Baxter - BV4253 B39 C78 1658

The Crucifying of the world, may beloved, though not chiefly loved. To which I answer that in the fenfes before difdaimed it is none of our Good at all. It. bath no Goodnefs tous in ir, but the Goodof a Means , which is refpe&ive to the End ; and therefore wemuft have no Love to it but that which is due to the Means : God therefore beingour End, we muff Love the world only for his fake , as it cornett: . from him and leadeth tohim. The leaft love to the world for it [elf. is Idolatrous. As you may not allow another woman the leaft Conjugal affection, though you allow your wife more without fome guilt of unchaftity ; fo you may not in the leaft meafure love the creature for it felt without force guilt of fpiri- tual unchaftity. If God muff be loved with All the heart, and foul, and ftrength, then there is none left for any co-partner whatfoever. When we love any thing but as a Means, it is more properly the End that we love in that very a& ( And therefore Tome Philofophical Divinesaffirm that Nothing but the ultimate End is properly loved ) fo that the Love which we give the world in a due fubordination to God, is not fo properly a Love to the worldas to God, and therefore it raketh not from God the leaft part of that which is due tohim. But if we love it in the leaft meafure forit felf, or with any co-ordinate Love, fo much as we allow it, is robbed. fromGod. z. Hence it followeth (when our love to the world is crud_ fled) that our Delires after it is crucified alto. Before we thirft- ed after Pleafures, or- Honours, or Riches, but now this thirft is abated ; for when we obey the Call of Chriff, Ifa. 55. I. and have freely drunk of the living waters, we thirft our former thirft no more , ( according to the meafure in which we partake of him) but hisSpirit will be awell of water inus, fpringing up to everlafting life, yak 4. 13, 14. The diftempered appetite of a Carnal man is fo eager after worldly things that his heart is fet upon them : which Rom. 8. 5. is called his minding the things of dogfieA But the mortified Chriffian,as fuch, hath no mind of them : His appetite to them is dead and gone. He cares not for them. Now heperceiveth that they are not Good for him , his heart is turned againfl them. 3. When we are Crucified to the morid, our expeflationsof Good from the world are Crucified. Beforewe looked for much from it; we thought if we had thisPleafure, or that Honour, if

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