The Crucifying of the World, Treatise · Part 1 · Section 7
SECT. VII.
A Few Objections are here to be answered, that we may the more profitably proceed.
Obj. 1. A man may have hunger or thirst in his very sleep, when he cannot refer the creature to God.
Answ. 1. We speak only of Humane, that is, Moral acts, and such Desires as are under the command of the Will. 2. A man may Habitually refer things to God, when he doth not Actually.
Obj. 2. How can a man seek God in plowing or working in his shop, when these actions are so heterogeus?
Answ. God made no creature, nor appointed any imployment for man, which may not fitly be a Means to himself. As all came from God, so all have something of God upon them; and all tend to him from whom they came. There are some Means that stand nearer the End, and some are further from it; and yet the most remote are truly Means. A man that is but cutting down a tree, or hewing stones out of the Quarry, doth as much intend them for the building of his house, as he that is erecting the frame, or placing them in the building. We cannot attain the End without the remotest Means, as well as the nearest.
Obj. We are taught to Pray for our Daily bread; therefore we may Desire it, and Labour for it.
Answ. No doubt of it. But we are taught to Pray for it, but as a Means to the Hallowing of Gods Name, the Coming of his Kingdom, and the Doing of his Will: and therefore only as a Means must we desire it, and labour for it; and that for these, and no lower ultimate ends. And therefore the words are such as express only things Necessary, [Our daily bread;] that we may perceive it is but as a Means to God that we desire it. If our Being be not maintained, we are not capable of Well-being, nor of serving God: And if the Means of our Being be not continued, our Being will not be continued in Gods appointed ordinary way. And therefore we pray for the Means of our sustentation, that we may be kept in a capacity of the Ends of our Being.
Obj. But a man cannot be alway thinking on God, and therefore not alway intending him as our End, and therefore cannot do all for him.
Answ. 1. If sin disable us, that is no excuse. 2. A man may Habitually Intend an End, which he doth not Actually think of: Yea he may have an Actual Intention, which yet he doth not observe, because of other more sensible thoughts that are upon his mind. And yet his foresaid Intentions may be still effectuall to cause him to use the Means as Means.
For example: A man that hath a journey to go, is not alwaies thinking of the End of it, by an actual observed Intention, in every step of his way: but perhaps may be much of the way taken up with thoughts and discourse of other things. And yet he doth truly Intend his journeys End, in every step of his way, and use every step as a Means to that End. And so is it with a true Christian in the work of God, and the way to heaven.
Obj. But may we not use the creatures for Delight, as well as for Necessity? and is it not so commonly resolved?
Answ. The word [Necessity] is taken either strictly for that which we cannot be without; and so there's no doubt of it. Or largely, for that which is useful to the End: And for Delights, some of them are Necessary, that is, Useful Means to our ultimate End; and these must not be opposed to things Necessary; but may be used because Necessary. As any thing which truly tendeth to recreate, revive, or chear the spirits for the service of our Master. But no other Delight is lawful. To esteem our fleshly Delight for it self; and the creature for that Delight, and so to use it, is meer sensuality, and the great sin which sanctification cureth in the soul. If Delight it self be desired truly but as a Means to God, then the creature, the more remote Means, may be used for that Delight, as its next End; but not else.
Obj. But what man living is such as you here describe? Is there any that are thus Crucified to the world, as to have no separated esteem of it, or thoughts or care of it; or Love, or Desire, or the rest of these Affections?
Answ. It is one thing to enquire what we are, and another what we ought to be, and should be if we were perfect: We ought to be such as I have mentioned, but we are not such in perfection yet; but only in sincerity. And how that sincerity may be known, I have elsewhere explained. In a word, In a perfect soul there is no Interest but Gods: In a sincere soul Gods Interest is the highest and greatest: In a perfect man God hath the whole heart: and in an upright man he is nearer to the heart then any thing else. In a perfect man there is a perfect subjection to God: and in an upright man there is none hath Dominion but God: he is highest, and his Rule prevaileth in the main, though some things that rebell are not perfectly subdued.
Obj. But I find that most of my Passions are stirred more sensibly about earthly, then heavenly things. How then can I say that I am crucified to the world?
Answ. In point of Duty all that Passion that is to be commanded by Reason, should be mortified, as is above-said. But when you go to the tryal of your states, in the point of sincerity, it is hard trying by the Passions; and you must rather do it by your Estimation and your Will, as I have discovered more fully in a Treatise of Peace of Conscience.