And from each of them we partake of an answerable Nature As is the Earthy such are they that are earthy even all of us in our fleshly state having earthy bodies from an earthy Adam and natural bodies from the natural Adam And as is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly for Christ makes men like himself even first gracious and then glorious as Adam begets us like himself that is natural and sinful And therefore all those that have followed Christ in the Regeneration shall follow him into Glory and having conquered by him shall reign by him and with him and having received the holy nature here which is the seed of glory they shall receive the glorious nature there which is the perfection of that Grace And so as Christ hath an heavenly spiritual body and â—â—â— an earthy natural body so shall his Members have that they may be like him And as we have here born the image of the earthy in having first a natural fleshly body we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly Adam in having a spiritual body that is not fleâ—â— Now lest any doubt of it saith the Spirit of God this I say that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit incorruption 1 Cor. 15. 42. to 51. Object If there were but as much likelihood of a Resurrection as there is of the Reviving of the plants in the Spring I could believe it for there is a life remaining in the Root or Seed but the body of man hath neither Root nor seed of life and therefore it 's contrary to nature that it should revive Answ 1. If it be above nature that is all it is not contrary to it Or not so contrary as to be above the power of the Lord of nature Will you allow no greater works for God than such as you can see a reason of and can assign a natural cause of what did Nature in the creation of nature It was not certainly any cause of it self If Christ rose without a natural cause even so shall we 2. But why may I not say that the dead body of man hath a living Root as truly as the plants in winter The soul is the Root of the body and the soul is still alive And Christ is the Root of the soul and he is still alive For though we are dead yet our Life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life shall appear at the Spring of Resurrection then we shall also appear with him in Glory Col. 3. 3 4. And though there be no Physical contact between this living soul and the body yet there is a Relative Union and a deep rooted Love of the soul to its body and inclination to it so that it is mindful of it and waiteth with longing for that hour when the command of God shall send it to revive that body It is not incredible that a silly snail should by its natural life and power make for it self a beautiful habitation Or that the life of a Rose-tree that was buried in the root should fabricate a sweet and beauteous Rose by which it may make an ostentation of its invisible self to the world In how small a room doth the life of a silk-worm lie of which I spoke before in the winter That little grain or seed is such as yields no sign of life to the beholder yet doth it form it self a larger body and that body spin its silken web out of its own substance and in that house it self in a husk and take to it self another shape and thence become a winged Fly and so generate more But nearer us in the generation of man the vital principle in the seed doth quickly with concurrent causes form it self a body The warmth of the body of the Hen or other Bird can turn the egge into a Chicken Why then may not the living sâ—ul that is the Root and life of the body in the dust be the instrument of God to reform its own body as certainly it will be the principle that shall reinform it But you say the body being dead hath no natural root nor way of recess to life again because the privation is total To which I answer First the Relative union between the soul and it and the souls disposition to the Return into its body is as potent a cause of its reviving as the natural union of the Root and branches if withal you consider that Christ is the Root of the soul Rational agents if perfect will work as certainly as Natural For natural causes do nothing but by a Power communicated to them from an Intellectual cause even God himself Why should Nature do any of these things but because God that makes and ruleth all will have it to be so Now Jesus Christ is the Political Head of the Church The body in the grave hath its own Relation to him Christ is still living and resolved and engaged by promise and enclined by Love to revive that body And as Christ is the life of the soul so the soul is the life of the body and this soul as I said is waiting to be sent again into it And when the hour comes what can hinder The Love of the soul to its body and its desire to be reunited is a kind of natural cause of the Resurrection A candle not lighted is as far from light and as much without it as a dead body is without life And yet one touch of a lighted candle will light that which never was lighted before And so may one touch of the living soul that 's now with Christ put life into the body that lieth in the dust And as the lighted candle makes the other like it and communicateth of its own nature to it so doth the glorified soul communicate a new kind of excellency to the body which it never had before even to be a spiritual glorious incorruptible and immortal body In the first creating of man the new formed body as to the matter of it was no better than the body of a Beast or any common piece of earth But the soul made the difference when a Rational Soul was breathed into that Body it advanced the very body to a dignity beyond the bodies of brutes even such as the natural body of man had before sin When Christ was about to repair faln man it was the spirit of Christ informing the soul that caused the renewed soul to communicate again a dignity to the bodies of sanctified men above other bodies And so when the body was dead because of sin having the root of sin and death within it and being mortal therefore yet the spirit was life because of Righteousness being the Root of holy and Righteous dispositions and the new life in man himself Rom. 8. 10. For Christ the principal root of life and the spirit and holiness are first in order of nature in the soul and but by
communication and secondarily in the Body But contrarily sin made its entrance first by the Body and hath its Root and Seat first in order of nature in the body it is so communicated to the soul Thus sin comes in at the back-door even at the wrong end and by the baser part But Grace comes in the right way by the Nobler part sin hath its Root in the viler part but Christ hath his seat first in the better part And yet I must add 1. That sin is not ripe till it reach the will though it enter by the flesh and senses it is not formed nor to be called sin till it reach the will and as there it is scituated but yet the thing it self is first in and by the flesh 2. And the will is truly the seat of Original sin it self as well as the sensitive part but not the first Root of the corruption Though sin be Worst in the Rational part because the corruption of the best is the worst yet it is not first there But Holiness is first also in the soul and so communicated to the body And so also Glory it self will be And therefore take notice of the wise and gracious providence of God that taketh the soul to heaven before-hand that it may be first Glorified and so may be fit to communicate glory to the body And so as the Natural Soul dignified the Natural Body and the Sanctified Soul did Sanctifie the body so the Glorified Soul by reunion with the body shall communicate its Nature to the body at the Resurrection and so it will be made spiritual immortal and incorruptible by the soul and soul and body are made such by Christ So that by this time you may see that there is more Reason for the Resurrection for all the body is turned to earth than there is Reason that a Candle that 's gone out should be lighted again by another or than there is Reason that I should put on my cloaths in the morning which I put off at night It 's true those cloaths have no power to put on themselves nor is there any natural necessitating cause of it but yet there is a Free cause in me that will infallibly if I live and be able produce it For nature disposeth me to abhor nakedness and desire my cloaths and therefore in the morning I will put them on And so nature teacheth the separated soul to desire a reunion with its body and therefore when the Resurrection morning comes it will gladly take the word from Christ and give that vital touch to the body that shall revive it and so put on its ancient garment but wonderfully changed from fleshly to spiritual from dishonourable into glorious And now I hope you see that you may put off these cloths with patience and submission and that it is no wrong to the flesh it self to be put off but tendeth to its highest advancement at the last Though the first cause of sin and the nest of sin shall be so broken first that it shall first be seen what sin hath done before it be seen what Grace will do and the fruit of our own wayes must first be tasted before we shall fully feed and live upon the blessed fruit of the grace of Christ 11. Moreover as there is a Resurrection for the body it self and that to a more perfect estate than it can here attain so the whole nature shall be perfected beyond our present comprehension This life was not intended to be the place of our perfection but the preparation for it As the fruit is far from ripeness in the first appearance or the flower while it is but in the husk or bud or the Oak when it is but an acorn or any plant when it is but in the seed no more is the very nature of man on earth As the Infant is not perfect in the Womb nor the Chicken in the shell no more are our natures perfect in this world Methinks for the sake of the body it self much more of the soul if we are believers we should submit contentedly to death While you are here you know that creatures will fail you enemies will hate you friends will grieve you neighbours will wrong you Satan will tempt you and molest you the world is changeable and will deceive you all your comforts are mixed with discomforts the body carrieth about with it calamities enough of its own to weary it What daily pains must it be at for the sustentation of its self in its present state and yet what grief and sorrow must it undergo Every member hath either its disease or a disposition thereto What abundance of passages can pain and sickness find to enter at and how many rooms that are ready to receive them As every member hath its use so every one is capable of sorrow and the sorrow of one is at least as much communicated to the whole as the usefulness is The pain of the simplest member even of a tooth can make the whole body a weary of it self What is the daily condition of our flesh but weakness and suffering with care and labour to prevent much worse which yet we know cannot long be avoided The sorrow of many a mans life hath made him wish he had never been born and why then should he not wish as much to die which doth ten thousand fold more for him if he be a Christian than to be unborn would have done Not a Relation so comfortable but hath its discomforts Not a friend so suitable but hath some discordancy nor any so amiable and sweet but hath somewhat loathsome troublesome and bitter Not a place so pleasant and commodious but hath its unfitness discommodities Not a Society so good and regular but hath its corruptions and irregularities And should we be so loth to leave whether naturally or violently such a life as this When the fruit is ripe should it not be gathered When the corn is ripe would you have it grow there and not be cut When the spirit hath hatched us for heaven should we be so loth to leave the shell or nest When we are begotten again to the hopes of immortality should we be so desirous to stay in the womb O Sirs it is another kind of life that we shall have with God They are purer comforts that stay for us above But if you will not have the Grapes to be gathered and prest how can you expect to have the Wine Me thinks our fleâ—h should have enough e're this time of sickness and pain and want and crosses and should be content to lie down in hope of the day when these shall be no more Little would an unbeliever think what a Body God will make of this that now is corruptible flesh and blood It shall then be loathsome and troublesome no more It shall be hungry or thirsty or weary or cold or pained no more As the stars of heaven do differ from a clod of
we should take Liberty to contradict them and to speak for Christ and the souls of men till they have deprived us of tongues or pens or lives And they must expect that we obey God rather than men and that as Paul did Peter Gal. 2. 11. we withstand them to the face and that Satan shall not be unresisted because he is transformed into an Angel of Light nor his Ministers be unresisted because they are transformed into the Ministers of Righteousness nor the false Apostles and deceitful workers because they are transformed into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13 14 15. Nor must they think to do so horrid a thing as to weave their Libertinism Toleration of Popery into a new Fundamental Constitution of the Common-wealth which Parliaments must have no power to alter and that the ages to come shall curse us for our silence and say that Ministers and other Christians were all so basely selfish as for fear of reproaches or sufferings to say nothing but cowardly to betray the Gospel and their Countrey If the rattling of the hail of persecution on the tiles even on this flesh which is but the tabernacle of our souls be a terrible thing how much more terrible is the indignation of the Lord and the threats of him that is a consuming fire If you can venture your life against an enemy in the field we are bastards and not Christians if we cannot venture ours and give them up to persecuting rage as long as we know that we have a Master that will save us harmless and that the God whom we serve is able to deliver us that he hath charged us not to fear them that kill the body and after that can do no more c. and that he hath told us that we are blessed when men revile us and persecute us and say all manner of evil against us falsly for his sake bidding us Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is our reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before us Mat. 5. 10 11 12. and when we are told that he that will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for the sake of Christ shall finde it Mat. 16. 25. and when we know that we own a cause that shall prevail at last and resist them whose end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 11. 15. And what though this be unknown to the opposers That will not warrant us to betray a cause that we know to be of God nor will the ignorance of others excuse us for neglecting known truth and duty If the souls of private persons be worth all the study and labour of our lives and we must deal faithfully with them whatever it shall cost us surely the safety of a Nation and the hopes of our posterity and the publick interest of Christ is worthy to be spoken for with much more zeal and we may suffer more joyfully for contradicting a publick destroyer of the Church than for telling a poor drunkard or whoremonger of his sin and misery Hither to I have permitted my pen to express my sense of the common want of self-denial in the Land Now give me leave as your most affectionate faithful friend to turn my stile a little to your self and earnestly to entreat of you these following particulars I. In general that as long as you live you will watch against this common deadly sin of Selfishness and study continually the duty of Self-denial We shall be empty of Christ till we are Nothing in our selves Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Self is the strongest and most dangerous enemy that ever you fought against It is a whole Army united and the more dangerous because so near Many that have fought as valiantly and successfully against other enemies as you have at last been conquered and undone by Self And conquer it you cannot without a conflict And the conflict must endure as long as you live And combating is not pleasing to the enemy And therefore as long as self is the enemy and self-pleasing so natural to corrupted man that should be wholly addicted to please the Lord Self-denial will prove a difficult task And if somewhat in the advice that would engage you deeper in the conflict should seem bitter or ungrateful I should not wonder And let me freely tell you that your prosperity and advancement will make the work so exceeding difficult that since you have been a Major General and a Lord and now a Counsellor of State you have stood in a more slippery perillous place and have need of much more grace and vigilancy than when you were but Baxter's Friend Great places and employments have great temptations and are great avocations of the mind from God And no errour scarcely can be small that is committed in publick great Affairs which the honour of God and the temporal and spiritual welfare of so many do in somesort depend upon These times have told us to our grief what Victory and Prosperity can do to strengthen the selfish principle in men They have swallowed Camels since they were lifted up that would have strained at Gnats in a lower state The Ministery and Ordinances and Holy Communion that once were sweet to them are grown into contempt Centaury and Wormwood are excellent helps to procure an appetite and strengthen the stomach but marrow and sweetness breed a loathing The Vertiginous disease is not so strong with them that are on the ground as with them that stand on the top of a steeple I had rather twenty times look up at them that are so exalted than stand with them and have the terror of looking down Had not professors been intoxicated by prosperity they had not believed and lived so giddily I have often seen mens reason marr'd with a cup or two too much but seldom by too little And too many I have known that have wounded conscience and sold their souls for the love of Prosperity and Wealth but none that ever did it for Poverty For a rich man to be saved is impossible to man though all things are possible with God Matth. 19. 26. Luke 18. 27. For my own part I bless God that hath kept me from greatness in the world and I take it as the principal act of Friendship that ever you did for me that you provoked me to this sweet though flesh-displeasing life of the Ministry in which I have chosen to abide I had rather lie in health on the hardest bed than be sick upon the softest And I see that a fether-bed maketh not a sick man well The sleep of the labouring man is sweet The plow-mans brown bread and cheese is more savoury to him and breedeth fewer sicknesses than the fulness and variety of the rich This Country Diet doth not cherish Voluptuousness Arrogancy Vain-glory Earthly-mindedness Uncharitableness and other selfish diseases so much as worldly
in your confusion You have seen of late years in this Land the Glory of Self-seekers turned to shame But it 's greater shame that 's out of sight The word and works of God have warned you If yet the Cause and Church of God shall be neglected and your selves and your own affairs preferred and men that shall not be tolerated to abuse you shall be Tolerated to abuse the souls of men and the Lord that made them and if God must be denyed because you will not deny your selves you shall be denyed by Christ in your great extremity when the remembrance of these things shall be your torment Hearken and Amend or prepare your answer for behold the Judge is at the door THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF the Nature of selfishness as opposite to God invading his prerogative in ten particulars Page 1 CHAP. II. Reasons of the Necessity of Self-denial p. 26 CHAP. III. Use 1. A general complaint of the prevalency of selfishness p. 33 CHAP. IV. The prevalency of selfishness in all Relations p. 40 CHAP. V. The power of selfishness upon mens opinions in Religion p. 49. CHAP. VI. Mens great aversness to costly or troublesom Duties p. 52 CHAP. VII Mens tenderness of Self in cases of any suffering p. 60 CHAP. VIII The partiality of mens Judgement in their Own cases p. 62 CHAP. IX The great power and prevalency of self discovered p. 70 CHAP. X. Consectaries 1. This evinceth the fall of man and Original corruption 2. It tells us what to expect from men and gives us the truest Prognostick of affairs so far as the will of man determineth them 3. It warranteth a moderate incredulity and jealousie of man 4. It callethâ—us to be jealous of our selâ—es p. 77 CHAP. XI Use 2. To try our self-denial Whether it be sincere p. 79 CHAP. XII Exercise Self-denial Ten Cases in which Self must be denied p. 83 CHAP. XIII 1. Selfish Dispositions to be denied And 1. Self-love p. 88 CHAP. XIV 2. Self-conceitedness must be denied p. 93 CHAP. XV. Self-will must be denied p. 108 CHAP. XVI Selfish passions to be denied p. 119 CHAP. XVII Self-imaginations to be denied p. 123 CHAP. XVIII Inordinate appetite to be denied p. 125 CHAP. XIX II. Self-interest to be denied And I. Pleasure And 1. That of the Taste p. 134 Lustful pleasures to be denied p. 140 CHAP. XX. 3. Wanton talk Love-songs c. to he denied 142 CHAP. XXI 4. Idle and worldly talk to be denied p. 147 CAP. XXII 5. False stories Romances and other idle tempting books p. 157 CHAP. XXIII 6. Vain sports and past-times to be denied p. 159 CHAP. XXIV 7. Vain and sinful company to be denied p. 166 CHAP. XXV 8. Pleasing accommodations Houses Gardens Horses c. 168 CHAP. XXVI 9. Self-denial in Apparel needful p. 174 CHA. XXVII 10. Self-denial against Ease and Idleness and worldly peace p. 182 CHAP. XXVIII 11. Delight in worldly Prosperity to be denied p. 191 CHAP. XXIX 12. Children and Relationshow to be denied p. 195 CHAP. XXX 13. Revengeful passions to be denied p. 203 CHAP. XXXI 14. Useless History and News to be denied p. 205 CHAP. XXXII 15. Unnecessary knowledge and delight therein to be denyed p. 208 CHAP. XXXIII 16. Afactious desire of the success of our Own opinions and the thriving of our own parties as such to be denied p. 214 CHAP. XXXIV 17. Carnal Liberty to be denied There is an Holy Liberty which none must deny And a wicked Liberty which none must desire And an indifferent Liberty How far this must be denied p. 218 CHAP. XXXV 18. Our Native Countrey and Habitations to be dâ—nied p. 227 CHAP. XXXVI 19. Bodily Health and Ease from pains p. 229 CHAP. XXXVII 20. Natural life to be denied p. 237 CHAP. XXXVIII Twenty Reasons to move us to deny our Lives and yield to violent or natural death with comfortable submission when God requireth it p. 243 CHAP. XXXIX An answer to such Doubts as are raised by the fears of death p. 273 CHAP. XL. Directions to procure a willingness to die p. 276 CHAP. XLI Self-denial in Point of Honour and Pride And 1. Of climbing into dignities or high places p. 285 CHAP. XLII 2. The Love and commendations of others to be denied p. 291 CHAP. XLIII 3. The Reputation of Wealth to be denied p. 293 CHAP. XLIV 4. Comeliness and Beauty to be denied p. 294 CHAP. XLV 5. Strength and Valour to be denied p. 296 CHAP. XLVI 6. Wisdom and Learning to be denied p. 297 CHAP. XLVII 7. Reputation of Spiritual Gifts and Abilities to be denied p. 299 CHAP. XLVIII 8. The reputation of being Orthodox how to be denyed p. 306 CHAP. XLIX 9. The Reputation of Godliness and Honesty how to be denied p. 309 CHAP. L. 10. A Renowned perpetuated Name to be denied p. 313 CHAP. LI. Q. 1. Whether self-denial consist in renouncing propriety p. 331 CHAP. LII Q. 2. Whether it consist in renouncing Marriage p. 333 CHAP. LIII Q. 3. Whether it lie in solitude and renouncing secular affairs p. 335 CHAP. LIV. Q. 4. Or in renouncing publick Offices and Honours p. 336 CHAP. LV. Q. 5. Or in denying our Relations p. 338 CHAP. LVI Q. 6. Whether self-denial require us to give more to Godly Strangers than to kindred that are ungodly p. 340 CHAP. LVII Q. 7. How we must Love our neighbours as our selves p. 343 CHAP. LVIII Q. 8. What pennance or self-revenge it requireth p. 344 CHAP. LIX Q. 9. Must all Passion be denied p. 345 CHAP. LX. Q. 10. How far must we deny our Reason p. 346 CHAP. LXI Q. 11. How far must we be content with Gods afflicting will c. p. 347 CHAP. LXII Q. 12. May God be finally loved as our felicity and portion for our selves p. 349 CHAP. LXIII Motives to self-denial 1. Selfishness is the grand Idolatry p. 353 CHAP. LXIV 2. It 's the enemy of all Moral good p. 356 CHAP. LXV 3. It 's contrary to the state of holiness and happiness p. 365 CHAP. LXVI 4. Self-seeking is self-losing Self-denial is our safety p. 368 CHAP. LXVII 5. It 's the powerful enemy of all Ordinances p. 373 CHAP. LXVIII 6. It 's the enemy of all Societies and Relations and common good p. 380 CHAP. LXIX 7. It Corrupteth and debaseth all that it disposeth of p. 300 CHAP. LXX 8. Deny Self or you will deny Christ p. 394 CHAP. LXXI 9. The selfish deal worse with God than with the Devil p. 396 CHAP. LXXII It 's the heaviest plague to be left to our selves p. 398 CHAP. LXXIII Ten Directions to get Self-denial p. 400 The Conclusion p. 411 LUKE 9. 23 24. And he said to them all If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross daily and follow me For whosoever will save his life shall lose it but whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it CHAP. I. What Selfishness and Self-denyal are at
it is the best and wiâ—est course and approve of it in others and wish they might but dye in such mens case And yet they will not themselves be brought to practise it They will commend Peter and Paul and the Fathers and the Martyrs for a holy life and as I said keep holy-daâ—es for them and yet they will not be perswaded to imitate them And why so why it costs them nothing to commend Holiness in others but to practise it themselves must cost them self-denyal 6. If another man be so ingenuous as to forsake an old self-espoused opinion which their reputation seems to lye upon and this upon their arguing or in conformity to their minds they will commend his great self-denyal and sincerity But yet they will not do so themselves where the case is perhaps more clear and necessary 7. Take a man that is never so worldly and unmerciful that gives not to the poor any considerable part of his estate nor doth nothing worth the mentioning for the Church and yet this man will consent that another shall be as bountiful and charitable as he will when you can hardly scrue a groat out of his purse he will be content if another will give an hundred And he will commend the liberal and speak well of them when he will not imitate them And why is this why it costeth him nothing for another to be liberal and therefore he can advise it or consent to it without self-denyal but self is against it when he should do it himself 8. Take the most selfish unsanctified man that cannot love an enemy nor forgive a debt or a wrong and he will yet commend it in another and advise them to it and speak well of those that will do so by him And why is this why it costeth him nothing to have another man love an enemy or forgive a debt or wrong but he cannot himself do it without self-denyal 9. Those men that love not to be toucht themselves by the Ministers application can yet endure well enough that others be dealt as sharply with as may be And they are glad to hear any sharply reproved whose sins they do dislike The Covetous man loves to hear us reprove the drunkard and the drunkard is content to have the Covetous reprehended Erroneous professors dividers and hypocrites do hate the Minister that reprehendeth their own sin and can scarce endure to hear him but say he is bitter or a presecutor or raileth at the godly alas that wickedness should have so impudent a plea But they can freely give us leave to deal as plainly as we will with the openly prophane scarce any sect can endure you to speak against their own mistakes but you may speak as freely against the contrary minded as you please How easily can Papists endure one to speak against Protestants or Anabaptists endure one to speak against Infant-baptism And the openly prophane can well enough endure to have Sects and Schismaticks and Hereticks reproved And why is all this but from the Dominion of self and the scarcity of self-denyal in the world To have another rebuked toucheth not Self and therefore may be born The poor man loves to hear us preach against the Vices of the rich and to reprehend the luxury of Gentlemen and the cruelty of oppressors The subject too often loves to hear the Rulers faults laid open The Countryman loves to hear the Courtiers the Ministers but specially the Lawyers faults laid open Here you may speak freely but Self must be let alone upon pain of their displeasure and many a reproach 10. So also in case of personal close reproof those that cannot endure it themselves do think it the duty of others to endure it and expect that others should submit to them and if any will say Neighbour I thank you for your plain and friendly dealing and having so much compassion on my soul as to help to save me from my sins I confess I am a vile unworthy sinner but by the grace of God I will do so no more or if I be any more overtaken I pray you tell me of it and let me not alone in it I say if another should answer them thus and thank them for their reproof they would think the better of him and take it well But yet they will not do so themselves for it costeth Self nothing to have another submit and humble himself So those that are most backward to the admonishing of others lest they lose their love can like to have a a Minister or another do it For that doth not put them to deny themselves 12. Nay take a scandalous professor that is drawn to publick Confession as a Bear to the Stake and if it were another mans case he would think it but reasonable and meet and would perswade him to it If another had committed the same sin against God as he hath done or had slandered or wronged him and would freely without urging confess in the Congregation with tears in his eyes that he hath sinfully provoked God and offended the Church and wronged his Brother and laid a stumbling block in the way of the ungodly and the weak and dishonoured his holy profession and is never able to make satisfaction for such heinous sins and is unworthy any more to be a member of the Church and to have any communion with Christ or them and should earnestly intreat them to pardon him and pray for him and retain him in their Communion and intreat God to pardon him Would not the stander by think this were well done and a better way to his recovery than to refuse it And all is because that self is not touched in another mans case unless he apprehend it like to become his own and then he may be against it and scorn at this as too precise a Course 13. Take also the extortioner or any man that hath defrauded or injured another and that will not be perswaded to make Restitution of all that he hath got amiss and let this man hear of the case of Zacheus and he will say It was well done Or let anothers case be propounded to him and he can tell them that Restitution is the safest way whatever it cost you its fit that every man should have his own Self will give him free leave to consent to another mans Restititution but not to his own 14. Moreover Suppose that persecution were afoot and a man must either knowingly sin against God or lose his Estate and part with all that he hath in the world and burn at a Stake for the cause of Christ The selfish unsanctified person will not be perswaded that this is his duty or at least he will not be perswaded to submit to it He cannot suffer nor burn He will trust God with his soul rather than men with his body as such speak that despise God and reject him and prefer the world before him and call this trusting him But if this were
sometime all is comprehended in the term world and selfishness in the word flesh the world being that harlot with which the flesh commits adultery So 1 Joh. 2. 15 16. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world If any man Love the world the Love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the Lust of the flesh the Lust of the eyes and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but is of the world and the world passeth away and the Lust thereof but he that doth th will of God abideth for ever To these three heads therefore we shall reduce all that we have to say of this matter I. The selfish fleshy Pleasure that must be denied consisteth in these particulars following which I shall but briefly touch because they are so many 1. One Principal part of Sensuality or Self-interest consisteth in meats and drinks to please the Appetite So far as these are taken to fit us for Gods service and used to his Glory so far they are sanctified as before was said but when they are meerly to please the appetite they are offered to an enemy and are the fuel of lust Do you see any thing that your Appetite desireth whether meats or drinks whether for quality or quantity Take it not touch it not meerly upon that account but enquire whether it tend to the strengthning and fitting your bodies or minds for the service of God and if so take it if not let alone If your appetite had rather have Wine than Beer or strong Beer than small take it not meerly upon that account If your appetite would fain have one cup more when nature hath as much as is profitable deny that appetite If your appetite would fain be tasting of any thing that is not for your health deny that appetite If it would fain have one bit more when you have as much before as is wholesom or useful to you deny that appetite Or else you are guilty of flesh pleasing and plain Gluttony Quest But is it not lawful at a feast to taste of another dish or eat another bit when I think that nature needs no more what perplexities then will you cast men into to know just how many morsels they may eat Answ It is gluttony and no beter to take the creatures of God in vain and sacrifice them to a devouring throat which should be used only for his service That which is a mans ultimate end is his God What would you have plainer than express words of Scripture that tell you that whether you eat or drink it must be all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. and that the fleshly do make their bellies their Gods Phil. 3. 18. And therefore when you have taken as much as suiteth with your end the service and glory of God you must not take more for another end the pleasing of your fleshly desires But for the scruples that you mention about the just proportion we need not be disquieted with them For God hath given us sufficient means to direct us to know what is for our good and what is superfluous and it is our duty in an even and constant way to use our Reason and keep as near the due proportion as we can and when we know that this is our desire and endeavour it were a sin against God to trouble our selves with continual or causless scruples or fears lest we do exceed or miss the rule For what can we do more than go according to the best skill we have and if for want of skill we should a little mistake it is pardoned with the rest of our daily infirmities and to trouble and distract our selves with causeless fears would more unfit us for Gods service than some degree of mistake in the proportion would do and so would be as great a sin as that which we feared And therefore our way is quietly and comfortably without distracting fears or scruples to do our best and use our prudence with self-denial and remember that we have to do with a Father that knows the flesh is weak when the spirit is willing But yet wilfully to cast away one cup or one morsel on the pleasing of our appetites when it no way fits us for the service of God and will do us no other good this is not self-denial but sensuality Quest But nature knows best what 's good for it self and therefore that which it desireth is to be judged best A Beast liveth as healthfully as a man that obeyeth his appetite only Is it not lawful to take either meat or drink on this account that the Appetite is pleased with it Answ 1. Some Beasts would presently kill themselves in pleasing their appetites if man that is Rational did not rule restrain and moderate them A Swine will burst himself with whey in half an hour A Beast in new after-grass will surfeit if he be suffered No Beast knows poyson from food but would soon perish by it in obeying his appetite 2. And yet as a Bâ—â—st hath no Reason so he is better provided to live without Reason than man is His appetite is not so corrupted by sin as ours is Original sin hath depraved and enraged our appetites And if man had not more use for his reason than a Beast even in ordering his natural actions God would not have given him reason to rule his appetite and commanded him to use it herein And who knows not that if a man did follow his appetite alone as Beasts do he were like to murder himself the next day or week or at least in a very little space The appetite would presently carry us to that for quality or quantity or both that would cast us into mortal diseases and soon make an end of us And in those diseases the pleasing it usually would be certain death And indeed this is a beastly doctrine that man that hath reason to rule his sensual inclinations should lay it by and please his appetite without it like a brute what more do all Gluttons Drunkards and Whoremongers but follow ther fleshly desires And if the desires of the flesh might be followed who would not be such as they in some measure That which is no sin in a Beast is a hainous sin in a man because man hath reason to rule his appetite and a Beast hath none and therefore is not capable of sin And for the body it 's certain that most of the diseases in the world are bred and fed by the pleasing of the appetite and I think that there 's few that are laid in their graves but this was the cause of it though the ignorant know it not and the sensual are loth to believe it And for the question whether we may not take any meat or drink purposely to please the appetite I answer yes as a means to fit us for duty but not as your chief end 1. Sometimes especially in weak bodies the
not principally to please your own fancy and carnal mind but for the enabling you the better and more chearfully to serve God Nothing but God may be loved for it self When the Pleasing of the flesh and fancy is the utmost thing we look at in any of our desires they are wicked and idolatrous Our houses therefore must be fitted to Necessary uses and not to inordinate delights Our Gardens Orchards Walks and such like must be first suited to Necessity and then to so much Delight as is useful to us for the promoting of our holiness but not to any useless tempting Delight But worldlings and sensual persons will not be tied to these Christian Rules Alas it 's the furthest matter from their minds to make Heaven the End of all their earthly possessions and accommodations They may hypocritically talk of God and of serving him by their estates but really it is the pleasing of a fleshly mind that is the thing which they intend They have more delight in their houses and gardens and lands and cattle than in God and the hopes of life everlasting They desire fair houses that they may be thought to be no mean persons in the world and that they may please their humours that run after creatures for felicity and content I would desire such men to consider these things 1. All these are but the baits of Satan to delight you and entangle your desires and find you work in seeking after them while you neglect far greater matters Can you have while to look so much after superfluities and delights in the world when you have Necessaries yet to look after for your souls Have you not greater things to mind than these which these occasion you to neglect 2. Do you really find that they conduce to your main end even to make you more holy or more serviceable to God Nay do not your own Consciences tell you that they hinder you and cross those ends And yet will go against your experience 3. If you are humble conscionable Christians you feel cause enough already to lament that your love to God and delight in him is no more And yet are you preparing snares for your souls to steal away that little remnant of your affections which you seemed to reserve for God 4. If you have any spark of Grace in you you know that the flesh and the world are your dangerous enemies and you know that the way that the world doth undo men is by ticing them to over-value it over-love it that those that love it most are deepest in a state of condemnation and the less men love it the less they are hurt or endangered by it And do you not know that you are liker to over-love a sumptuous house with gardens orchards and such accommodations than a mean habitation Why should you be such enemies to your own salvation as to make temptations for your selves Have you not temptations enough already Do you deal with those you have so well and overcome them so easily and so constantly as that you have reason to desire more If Christ your General send you upon a hotter service you may go on with courage and expect his help But if you will so glory in your own strength as to run into the hotter battle and call for more and stronger enemies it 's easie to conjecture how you will come off If you are Christians know your selves you know that in the meanest state you are too prone to over-love the world and that under all Gods medicinal afflictions you cannot be so weaned from it as you ought Are you not daily constrained to groan and complain to God under the burden of too much Love of the world and too much delight in worldly things If this be not your case I see not how you can have any sincerity of saving grace And if it be your case will you be so sottiâ—â— and hypocritical as to complain daily to God of your sin in the mean time to love and cherish it to groan under your disease and wilfully eat and drink that which you know doth increase it What will you think of a man that will pray to God to save him from uncleanness and yet will dwell no where but in a Brothel-house What do you better that must needs have the world in the loveliest garb and must needs have house and grounds and all things in that plight as are fittest to entice the heart and then will complain to God that you over-love the world and love him too little To your shame you may speak it when you do it so willfully and cherish the sin which you thus complain of If God call you into a state of fulness and temptations watch the more narrowly over your affections and your practices and use no more of the creatures for your self if you have ten thousand pound a year than if you had but an hundred but do not seek and long for temptations With not for danger unless you were better able to pass through it 4. Remember when your fancies desire such things not only that it is an enemy that desireth them and to please your enemy is not safe for you but also that it 's the way that most have perished by to have the world before them in too pleasing and lovely a condition Remember Nebuchadnezzar's case Dan. 4. 30. that for glorying in his pompous buildings was turned as a mad man among the Beasts Remember the rich mans sad example Luke 12. 20. 16. and think whether it be safe to imitate them If men must perish for loving the creature more than God methinks you should long most for that condition in which the creature appeareth least lovely or is least likely to steal your love from God and in which you may love him and enjoy him most 5. And bethink you how unsuitable it is to your condition to desire sumptuous buildings and enticing accommodations to your flesh Have you not taken God for your portion and Heaven for your home and are you not strangers and pilgrims here and is not God and everlasting glory sufficient for you You profess all this if you profess to be Christians and if you be not you should not profess that you are And what do you begin to repent of your choice must you yet turn to the pomp and vanity of the world again and will you quit your hopes of God and glory Ah poor souls what little need have you of such great matters on earth you have but a little to do with them and but a little while to stay with them and will not a mean habitation and shorter accommodations serve you for so short a time Stay but a while and your souls shall have house-room enough in heaven or hell and a narrow grave of seven foot long will serve your bodies till the resurrection And cannot you make shift with an ordinary habitation and with small common things till then
because you are idle that should use them Every hour that you lose in idleness what noble faculties and large provisions are all laid by As much as in you lieth you make the whole creation to be and work in vain Why should the Sun shine an hour or minute for you in vain Why should the Earth bear you an hour in vain why should the springs and rivers run for you an hour in vain why should the air refresh you an hour in vain why should your pulse beat one stroke in vain or your lungs once breathe a breath in vain shall all be at work for you to further your work and will you think that idleness is no sin 3. Moreover Laziness and sloth is a sin that loseth you much precious time All the time is lost that you are idle in Yea when you are at work if you do it slothfully you are losing much of your time A diligent person will go further and do more in an hour than the lazy flesh-pleaser will do in two When the slothful is praying or reading and working in his calling he is but losing half his time which diligence would redeem And is our time so â—…ort and precious and yet is idleness an excusable sin what loiter so near night so near eternity when we have but a little time to work O work while it is day for the night is coming when none can work Were it but for this that sloth doth steal so much of our time I must think it no better than an hainous Thievery 4. And by this means we rob our selves We might be getting some good all the time that we are idle or doubly advantage our selves if sloth did not keep us company in our work The slothful is brother to him that is a great waster Pro. 18. 9. slothfulness is self-murdering men die while they lie still and wish It 's a sin that famisheth soul and body Prov. 21. 25. The desire of the slothful killeth him because his hands refuse to labour It 's the common cause of beggery and want and what comfort can you have under such afflictions which you bring upon your selves If you want food or rayment if your wives and children are in want how can you think that God should take care of you and afford you relief when you bring this on your selves by pleasing your flesh which is his enemy If a Souldier get hurt by trucking with the enemy he may rather look that his General should hang him than relieve him And how should good men be moved to compassionate you If God do improveriâ—h you and you come to want by innocency or a righteous cause they must needs be ready to relieve you But if Sloth or Pride or Gluttony or Drunkenness bring you to it till you repent I see not how they should relieve you at least any further than to keep you alive For if you are set toplease your flesh by idleness must I joyn with you to please it by such supplies as shall cheriâ—â— you in your sin No one flesh-pleaser is enough for one man If you will please it either by Idleness or by Luxury your selves expect not that others should please it by your relief and make provision for your sin If I may not make provision for my own flesh to satisfie its lusts neither must I do it for another But that 's not the worst slothfulness is the common cause of mens damnation when they see a temptation and danger before them slothfulness hindereth them from resisting it When Heaven is offered them slothfulness makes them sit still and lose it They must Run and Strive and Fight and Conquer and these are not works for a slothful person especially when they must be continued to the death So that it 's manifest that most men in the world are undone soul and body by the sin of sloth 5. And by this you rob others as well as your selves You owe the world the fruit of your labours You rob the souls of men to whom you should do good You rob the Church that should be bettered by you You rob the Commonwealth of which you are a member and should have benefit by you You owe your labours to Church and Commonwealth and the souls of men and will you not pay so great a debt You deserve no room in the Church or Commonwealth but to be cut off as an unprofitable member if you bring no advantage to them They say the Bees will not suffer a drone in the Hive Nay if you be hired servants you plainly rob your Masters if you are slothful as much as if you stole their money or goods If you buy an hundred sheep of a man and he let you have but fourscore doth he not rob or cheat you And if a man buy a years or a days labour of you and you let him have but half a years labour or half a days labour because of your sloth do you not defraud or rob him of the other half So that the idle are thieves to themselves to the Church and the souls of men to the Commonwealth and those that they are related to even to their wives and children for whom they should provide due maintenance by their labour 6. And you are injurious to the honest poor in that you disable your selves from relieving them when God commandeth you to work with your hands not only for your selves but that you may have to give to them that need Eph. 4. 28. What if all men should do as you do how would the poor be maintained and the Church and Commonwealth served 7. Yea worst of all you are guilty of robbing God himself It is him that you owe your labours to and the improvement of all the talents which he lendeth you And idleness is unsaithfulness to the God of Heaven that setteth you on work Even in working for men you must do it ultimately for God Col. 3. 22 23. Not with eye-service as men-pleasers but in singleness of heart fearing God and whatsoever ye do do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance for ye serve the Lord But he that doth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done If it be an offence to wrong man what is it to wrong God and if you may not be slothful in the work of a man what a crime is it to be slothful in the work of the God of Heaven The greater your Master is the more hainous it is to be lazy in his service Remember the curse on them that do the work of the Lord deceitfully Jer. 48. 10. All work that you have to do is the work of the Lord. 8. And consider That the Idle forfeit the protection and provision of God even their daily bread For must he support and feed you to do nothing His own rule is that if any man will not work neither should he
quiet the mind when it cannot abate the pain of the body and must use to submit to a lesser evil to avoid a greater or to obtain a greater good than it depriveth us of Paul and Silas could sing with their bodies sore and their feet in the stocks To be joyful in tribulation should be no strange matter to a Saint much more with a patient submission to undergo it We may not thrust our selves into the fire nor choose suffering without a call but we must suffer rather than sin and choose the wounds and hurts of the body before the wounds and losses of the soul But because flesh and blood will draw back and make too great a matter of sufferings I shall briefly give you ten Considerations that may perswade you herein to deny your selves and in two cases I desire you to make use of them First in case you have no way to escape suffering but by sinning then deny your selves and choose to suffer Secondly in case of Gods afflictions which unavoidably lie upon you then deny your selves by a quiet and patient submission And for both consider 1. That is the best condition for us in which we may be most serviceable to God And if we suffer for Righteousness we may serve God as well in such suffering as in a prosperous state Or if God himself afflict us we may serve him in our affliction Our patience then is the service that we are called to The sufferings of the Saints have done very much to the promoting of the Gospel and building of the Church Men will see that there is somewhat worth the suffering for in the Christian Religion and see that Heaven is taken by believers for a certain thing when they can let go earth for it They will be moved to enquire what it is that moves you to such constancy and patience And why should we not be willing of that condition in which we do our Master the best service what ever the doing of it shall cost us The commodity of our end is the chiefest commodity 2. That is the best condition for us in which we may have most of God But certainly we may have as much and usually more of God in suffering especially for his cause than we can have in prosperity especially when we sin to escape these sufferings Is it bodily ease or God that you set most by It will be seen by your choice If you prefer your ease before him you must expect to have no better than you choose If you prefer him before your ease and prosperity you must be gladder of God with adversity and pain than of prosperity and ease without him A beast hath health and ease as well as you and yet you will not think him as happy If you are tormented or lose your health for Christ you lose nothing but what a Turk or Infidel hath yea but what a beast hath as well as you But you may have that of God by the advantage of your suffering that none but Saints have And God's presence can make a suffering state as sweet as a prosperous And he hath given you ground in his promises to expect it Isa 43. 1 2 3. When thou passest through the fire I will be with thee 1 Cor. 10. 13. There hath no temptation taken you but what is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that your able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it 1 Pet. 4. 14. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you On their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified ver 16. If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf What is the Scripture fuller of than comforting promises to the sufferers for Christ To fly from such sufferings then is but to fly from the presence of God and our own consolations 3. At least these sufferings further our sanctification and make us better And is not that our best condition that makes us best Common experience as well as Scripture may satisfie us that a suffering state doth very much further humiliation and mortification and bring men to a deeper sense of sin help all the truths of God to work and make them more sensible and serious than in prosperity Then we do not only hear but feel that sin is evil and that the world is vain and that the threatnings of God are true Why Christian if thou didst but know that thou shouldst have more of the spirit and its graces and less of sin in a suffering estate than in ease and plenty wouldst thou not even choose it and be glad of it Is not sin worse than suffering to thee and holiness better than ease and peace Alas what senseless careless persons should we be if it were not for the help of suffering Grace useth to work by means and this is the common means 4. Consider that pain and suffering we shall have whether for Christ or not The worst men undergo almost as much by ordinary sicknesses and losses and crosses as the Martyrs do that suffer for Christ sin will bring suffering and it 's better have that which is sanctified by the interest of Christ than that which is not 5. And a Christian that hath so much ado to curb and rule the flesh in prosperity me thinks should the more patiently bear adversity because God sets in by it and helps him to subdue the flesh and tame the body and bring it in subjection And as it is but this burdensome flesh that suffereth which hath been the cause of so much suffering to our minds so our warfare against this flesh which we mannage through the course of our lives goes on more prosperously in the time of its sufferings than in prosperity A weakned enemy is easilier conquered Do not therefore too much take part with the suffering flesh but self-denyingly justifie the proceedings of the Lord. 6. And consider that the pains and suffering will be but short It is but a little while and you shall feel no more than if you had felt nothing And that which shortly will not be is next to that which is not As it makes all the pleasures and glory of the world to be a dream and next to nothing because it 's but a while and they are gone and never return again So it makes our sufferings next to nothing that they are passing away and almost over And then all tears will be wiped from your eyes and pain will be forgotten or remembred only to encrease your joy When you are past the brunt and safe with Christ you will never repent of your sufferings on earth nor will it trouble you then to think of the shame or sickness or pain and torment that here you were put
reason and drawn you to excess in meats and drinks for matter or manner for quality or quantity or both Many a groan those sins have cost you and many a smarting day they have caused you and a sad uncomfortable life you have had by reason of them in comparison of what you might have had And this flesh hath been the Mother or the Nurse of all You were engaged by your Baptismal Covenant to fight against it when you entred into the Church and if you are Christians this combate hath been your daily work and much of the business of your lives And yet are you loth to have the victory see your enemy under feet Do you fight against it as for the life of your souls yet are you afraid lest death should hurt it or break it down Have you fought your selves friends with it that you are so tender of it when you are the greatest friends to it it will be the most dangerous enemy to you And do not think that it is only sin and not the body that is the flesh that is called your enemy in Scripture For though it be not the body as such or as obedient to the soul yet is it the Body as inclining to creatures from which the sinful soul cannot restrain it it is the body as having an inordinate sensitive appetite and imagination and so distempered as that it rebels against the Spirit and casteth off the rule of Reason and would not be curbed of its desires but have the rule of all it self Was it not the very flesh it self that Paul saith he fought against and kept under and brought into subjection lest he should be a cast a-way 1 Cor. 9. 26 27. Why should sin be called Flesh and Body but that it is the Body of Flesh that is the principal-seat of those sins that are so called If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. If ye sow to the flesh of the flesh ye shall reap corruption Gal. 6. 8. That which is first in Being is first in sin But it is the Flesh or Embryo endued with sense that is first in being Be not therefore too tender of that which corruption hath made your prison and your enemy Many a time you have been put to resist it and watch and strive against it and when you have been at the best it hath been hindring you to be better and when the spirit was willing the flesh was weak And quickly hath it caused your cooling declension Many a blessed hours communion between God your souls that flesh hath deprived you of And therfore though still you must love it yet you should the less grieve or be troubled at its sufferings seeing they are but the fruits of its sin and a holy contentedness shold possess your minds that God should thus castigatorily revenge his own quarrel yours upon it 10. But yet consider that were you never so tender of the body it self yet faith and reason should perswade you to be content For God is but preparing even for its felicity His undoing it but to make it up again As in the new birth he broke your hearts and false hopes that he might heal your hearts and give you sounder hopes instead of them so at death he breaketh your flesh and worldly hopes not to undo you and leave it in corruption but to raise it again another manner of body than now it is and give it a part in the blessedness which you hoped for If in good sadness you believe the Resurrection what cause is there for so much fear of death You can be content that your Roses die and your sweetest Flowers fall and perish and the green and beauteous complexion of the earth be turned into a bleak and withered hue because you expect a kind of Resurrection in the Spring You can boldly lie down at night to sleep though sleep be a kind of death to the body and more to the soul and all because you shall rise again in the morning And if every nights sleep or one at least were a gentle death if you were sure to rise again the next morning you would make no great matter of it Were it as common to men to die every night and rise again in the morning as it is to sleep every night and rise in the morning death would not seem such a dreadful thing Those poor men that have the falling-sickness do once in a day or in a few days lie as dead men and have as much pain as many that die And yet because they use to be up and well again in a little time they can go merrily about their business the rest of the day and little fear their approaching fall How much more should the belief of a Resurrection unto life confirm us against the fears of death And why should we not as quietly commit our bodies to the dust when we have the promise of the God of heaven that the Earth shall deliver up her dead and that this body that is sown in corruption shall be raisedin incorruption It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body So great and wonderful the change will be as now is unconceivable we have now a drossie lâ—mp of flesh an aggravation of the Elements to a seed of life which out of them forms it self a body by the Divine influx Like the Silk-worm which in the Winter is but a seed which in the Summer doth move attract that matter from which it gets a larger body by a kind of Resurrection But it is another manner of body I will not say of flesh which at the Resurrection we shall have Not flesh and blood nor a natural body but of a nature so spiritual sublime and pure that it shall be indeed a spiritual body And think not that this is a contradiction and that spirituality and corporeity are inconsistent For There is a Natural Body and there is a Spiritual body The root of the fleshly Natural body was the first man Adam who was made a living soul to be the Root of living souls The root of the spiritual Body is Christ who being a quickning Spirit doth quicken all his members by his Spirit which Spirit of Grace is the seed of Glory as from an holy and gracious Saviour we receive an holy and gracious nature so from a Glorified Saviour we shall receive a glorious nature we are now changed from glory to Glory in the beginning as by the spirit of the Lord But it is another kind of Glory that this doth tend to Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual but the natural and afterwards the spiritual The first man was of the Earth Earthy The second man is the Lord from heaven
withall unsanctified hearts are ordinarily transported with this odious vice A strong wit and a voluble tongue and learning to furnish it with matter are notable servants to Pride of heart where that spiritual illumination and holiness is wanting that should abase the Proud and turn mens Parts a better way To all that are apt to be tainted with this odious vice I would recommend these following considerations 1. Consider what a dangerous sign it is of a graceless hypocritical heart where Pride of Gifts doth much prevail It is as inseparable from a child of God to be humble and little in his own esteem as from a new-born Child to be really lesser than men at age No more sincerity than humility in any 2. Consider what cause of deep humiliation you carry about you in every duty Besides all the wants and loathsom corruptions of your souls which follow you wherever you go the very sins of your duties one would think should humble you Oh to have such low conceptions such dull apprehensions such heartless unreverent poor expressions of such a God such a Christ such a glory and such holy truth should make us ashamed to open our Lips before the Lord and wonder that he doth not tread us into hell instead of regarding us or our services and that fire doth not come forth from his jealousie and consume us It should make us so far from glorying in our performances that it should drive us to Christ in every duty to take him with us to shelter us from the flames of holy jealousie so that we should not dare to go any further than he goes before us and stands between us and the wrath of God nor to speak a word but in his name nor to expect any welcome but on his account Shall a wretch be Proud of that performance whose failings deserve everlasting torments Must you be beholden to Christ to save you from the Hell that the sins of your performances deserve and yet dare you be proud of them Let a Papist run that desperate path that rails at us for saying that our best duties are mix'd with sin and that this sin deserves the wrath of God Let them refuse a Physician that think not themselves sick and let them tell Christ they will not be beholden to him for a pardon for the sins of their prayers and other duties but for shame let not us be guilty of this who profess to be better acquainted with our infirmities 3. Consider also that you have to do with so Holy and Glorious a God that to be Proud before Him and that in and of our very service of him is a sin whose greatness surpasseth our apprehensions Had you to do with a man like your selves you might better lift up your selves against him There is nothing comparatively in the presence of the greatest Prince to humble and abase you But to be Proud before the God of heaven and that in and of our lamentably weak addresses to him O what an horridly impious unreasonable thing is this O man if thy eyes were opened to see a little a very little of the glory of that blessed God thou speakest to how flat wouldst thou fall down how wouldst thou fear and tremble and cry out as the Prophet Isa 6. 5. Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts Or as Job 40. 4. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth And Chap. 42. 5 6. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes One glimpse of Gods Majesty would take down thy self-exalting thoughts and humble thee with a witness 4. Consider the examples of the holiest of Gods servants The example of Job and Isaiah I have now mentioned Moses himself did think himself unmeet to speak in Gods message Exod. 4. 10. He said unto the Lord I am not eloquent neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant but I am of slow speech and of a slow tongue And ver 13. He said O my Lord send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send When God sent Jer. 1. 6. he said Ah Lord God behold I cannot speak for I am a child And Paul cries out Who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. 2. 16. So that it hath been the course of the most Seraphical Prophets and holy Apostles to have low thoughts of their own abilities for duty And yet have you enough to be Proud of 5. And consider that the Nature of the holy employment that you are upon one would think should be enough to humble you It is a confessing of sin unworthiness and guilt and will you be Proud of this It is a confessing that you deserve everlasting torment And will you be Proud of such a confession as this The Lord be merciful to us and save us from this unreasonable vice who would think that it should be thus with a man in his wits To confess that he deserveth Hell-fire And to be Proud of that Confession your Petitions are all humbling if they be according to the word you are beggars for your lives for pardon of many and hainous sins and should come as with the rope about your necks you beg for deliverance from eternal misery and should you be proud of such requests should beggars be Proud yea such needy miserable beggars and be proud of their very begging Nay your very thanksgiving it self is humbling For what do you give thanks for but for salvation from these odious sins and the damnation which you have deserved And shall a thief be proud that he is pardoned and taken from the gallows Pride is contrary to the very Nature and meaning of all those holy duties that you are Proud of 6. Yea the Gifts themselves that you are Proud of should humble you For 1. They are from God and not your selves 1 Cor. 4. 7. For who maketh thee to differ and what hast thou that thou didst not receive Now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it 2. You received them not for your selves but for God and therefore have no reason your selves to be lifted up by them 3. All Gifts are for labour and duty and must be once accounted for and therefore should keep you in humility and fear To be Proud of Gods Gifts is to be Proud of that which is given you to destroy Pride in your selves and others For this is the End of them 7. And it is a sign that you want exceeding much of that which you are Proud of You are Proud of Knowledge when as if it were not for want of Knowledge of that which should humble you you would not be so Proud You are Proud
common good as may exceedingly promote it if they be observed by posterity must have a great regard to his present and surviving fame because the honour of his Laws will depend much upon the honour of his name and if once the people vilifie him they will be likely to vilifie and cast off his Laws to the hurt of Church and Common-wealth and their own undoing And even as to the success of their present Government they should be very careful of their fame so also a Minister of the Gospel must be very careful of his present and future reputation For at present the saving good of his auditors doth much depend upon it For if they have a base esteem of the Pastor they will be unlikely to give diligent intention to his Doctrine but disesteem it as they do the speaker and it is not likely to go to their hearts Nor will they seek his advice in the great matters of salvation and the difficult cases and dangers that they meet with but to the great hazard of their souls will slight the necessary assistance of him that is appointed to be their guide to heaven and will set light by all the Ordinances of God And therefore the Pastors Reputation is ten thousand times more beneficial and necessary to the people than to himself For alas it is but their good thoughts and words that he receiveth which add little to his happiness but it 's everlasting life which they may receive by that Word of God and help from him which is furthered by his Reputation And therefore as Ministers should be exceeding watchful against Pride that they desire not Honor for themselves so when they are sure that God is their end they must be exceeding careful of their own Reputation and avoid all occasions appearances of evil and purchase it by all just means For though honour be worth little yet the Cause of God and the souls of men are worth much and we must not be prodigal of our Masters Talents and such as are very useful to his service Our Reputation is Gods and the Churches due and to be cherished for their use Especially those Ministers must be careful of their Reputation that by Reformation or Publick useful writings are capable of profiting Posterity and they may desire the surviving of their honours which for it self might not be desired because their works and writings and Doctrine are like to be much blasted by their own defamations and do little good to any that come after Nay the precious truths and cause of God may be most dangerously wronged and disadvantaged by it and get such a blot and dishonour by their dishonour that any that shall seek the promoting of it hereafter may be greatly hindered and disadvantaged thereby For it will seem enough to cast off such a Doctrine for ever that by the dishonour of the maintainers it was once dishonourable and rejected as an error And doubtless some things have been thus made Heresies and so will be long rejected as Heresies in many parts of the Christian world because they were once called by that name and that was because the Person that did own them had some such dishonour or disadvantage as left his Doctrine open to this reproach And therefore you may here see what a Potent instrument Reputation is in the Devils hand to do his work and what abundance of advantage he gets by defaming Gods servants Principally by this means did he long keep the world from the entertainment of the Gospel the servants of Christ being contemptible in their eyes and the preaching of the cross but foolishness to them By this means did the Pharisees hinder the Jews from believing in Christ And by this means is Heathenism Infidelity and Mahometanism continued in possession of most of the world to this day By this means it is that Popery keeps the common people in thraldom as the voluminous lies of Cochlaeus Bolsecus and many others concerning Luther Calvin Zuinglius and other of our Reformers and Writers do fully testifie And by personal reproaches and dishonours it is that the Doctrine of the Reformed Divines is made so odious among the Lutherans and the like instances might be given in others If now any weighty Christian Verity should be asserted by any Pastor of the Church in a sounder and clearer manner than is commonly known or owned if the person that doth it should but fall under any reproach which he shall be sure of if the Devil can procure it it 's two to one but for his sake his Doctine will be stigmatized with the name of error and so lie buried for ever till Divine Omnipotency commands its Resurrection And hence it is that there is not one Instrument that ever God raiseth up to vindicate any truth or ordinance or do him any special service but Satan raiseth up tongues and pens if not hands and swords against him and an Army of reproachers will presently be on the back of him Now in all such cases as these it is a great duty for any servant of Christ to be very regardful of his Reputation even with Posterity For his good name may much promote the Truth as we know the Name of Austin Calvin and many another doth at this day And if it be our great duty to extend our service of God as far as we can to all Countries and to all posterity to do them good then is it our duty to endeavour that a good Reputation should go along with our labours to further the success or remove impediments And thus while we are sincere and intend all for God we may and must regard our honour and yet in so doing we Deny our selves because we do it not for our selves but for God and his Church 2. And if honour be given in to us this way even as we partake of it our selves as a Means to Gods honour we must thankfully accept it esteem it and rejoyce in it And therefore it is made the matter of many promises and spoken of in Scripture as a blessing Prov. 22. 1. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and 10. 7. The memory of the Just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot Eccles 7. 1. A good name is better than precious oyntment with many the like Thus much I have said to prevent a mis-application of that which followeth and to help you so to understand me on this point of Honour as not to run from extream into extream and to sin by seeking to avoid sin But alas this kind of seeking our Honour for God and his Church and not for our selves and as our own I doubt is more rare than the neglect of honour The sin that I disswade you from is in these two points 1. That you do not Affect and seek after Extending or surviving Reputation for your selves and out of a Proud desire to be still some body in the estimation of the world 2.
comfort it will be to your soul in Hell to be extolled and well spoken of on earth Will you cast away your souls to leave a Name of renown behind you And how unsutable will such Honor be to your condition surely if you be there acquainted with it you must needs be more tormented both to remember that you were seeking the fame of the world instead of the eternal glory and to consider what a miserable wretch it is that men are praising and magnifying on earth Ah then you will think with your selves Little do the poor inhabitants of the earth know what I am suffering while they are extolling me Is the applause of mortals sutable to a poor tormented soul Alas that at one and the same time men should be extolling me and Devils tormenting me How little ease do all their acclamations afford this poor distressed soul How honorable are the names of Alexander the Great Caesar Aristotle here on earth but alas what cause have we to fear that they are lamenting their misery while we are speaking of their glory 5. And the sin is much the greater because it is not a mis-chosen means but a mistaken end that your souls have fastened on For it seems your very hearts are set upon your Honours and deeply and desperately set upon them when you dare contrive the continuation of them when you are dead Were it not a matter exceeding dear to you undoubtedly you durst not lay such a design for it 6. And consider whether there be not a Love of the deadly sin of Pride and a final impenitency implyed in this ambition of a surviving name For you â—â—a design that is supposed to be executed after death And as if you desired an eternity of wickedness because your Pride it self can live no where but with your self you would have it leave those tokens behind it by which the world may know that you are Proud and the effects of it you would have perpetuated on earth And had not the world enough of your Pride while you were alive and had not you enough of it Is this your Repentance that you would leave the Monuments of your Pride unto Posterity as if you were afraid there would be no surviving witness against you to condemn you This is a certain transcendency of sin The common wicked ones would fain die the death of the Righteous and wish their last end were like to his But these men would have their Pride to live for ever and when they themselves are in another world they would have the demonstrations of their iniquity survive them 7. And I beseech you consider what a fearful thing it is to die in contrived beloved sin when men have none but a death-bed Repentance we have much cause to fear lest it be but fear that is the life of their Repentance But when they have not this much but are desirous to leave the Monuments of their vice to all Generations from whence then shall we fetch our hopes of their forgiveness And O what a power hath Pride in that soul where the thoughts of Death it self will give no stop to it but still they are desirous that Pride may over-live them One would think that the serious thoughts of a grave much more of our passage into another world should level all such thoughts of a surviving honour even in an unsanctified soul But I much fear lest it be infidelity it self that is the root of all and that men do not soundly believe an everlasting life with â—…d which makes them desire to have somewhat like 〈…〉 Immortality here on earth 8. And consider what a silly immortality you desire The honour can be no greater than the persons are that honour you nor no longer And it is but poor mortals that will magnifie your Names and what can they add to you and it will be but a very little while for it is not long that the world is to continue 9. And consider what a wickedness is here commonly included Proud men desire to be thought better than they are and spoken of accordingly They limit not mens estimation to the truth of their deserts Otherwise if the best and greatest of you all were thought no better or greater than you are alas how far would men be from admiring you what would you be thought but worms and sinners and such as after all your glory cannot forbid a crawling worm to feed upon your face or heart and such as deserve no less than hell and have many a secret sin that the world was unacquainted with But it is not a true but false Esteem that the Proud desire They care not how great or how good or how wise and learned the world and succeeding ages think them And thus they desire to cheat mens understandings and to leave a false History of themselves on earth and to have all men believe and report untruths to magnifie men whose souls it 's much to be doubted are in hell or if they be not must needs abhor such doings And thus every Proud and selfish man would be a false Historian and cheater of the world 10. Yea which is yet the worst of all they would continue sacrilegiously to rob the Lord of his honour even when they are dead It is an undue honour which is stoln from God which they so much seek for For were it but such as is a useful means to his honour he would not be offended with them And when the Saints say Not unto us Lord but unto thy name give the glory these sinners are not content to rob God of his honour as long as they live but they would do it even after death If we had not certainly known the truth of it we should have thought it an incredible thing that ever any man should come to that impiety pride and madness as to desire to be worshipped as a God when he was dead Much more that the most of the world should be so far distracted as to do it And yet so it hath been and so it is in too great a measure And truly the wicked or Proud disposition that is predominant in the hearts of all the unsanctified doth take up no snorter where it hath but hopes of success to actuate it Not a man of them but would be honoured as Gods when they are dead Though I know those of them that feel not this much in themselves will hardly believe it Consider what an hainous injury this is to God and to the souls of men that you should leave your Names as Idols to the world to entice so many thousand men to sin and to be a standing enemy to the honour of God by encroaching on his right and turning the eye of mens observation and admiration from him to you 11. Consider also how that by these desires of earthly honour to your selves and making this the End of your endeavours you corrupt abundance of excellent works materially considered and
in his Leviathan But they do not reverence that beam of Divinity which God hath communicated to them in their Authority nor love their Governors as the Fathers of the Church and Common-wealth for the common good and the honour of God which they are appointed to promote 5. And this selfishness is the deadly enemy of all right Administrations of Justice and the due exercise of Authority in Church or Commonwealth If a Minister be selfish he will be shifting off the troublesome part of his duty and will over-rule his understanding to believe that it is no duty because dis-believing is easier than obeying He will be forward in those duties that are necessary to his maintenance and applause and are imposed on him by the Laws of men but out of the Pulpit it 's little that he will do As if it were the Pulpit only that were Gods Vineyard where he is set to labour Flesh and blood shall be consulted and men shall be pleased and all that the interest of self may be maintained And if the People be selfish they will rebel against their faithfullest Guides and kick against their Doctrine and reproofs and fly from Discipline which seems to their distempered minds to be against them Let but one most notorious lamentable instance suffice The greater part of our Parishioners in most places of the Land are lamentably ignorant and careless in the matters of their Salvation and all that we can do is too little to bring them to understand the matters of absolute Necessity and yet almost all of them are so much wiser in their own conceits than the ablest of their Teachers that if we do not humor them and be not Ruled by them in our Doctrine and Administrations about Sacraments Prayers Burial and the rest yea if we obey them not in gestures and forms they turn their backs upon Officers and Ordinances and the Church it self and pour out their reproach upon their Teachers as if we were ignorant in comparison of them even of them that know not so much as children of seven or eight year old should know See here the wonderful bewitched power of a selfish disposition And in matters of the Commonwealth what is it more than this nay what is it besides this that maketh Princes become Tyrants and Rulers keep under the Ordinances and interest of Christ or fearfully neglect them and look after the Church in the last place when they have no business of their own to call them off and to begin to build Gods House when they have first built their own not imitating Nehemiah's labourers that had the sword in one hand and the Trewel in the other and builded in their arms what else makes them give God but their leavings who giveth them all And what else could make them such enemies to Truth as to side with those parties what ever they be that side most with them and promote their interest And alas what work doth selfishness make with inferior Magistrates It is this only that opens the hand to a Reward and the ear to the solicitations of their friends and it s this that perverteth the judgement and this that oppresseth the poor and innocent and this that â—yeth the tongues and hands of Justices so that abundance of them do little more than possess the room and stand like an armed statue or a sign-post which hurteth none Alehouses do what their list for them and drunkards and swearers are bold at their noses and they are no terror to evil doers nor revengers to execute wrath upon them nor Ministers that use their power for much good but bear the Sword almost in vain contrary to the very nature of their Office Rom. 13. 1 2 3 4. And it is selfishness in the people that causeth the trouble of faithful Magistrates Every man would do what his list The worst offendor abhors him that would punish him And those that will commend Justice and cry down vice in the general yet when they fall under Justice themselves they take all that they suffer to be injury and will do all that they can against Justice and the Officers of it when it is to defend themselves or theirs from the execution of it so rare a thing is it to meet with a man that is a friend to Laws and Justice when themselves must suffer by it 6. Selfishness also makes men withdraw from all those necessary burdens and duties that are for the preservation of Church or Commonwealth Such wretches had rather the Gospel were thrust out of doors than it should cost them much and had rather have the unworthiest man that would be their Teacher for a little than allow the best that maintenance that the Gospel doth command or give them what the Law hath made their Own They would venture the ruine of Church and State and let all fall into the hands of the common enemies rather than hazard their persons or lay out their estates for the common preservation So that if the hand of violence did not sometimes squeeze those Spunges and force these leeches to disgorge themselves they would but impoverish the Common-wealth by their Riches and weaken the body like wens or impostumes by drawing to themselves 7. And then the selfish are such causes of Division that if they did no other harm they would break both Church and State into pieces if their humor were predominant and not restrained or purged out And in this regard selfishness is the direct enemy of Societies and is always at work to dissolve them into Independant individuals A Society is a Political Body which must have but one Head and one Interest and one End But when selfishness prevaileth there are as many Heads and Ends and Interests as Persons If they be in a Church every one is the Teacher and Ruler and every one must have his opinion countenanced and his humor satisfied Every one must have his way and will And how is this possible when their minds are so various and contrary to one another and their Interests so inconsistent and there are as many Rulers as persons when every man is drawing to himself and there is no center in which they can unite what work is there like to be in the Church What progress could be made in the building of Babel when no man was ruled by another but every man ran confusedly after his single imagination what an Army will it be and how are they like to speed in fight where every Souldier is instead of a Captain and General to himself and one runs this way and another that way and one will have one course taken and another another course and every one fighteth on his own head such work doth selfishness make in the Church It is this that hath broken it into so many parcels and would crumble it all to dust if it should prevail And it is this also that causeth the Divisions of the Commonwealth Faction rising up against Faction
the interest of their opinions and parties have cherished dissension and fled from concord and have had a hand in the resisting and pulling down Authority and embroiling the Nations in wars and miseries And whence is it but for want of self-denial for our own faults must be confessed that the Ministers of Christ are so much silent in the midst of such heinous miscarriages as the times abound with I know we receive not our Commission as Prophets did by immediate extraordinary inspiration But what of that The Priests that were called by an ordinary way were bound to be plain and faithful in their Office as well as the Prophets And so are we How plainly spoke the Prophets even to Kings and how patiently did they bear indignities and persecutions But now we are grown carnally wise and cautelous for holy wisdom and caution I allow and if duty be like to cost us dear we can think that we are excused from it If Great men would set up Popery in the Land by a Toleration alas how many Ministers think they may be silent for fear lest the contrivers should call them seditious or turbulent or disobedient or should set men to rail at them and call them Lyers and Calumniators or for fear lest they should be persecuted and â—uined in their estates or names If they do but foresee that men in power or honour in the world will charge them with Lies or unchristian dealing for speaking the words of Truth and Soberness against the Introduction of Popery and impiety and that they shall be made as the scorn and off-scouring of all the world and have all manner of evil saying falsly spoken of them for the sake of Christ his Church and truth they presently consult with flesh and blood and think themselves discharged of their duty when God saith Ezek. 33. 6. c. If the watchman see the sword come and blow not the Trumpet aud the people be not warned if the sword come and take any person from among them he is taken away in his iniquity but his blood will I require at the watchmans hand And were we no watchmen yet we have this command Lev. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Yet now many Ministers will be cruelly silent lest they should be charged with malice and hating those whom they are commanded to rebuke The sword of violence I perswade them not to meddle with but were it not for want of self-denial the sword of the spirit would be more faithfully managed against the sins of the greatest enemies of Christ and of the Gospel than it is by most though it should cost us more than scorns and slanders and though we know that bonds and afflictions did abide us And verily I cannot yet understand that the contempt and scorn of the Ministry in England is fed by any thing so much as selfishness Could we be for all mens Opinions and Carnal interests O what experience have I had of this all men for ought I see would be for us Is it a crime to be a Minister Doubtless it 's then a crime to be a Christian And he that rails at us as Ministers to day it 's like will rail at us as Christians to morrow But if such will vouchsafe to come to me before they venture their souls and soberly debate the case I undertake to prove the truth of Christianity The world may see in Clem. Writers exceptions against my Treatise of Infidelity what thin transparent Sophisms and silly Cavils they use against the Christian cause When they have well answered not only that Treatise but Du Plessis Grotius Vives Ficinus Micraelius the ancient apologies of the Christian writers of the Church let them boast then that they have confuted Christianity The Devil hath told me long ago in his secret temptations as much against the Christian Faith as ever I yet read in any of our Apostates But God hath told me of much more that 's for it and enabled me to see the folly of their Reasonings that think the mysteries of the Gospel to be foolishness But if it be not as Ministers and Christiâ—nâ— that we are hated what is it then If because we are ingnorant insufficient negligent or scandalous why do they not by a legal trial cast us out and put those in our places that are more able diligent and godly when we have provok'd them to it and beg'd it of them so often as we have done If it be because we are not Papists it is because we cannot renounce all our senses our Reason the Scripture the Unity Judgment and Tradidion of the far greatest part of the Universal Church If I have not already proved that Poperty fighteth against all these and am not able to make it good against any Jesuit on earth let them go on to number me with Hereticks and let them use me as they do such when I am in their power If we are hated because we are not of the Opinions of those that hate us it seems those Opinions are enemies to Charity and then we have little reason to embrace them And if this be it we are under an unavoidable necessity of being hated For among such diversity of Opinions it is impossible for us to comply with all if we durst be false to the known truth and durst become the servants of men and make every self-conceited Brother the Master of our Faith If we are so reviled because me are against an Universal Liberty of speaking or writing against the truths and wayes of Christ and of labouring in Satans harvest to the dividing of the Churches and the damnation of souls it is then in the up-shot because we are of any Religion and are not despisers of the Gospel and of the Church and of mens salvation and because we believe in Jesus Christ I have lately found by their exclamations and common defamations and threatnings and by the Volumes of reproaches that come forth against me and by the swarms of lyes that have been sent forth against me through the Land that even the present Contrivers of Englands Misery Liberty I would say and of Toleration for Popery and more are themselves unable to bear contradiction from one such an inconsiderable person as my self and they have got it into the mouths of souldiers that my writings are the cause of wars and that till I give over writing they shall not give over fighting though I do all that I am able to do for Peace And if this be so what a case would they bring the Nation into by giving far greater Liberty to all than ever I made use of Unless they still except a Liberty of contradicting themselves they must look for other kind of usage when Libertinism is set up Yea if they will seek the ruine of the Church and Cause of Christ they must look that
Naked you came into the world and naked you must go out make not then so great a stir in dressing and undressing and feathering a nest that will be so soon pulled down 6. And it is a dangerous sign that your time on earth is short when you have most content in outward things I have told you once in another Discourse which I have since seen more of that people that much set their hearts upon any earthly thing do use to be snatcht away by death just when they have attained it before they can have the comfort of possessing it Just when their houses are built just when their debts are paid and their estates cleared and setled just when they have such or such a thing which they earnestly desired then they are gone as the fool in Luke 12. 20. This night shall thy soul be required of thee then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided 7. And you do but prepare for a double sorrow when you must leave all these Do you think that the more you love or delight in any thing below you will not be the lother to leave it Do not think only of the present content but ask your hearts shall I be willinger to part with a sumptuous house and commodious gardens walks and fields than with a mean habitation and less pleasing things O how it tears the very heart of the worldling when he sees that he must for ever leave all that which he set so much by and which hath cost him so dear If he set his heart but on a Horse or any creature the loss of it is a double suffering Much more will he be wounded with the loss of all that his mind was so much set upon Remember therefore Christians that as these accommodations are mercies which you must faithfully use when they are cast upon you so they are snares not to be sought after and matter for your self-denial to neglect As they are Provision for the flesh to fulfill its desires you must not know them You have a building of God to mind and look after a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens and it better beseemeth you earnestly to groan to be so cloathed that mortality may be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 4. Possess present things as not possessing them and use them as not abusing them for the form of them passeth away CHAP. XXVI Apparel as used for this Carnal End c. 9. ANother Object of sensuality to be denied is Apparel as desired for this Carnal end Though cloathing be a consequent of sin yet now to man in this necessity it is a mercy and a duty so be it we use it with such cautions as in the foresaid cases is expressed 1. That our end be the furnishing our frail bodies for the work of God and the preserving them from that shame cold hurt which would unfit us for his service 2. And that our apparel be fitted as near as we can to these ends that is to healthful warmth and comeliness and that under the name of comeliness we do not fit them to carnal ends to set us out to the eyes of men and to raise their esteem of our worth or comeliness of person but be satisfied if we avoid the shame of nakedness and contemptible unhandsomness 3. To which end we should see that we affect not to rise above those of our own rank nor equal our selves in apparel with our superiors but go with the lower sort of our condition 4. And that we imitate not the fashions of light and vain persons but keep company in our attire with the most wise and sober and grave persons about us 5. And that we bestow no needless cost upon our attire because we must be accountable for all that God entrusteth us with 6. And that we change not causlesly Thus must apparel be used the cheapest that is warm and comely according to the fashion of the gravest persons of our rank and the lowest of them But alas this childish trifle the Devil hath made a bait of sensuality The care that people have about it the cost they bestow on superfluities their desire to go with the highest of their rank to say nothing of mutable and imodest fashions do shew to what end it is that they use it I desire these kind of people to think of these few things that I shall say to them 1. This vanity of apparel is the certain effect of the vanity of your mind you openly proclaim your selves to be persons of a foolish childish temper and poor understanding Among the most ungodly people they that have but common wisdom do look upon this vanity of inordinate apparel as quite below them And therefore it 's commonly taken to be the special sin of women and children and light-headed silly empty men Those that have no inward worth to commend them to the world are silly souls indeed if they think any wise folks will take a silken coat instead of it It is wisdom and holiness and righteousness that are the ornaments of man and that 's his beauty which beautifieth his soul And do you think that among wise men fine clothes will go instead of wisdom or vertue or holiness You may put as fine clothes upon a fool as upon a wise man and will that think you make him pass for wise When a gallant came into the Shop of Apelles that famous painter to have his picture drawn as long as he stood silent the Apprentices carried themselves reverently to him because he shone in gold and silver lace but when he began to talk they perceived that he was a fool and they left their reverence and all fell a laughing at him When people see you in an extraordinary garb you draw their observation towards you and one asketh Who is yonder that is so fine and another asks Who is yonder and when they perceive that you are more witless and worthless than other folks they will but laugh at you and despise you Excess in apparel is the very sign of folly that is hang'd out to tell the world what you are as a Sign at an Inn-door acquaints the passenger that there he may have entertainment You draw folks to suspect that all is not well with you where there needs all this ado It 's sure a sorry house that nedeth many props and a diseased body that needeth so much medicining And a deformed face that needeth painting And what is gaudy attire to the body but such as painting is to the face If I see artificial teeth in your heads I must think that you want the Natural ones that were better If I perceive your breath to be still sweetn'd by art I shall suspect that it would stink without it And if I see people inordinately careful of their apparel I must needs suspect that there is some special cause for it all is not well where all this care and
curiosity is necessary And what is the deformity that you would hide by this Is it that of your mind Why you bewray it more you tell all that see you that you are empty silly souls as plainly as a Morrice-dancer or a Stage-player doth tell folks what he is by his attire Is it the deformities of your bodies that you would hide this way I confess that 's the best excuse that can be made for this excess For apparel will do more to hide the deformities of the body than of the mind But the shape of your clothes is fittest for this so far it is fit to be attempted For the bravery of them will do little but draw mens observation the more upon your infirmity If you say that you have no such extraordinary necessity then I must say that you do your selves wrong to tice people to suspect it 2. And also you make an open ostentation of Pride or Lust or both to all that look upon you In other cases you are careful to hide your sin and take it for an hainous injury if you be but openly told of it and reproved How comes it then to pass that you are here so forward your selves to make it known that you must carry the signs of it open in the world Is it not a dishonour to Rogues and Thieves that have been burnt in the hand or forehead or must ride about with a paper pin'd on their backs declaring their crimes to all that see them So that every one may see yonder is a thief and yonder is a perjured man And is it not much like it for you to carry the badge of pride or lust abroad with you in the open streets and meetings Why do you desire to be so fine or neat or excessive comely Is it not to draw the eyes and observations of men upon you and to what end Is it not to be thought either Rich or beautiful or of an handsom person And to what end desire you these thoughts of men Do you not know that this desire is Pride it self You must needs be some body and fain you would be observed and valued and fain you would be noted to be of the best or highest rank that you can expect to be reckoned of And what is this but Pride And I hope you know that Pride is the Devils sin the first born of all iniquity and that which the God of heaven abhors so that it were more credit for you in the eyes of men of wisdom to proclaim your selves beggars sots or ideots than to proclaim your pride And too oft it shews a pang of lust as well as pride especially in young persons and few are so forward to this sin as they This bravery and fineness is but the fruit of a procacious mind it 's plainly a wooing alluring act It is not for nothing that they would fain be eyed and be thought comely or fair in others eyes somewhat they want you may conjecture what And even married people if they love their credit should take heed by such means of drawing suspicion upon themselves Sirs if you are guilty of folly pride and lust your best way is to seek of God an effectual cure and to use such means as tends to cure it and not such as tend to cherish it and increase it as certainly fineness in clothing doth But if you will not cure it for shame conceal it and do not tell every one that sees you what is in your heart what would you think of one that should go up and down the street telling all that meet him I am a thief or I am a fornicator would you not think that he were a compound of foolery and knavery And how little do you come short of this that write upon your own backs Folly Pride and Lust or tell them by your apparel Take notice of me I am foolish Proud and lustful 3. And if you be so silly as to think that bravery is a means of honour you should withall consider that it is but a shameful begging of honour from those that look upon you when you shew them not any thing to purchase or deserve it Honour must be forced by desert and worth and not come by begging for that is no honour that 's given to the undeserving It is but the shadow of desert and will constantly follow it among the wise and good but never go without it Your bravery doth so openly shew your desire of esteem and honour that it plainly tells all wise men that you are the less worthy of it For the more a man desireth esteem the less he deserves it And you tell the world by your attire that you desire it even as plainly and foolishly as if you should say to folks in the streets I pray think well of me and take me for an handsome comely person and for one that is above the common sort Would you not laugh at one that should make such a request to you Why what do you less when by your attire you beg estimation from them And for what I pray you should we esteem you Is it for your cloaths Why I can put a silver lace upon a mawkin or a silken coat on a post or on an Ass Is it for your comely bodies why a wicked Absolon was beautiful and the basest harlots have had as much of this as you A comely body or beautiful face doth oft betray the soul but never saveth it from hell And your bodies are never the comelier for your dress whatever they may seem Is it for your vertues that you would be esteemed Why pride is the greatest enemy to vertue and as great a deformity to the foul as the Pox is to the body And he that will think you ever the honester for a new sute or a silver lace doth as little know what honesty is as your selves For shame therefore give over beging for esteem at least by such a means as inviteth all wise men to deny your suit But either let honour come without begging for or be without it 4. Consider also that excess of Apparel doth quite contradict the End that proud persons do intend it for I confess it doth sometime ensnare a fool and so accomplish the desires of the lustful But it seldom attaineth the ends of the proud For their desire is to be the highlier esteemed and almost all men do think the meanlier of them Wise men have more wit than to think the Taylor can make a wise man or woman or an honest man or woman or an handsom man or woman Good men pity them and lament their folly and vice and wish them wisdom and humility In the eyes of a wise and gracious man a poor self-denying humble patient heavenly Christian is worth a thousand of these painted posts and peacocks And it so falls out that the ungodly themselves do frustrate the proud persons expectations For as covetous men do not like covetousness in another