NO CROSS, NO CROWN.

PART I.

47

CHAPTER I.

1. 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 from 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 of 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 worsc. 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 noncompliance 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 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 upon 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 the wages of it.

1. THOUGH the knowledge and obedience of the doctrine of the cross of Christ be of infinite moment

to the souls of men; being the only door to true Christianity, and the path which 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 the belief of what the Lord Jesus hath told us, 66 That whosoever doth not take up his daily cross, and come after him, cannot be his disciple ;” or, admitting it for truth, conclude, that the generality of Christendom do miserably deceive and disappoint themselves in the great business of Christianity, and their own salvation.

2. For, let us be ever so tender and charitable in the survey of those nations that claim an 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. The unmortified Christian and the heathen are of the same religion. For though they have different objects, to which they direct their prayers, adoration in both is but forced and ceremonious, and the deity they truly

worship is the god of this 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? This base sensuality is comprised by the beloved apostle John, in these words: "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, which are not of the Father, but of the world that lieth in wickedness.

3. It is a mournful reflection, but a truth which will not be denied, that these worldly lusts fill up a great part of the study, care, and conversation of Christendom! And, what aggravates the misery is, they grow with time. For as the world is older, it is worse. The examples of former lewd ages, and their miserable conclusions, have not deterred, but excited ours; so that the people of this day seem improvers of the old stock of impiety, and have carried it so much farther 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, and made them scorn that holy religion to which their good example should have won their affections.

4. 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 their prejudice against 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 apostacy 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." Their defiled hearts, John, in his Revelation styles, the streets of Sodom and Egypt spiritually so called, where he beheld the Lord Jesus crucified, long after he had been ascended. 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.” Nor is this hard to apprehend; for they that live in the same evil nature and principle that the Jews did, who crucified him outwardly, must needs crucify him inwardly. They that reject the grace now, in their own hearts, are one in stock and generation with the hard-hearted Jews, who resisted the grace that then appeared in and by Christ.

5. 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 pretensions to Abraham and Moses, and plainly told them, he that committed sin, was the servant of sin. They did the devil's works, and therefore were the devil's children. The argument will always hold upon the same reasons, and therefore is good still. "His servants you are," saith Paul, "whom you obey:" and, saith John to the church of old, "Let no man deceive you; he that committeth sin, is of the devil." Was Judas a better Christian for crying, Hail, master! and kissing Christ? By no means. These words were the signal of his treachery; the token 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 is it 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 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 they most indulge. Thus, as God said of old, they make him serve with their sins, and for their sins too.