heed therefore that you be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life This will not only stop the mouthes of the enemies but it will also rejoyce your Teachers in the day of Christ that they have not run or laboured in vain Yea if they were offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith they would rejoyce with you all Phil. 2. 15 16 17. And for your selves also it is necessary that you excell others in good works For except your righteousness exceed the righteousness even of Scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 5. 20. Remember that you live among the blind and if you stumble and fall you know not how many will fall upon you and if you break but your shins they that fall upon you may break their necks and if you rise again you are not sure that they will rise Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims in this world abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul having your conversation honest among the Gentiles the unbelievers and prophane that whereas they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they behold glorifie God in the day of visitation 1 Pet. 2. 11 12. For so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 1 Pet. 2. 15. Finally brethren be ye all of one mind having compassion one of another love as brethren be pittiful be curteous not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing 1 Pet. 3. 8 9. And so walk that if any obey not the word they may yet be won by your exemplary conversation 1 Pet. 3. 1. As you hear more then others so do more then others that it may appear you build upon a rock Mat. 7. 24 25. And as the book of God is much in your hands and mouth so remember that whoso looketh into the perfect Law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetfull hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed For Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep your selves unspotted from the world Iam. 1. 25 27. 2. Having said this much to the godly by way of caution I shall now make answer to the Objecters themselves You that say There are none so cruel and so covetous as these that
so used You cannot only part with your substance when God calls for it but even take joyfully the spoiling of your goods as knowing that you have a better and more enduring substance in Heaven Heb. 10. 33 44. You will reckâ—n that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. In a word you can deny your selves for sake all and follow Christ in expectation of a treasure in Heaven Luk. 18. 22. Never tell me that Heaven is your end if there be any thing which you cannot part with to obtain it For that which is dearest to you is your End Why else is it that labour and sufferings yea and the apparent hazard of their salvation seems not to a worldling too dear a price for the purchasing of their present prosperity but because they have laid up a treasure upon earth and earthly things are their chiefest end 8. Lastly that is your ultimate end which you think in your practical Iudgement you can never Love or Labour for too much I know there is scarce a worldling to be found which will not give it you under his hand as his settled judgement that its God and Glory only that cannot be loved too much and he will confess that he loveth the world too much â—ut yet he doth it while he confesseth it and he denyeth his chiefest Love to God while he acknowledgeth it due to him And therefore it is not his practical effectual judgement that is for it but only he hath an uneffectuall Notion or Opinion of it But it s otherwise with the sanctified Philosophers and Divine 〈◊〉 to say that vertue is in the middle between two extreams But that 's only to be interpreted of the subservient vertues which are exercised about the Means But the chiefest Good and ultimate End is such as cannot be loved too much The measure here is as Austin speaks that it be without measure It is our All that is due to that which we esteem and take for our All. God is our All objectively for fruition and the All of our affections and endeavours should be his With all our heart with all our soul and might is the due measure of our Love to him We can never seek our End too diligently nor buy it too dearly nor do too much for it in Gods way And as the Believer thinks he can never have too much of God nor do too much for him so the lives of worldlings tell us that even while they speak disgracefully of the world they think they can never have too much of it nor would they think they could ever do too much for it were it not that overdoing for one part of their worldly Interest doth deprive them of another part I have now told you how you may discern whether it be God or the world that Liveth in your Hearts and whether you are Dead to God or to the world What remaineth but that you take it home and apply it yet closer then I can do and try what God it is that you adore and what felicity it is that you esteem and intend and consequently what you are and what will become of you if you persevere I beseech you make this your serious work and take some time for it purposely when you come home to do it more effectually then now on the sudden hearing may be expected What say you will you take your selves apart some time and purposely search your hearts to the very quick till you have found whether the world be Crucified to you by the Cross of Christ and the hopes of glory If you did but know the usefulness of the discovery I am confident you would not need so much intreating SECT XVI TRuly Brethren it is one of the mysteries of sâ—n and self-deceit that such a multitude of people yea seemingly Religious can think so well of themselves as they do and bear it out with such audacious confidence as if they were the real servants of Christ when it is apparent even to the eyes of others that they are not Crucified to the world but live to it and serve it day by day How anxiously are they contriving for it while their care to please God is so exceeding slender that it takes up but little of their time and thoughts How sweet are their thoughts of a plentiful estate To have the world at will houses and lands and full provisions for themselves and theirs that they may be cloathed with the best and fare of the best and sit with the highest and be honoured and reverenced of all how fine a life doth this seem to them If they have but a fair opportunity to rise how little tender are they of the lawfulness of the Means at least where they are not so wicked as to dishonour them They can believe that to be the truth which befriendeth their worldly Interest and that to be false and erroneous which is against it The world chooseth many of their opinions for them and much of their Religion and telleth them what party they should side with and what not It telleth them how far they shall tolerate other mens sin and how far not how far they shall make profession of their faith and how far they should conceal it from the knowledge of the world And so as Paul saith they account Gain to be Godliness 1 Tim. 6. 5. not only esteeming it better then down-right Godliness but measuring out their Godliness by their Gain making that to seem Religious which fitteth their carnall ends and easily believing that which is for their worldly interest How weak and silly reasons will perswade them that the point is true the cause is good the means is lawful which serveth their turns for worldly ends And the clearest unquestionable Evidences are nothing to them that are brought for the contrary So potent a perswader is worldy Interest that any thing will serve where it takes part and nothing prevail that it doth contradict A powerful disputant that most commonly hath the best whatever side it takes and the cause goes for it be it right or wrong Either they will not read such long and tedious discourses as are against them or they find some passage presently to quarrel with that 's too displeasing and makes them cast away the rest Or if they read the whole or hear you to the last it is with a resisting spirit all the while Before they know what you will say they have consuted you For they have resolved to believe that your reasons are insufficient and their cause is good They read and hear not only with a prejudice answerable to the reasons that formerly resolved them but with an opposing enmity and fixedness of will Had we only their understandings to dispute with it were the less but our main dispute is with Will and Passion which have no ears nor eyes nor brains though sense enough
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