In that part of my answer, which is addressed to the younger clergy, I said, “Lay this down for an infallible principle; that an entire, absolute renunciation of all worldly interest, is the only possible foundation of that exalted virtue, which your station requires; without this, all attempts after an exemplary piety are vain: (and then, by way of limitation and explication of this, it thus immediately follows:) If you want any thing from the world by way of figure and exaltation, you shut the power of your Redeemer out of your own souls, and instead of converting, you corrupt the hearts of those that are about you. Detest therefore, with the utmost abhorrence, all desires of making your fortunes, either by preferments, or rich marriages, and let it be your only ambition, to stand at the top of every virtue, as visible guides and patterns to all that aspire after the perfection of holiness,” p. 61.
Now, one would imagine there was no part of the Christian world, however corrupted, where this doctrine would not be admitted at least in theory; or, that the gospel of Christ should be thought to be reproached, where such advice as this was given to young divines: and yet it is of this very advice, that Dr. [♦]Trapp says, “he hopes they will have more grace and sense than to follow it: that it is false doctrine, tending to the reproach and scandal of the Christian religion,” p. 87.
[♦] “Trap” replaced with “Trapp”
Is it then come to this, that unless young divines chuse to serve mammon as well as God, their profession is a renouncing of grace and sense, and a reproach to religion? And must they that pretend to act in Christ’s name, as successors in his office, take care that they renounce not the politics of the kingdom of this world? For my part, I thought it as consistent with the honour of the gospel, to give this advice, to suppress all worldly views, as to resist the temptations of the devil.
Had Martin Luther, when he gave his reasons for withdrawing from the Pope, been able to have added this; that the advice here given, had been formally condemned by the Pope in a great council, the defenders of that church would have found it as hard to have made such a decree consistent with the gospel, as the selling of [♦]indulgences: and it may well be supposed, that no Protestant writer, when setting forth the marks of antichrist, in that church, would have forgot to have made this condemnation to be one of them.
[♦] “indulgencies” replaced with “indulgences” for consistency
For who can shew it to be so contrary to the whole spirit of the gospel, to call in the assistance of the saints, or to deny the cup to the laity, who can shew this to put so entire a stop to salvation by the gospel, as to condemn this advice to young divines, as a reproach to Christianity? For all the ends of the gospel may be pursued, and men may arise out of the corruption of their nature, notwithstanding these two mistakes: but to condemn it as an error inconsistent with grace and sense, a reproach to Christianity, for young divines to renounce worldly views, and devote themselves wholly to God, is striking at the whole root of all holiness, and a denial of the whole spirit of the gospel.
Our church requires all its candidates for holy orders, to make profession of their being moved and called by the Holy Ghost to enter into the service of the church: this, I should think, is proof enough, that the spirit of this world ought not to be alive in them, when they make this profession; and yet, if any young persons should come to be ordained, thus dead to all worldly views, thus wholly devoted to God, they ought according to the Doctor, to be rejected by the bishop, as being led by a spirit that has lost all grace and sense, and is a reproach to the Christian religion.
It is needless to quote particular texts of scripture, teaching the same that I have here taught; the whole nature of our redemption is a standing proof of the same thing; for we want to be redeemed for no other reason, but because we are born children of this world, [♦]and have by nature only the life, spirit and temper of this world, in us: this is our fall, our curse, our separation from God; and therefore we can have no redemption, but by a renunciation of all the workings of the life of this world in us, by a total dying to, and denying ourselves; because all that we are, as to our state, spirit and life in this world, is a life that carries us from God, a life that should not have been in us; ’tis a life begun by the fall, a life of sin and corruption, which cannot enter into heaven. Indeed the life that we have in this world, from Adam, is not to be naturally destroyed, nor are the necessaries and conveniences of life to be rejected, nor is any one to renounce his share in the employments that are useful to social life: the renunciation of this world reaches no farther than the renouncing the spirit, and inclinations of it. We may stand in our stations, when we stand in them as the servants of God, as citizens of the new Jerusalem, who have amongst earthly things, our conversation in heaven: we may keep our possessions, when we possess them as the things of God, and use them not as nature, but as the Spirit directs us; when we do thus, we have the poverty of spirit, which the gospel requires, and come up to the sense of that command given to the young man, to sell all that he had, and give to the poor.
[♦] “ahd” replaced with “and”