The Crucifying of the World, Treatise · Part 1 · Section 5
SECT. V.
BUT it will not be unprofitable if we more particularly and orderly acquaint you with those Acts which the crucifying of the world to our selves doth comprehend; over-passing those by which Christ did it for us on the Cross, till anon in the due place.
1. The first act is, To esteem the world as an enemy to God and us, and so as a Malefactor that deserveth to be crucified. And this must not be only by a speculative-conception, but by a true confirmed practical judgement, which will set all the powers of the soul on work. It is the want of this that makes the world to Live and Reign in the hearts of so many, yea even of thousands that think they have mortified it. A speculative Book-knowledge that will only make a man talk▪ is taken instead of a practical knowledge. Almost every man will say, The world is a great enemy to God and us; but did they soundly and heartily esteem it to be such, they would use it as such. Never tell me that that man takes the world for his deadly enemy, who useth it as his dearest friend. Enmity and deadly enmity will be seen. Here is no room to plead the command of loving our enemies; at least, no man can think that he must love it with a Love of friendship, and therefore with no love but what is consistent with the hatred of a deadly enemy. This serious deep apprehension of Enmity, is the very spring and poise of all our opposition. We cannot heartily fight with our friend, or seek his death. There must be some anger and falling out before we will make the first assault: and a settled enmity before we will make a deadly war of it. This apprehension of enmity consisteth in an apprehension of the hurtfulness of the world to us, and of the opposition it maketh against God and our salvation, and of the danger that we are in continually by reason of this opposition. So far as men conceive of the world as Good for them, so far they take it for their friend, and love it. For no man can choose but love that which he seriously conceiveth to be Good for him. This complacency is clean contrary to the Christian hostility. But when we conceive of it as that which we stand in continual danger of being everlastingly undone by, this will turn our hearts against it. It undoes men that they have not these apprehensions of the world, and that deeply fixed and habituated in their minds. For it is the Apprehension or Iudgement of things that carryeth about the whole man, and setteth awork all the other faculties.
Quest. But what should we do to be so habitually apprehensive that the world is our enemy?
Answ. 1. You must be sure that you lay up your treasure in heaven: That you are so convinced by Faith of the Glory to come, and of the true felicity that consisteth in the fruition of God, as that you take it for your Portion, and make it your very End. And when once you have laid up your Hopes in heaven, and see that there or no where you must be happy, this will presently teach you to judge of all things else as they either help or hinder the attainment of that end. For it is the Nature of the End to put a due estimate upon all things else: And it is the property of the chief Good, to denominate all other things either Good or Evil, and that in a greater or lesser measure, according as they respect that chiefest Good. For there can be no Goodness in any thing else, but the Goodness of a Means: And the means is so far Good, as it is apt and useful for the attainment of the End. If once therefore you unfeignedly take God and Glory for your end and felicity, you will presently fall upon enquiry and observation, what it is that the world will do to help or h…nder that felicity.
2. And then you need but one thing more to the discovery of the Enmity; and that is, the Constant experience of your souls. A real living Christian doth live for God, and is upon the motion to his eternal home: There is his heart; and that way his affections daily work: When he findeth his soul down, he windeth it up again, and straineth the spring of faith and love. And therefore his life and business being for heaven, he cannot but be sensible of the rubs that are in his way, and take notice of those things that would stop him in this course. Whereupon he must needs find by constant experience that the world is that great Impediment, and so must be apprehensive of the enmity of the world. For as he that Loveth God and waiteth for the sight of his face in Glory, must needs take all that to be against him, and naught for him, that would keep him from God, and deprive him of that beatificall vision, so he that knoweth what it is to love God, must needs know by constant sad experience, that the world is the great with-drawer or hinderer of that love. When he sets himself in any holy imployment to mount his soul into a more heavenly frame, and to get a little nearer God, he feeleth himself too much entangled with inferiour objects; these are the weight that presseth down, and the water that quencheth the sacred …lames; and were it not for these, O how much higher might our souls attain, and how much freer might we be for God. For it is a thing most certain to us by our constant experience, that the more of the world is upon our hearts, the less is there of God; and the more of God, the less of the world. So that these two means alone, The sincere Intending of God, and Glory as our End, and daily observation of our own hearts, will easily convince us that the world is our great enemy. And when we throughly apprehend it to be our enemy, we have begun to crucifie it.
2. The next act by which the world is crucified, is, A deep habituated apprehension of its worthlesness and insufficiency. As the opposing world must be taken for an enemy, so the Promising alluring world must be taken, as it is, for an empty thing. The Life and Reign of the world in the unsanctified, lieth first in their too high estimation of it. They think of it as Good, and Good to them, and as a matter of some considerable worth, and though they will say with their tongues that heaven is better, yet all things considered, they take the world to be more suitable to them, and therefore they desire it more. For Heaven is out of sight, and beyond their apprehension and affection, and as they imagine, it is not so certain as the things which they see, and feel, and possess. And therefore they resolve to grasp as much of the creature as they can, and take that which they can get in hand, and then if there be an heaven, they hope they may have their part in it, as well as others. But saving Illumination doth put men into another mind. It makes them see, that the Invisible things are of greater Certainty then the visible; and that a promise without possession, is better security then possession without a promise; and that for the Worth and Goodness, between Eternal things and Temporal, there can be no comparison. If the world would have been content to have kept its place, and to have borrowed all its honour and esteem from God and Glory, as the end for which it must be used and regarded, it might then have had the honour of being serviceable to our salvation, and to our Masters work: But seeing it will needs be a competitor with heaven, it thereby dis…obeth it self of its glory, and becometh a vile contemptible thing: And so must it be esteemed by all the friends of God. A sound Believer looks on the world, as the world lookt on Christ when he hanged on the Cross; not only as a Malefactor, but as a contemptible thing: And as the world esteemeth the Saints themselves to be hypocrites, deceivers, fools, weak, despised, a spectacle to the world, yea as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things: So must the Believer esteem of the world, as seeming to be what it is not, as a weak and insufficient thing, as the foreign, 1 Cor. 4. 11, 12, 13. the very filth of the streets that is swept away or cast upon the dung-hill: or as a thing devoted to death for the averting of an imminent judgement. Pauls judgement is in a prevalent degree, the judgement of every gracious soul, Phil. 3. 7, 8. What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ: Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.] Were the world but thus conceived of by a practical judgement, it were half crucified already. If men did verily think that the world is their Loss, they would love it less, and less greedily seek after it, then now most do. Gehezi would not have run after Naaman for his money, if he had thought that it had been his loss: Achan would not have hid the forbidden gold, as a treasure, if he had thought it had been his loss. Who would be at so much care and pains, for their loss, as worldlings and sensualists are for their delights. And if the judgement did once esteem the world as dung, they would not be so greedy for it, nor put it into their bosoms. Who would fall in love with dung, or dote upon filth or dogs-meat? As the judgement doth esteem it, the affections will be towards it. And they that know not of a better condition, will value this as the best, though common reason will call it vanity. But they that by faith have found out the true felicity, have low and contemptuous thoughts of the world. O what a carkaise, what a shadow is it in their eyes? What a poor low thing is it which the sons of men do tire themselves in seeking after? What a dung-hill do they wallow in, as if it were a bed of Roses? What deformities do they dote upon, as if they were the most real beauties? A toad abhorreth not the company of a toad; but shall not a man abhor it? But we shall have occasion of saying more to this in the Application.
3. The third act by which we Crucifie the world, is a kind of Annihilation of it to our selves; in our conceptions taking it as a very Nothing, so far as it would be something separated from God, or co-ordinate with him. How oft doth the Scripture call it vanity, a dream, a vain shew, a shadow, yea nothing, yea and less then nothing before God, and lighter then vanity it self, Isa. 40. 17. Psal. 62. 9. Iob 6. 21. The Princes of the earth, who are something in the eyes of themselves and others, appear as Nothing when God lets out his wrath upon them, Isa. 34. 12. Even as the straw when the fire hath consumed it, or the fairest buildings when it hath turned them to ashes. For though the world be really something, yet, 1. In regard of the effects which it promiseth to seduced worldlings, it may be called Nothing. For that which can do Nothing for us in our extremity, which hath no Power to relieve or satisfie us, which leaveth the soul empty, and deceiveth them that trust it, may well be called Nothing in effect: In genere boni, that which can do us no good, is Nothing to us. Let a needy soul betake himself to the world for comfort under the burden of sin, for quiet and true peace to a wounded conscience, and you will find it can do Nothing. Seek to it for grace or strength against corruptions and temptations, and you will find it can do Nothing. Cry to it for succour in the depth of your affliction, and at the hour of death, and try whether it will present you acceptable unto God, and bring your departed souls with boldness to his presence, and you will find that it can do Nothing! Whatever it promiseth, and what ever it seemeth to deluded sinners, when you look for any real good from it, you will find it can do Nothing. And therefore you may well take it as a meer Nothing to you. 2. And in esse objectivo we may make Nothing of it, by excluding it from any room in our souls, as to those acts that do not belong to it. 3. And as a separated being, independant as to God, so it is indeed Nothing: for there is no such thing: Much less as it is a separated Good, or felicity to man▪ Annihilate then the world to your selves. When it would appear to you to be what it is not, and would promise you to be what it cannot, let it be as Nothing to you. Conceive of it as of a shadow, or a thing that seemeth to Be and is not. Could you once make Nothing of it, it would have no power over you, nor any unhappy effects upon you. You would not dote upon a known Nothing, nor change your God and Glory for Nothing. As Iob saith of the wicked, Iob 27. 19. [he openeth his eyes, and he is not:] so we may say of the world: when we open our eyes we shall see that it is not: that which before seemed Nothing to us, will appear to be All things; and the world that seemed all things will be Nothing.
The summe of all that hath been said is this. The opposing world must be apprehended as an enemy to God and us, and so far Hated: The glozing world appearing as our felicity, or a competitor with God, must be conceived of as Worthless, and Contemned: And the world as it would appear as a separated Good, being any thing to us, or having any thing for us, out of God, must be annihilated in our conceptions, and taken as Nothing.