3. They value him above all spiritual Excellencies and all other righteousness whatever Phil. 3. 7, 8. Those things which were advantage to me, I esteemed loss for Christ. Yea also I account all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whose sake I have lost all things, and do esteem them common that I may gain Christ, and be found in him. having recounted the Excellency's which he had, and the privileges which he enjoyed in his Judaism, which were all of a spiritual nature, and a participation wherein, made the rest of his country men despise all the world, and look upon themselves as the only acceptable persons with God, resting on them for righteousness, the Apostle tells us what is his esteem of them in Comparison of the ⟨p. 156⟩Lord Jesus, they are loss and dung, things that for his sake, he had really suffered the loss of; that is, whereas he had for many years been a Zealot of the Law, seeking after a righteousness as it were by the works of it, Rom. 9. 31. instantly serving God day and night to obtain the promise Act. 26. 7. living in all good conscience from his youth, Act. 22. all the while very zealous for God and his institutions, now willingly casts away all these things, looks upon them as loss and dung, and could not only be contented to be without them, but as for that end for which he sought after them, he abhorred them all. When men have been strongly convinced of their duty, and have laboured many years to keep a *good Conscience, have prayed, and heard, and done good, and denied themselves, and been xzealous for God, and laboured with all their might to yplease him, and so at length to come to enjoy him: they had rather zpart with all the world, life and all, then with this they have wrought. You know how unwilling we are to part with any thing we have laboured, and beaten our heads about? How much more when the things are so excellent, as our duty to God, blamelessness of conversation, hope of Heaven & the like which we have beaten our hearts about. But now when once Christ appears to the Soul, when he is known in his Excellency, all these things as without him, have their paint washed of, their beauty fades, their desirableness vanisheth, and the soul is not only contented to part with them all, but puts them away as a defiled thing;
3. They value him above all spirituall Excellencys and all other righteousnesse whatever Phil. 3. 7, 8. Those things which were advantage to me, I esteemed losse for Christ. Yea also I account all things to be losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whose sake I have lost all things, and doe esteem them common that I may gaine Christ, and be found in him. having recounted the Excellency's which he had, and the priviledges which he enjoyed in his Judaisme, which were all of a spirituall nature, and a participation wherein, made the rest of his country men despise all the world, and looke upon themselves as the only acceptable persons with God, resting on them for righteousnesse, the Apostle tells us what is his esteem of them in Comparison of the ⟨p. 156⟩Lord Jesus, they are losse and dung, things that for his sake, he had really suffred the losse of; that is, whereas he had for many yeares been a Zealot of the Law, seeking after a righteousnesse as it were by the workes of it, Rom. 9. 31. instantly serving God day and night to obtaine the promise Act. 26. 7. living in all good conscience from his youth, Act. 22. all the while very zealous for God and his institutions, now willingly casts away all these things, lookes upon them as losse and dung, and could not only be contented to be without them, but as for that end for which he sought after them, he abhored them all. When men have been strongly convinced of their duty, and have laboured many yeares to keep a *good Conscience, have prayd, and heard, and done good, and denyed themselves, and been xzealous for God, and laboured with all their might to yplease him, and so at length to come to enjoy him: they had rather zpart with all the world, life and all, then with this they have wrought. You know how unwilling we are to part with any thing we have laboured, and beaten our heads about? How much more when the things are so excellent, as our duty to God, blamelesnesse of conversation, hope of Heaven & the like which we have beaten our hearts about. But now when once Christ appeares to the Soule, when he is known in his Excellency, all these things as without him, have their paint washed of, their beauty fades, their desireablenesse vanisheth, and the soule is not only contented to part with them all, but puts them away as a defiled thing;
- *Act. 23. 1.
- xRom. 10. v. 2, 3, 4.
- yAct. 25. 7.
- zJoh. 9 40. Rom. 9. 30, 31.
