132 EVIL OF LOOKING BACK. [LUKE IX. 57-62.
[3.] Tliose that followed Christ on these extraordinary calls -were to leave all things they had, without any further care about them : Mat. xix. 21, 'Sell all that thou hast, and follow me, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.' So Mat. iv. 19, 20, ' He saitli unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men : and they straightway left their nets and followed him.' So Mat. ix. 9, 'As Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom : and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and fol- lowed him.' Therefore it was preposterous for this man to desire to go home to order and dispose of his estate and family, before he complied with his call.
[4.] In resolution, estimation, and vow, the same is required of all Christians, when Christ's work calleth for it : Luke xiv. 33, ' So like- wise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.'
2. Christ's answer, whicli consists of a similitude, and its interpre- tation joined together.
[1.] The metaphor or similitude. Taiken from ploughmen, who cannot make straight furrows if they look back. So, to look back, after we have undertaken Christ's yoke and service, rendereth us unfit for the kingdom of God. . Putting our hands to the plough is to un- dertake Christ's work, or to resolve to be his disciples. Looking back, noteth an hankering of mind after the world, and also a return to the worldly life. For, first, we look back, and then we go back. First, we have an over-valuing of the world, and then we return to the worldly life.
Doct. That looking back will not become those who have set their faces heavenward.
We have an instance in the text of a man which pretended to follow Christ, which is to set our faces heavenward (for we follow Christ, first in labour and patience, and then into glory). But he would look back, and had many thoughts of what he had left at home. And he is pronounced unfit for the kingdom of God, that is, to be a disciple of Christ. And we have another instance, recommended to our observa- tion by our Lord himself : Luke xvii. 32, ' Remember Lot's wife ;' that is, remember her sin, and remember her punishment Both are taken notice of, Gen. xix. 2(j, 'But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.' There was a hankering of mind after what she had left in Sodom. She looked back, because she had left her heart behind her ; there were her kindred, her friends, and her country, and pleasant place of abode. That look was a kind of repenting that she had come out of Sodom, And what was her punishment ? She that looked back jjcrished as well as tliey that never came out. Yea, she is set up as a monument or spectacle of public shame and dis- honour, to warn the rest of the world to obey God, and trust themselves with his providence.
In handling this point I shall show you : —
1. Upon what occasions we may be said to look back.
2. How ill this becomes those that have put their hands to the plough.
1 . Upon what occasions we may be said to look baclj. A double pair I shall mention.
Luke IX. 57-62.] evil of looking back. 133
The first sort of those : —
[1.] That pretend to follow Christ, and yet their hearts hanker after the world, the cares, pleasures, and vain pomp thereof. Certainly all that would follow Christ must renounce their worldly affections and inclinations, or else they can make no work of Christianity. I prove it from the nature of conversion, which is a turning from the creature to God, from self to Christ, and from sin to holiness. The first is proper to our case. As our degeneration was a falling from God to the creature, Jcr. ii. 13, so our regeneration is a turning from the creature to God. If we leave the world unwillingly, our dedication will soon come to nothing, for then our hearts are false with God in the very making of the covenant. If we engaged ourselves to God before the fleshly mind and interest were never well conquered, as we were not well loosened from the world, so not firmly engaged to God, and therefore, when our interest requires it, we shall soon forsake God.
[2.] When men are discouraged in his service by troubles and diffi- culties, and so, after a forward profession, all cometh to nothing : Heb. X. 38, ' If any man draw back, my saul shall have no pleasure in him.' The former is looking back, and this is drawing back. The one ariseth out of the other : all their former zeal and courage is lost, they are affrighted and driven out of their profession, and relapse into the errors they have escaped. This is the first pair. Once more, the other pair is this : —
There is a looking back with respect to mortification, and a looking back with respect to vivification.
(1.) With respect to mortification, which is the first part of con- version. So we must not look back, or mind anything behind us, which may turn us back, and stop us in our course. The world and the flesh are the things behind us ; we turned our back upon them in conversion, when we turned to God. Grace 'teaches us to deny un- godliness and worldly lusts,' Titus ii. 12. It is the world that doth call back our thoughts, and corrupt our affections — the world, that is an enemy to God, and our religion, James iv. 4. Therefore, the world must be renounced, and we must grow dead to the world, that we may be alive to God. There is no halting between both.