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
THE Crucifying of the world BY THE Cross of Christ. With a Preface to the Nobles Gentlemen and all the Rich directing them how they may be Richer By Richard Baxter 1 JOHN 2. 15. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world If any man Love the world the Love of the Father is not in him LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nevill Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster and are to be sold by him there and by Nathaniel Ekins at the Gun in Pauls Church-Yard Anno Dom. 1658. To my Worthy FRIEND THOMAS FOLEY Esquire SIR UPON a double account I have thought it meet to direct this Treatise first to you First because the first Embrio of it was an Assize Sermon preached at your desire when you were high Sheriff of this County which drew me to add more till it swell'd to this which some of my Brethren have perswaded to venture into the open world Secondly because God hath given you a heart to be exemplary in Practising the Doctrine here delivered And I think I shall teach men the more successfully when I can shew them a Living Lesson for their imitation I never knew that you refused a work of Charity that was motioned to you but oft have you offered me that for the Churches service which I was not ready to accept and improve I would not do you the displeasure as to mention this but that forward Charity is grown so rare in many places that some may grow shortly to think that we preach to them of a Chimaera a non-existent thing if we do not tell them where it is to be seen Especially now Infidelity is grown up to that strength that Seeing is taken by many for the only true informer of their Reason and Believing for an unreasonable thing And I take my self to owe much thankfulness to God when I see him choose a faithfull Steward for any of his Gifts It s a sign he meaneth Good by it to his Church Some Rich men sacrifice all they have to to their Bellies which are their Gods even to an â—picurian momentany delight and cast all into the filthy sink of their sensuality These are worse then Infidels defrauding their posterity and swine alive but worse then swine when they are dead Some Rich men are provident but its only for their posterity The ravenous bruits are greedy for their young Some will begin to be bountifull at death and give that to God which they can keep no longer as if he would be thus bribed to receive their souls and forgive their worldly hearts and lives Some will give in their life time but it is but part of their sinfull gains like the Thief that would pay Tythes of all that he had stolen Some give a part of their more lawfull increase but it is against their will it being forced from them by Law for Church and Poor and therefore properly it is no gift Some will give freely but it is on some corrupt design to strengthen a party or a carnall Interest or make their way to some preferment Some give but only to those of their own Opinion and not to a Disciple in the name of a Disciple Some give in Contention as the troublers of the Church of Corinâ—h preacht to add affliction to our bonds As many of the Papists that think by their works of Charity they are warranted uncharitably to slander almost all besides themselves as if we were all enemies to Good works or solifidians that took them for indifferent things or made them not our business Yea the best work that the Jesuites ever did even the preaching of the Gospel to the Heathens they would not endure us to joyn with them in where they could hinder us unless we would do it in their Papal way Some will do Good to stop the cries of a guilty Conscience for some secret odious sin which they live in Some will be Liberall with the Hypocrite for applause And some will give with a Pharisaicall conceit of merit even ex condigno from the Proportion of their work to the Reward as the greatest Popish Doctors teach Some through meer fears of being damned will be liberall especially out of their superfluities choosing rather to forsake their money then their sin Some do pretend the highest ends and that it is Christ himself to whom they do devote it but they will part with no more then the flesh can spare And that they may yet seem to be true Christians they will not believe that any thing is a duty which requireth much self-denyal and standeth not with their prosperity in the world And some will give much out of a meer natural kindness of disposition or upon meer natural motives though not as to Christ nor from the Love of God nor from that Spirit of Christian special Love by which the members of Christ have their Communion What excellent Precepts of Clemencie and Beneficence hath Seneca Yea what abundance of self-denyal doth he seem to join with them And yet so strange was this highest naturalist to the truest Charity or self-denyal that it is self that is his principle end and all For a man to be sufficient for himself and happy in himself without troubling God by prayer or needing man was the summ of his Religion Pride was their master vertue which with us is the greatest vice And for all his seeming contempt of Riches and Pleasures yet Seneca keeps up in such a height of riches and greatness as that he was like to have been Emperour And sometime to be Drunken he commends to drive away cares and raise the mind pleading the example of Solon and Arcesilaus confessing that Drunkenness was objected even to Cato their highest pattern of vertue affirming that the objectors may sooner make the crime honest then Cato dishonest Among all this seeming Charity and Self-denyal that proveth not a sanctified heart how excellent but too rare is the true self-denyal and charity of the Christian who hath quit all pretence of Title to himself or any thing that he hath and hath consecrated himself and all to God resolving to imploy himself and it entirely for him studying only to be well informed which way it is that God would have him lay it out And among these Saints themselves how rare is that excellent man that is Covetous and Laborious for God and for the Church and for his Brethren And that doth as providently get and keep and as Painfully Labour how rich soever he be and as much pinch his flesh in prudent moderation that he may have the more to Give and to do good with and make the best of his Masters stock as other men do in making Provision for the flesh and laying up for their posterity Sir as far you have proceeded in this Christian art you are yet in the world among the snares and lime-twigs of the Devil in a station that makes salvation difficult and therefore have need of daily watchfulness
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
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
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
Sanctity and to true Christianity it self They confess they should be all contemners of the world but God forbid say they that none but such should be saved But I tell you God hath forbidden already by his Laws and God will forbid hereafter by his sentence and execution that any other but such should be saved Do you think in good sadness that any man can be saved that is not truly dead to the world and doth not despise it in comparison of God and the great things of Everlasting Life Let me satisfie you of the contrary here once for all and I pray you see that your flesh provoke you not to mutter forth such unreasonable self-delusions any more 1 Ioh. 2. 15. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him what can be spoken more plainly or to a worldly minded man more terribly 1 Ioh. 5. 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith Jam. 4. 4. Know ye not that the Friendship of the world is enmity with God Whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Will not all this serve to convince you of this truth Rom. 8. 5 6 7 13. For they that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit For to be carnally minded is death but to be spirituall â—â—nded is life and peace Because the carnal minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Gal. 5. 16 17. 6. 8. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Col. 3. 1 2 3. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affection on things above and not on things on the earth For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth Matth. 6. 19 20 21 24. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for your selves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the ore and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon Matth. 10. 38 39. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall finde it Mat. 16. 24. If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Luk. 14. 26 27. If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple Verse 33. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple Heb. 11. 13 14 15. and to the end But I will cite no more Here is enough to convince you or condemn you If any thing at all be plain in Scripture this is plain that every true Christian is dead to the world and looks on the world as a crucified thing and that God and the life of glory which he hath promised have the Ruling and chiefest interest in their souls Believe it Sirs this is not a work of supererrogation nor such as only tendeth to the perfecting of a Christian but such as is of the essence of Christianity and without which there is not the least hope of salvation SECT XIV Use 2. BY all that hath been said you may perceive what it is to be a Christian indeed and that true Christianity doth set men at a further distance from the world then carnal self-deceiving Professors do imagine You see that God and the world are enemies not God and the world as his Creature but as his Competitor for your hearts and as the seducer of your understandings and the opposer of his interest and the fuel and food of a fleshly minde and that which would pretend to a Being or Goodness separated from God or to be desirable for it self having laid by the relation of a means to God To be a Friend to the world in any of these respects is to be an enemy to God And God will not save his enemies while enemies An enmity to God is an enmity to our salvation for our salvation is in him alone If then you have but awakened consciences if the true love of your selves be stirring in you and if you have but the free use of common reason I dare say you do by this time perceive that it closely concerneth you presently to look about you and to try whether you are crucified to the world or not Seeing my present business is for the securing of your Everlasting Peace and the healing of your souls of that which would deprive you of it let me intreate you all in the fear of God to give me your assistance and to go along with me in the work for what can a Preacher do for you if you will do nothing for your selves How can we convert or heal or save you without you I do foresee your appearance before the Lord a jealous God that will not endure that any Creature should be sweeter and more amiable to you then himself I do foresee the condemnation that all such must undergo and the remediless certain misery that they are 〈◊〉 know there is no way that the wit of man or Angels can devise to prevent the damnation of such a soul but by Crucifying the flesh and world by the Cross of Christ and dethroning these Idols and submitting sincerely to God their Happiness This cannot be done while you are strangers to your selves and will not look into your own hearts and see what abominable work is there that you may
the world to come What do you daily labour and live for Is it for God or your carnal selves What interest is it that is predominant in you Know but that and know all AND now I shall apply my self to those of you that are guilty in whose souls the worldly Interest is predominant and in whom the world is not Crucified by the Cross of Christ but rather Christ again Crucified by the world I have no mind to dishonour you or exasperate you but if faithfulness to Christ and you will do both there 's no remedy I do here prefer an Indictment against you in the Court of your Consciences and before this Congregation the Articles I shall distinctly read And first I require you study not a defence excuse not extenuate not your crimes but confess your sin freely and condemn your selves impartially and return to God and forsake them speedily or you shall do worse Self-condemnation may be saving and preventive and the Death of sin thereupon may be the life of your souls But if this be neglected and you hold on a while till the great Assize you shall have another kind of charge then this even such an one as shall appale that face that now can merrily smile at the accusation and such an one as shall bring down the stoutest of your spirits and make the hardest heart to feel and the stubbornest of you all to stoop and tremble O how easie is it to hear your sin and danger from such a worm as I or to hear your state discovered and your selves condemned by a Minister of Christ in a Pulpit but how dreadful will it be to hear all this from the Lord of Glory and that when the case is past remedy which now might have been remedyed if you would and if your obstinate hearts had not resisted The General charge that I put in against you is That you are Carnall flesh-pleasers and have loved and lived to the world which you should have Crucified and have not lived as Devoted unto God nor hath he been your End or his Interest predominant in your hearts and lives I speak only to the guilty and for Evidence of the fact I need none but your Consciences seeing it is only to your Consciences that I accuse you which are acquainted or should be with the whole But lest Conscience it self should be bribed and corrupted I shall besides all that is before said produce a little Evidence more 1. If indeed the world be Crucified to you what meaneth your eager pursuit after it Are not your thoughts contriving for it and your wit and interest all improved for it Are not those taken for your chief friends that further your advancement or worldly Ends and those for your chief enemies that hinder it most Is it not in your mind in the night when you awake and in the day when you are alone Do you not rise earlyer for your worldly business then for prayer or any holy exercise Ask your family whether you do not ofter call them up to work then to pray and whether you drive them not on harder to your own service then to Gods and whether you examine them not strictlyer about your business then about the matters that their salvation doth depend upon and whether you be not more deeply offended with them for crossing your commodity then for sinning against God Ask your neighbours whether you talk not with them many hours of worldly vanities for one hours serious discourse about the life to come What a stir do poor men make to be rich or to live in some content to the flesh and what a stir do rich men make to be richer or to keep that they have and yet have they the face to pretend that they are Crucified to the world 2. If you are dead to the world how comes it to pass that it hath so powerful an influence upon your judgements and that you change your minds as your carnall Interest doth change and can set your sails to any wind that is like to drive you to the harbour as you call it but indeed upon the sands of your worldly ends What would you not give in troublesom times to know certainly which will be the prevalent side that you might resolve what side to take your selves and perhaps what Religion to be of or to seem so to be Among all the Books that are written if there were but one that taught the art of growing rich or a Directory for obtaining dignities and honours in the world how eagerly would you buy it and how diligently would you read it more diligently then you read the Bible or any Book of that nature If preachers did teach you the way of prosperity and advancement and could tell you how to be all great and honourable in this world O how early would you come to the Congregation how attentively would you hear how retentively would you remember and how faithfully would you practise Then how beautiful would the feet be of them that bring you the tidings of such good things What honourable persons should Ministers be and how well worthy of your Tythes and more Then you would not swell against their Doctrine or Application nor cavil at them instead of understanding them nor scorn them as men of a useless office nor take them for your enemies nor refuse to come to them and ask their advice Wretched Hypocrites It is our office to help them to the Everlasting Kingdom and the more diligent we are in this the more they hate us if we send for them to Instruct them personally or catechize them or help them in the matters of salvation they scoâ—n to come and ask us By what Authority we send for them But if we could teach them all to be Princes or Lords or Gentlemen yea or but to get a few shillings more then they have none would draw back None of them would ask us By what Authority do you send for us Had we but money enough to feed them all O what good men we should be and how many friends should we have and how easily might we perswade them If one man had all the money in the Land and could secure it and the disposal of it from violence what might not that man do and who is it that would not be on his side except those few that have Crucified the world The multitude would even follow the man that hath money as an horse will follow him that hath his provender and yet they will hypocritically pretend to be Crucified to the world But if indeed they are so how comes it to pass that Conscience is so often stretcht and wracked to make it own a gainful cause and that many that have seemed godly can break over all bounds of Law and Charity Friendship and Religion to attain the dignities or riches which they so desire and will tread down the nearest friend and Christ himself as much as in them lyeth if he
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
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
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
adversity This is a great reason why worldly Prosperity and true Holiness do so seldom go together and so few of the great ones of the world are saved O how hard is it to have the world at will and not to be ensnared by it and over-love it How hard is it heartily and practically to contemn a prosperous condition How hard to have serious lively thoughts of the great things of eternity and serious preparations for death and judgement when we have health and wealth and all the accommodations which our flesh doth desire Satan knows this well enough and therefore he is willing that his servants shall have prosperity He knows that it is not the way to get him servants to beat them and use them hardly but to please them by flatteries and fulfill their lusts that they may be enticed to imagin his service to be the best It s the custom of harlots to set out themselves to the best and to adorn themselves for the tempting of their lovers and not to go in an homely dress which no one will be taken with No wonder then if Satan the Pandor of the world do adorn it with the best cloathes and present it to you in the most enticing garb he can If the lips of this harlot did not drop as an honey-comb and her mouth were not smoother then â—yl she could not lead such multitudes to her end which is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword her feet go down to death her steps take hold of hell lest men should ponder the path of life Prov. 5. 3 4 5 6. And it is no wonder that God to save his people from this delusion doth dress the world to them in a courser attire and when he seeth them in danger to be enamoured on it as well as others if he present it to them in the rags of poverty and in the scabs of its corruption confusion and deformity that they may see the difference between it and their home It s strange to see how highly prosperity is regarded by the most how earnestly they desire it pray for it or contrive it and how much they are troubled when they fall into adversity when yet they know or say they know that the love of the world is the bane of the soul and that it killeth men by deceiving them Can you keep your affections as loose from the world when you have houses and lands and all things at your will as you could if it were otherwise Remember I beseech you that the poyson of the world is covered by its sweetness and that it killeth none but those that love it Be suspitious therefore that there is danger where you find delight If your estate be such as is pleasing to your flesh believe it is not likely to be safe to your souls If therefore your health your wealth your honours be such as your flesh would have them if your houses your accomodations your friends be suited to your carnal desires believe it your souls are in no small hazzard and therefore look about you as you love your salvation and fear the snare The great enemy of your souls hath not baited his hook with so curious and costly a bait for nothing The cautelous fish that is afraid to swallow yea or to taste or to come neer till he knows what is under it doth save his life when that which boldly ventures and fearlessly devoureth the bait is destroyed It s not for nothing that Solomon chargeth the man that is given to his appetite to put his knife to his throat at a feast and not to be desirous of the dâ—inties which are deceitfull Prov. 23. 1 2 3. A prudent man foreseeth the evil even when it is covered with the pleasantest bait and so he hideth himself and escapeth when the simple passeth on and is punished Prov. 22. 3. It is part of the description of the sensual a postates in Iude 12. that in their feasts they fed themselves without fear And it is as dangerous a thing to cloath your selves without fear to seek after wealth and honours without fear to possess your houses and lands without fear to see any thing that 's carnally pleasing to you or hear your own prayses without fear when other men must needs have things to their will do you study your duty and let the will of God be your will and if he give you a plentiful estate without seeking it or give you reputation and the praise of men without your affecting it receive them not without fear Think with your selves What a snare is here now for my soul Though it be good in it self and as it comes from God yet what an advantage hath the Deceiver here against me How easily may such a carnal heart as mine be enticed to the inordinate love of these and to be more remiss about higher and greater things and to be forgetful or insensible about the matters of my endless state How many men of worldly wisdom yea how many that seemed Religious have been thus deceived and perished before me Yea this is the common road to hell And is it not time for me then to look about me The old Christians were so jealous of the world and afraid of being mortally poysoned by its delights that they sold what they had and gave to the poor and voluntarily thrust themselves into poverty as thinking it better to go poor to heaven then to say in Hell that once they had riches I commend not any extream to you for indeed I have ever thought that its greater self-denyal to devote and use our riches for God then at once to cast them away or shut our hands of them and that he is a better steward that improveth his Masters slock then he that rids his hands of it out of an injurious fear of his Masters austerity But yet I must say that the other extream is more common and more dangerous And they that out of excess of fear betook themselves to poverty and to wildernesses were in a far better case then many that seem now to be zealous professors and yet are looking after the pleasures and riches and glory of the world I have many a time wondered at some eminent professors that are as constant and seraphicall in the outside of duty even to admiration as almost any I know and yet as closely and busily grasping at the world and labouring to be rich as if they were the wretchedst worldlings on earth I have oft wondered how they can quiet their consciences and how they make shift so constantly to delude such knowing souls The Countrey sees them drowned in earth and the generality of their godly friends lament them as meer hypocriticall earth-worms and yet because they can carry it on smoothly and not be noted for any palpable oppression or deceit they wipe their lips they bless themselves and with gracious words would cloak their covetousness as if men did but uncharitably
obeyed by us as well as the richest 4. If the world be Crucified to you How comes it to pass that you are so tenderly sensible of every loss or dishonour that doth befall you If you are wronged in your estate what a matter do you make of it If a man should deprive you but of a few pounds you can hardly put it up but you must go to Law for it or you must seek revenge Or if you pass it by you think you have done some great meritorious act If one slander you or dishonour you how sensible are you of it How it sticks upon your stomacks as if you had lost your treasure Death is not sensible If you were Dead to the world and the world to you these things would all seem smaller in your eyes and you would have more ado to remember them then now you have to forget them You could not be so sensible of a loss or an injury if you were not too much alive to the world And if you be Poor what an impatient complaining life do you live as if you wanted your treasure or your God and if you grow rich or gain how glad are you Were you Dead to the world and the world to you you would be more indifferent to these matters and Poverty and Riches would not seem so much to differ as now they do but Godliness with contentment which is Profitable to all things would seem to you the Great Gain 1 Tim. 4. 8. 6. 6. Obj. But may not a man go to Law to recover his own or to right his own Reputation if he be slandered Answ. Distinguish carefully in all your wrongs between Gods Interest in them and your own Your own you must forgive but Gods you cannot If he have intrusted you with talents for his service and any would fraudulently or violently deprive you of them you must look after them as your Masters stock If a wound in your name or state disable you from doing God service you must use all lawful means to heal it that you may be in a capacity of serving him again And if your children or others have remotely a right in what you are defrauded of you may look after their right And you must not remit the crime as oft as you remit the injury For that God hath imposed penalty upon and the Rule is good that the Punishment of the notoriously vicious is a Due to the Common-wealth because of the Necessity of it to its good In a word therefore if you could do these things you might your selves resolve when it is lawful to go to Law or seek your Right and when not 1. If you can well distinguish between Gods Interest and your own 2. And be sure you forgive all your own injuries 3. And that you watch your hearts narrowly leâ—t they pretend Gods cause and intend your own 4. And be able by the consideration of circumstances to discern in probability whether Gods Interest will be more promoted by going to Law or passing it by But alas how rare a course is this Of all the suits that are before you at this Assize I fear there are few that are commenced unfeignedly for the Interest of God! If the Lord himself should ask both Plaintiff and Defendant Do you follow this suit for Me or for your selves What answer think you they must make if they speak the truth But of this anon HAving thus given in my General charge against the carnal worldling and some Evidence of his guilt I shall now give you the Quality and Aggravations of your crime in several Articles as followeth 1. You are Guilty of Idolatry which is high Treason against the God of Heaven That which hath your highest estimation and dearest affection and chiefest service is your God But this the world hath therefore it is your God That which hath the most of your Hearts is your God But it is the world that hath the most of your hearts You know that the main drift of your life is for the world And that which hath the main bent of your life hath your heart If Reason be no Evidence you cannot refuse Scripture Col. 3. 5. Mortifie therefore your Members upon earth and one is Covetousness which is Idolatry Eph. 5. 5. For this ye know that no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an Idolator hath any Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God The case is plain in Scripture and in the effects The world hath that Love that God should have that Care and Trust and Service which belongs to God and therefore it is your God I do therefore here on the behalf of God indite every worldly carnall sinner of you at the Bar of your own conscience as a Traytor against the Lord that made you and against the Son of God that did Redeem you And what greater sin can man be guilty of besides the Blaspheming of the Holy Ghost He that would have another God would have the Lord to be un-Godded and to lose his Soveraign Power and Goodness And is such a man fit to live in his sight Why wretched Traytor If he be not thy God thou canst not expect to live by him or be sustained preserved and provided for by him Thou canst not live an hour without him and yet wilt thou cast him off Wouldst thou pluck up thy own foundation and cut off the bough on which thou standest Wouldst thou fire the house thou dwellest in and sink the Ship that keepeth thy self and all that thou hast from sinking Relations are mutual If he shall be no God to thee be it known to thee thou shalt be none of his People If he shall be no Father to thee thou shalt be none of his child And wretched soul what wilt thou do without him It iâ—â—â—e that keeps thy soul in thy body while thou art serving his enemy Thou wouldst be in Hell within this hour if his Mercy did not keep thee out And is this thy requital of him He hath but one Trinity of enemies the flesh the world and the Devil and wilt thou turn to these and forsake him by whom thou livest Why I tell thee the Lord must be thy God or thou must have no God indeed The world is like the Heathens Idols that hath eyes but cannot see thy wants ears but cannot hear thy cries hands but cannot help thee in thy distress All thy Riches Dignities and Pleasures are silly things to make a God of They may have the room of God in thy heart and in that sense be thy God but indeed they are no more God then a mawkin is a man nor no more able to help and save thee Wouldst thou then have a God or no God If thou wouldst have no God thou wouldst have no Helper no Governor no Preserver nor no Happiness And dost thou think that thou art sufficient for thy self What! Canst thou live a day without God Canst thou save
thy self from danger without him Canst thou relieve or shift for thy self at death without him Darest thou tell him so to his face and stand to it But if thou must have a God what God wouldst thou have Wouldst not thou have a God that can preserve and help and save thee The world cannot do it man I shall tell thee more of this anon that the world cannot do it If thou trust to it it will deceive thee But if thou say then the Lord shall be thy God Away then with all thy Idols God will have no partner much less a superiour that is exalted above himself in thy soul. As Ioshua said to the Israelites Iosh. 24. 14. so say I to you Now therefore fear the Lord and serve hâ—m in sincerity and in truth and put away the world which hath been your God and serve ye the Lord And if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord choose you this day whom ye will serve but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord. And if you say as they God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other Gods I answer you as he Away then with the world and all other Idols or else Ye cannot serve the Lord for he is an holy and a jealous God and will not forgive such transgressions and sins but if ye forsake the Lord and serve the world he will turn against you and consume you Vers. 19 20. God will not stoop to be an underling in your hearts He should have all anâ— will at last have all or none But in the mean time he will have the Best or none I do witness here to every soul of you in his name that if he have not the Soveraignty and be not nearer and dearer to your hearts then all the honours and riches and pleasures of the world he is not he will not be he cannot be your God And if he be not thy God thou wilt be Godless as thou art ungodly thou wilt be without his help as he was without thy heart Well this is the first Article of my charge against every one of you that hath not Crucified the world you are Idolators and Traytors against the God of Heaven And he that would have no God deserves to be no man and worse and shall either by Repentance wish with groans that he had never been a worldling and a neglecter of God or else in Hell with groans shall wish that he had never been a man As the first Commandment is the fundamental Law and informeth all the obligations of the particular precepts following so Idolatry which is against that Commandment is the fundamental crime and is the life of all the rest He that would overthrow the God-head would overthrow all the world 2. The next Article of my charge is this You are guilty of most perfidious Covenant-breaking with God Did you not in your Baptism solemnly by your parents Renounce the world the flesh and the Devil and promise to fight against them to the end of your life under the Banner of Christ And have you performed that vow No you have turned treacherously to the enemy that you renounced and fought for the world and the flesh against the Word and the Spirit of Christ. And if you renounce your Baptismal Covenant you renounce in effect the benefits of that Covenant And if God deal with you as with Perfidious Covenant-breakers thank your selves 3. Moreover you are guilty of debasing your humane nature and so of wronging God that made it and is the owner of it God made you not as bruits that are capable of no higher things then to eat and drink and play and die and there 's an end of them But he made you capable of an Everlasting life of Glory with himself And as he suiteth all his works to their uses and ends so did he suit the nature of man to his immortal state As we were made by God we were sitted and disposed to everlasting things And you â—â—ave turned your hearts to the vanities of this world and set your mind on them as your happiness as if you had no greater things to mind Objects do either ennoble or debase the faculties according as they are That is the vilest creature which is made for the vilest uses and ends or imployes himself in such And that is the most excellent creature which is exercised about the most excellent Objects God made you for no less then his everlasting praises before his face among his Angels and you have so far debased your own nature as to root like swine in earth and dung and to live like bruits that have not an immortal state to mind How will you answer this dishonour done to the workmanship of God That you should blot out his image and imploy your souls against his Laws and live as moles and worms in the earth He put you on earth but as travellers towards Heaven and you have taken up your home in the way and forgotten your End and Resting-place 4. The next part of your Guilt is that you have perverted the use of all the creatures and turned the Works and Mercies of God against himself He gave them all to you to lead you to himself and to furnish you for his service He made this world to be a Glass in which you might see the Maker and a Book in which you might read his Name and will And will you overlook him and forget the end and use of all What shame and pitty is it that men should live in the world and not know the use of it That they should see such a beauteous frame and not understand its principal signification That they should daily converse with so many creatures which all proclaim the name of God and with one accord declare his praise and yet that this language should be so little understood Like an illiterate man in a Library that seeth many thousand Books and knows not a word that is in any of them Or like an ignorant man in an Apothecaries shop that seeth the drugs but knoweth not what they are good for nor how to use any of them if he had the greatest need The poorest cottage and smallest pittance of these earthly things might be a greater Blessing to you if you could understand their use and meaning then all the world would be to him that understands it not Your possessions in themselves if you have not God in them are but the very corpse or carkaise of a blessing The Life of them is wanting And without the Life they will but trouble you For you have the burden without the use Your horse will carry you while he hath life and health but take away his life once and you must carry him if you will have him any further Verily it is no wiser a trick to make a stir in the world and seek the profits and pleasures of it without God or any otherwise then as