Tht rare Jewel ~f chriftiafJ Contentment. 20 t the World, We are baeti:<:..ed into the death of Chrift, that is te fignifie that we have taken fuch a profeffion as to profefle to be even as dead men to the world ; r.ow there are no croifes that .. fall out in the world that doth trouble thofe char are dead, if our hearts were dead to-the world, we thould not be much troubled with the changes o~ the world, nor the roffings about of worldly things. As it is very obfervable in thofe Souldiers that came to break the bones of Chrift, they brake the legs of one that was crucified with him, and of the other, but 'when they came· to Chrill, they found he was dead, and fo they did not break his legs, there was a providence in it, ro fulfill a Prophefie, but becaufe they found he was dead, they did not break his bones. let affiittions and trouble fi nd thee with a mortified heart to the world, and they will not break thy bones ; the. bones of thofe that are broken by croifes 1tnd afflittions, are thofe that are alive · to the wo~ld, that are not dead to the world ; but one that hatlt a mortified beart, and dead to the ~vorld, no affi itl:ions or 1\oubles vvill break the bones of fuch a one, that is, they ~'.'ill not be very grievous or painful to fuch a one as is mortified to the world: This I fear is amyflery ar;d riddle to many, fot one to be dead ~o t·he world, to be mortified to the world. Now it is not my work to open to you what Mortification is, or deatb to the IVOrld is, out only thus; To have our hearts fo taken off from the thing~ ot. the world, a$ to.ure them as if one ufed them not,not to make account that our lives, our comforts, our happinefs doth coofifl in thefe things, they are things that are of another nature that our happinefs doth con fill: in, ar.d we may be happy vvithout thefel this is a kind of deadnefs to the world • . Thr: Ninth DIRECT I 0 N. Let mt me~? and r~omen pgre too mMch upon their ~tffliaionJ; that i~, bufie their thoughts too much to look down into theit affiittions; yon fhall have many people, that all their thought~ are taken op about what their cro£fes and affli&ions are, they are altogether thinking and fpeaking ·of them, it's jutl: with them as with achild that hath a fore about him, .bis finger is E e atwaie$
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