Christs Justification of Marys Choice, Application 1 – Application 2
Ʋse 1. O that all men would take this sure and necessary direction of Christ for the choice of their Comforts, Hopes and Happiness: All men had rather be happy for ever, than for a little while; and what else but Holiness and Heaven, Christ, Grace and Glory will be such a durable Felicity? Will you choose the favour of great men, and hopes of Preferment and worldly Honours; and can you say, that this shall not be taken from you? Will you choose Lands and Money, and the Prospering of your Endeavours in growing rich; and can you say that these shall not be taken from you? Will you choose Mirth and Sport, and fleshly Lust, and the pleasing of your Appetites and Fancies; and can you say that these shall not be taken from you? Must not Life it self be shortly taken from you, and therefore all the Pleasures of this Life? If these things be your Choice, Christ hath already foretold you wha… you may expect, Luk. 12. 19, 20 Thou Fool, this night shall thy Soul be required of thee, and then whose shall all these things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up Treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. And, Luk. 16. 25. Son, remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented? Wherefore then do you spend money for that which is not Bread; and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently to Christ, and eat that which is good, and let your Soul delight it self in fatness: Incline your Ear, and come unto him; hear, and your Soul shall live; and he will make an everlasting Covenant of sure mercies with you, Isa. 55. 2, 3. Labour not for the Food which perisheth, but for that which endureth to everlasting Life, which Christ will give you; Joh. 6. 27. Lay not up for your selves Treasures on Earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where Thieves break through and steal; but lay up for your selves Treasure in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust do corrupt, nor Thieves break through and steal; Mat. 6. 19, 20. The time is short, therefore weep and rejoyce; buy and possess, and use the World as though you did it not; for the fashion of this World passeth away, 1 Cor. 7. 29, 30, 31. O be not as the wicked who have their portion in this life, in the treasure of their Bellies, Psal. 17. 14. For their hopes soon perish as the Rush that groweth but in the mire, and as the Spider's web, and as the giving up of the Ghost. Flesh will fail you, and the World will fail you; But God will be a neverfailing Portion to all that do but sincerely choose him; Psal. 73. 25, 26. If you drink here, you shall thirst again, and if you eat here, you shall hunger again; but if Christ and his Spirit be your meat and drink, you shall hunger and thirst no more for ever. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. O do not prophanely sell such a Birth-right for a Morsel; you shall have no better than you choose; shew not your selves unworthy of eternal life, by preferring known vanity before it. If you lost Heaven because you could not have it, and would have a Christ and Holiness, but could not, your Case would not be all so bad, as to be the wilful refusers of your own Salvation, and lose it because you would not have it. Do not say, We would be saved, if you would not be saved from your Sin, and have that Holiness and Communion with God which is your Salvation; and do not say, we would have God and Christ, and Holiness, if the Pleasures of Sin seem better to you, and you choose it first: You may as well say plainly, We will have no God, no Christ, no Heaven, as say, We had rather have the Pleasures of Sin; and you may as well say so, as choose so, and do so. There are some deceived Libertines that think that every good desire is the mark of a justified Soul, especially, if it be accompanyed with a willingness that Christ's Righteousness should justifie them, and a belief that it will do so, though they love sinful pleasure, profit and honour, better than God and Holiness, and Heaven, and had rather have the Felicity of an Epicure, than of a Saint.
But Christ himself hath judged contrarily: He saith, He cannot be his Disciple that loveth any thing more than him, Mat. 10. Luk. 14. 26. 23. And he that will have this Pearl of greatest price, must think nothing too dear, but sell all that he hath to buy it; Mat. 13. 46. To be Lovers of Pleasure more than Lovers of God, is the brand of the worst times and persons; 2 Tim. 3. 4. Let any man that can shew us one Promise of God for the saving of any that seek not first God's Kingdom, and its Righteousness, Mat. 6. 33. and labour not chiefly for the food that perisheth not; and loveth not God above the World, and Holiness more than the Pleasures of Sin.
If this be not so, where can you fix the difference between the justified and them that perish. Would God make such a difference in the World to come, if there were none here? Doth Christ and his Spirit do no more noble a work in sanctifying Souls than so? If one may be justified that loveth one sinful Pleasure better than God, and Grace, and Glory, why not he that loveth another, and another, and all? If Fornication, why not Gluttony? If Gluttony, why not Drunkenness? If Drunkenness, why not Covetousness, and Ambition, and all evil? But Paul saith, Eph. 5. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God on the Children of Disobedience. And, Without Holiness none shall see God, Heb. 12. 14. Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall shall enter into Heaven; no, not those Believers that prophesied, and did wonders, and cast out Devils in Christ's Name, but only they that do the Will of God: To the rest he will say, Depart from me, ye workers of Iniquity, I know you not.
How oft is it said, that all shall be judged according to their works? and Christ so describeth his own Judgment, Mat. 25. Can any Man believe? Jam. 2. and 1 Joh. 3. and 4. Rom. 8. 1, to 14. Rom. 2. and a multitude such Texts, and yet believe that a bare belief that Christ's Righteousness is imputed to us, will prove any one justified who loveth his Sin better than God, Grace and Glory; and consequently, that Christ's Members differ but imputatively from the Children of the Devil; for wherein is a wicked man worse than the godly, but in this? He that loveth the World (more than God) the Love of the Father is not in him! Why, may not Life or Pleasure separate us from the Love of God if we love them better? Rom. 8. 38, 39. Nay, he loveth not God at all in a proper sence, who loveth him not as God; and he loveth him not at all as God, who loveth him not as better than the pleasure of Sin, but only as a lesser good.
Obj. To love God above all sinful pleasure is the fruit and ripeness of Grace, but the seed doth not reach so high.
Ans. It's true, if you call preparatory Grace that seed; but such are in no justified state; but it is not true if you mean by the seed any thing proper to a justified man, as all the Texts fore-cited shew.
Obj. What can the strongest Christian do more than love God above all?
Ans. Among those that love God above all, and Holiness more than Sin, there may be an hundred different degrees; one may love him so much as to long after him and delight in him, and contemn all vanities, and overcome temptations much more easily and effectually than others; and another may do these more faintly, hardly, and with less delight.
Obj. Doth David, Peter, and the Disciples that all forsook Christ and fled, love him better than life at such a time.
Ans. 1. We must distinguish between the rational Will, or Love, and sensitive Passion. 2. Between the Habit and the Act. 3. Between the ordinary course of Action, and a particular extraordinary Action.
The weakest true justified Christian loveth God above the Creature, and perfect Holiness above sinful pleasure.
1. As to the fixed Inclination and habit of the Soul (which is the Divine Nature.)
2. And in the ordinary Act or exercise of his Rational Love, and deliberate choice, and the seeking endeavour of his Life.
3. But not alwayes with the most passionate sensitive Love.
4. And passion (of fear or creature-Love) may in an extraordinary act both weaken the activity of Rational Spiritual Love, and bear down the executive power into outward contrary sinful acts: But the predominancy of the holy nature will shew it self, in raising the Soul from such a fall, and causing it the more to hate and fear the Sin. There is difference between a swoune and death, and between an Infant and an Image: And so there was between the falls of David, Lot, Peter; and a wicked man, that had rather keep his Sin than leave it, and loveth such pleasure more than God.
Ʋse. 2. Be thankful then, Christians, for that Grace of Christ which caused you to make the wisest choice; even of that which is the real durable felicity, and shall never be taken from you.
Had you chosen Houses they might have been burnt: Had you chosen wealth or worldly honours, they might all have been taken from you; yea all would certainly have left you in distress. Men might have taken away your Estates, your Liberties, your Lives, but not your God, your Christ, your Heaven! They may take away your Bibles, and other Books; but they cannot take away your Grace: They may shut you out of the Synagogues, but not out of the love of God: They may imprison you, banish you, cut out your Tongues that you can neither Preach nor Speak; but still your Souls may have Communion with God: A Tertullus may call us Pestilent Fellows and Seditious; Schismaticks may call us the Schismaticks, and Hereticks may call us the Hereticks, and Hypocrites may call us Hypocrites; but none of them can make us what they call us. They may with some (by Gods Permission) take away the Reputation of your Innocency, but not your Innocency it self. When a mans food is but on his Table it may be taken from him; if it be but in his Stomack, he may cast it up: But it is safer when it is digested and turned into his substance. So may your Teachers, and Bibles, and Churches be taken from you, but not the Law and Gospel which is written in your Hearts, and become a spiritual nature in you: What Triumphant challenges doth St. Paul make, Rom. 8. 37, 38, &c. Who shall be against us? Who shall condemn us? What shall separate us from the Love of God. The power of Men and Devils cannot do it. Death it self the last enemy shall not do it. He will dissolve this frame, and lay our Flesh in dust and darkness, and take away from us all the pleasure and possession of this World, but none of our chief good! Tyrants may deprive us of such things as they choose themselves; but not of that which we have chosen! If the Devil had said truly, Mat. 4. and Luk. 3. 6, 7. All this power will I give thee and the Glory of them, for that is delivered to me, and to whom I will I give it: he might have said also, From whom I will I take it away? But sure he is no giver of Grace or Glory, and therefore cannot forcibly take them from us. Nay, by taking Life and all from us, men shall but hasten our perfect fruition of what we choose. Malice may snarl, and rail and slander; but cannot abate the Love of the Father, the Grace of the Son, the Communion of the Spirit, or deprive us of expected Glory.
Let not then worldly fury think that it hath undone us by taking away worldly things. They were none of our choice, nor our Trust, nor Treasure. If we are true Believers, our Treasure, Heart and Conversation are in Heaven: Let Thieves get in and Steal it thence if they can. Papal Usurpers may pretend Peters Keys to shut out all that obey not their Domination; But while God is our choice, and we shut not out our selves from Heaven, they talk more to their own hurt than ours, and can never take our chosen Treasure from us.