What is the reason ?
Picafion. The reason is, that a true Christian hath a spirit in him above the world. As St John saith, ' The Spirit that is in you is stronger than he that is in the world,' 1 John iv. 4. The child of God hath a spirit in him, a new nature, that sets him in a rank above the world. Christians are an order of men that are above the world. They are men of another world. And therefore having a principle of grace that raiseth them above the base condition of the world, they can live in the world, without the blemishes and corruptions of the world. They are men of a higher disposition.
Even as sickness in the body hurts not the reasonable life, so anything that a Christian meets with in the world, it hurts not his Christian life, which is his best life, because it is a life of a higher respect, of a higher nature. St Paul's ' conversation was in heaven,' Philip, iii. 20, it was above the snares here below. He was ' crucified to the world,' Gal. vi. 14. He was a dead man to all that was evil in the world, and to that which was good and indifferent in the world. For pleasures, for honours, for meat and drink, and such necessaries ; the counsel that he gave to others, he prac- tised in himself, for worldly callings, and refreshings, and the like, 1 Cor. vii. 29. ' The time is short, let us use the world as though we used it not.' He used indifferent things in the world, which are good or evil as they be used, as if he had not used them. He lived in the world, as a traveller or passenger. He knew he was not at home. He knew he had another home to go to. 'Here we have no continuing citj',' Heb. xiii. 14, and therefore he used the world as though he used it not. As a traveller useth things in his way as far as they may further him ; but let his very staff trouble him, he throws it away. So a Christian useth indifferent things in the world, wliicli are good or evil according as himself is, he useth them well ; because ' all things are pure to the pure,' Titus i. 15. He useth them so as that he doth not delight in them, because he hath better things to solace himself in. He doth not drown himself in these as worldlings do.
And for the ills of the world, a Christian in a good measure is crucified to the world, and the world to him. And he hath his conversation in heaven, ' But our conversation is in heaven,' Philip, iii. 20. Many serve their bellies, 'whose end is damnation, but our conversation is in heaven."
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VEU. 12. 255
Now his conversation being heavenly, that is the reason that he can converse in the world in sincerity, though the world be of another strain.
So you see then that a Christian is of a higher nature, of a higher con- dition than the world ; and he is crucified to the world ; and he knows himself to be a passenger and a traveller in the world, and tlio-efore he useth the world as though he used it not. And withal he hath his employment above the world. The birds that have the air, as long as they are there, they are not catched with snares below ; and Christians that have their con- versation above, they are not ensnared with the things of the world as other men are. We see St Paul conversed in the world in sincerity.
I observe it the rather, because it is the common exception of weak, and false spirits. — We must do as the world doth, or else we cannot live. He that knows not how to dissemble, knows not how to live. And the times are naught ; so that which is naught and grounded in themselves, they lay all the blame of it upon the times.
Indeed the times are naught, like themselves. As he said, There is a circle of human things. The times are but even as they were. Things come again upon the stage. The same things are acted. The persons indeed are changed, but the same things are acted in the world to the end of the world. The times were naught before, they are naught, and they will be so. Yillany is acted upon the stage of the world continually. The former actors are gone, but others are instructed with the same devices, with the same plots. The corruption of nature shews itself in all. Only now we have the advantage for the acting of wickedness in the end of the world ; because, besides the old wickedness in former times, we have the new wickednesses of these times. All the streams running into one, make the channel greater.
Men say, Alas! alas! the times are ill. Were they not so in Noah's time ? Were they not so in David's time ? Were they not so in St Paul's time ? Men pretend conformity to the world upon a kind of necessity. They must do as others do.
If they were true Christians it would not be so ; for Noah was good in evil times. Nehemiah was good in the court of the king of Babel.* Joseph was good, even in Egypt, in Pharaoh's court. This can be no plea. For a Christian hath a spirit to raise him above the corruption of the times he lives in ; he hath such a spirit likewise as is above prosperity or adversity, which will teach him to manage both, and to govern himself in all occasions and occurrents f of the world. * I can do all things,' saith St Paul, ' through Christ that strengtheneth me ! '