1. By this Christendom may see her lapse, how foul it is, and
next, the worse for her pretence to Christianity.--2. But there
is mercy with God upon repentance, and propitiation in the
blood of Jesus.--3. He is the light of the world that reproves
the darkness, that is, the evil of the world; and he is to be
known within.--4. Christendom, like the inn of old, is full of
other guests: she is advised to believe in, receive, and apply
to Christ.--5. Of the nature of true faith; it brings power
to overcome every appearance of evil: this leads to consider
the Cross of Christ, which has been so much wanted.--6. The
apostolic ministry, and end of it; its blessed effect; the
character of apostolic times.--7. The glory of the cross, and
its triumph over the heathen world. A measure to Christendom,
what she is not, and should be.--8. Her declension, and cause
of it.--9. The miserable effects that followed.--10. From the
consideration of the cause the cure may be more easily known,
viz., Not faithfully taking up the daily cross; then, faithfully
taking it daily up must be the remedy.
I. By all which has been said, O Christendom! and by that better
help, if thou wouldst use it, the lamp the Lord has lighted in thee,
not utterly extinct, it may evidently appear, first, how great and
full thy backsliding has been, who, from the temple of the Lord,
art become a cage of unclean birds; and of a house of prayer, a
den of thieves, a synagogue of Satan, and the receptacle of every
defiled spirit. Next, that under all this manifest defection, thou
hast nevertheless valued thy corrupt self upon thy profession of
Christianity, and fearfully deluded thyself with the hopes of
salvation. The first makes thy disease dangerous, but the last
almost incurable.
II. Yet, because there is mercy with God that he may be feared,
and that he takes no delight in the eternal death of poor sinners,
no, though backsliders themselves, (Ezek. xviii. 20, 23, 24,) but
is willing all should come to the knowledge and obedience of the
Truth, and be saved, he hath set forth his Son a propitiation, and
given him as a Saviour to take away the sins of the whole world,
that those that believe and follow him may feel the righteousness
of God in the remission of their sins, and blotting out their
transgressions for ever. (Matt. i. 21; Luke i. 77; Rom. iii. 25;
Heb. ix. 24 to 28; 1 John ii. 1, 2.) Now, behold the remedy! an
infallible cure, one of God's appointing; a precious elixir, indeed,
that never fails; and that universal medicine which no malady could
ever escape.
III. But thou wilt say, What is Christ? and where is he to be
found? and how received and applied, in order to this mighty cure?
I tell thee then, first, he is the great spiritual light of the
world that enlightens every one that comes into the world; by which
he manifests to them their deeds of darkness and wickedness, and
reproves them for committing them. Secondly, he is not far away
from thee, (Acts, xvii. 27.) as the apostle Paul said of God to the
Athenians. "Behold," says Christ himself, "I stand at the door and
knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in
to him, and sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. iii. 20.) What door
can this be but that of the heart of man?
IV. Thou, like the inn of old, hast been full of guests; thy
affections have entertained other lovers; there has been no room for
thy Saviour in thy soul. Wherefore salvation is not yet come into
thy house, though it is come to thy door, and thou hast been often
proffered it, and hast professed it long. But if he calls, if he
knocks still, that is, if his light yet shines, if it reproves thee
still, there is hope thy day is not over, and that repentance is
not yet hid from thine eyes; but his love is after thee still, and
his holy invitation continues to save thee.
Wherefore, O Christendom! believe, receive, and apply him rightly;
this is of absolute necessity, that thy soul may live for ever with
him. He told the Jews, "If you believe not that I am he, ye shall
die in your sins; and whither I go ye cannot come." (John, viii.
21, 24.) And because they believed him not, they did not receive
him, nor any benefit by him. But they that believed him received
him; and as many as received him, his own beloved disciple tells us,
"to them gave he power to become the sons of God, which are born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God." (John, i. 12, 13.) That is, who are not children of
God after the fashions, prescriptions, and traditions of men, that
call themselves his church and people, which is not after the will
of flesh and blood, and the invention of carnal man, unacquainted
with the regeneration and power of the Holy Ghost, but of God; that
is, according to his will and the working and sanctification of his
Spirit and word of life in them. And such were ever well versed in
the right application of Christ, for he was made to them indeed
propitiation, reconciliation, salvation, righteousness, redemption,
and justification.
So I say to thee, unless thou believest that he that stands at the
door of thy heart and knocks, and sets thy sins in order before
thee, and calls thee to repentance, be the Saviour of the world,
thou wilt die in thy sins, and where he is gone thou wilt never
come. For, if thou believest not in him, it is impossible that he
should do thee good, or effect thy salvation: Christ works not
against faith, but by it. It is said of old, "He did not many mighty
works in some places, because the people believed not in him."
(John, i. 12, 13.) So that, if thou truly believest in him, thine
ear will be attentive to his voice in thee, and the door of thine
heart open to his knocks. Thou wilt yield to the discoveries of his
light, and the teachings of his grace will be very dear to thee.
V. It is the nature of true faith to beget a holy fear of offending
God, a deep reverence to his precepts, and a most tender regard to
the inward testimony of his Spirit, as that by which his children
in all ages have been safely led to glory. For, as they that truly
believe receive Christ in all his tenders to the soul, so as true
it is that those who receive him thus, with him receive power to
become the sons of God: that is, an inward force and ability to do
whatever he requires; strength to mortify their lusts, controul
their affections, resist evil motions, deny themselves, and overcome
the world in its most enticing appearances. This is the life of
the blessed Cross of Christ, which is the subject of the following
discourse, and what thou, O man, must take up, if thou intendest
to be the disciple of Jesus. Nor canst thou be said to receive
Christ, or to believe in him, whilst thou rejectest his cross. For,
as receiving of Christ is the means appointed of God to salvation,
so bearing the daily cross after him is the only true testimony of
receiving him, and therefore it is enjoined by him as the great
token of discipleship, "If any man will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Matt. xvi. 24.)
This, Christendom, is that thou hast so much wanted, and the want
of which has proved the only cause of thy miserable declension from
pure Christianity. To consider which well, as it is thy duty, so it
is of great use to thy restoration.
For as the knowledge of the cause of any distemper guides the
physician to make a right and safe judgment in the application of
his medicine, so it will much enlighten thee in the way of thy
recovery, to know and weigh the first cause of this spiritual lapse
and malady that has befallen thee. To do which, a general view of
thy primitive estate, and consequently of their work that first
laboured in the Christian vineyard, will be needful; and if therein
something be repeated, the weight and dignity of the subject will
bear it, without the need of an apology.
VI. The work of apostleship, we are told by a prime labourer in
it, was to turn people "from darkness to light, and from the power
of Satan unto God." (Acts, xxvi. 18.) That is, instead of yielding
to the temptations and motions of Satan, who is the prince of
darkness or wickedness, the one being a metaphor to the other, by
whose power their understandings were obscured, and their souls
held in the service of sin, they should turn their minds to the
appearance of Christ, the Light and Saviour of the world; who by
his light shines in their souls, and thereby gives them a sight
of their sins, and discovers every temptation and motion in them
unto evil, and reproves them when they give way thereunto; that so
they might become the children of light, and walk in the path of
righteousness. And for this blessed work of reformation did Christ
endue his apostles with his spirit and power, that so men might not
longer sleep in a security of sin and ignorance of God, but awake
to righteousness, that the Lord Jesus might give them life; that
is, that they might leave off sinning, deny themselves the pleasure
of wickedness, and, by true repentance, turn their hearts to God
in well doing, in which is peace. And truly God so blessed the
faithful labours of these poor mechanics, yet his great ambassadors
to mankind, that in a few years many thousands that had lived
without God in the world, without a sense or fear of him, lawlessly,
very strangers to the work of his Spirit in their hearts, being
captivated by fleshly lusts, were inwardly struck and quickened by
the word of life, and made sensible of the coming and power of the
Lord Jesus Christ as a judge and lawgiver in their souls, by whose
holy light and spirit the hidden things of darkness were brought
to light and condemned, and pure repentance from those dead works
begotten in them, that they might serve the living God in newness of
spirit. So that thenceforward they lived not to themselves, neither
were they carried away of those former divers lusts, by which they
had been seduced from the true fear of God; but "the law of the
spirit of life," (Rom. viii. 2,) by which they overcame the law of
sin and death, was their delight, and therein did they meditate day
and night. Their regard towards God was not taught by the precepts
of men any longer, (Isaiah, xxix. 13,) but from the knowledge they
had received by his own work and impressions in their souls. They
had quitted their old masters, the world, the flesh, and the devil,
and delivered up themselves to the holy guidance of the grace of
Christ, that taught them to "deny ungodliness and the world's lusts,
and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present life:"
(Tit. ii. 11, 12:) this is the cross of Christ indeed, and here is
the victory it gives to them that take it up; by this cross they
died daily to the old life they had lived, and by holy watchfulness
against the secret motions of evil in their hearts they crushed
sin in its conceptions, yea in its temptations. So that they, as
the apostle John advised them, "kept themselves, that the evil one
touched them not." (1 John, v. 18.)
For the light, which Satan cannot endure, and with which Christ had
enlightened them, discovered him in all his approaches and assaults
upon the mind; and the power they received through their inward
obedience to the manifestations of that blessed light, enabled them
to resist and vanquish him in all his stratagems. And thus it was
that, where once nothing was examined, nothing went unexamined;
every thought must come to judgment, and the rise and tendency of
it be also well approved, before they allowed it any room in their
minds. There was no fear of entertaining enemies for friends, whilst
this strict guard was kept upon the very wicket of the soul. Now the
old heavens and earth, that is, the old earthly conversation, and
old carnal, that is Jewish or shadowy worship, passed away apace,
and every day all things became new. He was no more a Jew that was
one outwardly, nor that circumcision that was in the flesh; but he
was the Jew that was one inwardly, and that circumcision which was
of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of man, but of God. (Rom. ii. 28, 29.)
VII. Indeed, the glory of the cross shined so conspicuously through
the self-denial of their lives who daily bore it, that it struck
the heathen with astonishment; and in a small time so shook their
altars, discredited their oracles, struck the multitude, invaded the
court, and overcame their armies, that it led priests, magistrates,
and generals in triumph after it, as the trophies of its power and
victory.
And, while this integrity dwelt with Christians, mighty was
the presence, and invincible that power that attended them; it
quenched fire, daunted lions, turned the edge of the sword,
outfaced instruments of cruelty, convicted judges, and converted
executioners. (Heb. xi. 32, to the end; Isaiah, xliii. 2; Daniel,
iii. 12, to the end.) In fine, the way their enemies took to
destroy, increased them; and, by the deep wisdom of God, they who
in all their designs endeavoured to extinguish the truth were made
great promoters of it. (Dan. vi. 16, to the end.) Now, not a vain
thought, not an idle word, not an unseemly action was permitted; no,
not an immodest look, no courtly dress, gay apparel, complimental
respects, or personal honours: much less those lewd immoralities
and scandalous vices, now in vogue with Christians, could find
either example or connivance among them. Their care was not how to
sport away their precious time, but how to redeem it, (Eph. v. 15,
16,) that they might have enough to work out their great salvation,
which they carefully did, with fear and trembling: not with balls
and masks, with playhouses, dancing, feasting, and gaming; no,
no; to make sure of their heavenly calling and election was much
dearer to them than the poor and trifling joys of mortality. For
they having, with Moses, seen him that is invisible, and found
that his loving-kindness was better than life, the peace of his
Spirit than the favour of princes,--as they feared not Cæsar's
wrath,--so they chose rather to sustain the afflictions of Christ's
true pilgrims than enjoy the pleasures of sin that were but for a
season; esteeming his reproaches of more value than the perishing
treasures of the earth. And if the tribulations of Christianity were
more eligible than the comforts of the world, and the reproaches
of one than all the honour of the other, there was then surely no
temptations in it that could shake the integrity of Christendom.
VIII. By this short draught of what Christendom was, thou mayest
see, O Christendom, what thou are not, and consequently what thou
oughtest to be. But how comes it that from a Christendom that was
thus meek, merciful, self-denying, suffering, temperate, holy,
just, and good, so like to Christ, whose name she bore, we find a
Christendom now that is superstitious, idolatrous, persecuting,
proud, passionate, envious, malicious, selfish, drunken, lascivious,
unclean, lying, swearing, cursing, covetous, oppressing, defrauding,
with all other abominations known in the earth?
I lay this down as the undoubted reason of this degeneracy, to wit,
the inward disregard of thy mind to the light of Christ shining
in thee, that first showed thee thy sins and reproved them, and
that taught and enabled thee to deny and resist them. For as thy
fear towards God, and holy abstinence from unrighteousness, was,
at first, not taught by the precepts of men, but by that light
and grace which revealed the most secret thoughts and purposes of
thine heart, and searched the most inward parts, setting thy sins
in order before thee, and reproving thee for them, not suffering
one unfruitful thought, word, or work of darkness to go unjudged;
so when thou didst begin to disregard that light and grace, to be
careless of that holy watch that was once set up in thine heart, and
didst not keep sentinel there, as formerly, for God's glory and thy
own peace, the restless enemy of man's good quickly took advantage
of this slackness, and often surprised thee with temptations, whose
suitableness to thy inclinations made his conquest over thee not
difficult.
In short, thou didst omit to take up Christ's holy yoke, to bear
thy daily cross; thou wast careless of thy affections, and kept
no journal or check upon thy actions; but didst decline to audit
accounts in thy own conscience, with Christ thy light, the great
Bishop of thy soul and Judge of thy works, whereby the holy fear
decayed and love waxed cold, vanity abounded, and duty became
burdensome. Then up came formality, instead of the power of
godliness; superstition, in place of Christ's institution: and
whereas Christ's business was to draw on the minds of his disciples
from an outward temple, and carnal rites and services, to the inward
and spiritual worship of God, suitable to the nature of divinity, a
worldly, human, pompous worship is brought in again, and a worldly
priesthood, temple, and altar, are re-established. Now it was that
the sons of God once more saw the daughters of men were fair, (Gen.
vi. 2,) that is, the pure eye grew dim, which repentance had opened,
that saw no comeliness out of Christ, and the eye of lust became
unclosed again by the god of the world; and those worldly pleasures
that make such as love them forget God, though once despised for the
sake of Christ, began now to recover their old beauty and interest
in thy affections, and from liking them, to be the study, care, and
pleasure of thy life.
True, there still remained the exterior forms of worship and a
nominal and oral reverence to God and Christ, but that was all; for
the offence of the holy cross ceased, the power of godliness was
denied, self-denial lost, and, though fruitful in the invention
of ceremonious ornaments, yet barren in the blessed fruits of the
Spirit. And a thousand shells cannot make one kernel, or many dead
corpses one living man.
IX. Thus religion fell from experience to tradition, and worship
from power to form, from life to letter; and, instead of putting up
lively and powerful requests, animated by a deep sense of want and
the assistance of the Holy Spirit,--by which the ancients prayed,
wrestled, and prevailed with God,--behold a by-rote _mumpsimus_,
a dull and insipid formality, made up of corporeal bowings and
cringings, garments and furnitures, perfumes, voices, and music,
fitter for the reception of some earthly prince than the heavenly
worship of the one true and immortal God, who is an eternal,
invisible Spirit.
But thy heart growing carnal, thy religion did so too; and, not
liking it as it was, thou fashionedst it to thy liking: forgetting
what the holy prophet said, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an
abomination to the Lord," (Prov. xv. 8,) and what St. James saith,
"Ye ask, and receive not." (James, iv. 3.) Why? "Because ye ask
amiss;" that is, with a heart that is not right, but insincere,
unmortified, not in the faith that purifies the soul, and therefore
can never receive what is asked: so that a man may say with truth,
thy condition is worse by thy religion, because thou art tempted to
think thyself better for it, and art not.
X. Well; by this prospect that is given thee of thy foul fall from
primitive Christianity, and the true cause of it,--to wit, a neglect
of the daily cross of Christ,--it may be easy for thee to inform
thyself of the way of thy recovery.
For, look, at what door thou wentest out, at that door thou must
come in; and, as letting fall and forbearing the daily cross lost
thee, so taking up and enduring the daily cross must recover thee.
It is the same way by which the sinners and apostates become the
disciples of Jesus. "Whosoever," says Christ, "will come after me
and be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his daily
cross and follow me." (Matthew, xvi. 24; Mark, viii. 34; Luke,
xiv. 27.) Nothing short of this will do; mark that! for, as it is
sufficient, so it is indispensable; no crown but by the cross, no
life eternal but through death; and it is but just that those evil
and barbarous affections that crucified Christ afresh, should, by
his holy cross, be crucified.