CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

Fourthly, He is discovered not to be off the world because he is principally taken up with heavenly privileges, Jam. 4.4. The friendship of this world is enmity against God; and 1 Joh. 2.15. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him; It's as impossible a man that is godly should be of the world in this sense, as it is for Doves to be Moles, they cannot live by digging into the earth; Hence the godly man is said to be born of God, he is said to be heavenly, to be from above, to he risen with Christ, to sit in heavenly places, to have his Conversation in heaven; These are the noble descriptions of the godly man, so that though they use the world, and discharge their Relations therein, yet they are not overcome by the world; They have the world, the world hath not them; Oh how close may this discovery be, for there are many who escape the pollutions of the world, and yet are worldly: The third kind of hearers did not only cast off all profaneness, but made some great progress in obedience to the Word, but the love of the world and the cares about it ⟨p. 174⟩choked all; Did not Judas appear as eminently for Christ as any at first? but the love of the world discovered his rottenness; Did not Demas get approbation, and that by Paul himself? yet at last he did cleave to this present world, so that not only profaneness but immoderate, earthly and worldly affections; These are inconsistent with the power of grace; The world is not only the profaneness thereof, but the immoderate and excessive affections to the lawful things of the world; Our Saviour doth not say, He that loveth his sins or his lusts more then me, but he that loveth his Father, wife, or life it self more then me is not worthy of me, Mat. 10.37. See then the difficulty of grace and tremble under it, Thou hast with much ado quit thy former sins, but do not the inordinate affections about lawful things still ensnare thee? Dost thou buy as if thou boughtest not? Dost thou marry as if thou marriedst not? 1 Cor. 7. Art thou rich as if thou wert not? That is, thou usest these things as comforts against thy necessities, not as Masters over thy affections.