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[Illustration: title page]
NO CROSS, NO CROWN:
A DISCOURSE,
SHEWING THE NATURE AND DISCIPLINE
OF THE
HOLY CROSS OF CHRIST.
TO WHICH ARE ADDED,
The Living and Dying Testimonies
OF
MANY PERSONS OF FAME AND LEARNING,
BOTH
OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES, IN FAVOUR OF
THIS TREATISE.
"And Jesus said unto them all; If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
me."-- LUKE, ix. 23.
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness," &c.--2
TIM. iv. 7, 8.
IN TWO PARTS.
BY WILLIAM PENN.
A NEW EDITION, REVISED.
LONDON:
HARVEY & DARTON, GRACECHURCH STREET.
1842.
LONDON:
JOSEPH RICKERBY, PRINTER,
SHERBOURN LANE.
PREFACE.
READER,
The great business of man's life, is to answer the end for which
he lives; and that is to glorify God and save his own soul: this
is the decree of Heaven, as old as the world. But so it is, that
man mindeth nothing less than what he should most mind; and
despiseth to inquire into his own being, its original duty and end;
choosing rather to dedicate his days (the steps he should make to
blessedness) to gratify the pride, avarice, and luxury of his heart:
as if he had been born for himself, or rather given himself being,
and so not subject to the reckoning and judgment of a superior
power. To this wild and lamentable pass hath poor man brought
himself by his disobedience to the law of God in his heart, by doing
that which he knows he should not do, and leaving undone what he
knows he should do. And as long as this disease continueth upon man
he will make his God his enemy, and himself incapable of the love
and salvation that He hath manifested, by his Son Jesus Christ, to
the world.
If, Reader, thou art such an one, my counsel to thee is, to retire
into thyself, and take a view of the condition of thy soul; for
Christ hath given thee light with which to do it; search carefully
and thoroughly; thy life is in it; thy soul is at stake. It is
but once to be done; if thou abuse thyself in it, the loss is
irreparable; the world is not price enough to ransom thee: wilt thou
then, for such a world, belate thyself, overstay the time of thy
salvation, and lose thy soul? Thou hast to do, I grant thee, with
great patience; but that also must have an end: therefore provoke
not that God that made thee, to reject thee. Dost thou know what
it is? It is Tophet; it is hell, the eternal anguish of the damned.
Oh! Reader, as one knowing the terrors of the Lord, I persuade thee
to be serious, diligent, and fervent about thy own salvation. Aye,
and as one knowing the comfort, peace, joy, and pleasure of the
ways of righteousness too, I exhort and invite thee to embrace the
reproofs and convictions of Christ's light and spirit in thine own
conscience, and bear the judgment, who hast wrought the sin. The
fire burns but the stubble: the wind blows but the chaff: yield up
the body, soul, and spirit to Him that maketh all things new: new
heavens, and new earth, new love, new joy, new peace, new works,
a new life and conversation. Men are grown corrupt and drossy by
sin, and they must be saved through fire, which purgeth it away:
therefore the word of God is compared to a fire, and the day of
salvation to an oven; and Christ himself to a refiner and purifier
of silver.
Come, Reader, hearken to me awhile; I seek thy salvation; that is
my plot; thou wilt forgive me. A refiner is come near thee, his
grace hath appeared unto thee: it shows thee the world's lusts, and
teaches thee to deny them. Receive his leaven, and it will change
thee: his medicine, and it will cure thee: he is as infallible as
free; without money, and with certainty. A touch of his garment did
it of old: it will do it still: his virtue is the same, it cannot
be exhausted: for in him the fulness dwells; blessed be God for
his sufficiency. He laid help upon him, that he might be mighty
to save all that come to God through him: do thou so, and he will
change thee: aye, thy vile body like unto his glorious body. He is
the great philosopher indeed; the wisdom of God, that turns lead
into gold, vile things into things precious: for he maketh saints
out of sinners, and almost gods of men. What rests to us, then,
that we must do, to be thus witnesses of his power and love? This
is the Crown: but where is the Cross? Where is the bitter cup and
bloody baptism? Come, Reader, be like him; for this transcendant joy
lift up thy head above the world; then thy salvation will draw nigh
indeed.
Christ's Cross is Christ's way to Christ's Crown. This is the
subject of the following Discourse; first written during my
confinement in the Tower of London, in the year 1668, now reprinted
with great enlargements of matter and testimonies, that thou,
Reader, mayest be won to Christ; and if won already, brought nearer
to Him. It is a path, God, in his everlasting kindness, guided my
feet into, in the flower of my youth, when about twenty-two years of
age: then He took me by the hand, and led me out of the pleasures,
vanities, and hopes of the world. I have tasted of Christ's
judgments and mercies, and of the world's frowns and reproaches: I
rejoice in my experience, and dedicate it to thy service in Christ.
It is a debt I have long owed, and has been long expected: I have
now paid it, and delivered my soul. To my country, and to the world
of Christians, I leave it: my God, if He please, make it effectual
to them all, and turn their hearts from that envy, hatred, and
bitterness, they have one against another, about worldly things;
sacrificing humanity and charity to ambition and covetousness,
for which they fill the earth with trouble and oppression; that
receiving the Spirit of Christ into their hearts, the fruits of
which are love, peace, joy, temperance, and patience, brotherly
kindness and charity, they may in body, soul, and spirit, make a
triple league against the world, the flesh, and the devil, the
common enemies of mankind; and having conquered them through a life
of self-denial, by the power of the Cross of Jesus, they may at last
attain to the eternal rest and kingdom of God.
So desireth, so prayeth,
Friendly Reader,
Thy fervent Christian Friend,
WILLIAM PENN.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTERS I. AND II.--Page 1-23.
Of the Necessity of the daily bearing of the Cross of Christ.
CHAPTER III.--Page 24-28.
What the Cross of Christ is.
CHAPTER IV.--Page 29-42.
What the great Work of the Cross is.
CHAPTERS V. AND VI.--Page 43-74.
Of unlawful Self in Religion and Morality.
CHAPTERS VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. AND XII.--Page 75-149.
Of Pride, the first capital Lust, its Rise, Definition, and
Distinction.
CHAPTER XIII.--Page 150-167.
Of Avarice, the second capital Lust, its Definition and Distinction.
CHAPTERS XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. AND XVIII.--Page 168-229.
Of Luxury, what it is, and the Mischief of it to Mankind.
CHAPTER XIX.--Page 233-294.
The Testimonies of several great, learned, and virtuous Personages
among the Gentiles, urged against the excesses of the Age.
CHAPTER XX.--Page 295-324.
The Doctrine and Practice of the blessed Lord Jesus and his Apostles,
the primitive Christians, and those of more modern Times in
favour of the Discourse.
CHAPTER XXI.--Page 325-355.
The serious Apprehensions and Expressions of several aged and
dying Men of Fame and Learning.
CHAPTER XXII.--Page 356-365.
An Exhortation to all professing Christianity, to embrace the
foregoing Reasons and Examples.
NO CROSS, NO CROWN.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
I. Of the necessity of the Cross of Christ in general; yet the
little regard Christians have to it.--2. The degeneracy of
Christendom from purity to lust, and moderation to excess.--3.
That worldly lusts and pleasures are become the care and study
of Christians, so that they have advanced upon the impiety
of infidels.--4. This defection a second part to the Jewish
tragedy, and worse than the first: the scorn Christians have
cast on their Saviour.--5. Sin is of one nature all the world
over; sinners are of the same church, the devil's children:
profession of religion in wicked men makes them but the
worse.--6. A wolf is not a lamb; a sinner cannot be, whilst
such, a saint.--7. The wicked will persecute the good; this,
false Christians have done to the true, for non-compliance
with their superstitions; the strange carnal measures false
Christians have taken of Christianity; the danger of that
self-seduction.--8. The sense of that has obliged me to make
this discourse for a dissuasive against the world's lusts, and
an invitation to take up the daily cross of Christ as the way
left us by him to blessedness.--9. Of the self-condemnation of
the wicked; that religion and worship are comprised in doing the
will of God. The advantage good men have over bad men in the
last judgment.--10. A supplication for Christendom, that she
may not be rejected in that great assize of the world. She is
exhorted to consider what relation she bears to Christ; if her
Saviour, how saved, and from what: what her experience is of
that great work. That Christ came to save from sin and wrath by
consequence; not to save men in sin, but from it, and so from
the wages of it.
I. Though the knowledge and obedience of the doctrine of the cross
of Christ be of infinite moment to the souls of men, for that is
the only door to true Christianity, and that path the ancients ever
trod to blessedness; yet, with extreme affliction let me say, it
is so little understood, so much neglected, and what is worse, so
bitterly contradicted by the vanity, superstition, and intemperance
of professed Christians, that we must either renounce to believe
what the Lord Jesus hath told us, that whosoever doth not bear his
cross, and come after him, cannot be his disciple; (Luke, xiv. 27;)
or, admitting that for truth, conclude, that the generality of
Christendom do miserably deceive and disappoint themselves in the
great business of Christianity, and their own salvation.
II. For, let us be never so tender and charitable in the survey
of those nations that entitle themselves to any interest in the
holy name of Christ, if we will but be just too, we must needs
acknowledge, that after all the gracious advantages of light, and
obligations to fidelity, which these latter ages of the world
have received by the coming, life, doctrine, miracles, death,
resurrection, and ascension of Christ, with the gifts of his
Holy Spirit; to which add the writings, labours, and martyrdom
of his dear followers in all times, there seems very little
left of Christianity but the name; which being now usurped by
the old heathen nature and life, makes the professors of it but
true heathens in disguise. For though they worship not the same
idols, they worship Christ with the same heart: and they can never
do otherwise, whilst they live in the same lusts. So that the
unmortified Christian and the heathen are of the same religion. For
though they have different objects to which they do direct their
prayers, that adoration in both is but forced and ceremonious, and
the deity they truly worship is the god of the world, the great
lord of lusts: to him they bow with the whole powers of soul and
sense. What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?
And how shall we pass away our time? Which way may we gather
wealth, increase our power, enlarge our territories, and dignify
and perpetuate our names and families in the earth? Which base
sensuality is most pathetically expressed and comprised by the
beloved Apostle John, in these words: "The lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," which, says he, "are not
of the Father, but of the world, that lieth in wickedness." (1 John,
ii. 16.)
III. It is a mournful reflection, but a truth no confidence can
be great enough to deny, that these worldly lusts fill up the
study, care, and conversation of wretched Christendom! and, which
aggravates the misery, they have grown with time. For as the world
is older, it is worse; and the examples of former lewd ages, and
their miserable conclusions, have not deterred, but excited ours; so
that the people of this seem improvers of the old stock of impiety,
and have carried it so much further than example, that instead of
advancing in virtue upon better times, they are scandalously fallen
below the life of heathens. Their high-mindedness, lasciviousness,
uncleanness, drunkenness, swearing, lying, envy, backbiting,
cruelty, treachery, covetousness, injustice, and oppression, are
so common, and committed with such invention and excess, that they
have stumbled and embittered infidels to a degree of scorning that
holy religion, to which their good example should have won their
affections.
IV. This miserable defection from primitive times, when the glory
of Christianity was the purity of its professors, I cannot but call
the second and worst part of the Jewish tragedy upon the blessed
Saviour of mankind. For the Jews, from the power of ignorance, and
the extreme prejudice they were under to the unworldly way of his
appearance, would not acknowledge him when he came, but for two or
three years persecuted, and finally crucified him in one day. But
the false Christians' cruelty lasts longer: they have first, with
Judas, professed him, and then, for these many ages, most basely
betrayed, persecuted, and crucified him, by a perpetual apostasy in
manners, from the self-denial and holiness of his doctrine; their
lives giving the lie to their faith. These are they that the author
of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us, "Crucify to themselves
the Son of God afresh, and put him to open shame:" (Heb. vi. 6:)
whose defiled hearts John in his Revelation styles, "The streets
of Sodom and Egypt, spiritually so called, where also our Lord
was crucified." (Rev. xi. 8.) And as Christ said of old, a man's
enemies are those of his own house, so Christ's enemies now are
chiefly those of his own profession; they spit upon him, they nail
and pierce him, they crown him with thorns, and give him gall and
vinegar to drink. (Matt. xxvii. 34.) Nor is it hard to apprehend;
for they that live in the same evil nature and principle the Jews
did, that crucified him outwardly, must needs crucify him inwardly;
since they that reject the grace now in their own hearts, are one in
stock and generation with the hard-hearted Jews, that resisted the
grace that then appeared in and by Christ.
V. Sin is of one nature all the world over; for though a liar is
not a drunkard, nor a swearer a whoremonger, nor either properly
a murderer, yet they are all of a church; all branches of the one
wicked root; all of kin. They have but one father, the devil, as
Christ said to the professing Jews, the visible church of that age:
he slighted their claims to Abraham and Moses, and plainly told them
"That he that committed sin, was the servant of sin." (John, viii.
34, 35.) They did the devil's works, and therefore were the devil's
children. The argument will always hold upon the same reasons, and
therefore good still: "His servants ye are," saith Paul, "whom ye
obey:" (Rom. vi. 16:) and saith John to the church of old, "Let no
man deceive you; he that committeth sin is of the devil." (1 John,
iii. 7, 8.) Was Judas ever the better Christian for crying, Hail,
Master, and kissing Christ? By no means; they were the signal of
his treachery; the tokens given by which the bloody Jews should
know and take him. He called him Master, but betrayed him; he
kissed, but sold him to be killed; this is the upshot of the false
Christians' religion. If a man ask them, Is Christ your Lord? they
will cry, God forbid else: yes, he is our Lord. Very well; but do
you keep his commandments? No, how should we? How then are you his
disciples? It is impossible, say they. What! would you have us keep
his commandments? No man can. What! impossible to do that without
which Christ hath made it impossible to be a Christian? Is Christ
unreasonable? Does he reap where he has not sown? Require where he
has not enabled? Thus it is, that with Judas they call him Master,
but take part with the evil of the world to betray him; and kiss
and embrace him as far as a specious profession goes; and then sell
him, to gratify the passion that they most indulge. Thus as God said
of old, they make him serve with their sins and for their sins too.
(Isa. xliii. 24.)
VI. Let no man deceive his own soul; "grapes are not gathered of
thorns, nor figs of thistles:" (Matt. vii. 16:) a wolf is not a
sheep, nor is a vulture a dove. What form, people, or church soever
thou art of, it is the truth of God to mankind, that they which have
even the form of godliness, but by their unmortified lives, deny the
power thereof, make not the true, but false church: which, though
she entitle herself the Lamb's bride, or church of Christ, (Rev.
xvii. 5,) she is that mystery, or mysterious Babylon, fitly called
by the Holy Ghost, the mother of harlots and all abominations:
because degenerated from Christian chastity and purity, into all
the enormities of heathen Babylon; a sumptuous city of old time,
much noted for the seat of the kings of Babylon, and at that time
the place in the world of the greatest pride and luxury. As she was
then, so mystical Babylon is now the great enemy of God's people.
VII. True it is, They that are born of the flesh, hate and persecute
them that are born of the spirit, who are the circumcision in heart.
It seems they cannot own nor worship God after her inventions,
methods, and prescriptions, nor receive for doctrine her vain
traditions, any more than they can comply with her corrupt fashions
and customs in their conversation. The case being thus, from an
apostate she becomes a persecutor. It is not enough that she herself
declines from ancient purity, others must do so too. She will give
them no rest that will not partake with her in that degeneracy,
or receive her mark. Are any wiser than she, than mother church?
No, no: nor can any make war with the beast she rides upon,
those worldly powers that protect her, and vow their maintenance
against the cries of her dissenters. Apostasy and superstition are
ever proud and impatient of dissent: all must conform or perish.
Therefore the slain witnesses, and blood of the souls under the
altar, (Rev. vi. 9,) are found within the walls of this mystical
Babylon, this great city of false Christians, and are charged upon
her, by the Holy Ghost in the Revelation. Nor is it strange that she
should slay the servants who first crucified the Lord: but strange
and barbarous too, that she should kill her husband and murder
her Saviour; titles she seems so fond of, and that have been so
profitable to her; and that she would recommend herself by, though
without all justice. But her children are reduced so entirely under
the dominion of darkness, by means of their continued disobedience
to the manifestation of the divine light in their souls, that they
forget what man once was, or they should now be; and know not
true and pure Christianity when they meet it; yet pride themselves
upon professing it. Their measures are so carnal and false about
salvation, they call good evil, and evil good; they make a devil
a Christian, and a saint a devil. So that though the unrighteous
latitude of their lives be matter of lamentation, as to themselves
it is of destruction; yet that common apprehension, that they may
be children of God, while in a state of disobedience to his holy
commandments; and disciples of Jesus, though they revolt from his
cross, and members of his true church, which is without spot or
wrinkle, notwithstanding their lives are full of spots and wrinkles;
is, of all other deceptions upon themselves, the most pernicious to
their eternal condition. For they are at peace in sin, and under
a security in their transgression. Their vain hope silences their
convictions, and overlays all tender motions to repentance; so that
their mistake about their duty to God is as mischievous as their
rebellion against him.
Thus they walk on precipices, and flatter themselves, till the grave
swallows them up, and the judgments of the great God break their
lethargy, and undeceive their poor wretched souls with the anguish
of the wicked, as the reward of their work.
VIII. This has been, is, and will be the doom of all worldly
Christians: an end so dreadful, that if there were nothing of duty
to God, or obligation to men, being a man, and one acquainted with
the terrors of the Lord in the way and work of my own salvation,
compassion alone were sufficient to excite me to this dissuasive
against the world's superstitions and lusts, and to invite the
professors of Christianity to the knowledge and obedience of the
daily cross of Christ, as the alone way, left by him, and appointed
us to blessedness; that they who now do but usurp the name may
have the thing; and by the power of the cross, to which they are
now dead, instead of being dead to the world by it, may be made
partakers of the resurrection that is in Christ Jesus, unto newness
of life. For they that are truly in Christ, that is, redeemed by,
and interested in him, are new creatures. (Gal. vi. 15.) They have
received a new will; such as does the will of God, not their own.
They pray in truth, and do not mock God, when they say, Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. They have new affections; such
as are set on things above, (Col. iii. 1, 2, 3,) and make Christ
their eternal treasure. New faith; (1 John, 4, 5;) such as overcomes
the snares and temptations of the world's spirit in themselves,
or as it appears through others: and lastly, new works; not of a
superstitious contrivance, or of human invention, but the pure
fruits of the Spirit of Christ working in them, as love, joy, peace,
meekness, long-suffering, temperance, brotherly-kindness, faith,
patience, gentleness, and goodness, against which there is no law;
and they that have not the Spirit of Christ, and walk not in it, the
apostle Paul has told us, are none of his; (Rom. viii. 9;) but the
wrath of God, and condemnation of the law, will lie upon them. For
if there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ; who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit, which is Paul's doctrine;
they that walk not according to that Holy Spirit, by his doctrine,
are not in Christ: that is, have no interest in him, nor just claim
to salvation by him: and consequently there is condemnation to such.
IX. And the truth is, the religion of the wicked is a lie: "there
is no peace, saith the prophet, to the wicked." (Isaiah, xlviii.
22.) Indeed there can be none; they are reproved in their own
consciences, and condemned in their own hearts, in all their
disobedience. Go where they will, rebukes go with them, and
oftentimes terrors too: for it is an offended God that pricks
them, and who, by his light, sets their sins in order before them.
Sometimes they strive to appease him by their corporeal framed
devotion and worship, but in vain; for true worshipping of God
is doing his will, which they transgress. The rest is a false
compliment, like him that said he would go, and did not. (Matt.
xxi. 30.) Sometimes they fly to sports and company, to drown the
reprover's voice, and blunt his arrows, to chase away troubled
thoughts, and secure themselves out of the reach of the disquieter
of their pleasures; but the Almighty, first or last, is sure to
overtake them. There is no flying his final justice, for those
that reject the terms of his mercy. Impenitent rebels to his law
may then call to the mountains, and run to the caves of the earth
for protection, but in vain. His all-searching eye will penetrate
their thickest coverings, and strike up a light in that obscurity,
which shall terrify their guilty souls; and which they shall never
be able to extinguish. Indeed, their accuser is with them, they
can no more be rid of him than of themselves; he is in the midst
of them, and will stick close to them. That spirit which bears
witness with the spirits of the just will bear witness against
theirs. Nay, their own hearts will abundantly come in against them;
and, "if our hearts condemn us," saith the apostle John, "God is
greater, and knows all things;" (1 John iii. 20;) that is, there
is no escaping the judgments of God, whose power is infinite, if
a man is not able to escape the condemnation of himself. It is at
that day proud and luxurious Christians shall learn that God is no
respecter of persons; that all sects and names shall be swallowed up
in these two kinds, sheep and goats, just and unjust: and the very
righteous must have a trial for it; which made that holy man cry
out, "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear?" (1 Pet. iv. 18.) If their thoughts, words,
and works must stand the test, and come under scrutiny before the
impartial Judge of heaven and earth, how then should the ungodly be
exempted? No; we are told by him that cannot lie, many shall then
even cry, Lord, Lord! set forth their profession, and recount the
works that they have done in his name, to make him propitious, and
yet be rejected with this direful sentence, "Depart from me, ye
workers of iniquity; I know you not." (Matt. vii. 23.) As if he had
said, Get you gone, you evil doers; though you have professed me,
I will not know you; your vain and evil lives have made you unfit
for my holy kingdom: get you hence, and go to the gods whom you
have served; your beloved lusts which you have worshipped, and the
evil world that you have so much coveted and adored: let them save
you now, if they can, from the wrath to come upon you, which is the
wages of the deeds you have done. Here is the end of their work that
build upon the sand; the breath of the Judge will blow it down, and
woful will the fall thereof be. Oh, it is now that the righteous
have the better of the wicked! which made an apostate cry, in old
time, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end
be like unto his." (Numb. xxiii. 10.) For the sentence is changed,
and the Judge smiles; he casts the eye of love upon his own sheep,
and invites them with "Come, ye blessed of my Father," (Matt. xxv.
34,) that through patient continuance in well-doing have long waited
for immortality; you have been the true companions of my tribulation
and cross, and, with unwearied faithfulness, in obedience to my
holy will, valiantly endured to the end, looking to me, the Author
of your precious faith, for the recompense of reward that I have
promised to them that love me, and faint not: O, enter ye into the
joy of your Lord, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.
X. O Christendom! my soul most fervently prays, that after all thy
lofty profession of Christ, and his meek and holy religion, thy
unsuitable and un-Christ-like life may not cast thee at that great
assize of the world, and lose thee so great salvation at last. Hear
me once, I beseech thee: can Christ be thy Lord, and thou not obey
him? or, canst thou be his servant, and never serve him? "Be not
deceived, such as thou sowest shalt thou reap." (Gal. vi. 7.) He is
none of thy Saviour whilst thou rejectest his grace in thy heart, by
which he should save thee. Come, what has he saved thee from? Has
he saved thee from thy sinful lusts, thy worldly affections, and
vain conversations? If not, then he is none of thy Saviour. For,
though he be offered a Saviour to all, yet he is actually a Saviour
to those only that are saved by him; and none are saved by him that
live in those evils by which they are lost from God, and which he
came to save them from.
It is sin that Christ is come to save man from, and death and wrath,
as the wages of it; but those that are not saved, that is delivered,
by the power of Christ in their souls, from the power that sin has
had over them, can never be saved from the death and wrath, that are
the assured wages of the sin they live in.
So that look how far people obtain victory over those evil
dispositions and fleshly lusts, they have been addicted to, so far
they are truly saved, and are witnesses of the redemption that comes
by Jesus Christ. His name shows his work: "And thou shalt call his
name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sin." (Matt. i.
21.) "Behold," said John, of Christ, "the Lamb of God that takes
away the sins of the world." (John, i. 29.) That is, behold him whom
God hath given to enlighten people, and for salvation to as many as
receive him, and his light and grace in their hearts, and take up
their daily cross and follow him; such as rather deny themselves the
pleasure of fulfilling their lusts than sin against the knowledge he
has given them of his will, or do that they know they ought not to
do.