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
If selfish interest led them not to this and if they were more tender of the Interest of Christ than of their own and of mens souls than of their flesh it would not be thus But the same argument that tempts the sensual to Hell doth tempt such Magistrates to set up Liberty for drawing men to Hell The wicked sell their souls to spare their flesh and let go Heaven to enjoy the Liberty of sinning and run into Hell to scape the trouble of an holy life And such Magistrates sell the peoples souls to spare the flesh of the deceivers and in tenderness and mercy to their bodies they dare not restrain men from seeking their damnation Is faith and holiness propagated by perswasion and not by force Surely then Infidelity Popery and Ungodliness are propagated by perswasion too Again I tell you self-love doth make such Rulers wiser than to grant Commission or Liberty to all that will to tice their souldiers to mutinies or rebellion their wives to Adultery their children to prodigality or their servants to thievery But the love of Christ and mens salvation is not so strong as to satisfie them whether men should be hindred from raising mutinies in his Church and from destroying souls Forsooth they tell us that Christ is sufficient to look to his own cause Very true and they shall one day know it But must he not therefore teach or rule by men Is not Adultery Murder Theft Rebellion against the Cause of Christ and his Laws as well as Popery and Infidelity And must they therefore be let alone by man Christ is sufficient to Teach the world as well as to Govern But doth it follow that men must be no Teachers under him Nothing but selfishness could cause this blindness And because I know that this stream proceeds from the Roman spring and it is their great design to perswade the world that it belongs not to Magistrates to meddle with Religion but only to cherish them that the Pope approveth of and to punish those whom the Pope condemns and that Christ must Govern and judge of matters of Religion himself that is by his pretended Roman Vicechrist I shall only now say this that if Rome were acquainted with self-denial and if the selfish carnal interest of Riches and Rule and worldly greatness had not blinded them they could never have believed themselves that Christ did appoint the Pope of Rome to be his Universal Vicar and that Princes and Magistrates in their own Dominions have not more Power to judge who is to be tolerated or punished by the sword than the Pope of Rome when no Priest or Prelate upon earth as such hath any thing to do with such a judgement no not in the places where they live All that they have to do herein is to judge who is the Heretick or offendor in order to his censure and excommunication But it's Magistrates only that must judge who is the Heretick or effendor in order to corporal punishment or restraint And this I undertake to make good against all the Papists in the world much more that the Roman Tyrant hath no such Power at the Antipodes and in all the Christian Nations on earth Remember in all this that I speak not against a Toleration of Godly tolerable men Episcopal Presbyterian Independent Anabaptist c. that will walk in Charity Peace and Concord ☞ we shall never be well till these are closed But do we not know that Papists have Italy and Spain and Germany and France at hand to help them And that if we grant them such a liberty as shall strengthen them and make way for their power we give away our own liberty and are preparing faggots for our martyrdom and giving away the Gospel that by wonders of mercy hath been till now preserved and I hope shall be preserved in despite of Rome and Hell Nor yet do I plead for any cruelty against a Papist but for a necessary Defence of the interest of Christ and the souls of men and the hopes of our posterity True Humanity abhorreth cruelty Did Magistrates well know their dependence upon God and that they are his officers and must make him their end they would not take their flocks to be their masters though they may take them for their charge nor would they set up a carnal interest of the multitude against the pleasing of God and mens salvation nor would they think so highly of mens conceits and wills as to judge it a matter of so much moment to allow them in Religion to say or do what they list If allowing a mans self in the practice of Known sin is inconsistent with a state of grace and a sign of a miserable slave of Satan I leave it to you to consider what it will prove to allow others even Countries and Nations in Known sin And if Rulers know not that setting up an Universal Vice-christ and worshipping bread though they think there is no bread with Divine worshp and serving God in an unknown tongue with other points of Popery are sin and that opposing and reproaching the holy Scriptures Ordinances and Ministry are sin wo to such Rulers and wo to the Nations that are Ruled by such O what a blessing is a holy self-denying Magistracy to a Nation If one could have told you twenty years ago that you and such as you should be Rulers in this Land how confidently would you have promised an universal encouragement to godliness and a vigorous promoting the cause of Christ and a zealous suppressing of all that is against it Little would you or I have thought that after Professors of godliness were in power so many years should have been spent in destroying Charity and Unity and cherishing almost all that will stand up for the Devil and plead his cause against the Doctrine and Discipline and Worship and Churches and Officers of Jesus Christ And that in their dayes it should have been put to the Question whether the Ministry it self should be taken down And that men in power should write for Liberty for all that will call it self Religion even Popery not excepted nor I think Infidelity or Mahumetism it self and that those that write so should be men in Power My heart would have risen against him as an odious calumniator that should have presumed to tell me that such men as have attempted this would ever have come to such a pass and I should have encountred them with Hazaels question Are they dogs that they should do so vile a thing and exercise such cruelty on souls and seek to bring back the people of God to the Romish vomit and set up the greatest tyranny on earth and all under pretence of a Religious Liberty But alas it is not Magistrates only that are so wanting in self-denial Ministers also are guilty of this crime Or else we should not have been so forward to divisions and so backward to the cure nor would men of this profession for
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
by Christ And therefore it is past dispute that none but the self-denying are sanctified and therefore none bâ— they do truly take the Holy Ghost for their Sanctifier and truly believe in him So far as men are in Love with the disease it is certain they will not use the Physitian Reas 5. No man is a true Christian and in a state of salvation that denyeth renounceth or rejecteth the word of God But all men that have not self-denyal that hear the word of God do renounce deny it or reject it and therefore no man without self-denyal is a true Christian or can be saved In the Scriptures it is that we have eternal life it s they that must make us wise to salvation the man that will be blessed must meditate in them day and night Psal 1. 3. And it is not the hearers but the Doers of them that are blessed But nothing is more clear than that the voice of Scripture calleth aloud on all men to deny themselves and that the scope of it is to cry down self and set up God in Jesus Christ It is the very drift and meaning of it from end to end to take down self and abase men in their own eyes and bring them home to God from whom they are revolted Reas 6. No man can be a Christian or be saved without saving Grace But no man without self-denyal hath saving Grace For it is the nature of every Grace to carry man from himself to God by Christ It is the work of godly sorrow to humble proud man and break the heart of carnal self It is the work of faith for a self-denying soul to pass out for hope and life to Christ It is the work of Love to carry us quite above our selves to that infinite goodness which we love it is the nature of holy fear to confess our guilt and insufficiency and to suspect our selves and dread the fruit of our own ways Confidence doth bottom us upon God and Hope it self doth imply a Despairing in our selves Thankfulness doth pay the homage to him that hath saved us from our selves And every grace hath self-denyal as half its very life or soul And therefore it is certain that no man hath any more grace than he hath self-denyal Reas 7. They that reject the Ministry and the fruit of all the Ordinances of God are not true Christians nor cannot be saved But so do all among us that have not self-denyal For the use of the Ministry is to call home sinners from themselves to God The use of every Ordinance of God is to get or keep down carnal self and exalt the Lord. Confession is nothing but self-abasing and he must confess that will have the faithful and just God to forgive him for he that covereth his sin shall not prosper 1 John 1. 9. Prov. 28. 13. Prayer is a confession of our own emptiness insufficiency and unworthiness and a flying from our selves for help unto another In Baptism we come as condemned prisoners for a pardon as it were with ropes about our necks and strip our selves of the rags of our filthiness that by the blood of the lamb we may be washed from our blood and our sins may be buried as in the depth of the Sea In the Lords Supper we renew the same Covenant and receive the same renewed pardon and still fly from our selves to Christ for life and renounce our carnal selves by solemn Covenant as a people coming home to God So that never was any Ordinance of God effectual and saving on the soul of any further than it brought them to self-denyal or preserved exercised or manifested it Reas 8. He that can do no work sincerely nor go one step in the way of life is no true Christian nor in a state life But this is the case of all that have not self-denyal For self is their Principle Rule and End and he that hath either a false Principle Rule or End cannot be sincere in any of the means much less when he is out in all of these A selfish man is seeking himself in his very Religion and is serving himself when he seemeth to be serving God And indeed he doth not any service sincerely unto God because he makes not God his End And therefore cannot be accepted Reas 9. No man is a true Christian or can be saved that sticks in the depth of his natural misery in his lapsed state But so do all men that have not self-denyal for it is self that they are faln to and must be saved from Reas 10. No man can be a true Christian and be saved that is not a member of the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints But so is none but the self-denying for every true member of the Church hath a publick spirit preferring the Churches interest to his own and suffering with fellow members in their suffering and having a care of one another 1 Cor. 12. But the self-seeking unsanctified person is a stranger to this disposition Reas 11. He that is led by the greatest enemy of God and his own soul is not a true Christian nor in a state of life But so is every man that hath not learned to deny himself For self is the greatest enemy of God and us Escape but your own hands and you are out of danger All the Devils in Hell cannot destroy you if you would not be your own destroyers Reas 12. Lastly It is a plain contradiction to be saved without self-denyal For as its self that we must be saved from both as our End and Means and greatest enemy so to stick in self is still to be lost and miserable and therefore not to be saved So that the case is as plain as a case can be that no man can be a true Christian or Disciple of Christ without self-denyal and consequently none without it can be saved I have been the briefer upon the Arguments because the matter of some of them may come to be fullier opened anon in the Application CHAP. III. Use 1. A general complaint of the Prevalency of Selfishness Use 1. AND now we have seen from the words of Christ the absolute Necessity of self-denyal and that there is no true Christianity nor salvation without it let us next take a view of our selves and of the world and Judge of our condition by this certain Rule Look well into your selves and into the world and tell me whether you find not cause to lament 1. That true Christianity is so rare a thing even among the professors of Christianity seeing self-denyal is so rare 2. That Grace is so weak and small in the most of the regnerate seeing self-denyal is so little and imperfect O if the name of Christians would prove us Christians and the magnificent Titles we give to Christ would prove that we are his true Disciples if reading and hearing and outward duties and a cheap Religiousness would serve turn we have then great
and possess no interest but him and in him and to have nothing that we esteem or love or care for in comparison of him knowing that for him we were made redeemed preserved and sanctified and therefore desiring to be wholly and only his and to have no credit no goods no life no self but what is his for his service at his will and at his Disposal and Government and provision this is the true self-denyal which the spirit of God worketh in a prevailing though not a perfect measure in every gracious believing soul But alas Sirs how strange is this in the world and how weak and low in the souls where it is found And what matter of Lamentation would a survey of the world or of our selves present us with Is not SELF the great Idol which the whole world of unsanctified men doth worship Who is it that ruleth the children of disobedience but carnal self For what is all the stir and stirrings the tumults and contentions of the world but for self This ruleth Kingdoms and this is it that raiseth wars and what is it except the works of Holiness but self is the author of Look unto the Thrones and Kingdoms of the earth and conjecture how many self hath advanced and placed there and how feâ— have stayed till God enthroned them and gave them the Crown and Scepter with his approbation Among all the Nobles and great ones of the earth that abound in riches how few are there that were not set a work by self and ruled by it in the getting or keeping or using their riches dignities and honours Look on the great Revenews of the Nation and of the world and consider whether God or self have the more of it One man hath many thousands a year and another hath many hundreds and how much of this is devoted to God and how much to carnal self And the poor that have but little would think us injurious to them if we should call to them for any thing for God who have not enough for themselves when indeed God must have all and self must have nothing but what it hath by way of return from God again and that for God and not for self but as subservient unto him Alas of many hundred thousand pounds a year which the inhabitants of a Country possess among them how little hath God that should have all and how much hath self that should have nothing O dreadful reckoning when these Accounts must be all cast up Judge by the use of all whether self have not yet Dominion of all If men throw out to God his tenth which is none of their own or if they cast him now and then some inconsiderable alms when in his member he is fain to beg for it first they think they have done fair though self devour all the rest Is it more think you for God or self that our Courts of Law are filled with so many Suits and Lawyers have so much employment Is it more think you for God or self that Merchants compass Sea and Land for commodity Who is it that the Souldier fights for is it for God or self Who is it that the Tradesman deals for that the Plowman labours for that the Traveller goes for is it more for God or self Who is it that the most of mens thoughts are spent for and the most of their words are spoken for and the most of their rents and wealth laid out for and the most of their precious time imployed for is it for God or self Consider of it whether it be not self that finally and morally rules the world What else do most live for or look after And is not the common Piety Religion and Charity of the world a meer sending God some scraps of the leavings of carnal self If the flesh be full or have enough then God shall have the cruâ—â— that fall from its Table or at most so much as it card â—are but till the flesh have done and be satisfied Gâ—â— Gâ—â—st stay even for these scarps and crums and if theâ—… but say I want it my self or have use for it my self they think it a sufficient answer to all demands One may see by the irregularity of the motions of the world the confusions and crossings and mutabilities and contradictions the doing and undoing again the differences and fierce contendings that it is not God but self that is the End and Principle of the motions Nay most men are so dead to God and alive only to themselves that they know not what we mean when we tell them and plainly tell them what it is to live to God and what it is to serve him in all their affairs and to eat and drink and do all things for his glory but they ask in their hearts as Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should serve him And when they read these passages about self-denyal and about referring all to God they will not understand them for they are unacquainted with God and know no other God indeed but self though in name they do Nay it were well if self were kept out of the Church and out of the Ministers of the Gospel that must teach the world to deny themselves that it did not with too many choose their habitations and give them their call and limit them in their labours and direct them in the manner and measure It were well if some Ministers did not study for self and preach and dispute for self and live for self when they materially preach against self and teach men self-denyal And then for our People alas it rules their families it manageth their business it drives on their trades it comes to Church with them and fights within them against the word and perverteth their judgement and will let them relish nothing and receive nothing but what is consistent with selfish interest in a word it makes men ungodly it keeps thâ—m ungodly and it is their very ungodliness it self O we it not for carnal self how easily might we deal withâ—â—â—â—rts of sinners but this is it that overcometh us CHAP. IV. The Prevalency of Selfishness in all Relations BEside all the generals already mentioned it will not be amiss to give you some particular Instances of the power of selfishness and the rareness of self-denyal in the world that you may see what cause of lamentation is before us 1. How ready and speedy how effectual and diligent how constant and unwearied are they in the service of self and how slow and backward how remiss and negligent how unconstant and tired are they in the works that are meerly for God and their salvation Do I need to prove it to you You may as well call for proof whether there are men in the world I were best for instance begin next home Many Ministers think it a drudgery and a toil that God requireth at their hands to confer with every family in their Parishes and instruct them privately in
break out in the Town and infect but a quarter as many houses as here are infectious Alehouses that harbour tiplers and drunkards and see whether the Magistrates of this or any Town will not a little better bestir themselves and send to search after infected places and nail up their doors and write on them Lord have mercy on us that all may take warning and keep away They will not here be offended with Informers nor say Am I bound to look after them And why are they not as zealous against sin as against the plague Great reason Self is for sin and God only is against it but self is against the Plague because it is concerned in it sin doth but hurt the soul and bring men to Helfire but the plague destroys their body and this is the greater matter with them because they have flesh and sense to judge of it but they have not faith to believe the other Again let but one house in the Town be on fire and all are up to quench it and the Bell is rung and the Magistrate doth not think that he wants a Call himself to look after it And when the fire of Hell is kindling in an Ale-house that 's nothing but must be let alone there 's no such zeal nor no such haste And why so Why one they see in good sadness and perceive that it is fire indeed but the other they believe in jest as if it would prove but a painted fire Again let but an ungodly fellow slander the Magistrate or call him all to naught especially if he give him but two or three boxes on the ear and see whether he will let that man alone But let the same man abuse the name of God and break his Laws and with too many he may be let alone unless they be urged to do Justice And how comes this difference Why self is toucht in one and it is but God But God! O Atheists that 's touched in the other Self can do more with them than God can do Remember still when I say that self can do more with them than God that I speak not of what God could do by his Omnipotency if he would but of the final Causality or the small interest that God hath in their hearts by holy Faith and Love Again let but a servant rob the Magistrate and carry his money and goods to an Ale-seller to reset and try whether he will look after him and the Ale-seller And why not as soon and as zealously when Ale-sellers reset mens sons and servants and drown mens understandings and turn them into beasts Why because in one it is but God and mens souls that are concerned a matter of nothing but in the other it is self a greater matter with them Shall I give you but one instance more that the Ale-sellers themselves will take my part in so far as to bear me witness that its true Here are Farmers of the Excise that have power to know what Ale-houses are in the Town and their gain lyeth on it and there shall scarce a man in Town or Country sell Ale so secretly but they will know it nor sell a Barrel but what they are acquainted with They do not say I am not bound to go search after them nor that they be not able to discover them and to bring them to pay Excise But the Justices too commonly can overlook abundance that the Excise-men can find and they cannot make one of twenty pay when the other can And what 's the matter Why one works for self and money and the other works but for God and his own and other mens salvation a small matter See then beyond denyal what self and money can do with such men when God and mens salvation can do next to nothing But I must desire you not to mistake me and think I speak this of any honest godly Magistrate and abuse the good by joyning them with the bad No far be it from me to be so injurious For its evident that they can be no good men nor have any true Love of God in their souls that are such in a predominant sense as I have here described It is not in my thoughts to lay this blame on any honest Godly Magistrate for none but the ungodly would do as I have mentioned and prefer themselves before the Lord and the bodies of men before the souls And alas if the Soveraign Powers of the Nations of the world were not too sick of the same disease gain would not be accounted Godliness but Godliness the greatest gain and carnal Policie would not go for Piety but true Piety would go for the surest Policie It would not be so common in most Nations to have the Truth and Cause of Christ disowned and his servants persecuted and their lives and blood to be made a sacrifice to carnal Self and worldly Interests Nor would the breaches of the Churches be so long unhealed and grow wider and wider and few much regard them but all have their own work to do which must be looked after Yea and the Cause of Christ and the Gospel must be trod down if it stand in the way of their own And the Churches must be set on fire by their wars and contentions for their selfish Interests And if Self were not too strong among us we should not have had such connivence at doctrinal and practical abominations nor so much delay or neglect of healing the discomposed Churches and uniting the divided Christians or attempting it more effectually than we have done But because I desire to speak to none but those that are within my hearing I will return home to our selves The holy ordering and instructing of families and suppressing sin in Children and servants is one of the most effectual works for the building up of the Church and the glory and stability of the Common-wealth O if Parents and Masters would but sanctifie their houses to the Lord and teach their families the will and fear of God and do their best by punishment when instruction will not serve to hinder sin how fast would Reformation then go on And what hindreth why carnal Self If it were but for wordly commodities they would do more Would you have me prove it Let experience speak Let a servant or child go prayerless to their work and few regard it but they will not go without meat or drink or cloaths The Master will suffer them to neglect Gods service but if they neglect his own and should do him no more or better service than they do to God they should soon hear of it and be turned out of door and they were no servants for him They will teach their children to do their own work or set them Apprentices to learn it but the work of God and their salvation they shall for them have little teaching in how plainly soever God hath commanded it them Deut. 11. 18 19. 6. 6 7 8. Ephes 6. 4. Let
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
Heresies and Church-divisions as any Sensualist hath in his way And hence it is that a zeal for selfish opinions is easily got and easily maintained when zeal for the saving truths of God is hardly kindled and hardly kept alive Yea multitudes in the world do make the very truth to be the matter of their carnal interest in it while they some way get a seeming peculiar interest and promote it but as an opinion of their own or of their party and use it for selfish carnal ends And hence it is that many that are called Orthodox can easily get and keep a burning zeal for their Orthodox opinions when Practical Christians do find it a very hard matter to be zealous for the same truths in a Practical way Many ungodly men will be hot in Disputing for the truth and crying down all that are against it and perhaps so far exceed their bounds that the godly dare not follow them And the reason is clear Whether it be Truth or Error that a man holds if he hold it but as a conceit of his Own or as the opinion of his party or to be noted in the world as one that hath found out more truth than others or any way make it but the matter of his selfish interest nature and corruption will furnish him with a zeal for it It 's easie to go where sin and Satan drives and to be zelous where zeal hath so small resistance and to swim down the stream of corrupted nature But it is not so easie to be zealous in the practical saving entertainment of the truth and exercising that faith and love to God and holy obedience which truth is sent to work in us A schismatical or Opinionative use of truth it self is but an using it for self against the God of truth and it is no more wonder to see men zealous in this than to see men forward and hot in any evil We cannot tell how to quench or restrain this selfish carnal kind of zeal But when men should use the truth for God and their salvation against Satan and sin and self then it 's hard to make them zealous They are like green wood or wet fuel on the fire that will not burn without much blowing and soon goeth out when it seemed to be kindled if once you leave it to it self Paul spoke not non-sense when he said For ye are yet Carnal for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are ye not Carnal 1 Cor. 3. 3 4 5. How secretly soever it may lurk there is doubtless much of self and flesh in Heresies and unjust Divisions I know that most of them little perceive it James and John in their zeal which would have called for fire from heaven did not know what spirit they were of But God would not have spoke it if it were not true Rom. 16. 17. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Though they little believe that that there is any such wickedness in them as this yet the Spirit of God that is the searcher of hearts is acquainted with it and assureth us that both at the bottom and the End Church-dividing courses have a carnal selfish nature It is some secret interest of self though scarce discerned that kindleth the zeal and carrieth on the work It is not God that is served by the divisions of his Church Many Sects now among us do put a face of Truth and Zeal upon their cause But self is the more dangerously powerful with them by how much the less suspected or observed The Papists under the pretence of the Churches Union are the great dividers of the Christian world unchurching the far greatest part of the Church and separating from all that be not Subjects of the Pope of Rome And do you think it is self and flesh that is the Principle and Life and End of this their Schism were it not for the upholding of this usurped power and worldly immunities and greatness of the Clergy it is morally impossible that so many men of reason and learning could concur in such a schism and in so many gross conceits as go along with it It is not the Pope that they are principally united in For the far greatest part of them it it too evident that it is selfish and fleshly interest that is their Center to which the Pope is but a means Hence it is that many of their Jesuits and Fryars are carried abroad the world with such a fire of zeal to promote their cause that they will compass sea and land for it and day and night are busie at the work to plot and contrive and insinuate and deceive and think no cost or pains too great For a selfish sinful zeal and diligence hath so many friends and so little hindrance that it 's easily maintained but so is not the healing peaceable practical and holy zeal of true believers Well! Consider what I say to you from the Word of the Lord There is a selfish dividing Zeal in Religion which must be denied as well as whoredom or drunkenness If you ask me how it 's known Briefly now I shallonly tell you this much of it 1. That it is usually for either an Error or a particular Truth against the interest and advantage of the body of unquestionable Christian verities They can let Religion suffer by it so their opinion do but thrive 2. It is usually for an Opinion by reason of some special endearment or interest of their own in it 3. They cry up that opinion with a zeal and diligence much exceeding that which they bestow upon other opinions of equal weight and lay a greater stress upon it than any shew of reason will allow them 4. They usually are zealous for a party and division against the Unity of the Catholick Church 5. Their Zeal is most commonly turned against the faithful Pastors of the Church For it 's hard to keep in with schism and with faithful Pastors too And if the Ministers will not own their sin and error they will disown the Ministers The Anabaptists and other Sects of late would never have been so much against Christ's Ministers if the Ministers had not been against their way 6. Their course doth in the conclusion bring down Religion and hinder the thriving of the Gospel and of Godliness Mark what is the issue of most of those ways that these men are so hot for Doth it go better or worse with the Church and cause of Christ in general where they are than it did before Is Religion in more strength and beauty and life and honour or doth real
any Creature wise enough to order the world and the affairs thereof Is any Creature powerful enough to dispose of the world and all things in it Is any Creature good enough to do it without the communication of its imperfection which would disorder destroy all I know you make no doubt of any of these things No Creature is fit to be God and therefore none is fit to undertake the work of God And therefore it must be God or none that must have the Disposal of your lives and you But I know what it is that self would have You would have the Disposal of your own lives or else have God to dispose of them as you would have him which comes all to one But how unreasonable is this Would you alone have the Disposal of your own lives or would you have all men else in the world also to have the Disposal of theirs If all should have this Priviledge what a miserable Priviledge would it prove No man then would die and then either you must forbear marriage or what would you do with your posterity when there were no room on earth And then you could not punish a Malefactor with death And what a world would it be if all men were Disposers of themselves when there would be as many different ends and minds as men every man would be for himself and an enemy to others and the world would run every man on his own head and a madder confusion than can be imagined would seize on all If you would have every man have the dispose of his own life you would have as many Gods as Men and so have no God and you would have as many Kings or Rulers as men and so have no Ruler and you would have the world to be no world when God were to them as no God And if you would not have it thus with all what reason have you to desire it for your self What are you more than all the world that you should be exempted from the common state of mortals and be at your own disposal more than they and be instead of God unto your selves 5. You think it neither cruelty or injustice that the lives of bruits should be much at your dispose Your poor fellow-creatures must die when you require it Birds and Beasts and Fishes even multitudes of them must die to feed you yea often for your delight to make you a Feast when you have no necessity The most harmless sheep you will not spare The most laborious Ox the most beautiful Bird must give up their lives to satisfie your pleasure And is not God ten thousand thousand times even infinitely more above you than you are above your fellow-creatures Is one creature fitter to kill another and afterwards devour it and becomes its grave than God to dispose of the Lives of all 6. Where could you wish your Lives to be better than in the hand of the most wise gracious God If you may rest content or have confidence in any it is in him You neednot doubt of his Goodness for he is goodness and Love it self And therefore though you see not the world to come that you are passing to yet as long as you know that you are in the hands of Love it self what cause have you of disquiet or distrust And that you know that he is wise as well as Good and Almighty as well as Wise and therefore as he meaneth you no harm if you are his children so he will not mistake nor fail in the performance You need not fear lest your happiness should miscarry for want of skill in him that is Omniscient or for want of will in him that is your Father or for want of Power in him that is Omnipotent You may far better trust God with your lives than your selves For you have not wisdom enough to know what is best for you nor skill to accomplish it nor Power to go through with it Nay you love not you selves so well as God doth love you Did you but believe this you would better trust him You can trust your selves in a narrow Ship upon â—he wide and raging Seas when you never saw the Country that you are gâ—ing to and all because you believe that the voyage is for your commodity and that you have a skilful Pilot. And cannot you commend your souls into the hand of God to convey you through death to the invisible glory as confidently as you dare commit your lives to the conduct of a man and to a tottering Ship in a hazardous Ocean You can trust your lives on the skill of a Physician And cannot you trust them on the will of God If you had your choice whether your lives should be at your own dispose or Gods you should far rather choose that God might dispose of them than your selves As it is better for an Infant to be guided and disposed of by the Parents than by it self A Good King will not kill his own Subjects needlesly And a natural Father or Mother will not not needlesly kill their own Children yea a very brute will tenderly cherish their young And do you think that God who is infinitely good will causelesly orinjuriously take your lives or that he doth not mean you good even in your death Object But how can I think it for my good to die and to have my nature dissolved Answ Paul did desire to depart or be dissolved and to be with Christ as best of all Phil. 1. 23. And did not he know what was for his good as well as you He was willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord than at home in the body and absent from the Lord and therefore groaned earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with his house which is from heaven that mortality might be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 4 6 8. When the Hen hath sate to hatch her young ones they must leave the shell as good for nothing and must come into a world which they never saw before And what of that Should they murmur at the breaking of tâ—â—â—r former habitation or fear the passagâ— inâ—â— so 〈◊〉 â—â— wide so strange a place in 〈…〉 â—f 〈…〉 which they were in before No more 〈…〉 the breaking of these bodies and 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 of flesh and passing under the conduct of Angels into the presence of our Lord. God is but hatching us here by his spirit that he may bring us out into the light of glory And should we grudge at this 7. And what if God call you to sacrifice your lives to him as he called Abraham to sacrifice his Son What if he call you to come to him by a persecutors hand or at least to be willing of your natural death He calls you but to give up a life which you cannot keep and to do that willingly which else you must do whether you will or not Willing or unwilling die you must
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
another mans case they could tell him that its better displease men than God and that its better venture a short life than an endless life and that it is little profit to win all the world and lose his own soul and that it is the wisest way to make sure work for eternity and not to venture on endless misery And they could consent that another should rather suffer than sin Why else do they commend the Martyrs for it And what is the reason of this strange partiality Why Self is the great Ruler and God hath but the name Self is partial in their own cause but not in another mans and therefore they can consent to his suffering without self-denial And hence comes the difference 15. Moreover when Offenders murmur at their punishment ask but the standers by and they are of another mind When the Ale-seller thinks he is wronged if he be put down ask but the poor women whose Husbands use to be drunk there and whose children lack meat and drink and clothes because the Alehouse devours that which should buy them and they will be quite of another judgment and think you love not God nor the Country if you will not suppress them 16. Also when you hear men extenuating their sin and excusing it put but the case as another mans and let them not understand that it is their own and you shall hear another judgment So Nathan came about David and put but a far lower case as anothers about the robbing a poor man of his only Sheep and he could presently say and swear As the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely die because he had no pity and his anger was greatly kindled against the man 2 Sam. 12. 5 6. But why was he not as angry with himself for a greater sin O self had got the better in that grievous fall till grace broke his heart by true repentance So when Judah heard of Thamars fornication he commandeth Bring her out that she may be burnt Gen. 38. 24. But when he understood that it was by himself the case was altered 17. Let a man that his provoked by injuries and ill words have as bad by himself done or spoken against another and he can make but a small matter of them or think they should be easily put up or pardoned when yet the same words spoken against him do seem intolerable 18. Let a man speak with others in poverty sickness or any affliction and what good counsel can he give him to submit to God and take all patiently But let the suffering be his own and he cannot take the counsel that he gives 19. Nay more men are not only partial for themselves but for any that are neer themselves or that self is related to Let another mans Son or Servant do evil and you can be content that he be rebuked or corrected But if it be a Son or Kinsman or Servant of your Own the case is altered it s then a wrong to punish him because of his relation to you Let a Stranger do amiss and you can give way to Justice But if the Drunkard or Ale-seller or Swearer be your friend then he must be born with and forgiven and the justice must be intreated for him Let a scandalous or insufficient Minister or Schoolmaster be offered to any place If he be a Stranger you can be content that he be rejected but if he be a Kinsman or Child or Friend of yours what an alteration doth this make in the case then he must be born with or tried and you hope he will mend and his faults are made the least of his virtues more than indeed they are Nay any man that doth but love your selves and honour you and think highly of you shall have a favourabler construction for all his words and actions and intentions than one that you imagine is against you or hath low thoughts of you or is against your interest or your opinion Sirs I have run into abundance of instances but not a quarter so many as might be given and all is to meet with the turnings and windings of this Serpent self and to let you see if light it self can make you see against the blinding power of self how rare self-denial is in the the world and what a large Dominion self obtaineth I would here have added some more Discoveries as 6. From the excessive care and cost and labour that almost all the world is at for self and the little they are at for God or the good of others 7. The large proportion that is expended on self in comparison of God and others 8. The Zeal of men to vindicate self but the little Zeal for God or others 9. The rigorous Laws that are made in the cause of self Thieves and Traitors must die and the remissness of Law-givers in the cause of God Blasphemy Malignity and Impiety is not so roughly handled 10. The firmness of men to carnal self and their great mutability and unfaithfulness to God But I had rather omit somewhat than to be too tedious and therefore I go no further in these Discoveries save only to add a few of those Aggravations that shew you the extent of selfs Dominion as you have seen the sad discoveries of the reality of it CHAP. IX The great Power and prevalency of selfishness discovered ANd that you may see what cause we have for our Lamentation Consider the greatness of selfish Tyranny in these Particulars 1. Consider what a Power it is that self beareth down in the world The Commands of the God of heaven are overcome by it The promises of eternal life are trod under foot by it The threatnings of endless torments are nothing to it It casts by Heaven it ventures upon Hell It tramples upon the precious blood of Christ It will not hear the voice of wisdom it self Nor the voice of goodness and mercy it self It refuseth him that speaks from heaven Love it self is not lovely where self is Judge It quencheth all the motions of the Spirit it despiseth Ministers It turneth mercies into wantonness and sin Like Sampson it breaks all bonds that are laid on it and till it be weakned it self there is no holding no ruling no saving the soul that 's ruled by it 2. Consider also the exceeding Number of its Subjects Truly if there were no other proof that the sanctified and the saved are very few this one is so full and sad a proof that it tempteth me sometime to think them much fewer than willingly I would do Alas how few self-denying persons do you meet with in the world yea in the Church yea among the stricter Professors Look over all the world and see how few you can find at work for any one but for carnal self If you observe the Courts and see whose work is done most there and look into the Armies of the world and see who it is that ruleth there if you look
upon the affairs of Nations and the wars of Princes and their confederacies and see who it is that rules in all how little will you see save here and there but carnal self It is self that makes the cause and manageth it It is self that maketh Wars and Peace Come down into our Courts of Justice and whose voice is loudest at the bar but selfs and who is it commonly else that brings in the Verdict at least who is it else that made and followeth on the quarrel How many causes hath self at an Assize for one that God hath Come lower into the Country and who is it that plows and sows who is it that keeeps House or Shop but self I mean what else but carnal self is the Principle what else but carnal self is the End what else but the will of self is the Rule and what else but selfish commodity or pleasure or honour are the matter or some provision that is made for these and consequently what else but self-respect is the form For the End informeth the means as means and therefore all that is done for self is self-service and self-seeking In a word as God is all in all to the sanctified so self is as all in all to the ungodly And alas how great a number are all these 3. Consider that it is a sin that is nearer us objectively than any other sin And the nearer the more dangerous Alas that a man should turn his own substance into poison feed upon it to his own destruction If you have drunk poyson you may cast it up again or nature may do much to work it out but if your own blood and humours and spirits be turned into venom that should nourish and preserve your life what then shall expell this venom and deliver you 4. Moreover it is the most obstinate disease in the world No duty harder except the Love of God than self-denial O how many wounds will self carry away and yet keep life and heal them all How commonly do we convince some carnal Gentlemen that One thing is needful and that its a better part than Earth and honour and sensuality that must be chosen or else they are undone and that the more they have the more they must forsake and the more self-denial is required to their salvation and that all their lands and wealth and honours and all their wit and parts and interest must be at the service of their Maker and Redeemer and that when they have all in the world that they can get that all must become Nothing and God must become all their treasure must become the dross and dung and Christ must become their treasure or they are lost I say how oft do we convince men of all estates of these important evident truths And yet this self is still alive and keeps the garrison of the heart and all that we can have from most of them is as the rich man Luk. 18. 23 24. to be very sorrowful that they cannot have heaven at easier rates and that Christ will not be a servant unto Self or they cannot have two Masters They go away sorrowful but away they go because they are rich which makes Christ say upon this observation How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God But when the Disciples were troubled at his observation he lets them know that it is Self and not Riches that is indeed the deadly enemy It is the selfish that trust in Riches and love and use them for themselves and deny not themselves and devote not all to God that will be kept out of Heaven by them Or in Christs own words Luk. 12. It is he that layeth up treasure for Himself and is not rich towards God Conquer self and Conquer all 5. Moreover self is the most constant malady the sin that doth most constantly attend us Many actual sins may be laid by and we may for the time be free from them But selfishness is at the heart and lives with us continually It parteth not from us sleeping or waking It goes to the worship of God with us it will not stay behind in the holiest ordinance It will not forbear intermixing it self in the purest duties but will defile them all So that above all sins in the world it s this that must have the strictest constantest watch or else we shall never have any peace for it 6. Yea this self doth lamentably survive even in the sanctified soul among the special graces of the Spirit and lamentably distempereth the hearts and lives of too many of the godly themselves Not that any godly man is selfish in a predominant sense or that self is higher or more powerful in his heart than God for that 's a contradiction such a man cannot be a godly man without Conversion But yet the very remnants of conquered Self what a smoak do they make in our Assemblies and what noisom scent in the lives of many godly men what a stir have we sometimes with those that we hope are godly before we can get them to an impartial judgment to lament their own fowl words or other miscarriages and to humble themselves or freely to forgive another that hath wronged them especially to confess disgraceful sins in any self-denying manner How close stick they to their own conceits how lamentably do they improve them to the contempt of Ministers trouble and division of the Church How wise are they in their own eyes and how hardly yield they to any advice that crosseth Self How hardly are they brought to any dear and costly duty How much do they indulge their appetites and passions and how cheap a Religion do many think to come to heaven with we can scarce please some of them they are so selfish either because we cross them in their opinions or in their wayes or because we allow them not so much special countenance and respect as self would have or deny them somewhat which self desires If they have any use for us if we leave not more publick or greater work which god hath set us on and allow them not that part in our time or labours or other helps which God and Conscience will not allow them they are offended take it ill that self is not preferred before God and the publick service Their selves are so dear to themselves that they think we should neglect all to serve them Let the most useful Minister live in a place that hath the plague or other contagious mortal sickness and most that are visited will take it ill if the Minister come not to them though they know that his life is hazarded by it and that his loss to the whole Church is more to be regarded than the content or benefit of particular persons and it is not the pleasing of them nor their benefit by him then that will countervail the Churches loss of him What is this but too much preferring self I