The great Lesson that Christ hath undertaken to teach you, is the difference betwixt the Creator and the Creature, and the difference betwixt Heaven and Earth. The great work that Christ hath undertaken to do upon you, is to recover your hearts from the world to God: And this Lesson he will ⟨p. 290⟩teach you, and this work he will do upon you, whatever it cost you: For it must be done. Yet is not the world unjust enough, or cruel or vexatious enough to you, to teach you to come home, and take up your content and rest in God? It may then prove more cruel, and more vexatious to you, till you have better learned this necessary Lesson. Yet is not your condition empty enough of carnal delusory pleasures, to we•n you from the world, and make you look to surer things? Yet are you keeping up your worldly hopes, that the world will again prove better to you, and that you shall have happy days hereafter? It seems you are not yet brought low enough: you must yet take another purge, and perhaps a sharper than you took before: You must have more blood letting, till your del•ration cease, and your feverish thirst after creature-comforts do abate. It is sad that we should be so foolish and unkind, as to stay from God, as long as any preferments, or pleasures, or profits in the world, will entertain us: But seeing it is so, let us be thankful both to that Grace and that Providence which cureth us. If you perceive it not better to dwell with God, than with a flattering prospering world, he will try whether you can think it better to dwell with God, than with a malicious, cruel, persecuting world: And whether it be better to have your hearts in Heaven, than in poverty, prison, banishment or reproach. If you find it not better to converse with God, than with those that honour you, please you, or prefer you; he will try whether you can think it better to converse with him, than with those that hate, revile, belie, and persecute you. And are these the wise and wholesome methods of our great Physician? And shall we not rather be ruled by him, than by our brutish appetites? and think better of his counsels, than of the blind concupiscence of the flesh? Let this be the issue of all our sufferings, and all the cruelties and injuries of the world, to drive us home to converse with God, and to turn our desires, and labours, and expectations, to the true felicity that never will forsake us;
The great Lesson that Christ hath undertaken to teach you, is the difference betwixt the Creatour and the Creature, and the difference betwixt Heaven and Earth. The great work that Christ hath undertaken to do upon you, is to recover your hearts from the world to God: And this Lesson he will ⟨p. 290⟩teach you, and this work he will do upon you, whatever it cost you: For it must be done. Yet is not the world unjust enough, or cruel or vexatious enough to you, to teach you to come home, and take up your content and rest in God? It may then prove more cruel, and more vexatious to you, till you have better learned this necessary Lesson. Yet is not your condition empty enough of carnal delusory pleasures, to we•n you from the world, and make you look to surer things? Yet are you keeping up your worldly hopes, that the world will again prove better to you, and that you shall have happy daies hereafter? It seems you are not yet brought low enough: you must yet take another purge, and perhap• a sharper than you took before: You must have more blood letting, till your del•ration cease, and your feaverish thirst after creature-comorts do abate. It is sad that we should be so foolish and unkind, as to stay from God, as long as any preferments, or pleasures, or profits in the world, will entertain us: But seeing it is so, let us be thankful both to that Grace and that Providence which cureth us. If you perceive it not better to dwell with God, than with a flattering prospering world, he will try whether you can think it better to dwell with God, than with a malicious, cruel, persecuting world: And whether it be better to have your hearts in Heaven, than in poverty, prison, banishment or reproach. If you find it not better to converse with God, than with those that honour you, please you, or prefer you; he will try whether you can think it better to converse with him, than with those that hate, revile, belye, and persecute you. And are these the wise and wholsome methods of our great Physician? And shall we not rather be ruled by him, than by our brutish appetites? and think better of his counsels, than of the blind concupiscence of the flesh? Let this be the issue of all our sufferings, and all the cruelties and injuries of the world, to drive us home to converse with God, and to turn our desires, and labours, and expectations, to the true felicity that never will forsake us;
