not as certainly now as he shall do in his sickness And yet in health these wretches will not be awakened so much to fear it as may restrain them from sin and help them to prepare for it It 's troublesome precise talk with them to talk of making ready to die Either they slight it or love not to hear or think of it And yet the same men when death is coming and they see they must away are even amazed with fear and horror And I cannot blame them unless they were in a better case But this I must blame them for as most unreasonable that they can make such a lamentable complaint when death and Hell are near hand and yet make so light of it all their life time CHAP. XXXIX Answer to their doubts that fear death BUt because this is the hardest part of self-denial and yet most necessary and the particular subject of my Text I shall stay upon it yet so much longer as to resolve a question of some doubting Christians and to give you some Directions for the furtherance of self-denial herein Object If it be a necessary part of self-denial to deny our own lives I am much afraid that I am no Disciple of Christ as having no true self-denial For I find that for all these Reasons I cannot be willing to die but when you have said all that can be said death is the most terrible thing in the world to me Answ I pray you lay together these following particulars for answer to this great and common doubt 1. Death as death is naturally dreadful to all and the best men as men are naturally averse to it and abhor it No man can desire death as death nor ought to do it If it had not been an evil to nature it had not been fit to be the matter of Gods punishment and to be Threatned to the world Threatnings would not do their work if that which is threatned were not naturally evil or hurtful and dreadful to the subject To threaten men with a benefit is a contradiction as much as to promise him a mischief and more 2. It is not therefore a simple Displacency or Averseness to die that God requireth you to lay by Self-denial consisteth not in reconciling us to Death as death For then he might as well perswade us to become Angels as to deny our selves and Preachers had as hard a work to do as to perswade men to cease to be men Death will be an enemy as long as it is death Even the separated soul hath so natural an inclination to union with its Body that the separation is part of the penalty to it And though heaven be their joy and Christ their life and fulness yet the separation from the body which they have even with Christ is a penalty and they have not that perfect measure of Joy and Glory as they shall have when they are joyned in the body again So that separation as such is penal to the soul in blessedness And even the separated soul of Jesus Christ that was more blessed than ours was as separated in a state of penalty when his body was in the grave Of which see my Appendix to the Reformed Pastor about the Descent into Hell 3. That which you have to look after therefore in your souls is not a love to death or willingness to death as death which no man hath or should have but it is 1. A Submission to it as a less evil than sin and Hell and the Displeasure of God and a choosing rather to die than wilfully to sin and forsake the Lord. 2. And a Love to that glory in the fruition of God which death is the passage to Seeing we cannot obtain the end of our faith and patience by any easier passage than death you must rather be content to go this strait and grievous way than miss of the state of eternal blessedness Let death be never so odious and dreadful to you if you had but rather die than forsake Christ by sin or miss of everlasting life with God you have that true self-denial even of life it self which is required in my Text. 4. And yet even a gracious soul may be so much unprepared as to desire to stay yet longer on earth though he be absent from the Lord while he is present in the body that so a better preparation may be made And also the love of God may make a man desire to stay yet longer for the service of the Church or to be with Paul in a strait between two Phil. 1. 21 22 23. 5. Have you not such pleasant apprehensions of the New Jerusalem and the coming of Christ in glory and the blessed state of the Saints in heaven as that you could most gladly enter into that blessed state by any other way than death And had you not rather die than miss of that felicity At least when you know that die you must had you not rather die sooner even a violent death by persecution than miss of your eternal life by saving your lives a little longer 6. And for your unwillingness to die as death is the last enemy to be conquered by Christ at the Resurrection so the fears of death and the power of it is the last evil that we shall be troubled with and you must not expect to be fully freed from these fears in this life for death will be death and man will be man But yet let me tell you that before you die God may very much abate your fears and very ordinarily doth so with his servants 1. By giving them that grace that is suited to a dying state and 2. By the help of sickness and pain it self And that is one great reason why sickness shall usually go before death that pain and misery may make the flesh even a weary of it self and make the soul a weary of its companion and both a weary of this miserable life And now I shall briefly name some few Directions which if you will practise you will more easily submit to death CHAP. XL. Directions to be willing to die Direct 1. BY all means endeavour the strengthening of your Belief of the Reality of eternal life and the truth of the promise of Christ concerning it For if you Believe it not you cannot die for it nor chearfully submit to a natural death through the hopes of it This is the sum or principal work of the Christian faith to Believe the everlasting life as procured for us by the love of the Father the Obedience Death Resurrection and Intercession of the Son and the Sanctification of the Holy Ghost It is the unsoundness or the weakness of this Belief that is the principal cause of our unwillingness to die Direct 2. By all means endeavour to get and maintain the Assurance of your Title to this Promise and Felicity Get sound evidence and keep it clear Expunge all blots without delay Take heed of such sin as woundeth Conscience
it 's meerly because there 's no remedy that they submit to him so far as they do Those very persons that think they love and serve him as well as the precisest would be in arms against him before to morrow and pull God out of Heaven if it were in their power Or if they had but as much hope to prevail against God as they have against his servants what work would be in the world I know these men will not believe this by themselves No self is too strong in them to let them so far know themselves But the Case is plain For as God himself tell us that ever since the fall an Enmity is put between Christ and this serpentine seed so we see it manifested by daily sad experience How generally is the Will of God disliked by the world What hath God spoke against in his Word but sin and what else hath he commanded his Messengers to Cry out against And yet what is there that more pleaseth the minds of the most And how stubbornly do they resist not only God but Magistrates and Ministers that would draw them from it what is it that God commendeth to the world so so much as an Holy and Heavenly life And what is the Heart of most men more against and how much do they strive against all our perswasions that would bring them to it and how obstinately do they resist us if not deride and scorn that Holiness which the will of God hath so abundantly commended to them His whole Word speaks for it his Prophets Apostles and all his servants are examples of it his Son Jesus Christ in his sacred person and office and holy life hath yet more notably commended it to the world and it was a principal part of his business in the flesh to set men a pattern of Holiness and Self-denial And yet many scorn it hate it and most dislike it and even fight against this holy Will of God that is against God himself if they had but any hope to get the leâ—ter There is no doubt of it though â—hâ—y wâ—ll not know so much by themselves Do yâ—u think it is for nothing that God calleth them his enemies and resolveth them the reward of enemies even becâ—use they would not have Christ to rule over them Luke 19. 27. Doubtless God sentenceth no man uâ—justly If he say they are such and condemn them as such it 's certain that they are such O but the infinite dreadful God â—s ouâ— of their reach but they be not out of his reach Their malice cannot hurt him any more than it can stop the course of the Sun but his displeasure will quickly bring them down In the mean time these wretches should consider what a God they have had to do with that beareth with their malignity The Sun or Moon forbear not to shine even on the dogs that bark at them Thy rebellious self hath hitherto been maintained by the mercy of that Will of God which thou hast resisted But this patience will not always last Take therefore this necessary advice in time Down with thine own Idolatrous self-will Know not a will or desire in thy self that 's not moved by the will of God even by his word as thy ground and his pleasure and honour as thy chiefest end Destroy that will that springs but from self and is moved but by the Interest of self Slay it before the Lord as his enemy as Samuel did Agag Though an hypocritical Saul will spare this King of rebellion designed to destruction yet so will not an obedient â—ervant of Gâ—d I will not bid thee offer it in sacrifice to Gods Will for it is too vile to be an acceptable sacrifice But utterly dâ—stroy it as the accursed thing Know not hereafter such a thing within thee as a will â—hat is Originally or finally thine Own If the Word and the Glory of God be the movers of it thou mayest call that Gods Will as well as thine own â— It is thine subjectively but it is Gods as the principal Efficient and End O that you did but know what your Own wills are and what they have done against you and what they may yet do if they be not mortified You would not then be so indulgent to them and pamper and please them and be so desirous to have your own wills as you have been To this end I pray you consider but of these particulars following 1. The will of man is the terrestial Throne of God It is there that he must reign The will is to Rule all the inferiour faculties and God is to rule the will And shall self presume to dethrone the Lord and sit down in his place He that rules the will rules the man And shall self be thy Ruler And will God put up all this 2. It is God only that hath the Soveraign authority and self hath nonebut under him We are not our own and therefore have nothing to do with our selves but at the Will of God that is our Owner Take heed therefore of this Usurpation 3. Thy own will is a corrupt and sinful will and therefore unfit to be thy governor what wilt thou chuse an unjust a wicked and unmerciful governor that is inclined to do evil Why such is thine own Will But the Will of God is perfectly good that hath not the least inclination to evil nor possibility of such a thing Be ruled by it and you are most certain to have the most just and holy and faithful and merciful ruler in the world To prefer self-will before the Will of God is as the Jews to prefer a murderer Barabbas before the Lord of life 4. Moreover Our own wills are guided by a dark understanding and therefore ready on every occasion to turn aside Though the will commandeth yet the understanding guideth it And therefore as the dark understanding is commonly at a loss or quite mistaken judging evil to be good and good to be evil so the will must be an unhappy governor that followeth the direction of so ignorant a Counsellor But if you will deny your Own wills and be ruled by the Will of God you need not fear misleading seeing his wisdom is infallible and infinite Chuse not a blind guide then when you may have the conduct of wisdom it self when God is content to be your Governor prefer not such foolish sinners as your selves before him 5. Moreover Your self-will hath almost undone you already It hath been the cause of all your sin and misery Never any hurt befell you or any man on Earth but from self-will And yet will you follow it still and take no warning as if it had not done enough against you But on the contrary you were never hurt in all your lives by following the Will of God unless it be such a hurt as the searching or cleansing of a sore without which it cannot be healed or such a hurt as the taking of Physick without which
Jewels askt What they were good for Whether they would preserve him from calamity sickness or death and sent themhome when he heard they were of no more use You desire not the biggest shooes or cloathes but the meetest So do by your Dignity and Estate Aâ— you must ask but your Daily bread so must you desire no more Neither Poverty nor Riches but convenient food yet so as to learn to abound and to want and in every state to be content bearing Riches and Dignity if cast upon you without seeking but not desiring or gaping after them nor glorying in them Undergoing them as a burden with patience and self-denial and carefully using all for God but neither desiring nor using them for Carnal self They that will be rich or great fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. Remember where you begun and where you must end Naked you came into the world and naked you must return to dust You brought â—â— Riches bither and none shall you take hence unless you learn the blessed art of making friends of the unrighteous Mammon and laying up a good foundation against the time to come and laying up a treasure in Heaven by the right improvement of your present mercies Though our life be nor circular but progressive the end as to our naturals is liker to the beginning than to the middle If we die not children yet liker to Children than we live It 's sad that the height and perfection of our Age should be the height of our folly And that childhood and retired Age should be least entangled with these vanities And it 's a lamentable stupidity that alloweth self so confidently to play its game so near eternity where one would think the noise of damned souls and the triumphant joyes of blessed Saints that past to rest by the way of self-denial should mar the sport and turn their pride into shame and trembling and the great things of mortality that are even at hand should drown the noise of pomp and pleasure and make the Greatness of this world appear an inconsiderable thing The Lord grant that you be no less humble and heavenly and true to Christ and above this world than when you and I had our first familiar converse and sure by this time you should be much better It 's said of Agathocles King of Sicilie that having been a Potters Son he would alwayes have together Earthen and Golden Vessels at his Table to remember him of his Original You tread on earth and bear about you such evidences of your fâ—â—â—ty as serve to tell you whence your 〈…〉 and whither it 's going and how it should be used now Remember also your spiritual new birth by what seed you were begotten and by what milk you were nourished and see that you degenerate not and do nothing unworthy that noble birth and the heavenly nature then received II. And remember that self-denial is never right unless it be caused by the love of God and as you deny your self so you entirely and unreservedly devote your self to him To this end I crave your observation of these few unquestionable precepts 1. Take heed of Unbelief and dread all temptations tending to it and live by that faith which maketh absent things to be to you as present and things unseen as if they were seen When Heaven once loseth its interest in the soul the world may play Rex and delude and destroy us at its pleasure 2. Take heed of all intrusions of selfishness Especially ☞ overvalue not your own understanding in the things of God Draw not a great picture of a little man Be not easily drawn to contemn the judgements of those that have searched the holy Scriptures with equal diligence and humility and with much more advantages of retirdeness and time and helps than you 3. Take heed of engaging your hand or tongue or secret thoughts against the faithful Ministers of Christ But further the work of Christ in their hands with all your power I am no Prophet but yet presume to say ☞ that if the reproaches of a faithful Ministry in England be purg'd away without some dreadful judgment of God on the Apostate reproachers or else a desertion of the Nation by a removing of our glory I shall wonder at the patience and forbearance of the Lord. It 's a dreadful observation to see so much of the spirit of Malignity possessing those that once said they fought against Malignants And that the Ministers and servants of the Lord are railed at by many of them as formerly they were by the worst of those that their hands destroyed And with this dreadful aggravation that then it was but some that were reviled and now with many it is all then it was under the name of Puritans and Round-heads and now it is openly as Ministers under the name of Priests and Black-coats and Presbyters and Pulpeteers What have these souls done that they are so far forsaken by the Lord The judge of all the world is at the door that will plead his servants cause in righteousness It is hard kicking against the pricks He that despiseth despiseth not men but God Persecution under pretence of Liberty is heightened with hypocrisie and is one of the greatest sins in the world But men are not catcht in Spiders webs though flies are our Lord will make us a way to escape Persecution never conquered Christ And because he lives we shall live also Here is the faith patience of the Saints I know that malice wants not words to cloak their iniquity He that hath will and power to do hurt hath so much wit as to pretend some reason for it Though I think that malice did never walk more nakedly since the Primitive persecutions than it doth in England at this day Their principles and profound contrivances they can hide but their Malignity goes stark naked and is almost grown past shame They talk against Mercenary Ministers as if they had never read 1 Cor. 9. Mal. 3. and such other Scriptures Or as if they envyed food and rayment to them that watch and labour for their souls to whom they are commanded to give double honour 1 Tim. 5. 17. when they envy not Provender to their Horses nor Fodder to their labouring Ox nor the crums to their very Dogs But the matter is that their wit is too scant and narrow for their malice and therefore the Popish and Malignant enemies have no fairer pretence to cast out the Ministry than by this engaging the Covetousness of the ignorant and ungodly sort against them They talk of our want of a just call But what is it in point of Calling that is wanting Abilities say some Succession
say were it not that these step in and cross self and hinder its designs you might fore-see in self-interest the changes that are made in humane affairs Consect 3 And so Potent and common is the Dominion of self that it may warrant an honest moderate incredulity and jealousie of almost all men in cases where the interest of self is much concerned Let him be never so ingenuous let his parts and profession be never so promising let his former engagements to you be never so great let him be your own Brother yet be not too confident of him if his carnal self be concerned or engaged against you For you shall see by experience as long as you live that self will still bear Dominion in the most Consect 4. Above all every wise and godly man should herein maintain the greatest Jealousie of his own heart Keep the heart above all keepings and keep out self above all sins whatever Take heed of selfishness as ever you would be Christians and live as Christians and have the Peace of Christians And to that end be alwayes suspicious of every cause opinion controversie or practice where self is much concerned The very names of SELF and OWN should sound in a watchful Christians ears as very terrible wakening words that are next to the names of Sin and Satan and at least carry in them much cause of suspition And this hath led me up to the next Use of the Point CHAP. XI Use 2. To try our self-denial the sincerity of the least degree Use 2. Of Exhortation BEloved hearers I have now before me as great a sin and danger to deter you from even selfishness and its effects and as great a Duty to offer to your entertainment even self-denial as any save one that I am acquainnted with in the world The raising up the soul to God is indeed the greatest work But the mortifying of the flesh and the Denying of self is surely the next to it being a real part of the change You hear Ministers tell you of the odiousness and danger and sad effects of sin but of all the sins that ever you heard of there is scarce any more odious and dangerous than this and yet I doubt there are many that never were much troubled at it nor sensible of its malignity My principal request therefore to you is that as ever you would prove Christians indeed and be saved from sin and damnation that follows it take heed of this deadly sin of selfishness and be sure you be possessed with true self-denial and if you have it see that you use and live upon it And for your help herein I shall 1. Tell you how your self-denial must be tried and 2. How it must be exercised and 3. I shall give you some further Reasons to perswade you to it and 4. Some Directions for the procuring and strengthening it 1. The trial of your self-denial may be performed by the help of the Signs that have been given you before In the ten particulars mentioned in the beginning you may see what is selfishness and what is self-denial But for your further satisfaction I shall only tell you in a few words how the least measure of true self-denial may be known And in one word that is thus Wherever the Interest of Carnal self is stronger and more predominant habitually than the Interest of God of Christ of everlasting life there is no true self-denial or saving grace But where Gods Interest is the strongest there self-denial is sincere If you further ask me How this may be known Briefly thus 1. What is it that you Live for what is that Good which your mind is principally set to obtain and what is that End which you principally design and endeavour to obtain and which you set your heart on and lay out your hopes upon Is it the Pleasing and glorifying of God and the everlasting fruition of him Or is it the Pleasing of your fleshly mind in the fruition of any inferiour thing Know this and you may know whether Self or God have the greatest interest in you For that is your God which you Love most and Please best and would do most for 2. Which d◠you set most by the means of your Salvation and of the Glory of God or the Means of providing for Self and Flesh Do you set more by Christ and Holiness which are the way to God or by Riches Honour and Pleasures which gratifie the flesh Know this and you may know whether you have true Self-denial 3. If you are truly self-denying you are ordinarily Ruled by God and his word and spirit and not by Carnal Self Which is the Rule and Master of your lives whose Word and Will is it ordinarily that prevails When God draws and self draws which do you follow in the tenor of your life Know this and you may know whether you have true Self-denial 4. If you have true Self-denial the drift of your lives is carried on in a successful opposition to carnal Self so that you not only refuse to be ruled by it and love it as your God but you fight against it and tread it down as your enemy So that you go armed against Self in the course of your lives and are striving against Self in every duty and as others think it then goes best with them when Self is highest and pleased best so you will know that it then goeth best with you when Self is lowest and most effectually subdued 5. If you have true Self-denial there is nothing in this world so dear to you but on deliberation you would leave it for God He that hath any thing which he loveth so well that he cannot spare it for God is a selfish and unsanctified wretch And therefore God hath still put men to it in the trial of their sincerity to part with that which was dearest to the flesh Abraham must be tried by parting with his only Son And Christ makes it his standing rule He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my Disciple Luke 14. 33. Yet it is true that flesh and blood may make much resistance in a gracious heart and many a striving thought there may be before with Abraham we can part with à Son or before we can part with wealth or life But yet on deliberation self-denial will prevail and there is nothing so dear to a gracious soul which he cannot spare at the will of God and the hope of everlasting life If with Peter we should flinch in a temptation we should return with Peter in weeping bitterly and give Christ those lives that in a temptation we denied him For Habitually God is dearest to the soul 6. In a word true self-denial is procured by the Knowledge and Love of God advancing him in the soul to the debasing of self The illuminated soul is so much taken with the Glory and Goodness of the Lord that it carrieth him out of himself to God and as
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
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
the more you should desire to be there where there is no strangeness This is not the time or place of most intimate acquaintance If you would be acquainted you should draw nearer and not draw back It 's death that must open you the door into that presence where strangeness will be no more And if it be the doubts of your interest in Christ and life that makes you shrink and loth to die Consider that to refuse to die for Christ is the way above all to increase those doubts but to give up your lives for him or chearfully to surrender your souls to him at his call is the readiest surest way in the world to prove you at present in a state of grace besides that you will be hastened into a state of glory where you shall be quickly and fully past all doubts of your state of former grace In a word as all the fears and sorrows of this life will then be at an end so with the rest will our fears of death And therefore death should be the more welcome because it is the end as of all other troubles so of these disturbing fears 14. Consider also what a multitude have trod this bloody way before you Almost all that ever were born have died and are now in the world that you are passing to You are not the first that entred at this narrow gate The dearest Saints of God have died If Abraham Moses Joshua David Peter and Paul could not escape the stroak of death what are you that you should murmur to follow such and so many that have gone before you You need not fear being solitary in heaven There are millions and millions more of Saints than there are on earth Many that you knew and millions more that will then be as dear to you as if you had known them Is it not better be among innocent souls than a defiled guilty world Is it not better be where no sin entreth and never a hâ—st or passion comes than to live as among Wild beasts with furious unreasonable sinners Is it not better be where Light is perfect and all your doubts are fully resolved than in darkness and perplexity and among an ignorant blind generation that are enemies to the light which you desire Is it not better be where is nothing but the perfect love of the Infinite God in perfect Saints and blessed Angels than to live among perverse ungodly men that make you almost weary of your lives If it be a delight to us to read the writings of the illuminated Saints of God and we think them such Jewels and Ornaments in our Libraries what a pleasure would it be to converse with them that wrote these Books and that in their celestial perfection where they have attained a thousand times more light than before they had and where all the doubts are resolved which their books could not resolve O blessed Society in comparison of that we now converse with 15. Nay more lest the bloody way of death should seem too strange and terrible to us the Lord Jesus our Head hath trod that path and that of purpose to conquer death by taking away the sting and principal cause of terrors and making that a passage to felicity that was a passage to everlasting misery So that ever since Christ hath gone this way there is no such danger in it to his followers Where the Captain of our salvation goeth his Souldiers may boldly follow him For asmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part with them that he might destroy by death him that had the power of death that is the Devil and might deliver them that through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14 15. He hath cleared our way and taken out of it the forest thorns and hath prepared us an habitation with himself And shall we fear to go the way that Christ hath gone and purposely gone to clear it for us 16. Moreover Consider that the Celestial inhabitants have purposely made themselves familiar with us in this lower world that they might acquaint us with themselves and lead us upto their blessed habitation and fit us for it No man of common reason can doubt but that those more capacious glorious parts of the Universe are stored with inhabitants answerable to their glory when we see every corner of the lower world to be replenished with inhabitants And Scripture and some experience tells us that those Angels of God are conversant here about us men They bear us up in their hands that we dash not our foot against a stone they pitch their tents and encamp about us as an appointed guard for our security It is their very office for what are they but ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1. 14. They converse with us though we see them not and are about us night and day They are among us in our holy assemblies observing our behaviour before the Lord 1 Cor. 11. 10. and they are witnesses of our good and evil Eccles 5. 6. From them as the Servants of God was the Law received Acts 7. 53. Gal. 3. 19. Heb. 2. 2. They read our books and study with us the Mysteries of the Gospel 1 Pet. 1. 12. And as near as they are to God they are glad to make the Church their book in which to read his manifold wisdom and know it by beholding it in us as in a glass Ephes 3. 10. The Nations have their Angels The Churches have their Angels and the particular Saints also have their Angels Dan. 10. 13 20 21 Rev. 1. 20. Acts 12. 15. Mat. 18. 10. They are not strangers with us but have charge of us to keep us in all our ways Psal 91. 10 11 12. They rejoyce in our conversion Luke 15. 10. They are part of the heavenly Society that we are already listed in Heb. 12. 22. They ascend and descend as ordinary passengers between heaven and earth Gen. 28. 12. They are round about us and we live as in their Camp Psal 34. 7. Before them we must be confessed or denied Luke 12. 8 9. They convoy our departed souls to Christ Luke 16. 22. They shall attend Christ at his second coming as they prcolaimed his first and attended him on earth Matth. 25. 31. Mar. 8. 38. They shall be his Heralds to call up the dead to judgement Mat. 13. 39 49. 24. 31. And at last we shall be their companions and equal to them Luke 20. 36. So that you see we have the same Society invisible which we shall have in heaven Yea and sometime when God is pleased they manifest their presence by visible or audible apparitions And shall we fear to remove into the presence of these blessed spirits that now attend us and are still about us and the instruments of so much of our good Yea the Lord Jesus Christ came
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
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
Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God Consider him that endured such contradictions of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds Heb. 12. 2 3 4. Direct 10. But the greatest help to self-denial is To retire from the Creature into God and live in the love of him and employ the soul continually upon him Men will not be frightned from self love It must be another more powerful Love that must draw them from it And that can be none but the Love of God When you have soundly discerned a surer friend than self a wiser a better an abler Governour and Defender and one that much more deserveth all your Love and Care then you will turn away from self and never till then See therefore that you espouse no Interest but God's and then you wil have nothing to call you from him Let love so close you with him and unite you to him that you may know no Happiness but his Love and Glory and see with no other Light than his and know no will but the will of God nor meddle with any work which for matter and end you cannot call the work of God Then you have indeed denyed your selves when you are nothing have nothing and do nothing but as from God and by him and for him Own not any self but in and for God and then you may love and seek it freely or this is to be called a loving and seeking of God and not of self Own not any Knowledge but that which is from the Light of God by his word works Spirit and Ordinances and which leadeth you to God in Holiness and Peace and guideth you in his service and then you need not condemn your selves of self-conceitedness or a selfish understanding Know not any will in your selves but that which is caused by the will of God and directed by it and intended to sulfil it So that you maybe able to say of every desire of your soul I desiâ—e this because that God would have me desire it and I am resolved to follow his will in the seeking of it and the end of my desire is that I may please him and his will may be done and then you may say you have conquered self-will O see then that you be more with God and study his Mind and Will his Excellency Sufficiency and Love and remember that you are a dependent being that are nothing but in and by him and therefore should know no interest but him and his interest nor possess any thing but for him nor know any will or way but his will and way and so let his be yours and yours be his by a holy resignation conformity and subserviency unto his and this is the true rectitude and holiness of man this is a finding our selves by losing our selves and the only saving and exalting of our selves by denying our selves Nothing but the Light of God will master self-conceitedness and nothing but the love of God will overcome self-love and nothing but an union and closure with the will of God will overcome self-will and nothing but an espousing and intending God and his interest will cause a true denial of carnal self-interest and nothing but a seeking of God conversing as with him and living to him will cure the soul of self-seeking and an ungodly and unprofitable living to our selves One other Direction I should add which is to be always jealous and suspicious of self but this will fall in the Conclusion The Conclusion I Have now finished what I had to say to you on this great and needful subject And I have stayed the longer on it that I might occasion your own thoughts to be the longer on it For it is not a few hasty running thoughts that will make any great impression on the soul And now Christian friends whoever you are that hear or read these words I earnestly intreat you in the name of God that you will set your hearts to the deep consideration of the nature and odiousness of this sin of selfishness and of the nature and necessity of self-denial You will never effectually hate and resist the sin which you think lightly of and is not in any great discredit with you nor will you fly from it with fear and care and vigilancy till you apprehend the dangerousness of it I have not only told you but proved it to you that this is one of the most odious and dangerous sins in the world even the sum of all iniquity that containeth a thousand sins in the bowels of it This is it that generateth all other vices and fills the world with swarms of mischief It is this selfishness that corrupteth all estates and distracteth all Societies and disturbeth all affairs Never look further for the cause of our calamities It is self that causeth the miscarriages and negligence of the Princes Governours and â—…istrates of the world while they look all at their â—…nterest and little at the things of Jesus Christ or at least prefer themselves before him It is self that causeth the disobedience of subjects while they judge themselves capable of censuring their Rulers for matters that are beyond their reach and grudge at all necessary burdens for the common good because they are a little pinched by them It is self that hath kindled the miserable Wars that are laying waste so many Countrys and that makes such woful havock in the World It is self that hath so lamentably abused Religion and introduced so many fantastical self-conceits under the name of high Scholastical subtilties and that hath let in so many errors in Doctrine and Worship and defiled Gods Ordinances and corrupted and almost extinguished the Discipline of Christ in the Church It is self that hath caused the Leaders of the Assemblies that should be exemplary in Unity and Holiness and Industry to be some of them idle and negligent and some of them carnal and vicious and so many of them in discord and fierce opposition of one another So that every man that is grown up to a high degree of wisdom in his own eyes and such Degrees are soon attained is presently venting his own conceits and perhaps publishing them to the world and seeking out an Adversary to shew his Manhood upon and reviling all that are not of his Opinion as if there were no difficulty in the matter but he is Learned and Wise and they are are all unlearned and ignorant he is Orthodox and they are Hereticks or what his Pride and self-conceitedness is pleased to call them It is this selfishness that makes even Godly Ministers the Dividers of the Church the reproach of their Holy Calling the occasion of the increase of triumph of the Adversaries and the causes of no small part of all our unreformedness distractions and calamity and the refusers and resisters of the Remedies that are tendred for Healing and Reformation I dare boldly say if this
one sin were but rooted out of the hears of the Ministers themselves that are the Preachers of self-denial it would make so sudden and wonderful a change in the Church as would be the glory of our Profession the Joy of the godly and the admiration of all O happy and honourable Magistrates at Court and Country if self were but throughly conquered and denyed O happy and Reverend Ministry the pillars of Religion the honour of the Church if it were not for the shameful prevalency of self O happy Churches happy Cities Corporations Societies and Countrys were it not for self But alas this is it that saddeth our hearts and makes us look for more and more sad tidings concerning the affairs of the Church from all parts of the world or frustrates our hopes when we look for better For we know on the one side that without self-denial there will never be true Reformation or Unity neither sin nor division will ever be overcome and on the other side we see that selfishness is so natural and common and obstinate that so many men as are born into the world so many enemies are there to Holiness and Peace till grace â—â— all change them and that all endeavours perswasions convictions do little prevail against this deadly rooted sin so that men will preach against it and yet most shamefully live in it and after all rebukes chastisements and heavy judgements of God the Church is still bleeding and Princes Pastors and People are self-conceited self-willed and self-seekers still Alas for the cause and Church of Christ Must we give it up to the lusts of self Must we sit down and look on its miserable torn condition with lamentation and despair and shall we deliver down this despair to our Posterity Were not our hope only in the Omnipotent God it must be so When we look at men at Magistrates or Ministers we see no hope What higher professions can be made by those in succeeding Ages than have now been made And yet what negligence of Magistrates and what contentiousness of Ministers destroy all hopes So that we look at the Restauration of the Church as at the Resurrection that must be done by Omnipotency God must raise up another Generation of more self-denying prudent zealous Magistrates and of more self-studying peaceable Humble Zealous Industristous Ministers before the Healing work be done The selfish spirit that prevaileth now in the most is neither fit to be the Matter or Instrument of the Reformed Peaceable state which we expect While the enemies are destroying us by secret fraud and open force we stand at a distance and unite not against them yea we are calling each other Heretick and Deceivers and teaching them how to revile us and putting such words into their mouth against us as may help our people to despise us and reject us and warrant them from our own mouths or pens to rail at us and forsake us One part of us being Hereticks or Deceivers by the testimony of the other part and the other part by the testimony of too many of them Dear Brethren if selfishness shall not now be left when we are in the sight of the havock it hath made and stand in the field among those that it hath slain and see the Church of God so horribly abused by it when then shall it be forsaken I here intreat every man that loveth his present or everlasting Peace and the Peace of the Church or Commonwealth that he will resolve upon a deadly enmity with this selfishness in himself and others And that you will suspect it and watch against it in every work you have to do Are you upon any imployment spiritual or secular Presently enquire when you set upon it Is there no self-interest and selfish disposition lurking here How far is my own worldly fleshly ends or prosperity concerned in it And if you discover that self is any way concerned in it I beseech you suspect it and follow self with an exceeding watchful eye and when you have done your best it is ten to one but it will over-reach you O look to it that you be not ensnared before you are aware Take heed of it especially you that are great and honourable and have so much self-interest to tempt you in the world How hardly will you escape When all other enemies are conquered you have yet self the greatest enemy to overcome Take heed of it you that have any rising thriving project little know you on what a precipice you stand Take heed of it you that are in deep and pinching wants lest self make them seem more grievous than they are and provoke you to venture upon sin for your relief Take heed all you that have raging appetites or passions or lustful inclinations and remember your enemy is now discovered and you have him to deal with before your face and therefore see that you be resolute and vigilant Take heed all you that have Learning Parts or fame and honour or any thing that self hath to glory in and to abuse lest the noblest gifts should by this deadly principle be turned into a plague to the Church and to your souls Suspect self in the choice of your parties and opinions Suspect it in your publick labours yea and in your private duties and greatest diligence in Religious Works lest when your eyes are open'd at last it should appear that you preached or prayed or professed or wrote or lived for self and not for God I do but transcribe the counsel to you that God is daily giving in to my own soul as I feel exceeding great use of it to my self so I am sure there is to others and wo to me and you if we take it not and be not found among the self-denying Doubtless God will put you to the tryal and find you frequent use for this grace Let me take the boldness to tell you from my own though alas too small experience that as it is meer selfishness that is the perplexer and disquieter of the mind without which nothing that befalls us could discompose it so it is God only that quiets it and gives it rest And I bless the Lord I can truly say that I have found that content in loving and closing with the will of God and endeavouring to know no interest but his to disquiet or quiet me which I never could find in any other way When God is enough for us and his will is in our eyes the will of a Father infinitely good it may satisfie the soul in the darkest condition when we understand not the particular meaning of his providence nor what he is doing with us yet still we may be sure that he is doing us good And therefore a child may not only submit to the will of God because it cannot be resisted as enemies must be forced to do but he may Rest in that will as the Center of his desires and the very felicity and Heaven of