Can you at once be sailing northward and southward?
Can you ascend and descend by the same motion?
Brethren, receive this word of conviction, and submit to it; the sum whereof is, that where there is so much of the spirit of this world, there is but little faith, and where there is but little faith, it is more than you can tell whether there be any at all. God is convincing us; if his word does not, his providences shall convince us, and lay us yet lower in our own eyes: what mean his undoing and ruining providences, but to try us what spirit we are of, and to teach us, with his briars and thorns, to understand ourselves better, and to recover!
Why is his face so against us? Why is his hand so heavy upon us? What do the ashes of our wasted treasures speak to us? If it do not speak out this to us—“Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead,” yet does it speak less than this?—“Thou hast but a little strength; thou hast but a few names, that have not defiled their garments! Strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die!” Is not this its word, “Seekest thou yet great things for thyself?” When I am breaking down what I have built, when I am plucking up what I have planted, is this a time to seek great things for thyself? Yea, or to think great things of thyself? Seek them not, no, nor think any more such great thoughts: lay thee down in the dust, be ashamed and confounded for what thou art and hast done, and climb no more up those trees that are hewing down under thee.
Brethren, when do ye think the Lord will cause his fury towards us to cease? When will the flames be quenched, when will his repentings be kindled? What hope is there that our conflagrations shall be at an end, till our idols be burnt up ’tis vain to think that our prayers, and fastings, and weeping before the Lord will put out the fire of his jealousy. “Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned, they have taken of the accursed thing, I will not be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you,” Joshua vii. 10, 11, 12. The Lord hath broken us with a great breach; the Lord hath smitten us with a very grievous blow; and now we fall to fasting, and praying, and prostrating ourselves before him, in hope that this may make up our breach, and be the healing of our wound. But will this do? –Get you up, get up, why lie you thus upon your faces? Is there not an accursed thing among you? Think not that the Lord will be with you, till that be destroyed from among you: hope not for anything from those prayers and fastings that do no execution upon your accursed things. Do your prayers leave your pride alive, your covetousness alive, your wantonness alive? Yourselves are like to die, notwithstanding all such prayers.
God is either upon refining or rejecting: he has cast us into his furnace, kindled his fires, been blowing with his bellows; if our dross may yet be consumed. If that be not done, the next word we may hear, may be that of the prophet, “The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed by the fire, the founder melteth in vain for [this dross] is not taken away; reprobate silver shall men call them, for the Lord hath rejected them,” Jer. vi. 29, 30.
Brethren, have I not yet said enough to fetch you off from your servitude? Will you go free, or have I spent my labour in vain; must I leave you at the brick-kiln, or will you go over to Canaan? What are your thoughts? Is it good to continue in your servile state? Is the vassalage of unbelief better than the victory of faith? —What are your resolutions?—Have you sold yourselves for servants, and will you stand to the bargain? May you go free, and will you not? Have you not understood enough of the world’s enmity? Have you not felt enough of the world’s tyranny? Have you not sinned enough, and suffered enough already by it? What say you? Are you for liberty or bondage? For captivity or victory why what may we do to obtain the victory? Why will you hearken then are you willing of help? Will you take God’s counsel when ’tis offered you? Well, in hope that some of you will hearken, I shall yet farther adventure these few directions.
In the first place I shall remind you of what hath been already spoken, touching the ways by which faith overcometh the world, and shall turn them into these six counsels.
1. Get a right judgment of both worlds: study and get an understanding of earth and heaven; and give not off this study, till you be thoroughly convinced, of the unspeakable transcendency of things to come, above things present.
2. Choose your lot in the best of the two: determine for heaven, that infinitely better inheritance. Be unalterably at this point —I am for the everlasting blessedness, however it is with me here.
3. Be convinced, that the good things of this world cannot further, nor can the evil things of this world hinder your eternal blessedness, and esteem all things temporal, according to the respect they bear to the things that are eternal.
4. Be convinced, that the design of all the temptations of this world is, to deprive you of your eternal inheritance.
5. By living more purely a life of faith, get clear apprehensions and a deeper sense of the blessedness to come.
6. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: by turning your eyes back upon what hath been already said, you may make fuller improvement of these directions, upon which I forbear any further enlargement.
To these I shall add this one general direction. Make your advantage of all those means, by which your faith may gather strength, and in which its strength is to be put forth and exercised.
Improve all your duties this way: let all your seekings of God be a wrestling with the world. Put this great affair into every prayer: put it into your daily confessions, put it into your daily petitions. Carry the sense of your sore bondage into the presence of God: let the misery and the danger it hath subjected you to, be written upon your hearts, and go and spread the writing before the Lord. Let the throne of grace be a judgment seat, where this traitor may be daily arraigned and condemned. Take unto you words, confess unto God.
“Lord I have dealt very falsely, with thee, and foolishly for myself.
I have forsaken the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns, wherein is no water.
I have taken the world into my bosom, and thrown the Lord at my heels.
I have set the world on the throne, and trodden Christ under my feet;
I have served mine enemy, and slighted the rock of my salvation.
I have sold my soul for silver, and my hopes for handfuls of barley.
I have followed vanity, and neglected all-sufficiency.
I have been a true drudge to this world, a good husband for this flesh;
but what have I been to the Lord? What an evil and slothful servant!
If I should say I were not a worldling, or a sensualist,
mine own soul would call me liar to my face;
but though I see what a fool, and what a beast,
and what a slave I am, this sottish heart will not yet be wise,
he hath loved these idols, and will follow them still.”
Confess thus unto God, and if one day’s confession will not shame you out of your folly, to it again the next day, and the next day, and every day as long as you live: bring in new indictments filled up with all the aggravations you can gather up.
“I have been often told of the evil of a worldly heart and life,
of the danger of it, of the unworthiness of it;
I have been counselled to take heed of it,
and I have known it has been good counsel;
I have been obliged against it,
by commands, by kindnesses,
by covenants, by interest,
by experiences of the gall and the wormwood
it hath still proved in my belly, whatever it hath been in my mouth.
My judgment and conscience have been against it;
I have been offered a better service, and a better reward;
and I have understood it was a good offer, and worth the accepting;
I have been charged upon pain of death, and everlasting damnation,
to take heed and beware of it, and yet still I am where I was.
Counsels have been despised, commands have been broken,
kindnesses have been slighted, covenants have been violated,
reason and conscience have been baffled,
yea, death and hell have been despised for the sake of this lust,
and love of the world, so foolish am I and ignorant,
and as a beast before thee.”
Thus quicken and sharpen your confessions with all the aggravations imaginable, till, if it be possible, thy folly may depart from thee, not being able to bear such an hot persecution. Deal thus roughly and thus closely with your earthly hearts whenever you have them before the Lord, that they may not dare to meet you so there again.
Put it into your daily petitions. Speak unto the Lord, let not thy soul keep silence till he hear. Let thine oppressed heart lift up its voice to the Most High; tell him
“Oh I am surfeited of this flesh,
I am sick of this world,
these briars and thorns,
yea, and these lilies and roses
are a grief of mind to me.
Make these thorns to scratch me,
these flowers to stink in my nostrils.”
Beg a new heart, beg a better spirit, that may neither find pleasure, nor so much as ease in such things as these.
“Oh for mortification!
Oh for a more raised spirit:
where is the life of faith?
Where is the power of the Spirit?
Help Lord, help Lord;
a renewed heart,
a chaste spirit,
when shall it once be?
Let not my soul be held any longer
an adultress from thee;
let not these husks be my meat,
these ashes be my bread,
this earth be my treasure,
while God stands by.
Let not Christ and my soul be kept strangers,
whilst I am the familiar of this flesh,
and the servant of vanity.”
Cry unto the Lord. Be instant, be importunate with him, try the strength of prayer. Be incessant, resolve against denials. Cry unto him day and night, “Avenge me of mine adversary. Rid my soul out of thraldom;” Whilst thou livest give not over; if thou wilt not, thou shalt not be denied.
Hast thou got a little ground, take the same way to maintain what thou hast got. Does the conquered world rally upon thee, and do thy affections begin to stoop to it? Pray them up again. Doth thine heart begin to wander after it? Pray it in again. Do thy corruptions and temptations begin to get head again and to prevail? Pray them down again, meet them with a prayer at every turn. “The Lord rebuke thee, false heart; the Lord rebuke thee, deceitful world; the Lord uphold thee, oppressed soul.”
Beloved, your victory over the world can neither be got nor maintained, but by power from above. ‘Tis God only that’s able to give battle to the flesh. In vain do you engage, unless he engage with you. Prayer will set faith on work; and faith will engage the promise, and the promise will engage Christ with you, and Christ will engage the Father to your help. If heaven be too hard for earth, the world shall fall before a praying soul.
Brethren, will you take this counsel? Put it thus into every prayer you make, and if you find this to be your great enemy, bend the main force of every prayer against it; fight neither against small nor great, in comparison, but against this king of evils. This is the great thief, Lord, that meets me at every turn, and is robbing me every day; that robs the Lord of his due, and my soul of its peace: this is the moth that eats out all my strength; this is the murderer, that kills my soul; O let this strong be bowed down; this is the heir, kill him, and the inheritance shall be mine.
And whenever you have made your prayer, judge of the acceptance of it, by the success it hath on this adversary: when at any time you have found your souls most melted and enlarged in prayer, and most refreshed by sensible influences from above; at such a time presently return into your heart, and demand; but how goes it now with the interest of the world in me? How stands my heart now affected to my carnal things? Am I weaned? Is my clog fallen off? What hath my flesh lost, by what my spirit seems to have gained? What hath my earthly-mindedness, my covetousness lost in this prayer? Can I now go a way and be contented, and be patient in my condition? Hath this divine warmth left a chill upon my fleshly appetite? Can I the better want the quails, now I have tasted of the manna? Am I less careful, and less concerned, which way the world goes with me? Or can I go down presently into my shop, or forth into my fields, and be as hungry, and as much swallowed up of my earthly cares and delights, as if I had never tasted any thing of God? Can I see? Oh this is not the prayer I took it to be; I may not sit down by this, I must to my knees again, to my God again, and again; while I live I will not give over thus; I will wrestle, I will wait, I will enquire, to-day, to-morrow, next day, after every prayer: Is it yet better, yet more mortified, yet more weaned, yet more humble and contented? I can never, I will never satisfy myself with any praying, with any answer, whilst my flesh thus holds up its head.
This is the first direction, the stress whereof I lay upon these two things—bend the main force of every prayer against this evil; level your arrow against the face of this enemy; and then judge of the acceptableness of your prayer, by the success it hath upon it.
Richard Alleine. The World Conquered.
