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
good is Nothing to us Let a needy soul betake himself to the world for comfort under the burden of sin for quiet and true peace to a wounded conscience and you will find it can do Nothing Seek to it for grace or strength against corruptions and temptations and you will find it can do Nothing Cry to it for succour in the depth of your affliction and at the hour of death and try whether it will present you acceptable unto God and bring your departed souls with boldness to his presence and you will find that it can do Nothing Whatever it promiseth and what ever it seemeth to deluded sinners when you look for any real good from it you will find it can do Nothing And therefore you may well take it as a meer Nothing to you 2. And in esse objectivo we may make Nothing of it by excluding it from any room in our souls as to those acts that do not belong to it 3. And as a separated being independant as to God so it is indeed Nothing for there is no such thing Much less as it is a separated Good or felicity to man Annihilate then the world to your selves When it would appear to you to be what it is not and would promise you to be what it cannot let it be as Nothing to you Conceive of it as of a shadow or a thing that seemeth to Be and is not Could you once make Nothing of it it would have no power over you nor any unhappy effects upon you You would not dote upon a known Nothing nor change your God and Glory for Nothing As Iob saith of the wicked Iob 27. 19. he openeth his eyes and he is not so we may say of the world when we open our eyes we shall see that it is not that which before seemed Nothing to us will appear to be All things and the world that seemed all things will be Nothing The summe of all that hath been said is this The opposing world must be apprehended as an enemy to God and us and so far Hated The glozing world appearing as our felicity or a competitor with God must be conceived of as Worthless and Contemned And the world as it would appear as a separated Good being any thing to us or having any thing for us out of God must be annihilated in our conceptions and taken as Nothing SECT VI. VVE are next briefly to shew you how it is that we are Crucified to the world having shewed you how the world is Crucified to us And in general the meaning is that we are as Dead or Crucified men to it in regard of those forementioned unjust respects in which the tempter would present it to us So that Crucified here is put for the absence of that Action and worldly Disposition which carnal men are guilty of So that it is a Moral and not a Natural death that is here mentioned and observably differeth from a Natural in these respects 1. A Natural death destroyeth the very Powers or Faculties of Acting But a Moral Death only destroyeth the Disposition and Action it self but not any Natural Power 2. A Natural death is Involuntary and in it self is neither a vertue nor a vice neither Morally Good or Evil. But a Moral death is principally in the Will it self and nothing is more voluntary and so it is the principal virtue or vice To be dead in sin and to God is the summe of all Evil And to be dead to sin and the world in Christ is the summe of Moral Good 3. Natural death hath no degree of life remaining saving of the separated soul. But Moral death may consist with much of the contrary life For it is denominated from the predominant habits of the soul which may stand with much of the contrary habit though subdued We cannot therefore gather that Paul was absolutely free from all sin because he was dead to it or crucified to the world For this is a Moral death consisting in a conquest of the enemy who may be said to be dead because he is overcome and consisting in the prevalent Habits of the soul which yet may have too much of the remnants of their contraries More particularly 1. If we are Crucified to the world our undue estimation of the world is Crucified We have no Idolizing over valuing regard to it in that measure as we are dead to it As the world do not Regard the works of the Lord Psal. 28. 5. Isa. 5. 12. So the Saints do not Regard the things of the world The life of faith doth so elevate their spirits that they are mounted up above the creature and look not upon the world or look upon it as a despicable thing They are above that which is the delight and imployment of others and that which the sensual call Felicity they still call Vanity And as a mans stomack abhorreth that which a dog or a swine will greedily devour so the soul of a Believer doth despise and abhor the delights of the ungodly As Pride makes the Rich look contemptuously and disregardfully upon the poor So the holy elevation of Believing souls doth make them look contemptuously and disregardfully upon all the glory of the world As faith doth bring them up to God and make him their Object and their All So doth it make them somewhat like him and minded as he is minded And as God regardeth not persons Deut. 10. 17. nor accepteth the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more then the poor Iob 34. 19. but is pleased more in the least of his image on the humble faithful soul then with all the glittering glory of the world so is it in their measure with his people Where they see nothing of God they feel no substance but so far as God appeareth to them in any creature or action or any means or benefit which they possess so far they perceive some substance in it As the natural man Receiveth not the things of the Spirit nor can know them because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. So the Spiritual man hath shut up his senses to the world and lost his perception of them because they are carnally so discerned The carnal man hath his senses quick in discerning and savouring the things of the flesh but to the things of the Spirit he is dead and sensless And contrarily the Spiritual man is dead and sensless to the things of the flesh and hath no savour in those things that are other mens delights Rom. 8. 10 5 6. He tasteth no more sweetness in their pleasures then in a chip He wonders what they can see or taste in the things of the world that they so run after it To be Rich or Poor do but little differ in his eyes To be high or low is all one to him considering these things as accomodations of the flesh though still he valueth any condition according to the respect it hath to God and so that is the
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
that way That 's your chief honour which is most your own and least borrowed from others The deserving Son of a beggar is more truly honourable then the undeserving Son of a Lord. Glory rather that you are born again not of the flesh but of the Spirit not of corruptible seed but incoruptible the word of God that endureth for ever Your first birth how noble so ever makes you but children of wrath and slaves of Satan But your new birth is the truly honourable birth which makes you partakers of the Divine Nature the Sons of God the heirs of Heaven and Co-heirs with the Lord Jesus 1 Pet. 1. 23. Iohn 3. 6. 1. 12. Rom. 8. 17. 8. Have you friends that love you and are able to countenance you and are daily tender of you and helpful to you Bless God for them but glory not in man For Cursed is is he that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and withdraweth his heart from the Lord Jer. 17. 5. Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of Isa. 2. 22. Your best friends are uncertain and quickly lost and may turn so unkind as to break your hearts Or if their minds prove constant their lives are uncertain and the dearer they were to you with the greater grief you will lay them in the grave Or if you fall your selves into sickness they will prove but silly comforts to you They can but look on you and be sorry for you but that will not ease your pain nor succour you Oh how much more cause have you to glory in such a friend as Christ that will save you from sin and wrath and Hell In such a friend as God Almighty that can rebuke your diseases by a word Or make them tend to the cure of your souls and that will stick to you when others leave you with whom you must dwell in heaven for ever 9. Have you the pleasantest meats or drinks that your appetite desires the easiest lodgings the easiest lives the pleasantest recreations or companions Glory not in them These are the most desperate bait of the Devil and the common ruine of the world To take your fill and please your flesh and fit your lives to its desires is the very way to hell and the property of the slaves of Satan Your sweet meat will have sowre sauce If you live after the flesh you shall die but if by the Spirit you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live Rom. 8. 13. You know what became of him Luke 16. that was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared deliciously every day It s a heavy case to have your portion and all your good things in this life Rejoyce rather that you have conquered the desires of your flesh and have brought it into subjection That you are Masters of your appetites and can eat and drink to the glory of God and that you can deny your ease and endure hardness as a soldiour of Christ That you have pleasanter recreations in the waies of life and sweeter comforts then the flesh can have any and that you have delights that are more durable and meat to eat that others know not of Rejoyce that you have conquered the flesh your greatest enemy and so have escaped the greatest danger For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. 10. Have you the love of your neighbours and do all men men speak well of you Glory not in it as any of your felicity For it will be wo to many that are as well spoken of as you The world is not so wise nor so good that a man should much rejoyce in its good word Are they learned men that extoll you yet do not Glory in it They may boast you into Pride and Hell but they cannot add a cubit to the stature of your worth They see not the state of your soul and therefore you may be miserable when they have said their best Are they godly men that admire you and speak well of you yet Glory not in it as any certain Evidence of your felicity They speak as they think and may easily be deceived They are not your Judges As their hard thoughts cannot condemn you so their good thoughts or words cannot justifie you with God Oh Glory rather in Gods approbation who knows your heart to whose judgement it is that you stand or fall who judgeth not by outward appearance but in righteousness If he say Well done good and faithfull servant his words will be life to you but a thousand others may say so and do you no good at all but hurt 11. Are you famous for Learning and have you great parts in knowledge and utterance Glory not in it as any of your felicity or evidence thereof There are learneder men then you in hell the greatest knowledge of common things hath much sorrow and sheweth you so much of your ignorance and what is yet beyond your reach that it disquiets you the more Much more may you Glory that you know Christ Crucified and that you know your interest in the Love of God and can Love him whom you know without which all your knowledge would make you but as sounding brass or a tinckling Cymball Of all these together I may say Ier. 9. 23 24. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts let not the wise man Glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glory in his riches but let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweh me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness judgement and righteousness 12. Have you spiritual mercies as well as corporall Take heed in what respect you Glory in them For example 1. Have you abundant and excellent means of grace Have you Ministers and holy Ordinances and Christian Communion in the purest order Glory in them as Gods mercies and helps to higher things But not as your felicity or a certain Evidence of it For many are first in these respects that will be last in respect of life Eternal The greatest fall is from the highest Mercies And many that had the chiefest place in the Church will have the â—orest place in hell Abominable Sodom will scape better then many hearers of the Gospel But Glory in this that you have the Spirit of the Gospel and that Christ within you that is preached in the Gospel 2. Have you much understanding in the Doctrine of the Gospel and are you eminent teachers of it to others Glory in it as an opportunity of serving your Lord and doing and getting good But not as a certain Evidence of a good estate For many shall say Lord have we not preached in thy name whom Christ will not own because they were workers of iniquity Mat. 7. 22. And he that knoweth his Masters will and doth it not
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
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