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NO CROSS, NO CROWN:
NO CROSS, NO CROWN:
A DISCOURSE, SHEWING THE NATURE AND DISCIPLINE OF THE HOLY CROSS OF CHRIST . TO WHICH ARE ADDED, The Living and Dying Testimonies OF MANY PERSONS OF FAME AND LEARNING, BOTH OF ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES, IN FAVOUR OF THIS TREATISE. "And Jesus said unto them all; If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."— Luke , ix. 23. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
Reader , The great business of man's life, is to answer the end for which he lives; and that is to glorify God and save his own soul: this is the decree of Heaven, as old as the world. But so it is, that man mindeth nothing less than what he should most mind; and despiseth to inquire into his own being, its original duty and end; choosing rather to dedicate his days (the steps he should make to blessedness) to gratify the pride, avarice, and luxury of his heart: as if he had been born for himsel
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
I. Of the necessity of the Cross of Christ in general; yet the little regard Christians have to it.—2. The degeneracy of Christendom from purity to lust, and moderation to excess.—3. That worldly lusts and pleasures are become the care and study of Christians, so that they have advanced upon the impiety of infidels.—4. This defection a second part to the Jewish tragedy, and worse than the first: the scorn Christians have cast on their Saviour.—5. Sin is of one nature all the world over; sinners
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
1. By this Christendom may see her lapse, how foul it is, and next, the worse for her pretence to Christianity.—2. But there is mercy with God upon repentance, and propitiation in the blood of Jesus.—3. He is the light of the world that reproves the darkness, that is, the evil of the world; and he is to be known within.—4. Christendom, like the inn of old, is full of other guests: she is advised to believe in, receive, and apply to Christ.—5. Of the nature of true faith; it brings power to overc
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
1. What the cross of Christ is. A figurative speech, but truly the Divine power that mortifies the world.—2. It is so called by the apostle Paul to the Corinthians.—3. Where it is the cross appears, and must be borne? Within; where the lusts are, there they must be crucified.—4. Experience teaches every one this; to be sure Christ asserts it, from within comes murder, &c., and that is the house where the strong man must be bound.—5. How is the cross to be borne? The way is spiritual, a d
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
1. What is the great work of the cross? The answer to this is of great moment.—2. The work of the cross is self-denial.—3. What was the cup and cross of Christ?—4. What is our cup and cross?—5. Our duty is to follow Christ as our captain.—6. Of the distinction in self, a lawful and unlawful self.—7. What the lawful self is.—8. That it is to be denied in some cases by Christ's doctrine and example.—9. By the Apostle's pattern.—10. The danger of preferring lawful self above our duty to God.—11. Th
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
1. Of unlawful self; it is two-fold: 1st, in religion; 2nd, in morality.—2. Of those that are most formal, superstitious, and pompous in worship.—3. God's rebuke of carnal apprehensions.—4. Christ drew off his disciples from the Jewish exterior worship, and instituted a more spiritual one.—5. Stephen is full and plain in this matter.—6. Paul refers the temple of God twice to man.—7. Of the cross of these worldly worshippers.—8. Flesh and blood make their cross, therefore cannot be crucified by i
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
1. But men of more refined belief and practice are yet concerned in this unlawful self about religion.—2. It is the rise of the performance of worship God regards.—3. True worship is only from a heart prepared by God's Spirit.—4. The soul of man is dead without the divine breath of life, and so not capable of worshipping the living God.—5. We are not to study what to pray for. How Christians should pray. The aid they have from God.—6. The way of obtaining this preparation: it is by waiting, as D
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
1. Of pride, the first capital lust; its rise.—2. Its definition and distinction.—3. That an inordinate desire of knowledge in Adam, introduced man's misery.—4. He thereby lost his integrity.—5. Knowledge puffs up.—6. The evil effects of false, and the benefit of true knowledge.—7. Cain's example a proof in the case.—8. The Jews' pride in pretending to be wiser than Moses, God's servant, in setting their post by God's post.—9. The effect of which was the persecution of the true prophets.—10. The
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
1. Pride craves power as well as knowledge.—2. The case of Korah, &c. a proof.—3. Absalom's ambition confirms it.—4. Nebuchadnezzar's does the like.—5. The history of Pisistratus, Alexander, Cæsar, &c. shows the same thing.—6. The Turks are a lively proof, who have shed much blood to gratify pride for power.—7. The last ten years in Christendom exceed in proof of this.—8. Ambition rests not in courts, it finds room in private breasts too, and spoils families and societies.—9. The
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
1. The third evil effect of pride is love of honour and respect. Too many are guilty of it.—2. It had like to have cost Mordecai dear. Great mischief has befallen nations on this account.—3. The world is out in the business of true honour, as well as in that of true science.—4. Reasons why the author, and the rest of the people he walks with, use not these fashions.—5. The first is, the sense they had in the hour of their conviction, of the unsuitableness of them to the Christian spirit and prac
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
1. Another piece of nonconformity to the world, which is our simple and plain speech, thou for you.—2. Justified from the use of words and numbers, singular and plural.—3. It was, and is the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin speech, in schools and universities.—4. It is the language of all nations.—5. The original of the present customs defends our disuse of it.—6. If custom should prevail, in a sense it would be on our side.—7. It cannot be uncivil or improper, for God himself, the fathers, prophets, Ch
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
1. Pride leads people to an excessive value of their persons.—2. It is plain, from the racket that is made about blood and families: also in the case of shape and beauty.—3. Blood no nobility, but virtue.—4. Virtue no upstart: antiquity no nobility without it, else age and blood would bar virtue in the present age.—5. God teaches the true sense of nobility, who made of one blood all nations; there is the original of all blood.—6. These men of blood, out of their feathers, look like other men.—7.
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
1. The character of a proud man: a glutton upon himself: is proud of his pedigree.—2. He is insolent and quarrelsome, but cowardly, yet cruel.—3. An ill child, subject, and servant.—4. Inhospitable.—5. No friend to any.—6. Dangerous and mischievous in power.—7. Of all things, pride bad in ministers.—8. They claim prerogative above others.—9. And call themselves the clergy: their lordliness and avarice.—10. Death swallows all.—11. The way to escape these evils. I. To conclude this great head of p
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
1. Avarice, the second capital lust, its definition and distinction.—2. It consists in a desire of unlawful things.—3. As in David's case about Uriah's wife.—4. Also Ahab's about Naboth's vineyard.—5. Next, in unlawful desires of lawful things.—6. Covetousness is a mark of false prophets.—7. A reproach to religion.—8. An enemy to government.—9. Treacherous.—10. Oppressive.—11. Judas an example.—12. So Simon Magus.—13. Lastly, in unprofitable hoarding of money.—14. The covetous man a common evil.
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
1. Luxury, what it is, and the mischief of it to mankind. An enemy to the cross of Christ.—2. Of luxury in diet, how unlike Christ, and contrary to Scripture.—3. The mischief it does to the bodies, as well as the minds of people.—4. Of luxury in the excess of apparel, and of recreations; that sin brought the first coat: people not to be proud of the badge of their misery.—5. The recreations of the times, enemies to virtue: they rise from degeneracy.—6. The end of clothes allowable; the abuse rep
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
1. The judgments of God denounced upon the Jews for their luxury; all ranks included.—2. Christ charges his disciples to have a care of the guilt of it: a supplication to the inhabitants of England.—3. Temperance pressed upon the churches by the apostles.—4. An exhortation to England to measure herself by that rule.—5. What Christian recreations are.—6. Who need other sports to pass away their time are unfit for heaven and eternity.—7. Man has but a few days: they may be better bestowed: this do
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
1. Luxury should not be used by Christians, because of its inconsistency with the spirit of Christianity.—2. The cup of which Christ's true disciples drank.—3. O! who will drink of this cup!—4. An objection answered of the nature of God's kingdom, and what it stands in.—5. Of the frame of the spirit of Christ's followers. I. But the luxury opposed in this discourse should not be allowed among Christians, because both that which invents it, delights in it, and pleads so strongly for it, is incons
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
1. The customs, fashions, &c. which make up the attire and pleasure of the age, are enemies to inward retirement.—2. Their end is to gratify lust.—3. Had they been solid, Adam and Eve had not been happy, that never had them.—4. But the confidence and presumption of Christians, as they would be called, in the use of them is abominable.—5. Their authors further condemn them, who are usually loose and vain people.—6. Mostly borrowed of the Gentiles, that knew not God.—7. An objection of the
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
1. But if these customs, &c. were but indifferent, yet being abused they deserve to be rejected.—2. The abuse is acknowledged by those that use them, therefore should leave them.—3. Such as pretend to seriousness should exemplarily withdraw from such latitudes: a wise parent weans his child of what it dotes too much upon; and we should watch over ourselves and neighbours.—4. God, in the case of the brazen serpent, &c. gives us an example to put away the use of abused things.—5. I
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
No Cross, No Crown, should have ended here; but that the power which examples and authorities have put upon the minds of the people, above the most reasonable and pressing arguments, inclined me to present my readers with some of those many instances that might be given, in favour of the virtuous life recommended in our discourse. I chose to cast them into three sorts of testimonies, not after the threefold subject of the book; but suitable to the times, qualities, and circumstances of the perso
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I. AMONG THE GREEKS, &c. viz.
I. AMONG THE GREEKS, &c. viz.
1. Cyrus.—2. Artaxerxes.—3. Agathocles.—4. Philip.—5. Ptolemy.—6. Xenophanes.—7. Antigonus.—8. Themistocles.—9. Aristides.—10. Pericles.—11. Phocion.—12. Clitomachus.—13. Epaminondas.—14. Demosthenes.—15. Agasicles.—16. Agesilaus.—17. Agis.—18. Alcamenes.—19. Alexandrides.—20. Anaxilas.—21. Ariston.—22. Archidamus.—23. Cleomenes.—24. Dersyllidas.—25. Hippodamus.—26. Leonidas.—27. Lysander.—28. Pausanias.—29. Theopompus, &c.—30. The manner of life and government of the Lacedæmonians in ge
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II. The Romans also yielded us instances to our point in hand, viz.
II. The Romans also yielded us instances to our point in hand, viz.
1. Cato.—2. Scipio Africanus.—3. Augustus.—4. Vespasian.—5. Trajan.—6. Adrian.—7. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.—8. Pertinax.—9. Pescennius.—10. Alexander Severus.—11. Dioclesian.—12. Theodosius. 1. Cato, that sage Roman, seeing a luxurious man loaded with flesh, "Of what service," saith he, "can that man be, either to himself, or the commonwealth?" One day beholding the statues of several persons erecting, that he thought little worthy of remembrance, that he might despise the pride of it, "I had r
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III. I will now proceed to report the virtuous doctrines and sayings of men of more retirement; such as philosophers and writers, both Greeks and Romans, who in their respective times were masters in the civility, knowledge, and virtue that were among the Gentiles, being most of them many ages before the coming of Christ, viz.
III. I will now proceed to report the virtuous doctrines and sayings of men of more retirement; such as philosophers and writers, both Greeks and Romans, who in their respective times were masters in the civility, knowledge, and virtue that were among the Gentiles, being most of them many ages before the coming of Christ, viz.
1. Thales.—2. Pythagoras.—3. Solon.—4. Chilon.—5. Periander.—6. Bias.—7. Cleobulus.—8. Pittacus.—9. Hippias.—10. The Bambycatii.—11. The Gynæcosmi.—12. Anacharsis.—13. Anaxagoras.—14. Heraclitus.—15. Democritus.—16. Socrates.—17. Plato.—18. Antisthenes.—19. Xenocrates.—20. Bion.—21. Demonax.—22. Diogenes.—23. Crates.—24. Aristotle.—25. Mandanis.—26. Zeno.—27. Seneca.—28. Epictetus. I. Thales, an ancient Greek philosopher, being asked by a person that had committed adultery if he might swear, ans
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IV. Nor is this reputation, wisdom, and virtue, only to be attributed to men: there were women also in the Greek and Roman ages, that honoured their sex, by great examples of meekness, prudence, and chastity; and which I do the rather mention, that the honour, story yields to their virtuous conduct, may raise an allowable emulation in those of their own sex, at least, to equal the noble character given them by antiquity, viz.
IV. Nor is this reputation, wisdom, and virtue, only to be attributed to men: there were women also in the Greek and Roman ages, that honoured their sex, by great examples of meekness, prudence, and chastity; and which I do the rather mention, that the honour, story yields to their virtuous conduct, may raise an allowable emulation in those of their own sex, at least, to equal the noble character given them by antiquity, viz.
1. Penelope.—2. Hipparchia.—3. Cornelia.—4. Pompeia Plautina.—5. Plotina.—6. A reproof to voluptuous women of the times. I. Penelope, wife to Ulysses, a woman eminent for her beauty and quality, but more for her singular chastity. Her husband was absent from her twenty years, partly in the service of his country, and partly in exile; and being believed to be dead, she was earnestly sought by divers lovers, and pressed by her parents to change her condition; but all the importunities of the one,
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
The doctrine and practice of the blessed Lord Jesus, and his Apostles; the primitive Christians, and those of more modern times, in favour of this discourse. 1. The Doctrine of Christ, from Mat. v. about denial of self.—2. John the Baptist's example.—3. The testimonies of the apostle Peter, &c.—4. Paul's godly exhortation against pride, covetousness, and luxury.—5. The primitive Christians' nonconformity to the world.—6. Clemens Romanus against the vanity of the Gentiles.—7. Machiavel, o
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CHAPTER XXI.
CHAPTER XXI.
Serious dying, as well as living testimonies of Men of Fame and Learning, viz. 1. Solomon.—2. Chilon.—3. Ignatius.—4. Justin Martyr.—5. Chrysostom.—6. Charles V.—7. Cardinal Wolsey.—8. Sir Philip Sidney.—9. Secretary Walsingham.—10. Sir John Mason.—11. Sir Walter Raleigh.—12. H. Wotton.—13. Sir Christopher Hatton.—14. Lord Chancellor Bacon.—15. The great Duke of Montmorency.—16. Henry Prince of Wales.—17. Philip III. King of Spain.—18. Count Gondamor.—19. Cardinal Richlieu.—20. Cardinal Mazarine
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THE CONCLUSION.
THE CONCLUSION.
I. Having finished so many testimonies as my time would give me leave, in favour of this subject, No Cross, No Crown; no temperance, no happiness; no virtue, no reward: no mortification, no glorification: I shall conclude with a short description of the life and worship of the Christians, within the first century or hundred years after Christ: what simplicity, what spirituality, what holy love and communion, did in that blessed age abound among them! It is delivered originally by Philo Judæus, a
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