A Spiritual Antidote Against Sinful Contagion, Treatise 1 · Duty 13 – Duty 15
DUTY XIII.
SIt loose in your heart and affections to the World. Weanedness from the World.Love not the World, when Death threatens to take you out of the World: Let not Death take you catching after the things of this life, but to wean your heart from this World.
Oh keep the prevailing degree of your love to God, who is altogether, lovely, and hath all the Motives and Attractives of love in himself. If Goodness be a ground of love, he is infinitely Good. If Suitableness be a ground of love, he is most suitable for your Soul. If Love be a ground of love, he is most loving. He hath loved you with a free, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible Love: And why should the World have so much of your Heart, when there is a God, and such a God to place your affections upon? But yet it is too usual with Gods own people, to lavish too much of their affections upon the things of this World, and let their heart run waste upon the Creature And therefore to get your heart off from the love of this World,
1. Consider, That no Man can love God, and Ten Aggravations of Love to the World.the World too, with a prevailing and predominant love. To set the heart upon God, and the World too, is impossible. You may have God, and the World too; but you cannot with intense love, love God and the World too, no more then two contrary qualities of heats and cold, can be in the same Water at the same time in intense degrees; no more then a man can look upon the Heavens and the Earth at the same time, 1 Joh. 2. 15. Love not the world, nor the things of the world: If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Jam. 4. 4. Matth. 6. 24. Col. 3. 1, 2.
2. It is incongruous for a Pilgrim and a Stranger, to set his heart upon the things of the Countrey, where he must not stay. You are a Pilgrim, this is not your home: You are a Stranger, though not to God, yet you are to the World. Now the heart of a stranger is upon his home, and not upon the pleasant Houses and delightful Walks. He may see as he passes by; he thinks upon his home, and speaks and talks of it as he is travelling to it.
3. To set the Heart upon the World, is to love that which will not love you again. The Man that loves God, is beloved by God; but he that loveth his Silver and Gold, receiveth no reciprocation of love. Believers must love their enemy, that will not love them again; but those that love the World, love that that cannot love them again. Do you not meet with daily unkindnesses in the World, and yet have you so much love for it? Will not the World ere long turn you out of it? Doth it not now serve its lovers so every day? And will not you have the World out of your heart before hand?
4. To set the Heart upon the World, it is to set the heart upon that which is not. To love a shadow, to love vanity, to love that which is a daily vexation to your heart. Prov. 23. 5. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? But will you do more, to set your heart upon that which is not? But those that love God, shall possess that which is? and have substantial blessings. Prov. 8. 21. That I might cause them that love me, to inherit substance. 1 Cor. 7: 31. The fashion of this world passeth away. An accidental and external figure without substance, such are the things of this World.
5. To set the Heart upon the World, is secret idolatry. You set up another God in your heart; for that which you set your heart upon, and make your end, that is your god. Ephes. 5. 5. A covetous man is an idolater; and covetousness is idolatry. Colos. 3. 5. And no idolater shall inherit the Kingdom of God. 1 Cor. 6. 9. And shall any man lose Heaven, for loving of the World? Will any man be so doting upon the Creature, as to lose Eternal life, by cleaving in his heart unto it? yet, it is the case of thousands.
6. To set the Heart upon the World, it is the character of a man that shall be damned. It is a certain sign, that that man hath not one degree of saving grace yet wrought in his Soul; and if his Soul be disunited from his body, before his heart and affections are taken off, from predominant love of the World, there is no salvation for that man. Phil. 3. 19. Whose end is destruction, who minde earthly things. Colos. 3. 19. If ye then be risen with Christ, and have the life of Grace, demonstrate it by setting your affections on things above, and not on things on Earth. Prevailing love to the World, is a sign of no Grace; and better you had no Money, then no Grace.
7. To set your Heart upon the World, is to lead a most unquiet, perplexing life. Love of the World makes men restless, because they love where they can finde no satisfaction. Eccles. 5. 10. He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance, with encrease. This then is vanity.
8. To set the Heart upon the World, is to expose your self to grievous temptations. By this you are brought unto many sins, it being the root of all evil, 1 Tim. 6. 10. By this you are drawn off from many duties, and have your heart wonderfully distracted in those you do perform, How can you pray, when your heart is upon the World? How can you meditate upon God, and the things to come, when your heart is upon the World? Do you complain of temptations, and yet by this sin, expose your self unto temptations? 1 Tim 6. 9. They that will be rich (as those would that have their hearts upon the World) fall into temptation, and a snare. A heart upon the World, is like a Beast in a snare, and a Bird in the lime-twigs.
9. Do not you profess your treasure is in Heaven, and that your riches are above; And shall your treasure be in one place, and your heart in another? That cannot be; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also, Matth. 6. 21.
10. Are there not other objects for you, to set your heart upon; that are better in themselves, and better unto you? That you may be more fully convinced, that Spiritual things are the best things, seriously consider,
First, Are not those things best, and most worthy Seven particulars, wherein Spiritual things are most worthy of our love.of your hearty love, that are most suitable unto your Soul?
Secondly, Are not those things best and most worthy of your hearty love, that bring greatest, fullest, most constant, satisfaction in to your Soul? The heart of man doth naturally breathe after something that is infinite, though the most mistake it.
Thirdly, Is not that most worthy of your love, that is a certain pledge of Gods special love unto you, and peculiarly proper to the best men? Is not that better for you, which God cannot give you, and yet hate you, then that which he may give you, and yet abhor you? Which he cannot give in wrath, and with a curse, then that which he may give in wrath, and with a curse? God never gave any man his Grace, his Son, and Spirit, in wrath? Oh, but he hath riches! If God give you Christ, he will save you; but he may give a man riches, and yet damn him for ever. You cannot look upon riches and honors, and say from these, I know that God doth love me now, and will certainly save me hereafter: For no man knoweth, love or hatred, by any thing that is before him; but you may make an infallible conclusion of Gods love to your Soul, if he hath given you Christ and Grace.
4. Is not that best for you, and most worthy of your love, which maketh you better then you were before? Riches make many men the worse, through the corruption of their own hearts; but Spiritual things always make him better, that is partaker of them; make him more Humble, more Spiritual, more Heavenly.
5. Is not that best for you, and most worthy of your love, that makes you more pleasing and more acceptable unto God? Riches commend you not to God, but an interest in Christ doth. Learning, parts, greatness, doth not commend you unto God, but Faith and Holiness doth.
Sixthly, Is not that best for you, and most worthy of your love, which no men, nor death it self can strip you of, nor take away from you? Death will strip you of your riches, but not of your graces.
Seventhly, Is not that best for you, and most worthy of your love, that will make you happy in the want of other things? If you want riches, Christ, will make you happy; if you want honors, yet grace will make you happy? Oh do but make the comparison between things of Heaven, and things of this World; and let that which indeed is the best, have the best, and the most of your heart and love.
DUTY XIV.
LEave your Relations with God, and commit Leave Relations with God.the care of them to him that hath taken care for them and you. The hearts of many fear a Plague, because they know not, if they die, what will become of their Children and Relations. Are you in Gods stead? or, cannot he that provideth for them by you, provide for them without you? Jere. 49. 11. Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.
That you may, if God call you away by death, leave your Relations behinde you, and not have them to be a clog to your departing Souls, consider
1. That God loves your Relations (that are also Five Arguments to quiet our Hearts, in leaving our Relations by Death.his) with a more tender, constant, and greater love, then you can do. If they are not his, it might grieve you more to live with them, and see them dishonor God, then now it doth to leave them.
2. That God can help them, when you are dead and gone; when you could not, though you were living with them.
3. That God doth in an especially manner take care of Orphans, and of Fatherless Children; and that your Children have one promise to plead more when you are dead, then they had when you were yet remaining alive amongst them, viz. Those Scriptures which God hath Ps. 10. 14. & 146. 9. & 68. 5. Lam. 5. 3. Hos. 14. 3.written peculiarly for such as are deprived of their Parents: And the like I understand of Widows, which need to have something to support them, when so many are deprived of the Husbands of their Bosoms.
4. That it argueth great diffidence and distrust in God, and that you set your self too high, when you think your Relations must needs be brought to unsufferable necessities, when you are taken from them. Know, though you are a Father, yet you are not a God unto your Children.
5. Seriously enquire, whether this your trouble doth not rise out of the pride of your heart: That you aim at great things in the World for your Relations, and are troubled at the forethoughts of that supposed disappointment.
DUTY XV.
REdeem Time; and live every day as one that Redeem Time while you have it.expecteth not to morrow. Is Death snatching so many out of Time, and shall we mispend ours? Do many that are dying, cry out for Time; and shall we that live, not be careful to improve it? Oh what would damned souls give for Time, and dying men give for Time?
1. Consider, That Time is a very precious commodity, it cannot be bought with the most precious things in Nature; Gold and Silver cannot redeem Time.
2. Time is a very scarce commodity; every Seven Arguments to redeem Time.man hath but a little of it. Many fools say, they know not how to spend their time. What have they a God to serve, and a Soul to save? Duties to perform, and temptations to resist? Preparations to be made for Death, and for Eternity; and do they not know how to spend their time? He that hath most of Time, yet wanteth time to do the great works that God expecteth at his hands.
3. That time which is spent, cannot be recalled. Time past, it is irrevocable. Oh what would many give for wasted hours, spent in following of the World; the pleasures, and the vanities of this life! Time future, you may never see; therefore improve the present.
4. That it is a special part of a Christians wisdom to redeem Time. He is a wise man that knows how to manage time for the greatest works, Ephes. 5. 15, 16.
5. That your time is determined, and the number of your hours that you shall have to work for God, for your Soul, for Eternity; it is immoveable fixt, Job 14. 5.
6. While Time doth last, your opportunity for many services will not always last. You might have an opportunity to trust God now with your life: In time of Plague to do him service, you might never have again while you live; you might have time, when you might not have a season for many things.
7. If you know not how to improve time, you will be liable to many temptations; when you know not how to use time, that is, the Devils time to tempt you unto sins; therefore redeem time,
First, From idle and unnecessary visits.
Secondly, From superfluous cares of the things of this World.
Thirdly, From unnecessary sleep and recreations.
Fourthly, From fleshly lusts. Take some time for every duty; some for works of Piety; some for works of Mercy: Get time for Prayer, hearing, holy conference, meditation; and especially, take heed of losing time, when you are in holy duties, by a customary performance; that is lost time: Especially, lose not holy Time upon the Lords day, that is the queen of Time.