3. The main oljservation is this, — That a free life, guided by a holy wisdom, is the most sanctified life, and bringeth most honour to God, and is most useful to others.
Hero I shall show you : —
1. Wherein lieth this free life, guided by holy wisdom.
2. How it is the most sanctified life.
1. Wherein lieth this free life, guided by holy wisdom. It is said of Enoch, Gen. v. 22, That he ' walked with God, and begat sons and daughters ;' that is, dedicated himself to God's service, and lived in most strict holiness. And there j'ou see the use of a conjugal life in its purity may stand with the strictest rules of holiness. So for worldly affairs, when the course of our calling engageth us in them, it is not using of the world, but over-using is the fault, 1 Cor. vii. 31. So for the comforts of this life : Ps. Ixii. 10, ' If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.' The business is not to withdraw them away, but to withdraw the affection. So for the lawful delights, there are two extremes, — clogging and retrenching our liberty with outward burden- some observances, or abusing our liberty to wantonness : Gal. v. 13, * Ye are called to liberty, only use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh.' Corrupt nature venteth itself both ways ; either by super- stitious rigours, or by breaking all bonds, and enlarging itself according to the licentiousness of the fiesh. Meat, drink, apparel, are in their own nature indifferent ; neither must superstition work upon them, nor profaneness ; and in the mean between both lieth godliness.
2. How it is the most sanctified life.
[1.] Partly because it suiteth with the example of Christ. He came, as to expiate our offences, so to give us an example: 1 Peter ii. 21, 'Leaving us an examjjle, that we should follow his steps;' and 1 John ii. <>, ' Walk as he walked.' It is high presumption to aim at an imi- tation of Ciirist in tlio.se acts of his which he did for satisfying the Father's justice or proving his deity; yea, it is impossible to imitate him in those. Yet in actions moral we are bound to imitate him, and in actions indifferent, not to suffer our liberty to be straitened, but to govern circumstances according to that holy wisdom. Christ retired not from the society of men, but used the greatest freedom in a holy r/ay.
[2.] Because there is more true grace in being dead to the tempta- tion, than to retreat from the temptation. A Christian is not to go out of the world, neither by a voluntary death, John xvii. 15, nor by an unnecessary sequestration of ourselves from business and the affairs
Mat. XL 18, 19.] or her children. lOl
which God calleth ns to, 1 Cor. vii. 20, ' Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called ;' hut to be crucified to the world,- Gal. vi. 14, — that is, grace to withdraw our hearts from the Avorld, while we converse in it and with it. Many real Christians, when they hear us press mortification and dcadness to the world, think they must leave their callings, or abate of their necessary activity in their callings. Alas ! in the shop, a man may keep himself unspotted from the world, as well as in the closet ; in a court, as well as in a cell. We read of saints in Nero's household, Phil. iv. 22. He was a great persecutor, yet some saints could live there, within liis gates : there were some pro- fessors of the gospel. So Kev. ii. 13, ' I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is : and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.' In the sorest and thickest of temptations a Christian may maintain his integrity. In short, our way to heaven lieth through the world; and though, if I be left to my choice, I should choose that course of life in which there are least temptations, yet when God, by the posture of our temporal interest, or the course of our education, or the nature of my employment and usefulness, hath determined me to a life more incident to a throng of temptations, I may the better venture upon them, and must not leave my service for supposed snares. Affectation of privacy may be a slothful retreat from public business, and it is more glorious to beat an enemy than to fly from him ; and grace is seen in overcoming rather than in shunning difficulties.
Well, then, learn from the whale, that true mortification consists in a change of the frame of heart ; in a resolution against the baits of sense, rather than removing our presence from them ; in being not of the world, though we are in the world ; not in casting away our enjoy- ments, but in an equal mind in all conditions, James i. 9, 10 : that to be poor in abundance, humble in high places, temperate and godly in the freest course of life, is to imitate the life of Christ : that then we are properly mortified, when our esteem, value, and affection is mor- tified : that grace showeth itself more in choice than in necessity ; in an abstinence from the delights of the flesh when we have them, rather than when we want them : that we may follow our business and yet be godly : that the overcharging of the heart is the great evil that we should beware of : that we may use company, but not to partake of their sins ; yea, to make them better, and to purify them by our example.