LXXX sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London whereof nine of them not till now published / by the late eminent and learned divine Anthony Farindon ... ; in two volumes, with a large table to both.

The Ninth SERMON. (Book 9)

COL. III. 2.

Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.

THe whole scope and drift of this Epistle is, That all the hope of man's happiness is placed in Christ alone, and that therefore we must rest in the faith of Christ, and live according to the prescript of the Gospel. Now the voice of Christ and the Gospel is, Seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, that is, the things above; and, Love not the world, nor the things of the world, that is, the things on the earth. The words are, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. And the verb 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sometimes signifieth To Esteem, or Judge rightly of. So 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.1 Thou savourest not the things of God; Thou judgest not aright of them. Sometimes, To Care for, or Desire. So 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.2 the desire of the flesh. To savour, Rightly to Judge of, To affect and desire the things above, that is it which Christian Religion enjoyneth. And it implieth both an act of the Understanding, Conceiving aright of these things; and an act of the Will and Affections, Approving and embracing them; Fastened to the things above, but averse and flying the things on the earth. And then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the things above, are either the End, or the Means; either the King∣dom of heaven and the beatifical Vision of God, or those things which lead unto it, the graces of the Spirit, Faith, Charity, Holiness, Contempt of the world; which are those seeds which grow up into a tree of life, and the way by which we press unto the mark. And our affections must be set on both: For he that loveth not Obedience, loveth not Pardon; he that lo∣veth not the Cross, loveth not the Crown; he cannot long for heaven,

whose conversation is not there already. Now these are the things above. For the things on the earth, they are not worth a gloss or descant, and we understand them but too well. These are the words: And they divide themselves as the Law is divided, into Do, and Do not; an Affirmation, and Negation; calling and inviting our affections to the things above, and taking them off from the things on the earth. We will draw them both together in this general and useful Observation or Doctrine, which naturally, without tort or violence, issueth from them both, That the chief end and work of Christian Religion is, To abstract and draw the soul of man from sensual objects, and level and confine it to that ob∣ject which is most fitted and proportioned to it, even the things a∣bove.

A Doctrine which cannot be gainsayed, but yet is not received of men with that firm and reverent persuasion of mind it should. For who hath believed this report? We must therefore make it good both by Scripture and Reason. And, first, we hear David, the father, professing that God's word was a lamp unto his feet,* 1.3 and a light unto his paths, a light to burn by night,* 1.4 a light that shineth in a dark place, leading us from Egypt to the Promised land, through the darkness of this world to that light which no eye of flesh can attain; guiding us from that which is pleasant to that which is honest, from that which is fair to that which is good, from that which flattereth the sense to that which perfecteth the reason; taking our thoughts from this world, and fixing them on that new world where∣in dwelleth righteousness. And we may hear Solomon, the son, as it were paraphrasing it,* 1.5 and rendring it into other words, The way of life is a∣bove to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath. Above to him that is wise, who looketh upon no light but that from heaven, which disco∣vereth the deceit and inconstancy and danger of those objects which may display to the sense a beauty like that of heaven, but to us are made as hell beneath, and tend thither. For he that followeth his eye to the next vanity, his ear to every pleasant sound, his taste to every dainty, his sen∣ses to every fair object that offereth it self, is not wise. And therefore we may hear the Son of David indeed, but wiser then Solomon, tell his Dis∣ciples,* 1.6 Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. And I have manifestd thy name to the men which thou gavest me out of the world. And indeed what is the whole Gospel of Christ but Spoliarium sensuum? a confinement, a punishment, a kind of execution, of the sensitive part, teaching us to beat down and tame, to crucifie and mortifie the flesh, to deny our selves, and our sensual inclinations, in which we are most our selves, and least our selves, most tractable, and least what we should be, Men; where the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the beast, the brutish part, swalloweth up the Man, the Reason: in a word, to be dead to the world. This is the con∣stant language of the Gospel, of that wisdom which descended from above. For the time past,* 1.7 saith S. Peter, may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, to have lived in the flesh, in the lusts of men: But now Christ hath suffered in the flesh, we also must be of the same mind, and cease from sin, and not defeat him of his end, which was, to set an end to our lusts, and destroy the works of the flesh. The time past may suffice, nay it is too much. But now light is come into the world, we must walk as chil∣dren of the light, and by that light discover horrour in Beauty, poverty in Wealth, dishonour in Glory, a hell kindling in those delights which are our Heaven upon earth. The ear, that hearkened to every Siren's song, must be stopped; the eye, that was open to vanity, must be shut by covenant; the phansie checked, the appetite dulled, the affections bridled, and we must be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, spiritualized substances; though

immured in matter, in the gross and carnal part, in the flesh, yet out of the flesh; having eyes, yet see not; ears, yet hear not; hands, but touch not; in a word, chosen, culled, abstracted from the world.

I will give you one reason from the Nature and excellency of the soul; another, from that huge Disproportion which sensual objects hold with that diviner part. We may ask with the Psalmist,* 1.8 Hast thou made all men in vain? Or rather we cannot ask the question. For without question God made not such an excellent creature but for an excellent end; I created him for my glory, I have formed him, yea I have made him.* 1.9 God made Man to communicate his goodness and wisdom to him, to make him par∣taker of the Divine nature, and a kind of God upon earth, to imprint his image on him, by which according to his measure and capacity he might represent God, 1. by the Knowledge, not onely of natural and transito∣ry things, but also of those which pertain to everlasting life.* 1.10 Being re∣newed in knowledge, after the image of him who created him. 2. in the Rectitude and Sanctity of his Will. Put on the new man,* 1.11 which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. 3. in the ready Obedience of the outward parts and inward faculties to the beck and command of Reason, which being as a spark from the Divine nature, a breathing from God, should look forward and upward, upon its Original, and present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. I say,* 1.12 God hath imprinted his image on Man. And what communion hath God with Belial, or the image of God with the fashion of this world? What relati∣on hath an immortal substance with that which passeth away?* 1.13 Take Man for that Miracle of the world, as Trismegistus calleth him, for that other, that Lesser world, the very tye and bond of all the other parts, for whose sake they were made, and in whose Nature the nature of the Universe is in a manner seen; which order and harmony being disturbed, was re∣newed and restored again by Christ, who is the perfect Image of God, the express character of his Person, and brightness of his glory;* 1.14 And what conversation should we have but in heaven? And if the whole nature of created things, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the creature it self, groneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption, certainly Man, the compendium and tie of all, the Little world, which by his default made the other parts subject to vanity, must needs grone in himself, waiting for the adoption and redemp∣tion of his body, not onely from corruption, but from temptation; when his eye shall behold no vanity, his ear hear nothing but Hallelujahs, and his very body become in a manner spiritual. Or take man as made after God's Image, by which he hath that property which no other creature hath, to Understand, and Will, and Reason, and Determine; by which he sendeth his thoughts whither he pleaseth, now beyond the seas, by and by back again, and then to heaven it self, as Hilary speaketh; by which he is capable of God, and may be partaker of him; And we can∣not think we had an Understanding given us onely to forge deceit, to contrive plots, to find out the twilight, an opportunity to do mischief, to invent instruments of musick, new delights, to frame an art, a method, a craft of enjoying the pleasures which are but for a season; we cannot think our Will was given us to catch at shadows and apparitions, to wait upon the Flesh, which fighteth against the Spirit and this Image within us; we cannot think God gave us Reason to distinguish us from the other creatures, that it should subject us to the creature, that it should make us worse then the beasts that perish. And therefore Christ, the end of whose coming was to renew God's Image decayed and defaced in Man, did lay the ax to the root of the tree, did level all spreading and overtopping

imaginations, all thoughts which bowed themselves and inclined to the world,* 1.15 bringing them into captivity unto the obedience of the Gospel, put out our eyes, and cut off our hands, so far as they might be occasional to evil, and nailed not onely our sins, but our flesh to his cross. For as we are risen with him, so are we crucified with him: who being lift up himself did draw us after him to heavenly things, to heavenly places; brought back the Lost sheep,* 1.16 the soul, into green and fat pastures, out of the way of the world, the way that leadeth to Death, to the paths of righteousness; bringeth back the Soul to its original, to that for which it was made.* 1.17 Hence the Gospel is called a perfect Law of Liberty. Whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty. A perfect Law; because it barreth up every passage and rivulet, shutteth up every crany that may let the soul out to wander after the things of this world; tieth us up closer then humane Reason could, and improveth and exalteth our Reason to busie it self on its proper object, those things which are above. And it is called a Law of liberty; because they who will be subject to this Law, who will be Gospellers indeed, must free themselves from those defects, and sins which no humane Law, nor yet the Law of Moses, did punish. So that Christian Religion doth in a manner destroy the world before its dissolu∣tion, maketh that which men so run after, so wooe, so lay hold on, a thing of nothing, or worse then nothing; maketh that which we made our staff to lean on, a serpent to run from; or, maketh the world but a prison, which we must struggle to get out of; but a Sodom, out of which we must haste to escape to the holy hill, to the mountain, lest we be consumed; or at best, but as a stage to act our parts on, where when we have disgraced, reviled, and trode it under our feet, we must take our Exit, and go out.

And indeed, secondly, there is no proportion at all between sensible things and a Soul, which is a Spirit and immortal. And in this also it re∣sembleth that God who breatheth it into us. As Lactantius saith, God is not hungry, that you need give him meat; he is not thirsty, that you need pour out drink to him; nor is he in the dark, that you need light up tapers. The world is the Lord's, and all that therein is. So it is with the Soul. What is a banquet of wine, what is musick, what is a feast, what is beauty, what is a wedge of gold to a Soul? The world is the Soul's, and all that therein is. And to behold the creature, and in the world, as in a book, to study and find out the Creator; to contemplate his Majesty, his Goodness, his Wisdom; to discover that happiness which is prepared for it; to find out conclusions; to behold the heavens, the work of God's fingers, and to purchase a place there; to converse with Seraphim and Cherubim; elevated thoughts, towring imaginations, holy desires; these are fit food for the Soul, and proportioned to it. And again, as the things above are proportioned to the Soul, so they alone can satisfie it. The things below are too narrow, too transitory. Beauty, like the Rainbow, is oculi opus, the work of the eye, of the imagination: Specta paulisper, & non erit: Do but look a little longer, and it will not be seen. Riches bring care and torment as well as delight; and when they have for a while mocked us, they take the wing, and flee away. Honour, I cannot well tell you what it is; it is so near to Nothing: But whatsoever it be, it commonly falleth to the dust, and findeth no better sepulchre then disgrace. The fashion of this world, saith the Apostle, passeth away: And what is that that passeth away to that which is immortal? The Heart of man is but a little member; It will not, saith S. Bernard, give a Kite its break fast: and yet it is too large a receptacle for the whole world. In toto nihil singulis satìs est; There is nothing in the whole Universe

which is enough for one particular man, in which the appetite of any one man can rest. And therefore since Satisfaction cannot be had under the Sun, here below, we must seek for it above.

And herein consisteth the excellency, the very life and essence of Chri∣stian Religion; To exalt the Soul, to draw it back from mixing with these things below, and lift it up above the highest heavens; To unite it to its proper object; To make that which was the breath of God,* 1.18 breathe nothing but God, think of nothing, desire nothing, seek for nothing but from above, from whence it had its beginning. The Soul is as the Mat∣ter; the things above, the Form. The Soul is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, (so Plato calleth Matter) the receptacle, of things above, as the Matter is of Forms: And it is never rightly actuated, or of a perfect being, till it receiveth the heavenly graces. The Soul is the Pot, the Vial, (so Chrysostom calleth it) not wherein is put Manna, but the Son and the holy Ghost, and those things which they send from above. The Soul is as the Ground, and these the Seed, the Soul, the Matrix, the Womb, to receive them.* 1.19 And there is a kind of sympathy betwixt the immortal Seed and the Heart and Mind of Man, as there is between Seed and the Womb of the earth. For the Soul no sooner seeth the things above unveiled and unclouded, not dis∣guised by the interveniencie of things below, by disgrace, poverty, and the like, but upon a full manifestation she is taken, as the Bridegroom in the Canticles, with their eye and beauty. Heaven is a fair sight, even in their eyes whose wayes tend to destruction. For there is a kind of near∣ness and alliance between the things above and those notions and princi∣ples which God imprinted in us at the first. Therefore Nature it self had a glimpse and glimmering light of these things, and saw a further mark to aim at then the World in this span of time could set up. Hence Tully calleth Man a mortal God, born to two things, to Ʋnderstand, and Do. And Seneca telleth us that by that which is best in Man, our Reason, we go before other creatures, but follow and seek after the first Good, which is God himself.

Again, as these things bear a correspondence with the Mind and Soul of man as the Seed doth with the Womb of the earth, so hath the Soul of man 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a formative faculty, to shape and fashion them, and by the influence of God's Grace and the kindly aspect of the Spirit to bring forth something of the same nature, some heavenly creature, to live in the world and hate it, to walk in it and tread it under its foot, THE NEW MAN, which is renewed after the image of God,* 1.20 made up in righteousness and holiness. The beauty of Holiness may beget that Violence in us which may break open the gates of heaven; the virtue of Christ's Cross may beget an army of Martyrs; and the Glory above may raise us up even out of the dust, out of all our faculties, to lay hold on it; that so we may be fitted as with planes, and marked out as with the compass, as the Prophet Esay speaketh in another sense; that we may be fitted to glory and those things above, as others are to destruction.* 1.21 And hence this glory is said to be laid up, and to be prepared for them which love God. And our Saviour now sitteth in heaven to prepare a place for them, even for all those who by setting their affections on things above are fitted and prepa∣red for them. Thus you see it is the chief work and end of Christian Religion to abstract and draw the Soul from sensual and carnal objects, and to level and confine it to that object which is fitted and proportion∣ed to it, even the things above. This is the work of the Gospel, by which if we walk, we shall suspect and fear the things below, the pleasures and glory of this world, as full of danger, and set our affections on those things which are above, and so have our conversation in heaven, from whence we

look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, Let us now see what use we can make of this, and draw it near to us by application.

And certainly, if Christian Religion doth draw the Soul from that which is pleasing to the Sensitive part, then we ought to try and examine our selves and our Religion by this touch-stone, by this rule, and be jea∣lous and suspicious and afraid of that Religion which most holdeth com∣pliance with the Sense and with our worldly desires, which flattereth and cherisheth that part at which the Soul goeth forth, and too often bringeth back Death along with her; which doth miscere Deum & secu∣lum, joyn God and Mammon, the Spirit and the Flesh, Christ and the World together, and maketh them friendly to communicate with each other, and so maketh the Christian a monster, crying, Abba, Father, but honouring the world; falling down, and worshipping Christ, not in a stable, but in a palace; taking him not with persecution and self-denial, but with honours, riches and pleasures, which in true esteem are but as the Apostle termeth them, dung.

I will not mention the Heathen. For what Religion can they have who are without God in the world? Nor yet Mahumetism; although wee see with what ease it prevailed and got a side, and overflowed the greater part of the world, because it brought with it a carnal Paradise, an eter∣nity of lusts, and such alluring promises as the sensual part could relish and digest well enough, though they were never fo absurd. If from these we pass over into Christendom, we shall soon see Christian Religi∣on falling from its primitive purity, remitting much of its rigour and se∣verity, painted over with a smiling countenance, made to favour that which formerly it looked upon as capital, and which deserved no better wages then death. For how hath the Church of Rome fitted and attem∣pered it to the sensitive part and most corrupt imaginations, pulled off her sackcloth, put on embroidery, and made her all glorious without; Allaying it with Worshipping of Saints, which is but a carnal thing; and Worshipping of Images, a carnal thing; Turning Repentance into Pe∣nance; Fasting, into Difference of meats; Devotion, into Numbering of beads; Shutting up all Religion in Obedience and Submission to that Church; Drawing out Religion from the heart to the gross and out∣ward act? With what art doth she uphold her self in that state and pomp we behold her in at this day? How doth she apply Religion to every Humour? I had almost said, to every sin? For the Melancholick and dis∣content she provideth a Cloister; for the Active and Ingenious, great Employments; for the Ambitious, the Government of the world. How subtle and cunning hath she been to discern all humours and dis∣positions whatsoever? Look upon the Pope, and you shall see he lay∣eth claim to all Dominion and State imaginable; and that because he pretendeth Religion requireth it. Look upon the Carthusian, and he will possess nothing; and that upon the very same reason. And thus to please every man's sense and humour, she hath framed a Re∣ligion in which extreme Poverty is made to piece and comply with extreme Luxury and Ambition. And is this, think you, to set our affections on things above? These certainly are things below our Rea∣son, below our Religion; and unless we keep them below and tread them under foot, they will never lift us up above into heavenly places.

But let us take off our eye from these, and more profitable employ it at home. And if the God of this world hath not quite blinded us, we shall soon see that we, who boast of our Religion all the day long, have also as Martin Luther used to speak, a Pope in our belly. We call our

Church the pure and best reformed Church. Reformed, it is true, from Su∣perstition: (would to God it were! for who more superstitious?) but is it so from Covetousness? We have some reason to fear that we did not cast out the Pope and the World together. For tell me, and tell me no more then your own Conscience will tell you; Do we confine our thoughts and desires to things above? or rather do we not call down things above to wait upon our lowest thoughts? Do we leave the World, and follow Christ? or do we not make use of Christ to usher in the World; as that Pagan in Ammianus Marcellinus, FACITE ME EPIS∣COPUM ROMANUM; Make me Bishop of Rome, and I will presently turn Christian? Are we not Chrstians, or of this or that sect and faction of Christians, because it will make us something in the world? Do we not make Christ take Martha's part, and cumber him with many worldly things, and then leave him out in that which is necessary? Do we not trade, do we not deceive, do we not revenge, do we not fight in the name of the Lord Jesus? Behold, same have fitted their Religion to their ambition, and given it wings to flie to the highest seat. Some have drawn it down to wait on their delights, and made it sportful. Others have brought it low, to comply with their covetous desires: Nec avaritia no∣stra nobis sufficit, nisi avarum Christum faciamus; Nor are we content to travel greedily for the things below, and to bestow all our wisdom upon them, as the Wise-man speaketh, unless we call in Christ and Religion to countenance the matter, and seem as covetous as we. It is observed of the Romans, that before the corruption and decay of manners amongst them, they would not entertain a servant or officer but of a perfect and goodly shape; but afterwards, when luxury and riot prevailed, they di∣ligently sought out, and counted it a kind of elegancy and state to take into their retinue, dwarfs and monsters, men of a prodigious appearance, ludibria naturae, those errours and mockeries of Nature: So we may ob∣serve it to have fallen out in the profession of Christian Religion. In the rise and dawning of the Gospel men did lay hold on that faith alone which was once delivered to the Saints, and framed their lives to the simpli∣city and plainness of the rule; and he was esteemed the best Christian who was likest unto Christ, and who sought those things which are above, where Christ is. But when this glorious light had passed more degrees, men began to play the wantons in the light, to seek out divers inventions, and Christian Religion was made to give way to those sick and loathsome humours which did pollute and defile it. Do we not see how every man almost hath learned an art to make a Religion to himself? to bury him∣self alive in the earth, and yet persuade himself he is ascending into hea∣ven? to walk with atoms and shadows here below, and yet make you believe his conversation is above? to revenge, and yet be meek enough? to be wanton, and yet an eunuch for the kingdom of heaven? to chide the world, and tugge it? to disgrace, and worship it? to be full of malice, cruelty, uncleanness, and yet a Saint? And in these phansies and creations of the mind do men please and delight themselves, and call it Religion, though it be as different from the true copy of Religion as a Monster is from a Man of perfect shape. And that Religion is commonly cri∣ed up with admiration which hath nothing marvellous in it but de∣formity.

Beloved, Christianity is a most severe Religion: And as she pointeth to the things above, and to Christ, who is the author and finisher of Reli∣gion, so she casteth all disgrace upon things below, calleth them deceit∣ful, transitory, uncertain, and Life it self but a vapour. But yet, I know not how, as we have disgraced and discoloured Religion in our manners,

so we have taken pains to make it wanton and effeminate in our discour∣ses. These precepts, Love not the world, Resist not evil, Lay not up trea∣sures on earth, which are to flesh and bloud but bitter pills, we have so gilded over with favourable glosses and interpretations that they have lost their purgative quality, work no change in us, but leave us as cove∣tous, as revengeful, as wanton, as before. Set our affections on things above; that we will; but not give them such room in our hearts as to shoulder out our affections to the world, as to discharge us of that multi∣tude of business in which nothing but our sensuality hath engaged us, as to bind and fetter us so that we shall not walk at liberty and with a full swindge in those wayes which lead to Honour and Wealth, as to take off our eyes from those objects which we cannot but see, or our hand from reaching at that which fairly offereth it self, as to take us out of the world. Which is in effect to deny the power of Religion; to keep a form, but wound Christianity to the very heart. Christianity, I say; which is nothing else but as the sounding of a retreat, the voice of God, to call us out of the world. Oh beloved, God give us a full taste of the powers of the world to come! For when we give the World a full look, and cast but a negligent glaunce upon the things above; when we fix our wills and link our souls with vanity, and have but a sick and faint desire, a velleity, to be with Christ; are we not carnal? or do we set our affections on things above? When we count no sin venial, and yet commit every sin with that freedom and indifferency as if it were so, are we not carnal? When we hate a supposed evil in others more then we do a real one in our selves, and then bid them depart from us, and are pleased and tickled with this bold defiance, and make it a sign and evidence of a good con∣science to censure and condemn others for a bad, and count it our hea∣ven upon earth to make every place a hell which we go out of, S. Paul himself will ask the question, Are you not carnal? I will but adde; Do we settle our affections on things above, when we count it a heresie to affirm that ever Saint lived who did not oftner offend then do his duty? and think that God doth accept our faint and weak endeavours, the dawn∣ings and small beginnings of obedience, our profers to go out of the world, though we make it our Seraglio and place of pleasure? When we first upon false grounds and premisses conclude that we are from the hea∣ven, heavenly, even the beloved children of God, chosen out of the world; and then as boldly conclude that we are, like Thetis's son, invul∣nerable, that no sin how foul soever, no dart of Satan, can hurt us, though it stick in our sides; when we make these pillows of security, and lie down and sleep upon them, do we then truly set our affections on things above? Let us not deceive our selves. These phansies and imaginations descend not from above, but are earthy, sensual, and devilish; or, at best, but as the sparks in a chimney, which flie upwards as if they would reach the firmament and fix themselves amongst the stars, but upon a sudden fail and fall and vanish into nothing; and Christian Religion chaseth them out of the soul, as the Devil's emissaries and spies sent to allure and cor∣rupt it, to draw it from the object which is fitted to it, things above, and bow and incline and fasten it to vanity and to things below, which are nothing, or nothing worth, and, being from the earth, earthy, hold no pro∣portion with the Soul, which is an immaterial substance, breathed into us by our Father which in heaven.

The time is spent, and we must conclude. And we cannot conclude more appositely then with that of the Prophet.* 1.22 Look unto the rock whence ye are hewen, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look upon your own frame and original; and look unto the rock, even the Rock

Christ Jesus, out of which ye were hewen again, to be lively stones,* 1.23 to be built up a spiritual house. Remember you are Men; and remember you are Christians. Remember you are Men; and then you cannot but ob∣serve (for Tully, an heathen, observeth it) something Divine in you, something aspiring, and lifting you up above all lying vanities, above the vanity of vanities of this world. Remember the sublimity and the excel∣lency of your Nature, and fall not down below that which is so far below you. And then remember you are Christians, of a more noble extracti∣on, begot again unto a lively hope, a hope that layeth hold of, and in a man∣ner taketh possession of, the things above; and a lively faith, which is the victory that overcometh the world: And these will discover the falshood of things on the earth, and display the beauty of things above; will be able to number them, and call them by all their names. Faith will tell thee, This beauty is deceitful; This wine, a mocker; This strumpet, a deep ditch; These riches have wings, and will fly away; and that thou thy self art but a shadow, and will fly from them. And it will lift up thy eyes to the hills, from whence cometh thy help, to see no riches but in Grace, no health but in Piety, no beauty but in Holiness, no treasure but in Heaven, no delight but in the things above.

And as thou lookest upon thy self in these two capacities, as a Man, and as a Christian; so look upon thy right hand and upon thy left. Look up∣on the things above, and the things upon the earth; and thou shalt find that between these, as between heaven and hell, there is a great gulf, that thou canst not set thy affections on both, thou canst not love God and Mammon. And therefore let those things which are above be above and have the pree∣minence; and draw them not down to give attendance and lacquay it after the things on earth. For when the name of Religion and a deceitful earthy mind meet, they ingender and bring forth those monsters which do blast the world, and work that desolation which hath been seen upon the earth. When the Love of the world cometh, as the Devil did to Christ, with Scripture in its mouth, and worldly-minded men have HOLINESS writ∣ten in their foreheads, what can we expect but the abomination of desola∣tion? what can we look for but that men should be twofold the children of hell more then before? For no Impiety is more raging then that which co∣meth towards us in the name of the Lord. That Sword is sharp, and will eat flesh, which Religion doth furbish. Let then, I say, the things above have the first place, be as our Pole-star to guide and move us whilest we walk amongst the things on earth, that they do not bespot and pollute us. Let Religion chuse our Servant, our Friend, our Magistrate. For we see when private Interest maketh the choice, we many times are undone by having our desire: We purchase no more of a Servant but his eye; of a Friend, but a fair countenance; of a Magistrate, but one whose purse is his magistrate and governeth him: Our Servant may prove a Judas; our Friend, a winter-brook, of no use in a drought when we want him; and the Magistrate, as Briareus, with a hundred hands to lay hold on bribes, scarce so good as Caligula's Horse which he made Consul, onely in this like him, that ye may bridle and ride him. Private Interest and the Love of the world put no difference at all between the Vine and the Bramble, most commonly cleaveth to that which it thinketh will best shadow it, though it be a Bramble. But God's wayes are the safest, if we would chuse them. For when we leave them, then to Endor we go, to the witch, to the Devil himself, who may delude, but cannot secure us. When the children of Israel called upon Aaron, Ʋp, make us Gods which shall go before us, you see the leader they made themselves was but a mol∣ten calf. Tertullian thus expresseth it, Praecessit illis bubulum caput, That

which went before them was but a Calf's head. The Love of the world walketh but in a vain shadow, and bringeth little with it but sorrow: and private Interest doth not settle but shake the pillars of the earth. For howsoever it may please us now, and bring our ends about, yet our eye is not clear enough to see what bitterness will be at the end. And we do but play and sport in the wayes which we have chosen as the little fishes do in the river Jordan, till at last they fall into the Dead sea. Our word is as vain and mortal as our selves, but God's word standeth for evermore. I will not press this further in this place; and I hope there is no need I should: For I hope better things of you; that not Faction, which the Devil raiseth here on earth, but true Religion, which God sent down from above, shall now and at all times teach you how to make your choice. I will conclude with that with which I should have begun, the Coherence of my Text with the first verse. For this is a consequent of that, and we are therefore exhorted to set our affections upon things above because we are risen with Christ. For without this manifestation there is no Resurrection. If we be still earthly-minded, we are not risen with him. In other things it is natural, when we rise, to shew our selves. If we rise to honour, you may see us in the streets, like Agrippa and Ber∣nice in the Acts, with great pomp. If we rise in our estates, you may see it in our next purchase. If in knowledge, which is a rising from the grave of Ignorance, then Scire tuum nihil est; we are sick till we vent. And shall we manifest and publish our rising in the world, and not our rising with Christ? Shall Dives appear in purple, and Herod in his royal ap∣parel? shall the rich fool be known by his barns, and every scribler be in print? and may we rise, and yet lye in our Graves? rise with Christ, and yet lie buried alive in the earth? rise with him, and have no affecti∣on to the things above? rise with him, and yet be slaves and captives to that world which by rising he overcame? This were to conceal, nay to bury, the Resurrection it self. Nay rather, since we are risen with him, let the same mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus the Lord. Let us be seen in our march; Walk before God in the land of the living; Look upon the things above; Converse with Cherubim and Seraphim; Count the things on the earth but dung; Let us look upon the World as an enemy, and o∣vercome it, that the last enemy, Death may be destroyed; Let us begin to make our bodies, what we believe they shall be, spiritual bodies, that the body being subdued to the Spirit, it may appear we are risen with Christ here, and when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead, we may have our second resurrection to that glory which is reser∣ved above for us in the highest heavens for evermore.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Matth. 16.23.
• * 1.2

  Rom. 8.6.
• * 1.3

  Psal. 119.105.
• * 1.4

  2 Pet. 1.19.
• * 1.5

  Prov. 15.24.
• * 1.6

  John 15.19. John 17.6.
• * 1.7

  1 Pet. 4.3.
• * 1.8

  Psal. 89.47.
• * 1.9

  Isa. 43.7.
• * 1.10

  Col. 3.10.
• * 1.11

  Eph. 4.24.
• * 1.12

  Rom. 12.1.
• * 1.13

  1 Cor. 7.31.
• * 1.14

  Rom. 8.
• * 1.15

  2 Cor. 10.5.
• * 1.16

  Psal. 23.
• * 1.17

  James 1.25.
• * 1.18

  Gen. 2.7.
• * 1.19

  Matth. 13.
• * 1.20

  Vers. 1••.
• * 1.21

  Rom. 9.22. 2 Tim. 4.8. 1 Cor. 2.9. John 14.3.
• * 1.22

  Isa. 51.1.
• * 1.23

  1 Pet 2.5.