CHAPTER III.
An enquiry into the first and chief reason, why the generality of christians fall so far short of the holiness and devotion of christianity.
SINCE christian devotion is nothing less than a life wholly devoted unto God, and persons who are free from the necessities of labour and employments, are to consider themselves as devoted to God in a higher degree; it may now reasonably be enquired, how it comes to pass, that the lives even of the moral and better sort of people, are in general so directly contrary to the principles of christianity? I answer, because the generality of those that call themselves christians, are destitute of a true living faith in Jesus Christ; for want of which they never effectually intended to please God in all the actions of life, as the happiest and best thing in the world.
To be partaker of such a faith, is every where represented in scripture, as a fundamental and necessary part of true piety. For without a living faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, our persons cannot be justified, and consequently none of our performances acceptable in the sight of God. It is this faith that enables us to overcome the world, and to devote ourselves without reserve to promote the glory of Him, who has loved and given himself for us. And therefore it is purely for want of such a faith, that you see such a mixture of sin and folly in the lives even of the better sort of people: It is for want of this faith, that you see clergymen given to pride, and covetousness, and worldly enjoyments: It is for want of such a faith that you see women who profess devotion, yet living in all the folly and vanity of dress, wasting their time in idleness and pleasures, and in all such instances of state and equipage as their estate will reach. Let but a woman feel her heart full of this faith, and she will no more desire to shine at balls and assemblies, or to make a figure among those that are most finely dressed, than she will desire to dance upon a rope to please spectators. For she will then know that the one is as far from the true nature, wisdom, and excellency of the christian spirit, as is the other.
Let a clergyman be but thus pious, and he will converse as if he had been brought up by an Apostle; he will no more think and talk of noble preferment, than of noble eating, or a glorious chariot. He will no more complain of the frowns of the world, or a small cure, or the want of a patron, than he will complain of the want of a laced coat, or of a running horse. Let him but have such a faith in love for God, as will constrain him to make it his business to study to please God in all his actions, as the happiest and best thing in the world, and then he will know, that there is nothing noble in a clergyman, but burning zeal for the salvation of souls; nor any thing poor in his profession but idleness and a worldly spirit.
Further, let a tradesman but have such a faith, and it will make him a saint in his shop; his every day business will be a course of wise and reasonable actions, made holy to God, by flowing from faith, proceeding from love, and by being done in obedience to his will and pleasure. He will therefore not chiefly consider, what arts or methods or application will soonest make him greater and richer than his brethren, that he may remove from a shop, to a life of state and pleasure; but he will chiefly consider, what arts, what methods, and what application can make worldly business most conducive to God’s glory, and his neighbour’s good; and consequently make a life of trade, to be a life of holiness, devotion, and undissembled piety.
It was this faith that made the primitive christians such eminent instances of religion; and that made the goodly fellowship of the saints in all ages, and all the glorious army of confessors and martyrs. And if we will stop and ask ourselves, why we are not as pious as the primitive christians, and saints of old were? our own hearts must tell us, that it is because we never yet perhaps earnestly sought after, and consequently were never really made partakers of, that precious faith, whereby they were constrained to intend to please God in all their actions, as the best and happiest thing in the world.
Here then let us judge ourselves sincerely; let us not vainly content ourselves with the common disorders of our lives, the vanity of our expences, the folly of our diversions, the pride of our habits, the idleness of our lives, and the wasting of our time; fancying that these are only such imperfections as we necessarily fall into, through the unavoidable weakness and frailty of our nature; but let us be assured that these habitual disorders of our common life, are so many demonstrable proofs, that we never yet truly accepted of the Lord Jesus and his righteousness by a living faith, and never really intended, as a proof and evidence of such a faith, to please God in all the actions of our life, as the best thing in the world.
Though this be a matter that we can easily pass over at present, whilst the health of our bodies, the passions of our minds, the noise, and hurry, and pleasures, and business of the world, lead us on with “eyes that see not, and ears that hear not:” yet at death, it will set itself before us in a dreadful magnitude; it will haunt us like a dismal ghost, and our consciences will never let us take our eyes from it, unless they are seared as with a red hot iron, and God shall have given us over to a reprobate mind.
Penitens was a busy notable tradesman, and very prosperous in his dealings; but died in the thirty-fifth year of his age.
A little before his death, when the doctors had given him over, some of his neighbours came one evening to see him; at which time he spake thus to them.
I see, (says he) my friends, the tender concern you have for me, by the grief that appears in your countenances, and I know the thoughts that you now have of me. You think how melancholy a case it is, to see so young a man, and in such flourishing business, delivered up to death. And perhaps, had I visited any of you in my condition, I should have had the same thoughts of you. But now, my friends, my thoughts are no more like your thoughts, than my condition is like yours. It is no trouble to me now to think that I am to die young, or before I have raised an estate. These things are sunk into such mere nothings, that I have no name little enough to call them by. For if in a few days, or hours, I am to leave this carcase to be buried in the earth, and to find myself either for ever happy in the favour of God, or eternally separated from all light and peace; can any words sufficiently express the littleness of every thing else?
Is there any dream, like the dream of life, which amuses us with the neglect and disregard of these things? Is there any folly like the folly of our manly state, which is too wise and busy to be at leisure for these reflections?
When we consider death as a misery, we generally think of it as a miserable separation from the enjoyments of this life. We seldom mourn over an old man that dies rich, but we lament the young, that are taken away in the progress of their fortunes. You yourselves look upon me with pity, not that you think I am going unprepared to meet the Judge of quick and dead, but that I am to leave a prosperous trade in the flower of my life.
This is the wisdom of our manly thoughts. And yet what folly of the silliest children, is so great as this? For what is there miserable or dreadful in death, but the consequences of it? When a man is dead, what does any thing signify to him, but the state he is then in?
Our poor friend Lepidus, you know died as he was dressing himself for a feast; do you think it is now part of his trouble, that he did not live till that entertainment was over? Feasts, and business, and pleasures and enjoyments, seem great things to us, whilst we think of nothing else; but as soon as we add death to them, they all sink into littleness not to be expressed; and the soul that is separated from the body, no more laments the loss of business, than the losing of a feast.
If I am now going to the joys of God, could there be any reason to grieve, that this happened to me before I was forty years of age. Can it be a sad thing to go to heaven, before I have made a few more bargains, or stood a little longer behind a counter?
And if I am to go amongst lost spirits, could there be any reason to be content, that this did not happen to me till I was old and full of riches.
If good angels were ready to receive my soul, could it be any grief to me that I was dying on a poor bed in a garret?
And if God has delivered me up to evil spirits, to be dragged by them to places of torment, could it be any comfort to me, that they found me upon a bed of state? When you are as near death as I am, you will know, that all the different states of life, whether of youth or age, riches or poverty, greatness or meanness, signify no more to you, than whether you die in a poor or stately apartment.
The greatness of the things which follow death, makes all that goes before it sink into nothing.
Now, that judgment is the next thing which I look for, and everlasting happiness or misery is come so near to me, all the enjoyments and prosperities of life seem as vain and insignificant, and to have no more to do with my happiness, than the cloaths that I wore when I was a little child.
What a strange thing! that a little health, or the poor business of a shop, should keep us so senseless of these great things that are coming so fast upon us!
Just as you came into my chamber, I was thinking with myself, what numbers of souls there are in the world, in my condition at this very time, surprized with a summons to the other world: some taken from their shops and farms, others from their sports and pleasures; these at suits at law, those at gaming-tables; some on the road, others at their own fire-sides; and all seized at an hour when they thought nothing of it; frighted at the approach of death; confounded at the vanity of all their labours, designs, and projects; astonished at the folly of their past lives, and not knowing which way to turn their thoughts, to find any comfort. Their consciences flying in their faces, bringing all their sins to remembrance, tormenting them with the deepest convictions of their own folly, presenting them with the sight of the angry Judge, and the worm that never dies, the fire that is never quenched, the gates of hell, the powers of darkness, and the bitter pains of eternal death.
O my friends! bless God that you are not of this number; and take this along with you, that there is nothing but a real faith in the Lord Jesus, and a life of true piety, or a death of great stupidity, that can keep off these apprehensions.
Had I now a thousand worlds, I would give them all for one moment’s scriptural assurance that I had really received the Lord Jesus by a living faith into my heart, and for one year’s more continuance in life, that I might evidence the sincerity of that faith, by presenting unto God, one year of such devotion and good works, as I am persuaded I have hitherto never done.
Perhaps, when you consider that I have lived free from scandal and debauchery, and in the communion of the church, you wonder to see me so full of remorse and self-condemnation at the approach of death.
But alas! what a poor thing is it, to have lived only free from murder, theft, and adultery, which is all that I can say of myself. Was not the slothful servant, that is condemned in the gospel, thus negatively good? And did not the Saviour of mankind tell the young man who led a more blameless and moral life than I have done, that yet one thing he lacked.
But the thing that now surprizes me above all wonders, is this, that till of late I never was convinced of that reigning soul-destroying sin of unbelief; and that I was out of a state of salvation, notwithstanding my negative goodness, my seemingly strict morality, and attendance on public worship and the holy sacrament. It never entered into my head or heart, that the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone, could recommend me to the favour of a sin avenging God, and that I must be born again of God, and have Christ formed in my heart, before I could have any well-grounded assurance that I was a christian indeed, or have any solid foundation whereon I might build the superstructure of a truly holy and pious life.
Alas! I thought I had faith in Christ, because I was born in a christian country, and said in my creed, that “I believed on Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord.” I thought I was certainly regenerate and born again, and was a real christian, because I was baptized when I was young, and received the holy sacrament in my adult age. But alas! little did I consider that faith is something more than the world generally thinks of; a work of the heart, and not merely of the head, and that I must know and feel that there is no other name given under heaven whereby I can be saved, but that of Jesus Christ.
It is true indeed, you have frequently seen me at church and the sacrament; but alas, you little think what remorse of conscience I now feel for so frequently saying, “the remembrance of our sins is grievous unto us, and the burden of them is intolerable,” when I never experienced the meaning of them in all my life. You have also seen me join with the minister when he said, “we do not approach thy table trusting on our own righteousness;” but all this while I was utterly ignorant of God’s righteousness, which is by faith in Christ Jesus, and was going about to establish a righteousness of my own. It is true indeed, I have kept the fasts and feasts of the church, and have called Christ, Lord, Lord; but little did I think, that no one could call Christ truly Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. I have attended upon ordinations, and heard the Bishop ask the candidates, “whether they were called by the Holy Ghost;” I have seriously attended to the minister, when he exhorted us to pray for true repentance and God’s holy Spirit; but alas, I never enquired whether I myself had received the Holy Ghost to sanctify and purify my heart, and worked a true evangelical repentance in my soul. I have prayed in the litany that I might bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, but alas, my whole life has been nothing but a dead life, a round of duties, and model of performances, without any living faith for their foundation. I have professed myself a member of the church of England; I have cried out, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,” and in my zeal have exclaimed against Dissenters; but little did I think, that I was ignorant all this while of most of her essential articles, and that my practice, as well as the want of a real experience of a work of regeneration and true conversion, when I was using her offices, and reading her homilies, gave my conscience the lie.
O my friends! a form of godliness without the power, and dead morality not founded on a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is such a dreadful delusion, so contrary to the lively oracles of God, that did not I know (though alas how late!) that the righteousness of Jesus Christ was revealed in them, and that there was mercy to be found with God, if we venture by a real faith on that righteousness, though at the eleventh hour, I must now sink into total despair.
Penitens was here going on, but had his mouth stopped by a convulsion, which never suffered him to speak any more. He lay convulsed about twelve hours, and then gave up the ghost.
Now if every reader would imagine this Penitens to have been some particular acquaintance or relation of his, and fancy that he saw and heard all which is here described; that he stood by his bed-side when his poor friend lay in such distress and agony, lamenting the want of a living faith in Jesus Christ, as the cause of a dead, lifeless, indevout life: if besides this, he should consider, how often he himself might have been surprized in the same formal dead state, and made an example to the rest of the world; this double reflection, both upon the distress of his friend, and the goodness of that God, which ought to have led him to repentance, would in all likelihood set him upon seeking and earnestly praying for such a faith, of which Penitens felt himself void, and constrain him to let the Lord have no rest, till he should be pleased to apply the righteousness of his dear Son to his sin-sick soul, and enable him henceforward to study, out of love, to glorify him in all the actions of his future life, as the best and happiest thing in the world.
This therefore being so useful a meditation, I shall here leave the reader, I hope, seriously engaged in it.
CHAPTER IV.
Shewing, how the fear of being singular, and making the world their rule of action, is a second great cause, why so few devote themselves to God.
ANOTHER cause why so few devote themselves to God, is a fear of contempt from the world, and their making its modes and customs the general rule of all their actions.
The history of the gospel is chiefly the history of Christ’s conquest over the world. And the number of true christians, is only the number of those who following the Spirit of Christ, have lived, and do live, contrary to this spirit of the world.
“Whosoever is born of God, (says the apostle) overcometh the world. Set your affections on things above, and not on things on the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
This is the language of the whole New Testament; this is the mark of real christianity. We are to be dead to the spirit and temper of the world, and live a new life in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
It was this, that made Saint Paul so passionately express himself, “God forbid, that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” But why does he glory? because his christian profession had called him to the honour of suffering for Christ, and of dying to the world, under reproach and contempt, as the Lord Jesus had died upon the cross. Hence he immediately adds, “by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
Thus was the cross of Christ, in Saint Paul’s time, the glory of christians. For he elsewhere asserts, speaking of christians in general, that they are “to suffer, to be crucified, to die, and to rise with Christ;” or else his crucifixion, and death, and resurrection, will profit them nothing. As to his sufferings, says he, “if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.” As to his crucifixion and death, “Knowing that our old man is crucified with him. If we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.” And then as to the resurrection of Christ, says he, “If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.” From all which texts it plainly appears, that our blessed Lord not only died and rose again in our stead, and as our federal head and representative, but that also if we are christians indeed, we are to be conformed to all he did and suffered for us.
It was for this reason, that the holy Jesus said of his Disciples, and of all true believers, “they are not of this world, as I am not of this world.” Because, all true believers conforming to the sufferings, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Christ, live no longer after the spirit and temper of this world, but “their life is hid with Christ in God.”
How high this life is placed above the ways of the world, is wonderfully described by Saint Paul, in these words: “Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh; yet henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
He that feels the force and spirit of these words, can hardly bear any human interpretation of them. “Henceforth, &c.” that is, since the death and resurrection of Christ, the state of christianity is become so glorious a state, that we do not even consider Christ himself as in the flesh upon earth, but as a God of glory in heaven; we know and consider ourselves not barely as men in the flesh, but as fellow members of a new society, that are to have all our hearts, our tempers and conversation in heaven.
Saint John plainly declares thus much: “They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them; we are of God.” This is his description of the followers of Christ; and it is proof enough, that no people are to be reckoned christians in reality, who in their hearts and tempers belong to this world.
Saint Paul takes it for a certainty so well known to christians, that they are no longer to be considered as living in this world, that he thus argues from it, as from an undeniable principle, concerning the abolishing the rites of the Jewish law: “Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” Here could be no argument in this, but in the Apostle’s taking it for undeniable, that christians knew, their profession required them to have done with all the tempers and passions of this world, and to live as citizens of the New Jerusalem, and to have their conversation in heaven.
Our blessed Lord himself has fully determined this point, in these words, “They are not of this world, as I am not of this world.” This is the state of christianity with regard to this world. If you are not thus out of and contrary to the world, you want the distinguishing mark of christianity: You do not belong to Christ, but by being out of the world as he was out of it.
We may deceive ourselves, if we please, with vain and softening comments upon these words; but they are and will be understood in their first simplicity and plainness, by every one who reads them in the same spirit that our blessed Lord spoke them. And to understand them in any lower and less significant meaning, is to let carnal wisdom explain away that doctrine, by which itself was to be destroyed.
But notwithstanding the clearness and plainness of these doctrines, which teach us thus to renounce the world, yet what a great part of christians do live and die slaves to the customs and temper of the world.
How many people swell with pride and vanity for such things as they would not know how to value at all? but that they are admired in the world.
Would a man take ten years more drudgery in business to add two horses more to his coach, but that he knows, the world most of all admires a coach and six?
To abound in wealth, to have fine houses and rich cloaths, to be attended with splendor and equipage, to be beautiful in our persons, to have titles of dignity, to be above our fellow-creatures, to command the bows and obeisance of other people, to be looked on with admiration, to pursue our enemies with revenge, to subdue all that oppose us, to set ourselves in as much splendor as we can, to live highly and magnificently, to eat and drink, and delight ourselves in the most costly manner; these are the great, the honourable, the desirable things, to which the spirit of the world turns the eyes of all people; and many a one is afraid of standing still, and not engaging in the pursuit of these things, lest the same world should take him for a fool.
Many a man would often drop a resentment, and forgive an affront, but that he is afraid the world would not forgive him.
How many would practice christian temperance and sobriety in its utmost extent, were it not for the censure which the world passes upon such a life?
Thus do the impressions which we have received from living in the world enslave our minds, so that we dare not attempt to be eminent in the sight of God, and holy angels, for fear of being little in the eyes of the world.
You will perhaps say, that the world is now become christian, at least that part of it where we live; and therefore the world is not now to be considered in that state of opposition to christianity, as when it was heathen.
It is granted, the world now professeth christianity. But will any one say, that this christian world is of the spirit of Christ? are its general tempers the tempers of Christ? are the passions of sensuality, self-love, pride, covetousness, ambition, and vain-glory, less contrary to the spirit of the gospel, now they are amongst christians, than when they were among heathens? Or will you say, that the tempers and passions of the heathen world are lost and gone?
The world is fully described to our hands by Saint John. “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” &c. Now will you say, that this world is become christian? But if all this still subsists, then the same world is now in being, and the same enemy to christianity that was in Saint John’s days.
Had you lived with our Saviour, as his true disciple, you had then been hated as he was; and if you now live in his spirit, the world will be the same enemy to you now, that it was to him then.
“If ye were of the world, (saith our blessed Lord) the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
We are apt to lose the true meaning of these words, by considering them only as an historical description of something that was the state of our Saviour and his disciples at that time. But this is reading the scripture as a dead letter: for they as exactly describe the state of true christians in this, and all other times, to the end of the world.
For as true christianity is nothing else but the spirit of Christ, so whether that spirit appear in the person of Christ himself, or in his apostles, or followers in any age, it is the same thing: whoever hath his spirit, will be hated, despised, and condemned by the world, as he was. For the world will always love its own, and none but its own: this is as certain and unchangeable, as the contrariety between light and darkness.
When the holy Jesus saith, “If the world hate you,” he does not add by way of consolation, that it may some time or other cease its hatred, or that it will not always hate them; but he only gives this as a reason for their bearing it, “You know that it hated me, before it hated you:” signifying, that it was he, or his spirit, that by reason of its contrariety to the world, was then, and always would be hated by it.
Whether, therefore, the world outwardly professeth, or openly persecuteth christianity, it is still in the same state of contrariety to the true spirit and holiness of the gospel.
And indeed the world, by professing christianity, is so far from being a less dangerous enemy than it was before, that it has by its favour destroyed more christians, than ever it did by the most violent persecution.
It is a greater and more dangerous enemy, because it has greater power over christians by its favours, riches, honours, rewards, and protections, than it had by the fire and fury of its persecutions.
It is a more dangerous enemy, by having lost its appearance of enmity. And the change that the world has undergone, has only altered its methods, but not lessened its power of destroying religion.
Christians had nothing to fear from the heathen world, but the loss of their lives; but the world become a friend, makes it difficult for them to save their religion.
How many consciences are kept at quiet, upon no other foundation, but because they sin under the authority of the christian world? How many directions of the gospel lie by unregarded, and how unconcernedly do particular persons read them? for no other reason, but because they seem unregarded by the christian world. So that there is hardly any possibility of saving yourself from the present world, but by considering it as the same wicked enemy to all true holiness, as it is represented in the scriptures; and by assuring yourself, that it is as dangerous to conform to its tempers and passions, now it is christian, as when it was heathen.
From this quarter, therefore, arises a great obstruction to a really devout life, because it cannot subsist in any person, but so far as he is dead to the world. And though human prudence seems to talk mighty wisely about the necessity of avoiding particularities, yet he that dares not be so weak as to be particular, will be often obliged to avoid the most substantial duties of christian piety.