By the Croft of Chrifi. Love ; and if he be not taken for your abfolute Sovcraign, and have not the fubje&ion and obedience of your fouls. You may eafily fee then, that it is not meet , it is not poffible that an unmortified perfon, or a worldling can be faved. For if they. (hall be faved that would haveGad tobe no God , then no man fhould be damned ; for there cannot bea worfer man then thefe. Nay, if he be not God, how fhould he fave them , or how fhould he make them happy, if he be not their chiefefi Goo ? If iqod fhould ceafe to be God,theworld and all things would ceafe tote. For if the firft caufeceafe, the effe6s mull all ceafe. And if the ultimate end ceafe , the means and all ufe of means muff ceafe. And as the ceffation of God as the firft efficient, would deftroy all Natural Being, fo the ceffation of God as the ultimate end, would defiroy all Moral Good whatfoever. Other fins defiroy force part or branch of Moral Good ; but the fin of Idolatry, the violation of the firft Commandment, the taking to our felves forme other God, thisdoth at once fubvert all goodnefs, and deftroy the very beingof morality it fell. Sirs, I am afraidmany, yea molt among us, have not well con- fidered the nature of worldly mindednefs, or the greatnefs of the fin of valuing and loving the Creaturebefore God. If they did, it would not be a finof fo good repute among us, but would have contraâedmoreodium before this time, then it bath done. There are many fins far fmaller then this that men are fhamed for, and that men are hanged for. But we muff not judge byoutward appearances, nor make the judgement of the finner himfelf to be the rule by which to difcern the greatnefs or fmalnefs of the fin. A worldling, a flefhly mindedman, do unmorti,iedman, that is not dead to the world; all chafe are terms that are proper tomen in a flareof damnation, under the curieandwrath of God, and are equipollent terms, with [aChile of the Devil.] Oh how the Devil bath deluded multitudes, by making them think that this mortification is force higher pi'chof grace then ordinary, but not efiential to the life of grace it fell; and therefore thata manmay be faved without it: when they may as well think to be faved, if they defie the God ofheaver,,if theydefpife the Lord that bought them, and if they renounce falvati.on -it` fell, for indeed fa they do. It mull needs be that God mull look firlt and cb;efld to his own 63
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