CHAP. IV. Now we are i• Christ dying, and crucified in him. 2. A twofold crucifying of us with Christ. 3. A discourse of mortification. 4. The actings of the mortified. 5. That we are to be mortified in our affections to every thing that is not God, &c.
IT is objected, that we was not born, nor ha• we any being, when Christ died, then we died not in Christ, nor could we rise, as∣cend to heaven, nor sit in heavenly places with him? Ans. But 1. in Physicall actions there is required the reall existence of the worker. Not so in legall actions, for as we had no being, who now beleeve, when Christ died, so our sins had no being;* How then could our sins, that were not, deserve punishment? Yet I desire to beleeve that Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. 2.24. his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree. And that he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, who now live, Isai. 53.5. and they cannot deny this, who teach that CHRIST died for the sins of the world, none excepted. And the child in the womb, when the father is absolved from treason is really and in Law restored to his fathers inheritance: And the sucking child may be Crowned a King, and take possession of a Kingdom, and take the oath of loyalty of the subjects in the person of another, though physically he neither do, nor know what is done, but sleep in the armes of the nurse. So we legally in CHRIST satisfied, our nature in Christ was crucified, and we, though not born, did satisfie and suffer satisfactory punishment in Christ. Heb. 1.3. Having by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Heb. 9.28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And in him we were (legally) cruci∣fied, and dead to the Law: As Gal. 2.19. so as Christ once being dead and crucified, the head and members, whole Mysticall Christ is dead to the Law, and Christ can die no more, for he cannot satisfie and pay the debt twise: And so are we in him dead to hell, to wrath, to Law-vengeance. Sathan raises a discussed plea a∣gainst Page 258 the conscience,*thou art a sinner, and under the curse of the Law. There is no answer to that, but by beleeving I was with Christ, crucified, and am dead to the Law and died to death first and second. For Christ suffered mysticall, Christ legally satisfied, and so did I in him▪ (I speak not now of personall suffering with, or for Christ) and therefore that is a plea of Sathans forging, and ta∣ken away. And unjust summonds may be answered by non-com∣pearance▪ and by the appeal of faith to Christ who having payed the debt sits Judge upon his own debts, which he himself payed, and therefore cannot suffer these for whom he died to suffer for his proper debt, which once he payed. The husband cannot endure the wife to be imprisoned for the debts which he made his own and fully satisfied.
Obj. 2. All men must die and return to dust, and so must sin∣ners, as the Law requires, therefore Christ died not for thee?
Ans. Socinus, and Crellius object the same, which Sathan doth.* For that death in the hew and collour of Law-wrath is holden before a beleever now and then under doubting as a tempta∣tion. For we suffer not death such as Christ suffered, to wit, for sin, watered and affected with the curse of the Law; nor must we measure death from body or bulk of departing, but from the salt, and worst of death, which is the curse, and that being removed, we never die, Joh. 11.26. Joh. 5.24. no more look upon death in the Law, for there it raigns, but in Christ, and in him death is dead and removed; the formall demeriting power is removed, when the Law is satisfied: And a beleever being dead to the Law is dead to the curse and to the worst of death, as Christ is dead▪ to it now.
Obj. 3. But the conscience of the beleever, suppose there were no devill, challenges him of sin, and therefore that he is under a curse?
Ans. The conscience may be the factor and deputie of Sathan in that also,* for it is the deposing of Christ from his Office of Me∣diator Page 259 in satisfying and answering by his death all the demands of the Law, there is none but Christ, when the Law demands blood and the torments of the second death, can plead any thing on the contrair. Rom. 3.19. We know that what things soever the Law speaks, it speaks to these that are under the Law: but the Law speaks not then to a beleever, for he is under grace, and so is not in tearms of treating or parleying with the Law. Christ was cruci∣fied and the beleever is legally crucified with Christ, buried and risen again with Christ. 1. Then the Law is not his judge, it spake to Christ and condemned him and put him to death, when he was under the Law, and condemned you in him, now you say, Christ is not condemned and crucified, when ye enter in a new treatie with the Law to receive a new sentence from it, and thus ye undoe what Christ hath perfectly done. 2. To hearken to conscience compo∣ning and making another paction with the Law then Christ hath made, is to take the plea that Christ hath embarked in, off his hand; ye are to stand still and be silent, and beleeve that Christs dying, and your dying in him, is a closing of a satisfactory bargain with the Law. Christ condemned sin in the flesh, by taking on his flesh the curse due to us for sin, & for sin, that is, for sins cause, that it might be taken away, he sent his Son to die, Rom. 8.3. and judge and con∣demn sin. 3. This is to mistate a question well debated and dis∣cussed by Christ; for he being the end and perfection of the Law, hath silenced, and satisfied the Law,* and to what use can it serve to make a new plea and a bastard controversie with a satisfied party, or to hearken to conscience which craves in the name of mistaken Law well payed debts, and this is but Sathan abusing the Law, and feigning Letters of Caption in the name of the Law, to trouble the quieted conscience of a beleever. But its safest to say, I stand to what Christ hath done and suffered to fulfill the Law, and I believe I was crucified in him, judged, and condemned legally in Christ: and what can you seek more of an ill-doer? He is condemned, cru∣cified, hanged on a tree, and so is justice quieted. Some raise the devill and a storm in the soul and cannot calm it again: It is not good to provoke, irritate, and waken a sleeping dogge. There is quietnesse and peace of beleeving what Christ hath done as well done, and comfortably to rest on his deed by faith. Hence a case Page 260 of some, who, because they are under deadnesse and security, de∣sire a wakening of conscience,* and Sathan hath taught some to commit some hainous guiltinesse, that they may fall in the hand of justice, and so be wakened, and Sathan gives them their fill of it. Hence, we had rather take a Law-way which is not Gods way, as ly under deadnesse; there may be a legall looking upon deadnesse, whereas it is a Gospel-sin that we should be humbled for, and in which we should not please our selves; but no man freed from the Law and brought out of prison, should be willing or desirous to re∣turn to the dungeon again. We should let God guide us under a feaver, and not be our own Physitians, but be quiet at Christs part, if he be pleased to cure by contrairs, and to quicken me by deadening me, or to make a soul humble by smiting with a spirit of pride: its good, we are to submit.
Obj. How could we be in Christ as in our surety (for saith Ar∣minius) we did not give nor appoint Christ to be our Cautioner or Surety?
Ans. Its evill arguing of Arminius or Sathan, who would make the union either naturall or legall betwixt us and Christ, weak,* far off, generall, and such as is betwixt Christ and Pagans and all the world: But this reason is nought, for we sinners were not born and very nothing, when God made the first Adam our father and head in Law as in nature, nor had we any hand or acti∣on in substituting the first Adam in his place, and yet we sinned in Adam, and his sin is ours, by divine imputation. But can any deny but Christ on the Crosse did act the cause of many belee∣vers not born? This is peculiar to this dispensation, that the cre∣ditor, not the debter, appoint both the Law-head, and the Evan∣gelick Surety. The Surety had from us a Cautionary, sponsorie, and deputed nature, but no subscribed commission from us, it was in the heart of the Creditor by grace efficacious to obtain our con∣sent, and to make a sort of legall marriage assuming our nature be∣fore we either knew our husband, or gave consent to the marriage-Covenant. As the Advocat speaks in the person of the Client ab∣sent and sleeping, and when the Client hears and sees how his cause is promoved, he both assents unto, and renders thanks and praises to the Advocat: and so the absent and far off Client not knowing Page 261 any thing does act in the Advocat. And how many answers doth our Advocat in Heaven make for sinners on earth in his pleadings, of which we know not in particular any thing? Nor doth Christ speak or plead for beleevers as a privat man, nor appear in his Name as it were, but in our person.
Neither is there a faining of a person here, or a borrowed and fained redemption, there be these five here.* 1. A Redeemer Christ. 2. Persons redeemed, sinners. 3. A Lord from whom we are redeemed, the Lord Jehovah, not simply, as God, he is the partie from whom we are redeemed, but God as the offended Law-giver, who had us lyable to eternall punishment. 4. There was a price, the life and blood of God, which though not profi∣table to God (for that is extrinsecall to satisfaction reall) yet an aboundant compensation to justice for declarative glory taken from God which is the nature of reall satisfaction. 5. There is here a God just, true, holy, unchangeable, to whom the price is payed. Nor does Christ sustain the person of the enemy Satan from whom we are redeemed, for he is but the lictor who then had no right to detain us, we are redeemed from evils of sin and punishment: Nor doth Christ in suffering sustain the person of God. Hence, from our being crucified with Christ crucified, something is to be said in a practicall way of our mortification; for mortification flows originally from Christs death, we being crucified in him and with him, Gal. 2.20.
Q. What is mortification?
A. It is a deadning of the whole powers and inclinations of the soul in their bentnesse and operations,* in order to things forbidden by the Law of God, or in things indifferent and commanded. Hence, not the affections only, but the understanding and mind must be deadned. And therefore this is no mortification untill sin origi∣nall be subdued in its damnation by Christs death, and in its domi∣nion by the Spirit of Sanctification. A tree is not withered while standing on its root, bulk and branches are green and flourishing: Its much to know the withdrawing of sap and life from the root and the vitall parts of old Adam. The ebbing of a River is not the dry∣ing up of it; the new birth only is mortification.
Q. 2. Since mortification comes only from Christs death, what is the influence of Christs death herein?
Page 262*Ans. The influence is reall, ad modum causae physicae, the me∣rit of blood hath bought us from our vain conversation, 1 Pet. 1.18. Christ dying doth merit by blood the Spirit, and infused grace, which deadens the whole life of sin. Evangelick Arguments from ten heavens, from ten Gospels working morally and in a swasory way, cannot more work mortification then touching can make a reall change on a dead corps; we was legally dead and cruci∣fied in Christ, and with Christ, when he died, many not being born then: But in the infusing of the life of God, Christ applyes the reall principle of mortification. Now the redemption from a vain conversation, 1 Pet. 1.18. from the present evil world, Gal. 1.4. is as reall and proper a bargain, except we follow Socinus, as redemption from the wrath to come. 2. Christs death hath an in∣fluence morall and swasorie to work mortification: As 1 Pet. 1.16. Be holy. 17. Passe the time of your sojourning in fear. For ye are bought with his blood from your vain conversation. And 1 Pet. 5.1, 2. Christ hath suffered in the flesh, therefore be morti∣fied to your lusts, and serve them not, as the Gentiles do: So Col. 3.1.5. But the action morall of the Gospel doth not work upon the naturall man:* for like works upon the like; carnall reason upon a carnall spirit; and spirituall Arguments upon a renewed man; as an Argument from a painted feather works upon a child, more then an Argument from an inheritance, which no doubt will work upon a man come to age, and yet neither the one nor the other works upon a renewed mind to remove him off Christ his rock. Hence it is, 3. that Acts of Omnipotency are used as Morall Arguments: also, God works in you to will and to do, therefore work out your salvation. And choosing, redeeming, calling, justifying, quic∣kening, converting, are brought in as causes in Scripture, both reall and morall; but they work morally on reason, where there is an impression of faith and principle of life. The Gospel works on an unrenewed man to perswade him almost to be a Christian: Ye may perswade a youth to a course,* and get his word, consent, and write; but because reason is green and young, he falls off it again, but a man of judgement shall stand to it: yet if he be not renewed, reason is also green and raw before a spirituall tempta∣tion.
Page 263Quest. What are the actings of a mortified man?*
Ans. No actings. 2. Slow actings and lent. 3. Actings in∣different. 4. Closing with contrair providences, reproaches, work not on mortification to fire the man. Psal. 35.12. They speak mis∣chievous things. 13. But I as a deaf man, heard not. David feared to be the reproach of the foolish: Such a case, though from God, would raise a cry in a child of this world. Psal. 39.9. I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou did it. A mortified man is dead to the voice of men-singers and women-singers, and musicall instruments of all sorts, Eccles. 2.8. and houses, gardens,* vineyards, orchards, great possessions, cattell, treasures, gold, silver, are all as musick to a dead man: and repenting Solomon now mortified, looks on them as a wise man upon experienced vanitie and vexation of spirit. Will he sing and dance at a shadow? Ex∣cept a mad man, none will do that. 2. If any thing, without a child of God, work upon him, they move him not much: Psal. 131.2. Surely I have behaved and quieted my self, as a child that is weaned of his mother, my soul is even as a weaned child. Acts 20.24. None of these things move me: I make not much rec∣koning of bands. Peter,* 1 Pet. 4.12. will have the saints not to think burning quick, strange, graces motions are quiet, slow, mo∣dest, there is not much fire in the spirit of a weaned child: A mor∣tified soul is as a sea that hath no winds, nor low ebbings, nor high spring tides. Grace stirres leasurely and lentely toward all things, except to God: were there ten Paradices offered to it, it cryes not, a dying mans pulse beats weakly. Grace shouts at nothing,* wonders at, and admires nothing; weeps slowly, laughs slowly, sings weakly, eats slowly, drinks not wantonly, feasts, and yet trembles and fears, whether it be the outward or the inward man. David sayes it well▪ Ps. 62.2. He only is my Rock — I shall not greatly be moved. The beleevers sings, and yet he is not wanton; and weeps, and yet is not sad; dies, and yet lives; is fervent in the cause of God, and yet stayed and composed in spirit. 3. The actings of mortification are indifferent, not fixedly bent upon any thing but God, no not upon the Ark and spirituall comforts. Wee∣ping David, 2 Sam. 16.25. saith to Zadok▪ carry back the Ark of God into the City▪ (better I want my comfort, then the Ark be Page 264 taken) if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation. 26. But if he say, I have no delight in thee, here am I, let him do to me as see∣meth good unto him. O how sweet, when for God, Moses can lay down his personall satisfaction in a share of life eternall. What if he tramp upon my eternall Crown, I should lay it down at his feet; and is not this mortification? Should he hide his face, for eternity, from me, and I never see him in his manifestations, so his glory shine in my everlasting sad desertion; there is required an indifferency to all created things without; no peremptory and abso∣lute fixednesse of the affection to any good, God excepted, is good: the contrair of this is an ingadging of the heart more then is right to any thing, give me children, or then I die, there should be a contented living without children, if God so will: love the creature, as if ye loved not, the Lord would have us hungring for the crea∣ture, and yet not eagerly desiring, and thirsting, and yet have a lent and well ordered appetite to drink: love the child, but let the heart cleave leasurely to the child. Plowing, and no heart-la∣bouring, buying and selling, and no heart-ingadging to the bar∣gain is best here. 1 Cor. 7. They that have wives should be as if they had none. 30. And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not. In the acting of affections to∣ward the things of this life, as father, mother, husband, wife, children, houses, gain, beauty, honour, and new bought farme, there would be a godly distance of the heart from the thing ye do: Loving, and no loving; rejoicing, and no rejoicing; weeping, and no weeping; speaks most mortification. We can∣not do here, except sinfully we over-doe, and the out-goings of the heart to the creature must be fierie, which is childish, whereas mortification is a gracious well composed grave temper of the aged in Christ. There is a fire-edge and a fervour or feaver of affe∣ctions even to spirituall objects that are created at the first conversi∣on,* for mortification does not so soon begin as the new heart. As for God, love as one that loves, desire and desire, and when he hides himself, weep as if you weeped, so the weeping be termina∣ted upon God, not upon his dispensations, to quarrell at, and cen∣sure Page 265 his wayes, but let the out-goings of the heart to God, and to Christ loved and longed for, be with fire, and full strength, Cant. 3.1, 2, 3, 4. Cant. 2.5. Ps. 42.1, 2, 3. Ps. 84.1, 2. Joh. 20.13. Luk. 7.38. Rev. 1.17. 4. Its mortification to have a heart closing with all providences. Phil. 1.21. To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain: To live is good, to die is good,* because the Lord so wills, the Lords giving is to Job praising, and the Lords taking a∣way is to Job praising. Phil. 4.12. I know both how to be abased, and how to abound: every where, and in all things I am instru∣cted, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. If I die, it is good; if I live, it is good; if I be full, and rich, it is good; if I be hungry, and poor, it is good; if David be on the Throne, it is good, and he sings Psalms; if he be chased barefooted, and ashes on his head, by the ascent of Mount Oli∣vet, it is good; he also praises and sings Psalms, 2 Sam. 15.30. Ps. 3.1, 2, 3. If he be at home in his house, it is good, he praises, Ps. 30. Ps. 101. If he be banished in the wildernesse, and chased from the house of God, its good, he praises, Psal. 42. Psal. 63. Psal. 84. Nothing falls wrong to a mortified soul. The people cry Hosanna, Christ bids them rejoice, their King comes, Zech. 9.9. The wicked spits on his face, and plucks off the hair, that is good, Isa. 50.6. I gave them face and back to be doing their will. Heat to a gracious spirit is good, cold is good, joy is good, sorrow is good, health is good, sicknesse is good: Ezekiah gets a victo∣ry, the Assyrians are slain, that is good. Isaiah prophecies that all that are in his house, and his treasures shall be spoiled, and his children carried captive, good is the word of the Lord: Is spoil and captivity and the sword good? Yea Ezekiah closes with it, Isai. 39.8. Grace wonders at nothing, laughs at nothing, weeps at nothing but faintly, rejoices at nothing wantonly; closes with all, sayes Amen to all: for Christ was crucified for me, and I am crucified in, and with him.
Q. 3. What are the speces or sorts of mortifications, that we may know the true mortification?
A. 1. Its hard to give the division of them logically: There is 1. a naturall mortification, there is no fire in the affections of suc∣king infants to Crowns, Kingdomes, to treasures of Gold and Sil∣ver, Page 266 that is not mortification,* but virtually there is as much fire in a flint stone, though formally it be cold, as may burn twenty Cities. Concupiscence driven away from the aged, Eccles. 12. the hearth-stone is cold, and there is in it such a deadnesse to lusts, not because of deadnesse of sin Originall, it lives, as the souls of the old men live, but because the tools are broken, the animal and vitall spirits are weakened, the man loves the journey, but the horse is crooked and laid by: there is nothing of Christs death here.
2. There is a compelled mortification, sicknesse and withered arms and legs, and strong fetters in the prison, poverty and want, care for bread, and the armed man poverty that hath a sharp sword, necessity blunts the affections in their second acts, the man hath no mind of whooring:* And many drink water, who through Christ crucifying, are not mortified to wine and strong drink. 1. There is often in this, an ignorance of CHRIST crucified, and no faith. 2. A reluctance to divine dispensation, and no gracious submission to God, which is in one crucified to the world.
3. There is a Philosophick mortification to the creatures which are seen by the light of nature to be very nothing and most unsatisfa∣ctory to the naturall man:* but there is no supernaturall deadness in the heart wrought by the death of Christ. Archimedis, and other great spirits, sick of love to know the nature, motion, and influence of the starres, and pained with a speculative disease of books, and to know much, do contemn and despise honour, gain, pleasure, the three idols, of ambitious, of covetous and voluptu∣ous men; but there is no deadnesse, no bluntning of the operati∣ons of the soul toward the idol world, flowing from the beleeved in crucified Lord of Glory, except you say that Plato, and Aristotle, and such, were crucified with Christ: Learning works not morti∣fication.
4. There is a religious or a madly superstitious mortification. The Monks (saith Luther) dreamed that the world was cru∣cified unto them,*and they unto the world, when they entered unto their Monasteries, but by this means Christ is crucified, not the world: Yea the world is delivered from crucifying, and is the more quickened by that opinion of trust they had in their own ho∣linesse Page 267 and righteousnesse. Col. 2.23. In will-worship, in humi∣lity, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satis∣fying of the flesh. There is much vain and counterfeit mortifica∣tion; and Papists have as good warrand to sacrifice their lives to God, and to offer a bloodie sacrifice unto God, under the New Te∣stament, as to shed their own blood in whipping and scourging, and such bloody worship, hath the ground of mortification that Baals Priests had to launce themselves with knives to the effusion of blood. And the same may be said of pilgrimages, of voluntary poverty, in which (as Luther said) the world and all their lusts are quickened.
5. Not unlike to this is the Pharisees mortification,* in which they are not crucified with CHRIST, but alive and vigorously strong to self-righteousnesse, to merits, to dead works.
6. There is a civill or morall mortification which hath diverse branches.* As 1. Senec• teacheth that nature is satisfied with wa∣ter for drink, and a •urse for a house, yet he was a covetous man himself. And shall Horatius Cocles be a mortified man, because he defended the Romans against the three Curiatii alone? Though the bloody Gallant killed his own sister? And was the state morti∣fied who pardoned him that bloody fact, for his gallant service? And Decius father and son who suffered so much for their Coun∣trey, and loved it more then their own blood? And must Afri∣canus Major, and Cato, who suffered for the liberty of the pu∣blick, and Diogenes, who lived on herbs, be mortified men to the world? But what avails it to be dead to the bulk of a bit body of clay, and yet be alive to vain glory? 2. There is an occasionall deadnesse rising from the sight of a father, a brother, a friend dead, not from the death of Christ. An unbeleever dies with this word, I would not live for all the world, and, we are like water spilt on the ground. The house is burnt, all spoiled, treasures, and the stock, by land and sea-robbers, are plucked away; and riches have wings. Hence, mortification transient for a time: but lusts fal∣len in a sown, are not dead, they rise again and live. 3. There is another transient mortification, as D. Preston observes, when the conscience is affrighted with Judgement,* and some fire-flaught of restraining grace is up. 4. A good calm nature naturally either dul and stupid, or some clement and meek disposition, and free of Page 268 the fire that often follows the complexion, and hampered in with teachers, parents, company, education, learning, seems a morti∣fied nature. But that is true mortification, that flowes from faith in a humbled crucified Saviour, and it is not to beleeve that Christ was mortified in our room and place, as Saltmarsh and Antinomi∣ans would say. Faith in Christ crucified is our mortification cau∣satively, in radice, not formally.
Q. 4. To what things must we be crucified?
Answ. Gal. 6.14. To all things created, to the world; wee condemn and despise and hate the world, and the world does value us nothing.
*1. There is a deadnesse to self which was in Christ our samplar of mortification, Ro. 15.1. Let us not please our selves, but bear the in∣firmities of others. 3. For even Christ pleased not himself. Self loved and adored, and mortification do not consist, too much life in apprehension, and admiring self, argues deadnesse of dead∣nesse and of mortification. Was not Christ a noble self? Yet for the Lord, and his ransoned ones, Christ got above noble excellent self. It is true, there is a renewed spirituall self, a new I in the Saints, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Rom. 7.17. Now it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwels in me. Gal. 2.20. It is not I that lives, but Christ lives in me. Mortification sets us above new 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 renewed self, and regenerated and crucified I; it being a created excellency that we are not to adore.
*2. Mortification requires a deadnes to the will, as in Christ, not my will, but thy will be done: Much life in the will to created things, speaks little or no mortification. Christ excelled in this, Joh. 5.30. I seek not mine own will▪ but the will of him that sent me. O what court, and power, and life hath our will? And how soon the will is broken and dead, then is the man broken, dead and crucifi∣ed with Christ. Much will, much life of sin: See Joh. 5.40. Ye will not come.* Luk. 19.14. We will not have this man to raign over us. See Mark 6.25. Mat. 1.19. Mark 15.15. Act. 24.27. Act. 25.9. Luk. 10.29. Rev. 22.17. All will, argues no morti∣fication.
*3. There is required deadnesse to our life, which was eminent∣ly in Christ, Mat. 20.28. 1 Tim. 2.6. Joh. 10.11. So Paul, Act.Page 269 20.24. Ye speak of bonds and affliction, But none of thase things move me, neither count I my life dear to my self, so that I may finish my course with joy. To be mortified to life, is to hate the life, Luk. 14.26. for Christ. And Revel. 12. they overcame: mortification was their victory. v. 11. They overcame, for they loved not their lives unto death: Love of life is the life of sin when its not loved in God.
4. We must be dead to wisedome,* and to all the gifts of the mind, for the wisedome of the world is foolrie, and God hath be∣fooled it, when it comes in competition with the wisedom of the Gospel, 1 Cor. 1.18, 19. except we be dead to it, we cannot glo∣ry in the Lord. 27, 28, 29. Compared with v. 31.
2. There must be a deadnesse to learning, to books, and book-vanity, Eccles. 12.12. There is no end of making many books, and much study is a wearinesse of the flesh. Eccles. 1.17.*And I gave my heart to know wisedome, and to know madnesse and folly: I perceived that this also is a vexation of spirit. 18. For in much wisedom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increas∣eth sorrow. Paul spake more with Tongues then they all, 1 Cor. 14.18. but he was dead to that gift, he had rather have brought them nearer to Christ. 1 Cor. 4.10. We are fools, and hardly we can away with that; but we are fools for Christs sake, and for the interest of Christ and the Gospel, let us so be counted. Its near∣nesse to Christ that maks us for him to be willing that what is most eminent in us be trampled upon, even shining wisedome, sciences, acts, eloquence, knowledge which puffeth up. Yea there is (3.) required a deadnesse of the knowledge of Gospel-mysteries, 1 Cor. 13.2. Paul was not rude in knowledge, but he was dead to that, and would not glory in that. And (4.) they are not crucified with Christ, not dead to opinions and sides, and to lead factions: I am of Paul, I am of Apollo, was no honour to Paul in his own esteem, 1 Cor. 1. What? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? Who excells in learning, who ad∣mires Page 270 not his own, the birth of his own mind? If it were but to hold there be ten new worlds in the Moon, and millions of worlds in the other side of this world? My brethren, be not many masters. Ah! we are not dead to the Chair, the Pulpit, every one loves to be counted and called Rabbi. The blessed Man Christ confes∣ses that he knows neither the day nor the hour of the Son of Mans coming; yet there are who darre define the time of his coming, and the day. The mind is a proud and haughty thing, and we are not dead to it; the mind is not mortified to the mind, 1 Cor. 8.1, 2.
5. We are not dead to Mammon: O who is like Christ and refuses to be a rich King,*Joh. 6? Paul, 2 Cor. 8, 9. For ye kn•w the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor: He had a greater mind then that he could live to riches. Paul, Acts 20.33. saith not I have sought neither silver nor gold, as the Godly judge, Whose ox have I ta∣ken, 1 Sam. 12.3. but I have coveted no mans silver or gold, or ap∣parrel: The life of lust to riches is in the trusting in it. Job 31.24. If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, thou art my confidence; Or, 25. have rejoiced because my wealth was great. Its true, a beggar and an extream poor man that can∣not have bread, is not troubled nor much tempted to seek a Kingdom and the millions and tunnes of gold that many rich ones have; but yet there are speculative desires and rolling waves and floods of wishes in the heart for these: and because hunger and want of bread is his door enemy lying between him and the hope of great riches, the man is neither mortified to the love of bread nor to the millions of gold that the heart is sick after. And as there be diverse kinds and speces of pests, and they are not all of one kind, yet all contrair to the blood and the heat of life: So are there sundry kinds of unmortified lusts about riches according to the sicknesse of the desire.
Obj. But is not the desire of food and raiment naturall, how then is it faulty?*
Ans. The desire simply is naturall, and the Ants and the Conies do desire. But the desire 1. beyond measure. 2. With a sin∣full doubting that they shall not have it, which reproacheth Om∣nipotency. 3. A desire wider then that of Ants and Conies, of Page 271 that which is more nor sufficient, which would destroy and not feed but over-feed, is the faulty desire; as sicknesse desires drink more then sufficient, not for health, but to feed the disease, it is the desire of the disease rather then of the man diseased; and the forbidden desire is the sin.
Obj. 2. May not a child of God desire more then enough, how then is he mortified?
Ans. If the desire of more then enough come from the habit of covetousnesse, the man is not mortified to Mammon: all sin∣full habits in the child of God are broken, and lessened,* and chased in to inclinations, or to the habit of Originall corruption slackened and by grace subdued; but in every child of God there is sin dwel∣ling and the flesh, Heb. 12.1. Rom. 7.17, 18. 1 Joh. 1.8, 10. Jam. 4.5. Gal. 5.17. and the old man, which is put off by degrees, Eph. 4.24. Col. 3.5.10. which is a habit of corruption not in full vigor, but sickening, decaying, and a dying daily, but even a grown child of God from this broken and sick habit may, temptation inva∣ding, and the Lord withdrawing his influence of grace, may break out into grosse acts of covetousnesse, adultery, murther, as is clear in David, Lot, Peter, Asa, and that saith that mortification is compleat in none. And there is too oft a sort of sinfull resurrecti∣on of the habit of sin and the flesh, so that David seems not to be David, but an adulterer, a murtherer: As we see it is the same River that swells over its banks, that it was before, but the over∣flowing is from without, from the clouds and from excessive rain, the river also hath a receptive capacity in it self to exceed its banks and channel: So hath a child of God from strong temptation from without, and broken corruption from within, a more then his own ordinary quantity and swelling over his channel; To teach us that our mortification is a work not of day, but of our whole life. Nei∣ther would the wise Agur pray against riches, Prov. 30. if tempta∣tions contrair to mortification did not follow them.
6. There is a necessity of deadnesse to honour, and to learn the noble and excellent arte of self-contempt,* that the Spirit shall teach us that spirituall lesson to be willingly tramped on, and the face spitted on, and the hair plucked off the cheeks, as our Blessed Lord went out and in the way met with spitting and shame, Page 272Isai. 50.6. Mat. 26.67. Mat. 27.26. O great word! Phil. 4.12. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, I have learned to be abased. 1 Cor. 4.12. Being reviled we blesse, being persecuted we suffer, being defamed we intreat, we are made as the filth of the world, and are as the off-scouring of all things unto this day.〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the swee∣pings of the house: Erasmus, the filth wiped off any thing. Valla, the filth that sticks to the shoes. The Syriack hath a word that noteth the dung of the belly. As the condemned man tumbled into the sea as a sacrifice to Neptune from a steep place was called peripsema.* So Budaeus thinks Paul alludes to heathen expiations. And when they reproached me, David, Psal. 38.13. But I was as a deaf man that heareth not, as a dumb man that opened not his mouth. The sense and discerning of heat and cold, of railings, and applauses, would be dead: That is mortification, when the sense of hearing is dead to sounds, to musick, and to pleasant songs, these are not delightfull to a crucified or hanged man, when the life is out: Nor can all the sweet smells, flowers, roses, precious oint∣ments, affect the smelling of a crucified man, nor all the fair and magnifick pallaces, meadows, gardens, rivers, mountains, hang∣ings, painted pictures, work upon the sight or eyes of a crucified man. When the heart is ravished with honour, as the man who said the glory of Themistocles hindered him to sleep in the night,* as litle mortified as Themistocles who said sleep was taken from him, and he was raised out of his bed in the night by reason of the brave trophie and renown of the victory of Miltiades, that re∣nowned man of Athens, who, as is known, with a 10000. Greeks, put to flight 60000. Persians. And Alexander the Great, his heart must have been waking at the sound of honour, who, when a messenger came running to him full of joy, said what should thou tell me, but that Homer is living again? for he thirsted for nothing so much as honour: And how soft and very nothing is the spirit that is broken with riches or honour and pleasure? And often men judge themselves mortified, because they are dead, it may be to riches, but alive to ambition and desire of honour. As Nebuchadnezzar spared no charges for his gods, his pleasure, but he was alive to honour, Dan. 4.30. Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the Kingdom, by the might of my Page 273 power, and the honour of my majesty?*Sathan doth often change Post-horses, and can seemingly deaden men to riches, when they are not mortified, and yet the heart is strongly vigorous to honour. When it was told Zeno that his ship, which he did trade withall, was broken: Well done, Fortune, (saith he) thou compells us to go within our cloak; he meaned, To live upon the glory of vertue and learning, when riches are spent and gone, was well done. But mortification, in the habite and root, is like the works of nature. The Sun equally enlightens the whole Air from the East to the West: Life comes in equally upon the whole Embryo and birth. Saving mortification goes through the whole soul.* Christ merited by his death deadnesse to honour as well as to riches; Though in the actuall subduing of lusts D. Preston does well observe that there is not that labour required in subduing and mortifying all sins. For love of sin being the dominion, life and castle of sin, the more love to the heart-idol and to the right eye, the harder it is to be mortified. Some sins cleave to us as our hair and nails, as a custome of some sinfull words, these are sooner mortified; and yet if mor∣tification be not in the heart, these take life again, as hairs and nails cutted and shaven grow again. The trees in Winter are not dead: but there be master-devils and strongly rooted heart-dar∣lings, pride, covetousnesse, to which we are mortified, with a huge greater deal of pains and wrestling, for they are to men as the eye and the right hand.
7. We are not soon dead to injuries. Our blessed Coppie in this excels: Father, forgive them,*for they know not what they do. And Steven, Act. 7.60. Lord lay not this sin to their charge, Colos. 3.13. Forgiving one another. Yea, but he wronged me, and injuries have a strong impulsion upon our spirits. I cannot for∣get it. If any man have a quarrell at any (saith he) let it fall: even as Christ forgave you, so do ye also.* Shall not Socrates wit∣nesse against us, who answered his friends, willing him to accuse before the Judge a vain youth who did smite him with his foot, If an Asse lift his heels against me, shall I lift my heels against the Asse? and the youth was so convinced that he hanged himself. And he said nothing to a multitude of reproaches casten upon him in the Theater, but, I am vexed with words in the Theater as Page 274 in a great banquet.* But naturall reason mortifies men to injuries, as cold water allayes and for a time softens the pain of the childs burnt finger, but the pain is the greater when the water is remo∣ved; Or as want of money mortifies a man to drunkennesse, he drinks not excessively, not because the heart will not dare to sin, but because he cannot. The Word backed with influences from the death of Christ strongly mortifies to all sins.
*8. And the soul is not easily deadned to an office or place of a Prince, a Ruler, a Master, a Prophet, a Teacher. Abishai, 2 Sam. 16.9. Why should this dead dog curse my lord the King? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head. David standeth not much upon cursing the lord the King. He is so mortified to that stile as he forgets it, and, v. 10. he saith, Let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. He saith not, the Lord hath bidden him curse the lord King David. Answers thou the high Priest so? Its a great word. Christ was the Messiah, that is a great office of King, Priest and Prophet: but he was wil∣ling to forget his office, by way of taking much on him, that he might fulfill his office by way of suffering. As Rulers and such as are in place must so far be dead to their office and place, as they must be willing to bear in their bosome the reproaches of all the mighty people, and to have their footsteps, even as Rulers, re∣proached, Psal. 89. v. 50, 51. Places and office too often have an influence and strong enough on our unmortified hearts. But there are some providentiall sufferings that befall Rulers, as Rulers, a∣gainst which they should be hardned, knowing that the Lord suf∣fers in them.
*9. It should be our work to be deadned to pleasure. I have married a wife, and therefore, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, I can not come. This is the most lively lust. There is a mortified eye, Job 31.1. I have made a covenant with mine eye, why then should I look on a maid? Mortified eye-looks call for mortified heart-looks. Its an old sin, Gen. 3.6. And when the woman saw the tree that it was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, — she did eat▪Page 275 Mortified Joseph saw sin ingraven on pleasure, Gen. 39.9. How then can I do this great wickednesse, and sin against God?
10. There must be a deadned heart to all the three, to the world,* 1 Joh. 2.15. Love not the world, nor the things of the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, Jam. 4.4. There is some life between the friends of the world and the world, and James doubteth not to call that enimity with God, and the three great Idols of the world, gain, glory and pleasure, cannot make any happy, which Heathens, Plutarch, Cicero, Se∣neca saw: and therefore they pressed a contempt of the world. For strength is the glory of the Elephant or the Bull rather then of man, and plucked away by age and time; And beauty is no lesse uncertain, being made up of quantity and colour, and the Rose and the Lilly hath more of it then man. Riches have wings, and render not the owner happy: Nobility is a borrowed good, and the Parents glory not ours: And honour is the opinion and esteem of men, and we yet cannot be dead to nothings, to shadows, to emptinesse and to vanity: and fair buildings are well ordered dead stones.
11. They are not rightly mortified who are not deadned to cre∣ature-comforts, to father and mother, for they forsake,* and the mother may forget the fruit of her own womb, but the Lord can∣not forget his own, Psal. 27.10. Isa. 49.15. My friends, Job 19.19. 2. All my friends, 3. All my inward (and dearest) friends, 4. Abhorre me. Forsaking is hard, but abhorring is most sad. Yea even in the Cause of God Paul is put to this, 2 Tim. 4.16. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. 2. So must the Church be dead to forraign forces, Hos. 14.3. Ashur shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, and the people must be dead and sit still from help from Egypt, Isai. 30.7. For the E∣gyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cryed concerning this, Your strength is to sit still. Sitting still is a ceasing from relying upon the Chariots and strength of Egypt, as being dead to them: For thus saith the Lord, the holy One of Is∣rael, in returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietnesse and in Page 276 confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. And 4. his people must cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of? Isai. 2.22. and be dead to multi∣tude: for, Psal. 33.16. No King is saved by an host, a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 17. An horse is a vain thing for safety. The help of the creature substitute in the room of God, having the lustre of blue and purple, or cloathed in scar∣let, riding upon horses. Young men of desire, Ezek. 23.23. doe easily dazle our eyes, and when we are not renewed in the spirit of our mind, unsanctified hearts are weak in apprehending, and more weak in discerning of things. 5. So must there be a deadning of the husband to the wife, Job. 19.17. to servants, Job. 15.16. to sons, 2 Sam. 16. v. 11. of the mother to the daughter, of the daughter in law to the mother in law, Mic. 7.6. to blood-friends.
12. All the godly and zealous Prophets said Amen to the word of the Lord, even Christ with sighs and tears, to the extream deso∣lation and ruine of Jerusalem, Luk. 19.41. Math. 23.37, 38. and Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Micah, Hosea, &c. to the plow∣ing of Zion as a field, to the sword, captivity, to the laying wast of the land without inhabitants, Isa. 5.9. Isa. 6.10, 11, 12. Jer. 9.1, 2, 3, 4. Jer. 16.1, 2, 3. &c. Mic. 3.12. Hos. 4.3. Hos. 5.6, 9, &c. There must be a deadning to our Country and Mother-Church, that the glory of justice may shine; yea to our fathers grave, our own bed, our own fireside.
13. The Lord will have Isaiah and the godly dead to Lawes and Government, to vision and prophecying, when Judge and Prophet shall be taken away, Isa. 3.2. and children shall be their Princes, and babes shall rule over them, v. 4. and the vineyard broken, and the hedge spoiled. And he will have the godly dead to King and Priest and Law, 2 Chron. 15.3. Now for a long season Israel had been without the true GOD, and without a teaching Priest, and without law. Hos. 3.4. Hos. 10.3. And now shall they say, We have no King, because we feared not the Lord: what shall then a King do to us? Hence we must be mortified to every thing created which the Lord may take from us.
14. And upon this account there is required a deadning of our hearts to shipping and trading with diverse mighty Nations, as we Page 277 see in the case of Tyre, Ezek. 27. of Babylon, Rev. 18.11▪ 12, 13. Jer. 51. so are we to be mortified to fair houses, Isa. 5.8. state∣ly cities, Isa. 14. to all the Cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up: to all the Oaks of Bashan, to all the high mountains, to every high tower, to every fenced wall, to all the ships of Tar∣shish, to all the fenced cities: for the day of the Lord may be up∣on these, Esai. 2. to all fair Rivers, to Oxen, Horses, Chariots, fair acres of land, to Vineyards, to Olive trees, Ezek. 29.4, 5. Isa. 50.2. Exo. 7.19. Deut. 28.31, 40, 41, 51. to seed time and harvest, Deut. 28.38. Hag. 1.6. to corn, wine, oyl, to cattell, increase of kine and flocks of sheep, Deut. 28.51, Amos 4.9. to Wine-trees, to Fig-trees, to seasonable rains, grasse and fruitfull fields, Joel 1.4, 5, 7, 10. Jer. 14.3, 4, 5, 6. to peace, safe down-lying and safe rising, Lev. 26.36. for in all the hand of the Lords anger is stretched out.
15. The Lord would have us dead to valiant and to mighty men, to Captains, Isa. 3.1, 3, 4. Yea he makes true,*Ps. 76.5. The sto•t-hearted are spoiled, they have sleept their sleep, and none of the men of might have found their hands. 6. At thy re∣buke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and the horse are cast into a dead sleep: And therefore he will have us dead to courage in warre. Who brings on faintnesse and terrour upon the spirit, when the sound of a shaking leaf shall chase men, Levit. 26.36. And when the Lord sends a trembling of heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind, Deut. 38.65?
16. We are called to be dead to honourable birth, blood, and noble Families, when Princes are filled with contempt, and these that were cloathed in scarlet, imbrace the dung-hill, Lam. 5.12. Isa. 40.23, 20.
17. And we must be dead to the vigorousnesse of youth, when we read Eccl. 12.1, 2, 3, &c. And Barzillai his complaint,* 2 Sam. 19.35. Can I taste what I eat? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? And why but this should make us dead to sports, pastime, dicing, gaming, dancing, feast∣ing, chambering, wantonnesse, to all plenty and fulnesse, when God can remove the appetite, and give bread, or remove bread, and give the appetite. So as the Lord leaves that doom on you, Page 278 Lev. 26.26. And when I have broken the staffe of bread, ten wo∣men shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight, and ye shall eat and not be satisfied. So is Solomon dead to laughter, Eccles. 2.2. I said of laughter it is mad.
*18. There is required a deadnesse to Ordinances, the Tabernacle is not God: David may be banished from it. The Temple is a Type of Christ, yet it is burnt with fire, and the Sanctuary pro∣phaned: And the Lord required a sort of lentnesse or leasurlinesse of motion of the heart toward these, and will have his people in their exile resting upon this, Ezek. 11.16. Therefore say, thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast them far off from the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countreys, yet will I be to them as a little Sanctuary in the countreys where they shall come. And they who remained still at Jerusalem reproached their poor captivated brethren, as hated of God, and gloried in them∣selves as Citizens and Inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, v. 15. to the exiled brethren, Get you far from the Lord, unto us is this Land given in possession. They were not mortified in looking up∣on the Holy Land and City, but vainly gloried in it. And there∣fore there are two things in Ordinances.* 1. God that fills the Ordinances. 2. The externall bulke of them. Mortification to God and his presence in Ordinances, is not that we here require, for the affections cannot be vigorous enough in following God. There may be a limiting and binding of God to means, to the Temple, Sanctuary, hearing, Seals, and a fleshly heat and live∣linesse to means, and bare and naked Ordinances; and in both these there is so far required a deadnesse, as there would be an ho∣ly submission to all these, when the Lord deprives us of Ordi∣nances, and a retiring in to the fountain, to the Lord himself, that he may be all in all. So some cannot sleep except the Bible be un∣der the head in the night: Some tye their faith and comfort so to one man, if he be not their Pastor nothing is right. But so much of CHRIST, or the substance of Gospel-promises must be negle∣cted, as means and instruments. and Ordinances are Idolized: In a word, mortification calls for livelinesse of affection to God in Christ, and a holy deadnesse to all things that are not God.
Page 27919. There is necessary here a deadnesse to works, for there be these defects in them. 1. They cannot save, Eph. 2. (2.) They were not crucified for you, let them not have the place and Chair of Christ. 3. They cannot quiet the conscience, because they cannot justifie. Paul Preached from Jerusalem to Illyricum, la∣boured more aboundantly then they all, was unrebukeable, was conscious to himself of nothing, yet was he as dead to these as to very nothing, 1 Cor. 4.4. and to losse and dung, Phil. 3.8. Hence must we be dead to the idol of Godlinesse, for its not God.
20. And dead to Godly men, in poynt of confidence, we must not know the Man Christ after the flesh, 2 Cor. 5.16. nor any meer man, to cry man up as God, (every man is a liar) is con∣trair to Gospel-mortification.
21. It were good to pray much, and to be dead to prayer: One of the main causes why we cry and pray much and are not heard,*Psal. 22.2. Psal. 69.1, 2, 3, is, because that which is proper to God the hearer of prayer, to wit, confidence and hope, we give to prayer which is not God. We pray to our own prayers and to our own wrestling often, rather then to God: and we beleeve praying does the businesse and works the charm, as if prayer were Omnipotency it self.
22. Nor are we dead to faith and hope, but we beleeve in faith and in beleeving, and we hope in our own hoping in God.*But was faith crucified for you? How many fetch peace, pardon and righteousnesse, not from Christ, but from their act of beleeving? Hence a case, whether some may not fervently pray and beleeve strongly, and yet be disappointed in the particular they pray for and beleeve they shall have? Certain it may be, especially when we are dead to Omnipotency and alive to praying and beleeving, and lay more weight on faith in God then on God, and on pray∣ing to God then on God himself. What Antinomians say unjust∣ly we give to works, to wit, our peace with God, they and many unduely give to faith, not to Christ.
23. We fail in being more alive to comforts then to God the comforter: the infant may at once both suck the breasts,* and also sleep. And is one flower more to be smelled then the whole Gar∣den? And shall feelings and raptures, and manifestations of God Page 280 in his out-goings be courted and over-courted by us beyond the God of all comforts? There is need that the heart be deadened to sense, for feeling and sense is fiery and idolatrous; and were sense more mortified at the out-goings of faith, hope, love, it were good, for our faith should be the more lively and vigorous to lay hold on God.*Q. Is it not lawfull to be taken and feelingly de∣lighted with the influences of God? Ans. Sure, feeling of it self is not faulty, the fierinesse and excessive fervour of feeling is faulty, especially when terminated upon created actings of love, faith, joy, desire, hope, and not upon influences as coming from the free Grace of God, otherwise, we are but sick and pained of love of our own gracious actings, because they are our own; and this is the sicknesse of selfishnesse. Ah! a Godhead, a Godhead is not known.
23. Nor must we be, in a too lively way, taken with our own stock,* nor trust in the habit of grace or the new heart: for grace in us is a created rose that spreads fair and broad and smels well, but it is not God nor Christ, that we may learn not to trust in our selves,〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, 2 Cor. 1.9. But why but we may trust in our renued selves now furnished with a stock and infused habits, the ex∣cellent blossoms and blooms of heaven? Nay, not in our selves thus fitted, but in God who raises the dead: for its not possible both to trust in renewed self and in God: And Paul never meant that any that professeth CHRIST, is to lean upon sinfull self or upon lost and condemned self. And sure it is as selfy to be alive to infused habits, as to misken Christ, and think, being once a convert, we can send our selves all the rest of the way to heaven without Christ, we need not Christ for a Guide or a Tutor, its within us may save us. And nothing can be more contrair to a li∣ving the noble and sure life of continuall dependencie by faith on the given Leader of the people, Jesus Christ, then to trust on ha∣bits of grace, they are not Christ.
25. Ah! who is that mortified as to be dead to the created sweet∣nesse of joy,* and the right hand pleasures of God, and the formall beatitude of glory, and alive to the only pure objective happinesse of glory? And yet that is mortification, to love and be sick and thirsty for heaven, not for the pleasures of the Garden, and the Page 281 Streets of Gold, and the Tree of Life, and the River of Water of life, but for only only God, the heaven of heavens: And there∣fore we cannot be alive to pure and the only abstracted and unmix∣ed God head, except we be thus dead to heaven.
26. There is a deadnesse to the letter of the promise: The pro∣mise (saith M. Ambrose) is but the Casket,*and Christ the Jewell in it▪ the promise is but the field, Christ is the Pearle hid in it. Christ removed, the promise is no promise, or but •ap∣lesse signes.
27. We must also be dead to the rayes, out-shinings and mani∣festations of God to the soul here, and must transchange God in all presence and all love embracements, and no more: but he dead to the house of wine, to the lif•ed up banner of love, to love-kisses of Christ, to the love-banquets, and to the felt lying, as the be∣loved, all the night between the breasts:* for these nearest commu∣nions are not God himself. There is required a godly hardnesse for receiving sparkles of hell and some draughts of sore trying wrath, and the hell of his most wise and righteous frownings, and necessa∣ry absence and night of hiding himself.
28. And should not the Church be dead to providences of fair weather, and Court, or the blessing of a godly King David, E∣zekiah, and mortified to miraculous deliverances,* dividing of the red sea, defeat of enemies, to confirmation of the truth by Mar∣tyrdome and sufferings to blood? He who is dead to himself and his body and ease, and hardned against contradictions of sinners, a∣gainst torment of body, cold, imprisonment, sicknesse, death, and can in patience submit to all providences, is crucified with Christ, if God give or withdraw, he is dead to both.
28. All who are dead with Christ, are dead to all dead worship,* saplesse ceremonies, and formall worship, Col. 2.20. Gal. 4.9. and are lively in the serving of God, and fervent in spirit, serving the Lord: And rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, Phil. 3.3. Rom. 12.
