11. To conclude: if we will be truly wise, let us set the gospel and example of Christ before us, and endeavour to be as wise in our generation, as the men of this world are in theirs, to be as diligent in pursuing our true and great end, as they are in pursuing their false and little ones. They are intent upon the present, and sollicitous to provide for the short future of an uncertain life. Let us be intent upon providing for that future life, which will soon be present, and never past. For this purpose we should retire as much as we can conveniently from the world, and have as little to do with it; we should lay aside every weight, and every incumbrance, and not be troubled about many things, that we may the more quietly and entirely attend upon the one thing needful. Not that I plead for a hermit’s solitude, not understanding the agreement of such a state with human nature, nor what authority men have thus to bury themselves alive, and to excommunicate themselves from human society. But so much of solitude as disengages us from the affairs and incumbrances of the world, and places us out of the noise, hurry and bustle of it, and out of the way of its temptations, must certainly be of vastly great advantage to a truly Christian life. Being much abroad may teach us to know the world; but retirement only can teach us to know ourselves. For to know ourselves, we must converse much with ourselves. Let us therefore retire, and when we are alone, let us remember, that we are not alone, for God is with us. And while we think and act as in his presence, solitude has all the safety of company, without the temptations and interruptions. And here let us think much of eternity, and of our nearness to it, of the future judgment, and the two final sentences of that day, of the glorious things that are spoken of the city of God, and the unspeakable misery of being for ever banished from his presence; and lastly, of the thoughts which we shall have of all these things when we come to die. Every man is wise then, and has a right sense of things; let us endeavour to have the same now, as we shall then wish we had, which is the sum of all Christian prudence.
NICODEMUS:
Or, A Treatise on the Fear of Man.
Written in German by Augustus Herman Franck.
To all ministers and teachers in churches and schools, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, in the fellowship of the Holy Ghost:
Dearly beloved brethren,
GIVE me leave, who am the least of all the servants of Jesus Christ, for the love wherewith God hath loved us in his Son, to dedicate to you the following treatise. For though I be the meanest member in the spiritual body of Christ, (if so much may be allowed me) yet am I thereby made partaker of the life, spirit, and power residing in him as our ever-blessed head. If there be any thing herein conformable to the mind of our great Shepherd, and proceeding from the energy of his Spirit, why should it not be readily received; and if, after a true spiritual trial thereof, you find any thing faulty or imperfect, commend it to the mercy of our great Shepherd, to correct in me, by the gracious influence of his Spirit.
I do not offer this as a piece of great learning. Indeed, the plain truth of my God, set forth in its natural lustre, and the least communication of his power affecting the heart, is infinitely more valuable to me, than all the learning of this world. And my only boasting in the Lord is this, that I have betaken myself to that school wherein the highest wisdom is; to know Jesus Christ and him crucified. And though I, who have scarce learned the first elements thereof, have the boldness to repeat this my lesson in the hearing of all, yet ought it not to be deemed an effect of pride; but the love of my neighbour constraineth me.
My soul hath been many times grieved at the apparent corruption, as of men in general, so of our order in particular; and more especially when I saw that the fear of man is become the epidemical distemper of our teachers. When I reflect on the one hand, with what spirit, with what joy, with what undaunted courage and boldness the antient servants of God set aside all regard of man, and delivered as the ambassadors of the Lord, their message fully and plainly, tho’ it exposed them to the evident hazard of their lives; and on the other, how gently and softly we go about it now, and how little we manifest the truth to the conscience of every man: when I, moreover, consider, how much they suffered with Christ their Lord, for the sake of their testimony; and how the most of us take care to preach so smoothly, as not to incur the least shadow of their sufferings, the difference between us and them [♦]appears so exceeding great, that I [♠]can not but be astonished at it.