Sermons Volume 2, 2 Corinthians 5 · Sermon 20
SERMON XX.
2 Cor. 5.13.
For whether we be besides our selves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
PAul glorying in his fidelity was charged by the false Apostles with two things.
1. That he was Proud.
2. Mad.
The First objection is answered, verse the 12th. The Second in the Text. As to the charge of Emotion of mind, or madness,
1. There is a seeming concession, or taking their charge for granted, if it be madness, it is for God: His reply is, that he had spoken these things for Gods Glory, and their Salvation: If I extol my Ministry which you count madness, 'tis for the Glory of God, that the Gospel be not brought into contempt; if I speak humbly of my self, as becometh sober men, it is for your profit.
2. By way of correction, he sheweth the true cause of it, which was an high constraining love to Christ, verse 14th.
Observe in the Text two points.
1. That carnal men count the Holy Servants of God to be a sort of mad-folks.
2. That a Christian in all postures of Spirit aimeth at the Glory of God.
For the First point,
1. I shall shew you, that it is so.
2. I shall enquire what it is in Christianity that is usually counted madness.
3. The reasons of it.
4. To shew how justly this may be retorted: To shew that 'tis a perverse Judgment and censure, which rather belongeth to themselves, than those that fear God.
1. That it is so the Scriptures evidence, 2 Kings 9.11. When God sent a Prophet to anoint Jehu, the Captain said, Wherefore came this mad-fellow to thee? Gods Messengers have been so accounted from time to time: So Jeremiah by Shemajah; this man is mad, and maketh himself a Prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks. The same thought Festus of Paul, Acts 26.24. Too much learning hath made thee Mad. I am not Mad, Most Noble Festus, but speak the words of truth, and soberness. Yea the Lord Jesus himself could not escape this imputation, no not from his own Kinsmen, for when he was abroad doing good, and promoting the affairs of his Kingdom, and constituting Apostles, 'tis said, Mark 3.21. When his friends heard of it, they went out to lay hold of him, for they said, he is besides himself, foreign, as here the false teachers foreign, if we be besides our selves: Another time his enemies, John 10.20. Many of them said, he hath a Devil, and is Mad; why hear ye him? And still in all Ages, the zealous are counted frantick, fanatical, heady, rash, furious, and men besides themselves, because they have intirely given up themselves to do the will of God, whatever it costs them.
2. What is that in Christianity, which is usually counted madness. What it was in Paul, Interpreters agree not. Grotius thinketh his enemies did upbraid him with his extasies, he was converted by a trance and rapture, whereof he giveth an account 2 Cor. 12.1, 2, 3, 4. &c. Others his self-denyal. Paul had no regard to himself, his great purpose was to serve God, and the Church, as here he professeth, he was ready to be accounted Mad, or Sober, so God might be glorified, and their profit promoted. Some his acting or speaking in zeal, above that which is ordinarily called temper, and sobriety, which is indeed the dull pace of the World: Certainly Paul was an extraordinary person, and had a deep sense of the other World, and therefore the carnal will be no fit Judges of his Spirit: But most simply and agreeable to the context, to speak this largely of himself, seemed to them, to be the work of a distracted, or foolish person. And so, 2 Cor. 11. I would to God you could bear with me. And verses 16, 17. I say again, let no man think me a fool, if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me: That I may boast my self a little. If it had been for his own honour, the objection would have force. But what he did herein, he meant for the Glory of God, and the Gospel.
But that which is counted madness ordinarily in Christians, is either seriousness in Religion: When men will not flaunt, and rant, and please the flesh, as others do, but take time for Meditation, and Prayer, and other Holy duties, they that choose a larger sort of Life, think them Mopish and Melancholy: Or else self-denyal, when they are upon the hopes of the World to come, dead to present Interests, and can forsake all for a naked Christ. The World thinks this folly and madness, in the Judgment of the flesh it seemeth to be a mad and foolish thing, to do all things by the prescript of the Word, and to live upon the hope of an unseen World. Or else zeal in a good cause: 'Tis in its self, a good thing, Gal. 4.18. It's good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. But the World is wont to call good evil: As Astronomers, call the Glorious Stars, by horrid names, as the Serpent, the greater and lesser Bear, and the Dog-Star, and the like. God will not be served in a cold and careless Fashion, Rom. 12.11. Fervent in Spirit, serving the Lord. This will not suit with that lazy pace, which pleaseth the World, therefore they speak evil of it. Another is an holy singularity, as Noah was an upright Man in a corrupt Age, Gen. 6.9. And we are bidden, Rom. 12.2. not to conform our selves to this World: Now to walk contrary to the course of this World, and the stream of Common examples, and to draw hatred upon our selves, and hazarding our interests, for cleaving close to God, and his ways, is counted foolish by them, who wholly accommodate themselves to their interests, John 15.19. The World will love his own, but because ye are not of the World, but I have chosen you out of the World, therefore, the World hateth you. Once more, Fervours of Devotion, or an earnest conversing with God in humble Prayer; the World, who are sunk in flesh and matter, are little acquainted with the elevations and inlargements of the Spirit, think all too be imposture, and Enthusiasm: And though praying by the Spirit, be a great priviledge, Jude 20. Rom. 8.26. Zach. 12.10. Yet it is not relished by them, a flat, dead way of praying suiteth their gust better: Christ compareth the Gospel to new wine, which will break old bottles, Matth. 9.17. As fasting in Spirit▪ praying, in Spirit: A little dead, insipid Taplash, or Spiritless Worship, is more for the Worlds turn. Missa non mordet.
3. The reasons why it is so.
1. Natural blindness, 2 Cor. 2.14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are Spiritually discerned. They are incompetent Judges, Pro. 24.7. Wisdom is too high for a fool: For though by Nature, we have lost our light, we have not lost our pride, Pro. 26.16 The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that can render a reason. Though mens way be but a sluggish, lazy, dead way, yet they have an high conceit of it, and censure all that is contrary, or but a degree removed about it: And therefore is it that worldly and carnal men Judge perversely, and unrighteously of Gods Servants, and count zeal and forwardness in Religious duties to be but madness, which is a notable instance of the miserable blindness of our corrupt Nature.
2. Prejudicate malice, which keepeth them from a nearer inspection of the beauty of Gods ways, and the reasons and motives, which his Children are governed by: their eyes are blinded, by the God of this World, 2 Cor. 4.4. And their own forestalled prejudices, and then who is so blind, as they that will not see? In the ancient Apologies of Christians, they complained, that they were condemned unheard, and without any particular inquiry into their principles, and practices: Nolentes audire, quod auditum damnare non possunt, Tertull. They would not enquire, because they had a mind to hate. And Caelius Secundus Cur…o hath a notable passage in the Life of Galeacius Carraciolas, which was the occasion of his conversion: The story is thus, one John Francis Casarta, who was enlightned with the knowledg of the Gospel, was very urgent with this Noble-man his Cousen, to come and hear Peter Martyr, who then preached at Naples; one day by much intreaty, he was drawn to hear him, not so much with a desire to learn, and profit, as out of curiosity, Peter Martyr was then opening the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and shewing how blind and perverse the Judgment of the natural understanding is in things Spiritual: And also the efficacy of the Word of God on those, in whom the Spirit worketh, among other things he useth this similitude, that if a man riding in an open Country, should see afar off Men and Women dancing together, and should not hear the Musick, according to which they dance, and tread out their measures, he would think them to be fools and madmen, because they appear in such various motions, and antick Gestures, and Postures: But if he come nearer, so as to hear the Musical notes, according to which they dance, and observe the regularity of the exercise, he will change his Opinion of them, and will not only be delighted with the exactness thereof, but find a motion in his mind to stand still, and behold them, and to join with them, in the exercise. The same, saith he, happeneth to them, who when they see a change of Life, Company, Fashions, Conversation in others, at their first sight impute it to their folly, and madness, but when they begin more intimately, to weigh the thing, & to hear the harmony of the Spirit of God, and his Word, by which rule this change and strictness is directed, and required, that which they Judged to be madness, and folly, they see to be wisdom and reason, and are moved to join themselves with them, and imitate them in their course of Life, and forsake the World, and the v…nities thereof, that they may be sanctified, in order to a better Life. This similitude stuck in the mind of this Noble Marquess (as he was wont to relate it to his familiar friends) that ever afterward, he wholly applyed his mind to the search of the truth, and the practice of Holiness, and left all his honours, and vast possessions for a poor Life, in the profession of the Gospel at Geneva. Well then, 'tis because prejudice condemneth things at a distance, and men will not take a nearer view of the regularity of the ways of Godliness.
2. Because they live contrary to that Life which they affect, and do by their practice condemn it: This reason is given by the Apostle, 1 Pet. 4.4. Wherein they think it strange, that you run not with them into the same excess of riot: Speaking evil of you. Worldly men, think there is a kind of Happiness in their sort of Life, which is so plausible, and pleasing to the flesh, they cannot but wonder at it, and as long as they are carnal, they cannot discern, those Spiritual reasons which make believers abhor their kinds of Conversation, and therefore censure and judge them, as a sort of crasy brains, that do not know what is good for them. Men that live in any sinful course are unwilling that any should part company with them, in their way wherein they will go, that there may be none to make them ashamed, which testify that their deeds are evil, Job. 7.7. Or to condemn by their practice, what they allow, Heb. 11.7. And the sweetness of Christs service, is wholly hid from them, and therefore are never more furiously confident, then when most deceived, and most blind, and others appear in a real contradiction to their humours.
4. Let us see how justly this crimination may be retorted, and that their way is properly madness: And in this sense Bedlam is every where: the whole World is a dreaming, distracted World, a meer incurable Bedlam.
1. If you will stand to the Judgment of God, the case is determined, that every carnal man is a fool, and out of his wits: There is all the reason in the World, that he should be counted a fool▪ and one besides himself, whom God calleth fool, for he is best able to Judge, because he is the Fountain of Wisdom. Psa. 49.13. The Holy-Ghost hath determined the case, this their way is their folly. Jobs Hypocrites, and Solomons fools, and those whom John calleth the World, and Paul the carnal, they are all the same company, only diversified in the notion.
2. We will give them as partial a Judge as can be, First in the Judgment of their own hearts they are fools and mad-men, when they are serious: As when a man is convinced by the Spirit of God, he cometh to himself; as 'tis said of the prodigal, Luke 15.17. He came to himself. The First thing that he is convinced of, is the folly and madness of his carnal course: Therefore every one of us must become a fool, that he may be wise. 1 Cor. 3.18▪ A Child of God, when he cometh out of a Temptation, Psa. 73.22. I was as a beast before thee, Titus 3.3. We were sometimes foolish, mad men or men▪ out of their wits, in regard of our perverse choice; and till we repent, we are never our selves, then we are in our wits again: The prodigal grew in his folly, till he came to his Father, and he went not to his Father, till he came to himself. We then come to our selves, when we know our folly, mourn for it, and seriously amend it. The First degree of wisdom is to know our folly: The Second to turn from it, and betake our selves to a wiser course. 2dly. When he cometh to die, Luke 12.20. Thou fool, this night thy Soul shall be required of theee. Why fool? Because every thing was provided for, but that which should be most provided for, his precious and Immortal Soul. He that provideth but for half, and that the worser half, and that but for a short time, is a fool: In his greatest extremity his Eyes are opened, Jer. 17 11. At his latter end, he shall be a fool In the conviction of his own Conscience, his heart will rave at him. Oh fool, oh vain mad-man! death bloweth away all vain conceits and fancies, when all our vain pursuits▪ and projects will leave us in the dirt.
3. plain reason will evidence carnal men to be besides themselves. I prove it thus: There is in madness two things, amenti…, & furor, folly, and fury. That there are both these, in a carnal man, I shall prove by these Demonstrations for a tast.
1. There is in them the folly of a distracted man, or one bereft of his senses, even in the wisest Worldlings and sensualists.
1. Though they acknowledge a God, by whom, and for whom, they were made, and from whom they are faln by sin, and cannot be happy but in returning to him, yet the Worldly man knoweth no misery, but in bodily, and Worldly things; no happiness; but in pleasing his senses: The beginning, progress, and end of his course, is all from himself, in himself, and to himself, looking only to things near at hand; every toy that pleaseth his humour, is good to him, poureth out his heart upon it, and loseth himself for it, and will neither admit information of his errour, nor reformation of his practice, till death destroy him, and the God that made him is forgotten days without number, Rom. 3.10. There is none that understandeth, and seeketh after God.
2. They that neglect their main business, and leave it undone, and run up and down they know not why, nor wherefore, surely they act like mad and distracted, not like wise and rational men: Now alas! worldly and carnal men spend their time and cares for nothing, like Children and Boys, that follow a Bubble blown out of a shell of soap, till it break and dissolve: This is the most serious business of worldly wise men, they court a vain World which they seem to count Religion, and though they believe Eternal Life, and Death, yet they make no great matter of it: And though all their Life should be spent in fleeing from wrath to come, and seeking after Heaven in the first place, yet they never seriously enquire whether they shall be in Heaven, or in Hell. They know they must shortly die, and be in one of them, either endless joy, or misery: Yet they have not the wit to avoid Damnation, or to prefer Heaven above inconsiderable vanities: But like busy Ants, run up and down their molehill, lay out their time, and thoughts upon impertinencies, and some of them are blaspheming of God, and scoffing at the Religion they do profess, others whoring and debauching, others flying in the face of them that would curb their folly; others running after preferment, and so eager in the pursuit of some worldly honour, which they know to be slippery, but they run after it, as if it were their only felicity, over-running one another like Boys at Foot-Ball, and contending so earnestly, as if it were some great, desirable prize. Others grasping after the World with both hands, though within a little while it must fall, to they know not who, and be spent they know not how. Come to any of those, and interpose a few sober and serious words about Eternity, they will answer as Antigonus, when one presented him with a treatise of summum bonum, or true Happiness, he answered I am not at leisure. Or as Felix, when his Conscience wambled, said to Paul, I will send for thee at a more Convenient season. Now what are all these but a company of mad-men? Their great business lyeth by, and trifles take up their time, and care, and thoughts; men are sundry ways out of their wits, and only one way in them: That is, when the true fear of God, and the sense of the other World, ruleth in their Hearts: But every one is so wedded to his lusts, that they will not consider, and repent, or suffer admonition. Oh the folly and madness of the World▪ Oftentimes 'tis seen that men are counted mad, who are bound in Fetters▪ when madder men are walking at liberty.
3. Another instance of their madness is their perverse Choice. He is a wise Merchant that selleth all for the Pearl of Price, Matth. 13.46. A Child will prefer an Apple, or a Nut, before a precious …earl: And a Madman will part with things of value for a trifle: Is that Man wise that selleth his Birthright for a morsel of meat, Heb. 12.15. That damneth his Soul▪ and selleth his Salvation, for so small a pleasure as Sin affordeth? that to gratify a lump of flesh, that was dust in its composition, and will be dust again in its dissolution, with a little Temporary vain pleasure, hazards his immortal Soul, with all the interests, and concernments thereof? and change their part in God and Glory for a little Carnal satisfaction?
4. They that are the worst Enemies to themselves, certainly they act as mad and distracted Men; as you would count those deservedly mad, who are ready to cut their own throats, and gash and wound themselves, and rend and tare themselves, and do themselves a mischief: Now who is a worse Enemy to himself than a Carnal Person? Pr. 8 36. He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own Soul: and all they that hate me love death. They are self-destroyers, and self-murtherers in the worst sense, for they destroy their own Souls, they make it their business to bar up the Gates of Heaven against themselves, and kindle, and blow up the unquenchable fire, wherewith they shall be tormented for evermore; and with a great deal of cost and stir, and care, do labour for Damnation; 'tis not their intent, but is the necessary result of their actions; 'tis finis operis, but not finis operantis; it tends to this, Rom. 6.21. The end of these things is death.
5. In their confidence and presumption. As the Mad man at Athens challenged all the Ships that came into the Harbour for his own; so they believe they are running to Heaven when they are posting to Hell: like rowers in a Boat, they look one way, and go contrary: He is called a foolish builder, who would raise a stately building upon a sandy foundation, Mat. 7.24 so to lay on such a structure of Confidence upon such slender grounds as they have, to hope for any thing from God, is an instance of their madness.
6. In boasting of their folly and madness. Nature is much distorted, man fallen is but the Anagram of man in Innocency, shame is translated; we are confident where we should be ashamed and are ashamed where we should be confident: We should own God and Religion with an holy boldness, but we conceal it, and sneak pitifully: but Glory in our shame, Phil. 3.19. As if a man besmeared with dung, should cry it up for an Ornament. We are conceited of our Carnal practices, The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, saith Solomon. Prov. 12.15. And so we glory in that which should be matter of mourning, and confusion of face to us. Eccl. 10.3. When he also that is a fool, walketh in the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool. If it be meant of the wicked fool, 'tis meant of his glorying in his shame, and his boasting of his sins as Ornaments.
2. Now for the other property fury, it is also the madness that is in Carnal and Worldly Men, Eccl 9 3. The heart of the Sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart. There is a violent, heady, pertinacious pressing to evil, and sin: how fierce and furious are men in a way of sin, under the passionateness of any lust; the slaves of sin, are as a man possessed with a legion of Devils in the Gospel, who rent and tore his cloaths, and all the Cords wherewith they bound him: nay, they are worse than he, for in his fury he broke his Bonds, but they double and strengthen theirs: When a man is given over to the rage and madness of his own nature, how is the Soul overborn by boisterous and filthy lusts? They go on furiously, and frowardly, nothing can put a stop to their raging lu…s, but they call off all restraints of Reason and Conscience, and Grace: The Prophet said Jer. 50.…8. They are mad upon their Idols. Blind with fu…y against the ways of God. And the Church, Psal. 102.9. Mine Enemies reproach me all the day, they are mad against me. Now this madness of nature is seen, in that all respects of danger and loss, fear of death, Judgment, and Hell, will not contain them within their duty: they run upon God himself, and the thick bosses of his Buckler, Job 16.21. every sin is a contest with God, an holding War with the Almighty, 1 Cor. 10.22. And wilful sin an open and a plain contest, as if we could make our party good against him, and when we remain under the power of a Carnal mind, we are in a state of Enmity against God. Rom. 8.7. And this is such a piece of madness, as if a private man could by the help of his Family, his private House, prevail against all the forces of the Kingdom. This madness sheweth its self too by raging at reproofs; the mad world cannot endure those that would stop them in the way to Hell: therefore the seriously Godly, whose lives are a standing reproof; are most ha…ed by them, Prov. 29.27. and Isa. 59.15. He that departeth from evil, maketh himself a prey. Now you see where madness is to be charged either upon the Servants of God, who make it their business to please him, or upon the Worldly and the Carnal: let them wash themselves from this imputation as well as they can, it will stick to them, and the only sober people in the world are the strict and religious.
Use 1. Let us bear it with patience, if we be esteemed Mad-men for Gods service, and our strictness and fidelity to him. Think not strange, nor be offended at the matter, tho ye be thus censured of the Carnal men of the world; they can no more judge of these things, than blind men of colours, and their dislike is many times a token of Gods approbation: No wise man going into Bedlam, will be offended to be railed at, and spit upon, he looketh for no other, and so will not be moved at their madness: If we be not thus minded, the least offences will draw us from our duty: Let us not then forbear these practices which are thought vanity, and folly by Carnal men, if they be for Gods Glory, and the good of our own, and others Souls: nor be disheartned with them; we must be contented to be accounted mad for God, in that which the world judgeth madness, or discretion.
2. Let us vindicate Religion from this Imputation: Wisdom is justified of her Children, Mat. 11.19. Those who have received Wisdom, true Wisdom from God, and are obedient disciples of it, they will defend true Wisdom as often as it is condemned by the world.
But how shall Wisdom be justified by us?
Answ. 1. By disclaiming, and renouncing them who Adopt Fooleries into their Religion, and betray it to the scorn of all considering men. In this class and rank I put the Papists, and the Quakers. The first by a Pageantry of many ridiculous Ceremonies, have so disguised the Christian Religion, that it is made Contemptible: Therefore is it that where this Religion hath most absolutely commanded, Atheism aboundeth; for the heart of a rational man can find no satisfaction in these things, nothing of the Majesty of God and the power of his Ordinances, where they are made so sense-pleasing, and accommodated with such worldly Pomp, and silly Rudiments, which can only prevail upon the weaker sort of Spirits. The more knowing and searching wits cannot but secretly scorn those things in their hearts, and therefore no other Religion being allowed, and countenanced, they lie under a dangerous Temptation to Atheism, and Unbelief. The other sort are the Quakers, a sort of People, whose Principles are not yet fixed, but in the forming, being of a vertiginous spirit, are a ready prey for Sathan, and fit instruments for him to work by, to the great disturbance of Religion, or to disgrace and shame it, and betray it to scorn. Now the main of what their Religion hitherto hath been, is to teach men to cast away their Bands, and their Cuffs, and the trimmings of their Garments, and to deny Civilities, and to teach men to say thou; these make Religion ridiculous, and prostitute Scripture phrase to scorn, and by them the way of truth is evil spoken of.
2. By pleading for it. Surely Godliness is not madness, but the highest Wisdom: This Argument will clear it; Wisdom lieth in the fixing of a right end; and the choice of apt and good means; and a dexterous pursuit of these means: These things are evident to reason. Now in all these respects, there is not a wiser man than a godly man: and the more godly he is, the more he excelleth in Wisdom: And therefore folly and madness can no more be ascribed to godliness, than heat to the Snow, or cold to the fire.
1. He fixeth upon an higher end than all the rest of the world doth, which is the pleasing glorifying & injoying God; Alas what's the heaping up of wealth, the getting of a little honour, or designing to wallow in ease and pleasure as to these things? He is wiser, that is wise to Salvation, 2 Tim. 3.16. That chooseth God for his portion; God hath given him counsel in his Reins. All the Wisdom of the world is Earthly, Sensual, and Devilish, Jam. 1.3. Others are Foolish, and Madmen. Who are wiser? They that run after painted Butterflies, or spend their time in making Clay-pies, like Children, or sucking at the dry Breast, of the Creature, or those who are able to govern Commonwealths, or do things for publick good? Who are wiser? They that can pass by their worldly designs, to carry on their Heavenly? Or they that are wise for the present, and Fools to all Eternity?
2. He chuseth apt and sit means. He takes not an uncertain course in the world, but goeth by the certain rule of Gods Word▪ Deut. 4.6. Keep them, and do them, for this is your Wisdom, Jer. 8.9. They have rejected the Word of the Lord, and what Wisdom is in them? And the Testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, Psal. 19.7. The more a man keepeth to the Word of the Lord, the more wise, and as far as he abateth, he sheweth fo…ly and madness, as others do.
3. For diligent pursuit; being heedful, Eph 5.15. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as Fools, but as Wise; Avoiding what may be a snare; they are true to their end, by being serious and diligent, Eccl. 10.2. A wise mans heart is at his right hand; by self denyal, spareth no cost, selleth all for the Pearl of great Price, Matth. 13. Though to despise the Delights and Honours, and Pleasures of the world, seemeth the greatest folly, and madness to Carnal men. Nothing venture, nothing have Rom. 8.6. To be Carnally minded is death▪ and to be Spiritually minded is life, and peace: He loseth something, but getteth much better. If a man should keep his money by him, and neglect a gainful purchase, that would yield him an hundred fold, this would be accounted folly among worldly wise men: what is their course, who venture death, and eternal Destruction, rather than be at the pains to save their Souls?
3. Let us wipe off …his reproach by our Conversations: Not by abating our zeal and diligence in the Heavenly life, but by a prudent behaviour, giving no occasion by any ridiculous actions of ours, to blemish the Holy Profession. I'le urge but this one Argument, that a Christian is to shew forth the vertues of God, or the foreign, praises of God, 1 Pet. 2.9. as an Image is to represent the Party: Now the vertues of God are chiefly three; Wisdom, Power, and Goodness: A Christian is to shew forth Gods Power, by his reverence, and awfulness, not daring to do any thing that God hath forbidden: His Goodness of benignity by his delight, and readiness of obedience; as his beneficial goodness, so his moral Goodness by our Holiness, 1 Pet. 1.16. Be ye holy, for I am holy. So also his Wisdom; we shew he is Wise, by whose Counsel we are guided, and wait on God for the direction of his Word, and the Spirit will help you to do it, Jam. 1.5. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God, who giveth liberally, and upbraideth no man.
Use 3. Is Caution to Carnal men. Let them forbear the censures of the Godly, and study their own case; we charge them with madness and folly, not to upbraid them, but to convince them; not out of Malice, as they do, but compassion, that they may repent, and grow wise to Salvation: Repentance is called foreign, a returning to our wits again. What is that?
1. When you begin to be serious. When the Conversion of the Gentiles to the Christian Faith is Prophesied of, 'tis said, Psalm 22.27. All the ends of the Earth shall remember, and turn to the Lord. As long as men are thoughtless, and mindless of Heavenly things, they know not what they do, but are as men sleeping, and distracted, not making use of the common light of Reason, or those Principles which are ingrafted into the hearts of all men. What am I? Who made me? What do all these Creatures proclaim, all that I can see and feel, but an Eternal Power? Have I any Interest in him? Alas, they went on madly before, sleeping in the lap of Carnal Pleasures, when the Philistines were upon them; or else plunging themselves in a gulph of business, and worldly distractions, and there they lie in the deep waters, till they be ready to sink to the bottom. Oh remember, and return, you are undone for ever, if you do not escape out of this estate.
2. When you make a business of it to seek Gods favour by Christ: This must be foreign, your main work, John 6.29. This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent, not a matter by the by, but your chief work, your first care, Matth. 6.33. when our chiefest care is about our Souls, and setling our Eternal Interests, then we begin to act like men again. Otherwise, when we only cleave to Earthly things, we live like Beasts, and Mad men: All his care is to maintain his Animal life, so do the Beasts: But when we begin to seek after Spiritual and Eternal things, immortal Food, Garments that shall never wax old, laying up Treasure in Heaven, then we act as those that have an immortal Soul: Solomon putteth the Question, Eccl. 3.21. Who knoweth the Spirit of a Man that goeth upward, or the Spirit of a Beast that goeth downward to the Earth. The words may bear a double sense; who knoweth? That is, who can collect, and gather from the courses, and practices of Men, that they have a Soul distinct from the Beasts; they are as greedy upon bodily things, and the sustentation of the present life only, as the Beasts are: Now who knoweth it? Who doth acknowledge it, and consider it, so as to look out for food for the immortal Soul, to get it adorned with saving Grace, sanctified by the Spirit of God? Who, till he be inlightned by the Spirit of Wisdom, and Revelation, and is soundly convinced of Heavenly things? Eph. 1.17, 18. But now when a man maketh it his first and main care, then he doth know, or practically acknowledge he hath a Soul which doth go upward, distinct from the Beasts which doth go downward. The man is come to himself again, when he maketh it his business to obtain pardon, and eternal life by Christ.
3. When they stand in Awe of God, and are afraid to disobey his Laws, Job 20.28. Behold the fear of the Lord, that is Wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding, and Pro. 9.10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. 'Tis the first point and the chiefest point. First both in time, and dignity: Now what is the fear of God but to be sensible of Gods Majesty; and presence, that we dare not sin against him, and affront him to his Face? Wicked men that can break thorough a Commandment, when it standeth full in their way, are simple and witless, for they enter into a plain contest with God, which none but a mad-man would do, Pro. 13.13. Whoso despiseth the word; shall be destroyed: But he that feareth the Commandment, shall be rewarded. And Psa. 119.161. My heart standeth in awe of thy word. A choice frame of heart! More then if a thousand dangers stood in the way: He dareth not, what ever profit, or pleasure might ensue upon the breach, or danger for not breaking thorough.
4. When they delight to do his will, and promote his Glory. For they have intirely devoted themselves to God, Rom. 14.7, 8. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dyeth to himself: For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lords. And 1 Cor. 6.19, 20. What! know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy-Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God? And ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your Spirit, which are Gods. He owneth Gods interests in him. Carnal Policy, and Spiritual Wisdom differ mainly in the end, and scope; the one hath a care to please, and glorify God; the other to advance himself, and his own natural interests.
5. When he is ever getting more fitness for Heaven, and clearer evidences for Heaven: providing for the time to come is wisdom, Luke 16. When he would die wisely, his heart is more taken up about his everlasting estate, what he shall do when his Soul is turned out of doors: Thus have I shewed you how carnal men may know when they are in their wits again.