212 The Cruclf jingof the world; Benefit 6. Oreovor where the world is Crucified, 4great IVA dealof felf-tormenting care and trouble of mind pill be prevented. You will not live loch a perplexed miferable life, as worldlings do. Even in- your outward troubles you will havelefs inward. troubleof foul , then they have in their abun- dance. Theyarelike a man that is hanged up in chains alive, that gnaws uponhis own flefh awhile , and then mull famifh. What elfe do worldlings but tear and devour themfelves withcares and forrows, and fcourge themfelves with vexatious thoughts and troubles ? If others did but the hundredthpart as much to them, againft their wills, as they wilfully do againft themfelves, theywould account them the cruelleft pestons in theworld. Paul faith of men that are in love with money , that while they covet *fur it , they do not only err from the faith , but alfo ¡ U7 t mpttim?stv, they pierced themfelves through and through , and ftab'd their own hearts with manyforraws. A worldly mind and a melancholly are tome kin : Thedaily work of both is felf- vexation, and they are wilfully fet upon the ¡tabbing and deftroy- ingof themfelves. But it is hot thus with the Believer fo far as he is mortified: Will he vex, himfelf for nothing ? Will he be troubled- for the lofs of that wkich he difregardeth ? The dead' worldhathnot power thus to &I-quiet his mind, and to tots, it up anddown in trouble. When it bath power on his body, itcannot reachhis foul. As the foul of a dead man feeleth no pain when the corpfe is cut in pieces, or rotteth in thegave t So in a lower meafure, the foul of a Believer, being in a fort as it were fepara- ted from the body by faith, and gone before to the heavenly in- heritance , is freed from the fenfe of the calamities of the flefb. So far as mareDead, we.are infenfible. of fufferings. Benefit:
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=