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fined notions enter, the obedient only eat the good of ⚫ this land :''They that do his will, (fays the blessed Jefus) fhall know of my doctrine; them he will inftruct. There is no room for inftruction, where lawful felf is lord, and not fervant. For felf cannot receive it: that which fhould, is oppreffed by felf; fearful, and dares not. O what will my father or mother fay? How will my husband ufe me? Or, finally, what will the magistrate do with me? For though I have a most powerful perfuafion, and clear conviction upon my foul, of this or that thing, yet confidering how unmodifh it is, what enemies it has, and how strange and fingular I shall seem to them, I hope God will pity my weaknefs: if I fink, I am but flesh and blood; it may be hereafter he may better enable me; and there is time enough. Thus felfish, fearful man.

But deliberating is ever worft; for the foul lofes in parly the manifeftation brings power with it. Never did God convince people, but, upon fubmiffion, he impowered them. He requires nothing without ability to perform it: that were mocking, not faving of men. It is enough for thee to do thy duty, that God fhews thee thy duty; provided thou clofeft with that light and fpirit, by which he gives thee that knowledge. They that want power, are fuch as do not receive Christ in his convictions upon the foul; and fuch will always want it but fuch as do, they receive power (like those of old) to become the children of God, through the pure obedience of faith.

you,

§. XXIII. Wherefore, let me befeech you, by the love and mercy of God; by the life and death of Chrift, by the power of his fpirit, and the hope of immortality, that whose hearts are established in your temporal comforts, and fo lovers of felf more than of these heavenly things, would let the time paft fuffice:' that you would not think it enough to be clear of fuch impieties, as too many are found in, whilft your inordinate love of lawful things has defiled your enjoyment of

Ifa. i. 19. John vii. 17.

them,

them, and drawn your hearts from the fear, love, obedience, and felf-denial of a true difciple of Jesus. Tack about then, and hearken to the ftill voice in thy confcience; it tells thee thy fins, and of mifery in them. It gives a lively discovery of the very vanity of the world, and opens to thy foul fome profpect of eternity, and the comforts of the juft that are at reft. If thou adhereft to this, it will divorce thee from fin and self; thou wilt foon find, that the power of its charms exceed that of the wealth, honour, and beauty of the world, and finally will give thee that tranquillity, which the ftorms of time can never fhipwreck nor disorder. Here all thine enjoyments are bleft: though fmall, yet great by that prefence that is within them.

Even in this world the righteous have the better of it, for they use the world without rebuke, because they do not abuse it. They fee and bless the hand that feeds, and cloaths, and preferves them. And as by beholding him in all his gifts, they do not adore them, but him; fo the sweetness of his bleffings that gives them, is an advantage fuch have upon those that fee him not. fides, in their increase they are not lifted up, nor in their adverfities are they caft down: and why? Because they are moderated in the one, and comforted in the other, by his divine prefence.

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In fhort, heaven is the throne, and the earth but the footstool, of that man, that hath felf under foot. And thofe that know that ftation will not eafily be moved; fuch learn to number their days, that they may not be furprized with their diffolution; and to redeem their

time, because their days are evil';' remembering that they are but stewards, and muft deliver up their accompts to an impartial judge. Therefore, not to felf, but to him they live, and in him die, and are bleffed with them that die in the Lord. And thus I conclude. my difcourfe of the right ufe of lawful felf.

d Eph. v. 15, 16.

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CHAP. V.

§. 1. Of unlawful felf, it is twofold, 1. In religion. 2. In morality. §. 2. Of those that are most formal, fuperftitious and pompous in worship. §. 3. God's rebuke of carnal apprehenfions. §. 4. Chrift drew off his difciples from the Jewish exterior worship, and instituted a more fpiritual one. §. 5. Stephen is plain and full in this matter. §. 6. Paul refers the temple of God twice to man. §. 7. Of the cross of thefe worldly worshippers. §. 8. Flesh and blood make their cross, therefore cannot be crucified by it. §. 9. They are yokes without reftraint. §. 10. Of the gaudinefs of their crofs, and their respect to it. §. II. A reclufe life no true gospel abnegation. §. 12. A comparison between Chrift's felf-denial and theirs; his leads to purity in the world, theirs to voluntary imprisonment, that they might not be tempted of the world. The mischief which that example, followed, would do to the world. It deftroys useful fociety, honest labour. A lazy life the usual refuge of idleness, poverty, and guilty age. §. 13. Of Chrift's cross in this cafe. The impoffibility that fuch an external application can remove an internal caufe. §. 14. An exhortation to the men of this belief, not to deceive themselves.

§. I.I

Am now come to unlawful felf, which, more or lefs, is the immediate concernment of much the greater part of mankind. This unlawful felf is twofold. ift. That which relates to religious worship: 2dly, That which concerns moral and civil converfation in the world, And they are both of infinite confequence to be confidered by us. In which I fhall be as brief as I may, with ease to my confcience, and no injury to the matter.

§. II. That unlawful felf in religion, that ought to be mortified by the cross of Chrift, is man's invention and performance of worship to God, as divine, which is not fo, either in its inftitution or performance. In this

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great error, thofe people have the van, of all, that attribute to themselves the name of Christians, that are most exterior, pompous, and fuperftitious in their worfhip for they do not only mifs exceedingly, by a fpiritual unpreparedness, in the way of their performing worship to God Almighty, who is an eternal fpirit; but the worship itself is compofed of what is utterly inconfiftent with the very form and practice of Christ's doctrine, and the apoftolical example. For whereas that was plain and spiritual, this is gaudy and worldly: Chrift's most inward and mental; their's most outward and corporeal: that fuited to the nature of God, who is a fpirit; this accommodated to the most carnal part. So that inftead of excluding flesh and blood, behold a worship calculated to gratify them: as if the business were not to present God with a worship to please him, but to make one to please themselves. A worship dreffed with such stately buildings, and imagery, rich furniture and garments, rare voices and mufic, coftly lamps, wax-candles and perfumes; and all acted with that most pleasing variety, to the external fenfes, that art can invent, or coft procure: as if the world were to turn Jew or Egyptian again; or that God was an old man, indeed, and Chrift a little boy, to be treated with a kind of religious mask, for fo they picture him in their temples; and too many in their minds. And the truth is, fuch a worship may very well fuit such an idea of God: for when men can think him fuch an one as themselves, it is not to be wondered, if they address to him, and entertain him in a way that would be most pleafing from others to themselves.

§. III. But what said the Almighty to such a sensual people of old, much upon the like occafion? Thou thoughteft I was fuch an one as thyfelf, but I will reprove thee, and fet thy fins in order before thee. Now confider this, ye that forget God, left I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. But to him that ordereth his converfation aright, will I fhew the fal•vation of God'.' This is the worship acceptable to

Pfal. 1. 21, 22, 23.

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him, To do juftice, love mercy, and walk humbly ‹ with God,' For he that fearcheth the heart, and tries the reins of man, and fets his fins in order before him, who is the God of the fpirits of all flesh ',' looks not to the external fabrick, but internal frame of the foul, and inclination of the heart. Nor is it to be foberly thought, that he, who is cloathed with divine honour and majesty, who covers himself with light, as with a garment, who ftretches out the heavens like a curtain, who layeth the beams of his chambers in the deep, who maketh the clouds his chariots, and who walks upon the wings of the wind, who maketh his angels fpirits, and his minifters a flaming fire, who laid the foundation of the earth, that it should not be moved for ever,' can be adequately worshipped by those human inventions, the refuge of an apoftate people, from the primitive power of religion, and fpirituality of chriftian worship.

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§. IV. Chrift drew off his difciples from the glory and worship of the outward temple, and instituted a more inward and spiritual worship, in which he instructed his followers, Ye fhall neither in this moun⚫tain, nor yet at Jerufalem (fays Chrift to the Samaritan woman) worship the Father. God is a fpirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.' As if he had faid: for the fake of the weakness of the people, God defcended in old time, to limit himfelf to an outward time, place, temple and service, in and by which he would be worshipped: but this was during mens ignorance of his omniprefence, and that they confidered not what God is, nor where he is. But I am come to reveal him to as many as receive me. And I tell you that God is a spirit, and he will be worshipped in spirit and in truth. People must be acquainted with him as a fpirit, confider him, and worship him as fuch. It is not that bodily worship, nor thefe ceremonious fervices, in ufe among you now, that will ferve, or give acceptance with this God that is • John iv. 21, 246.

Mic. vi. 8.

a fpirit:

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