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
and their living without God in the world But when faith hath opened a mans eyes and shewed him God in every creature who was hid from him before then is the creature who was before his All annihilated to him in that separated sense and God becomes his All again and this annihilation of the creature is indeed its restauration objectively to its primitive nature and use and it was not indeed known or respected as a creature till now So that sensual men by making the creature an imaginary God or chiefest Good or All do make it indeed objectively to become Nothing and so their All their God their felicity is Nothing and so all their life is a Nothing When as the faithfull by Crucifying or Annihilating the creature as it would appear a felicity to us or any Good as separated from God do restore it to its true objective being and use by returning to God who is truly All and in whom the creature is a Derived Imperfect something and out of whom it is indeed a Nothing I will further illustrate it by one other similitude God gave the Ceremonial Law by Moses to the Israelites to be an obscure Gospell and to lead them unto Christ. The sacrifices and other typicall Ceremonies were the Letters of the Law and Christ was the sense The true Believers thus understood and used them but the Carnal Jews lookt only on the letter and lost the sense and thus separating the bare Letter from the sense that is the Legall works from Christ they thought to be justified by those works and by the Law in that separated sense But the Apostle Paul doth plead against thiâ— errour and tells them that Christ is the end of the Law to all Believers and that he is the fulfilling of it and that through him it is fulfilled in those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and that by the deeâ—s of the Law in this separated sense no flesh can be justified and that the Letter separated from the sense of it killeth but Christ by his Spirit who is the sense of it giveth life If these Jews had taken and used the Law as God intended it and had taken the sense and spirit with the letter and had understood that Christ was the very life and end and all of the Law Paul would never have cryed down the Law nor Justification by it in this sense for that had been to cry down Justification by Christ. But it was Justification by the Letter or the Law as separated from Christ who was the meaning of it So is it in our present case The creature is the letter and God the sense and Carnal men do understand only the Letter of the creature and fall in love with it and thus God cryeth down the world and vilifieth and speaketh contemptuously of the world When as if it had not been for the separation he would never have cryed it down nor spoken an hard word of it As the Law had never been so hardly spoken of if the mis-understanding Jew had not separated it from Christ. So the world had never been so often called Vanity and a Lie and Nothing and a Dream and that which is not bread and that which profiteth not a Shadow a Deceiver with abundance of the like contemptuous terms if carnal sinners had not in their minds and affections separated it from God And thus I have shewed you in what Respects the World must be Crucified AND let me add in the Conclusion as most necessary for your observation that there is in the world an inseparable aptitude to tempt us dangerously to the foresaid abuse and therefore when we have done all that we can in Crucifying and sublimating it we must never imagine that we can make it so wholsom or harmless a thing as that we may feed upon it without great caution and suspition or ever return to friendship with it again till fire have refined it and grace hath perfectly refined us And yet this is not long of the creature without us but of us and the tempter The world is in it self Good as being the work of God and it cannot be the proper efficient culpable cause of our sin For it hath no sin in it self I mean the world as distinct from the men of the world and therefore cannot be the direct cause of sin But yet there is that in it which is apt to be the Matter of our temptation and so apt as that all that perish do perish by the world As there is no salvation but by the whole Trinity Conjunct who have each person his several office for our recovery so there is no damnation but by the whole Infernal Trinity the flesh the world and the Devil Even to Innocent Adam the world must be the bait and Satan found somewhat in it that made it apt for such an office though nothing but what was very good But now that the flesh is become the Predominant part and power in us as it is in all till the Spirit overcome it the case is much worse and the world is incomparably a more dangerous enemy then to Adam it could be For though still the creature is good in it self yet we are so bad that the better the creature is the worse it becomes to us For we are naturally propense to it in its separated capacity and all men till regeneration are fond of it as their felicity and hug it as their dearest good and Sacrifice to it as their Idol So that an enemy it is and an enemy it will be when we have done our best as long as we are on earth For while we have a flesh that would fain be pleased by that which God forbiddeth and there is a Devil to offer us the bait and tempt us to this flesh-pleasing the world which is the bait will still be the matter and occasion of our danger The consideration of this may cut the throat of licentious principles and hence we may answer the most of their vain pretended reasons who under the Cloak of Christian liberty would again indulge the flesh and be reconciled to the world But certainly it will never lay by its enmity till we lay by our flesh and therefore there is no thoughts to be entertained of closing with it any more but we must be killing it and dying to it to the last SECT IV. HAving thus shewed you in what Respect the world must be Crucified and so resolved the question as to the Object I am next to resolve it as to the Act and shew you wherein the Crucifying it doth consist The Apostle followeth on the Allegory which he took occasion of from the mention of the Cross of Christ. From thence therefore we must also fetch the proper sense As the world did use Christ or would have used him so we must use the world Not actually murder the sons of death as they did murder the Lord of Life but what Christ
glory we must be raised hereby into the greater suspition of it and the more resolvedly set against it As Herod did put to death even the innocent children lest Christ should escape that so he might make sure work for his Crown So must we subdue our sensuall desires by denying them sometimes even in lawful things lest we should be carryed to that which is unlawful before we are aware and we must avoid the very occasions and appearances of evil and restrain our selves in the liberty that we might take and not go as near the brink of danger as we dare For it concerneth us to make sure work where the Reign of Christ and our own salvation is so much concerned as in our victory over the world it is 4. The whole life of Christ on earth was one continued conflict with the world They believed not on him even when they saw his Miracles They hated him even while he did them good They afforded him not a settled habitation So in the height of its Glory the world must not be trusted by us Though it afford us sustenance for our outward man yet must we hate it and we must allow it no settled entertainment in our hearts Christ was in the world and the world was made by him and yet it knew him not Iohn 1. 10. We converse in the world and our outward man must live by it as in it we received our life and yet we must not know it in its separated capacity The world could not hate them that were of the world but Christ it hated because he was not of it Iohn 7. 7. and 15. 18 19. and 17. 14. So must we hate the world because it is not of that nature nor for that Interest as the New creature is though worldlings that are of it cannot hate it The nearer Christ was to the end of his life the more cruelly and maliciously did the world use him And the nearer we are to our parting with the world the more must we contemn and hate it 5. The world did arraign and condemn Christ as a Malefactor they charged him to be a Deceiver and one that did his mighty works by the power of Beelzebub So must we justly charge the world to be a Deceiver and work its strange stupendious delusions by the power of Satan the great deceiver and as a Malefactor must we attach arraign and condemn it They came out against Christ as a thief with swords and staves Mat. 26. 55. we must come out against the world as that great thief that would rob God of his honour and interest Christ of his Kingdom and us of our salvation and by the sword of the Spirit must disarm and conquer it The world judged Christ to be a blasphemer and guilty of death because he said that he was the Son of God and should sit at his right hand We must condemn the world of Blasphemous usurpation that would needs become our God and usurp the Divine prerogatives and honours They spit upon Christ in token of hatred and contempt And we must as it were spit at the pleasures and profits and honours of the world and manifest our defiance and hatred and contempt of them They buffeted Christ in manifestation of their malicious enmity And the world and our flesh must not scape our hands though our war be but defensive yet must we offend that we may defend So fight I saith Paul 1 Cor. 9. 26 27. not at one that beateth the air that maketh a shew of enmity when there is none as children in sport or sencers that have not intent to kill but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first verb signifieth to buffet and beat black and blew as we say Et valid is ictibus subjicere reluctantem as Beza speaks and the second verb signifieth to bring into servitude or into the state of a servant which is indeed the very work that we have to do with the flesh and the world They reproached Christ when they had smote him and tauntingly bid him Prophesie who smote him And the world and all the Idols of it deserve no better of us when they will usurp the place of God and we may well scorn such a God as Elias did Baal and as God useth to do by the Idols of the heathen Fine gods indeed that can neither save themselves nor us The world did strip Christ and put on him a robe and a Crown of thorns and a reed into his hand and again spit upon him and mocked him And this contempt in our apprehensions must we cast upon the arrogant world we must strip it of its vain shew and give it the honour of a reed for levity and of thorns for unprofitableness and vexation for as thorns it vexeth when it promiseth felicity and as thorns it choaketh that word of truth and as a reed it is shaken with every wind No backwardness of the Judge and no intercession of his wife could rescue Christ from the malice of the Jews but the more is said for him the more they cry Crucifie him And as resolvedly-must we persecute the world No intercession of our flesh or backwardness of carnal Reason must take us off but we must be content with nothing but its Crucifying When Pilate drew back they knockt all dead with this malicious voice Iohn 19. 12. If thou let this man go thou art not Caesars friend whosoever maketh himself a King speaketh against Caesar So must we quicken and provoke our Reason by arguments drawn from our fidelity to Christ and say If we favour this world we are not â—lse friend of Christ for whatsoever would make it self our King and our felicity and would steal away our hearts is not Christs friend When Pilate saith Shall I crucifie your King they cry out we have no King but Caesar. And when the flesh or carnal Reason saith Will you cast away your comforts your peace your happiness your lives We must say We have no comfort but Christ no peace but Christ no happiness no life but what 's in Christ. The world crucified Christ between two thieves And we must crucifie the world between two thieves viz. the flesh on the one hand and the Devil on the other which would both have robbed God and us Though through the power of a Crucified Christ the one of these even the flesh may be so refined as to be admitted into Paradise The world vvritt over the head of Christ as the cause of his death King of the Iews And vve must write this over the Crucified vvorld This is it that would have been our King and God and Happiness so let all thine enmies perish O Lord. We must pierce the very sides of it and let out its heart-blood We must nail its hands and feet the very instruments or means by vvhich
14. 12. So is it said of our conquest In all these things we are supervictors or more then Conquerors through him that hath loved us Rom. 8. 37. 2. Another wound that the world hath received by the Cross of Christ by him suffered is this By it satisfaction is made to God for the sin that the world had enticed man to commit and so quoad pretium the victory which the world had formerly obtained over us is nulled and its Captives rescued and we are cured of the deadly wounds which it had given us For he healeth all our diseases Psal. 103. 3. and his stripes are the remedy by which we are healed Isa. 53 5. So that it is a vanquishing of the world when Christ doth thus nullisie its former victories For thus he began to lead captivity it self captive which at his Resurrection and Ascension he did more fully accomplish Psalm 68. 18. Eph. 4. 8. 3. Another most mortal wound which the world received by the Cross of Christ was this By his Cross did Christ purchase that Glorious Kingdom which being revealed and propounded to the sons of men doth abundantly disgrace the world as a Competitor If there had been no greater good revealed to us or the revelation had been obscure and insufficient or no Assurance of it given us then might the world have easily prevailed For he that hath no hopes of greater will take up with this And he that looketh not for another life will make as much of the present as he can When the will of a man is the fort that is contended for the assault must be made by Allurement and not by force The competition therefore is between Good and Good and that which appeareth the Greater Good to us will carry it and have admittance If God had not set a Greater Good against the world it would have been every mans wisdom and duty to have been worldlings But when he revealeth to us another world of infinite value yea when he offereth us the fruition of himself this turneth the scales with wise men in a moment and shameth all competitors whatsoever Now it is the Cross of Christ that opened the Kingdom of heaven to all true Believers which sin had before shut up against all mankind This marrs the markets of the world It s nothing worth to them that have tasted of the blessedness of this Kingdom Were it not for this the temptations of the world and flesh might prevail What should we say to them or how should we repulse them Reason would say It s better have a small and unsatisfactory Good then none But now we have enough to say against any such temptation One argument from the everlasting Kingdom is sufficient where grace causeth a right apprehension of it to confound all the temptations by which the enemies of our happiness can assault us What I Shall we prefer a mole-hill before a Kingdom a shadow before the substance an hour before eternity Nothing before all things Vanity and Vexation before Felicity The world is now silenced It hath nothing to say which may take with right Reason It must now creep in at the back door of sense and bribe our bruitish part to befriend it and to entertain it first and so to betray our reason and lead it into the inner rooms The Cross of Christ hath set up such a Sun as quite darkeneth the light of worldly glory Who will now play so low a game that hath an Immortal Crown propounded to him Though earth were Something if there were no better to be had yet it is Nothing when Heaven stands by This therefore is the deadly blow by which the world is Crucified by the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. 4. Another mortall wound that the Cross of Christ hath given it is this The Cross hath purchased for us that Spirit of Power and all those Ordinances and Helps of Grace by which we our selves in our own persons may Actually Conquer and Crucifie the world as Christ did before us His Cross is the meritorious cause of his following Grace And as he hath there procured our Justification so also our Sanctification by which the world is renounced by us and contemned There shall a vertue flow from the Cross of Christ that shall give strength to all his chosen ones to go on and conquer and tread the world and all its glory under their feet and by the leaves of this Tree which seemeth dead to a carnal eye the Nations shall be healed And thus by it the world is Crucified 5. Lastly by the Cross of Christ a Pattern is given us for our Imitation by which we may learn how to contemn and so Crucifie the world If when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is accceptable with God For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2. 20 21 22 23. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Iesus that made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2. 5 6 7. Let us therefore lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking to Iesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of God Heb. 12. 2. This leads us to the next 2. HAving shewed you how the Cross as suffered by Christ doth crucifie the world we are next to shew you how that same Cross as Believed in and considered doth Crucisie it to us They that look only to the Merit of the Cross and over-look the Objective use of it to the soul do deceive themselves and deprive themselves of the full efficacy of it and deal like a foolish patient that thinketh to be cured by commending the Medicine or by believing that it hath vertue to cure his disease when in the mean time he lets it lie by him in the box and never taketh it or applyeth it to himself The Believing Meditation of the Cross of Christ doth give the world these deadly wounds 1. It bringeth us under the actual promise of the Spirit For though there be a work of the Spirit which causeth us to Believe before our actual faith in nature yet the further gift of the Spirit for Mortification is promised upon Condition of our faith And upon the performance of that Condition we have right to the thing promised It is by faith that we fetch strength from Christ for the conquest of this and all other
use the means and there must we partake of the success of our Endeavours You may better expect that God should give you a Crop at harvest who refused to plow and â—ow your Land or that your children should be men before they are born then that he should be your Happiness in the life to come if you finally reject him in this life and choose to your selves a secular happiness Such as you now make choice of such and no other shall you have Heaven and Earth were set before you You knew that earthly happiness was short If yet you would choose it think not to have heaven too For if you do you will prove deceived at the last SECT XII The Uses BEloved Hearers I suppose you will give me leave to take it for granted that you are all the rational creatures of God made subject to him and capable of enjoying him and such as must be happy or miserable for ever as also that you are all unwilling to be miserable and willing to be happy and that this life is the time for the use of those means on which your everlasting life dependeth and that Judgement will turn the scales at last as Grace or Sin shall turn them now I hope also that I may suppose that you are agreed that Christianity is the only way to happiness and consequently that you are all professed Christians And one would think that where men are so far satisfied of the End and of the Way we might conceive great hopes of their sincerity and salvation But when we see that mens lives do nullifie their professions and that while they look towards God they row towards the world and while they Hope for Heaven their daily travel is towards Hell and while they plead for Christ they work against him our Hopes of them are turned to necessary lamentation But how comes this to pass that reasonable men yea men reputed wise and learned yea many that seem Religious to others and to themselves should be so shamefully over seen in a matter that so concerneth their everlasting state As far as I am able to discover the causes of this Calamity are these two 1. One part of the Professed Christians of the world understand not what Christianity is and so profess but the empty name when indeed the thing it self which is in their conception and which they mean in that profession is nothing like to true Christianity 2. The other part of miscarrying professors though they do conceive of the Christian Religion as it is yet not with an apprehension intensively answerable to the thing which they apprehend Though their conceptions of the Christian verities have a morall Truth in them it being not false but True which they conceive yet there is no â—irmness and solidity in the Act and so they do not effectually appâ—â—â—â—nded them Nothing more easie more common and more dangerous then to make a Religion either of Names and Words which he that useth doth not understand or of meer speculations and superficial conceits which never became practical habituate and predominant nor were the serious effectual apprehensions of the man A right Object and a sincere and serious Act do essentially constitute the Christians faith If either be wanting it is not that faith whatever it may pretend to be Nothing but the Gospel objects will suffice to a mans salvation were it never so firmly apprehended And nothing but a firm and serious Belief of those objects will make them effectuall or saving to the Believer Were we able to cure the two fore-mentioned defects and to help you all to these two requisites we should make no question but you would all be saved We cannot expect that men should let go their sensual delights till they hear of somewhat better to be had for them and till they firmly and heartily give credit to the report And because the matter before us in my Text is sitted to both these needfull works and containeth those very truths which must rectifie you in both these points I shall draw them forth and distinctly apply them hereunto Use 1. AND in the first place you are here informed that the Crosâ— of Christ is the Crucifier of the world Which containeth in it these two parts which make up the point 1. That this is the use of the Cross and one great end of the Doctrine of Christianity to Crucifie the world to us and us to the world 2. That where the Cross of Christ and his Doctrine are effectuall this work is alwaies actually done In all true Christians the world is thus crucified O that these truths were as plainly or truly transcribed upon your hearts as they are plainly and truly contained in my Textâ— 1. For the first that This is the End of Christ Crucified and of his Doctrine I shall briefly shew 1. The Necessity of this Information And 2. the certain â—â—â—â—h of it 1. Both the Commonne's and the Dangerousness of erring in this point do shew the Necessity of this Information It is not only the contemners of Religion but also too many that go among us for very godly men that know not where their happiness lyeth nor what the Christian Religion is Almost all the apprehensions which they have of Happiness are sensual as if it were but a freedom from sensible punishments and the possession of some delights of which they have meerly sensual concerts And so they think of Christ as one that came to free them from such punishments and help them to such an happiness as this And as for the true knowledge and fruition of God in Love and Heavenly delights they look upon these either as insignificant means or as certain appurtenances and fruits of Religion which we ought to have but may possibly be without though we be true Believers A confidence that Christ hath freed them from torments and made them righteous by imputation of his obedience unto them they take to be all that is essentiall to their Christianity And the rest they call by the name of Good works which if it be not with them a term of as low importance as the name of Works alone or Works of the Law is taken to be in Paulâ— Epistles yet at least they take it for that which doth not constitute their Religion So that true Sanctification is either not understood or taken to be of less Necessity then it is A man that makes a great deal of talk and stir about Religion and is zealous for his opinions and pious complements goes currant with many for a true Believer though the Interest of his flesh and of the world be as near and dear to him in this way of Religiousness as other mens is to them in a way of more open professed sensuality And is it possible for a man to be a Christian indeed that so far mistaketh the very Nature and Ends of Christianity it self It is not possible By what is said already and will be by and
for a Camel to go throw a needles eye Which though it be possible doth plainly shew some extraordinary difficulty Mat. 19. 23 24. such use to go away sorrowful when they hear of forsaking all because they are rich Luke 18. 23. Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith to be heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him Iam. 2. 5. And the Holy Ghost saith not without cause that Not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called 1 Cor. 1. 26. But God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty and base things of the world and things that are despised hath God chosen and things that are not to bring to nought things that are that no flesh should glory in his prâ—sence v. 27 28 29. It is the common case of prospering worldlings to play the fool after all Gods warnings and in their hearts to say Soul take thy rest when they know not but that night their souls may be called for Luke 12. 20. O that you would be pleased but considerately to read those two parables or histories Luke 12. 16. and Luke 16. 19. which you have so often read or heard inconsiderately I beseech you think not that we wrong such men if we rank them with the most notorious sinners The Apostle reckoneth them with the most hainous sinners that should arise in the last daies 2 Tim. 3. 2 4. Covetous and lovers of their own selves and lovers of pleasures more then God and bids us turn away from such And he reckoneth them among such as the Church must excommunicate and with whom a Christian may not eat 1 Cor. 5. 10 11. And with the notorious wicked men that shall not enter into the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 10. Eph. 5. 5. It is a sin not to be once named among the Saints Eph. 5. 3. In a word if you are worldly or coveâ—ous you are certainly wicked and abhorred by God how highly soever you may be esteemed of men Psalm 10. 3. The wicked boasteth of his hearts desireâ— and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth If yet you think I use you unmannerly in speaking so hardly of you hear the Holy Ghost a little further Iam. 5. 1. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your riches are corrupted and your garments motheaten your gold and silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flâ—sh as it were fire ye have heaped treasure together for the last dates And mentioning their oppression he addeth Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter In a word If Christ called Peter himself a Satan when he would have had him favour himself and avoid suffering because he savoured not the things of God but of men Mat. 16. 22. You may see that we call you not so bad as you are I Shall now take the freedom to come a little nearer you and close with you upon the main of my business Poor worldlings I come not hither to beat the air nor to waste an hour in empty words but it is Work that I come upon An unpleasing Work to flesh and blood even to take away your profits and pleasures and honours from you to take away the world from you and all that you have therein Not out of your Hands but out of your Hearts Not against your wills for that is impossible nor by unresistible force I would I could do that but by procuring your own consent and perswading you to cast them away your selves I cannot expect the consent of your flesh and therefore I will not treate with it but if yet you have any free use of your reason in matters of this nature look back upon the Reasons that I have before laid down and tell me whether you see not sufficient cause to forsake this world and betake your selves to another course of life and look another way for your felicity This then is the upshot of all that I have been saying to you and this is the Message that I have to you from God to require you presently to renounce this world and unfeigâ—edly to despise it and proclaim war against it and to come over to him that is your rightful Lord and will be your true and durable Rest. What say you Will you be divorced from the world and the flesh this day and take up with a naked Christ alone and the Hopes of an heavenly felicity which he hath promised Will you bring forth that Traytor that hath had your hearts and lives so long and let him die the death Shall the world this day be Crucified to you and you to it I am to let you know that this is the thing that God expecteth and nothing less will serve the turn nor will any worldly kind of Religiousness bring you to salvation This world and flesh are enemies to God and you have been guilty of High Treason against his Majesty by harbouring them and serving them so long And I am moreover to let you know that God will have them down one time or other Either by his Grace or by his Judgement Had you rather that Death and Hell should make the separation then that saving grace should do it Will you still hide it as sugar under your tongue Will you obstinately cleave to it when you know its vanity and the mischief that such contempt of God will bring If you do so God will embitter it to you in the end and he will make it gall in your mouthes and torment to your hearts and you shall spit it out and be forced to confess that it is no better then you were told I do charge you therefore in the name of the Lord that you renounce this world without delay and presently and effectually Crucifie it to your selves You once did it by your parents in Baptism and you have proved false to that profession Now do it by your selves and stand to what you do If it had not been a part of Christianity you had not been called to do it then And therefore you may understand that it is but to be Christians indeed that I perswade you A Christian worldling is as meer a fiction as a Christian Infidel Enter now into your own hearts with a Reforming zeal It should be the Temple of the Holy Ghost down then with every Idol that is there erected Whip out the buyers and sellers and overthrow the money Tables and suffer it not to be made a den of thieves Down with your Diana's Though the world worship her God and his sanctified ones despise her What the ungodly say of our Zion we say of your Babel Down with it rase it even to the foundation it is a thing to be destroyed happy is
callings and about all the creatures Think with your selves Here is now a lesson in my hands if I can but learn it Here is somewhat that may shew me both God himself and my duty if I could but skilfully open it and understand it And so bethink your selves What it is that God would teach you or command you by that creature and especially to what use he requireth you to put it And remember that if you should think of God all the day long and yet not intend him and refer your labours and your riches to his service and give them up to his use this is not sanctifying God in the creature but hypocriticall abusing of him For it is not all thinking of God that will serve the turn 6. As you use to take account of your servants how they do your work so I would advise you every night or as often as you can to take an account of your selves as you are the servants of the God of heaven and ask your Consciences What have I done this day for God and how have I observed and sanctified him in his works So much for the fifth Direction Direct 6. REmember alwaies that the world is the enemy of your salvation and that if you be damned it is like to be through its enticements and therefore labour to be alwaies sensible that you go in continual danger of it And this will make you use it as an enemy and walk in a constant fear least it should over-reach you And see also that you endeavour as clearly as you can to find out wherein its enmity doth consist and then you will perceive that it is especially in seeming more Lovely then it is as it is the fewel of concupiscence and the provision of the flesh And when you understand this you will perceive that your danger lyeth in over-loving it and that it killeth by its embracements And this will direct you which way to bend the course of your opposition and what you must do to be saved from its snares To call the world an enemy is easie and common but so far as your very hearts apprehend it as an enemy so far you are out of danger of it An easie enemy that is conquered by understanding that it is an enemy And the way of its conquest is by enticing men to take it for a friend And also remember how great a part of your Christian life consisteth in keeping up the comâ—ate with this enemy and how certainly and miserably you will perish if you be overcome Direct 7. TO â—e much in the house of mourning and see the end of all the living will help us towards the Crucifying of the world Go among the sick and hear what they say of the world Stand by the dying and see what it will do for them and think now whether God or the world be better Look on the corpses of your deceased friends and think now Whether the soul be ever the better for all the riches and pleasures of the world Take notice of the graves and bones of the dead and think what a worthless thing is the world and all the glory and delights that it affords which will so turn us off and leave our bodies in such a plight as that Take notice of the frailties and diseases of your own flesh that tell you how shortly it must lie down in the dust And then compare this world and that to come where your abode will be everlasting It s a shame for a wise man to live as a stranger to so great a change and to look so much after a world that he is leaving and so little after the world that he shall abide in Direct 8. IT will much avail to the Crucifying of the world to you that you study the improvement of all your Afflictions Do not repine at them and think them a greater evil then they are but believe that they are a special advantage to your souls for the mortifying of your inordinate affections to the world and if you have but the wisdom and hearts to make use of them they may do you more good then all the prosperity of your lives hath done If you fall into poverty or fall under slanders or reproach from men if your friends prove false to you if those that you have done good to prove unthankful if the wickedness and frowardness of men do make you even weary of the world remember now what an advantage you have for Mortification When you have experience it self to disgrace the creature to you and your very flesh doth seem to be convinced Now see that you observe the teachings of this providence and come off from the world when you see it is so little worth and set as light by it as it doth by you Bethink you now that God doth this to lead you to himself and thankfully accept his call and close with him as your portion and be content with him alone and let them take the world that can get no better You see that adversity will make even a worldling speak hardly of the world as men will do of their friends when they fall out with them How much more should it help the gracious soul to a fuller sense of its vanity and nothingness and of the necessity and excellency of more certain things It s a great sin and folly in us that we strive more to have afflictions removed then sanctified and so we lose the gain that we might have got Though affliction alone will do little good yet grace doth make such use of affliction that thousands in heaven will have cause to bless God for them that before they were afflicted went astray and were deceived by the flatteries of the world as well as others Abundance that have been convinced of the vanity of the world have lingered long before they would forsake it till affliction hath rowsed their sleepy souls and by a lowder voice hath called them away Direct 9. BE very suspicious of a prosperous state and be more afraid of the world when it smiles then when it frowns Some are much perplexed for fear left they should not stand in adversity that too little fear being ensnared by prosperity They are afraid what they should do in a time of tryal and do not consider that prosperity is the great tryal Adversity doth but shew that love of the world which was in mens hearts in time of prosperity When men forsake Christ for fear of suffering and because they will not forsake the world they do but shew the effects of that disease which they had catcht long before When the world pleased them they fell so deep in love with it that now they will venture their souls to keep it It is prosperity that breeds the disease though adversity shew it Love not the world and you will easily part with it and so will easily suffer for Christ And prosperity is liker to tice your Love to it then
world I cannot live contentedly in poverty food and rayment will not serve turn unless I fare deliciously and be cloathed neatly and be set by in the world and unless I may leave prosperity to my children when I am dead and gone If you dare not say thus do not dare to desire or think thus Mr. Robert Bolton that holy learned Divine doth use among the hainous damning sins to reckon this A desire to be râ—ch And if we hearken to the Scripture we shall find that it is not without good cause Prov. 23. 4. the command is Labour not to be rich And Prov. 28. 20. He that maâ—gth haste to be rich shall not be innocent The Syriack rendeâ—s the word 〈◊〉 and the Arabick the wicked which we here translate â—e that â—asteth to be rich And they must needs be the sâ—me men when the Apostle saith that the love of money is the râ—ot of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. Therefore saith Paul They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. By this word they that will or are willing to be rich is meant they whose wills are set upon it and are in love with it and fain would be rich Is it fitter for God or you to determine how many talents you shall be entrusted with Do you long to have more duty and danger and a double account It s true you may desire the success of your Labours but not for the Love of Riches nor with an unmannerly peremptory desire It s true also that you must be thankful for prosperity if God give it you But as it must be with an holy jealousie so it is as true that you must be thankful also for adversity when God sends it though not for it self yet for the good that it may conduce to And therefore saith Iames 1. 9 10. Let the brother of low degree rejoyce in that he is exalted but the rich in that he is made low And Iob could say The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord Iob 1. 21. 3. IF you are Crucified to the world then let it not have power to Crucifie you by putting you upon inordinate cares or sorrows Will you vex your brains with contrivings for the world and weary your mind with tearing cares and walk in sorrow because you have not your desires and yet say that you are Crucified to the world Are the dead so solicitous or is a Carkaise to be so much valued Your Passions and Endeavours will proclaim your excessive estimation of the world when you have never so long in words professed your contempt of it Alas how many that seem to know better do almost distract their minds with cares and entangle themselves in a life of so much misery as a wise man would not like for all the world If they want any thing what trouble are their minds iâ— till their wants be supplyed If they be afflicted with losses or wrongs or contempt they are troubled as if they had loâ—â— some great oâ— necessary thing A Crucified world could not make such a â—â—â—â— in your minds but doubtless it is so far alive as it thus aâ—â—â—cteâ—h you The Lord Jesus hath himself made so full and moving a Sermon to his Disciples against the cares of the world Mat. 6. and Luke 12. that its a double sin to Christians to be still so careful and earthly minded and I know not what to hope for from that man that will not be moved with such words as those from the Lord himself And yet how many professors have I known that have tormented themselves with cares and sorrows yea and cast their bodies into diseases by it and many of them have dyed of it and some it hath brought besides their wits So observable is that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 7. 10. The sorrow of the world worketh death even temporal and eternal unless we be delivered by undeserved Grace Bear all conditions then with an equal mind and let your passions shew that you are Crucified to the world 4. IF you are Crucified to the world then Let it not thrust out the service of God and be made an excuse for a negligence in Religion How rare are holy Meditations in the minds of many that think themselves Religious And it is worldly Thoughts that thrust them out and worldly businesses that are the common excuse How formal are many in the Instructing of their families how seldom and how coldly do they exhort their children or servants to make ready for death and make sure of their salvation How coldly and cursorily are family prayers and other duties slubbered over And all is because they have other things to mind the world will give them leave to do no more The decay of zeal and diligence in family-duties is the common symptom and cause too of the destruction of knowledge and godliness in the Land And all is because the world is Master and must be served before God The business of the world doth seem to them the principal business and must first be done and all thoughts and talk of Heaven must stand by till the world will give them leave to enter Men cannot have while to call upon God and instruct their families because they have their worldly works to do Go into the families of most Noblemen Knights or Gentlemen in England and see there whether God or the world be most regarded and lookt after Perhaps they may civilly yield an â—â—r while a Chaplain makes a short prayer among them but if you look after heavenly mindedness and seriousness in Religion and zeal against sin and diligence to help to save the souls that are under their charge how little shall you find Do they earnestly perswade their servants to study holy things and do they examine them about their everlasting state and call them to account of what they learn from the publick Ministry Do they shew a vehement hatred of sin and go before their families in an heavenly conversation Alas how thin are such families as these No no they are so taken up with entertaining their friends and pampering their flesh and in complements and in worldly affairs that they have little time for heavenly work And if they do for fashion sake get a godly young man to be their Chaplain he is so wearied with the sensual courses of some and the scorns of others and the vanity and worldliness and negligence of the rest that his life is a burden to him and he can no more enjoy himself in such families then in a fair or popular tumult On the other side poor men are in so much want that they think themselves sufficiently excused for the neglecting of almost all the means of their salvation They think Necessity lyeth upon them and therefore that God will not require it of them to understand the Scriptures
nor to labour after eternal things Christ telleth them that One thing is needful and would have them choose the better part which shall not be taken from them But they believe not Christ but hearken to their flesh and it telleth them that its Another thing that is needful and perswadeth them to choose the worser part which will shortly be taken from them Christ biddeth them Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life Iohn 6. 27. But venter non habet aures the flesh understandeth not such exhortations A greedy appetite is the reason that it judgeth by An hungry belly is not filled nor quieted with arguments They must have their present wants supplyed let what will become of their immortal souls And thus the Rich have so much to look after that they cannot have while to be diligent for their souls And the Poor have so much to seek after that they cannot have while And so the world abuseth them that Have it and that Want it As if two men that had forfeited their lives were travelling to London for a pardon and the one goeth so fair a way that he forgets his business and sitteth down picking flowers in the way and the other meets with so fowl a way that he thinks he is excused because he must take heed of being wet or dirtyed O Sirs if the world be Crucified to you how can it have such power over you as to cause you to neglect your greatest Lord and your immortal souls If indeed you are Dead to it and alive to Christ let it be seen in your families and be seen in all your duties and conversation Let the greatest persons that enter into your families attend the worship of him that is Greater or let them not be attended Neglect them that will neglect the service of God Remember that the fourth Commandment requireth you to see that the Sabbath be sanctified even by the stranger that is within your gates as well as by your selves and the servants that are in your houses If you have carnal Gentlemen at your table or are at theirs do not be your selves so carnal as to be ashamed of holy discourse in their presence or to suppress any speech that may tend to edification and to the honour of your Lord. Let them all know that you have greater matters to do then to attend and humour them and that you have a Master that must be Pleased whoever be displeased Take heed also that the world do not cause you to neglect the opportunities which are before you for your own advantage Miss not a Sermon which may be profitable to you without Necessity Miss not the help of private Instructions and Conference and other edifying Sacred duties without necessity Omit not any of your secret addresses to God without Necessity And take nothing for a Necessity but that which is at that time a greater duty then that which you do Omit I know that Works of Necessity and Mercy may be done even on the Lords day and acts of Worship may be delayed on such occasions for God will then have Mercy and not Sacrifice But Mercy on our own and others souls in seeking their relief must not be neglected for lower things And look not only to the Matter but the Manner of your duties that Worldliness do not destroy the Life and Vigour of them Turn out all thoughts of earthly things when you approach the Lord in holy worship Provoke not his jealousie by presenting before him a distracted mind or lifeless carkaise O what sleepy frozen duties do many professors offer to the Lord even from week to week because their hearts are so distracted by the world that they are to seek when God should have them 5. IF you are Crucified to the world take heed that you use no unlawful means for the procurement of worldly things Stretch not your consciences for the compassing of such ends Lay still before you the Rule of Equity Do as you would be done by Put your brother with whom you deal in your own case and your selves in his and so drive on your bargains in that mind If you did thus you would not sell too dear nor buy too cheap you would not make so many words to get his goods for less then the worth nor to sell your own for more then the worth Nay you would not take more then the worth if by ignorance or necessity your brother should offer it you nor give less then the worth though through ignorance or necessity he would take it The love of money hath so blinded many that in selling they think it to be no sin to take as much for a commodity as they can get and in buying they think it no sin to get the commodity as cheap as they can have it never once asking their own hearts How would I desire to be dealt with my self iâ— it were my own case Nay Covetousness is the common cause that maketh most of the world cry out against Covetousness When men are like ravenous greedy beasts that grudge at every bit that goes besides their own mouths they will reproach all that cross their covetous desires If they cannot by words perswade a tradesman to sell his ware at such rates as he cannot live by they will defame him as a covetous griping man and all because he fitteth not their covetous desires and all that will escape their censure of being covetous must shut up their shops ere long to the defrauding of their creditors If a Physitian that hath been a means to save their lives do demand but half his due it being the calling which he liveth on they will defame him as Covetous because he contradicteth their covetous desires and would have any thing from them which is so near to their hearts Let a Minister but demand his own which was never theirs but is his by the Law of the Land and they will reproach him like Quakers as a covetous hireling and if he will not suffer every worldly miser to rob him they will defame him as if he were sick of their disease So far are they from the Primitive practise of selling all and laying down at the feet of the Apostles that they would steal from the Church those Tenths which neither they nor their Fathers before them had any propriety in any more then in the Lands of any of their neighbours as in the case of Impropriators they are forced to confess Let a man give all that he hath to the poor and he shall be defaâ—â—ed as covetous because he will not give more then all I or if he give to nineteen and have not wherewith to satisfie the twentieth he that hath nothing or less then he expected is as much unsatisfied and as forward to speak evil of him as if he had given to none at all And usually so unreasonable are these covetous expectations that you may sooner displease ten of theâ—
profess themselves so Religious if you have any moderation left will you soberly answer me these Questions following Quest. 1. Is it the Hearts or the Outward actions of these professors that you perceive this covetousness by If it be the Heart you are slanderers and self idolizers For the Heart is open to none but God and will you make your selves Gods and that when you are playing the part of the Devil This hath been the tricks of Satans instruments in all ages When they are not able to say of the godly that they are swearers or drunkards or adulterers or stealers or lyars or slanderers as they themselves are they presently go to their hearts which are out of sight and say They are covetous and proud and the like For there they know that none but God is able to justifie them But common reason might also have taught them that none but God is there able to accuse them For how know you mens hearts but by their professions or by their lives But if you say It is the Life you judge by I demand what is it in the lives of such men that proves their covetousness If it be oppressing deceiving injustice or unmercifulness I would demand of you in the second place Quest. 2. Is it all or some of them that you thus accuse If you know some few to be such what is that to the rest But this hath been alwaies the trick of the malignant If they see one professor fall or prove an hypocrite they cry out They are all alike If you could but see their hearts they are all such Chrysostom and other of the Fathers tell us that this was the use in their daies and no wonder if it be so still What if there be one Cain in Adams family It follows not that Abel or Seth were like him What if there were one Cham in Noahs Ark will it follow that they were all alike or that his family was no better then the rest of the world which was drowned What if there was an Absalon in Davids family What if there was one Iudas among the Disciples of Christ Will you say therefore that all the rest were such or that Christs Disciples were as bad as others or his family no better then the rest of the world But I would further ask you Quest. 3. Is it the course of their lives that you judge by or is it some one particular action He that is not blind may see that the course and drift of their lives is less earthly and more heavenly then other mens And God judgeth of a man by the scope of his life and not by one single action and so must we The very bent and drift of your lives is worldly If a man come into your family what shall he see but worldliness If one fall into your company what shall he hear from you but about this world If one observe what you do from year to year he may see that you lay out your selves for the world You cannot refrain upon the Lords own day but you are minding it and talking of it You savour not any other discourse The very talk and labour that is laid out about another world is troublesom to you and its this that makes you dislike the godly You cannot say so of the course of their lives If once any of them have fallen by temptation into a miscarriage will you judge of all their lives by that Do they not lament and bewail it as long as they live after and avoid it more carefully for the time to come What if Noah were once drunk in his life will you judge of his whole life by it or say that he is as bad as the rest of the world What if Lot be given over to a temptation What if Abraham did once tell a lye or equivocate and Isaac do the like in a fear What if Moses did once provoke God What if David did once commit an hainous sin Or Peter did deny his Master in his fear Will you either judge of all other godly people by them Or will you judge of the course of their lives by one action which they bewail and lament as long as they live And can you see no difference between a Worldly action and a Worldly life Quest. 4. I would further know of you Whether you have gone to them in love and admonished them of their sin when you judged them to be guilty and heard them speak for themselves If not either you are incomperent judges or else you draw the guilt upon your selves and make the sin your own as the express commands of God will tell you in Levit. 19. 17. and Mat. 18. 15. If you have admonished them and they repent not why do you not tell the Pastors of the Church that they may admonish them and seek their reformation This is Christs order But you will not you dare not do this lest for want of proof you be proved slanderers and the shame of your accusations fall upon your selves You think you may whisper behind mens backs or accuse them in general without naming any particular fact and not be proved lyars But this will not hold long Quest. 5. Moreover I would know of you when you accuse men for not being more bountiful in your eyes Do you know of all their works of charity Are you acquainted with their bestowings Sure you are not For God hath commanded them Matth. 6. 1 2 3 4. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to be seen of them otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven therefore when thou doest thine alms do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do c. But when thou dost thine alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth that thy alms may be in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly This command they make conscience of and how then can you be meet judges of their alms Quest. 6. Also I would know Are you certainly acquainted with their particular estates and do you know how able they are to give If you do not you are no competent Judges How oft have I known men reproached for unmercifulness and for not being more liberall when they have been so low in their estates that they were not able to maintain their families or to pay every man his own and yet they that knew not this did back-bite them as covetous Quest. 7. Furthermore I would know Are you sure it is not Satan within you that prompteth you to these accusations Hear my evidence and judge He is called in Scripture the Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12. 10. and he is described to be a Lying malicious spirit If therefore it be a Lying malignant malicious spirit then certainly it is the spirit of Satan And 1. We have cause to believe that it is a Lying spirit by these evidences following 1. We find
the word of God assuring us that the godly overcome the world and are such as have laid up their treasure in heaven And by the rest of their lives we find the characters of the godly to agree more with them then with the negligent multitude 2. We know that their Religion condemneth worldliness and they hear and read and speak against it 3. They only under God do know their own hearts and they profess themselves to be contemners of the world and heirs of a better world And we find them at least as true of their words in other things as any other men and therefore having not forfeited their credit we are bound to believe them 4. Especially when we know that you that accuse them are unacquainted with their hearts 5. And when we read in Scripture and Church History that the malignant enemies of Christ and his Church have in all ages used the same reproaches against his people from meer prejudice and the words of others and the malice of their hearts 6. And we our selves do live among them as well as you and as near them as you and we see not by them any such thing for which you accuse them As far as we can judge it is you that are the worldlings and their conversation is in heaven Phil. 3. 20 21. Excepting some hypocrites that creep in among them as they ever have done and will do into the Church till Christ at Judgement shut them out Moreover we see in the course of their lives that their speeches are more heavenly then yours and less of the world They can spare time from the world to worship God in their families instruct those that are under their charge which you cannot do We see they take pains for another world through the course of their lives which you will not do 8. To conclude we see by daily experience that where you give a penny to any good use we have many from them I have oft wondered at the impudence of blind malignant persons in this place I must needs my self bear witness that in divers collections for charitable uses we have had from those that profess Religion ten shillings and twenty shillings a man when we have had from men that are commonly supposed richer a shilling or six pence or a groat or not a penny And I can witness that among them there are frequent collections for persons in distress at home and abroad when we never mention them to the rest of the people as knowing them so worldly that it is in vain and we should get a scorn from them sooner then a groat when the persons whom they reproach as covetous will give many shillings and that frequently time after time And for collections at Fasts and Sacraments all men may see the difference I would not have mentioned any of these matters but that the impudency of Calumniators doth in a sort constrain me For when of my own knowledge we have had this many years more pounds from some of them then we could have pence from others for the relief of the poor in voluntary contributions yet do I frequently hear these worldlings crying out of the covetousness of professors as if they had brazed their fore-heads as well as wilfully shut their eyes Quest. 8. But yet I would further be informed of you To what end is it that you make this objection Is it not with a desire to have a life of holy diligence despised in the world or thought evil of or judged needless Ask your own hearts and deal sincerely And if it be so is not this the very work of the Devil which he hath been doing in all ages against the Church and by which he ticeth souls to hell Quest. 9. And I would desire you to tell me if covetousness be among them Whether you are able to charge it upon their Religion or Profession Do they not witness against it as much as any people in the world Doth not the Bible which they read cry it down and threaten damnation to it Do not the Books which they read do so too Do not the Sermons which they hear and repeat cry it down Did you ever hear us preach for covetousness say so if you can or dare There is not a greater enemy to covetousness and all other vices in the world then Christ and the Gospel and Religion which these men profess If then there should be covetous ones among them what 's this to Religion which teacheth them to abhor it Will you blame the best Physitian and remedies that men are sick when there is no cure but by those remedies Will you blame cloathing or fire that men are cold Or eating and drinking because men do consume by some disease I tell you all men naturally are worldlings and no man can be cured of that deadly disease but only those that are cured by the Religion which these men profess Quest. 10. And I pray you tell me Do you think that the works in which they differ from you are good or bad Is it good or bad to hear Sermons and repeat them for the help of memory to pray and praise God together and to live in the Communion of Saints which in your Creed you profess to believe If you have the face to say this is evil or needless you accuse God himself that hath so often commanded it If it be evil its long of God that so urgently requireth it and not of them But if you dare not say so but confess it is good why then do you not imitate them What! will you forbear Good because others do Evil Will you sin against God in one kind if they do so in another We desire you not to joyn with them in evil If they deceive or lie or oppress do not you do so But will you therefore refuse your duty to God and therefore destroy your own souls It is to God and not to them that your duty is necessary It s God that commandeth it and God you owe it to And will you abuse God and rob him because you have hard conceits of men Will you abuse him because you think they do And who is it that will have the loss of this but your selves The Lord hath witnessed that without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12. 14. And will you neglect an holy life and shut your selves out of heaven and damn your own souls because you think professors are bad A wise course indeed Starve your selves because professors wear cloathes and famish your selves because they use to eat This is a wiser trick of the two then to neglect or refuse an holy diligent life because they use it Quest. 11. And if worldliness be so great a sin I would fain know of you Whether in reason you can think that their course or yours is the way to overcome it Dare you say that sitting in an Ale-house or talking of the world even on the Lords day is a better