V^ork being some of the Christian's hardest labour and exercise, he cannot be fitted lor it, until his soul be in an healthful state : a sickly man cannot carry heavy burdens, or endure hard labours and exercises: the sick soldier is left behind in his quarters, or put into the hospital, ■whilst his fellows are dividing the spoils, and obtaining glorious vic- tories in the field. To this sense some expound Rom. viii. 13. " If " ye live after the flesh ye shall die ; but if ye, through the Spirit, " do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.'' AVhereas death is put to note a languishing state of soul, whilst mortification is neglect- ed ; solife is put to express an healthful and comfortable state; v'lvere pro valere ; so that upon this account also the necessity of it appears. 3. Your corruptions must be mortified, else they will be raging and violent in the time of temptation, and, like a torrent, sweep away all your convictions and resolutions. It is sin unmortified within that makes the heart like gun-powder; so that Avhen the sparks of temp- tation fly about it, (and they fall thick in a suffering hour) they do but touch and take. Hence the corruptions of the world are said to be through lust, 2 Pet. i. 4. AVith these internal unmortified lusts the ^^//7p^£'r holds correspondence; and these be the traitors that deliver up our souls into his hands.
4. Unless you be diligent and successful in this work, though you should suffer; yet not hke Christians ; you will but disgrace religion, and the cause for which you suffer ; for it is not simple suffering, but suffering as a Christian, that reflects credit on religion, and finds acceptation with God. If you be envious, fretful, discontented, and revengeful, under your sufferings, what honour will this bring to Christ ? Is not this altogether unlike the example of your Lord ? Isa. liii. 7. and the behaviour of suffering saints ? 1 Cor. iv. 13. Yet thus it will be, if your pride, passion, and revenge, be not first subdued : for what are the breakings forth of such distempers of spirit, but as the flushes of heat in the face from an ill-affected liver ? Most cer- tain it is, that all the evils are in your natures, and as certain it is, they will rise li'ke mud and filth from the bottom of a lake, when some eminent trials shall rake you to the bottom ; Natura vexata prodit seipsam.
5. Lastly, Mortification must be studied and plied with diligence ; else you will find many longings and hankerings after earthly enjoy- ments and comforts, which will prove a snare to you : what is sin but the corrupt and vitiated appetite o^ the creature, to things that are earthly and sensual, relishing more .sweetness and delight in them, than in the blessed God ? And what is sanctification, but the rectify- ing of these i^^07'<i/;^«/f{? ft^^Y;^/'o7i.y, and placing them on their proper ob- ject ? A regenerate and mortified Christian tastes not half that sweet- ness in forbidden fruits that another doth : set but monev before Ju- das, and see how eargerly he catches at it " AVhat will ve give
*' me, and I will betray him T'' Set but life, liberty, or any such bait before an unmortified heart, and how impotent is he to with'j
o4i PREPARATIONS lOR SUFFEUIXGS ; OK,
Stand them, as offered in a temptation ? Oh those unmortified lusts ! how do they make men hanker, long, and their lips water (as we use to sav) after these things? This makes them break prison, decline suf- ferings, though upon the basest terms ; whereas a mortified Christian can see all these things set before him, yea, offered to him, and refuse them, Heb. x. 35. It is with them much as it was with old Bar- zillai, 2 Sam. xix. 35. When nature is decayed, they find but little pleasure in natural actions, Eccles. xii. 1. And look as the body of sin decays and languishes, so do these longings also : It weans the soul from them all, and enables it to live very comfortably without them, Psal. cxxxi. 1. Phil. iv. 12. There needs no more to be said to evince the necessity of mortification, and discover what influence it hath into a Christian's readiness for sufferings.
It remains therefore, that I open to you some of the principal corruptions^ about which it mostly concerns you to bestow pains ere sufferings come. Now look as there are lour principal enjoyments, in which you are like to be tried, viz. Estate^ 7iame, libert?/, life ; so the Christian work in suffering times lies in mortifying these four special co7'ruption6\ viz. First, The love of the world. Secondly, Ambition. Thirdly, Inordinate affection of freedom and pleasure. Fourthly, Excessive love of life.
1. For the love of this w-orld, away with it, crucify it, crucify it : down v/ith the idol, and let it be dethroned in all that intend to abide with Christ in the hour of temptation: how else will you take the spoiling of vour goods .^ How will you be able to part with all for Christ, as these blessed souls did ? It gi'ieves my heart to see how many professors of religion are carried captive at the chariot- wheels of a bewitching world. Oh ! good had it been for many professors if they had never tasted so much of the sweetness of it. Sirs, I beg you for the Lord's sake, down with it in your estimations, down with it in your affections, else temptations will down with you ere long. I shall offer five or six helps for the crucifying of it.
First, Consider your espousals to Christ, and how you have chosen and professed him for your Lord and husband: therefore your doat- ing upon the world is no less than adultery against Christ, James iv. 4. If Christ be your husband, he must be a covering to your eyes ; an unchaste glance upon the world wounds him.
Secondly, The more you prize it, the more you will be tormented by it ; did you prize and love it less, it would disquiet and vex you less : it is our doating on it that makes it draw blood at parting.
Thirdly, Get true scripture-notions of the world, and rectify your judgments and affections by them. If you will have the true picture and representation of it drawn by the hand of God himself, see 1 John ii. 16. it is nothing else but a phantastic fflo7-y, and that also passeth away. What is become of them that ruffled it out in tlie world but one Jiundred years ago.? What could the world do for them ? Are
THE BEST -WORK IX THE AVORST TIMES. 55
they not all gone down to the sides of the pit ? " But he that doth *' the will of God abidcth for ever."