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 he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple 3. This is the ground-work and the true institution of a Christian life and this is that excellent knowledge of Christ which is difficult and unpleasant to natural men and contrary to the Spirit of the World This is the highest Philosophy which exceeds the capacity and knowledge of the wise men of this world and this is the highest perfection and the certain way to Bliss to know and to follow Jesus Christ and him crucified to hate ones self and the world with all its pleasures and vanities and to love poverty contempt sorrows and tribulations But to understand well this plain lesson or first principle requires a great measure of Grace and more yet to relish it with pleasure most of all to practise it to live accordingly in the whole course of our conversation CHAP. XX. Of the desperate folly of men who willingly run to ruin by their inconsideration 1. ETernal torments being prepar'd for none but such as will be miserable and by their free and wilful wickedness chuse Hell for their portion on the other side Eternal joys above being offer'd to all that will partake of them who would not think the Prisons of darkness and sorrow should be wholly empty and Heaven infinitely full and throng'd Who could imagine any man should be so desperately mad as to chuse eternal misery when he could easily be happy for ever Yet so it is few there are that enter the Kingdom of Heaven and many there are that go down to Hell insomuch that the first compared to these are but a small number whom our Blessed Saviour calls the little flock The folly of men is so strange and amazing that the greater part of them prefer Eternal woe to Bliss Eternal though you shall not find one how thirsty soever that would sip of that cup he should suspect to be poison'd yet many every where may be found who greedily commit those sins which not doubts or opinions but a certain faith assures them must be punisht with ever-burning flames 2. This unheard of madness many attribute to want of Faith which though it may be true of some amongst us yet daily experience and observation puts it beyond all doubt that the greater part of them that perish perish for want of consideration For though they believe that there is a Hell and that therein none shall suffer but such as will enjoy the pleasures of sin while they live yet they soon forget this important truth their fancy and their affections are fixt to this earth they only please their appetites and live so sensually that their reason can hardly look beyond the present the notions of Eternity are kept out and their understanding made uncapable and unwilling to consider wisely that their short joys and delights will soon end into bitterness and endless sorrows and that it is very easie for us whilest we live to avoid that dreadful misery and obtain Eternal happiness And would to God men would seriously mind and observe this O that they were wise that they would understand and consider their latter end and live accordingly It is man's property and his privilege to think and meditate and sure his thoughts and meditations should of themselves run first of all to his chief end to that which is his own greatest interest No error or ignorance is so pernicious as to neglect ones own Salvation CHAP. XXI The Character of a true Christian 1. HE is a Christian indeed that owns the Faith of Christ and obeys his precepts and follows his Blessed Example for to this we are oblig'd by our Christian Profession to raise our selves above these earthly things to live a Divine and Heavenly Life Because that the Grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all men saith the Apostle 1 Tit. 2.11 teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live in this present World Soberly Righteously and Godly looking for that Blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Therefore as he cannot justly be called Doctor who is not so much as a Scholar as he deserves not the name of Captain who understands not Souldiery and as he is not an Artist that hath not the skill of it No more can he with truth be called a Christian who is not a true follower of Christ 2. They therefore only are truly Christians who having renounc'd the vanities and sinful desires of this World love God with all their heart and with all their strength and their neighbour altogether in God and for God preferring not themselves to any others because that in our second and better birth we are all made equal They that strictly observe the rules of justice and sobriety in all things behaving themselves so innocently as not to give a just cause of offence to any Person they that use the creatures for necessity as sick men do Physick coveting nothing but that only which cannot be taken away from them they that seek not to please and fear not to displease any but God alone they that hate their own flesh in that it is the body of sin and therefore daily chastize and keep it under lest it grow petulant and masterless they that are ever constant to their resolutions and being above the World cannot be terrified by any threats or persecutions they that in prosperity and adversity are always the same peaceable and even able clearly to see and to follow truth they that longing after things Eternal despise things present and living upon Faith Hope and Charity believe therefore what they see not hope what they have not and love that which as yet they do not possess they that so love God that for his sake they refuse no labour and are always ready to expose themselves to any dangers without any other design but only to advance his glory they that from the testimony of a good conscience and their confidence in Gods mercy chearfully expect Christ's coming in his Heavenly Kingdom and can joyfully say with the Apostle 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judge shall give me at that day They alone have a right to the Title and the Blessedness of Christians that do all these with sincerity 3. Such men as these rejoyce when they are counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus and they count that day lost in which they have not done and endured something upon his
Christian Life PART I. Of the Christian Life and of its end and offices CHAP. I. Of the distribution of all Christians into three ranks good middle-sort and bad 1. WHen in my meditation as from a watch-tower I consider the whole multitude of Christians in the universal Church with their manners and principles they appear to me as divided into three distinct bands or orders The first contains them who following the doctrin of Christ and his blessed example with a sincere and hearty affection and daily reaching forward towards the highest pitch of Evangelical perfection thereby approve themselves to be Christians indeed constantly serving God and meditating in his Law they crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts and are not cast down by adversity nor puft up by a prosperous fortune Now among these some are more eminent in virtue than the rest and seem to be even more than men abstaining from all delicious fare and being temperate even to a perpetual fast keeping themselves pure and unspotted even to the refusing of lawful pleasures exercising themselves in patience so as to go manfully through fire and the worst of pains mortifying and denying themselves as being their own enemies despising wealth and riches so as freely to bestow in charity all that they possess being filled with the love of God as much as is possible in this life and possessing all virtues in the highest degree so as to be the admiration rather than the example of others who with shame acknowledge their own weakness when they consider how far short they fall of these Heroick Christians But the number of these is not great and they are commonly unknown being dead and crucified to themselves and the world their conversation being in Heaven and their life hid with Christ in God 2. In the next rank are they who rest in the profession of the true faith and think that all Christian duties consist in outward acts they fear God and yet retain and worship their secret Idols they often come to the Sacrament but with so much unpreparedness and indevotion that their frequent receiving profits them not they abstain from great and crying sins and neglect lesser outward Acts of Religion they omit not but their affections are immerst in the World they are acted by Self-love and Self-interest and they are unacquainted with the inward peace and beauty of a Spiritual life they know not what it is to indeavour after Christian perfection they are and will be strangers to that Heavenly mindedness and renouncing of all things without which Christ declares none can be his Disciple and so sadly deluded they are so unhappily besotted with inconsideration that if you exhort them to a stricter and more holy life they will bid you go and preach to Monks and Hermits and remain unconcern'd and the same as before 3. In the last order come all such as are called Christians onely because born of Christian Parents and Baptized their Lives and Actions being scandalous and they themselves wicked and abominable worse than infidels of these the number is great and innumerable CHAP. II. A further Description of the Wicked and their Wickedness 1. THese are they that confess God with their mouth and constantly deny him with their deeds who so study to gratifie their appetites and so resolvedly live after the flesh and the sinful customs of the World that the revelations and laws of the Gospel can make no impression on them they being rather asham'd and almost sorry that they are Christians They daily indulge to their Lusts and their vilanies growing customary deprive them of all sense of human modesty They relish nothing but the Earth they take their account of good and evil by carnal pleasures and they so order the course of their lives that like brutes they follow nothing but their bodily senses Riches they value at a mighty rate and right or wrong seek to obtain them they esteem nothing base and unworthy that advanceth their profit or their preferment and as one said of some Greeks they build as though they were never to die and live as if they were weary of their life 2. This they do because they believe not what our blessed Lord hath reveal'd and because being unmindful of the uncertainty of our condition they promise themselves many years to live They rest satisfied with the injoyment of transitory things which soon shall be possest by others and things that abide for ever they slight and neglect because they think not of Eternity They are tormented by ambition and weakned by lust swel'd with pride and rack'd by Envy Passions and unsatiable desires toss them to and fro and they are so averse to all righteousness that they not only neglect but even hate the just laws of God Christ pronounceth them Blessed that are poor and mourn and suffer persecution they contrarywise esteem them blessed that are rich great and prosperous and generally honoured by men Christ declares that none can be his Disciple who is not ready chearfully to forsake all that he hath for him but these men place their affections on their wealth keep it nigardly part with it sorrowfully and are ever greedy of more ever ready to invade others right and to get what they can from them 3. Even some Professors that have chosen Christ for their portion and pretend to be devoted to him even some of these there be who unmindful of their Sacred Promises indeavour nothing more than to increase their wealth and oftentimes enjoy greater riches under Christ the great Exemplar of Poverty than they could have done in a civil Calling under the greatest Monarch of this World Neither are some of these more careful to obey than to imitate for instead of loving their Enemies and rendring good for evil to them that hate them as our Blessed Lord hath commanded us they return hatred for ill will and are ever ready and desire to revenge the least injuries Who is there that obeys Christ's counsel or injunction of turning the cheek to him that smites us and suffering him that strives for our Coat to take our Cloak also or rather who is there that doth not slight and deride it Let who will take an exact account of the Evangelical precepts and of the observers of them he shall find that they are very few that live by the Rules of the Gospel few that regard and esteem it as they should Nay few there be that care to read or hear it Fables Romances and Idle Discourses are generally prefer'd to the Word of God whereby the vain World make it appear that they belong not to him whose voice they care not to hear that they hear not God's Words because they are not of God 4. 'T is the Duty of every Christian faithfully to believe what God hath revealed to follow his Counsels and sincerely obey his Commands whence it clearly follows that he is no Christian who neglects or scorns this Duty for Faith
account They make their Glory their Felicity their Wisdom to consist in such things as the World accounts Shame Misery and Folly They detest the false Principles on which proceeds carnal prudence as that we must be Rich and Great honour'd by the World and above others and they love and heartily imbrace the Christian verity which teacheth us to despise riches to deny our selves and to glory in nothing save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ In a word their conversation is in Heaven and they so live that all their actions seem to speak aloud That their Kingdom is not of this World These things indeed are high and difficult but the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and is only to be taken by force and withall it well deserves all our labours and noblest contentions CHAP. XXII Several useful cautions how a Christian should undertake and perfect his works 1. ALL the actions of a Christian should be done in peace and meekness and he ought to consider the circumstances of time and place and persons and especially of the end of that he is about but withall let him take care of being rash and hasty of following sudden motions of nature rather than reason Grace and Religion Let not his mind be light and inconstant easily wandring after vain projects but let him attend and be ready to entertain and to obey the illuminations and motions of the good Spirit When he is about to begin any work let not his mind be too busie and distracted with other thoughts for then he must expect to want his wits and fail in many things which afterwards will grieve him when it will be too late When he first enters upon any design let him humbly beg that God would guide and assist him and let him seriously consider what share God hath in the business and how much of it is on his own account In the carrying on of his work let not self-complacency turn him from the good end he proposed and in the finishing thereof let him be cautious that all he hath done be not marr'd and spoil'd by self-applause and vain-glory above all let him be seriously intent upon this that he seeks not the praise of men but the glory of God keeping down proud thoughts in the consideration of his being nothing 2. He should not meddle with any business except God by his Providence calls him to it and then he ought to go through with it chearfully and diligently and with noble designs of charity to men specially to their souls considering that the bliss or perfection of this present life consisteth not in the full enjoyment of God but in the conformity of our will to his in the doing and suffering his pleasure Except necessity compell him let him not undertake any thing that 's above his strength that if it be possible he may lose nothing of his peace nor of the freedom of his mind for to be too intent and too much taken up with things without us commonly quencheth the Spirit of God and deprives our Souls of tranquillity Rather as the Angel which is said to have accompanied Tobit though it was always ready to serve him yet nevertheless attended to the will of God and was always present to him so should a good Christian mind the necessary concerns of this life and be outwardly troubled and imployed about them when yet his heart should be with God and his soul in Heaven there to be free from the distractions and all the affections of the World CHAP. XXIII That to discharge the duties of our station is the best thing we can do 1. TO do that which our place and calling requires of us here and that which will make us happy hereafter may be said to be one and the same thing for no man more certainly works out his Salvation than he that honestly and diligently works in his proper sphere Therefore the Devil commonly lays this snare in our way to Christian perfection to make us aspire after the doing of great matters which are no parts of our office thereby to busie and distract our mind that we may not attend to our proper duty which lies before us and the doing whereof is our greatest virtue 2. He therefore greatly deceives himself that would fain change his condition imagining he could better serve God if he were here or there or so or so after Providence or a prudent choise have otherwise determin'd it It doth but make him lazy and negligent in doing what he should whilest he thinks of what belongs not to him it makes him to sit idle and do nothing in the place where he is whilest he projects to do great feats where he is not Whereas the unblameable integrity or perfection at which a Christian should aim depends upon particular actions they that are negligent and incurious to do them well set themselves backward and make no progress for their heart being absent and their thoughts employ'd somewhere else they do but little where they are and yet that little is done after a dreaming careless way Such men are always beginning or about to begin to live well they contrive many things but bring nothing to perfection they are all leaves and no fruit Like Trees that are often remov'd they no where take firm root and so remain every where useless CHAP. XXIV How Christians are to live and to be sincere 1. CHristians should not indulge to the Lusts of the lower belly or to the pleasures of a nice or gluttonous palat they should abstain from all vanity and undecency in their Apparel and from all idle sports that are too expensive of time and their life should be free from sloth and negligence from ambition and pride and from covetousness and desire of riches Anger ought not to lodge in their breast and they should never do that to others which they would not have done to themselves They should do nothing carelesly nor yet rashly least of all deceitfully and hypocritically Christian duties and acts of virtue that are not done in Spirit and Truth with attention and a good intention are meer dissembling and pageantry In some places where Religion is made a Theatrical representation you shall often find men of wicked lives act the highest virtues of the greatest Saints one the constancy of Martyrs another the modesty of the Blessed Virgin or perhaps the heroick actions of Christ and his Apostles but the end of the play puts an end to their fine dissembling they no longer appear those holy men they were but presently return to their nature to their prophaneness and impurity Just so are they that have a fair specious out-side appearing precise and godly to be seen and praised or drive an interest they are meer jugglers and stage-players they put a fair vizard over an ugly face holiness outwardly inwardly unmortified lusts and perverse passions Their lives are nothing but a Comedy that will have a Tragical end 2. For indeed this is