But how delightful a thing is the change which this rectifying communication makes! How pleasant to live in this world as a Pilgrim and Stranger, seeking still the better, the heavenly Country! To behold the various enticements which are here offered to view at, sometimes without inclination towards them; the frightful aspect and appearance of things at other times without commotion; Is not this delectable? To dwell apart from this world in the midst of it;1 In the secret of the Almighty, under his pavilion, as one of his hidden ones,2 with-drawn from the communion of this world to his own communion; ⟨p. 88⟩so severed and cut off from this world, as not to partake in the spirit of it, or be acted thereby; but by another, a greater and more mighty, as well as a purer and more holy Spirit;3 Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 4And again, We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God. Which things the divine Spirit disposes the Soul to, and unites it with, when it disinclines and disjoins it from this world and the things thereof; and thereby discovers this Soul to be quite of another community from that of this world, viz. of an heavenly community, unto which those better and more excellent things do lie in common, as their portion and inheritance. What matter of Joy and Glorying is it,5 when one is crucified to this world, and this world to him; when the world appears to him a crucified thing, i. e. an accursed, hateful, detestable thing, (which is one notion of crucified), such a thing as he can despise and hate; which he is as little apt to be fond of, as one would be of a loathsome carcass hanging upon an ignominious Cross. And when he can feel himself crucified towards it, i. e. dead (another notion of it), disinclined, without sense, breath, pulse, motion, or appetite; not so dead as to be without any kind of life, but without that base, low, sordid kind of life by which he lived to it, and in its converses and embraces. So much of delectation doth this infer, as even to endear ⟨p. 89⟩the very cross it self (that hateful horrid thing) by which it is effected. But that carries a farther signification with it, to be fetched more expressly from other Scriptures;
But how delightful a thing is the change which this rectifying communication makes! How pleasant to live in this world as a Pilgrim and Stranger, seeking still the better, the heavenly Country! To behold the various inticements which are here offered to view at, sometimes without inclination towards them; the frightful aspect and appearance of things at other times without commotion; Is not this delectable? To dwell apart from this world in the midst of it;1 In the secret of the Almighty, under his pavilion, as one of his hidden ones,2 with-drawn from the communion of this world to his own communion; ⟨p. 88⟩so severed and cut off from this world, as not to partake in the spirit of it, or be acted thereby; but by another, a greater and more mighty, as well as a purer and more holy Spirit;3 Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 4And again, We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God. Which things the divine Spirit disposes the Soul to, and unites it with, when it disinclines and disjoins it from this world and the things thereof; and thereby discovers this Soul to be quite of another community from that of this world, viz. of an heavenly community, unto which those better and more excellent things do ly in common, as their portion and inheritance. What matter of Joy and Glorying is it,5 when one is crucified to this world, and this world to him; when the world appears to him a crucified thing, i. e. an accursed, hateful, detestable thing, (which is one notion of crucify'd), such a thing as he can despise and hate; which he is as little apt to be fond of, as one would be of a loathsom carcase hanging upon an ignominious Cross. And when he can feel himself crucified towards it, i. e. dead (another notion of it), disinclin'd, without sense, breath, pulse, motion, or appetite; not so dead as to be without any kind of life, but without that base, low, sordid kind of life by which he lived to it, and in its converses and embraces. So much of delectation doth this infer, as even to endear ⟨p. 89⟩the very cross it self (that hateful horrid thing) by which it is effected. But that carries a farther signification with it, to be fetcht more expresly from other Scriptures;
- 1Psal. 91.
- 2Psal. 27.
- 31 Joh. 4. 4.
- 41 Cor. 2. 12.
- 5Gal. 6.
