loves, and to lay that at our feet that before was as our treasure, and to tame that body, and bring it into fubjection, which before was in the throne. The motions of fuch a change will not be acceptable,till they are made fo effectual as to taufe that change: The command will be unpleasant, till the heart be fuited to the nature of the command. He that feeth what care and labour there is to gather a worldly treasure, and what a ftir is made in the world about it, can never expect that all this fhould be vilified and despised at a word, and that any doctrine (how true. and heavenly foever,) can be wellcome to these worldly men, that would debase their glory, and embitter their delights, and make their Idol feem but dung. The doctrine of Chrift would take the old heart out of their bodies: and they will not easily leave their D 2 hearts. hearts. It doth not only command the drunkard to live foberly, and the glutton temperately, and the lafcivious filthy finner chaftly, and the proud perfon humbly, and the covetous to live contentedly and liberally, but it commandeth the hearty forfaking of all, for the fake of Chrift, Luke 14.33. and the accounting them but as lofs and dung that we may win him, Phil. 3,7,8,9. and mortifying of that flef which before we daily ftudyed to please, Col. 3.4, 5. and the crucifying of its affections and lufts, Gal. 5. 24. and the denyal even of our felves, Luk. 9. 23,24. And for a carnal mind to love and yield to fuch commands, were no other then to cease to be a carnal mind. All this is largely expreffed by the Apoftle, Rom. 8., &c. They that are in Chrift Jefus, walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flef, do mind the things of the flesh : but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit: For to be carnally-minded is death, but to be Spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not fubject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh, cannot pleafe Gud. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if through the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body, ye shall live.] You fee here why it is that the felf-deceiver will not entertain the power of godliness, nor be Religi ouis feriously according to the true intent of the Gospel, and the na ture of Christianity, even because he is engaged to a contrary object, and hath another game in chafe, which he will not leave, and which true Religion requireth him to leave, and will not give him leave to follow. And therefore he part D3 -eth eth with the Religion which would have parted him from that which he will not part with. 2. But withall, he is all this while under the threatenings of the Law of God, and confcience is ready to bear witness against him and betwixt Law and Confcience, the poor wretch is as the corn between two Milftones; he would be ground to powder, and tortured with terrors before his time, if he had not fome opiate or intoxicating medicine, to cafe him by deceiving him, and to abate his fears, and quiet his confcience as long as a palliate cure will serve turn. So that here are two things for which felf-deceiving Hypocrite is fain to fall into his Vain Religion: The one is, that it may be a cloak to the fin which he will needs keep: The other is, that it may fave him from the terrors and difquietments, that for this fin his confcience would the elfe elfe afflict him with. A belief that he may be faved, for all his fin, is the relief that he hath against the terrors of the Law of God. He therefore choofeth out fuch parcels of Religion as may ferve him for this afe, and yet will not feparate him from the fin that he delighteth in. The power of godlinefs will not confift with his covetous, proud or flefhly life: but the form and outfide will, And therefore this regeneration, and mortification, and felf-denyal, and fubjection to the whole will of God, and this heavenly mindednefs, and watching the heart, and walking with God, and living above the trifles of this world, and making it the chief business to prepare for another; this kind of Religion, which is Religion indeed, he cannot (becaufe he will not) entertain. This is the ftrait gate, and narrow way, that few men find. D 4 Here |