that instead of putting up lively and powerful requests, animated by the 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 corporal bowings, and cringings, garments and furnitures, perfumes, voices and music, fitter for the reception of some earthly prince, than the heavenly worship of the only 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,' and what James saith, "Ye ask, and ye receive not," (why?) "because ye ask amiss ;" that is, with an 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 the better for it, and art not.

Sect. 10. 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." Nothing short of this will do; mark that, for as it is sufficient so is it in. dispensible: no crown, but by the Cross; no life eter

q Prov. xv. 8,

James iv. 3.

s Matt. xvi. 24. Mark viii. 34. Luke ix. 23, & piv. 27.

E

nal, 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. Blood requires blood; his cross is the death of sin, that caused his death; and he the death of death, according to that passage, O death! I will be thy death!t

CHAP. III.

SECT. 1. What the cross of Christ is? A figurative speech, but truly the divine power, that mortifies the world. 2. It is so called by the apostle Paul to the Corinthians. 3. Where it is the cross appears, and must be borne? Within, where the lusts are, there they must be crucified. 4. Experience teaches every one this, to be sure Christ asserts it, from within comes murder, &c. and that is the house where the strong man must be bound. 5. How is the cross to be borne? The way is spiritual, a denial of self, the pleasure of sin, to please God and obey his will, as manifested to the soul by the light he gives it. 6. This shews the difficulty, yet the necessity of the cross.

THE daily cross being then, and still, O Christendom, the way to glory; that the succeeding matter, which wholly relates to the doctrine of it, may come with most evidence and advantage upon thy conscience, it is most seriously to be considered by thee,

First, What the cross of Christ is ?

Secondly, Where the cross of Christ is to be taken

up?

Hos. xiii. 14. 1 Cor. xv. 55.

Thirdly, How, and after what manner it is to be borne ?

Fourthly, What is the great work and business of the cross? In which

The sins it crucifies, with the mischiefs that attend them, will be at large expressed.

Fifthly, and lastly, I shall add many testimonies from living and dying persons, of great reputation either for their quality, learning, or piety, as a general confirmation of the whole tract.

To the first, what is the cross of Christ?

Sect. 1. The cross of Christ is a figurative speech, borrowed from the outward tree, or wooden cross, on which Christ submitted to the will of God, in permitting him to suffer death at the hands of evil men. Sa that the cross mystical, is that divine grace and power, which crosses the carnal wills of men, and gives a contradiction to their corrupt affections, and that constantly opposeth itself to the inordinate and fleshly appetite of their minds, and so may be justly termed the instru ment of man's holy dying to the world, and being made conformable to the will of God. For nothing else can mortify sin, or make it easy for us to submit to the divine will, in things otherwise very contrary to our

own.

Sect. 2. The preaching of the cross therefore in primitive times was fitly called by Paul, that famous and skilful apostle in spiritual things, the power of God; though to them that perish, then, as now, foolishness. That is, to those that were truly weary and heavy laden, and needed a deliverer; to whom sin was burdensome and odious, the preaching of the cross, by which sin was to be mortified, was, as to them, the power of God, or a preaching of the divine power, by which they were made disciples of Christ, and children of God: and it wrought so powerfully upon them, that no proud or licentious mockers could put them out of love with it.

But to those that walked in the broad way, in the full latitude of their lusts, and dedicated their time and care to the pleasure of their corrupt appetites, to whom all yoke and bridle were and are intolerable, the preaching of the cross was, and is, foolishness: to which I may add, in the name but of too many now-a-days, and the practice ridiculous; embraced by none, if they may be believed, but half-witted people of stingy and singular tempers, affected by the hypochondry, and oppressed with the power of melancholy; for all this, and more, is bestowed upon the life of the blessed cross of Christ, in the persons of those who truly bear it, by the very professors and pretended admirers of it.

Sect. 3. Well, but then where does this cross appear, and must it be taken up?

I answer within: that is, in the heart and, soul; for where the sin is, the cross must be. Now, all evil comes from within this Christ taught. "From within (saith Christ) out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evils come from within, and defile the man.""

The heart of man is the seat of sin, and where he is defiled, he must be sanctified; and where sin lives, there it must die: it must be crucified. Custom in evil hath made it natural for men to do evil; and as the soul rules the body, so this corrupt nature sways the whole man : but still, it is all from within.

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Sect. 4. Experience teaches every son and daughter of Adam an assent to this; for the enemies temptations are ever directed to the mind, which is within: if they take not, the soul sins not; if they are embraced, lust is presently conceived (that is, inordinate desires) "lust conceived, brings forth sin; and sin finished (that is, acted) brings forth death." Here is both the cause and the effect, the very genealogy of sin, its rise and end.

"Mark vii, 21, 22, 23.

b James i. 15.

In all this, the heart of evil man is the devil's mint, his work-house, the place of his residence, where he exercises his power and art. And therefore the redemption of the soul is aptly called, the destruction of the works of the devil, and bringing in of everlasting righteousness.c When the Jews, would have defamed Christ's miracle of casting out devils, by a blasphemous imputation of it to the power of Beelzebub, he says, "That no man can enter a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, till he first bind the strong man." Which as it shews the contrariety that was between Beelzebub, and the power by which he dispossessed him; so it teaches us to know, that the souls of the wicked are the devil's house, and that his goods, his evil works, can never be destroyed, till first he that wrought them, and keeps the house, be bound. All which makes it easy to know, where the cross must be taken up, by which alone the strong man must be bound, his goods spoiled, and his temptations resisted: this is, within, in the heart of

man.

Sect. 5. But in the next place, how, and in what manner is the cross to be daily borne ?

The way, like the cross, is spiritual: that is, an inward submission of the soul to the will of God, as it is manifested by the light of Christ in the consciences of men though it be contrary to their own inclinations. For example: when evil presents, that which shews the évil does also tell them they should not yield to it; and if they close with its counsel, it gives them power to escape it. But they that look and gaze upon the temptation, at last fall in with it, and are overcome by it; the consequence of which is guilt and judgment. Therefore as the cross of Christ is that spirit and power in men, though not of men, but of God, which crosseth and reproveth their fleshly lusts and affections; so the way of taking up the cross is, an entire resignation of soul to the discoveries and requirings of it; not to con

c 1 John iii. 8.,

d Mark ii. 27.