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seeth not reason enough in worldly losses, to draw him to the committing of sin to avoid them. An unmortified man will be swayed by his worldly interest. That must be no duty to him, which casteth him upon sufferings; and that is no good to him which would deprive him of his sensual good; and that shall be no sin to him, which seemeth to be a matter of necessity, for the securing of his hopes and happiness in the world. Whatever is a man's end, he puts a must upon the obtaining it, and upon all the means without which it will not be attained. I must have God and glory, saith the believer, whatever I want: and therefore I must have Christ, I must have faith, and love, and obedience, whatever I do.' And so saith the sensualist, My life, and credit, and safety in the world must be secured, whatever I miss of. And therefore I must avoid all that would hazard or lose them. And I must do that which will preserve them whatever I do.' The worldling thinketh there is a necessity of his being sensually happy; or at least of preserving his life and hopes on earth. But the mortified Christian seeth no necessity of living, much less of any of the sensual provisions, which to others seem such considerable things. And hence it is that the same argument from necessity, draweth one man to sin, and keepeth another most effectually from sin. He that hath carnal ends, doth plead a necessity of the sinful means, by which he may attain them. And he that hath the end of a true believer, doth plead a necessity of avoiding the same sins, which the other thought he must needs commit. For heavenly ends are as much crossed by them as earthly ends are promoted by them. We find a rich man in Luke xviii. 23, that had a great mind to have been a Christian. And if he had lived in our days, when the door is set a little wider open than Christ did set it, there are some that would not have denied him baptism, but would have let him in. But when he heareth that the world must be renounced, and Christ tells him of selling all and looking for a reward in another world," he goes away sorrowful, for he was very rich." The man would have had pardon and salvation, but he must needs be rich, or at least keep something. And they that are so set upon it, that they must and "will be rich, do fall into a temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition;" 1 Tim. vi. 9.

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And "he that makes haste to be rich, shall not be innocent;" Prov. xxviii. 20. But the crucified world is a dead and ineffectual thing. It cannot draw a man from Christor duty. It cannot draw a man into any known sin (so far as he is crucified). It is as Samson, when his hair was cut: power is gone. Thousands whose hearts were changed by grace, could sell all, and lay the price at the apostles' feet, and could forsake all, and take up their cross and follow a crucified Christ to the death, and could rejoice in tribulation, and glory that they were counted worthy to suffer though he that was unmortified do go away sorrowful. Worldly interest doth command the religion and life of the unmortified man, because it is the predominant interest in his heart. But it is contrary with the mortified believer. His spiritual interest being predominant, doth rule him as to all the matters of this world.

(3.) If you are crucified to the world, your care for worldly things is crucified. It is not in vain that Christ expressly commandeth his disciples, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on;" Matt. vi. 25.31. And Phil. iv. 6. "Be careful for nothing." And 1 Pet. v. 7. "Casting all your care on him, for he careth for you." I know this is a hard saying to flesh and blood, and therefore they study evasions by perverting the plain text, and would null and evacuate the express commands of Christ, by squaring them to that carnal interest and reason which they are purposely given to destroy. But you will say, 'Must we indeed give over caring?' I answer, 1. You must be in care about your own duty, both in matters of the first and second table, and how to manage your worldly affairs most innocently and spiritually, and to attain the ends propounded in them by God. But this is none of the care that is now in question; 1 Cor. vii. 32. There is a necessary "caring for the things that belong to the Lord, how to please the Lord," and that even in your worldly business. But 2. You may not care for the creature for itself, nor for the mere pleasing of the flesh. As it may not be loved for itself, so neither may it be cared for, for itself. And 3. When you have used your utmost care or forecast to do your own duty, you may not be anxious or careful about the issue which is God's part to determine of. As God himself appeareth in prosperity or adver

sity, you may and must have regard unto the issue. But for the thing itself you must not, when you have done your own duty, be any further careful about it. God knoweth best what is good for you, and how much of the creature you are fit to manage, and what condition of body is most suitable to the condition of your soul. And therefore to him

must the whole business be committed. When When you have committed your seed to the ground, and done your duty about it, you must have no further care at all, which intimateth fears, anxiety, or distrust: though as care is largely taken for regard, you may care and pray for the blessing of God on it, and for your daily bread.

(4.) So far as you are crucified to the world, your worldly sorrows also will be crucified. If you miss of it, you will not be grieved for that miss. For the displeasure of God which an affliction may manifest, you ought to be grieved; but not for the mere loss of the creature for itself. As God in the creature must be loved and delighted in, and not the creature for itself; so it is God's displeasure manifested in the creature that must be our grief. If a man's flesh be dead, you may cut it off, and he never feeleth you: you may cut it, or prick it, and he will not smart. And if you be dead to the world, you will not feel it as others do, when worldly things are taken from you. You will make no great matter of it.

Object. But grace doth not make men stocks or stupid, and therefore how can we choose but feel?'

Answ. There is a feeling that is merely natural, and not subject to the command of reason and will; and there is a feeling which is under reason, and is voluntary. The latter only is that I speak of, which grace commandeth. The most gracious man may feel heat and cold, pain and weariness, hunger and thirst, as much as the worst. But the passions of his soul, so far as they are under the command of reason and will, do not feel them as evils to the soul, (so far as he is sanctified). Still observe that I speak of worldly things, as separated from God, in whom only they are good, and in respect to him only the absence of them is evil to the soul. And there is somewhat of the passions that bodily sense can force, perhaps in an innocent Adam. But I speak only of that passion which reason should command.

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And so, it is not enough that our care and grief for worldly things be less than that for the things of God: though that much may prove our sincerity (of which more anon), yet that is not all that is our duty. But we should have no care or rational voluntary grief for any creature, but only as it is a means to God, and standeth in a due subordination to him: and so we may have both.

4. Having shewed you what affections are crucified to the world, in the last place I add, that our inordinate labour for it, must be crucified. Christ is as plain and peremptory in this, as in the former, not only commanding us to "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," (Matt. vi. 33.) but also, "Not to labour for the meat that perisheth, but for the meat that endureth to everlasting life, which the Son will give us," (John vi. 27.) which is not only to be understood that our labour for earth should be less than our labour for heaven, and so comparatively none at all; but further, that we must have no love or desire to the creature for itself, but ultimately for God; so we should not at all seek or labour for the creature for itself, but ultimately for God; and therefore seek and labour for it no further than it is necessary to the pleasing of God, or to our fruition of him. This is the true and plain meaning of such

texts.

A man that is truly dead to the world, doth labour for God and not for the world (according to the measure of his mortification) in all that he doth. If he be ploughing, or sowing, or reaping, or threshing, if he be working at his trade in his shop, it is God that he is seeking and labouring for. He doth not stop or take up in the creature. He seeks it still but as a means to God. But an unsanctified man doth never truly seek God for himself at all, no not in his worship, much less in his trade and calling in the world. For God is not his ultimate end; and therefore he cannot love him or seek him for himself. It is flesh-pleasing or carnal felicity that is his end, and therefore he seeketh God for the flesh. When he prayeth to him, when he loveth him, it is but as he is a means to this his carnal felicity, and not as he is himself his chiefest good. Thus you may see what it is to be crucified to the world, and wherein true mortification doth consist.

A few objections are here to be answered, that we may the more profitably proceed.

Object. 1. A man may have hunger and thirst in his very sleep, when he cannot refer the creature to God.'

Answ. 1. We speak only of human, that is, moral acts, and such desires as are under the command of the will. 2. A man may habitually refer things to God, when he doth not actually.

Object. 2. How can a man seek God in ploughing, or working in his shop, when these actions are so heteroge

neous ?'

Answ. God made no creature, nor appointed any employment for man, which may not fitly be a means to himself. As all came from God, so all have something of God upon them; and all tend to him from whom they came. There are some means that stand nearer the end, and some are further from it; and yet the most remote are truly means. A man that is but cutting down a tree, or hewing stones out of the quarry, doth as much intend them for the building of his house, as he that is erecting the frame, or placing them in the building. We cannot attain the end without the most remote means, as well as the nearest.

Object. We are taught to pray for our daily bread; therefore we may desire it, and labour for it.'

Answ. No doubt of it. But we are taught to pray for it, but as a means to the hallowing of God's name, the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will; and therefore only as a means must we desire it, and labour for it; and that for these, and no lower ultimate ends. And therefore the words are such as express only things necessary, "Our daily bread;" that we may perceive it is but as a means to God that we desire it. If our being be not maintained, we are not capable of wellbeing, nor of serving God. And if the means of our being be not continued, our being will not be continued in God's appointed ordinary way And therefore we pray for the means of ou

that we may be kept in a capacity of

being.

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Object. But a man cannot be always and therefore not always intending him therefore cannot do all for him.'

Answ. 1. If sin disable us, that is no exc

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