wonder if the house be robbed where the doors stand alwaies open and all is common to every passenger Be sure therefore to keep a constant guard upon your eyes your appetites and every sense or else the world will not be Crucified Let not your eye move but by the conduct of your reason at least let it not fix upon any object till reason give it leave Taste not a bit of meat or a cup of drink till you have advised with right informed Reason and be able to justifie what you do Take an account of all that entereth at the door of any of your senses For he that must give an account to the living God had need to keep account himself 2. Keep also a constant guard upon your Thoughts as well as upon your senses As the Thoughts will tell you what is in your hearts so they will let in whatsoever bribeth them to consent The fancies of men are the garden of the Devil where he soweth and watereth the plants of impiety Yea they are a principall room in which he doth inhabite It s certain that the Devil hath readyer access to the fantasie then to the heart and that it is his shop in which he forgeth most vices and doth a very great part of his work An unclean spirit possesseth the fantasies of the unclean so that their thoughts are running upon lustful objects and they are guilty of the filthyest cogitations within when they seem to be of the chastest behaviour without and do frequently commit fornication in the heart when fear or shame doth restrain the outward practise and cover their iniquity The malicious person is possessed by a spirit of maliciousness that dwelleth in his fantasie and sets him on contrivances of cruelty and revenge and filleth his mind with thoughts of hatred and disdain The same spirit reigneth in the fancies of the Proud and setteth them upon contrivances for the advancing of their names and causeth them to thirst after the reputation of the world and filleth them with the troubled malicious thoughts of Haman when they miss of their expectations The earthly spirit possesseth the fantasies of the covetous and setteth them on contrivances for the increase of their estates Do you not feel by sad experience how many of Satans assaults are made upon your cogitations and how much of his interest lyeth there and how much of his work is there done As ever you would be Crucified to the world then set a watch upon your thoughts and keep a daily and hourly account of them and see that they be alway under the Government of faith and reason Your thoughts should be kept chast as the entrance into your hearts and not be as common harlots entertaining every comer If you feel your thoughts stepping out upon Lust or Malice look after them betime and call them in and check them sharply and lay a charge on them hereafter to be more pure If you find that they are running with Geheza after the prize and are making out after the provisions for the flesh recall them and correct them and bewail this evil before the Lord and let your watch be stricter for the time to come Believe it your hearts will be such as are your thoughts The flies that lye upon sores or dung or carrion and the worms that are bred in them will be of the nature of that corruption themselves If you would have your hearts clean and humble and heavenly let your Thoughts be clean and humble and heavenly If you will let your Thoughts run on the objects of Lust you will be Lustful And if you will Think on the enticements of Pride you will be Proud And if you will let out your thoughts on the Profits of the world no wonder if it steal away your hearts saith the Lord to the covetous and unmerciful Deut. 15. 7 8 9. If there be among you a poor man of one of thy Brethren within any of thy gates thou shalt not harden thy heart nor shut thy hand from thy poor Brother but thou shalt open thy hand wide unto him and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart saying The seventh year the year of release is at hand and thy eye be evil against thy poor Brother and thou givest him nought and he cry unto the Lord against thee and it be sin unto thee Thou shalt surely give him and thy heart shall not be grieved when thou givest to him because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto For the poor shall never cease out of the Land therefore I command thee saying Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother to thy poor and to thy needy in the Land Besides the main drift of the Text mark how we are commanded to beware that a Thought of unmercifulness enter not into our hearts And when Christ doth so vehemently disswade his followers from this damning sin he doth it by setting a Law upon their Thoughts Why take ye Thought c. Take no thought c. Mat. 6. 25 27 28 31 34. Luke 12. 22 26. If the unrighteous man forsake not his thoughts he will not forsake the evil of his way Isa. 55. 7. As you love your souls then look to your Thoughts and keep them under the Government of the Lord. Would you be free from a vain and sensual mind How long then shall your vain thoughts lodge within you Ier 4. 14. 3. And see also that you make not worldly minded men your companions While they savour nothing but earth and flesh they will have no savoury discourse of any thing else And their discourse is like to be infectious to your minds As a Stews is not the best place to preserve you from uncleanness nor an Alehouse the best place to preserve you from drunkenness so the company of worldlings is not the best place to preserve you from worldliness Where you shall see or hear little but earthly things and heavenly matters can find no room It s not the safest place to fight against the Devil in the midst of his own Army but in the Army of Christ. On the contrary side be sure that you keep under mortifying means Attend to the lively preaching of the word which will disgrace the world to you and be still drawing your hearts another way Be much with God in secret prayer and be much above in Heavenly Meditation and dwell upon those Thoughts which lay the world naked to you and shew it you in its own complexion If death and judgement be seriously in your minds it will waken you from these fleshly dreams and prick the bladder of your aery minds and let out that wind which puft you up and kept out the things of God and Glory Converse also as much as you can with the most Heavenly people
world I cannot live contentedly in poverty food and rayment will not serve turn unless I fare deliciously and be cloathed neatly and be set by in the world and unless I may leave prosperity to my children when I am dead and gone If you dare not say thus do not dare to desire or think thus Mr. Robert Bolton that holy learned Divine doth use among the hainous damning sins to reckon this A desire to be râ—ch And if we hearken to the Scripture we shall find that it is not without good cause Prov. 23. 4. the command is Labour not to be rich And Prov. 28. 20. He that maâ—gth haste to be rich shall not be innocent The Syriack rendeâ—s the word 〈◊〉 and the Arabick the wicked which we here translate â—e that â—asteth to be rich And they must needs be the sâ—me men when the Apostle saith that the love of money is the râ—ot of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. Therefore saith Paul They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. By this word they that will or are willing to be rich is meant they whose wills are set upon it and are in love with it and fain would be rich Is it fitter for God or you to determine how many talents you shall be entrusted with Do you long to have more duty and danger and a double account It s true you may desire the success of your Labours but not for the Love of Riches nor with an unmannerly peremptory desire It s true also that you must be thankful for prosperity if God give it you But as it must be with an holy jealousie so it is as true that you must be thankful also for adversity when God sends it though not for it self yet for the good that it may conduce to And therefore saith Iames 1. 9 10. Let the brother of low degree rejoyce in that he is exalted but the rich in that he is made low And Iob could say The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away blessed be the name of the Lord Iob 1. 21. 3. IF you are Crucified to the world then let it not have power to Crucifie you by putting you upon inordinate cares or sorrows Will you vex your brains with contrivings for the world and weary your mind with tearing cares and walk in sorrow because you have not your desires and yet say that you are Crucified to the world Are the dead so solicitous or is a Carkaise to be so much valued Your Passions and Endeavours will proclaim your excessive estimation of the world when you have never so long in words professed your contempt of it Alas how many that seem to know better do almost distract their minds with cares and entangle themselves in a life of so much misery as a wise man would not like for all the world If they want any thing what trouble are their minds iâ— till their wants be supplyed If they be afflicted with losses or wrongs or contempt they are troubled as if they had loâ—â— some great oâ— necessary thing A Crucified world could not make such a â—â—â—â— in your minds but doubtless it is so far alive as it thus aâ—â—â—cteâ—h you The Lord Jesus hath himself made so full and moving a Sermon to his Disciples against the cares of the world Mat. 6. and Luke 12. that its a double sin to Christians to be still so careful and earthly minded and I know not what to hope for from that man that will not be moved with such words as those from the Lord himself And yet how many professors have I known that have tormented themselves with cares and sorrows yea and cast their bodies into diseases by it and many of them have dyed of it and some it hath brought besides their wits So observable is that of the Apostle 2 Cor. 7. 10. The sorrow of the world worketh death even temporal and eternal unless we be delivered by undeserved Grace Bear all conditions then with an equal mind and let your passions shew that you are Crucified to the world 4. IF you are Crucified to the world then Let it not thrust out the service of God and be made an excuse for a negligence in Religion How rare are holy Meditations in the minds of many that think themselves Religious And it is worldly Thoughts that thrust them out and worldly businesses that are the common excuse How formal are many in the Instructing of their families how seldom and how coldly do they exhort their children or servants to make ready for death and make sure of their salvation How coldly and cursorily are family prayers and other duties slubbered over And all is because they have other things to mind the world will give them leave to do no more The decay of zeal and diligence in family-duties is the common symptom and cause too of the destruction of knowledge and godliness in the Land And all is because the world is Master and must be served before God The business of the world doth seem to them the principal business and must first be done and all thoughts and talk of Heaven must stand by till the world will give them leave to enter Men cannot have while to call upon God and instruct their families because they have their worldly works to do Go into the families of most Noblemen Knights or Gentlemen in England and see there whether God or the world be most regarded and lookt after Perhaps they may civilly yield an â—â—r while a Chaplain makes a short prayer among them but if you look after heavenly mindedness and seriousness in Religion and zeal against sin and diligence to help to save the souls that are under their charge how little shall you find Do they earnestly perswade their servants to study holy things and do they examine them about their everlasting state and call them to account of what they learn from the publick Ministry Do they shew a vehement hatred of sin and go before their families in an heavenly conversation Alas how thin are such families as these No no they are so taken up with entertaining their friends and pampering their flesh and in complements and in worldly affairs that they have little time for heavenly work And if they do for fashion sake get a godly young man to be their Chaplain he is so wearied with the sensual courses of some and the scorns of others and the vanity and worldliness and negligence of the rest that his life is a burden to him and he can no more enjoy himself in such families then in a fair or popular tumult On the other side poor men are in so much want that they think themselves sufficiently excused for the neglecting of almost all the means of their salvation They think Necessity lyeth upon them and therefore that God will not require it of them to understand the Scriptures
Christian can I spare all these tedious troublesom employments these complements these applauses this sumptuous provision and retinue and all this stir that they make in the world How easily can I spare their Titles and Obeysances When I look up at them as on the pinacâ—e of a steeple I bless my self that I am below them on saâ—er ground I have more leisure to converse with God in my solitude then they have in a crowd Rejoyce that you neither need nor desire such a sâ—ate but find Christ enough for you in a lower condition and nothing without him enough in the highest That you are above these empty childish honours when those that possess them may be enslaved under them That you have the dignity of a Son of God a Member of Christ and an Heir of Heaven and have an heart that can contentedly let other men take the dignities of the earth It s more to have the world and the Kingdoms and glory of it under your feet by the Spiritual advancement of your souls then to be the Monarch of the world 2. Have you abundance of earthly Riches and provision for your flesh So that you want nothing but have the world at will Glory not in it as the least part of your felicity This will not keep your souls in your bodies nor take away their guilt nor open to you the gates of heaven You may want a drop of water in Hell for all your riches on earth If you scape that danger no thanks to your riches If ever you get to heaven you must be beholden to Christ to save you from your riches And when all 's done you will have a harder journey and a greater load to burden you then others and will be saved with very much ado Glory not then in these but rather glory that you have a taste of higher and sweeter things which take off your minds and make you look on these as chips To have an heart that cares not for wealth or honours but can rejoyce in poverty and daily reproaches is a thousand times greater mercy then to have all the wealth and honour of the world 3. Have you convenient habitations for buildings and rooms and walks and lands and neighbourhood Glory not in them as any of your felicity They are baits to tice your hearts from God But rather rejoyce that you have a building not made with hands eternall in the heavens and that you can be contented till you come thither with any thing in the way and make shift with inconveniences for a little while Heaven wants no furniture nor hath any encumbrances nor inconveniences If a winding sheet and Coffin be room enough when we are dead we can endure sure to be somewhat straitened while we are alive seeing we are dead to the world while we live in it O what is the most sumptuous Palace to the meanest room in our Fathers house The green and flourishing earth in Summer covered with the more glorious spangled Firmament is a goodly structure but far short of that which the poorest Saint shall have with God 4. Have you comelyness of body have you beauty or strength Glory not in it It is but warm well coloured earth The pox or other sickness can quickly turn your beauty to deformity If age do not wrinkle it death will dissolve it The comelyest and strongest body will shortly be as homely and loathsom a thing as the dirt in the streets and as the carry on in a ditch The stoutest youth and the neatest dâ—mes must come to this there 's no remedy And is such a body a thing to be Gloried in No but glory rather in your assurance of a Resurrection when your mortalâ— bodies shall put on immortality and your corruptible incorruption and and death shall be swallowed up in victory and when you shall shine as Stars in the Firmament of your Father and be subject to heat and cold hunger and thirst and weariness no more And that in the meanâ—time you can tame this flesh and use it as a servant and instead of caring for its inordinate provision can lay out your care for a more during substance 5. Have you comely apparel for the adorning of your bodies Glory not in it This is so childish that it s below a man and therefore so sinâ—ull as to be unbeseeming a Christian The emptyest person may have the best attire It is not your out-side that shews your worth The Philosopher asks the Question Why women are more addicted to look after neat attire then men and he answereth Because nature is conscious of their want of inward worth it seeks to make it up with somewhat that is borrowed It may make a man suspect that somewhat is amiss within when there needs all this ado without They are not alway the best horses that have the neatest trappings A fool may be as bravely drest as a wise man and few but fools and children do admire you or think you ever the better but many an one will envy you and many take you to be the worse A graceless soul will be but sorrily covered with neat attire And whatever you hang without we all know that there 's dung and filth within Pauls shop hath comlyer Ornaments then these 1 Tim. 2. 9. Let women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefastness and sobriety not with broidered hair or gold or pearls or costly array but which becometh women professing godliness with good works learning in silence with all subjection Glory in the whole rayment of the Saints even the righteousness of Christ lest when you go naked out of the world as you come naked in your souls should be found naked before an holy jealous God 6. Have you health of body and feel no sickness Glory not in it It will last you but a while Your oyl will be spent ere long and your candle will go out You must know what pains and death are as well as others A little cold or heat or a thousand accidents may quickly change the case with you Many that were young and lusty go to their graves when some that were more likely to have gone before them are left behind But first or last we must all away Rather glory in a healthfull frame of soul that Christ hath cured you of your worldliness and pride of your self-seeking and passion and fleshly lusts For this will be a more durable health then the other 7. Have you Nobility of birth are you descended of worshipfull or honourable Ancestors Glory not in it We are all made of one common earth There is as good blood in the veins of a beggar as of a Lord. This is but a remnant of your Ancestors honour Perhaps the favour of some great men might bestow it on them at first without desert Or it might be the Consequent of a little riches though ill got However the merit descendeth not to you and therefore its little honour that comes