And thus must thou do when Satan, or the law, or thy conscience, do go about to dishearten thee, either by the greatness of thy sins, the wickedness of thy heart, the tediousness of the way, the loss of outward enjoyments, the hatred that thou wilt procure from the world or the like; then thou must encourage thyself with the freeness of the promises, the tender-heartedness of Christ, the merits of his blood, the freeness of his invitations to come in, the greatness of the sin of others that have been pardoned; and that the same God, through the same Christ, holdeth forth the same grace as free as ever. If these be not thy meditations, thou wilt draw very heavily in the way to heaven if thou do not give up all for lost, and so knock off from following any farther. Therefore, I say, take heart in thy journey, and say to them that seek thy destruction, "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me."
THE EIGHTH DIRECTION.—Take heed of being offended at the cross that thou must go by, before thou come to heaven. You must understand (as I have already touched) that there is no man that goeth to heaven but he must go by the cross. The cross is the standing way-mark, by which all they that go to glory must pass.
"We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." If thou art in thy way to the kingdom, my life for thine, thou wilt come at the cross shortly. The Lord grant thou dost not shrink at it, so as to turn thee back again. "If any man will come after me," saith Christ, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." The Cross! it stands, and hath stood, from the beginning, as a way-mark to the kingdom of heaven. You know if one ask you the way to such and such a place, you, for the better direction, do not only say, 'this is the way,' but then also say, 'You must go by such a gate, by such a stile, such a bush, tree, bridge,' or such like. Why, so it is here. Art thou enquiring the way to heaven? Why, I tell thee, CHRIST IS THE WAY; into him thou must get, even into his righteousness, to be justified. And if thou art in him, thou wilt presently see the cross. Thou must go close by it; thou must touch it; nay thou must take it up, or else thou wilt quickly go out of the way that leads to heaven, and turn up some of those crooked lanes that lead down to the chambers of death.
Now thou mayst know the cross by these six things: 1. It is known in the doctrine of justification. 2. In the doctrine of mortification. 3. In the doctrine of perseverance. 4. In self-denial. 5. In patience. 6. In communion with poor saints.
1. In the doctrine of justification there is a great deal of the cross. In that, a man is forced to suffer the destruction of his own righteousness for the righteousness of another. This is no easy matter for a man to do. I assure you it stretcheth every vein in his heart, before he will be brought to yield to it. What! for a man to deny, reject, abhor, and throw away all his prayers, tears, alms, keeping of sabbaths, hearing, reading with the rest, in the point of justification, and to count them accursed; and to be willing, in the very midst of the sense of his sins, to throw himself wholly upon the righteousness and obedience of another man, abhorring his own, counting it as a deadly sin, as the open breach of the law! I say, to do this indeed and in truth, is the biggest piece of the cross; and therefore Paul calleth this very thing a suffering; where he saith, "And I have suffered the loss of all things," (which principally was his righteousness,) "that I might win Christ, and be found in him, not having (but rejecting) my own righteousness." That is the first.
2. In the doctrine of mortification is also much of the cross. Is it nothing for a man to lay hands on his vile opinions, on his vile sins, on his bosom sins, on his beloved, pleasant, darling sins, that stick as close to him as the flesh sticks to the bones? What! to lose all these brave things that my eyes behold, for that which I never saw with my eyes? What! to lose my pride, my covetousness, my vain company, sports, and pleasures, and the rest? I tell you this is no easy matter; if it were, what need of all those prayers, sighs, watchings? What need we be so backward to it? Nay, do you not see, that some men before they will set about this work, will even venture the loss of their souls, heaven, God, Christ, and all? What mean else all those delays and put-offs, saying, 'Stay a little longer; I am loath to leave my sins while I am so young, and in health?' Again, what is the reason else that others do it so by the halves, coldly, and seldom; notwithstanding they are convinced over and over, and over, nay, and also promise to amend; and yet all is in vain? I will assure you, to cut off right hands, and pluck out right eyes, is no pleasure to the flesh.
3. The doctrine of perseverance is also cross to the flesh; which is not only to begin, but to hold out; not only to bid fair, and to say, 'Would I had heaven,' but so to know Christ, to put on Christ, and walk with Christ, as to come to heaven. Indeed it is no great matter to begin to look for heaven; to begin to seek the Lord; to begin to shun sin. Oh! but it is a very great matter to continue with God's approbation! "My servant Caleb," saith God, "because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully," (followed me always: he hath continually followed me,) "him will I bring into the land." Almost all the many thousands of the children of Israel in their generation, fell short of perseverance when they walked from Egypt towards the land of Canaan. Indeed they went to work at first pretty willingly; but they were very short-winded, they were quickly out of breath, and in their hearts they turned back again into Egypt.
It is an easy matter for a man to run hard for a spurt, for a furlong, for a mile or two. Oh! but to hold out for a hundred, for a thousand, for ten thousand miles! That man that doth this, must look to meet with cross, pain, and wearisomeness to the flesh; especially if as he goeth he meeteth with briars and quagmires and other encumbrances, that make his journey so much the more painful.
Nay, do you not see with your eyes daily, that perseverance is a very great part of the cross? Why else do men so soon grow weary? I could point out many, that after they have followed the ways of God about a twelvemonth, others it may be two, three, or four (some more, and some less) years, have been beat out of wind,—they have taken up their lodging and rest before they have got half-way to heaven, some in this, some in that sin; and have secretly, nay, sometimes openly said, that the way is too strait, the race too long, the religion too holy and they cannot hold out—'I can go no farther.'
And so likewise of the other three, namely, patience, self-denial, communion and communication with and to the poor saints: how hard are these things? It is an easy matter to deny another man, but it is not so easy a matter to deny one's self; to deny myself out of love to God, to his gospel, to his saints, of this advantage and of that gain; nay, of that which otherwise I might lawfully do, were it not for offending them. That scripture is but seldom read, and seldomer put in practice, which saith, "I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, if it make my brother to offend." Again, "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves."