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what James faith, Ye ask, and ye receive not." Why? because ye ask amifs: that is, with an heart that is not right, but infincere, unmortified, not in the faith that purifies the foul, and therefore can never receive what is afked: fo that a man may fay with truth, thy condition is worse by thy religion, because thou art tempted to think thyfelf the better for it,

and art not.

§. X. Well! by this profpect that is given. thee, of thy foul fall from primitive Chriftianity, and the true cause of it, to wit, a neglect of the daily crofs of Chrift, it may be eafy for thee to inform thyfelf of the way of thy recovery.

For, look at what door thou wentest out, at that door thou must come in: and as letting fall, and forbearing the daily cross loft thee; fo taking up, and enduring the daily crofs, must recover thee. It is the fame way, by which the finners and apoftates become the difciples of Jefus. Whofoever, fays Chrift, will come after me, and be my difciple, let him deny himself, and take up his daily cross, and follow me. Nothing fhort of this will do; mark that; for as it is fufficient, fo it is indifpenfible: no crown, but by the crofs: no life eternal, but through death: and it is but juft, that those evil and barbarous affections, that crucified Chrift afresh, should, by his holy crofs, be crucified. Blood requires blood; his cross is the death of fin, that caufed his

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"James iv. 3.

* Mat. xvi. 24.
Luke xiv. 27.

Mark viii. 34.

death; and he the death of death, according to that paffage, O death, I will be thy death!

Hef. xii. 14.

CHAP. III.

§. 1. What the cross of Chrift is? A figurative Speech, but truly the divine power, that mortifies the world. §. 2. It is fo called by the apostle Paul to the Corinthians. §. 3. Where it is the cross appears, and must be borne?. Within; where the lufts are; there they must be crucified. §. 4. Experience teaches every one this; to be fure, Chrift afferts it, from within comes murder, &c. and that is the houfe where the strong man must be bound. §. 5. How is the Crofs to be borne? The way is fpiritual, a denial of felf, of the pleasure of fin: to please God, and obey his will, as manifefted to the foul by the light he gives it. §. 6. This fhews the difficulty, yet the neceffity of the Cross.

THE daily cross being then, and ftill, O Christendom! the way to glory; that the fuccceding matter, which wholly relates to the dorine of it, may come with most evidence and advantage upon thy confcience, it is moft feriously to be confidered by thee.

Firft, what the Crofs of Chrift is?

Secondly, Where the Crofs of Chrift is to be taken up?

Thirdly, How and after what manner it is to be borne?

Fourthly, What is the great work and bufinefs of the cross? In which, the fins it crucifies, with the mischiefs that attend them, will be at large expreffed.

Fifthly and laftly, I fhall add many teftimonies from living and dying perfons, of great reputation either for their quality, learning, or piety, as a general confirmation of the whole tract.

To the first, What is the Cross of Christ?

§. I. The Crofs of Chrift is a figurative fpeech, borrowed from the outward tree, or wooden crofs, on which Chrift fubmitted to the will of God, in permitting him to fuffer death at the hands of evil men. So that the cross myftical, is that divine grace and power which croffeth the carnal wills of men, and gives a contradiction to their corrupt affections, and that conftantly oppofeth itself to the inordinate and flefhly appetite of their minds, and fo may be justly termed the instrument of man's wholly dying to the world, and being made conformable to the will of God. For nothing elfe can mortify fin, or make it easy for us to fubmit to the divine will, in things otherwife very contrary to their own.

§. II. The preaching of the cross, therefore, in primitive times, was fitly called by Paul, that famous and skilful apoftle in spiritual things, the power of God, though to then

that perish, then, as now, foolishness. That is, to thofe that were truly weary and heavy laden, and needed a deliverer, to whom fin was burdenfome and odious, the preaching of the cross, by which fin was to be mortified, was, as to them, the power of God, or a preaching of the divine power, by which they were made difciples of Chrift, and children of God and it wrought fo powerfully upon them, that no proud or licentious mockers could put them out of love with it. But to thofe that walked in the broad way, in the full latitude of their lufts, and dedicated their time and care to the pleasure of their corrupt appetites, to whom all yoke and bridle were and are intolerable, the preaching of the cross was, and is, foolifhnefs; to which I may add, in the name but of too many now-a-days, and the practice ridiculous; embraced by none, if they may be believed, but half-witted people, of fingy and fingular tempers, affected with the hypochondry, and oppreffed with the power of melancholy. For all this, and more, is bestowed upon the life of the bleffed cross of Chrift, by the very profeffors and pretended admirers of it, in the perfons of those that truly bear it.

6. III. Well: but then where does this crofs appear, and where muft it be taken up?

I anfwer, within: that is, in the heart and foul; for where the fin is, the crofs muft be. Now all evil comes from within: this Chrift taught: From within, faith Christ, out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,

fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blafphemy, pride, foolishnefs: all these evils come from within, and defile the man."

The heart of man is the feat of fin, and where he is defiled, he must be fanctified; and where fin lives, there it muft die: it must be crucified. Custom in evil hath made it natural to men to do evil; and as the foul rules the body, fo the corrupt nature fways the whole man: but ftill, it is all from within.

§. IV. Experience teaches every fon and daughter of Adam to affent to this; for the enemy's temptations are ever directed to the mind, which is within: if they take not, the foul fins not; if they are embraced, luft is prefently conceived, that is, inordinate defires; luft conceived, brings forth fin; and fin finished, that is, acted, brings forth death." Here is both the caufe and the effect, the very genealogy of fin, its rife and end.

In all this, the heart of evil man is the devil's mint, his work-house, the place of hist refidence, where he exercises his power and

art.

And therefore, the redemption of the foul is aptly called the deftruction of the works of the devil, and bringing in of everlasting righteoufnefs. When the Jews would have defamed Chrift's. miracle of cafting out devils, by a blafpheinous imputation of it to the power of Beelzebub, he fays, That no man can enter into a strong man's houfe, and spoil his goods, b James v. 15. 1 John iii. 8. Dan. ix. 24.

Mark vii. 21, 22, 23..

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