For there is no one perisheth, but for loving some Creature more than God: And complacency is the formal act of Love. Love not the World, nor the things that are in the World, for if any man love the World, the love of the Father is not in him, 1 John 2.15. Value all earthly things as they conduce to your Masters Service, or to your Salvation; and not as they tend to the pleasing of your Flesh: It is the commonest and most dangerous folly in the World, to be eager to have our houses and lands and provisions and every thing about us in the most pleasing and amiable state: when as this is the acknowledged way to Hell, and the only poison of the Soul. Are you not in more danger of overloving a pleasing and prosperous condition, than a bitter and vexatious state? and of overloving Riches, honour, and sensual fullness and delights, rather than Poverty, reproach, and mortification? And do you not know that if ever you be damned, it ⟨p. 125⟩will be for loving the World too much, and God too little? Is it for nothing that Christ describeth a Saint to you as a Lazarus in poverty and sores, and a damned wretch as one that was clothed in Purple and Silk, and fared sumptuously every day, Luke 16. Did not Christ know what he did when he put the rich man upon this trial, to part with all his worldly riches, and follow Christ for a treasure in heaven? Luke 18.22, 13. All things must be esteemed as loss and dung for the knowledge of Christ, and the hopes of heaven, if ever you will be saved, Phil. 3.6, 7, 8. You must so live by Faith, and not by sight, as not to look at the temporal things that are seen, but at the things eternal which are unseen, 2 Cor. 4.17, 18. and 5.7, 8. And one that is running in a race for his life, would not so much as turn his head to look back on any one that called to him to stay; or to look aside to any one that would speak with him in his way. Thus must we forget the things that are behind, as counting them not worthy a thought or remembrance or a look, Phil. 3.13, 14. If you feel this poison seize upon your hearts, and your condition in the world (or at least your Hopes) begin to grow too sweet and pleasing to you, presently make hast to Christ your Physician, and take his antidote, and cast up the poison as you love your Souls.
FOr there is no one perisheth, but for loving some Creature more than God: And complacency is the formal act of Love. Love not the World, nor the things that are in the World, for if any man love the World, the love of the Father is not in him, 1 John 2.15. Value all earthly things as they conduce to your Masters Service, or to your Salvation; and not as they tend to the pleasing of your Flesh: It is the commonest and most dangerous folly in the World, to be eager to have our houses and lands and provisions and every thing about us in the most pleasing and amiable state: when as this is the acknowledged way to Hell, and the only poyson of the Soul. Are you not in more danger of overloving a pleasing and prosperous condition, than a bitter and vexatious state? and of overloving Riches, honour, and sensual fulness and delights, rather than Poverty, reproach, and mortification? And do you not know that if ever you be damned, it ⟨p. 125⟩will be for loving the World too much, and God too little? Is it for nothing that Christ describeth a Saint to you as a Lazarus in poverty and sores, and a damned wretch as one that was clothed in Purple and Silk, and fared sumptuously every day, Luke 16. Did not Christ know what he did when he put the rich man upon this tryal, to part with all his worldly riches, and follow Christ for a treasure in heaven? Luke 18.22, 13. All things must be esteemed as loss and dung for the knowledg of Christ, and the hopes of heaven, if ever you will be saved, Phil. 3.6, 7, 8. You must so live by Faith, and not by sight, as not to look at the temporal things that are seen, but at the things eternal which are unseen, 2 Cor. 4.17, 18. and 5.7, 8. And one that is running in a race for his life, would not so much as turn his head to look back on any one that called to him to stay; or to look aside to any one that would speak with him in his way. Thus must we forget the things that are behind, as counting them not worthy a thought or remembrance or a look, Phil. 3.13, 14. If you feel this poison seise upon your hearts, and your condition in the world (or at least your Hopes) begin to grow too sweet and pleasing to you, presently make hast to Christ your Physician, and take his antidote, and cast up the poyson as you love your Souls.
