will grieve you more to hear the reproaches of the ungodly, against the ways and servants of God, than all your wealth will do you good. Doth it not go to your heart to hear poor blinded sinners on all occasions reproaching your holy profession, and saying, 'There are none more proud, and covetous, and unmerciful, than these professors of so much strictness and holiness.' Though for the general, it be a malignant, satanical slander; yet take heed, as you love the honour of God, and of his holy truth and ways, and the souls of men, that you give not occasion of such reproach.

Use: For Consolation and further Persuasion.

Having said this much to you for the crucifying of the world, and the using it as a crucified thing; I shall here briefly enumerate some of the great benefits which follow to yourselves where this is done. And this I shall do in order to these two ends conjunctly. 1. That those to whom the world is crucified may lay to heart the greatness of the mercy, and be thankful to God that hath done so much for them. There is the greater need of encouragement and comfort to the soul, in our crucifixion to the world, because it is a state of so much suffering to the body, and a work that requireth so much selfdenial and patience. Who will be persuaded to cast all overboard, and forsake all the pleasures and profits of this world, but he that knows of somewhat to be got by it that will make him a gainer and saver in the end? No man will incur so great a loss, and cast himself upon a life of troubles, without some considerable benefit to encourage him. And in the conflict the heart will be ready to fail, if we have not a cordial at hand for its refreshment. As Christ himself must have an angel in his agony to comfort him, and when consolation is withdrawn by God, doth feel himself as one forsaken; so all his members in their crucifixion, have need of these reviving messengers of God, that seeing the ends and benefits of their sufferings, they may be able to resign their natural wills in a full submission to the will of God, and so to persevere and conquer in their sufferings. They have need of a believing consideration of the benefits, that they may be daily and hourly furnished against temptations, and may bear those losses and abuses from men, even to laying down of life, and all things in this world which flesh and blood are so exceedingly against. He

that believeth the faithfulness of the promiser, will “hold fast the profession of his faith without wavering;" Heb. x. 23. And he that believeth the recompence of reward will not cast away his confidence; Heb. x. 35. He that knoweth in himself that he hath in heaven a better and more enduring substance, will endure the greatest fight of afflictions, becoming a gazingstock by reproaches and afflictions, and becoming a companion of them that are so used; and will take joyfully the spoiling of his worldly goods; Heb. x. 32-34. He that can "look to Jesus the author and finisher of his faith," and with him "to the joy that is set before him, will endure the cross, and despise the shame, and run with patience the race that is set before him ;" Heb. xii. 1, 2. He that by faith foreseeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness, will bear the chastisement which for the present seemeth not joyous, but grievous; Heb. xii. 11. All the cloud of witnesses and army of martyrs (Heb. xi.) do testify this to us; that it is faith's beholding the benefits and promised blessings, that must enable us to contemn the world, and suffer the loss of all for Christ. Having therefore need of patience, that after we have done the will of God, we may receive the promise, we have need also of these encouraging helps which must support our patience, that in this patience we may possess our souls, when impatient men, to save the world, do lose their souls; Heb. x. 36. Luke xxi. 19. Matt. xvi. 25, 26. These considerations are necessary to us in so hard an undertaking, "lest we be wearied and faint in our minds;" Heb. xii. 3. Though we may manfully bear some few assaults, yet when we feel the vinegar and gall, and the cruelty of the world even piercing not only our hands and our feet, but our very heart, and see them shrink from us that were most obliged to adhere to us, we shall then judge ourselves forsaken of God, if we have not the lively sense of these benefits. As the very thought of forsaking all doth strike a carnal heart with sorrow, and the work doth overmatch all the power of flesh and blood, (Luke xviii. 22-24. 27-29.) so also the believer hath need to keep his faith waking and in exercise, that he " may lift up the hands that else will hang down, and the knees that else will be feeble, and may make straight paths for his feet that the lame may not be turned out of the way, but may be healed;" Heb. xii. 11-14. For if we hear Job's messengers, and

have not Job's faith and patience, we shall not be able heartily to say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord;" Job i. 21.

2. My second end in the mentioning these benefits is, that if yet all that is said before have not persuaded you to be crucified to the world, at least you may be persuaded by the consideration of the benefits, and of the happy conditions of those that are thus mortified; even when they seem in the eyes of unbelievers to be most miserable. To these two ends I shall mention the benefits.

Benefit 1. Your crucifixion to the world by the cross of Christ will be one of the clearest and surest evidences of your sincerity;' and so may afford you abundant help for the conquering of your doubts, and the ascertaining your salvation. When on the contrary, an unmortified, worldly mind, is the certain and common mark of a miserable hypocrite. I know a melancholy man may be so weary of the world, as to be impatient of his life; but to prefer the Lord and everlasting life before it, in our practical estimation, and resolution, and endeavours, is the very point of saving sincerity, and the specifical nature of true sanctification: and all other marks must be reduced unto this. There is no man so spiritual and heavenly, but while he is here hath a mixture of earthliness and carnality; and many a thousand that are earthly and carnal, have some esteem for God and glory, and some purposes for them, and some endeavours after them; but it is that which is predominant that giveth the denomination. According to that, it is, that we must be called either spiritual and heavenly, or carnal and earthly

men.

More particularly, 1. If you look to the understanding, this crucifixion to the world is a very great part of the wisdom of the soul. For wherein doth wisdom more consist, than in judging of things as indeed they are, and especially in matters of greatest moment? He therefore that is crucified to the world, must needs be wise; and whatever his knowledge or reputation may be, he that wants this must needs be a fool. Is that a wise man that knoweth the times and seasons, and how to do this and that in the world, and knoweth not how to escape damnation, nor where his safety and happiness must be sought? And is not he a wiser man that can see the snares that are laid for his soul, and so es

cape the burning lake; than he that will sell his Saviour and his soul for a little pleasure to his flesh for a moment? I make no doubt, but the weakest man or woman that practically knows the vanity of this world, and the desirable excellency of God and glory, is a thousandfold wiser than the most famous princes or learned men that want this knowledge. I will never take that man for a fool, that can hit the way to heaven; nor that for a wise man, that cannot hit it. It is the greatest matters that try men's wisdom, though childish wit may appear in trifles.

2. To be crucified to the world is the certain effect of a living, effectual faith. The dead faith that James speaketh of, may move you to so much compassion as to say to the poor, "Go in peace; be warmed and filled;" James ii. 16. But it will not so far loose you from the world, as to persuade you to part with it to supply his wants: at least you will never be persuaded to part with all and follow Christ, till the belief of a treasure in heaven do persuade you to it; Luke xviii. 21, 22. Can you say from your hearts, ‘Let all go, rather than the love of God.' And in a case of trial, do you certainly find that there is nothing so dear to you, which you cannot part with for God and the hopes of everlasting life? This is a sign of an effectual faith; for neither nature nor common grace did ever bring a soul so high.

3. It is also a certain evidence of unfeigned love. For wherein is love so clearly manifested, as in the highest adventures for the person whom we love, and in the costliest expressions of our love when we are called to it? Then it will appear that you love God indeed, when there is nothing else that you prefer before him, and nothing but what you lay down at his feet; when the greatest professors that love the world, do shew that the love of the Father is not in them, (1 John ii. 15.) so far as it is loved.

4. To be crucified to the world and alive to God, is the very honesty, and chastity, and justice of the soul. This is your fidelity to God, in keeping the holy covenant that you have made with him in Christ. This is your keeping yourselves unspotted from the world, and undefiled by it: when the friends of it live in its adulterous embracements; James iv. 4. Thus do you give the Lord his own, even both the creature and your hearts; when worldlings do unjustly rob him of both. This is the great command and request of God

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My son give me thy heart;" Prov. xxiii. 26. Give him but this, and he will take it as if you gave him all; for indeed the rest will follow this. But if you give the world your hearts, God will take all the rest as nothing.

Do

Benefit 2. The second benefit is this: If you are truly crucified to the world, 'Your minds will be free for God and his service;' when the minds of worldlings are like imprisoned, hampered things. What a toilsome thing it is for a man to travel in fetters, or to run a race with a burden on his back? But knock off his fetters, and how easily will he go; and take off his burden, and how lightly will he run! you not feel yourselves that the world is the clog of your souls? And this is it that hindereth you in duty, and keepeth you from the attainment of a heavenly conversation? When you should cheerfully go to God in secret, or in your families, the world is ready to pull you back: either it calleth you away by putting some other business into your hands; or else it dulleth and diverteth your affections, so that you have no heart to duty, or no life in it; or else it creepeth into your thoughts in duty, and taketh them off from the work in hand, and makes you do that which you seem not to be doing: and if you shake off these thoughts, and drive them out of your way, they are presently again before you, and meet you at the next turn. But in that measure as you have crucified the world, you are freed from these disturbances. The apostle Peter describeth the miserable estate of apostates, (2 Pet. ii. 20.) to be like a bird or beast that had escaped out of the snare that he was taken in, and after is taken in the same again; having escaped the pollution of the world, &c. πάλιν ἐμπλακέντες ήττωνται, ‘they are again entangled therein :' as a beast in a snare, that cannot escape or help himself; so (2 Tim. ii. 4.) it is said, no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, ἐδεὶς στρατευόμενος ἐμπλέκεται &c. So that you see that the world is a snare that entangleth men's souls, and holdeth them as in captivity. The table of the wicked becometh a snare to them, and so do all the bodily mercies which they possess.

But the mortified Christian may look back on all these dangers, and say, "Blessed be the Lord that hath not given. us as a prey to their teeth our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are