No cross, no crown
by William Penn · English · Gutenberg #44895 · 705,728 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: No cross, no crown
a discourse shewing the nature and discipline of the holy cross of Christ
Author: William Penn
Release date: February 13, 2014 [eBook #44895]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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[Illustration: title page]
NO CROSS, NO CROWN:
A DISCOURSE,
SHEWING THE NATURE AND DISCIPLINE
OF THE
HOLY CROSS OF CHRIST.
TO WHICH ARE ADDED,
The Living and Dying Testimonies
OF
MANY PERSONS OF FAME AND LEARNING,
BOTH
OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES, IN FAVOUR OF
THIS TREATISE.
"And Jesus said unto them all; If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
me."-- LUKE, ix. 23.
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness," &c.--2
TIM. iv. 7, 8.
IN TWO PARTS.
BY WILLIAM PENN.
A NEW EDITION, REVISED.
LONDON:
HARVEY & DARTON, GRACECHURCH STREET.
1842.
LONDON:
JOSEPH RICKERBY, PRINTER,
SHERBOURN LANE.
PREFACE.
READER,
The great business of man's life, is to answer the end for which
he lives; and that is to glorify God and save his own soul: this
is the decree of Heaven, as old as the world. But so it is, that
man mindeth nothing less than what he should most mind; and
despiseth to inquire into his own being, its original duty and end;
choosing rather to dedicate his days (the steps he should make to
blessedness) to gratify the pride, avarice, and luxury of his heart:
as if he had been born for himself, or rather given himself being,
and so not subject to the reckoning and judgment of a superior
power. To this wild and lamentable pass hath poor man brought
himself by his disobedience to the law of God in his heart, by doing
that which he knows he should not do, and leaving undone what he
knows he should do. And as long as this disease continueth upon man
he will make his God his enemy, and himself incapable of the love
and salvation that He hath manifested, by his Son Jesus Christ, to
the world.
If, Reader, thou art such an one, my counsel to thee is, to retire
into thyself, and take a view of the condition of thy soul; for
Christ hath given thee light with which to do it; search carefully
and thoroughly; thy life is in it; thy soul is at stake. It is
but once to be done; if thou abuse thyself in it, the loss is
irreparable; the world is not price enough to ransom thee: wilt thou
then, for such a world, belate thyself, overstay the time of thy
salvation, and lose thy soul? Thou hast to do, I grant thee, with
great patience; but that also must have an end: therefore provoke
not that God that made thee, to reject thee. Dost thou know what
it is? It is Tophet; it is hell, the eternal anguish of the damned.
Oh! Reader, as one knowing the terrors of the Lord, I persuade thee
to be serious, diligent, and fervent about thy own salvation. Aye,
and as one knowing the comfort, peace, joy, and pleasure of the
ways of righteousness too, I exhort and invite thee to embrace the
reproofs and convictions of Christ's light and spirit in thine own
conscience, and bear the judgment, who hast wrought the sin. The
fire burns but the stubble: the wind blows but the chaff: yield up
the body, soul, and spirit to Him that maketh all things new: new
heavens, and new earth, new love, new joy, new peace, new works,
a new life and conversation. Men are grown corrupt and drossy by
sin, and they must be saved through fire, which purgeth it away:
therefore the word of God is compared to a fire, and the day of
salvation to an oven; and Christ himself to a refiner and purifier
of silver.
Come, Reader, hearken to me awhile; I seek thy salvation; that is
my plot; thou wilt forgive me. A refiner is come near thee, his
grace hath appeared unto thee: it shows thee the world's lusts, and
teaches thee to deny them. Receive his leaven, and it will change
thee: his medicine, and it will cure thee: he is as infallible as
free; without money, and with certainty. A touch of his garment did
it of old: it will do it still: his virtue is the same, it cannot
be exhausted: for in him the fulness dwells; blessed be God for
his sufficiency. He laid help upon him, that he might be mighty
to save all that come to God through him: do thou so, and he will
change thee: aye, thy vile body like unto his glorious body. He is
the great philosopher indeed; the wisdom of God, that turns lead
into gold, vile things into things precious: for he maketh saints
out of sinners, and almost gods of men. What rests to us, then,
that we must do, to be thus witnesses of his power and love? This
is the Crown: but where is the Cross? Where is the bitter cup and
bloody baptism? Come, Reader, be like him; for this transcendant joy
lift up thy head above the world; then thy salvation will draw nigh
indeed.
Christ's Cross is Christ's way to Christ's Crown. This is the
subject of the following Discourse; first written during my
confinement in the Tower of London, in the year 1668, now reprinted
with great enlargements of matter and testimonies, that thou,
Reader, mayest be won to Christ; and if won already, brought nearer
to Him. It is a path, God, in his everlasting kindness, guided my
feet into, in the flower of my youth, when about twenty-two years of
age: then He took me by the hand, and led me out of the pleasures,
vanities, and hopes of the world. I have tasted of Christ's
judgments and mercies, and of the world's frowns and reproaches: I
rejoice in my experience, and dedicate it to thy service in Christ.
It is a debt I have long owed, and has been long expected: I have
now paid it, and delivered my soul. To my country, and to the world
of Christians, I leave it: my God, if He please, make it effectual
to them all, and turn their hearts from that envy, hatred, and
bitterness, they have one against another, about worldly things;
sacrificing humanity and charity to ambition and covetousness,
for which they fill the earth with trouble and oppression; that
receiving the Spirit of Christ into their hearts, the fruits of
which are love, peace, joy, temperance, and patience, brotherly
kindness and charity, they may in body, soul, and spirit, make a
triple league against the world, the flesh, and the devil, the
common enemies of mankind; and having conquered them through a life
of self-denial, by the power of the Cross of Jesus, they may at last
attain to the eternal rest and kingdom of God.
So desireth, so prayeth,
Friendly Reader,
Thy fervent Christian Friend,
WILLIAM PENN.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTERS I. AND II.--Page 1-23.
Of the Necessity of the daily bearing of the Cross of Christ.
CHAPTER III.--Page 24-28.
What the Cross of Christ is.
CHAPTER IV.--Page 29-42.
What the great Work of the Cross is.
CHAPTERS V. AND VI.--Page 43-74.
Of unlawful Self in Religion and Morality.
CHAPTERS VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. AND XII.--Page 75-149.
Of Pride, the first capital Lust, its Rise, Definition, and
Distinction.
CHAPTER XIII.--Page 150-167.
Of Avarice, the second capital Lust, its Definition and Distinction.
CHAPTERS XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. AND XVIII.--Page 168-229.
Of Luxury, what it is, and the Mischief of it to Mankind.
CHAPTER XIX.--Page 233-294.
The Testimonies of several great, learned, and virtuous Personages
among the Gentiles, urged against the excesses of the Age.
CHAPTER XX.--Page 295-324.
The Doctrine and Practice of the blessed Lord Jesus and his Apostles,
the primitive Christians, and those of more modern Times in
favour of the Discourse.
CHAPTER XXI.--Page 325-355.
The serious Apprehensions and Expressions of several aged and
dying Men of Fame and Learning.
CHAPTER XXII.--Page 356-365.
An Exhortation to all professing Christianity, to embrace the
foregoing Reasons and Examples.
NO CROSS, NO CROWN.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
I. Of the necessity of the Cross of Christ in general; yet the
little regard Christians have to it.--2. The degeneracy of
Christendom from purity to lust, and moderation to excess.--3.
That worldly lusts and pleasures are become the care and study
of Christians, so that they have advanced upon the impiety
of infidels.--4. This defection a second part to the Jewish
tragedy, and worse than the first: the scorn Christians have
cast on their Saviour.--5. Sin is of one nature all the world
over; sinners are of the same church, the devil's children:
profession of religion in wicked men makes them but the
worse.--6. A wolf is not a lamb; a sinner cannot be, whilst
such, a saint.--7. The wicked will persecute the good; this,
false Christians have done to the true, for non-compliance
with their superstitions; the strange carnal measures false
Christians have taken of Christianity; the danger of that
self-seduction.--8. The sense of that has obliged me to make
this discourse for a dissuasive against the world's lusts, and
an invitation to take up the daily cross of Christ as the way
left us by him to blessedness.--9. Of the self-condemnation of
the wicked; that religion and worship are comprised in doing the
will of God. The advantage good men have over bad men in the
last judgment.--10. A supplication for Christendom, that she
may not be rejected in that great assize of the world. She is
exhorted to consider what relation she bears to Christ; if her
Saviour, how saved, and from what: what her experience is of
that great work. That Christ came to save from sin and wrath by
consequence; not to save men in sin, but from it, and so from
the wages of it.
I. Though the knowledge and obedience of the doctrine of the cross
of Christ be of infinite moment to the souls of men, for that is
the only door to true Christianity, and that path the ancients ever
trod to blessedness; yet, with extreme affliction let me say, it
is so little understood, so much neglected, and what is worse, so
bitterly contradicted by the vanity, superstition, and intemperance
of professed Christians, that we must either renounce to believe
what the Lord Jesus hath told us, that whosoever doth not bear his
cross, and come after him, cannot be his disciple; (Luke, xiv. 27;)
or, admitting that for truth, conclude, that the generality of
Christendom do miserably deceive and disappoint themselves in the
great business of Christianity, and their own salvation.
II. For, let us be never so tender and charitable in the survey
of those nations that entitle themselves to any interest in the
holy name of Christ, if we will but be just too, we must needs
acknowledge, that after all the gracious advantages of light, and
obligations to fidelity, which these latter ages of the world
have received by the coming, life, doctrine, miracles, death,
resurrection, and ascension of Christ, with the gifts of his
Holy Spirit; to which add the writings, labours, and martyrdom
of his dear followers in all times, there seems very little
left of Christianity but the name; which being now usurped by
the old heathen nature and life, makes the professors of it but
true heathens in disguise. For though they worship not the same
idols, they worship Christ with the same heart: and they can never
do otherwise, whilst they live in the same lusts. So that the
unmortified Christian and the heathen are of the same religion. For
though they have different objects to which they do direct their
prayers, that adoration in both is but forced and ceremonious, and
the deity they truly worship is the god of the world, the great
lord of lusts: to him they bow with the whole powers of soul and
sense. What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?
And how shall we pass away our time? Which way may we gather
wealth, increase our power, enlarge our territories, and dignify
and perpetuate our names and families in the earth? Which base
sensuality is most pathetically expressed and comprised by the
beloved Apostle John, in these words: "The lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," which, says he, "are not
of the Father, but of the world, that lieth in wickedness." (1 John,
ii. 16.)
III. It is a mournful reflection, but a truth no confidence can
be great enough to deny, that these worldly lusts fill up the
study, care, and conversation of wretched Christendom! and, which
aggravates the misery, they have grown with time. For as the world
is older, it is worse; and the examples of former lewd ages, and
their miserable conclusions, have not deterred, but excited ours; so
that the people of this seem improvers of the old stock of impiety,
and have carried it so much further than example, that instead of
advancing in virtue upon better times, they are scandalously fallen
below the life of heathens. Their high-mindedness, lasciviousness,
uncleanness, drunkenness, swearing, lying, envy, backbiting,
cruelty, treachery, covetousness, injustice, and oppression, are
so common, and committed with such invention and excess, that they
have stumbled and embittered infidels to a degree of scorning that
holy religion, to which their good example should have won their
affections.
IV. This miserable defection from primitive times, when the glory
of Christianity was the purity of its professors, I cannot but call
the second and worst part of the Jewish tragedy upon the blessed
Saviour of mankind. For the Jews, from the power of ignorance, and
the extreme prejudice they were under to the unworldly way of his
appearance, would not acknowledge him when he came, but for two or
three years persecuted, and finally crucified him in one day. But
the false Christians' cruelty lasts longer: they have first, with
Judas, professed him, and then, for these many ages, most basely
betrayed, persecuted, and crucified him, by a perpetual apostasy in
manners, from the self-denial and holiness of his doctrine; their
lives giving the lie to their faith. These are they that the author
of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us, "Crucify to themselves
the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame:" (Heb. vi. 6:)
whose defiled hearts John in his Revelation styles, "The streets
of Sodom and Egypt, spiritually so called, where also our Lord
was crucified." (Rev. xi. 8.) And as Christ said of old, a man's
enemies are those of his own house, so Christ's enemies now are
chiefly those of his own profession; they spit upon him, they nail
and pierce him, they crown him with thorns, and give him gall and
vinegar to drink. (Matt. xxvii. 34.) Nor is it hard to apprehend;
for they that live in the same evil nature and principle the Jews
did, that crucified him outwardly, must needs crucify him inwardly;
since they that reject the grace now in their own hearts, are one in
stock and generation with the hard-hearted Jews, that resisted the
grace that then appeared in and by Christ.
V. Sin is of one nature all the world over; for though a liar is
not a drunkard, nor a swearer a whoremonger, nor either properly
a murderer, yet they are all of a church; all branches of the one
wicked root; all of kin. They have but one father, the devil, as
Christ said to the professing Jews, the visible church of that age:
he slighted their claims to Abraham and Moses, and plainly told them
"That he that committed sin, was the servant of sin." (John, viii.
34, 35.) They did the devil's works, and therefore were the devil's
children. The argument will always hold upon the same reasons, and
therefore good still: "His servants ye are," saith Paul, "whom ye
obey:" (Rom. vi. 16:) and saith John to the church of old, "Let no
man deceive you; he that committeth sin is of the devil." (1 John,
iii. 7, 8.) Was Judas ever the better Christian for crying, Hail,
Master, and kissing Christ? By no means; they were the signal of
his treachery; the tokens given by which the bloody Jews should
know and take him. He called him Master, but betrayed him; he
kissed, but sold him to be killed; this is the upshot of the false
Christians' religion. If a man ask them, Is Christ your Lord? they
will cry, God forbid else: yes, he is our Lord. Very well; but do
you keep his commandments? No, how should we? How then are you his
disciples? It is impossible, say they. What! would you have us keep
his commandments? No man can. What! impossible to do that without
which Christ hath made it impossible to be a Christian? Is Christ
unreasonable? Does he reap where he has not sown? Require where he
has not enabled? Thus it is, that with Judas they call him Master,
but take part with the evil of the world to betray him; and kiss
and embrace him as far as a specious profession goes; and then sell
him, to gratify the passion that they most indulge. Thus as God said
of old, they make him serve with their sins and for their sins too.
(Isa. xliii. 24.)
VI. Let no man deceive his own soul; "grapes are not gathered of
thorns, nor figs of thistles:" (Matt. vii. 16:) a wolf is not a
sheep, nor is a vulture a dove. What form, people, or church soever
thou art of, it is the truth of God to mankind, that they which have
even the form of godliness, but by their unmortified lives, deny the
power thereof, make not the true, but false church: which, though
she entitle herself the Lamb's bride, or church of Christ, (Rev.
xvii. 5,) she is that mystery, or mysterious Babylon, fitly called
by the Holy Ghost, the mother of harlots and all abominations:
because degenerated from Christian chastity and purity, into all
the enormities of heathen Babylon; a sumptuous city of old time,
much noted for the seat of the kings of Babylon, and at that time
the place in the world of the greatest pride and luxury. As she was
then, so mystical Babylon is now the great enemy of God's people.
VII. True it is, They that are born of the flesh, hate and persecute
them that are born of the spirit, who are the circumcision in heart.
It seems they cannot own nor worship God after her inventions,
methods, and prescriptions, nor receive for doctrine her vain
traditions, any more than they can comply with her corrupt fashions
and customs in their conversation. The case being thus, from an
apostate she becomes a persecutor. It is not enough that she herself
declines from ancient purity, others must do so too. She will give
them no rest that will not partake with her in that degeneracy,
or receive her mark. Are any wiser than she, than mother church?
No, no: nor can any make war with the beast she rides upon,
those worldly powers that protect her, and vow their maintenance
against the cries of her dissenters. Apostasy and superstition are
ever proud and impatient of dissent: all must conform or perish.
Therefore the slain witnesses, and blood of the souls under the
altar, (Rev. vi. 9,) are found within the walls of this mystical
Babylon, this great city of false Christians, and are charged upon
her, by the Holy Ghost in the Revelation. Nor is it strange that she
should slay the servants who first crucified the Lord: but strange
and barbarous too, that she should kill her husband and murder
her Saviour; titles she seems so fond of, and that have been so
profitable to her; and that she would recommend herself by, though
without all justice. But her children are reduced so entirely under
the dominion of darkness, by means of their continued disobedience
to the manifestation of the divine light in their souls, that they
forget what man once was, or they should now be; and know not
true and pure Christianity when they meet it; yet pride themselves
upon professing it. Their measures are so carnal and false about
salvation, they call good evil, and evil good; they make a devil
a Christian, and a saint a devil. So that though the unrighteous
latitude of their lives be matter of lamentation, as to themselves
it is of destruction; yet that common apprehension, that they may
be children of God, while in a state of disobedience to his holy
commandments; and disciples of Jesus, though they revolt from his
cross, and members of his true church, which is without spot or
wrinkle, notwithstanding their lives are full of spots and wrinkles;
is, of all other deceptions upon themselves, the most pernicious to
their eternal condition. For they are at peace in sin, and under
a security in their transgression. Their vain hope silences their
convictions, and overlays all tender motions to repentance; so that
their mistake about their duty to God is as mischievous as their
rebellion against him.
Thus they walk on precipices, and flatter themselves, till the grave
swallows them up, and the judgments of the great God break their
lethargy, and undeceive their poor wretched souls with the anguish
of the wicked, as the reward of their work.
VIII. This has been, is, and will be the doom of all worldly
Christians: an end so dreadful, that if there were nothing of duty
to God, or obligation to men, being a man, and one acquainted with
the terrors of the Lord in the way and work of my own salvation,
compassion alone were sufficient to excite me to this dissuasive
against the world's superstitions and lusts, and to invite the
professors of Christianity to the knowledge and obedience of the
daily cross of Christ, as the alone way, left by him, and appointed
us to blessedness; that they who now do but usurp the name may
have the thing; and by the power of the cross, to which they are
now dead, instead of being dead to the world by it, may be made
partakers of the resurrection that is in Christ Jesus, unto newness
of life. For they that are truly in Christ, that is, redeemed by,
and interested in him, are new creatures. (Gal. vi. 15.) They have
received a new will; such as does the will of God, not their own.
They pray in truth, and do not mock God, when they say, Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. They have new affections; such
as are set on things above, (Col. iii. 1, 2, 3,) and make Christ
their eternal treasure. New faith; (1 John, 4, 5;) such as overcomes
the snares and temptations of the world's spirit in themselves,
or as it appears through others: and lastly, new works; not of a
superstitious contrivance, or of human invention, but the pure
fruits of the Spirit of Christ working in them, as love, joy, peace,
meekness, long-suffering, temperance, brotherly-kindness, faith,
patience, gentleness, and goodness, against which there is no law;
and they that have not the Spirit of Christ, and walk not in it, the
apostle Paul has told us, are none of his; (Rom. viii. 9;) but the
wrath of God, and condemnation of the law, will lie upon them. For
if there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ; who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit, which is Paul's doctrine;
they that walk not according to that Holy Spirit, by his doctrine,
are not in Christ: that is, have no interest in him, nor just claim
to salvation by him: and consequently there is condemnation to such.
IX. And the truth is, the religion of the wicked is a lie: "there
is no peace, saith the prophet, to the wicked." (Isaiah, xlviii.
22.) Indeed there can be none; they are reproved in their own
consciences, and condemned in their own hearts, in all their
disobedience. Go where they will, rebukes go with them, and
oftentimes terrors too: for it is an offended God that pricks
them, and who, by his light, sets their sins in order before them.
Sometimes they strive to appease him by their corporeal framed
devotion and worship, but in vain; for true worshipping of God
is doing his will, which they transgress. The rest is a false
compliment, like him that said he would go, and did not. (Matt.
xxi. 30.) Sometimes they fly to sports and company, to drown the
reprover's voice, and blunt his arrows, to chase away troubled
thoughts, and secure themselves out of the reach of the disquieter
of their pleasures; but the Almighty, first or last, is sure to
overtake them. There is no flying his final justice, for those
that reject the terms of his mercy. Impenitent rebels to his law
may then call to the mountains, and run to the caves of the earth
for protection, but in vain. His all-searching eye will penetrate
their thickest coverings, and strike up a light in that obscurity,
which shall terrify their guilty souls; and which they shall never
be able to extinguish. Indeed, their accuser is with them, they
can no more be rid of him than of themselves; he is in the midst
of them, and will stick close to them. That spirit which bears
witness with the spirits of the just will bear witness against
theirs. Nay, their own hearts will abundantly come in against them;
and, "if our hearts condemn us," saith the apostle John, "God is
greater, and knows all things;" (1 John iii. 20;) that is, there
is no escaping the judgments of God, whose power is infinite, if
a man is not able to escape the condemnation of himself. It is at
that day proud and luxurious Christians shall learn that God is no
respecter of persons; that all sects and names shall be swallowed up
in these two kinds, sheep and goats, just and unjust: and the very
righteous must have a trial for it; which made that holy man cry
out, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear?" (1 Pet. iv. 18.) If their thoughts, words,
and works must stand the test, and come under scrutiny before the
impartial Judge of heaven and earth, how then should the ungodly be
exempted? No; we are told by him that cannot lie, many shall then
even cry, Lord, Lord! set forth their profession, and recount the
works that they have done in his name, to make him propitious, and
yet be rejected with this direful sentence, "Depart from me, ye
workers of iniquity; I know you not." (Matt. vii. 23.) As if he had
said, Get you gone, you evil doers; though you have professed me,
I will not know you; your vain and evil lives have made you unfit
for my holy kingdom: get you hence, and go to the gods whom you
have served; your beloved lusts which you have worshipped, and the
evil world that you have so much coveted and adored: let them save
you now, if they can, from the wrath to come upon you, which is the
wages of the deeds you have done. Here is the end of their work that
build upon the sand; the breath of the Judge will blow it down, and
woful will the fall thereof be. Oh, it is now that the righteous
have the better of the wicked! which made an apostate cry, in old
time, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end
be like unto his." (Numb. xxiii. 10.) For the sentence is changed,
and the Judge smiles; he casts the eye of love upon his own sheep,
and invites them with "Come, ye blessed of my Father," (Matt. xxv.
34,) that through patient continuance in well-doing have long waited
for immortality; you have been the true companions of my tribulation
and cross, and, with unwearied faithfulness, in obedience to my
holy will, valiantly endured to the end, looking to me, the Author
of your precious faith, for the recompense of reward that I have
promised to them that love me, and faint not: O, enter ye into the
joy of your Lord, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.
X. O Christendom! my soul most fervently prays, that after all thy
lofty profession of Christ, and his meek and holy religion, thy
unsuitable and un-Christ-like life may not cast thee at that great
assize of the world, and lose thee so great salvation at last. Hear
me once, I beseech thee: can Christ be thy Lord, and thou not obey
him? or, canst thou be his servant, and never serve him? "Be not
deceived, such as thou sowest shalt thou reap." (Gal. vi. 7.) He is
none of thy Saviour whilst thou rejectest his grace in thy heart, by
which he should save thee. Come, what has he saved thee from? Has
he saved thee from thy sinful lusts, thy worldly affections, and
vain conversations? If not, then he is none of thy Saviour. For,
though he be offered a Saviour to all, yet he is actually a Saviour
to those only that are saved by him; and none are saved by him that
live in those evils by which they are lost from God, and which he
came to save them from.
It is sin that Christ is come to save man from, and death and wrath,
as the wages of it; but those that are not saved, that is delivered,
by the power of Christ in their souls, from the power that sin has
had over them, can never be saved from the death and wrath, that are
the assured wages of the sin they live in.
So that look how far people obtain victory over those evil
dispositions and fleshly lusts, they have been addicted to, so far
they are truly saved, and are witnesses of the redemption that comes
by Jesus Christ. His name shows his work: "And thou shalt call his
name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sin." (Matt. i.
21.) "Behold," said John, of Christ, "the Lamb of God that takes
away the sins of the world." (John, i. 29.) That is, behold him whom
God hath given to enlighten people, and for salvation to as many as
receive him, and his light and grace in their hearts, and take up
their daily cross and follow him; such as rather deny themselves the
pleasure of fulfilling their lusts than sin against the knowledge he
has given them of his will, or do that they know they ought not to
do.
CHAPTER II.
1. By this Christendom may see her lapse, how foul it is, and
next, the worse for her pretence to Christianity.--2. But there
is mercy with God upon repentance, and propitiation in the
blood of Jesus.--3. He is the light of the world that reproves
the darkness, that is, the evil of the world; and he is to be
known within.--4. Christendom, like the inn of old, is full of
other guests: she is advised to believe in, receive, and apply
to Christ.--5. Of the nature of true faith; it brings power
to overcome every appearance of evil: this leads to consider
the Cross of Christ, which has been so much wanted.--6. The
apostolic ministry, and end of it; its blessed effect; the
character of apostolic times.--7. The glory of the cross, and
its triumph over the heathen world. A measure to Christendom,
what she is not, and should be.--8. Her declension, and cause
of it.--9. The miserable effects that followed.--10. From the
consideration of the cause the cure may be more easily known,
viz., Not faithfully taking up the daily cross; then, faithfully
taking it daily up must be the remedy.
I. By all which has been said, O Christendom! and by that better
help, if thou wouldst use it, the lamp the Lord has lighted in thee,
not utterly extinct, it may evidently appear, first, how great and
full thy backsliding has been, who, from the temple of the Lord,
art become a cage of unclean birds; and of a house of prayer, a
den of thieves, a synagogue of Satan, and the receptacle of every
defiled spirit. Next, that under all this manifest defection, thou
hast nevertheless valued thy corrupt self upon thy profession of
Christianity, and fearfully deluded thyself with the hopes of
salvation. The first makes thy disease dangerous, but the last
almost incurable.
II. Yet, because there is mercy with God that he may be feared,
and that he takes no delight in the eternal death of poor sinners,
no, though backsliders themselves, (Ezek. xviii. 20, 23, 24,) but
is willing all should come to the knowledge and obedience of the
Truth, and be saved, he hath set forth his Son a propitiation, and
given him as a Saviour to take away the sins of the whole world,
that those that believe and follow him may feel the righteousness
of God in the remission of their sins, and blotting out their
transgressions for ever. (Matt. i. 21; Luke i. 77; Rom. iii. 25;
Heb. ix. 24 to 28; 1 John ii. 1, 2.) Now, behold the remedy! an
infallible cure, one of God's appointing; a precious elixir, indeed,
that never fails; and that universal medicine which no malady could
ever escape.
III. But thou wilt say, What is Christ? and where is he to be
found? and how received and applied, in order to this mighty cure?
I tell thee then, first, he is the great spiritual light of the
world that enlightens every one that comes into the world; by which
he manifests to them their deeds of darkness and wickedness, and
reproves them for committing them. Secondly, he is not far away
from thee, (Acts, xvii. 27.) as the apostle Paul said of God to the
Athenians. "Behold," says Christ himself, "I stand at the door and
knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in
to him, and sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. iii. 20.) What door
can this be but that of the heart of man?
IV. Thou, like the inn of old, hast been full of guests; thy
affections have entertained other lovers; there has been no room for
thy Saviour in thy soul. Wherefore salvation is not yet come into
thy house, though it is come to thy door, and thou hast been often
proffered it, and hast professed it long. But if he calls, if he
knocks still, that is, if his light yet shines, if it reproves thee
still, there is hope thy day is not over, and that repentance is
not yet hid from thine eyes; but his love is after thee still, and
his holy invitation continues to save thee.
Wherefore, O Christendom! believe, receive, and apply him rightly;
this is of absolute necessity, that thy soul may live for ever with
him. He told the Jews, "If you believe not that I am he, ye shall
die in your sins; and whither I go ye cannot come." (John, viii.
21, 24.) And because they believed him not, they did not receive
him, nor any benefit by him. But they that believed him received
him; and as many as received him, his own beloved disciple tells us,
"to them gave he power to become the sons of God, which are born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God." (John, i. 12, 13.) That is, who are not children of
God after the fashions, prescriptions, and traditions of men, that
call themselves his church and people, which is not after the will
of flesh and blood, and the invention of carnal man, unacquainted
with the regeneration and power of the Holy Ghost, but of God; that
is, according to his will and the working and sanctification of his
Spirit and word of life in them. And such were ever well versed in
the right application of Christ, for he was made to them indeed
propitiation, reconciliation, salvation, righteousness, redemption,
and justification.
So I say to thee, unless thou believest that he that stands at the
door of thy heart and knocks, and sets thy sins in order before
thee, and calls thee to repentance, be the Saviour of the world,
thou wilt die in thy sins, and where he is gone thou wilt never
come. For, if thou believest not in him, it is impossible that he
should do thee good, or effect thy salvation: Christ works not
against faith, but by it. It is said of old, "He did not many mighty
works in some places, because the people believed not in him."
(John, i. 12, 13.) So that, if thou truly believest in him, thine
ear will be attentive to his voice in thee, and the door of thine
heart open to his knocks. Thou wilt yield to the discoveries of his
light, and the teachings of his grace will be very dear to thee.
V. It is the nature of true faith to beget a holy fear of offending
God, a deep reverence to his precepts, and a most tender regard to
the inward testimony of his Spirit, as that by which his children
in all ages have been safely led to glory. For, as they that truly
believe receive Christ in all his tenders to the soul, so as true
it is that those who receive him thus, with him receive power to
become the sons of God: that is, an inward force and ability to do
whatever he requires; strength to mortify their lusts, controul
their affections, resist evil motions, deny themselves, and overcome
the world in its most enticing appearances. This is the life of
the blessed Cross of Christ, which is the subject of the following
discourse, and what thou, O man, must take up, if thou intendest
to be the disciple of Jesus. Nor canst thou be said to receive
Christ, or to believe in him, whilst thou rejectest his cross. For,
as receiving of Christ is the means appointed of God to salvation,
so bearing the daily cross after him is the only true testimony of
receiving him, and therefore it is enjoined by him as the great
token of discipleship, "If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Matt. xvi. 24.)
This, Christendom, is that thou hast so much wanted, and the want
of which has proved the only cause of thy miserable declension from
pure Christianity. To consider which well, as it is thy duty, so it
is of great use to thy restoration.
For as the knowledge of the cause of any distemper guides the
physician to make a right and safe judgment in the application of
his medicine, so it will much enlighten thee in the way of thy
recovery, to know and weigh the first cause of this spiritual lapse
and malady that has befallen thee. To do which, a general view of
thy primitive estate, and consequently of their work that first
laboured in the Christian vineyard, will be needful; and if therein
something be repeated, the weight and dignity of the subject will
bear it, without the need of an apology.
VI. The work of apostleship, we are told by a prime labourer in
it, was to turn people "from darkness to light, and from the power
of Satan unto God." (Acts, xxvi. 18.) That is, instead of yielding
to the temptations and motions of Satan, who is the prince of
darkness or wickedness, the one being a metaphor to the other, by
whose power their understandings were obscured, and their souls
held in the service of sin, they should turn their minds to the
appearance of Christ, the Light and Saviour of the world; who by
his light shines in their souls, and thereby gives them a sight
of their sins, and discovers every temptation and motion in them
unto evil, and reproves them when they give way thereunto; that so
they might become the children of light, and walk in the path of
righteousness. And for this blessed work of reformation did Christ
endue his apostles with his spirit and power, that so men might not
longer sleep in a security of sin and ignorance of God, but awake
to righteousness, that the Lord Jesus might give them life; that
is, that they might leave off sinning, deny themselves the pleasure
of wickedness, and, by true repentance, turn their hearts to God
in well doing, in which is peace. And truly God so blessed the
faithful labours of these poor mechanics, yet his great ambassadors
to mankind, that in a few years many thousands that had lived
without God in the world, without a sense or fear of him, lawlessly,
very strangers to the work of his Spirit in their hearts, being
captivated by fleshly lusts, were inwardly struck and quickened by
the word of life, and made sensible of the coming and power of the
Lord Jesus Christ as a judge and lawgiver in their souls, by whose
holy light and spirit the hidden things of darkness were brought
to light and condemned, and pure repentance from those dead works
begotten in them, that they might serve the living God in newness of
spirit. So that thenceforward they lived not to themselves, neither
were they carried away of those former divers lusts, by which they
had been seduced from the true fear of God; but "the law of the
spirit of life," (Rom. viii. 2,) by which they overcame the law of
sin and death, was their delight, and therein did they meditate day
and night. Their regard towards God was not taught by the precepts
of men any longer, (Isaiah, xxix. 13,) but from the knowledge they
had received by his own work and impressions in their souls. They
had quitted their old masters, the world, the flesh, and the devil,
and delivered up themselves to the holy guidance of the grace of
Christ, that taught them to "deny ungodliness and the world's lusts,
and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present life:"
(Tit. ii. 11, 12:) this is the cross of Christ indeed, and here is
the victory it gives to them that take it up; by this cross they
died daily to the old life they had lived, and by holy watchfulness
against the secret motions of evil in their hearts they crushed
sin in its conceptions, yea in its temptations. So that they, as
the apostle John advised them, "kept themselves, that the evil one
touched them not." (1 John, v. 18.)
For the light, which Satan cannot endure, and with which Christ had
enlightened them, discovered him in all his approaches and assaults
upon the mind; and the power they received through their inward
obedience to the manifestations of that blessed light, enabled them
to resist and vanquish him in all his stratagems. And thus it was
that, where once nothing was examined, nothing went unexamined;
every thought must come to judgment, and the rise and tendency of
it be also well approved, before they allowed it any room in their
minds. There was no fear of entertaining enemies for friends, whilst
this strict guard was kept upon the very wicket of the soul. Now the
old heavens and earth, that is, the old earthly conversation, and
old carnal, that is Jewish or shadowy worship, passed away apace,
and every day all things became new. He was no more a Jew that was
one outwardly, nor that circumcision that was in the flesh; but he
was the Jew that was one inwardly, and that circumcision which was
of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of man, but of God. (Rom. ii. 28, 29.)
VII. Indeed, the glory of the cross shined so conspicuously through
the self-denial of their lives who daily bore it, that it struck
the heathen with astonishment; and in a small time so shook their
altars, discredited their oracles, struck the multitude, invaded the
court, and overcame their armies, that it led priests, magistrates,
and generals in triumph after it, as the trophies of its power and
victory.
And, while this integrity dwelt with Christians, mighty was
the presence, and invincible that power that attended them; it
quenched fire, daunted lions, turned the edge of the sword,
outfaced instruments of cruelty, convicted judges, and converted
executioners. (Heb. xi. 32, to the end; Isaiah, xliii. 2; Daniel,
iii. 12, to the end.) In fine, the way their enemies took to
destroy, increased them; and, by the deep wisdom of God, they who
in all their designs endeavoured to extinguish the truth were made
great promoters of it. (Dan. vi. 16, to the end.) Now, not a vain
thought, not an idle word, not an unseemly action was permitted; no,
not an immodest look, no courtly dress, gay apparel, complimental
respects, or personal honours: much less those lewd immoralities
and scandalous vices, now in vogue with Christians, could find
either example or connivance among them. Their care was not how to
sport away their precious time, but how to redeem it, (Eph. v. 15,
16,) that they might have enough to work out their great salvation,
which they carefully did, with fear and trembling: not with balls
and masks, with playhouses, dancing, feasting, and gaming; no,
no; to make sure of their heavenly calling and election was much
dearer to them than the poor and trifling joys of mortality. For
they having, with Moses, seen him that is invisible, and found
that his loving-kindness was better than life, the peace of his
Spirit than the favour of princes,--as they feared not Cæsar's
wrath,--so they chose rather to sustain the afflictions of Christ's
true pilgrims than enjoy the pleasures of sin that were but for a
season; esteeming his reproaches of more value than the perishing
treasures of the earth. And if the tribulations of Christianity were
more eligible than the comforts of the world, and the reproaches
of one than all the honour of the other, there was then surely no
temptations in it that could shake the integrity of Christendom.
VIII. By this short draught of what Christendom was, thou mayest
see, O Christendom, what thou are not, and consequently what thou
oughtest to be. But how comes it that from a Christendom that was
thus meek, merciful, self-denying, suffering, temperate, holy,
just, and good, so like to Christ, whose name she bore, we find a
Christendom now that is superstitious, idolatrous, persecuting,
proud, passionate, envious, malicious, selfish, drunken, lascivious,
unclean, lying, swearing, cursing, covetous, oppressing, defrauding,
with all other abominations known in the earth?
I lay this down as the undoubted reason of this degeneracy, to wit,
the inward disregard of thy mind to the light of Christ shining
in thee, that first showed thee thy sins and reproved them, and
that taught and enabled thee to deny and resist them. For as thy
fear towards God, and holy abstinence from unrighteousness, was,
at first, not taught by the precepts of men, but by that light
and grace which revealed the most secret thoughts and purposes of
thine heart, and searched the most inward parts, setting thy sins
in order before thee, and reproving thee for them, not suffering
one unfruitful thought, word, or work of darkness to go unjudged;
so when thou didst begin to disregard that light and grace, to be
careless of that holy watch that was once set up in thine heart, and
didst not keep sentinel there, as formerly, for God's glory and thy
own peace, the restless enemy of man's good quickly took advantage
of this slackness, and often surprised thee with temptations, whose
suitableness to thy inclinations made his conquest over thee not
difficult.
In short, thou didst omit to take up Christ's holy yoke, to bear
thy daily cross; thou wast careless of thy affections, and kept
no journal or check upon thy actions; but didst decline to audit
accounts in thy own conscience, with Christ thy light, the great
Bishop of thy soul and Judge of thy works, whereby the holy fear
decayed and love waxed cold, vanity abounded, and duty became
burdensome. Then up came formality, instead of the power of
godliness; superstition, in place of Christ's institution: and
whereas Christ's business was to draw on the minds of his disciples
from an outward temple, and carnal rites and services, to the inward
and spiritual worship of God, suitable to the nature of divinity, a
worldly, human, pompous worship is brought in again, and a worldly
priesthood, temple, and altar, are re-established. Now it was that
the sons of God once more saw the daughters of men were fair, (Gen.
vi. 2,) that is, the pure eye grew dim, which repentance had opened,
that saw no comeliness out of Christ, and the eye of lust became
unclosed again by the god of the world; and those worldly pleasures
that make such as love them forget God, though once despised for the
sake of Christ, began now to recover their old beauty and interest
in thy affections, and from liking them, to be the study, care, and
pleasure of thy life.
True, there still remained the exterior forms of worship and a
nominal and oral reverence to God and Christ, but that was all; for
the offence of the holy cross ceased, the power of godliness was
denied, self-denial lost, and, though fruitful in the invention
of ceremonious ornaments, yet barren in the blessed fruits of the
Spirit. And a thousand shells cannot make one kernel, or many dead
corpses one living man.
IX. Thus religion fell from experience to tradition, and worship
from power to form, from life to letter; and, instead of putting up
lively and powerful requests, animated by a deep sense of want and
the assistance of the Holy Spirit,--by which the ancients prayed,
wrestled, and prevailed with God,--behold a by-rote _mumpsimus_,
a dull and insipid formality, made up of corporeal bowings and
cringings, garments and furnitures, perfumes, voices, and music,
fitter for the reception of some earthly prince than the heavenly
worship of the one true and immortal God, who is an eternal,
invisible Spirit.
But thy heart growing carnal, thy religion did so too; and, not
liking it as it was, thou fashionedst it to thy liking: forgetting
what the holy prophet said, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an
abomination to the Lord," (Prov. xv. 8,) and what St. James saith,
"Ye ask, and receive not." (James, iv. 3.) Why? "Because ye ask
amiss;" that is, with a heart that is not right, but insincere,
unmortified, not in the faith that purifies the soul, and therefore
can never receive what is asked: so that a man may say with truth,
thy condition is worse by thy religion, because thou art tempted to
think thyself better for it, and art not.
X. Well; by this prospect that is given thee of thy foul fall from
primitive Christianity, and the true cause of it,--to wit, a neglect
of the daily cross of Christ,--it may be easy for thee to inform
thyself of the way of thy recovery.
For, look, at what door thou wentest out, at that door thou must
come in; and, as letting fall and forbearing the daily cross lost
thee, so taking up and enduring the daily cross must recover thee.
It is the same way by which the sinners and apostates become the
disciples of Jesus. "Whosoever," says Christ, "will come after me
and be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his daily
cross and follow me." (Matthew, xvi. 24; Mark, viii. 34; Luke,
xiv. 27.) Nothing short of this will do; mark that! for, as it is
sufficient, so it is indispensable; no crown but by the cross, no
life eternal but through death; and it is but just that those evil
and barbarous affections that crucified Christ afresh, should, by
his holy cross, be crucified.
CHAPTER III.
1. What the cross of Christ is. A figurative speech, but truly
the Divine power that mortifies the world.--2. It is so called
by the apostle Paul to the Corinthians.--3. Where it is the
cross appears, and must be borne? Within; where the lusts are,
there they must be crucified.--4. Experience teaches every
one this; to be sure Christ asserts it, from within comes
murder, &c., and that is the house where the strong man must be
bound.--5. How is the cross to be borne? The way is spiritual, a
denial of self, of the pleasure of sin; to please God, and obey
his will as manifested to the soul by the light He gives it.--6.
This shows the difficulty, yet the necessity of the cross.
The daily cross being then, and still, O Christendom! the way to
glory, that the succeeding matter, which wholly relates to the
doctrine of it, may come with most evidence and advantage upon thy
conscience it is most seriously to be considered by thee,--
First, What the cross of Christ is?
Secondly, Where the cross of Christ is to be taken up?
Thirdly, How, and after what manner it is to be borne?
Fourthly, What is the great work and business of the cross? In
which, the sins it crucifies, with the mischiefs that attend them,
will be at large expressed.
Fifthly and lastly, I shall add many testimonies from living and
dying persons of great reputation, either for their quality,
learning, or piety, as a general confirmation of the whole tract.
To the first, What is the cross of Christ?
I. The cross of Christ is a figurative speech, borrowed from the
outward tree, or wooden cross, on which Christ submitted to the will
of God, suffering death at the hands of evil men. So that the cross
mystical is that Divine grace and power which crosseth the carnal
wills of men, and gives a contradiction to their corrupt affections,
and that constantly opposeth itself to the inordinate and fleshly
appetite of their minds, and so may be justly termed the instrument
of man's wholly dying to the world, and being made conformable
to the will of God. For nothing else can mortify sin, or make it
easy for us to submit to the Divine will in things otherwise very
contrary to their own.
II. The preaching of the cross, therefore, in primitive times was
fitly called by Paul, that famous and skilful apostle in spiritual
things, "the power of God," though to them that perish, then, as
now, "foolishness." That is, to those that were truly weary and
heavy laden, and needed a deliverer, to whom sin was burdensome
and odious, the preaching of the cross, by which sin was to be
mortified, was, as to them, the power of God, or a preaching of
the Divine power by which they were made disciples of Christ and
children of God; and it wrought so powerfully upon them that no
proud nor licentious mockers could put them out of love with it.
But to those that walked in the broad way, in the full latitude of
their lusts, and dedicated their time and care to the pleasure of
their corrupt appetites, to whom all yoke and bridle were and are
intolerable, the preaching of the cross was and is foolishness.
III. Well: but then where does this cross appear, and where must it
be taken up?
I answer, within: that is, in the heart and soul; for where the
sin is, the cross must be. Now all evil comes from within: this
Christ taught: "From within," saith Christ, "out of the heart of man
proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye,
blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evils come from within, and
defile the man." (Mark, vii. 21, 22, 23.)
The heart of man is the seat of sin, and where he is defiled he must
be sanctified; and where sin lives, there it must die: it must be
crucified. Custom in evil hath made it natural to men to do evil;
and as the soul rules the body, so the corrupt nature sways the
whole man: but still, it is all from within.
IV. Experience teaches every son and daughter of Adam to assent to
this; for the enemy's temptations are ever directed to the mind,
which is within: if they take not, the soul sins not; if they are
embraced, lust is presently conceived, that is, inordinate desires;
lust conceived, brings forth sin; and sin finished, that is, acted,
brings forth death. (James, v. 15.) Here is both the cause and the
effect, the very genealogy of sin, its rise and end.
In all this, the heart of evil man is the devil's mint, his
work-house, the place of his residence, where he exercises his
power and art. And therefore the redemption of the soul is aptly
called the destruction of the works of the devil, and bringing in of
everlasting righteousness. (1 John, iii. 8.; Dan. ix. 24.) When the
Jews would have defamed Christ's miracle of casting out devils, by a
blasphemous imputation of it to the power of Beelzebub, he says that
"no man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods,
till he first bind the strong man." (Matt. xii. 29.) Which, as it
shows the contrariety that was between Beelzebub and the power by
which he dispossessed him, so it teaches us to know that the souls
of the wicked are the devil's house, and that his goods, his evil
works, can never be destroyed till first he that wrought them, and
keeps the house, be bound. All which makes it easy to know where the
cross must be taken up, by which alone the strong man must be bound,
his goods spoiled, and his temptations resisted, that is, within, in
the heart of man.
V. But in the next place, how and in what manner is the cross to be
daily borne?
The way, like the cross, is spiritual: that is an inward submission
of the soul to the will of God, as it is manifested by the light of
Christ in the consciences of men, though it be contrary to their own
inclinations. For example: when evil presents, that which shows the
evil does also tell them they should not yield to it; and if they
close with its counsel, it gives them power to escape it. But they
that look and gaze upon the temptation, at last fall in with it, and
are overcome by it; the consequence of which is guilt and judgment.
Therefore, as the cross of Christ is that spirit and power in men,
though not of men, but of God, which crosseth and reproveth their
fleshly lusts and affections; so the way of taking up the cross is
an entire resignation of soul to the discoveries and requirings
of it: not to consult their worldly pleasure, or carnal ease, or
interest, for such are captivated in a moment, but continually to
watch against the very appearances of evil, and by the obedience of
faith, that is, of true love to, and confidence in God, cheerfully
to offer up to the death of the cross, that evil part, that Judas
in themselves, which, not enduring the heat of the siege, and being
impatient in the hour of temptation, would, by its near relation to
the tempter, more easily betray their souls into his hands.
VI. O this shows to every one's experience how hard it is to be a
true disciple of Jesus! the way is narrow indeed, and the gate very
strait, where not a word, no not a thought must slip the watch, or
escape judgment; such circumspection, such caution, such patience,
such constancy, such holy fear and trembling. This gives an easy
interpretation to that hard saying, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God;" (Matt. xxiv. 42; xxv. 13; xxvi. 38, 42;) those
that are captivated with fleshly lusts and affections: for they
cannot bear the cross; and they that cannot endure the cross must
never have the crown. To reign, it is necessary first to suffer.
(Phil. ii. 12; 1 Cor. xv. 50.)
CHAPTER IV.
1. What is the great work of the cross? The answer to this is
of great moment.--2. The work of the cross is self-denial.--3.
What was the cup and cross of Christ?--4. What is our cup and
cross?--5. Our duty is to follow Christ as our captain.--6.
Of the distinction in self, a lawful and unlawful self.--7.
What the lawful self is.--8. That it is to be denied in some
cases by Christ's doctrine and example.--9. By the Apostle's
pattern.--10. The danger of preferring lawful self above our
duty to God.--11. The reward of self-denial an excitement to
it.--12. This doctrine as old as Abraham.--13. His obedience
of faith memorable.--14. Job a great instance of self-denial,
his contentment.--15. Moses also a mighty example, his neglect
of Pharaoh's court.--16. His choice.--17. The reason of it,
viz. the recompense of reward.--18. Isaiah no inconsiderable
instance, who of a courtier, became a holy prophet.--19. These
instances concluded with that of holy Daniel, his patience and
integrity, and the success they had upon the king.--20. There
might be many mentioned to confirm this blessed doctrine.--21.
All must be left for Christ, as men would be saved.--22. The
way of God is a way of faith and self-denial.--23. An earnest
supplication and exhortation to all, to attend upon these things.
But fourthly, What is the great work and business of the cross
respecting man?
Answ. I. This indeed is of that mighty moment to be truly, plainly,
and thoroughly answered, that all that went before seems only to
serve for preface to it; and miscarrying in it to be no less than
a misguidance of the soul about its way to blessedness. I shall
therefore pursue the question, with God's help, and the best
knowledge He hath given me in the experience of several years'
discipleship.
II. The great work and business of the cross of Christ in man
is self-denial; a word of as much depth in itself as of sore
contradiction to the world, little understood but less embraced by
it, yet it must be borne for all that. The Son of God is gone before
us, and, by the bitter cup He drank and the baptism He suffered, has
left us an example that we should follow in his steps; which made
him put that hard question to the wife of Zebedee and her two sons,
upon her soliciting that one might sit at his right and the other at
his left hand in his kingdom, "Are ye able to drink of the cup that
I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized
with?" It seems their faith was strong; they answered, "We are
able." Upon which he replied, "Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and
be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with;" but their reward
he left to his Father. (Matt. xx. 21, 22, 23.)
III. What was his cup he drank, and baptism he suffered? I answer,
they were the denial and offering up of himself by the eternal
Spirit to the will of God, undergoing the tribulations of his life
and agonies of his death upon the cross for man's salvation.
IV. What is our cup and cross that we should drink and suffer? They
are the denial and offering up of ourselves, by the same Spirit, to
do or suffer the will of God for his service and glory, which is
the true life and obedience of the cross of Jesus; narrow still,
but before an unbeaten way. For when there was none to help, not
one to open the seals, to give knowledge, to direct the course
of poor man's recovery, He came in the greatness of his love and
strength; and though clothed with the infirmities of a mortal man,
being within fortified with the almightiness of an immortal God, He
travelled through all the straits and difficulties of humanity, and
first, of all others, trod the untrodden path to blessedness.
V. O come! let us follow Him, the most unwearied, the most
victorious captain of our salvation; to whom all the great
Alexanders and mighty Cæsars of the world are less than the poorest
soldier of their camps could be to them. True, they were all great
princes of their kind, and conquerors too, but on very different
principles. For Christ made himself of no reputation, to save
mankind; but these plentifully ruined people to augment theirs. They
vanquished others, not themselves; Christ conquered self, that ever
vanquished them; of merit therefore the most excellent Prince and
Conqueror. Besides, they advanced their empire by rapine and blood,
but He by suffering and persuasion; He never by compulsion, they
always by force prevailed. Misery and slavery followed all their
victories, his brought greater freedom and felicity to those he
overcame. In all they did they sought to please themselves; in all
He did he aimed to please his Father, who is King of kings and Lord
of lords.
It is this most perfect pattern of self-denial we must follow, if
ever we will come to glory; to do which let us consider self-denial
in its true distinction and extent.
VI. There is a lawful and unlawful self: and both must be denied
for the sake of him, who in submission to the will of God counted
nothing dear that he might save us. And, though the world be
scarcely in any part of it at that pass as yet to need that
lesson of the denial of lawful self, that every day most greedily
sacrifices to the pleasure of unlawful self; yet to take the whole
thing before me, and for that it may possibly meet with some that
are so far advanced in this spiritual warfare as to receive some
service from it, I shall at least touch upon it.
VII. The lawful self which we are to deny, is that conveniency,
ease, enjoyment, and plenty, which in themselves are so far from
being evil, that they are the bounty and blessings of God to us, as
husband, wife, child, house, land, reputation, liberty, and life
itself; these are God's favours, which we may enjoy with lawful
pleasure and justly improve as our honest interest. But when God
requires them, at what time soever the lender calls for them or
is pleased to try our affections by our parting with them; I say,
when they are brought in competition with him, they must not be
preferred, they must be denied. Christ himself descended from the
glory of his Father, and willingly made himself of no reputation
among men, that he might make us of some with God; and, from the
quality of thinking it no robbery to be equal with God, he humbled
himself to the poor form of a servant; yea, the ignominious death of
the cross. (Phil. ii. 5, 6, 7, 8.)
VIII. It is the doctrine he teaches us in these words, "He that
loveth father or mother, son or daughter, more than me, is not
worthy of me." (Matt. x. 37.) Again, "Whoever he be of you that
forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be my disciple." (Luke, xiv.
33.) And he plainly told the young rich man that if he would have
eternal life, he should sell all and follow him; (Mark, x. 21, 22;)
a doctrine sad to him as it is to those that, like him, for all
their high pretences to religion, in truth love their possessions
more than Christ. This doctrine of self-denial is the condition
to eternal happiness, "He that will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross and follow me." (Matt. xvi. 24.)
IX. This made those honest fishermen quit their lawful trades and
follow him, when he called them to it, and others that waited for
the consolation of Israel to offer up their estates, reputations,
liberties, and also lives, to the displeasure and fury of their
kindred and the government they lived under for the spiritual
advantage that accrued to them by their faithful adherence to his
holy doctrine. True, many would have excused their following him in
the parable of the feast: some had bought land, some had married
wives, and others had bought yokes of oxen, and could not come;
(Luke, xiv. 18, 19, 20;) that is, an immoderate love of the world
hindered them: their lawful enjoyments, from servants became their
idols; they worshipped them more than God, and would not quit them
to come to God. But this is recorded to their reproach; and we may
herein see the power of self upon the worldly man, and the danger
that comes to him by the abuse of lawful things. What, thy wife
dearer to thee than thy Saviour! and thy land and oxen preferred
before thy soul's salvation! O beware, that thy comforts prove not
snares first, and then curses: to overrate them, is to provoke him
that gave them to take them away again: come, and follow him that
giveth life eternal to the soul.
X. Woe to them that have their hearts in their earthly possessions!
for when they are gone, their heaven is gone with them. It is too
much the sin of the greatest part of the world, that they stick
in the comforts of it. And it is lamentable to behold how their
affections are bemired and entangled with their conveniencies and
accommodations in it. The true self-denying man is a pilgrim; but
the selfish man is an inhabitant of the world: the one uses it, as
men do ships, to transport themselves or tackle in a journey, that
is, to get home; the other looks no further, whatever he prates,
than to be fixed in fulness and ease here, and likes it so well,
that if he could, he would not exchange. However, he will not
trouble himself to think of the other world, till he is sure he must
live no longer in this: but then, alas! it may prove too late; not
to Abraham, but to Dives he may go; the story is as true as sad.
XI. But on the other hand, it is not for nought that the disciples
of Jesus deny themselves; and indeed, Christ himself had the eternal
joy in his eye: "For the joy that was set before him," says the
author to the Hebrews, "he endured the cross;" (Heb. xii. 2;) that
is, he denied himself, and bore the reproaches and death of the
wicked; and despised the shame, to wit, the dishonour and derision
of the world. It made him not afraid nor shrink, he contemned it;
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. And to their
encouragement, and great consolation, when Peter asked him, what
they should have that had forsaken all to follow him, he answered
them, "Verily I say unto you, that ye, which have followed me in
the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of
his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the
twelve tribes of Israel," (Matt. xix. 27-29,) that were then in an
apostacy from the life and power of godliness. This was the lot of
his disciples; the more immediate companions of his tribulations,
and first messengers of his kingdom. But the next that follows is
to all: and "every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for
my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit
everlasting life." It was this recompense of reward, this eternal
crown of righteousness, that in every age has raised, in the souls
of the just, a holy neglect, yea, contempt of the world. To this is
owing the constancy of the martyrs, as to their blood, the triumph
of the Truth.
XII. Nor is this a new doctrine; it is as old as Abraham. (Gen.
xii.) In several most remarkable instances, his life was made up
of self-denial. First, in quitting his own land, where we may well
suppose him settled in the midst of plenty, at least sufficiency:
and why? Because God called him. Indeed this should be reason
enough, but such is the world's degeneracy that in fact it is not:
and the same act, upon the same inducement, in any now, though
praised in Abraham, would be derided. So apt are people not to
understand what they commend; nay, to despise those actions, when
they meet them in the people of their own times, which they pretend
to admire in their ancestors.
XIII. But he obeyed: the consequence was, that God gave him a mighty
land. This was the first reward of his obedience. The next was, a
son in his old age; and which greatened the blessing, after it had
been, in nature, past the time of his wife's bearing of children.
(Gen. xxii. 2.) Yet God called for his darling, their only child,
the joy of their age, the son of a miracle, and he upon whom the
fulfilling of the promise made to Abraham did depend. For this
son, I say, God called: a mighty trial: that which, one would have
thought, might very well have overturned his faith, and stumbled
his integrity; at least have put him upon this dispute in himself.
This command is unreasonable and cruel; it is the tempter's, it
cannot be God's. For, is it to be thought that God gave me a son to
make a sacrifice of him? that the father should be butcher of his
only child? Again, that he should require me to offer up the son of
his own promise, by whom his covenant is to be performed; this is
incredible. I say, thus Abraham might naturally enough have argued,
to withstand the voice of God, and indulge his great affections
to his beloved Isaac. But good old Abraham, that knew the voice
that had promised him a son, had not forgotten to know it, when it
required him back again; he disputes not, though it looked strange,
and perhaps with some surprise and horror, as a man. He had learned
to believe that God, that gave him a child by a miracle, could work
another to preserve or restore him. His affections could not balance
his duty, much less overcome his faith; for he received him in a way
that would let him doubt of nothing that God had promised to him.
To the voice of this Almightiness he bows, builds an altar, binds
his only son upon it, kindles the fire, and stretches forth his hand
to take the knife: but the angel stopped the stroke: Hold, Abraham,
thy integrity is proved. What followed? a ram served, and Isaac was
his again. This shows how little serves, where all is resigned,
and how mean a sacrifice contents the Almighty, where the heart is
approved. So that it is not the sacrifice that recommends the heart,
but the heart that gives the sacrifice acceptance.
God often touches our best comforts, and calls for that which we
most love, and are least willing to part with. Not that he always
takes it utterly away, but to prove the soul's integrity, to caution
us from excesses, and that we may remember God, the author of those
blessings we possess, and live loose to them. I speak my experience;
the way to keep our enjoyments is to resign them; and though that
be hard, it is sweet to see them returned, as Isaac was to his
father Abraham, with more love and blessing than before. O stupid
world! O worldly Christians; not only strangers, but enemies to this
excellent faith! and whilst so, the rewards of it you can never know.
XIV. But Job presses hard upon Abraham: his self-denial also was
very signal. For when the messengers of his afflictions came thick
upon him, one doleful story after another, till he was left almost
as naked as when he was born; the first thing he did, he fell to
the ground, and worshipped that power, and kissed that hand that
stripped him; so far from murmuring, that he concludes his losses
of estate and children with these words: "Naked came I out of my
mother's womb, and naked shall I return: the Lord gave and the Lord
hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job, i. 21.) O
the deep faith, patience, and contentment of this excellent man!
one would have thought this repeated news of ruin had been enough
to have overset his confidence in God; but it did not; that stayed
him. But indeed he tells us why; his Redeemer lived; "I know," says
he, "that my Redeemer lives." (Job, xix. 25, 26.) And it appeared
he did; for he had redeemed him from the world: his heart was not
in his worldly comforts: his hope lived above the joys of time and
troubles of mortality; not tempted by the one, nor shaken by the
other; but firmly believed, that when after his skin worms should
have consumed his body, yet with his eyes he should see his God.
Thus was the heart of Job both submitted to and comforted in the
will of God.
XV. Moses is the next great example in sacred story for remarkable
self-denial, before the times of Christ's appearance in the
flesh. He had been saved when an infant, by an extraordinary
providence, and it seems, by what followed, for an extraordinary
service: Pharaoh's daughter, whose compassion was the means of his
preservation, when the king decreed the slaughter of the Hebrew
males, (Exod. ii. 1, 10,) took him for her son, and gave him the
education of her father's court. His own graceful presence and
extraordinary abilities, joined with her love for him, and interest
in her father to promote him, must have rendered him, if not capable
of succession, at least of being chief minister of affairs under
that wealthy and powerful prince. For Egypt was then what Athens and
Rome were after, the most famous for learning, art, and glory.
XVI. But Moses, ordained for other work and guided by a higher
principle, no sooner came to years of discretion, than the impiety
of Egypt, and the oppressions of his brethren there, grew a burden
too heavy for him to bear. And though so wise and good a man could
not want those generous and grateful acknowledgments, that became
the kindness of the king's daughter to him; yet he had also seen
that God that was invisible; (Heb. xi. 24-27;) and did not dare to
live in the ease and plenty of Pharaoh's house, whilst his poor
brethren were required to make brick without straw. (Exod. v. 7, 16.)
Thus the fear of the Almighty taking deep hold of his heart, he
nobly refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and
chose rather a life of affliction, with the most despised and
oppressed Israelites, and to be the companion of their tribulations
and jeopardies, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
esteeming the reproaches of Christ, which he suffered for making
that unworldly choice, greater riches than all the treasures of that
kingdom.
XVII. Nor was he so foolish as they thought him; he had reason on
his side; for it is said, he had an eye to the recompense of reward,
he did but refuse a lesser benefit for a greater. In this his wisdom
transcended that of the Egyptians; for they made the present world
their choice, as uncertain as the weather, and so lost that which
has no end. Moses looked deeper, and weighed the enjoyments of this
life in the scales of eternity, and found they made no weight there.
He governed himself not by the immediate possession, but the nature
and duration of the reward. His faith corrected his affections, and
taught him to sacrifice the pleasure of self, to the hope he had of
a future more excellent recompense.
XVIII. Isaiah[1] was no inconsiderable instance of this blessed
self-denial; who of a courtier became a prophet, and left the
worldly interests of the one, for the faith, patience, and
sufferings of the other. For his choice did not only lose him the
favour of men, but their wickedness, enraged at his integrity to
God, in his fervent and bold reproofs of them, made a martyr of him
in the end, for they barbarously sawed him asunder in the reign of
king Manasseh. Thus died that excellent man, and commonly called the
Evangelical Prophet.
[1] Dorotheus in his Lives of the Prophets.
XIX. I shall add, of many, one example more, and that is from
the fidelity of Daniel; a holy and wise young man, who when his
external advantages came in competition with his duty to Almighty
God, relinquished them all; and instead of being solicitous how to
secure himself, as one minding nothing less, he was, to the utmost
hazard of himself, most careful how to preserve the honour of God,
by his fidelity to his will. And though at the first it exposed him
to ruin, yet, as an instance of great encouragement to all that like
him will choose to keep a good conscience in an evil time, at last
it advanced him greatly in the world; and the God of Daniel was made
famous and terrible through his perseverance even in the eyes of
heathen kings.
XX. What shall I say of all the rest, who counted nothing dear that
they might do the will of God, abandoned their worldly comforts,
and exposed their ease and safety, as often as the heavenly vision
called them,[2] to the wrath and malice of degenerate princes and an
apostate church? More especially Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Micah, who
after they had denied themselves, in obedience to the divine voice,
sealed their testimony with their blood.
[2] Dorotheus in his Lives of the Prophets.
Thus was self-denial the practice and glory of the ancients, that
were predecessors to the coming of Christ in the flesh: and shall
we hope to go to heaven without it now, when our Saviour himself is
become the most excellent example of it? and that not as some would
fain have it, viz. for us, that we need not; (1 Peter, ii. 21;) but
for us, that we might deny ourselves, and so be the true followers
of his blessed example.
XXI. Whoever therefore thou art that wouldst do the will of
God, but faintest in thy desires, from the opposition of worldly
considerations, remember I tell thee, in the name of Christ, that
he that prefers father or mother, sister or brother, wife or child,
house or land, reputation, honour, office, liberty, or life, before
the testimony of the light of Jesus, in his own conscience, shall be
rejected of him in the solemn and general inquest upon the world,
when all shall be judged, and receive according to the deeds done,
not the profession made, in this life. It was the doctrine of Jesus,
that if thy right hand offend thee, thou must cut it off; and if thy
right eye offend thee, thou must pluck it out: (Matt. v. 29, 30:)
that is, if the most dear, the most useful and tender comforts thou
enjoyest, stand in thy soul's way, and interrupt thy obedience to
the voice of God, and thy conformity to his holy will revealed in
thy soul, thou art engaged, under the penalty of damnation, to part
with them.
XXII. The way of God is a way of faith, as dark to sense, as mortal
to self. It is the children of obedience, who count, with holy Paul,
all things dross and dung, that they may win Christ, and know and
walk in this narrow way. Speculation will not do, nor can refined
notions enter; the obedient only eat the good of this land. (Isaiah,
i. 19.) They that do his will, says the blessed Jesus, shall know
of my doctrine; (John, vii. 17;) them He will instruct. There is no
room for instruction, where lawful self is lord, and not servant.
For self cannot receive it; that which should is oppressed by self,
fearful, and dare not. O! what will my father or mother say? How
will my husband use me? or finally, what will the magistrate do
with me? For though I have a most powerful persuasion, and clear
conviction upon my soul, of this or that thing, yet considering how
unmodish it is, what enemies it has, and how strange and singular I
shall seem to them, I hope God will pity my weakness: if I sink, I
am but flesh and blood; it may be hereafter He may better enable me;
and there is time enough. Thus selfish, fearful man.
But deliberating is ever worst; for the soul loses in parley: the
manifestation brings power with it. Never did God convince people,
but, upon submission, he empowered them. He requires nothing without
giving ability to perform it: that were mocking, not saving men.
It is enough for thee to do thy duty, that God shows thee thy
duty; provided thou closest with that light and spirit by which he
gives thee that knowledge. They that want power, are such as do
not receive Christ in his convictions upon the soul, and such will
always want it; but such as do, they receive power, like those of
old, to become the children of God, through the pure obedience of
faith.
XXIII. Wherefore, let me beseech you, by the love and mercy of God,
by the life and death of Christ, by the power of his Spirit, and
the hope of immortality, that you, whose hearts are established in
your temporal comforts, and so lovers of self, more than of these
heavenly things, would let the time past suffice: that you would
not think it enough to be clear of such impieties, as too many are
found in, whilst your inordinate love of lawful things has defiled
your enjoyment of them, and drawn your hearts from the fear, love,
obedience, and self-denial of a true disciple of Jesus. Turn about
then, and hearken to the still voice in thy conscience; it tells
thee thy sins, and thy misery in them; it gives a lively discovery
of the very vanity of the world, and opens to the soul some prospect
of eternity, and the comforts of the just that are at rest. If thou
adhere to this, it will divorce thee from sin and self: thou wilt
soon find, that the power of its charms exceeds that of wealth,
honour, and beauty of the world, and finally will give thee that
tranquillity which the storms of time can never shipwreck nor
disorder. Here all thy enjoyments are blest, though small, yet
great by that presence that is within them.
Even in this world the righteous have the better of it, for they use
the world without rebuke, because they do not abuse it. They see and
bless the hand that feeds, and clothes, and preserves them. And as
by beholding him in all his works, they do not adore them, but him;
so the sweetness of his blessings that gives them, is an advantage
such have upon those that see him not. Besides, in their increase,
they are not lifted up, nor in their adversities are they cast down:
and why? Because they are moderated in the one, and comforted in the
other, by his divine presence.
In short, heaven is the throne, and the earth but the footstool of
that man that hath self under foot. And those that know that station
will not easily be moved; such learn to number their days, that they
may not be surprised with their dissolution; and to redeem their
time, because their days are evil; (Ephes. v. 16;) remembering they
are stewards, and must deliver up their accounts to an impartial
judge. Therefore not to self but to him they live, and in him die,
and are blessed with them that die in the Lord. And thus I conclude
my discourse on the right use of lawful self.
CHAPTER V.
1. Of unlawful self; it is two-fold: 1st, in religion;
2nd, in morality.--2. Of those that are most formal,
superstitious, and pompous in worship.--3. God's rebuke of
carnal apprehensions.--4. Christ drew off his disciples from
the Jewish exterior worship, and instituted a more spiritual
one.--5. Stephen is full and plain in this matter.--6. Paul
refers the temple of God twice to man.--7. Of the cross of
these worldly worshippers.--8. Flesh and blood make their
cross, therefore cannot be crucified by it.--9. They are yokes
without restraint.--10. Of the gaudiness of their cross,
and their respect to it.--11. A recluse life no true gospel
abnegation.--12. Comparison between Christ's self-denial and
theirs: his leads to purity in the world, theirs to voluntary
imprisonment, that they might not be tempted of the world.
The mischief which that example, if followed, would do to the
world. It destroys useful society and honest labour. A lazy life
the usual refuge of idleness, poverty, and guilty age.--13.
Of Christ's cross in this case. The impossibility that such
an external application can remove an internal cause.--14. An
exhortation to the men of this belief, not to deceive themselves.
I. I am now come to unlawful self, which, more or less, is the
immediate concern of much the greater part of mankind. This unlawful
self is two-fold. First, that which relates to religious worship:
secondly, that which concerns moral and civil conversation in the
world. And they are both of infinite consequence to be considered
by us. In which I shall be as brief as I may, with ease to my
conscience, and no injury to the matter.
II. That unlawful self in religion that ought to be mortified by
the cross of Christ, is man's invention and performance of worship
to God as divine, which is not so, either in its institution or
performance. In this great error those people have the van of all
that attribute to themselves the name of Christians, that are
most exterior, pompous, and superstitious in their worship; for
they do not only miss exceedingly by a spiritual unpreparedness,
in the way of their performing worship to God Almighty, who is
an Eternal Spirit; but the worship itself is composed of what is
utterly inconsistent with the very form and practice of Christ's
doctrine, and the apostolical example. For whereas that was plain
and spiritual, this is gaudy and worldly: Christ's most inward
and mental, theirs most outward and corporeal: that suited to the
nature of God, who is a Spirit, this accommodated to the most
carnal part. So that instead of excluding flesh and blood, behold
a worship calculated to gratify them: as if the business were not
to present God with a worship to please Him, but to make one to
please themselves. A worship dressed with such stately buildings
and imagery, rich furnitures and garments, rare voices and music,
costly lamps, wax candles, and perfumes; and all acted with that
most pleasing variety to the external senses that art can invent or
cost procure; as if the world were to turn Jew or Egyptian again;
or that God was an old man indeed, and Christ a little boy, to be
treated with a kind of religious mask: for so they picture him in
their temples, and too many in their minds. And the truth is, such
a worship may very well suit such an idea of God: for when men can
think Him such a one as themselves, it is not to be wondered if they
address Him in a way that would be the most pleasing from others to
themselves.
III. But what said the Almighty to such a sensual people of old,
much upon the like occasion? "Thou thoughtest I was such an one as
thyself, but I will reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before
thee. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in
pieces and there be none to deliver." But, "to him that ordereth
his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God." (Psalm
l. 21, 22, 23.) This is the worship acceptable to him, "to do
justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God." (Mic. vi. 8.)
For He that searcheth the heart, and tries the reins of man, and
sets his sins in order before him, who is the God of the spirits
of all flesh, looks not to the external fabric, but internal frame
of the soul, and inclination of the heart. Nor is it to be soberly
thought, that He who is clothed with divine honour and majesty;
who covers himself with light as with a garment; who stretches out
the heavens like a curtain; who layeth the beams of his chambers
in the deep; who maketh the clouds his chariot, and walks upon the
wings of the wind: who maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a
flaming fire: who laid the foundation of the earth, that it should
not be moved for ever; can be adequately worshipped by those human
inventions, the refuge of an apostate people from the primitive
power of religion and spirituality of Christian worship.
IV. Christ drew off his disciples from the glory and worship of
the outward temple, and instituted a more inward and spiritual
worship, in which He instructed his followers, "Ye shall neither in
this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem," says Christ to the Samaritan
woman, "worship the Father; God is a Spirit, and they that worship
Him, must worship Him in spirit and in truth." (John, iv. 21.) As
if he had said, for the sake of the weakness of the people, God
condescended in old time to limit himself to an outward time, place,
temple, and service, in and by which he would be worshipped; but
this was during men's ignorance of his omnipresence, and that they
considered not what God is, nor where he is; but I am come to reveal
him to as many as receive me; and I tell you that God is a spirit,
and will be worshipped in Spirit and in truth. People must be
acquainted with him as a spirit, consider and worship him as such.
It is not that bodily worship, or these ceremonial services, in use
among you now, will serve, or give acceptance with this God that
is a Spirit: no, you must obey his Spirit that strives with you,
to gather you out of the evil of the world, that by bowing to the
instructions and commands of his Spirit in your own souls, you may
know what it is to worship him as a Spirit; then you will understand
that it is not going to this mountain, nor to Jerusalem, but to do
the will of God, to keep his commandments, and commune with thine
own heart, and sin not; take up thy cross, meditate in his holy law,
and follow the example of Him whom the Father hath sent.
V. Wherefore Stephen, that bold and constant martyr of Jesus, told
the Jews, when a prisoner at the bar for disputing about the end
of their beloved temple, and its services, but falsely accused of
blasphemy; "Solomon," said Stephen, "built God an house; howbeit
God dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what house will
ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath
not my hand made all these things?" (Acts, vii. 47-50.) Behold
a total overthrow to all worldly temples, and their ceremonial
appendages. The martyr follows his blow upon those apostate
Jews, who were of those times, the pompous, ceremonious, worldly
worshippers: "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as did your fathers, so do
ye." (Acts, vii. 51.) As if He had told them, no matter for your
outward temples, rites, and shadowy services, your pretensions to
succession in nature from Abraham; and by religion from Moses. You
are resisters of the Spirit, gainsayers of its instructions: you
will not bow to his counsel, nor are your hearts right towards God:
you are the successors of your fathers' iniquity; and though verbal
admirers, yet none of the successors of the prophets in faith and
life.
But the prophet Isaiah carries it a little further than is cited
by Stephen. For after having declared what is not God's house, the
place where his honour dwells, immediately follow these words: "But
to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite
spirit, and trembleth at my word." (Isaiah, lxvi. 2.) Behold, O
carnal and superstitious man, the true worshipper, and the place of
God's rest! This is the house and temple of Him whom the heaven of
heavens cannot contain; a house self cannot build, nor the art or
power of man prepare or consecrate.
VI. Paul, that great apostle of the Gentiles, twice expressly
refers the word temple to man: once in his epistle to the church of
Corinth; "Know ye not," says he, "that your body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?" &c. (1 Cor.
vi. 19,) and not the building of man's hand and heart. Again, he
tells the same people, in his second epistle, "For ye are the temple
of the living God, as God hath said;" (2 Cor. vi. 16;) and then
cites God's words by the prophet, "I will dwell in them, and walk in
them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people." This is the
evangelical temple, the Christian church, whose ornaments are not
the embroideries and furnitures of worldly art and wealth, but the
graces of the Spirit; meekness, love, faith, patience, self-denial,
and charity. Here it is, that the eternal wisdom, that was with
God from everlasting, before the hills were brought forth, or the
mountains laid, chooses to dwell; "rejoicing," says Wisdom, "in the
habitable part of the earth, and my delights were with the sons of
men:" (Prov. viii. 22, 23, 25, 31;) not in houses built of wood
and stone. This living house is more glorious than Solomon's dead
house; and of which his was but a figure, as he, the Builder, was of
Christ, who builds up a holy temple to God. It was promised of old,
that the glory of the latter house should transcend the glory of the
former; (Hag. ii. 9;) which may be applied to this: not one outward
temple or house to excel another in outward lustre; for where is
the benefit of that? But the divine glory, the beauty of holiness
in the gospel house or church, made up of renewed believers, should
exceed the outward glory of Solomon's temple, which in comparison of
the latter days, was but flesh to spirit, fading resemblance to the
eternal substance.
But for all this, Christians have meeting-places, yet not in Jewish
or Heathen state, but plain, void of pomp or ceremony, suiting the
simplicity of their blessed life and doctrine. For God's presence
is not with the house, but with them that are in it, who are the
gospel church, and not the house. O! that such as call themselves
Christians, knew but a real sanctity in themselves, by the washing
of God's regenerating grace, instead of that imaginary sanctity
ascribed to places; they would then know what the church is, and
where, in these evangelical days, is the place of God's appearance.
This made the prophet David say, "The king's daughter is all
glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold." What is the
glory that is within the true church, and that gold that makes up
that inward glory? Tell me, O superstitious man! is it thy stately
temples, altars, tables, carpets, tapestries; thy vestments, organs,
voices, candles, lamps, censers, plate, and jewels, with the
like furniture of thy worldly temples? No such matter; they bear
no proportion with the divine adornment of the King of Heaven's
daughter, the blessed and redeemed church of Christ. Miserable
apostacy that it is! and a wretched supplement in the loss and
absence of the apostolic life, the spiritual glory of the primitive
church.
VII. But yet some of these admirers of external pomp and glory
in worship would be thought lovers of the cross, and to that end
have made to themselves many. But alas! what hopes can there be
of reconciling that to Christianity, that the nearer it comes to
its resemblance, the further off it is in reality? for their very
cross and self-denial are most unlawful self: and whilst they fancy
to worship God thereby, they most dangerously err from the true
cross of Christ, and that holy abnegation that was of his blessed
appointment. It is true, they have got a cross, but it seems to be
in the room of the true one: and so mannerly, that it will do as
they will have it that wear it; for instead of mortifying their
wills by it, they made it, and use it according to them. So that the
cross is become their ensign, that do nothing but what they list.
Yet by that they would be thought his disciples, who never did his
own will, but the will of his heavenly Father.
VIII. This is such a cross as flesh and blood can carry, for flesh
and blood invented it; therefore not the cross of Christ, that is
to crucify flesh and blood. Thousands of them have no more virtue
than a chip: poor empty shadows, not so much as images of the true
one. Some carry them for charms about them, but never repel one evil
with them. They sin with them upon their backs; and though they put
them in their bosoms, their beloved lusts lie there too, without the
least disquiet. They are as dumb as Elijah's mock gods; (1 Kings,
xviii. 27;) no life nor power in them: and how should they, whose
matter is earthly, and whose figure and workmanship are but the
invention and labour of worldly artists? Is it possible that such
crosses should mend their makers? surely not.
IX. These are yokes without restraint, and crosses that never
contradict: a whole cart-load of them would leave a man as
unmortified as they find him. Men may sooner knock their brains out
with them than their sins; and that, I fear, too many of them know
in their very consciences that use them, indeed adore them: and,
which can only happen to the false cross, are proud of them too,
since the true one leaves no pride, where it is truly borne.
X. For as their religion, so their cross is very gaudy and
triumphant: but in what? In precious metals and gems, the spoil of
superstition upon the people's pockets. These crosses are made of
earthly treasure, instead of teaching their hearts that wear them to
deny it: and like men, they are respected by their finery. A rich
cross shall have many gazers and admirers: the mean in this, as
other things, are more neglected. I could appeal to themselves of
this great vanity and superstition. O! how very short is this of the
blessed cross of Jesus, that takes away the sins of the world!
XI. Nor is a recluse life, the boasted righteousness of some,
much more commendable, or one whit nearer to the nature of the
true cross: for if it be not unlawful as other things are, it is
unnatural, which true religion teaches not. The Christian convent
and monastery are within, where the soul is encloistered from sin.
And this religious house the true followers of Christ carry about
with them, who exempt not themselves from the conversation of the
world, though they keep themselves from the evil of the world in
their conversation. That is a lazy, rusty, unprofitable self-denial,
burdensome to others to feed their idleness; religious bedlams,
where people are kept lest they should do mischief abroad; patience
per force; self-denial against their will, rather ignorant than
virtuous: and out of the way of temptation, than content in it. No
thanks if they commit not what they are not tempted to commit. What
the eye views not, the heart craves not, as well as rues not.
XII. The cross of Christ is of another nature; it truly overcomes
the world, and leads a life of purity in the face of its
allurements; they that bear it are not thus chained up, for fear
they should bite; nor locked up, lest they should be stolen away:
no, they receive power from Christ their captain, to resist the
evil, and do that which is good in the sight of God; to despise the
world, and love its reproach above its praise; and not only not
to offend others, but love those that offend them: though not for
offending them. What a world should we have if every body, for fear
of transgressing, should mew himself up within four walls! No such
matter; the perfection of the Christian life extends to every honest
labour or traffic used among men. This severity is not the effect
of Christ's free spirit, but a voluntary, fleshly humility: mere
trammels of their own making and putting on, without prescription
or reason. In all which it is plain they are their own lawgivers,
and set their own rule, mulct, and ransom: a constrained harshness,
out of joint to the rest of the creation; for society is one great
end of it, and not to be destroyed for fear of evil; but sin that
spoils it, banished by a steady reproof, and a conspicuous example
of tried virtue. True godliness does not turn men out of the world,
but enables them to live better in it, and excites their endeavours
to mend it; not to hide their candle under a bushel, but to set it
upon a table in a candlestick. Besides, it is a selfish invention;
and that can never be the way of taking up the cross, which the true
cross is therefore taken up to subject. But again, this humour runs
away by itself, and leaves the world behind to be lost; Christians
should keep the helm, and guide the vessel to its port; not meanly
steal out at the stern of the world, and leave those that are in it
without a pilot, to be driven by the fury of evil times, upon the
rock or sand of ruin. In fine, this sort of life, if taken up by
young people, is commonly to cover idleness, or to pay portions,
to save the lazy from the pain of punishment, or quality from the
disgrace of poverty; one will not work, and the other scorns it;
if aged, a long life of guilt sometimes flies to superstition for
a refuge, and after having had its own will in other things, would
finish it in a wilful religion to make God amends.
XIII. But taking up the cross of Jesus is a more interior exercise:
it is the circumspection and discipline of the soul in conformity
to the divine mind therein revealed. Does not the body follow the
soul, not the soul the body? Do not such consider, that no outward
cell can shut up the soul from lust, the mind from an infinity of
unrighteous imaginations? The thoughts of man's heart are evil, and
that continually. Evil comes from within, and not from without: how
then can an external application remove an internal cause; or a
restraint upon the body, work a confinement of the mind? which is
much less than without doors, for where there is least of action,
there is most time to think; and if those thoughts are not guided
by a higher principle, convents are more mischievous to the world
than exchanges. And yet retirement is both an excellent and needful
thing; crowds and throngs were not much frequented by the ancient
holy pilgrims.
XIV. But then examine, O man, thy foundation, what it is, and who
placed thee there; lest in the end it should appear thou hast put
an eternal cheat upon thy own soul. I must confess I am jealous of
the salvation of my own kind, having found mercy with my heavenly
Father. I would have none to deceive themselves to perdition,
especially about religion, where people are most apt to take all
for granted, and lose infinitely by their own flatteries and
neglect. The inward, steady righteousness of Jesus is another thing
than all the contrived devotion of poor superstitious man; and to
stand approved in the sight of God, excels that bodily exercise in
religion, resulting from the invention of men. And the soul that is
awakened and preserved by his holy power and spirit, lives to Him in
the way of his own institution, and worships Him in his own spirit,
that is, in the holy sense, life, and leadings of it: which indeed
is the evangelical worship. Not that I would be thought to slight a
true retirement: for I do not only acknowledge but admire solitude.
Christ himself was an example of it: He loved and chose to frequent
mountains, gardens, and sea-sides. It is requisite to the growth of
piety, and I reverence the virtue that seeks and uses it; wishing
there were more of it in the world: but then it should be free, not
constrained. What benefit to the mind, to have it for a punishment,
and not for a pleasure? Nay, I have long thought it an error among
all sorts, that use not monastic lives, that they have no retreats
for the afflicted, the tempted, the solitary, and the devout, where
they might undisturbedly wait upon God, pass through their religious
exercises, and, being thereby strengthened, may, with more power
over their own spirits, enter into the business of the world again:
though the less the better, to be sure. For divine pleasures are
found in a free solitude.
CHAPTER VI.
1. But men of more refined belief and practice are yet concerned
in this unlawful self about religion.--2. It is the rise of
the performance of worship God regards.--3. True worship is
only from a heart prepared by God's Spirit.--4. The soul of man
is dead without the divine breath of life, and so not capable
of worshipping the living God.--5. We are not to study what
to pray for. How Christians should pray. The aid they have
from God.--6. The way of obtaining this preparation: it is by
waiting, as David and others did of old, in holy silence, that
their wants and supplies are best seen.--7. The whole and the
full think they need not this waiting, and so use it not; but
the poor in spirit are of another mind, wherefore the Lord
hears, and fills them with his good things.--8. If there were
not this preparation, the Jewish times would have been more holy
and spiritual than the gospel; for even then it was required;
much more now.--9. As sin, so formality, cannot worship God:
thus David, Isaiah, &c.--10. God's own forms and institutions
hateful to Him, unless his own Spirit use them; much more those
of man's contriving.--11. God's children ever met God in his
way, not their own; and in his way they always found help and
comfort. In Jeremiah's time it was the same; his goodness was
manifested to his children that waited truly upon him: it was an
inward sense and enjoyment of him they thirsted after. Christ
charged his disciples also to wait for the Spirit.--12. This
doctrine of waiting further opened, and ended with an allusion
to the pool of Bethesda; a lively figure of inward waiting and
its blessed effects.--13. Four things necessary to worship;
the sanctification of the worshipper, and the consecration
of the offering, and the thing to be prayed for, and lastly,
faith to pray in: and all must be right, that is, of God's
giving.--14. The great power of faith in prayer; witness the
importunate woman. The wicked and formal ask, and receive not;
the reason why. But Jacob and his true offspring, the followers
of his faith, prevail.--15. This shows why Christ upbraided
his disciples with their little faith. The necessity of faith.
Christ works no good on men without it.--16. This faith is
not only possible now but necessary.--17. What it is, further
unfolded.--18. Who the heirs of this faith are; and what were
the noble works of it in the former ages of the just.
I. But there be others of a more refined speculation, and reformed
practice, who dare not use, and less adore, a piece of wood or
stone, an image of silver and gold; nor yet allow of that Jewish, or
rather Pagan pomp in worship, practised by others, as if Christ's
worship were of this world, though his kingdom be of the other,
but are doctrinally averse to such superstition, and yet refrain
not to bow to their own religious duties, and esteem their formal
performance of several parts of worship that go against the grain of
their fleshly ease, and a preciseness therein, no small cross unto
them; and that if they abstain from gross and scandalous sins, or if
the act be not committed, though the thoughts of it are embraced,
and that it has a full career in the mind, they hold themselves safe
enough within the pale of discipleship and walls of Christianity.
But this also is too mean a character of the discipline of Christ's
cross: and those that flatter themselves with such a sort of taking
it up, will in the end be deceived with a sandy foundation, and a
midnight cry. For said Christ, "But I say unto you, that every idle
word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the
day of judgment." (Matt. xii. 36.)
II. For first, it is not performing duties of religion, but the
rise of the performance that God looks at. Men may, and some do,
cross their own wills in their own wills: voluntary omission and
commission: "Who has required this at your hands?" (Isa. i. 12,)
said the Lord of old to the Jews, when they seemed industrious to
have served him; but it was in a way of their own contriving or
inventing, and in their own time and will; not with the soul truly
touched and prepared by the divine power of God, but bodily worship
only: that, the apostle tells us, profits little. Not keeping to the
manner of taking up the cross in worship as well as other things,
has been a great cause of the troublesome superstition that is yet
in the world. For men have no more brought their worship to the
test, than their sins: nay less; for they have ignorantly thought
the one a sort of excuse for the other; and not that their religious
performances should need a cross, or an apology.
III. But true worship can only come from a heart prepared by the
Lord. (Prov. xvi. 1; Rom viii. 14.) This preparation is by the
sanctification of the Spirit; by which, if God's children are led
in the general course of their lives, as Paul teaches, much more in
their worship to their Creator and Redeemer. And whatever prayer be
made, or doctrine be uttered, and not from the preparation of the
Holy Spirit, it is not acceptable with God: nor can it be the true
evangelical worship, which is in spirit and truth; that is, by the
preparation and aid of the Spirit. For what is a heap of the most
pathetical words to God Almighty; or the dedication of any place
or time to him? He is a Spirit, to whom words, places, and times,
strictly considered, are improper or inadequate. And though they be
the instruments of public worship, they are but bodily and visible,
and cannot carry our requests any further, much less recommend them
to the invisible God; by no means; they are for the sake of the
congregation: it is the language of the soul God hears, nor can that
speak but by the Spirit, or groan aright to Almighty God without the
assistance of it.
IV. The soul of man, however lively in other things, is dead to God,
till He breathe the spirit of life into it: it cannot live to Him,
much less worship Him, without it. Thus God tells us, by Ezekiel,
when in a vision of the restoration of mankind, in the person of
Israel, an usual way of speaking among the prophets, and as often
mistaken, "I will open your graves," saith the Lord, "and put my
Spirit in you, and you shall live." (Ezek. xxxvii. 12-14.) So,
though Christ taught his disciples to pray, they were, in some sort,
disciples before he taught them; not worldly men, whose prayers are
an abomination to God. And his teaching them is not an argument that
every body must say that prayer, whether he can say it with the same
heart, and under the same qualifications, as his poor disciples
or followers did, or not; as is now too superstitiously and
presumptuously practised; but rather as they then, so we now, are
not to pray our own prayers, but his: that is, such as He enables us
to make, as He enabled them then.
V. For if we are not to take thought what we shall say when we come
before worldly princes, because it shall then be given us; and that
"it is not we that speak, but the Spirit of our heavenly Father
that speaketh in us;" (Matt. x. 19, 20;) much less can our ability
be needed, or ought we to study to ourselves forms of speech in our
approaches to the great Prince of princes, King of kings, and Lord
of lords. For be it his greatness, we ought not by Christ's command;
be it our relation to him as children, we need not; he will help us,
he is our Father; that is, if he be so indeed. Thus not only the
mouth of the body but of the soul is shut, till God opens it; and
then he loves to hear the language of it. In which the body ought
never to go before the soul: his ear is open to such requests, and
his Spirit strongly intercedes for those that offer them.
VI. But it may be asked, how shall this preparation be obtained?
I answer: By waiting patiently, yet watchfully and intently upon
God: "Lord," says the Psalmist, "thou hast heard the desire of the
humble; thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear
to hear:" (Psalm x. 17:) and, says wisdom, "The preparation of the
heart in man is from the Lord." (Prov. xvi. 1.) Here it is thou
must not think thy own thoughts, nor speak thy own words, which
indeed is the silence of the holy cross, but be sequestered from
all the confused imaginations that are apt to throng and press upon
the mind in those holy retirements. It is not for thee to think to
overcome the Almighty by the most composed matter, cast into the
aptest phrase; no, no; one groan, one sigh, from a wounded soul, a
heart touched with true remorse, a sincere and godly sorrow, which
is the work of God's Spirit, excels and prevails with God. Wherefore
stand still in thy mind, wait to feel something that is divine, to
prepare and dispose thee to worship God truly and acceptably. And
thus taking up the cross, and shutting the doors and windows of the
soul against everything that would interrupt this attendance upon
God, how pleasant soever the object be in itself, how lawful or
needful at another season, the power of the Almighty will break in,
his Spirit will work and prepare the heart, that it may offer up
an acceptable sacrifice. It is he that discovers and presses wants
upon the soul; and when it cries, it is he alone that supplies them.
Petitions, not springing from such a sense and preparation, are
formal and fictitious: they are not true; for men pray in their own
blind desires, and not in the will of God; and his ear is stopped to
them: "but for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the
needy," God hath said, "I will arise;" (Psalm xii. 5;) that is, the
poor in spirit, the needy soul, those that want his assistance, who
are ready to be overwhelmed, that feel a need, and cry aloud for a
deliverer, and that have none on earth to help: none in heaven but
Him, nor in the earth in comparison of Him: "He will deliver," said
David, "the needy when he cries, and the poor, and him that has
no helper." (Psalm lxxii. 12, 14.) He shall redeem their soul from
deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in His sight.
"This poor man," says he, "cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved
him out of all his troubles." (Psalm xxxiv. 6-8.) "The angel of the
Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivers them,"
and then invites all to come and taste how good the Lord is; "yea,
He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great." (Psalm
cxv. 13.)
VII. But what is that to them that are not hungry? "They that be
whole need not a physician:" (Matt. ix. 12;) the full have no need
to sigh, nor the rich to cry for help. Those that are not sensible
of their inward wants, that have not fears and terrors upon them,
who feel no need of God's power to help them, nor of the light of
his countenance to comfort them, what have such to do with prayer?
their devotion is but at best, a serious mockery of the Almighty.
They know not, they want not, they desire not what they pray for.
They pray the will of God may be done, and do constantly their own:
for though it be soon said, it is a most terrible thing to them.
They ask for grace, and abuse that they have: they pray for the
Spirit, but resist it in themselves, and scorn at it in others: they
request mercies and goodness of God, and feel no real want of them.
And in this inward insensibility, they are as unable to praise God
for what they have, as to pray for what they have not. "They shall
praise the Lord," says David, "that seek him: for he satisfieth
the longing soul, and filleth the hungry with good things." (Psalm
xxii. 26; cvii. 8.) This also he reserves for the poor and needy,
and those that fear God. Let the spiritually poor and the needy
praise thy name: ye that fear the Lord, praise him; and ye the seed
of Jacob, glorify him. Jacob was a plain man, of an upright heart:
and they that are so, are his seed. And though (with him) they may
be as poor as worms in their own eyes, yet they receive power to
wrestle with God, and prevail as he did.
VIII. But without the preparation and consecration of this power, no
man is fit to come before God; else it were matter of less holiness
and reverence to worship God under the gospel, than it was in the
times of the law, when all sacrifices were sprinkled before offered;
the people consecrated that offered them, before they presented
themselves before the Lord. (Numb. viii., xix.; 2 Chron. xxix. 36;
xxx. 16, 17.) If the touching of a dead or unclean beast then made
people unfit for temple or sacrifice, yea, society with the clean,
till first sprinkled and sanctified, how can we think so meanly of
the worship that is instituted by Christ in gospel times, as that
it should admit of unprepared and unsanctified offerings? Or, allow
that those, who either in thoughts, words, or deeds, do daily touch
that which is morally unclean, can, without coming to the blood of
Jesus, that sprinkles the conscience from dead works, acceptably
worship the pure God: it is a downright contradiction to good sense:
the unclean cannot acceptably worship that which is holy; the impure
that which is perfect. There is a holy intercourse and communion
betwixt Christ and his followers; but none at all betwixt Christ and
Belial; between him and those that disobey his commandments, and
live not the life of his blessed cross and self-denial. (2 Cor. vi.
15, 16.)
IX. But as sin, so formality cannot worship God; no, though
the manner were of his own ordination. Which made the prophet,
personating one in a great strait, cry out, "Wherewith shall I come
before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come
before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? will
the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands
of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed, thee,
O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but
to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
(Micah, vi. 6-8.) The royal prophet, sensible of this, calls thus
also upon God; "O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show
forth thy praise." (Psalm li. 15-17.) He did not dare open his own
lips, he knew that could not praise God; and why? "for thou desirest
not sacrifice, else would I give it:" if my formal offerings
would serve, thou shouldst not want them; thou delightest not in
burnt-offerings. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise:" and why?
because this is God's work, the effect of his power; and his own
works praise him. To the same purpose doth God himself speak by the
mouth of Isaiah, in opposition to the formalities and lip-worship
of the degenerate Jews: "Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my
throne, and the earth is my footstool, where is the house that
ye build to me? and where is the place of my rest? For all these
things hath my hand made. But to this man will I look, even to him
that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."
(Isaiah, lxvi. 1, 2.) O behold the true worshipper! one of God's
preparing, circumcised in heart and ear, that resists not the Holy
Spirit, as those lofty professing Jews did. Was this so then, even
in the time of the law, which was the dispensation of external and
shadowy performances: and can we now expect acceptance without the
preparation of the Spirit of the Lord in these gospel times, which
are the proper times for the effusion of the Spirit? By no means:
God is what he was; and none else are his true worshippers, but such
as worship him in his own spirit: these he tenders as the apple
of his eye; the rest do but mock him, and he despises them. Hear
what follows to that people, for it is the state and portion of
Christendom at this day; "He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a
man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he
that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that
burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen
their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations."
(Isaiah, lxvi. 3.) Let none say, we offer not these kinds of
oblations, for that is not the matter; God was not offended with the
offerings, but offerers. These were the legal forms of sacrifice
by God appointed; but they not presenting them in that frame of
spirit, and under that right disposition of soul that was required,
God declares his abhorrence, and that with great aggravation; and
elsewhere, by the same prophet, forbids them to bring any more vain
oblations before him; "incense," saith God, "is an abomination to
me: your sabbaths and calling of assemblies I cannot away with; it
is iniquity, even the solemn meeting." And "when you spread forth
your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; when you make many
prayers, I will not hear you." (Isaiah, i. 13-18.) A most terrible
renunciation of their worship; and why? Because their hearts were
polluted; they loved not the Lord with their whole hearts, but
broke his law, and rebelled against his Spirit, and did not that
which was right in his sight. The cause is plain, by the amendment
He requires; "Wash ye," says the Lord, "make you clean, put away
the evil of your doings from before mine eyes: cease to do evil,
learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the
fatherless, plead for the widow." Upon these terms, and nothing
short, He bids them come to Him, and tells them, that "though their
sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; and though they be
as crimson, they shall be white as wool."
So true is that notable passage of the Psalmist, "Come and hear, all
ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul:
I cried to him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If
I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. But verily
God hath heard me: he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy
from me." (Psalm lxvi. 16, 20.)
X. Much of this kind might be cited, to show the displeasure of God
against even his own forms of worship, when performed without his
own Spirit, and that necessary preparation of the heart in man,
that nothing else can work or give: which above all other penmen of
sacred writ, is most frequently and emphatically recommended to us
by the example of the Psalmist, who ever and anon calling to mind
his own great slips, and the cause of them, and the way by which
he came to be accepted of God, and to obtain strength and comfort
from him, reminds himself to wait upon God. "Lead me in thy truth,
and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I
wait all the day long." (Psalm xxv. 5.) His soul looked to God for
salvation, to be delivered from the snares and evils of the world.
This shows an inward exercise, and a spiritual attendance, that
stood not in external forms, but in inward divine aid.
And truly, David had great encouragement so to do; the goodness of
God invited him to it and strengthened him in it. For says he, "I
waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard
my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the
miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock." (Psalm xl. 1, 2.) That is,
the Lord appeared inwardly to console David's soul, that waited for
his help, and to deliver it from the temptations and afflictions
that were ready to overwhelm it, and gave him security and peace.
Therefore, he says, "The Lord hath established my goings;" that is,
fixed his mind in righteousness. Before, every step he took bemired
him, and he was scarcely able to go without falling: temptation
on all hands; but he waited patiently upon God: his mind retired,
watchful, and intent to his law and Spirit; and he felt the Lord
to incline to him. His needy and sensible cry entered heaven, and
prevailed; then came deliverance and rescue to David, in God's time,
not David's strength to go through his exercises, and surmount all
his troubles. For which he tells us, a new song was put into his
mouth, even praises to his God. (Psalm xl. 3.) But it was of God's
making and putting, and not his own.
Another time, we have him crying thus: "As the hart panteth after
the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul
thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear
before God?" This goes beyond formality, and can be tied to no
lesson. But we may by this see, that true worship is an inward work;
that the soul must be touched and raised in its heavenly desires by
the heavenly Spirit, and that the true worship is in God's presence.
When shall I come and appear? Not in the temple, nor with outward
sacrifices, but before God in his presence. So that souls of true
worshippers see God, make their appearance before him; and this
they wait, they pant, they thirst for. O how is the greater part of
Christendom degenerated from David's example! No wonder therefore
that this good man tells us, "Truly my soul waiteth upon God;" and
that he gives it in charge to his soul so to do; "O my soul, wait
thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him." As if he had
said, None else can prepare my heart, or supply my wants; so that my
expectation is not from my own voluntary performance, or the bodily
worship I can give him; they are of no value; they can neither help
me, nor please him. But I wait upon him for strength and power to
present myself so before him, as may be most pleasing to him; for
he that prepares the sacrifice will certainly accept it. Wherefore
in two verses he repeats it thrice; "I wait for the Lord--My soul
doth wait--My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch
for the morning." Yea, so intently, and with that unweariedness
of soul, that he says in one place, "Mine eyes fail while I wait
for my God." (Psalm lxix. 3.) He was not contented with so many
prayers, such a set worship, or limited repetition: no; he leaves
not till he finds the Lord, that is, the comforts of his presence:
which brings the answer of love and peace to his soul. Nor was this
his practice only, as a man more than ordinarily inspired; for he
speaks of it as the way of worship, then amongst the true people
of God, the spiritual Israel, and circumcision in heart, of that
day: "Behold," says he, "as the eyes of servants look unto the hand
of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her
mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy
on us." (Psalm cxxiii. 2.) In another place, "Our soul waiteth for
the Lord; he is our help and our shield." (Psalm xxxiii. 20.) "I
will wait on thy name, for it is good before thy saints." (Psalm
lii. 9.) It was in request with the truly godly in that day, and the
way they came to enjoy God, and worship him acceptably. And from his
own experience of the benefit of waiting upon God, and the saints'
practice of those times, he recommends it to others: "Wait upon the
Lord: be of good courage, and he will strengthen thy heart: wait,
I say, on the Lord." (Psalm xxvii. 14.) That is, wait in faith and
patience, and he will come to save thee. Again, "Rest in the Lord,
and wait patiently upon him." That is, cast thyself upon him; be
contented, and wait for him to help thee in thy wants; thou canst
not think how near he is to help those that wait upon him: O try
and have faith. Yet again, he bids us, "Wait upon the Lord, and keep
his way." (Psalm xxxvii. 34.) Behold the reason why so few profit!
they are out of his way; and such can never wait rightly upon him.
Great reason had David for what he said, who had with so much
comfort and advantage met the Lord in his blessed way.
XI. The prophet Isaiah tells us, that though the chastisements of
the Lord were sore upon the people for their backslidings, yet in
the way of his judgments, in the way of his rebukes and displeasure,
they waited for him, and the desire of their soul, that is the great
point, was to his name, and the remembrance of him. (Isaiah, xxvi.
8.) They were contented to be chid and chastised, for they had
sinned; and the knowledge of him so was very desirable to them. But
what! did he not come at last, and that in mercy too? Yes, he did,
and they knew him when he came, a doctrine the brutish world knows
not, "This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us."
(Isaiah, xxv. 9.) O blessed enjoyment! O precious confidence! here
is a waiting in faith which prevailed. All worship not in faith is
fruitless to the worshipper, as well as displeasing to God: and
this faith is the gift of God, and the nature of it is to purify
the heart, and give such as truly believe victory over the world.
Well, but they go on: "We have waited for him; we will be glad,
and rejoice in his salvation." The prophet adds, "Blessed are all
they that wait upon God:" and why? for "they that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength;" they shall never faint, never be
weary: (Isaiah, xxx. 18; xl. 31:) the encouragement is great. O hear
him once more: "For since the beginning of the world, men have not
heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God!
besides thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."
(Isaiah, lxiv. 4.) Behold the inward life and joy of the righteous,
the true worshippers; those whose spirits bowed to the appearance
of God's Spirit in them, leaving and forsaking all it appeared
against, and embracing whatever it led them to. In Jeremiah's time,
the true worshippers also waited upon God: (Jer. xiv. 22:) and he
assures us, that "The Lord is good to them that wait for them to
the soul that seeketh him." (Lam. iii. 25.) Hence it is, that the
prophet Hosea exhorts the church then to turn and wait upon God.
"Therefore turn thou to thy God; keep mercy and judgment, and wait
on thy God continually." (Hos. xii. 6.) And Micah is very zealous
and resolute in this good exercise: "I will look unto the Lord, I
will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me." (Mic.
vii. 7.) Thus did the children of the Spirit, that thirsted after an
inward sense of him. The wicked cannot say so; nor they that pray,
unless they wait. It is charged upon Israel in the wilderness, as
the cause of their disobedience and ingratitude to God, that they
waited not for his counsels. We may be sure it is our duty, and
expected from us; for God requires it in Zephaniah: "Therefore wait
upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I arise," &c. (Zeph.
iii. 8.) O that all who profess the name of God, would wait so, and
not offer to arise to worship without him. And they would feel his
stirrings and arisings in them to help and prepare, and sanctify
them. Christ expressly charged his disciples, "They should not stir
from Jerusalem, but wait till they had received the promise of the
Father, the baptism of the Holy Ghost," (Acts, i. 4, 8,) in order
to their preparation for the preaching of the glorious gospel of
Christ to the world. And though that were an extraordinary effusion
for an extraordinary work, yet the degree does not change the kind;
on the contrary, if so much waiting and preparation by the Spirit
was requisite to fit them to preach to man; some, at least, may be
needful to fit us to speak to God.
XII. I will close this great Scripture doctrine of waiting,
with that passage in John about the pool of Bethesda: "There is
at Jerusalem, by the sheep-market, a pool, which is called in
the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches; in these lay a
great multitude of impotent folks, of blind, halt, and withered,
waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a
certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever
then first after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made
whole of whatsoever disease he had." (John, v. 2-4.) A most exact
representation of what is intended by all that has been said upon
the subject of waiting. For as there was then an outward and legal,
so there is now a gospel and spiritual Jerusalem, the church of God;
consisting of the faithful. The pool in that old Jerusalem, in some
sort, represented that fountain, which is now set open in this new
Jerusalem. That pool was for those that were under infirmities of
body; this fountain for all that are impotent in soul. There was
an angel then that moved the water, to render it beneficial; it is
God's angel now, the great angel of his presence, that blesseth this
fountain with success. They that then went in before, and did not
watch the angel, and take advantage of his motion, found no benefit
of their stepping in: those that now wait not the moving of God's
angel, but by the devotion of their own forming and timing, rush
before God, as the horse into the battle, and hope for success,
are sure to miscarry in their expectation. Therefore, as then they
waited with all patience and attention upon the angel's motion,
that wanted and desired to be cured; so do the true worshippers of
God now, that need and pray for his presence, which is the life of
their souls, as the sun is to the plants of the field. They have
often tried the unprofitableness of their own work, and are now
come to the sabbath indeed. They dare not put up a device of their
own, or offer an unsanctified request, much less obtrude bodily
worship, where the soul is really insensible or unprepared by the
Lord. In the light of Jesus they ever wait to be prepared, retired,
and recluse from all thoughts that cause the least distraction and
discomposure in the mind, till they see the angel move, and till
their beloved please to awake: nor dare they call him before his
time. And they fear to make a devotion in his absence; for they
know it is not only unprofitable, but reprovable: "Who has required
this at your hands?" "He that believes, makes not haste." (Isaiah,
i. 12; xxviii. 16.) They that worship with their own, can only do
as the Israelites, turn their earrings into a molten image, and
be cursed for their pains. Nor fared they better, "that gathered
sticks of old, and kindled a fire, and compassed themselves about
with the sparks that they had kindled;" (Isaiah, l. 11) for God told
them, "they should lie down in sorrow." It should not only be of
no advantage, and do them no good, but incur a judgment from him:
sorrow and anguish of soul should be their portion. Alas! flesh
and blood would fain pray, though it cannot wait; and be a saint,
though it cannot abide to do or suffer the will of God; with the
tongue it blesses God, and with the tongue it curses men, made in
his similitude. It calls Jesus LORD, but not by the Holy Ghost; and
often names the name of Jesus, yea, bows the knee to it too; but
departs not from iniquity: this is abominable to God.
XIII. In short, there are four things so necessary to worshipping
God aright, and which put its performance beyond man's power, that
there seems little more needed than the naming of them. The first
is, the sanctification of the worshipper. Secondly, the consecration
of the offering; which has been spoken to before somewhat largely.
Thirdly, what to pray for; which no man knows that prays not by
the aid of God's Spirit; and therefore without that Spirit no man
can truly pray. This the apostle puts beyond dispute; "We know
not," says he, "what we would pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit
helpeth our infirmities." (Rom. viii. 26.) Men unacquainted with
the work and power of the Holy Spirit, are ignorant of the mind of
God; and those, certainly, can never please him with their prayers.
It is not enough to know we want; but we should learn whether it be
not sent as a blessing, disappointments to the proud, losses to the
covetous, and to the negligent stripes; to remove these, were to
secure the destruction, not help the salvation of the soul.
The vile world knows nothing but carnally, after a fleshly manner
and interpretation; and too many that would be thought enlightened
are apt to call providences by wrong names, for instance,
afflictions they style judgments, and trials, more precious than
the beloved gold, they call miseries. On the other hand, they call
the preferments of the world by the name of honour, and its wealth
happiness; when for once that they are so, it is much to be feared
they are sent of God a hundred times for judgments, at least trials,
upon their possessors. Therefore, what to keep, what to reject, what
to want, is a difficulty God only can resolve the soul. And since
God knows better than we what we need, he can better tell us what
to ask than we can him: which made Christ exhort his disciples to
avoid long and repetitious prayers; (Matt. vi. 7, 8;) telling them
that their heavenly Father knew what they needed before they asked:
and therefore gave them a pattern to pray by; not as some fancy,
to be a text for human liturgies, which of all services are most
justly noted and taxed for length and repetition; but expressly to
reprove and avoid them. But if those wants that are the subject of
prayer were once agreed upon, though that might be a weighty point,
yet how to pray is of still greater moment than to pray; it is not
the request, but the frame of the petitioner's spirit. The what
may be proper, but the how defective. As I said, God needs not to
be told of our wants by us, who must tell them to us; yet he will
be told them from us, that both we may seek him, and he may come
down to us. But when this is done, "To this man will I look, saith
the Lord, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and
that trembleth at my word:" (Isaiah, lxvi. 2.) to the sick heart,
the wounded soul, the hungry and thirsty, the weary and heavy laden
ones: such sincerely want a helper.
XIV. Nor is this sufficient to complete gospel-worship; the fourth
requisite must be had, and that is faith; true faith, precious
faith, the faith of God's chosen, that purifies their hearts, that
overcomes the world, and is the victory of the saints. (1 Tim. i.
5; Acts, xv. 9; Tit. i. 1; 2 Pet. i. 1; 1 John, v. 4.) This is that
which animates prayer and presses it home, like the importunate
woman, that would not be denied; to whom Christ, seeming to admire,
said, "O woman, great is thy faith!" (Matt. xv. 28.) This is of the
highest moment on our part, to give our addresses success with God;
and yet not in our power neither, for it is the gift of God: from
him we must have it; and with one grain of it more work is done,
more deliverance is wrought, and more goodness and mercy received,
than by all the runnings, willings, and toilings of man, with his
inventions and bodily exercises: which, duly weighed, will easily
spell out the meaning, why so much worship should bring so little
profit to the world, as we see it does, viz. true faith is lost.
"They ask, and receive not; they seek, and find not: they knock, and
it is not opened unto them:" (James, iv. 3:) the case is plain;
their requests are not mixed with purifying faith, by which they
should prevail, as good Jacob's were, when he wrestled with God and
prevailed. And the truth is, the generality are yet in their sins,
following hearts' lusts, and living in worldly pleasure, being
strangers to this precious faith. It is the reason rendered by the
deep author to the Hebrews, of the unprofitableness of the word
preached to some in those days; "Not being," says he, "mixed with
faith in them that heard it." Can the minister then preach without
faith? No: and much less can any man pray to purpose without faith,
especially when we are told, that "the just live by faith." For
worship is the supreme act of man's life; and whatever is necessary
to inferior acts of religion must not be wanting there.
XV. This may moderate the wonder in any, why Christ so often
upbraided his disciples with, O ye of little faith! yet tells us,
that one grain of it, though as little as that of mustard, one of
the least of seeds, if true and right, is able to remove mountains.
As if he had said, There is no temptation so powerful that it cannot
overcome: wherefore those that are captivated by temptations, and
remain unsupplied in their spiritual wants, have not this powerful
faith: that is the true cause. So necessary was it of old, that
Christ did not many mighty works where the people believed not;
and though his power wrought wonders in other places, faith opened
the way: so that it is hard to say, whether that power by faith,
or faith by that power, wrought the cure. Let us call to mind what
famous things a little clay and spittle, one touch of the hem of
Christ's garment, and a few words out of his mouth, (John, ix. 6;
Luke, viii. 47, 48,) did by the force of faith in the patients:
"Believe ye that I am able to open your eyes?" (Matt. ix. 28;)
"Yea, Lord," say the blind, and see. To the ruler, "only believe;"
(Matt. ix. 23;) he did, and his dead daughter recovered life.
Again, "If thou canst believe:" I do believe; says the father, help
my unbelief: and the evil spirit was chased away, and the child
recovered. He said to one, "Go, thy faith hath made thee whole;"
(Mark, x. 52; Luke, vii. 48, 50;) and to another, "Thy faith hath
saved thee; thy sins are forgiven thee." (Matt. xxi. 21, 22.) And
to encourage his disciples to believe, that were admiring how soon
his sentence was executed upon the fruitless fig-tree, he tells
them, "Verily, if ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do
this, which is done to the fig-tree; but also, if ye shall say unto
this mountain, Be thou removed, and cast into the sea, it shall be
done: and all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing,
ye shall receive," (Matt. xviii. 19; Luke, xviii. 27.) This one
passage convicts Christendom of gross infidelity; for she prays, and
receives not.
XVI. But some may say, It is impossible to receive all that a man
may ask. It is not impossible to receive all that a man, that so
believes, can ask. (Mark, ix. 23.) The fruits of faith are not
impossible to those that truly believe in the God that makes them
possible. When Jesus said to the ruler, "If thou canst believe," he
adds, "all things are possible to him that believeth." (Matt. xix.
26.) Well, but then some will say, It is impossible to have such
faith: for this very faithless generation would excuse their want
of faith, by making it impossible to have the faith they want. But
Christ's answer to the infidelity of that age, will best confute
the disbelief of this. "The things that are impossible with men,
are possible with God." (Heb. xi. 6.) It will follow then, that it
is not impossible with God to give that faith; though it is certain
that without it it is impossible to please God: (1 Tim. i. 5; iii.
9:) for so the author to the Hebrews teaches. And if it be else
impossible to please God, it must be so to pray to God without this
precious faith.
XVII. But some may say, What is this faith that is so necessary
to worship, and gives it such acceptance with God and returns
that benefit to men? I say, It is a holy resignation to God, and
confidence in him, testified by a religious obedience to his holy
requirings, which gives sure evidence to the soul of the things
not yet seen, and a general sense and taste of the substance of
those things that are hoped for; that is, the glory which is to be
revealed hereafter. As this faith is the gift of God, so it purifies
the hearts of those that receive it. The apostle Paul is witness,
that it will not dwell but in a pure conscience: he therefore in one
place couples a pure heart and faith unfeigned together: in another,
faith and a good conscience. James joins faith with righteousness,
(James, ii.) and John with victory over the world; (1 John, v. 4;)
"This," says be, "is the victory which overcomes the world, even our
faith." (Rom. iv. 1, 2.)
XVIII. The heirs of this faith are the true children of Abraham,
(John, xvi. 9, 10,) in that they walk in the steps of Abraham,
according to the obedience of faith, which only entitles people to
be the children of Abraham. This lives above the world, not only in
its sin, but righteousness: to this no man comes, but through death
to self by the cross of Jesus, and an entire dependence by him, upon
God.
Famous are the exploits of this divine gift; time would fail to
recount them: all sacred story is filled with them. But let it
suffice, that by it the holy ancients endured all trials, overcame
all enemies, prevailed with God, renowned his truth, finished their
testimony, and obtained the reward of the faithful, a crown of
righteousness, which is the eternal blessedness of the just.
CHAPTER VII.
1. Of pride, the first capital lust; its rise.--2. Its
definition and distinction.--3. That an inordinate desire of
knowledge in Adam, introduced man's misery.--4. He thereby lost
his integrity.--5. Knowledge puffs up.--6. The evil effects of
false, and the benefit of true knowledge.--7. Cain's example
a proof in the case.--8. The Jews' pride in pretending to be
wiser than Moses, God's servant, in setting their post by God's
post.--9. The effect of which was the persecution of the true
prophets.--10. The divine knowledge of Christ brought peace on
earth.--11. Of the blind guides, the priests, and the mischief
they have done.--12. The fall of Christians, and the pride they
have taken in it, hath exceeded the Jews; under the profession
of their new-moulded Christianity, they have murdered the
witness of the Lord Jesus.--13. The angels sang peace on earth
at the birth of the Lord of meekness and humility: but the pride
of the Pharisees withstood and calumniated him.--14. As Adam and
the Jews lost themselves by their ambition, so the Christians
losing the fear of God, grew creed and worship-makers, with this
injunction, Conform or burn.--15. The evil effects of this in
Christendom, so called.--16. The way of recovery out of such
miserable defection.
I. Having thus discharged my conscience against that part of
unlawful self, that fain would be a Christian, a believer, a
saint, whilst a plain stranger to the cross of Christ, and the
holy exercises of it; and in that briefly discovered what is true
worship, and the use and business of the holy cross therein, to
render its performance pleasing to Almighty God; I shall now, the
same Lord assisting me, more largely prosecute that other part of
unlawful self, which fills the study, care, and conversation of
the world, presented to us in these three capital lusts, that is
to say, pride, avarice, and luxury; from whence all other mischiefs
daily flow, as streams from their proper fountains: the mortifying
of which makes up the other; and indeed a very great part of the
work of the true cross; and though last in place, yet first in
experience and duty: which done, it introduces in the room of those
evil habits, the blessed effects of that so much needed reformation,
to wit, mortification, humility, temperance, love, patience, and
heavenly-mindedness, with all other graces of the Spirit, becoming
followers of the perfect Jesus, that most heavenly man.
The care and love of all mankind are either directed to God or
themselves. Those that love God above all, are ever humbling self
to his commands, and only love self in subserviency to him that is
Lord of all. But those who are declined from that love to God, are
lovers of themselves more than God: for supreme love must centre in
one of these two. To that inordinate self-love, the apostle rightly
joins proud and high-minded. (2 Tim. iii. 2, 4.) For no sooner had
the angels declined their love, duty and reverence to God, than they
inordinately loved and valued themselves; which made them exceed
their station, and aspire above the order of their creation. This
was their pride, and this sad defection their dismal fall; who are
reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day of
God.
II. Pride, that pernicious evil, which begins this chapter, did
also begin the misery of mankind: a most mischievous quality;
and so commonly known by its motions and sad effects, that every
unmortified breast carries its definition in it. However, I will
say, in short, that pride is an excess of self-love, joined with an
undervaluing of others, and a desire of dominion over them: the most
troublesome thing in the world. There are four things by which it
hath made itself best known to mankind, the consequences of which
have brought a misery equal to its evil. The first is, an inordinate
pursuit of knowledge; the second, an ambitious craving and seeking
after power; the third, an extreme desire of personal respect
and deference: the last excess is that of worldly furniture and
ornaments. To the just and true witness of the eternal God, placed
in the souls of all people, I appeal as to the truth of these things.
III. To the first, it is plain, that an inordinate desire of
knowledge introduced man's misery, and brought an universal lapse
from the glory of his primitive state. Adam would needs be wiser
than God had made him. It did not serve his turn to know his
Creator, and give him that holy homage his being and innocency
naturally engaged and excited him too; nor to have an understanding
above all the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and
the fishes of the sea, joined with a power to rule over all the
visible creation of God; but he must be as wise as God too. This
unwarrantable search, and as foolish as unjust ambition, made him
unworthy of the blessings he received from God. This drives him out
of paradise; and instead of being lord of the whole world, Adam
becomes the wretchedest vagabond of the earth.
IV. The lamentable consequence of this great defection, has been an
exchange of innocency for guilt, and a paradise for a wilderness.
But, which is yet worse, in this state Adam and Eve had got another
god than the only true and living God: and he that enticed them
to all this mischief, furnished them with a vain knowledge, and
pernicious wisdom: the skill of lies and equivocations, shifts,
evasions, and excuses. They had lost their plainness and sincerity,
and from an upright heart, the image in which God had made man,
he became a crooked, twining, twisting serpent; the image of that
unrighteous spirit, to whose temptations he yielded up, with his
obedience, his paradisaical happiness.
V. So that fallen Adam's knowledge of God stood no more in a daily
experience of the love and work of God in his soul, but in a notion
of what he once did know and experience: which being not the true
and living wisdom that is from above, but a mere picture, it
cannot preserve man in purity; but puffs up, makes people proud,
high-minded, and impatient of contradiction. This was the state of
the apostate Jews before Christ came; and has been the condition of
apostate Christians ever since he came: their religion standing,
some bodily performances excepted, either in what they once knew of
the work of God in themselves, and which they have revolted from; or
in an historical belief, and an imaginary conception and paraphrase
upon the experiences and prophecies of such holy men and women of
God, as in all ages have deserved the style and character of his
true children.
VI. As such a knowledge of God cannot be true, so by experience we
find, that it ever brings forth the quite contrary fruits to the
true wisdom. For as this "is first pure, then peaceable, gentle,
and easy to be entreated;" (James, iii. 17;) so the knowledge of
degenerated and unmortified men is first impure: for it came by the
commission of evil, and is held in an evil and impure conscience
in them that disobey God's laws, and that daily do those things
which they ought not to do; and for which they stand condemned
before God's judgment-seat in the souls of men: the light of whose
presence searches the most hidden things of darkness, the most
secret thoughts, and concealed inclinations of ungodly men. This
is the science, falsely so called: and as it is impure, so it is
unpeaceable, cross, and hard to be entreated; froward, perverse, and
persecuting; jealous that any should be better than they, and hating
and abusing those that are.
VII. It was this pride made Cain a murderer: (Gen. iv. 8:) it is
a spiteful quality; full of envy and revenge. What! was not his
religion and worship as good as his brother's? He had all the
exterior parts of worship; he offered as well as Abel; and the
offering of itself might be as good: but it seems the heart that
offered it was not. So long ago did God regard the interior worship
of the soul. Well, what was the consequence of this difference?
Cain's pride stomached it: he could not bear to be outdone by his
brother. He grew wrathful, and resolved to vindicate his offering
by revenging the refusal of it upon his brother's life: and without
any regard to natural affection, or the low and early condition of
mankind, he barbarously dyed his hands in his brother's blood.
VIII. The religion of the apostatized Jews did no better; for,
having lost the inward life, power, and spirit of the law, they
were puffed up with that knowledge they had: and their pretences to
Abraham, Moses, and the promises of God, in that frame, served only
to blow them up into an insufferable pride, arrogancy, and cruelty.
For they could not bear true vision when it came to visit them; and
entertained the messengers of their peace as if they had been wolves
and tigers.
IX. Yea, it is remarkable, the false prophets, the great engineers
against the true ones, were ever sure to persecute them as false;
and, by their interest with earthly princes, or the poor seduced
multitude, made them the instruments of their malice. Thus it was,
that one holy prophet was sawn asunder, another stoned to death,
&c. So proud and obstinate is false knowledge, and the aspirers
after it; which made holy Stephen cry out, "Ye stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost:
as did your fathers, so do ye." (Acts, vii. 51.)
X. The true knowledge came with the joy of angels, singing, "Peace
on earth, and good-will towards men;" (Luke, ii. 14;) the false
knowledge entertained the message with calumnies: Christ must needs
be an impostor; and that must prove him so, _to wit_, his power
of working miracles; which was that which proved the contrary.
They frequently sought to kill him: which at last they wickedly
accomplished. But what was the chief motive to it? Why, he cried out
against their hypocrisy, the broad phylacteries, the honour they
sought of men. To be short, they give the reason themselves in these
words: If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: that
is, he will take away our credit with the people; they will adhere
to him, and desert us; and so we shall lose our power and reputation
with the multitude.
XI. And the truth is, he came to level their honour, to overthrow
their Rabbiship, and by his grace to bring the people to that inward
knowledge of God, which they, by transgression, were departed from;
that so they might see the deceitfulness of their blind guides, who
by their vain traditions had made void the righteousness of the
law: and who were so far from being the true doctors and lively
expounders of it, that in reality they were the children of the
devil, who was a proud liar and cruel murderer from the beginning.
XII. Their pride in false knowledge having made them incapable of
receiving the simplicity of the gospel, Christ thanks his Father,
that he had hid the mysteries of it from the wise and prudent, and
revealed them to babes. (Matt. xi. 25.) It was this false wisdom
swelled the minds of the Athenians to that degree, that they
despised the preaching of the apostle Paul as a vain and foolish
thing. But that apostle who, of all the rest, had an education in
the learning of those times, bitterly reflects on that wisdom, so
much valued by Jews and Greeks; "Where," says he, "is the wise?
Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not
God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1 Cor. i. 20.) And
he gives a good reason for it, "That no flesh should glory in his
presence." (Verse 29.) Which is to say, God will stain the pride
of man in false knowledge, that he should have nothing on this
occasion to be proud of: it should be owing only to the revelation
of the Spirit of God. The apostle goes further, and affirms, "That
the world by wisdom knew not God:" (verse 21:) that is, it was so
far from a help, that as men use it, it was a hindrance to the true
knowledge of God. And in his first epistle to his beloved Timothy,
he concludes thus: "O Timothy! keep that which is committed to thy
trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of
science, falsely so called." (Tim. vi. 20.) This was the sense of
apostolical times, when the divine grace gave the true knowledge of
God, and was the guide of Christians.
XIII. Well, but what has been the success of those ages that
followed the apostolical? Any whit better than that of the Jewish
times? Not one jot. They have exceeded them; as with their pretences
to greater knowledge, so in their degeneracy from the true Christian
life: for though they had a more excellent pattern than the Jews,
to whom God spoke by Moses his servant, he speaking to them by his
beloved Son, the express image of his substance, the perfection
of all meekness and humility; and though they seemed addicted to
nothing more than an adoration of his name, and a veneration for
the memory of his blessed disciples and apostles, yet so great was
their defection from the inward power and life of Christianity
in the soul, that their respect was little more than formal and
ceremonious. For notwithstanding they, like the Jews, were mighty
zealous in garnishing their sepulchres, and curious in carving their
images; not only keeping with pretence what might be the relics of
their persons, but recommending a thousand things as relics, which
are purely fabulous, and very often ridiculous, and to be sure
altogether unchristian; yet as to the great and weighty things of
the Christian law, viz. love, meekness, and self-denial, they were
degenerated. They grew high-minded, proud, boasters, without natural
affection, curious, and controversial, ever perplexing the church
with doubtful questions; filling the people with disputations,
strife, and wrangling, drawing them into parties, till at last
they fell into blood: as if they had been the worse for being once
Christians.
O the miserable state of these pretended Christians! that instead of
Christ's and his apostles' doctrine, of loving enemies, and blessing
them that curse them, they should teach the people, under the notion
of Christian zeal, most inhumanly to butcher one another; and
instead of suffering their own blood to be shed for the testimony
of Jesus, they should shed the blood of the witnesses of Jesus for
heretics. Thus that subtle serpent, or crafty evil spirit, that
tempted Adam out of innocency, and the Jews from the law of God,
has beguiled the Christians, by lying vanities, to depart from the
Christian law of holiness, and so they are become slaves to him; for
he rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience.
XIV. And it is observable, that as pride, which is ever followed by
superstition and obstinacy, put Adam upon seeking a higher station
than God placed him in; and as the Jews, out of the same pride, to
outdo their pattern, given them of God by Moses upon the mount,
taught for doctrines their own traditions, insomuch that those that
refused conformity to them, ran the hazard of Crucify, crucify:
so the nominal Christians, from the same sin of pride, with great
superstition and arrogance, have introduced, instead of a spiritual
worship and discipline, that which is evidently ceremonious and
worldly; with such innovations and traditions of men as are the
fruit of the wisdom that is from below; witness their numerous and
perplexed councils and creeds, with Conform or burn, at the end of
them.
XV. And as this unwarrantable pride set them first at work, to
pervert the spirituality of the Christian worship, making it rather
to resemble the shadowy religion of the Jews, and the gaudy worship
of the Egyptians, than the great plainness and simplicity of the
Christian institution, which is neither to resemble that of the
mountain, nor the other of Jerusalem; so has the same pride and
arrogancy spurred them on, by all imaginable cruelties to maintain
this great Diana of theirs. No meek supplications, nor humble
remonstrances, of those that kept close to primitive purity in
worship and doctrine, could prevail with these nominal Christians
to dispense with the imposition of their unapostolical traditions;
but as the ministers and bishops of these degenerate Christians
left their painful visitation and care over Christ's flock, and
grew ambitious, covetous, and luxurious, resembling rather worldly
potentates, than the humble-spirited and mortified followers of the
blessed Jesus; so almost every history tells us, with what pride and
cruelty, blood and butchery, and that with unusual and exquisite
tortures, they have persecuted the holy members of Christ out of
the world; and that upon such anathemas, as far as they could,
they have disappointed them of the blessing of heaven too. These,
true Christians call martyrs; but the clergy, like the persecuting
Jews, have styled them blasphemers and heretics; in which they
have fulfilled the prophecy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who did
not say, that they should think they do the gods good service to
kill the Christians, his dear followers, which might refer to the
persecutions of the idolatrous Gentiles; (John, xvi. 2;) but that
they should think they do God good service to kill them: which
shows, that they should be such as professedly owned the true God,
as the apostate Christians have all along pretended to do. So that
they must be those wolves, that the apostle foretold, should arise
out of themselves, and worry the flock of Christ, (Acts, xx. 29,)
after the great falling away should commence, that was foretold by
him, and made necessary, in order to the proving of the faithful,
and the revelation of the great mystery of iniquity.
I shall conclude this head with this assertion, that it is too
undeniable a truth, where the clergy have been most in power and
authority, and have had the greatest influence upon princes and
states, there have been most confusions, wrangles, bloodshed,
sequestrations, imprisonments, and exiles: to the justifying of
which I call the testimony of the records of all times. How it is in
our age I leave to the experience of the living; yet there is one
demonstration that can hardly fail us; the people are not converted,
but debauched, to a degree that time will not allow us an example.
The worship of Christendom is visible, ceremonious, and gaudy; the
clergy, ambitious of worldly preferments, under the pretence of
spiritual promotion; making the earthly revenues of churchmen much
the reason of their function; being almost ever sure to leave the
present smaller livings, to solicit and obtain benefices of larger
title and income. So that with their pride and avarice, which good
old Peter foresaw would be their snares, they have drawn after them
ignorance, misery, and irreligion upon Christendom.
XVI. The way of recovery from this miserable defection is to come
to a saving knowledge of religion; that is, an experience of the
divine work of God in the soul: to obtain which be diligent to obey
the grace that appears in thy soul, O man! that brings salvation;
(Tit. ii. 2, 11, 12, 14;) it turns thee out of the broad way into
the narrow way; from thy lusts to thy duty; from sin to holiness;
from Satan to God. Thou must see and abhor self: thou must watch,
and thou must pray, and thou must fast; thou must not look at thy
tempter, but at thy preserver; avoid ill company, retire to thy
solitudes, and be a chaste pilgrim in this evil world: and thus thou
wilt arrive at the knowledge of God and Christ, that brings eternal
life to the soul: a well-grounded assurance from what a man feels
and knows within himself: such shall not be moved with evil tidings.
CHAPTER VIII.
1. Pride craves power as well as knowledge.--2. The case of
Korah, &c. a proof.--3. Absalom's ambition confirms it.--4.
Nebuchadnezzar's does the like.--5. The history of Pisistratus,
Alexander, Cæsar, &c. shows the same thing.--6. The Turks are
a lively proof, who have shed much blood to gratify pride for
power.--7. The last ten years in Christendom exceed in proof of
this.--8. Ambition rests not in courts, it finds room in private
breasts too, and spoils families and societies.--9. Their peace
is great that limit their desires by God's grace, and having
power, use it to the good of others.
I. But let us see the next most common, eminent, and mischievous
effect of this evil. Pride does extremely crave power, than which
not one thing has proved more troublesome and destructive to
mankind. I need not labour myself much in evidence of this, since
most of the wars of nations, depopulation of kingdoms, ruins of
cities, with the slavery and misery that have followed, both our own
experience and unquestionable histories, acquaint us to have been
the effect of ambition, which is the lust of pride after power.
II. How specious soever might be the pretences of Korah, Dathan,
and Abiram, against Moses, it was their emulation of his mighty
power in the camp of Israel that put them upon conspiracies and
mutinies. They longed for his authority, and their not having it was
his crime: for they had a mind to be the heads and leaders of the
people. The consequence of which was a remarkable destruction to
themselves and all their unhappy accomplices.
III. Absalom, too, was for the people's rights against the tyranny
of his father and his king; (2 Sam. xv.;) at least with this
pretence he palliated his ambition; but his rebellion showed he was
impatient for power, and that he resolved to sacrifice his duty as
a son and subject to the importunities of his restless pride; which
brought a miserable death to himself and an extraordinary slaughter
upon his army.
IV. Nebuchadnezzar is a lively instance of the excessive lust of
pride for power. His successes and empire were too heady for him:
so much too strong for his understanding, that he forgot he did not
make himself, or that his power had a superior. He makes an image,
and all must bow to it, or be burnt. And when Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego refused to comply, "Who," says he, "is that God that shall
deliver you out of my hands?" (Dan. iii.) And notwithstanding the
convictions he had upon him, at the constancy of those excellent
men, and Daniel's interpretation of his dreams, it was not long
before the pride of his power had filled his heart, and then his
mouth, with this haughty question, "Is not this great Babylon, that
I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power,
and for the honour of my majesty?" (Dan. iv. 30.) But we are told,
that while the words were in his mouth, a voice from heaven rebuked
the pride of his spirit, and he was driven from the society of men,
to graze among the beasts of the field.
V. If we look into the histories of the world, we shall find many
instances to prove the mischief of this lust of pride. I will
mention a few of them for their sakes who have either not read or
considered them.
Solon made Athens free by his excellent constitution of laws; but
the ambition of Pisistratus began the ruin of it before his eyes.
Alexander, not contented with his own kingdom, invaded others, and
filled with spoil and slaughter those countries he subdued: and it
was not ill said by the man, who, when Alexander accused him of
piracy, told him to his face that Alexander was the greatest pirate
in the world. It was the same ambition that made Cæsar turn traitor
to his masters, and with their own army, put into his hand for
their service, subdue them to his yoke, and usurp the government;
which ended in the expulsion of freedom and virtue together in that
commonwealth; for goodness quickly grew to be faction in Rome; and
that sobriety and wisdom which ever rendered her senators venerable,
became dangerous to their safety: insomuch that his successors
hardly left one they did not kill or banish; unless such as turned
to be flatterers of their unjust acquisition, and the imitators of
their debauched manners.
VI. The Turks are a great proof to the point in hand, who to extend
their dominion, have been the cause of shedding much blood, and
laying many stately countries waste.
And yet they are to be outdone by apostate Christians; whose
practice is therefore more condemnable, because they have been
better taught: they have had a master of another doctrine and
example. It is true, they call him Lord still, but they let their
ambition reign: they love power more than one another; and to get it
kill one another; though charged by him not to strike, but to love
and serve one another. And, which adds to the tragedy, all natural
affection is sacrificed to the fury of this lust: and therefore
are stories so often stained with the murder of parents, children,
uncles, nephews, masters, &c.
VII. If we look abroad into remoter parts of the world, we shall
rarely hear of wars; but in Christendom rarely of peace. A very
trifle is too often made a ground of quarrel here: nor can any
league be so sacred or inviolable that arts shall not be used to
evade and dissolve it to increase dominion. No matter who, nor how
many are slain, made widows and orphans, or lose their estates
and livelihoods; what countries are ruined; what towns and cities
spoiled: if by all these things the ambitious can but arrive at
their ends! To go no further back than sixty years, that little
period of time will furnish us with many wars begun upon ill
grounds, and ended in great desolation. Nay, the last twelve years
of our time make as pregnant a demonstration as we can furnish
ourselves with from the records of any age. It is too tedious, nor
is it my business, to be particular: it has been often well observed
by others, and is almost known to all, I mean the French, Spanish,
German, English, and Dutch wars.
VIII. But ambition does not only dwell in courts and senates: it
is too natural to every private breast to strain for power. We
daily see how much men labour their utmost wit and interest to be
great, to get higher places, or greater titles than they have,
that they may look bigger and be more acknowledged; take place
of their former equals, and so equal those that were once their
superiors: compel friends, and be revenged on enemies. This makes
Christianity so little loved of worldly men; its kingdom is not
of this world; and though they may speak it fair, it is the world
they love: that without uncharitableness we may truly say, People
profess Christianity, but they follow the world. They are not for
seeking the kingdom of heaven first, and the righteousness thereof,
(Matt. vi. 33,) and to trust God with the rest; but for securing to
themselves the wealth and glory of this world, and adjourning the
care of salvation to a sick bed, and the extreme moments of life; if
yet they believe a life to come.
IX. To conclude this head; great is their peace, who know a limit
to their ambitious minds; that have learned to be contented with
the appointments and bounds of Providence: that are not careful
to be great; but, being great, are humble and do good. Such keep
their wits with their consciences, and, with an even mind, can at
all times measure the uneven world, rest fixed in the midst of all
its uncertainties, and as becomes those who have an interest in a
better, in the good time and will of God, cheerfully leave this;
when the ambitious, conscious of their evil practices, and weighed
down to their graves with guilt, must go to a tribunal that they can
neither awe nor bribe.
CHAPTER IX.
1. The third evil effect of pride is love of honour and respect.
Too many are guilty of it.--2. It had like to have cost Mordecai
dear. Great mischief has befallen nations on this account.--3.
The world is out in the business of true honour, as well as in
that of true science.--4. Reasons why the author, and the rest
of the people he walks with, use not these fashions.--5. The
first is, the sense they had in the hour of their conviction,
of the unsuitableness of them to the Christian spirit and
practice, and that the root they came from was pride and
self-love.--6. Reproach could not move them from that sense and
practice accordingly.--7. They do it not to make sects, or for
distinction.--8. Nor yet to countenance formality, but passively
let drop vain customs, and so are negative to forms.--9. Their
behaviour is a test upon the world.--10. And this cross to the
world a test upon them.--11. The second reason against them is
their emptiness.--12. Honour in Scripture is not so taken as
it is in the world. It is used for obedience.--13. It is used
for preferments.--14. A digression about folly in a Scripture
sense.--15. Honour is used for reputation.--16. Honour is also
attributed to functions and capacities, by way of esteem.--17.
Honour is taken for help and countenance of inferiors.--18.
Honour is used for service and esteem to all states and
capacities: honour all men.--19. Yet there is a limitation, in a
sense, to the righteous, by the Psalmist; to honour the godly,
and contemn the wicked.--20. Little of this honour found in the
world's fashions.--21. The third reason against them is, they
mock and cheat people of the honour due to them.--22. The author
and his friends are for true honour.--23. The fourth reason is,
that if the fashions carried true honour in them, the debauched
could honour men, which cannot be.--24. The fifth reason is,
that then men of spite, hypocrisy, and revenge, could pay
honour, which is impossible.--25. The sixth reason is drawn from
the antiquity of true honour.--26. The seventh reason is from
the rise of the vain honour, and the teachers of it, wherein
the clown, upon a comparison, excels the courtier for a man of
breeding.--27. The eighth reason against these honours is, that
they may be had for money, which true honour cannot be.--28.
The ninth and last reason is, because the holy Scripture
expressly forbids them to true Christians.--29. As in the case
of Mordecai.--30. A passage between a bishop and the author
in this matter.--31. Likewise the case of Elihu in Job.--32.
Also the doctrine of CHRIST to his disciples.--33. Paul
against conforming to the world's fashions.--34. Peter against
fashioning ourselves according to the world's lusts.--35. James
against respect to persons.--36. Yet Christians are civil and
mannerly in a right way.--37. But unlike the world in the nature
of it, and motives to it.--38. Testimonies in favour of our
dissent and practice.
I. The third evil effect of pride, is an excessive desire of
personal honour and respect.
Pride, therefore loves power, that she might have homage, and that
every one may give her honour, and such as are wanting in that,
expose themselves to her anger and revenge. And as pride, so this
evil effect is more or less diffused through corrupt mankind; and
has been the occasion of great animosity, and mischief in the world.
II. We have a pregnant instance in holy writ, what malice and
revenge proud man is capable of, when not gratified in this
particular. It had almost cost Mordecai his neck, and the whole
people of the Jews their lives, because he would not bow himself to
Haman, who was a great favourite to king Ahasuerus. And the practice
of the world, even in our own age, will tell us, that not striking
a flag or sail, and not saluting certain ports or garrisons, yea,
less things have given rise to mighty wars between states and
kingdoms, to the expense of much treasure, but more blood. The like
has followed about the precedency of princes and their ambassadors.
Also the envy, quarrels, and mischiefs that have happened among
private persons, upon conceit that they have not been respected to
their degree or quality among men, without hat, knee, or title: to
be sure, duels and murders not a few. I was once myself in France[3]
set upon about eleven at night, as I was walking to my lodging, by
a person that waylaid me, with his naked sword in his hand, who
demanded satisfaction of me for taking no notice of him, at a time
when he civilly saluted me with his hat; though the truth was, I saw
him not when he did it. I will suppose he had killed me, for he made
several passes at me, or I, in my defence, had killed him, when I
disarmed him, as the earl of Crawford's servant saw, that was by; I
ask any man of understanding or conscience, if the whole ceremony
was worth the life of a man, considering the dignity of the nature,
and the importance of the life of man, both with respect to God his
Creator, himself, and the benefit of civil society.
[3] Which was before I professed the communion I am now of.
III. But the truth is, the world, under its degeneracy from God, is
as much out of the way as to true honour and respect, as in other
things; for mere shows, and those vain ones, too, are much of the
honour and respect that are expressed in the world; that a man may
say concerning them, as the apostle speaks of science, that is, they
are honours and respects falsely so called; having nothing of the
nature of true honour and respect in them: but as degenerate men,
loving to be honoured, first devised them, so pride only loves and
seeks them, and is affronted and angry for want of them. Did men
know a true Christian state, and the honour that comes from above,
which JESUS teaches, they would not covet these very vanities, much
less insist upon them.
IV. And here give me leave to set down the reasons more
particularly, why I, and the people with whom I walk in religious
society, have declined, as vain and foolish, several worldly customs
and fashions of respect, much in request at this time of day:
and I beseech thee, reader, to lay aside all prejudice and scorn,
and with the meekness and inquiry of a sober and discreet mind,
read and weigh what may be here alleged in our defence: and if we
are mistaken, rather pity and inform, than despise and abuse our
simplicity.
V. The first and most pressing motive upon our spirits, to decline
the practice of these present customs, pulling off the hat, bowing
the body or knee, and giving people gaudy titles and epithets in
our salutations and addresses, was that savour, sight and sense of
God, by his light and Spirit given us, of the Christian world's
apostacy from God, and the cause and effects of that great and
lamentable defection. In the discovery of which the sense of our
state came first before us, and we were made to see him whom we
pierced, and to mourn for it. A day of humiliation overtook us,
and we fainted to that pleasure and delight we once loved. Now our
works went beforehand to judgment, and a thorough search was made,
and the words of the prophet became well understood by us; "Who can
abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears?"
"He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap." (Mal. iii.
2.) And as the apostle said, "If the righteous scarcely be saved,
where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Peter, iv. 18.)
"Wherefore," says the apostle Paul, "knowing the terror of the Lord,
we persuade men:" (2 Cor. v. 11:) what to do? To come out of the
nature, spirit, lusts, and customs of this wicked world: remembering
that, as Jesus has said, "For every idle word that man shall speak,
he shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." (Matt. xii.
36.)
This concern of mind and dejection of spirit was visible to our
neighbours; and we are not ashamed to own, that the terrors of
the Lord took such hold upon us, because we had long, under a
profession of religion, grieved God's Holy Spirit, that reproved
us in secret for our disobedience; that as we abhorred to think of
continuing in our old sins, so we feared to use lawful things, lest
we should use them unlawfully. Our heaven seemed to melt away, and
our earth to be removed out of its place; and we were like men, as
the apostle said, upon whom the ends of the world were come. God
knows it was so in this day; the brightness of his coming to our
souls discovered, and the breath of his mouth destroyed every plant
he had not planted in us. He was a swift witness against every evil
thought and every unfruitful work; and, blessed be his name, we were
not offended in him, or at his righteous judgments. Now it was that
a grand inquest came upon our whole life: every word, thought, and
deed was brought to judgment, the root examined, and its tendency
considered. "The lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the
pride of life," (1 John, ii. 16,) were opened to our view; the
mystery of iniquity in us. And by knowing the evil leaven, and its
divers evil effects in ourselves, how it had wrought, and what
it had done, we came to have a sense and knowledge of the states
of others: and what we could not, nay, we dare not let live and
continue in ourselves, as being manifested to us to proceed from an
evil principle in the time of man's degeneracy, we could not comply
with in others. Now this I say, and that in the fear and presence
of the all-seeing, just God, the present honours and respect of the
world, among other things, became burdensome to us: we saw they had
no being in paradise, that they grew in the night-time, and came
from an ill root; and that they only delighted a vain and ill mind,
and that much pride and folly were in them.
VI. And though we easily foresaw the storms of reproach that would
fall upon us for our refusing to practise them; yet we were so far
from being shaken in our judgment, that it abundantly confirmed
our sense of them. For so exalted a thing is man, and so loving of
honour and respect, even from his fellow-creatures, that so soon as
in tenderness of conscience towards God we could not perform them
as formerly, he became more concerned than for all the rest of our
differences, however material to salvation. So that let the honour
of God and our own salvation do as it will, it was greater heresy
and blasphemy to refuse him the homage of the hat, and his usual
titles of honour; to deny to pledge his healths, or play with him at
cards and dice, than any other principle we maintained: for being
less in his view, it seemed not so much in his way.
VII. And though it be frequently objected that we seek to set up
outward forms of preciseness, and that is but as a green riband,
the badge of the party, the better to be known: I do declare, in
the fear of Almighty God, that these are but the imaginations and
vain constructions of insensible men, that have not had that sense
which the Lord hath given us, of what arises from the right and the
wrong root in man: and when such censurers of our simplicity shall
be inwardly touched and awakened by the mighty power of God, and see
things as they are in their proper natures and seeds, they will then
know their own burden, and easily acquit us, without the imputation
of folly or hypocrisy herein.
VIII. To say that we strain at small things, which becomes not
people of so fair pretensions to liberty and freedom of spirit: I
answer with meekness, truth, and sobriety; first, nothing is small
that God makes matter of conscience to do, or leave undone. Next as
inconsiderable as they are made, by those that object upon us, they
are much set by; so greatly as for our not giving them to be beaten,
imprisoned, refused justice, &c. To say nothing of the derision and
reproach that hath been frequently flung at us on this account.
So that if we had wanted a proof of the truth of our inward belief
and judgment, the very practice of them that opposed it would have
abundantly confirmed us. But let it suffice to us, that "Wisdom
is justified of her children:" (Matt. xi. 19:) we only passively
let fall the practice of what we are taught to believe is vain and
unchristian: in which we are negative to forms: for we leave off, we
do not set up forms.
IX. The world is so set upon the ceremonious parts and outside of
things, that it has well beseemed the wisdom of God in all ages to
bring forth his dispensations with very different appearances to
their settled customs; thereby contradicting human inventions, and
proving the integrity of his confessors. Nay, it is a test upon the
world: it tries what patience, kindness, sobriety, and moderation
they have: if the rough and homely outside of truth stumble not
their minds from the reception of it, whose beauty is within: it
makes a great discovery upon them. For he who refuses a precious
jewel, because it is presented in a plain box, will never esteem
it to its value, nor set his heart upon keeping it; therefore I
call it a test, because it shows where the hearts and affections of
the people stick, after all their great pretence to more excellent
things.
X. It is also a mighty trial upon God's people, in that they are
put upon the discovery of their contradiction to the customs
generally received and esteemed in the world; which exposes them
to the wonder, scorn, and abuse of the multitude. But there is a
hidden treasure in it: it inures us to reproach, it teaches us
to despise the false reputation of the world, and silently to
undergo the contradiction and scorn of its votaries; and finally
with a Christian meekness and patience to overcome their injuries
and reproaches. Add to this; it weans thee of thy familiars; for
being slighted of them as a ninny, a fool, a frantic, &c. thou
art delivered from a greater temptation; and that is the power and
influence of their vain conversation. And last of all, it lists thee
of the company of the blessed, mocked, persecuted JESUS: to fight
under his banner against the world, the flesh, and the devil: that
after having faithfully suffered with him in a state of humiliation,
thou mayst reign with him in a state of glorification: who glorifies
his poor, despised, constant followers with the glory he had with
the Father before the world began. (John, xvii. 5.) This was the
first reason of our declining to practise the before-mentioned
honours, respect, &c.
XI. The second reason why we decline and refuse the present use
of these customs in our addresses and salutations, is from the
consideration of their very emptiness and vanity: that there is
nothing of true honour and respect in them, supposing them not to
be evil. And, as religion and worship are degenerated into form and
ceremony, and they not according to primitive practice neither, so
is honour and respect too; there being little of that in the world
as well as of the other; and to be sure, in these customs, none that
is justifiable by Scripture or reason.
XII. In Scripture we find the word honour often and diversely
used. First for obedience: as when God saith, "They that honour
me;" (1 Sam. ii. 30:) that is, that keep my commandments. "Honour
the king;" (1 Pet. ii. 17;) that is, obey the king. "Honour thy
father and mother;" (Exod. xx. 12;) that is, saith the apostle to
the Ephesians, "Obey thy father and thy mother in the Lord, for
that is right:" (Eph. vi. 1, 2:) take heed to their precepts and
advice: presupposing always, that rulers and parents command lawful
things, else they dishonour themselves to enjoin unlawful things;
and subjects and children dishonour their superiors and parents, in
complying with their unrighteous commands. Also Christ uses this
word so, when he says, "I have not a devil, but I honour my Father,
and ye dishonour me;" (John, viii. 49;) that is, I do my Father's
will in what I do, but you will not hear me; you reject my counsel,
and will not obey my voice. It was not refusing hat and knee, nor
empty trifles: no, it was disobedience; resisting him that God had
sent, and not believing in him. This was the dishonour he taxed
them with; using him as an impostor, that God had ordained for the
salvation of the world. And of these dishonourers there are but too
many at this day. Christ has a saying to the same effect; "That all
men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father; and he
that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, which hath
sent him:" (John, v. 23:) that is, they that hearken not to Christ,
and do not worship and obey him, they do not hear, worship, nor
obey God. As they pretended to believe in God, so they were to have
believed in him; he told them so. This is pregnantly manifested in
the case of the centurion, whose faith was so much commended by
Christ; where, giving Jesus an account of his honourable station, he
tells him, "He had soldiers under his authority, and when he said
to one, Go, he went; to another, Come, he came; and to a third,
Do this, he did it." (Luke, vii. 8.) In this it was he placed the
honour of his capacity, and the respect of his soldiers, and not in
hats and legs: nor are such customs yet in use amongst soldiers,
being effeminate, and unworthy of masculine gravity.
XIII. In the next place, honour is used for preferment to trust
and eminent employments. So the Psalmist, speaking to God: "For
thou hast crowned him with glory and honour:" again, "Honour and
majesty hast thou laid on him;" (Psalm viii. 5; xxi. 5;) that is,
God hath given Christ power over all his enemies, and exalted him
to great dominion. Thus the wise man intimates, when he says, "The
fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom, and before honour is
humility." (Prov. xv. 33.) That is, before advancement or preferment
is humility. Further, he has this saying, "As snow in summer, and
as rain in harvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool:" (Prov.
xxvi. 10:) that is, a fool is not capable of the dignity of trust,
employment, or preferment: they require virtue, wisdom, integrity,
diligence, with which fools are unfurnished. And yet if the respects
and titles in use amongst us are to go for marks of honour,
Solomon's proverb will take place, and doubtless doth, upon the
practice of this age, that yields so much of that honour to a great
many of Solomon's fools; who are not only silly men, but wicked too;
such as refuse instruction, and hate the fear of the Lord; (Prov.
xiii. 18;) which only maketh one of his wise men.
XIV. And as virtue and wisdom are the same, so folly and wickedness.
Thus Shechem's lying with Dinah, Jacob's daughter, is called: (Gen.
xxxiv. 7:) so is the rebellion and wickedness of the Israelites in
Joshua. (Josh. vii. 15.) The Psalmist expresses thus: "My wounds
stink, because of my foolishness:" (Psalm xxxviii. 5:) that is, his
sin. And, "The Lord will speak peace to his saints, but let them
not turn again to folly:" (Psalm lxxxv. 8:) that is, to evil. "His
own iniquities," says Solomon, "shall take the wicked himself, and
he shall be holden with the cords of his sins: he shall die without
instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray."
(Prov. v. 22, 23.) Christ puts foolishness with blasphemy, pride,
theft, murders, adulteries, wickedness, &c. (Mark, vii. 10-12.) I
was the more willing to add these passages, to show the difference
that there is between the mind of the Holy Ghost, and the notion
that those ages had of fools, that deserve not honour, and that
which is generally meant by fools and folly in our time; that we may
the better understand the disproportion there is between honour, as
then understood by the Holy Ghost, and those that were led thereby;
and the apprehension of it, and the practice of those latter ages of
professed Christians.
XV. But honour is also taken for reputation, and it is so understood
with us: "A gracious woman," says Solomon, "retaineth honour;"
(Prov. xi. 16;) that is, she keeps her credit: and by her virtue,
maintains her reputation, of sobriety and chastity. In another
place, "It is an honour for a man to cease from strife:" (Prov.
xx. 3:) that is, it makes for his reputation, as a wise and good
man. Christ uses the word thus, where he says, "A prophet is not
without honour, save in his own country;" (Matt. xiii. 57;) that
is, he has credit, and is valued, save at home. The apostle to the
Thessalonians has a saying to this effect: "That every one of you
should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour:"
(1 Thes. iv. 4:) that is, in chastity and sobriety. In all which
nothing of the fashions by us declined is otherwise concerned than
to be totally excluded.
XVI. There is yet another use of the word honour in Scripture, and
that is to functions and capacities: as, "An elder is worthy of
double honour:" (1 Tim. v. 17:) that is, he deserves double esteem,
love, and respect; being holy, merciful, temperate, peaceable,
humble, &c., especially one that labours in word and doctrine.
So Paul recommends Epaphroditus to the Philippians; "Receive
him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in
reputation:" (Phil. ii. 29:) as if he had said, Let them be valued
and regarded by you in what they say and teach. Which is the truest,
and most natural and convincing way of testifying respect to a man
of God; as Christ said to his disciples, "If ye love me ye will keep
my sayings." Further, the apostle bids us, To honour widows indeed:
that is, such women who are of chaste lives and exemplary virtue are
honourable.
XVII. The word honour, in the Scripture, is also used from superiors
to inferiors. Which is plain in the instance of Ahasuerus to
Haman; "What shall be done to the man whom the king delighteth
to honour?" (Esther, vi. 6.) Why, he mightily advanced him, as
Mordecai afterwards. And more particularly it is said, that "the
Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour:" (Esther, viii.
16:) that is, they escaped the persecution that was like to fall
upon them, and by the means of Esther and Mordecai, they enjoyed
not only peace, but favour and countenance too. In this sense the
apostle Peter advised Christian men "To honour their wives:" (1 Pet.
iii. 7:) that is, to love, value, cherish, countenance, and esteem
them, for their fidelity and affection to their husbands, for their
tenderness and care over their children, and for their diligence and
circumspection in their families. There is no ceremonious behaviour,
or gaudy titles requisite to express this honour. Thus God honours
holy men: "Them that honour me," says the Lord, "I will honour; and
they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed:" (1 Sam. ii. 30:)
that is, I will do good to them, I will love, bless, countenance,
and prosper them that honour me, that obey me: but they that despise
me, that resist my Spirit, and break my law, they shall be lightly
esteemed, little set by or accounted of; they shall not find favour
with God, nor righteous men. And so we see it daily among men: if
the great visit or concern themselves to aid the poor; we say, that
such a great man did me the honour to come and see, or help me in my
need.
XVIII. I shall conclude this with one passage more, and that is a
very large, plain, and pertinent one: "Honour all men, and love
the brotherhood:" (1 Pet. ii. 17:) that is, love is above honour,
and that is reserved for the brotherhood. But honour, which is
esteem and regard, that thou owest to all men; and if all, then thy
inferiors. But why for all men? Because they are the creation of
God, and the most noble part of his creation too: they are also thy
own kind: be natural, and assist them with what thou canst; be ready
to perform any real respect, and yield them any good or countenance
thou canst.
XIX. And yet there seems a limitation to the command, Honour all
men, in that passage of godly David, "Who shall abide in thy
tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? he in whose eyes a
vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord."
(Psalm xv. 1, 4.) Here honour is confined and affixed to godly
persons; and dishonour made the duty of the righteous to the wicked,
and a mark of their being righteous, that they dishonour, that is,
slight or disregard them. To conclude this Scripture inquiry after
honour, I shall contract the subject of it under three capacities,
superiors, equals, and inferiors: honour, to superiors is obedience;
to equals, love; to inferiors, countenance and help: that is honour
after God's mind, and the holy people's fashion of old.
XX. But how little of all this is to be seen or had in a poor empty
hat, bow, cringe, or gaudy, flattering title, let the truth-speaking
witness of God in all mankind judge. For I must not appeal to
corrupt, proud, and self-speaking man, of the good or evil of those
customs; that as little as he would render them, are loved and
sought by him, and he is out of humour and angry if he has them not.
This is our second reason why we refuse to practise the accustomed
ceremonies of honour and respect; because we find no such notion
or expression of honour and respect, recommended to us by the Holy
Ghost in the Scriptures of truth.
XXI. Our third reason for not using them as testimonies of honour
and respect is, because there is no discovery of honour or respect
to be made by them: it is rather eluding and equivocating it;
cheating people of the honour and respect that is due to them;
giving them nothing in the show of something. There is in them no
obedience to superiors, no love to equals, no help or countenance to
inferiors.
XXII. We are, we declare to the whole world, for true honour
and respect; we honour the king, our parents, our masters, our
magistrates, our landlords, one another; yea, all men, after God's
way, used by holy men and women of old time: but we refuse these
customs as vain and deceitful; not answering the end they are used
for.
XXIII. But, fourthly, there is yet more to be said: we find that
vain, loose, and worldly people are the great lovers and practisers
of them, and most deride our simplicity of behaviour. Now we
assuredly know, from the sacred testimonies, that those people
cannot give true honour that live in a dishonourable spirit; they
understand it not; but they can give the hat and knee, and that they
are very liberal of, nor are any more expert at it. This is to us a
proof that no true honour can be testified by those customs, which
vanity and looseness love and use.
XXIV. Next to them I will add hypocrisy, and revenge too. For
how little do many care for each other! Nay, what spite, envy,
animosity, secret backbiting, and plotting one against another,
under the use of these idle respects; till passion, too strong for
cunning, breaks through hypocrisy into open affront and revenge!
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