amicably defending the Truth against the unnecessary Oppositions of divers Learned and Reverend Brethren 4o. One sheet for the Ministry against the Malignants of all sorts A winding-sheet for Popery One sheet against the Quakers A second sheet for the Ministry Justifying our Calling against Quakers Seekers and Papists and all that deny us to be the Ministers of Christ. Directions to Iustices of Peace especially in Corporations to the discharge of their duty to God written at the request of a Magistrate and Published for the use of others that need it The Crucifying of the world BY The Cross of CHRIST GAL. 6. 14. But God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and I unto the world SECT I. EVER since mankind had a being upon earth the malicious apostate spirits have been their enemies If it was the will of our Creator that we should be Militaries in our Innocency and keep our standing and attain our Confirmation and Glory by a Victory or else come short of it if we lost the day No wonder then that our lapsed condition must be militant and that by conquest we must obtain the Crown But there is a great deal of difference between these combats In our first state we were the sole Combatants against the Enemy our selves and we fought in that sufficient strength of our own which was then given us and by our wilfull yielding we were overcome But since our fall we fight under the banner of another who having first conquered for us will afterward conquer in us and by us All the great transactions and busâ—es of the world which our Fathers have reported to us which have filled all the Histories of ages and which our eyes have seen or our ears have heard of are nothing but the various actions and successes of this great war and all the persons in the world are the souldiers of these two Armies whereof the Lord of Life and the Prince of Darkness are the Generals The whole Inhabited world is the field The great on-set of the Enemy was made upon the person of our Lord himself And as oft as he was assaulted or did assault so oft did he overcome In the wilderness he had that first appointed conflâ—ct with Satan himself hand to hand Through his whole life after he was assaulted by the inferiour sort of enemies And a leader in his own Army even Peter himself is once seduced to become a Satan Mat. 16. 22. and a Traytor Iudas is the means of his apprehension and then the blinded Jews and Rulers of his Crucifixion and there had he the last and greatest Conflict in which when he seemed conquered he did overcome and so his personall war was finished When the Captain of our salvation was thus made perfect through sufferings Heb. 2. 10. that he might bring many sons to glory his next work was to form his Army which he did by giving first Commission to his Officers and appointing them to gather the common souldiers and to fill his bands No sooner did they set themselves upon the work but Satan sendeth forth his bands against them Persecutors assault them openly and Hereticks are Traytors in their own Societies and make mutinies among the souldiers of Christ and do them more mischief by perfidiousness then the rest could do by open hostility The first sort of them took advantage 1. By the reputation of Moses Law and the zeal of the blinded Jews for its defence And 2. from the dangers sufferings and fleshly tenderness of many professors of the Christian faith which made them too ready to listen to any Doctrine that promised them peace and safety in the world and as they were themselves a Carnall Generation that looked after worldly glory and felicity and could not bear persecution for Christ and so were enemies to his Cross while they profest themselves to be his Disciples so would they have perswaded the Churches to be of thâ—â—â—â—me mind and to take the same course as they that so they might not be noted for carnall and cowardly professors themselves while they brought others to believe the justness of their way but rather might have matter of glorying in their followers instead of being either sufferers with the true Christians or rejected by them whose profession they had undertaken These were the persons that Paul had here to deal with against whom having opposed many arguments through the Epistle in the words of my Text he opposeth his own Resolution God forbid that I should glory c. The words contain Pauls renouncing the carnal disposition and practise of the false Apostles and his professed Resolution of the contrary Where you have 1. The terms of Detestation and Renunciation God forbid or be it far from me 2. The thingâ— Detested and Renounced viz. To glory in any thing save the Cross of Christ. His own positive profession containeth 1. His Resolution to Glory in the Cross of Christ. 2. The effects of the Cross of Christ upon his soul which being contrary to the disposition and doctrine and endeavour of the false Teachers is added as a Reason of his abhorring their waies and as the ground and principle of his contrary course Hereby the world was crucified to him and he to the world The difficulties in the words being not great I shall take leave to be the briefer in their explication The verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not only externall boâ—sting but first internall confidence and acquiescence By the Cross of our Lord Iesus Christ we are to understand both his Cross as suffered by him and as considered by us and as imitated by us or the Cross we suffer in conformity to him For I see no reason to take it in a more restrained sense By the world is meant the whole inferiour Creation or all that is objected to our sense or is the bait or provision for the flesh or by the tempter is put in competition with God both the things and the men of the world To have the world crucified to him doth signifie 1. That it is killed and so disabled from doing him any deadly harm or from being able to steal away his affections as it doth they that are unsanctified 2. That he esteemeth it but as a dead and contemptible thing So that this phrase expresseth both its disabling and his positive contempt of it The other phrase that Paul was crucified to the world doth signifie on the other side 1. That his estimation and affections were as dead to it that is he had no more esteem of it or love to it nor did he further mind or regard it so far as he was sanctified then a dead man would do 2. It signifieth that he was also contemned by worldly men and lookt on as his Crucified Lord was whom he preached This is said to be done by Christ or by his Cross For the relative may relate to either antecedent
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
heaven with God The worldling is rich for himself and all that he parteth with for Gods service or the poor is but the leavings of the flesh and that which it can spare when it s own desires are satisfied for so much an Epicure may part with to good uses But the sanctified doth employ his riches for God as being Rich to him and not to his Carnal self You see by this time who they be that are the fools in Gods account And that though the children of this world are wiser in their Generation then the children of light Luke 16. 8. yet the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God and the foolishness of God is wiser then men 1 Cor. 3. 19. 1. 20 25. And you know that it is Christ that requireth you to forsake all that you have for him and dare you say that Christ commandeth you to be fools Is not that the wisest way which he requireth Obj. But Christ would not have us cast away that which he giveth us but only rather to forsake it then to forsake him and that I would do Answ. But if you forsake it not first in Affection and Resolution you will never forsake it actually when he calls you to it though you may be confident you should while you look not to be put to it In your hearts all must be now forsaken though you may keep some in your hands till God require it 2. And even in prosperity you must devote your wealth to God and use it more for him then for your selves if you will prove your selves to be his servants Quest. 2. MY second Question to you is this You that are so loath to part with the world and be Crucified to it tell me What hath it done for you that you should be so fond of it and that it should seem worthy of such estimation and affection Hath it not put you to more care and sorrow then it is worth It never gave you solid Peace it never made you acceptable to God! You are not a jot better when you are rich then when you are poor unless grace do that for you that riches cannot nay and grace must do it not only without but against your riches All that the world can do for you is but to satisfie your sensual appetite and by the superfluity to please a Covetous mind And is this a matter of so great worth A beast may have his sensual delight as well as you And if man be better then a beast do you think he is not capable of a better and higher delight then beasts Will you call your selves Men and Christians and yet take up with the pleasures of a bruit and there place your happiness If the drunkâ—rd have an hundred barrels of Ale or Wine more then he can drink this doth not so much as please his appetite but only his faâ—â—â— So if you have never so much riches more then your flesh â—â— self hath use for this only pleaseth a covetous fancy All that you enjoy is but so much as may satisfie the luâ—â—s of your flesh And I pray you tell me Whether you do not your selves believe that a sober temperate heavenly Christian doth live as comfortable a life as you And Whether they have not more peace in their minds without your sinful sensual delights then you have with them Indeed it is but the distemper of your minds that makes that so pleasant to you which another that is well in his wits would be weary of As the swine takes pleasure to tumble in the mire which a wise man would not do Do you not sin against your own experience Have you not found that the world is an unsatisfactory thing and cannot help you in a day of trouble And yet will you stick to it Quest. 3. MY next Question is What hath the world done for any other that should perswade you to set so much by it as you do Did it ever save a soul or heal a soul or make a man truly happy at the last Look back in any credible Records to the beginning of the world and down to this day and tell me where is the man that is made happy by the world And Consider what it hath done for them all He that had most of it and made the best of it for the pleasing of his flesh had but a short taste of sonsual pleasures which quickly left him worse then he was before like cold drink to a man in the fit of an Ague And will you so far lay by your reason as to go against the Experience of all the world Do they all cry out against it as Vanity and yet will you take no warning Can you think to find that by it that no man ever found before you What art have you to extract such comforts from the creature that never man could do till now It is the shame of them that spend so much cost and time and labour in seeking that seed of Gold which they call the Philosophers stone because never any that sought it could find it but have all lost their labour So is it your far greater shame to run an hazard so much greater for that which never man from the beginning of the world could find till now â—olomon went as far as any in the pleasing of his flesh with the fulness of the world and in the Conclusion he passeth this sentence on it that All is vanity and vexation of spirit Quest. 4. MY next Question to you is this What is it that you do seriously expect from the world for the time to come that should perswade you to stick so close to it as you do Some great matter sure you think it will do for you or else you would never so esteem it I pray you tell me what it is Do you think verily that it will make you truly happy Do you expect that it should bring you to heaven I suppose you do not What then will it do for you It will neither prevent a sickness nor remove it It cannot take away a tooth-ake nor a fit of the gout or stone It will not save you from the jaws of death nor keep your bodies from rotting in the grave nor bribe the worms or corruption from devouring them When your Physitian tells you that your disease is uncurable and you see that there is no way but one with you and you must be gone there 's no remedy if then you cry for help to the world it cannot help you Friends cannot save you Riches and Honours Houses and Lands cannot preserve you Death will obey his will that sendeth it and you must away O who would love that and love it at so dear a rate which cannot help you in the time of your necessity Who would serve such a Master such an Idol God as cannot relieve you in the day of your distressâ—â— When conscience is awakened and begins to stir and gripe you and the wrath
No man will incur so great a loss and cast himself upon a life of troubles without some considerable benefit to encourage him And in the conflict the heart will be ready to fail if we have not a cordial at hand for its refreshment As Christ himself must have an Angel in his agony to comfort him and when consolation is withdrawn by God doth feel himself as one forsaken So all his members in their Crucifixion have need of these reviving Messengers of God that seeing the ends and benefits of their sufferings they may be able to resign their natural wills in a full submission to the will of God and so to persevere and conquer in their sufferings They have need of a believing consideration of the Benefits that they may be daily and hourly furnished against temptations and may bear those losses and abuses from men even to the laying down of life and all things in this world which flesh and blood is so exceedingly against He that believeth the faithfulness of the promiser will hold fast the profession of his faith without wavering Heb. 10. 23. And he that believeth the recompence of Reward will not cast away his confidence Heb. 10. 35. He that knoweth in himself that he hath in heaven a better and more enduring substance will endure the greatest fight of afflictions becoming a gazing stock by reproaches and afflictions and becoming a companion of them that are so used and will take joyfully the spoyling of his worldly goods Heb. 10. 32 33 34. He that can look to Iesus the author and finisher of his faith and with him to the Ioy that is set before him will endure the Cross and despise the shame and run with patience the race that is set before him Heb. 12. 1 2. He that by faith fore-seeth the Peaceable fruits of righteousness will bear the chastisement which for the present seemeth not joyous but grievous Heb. 12. 11. All the cloud of witnesses and army of Martyrs Heb. 11. do testifie this to us that it is faith's beholding the benefits and promised blessings that must enable us to contemn the world and suffer the loss of all for Christ. Having therefore need of Patience that after we have done the will of God we may receive the promise we have need also of these encouraging helps which must support our patience that in this Patience we may possess our souls When impatient men to save the world do lose their souls Heb. 10. 36. Luk. 21. 19. Mat. 16. 25 26. These considerations are necessary to us in so hard an undertaking lest we be wearied and faint in our minds Heb. 12. 3. Though we may manfully bear some few assaults yet when we feel the vinegar and the gall and the cruelty of the world even piercing not only our hands and our feet but our very heart and see them shrink from us that were most obliged to adhere to us we shall then judge our selves forsaken of God if we have not the lively sense of these benefits As the very thought of Forsaking all doth strike a carnal heart with sorrow and the work doth over-match all the power of flesh and blood Luke 18. 22 23 24 27 28 29. So also the Believer hath need to keep his faith waking and in exercise that he may lift up the hands that else will hang down and the knees that else will be feeble and may make straight paths for his feet that the lame may not be turned out of the way but may be healed Heb. 12. 11 12 13 14. For if we hear Iobs Messengers and have not Iobs Faith and Patience we shall not be able heartily to say The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord Iob 1. 21. 2. My second end in the mentioning of these benefits is that if yet all that is said before have not perswaded you to be Crucified to the world at least you may be perswaded by the consideration of the benefits and of the happy condition of those that are thus mortified even when they seem in the eyes of unbelievers to be most miserable To these two ends I shall mention the Benefits Benefit 1. YOur Crucifixion to the world by the Cross of Christ will be one of the clearest and surest evidences of your sincerity And so may afford you abundant help for the conquering of your doubts and the ascertaining your salvation When on the contrary an unmortified worldly mind is the certain and common mark of a miserable hypocrite I know a melancholy man may be so weary of the world as to be impatient of his life But to prefer the Lord and everlasting Life before it in our practical Estimation and Resolution and Endeavours is the very point of saving sincerity and the specifical nature of true Sanctification And all other marks must be reduced unto this There is no man so spiritual and heavenly but while he is here hath a mixture of earthliness and carnality And many a thousand that are earthly and carnal have some esteem of God and Glory and some purposes for them and some endeavours after them But it is that which is predominant that giveth the Denomination According to that it is that we must be called either Spiritual and Heavenly or Carnal and Earthly men More particularly 1. If you look to the Understanding this Crucifixion to the world is a very great part of the Wisdom of the soul. For wherein doth wisdom more consist then in judging of things as indeed they are and especially in matters of greatest moment He therefore that is Crucified to the world must needs be wise And whatever his knowledge or reputation may be he that wants this must needs be a fool Is that a wise man that knoweth the times and seasons and how to do this or that in the world and knoweth not how to escape damnation nor where his safety and happiness must be sought And is not he a wiser man that can see the snares that are laid for his soul and so escape the burning Lake then he that will sell his Saviour and his soul for a little pleasure to his flesh for a moment I make no doubt but the weakest man or woman that practically knows the vanity of this world and the desirable excellencies of God and Glory is a thousand fold wiser then the most famous Princes or Learned men that want this knowledge He never take that man for a fool that can hit the way to heaven nor that for a wise man that cannot hit it It s the Greatest matters that try mens Wisdom though childish Wit may appear in trifles 2. To be Crucified to the world is the Certain effect of a Living effectual faith The dead faith that Iames speaketh of may move you to so much compassion as to say to the poor Go in peace be warned and filled Iam. 2. 16. But it will not so far loose you from the world as to
Tempter is hereby disarmed and he is disabled from doing that against you which with others he can do The Living world is the Life of Temptations As a Bear for all his strength and fierceness may be led up and down by the nose when by a ring the cord is fastened to his flesh So the Tempter leadeth men captive at his will by fastening together the world and their flesh He finds it no hard matter to entice a sensuall worldly mind to almost any thing that is evil Bid him lye or steal and if it be not for shame or fear of men he will do it Bid him neglect God and his worship and he will do it Bid him hate those that hinder his commodity or speak evil of them that cross his desires or seek revenge of those that he thinks do wrong him herein and how quickly will he do it The Devil may do almost what he list with those that are not Crucified to the world They will follow him up and down the world from sin to sin if he have but a golden bait to tice them But when the world is Crucified to you what hath he to entice you with The cord is broken by which he was wont to bind and lead you Can you tice a wise man by pins and counters as you may do a child If he would draw you from God he hath nothing to do it with for the world by which he should do it is now dead If he would tice you to pride or ambition or covetousness or to sinful means for worldly ends he hath nothing to do it with because the world is dead The Devil hath nothing but a little money or sensual pleasure or honours to hire you with to betray and cast away your souls And what cares a mortified man for these Will he part with Christ and heaven for money who looks on money as other men do on chips or stones It is the frame of mens hearts that is the strength of a temptation To a man that is in love with money O what a strong temptation is it to see an opportunity of getting it by sin But what will this move him that looketh on it as on the dirt in the streets To a proud man that is tender of his reputation in the world what a troublesom temptation is it to be reproached or slighted or slandered and what a dangerous temptation is it to him to be applauded But what are these to him that takes the approbation and applauses of the world but as a blast of wind As Christ saith of himself Iohn 14. 30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me that is He cometh to make his last and strongest assault but he shall find no carnall sinfull matter in me to work upon and he cometh by his instruments to perscute me to the death but he shall find no guilt in me which might make it a glory to him or a dishonour to me So in their measure the mortified members of Christ may say When Satan cometh by temptations the world is dead by which he would tempt them and he shall find little of that earthly matter in them to work upon and to entertain his seed and therefore when he afterward cometh by persecution he will find the less of that guilt which would be the oyl to enlarge and seed these flames Your innocency and safety lyeth much in this Mortification Benefit 4. ANother Benefit that followeth our Crucifixion of the world is this It will prevent abundance of needless unprofitable cost and labour that other men are at You will not be drawn to run and toyl for a thing of nought When other men are riding and going and caring and labouring for a little smoak or a flying shadow you will sit as it were over them and discern and pitty and lament their folly To see one man rejoyce that hath got his prize and another lament because he cannot get it and a third in the eager pursuit of it as if it were for their lives While they live as if they had forgotten the eternal Life which is at hand will cause you to lift up your soul to his praises that hath saved you from this dotage The world worketh on the sensual part first and thereby corrupteth and as it were brutifieth our very reason and the whole course of worldly designs and affairs even from the glorious actions of Kings and Commanders to the daily business of the plow-man and the beggar are all but the actions of frantick men or mad men I say so far as the affairs of the world are managed by this sensuall unmortified principle a sanctified Believer can look upon them all as on the runnings or tumults of children or ideots or on a game at Chests where wit is laid out to little purpose Mortification will help you to turn your thoughts and cares and labours into a more profitable course So that when the end comes you will have somewhat to shew that you have gained when others must complain that they have lost all their labour and worse then lost it What abundance of precious time do other men lose in dreaming pursuits of an empty deceiving transitory world When God hath taken off the poise from you of such unprofitable motion and taught you better to employ your time Many an hundred hours which others cast away upon worldly thoughts or discourse or practises are redeemed by the wise for their everlasting benefit Benefit 5. MOreover this Mortification Will help you to prevent a great deal of sharp Repentance which must tell unmortified worldlings of their folly When they have run themselves out of breath and abused Christ and neglected grace and either lost or hazarded their souls they must sit down in the end and befool themselves for losing their time and lives for nothing When God hath given a man but a short life and laid his everlasting life upon it and put such works into his hand as call for his utmost wisdom and diligence What a sad perplexing thought must it be to consider that all or most of this time hath been cast away upon worldly vanities If a man shall run away from his own Father and serve a Master that at last will turn him off with nothing but shame and blows will he not wish that he had never seen his face Such a Master all worldlings and sensualists do serve And he that got most by the world among them shall wish at last that he had never served it When the mortified Christian that slighted the world and laid out his care and labour for a better may so far escape the bitterness of such Repentings and be glad that he hath chosen the better part That is not the best meat that is sweetest in the eating when afterward it must be vomited up with pain because it cannot be digested The sparer dyet of Mortified men will prevent such after pains and troubles Benefit 6.
MOreovor where the world is Crucified A great deal of self-tormenting care and trouble of mind will be prevented You will not live such a perplexed miserable life as worldlings do Even in your outward troubles you will have less inward trouble of soul then they have in their abundance They are like a man that is hanged up in chains alive that gnaws upon his own flesh a while and then must famish What else do worldlings but tear and devour themselves with cares and sorrows and scourge themselves with vexatious thoughts and troubles If others did but the hundredth part as much to them against their wills as they wilfully do against themselves they would account them the cruellest persons in the world Paul saith of men that are in love with money that while they covet after it they do not only err from the faith but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they pierced themselves through and through and stab'd their own hearts with many sorrows A worldly mind and a melancholly are some kin The daily work of both is self-vexation and they are wilfully set upon the stabbing and destroying of themselves But it is not thus with the Believer so far as he is mortified Will he vex himself for nothing Will he be troubled for the loss of that which he disregardeth The dead world hath not power thus to disquiet his mind and to toss it up and down in trouble When it hath power on his body it cannot reach his soul. As the soul of a dead man feeleth no pain when the corpse is cut in pieces or rotteth in the grave So in a lower measure the soul of a Believer being in a sort as it were separated from the body by faith and gone before to the heavenly inheritance is freed from the sense of the calamities of the flesh So far as we are Dead we are insensible of sufferings Benefit 7. ANother Benefit that followeth upon the former is this We shall be far better able to suffer for Christ because that sufferings will be much more easie to us when once we are truly Crucified to the world What is it that makes men so tender of suffering and startle at the noise of it and therefore conform themselves to the times they live in and venture their souls to save their flesh but only their over-valuing fleshly things and not knowing the worth and weight of things everlasting They have no soul within them but what is become carnal by a base subjection to the flesh and therefore they savour nothing but the things of the flesh All Life desireth a suitable food for its sustentation A Carnal Life within hath a Carnal appetite and is most sensible of the miss of Carnal commodities But a Spiritual Life hath a Spiritual appetite And as Carnal minds can easily let go Spiritual things so a spiritual mind so far as it is such can easily let go carnal things when God requireth it When you are Dead to the world you will easily part with it For all things below will seem but small matters to you in comparison of the things which they are put in competition with If you are scorned or accounted the off scouring of the Town you can bear it because with you it is a very small matter to be judged of man 1 Cor. 4. 3. If you must endure abuses or persecutions for Christ you can do it because you reckon that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed Rom. 8. 18. You can let go your gain and account it loss for Christ yea and account all things loss for the knowledge of him and suffer the loss of all things for him accounting them but as dung that you may win him Phil 3. 7 8. If you knew that bonds and afflictions did abide you yet none of these things would move you neither would you account your life it self dear to you so that you may finish your course with joy Acts 20 23 24. So far as you are dead to the world and alive to God it will be thus with you When they that are alive to the world are so far from being able to dye for God that every cross doth seem a death to them I have many a time heard such lamentable complaints from people that are â—aln into poverty or disgrace or some other worldly suffering that hath given me more cause to lament the misery of their souls then of their bodies When they take on as if they were quite undone and had lost their God and hope of heaven doth it not too plainly shew that they made the world their God and their heaven Benefit 8. MOreover if indeed you are Crucified to the world your hearts will be still open to the motions of the Spirit and the motions of further Grace And so you will have abundant advantage both for the exercise and encrease of the graces which you have received The earthly minded have their hearts locked up against all that can be said to them Never can the Spirit or his Ministers make a motion to them for their good but some worldly interest or other doth contradict it and rise up against it But what have you to stop your ears when the world is dead The word then will have free access to your hearts When the Spirit comes your thoughts are ready your affections are at hand and all are in a posture to entertain him and attend him and so the work goes on and prospers But when he comes to the worldly mind the thoughts are all from home the affections are abroad and out of the way and there is nothing for his entertainment but all in a posture to resist him and gainsay him O what work would the preaching of the Gospel make in the world if there were not a worldly principle within to strive against it But we speak against mens Idols against their Jewels and their Treasure and therefore against their hearts and natures And then no wonder if we leave them in the jaws of Satan where we found them till irresistible merciful violence shall rescue them But so far as you are mortified the enemy is dead contradictions are all silenced opposition is ceased the Spirit findeth that within that will befriend its motions and own its cause the soul lyeth down before the word and gladly heares the voice of Christ And thus the work goes smoothly on Benefit 9. MOreover when once you are Crucified to the world you are capable of the true spiritual use of it which it was made for Then you may see God in it and then you may savour the blood of Christ in it Then you may perceive a great deal of Love in it And that which before was venemous and did endanger your souls will now become a help to you and may be safely handled when the sting is thus taken out Before it was the road to Hell and now there is some taste
and to proceed and persevere in an enmity to the world and a Believing Crucifixion of it if you will be saved from it and restore it to its proper use and captivate it that captivateth so many As some help hereunto I crave your Perusal of this Treatise And that it may do you good and the many Blessings promised to the charitable may rest upon you and on your Yoak-fellow that hath learned this Crucifying of the world and upon your posterity shall be the prayers of Feb. 20. 165â— â— Your fellow soldiour against the flesh and world Rich. Baxter The Preface To the Nobilty and Gentry and all that have the Riches of this world Honourable Worshipfull c. HAving written here of a subject that nearly concerneth you I have thought it my duty to give you a place and according to your Dignity the first place in the Application of it Of which I shall first tender you my Reasons and then set before you the matter of this address 1. You are among us the most eminent and honoured persons and therefore not to be neglected and past by you are first and therefore should first be served You hold your selves most worthy of any temporal honour that 's to be had and therefore I shall honour you so much more as to judge you fit to be first spoken to by the Ministers of Christ in a case that doth much more concern you As you have and would have the precedency in worldly matters here also you shall have the precedency Its pitty that you shall be first in Hell that are first in a Christian State on earth or that you should be least in the Kingdom of Heaven that are Greatest in that which is esteemed in the world 2. You are Pillars in the Common-wealth and the stakes that bear up the rest of the hedge Your influence is great in lower bodies You sin not to your selves only nor are you Gracious only to your selves The spots in the Moon are seen by more and its Ecclipses felt by more then the blemishes or changes of many of us inferiour wights You are our first figures that stand for more in matters of publick concernment then all that follow You are the Copies that the rest write after and they are more prone to Copy out your vices then your graces You are the first sheets in the Press you are the Stewards of God who are entrusted with his talents for the use of many You are the noble members of the Body Politick whose health or sickness is communicated to the rest If you be ungodly the whole body languisheth If you live and prosper it will go the better with us all For your Wisdom and Holiness and Iustice will be operative and your station alloweth them great advantage to work upon many and to emulate a kind of universal Causality Interest is the worlds byas and all Power hath respect to use You that have possession of the Treasure that is so commonly and highly esteemed may do much to lead the sensual world by it which way you please Be it better or be it worse they will follow him that bears the purse If money can do wonders you may do wonders As money can perswade the blind to part with God and life everlasting and to renounce Religion and Reason it self so no doubt but it might do something were it faithfully used though not directly to sanctifie the heart yet somewhat to incline it to the means by which it may be sanctified You that have Power to Help or Hurt to make it Summer or Winter to your subjects and to promote or cross the interest of the flesh are hereby become a kind of Gods in the eyes of them that mind this Interest as in higher respects you are unto Believers Especially seeing they want that eye of faith by which they should know the Soveraign Majesty who at his pleasure doth dispose both of you and them these purblind sinners can reach no further but are contented to be Ruled by you as terrestrial Deities They see you but they see not God they know you and perceive the effects of your favour and displeasure but being dead to God and savouring only fleshly things they scarce observe his smiles or frowns They see that which is visible to the eye which they have the use of but the Objects of faith are to them as Nothing because they have no eye to see them And seeing you have such publick interest and influence it is our duty first to look after your souls and to see that you receive the heavenly impress 3. To which I may add that no men have usually more need of advice and help then you For your temptations are the strongest The world killeth by its flatteries It is not the having it but the Loving it that undoes men And he is much liker to over-love it that hath what he would have and liveth in plentiful provisions for his flesh then he that hath nothing from it but trouble and vexation It is not poverty and prisons and sickness that are the flattering pandors of the world but prosperity and content to the flesh Though I know that many of the poor do most of all over-value the world because they never tryed so much of its vanity but standing at a distance from prosperity do think it a greater felicity then it is For those are most in Love with the world that least know it as those that least know him are least in Love with God and eternal glory But yet it is pleasing and not displeasing flattering rather then buffeting that is the means of deceiving filly souls and stealing their hearts from God to the world Your mountains lie open to stronger winds then our vallies do And your gulfs and greater streams are not so foordable as our more shallow waters He never studyed God and Heaven nor his own heart that knoweth not that it is a very difficult thing to have an heavenly mind in earthly prosperity and to live in the desires of another world while we feel all seem to go well with us in this How hard to be weaned from the world till we suffer in it yea till we are plunged into an utter despair of ever receiving here the satisfaction of our desires 4. And truly we have too much sad experience of the sensuality and ungodliness of most of the Rich to suffer us to think that you have least need of our admonitions Which leadeth me up to the Matter of my Address which is first to complain of you to your selves and then to Admonish you and lastly to Direct you 1. I know I speak to those for the most part that profess to believe a Life to come but O that you had the honesty to live as you do profess You durst not put it into your Creed that you believe that earth is more desirable then Heaven and that its better seek first after Carnal prosperity and delight then for
the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof You would be ashamed to say that it is the wisest course first to make provision for the flesh and to put off God and your salvation with the leavings of the world And do you think it is not as bad and as dangerous to do so as to say so Would it bring you to your journeys end to be of the Opinion that you should be up and going as long as you sit still Right Opinions in Religion are so unlikely to save a man that crosseth them in his practise that such shall be beaten with many stripes I had rather be in the case of many a Popish Fryer that renounceth the world though in a way that hath many errours then in the case of many an Orthodox Gentleman that is drowned in the cares and pleasures of this life Yea I think it will be easier for a Socrates a Plato in the day of Iudgement then for such Christianity is a practical Religion It is a devoted seeking for another life by the improvement and contempt of this Put not that into your Life that you are ashamed to put into your Profession or Belief If you Do as Infidels you will be as miserable as if you Believed but as Infidels And Practising a while against your Conscience may cause God to for sake your judgement also and give you over to Believe as you Live because you would not Live as you Believed And I fear that this is the case of some of you Nay I have too much reason to know it that some of our Gentry even persons of note and honour among us have for saken Christ and are turned Infidels and by the Love of this world have carnally adhered to it so long till they are so far forsaken of God as to think that there is no other Life for them hereafter God hath an eye on these wretches and men have an eye on some of them I shall now leave them in their slippery station till a fitter opportunity Some we have of our Nobility and Gentry that are Learned Studious and Pious and an honour and blessing to this unworthy Land or else it were not like to be so well with us as it is But Oh how numerous are the sensual and prophane which provoked that heavenly Poet of Noble extract Mr. G. Herbet Ch. porch to say O England full of sin but most of sloth Spit out thy flegm and fill thy brest with glory Thy Gentry bleats as if thy native cloth Transfused a sheepiness into thy story Not that they all are so but that the most Are gone to grass and in the pasture lost Gentlemen I have no mind to dishonour you but compassion on your souls and on the Nation commands me to complain in order to reform you And yet if you sinned and perished alone we were the less unexcusable if we let you alone What abundance of you are fitter to swill in a buttery or gorge your selves at a feast orride over poor mens corn in hawking and hunting then to govern the Common-wealth and by Iudgement and Example to lead the people in the waies of life What abundance of you waste your precious hours in feasting and sports and idleness and complementing and things impertinent to your great business in the world as if you had no greater things to mind Had you been by another commanded to a Dung-cart or like a Carryer to follow pack-horses an honester and more honourable life then yours you would think your selves enslaved and dishonoured And yet when God hath set before you an Eternal Glory you debase your own souls by wilful drenching them in the pleasures and cares and vanities of the world and have no mind of that high and noble work which God appointed you So that when many poor men are â—nnobled by an Heavenly Disposition and an Heavenly Conversation you enslave your selves to that which they tread under-feet and refuse the only noble life That which they account as loss and dross and dung that they may win Christ and be found in him Phil. 3. 7 8. that do you delight in and live upon as your treasure When once you know whether God or your money be better whether heaven or earth whether eternity or time be better you will then know which is the noblest life Nay what abandance are there among you that make a very trade of sensuality and turn your sumptuous houses into sties and your gorgeous apparel into hansom trappings if the appurtenances may receive their names from the possessors That never knew what it was to spend one day or hour of your lives in a diligent search of your hearts and waies and heart-breaking lamentation of your sin and misery and in serious thoughts of the life to come but go on from feast to feast and company to company and from one pleasure to another as if you must never hear of this again and as if you were so drunken and besotted with the world that you had forgotten that you are men or that you have a God to please and a soul to save or lose for ever Nay how many of you hate a faithful Preacher and an holy life and make them the ordinary matter of your scorn and cheat your souls with a few ceremonies and formalities as if by such a Carnal Religiousnes you could make all whole when you have lived to the flesh and loathed the Spiritual worship of God that is a Spirit and the heavenly lives of his sanctified ones and consequently the Law that commandeth such a life and the God that is the Maker of that Law I call not your Civil Controversies your Malignity but it is the proper title of your Enmity to Holiness And is it not enough that man in Honour will be without understanding and make himself like the beasts that perish Psal. 44. 20. but you must also take up the Serpentine nature and hissing and stinging must be the requital that you return to Christ for all your Honours Think if you have yet a thinking faculty whether this be kindly or honestly or wisely done and what its like to be to your selves in the end Your Riches and Honours do now hide a great deal of your shame but will it not appear when these raggs are torn from your backs and your souls are left in naked guilt Saith Chrysostom If it were possible to do Justice on the Rich as commonly on the poor we should have all the Prisons filled with them but Riches with their other evils have also this evil that they save men from the punishment of their evil O but how long will they do so This was plain dealing of an Holy Father and is it not such as is as needful now as then Is it not Greatness more then Innocency that saves abundance of you from shame and punishment Nay many of you think that because you are rich it is Lawful for you to be Idle and Lawful voluptuously
to give up your selves to pleasures and recreations and you think that you may do with your own as you list as if it had been given you to gratifie the flesh The words that converted Austin never suâ—k yet into your hearts Rom. 13. 13 14. Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof You never felt the meaning of those words Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live But to turn my Complaint into an Admonition I beseech you consider what you are and what you do 1. How unlike are you to Iesus Christ your pattern that denyed himself all the Honours and Riches and Carnal delights of the world Read over his Life and Read your own and judge whether any man on earth be more unlike to Christ then a voluptuous worldly Gentleman Especially if Malignity be added to his sensuality 2. How unlike are you to the holy Laws of Christ. Are his precepts of Mortification and Self-denyal imprinted in your hearts and predominant in your lives Is a beast any more unlike a man then your hearts and lives are unlike Christs Laws 3. How unlike are you to the Antient Christians that forsook all and followed Christ and lived in a Community of Charity And how unlike to every gracious soul that is dead to the world and hath mortified his members upon earth and hath his conversation in another world Are you not such as Paul wept over Phil. 3. 18. Whose God is their belly who glory in their shame and who mind earthly things and that are enemies to the Cross of Christ. though perhaps you are no enemies to his Name Believe it Gentlemen whatever your thoughts of your selves may be you will find that no Religion will save you that stoopeth to the world and is but an underling to your fleshly interest 4. How unlike are you to your Profession and your Covenant with God and to your Confessions and Prayers to him Did you not renounce the flesh the world and the Devil in your Baptism Do you not still Profess that heaven is best and God is to be preferred and yet will you not do it but let your own Professions condemn you Do you not ordinarily confess that the world is vain and yet will you shew your selves such Dissemblers as to love and seek it more then God As if there were no more Power in the Spirit of Christianity then in the Opinion of Zeno the Philosopher who having oft said that Poverty and Riches were neitheâ— good nor bad but things indifferent was yet dismaye when he heard that his farms were seized on by the enemies the Prince having sent one with the report to try him telling him when he had done that Now Riches and Poverty were not things indifferent How oft have you prayed to be saved from Temptation and yet will you still date upon your snares and fetters and shew your selves such hypocrites as to love the temptations which you pray against 5. You are guilty of a double injury to God in that you are obliged to him as his Created subjects and yet more obliged by your Riches and Honours which he hath given you for your Masters use To whom men give much from them will they expect the more Luke 12. 48. For a servant that hath double wages to abuse you for a friend that hath received double kindness to prove false to you for a Commander in the Army to betray his General is sure an aggravation of the crime Must God advance you highest and will you thrust him lowest in your heart Must he feed you with the best and cloath you with the best and will you put him off with the worst Have you ten times or an hundred times more wealth from him then many an honest heavenly Believer and yet will you Love and Serve him less 6. Is it not pitty and shame that you should thus turn Mercies themselves into sin and draw your bane from that which might have been a blessing Will you be the worse because God is so good to you Must he give you health and time for his service and give you such plentiful provision and assistance and will you be worse in health then others are in sickness and worse in Plenty then others are in want Is not this the way to dry up the streams of Mercy when the more you have the worse you are 7. You exceedingly wrong the Church and Common-wealth For it is for the publick good that you are advanced and you should be a blessing to the Land And will you cast away that time and wealth upon the flesh which you have received for such noble ends Rob not the Church and Common wealth of what you owe it by engrossing it to your selves or consuming it on your lusts 8. Great men have a great account to make You shall shortly hear Give account of thy Steward-ship for thou shalt be no longer Stewarâ— If God have entrusted you you with a thousand pound a year it is not the same reckoning that must serve your turn as would serve his turn that had but an hundred Your improvement must be somewhat answerable to your receivings Do you need to be told how sad a reckoning it will then be to say Lord I imployed most of it in maintaining the Pomp and Pleasure of my self and family even that Pomp of the world and those sinful lusts of the flesh which in my Baptism I forswore and the rest I left to my children to maintain them in the same pomp and pleasure except a few scraps of my Revenews which I gave to the Church or poor 9. Your wealth and greatness do afford you great opportunities to do good and to further the salvation of your selves and others and worldliness and sensuality will rob you of these opportunities O how many good works might you have done to the honour of your Lord and the benefit of others and your selves if you had made the best of your Interest and Estates The loss of the Reward will shortly appear to you a greater loss then that which you now account the loss of your estates 10. Your worldliness and sensuality is a sin against your own experience and the experience of all the world You have long tryed the world and what hath it done for you that you should so over-value it You know that it is the common vote of all that ever tryed it sooner or later that it is vanity and vexation And have you not the wit or grace to learn from so plain a teacher as Experience yea your own experience yea and all the worlds experience 11. You sin also against your very Reason it self and against your certain knowledge You
not yet gasping under the pangs of death nor laid in the dust as still as stones You see their beauty and glittering attire but you see not the pale and ghastly face that death will give them nor the skulls that are stript of all those ornaments you smell their perfumes but you smell not their putrefaction you see their lands and spacious houses and sumptuous furniture but you see not how narrow a room will serve them in the grave nor how little there they differ from the most contemptible of men Nay more you see them with Ahab going forth to battle and leaving the Prophets with the bread and water of affliction but you see them not yet returning with the mortal blow you see them in their honours and abundance but see them not on Christs left hand in judgement you see them cloathed richly and faâ—ing deliciously every day but you see them not in bell torments wishing in vain for a drop of water to abate their flames you hear them honoured and hear their words of pride and ostentation but you hear them not yet crying out of their folly and bewailing their loss of present time and lamenting in vain the unhappy choice that now they make Sirs believe it future things are as sure as present These things are no fables because they are not visible yet You see not God and yet he is the Principal Intelligible object you see not your own Intellectual souls and yet you know you have them by the Intellection of other things You see not your own eye-sight and yet you know that an eye-sight you have by the seeing of other things If there were not an Invisible God there would have been no visible creatures Visibles are more vile and are for I visibles that are more noble Our visible Bodies are for our Invisible Souls This visible life is the womb of everlasting life that is Invisible we are hatched by the Spirit in this shell till we are ready to pass forth into that glorious light that here we see not I beseech you Gentlemen awake and be not so lamentably deceived as to think that your honourable Pleasant Dreams are the only Realities O no! it is the last awaking hour that will shew you the now unconceivable Realities You are now but as in jest in your pomp and pleasure but you shall then be in good sadness in your pains and loss if Sanctifying Grace do not prevent it by putting you out of your feasting vein and making you in good sadness to be men of Real Faith and Holiness and lay about you for the Real Ioies Believe it Sirs the life of Christianity is not a bare Opinion It is a living by faith upon a life invisible and so serious resolving a Belief of the Truth of the everlasting blessedness as purchased and given bâ— Iesus Christ to persevering Saints as effectually turneth the affections and endeavours of the man to the Loving and seeking it above all this world It s one thing to take God and heaven for your portion as Believers do and another thing to be desirous of it as a reservè when you can keep the world no longer It s one thing to submit to Heaven as a Lesser evil then hell and another thing to desire it as a greater Good then earth It s one thing to lay up your Treasure and Hopes in heaven and to seek it first and another thing to be contented with it in your Necessity and to seek the world before it and give God that the flesh can spare Thus differeth the Religion of serious Christians and of Carnal worldly hypocrites But I shall break off my Admonition and end with some Advice Direct 1. Look upon this world and all things in it with the fore-seeing eye of Faith and Reason and vallue it but as it deserves And then you will neither be eager after it nor too much delighted in it nor puft up by it nor will it so prevalently entice you to venture or neglect eternal things Did you know and well consider but what an empty fading thing it is you could never be satisfied with so poor a portion nor quiet your souls till you had assurance or sound hopes of better things Nor would you take such pleasure in childish trifles nor debase your selves to be so inordinately imployed about such low and sordid matters while God and your eternal happiness are laid by You take not your selves for the basest of men much less for bruits or ideots O then do not make your selves the basest and do not unman your selves and brutifie your immortal souls A heathen could say Nemo alius est Deo dignus nisi qui opes contempsit If you would be Rich choose that which will make you Rich indeed make sure of his favour that is the absolute Lord of all and then you can want nothing whatever you may be without And if yet you thirst for worldly Riches or inordinately Love them and tenaciously keep them from your Masters use remember that this discovereth your disease and therefore should mind you rather to cure it then to feed it It is not money nor any thing in this world that will cure such an empty depraved soul. As Seneca saith If a sick man be carried about whether in a bed of gold or a bed of wood his disease is carried with him It is not a golden bed that will cure a diseased man Nor is it all the gold or honour in the world that will help such a deluded soul as thinks this world will make him happy Get but the cure of your Carnal minds and a little will serve you For it is your sinful fancy that would have much and not your nature that needs much Saith Seneca Si ad naturam vives nunquam eris pauper si ad opinionem nunquam eris dives Exiguum natura desiderat Opinio immensum He is not the poor man that hath but little but he that would have more Nor is he the Rich man that hath much but he that is content with what he hath If you pray but for your daily bread be not such hypocrites as by the bent of your desires to cross your prayers The nearest way to Riches saith the Moralist is the contempt of Riches and saith the Christian to be Rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised all that Love him Jam. 2. 5. The greatest Riches are got proportionably on the easiest terms Loving the world will not procure it but Loving God will procure the everlasting fruition of his Love Millions love the world that miss of it but no man misseth of God that Loveth him above the world Buy not these gawds then at a dearer rate then you may have the Kingdom If you have not enough make sure of heaven and that will be enough for you and get a cure for your diseased minds which is easier and more profitable then to fulfill them No man saith Seneca
can have all the world but he may have a mind that can contemn all the world No man can have all that he will but he may be content to be without it The disease is within you and there must be the Cure Direct 2. Be sure to fix with a serious faith upon the Inivsible glory as your portion and then look at all things in this world as good or bad as they respect your end and judge of them as they help or hinder you in the main Nothing but a truly heavenly mind is the saving cure of an earthly mind No man will rightly let go earth till he have the powerful Light that hath shewed him the greater good and given him a taste of the world to come Had you not been strangers to God and heaven in heart whatever you were in tongue and fancy you could never have so fallen in love with earth None are so much disposed to travail into other Countries as they that are fallen out with their own Remember that you have not one penny or pennies worth in the world but what you had from God and must be accountable to God for and must employ with an eye upon his will and your salvation I do not call you to cast away your Riches but to see that you use all that ever you have as will be most comfortable to you in your last review I know as Seneca saith He is a wise man that can make use of earthen vessels as if they were all silver and he is wise too that can make use of silver vessels as if they were but earth Infirmi est animi pati non posse divitias but it s one thing to Bear Riches and Use them for God and another thing to Enjoy them with delight I neither take the Monasticks to be the only or the highest in perfection nor yet do I condemn necessitated retirements For I know it is hard to most to converse with God in tumults and to hear the still voice of his Spirit in the murmuring noise of a crowd I know that the commons are usually more barren and fruitless then inclosures and that the fruit-tree that groweth by the high-way side shall have many a stone and cudgel thrown at it which those that are in your Orchard scape But still look to your end and secure the main Dream not that you have any full Propriety Remember that you are Gods Stewards Set therefore your Masters name and not your own upon every penny-worth you possess Let Holiness to the Lord be written upon all Possess nothing but what is Devoted to him to be used as he would have you Put him not off with scraps and leavings that gave you all So much as you save from him you lose and worse then lose and so much as you lose for him and surrender to him and improve for him you save and more then save For Godliness with content is great gain And he that is faithful in a little shall be made ruler over much It s thus that all things are sanctified with the Saints Direct 3. Think not that your Riches are given you to fulfill the least inordinate desire of the flesh Or that you may take ever the more sensual ease or pleasure if you had all the world But remember that better wages obligeth you to more work And therefore rise as early and labour as hard in your own employment the more for the common good the better yea and deny your flesh a◠much as if you had but food and rayment If you have much give the more and use the more but enjoy never the more and let not your sensual desires find ever the more provision A rich man that is wise and a faithful Steward may live in as much self-denyal and labour as hard and humble his flesh as much as he hat hath but his daily bread God sent you not in provision for his enemy All that is made the food of sin or that doth not help you up to God is employed contrary to the end that you received it for Direct 4. Be sure that you deal with the world as a Deceiver Be very suspicious of all your Riches and Honours and Delights Feed not on these luscious summer-fruits too boldly or without fear Remember how many millions the world hath deceived before you None come to Hell but those that are cheated thither by the flesh and the world With what exceeding vigilancy then have you need to deal with such a dangerous deceiver when all your happiness and all your hopes is at the stake and if you be deceived you are undone Its force is nothing so perillous as its fraud Ubi vincere aperte Non datur insidias armaque recta parat They that have to do with such a cheater in a case of such everlasting consequence should be suspicious of every thing and trust the world as little as is possible when Qui cavet ne decipiatur vix cavet cum etiam cavet Et cum cavisse ratus est saepè is cautor captus est ut Plaut As Bucholcer was went to say when his friends extolled him terreri se etiam laudationibus illis ut fulminibus So should you possess your Honours and Riches in the world And as the same Bucholcer said to Hubner when he went to be a Courtier Fidem diabolorum tibi commendo credere contremiscere viz. promissionibus aulicis credere sed cautè sed timidè So should you be affected to the world Trust and tremble or rather Trust it not all Nay have you not been deceived by it already And will you be more foolish then the silly fish that will scarcely take the hook that he was once pricked by or then the silly fowls that will be afraid of the net that once they have escaped from and of the Kite that once hath had them in her claws Tranquillas etiam naufragus horret aquas Nay at the present if you take any heed of your souls you may easily perceive what a clog the world is We are commonly better when we have least of it or are leaving it then when we have it at our will A man may see the utmost visible part of the earth and the Horizon at once but if he look on the earth that is near him he cannot see the heavens at that time much less the Zenith Our Own Riches our Present Riches our Nearest and Dearest temporal good is the greatest averter of the mind from heaven We are commonly like Antigonus sick souldier that fought well because he lookt to die but grew a Coward as soon as he was cured So that most of us have need of the counsel which the Bishop of Colen gave the Emperour Sigismund that askt him What he should do to be happy Live saith he as you promised to do when you were last sick of the stone and gowt Even the most notorious sinners seem Saints when they see the world is
service of our Lord We studied his Will and Interest and accordingly employed all that we had in the world and them that must say We gave now and then an alms to the poor but for the substance of our estates we spent it carnally for the flesh to bear up our pomp and greatness in the world and then we left it to our children to do the like when we were dead There is as wide a difference between the end of these two waies as there is betwixt Heaven and Hell And surely the way is connexed to the end Think not either that you can serve God and Mammon or that you may live to the world and die to God When one was asked whether he had rather be Craesus or Socrates he answered that he had rather be Craesus while he lived and Socrates when he came to die But dream not you of such a choice Gal. 6. 7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap If you sow to the flesh of the flesh you shall reap corruption but if you sow to the Spirit of the Spirit you shall reap everlasting life And this much more let me add that if you intend your wealth for God you must not think of evil getting it For God will not accept a sacrifice that is got by falshood rapine or injustice Nay if you intended it indeed for God you would not dare to procure it by sin For God needeth not fraud perfidiousness or injustice to promote his service Pietas sua federa servat As Austinâ—aith â—aith Ream linguam non faciâ— nisi rea mens So I say here Your mind is first guilty of denying God whatever you pretend when you dare thus by your deeds deny him Yea let me add that so far should you be from yielding to any temptation to be covetous for God for your family or any good end that may be offered you that you should make an advantage of such temptations to watch the world and your deceitful hearts the more narrowly hereafter And if in all temptations to worldliness you could turn them to a gain and duty and over-shoot the tempter in his bow it were a point of singular zeal and Prudence When he would put any covetous motion into your mind or work it into your hands give then more liberally or do more good then you did before Let this be all that the deceitful flesh and world shall get by you Fallite fallentes Et in laqueos quos posuere cadant I know that flesh and blood will stand in your way with abundance of disswasives and make you believe that this so plain and great a duty is no duty In the verbal part of godliness it would allow God but little but in the more costly practical part much less Sometime it will tell you that men are so naught that they deserve not your charity But Christ deserveth it give it therefore to him Sometime it will tell you of mens unthankfulness but satis est dedisse you have done your duty God accepteth it Other mens thankfulness is not your Reward You are more unthankful your selves to God You are called to imitate him that causeth his Sun to shine and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust and that daily bestoweth his mercies on the unthankful Sometime it will tell you of the uncertainty of reaching the end of your Charity That if you maintain Schollars to Learning they may prove ungodly if you leave any considerable gift to pious uses sacriledgious and rapacious hands may alienate it But you are sure of succeeding in your ultimate end which is the pleasing of God and your own salvation It is not lost to you if it be to others Cast your bread upon the waters if you cannot trust God you cannot obey him Do your part and leave his part to himself It s your part to Give and its Gods part to succeed it for the attainment of the end He that is worst is likest to fail And whether think you is better God or you and which should be more suspected He is unworthy the name of a servant of God that will run no hazard for him Venter your charity in a way of duty or pretend not to be charitable Will you not sow your Masters corn till you are certain of a plentious increase And do you think that he will take this for a good account This is the foolish excuse that Christ hath told you shall have a terrible sentence you will hide Gods talent for fear of losing it but wo to such unprofitable servants Sometime the flesh will tell you that you may want your selves or your posterity at least and that you were best gather till your stock arise to so much or so much and then God shall have some A fair bargain Iust like ungodly men by their Repentance and Conversion they will sin till they are old and then they will turn But few turn that delay with such resolutions If God have not right to all he hath right to none If he have right to all will you give him none but your leavings A swine will let another eat when his belly is full What if you are never richer will you never do good therefore with what you have And for the impoverishing of your self if you fear being a loser by God you may keep your Riches as long as you can and try how you can save your self and them A mans life consisteth not in the abundance that he possesseth Do not imagine that you need more then you do If Monasticks think it their perfection to be wilfully poor and Seneca thought it the Cynicks wisdom quod effecit nequid sibi eripi posset you may much more rejoyce in such an estate if God bring you to it by or for well-doing You live in dangerous times Wars and thieves may soon levell your estates Can there be greater wisdom then to send it all to heaven and lay it up with God and put it into the surest hands and put it to the only usury Aut ego fallor aut regnum est inter avaros circumscriptores latrones plagiarios unum esse cui noceri non possit Cannot a man live think you without wealth and honour Siquis de talium faelicitate dubitat potest idem dubitare de deorum immortalium statu an parum bearè degant quod illis non praedia nec horti sint c. Sen. As it is the honour of God the first mover omnia movere ipse non motus So it is the honour of the greatest Benefactors omnia dare nihil habentes He that hath it to Give hath it more transcendently then he that hath it but to Use. He that hath most hath most care and trouble and envy and danger and the greatest reckoning Neither Poverty nor Riches was the wise mans wish but Convenient food Optimus pecuniae modus est qui nec in paupertatem
p. 59 Reasons of the absolute necessity of being Crucified to the world and it to us 1. From Gods interest which it contradicteth Sect. 10. p. 60 2. From our own interest Sect. 11. p. 64 The Uses 1. To inform us 1. That it is the use of the Cross of Christ to Crucifie the world Proved p. 68. How his doctrine doth it p 72. And his works p. 73 2. Wherever the Cross of Christ is effectual the world is Crucified Sect. 13. p. 74 Use 2. What it is to be a Christian indeed and what a distance such are at from the world Sect. 14. p. 77 Tryal whether we are dead to the world Eight signs by which we may know whether the world or God be our End Sect. 15. p 80 81 Acâ—oser Application for Conviction of worldly hypocrites Sect. 16. p. 88 Further Application for Conviction of worldlings Sect. 17. p. 94 Convincing Evidences produced p. 98 Specially to the greater sort Ten Articles of Aggravation of the worldlings sin p. 105 Further prest for conviction p. 115 Use of Exhortation to Crucifie the world Sect. 18. p. 120. Specially to Gentlemen Yet closelyer urged p. 124 Twelve Questions to evince the folly of worldlings p. 128 c. The duty further charged home Sect. 19. p 138 The Living world will be your own tormentor p. 139 An instance in point of Reputation and Honour p. 141 c. Directions for successful Crucifying the world p. 148 Direct 1. Make use of the Cross of Christ hereto p. 149 Direct 2. Receive not a false picture of the world into your minds but think of the creature truly as it is p. 152 Direct 3. Crucifie the flesh which is the Master Idol p. 154 Direct 4. Keep your minds intent on the greater things of everlasting life p. 157 Direct 5. Understand the right use and end of the creatures and make it your business to employ them accordingly p. 158 Direct 6. Keep sensible of its enmity and your danger p. 161 Direct 7. Be much in the house of mourning and see the end of all the living Direct 8. Study to improve afflictions p. 162 Direct 9. Be very suspicious of prosperity and fear more the smiling then the frowning world p. 163 Direct 10. Be sure to keep off the means of its livelyhood and keep it under mortifying means p. 171 Conclusion of that Use p. 175 Use to the sanctified to use the world as a Crucified thing Sect. 21. p. 176 1. Seek it but as a means to higher things and not for it self p. 178 2. Be not too eager for it p. 180 3. Suffer it not to Crucifie you with cares and sorrows p. 181 4. Let it not thrust out Gods service nor be made an excuse for negligence in Religion p. 182 5. Use no unlawful means to get it p. 185 6. Imploy it for the flesh 〈◊〉 improve all for God uncharitableness reproved p. 187 A full answer to the common reproach that Professors of godliness are the most covetous of all p. 191 Use of Consolation The Benefits of being Crucified to the world p. 202. to 220 The second PART Of the Christians Glorying Doct. TRue Christians must with abhorrency renounce all carnal glorying and must glory only in the Cross of Christ by â—…om the world is Crucified to them and they to the world p. 220. Particularly 1. True Christians that are Crucified to the world and the world to them by the Cross of Christ may and must glory therein How far and how far not p. 221 Proved by Scripture and fourteen Reasons p. 222 Use 1. To confute the Antinomian mistake that tels men they must not glory nor fetch their comfort from any thing in themselves The case opened Ten more reasons to prove the point asserted p. 226 c. Use 2. To discover the errour of too many Christians that can glory in a state of Exaltation but not of Crucifixion or Mortification p. 231 Observ. 2. When Believers glory in their own Mortification it must be as it is the fruit of the Cross of Christ that so all their Glorying may be principally and ultimately in Christ and not in themselves p. 235. Twelve Reasons against Glorying in our selves Use to condemn self-exalting and provoke to Humility p. 241 Observ. 3. To Glory in any thing save the Cross of Christ and our Crucifixion thereby is a thing that the soul of a Christian should abhor What is not here excluded from our lawful Glorying p. 243 What is excluded Glory not 1. In dignities and honours p. 245 2. Nor in Riches p. 246. Nor in comeliness or strength 5. Nor in Apparel p. 247. 6. Nor in Health 7. Nor in Noble Birth p. 248. 8. Nor in friends 9. Nor in meat drink dwellings ease company recreation c. p. 249. 10. Nor in mens good word though they be Learned Godly c. p. 250. 11. Nor in Learning Parts c. 12. Take heed in what respect you glory in Spiritual Mercies 1. In Ministers Ordinances Church communion c. 2. In knowledge 3. In good works 4. In experiments of mercy or feelings of comfort 5. In holy Graces whose nature is against carnal glorying Errata PAg. 3. l. ult for they r. theirs p. 7. l. 28. for then r. there p. 14. l. 31. r. communion with him p. 28. l. 24. for not r. no l. 27. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 36. l. 3. for be r. do p. 4. l. 30. after expected add and this by an heavenly Light and Love p. 48. l. 18. r. heterogeneous p. 69. l. 15. for means r. names or terms p. 74. l. 19. blot out them p. 85. l. 4. for what r. which p. 143. l. 11. r. themselves p. 145. l. 3. r. stoliditatem p. 146. l. 17. blot out in p. 187. l. 13. r. seipsum p. 228. l. 27. for father r. faith p. 250. l. 25. blot out men These Books following of the same Authors are also Printed for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster TRue Christianity or Christs Absolute dominion and mans necessary self-resignation and Subjection in two Assize Sermons preached at Worcester in 12o. A Sermon of Judgement preached at Pauls before the Honourable Lord Major and Aldermen of the City of London Decemb. 17. 1654 and now enlarged in 12o. Making light of Christ and Salvation too oft the Issue of Gospel Invitations manifest in a Sermon preached at Lawrence Iury in London 8o. The Agreement of divers Ministers of Christ in the County of Worcester for Catechizing or personal Instructing all in their several Parishes that will Consent thereunto containing 1. The Articles of our agreement 2. An Exhortation to the people to submit to this necessary work 3. The Profession of Faith and Catechism in 8o. Gildas Salvianus the Reformed Pastor shewing the nature of the Pastoral work especially in private instruction and Catechizing 8o. Certain Disputations of Right to Sacraments and the True Nature of Visible Christianity 4o. Of Justification four Disputations clearing and
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
it executed its deceits We must give it the Gall and Vinegar of penitent tears and threatned judgements The vvorld thus despised and rejected Christ making him a man of sorrows and acquainted with our griefs they hid their faces and esteemed him not Isa. 53. 3. He had no form or comeliness in their eyes and when they saw-him there was no beauty that they should desire him Vers. 2. So must we despise and reject the world and hide our faces from it and not esteem it disdaining even to look upon its pomp and vanity and to observe its gawdy alluring dress or once to regard its enticing charms We must think it all into a loathsom vanity till there appear to us no form or comeliness in it nor any beauty for which we should desire it and wonder what they can see in it that so far dote upon it as to part with Christ and salvation to enjoy it The world did even triumph over a crucified Christ and shake their heads at him and say He saved others but himself he cannot save And we must triumph through Christ over the crucified world and say This is it that promised such great matters to its deceived followers that men esteemed before God and glory and now as it cannot save them from the dust or the wrath of God so neither can it save it self from this contempt that Christ doth cast upon it Cast down this Idol out of your hearts and say If he be a God let him help himself Lastly the world when they had crucified Christ did bury him and rowl a stone on his Sepulcbre and seal it up and watch it with souldiers to secure him from rising again if they could And we must even bury the crucified world and be buried to the world and lay upon it those weighty considerations and resolutions and seal thereto with Sacramentall obligations and follow all this with persevering watchfulness that may never permit it to revive and rise again And thus must we learn from the Cross of Christ how the world is to be crucified as it used Christ we must use it For it is the whole course of Christs humiliation that is meant here by his Cross the rest being denominated from the most eminent part and therefore from the whole must we fetch our pattern and instructions by the direction of the Allegory in my Text. SECT V. BUT it will not be unprofitable if we more particularly and orderly acquaint you with those Acts which the crucifying of the world to our selves doth comprehend over-passing those by which Christ did it for us on the Cross till anon in the due place 1. The first act is To esteem the world as an enemy to God and us and so as a Malefactor that deserveth to be crucified And this must not be only by a speculative-conception but by a true confirmed practical judgement which will set all the powers of the soul on work It is the want of this that makes the world to Live and Reign in the hearts of so many yea even of thousands that think they have mortified it A speculative Book-knowledge that will only make a man talk is taken instead of a practical knowledge Almost every man will say The world is a great enemy to God and us but did they soundly and heartily esteem it to be such they would use it as such Never tell me that that man takes the world for his deadly enemy who useth it as his dearest friend Enmity and deadly enmity will be seen Here is no room to plead the command of loving our enemies at least no man can think that he must love it with a Love of friendship and therefore with no love but what is consistent with the hatred of a deadly enemy This serious deep apprehension of Enmity is the very spring and poise of all our opposition We cannot heartily fight with our friend or seek his death There must be some anger and falling out before we will make the first assault and a settled enmity before we will make a deadly war of it This apprehension of enmity consisteth in an apprehension of the hurtfulness of the world to us and of the opposition it maketh against God and our salvation and of the danger that we are in continually by reason of this opposition So far as men conceive of the world as Good for them so far they take it for their friend and love it For no man can choose but love that which he seriously conceiveth to be Good for him This complacency is clean contrary to the Christian hostility But when we conceive of it as that which we stand in continual danger of being everlastingly undone by this will turn our hearts against it It undoes men that they have not these apprehensions of the world and that deeply fixed and habituated in their minds For it is the Apprehension or Iudgement of things that carryeth about the whole man and setteth awork all the other faculties Quest. But what should we do to be so habitually apprehensive that the world is our enemy Answ. 1. You must be sure that you lay up your treasure in heaven That you are so convinced by Faith of the Glory to come and of the true felicity that consisteth in the fruition of God as that you take it for your Portion and make it your very End And when once you have laid up your Hopes in heaven and see that there or no where you must be happy this will presently teach you to judge of all things else as they either help or hinder the attainment of that end For it is the Nature of the End to put a due estimate upon all things else And it is the property of the chief Good to denominate all other things either Good or Evil and that in a greater or lesser measure according as they respect that chiefest Good For there can be no Goodness in any thing else but the Goodness of a Means And the means is so far Good as it is apt and useful for the attainment of the End If once therefore you unfeignedly take God and Glory for your end and felicity you will presently fall upon enquiry and observation what it is that the world will do to help or hâ—nder that felicity 2. And then you need but one thing more to the discovery of the Enmity and that is the Constant experience of your souls A real living Christian doth live for God and is upon the motion to his eternal home There is his heart and that way his affections daily work When he findeth his soul down he windeth it up again and straineth the spring of faith and love And therefore his life and business being for heaven he cannot but be sensible of the rubs that are in his way and take notice of those things that would stop him in this course Whereupon he must needs find by constant experience that the world is that great Impediment and so must
be apprehensive of the enmity of the world For as he that Loveth God and waiteth for the sight of his face in Glory must needs take all that to be against him and naught for him that would keep him from God and deprive him of that beatificall vision so he that knoweth what it is to love God must needs know by constant sad experience that the world is the great with-drawer or hinderer of that love When he sets himself in any holy imployment to mount his soul into a more heavenly frame and to get a little nearer God he feeleth himself too much entangled with inferiour objects these are the weight that presseth down and the water that quencheth the sacred â—lames and were it not for these O how much higher might our souls attain and how much freer might we be for God For it is a thing most certain to us by our constant experience that the more of the world is upon our hearts the less is there of God and the more of God the less of the world So that these two means alone The sincere Intending of God and Glory as our End and daily observation of our own hearts will easily convince us that the world is our great enemy And when we throughly apprehend it to be our enemy we have begun to crucifie it 2. The next act by which the world is crucified is A deep habituated apprehension of its worthlesness and insufficiency As the opposing world must be taken for an enemy so the Promising alluring world must be taken as it is for an empty thing The Life and Reign of the world in the unsanctified lieth first in their too high estimation of it They think of it as Good and Good to them and as a matter of some considerable worth and though they will say with their tongues that heaven is better yet all things considered they take the world to be more suitable to them and therefore they desire it more For Heaven is out of sight and beyond their apprehension and affection and as they imagine it is not so certain as the things which they see and feel and possess And therefore they resolve to grasp as much of the creature as they can and take that which they can get in hand and then if there be an heaven they hope they may have their part in it as well as others But saving Illumination doth put men into another mind It makes them see that the Invisible things are of greater Certainty then the visible and that a promise without possession is better security then possession without a promise and that for the Worth and Goodness between Eternal things and Temporal there can be no comparison If the world would have been content to have kept its place and to have borrowed all its honour and esteem from God and Glory as the end for which it must be used and regarded it might then have had the honour of being serviceable to our salvation and to our Masters work But seeing it will needs be a competitor with heaven it thereby disâ—obeth it self of its glory and becometh a vile contemptible thing And so must it be esteemed by all the friends of God A sound Believer looks on the world as the world lookt on Christ when he hanged on the Cross not only as a Malefactor but as a contemptible thing And as the world esteemeth the Saints themselves to be hypocrites deceivers fools weak despised a spectacle to the world yea as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things So must the Believer esteem of the world as seeming to be what it is not as a weak and insufficient thing as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4. 11 12 13. the very filth of the streets that is swept away or cast upon the dung-hill or as a thing devoted to death for the averting of an imminent judgement Pauls judgement is in a prevalent degree the judgement of every gracious soul Phil. 3. 7 8. What things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. Were the world but thus conceived of by a practical judgement it were half crucified already If men did verily think that the world is their Loss they would love it less and less greedily seek after it then now most do Gehezi would not have run after Naaman for his money if he had thought that it had been his loss Achan would not have hid the forbidden gold as a treasure if he had thought it had been his loss Who would be at so much care and pains for their loss as worldlings and sensualists are for their delights And if the judgement did once esteem the world as dung they would not be so greedy for it nor put it into their bosoms Who would fall in love with dung or dote upon filth or dogs-meat As the judgement doth esteem it the affections will be towards it And they that know not of a better condition will value this as the best though common reason will call it vanity But they that by faith have found out the true felicity have low and contemptuous thoughts of the world O what a carkaise what a shadow is it in their eyes What a poor low thing is it which the sons of men do tire themselves in seeking after What a dung-hill do they wallow in as if it were a bed of Roses What deformities do they dote upon as if they were the most real beauties A toad abhorreth not the company of a toad but shall not a man abhor it But we shall have occasion of saying more to this in the Application 3. The third act by which we Crucifie the world is a kind of Annihilation of it to our selves in our conceptions taking it as a very Nothing so far as it would be something separated from God or co-ordinate with him How oft doth the Scripture call it vanity a dream a vain shew a shadow yea nothing yea and less then nothing before God and lighter then vanity it self Isa. 40. 17. Psal. 62. 9. Iob 6. 21. The Princes of the earth who are something in the eyes of themselves and others appear as Nothing when God lets out his wrath upon them Isa. 34. 12. Even as the straw when the fire hath consumed it or the fairest buildings when it hath turned them to ashes For though the world be really something yet 1. In regard of the effects which it promiseth to seduced worldlings it may be called Nothing For that which can do Nothing for us in our extremity which hath no Power to relieve or satisfie us which leaveth the soul empty and deceiveth them that trust it may well be called Nothing in effect In genere boni that which can do us no
as Lovely that is as Good For it is impossible that there should be an act without its proper object Nothing but appearing Good is Loved If a lost condemned sinner have no hope given him of Gods Reconciliation or his willingness to receive him to mercy it is ex parte objecti an impossible thing that the mind of that sinner should be reconciled to God And therefore the Gospel publisheth Gods Reconcilation to sinners viz. his universal Conditional Reconciliation before it beseech them to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. And before they believe we cannot give any one man the least assurance that God is any more reconciled to him then to others that are unconverted or that he is any willinger to Receive him then others This therefore is the great observable means whereby Christ by his Gospel recovereth the Heart of a sinner unto God even by turning the frowning countenance of God by which he deterred the guilty into a more Lovely face as being Reconcilable and Conditionally Reconciled to the world through Christ and so become to all the sinful sons of Adam a fit object to attract their Love and draw off their hearts from the deceiving world to which they were revolted and as being actually reconciled to all true Believers and thereby become a yet more powerful attractive of their Love 7. It doth also more fully reveal the face of God the object of our Love and the transcendent Glory that in him we shall enjoy 8. And it disgraceth the creatures which have diverted our Affections that we may be taken off our false estimation of them 9. It earnestly perswadeth and solliciteth us to obey and calls on us to turn from the world to God 10. It backeth these perswasions with terrible threatnings if we do not forsake the creature and return 11. It prescribeth to us the standing Ordinances and Means by which this work may be further carryed on 12. And lastly it directeth us to the right use of the creatures instead of that carnal enjoying of them that would undo us By all these means which time doth permit me but briefly to mention the Gospel of Christ doth tend to Crucifie the world to us and to recover our hearts to the Chiefest Good And besides all this which the Cross and the Doctrine of Christ do to this End that you may yet fullyer perceive how much it is the End of Christs very office and the execution thereof let me add these two things 1. That it is the End of Christs providential dispensations 2. And the work which he sendeth the Holy Ghost to perform upon the souls of his Elect. 1. As the Mercies of God are purposely given us to lead up our hearts to him that gave them So when we carnally abuse them and adhere unto the creature it is the special use of Affliction to take us off If the rod have a voice it speaks this as plain as any thing whatsoever and if it reprehend us for any sin it is for our overvaluing and adhering to the creature The wounds that Christ giveth us are not to kill us but to separate us from the world that hath separated us from God 2. And that this is the very office or undertaken work of the Holy Ghost is past all controversie His work is to sanctifie us and that is by taking us off the creature to bring us to be heartily Devoted unto God Sanctification is nothing else but our separation from the creature to God in Resolution Affection Profession and Action So that in what measure soever a man hath the Spirit in that measure is he sanctified and in what measure he is sanctified in that same measure is he crucified to the world For that is the one half of his Sanctification or it is his Sanctification denominated from the terminus à quo as many Texts of Scripture do manifest By this time I hope it is plain to you that Mortification is of the very being of Christianity and not any separable adjunct of it and that if you profess not to be Dead to the world you do not so much as profess your selves Christians SECT XIII 1. AND as you see that the Christian Doctrine teacheth this So 2. It is thence clear without any more ado that wherever the Cross and Doctrine of Christ are effectuall the world is Crucified to that man and he to the world There are some great Duties which a man may possibly be saved though he omit them in some cases but this is none such It is a wonder to see the security of worldlings how easily they bear up a confidence of their sincerity under this sin which is as inconsistent with sincerity as Infidelity it self is ◠If they see a man live in common Drunkenness or Adultry or Swearing they take him for a prophane and miserable wretch and good reason for it When in the mean time they pass no such sentence on themselves who may deserve it as much as the worst of these It is one notable cheat among the Papists that occasions the ruine of many a soul that they make a Religious mortified life to be a work of supererrogation and those that profess it and some of their own inventions with it which turn it into sin they Cloyster up from the rest of the world and these they call Religious people and some few even of these that are either more devout or superstitious then the rest they call Saints So rare a thing is the appearance of Religiousness and Sanctity among them that it must be inclosed in Societies not only separated from the world as the Church is but separated as it were out of the Church it self And yet the common people are kept in hope of salvation in their way By which means they are commonly brought to imagine that it is not absolutely necessary to salvation to be a Religious man or a Saint or one that doth really renounce and crucifie the world but that these things belong to certain Orders of Monks and Fryers and that it is enough for other men to honour these devout and mortified Saints and to crave their Prayers and do some lower and easier things And indeed their vows of Chastity and separation and unprofitableness and other Inventions of their own they may well conceive unnecessary to others being noxious to themselves But they will one day finde that none but Religious men and Saints shall be saved and that every true Member of Christ is dead to the world and not only Monks or Votaries or such like And a Conceit too like to this of the Papists is in the minds of many of our Auditors They think indeed that those are the best men that are resolved contemners of all the Riches and Honours and Pleasures of the world but they think of them as the Papists do of their votaries as People of a higher pitch of Sanctity then the rest but think not that it is essential to
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
be for Earth or Heaven 〈◊〉 this and you may resolve the case A worldling may speak contemptuously of the world and speak most honourably of God and the Life to come But speculative knowledge and practical are frequently contradictory in the same man Still it is this world that hath his chief Intentions and is the End of his designs and life and the world to come is regarded but as a reserve because of their unavoidable separation from this world The main End of every upright Christian is to please and enjoy God and the main End of all the rest of the world is how to Please their carnal minds in the enjoyment of some earthly things If you could but discern which of these is your chiefest End you might discern whether it be Christ or the world that Liveth in you For Christ liveth in you when he is your End and the world Liveth in you when it is your End But because some are such strangers to themselves that they do not know their own Ends the rest of the signs shall be for the discovery of the former that you may discern whether the world or God be your ultimate End 1. That which is your Principal End is highlyest esteemed by your Practicall judgement Not only by the speculative but by that which moveth and disposeth of the man Is God or the world Heaven or earth thus highlyest esteemed by you Let your Practise shew it 2. It is your Principal End that hath the Principal Interest in you That can do most with you and prevail most in a contest Can God or the world do more with you Which of them doth prevail when an opposition doth arise I speak not of God in his efficiency for so I know he can do what his list and will do it whether you will or no and will not ask your consent to do it But its God as your End that I now speak of as he worketh Morally by your own consent and upon your wills Honours and Profits and Pleasures are before you and these would draw you to something that he forbids And God and Glory are propounded to you to take you off turn your hearts another way which of these can do more with you which is it that can nullifie the perswasions of the other 3. It is your Principal End that hath the principal ruling and disposal of your whole life â—…do purposely conâ—rive the maâ—… part of your life in order to it If you are indeed Christians and God be your End the main drift of your Life is a contrived Means for the obtaining of that End that is to Please God and to enjoy him in everlasting glory If you were such as you should be you should have no other End at all nor should you ever do one work or receive or use one creature or speak one word or behold one object but as a means to God intendâ—ng the pleasing and enjoying him in all As a traveller should not go one step of his journey but in order to his End But while we are Imperfect in our Love and other graces this will not be But yet the main bent and drift of our Lives must needs be for God and the Life to come and thus it is with every true Believer and you are none if it be not thus with you I say it again left you should slightly pass it over though you may through infirmity sometimes step out of the way yet if God be your End and Happiness that is if he be your God and you be Christians the main scope and bent and drift of your lives is for to please God and enjoy him in glory But if the main scope and drift of your life be for the flesh and the world and God and Religion comes in but upon the by you are then no better then unsanctified worldlings Though you may do much in Religion and be zealous about it and seem the devoutest and most resolved professors in all the Countrey where you live yet if all this be but in subordination to the flesh and the world or if co-ordinate it have the smaller Interest in your hearts and when you have done or suffered most for Christ you will do and suffer more for the flesh and world you are carnal wretches and no true Christians O that you would let conscience do its office and Judge you as we go along according to Evidence It is not by one or two Actions that you can judge of your estate but by the main scope and bent and drift of your life What is your very heart set upon What is your care and your chief contrivances Are they for Heaven or Earth Speak out and take the comfort of your sincerity if you are Christians and if you are not know it while there is remedy and do not wilfully deceive your selves Have you been so far illuminated by the Word and Spirit as to see the Amiableness of the Lord by faith and have you so firm a Belief of the Everlasting Glory where we shall see his face immediately or more nearly and praise him among his Angels for ever I say have you so firm a 〈◊〉 of this that you are unfeignedly resolved upon it as your Happiness that you take it for your Portion and there have laid up your Hopes Can you truly say that God hath more of your Heart then all the world and Heaven is dearer to your thoughts then earth Can you say that whatever you are tempted to on the by that the main care design and bent of your life is for God and the Glory to come and that this is your daily Work and Business If so you are Christians indeed you have Crucified the world by the Cross of Christ The world is dead and down where God raigneth and is exalted and no where else But if all this be clean contrary with you and if the flesh and the world have the prevalent Interest and these cut out your work and form your thoughts and choose your imployments if these choose the calling that you live upon and the manner of managing it and your very Religion or set limits to it if it be these that rule your tongue and hands and they can make a cause seem good or bad to youâ— and that seemeth best which most conduceth to your fleshly worldly interests and that seemeth worst which destroyeth it or is against it if God be loved and worshipped but as a Necessary Mâ—ans to your carnal Happiness or if he have but the second place in your hearts and the leavings of the flesh and world be they never so much and if your Religion and Endeavours for salvation for pleasing God and for the invisible Glory be but on the by and the flesh and the world hath the main scope and bent and drift of your life flatter not your selves then most certainly you are but carnal wretches and drudges of the world and slaves to him that
according to his Laws Know therefore whom the Law condemneth or justifieth and you may know whom Christ will condemn or justifie And seeing all this is so doth it not concern us all to make a speedy tryal of our selves in preparation to this final tryal I shall for your own sakes therefore take the boldness as the Officer of Christ to summon you to appear before your selves and keep an Assize this day in your own souls and answer at the Barr of Conscience to what shall be charged upon you Fear not the tryal for it is not conclusive final nor a peremptory irreversible sentence that must now pass Yet slight it not for it is a necessary preparative to that which is final and irreversible Consequentially it may prove a justifying Accusation an Absolving Condemnation and if you proceed to Execution a saving quickning death which I am now perswading you to undergo The whole world is divided into two sorts of men One that Love God above all and live to him and the other that Love the flesh and world above all and live to them One that lay up a treasure in earth and have their heart there The other that lay up a treasure in heaven and have their heart there One that seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness another that seek first the things of this life One that mind and savour the things of the flesh and of man the other that mind and savour most the things of the Spirit and of God One that account all things dung and dross that they may win Christ another that make light of Christ in comparison of their business and riches and pleasures in the world One that live by sight and sense upon present things Another that live by faith upon things invisible One that have their conversation in Heaven and live as strangers upon earth Another that mind earthly things and are strangers to heaven One that have in resolution forsaken aâ— for Christ and the hopes of a treasure in heaven Another that resolve to keep somewhat here though they venture and forsake the heavenly reward and will go away sorrowful that they cannot have both One that being born of the flesh is but flesh The other that being born of the Spirit is Spirit One that live as without God in the world The other that live as without the seducing world in God and in and by the subservient world to God One that have Ordinances and Means of Grace as if they had none The other that have houses lands wives as if they had none One that believe as if they believed not and love God as if they loved him not and pray as if they prayed not as if the fruit of these were but a shadow The other that weep as if they wept not for worldly things and rejoyce as if they rejoyced not One that have Christ as not possessing him and use him and his name as but abusing them The other that buy as if they possessed not and use the world as not abusing it One that draw near to God with their lips when their hearts are far from him The other that Corporally converse with the world when their hearts are far from it One that serve God who is a Spirit with Carnall service and not in Spirit and Truth The other that use the world it self spiritually and not in a carnall worldly manner In a word One sort are children of this world and the other are the children of the world to come and heirs of the heavenly Kingdom One sort have their Portion in this life And the other have God for their Portion One sort have their Good things in this life time and their Reward here The other have their Evil things in this life and live in Hope of the Everlasting Reward I suppose you know that all this is from the word of God and therefore I need not cite the Texts which do contain it But lest any doubt I will lay them all together that you may peruse them at leisure Matth. 22. 37. 10. 37. 6. 19 20 21. 6. 33. Iohn 6. 27. Isa. 55. 1 2 3. Rom. 8. 5 6 7 13. Phil. 3. 9 10 11. Mat. 22. 5. 2 Cor. 4. 18. Heb. 11. 1. throughout Phil. 3. 19 20 21. Psalm 119 19. Heb. 11. 13. Luke 14. 33. 18. 22. Iohn 3. 6. Ephis 2. 12. 1 Cor. 10. 31. Psalm 16. 8. Ezek. 33. 31 32. 1 Cor. 7. 29 30 31. Iohn 2. 23 24. Psalm 78. 35 36 37. Iohn 15. 2. 1. 9 10 11. Mat. 15. 8. Psalm 73. 23 24 25. 1 Thes. 5. 17 18. Phil. 3. 21 Matth. 15. 9. Iohn 4. 22 23. 1 Gor. 10. 31. Luke 10. 8. 20. 34. Rom. 8. 16 17. Psalm 17. 14. 16. 5. 73. 26. Luke 16 25. Mat. 6. 5. 5. 12. Luke 18. 22. In these Texts is plainly contained all that I have here said to you Well then Beloved Hearers seeing you that sit here present are all of one of these two sorts let conscience speak which is it that you are of These are the two sorts that shall stand on the right and left hand of Christ in Judgement They that gave Christ his own with advantage and lived to him and studiously devoted their Riches and other Talents to his use as men that unfeignedly made God their End these are they that are set on the right hand and adjudged as Blessed to the Kingdom which they so esteemed And those that hid their talents by keeping or expending them to their private use denying them to Christ and living to themselves these are they that are set on the left hand and adjudged to the everlasting fire with the Devils whom they served It is a desperate mistake of self-deceiving men to think that a state of Holiness consisteth only in external worship or that a state of wickedness consisteth only in some gross sins I tell you from the word of God the difference is greater and lyeth deeper then so If you would know whether you are Christians indeed and shall be saved the first and great question is What is your End What take you for your portion And what is it that hath the prevalent stream of your desires and endeavours As it is not every step that we set out of the way to heaven that will prove us ungodly so is it not any Religiousness whatsoever that standeth in a subserviency to the world that will prove you godly Would you know then what you are And whether you are in the way to Heaven or Hell And what God will judge of you if you so continue Why then deal faithfully with your selves and answer this question without deceit What is it that hath your Hearts your very Hearts What is it that is the matter of your dearest Love And what the matter of your chiefest care What is it that is the very bent and scope of your life Is it for this world or
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
of God doth look you in the face will your honours ease you Will your friends deliver you and give you a solid lasting Peace You know they will not You cannot with all the wealth in the world procure the pardon of the smallest sin You may get the Popes pardon for money but not Gods You must go to Judgement and if you be worldlings must be damned for ever for all your wealth Were you Lords of all the world it would not save your souls from Hell no nor procure you a drop of water for to cool your tongues What is it then that you expect by this world Sure you would never so much love it and make such a stir for it if you looked for nothing from it Why it is that your flesh may have some satisfaction in the mean time And is that all Yea that is even all I shall then proceed to the next Question Quest. 5. HOW long can you say that you shall keep the Riches and Honours which you possess Can you say that they shall be yours this time twelve-moneth or to morrow I know you cannot You know not when you arise in the morning whether ever you shall lie down again alive Nor when you lie down at night whether you shall rise alive And is a state of such uncertain tenure so valuable You glory in your Honours and pleasures and possessions and for ought you know within this week or hour they may be none of yours However you are certain to be deprived of them ere long It s a dull understanding indeed that cannot foresee the day when he must be stript of all and take his final farewell of the world You know as sure as you shall live that you must die and your corpse be laid in the common dust And whose then shall all your pleasure be When God calls you away there 's no resisting Or if he call for any of your earthly comforts there 's no withholding Then keep them if you can The bones and dust of your fore-fathers will not say This house and land is mine Nor do they retain any impress of their former earthly pleasures and felicity Alexander could not know his Father Philip's bones by the sight of them nor find any print of the Crown upon his skull If you open the Grave and Coffin of your Grandfathers you shall find there no great signs of Riches or of Honour or any delights And should you not look on that which will be even as if it were already I cannot but take that which certainly will be in a manner as if it were in being and that which certainly will not be as if it were not For interposing time is such a Nothing as makes the difference next to None What if you might be the Emperour of the world to day and must be as you are again to morrow were it desirable or worthy to be regarded It disgraceth the greatest felicity on earth to say that It will have an end The time is near when it will not be As it extenuateth the labours and sufferings of a Believer into a kind of Nothing to say that they will shortly be at an end That which will be Nothing is next to Noâ—hing Quest. 6. MY next Question to you is this How do you think you shall value the world when it is parting from you or at the furthest when you are newly parted from it If a man come to you on your death-bed when you see that there is no hope of life and ask your opinion then of the world will you magnifie it as now you do When your spirits are languishing and your heart fainting and your body even possest with pain if then one should ask you Is the wealth and honours of the world such excellent things as once you deemed them Do you now think it folly to renounce and forsake them all for Christ What would you then say I beseech you tell me What think you that you shall then say Do you think you shall then extoll the world and count them fools that will be perswaded to forsake it Or rather will you not wish your selves O that I had forsaken it before it did forsake me Will you not cry out Oh vain world Deceitfull world And wish you had more regarded the durable Riches I think you will Quest. 7. WHat is it that dying men do commonly think and say of the world If you can observe what all others say of it you may partly conjecture what mind you shall be of your selves You have sometimes sure been about dying men If you have not you were best draw near them hereafter for the house of mourning is better then the house of mirth Do you not hear them all cry out of the world as a worthless thing Do you not see how little good it can then do them And will no warning serve you Surely the judgement of one of these men much more of so many is more to be valued then of many that are in health and prosperity that overvalue the world You are but in the chase and know not what it is which you do pursue but they have overtaken it and find it but a feather You are but in the trying of it but they have tryed it already and have found how little or nothing it can do You are intangled in the midst of its deceits but they begin to see it bare-fac't Your senses are more violent in withdrawing you and perverting your judgements but so are not theirs who are languishing unto death If you come to one of them that know they must die within a few daies and tell them that such a Lordship is fallen to them or such Honour is bestowed on them or such a friend hath given them great possessions how will they regard it will they not say Alas what is this to me that am presently to leave the world and appear before the eternal Iudge If you then come to them and offer them such baits as were wont to catch the glutton or drunkard or fornicator do you think they will regard them Would they not rather cry shame against him that would then entice them to any such thing Why then should you so value that now which all the world will vilifie at the last Quest. 8. YOU that now say you are not such fools as to be talkt out of your Estates or Honours or delights and that wilfully stick to them against all that we can say I pray you tell me Whether you will stand to this at the Barr of God Will you then own these Resolutions and sayings or will you not Dare you look the Lord Jesus in the face and tell him I did well to set more by the world then by thee and the glory which thou didst promise I did well to take my pleasure for a time and to venture my salvation You dare not stand to this at Judgement I know you dare not And will you now
as you were to it he would never have deceived you He would havâ— received your departed souls and made you like Angels and raised your bodies to glory at the last and perpetuated that Glory Will your Riches or Pleasures or Honours do this He would have rescued you from the devouring flames which your inordinate love of the world will bring you to O miserable change to change God for the world it is to change a Crown of Glory for a Crown of thorns the love of our only friend for the smiles of deceitful enemies Life for death and Heaven for Hell O what thoughts will arise in your hearts when you are past the deceit and under the sad effects of it and shall review your folly in another world It will fill your consciences with everlasting horrour and make you your own accusers and tormentors to think what you lost and what you had for it To think that you sold God and your souls and everlasting hopes for a thing of nought More foolishly then Esau sold his birth-right for a mess of pottagâ— If the Sun and Moon and Stars were yours would you exchange them for a lump of clay Well sinners if God and Glory seem no more worth to you then to be slighted for a little fleshly pleasures you cannot marvail if you have no part in them SECT XIX IF Reason and Scripture-Evidence would serve turn I dare say you would by this time be convinced of the necessity of being Crucified to the world and the world to you But sensuality is unreasonable and no saying will serve with it like a child that will not let go his apple for a piece of gold But yet I shall not cease my Exhortation till I have tryed you a little further and if you will not yield to forsake the world you shall keep it to your greater cost as you keep it against the clearer light that would convince you of your duty 1. As you love God or would be thought to love him love not the world For so far as you Love it you Love not him 1 Ioh. 2. 15. As ever you would be found the friends of God see that you be enemies and not friends to the world For the friendship of the world is enmity to him Iam. 4. 4. You are used to boast that you Love God above all If you do so you will not Love the world above him And then you will not labour and care more for it then for him Your love will be seen in the bent of your lives That which you Love best you will â—eek most and be most careful and diligent to obtain As they that love money are most careful to get it so they that Love heaven will be more careful to make sure of that As they that love their drink and lust will be much in the Ale-house and among those that are the baits and fewel of their lust So they that Love the fruition of God will be much in seeking him and enquiring after him and much among those that are acquainted with such Love and can further them any way in the accomplishment of their desires If you Love God then let it be seen in the Holy Endeavours of your lives and set your affections on things above and not on the things that are on earth For that which you most look after we must think that you most Love Can you for shame commit Adultery with the world and live with it in your bosoms and yet say that you love God 2. As you Love your present peace and comfort see that you love not but Câ—ucifie the world It doth but delude you first and disquiet you afterward Like wind in your bowels which can tear and torment you but cannot nourish you And if God do love you with a special Love he will be sure to wean you from the world though to your sorrow If you do provoke him to lay wormwood on the breasts and to hedge up your forbidden way with thorns when you find the smart and bitterness you may thank your selves It is the remnant of our folly and our backsliding nature that is still looking back to the world which we have forsaken that is the cause of those successive afflictions which we undergo Did you Love the creature less it would vex you less but if you will needs set your minds upon them and be pleasing your worldly sensual desires God will turn loose those very creatures upon you and make them his scourges for the recovery of your wits the reducing of your mis-led revolting souls Are you taken up with the hopes of a more plentifull estate and think you are got into a thriving way How soon can God blast and break your expectations By the death of your cattle the decay of trading the false-dealing of those you trust the breaking and impoverishing of them by contentious neighbours vexing you with Law suits by corrupted witnesses or Lawyers that will sell you for a little gain by ill servants by unthrifty children by thieves or souldiers or the raging flames by restraining the dew of heaven and causing your land to deny its increase and make you complain that you have laboured in vain How many waies hath he in a day or an hour to scatter all the heap of wealth that you have been gathering and to shew you that by sad experience which you might have known before at easier rates At the least if he meddle not with any thing that you have yet how quickly can he lay his hand upon your selves and lay you in sickness to groan under your pain and sin together and then what comfort will you have in the world when head ake's and back ake's and nothing can ease you When pain and languishing make you weary of day and of night and weary of every place and weary of your best diet your finest cloathes your merriest companions Where then is the sweetness and beauty of the world Then if you look on house or goods or lands how little pleasure find you in any of them Especially when you know that your departure is at hand and you must stay here no longer but presently must away Oh then what a carkaise will all the glory of the world appear and how sensibly then will you read or hear or think of these things that now in your prosperity are very little moved by the hearing of them Is it your children that you set your hearts upon in inordinate Love or Care Why alas how quickly can God call them from you by death and then you will follow them to the Church-yard and lay them in the grave with so much the sadder heart by how much the more inordinately you loved them And perhaps God may leave them to be Graceless and unnatural and make that child by rebellion or unkindness to be the breaking of your heart whom you most excessively affected If it be a wife that you over-love you know not but they
men can be guilty of such sins as these Answ. Through the remnant of their corruptions and the power of temptations even learned godly men may be made the powerful Instruments of Satan to shatter and destroy your reputation for ever on earth and make even Countries and Kingdoms to believe that of you from Generation to Generation which never entred into your soul and by their means if you were persons of so much note you might be recorded in history to posterity as guilty of the crimes of which you were most innocent yea much more innocent then the reporters themselves So that it will be the work of Christ at the day of Judgement to clear the names of many an innocent one that hath gone under the repute of an Heretick a proud malicious man an Adulterer a Deceiver and a meer unconscionable and ungodly person even from age to age and that among the godly themselves by receiving the slander at first from some one that had the advantage to procure a belief of it It s like it was a seeming godly man that had been Davids own familiar friend in whom he trusted and which did eat of his bread Yet was he used in this kind by such Psal. 41. 6 7 9. And Psal. 55. 12 13 14. he saith It was not an enemy that reproached me then I could have born it neither was it he that hated me that did magnifie himself against me then I would have hid my self from him but it was thou a man mine equal my guide and mine acquaintance we took sweet counsel together and walked to the House of God in company Obj. But perhaps you may think I le walk so carefully and innocently that no man shall have any matter of such reproach Answ. 1. There is none of the imperfect Saints on earth that can be free from giving all occasions of reproach 2. And were you perfectly innocent it would not free you Nay your innocency it self may be the occasion of those reports that proclaim you wicked For it is not that which really is a fault but that which they think so that is the matter of such mens accusations The Apostles of Christ that walked in such eminent holiness and self denyal and consumed themselves for the good of others could not escape the tongues of slanderers but were accounted as the very scum and off-scouring of all things and as a by-word and even a gazing stock to Angels and men And the blessed Son of God who was holy harmless undefiled and separated from sinners was yet reputed one of the greatest of sinners and Crucified as such And he that could challenge them which of you convinceth me of sin was commonly defamed of what he was innocent of If Iohn came fasting they say he hath a Devil If Christ eat and drink temperately with sinners that he might take opportunity to feed their souls they say Behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber a friend of publicans and sinners Mat. 11. 18 19. They that saw him eat and drink with sinners had so fair a pretence to raise their reproach that they might the easilyer procure belief though it was perfect innocency it self which they reproached The best men on earth have ever had experience that there is no caution that can defend from a slanderous tongue As Erasmus once calumniated saith Fatalis est morbus calumniandi omnia Et clausis oculis carpunt quod nec vident nec intell gunt Tanta est morbi vis Atque interim sibi videntur Ecclesiae columnae quâ—m nihil aliud quam traducant suam soliditatem pari malitia conjunctam c. How oft was good Melancthon fain to complain that there is no defence against a quarrelsom slanderous tongue and the too much sense of it did almost break his heart Obj. But at least I can say as the Philosopher If they will reproach me and speak evil of me I will so live that no body shall believe them Answ. Wherever there be men to make the report there will lightly be enough to believe it And if they that know you will not believe it yet that 's but a few to the most of them abroad that hear of you and know you not You may see then by this time if Reputation with men be the thing you over-value what a vain uncertain thing it is and how easily God can make your sorrow arise even from thence where you expected your vain applause And you will find by experience if you do not prevent it that while you over-value this or any earthly thing you are in the road to these afflictions It is Gods ordinary dealing with his children and frequently with others to punish them by their Idols and to make them sickest of that which they have most greedily surfeited of Could you but Crucifie the world and use it for God it would have no power thus to vex and crucifie your minds It is you that sharpen it and arm it against your selves and give it all the strength it hath by your over-valuing over-loving it It s like a Spaniell that will love those best that beat him but if you cocker it it will fly in your faces Obj. But I may fall under all these afflictions whether I love the world or not Answ. 1. But your perverse affections do provoke God to multiply such afflictions Had you not rather bear a smaller measure and taste of a cup that hath less of the gaâ—â— 2. And if you were but Crucified to the world the same Afflictions would be as nothing to your mind which now seem so grievous to you and cast you into such vexations and discontents If it did as much to your flesh it could not reach the heart and if all be sound and well within it s no great matter how it is without The very same kind of affliction whether it be poverty sickness slanders or other wrongs are as nothing to a man that is dead to the world which seem intolerable to unmortified men For the heart and soul of the unmortified are the seat and subject of them when the mortified Christian hath a Garrison within and blots the door and keeps them from his heart What great trouble will it be to any man to part with that which he doth not care for especially while he keepeth that which hath his heart It s no great trouble to a worldling to want the love of God or communion with him nor to be without the life of grace nor to lie under the burden of the greatest sins and to be the slave of the Devil because he is dead in sin and dead to God and the things of the Spirit and therefore he perceiveth not the excellency of them but is well content to live without them And if spiritual death can make men so contented without the great unvaluable treasure and can make men set light by God and Glory What wonder if they that are dead to the
is trying what it will do for him as long as he hath any hope As the poor Infants in Ireland lay sucking at the breasts of the corpse of their mothers when the Irish Papists had slain them so will these poor worldlings still hang upon the world even when they find that it cannot help them and when it will scarce afford them a miserable life but with much labour and suffering they hardly get a little food and cloathing So that their affections are still alive to the world even when to their sorrow they look on the world as dead or almost dead to them But the Cross of Christ will teach you to Crucifie the world in another manner As Christ did voluntari'y contemn it and shew that he set so little by it that he could be content to be the most despicable Object upon earth in the eyes of men so will he teach you also voluntarily to contemn it and set up your selves as the Butt which all the arrows of malice and despight shall be shot at So that though you have naturally a desire of the preservation of your lives and from that may say Father if it be thy will let this cup pass from me Yet shall you have a far greater desire of Pleasing Enjoying and Glorifying God which shall cause you from a comparative Judgement to say Yet not as I will but as thou wilt Much more shall you be enabled to despise the unnecessary matters of the world and to mortifie your inordinate and distempered affections The Cross of Christ will shew you Reason though such as the worldly wise call foolishness even such Reason as none but a Teacher come from God could have revealed for the leading up your affections from the world and it will point you to the higher things that do deserve them This Cross is the truest Ladder by which you may ascend from earth to heaven When in this wilderness and as without the gate you are lifted up with Christ on the Cross of worldly desertion and reproach you are then in the highest road to Glory and if you faint not shall be lifted up with him into the throne For if you suffer with him ye shall also reign with him Rom. 8. 17. And to him that overcometh he will grant to sit with him in his throne even as he also overcame and is set down with his Father in his throne Rev. 3. 21. And as the Cross of Christ is Teaching so also is it Strengthning As the touch of his garment stayed the poor womans issue of blood so will a touch of the Cross by faith even dry up the stream of your inordinate affections that have run out after the world so long When a worldling mourneth over the Dead world as having lost his chiefest friend the Cross of Christ will cause you to rejoyce over it as a conquered enemy and to insult over the carkaise of its vain glory and delights For its one thing to have an angry God by providence to kill the world to them and another thing to have a gracious Father by his Spirit to Crucifie us to the world and the world to us by the changing of our â—â—â—imation and affections Set therefore a Crucified Christ continually before the eye of your souls See what he suffered for your adhering to the creature and what it cost him to loose you from it and bring up your souls again to God Can you still dote upon the world intangle your affections in its painted allurements when you consider that this is the very sin that killed your Saviour and which the blood of his heart was shed to cure Look up to that Cross and see the fruits of worldly love If you see a man that hath surfeited on unwholsom fruits lie groaning and gasping and trembling in pain and at last must die for it you will take heed of such a surfeit your selves It was we that took a surfeit of the creature and the Lord that saw there was no other remedy to save our lives did by a Miracle of mercy and wisdom derive upon himself the pain and trouble and groaned and sweat and bled and dyed for our Recovery And will you feed and surfeit again upon the creature Look up to that Cross of Christ and see the enmity of the world unto your Head And will you take it for your friend See how it used him and will you expect that it should deal contrarily with you Did it hang him up among Malefactors and will it set you on a throne or dandle you in its lap Did it pierce his side and will it heal your wounds Did it reach him Gall and Vinegar and will it reach you milk and honey If it do yet trust it not For the milk is but to prepare you for that sleep in which it may destroy you without resistance for you must next expect the hammer and the nail as Iael used Sisera Iudg. 4. 19 21. There is not so clear a glass in all the world in which you may see the world in its just complexion and proportion as the Cross of Christ. There you may see what its worth and how to be esteemed by the estimate of one that never was deceived by it but had a perfect knowledge of its use and value When you have so long beheld that Cross by faith as that you can be contented to be hanged between heaven and earth and become the most forlorn and despicable creature in the eyes of men and to be stript of all the comforts of life and life it self for the sake of Christ and for the Invisible Kingdom which by his Cross was purchased for you then are you throughly Crucified to the world and the world to you by the Cross of Christ. Direct 2. BE sure that you receive nâ—t a false picture of the world into your minds or if you have received such an one see that you blot it out and think of the creature truly as it is The most are deceived and undone by mis-apprehensions As if a man should dote on an ugly harlot because of a painted face or because he seeth a beautiful picture which is falsly pretended to be hers The world in it self is vanity and insufficiency As opposite to God it is poyson and enmity to us But most men conceive of it as if it were the very seat of their felicity and so are enamoured of they know not what If men did not entertain false apprehensions of God and his holy waies as being against them or hurtful to them or needless and uncomfortable they could not be so much against them as they are And so if they did not entertain false apprehensions of the creature and the waies of sin they could not be so much for them nor embrace them with so much delight For they draw in their fancies some odious picture of the blessed God and his waies and therefore they are averse to them And so they draw in
their fancies some false alluring picture of the world and make it seem to be what it is not and therefore they admire it So that the right way to rectifie your Affections is first to rectifie your Conceptions I would not have you think worse of the world then it deserves but only perswade you to judge of it as it is Do not dream of a Pallace in the air and then be enamoured on the matter of your dreams You think the world is some excellent thing and will do some great matters for you and that they are happy men that abound with its riches and honours and delights I beseech you Sirs return to your wits I told you before that those that have tryed the world think otherwise of it They that have seen the utmost that it can do do shake the head at it as the blind unbelievers did at Christ when they see him hanging on the Cross. Why then should you be of so differing a mind Come nearer and consider what it is that you admire Is it not the great Deceiver of the Nations the bait of the Devil by which he angles for souls If you should fall in love with a post that were drest in the finest cloathes it were a disgrace to your understandings And what course should we take to quiet and rectifie the mind of such a lover but even to undress the post and take off all the bravery and shew it you naked and when you see it is but a post me thinks you should not be fond on it any more Do so then by the world which you more foolishly admire It s cloathed with Riches and Honours and Delights it s adorned by the great applause of its followers there is such running after it and courting it that you think sure all this ado is not for nothing But take off all these befooling gawdes and strip it of these ornaments and then see how you like it But perhaps you 'l say How should I do that Why 1. Consider frequently of how little moment these things are as to you You have matters of everlasting life or death salvation or damnation to look after and what is riches or vain pleasures to this These are not the things that must denominate you happy or unhappy You do not stand or fall by them They are but by-matters that are promised you as an over plus so far as shall be fit but your life or death consisteth not in them Should a man that must be for ever in Heaven or Hell and hath but a little time to determine which it must be should such a man spend that little time about riches and pleasure Can you have while at the door of Eternity to hunc after the delights of the flesh and study after the prosperity of this world Why do not dying men do so then Why do they not bargain and deceive and contrive for their lusts and worldly accommodations No they have then no list to them then they have other things to think of And why not now as well as then O Remember how little matter it is Whether you go poor or rich to the grave This is not your concernment and therefore let it not take you up unless you will wilfully neglect your selves 2. And then forget not the brevity of your worldly possessions Remember whenever they are presented to you in their beauty that all this will be but for a little while The very est beggar in the Town that is not a fool had rather be as they are then to have an house full of Gold till tomorrow and then to be stripâ— of it all again Remember the pleasures of sin are but for a season By that time the feast is done you are as hungry as before by that time you have done laughing the matter of your miâ—th is turned into sorrow and the jest is cold and the game is at an end The hour is almost come already wherein you shall say of all your pleasure It is past and gone And will you trouble your selves and ruine your poor souls for such a fleeting transitory thing Will you be at so much cost and labour to build an house that before you have finished it will be spurned down by death in a moment O that you would but still think of the world as it is and take off the gloss and wash away the painting which deceiveth you and look on it naked as shortly you shall do and then it could not have that power to bewitch you as now it hath but you would see that your Interest lyeth not in it and that you have greater matters that call for your regard and this is the way to Crucifie you to the world Direct 3. THE Crucifying of the world doth very much depend upon the Crucfying of the flesh For I have told you before that the flesh is the master Idol and the world is but its provision and the Devils bait And therefore it is the life of carnality that is the life of the world in you When men have an Appetite that must needs be satisfied and must have the meat and drink which it desires and it is as much to them to deny their appetites as if it were some great and weighty business these beasts are far from Crucifying the world For they must needs look after provision for these Appetites He that must have the sweetest morselâ— and the pleasants drink must needs look after provision to maintain it And he that hath a Proud corrupted mind that must needs be somebody in the eyes of others and therefore must needs be cloathed with the best and placed with the highest and keep company with the greatest or the idlest and merri est companions this man doth think that he must needs have provision to maintain all this No man doth admire the world but he that Judgeth by his fleshly Interest and is a sâ—ive to his sensuality Set Reason in the throne let â—aith illuminate and advance it subdue your inordiâ—ate seâ—â—ual desires And then the world will wither of it self The servants will hide their heads or comply if the Master be once conquered Nay you may then press the world upon a better service Remember that your sensual Appetite was made in order to the preservation of your Natures and to be ruled by Reason if therefore it would become the predominant faculty and would take up with its own delights as your end and would rebell against its Guide and Master its time then to use it as a rebell should be used and with Paul to buffet it and bring it into subjection And if you can do this the work is done It s a childish if not a bruitish thing and below a man to be captivated unto sense It s the content of the higher faculties that are the pleasures of a man The pleasing of the throat is common to us with the swine It s the basest Spirit that makes the greatest matter
of sensual things and so must be drowned in unprofitable cares What he shall eat or drink and wherewith he shall be cloathed What matter is it to a wise man Whether his meat be sweet or bitter or whether his drink be strong or small or whether his cloaths be fine or homely or whether he be honoured or derided or past by save only as these things may have relation to greater things and as the body must be kept in a serviceable plight and we must value that capacity most in which we may best do our Masters work Keep under the flesh and you will easily overcome the world Otherwise you strive against the the stream While you have unmortified raging appetites and corrupted fancies and sensual minds you are byassed to the world and if the rub of a Sermon or sickness may turn you out of your way awhile the byass will prevail and you will quickly be on it again If you dam up the stream of these unmortified affections they will rage the more and if you stop them for a while by good company or some restraint yet will they shortly break over all and be more violent then before All your striving by waies of meer restraint are to little purpose till the flesh it self be subdued It is but as if you should strive with a greedy dog for his bone and with an hungry Lyon to bereave him of his prey be sure they will not easily part with it It s the case of many deluded people that have some knowledge of Scripture enough to convince them and tip their tongues and strive to restrain them from their sensual waies but not enough to mortifie the flesh and change their souls O what a combate is there in their lives The flesh will have its prey and pleased it must be Their conscience tells them It will cost thee dear Their flesh like an hungry dog is ready to seize upon that which it desires And conscience doth as it were stand over it with a staff and saith Meddle with it if thou dare And sometime the poor sinner is restrained and sometime again he ventureth upon the prey and he that had condemned himself for his sin doth turn to his former vomit and once more he must have his whore or his cups and then conscience takes him by the throat and terrifieth him and makes him forbear a little while again And thus the poor sinner is tost up and down and Satan leads him captive at his will And because he findeth a combate within him he thinks it is the combate between the flesh and the sanctifying Spirit when alas it s no more but the combate between the flesh and an inlightened conscience assisted with the motions of common grace which because they resist and trample underfoot their condemnation will be the greater Would you then have the boiling of your corruptions abated Put out the fire that causeth them to boil or else you trouble your selves in vain Mortifie the flesh once and get it under and scorn to be a slave to a sensual appetite but let it be all one to you to displease it as to please it and leave such trifles as pleasant meats and drinks and dwellings and fine cloathes to children and fools that have no greater things to mind and use the flesh as a servant to the soul supplying it with necessaries but correcting it if it do but crave superfluities Do this and you will easily Crucifie the world For the world is only for the flesh For saith Iohn 1 Iohn 2. 16. All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and pride of life which are not of the Father but of the world And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Remember that he that saith in my text that he is Crucified to the world doth say also Gal. 5. 24. that They that are Christs have Crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts This is to kill the world at the Root for it is Rooted in the fleshly Interest When otherwise you will but lop off the branches and they will quickly grow again Direct 4. BE sure to keep your minds intent upon the Greater matters of Everlasting life and all your Affections imployed thereupon Diversion must be your cure Especially to so powerful and transcendent an object Be once acquainted with Heaven by a life of faith and it will so powerfully draw you to it self that you will be ready to forget earth and take it as a kind of Nothing Get up to God and fix the eye of your soul on him and his glory will darken all the world and rescue you from the mis-leadings of that false fire that did delude you Come near him daily and taste how good he is and the sweetness of his love will make you marvail at them that think the world so sweet and marvail at your selves that you were ever of such a mind You cannot think that the world will be cast out of your Love but by the appearance of somewhat better then it self You must go to Heaven therefore for a Writ of ejectment You must fetch a beauty a pleasure from above that shall abase it and silence it and shame its competition O what is earth and all things in it to him that hath had a believing lively thought of Heaven Nothing below this will serve the turn You may think long enough of the troubles of the world and long enough confess its vanity before you can Crucifie it if you see not where you may have something that is better The poorest life will seem better then none and a little in hand will be preferred before uncertain hopes Till faith have opened Heaven to you as being the Evidence of the things invisible and have shewed you that they are not shadows but substances which the promise revealeth and Believers do expect you will be still holding fast that little that you have and you will say in your hearts as some do with their tongues I know what I have in this world but I know not what I shall have in another But the knowledge of God will soon make you of another mind Let in God into the soul and he will fill it with himself and leave no room for earth and flesh Learn what it is to walk with him and to have a conversation in heaven and it will cure you of your earthly mindedness Phil. 3. 18 19. There is no consistence between Earth and Heaven All men are either Earthly or Heavenly minded None therefore but the truly Heavenly Believer hath Crucified the world But because I have said more of this elsewhere I now forbear Direct 5. VNderstand well the right use and end of all creatures and make it your business accordingly to improve them I have told you before that they are all for God and glasses wherein we may see his face and
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
nor to labour after eternal things Christ telleth them that One thing is needful and would have them choose the better part which shall not be taken from them But they believe not Christ but hearken to their flesh and it telleth them that its Another thing that is needful and perswadeth them to choose the worser part which will shortly be taken from them Christ biddeth them Labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth to everlasting life Iohn 6. 27. But venter non habet aures the flesh understandeth not such exhortations A greedy appetite is the reason that it judgeth by An hungry belly is not filled nor quieted with arguments They must have their present wants supplyed let what will become of their immortal souls And thus the Rich have so much to look after that they cannot have while to be diligent for their souls And the Poor have so much to seek after that they cannot have while And so the world abuseth them that Have it and that Want it As if two men that had forfeited their lives were travelling to London for a pardon and the one goeth so fair a way that he forgets his business and sitteth down picking flowers in the way and the other meets with so fowl a way that he thinks he is excused because he must take heed of being wet or dirtyed O Sirs if the world be Crucified to you how can it have such power over you as to cause you to neglect your greatest Lord and your immortal souls If indeed you are Dead to it and alive to Christ let it be seen in your families and be seen in all your duties and conversation Let the greatest persons that enter into your families attend the worship of him that is Greater or let them not be attended Neglect them that will neglect the service of God Remember that the fourth Commandment requireth you to see that the Sabbath be sanctified even by the stranger that is within your gates as well as by your selves and the servants that are in your houses If you have carnal Gentlemen at your table or are at theirs do not be your selves so carnal as to be ashamed of holy discourse in their presence or to suppress any speech that may tend to edification and to the honour of your Lord. Let them all know that you have greater matters to do then to attend and humour them and that you have a Master that must be Pleased whoever be displeased Take heed also that the world do not cause you to neglect the opportunities which are before you for your own advantage Miss not a Sermon which may be profitable to you without Necessity Miss not the help of private Instructions and Conference and other edifying Sacred duties without necessity Omit not any of your secret addresses to God without Necessity And take nothing for a Necessity but that which is at that time a greater duty then that which you do Omit I know that Works of Necessity and Mercy may be done even on the Lords day and acts of Worship may be delayed on such occasions for God will then have Mercy and not Sacrifice But Mercy on our own and others souls in seeking their relief must not be neglected for lower things And look not only to the Matter but the Manner of your duties that Worldliness do not destroy the Life and Vigour of them Turn out all thoughts of earthly things when you approach the Lord in holy worship Provoke not his jealousie by presenting before him a distracted mind or lifeless carkaise O what sleepy frozen duties do many professors offer to the Lord even from week to week because their hearts are so distracted by the world that they are to seek when God should have them 5. IF you are Crucified to the world take heed that you use no unlawful means for the procurement of worldly things Stretch not your consciences for the compassing of such ends Lay still before you the Rule of Equity Do as you would be done by Put your brother with whom you deal in your own case and your selves in his and so drive on your bargains in that mind If you did thus you would not sell too dear nor buy too cheap you would not make so many words to get his goods for less then the worth nor to sell your own for more then the worth Nay you would not take more then the worth if by ignorance or necessity your brother should offer it you nor give less then the worth though through ignorance or necessity he would take it The love of money hath so blinded many that in selling they think it to be no sin to take as much for a commodity as they can get and in buying they think it no sin to get the commodity as cheap as they can have it never once asking their own hearts How would I desire to be dealt with my self iâ— it were my own case Nay Covetousness is the common cause that maketh most of the world cry out against Covetousness When men are like ravenous greedy beasts that grudge at every bit that goes besides their own mouths they will reproach all that cross their covetous desires If they cannot by words perswade a tradesman to sell his ware at such rates as he cannot live by they will defame him as a covetous griping man and all because he fitteth not their covetous desires and all that will escape their censure of being covetous must shut up their shops ere long to the defrauding of their creditors If a Physitian that hath been a means to save their lives do demand but half his due it being the calling which he liveth on they will defame him as Covetous because he contradicteth their covetous desires and would have any thing from them which is so near to their hearts Let a Minister but demand his own which was never theirs but is his by the Law of the Land and they will reproach him like Quakers as a covetous hireling and if he will not suffer every worldly miser to rob him they will defame him as if he were sick of their disease So far are they from the Primitive practise of selling all and laying down at the feet of the Apostles that they would steal from the Church those Tenths which neither they nor their Fathers before them had any propriety in any more then in the Lands of any of their neighbours as in the case of Impropriators they are forced to confess Let a man give all that he hath to the poor and he shall be defaâ—â—ed as covetous because he will not give more then all I or if he give to nineteen and have not wherewith to satisfie the twentieth he that hath nothing or less then he expected is as much unsatisfied and as forward to speak evil of him as if he had given to none at all And usually so unreasonable are these covetous expectations that you may sooner displease ten of theâ—
devour widows houses after all their preaching and praying there is none that are more cruel and close handed or ready to over-reach or deceive then they nor any that are more greedy for the things of the world In answer to this Objection I shall first say somewhat to the Professors of Religion and then shall speak to the objecters themselves First you that profess the fear of God take notice I beseech you of this accusation and though it may shew you cause to pitty malicious slanderers yet let it provoke you to search your hearts and lives and see that you give not cause for this reproach As for those worldly time-serving hypocrites which in all places creep in among the Saints and do but serve themselves of Christ let them know that God will one day require an account at their hands of all these scandals which they have caused in the Church and the ruine of poor ungodly souls that are dasht in pieces and cast themselves into hell by stumbling at this stone which their worldly practises have laid before them If you would needs be worldlings you were better have kept in the world among worldlings then to have crept into the Church of Christ and brought thither your scandalous worldly lives to the dishonour of that Religion which condemneth your practises and you Did not Christ warn you to count your costs and never to dream of being his Disciples unless you could forsake all and follow him under the Cross in expectation of a promised treasure in Heaven â—s there any thing that Christ did more peremptorily require of you then to Renounce the world and deny your selves if you would be his Disciples And yet will you come without this wedding garment and bring your base and earthly minds among his servants and cause his truth and his house and followers to bear the reproach of your worldly baseness I tell you it is like to cost you dear that you have cast this dishonour on the name of God and caused the damnation of the impious reproachers The wrong you have done to God and men you shall certainly pay for in everlasting misery unless a through repentance do prevent it And I fear it is but few of these worldly Hypocrites that ever truly do repent But woâ— to them by whom offence cometh It were good for that man that he had never been born 2. And as for you that truly fear God I beseech you let the slanders of wicked men awake you to an holy jealousie of your selves You see what their eye is upon Take heed then how you walk you hear what it is that offendeth them As far as is possible avoid all occasions of such offence Take heed in your bargaining buying or selling how you carry your selves toward them and what you say If all the actions of your lives were right save one they will reproach you for that one If you speak but one rash or unhandsom word they will forget all the rest and remember that one and traduce you as if all were like that one See therefore that you walk and speak by line and rule And remember that it is not an ordinary measure of charity and good works that is expected from you according to your abilities by God and man If you love those that love you what Reward have you do not even the Publicans the same And if ye saluâ—e your brethren only what do you more then others do not even the Publicans so But saith Christ I say unto you Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for he maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust Mat. 5. 44 45 46 47. Let your Light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Mat. 6. 15. Your actions and words are observed and scanned more then any other mens For malice is quick-sighted and of a strong memory And you are the Light of the world A City that is set on an hill cannot be hid Mat. 5. 14. Take heed therefore that you be blameless and harmless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life This will not only stop the mouthes of the enemies but it will also rejoyce your Teachers in the day of Christ that they have not run or laboured in vain Yea if they were offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith they would rejoyce with you all Phil. 2. 15 16 17. And for your selves also it is necessary that you excell others in good works For except your righteousness exceed the righteousness even of Scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 5. 20. Remember that you live among the blind and if you stumble and fall you know not how many will fall upon you and if you break but your shins they that fall upon you may break their necks and if you rise again you are not sure that they will rise Dearly beloved I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims in this world abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul having your conversation honest among the Gentiles the unbelievers and prophane that whereas they speak against you as evil doers they may by your good works which they behold glorifie God in the day of visitation 1 Pet. 2. 11 12. For so is the will of God that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men 1 Pet. 2. 15. Finally brethren be ye all of one mind having compassion one of another love as brethren be pittiful be curteous not rendring evil for evil or railing for railing but contrariwise blessing knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing 1 Pet. 3. 8 9. And so walk that if any obey not the word they may yet be won by your exemplary conversation 1 Pet. 3. 1. As you hear more then others so do more then others that it may appear you build upon a rock Mat. 7. 24 25. And as the book of God is much in your hands and mouth so remember that whoso looketh into the perfect Law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetfull hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed For Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep your selves unspotted from the world Iam. 1. 25 27. 2. Having said this much to the godly by way of caution I shall now make answer to the Objecters themselves You that say There are none so cruel and so covetous as these that
perswade you to part with it to supply his wants At least you will never be perswaded to part with all and follow Christ till the Belief of a Treasure in Heaven do perswade you to it Luke 18. 21 22. Can you say from your hearts Let all go rather then the Love of God And in a case of tryal do you certainly find that There is nothing so dear to you which you cannot part with for God and the hopes of everlasting life This is a sign of an effectual Faith For neither nature nor common grace did ever bring a soul so high 3. It is also a certain evidence of unfeigned Love For wherein is Love so clearly manifested as in the highest adventures for the person whom we Love and in the costlyest expressions of our Love when we are called to it Then it will appear that you Love God indeed when there is nothing else that you prefer before him and nothing but what you lay down at his feet When the greatest professors that love the world do shew that the love of the Father is not in them 1 Iohn 2. 15. So far as it is loved 4. To be Crucified to the world and alive to God is the very Honesty and Chastity and Iustice of the soul. This is your Fidelity to God in keeping the holy Covenant that you have made with him in Christ. This is your keeping your selves unspotted from the world and undefiled by it When the friends of it live in its Adulterous embracements Iam. 4. 4. Thus do you give the Lord his own even both the creature and your hearts when worldlings do unjustly rob him of both This is the great command and request of God Prov. 23. 26. My Son give me thy heart Give him but this and he will take it as if you gave him all For indeed the rest will follow this But if you give the world your hearts God will take all the rest as Nothing Benefit 2. THE second Benefit is this If you are truly Crucified to the world Your minds will be free for God and his service When the minds of worldlings are like imprisoned hampered things What a toylsom thing is it for a man to travail in fetters or to run a race with a burden on his back But knock off his fetters and how easily will he go and take off his burden and how lightly will he run Do you not feel your selves that the world is the clog of your souls and that this is it that hindereth you from duty and hindereth you in duty and keepeth you from the attainment of an heavenly conversation When you should chearfully go to God in secret or in your families the world is ready to pull you back Either it calleth you away by putting some other business into your hands or else it dulleth and diverteth your Affections so that you have no heart to duty or no life in it or else it creepeth into your Thoughts in duty and taketh them off from the work in hand and makes you do that which you seem not to be doing And if you shake off these thoughts and drive them out of your way they are presently again before you and meet you at the next Turn But in that measure as you have Crucified the world you are freed from these disturbances The Apostle Peter describeth the miserable estate of Apostates 2 Pet. 2. 20. to be like a bird or beast that had escaped out of the snare that he was taken in and after is taken in the same again Having escaped the pollution of the world c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are again entangled therein as a beast in a snare that cannot escape or help himself So 2 Tim. 2. 4. its said no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So that you see that the world is a snare that entangleth mens souls and holdeth them as in captivity The table of the wicked becometh a snare to them and so do all the bodily mercies which they possess But the mortified Christian may look back on all these dangers and say Blessed be the Lord that hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped Psal. 124. 6 7. Oh with what ease and freedom of mind may you converse with God in holy Ordinances when you are once disâ—entangled from this snare Now that which formerly drew off your hearts and clog'd your affections is Crucified and dead that enemy that kept your souls from God and was still casting baits or troubles in your way is dead As the Apostle saith of sin Rom. 6. 7. He that is dead is freed from sin So I may say of the world He that is dead to the world in that measure as he is dead to it is freed from the world Let us therefore lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and then we may run with Patience the race that is set before us Heb. 12. 1. This makes a poor Christian sometimes to live in more content and comfort in the depth of adversity then he did before in the midst of his prosperity because though his flesh hath lost his soul hath gain'd though he want the fleshly accommodations which he had yet the world is now more Dead to him then before and so his mind is freer for God and consequently more with him How blessed a life is it to converse with God with little disturbances and interruptions A runner in a race is willing to be rid of his very cloathes that should cover him and keep him warm because they are a burden and hinderance to him in his race But the lookers on would be loath to be so stript Take away prosperity from an unmortified man and you take away the comfort of his life When if the same things be taken from the mortified believer he loseth but his burden How readily will that man obey that is dead to the world when he is commanded to do good to relieve the poor according to his power to suffer wrongs to let go his right to forgive and requite evil with good to forsake all and follow Christ. When to another man these duties are a kind of impossibilities and you may as well perswade a Lyon to become a Lamb or a beast to die willingly by the hand of the Butcher as perswade an unmortified worldling to these things They think when they hear them These are hard sayings who can bear them Or at least they are duties for a Peter or a Paul and not for such as we There is a very great part of Christian obedience that will be easie to you when you are Dead to the world which no man else is able to endure nor will be perswaded to submit to Benefit 3. ANother Benefit of this Crucifixion is this The
the way to that Mat. 5. 3. Blessed are the poor in Spirit It is not Blessed are the worldly rich Nor Blessed are the Glorified only But the reason is For theirs is the Kingdom of heaven that is in title but not in possession ver 2. Blessed are they that mourn And why are mourners blessed For they shall be comforted Luk. 6. 24 25. Wo unto you that are Rich for ye have received your consolation Wo unto you that are full for you shall hunger Wo unto you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep Wo unto you when all men speak well of you c. that is Wo to you that place your comfort and felicity in Riches and Fulness and Mirth and the Applause of men Yea though you possess the things you desire yet wo to you because you shall miss of the true and durable felicity Thus also run all the rest of the blessings in Matth. 5. Blessed are the meek Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness Blessed are the merciful Blessed are the pure in heart Blessed are the peace-makers Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake that is When you are so firm in the faith and so far in love with me and the heavenly reward that you can bear all these revilings and slanders and persecutions you are Blessed even when the troubles are upon you So that you see here that our present Blessedness consisteth in Mortification to present things and Hope of future And from the future the Reason of our present blessedness is fetcht They which hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled The merciful shall obtain mercy The pure in heart shall see God The peace makers shall be called the children of God The persecuted shall have the Kingdom of heaven Indeed to the meek it is promised in present that they shall inherit the earth as Psal. 37. 11. had before said that is It shall afford them accommodations for a travailer which is all that is desirable in it or can be expected from it For godliness hath the promise of this life and of that to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. Yea moreover there is a special promise to the meek above those godly persons that are most wanting herein For their passage through this world to heaven shall ordinarily be more peaceable and quiet to them then other mens They do not so molest their own minds and vex themselves nor make themselves troubles nor provoke others against them as the passionate do and commonly they are either loved or pittyed or easilyer dealt with by all So that you may see throughout the Gospel that our present blessedness is in Mortification and Hope as the way to our future blessedness which consisteth in fruition And therefore it is a a very great errour in Believers when they overlook the blessedness of a Mortified state and can see little in any thing but sensible fruition and rejoycings When you are low in afflictions and grieved for your corruptions and fill the ears of God and men with your complaints though you have not then the joyful sense of the Love of God yet me thinks you might easily perceive your Mortification And will that afford you no refreshing Do you not feel that you are Crucified to the world and your desires after it are languid and life-less Can you not truly say that the world is Crucified to you and that you look on it but as a Carkass as an empty lifeless and unsatisfactory thing Would you not gladly part with it for more of Christ Could you not let go credit and wealth and friends so that the Kingdom of God might be more advanced within you and you might live more in the Spirit by a life of faith Could you not be content to be poor in the world so that you might but be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him Why do you not then consider what a blessed condition you are in and that your Mortification is a Mercy that leadeth to salvation and as sure a token of the Love of God as your most sensible joyes Did you ever mark and conscionably practise that command of Christ Mat. 5. 12. to the persecuted reviled slandered Believers Rejoyce and be exceeding glad mark what a frame your Saviour would have you live in for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you So when you are poor and afflicted and have hearts that set light by earthly things in comparison of God and Glory you have cause to Rejoyce and be exceeding glad though you live under sufferings for thus it hath been with the true Believers that have gone before you SECT XXVI I Come now to the second Branch of the Observation which is that When Believers Glory in their own Mortification it must be as it is the fruit of the Cross of Christ that so all their Glorying may be principally and ultimately in Christ and not in themselves They must take heed of ascribing the honour to themselves or of resting in themselves but all their observation of the graces that are in them must be in pure respect to him that is the fountain and the end that we may thankfully acknowledge our receivings and admire the eternall Love which did bestow them and the compassions and merits of our Crucified Redeemer and the powerfull operations of his Spirit in our souls and so may be carried out to Love and Duty in the sense of our receivings and may live to the praises of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light And that you may see how great reason there is for this and so may be kept from glorying in your selves I shall open the cause to you as it lyeth both on Christs part and on ours What he is to us and what we are to our selves Consider 1. It was Christ and not we that wrought our deliverance by the wonderfull work of our Redemption Long enough might we have layen in prison before we could have paid the utmost farthing and long might we have born the wrath which we deserved before we could have done any thing to merit or any way procure our deliverance Had we wept out our eyes and prayed our hearts out and never committed sin again this would not have made satisfaction to God for the sin that was past Long enough might we have lain in our blood if this compassionate Redeemer had not taken us up and undertaken the cure Had he turned us off to any creature we had been left helpless Had we looked on the right hand for some to deliver us or on the left we should have found none Besides him there is no Saviour Isaiah 43. 11. Acts 4. 12. And moreover the way he hath