them yea or that would not step out of their way for it and wound their Consciences and hazard all their hopes of Heaven for it if they found themselves in a likelyhood of obtaining it because where self doth raign at home it would raign also over all others Nothing more pleaseth the Carnal mind than to have his will and to have all men do what he would have them and to see all at his beck and each man seeking to know his Pleasure ready to receive his word for Law This is the reign of self But sanctification teaching men self-denyal doth make them look fist at the Doing of Gods will and would have all the world obedient to that and for their own wills they resign them absolutely to Gods and would not have men obey them but in a due subordination to the Lord. As they affect no Dominion or Government but for God so they desire not men to obey their wills any further than it is necessary to the obedience of Gods will to which they are serviceable and conform The self-denying sanctified man hath as careful an eye up and down the world for Gods interest as the self-seeker hath for his own And as eagerly doth he long to hear of the setting up of the Name and Kingdom and Will or Laws of God in the world as the ambitious man longs for the setting up of his own And it as much rejoyceth the holy self-denying man to hear that Gods Laws are set up and obeyed and that the world doth stoop to Jesus Christ as it would rejoyce the Carnal selfish wretch to be the Lord and Master of all himself and his will become the Law of the world An Holy self-denying man would be far gladder to hear that Africa America and the rest of the unbelieving part of the world were Converted to Christ by the power of the Gospel and that the Heathens were his inheritance and the Kingdoms of the world become the Kingdoms of Christ than if he had Conquered all these himself and were become the King or Emperour of the world For as self is the chief interest of an unsanctified man so Christ and the will of God is the chief Interest of the sanctified for the hath destroyed the contradictory Interest of self and renounced it and hath taken God for his End and Christ for the Way and consequently for his highest Interest so that he hath now no business in the world but Gods business he hath no honour to regard but Gods honour he hath none to exalt but the King of Kings he knows no gain but the pleasing of God he knows no content or pleasure but Gods pleasure for the life that he now lives in the flesh he lives by faith of the Son of God that hath loved him and given himself for him and thereby hath drawn him out of himself to the Fountain and End of Love and so it is not he that lives but Christ liveth in him Gal. 2. 20. 10. Lastly it is the high Prerogative of God to have the honour and Power and Glory ascribed to him and be praised as the author of all Good to the world and his Glory he will not give to another Man and all things are Created and preserved and ordered for his Glory Nor shall man have any Glory but in the Glorifying of his Lord when we fell short of Glorifying the Lord we also fell short of the Glory which we expected by him But when sin turned man from God to himself he became regardless of the honour of God and his mind was bent on his own Honour so that he would have every knee bow to himself and every eye observe him and every mind think highly of him and every tongue to praise and magnifie him It doth him good at the heart to have vertue and wisdom and greatness ascribed to him and an excellency in all and to have all the good that is done ascribed to him and to be taken to be as the Sun in the firmament that all must eye and none can live without and to be esteemed the benefactor of all When he hears that men extol him and speak nothing of him but well and great things and when he sees them all observe and reverence him and take him as an Oracle for wisdom or as an Angel of God O how this pleaseth his unsanctified selfish mind Now he hath his End even that which he would have and verily saith Christ they have their reward But when Sanctification hath taught men to deny themselves they see then that they are vile and miserable sinners and loath themselves for all their abominations and are base in their own eyes and humble themselves before the Lord and abhor themselves in dust and ashes and say To us belongeth shame and confusion of face Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name give the glory Psal 115. 1. Dan. 9. 7 8. The holy self-denying soul desireth no glory and honour but what may conduce to the glory and honour of his Lord His heart riseth against base flattering worldlings that would rob God and give the honour to him nor can they do him a greater displeasure than to ascribe that to him belongeth only to God or to bring to him or any Creature his Makers due If God be honoured he takes himself as honoured if he be never so low If God be dishonoured he is troubled and his own honour will not make him reparation As he liveth himself to the glory of God and doth all that he doth in the world to that end so would he have others do so too And if God be most honoured by his disgrace and shame he can submit And thus I have shewed you the true Nature both of selfishness and of self-denyal But observe that I describe it as it is in it self but yet there is too much selfishness in the best which may hinder the fulness of these effects But self-denyal is predominant in all the sanctified though it be not perfect CHAP. II. Reasons of the Necessity of Self-denyal to salvation III. ANd now you have seen the Description of self-denyal and I hope if you have studyed it you know what it is that is required I shall next shew you some of the Reasons of its Necessity and prove it to you beyond dispute that it is no indifferent thing nor the high attainment of some few of the Saints but a thing that all must have that will be saved being of the very essence of holiness it self so that it is as possible to live without life as to be Holy without self-denyal and as possible to be saved whether God will or no as to be saved without self-denyal in a predominant degree And if any of you thing strange that salvation should be laid on so high a duty and that no man can be a true Disciple that denyeth not himself even to the forsaking of his Life and all when God requireth it
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
They had rather live a sinful life if they durst and they had rather be excused from Religious duties except that little outward part which custom and their credit engage them to perform They are but like the caged birds that though they may sing in a Sun-shine day had rather be at liberty in the woâ—ds They love not a life of perfect holiness though they are forced to submit to some kind oâ— Religiousness for fear of being damned If they had their freest choice they had rather live in the Love of the creature than in the love of God and in the pleasures of the fleâ—h than in the holy course that pleaseth God The third state is the state of Love and none but this is a state of true Self-denial and of Justification and Salvation When we reach to this we are sincere we have then the Spirit of Adoption disposing us to go to God as to a Father But this Love is not in the same degree in all the sanctified Three degrees of it we may distinctly observe 1. Oft-times in the beginning of a true Conversion though the seed of Love is cast into the soul and the Convert had rather enjoy God than the world and had rather live in perfect holiness than in any sin yet Fear is so active that he scarce observeth the workings of the Love of God within him He is so taken up with the sense of sin and misery that he hath little sense of love to God and perhaps may doubt whether he hath any or none 2. When these Fears begin a little to abate and the soul hath attained somewhat of the sense of Gods Love to it self it Loveth him more observably and hath some leisure to think of the riches of his grace and of his Infinite excellencies and attractive goodness and not only to Love him because he Loveth us and hath been Merciful to us but also because he is Goodness it self and we were made to Love him But yet in this middle degree of Love the soul is much more frequently and sensibly exercised in minding it self than God and in studying its own preservation than the honour an interest of the Lord. In this state it is that Christians are almost all upon the inquiry after marks of Grace in themselves and asking How shall I know that I have this or that grace and that I perform this or that duty in sincerity and that I am reconciled to God and shall be saved Which are needful questions but should not be more insisted on than questions about our duty and the Interest of Christ In this state though a Christian hath the Love of God yet having much of his ancient Fears and Self-love and the Love of God being yet too weak he is much more in studying his Safety than his Duty and asketh oftner How may I be sure that I am a true believer than What is the duty of a true believer There is yet too much of Self in his Religion 3. In the third degree of Love to God the soul is ordinarily and observably carryed quite above it self to God and mindeth more the Will and Interest of God than its own Consolation or Salvation Not that we must at any time lay by the care of our Salvation as if it were a thing that did not belong to us or that we should separate the ordinate Love of our selves from the Love of God or set his Glory and our Salvation in an opposition But the Love of God in this Degree is sensibly predominant and we refer even our own Salvation to his Interest and Will In this Degree a Christian is grown more deeply sensible he is not his own but his that made him and redeemed him and that his principal study must not be for himself but for God and that his own interest is in it self an inconsiderable thing in comparison of the interest of the Lord and that Rewarding us with Consolation is Gods part and loving and serving him is ours assisted by his grace and that the diligent study and practice of our duty and the lively exercise of Love to God is the surest way to our Consolation In our first corrupt estate we are careless of our souls and are taken up with earthly cares In our estate of Preparation we are careful for our souls but meerly from the principle of Self-love In our first Degree of the state of saving grace we have the Love of God in us but it 's little observed by reason of the passionate fears and cares of our own salvation that most take us up In our second degree of holy Love we look more sensibly after God for himself but so that we are yet most sensibly minding the Interest of our own souls and enquiring after assurance of salvation In our third Degree of saving grace we still continue the care of our salvation and an ordinate self-love but we are sensible that the Happiness of Many even of Church and Common-wealth and the Glory of God and the accomplishment of his Will is incomparably more excellent and desirable than our own felicity And therefore we set our selves to please the Lord and study what is acceptable to him and how we may do him all the service that possibly we can being confident that he will look to our felicity while we look to our duty and that we cannot be miserable while we are wholly his and devoted to his service We are now more in the exercise of Grace when before we were more in trying whether we have it Before we were wont to say O that I were sure that I love God in sincerity Now we are more in these desires O that I could know and love him more and serve him better that I knew more of his holy will and could more fully accomplish it and O that I were more serviceable to him and O that I could see the full prosperity of his Church and the glory of his Kingdom This high degree of the Love of God doth cause us to take our selves as Nothing and God as All and as before conversion we were careless of our souls through ignorance presumption or security and after conversion were careful of our souls through the power of convincing awakening grace so now we have somewhat above our souls much more our bodies to mind and care for so that though still we must examine and observe our selves and that for our selves yet more for God than for our selves When we are mindful of God he will not be unmindful of us When it is our care to please him the rest of our care we may cast on him who hath promised to care for us Even when we suffer according to his will we may commit the keeping of our souls to him in well doing as to a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. 19 And it is not possible in this more excellent way 1 Cor. 12. 31 to be guilty of a careless neglect of our
of Religion and judge by this whether they are self-denying men Who is it for but themselves that men make such a stir for Offices and Honours and places of Superiority Surely if it were for the good of others they would not be so eager and so forward We cannot perceive that their Charity is so hâ—â— as to make them so Ambitious to be serviceable to their Brethren If that be it let them keep their service till it be desired or much needed and not be so eager to do men good against their wills and without necessity As Greg. Mag. saith of the Ministry Si non ad elationis culpam sed ad utilitatem adipsci desiderat prius vires suas cum eo quidem subiturus onere metiatur ut impar abstineat ad id cum metu cui se sufficere existimat accedat Men use not to be ambitious of duty or trouble He that desireth Government ultimately and principally for himself desireth Tyranny and not a lawful Government whose ultimate end is the common good And will not the wrath of the King of Kings be kindled without so much ado nor hell be purchased at cheaper rates than all the contrivance cares and hazards that ambitious men do draw upon themselves O ambitio inquit Bernardus ambientium crux quomodo omnes torques Omnibus places nil acrius cruciat nil molestius inquietat nil tamen apud miseros mortales celebrius negotiis ejus Wonderful that such abundant warning tameth not these proud aspiring minds They set up or admired them but yesterday whom they see taken down and despised to day and see their honour turned to scorn and yet they imitate their folly They see the sordid relicts of the most renouned Conquerours and Princes levelled with the dirt and yet they have not the wit to take warning and humble themselves that they may be exalted They know how death will shortly use them and read of the terrors that pride and ambition bring men to but all this doth not bring them to their wits When Death it self comes then they are as sneaking shrinking worms as any and the worm of ambition that fed upon their hearts in their prosperity doth breed a gnawing worm in their consciences which will torment them everlastingly But ut Juvenal Mors sola fatetur Quantula sunt hominum corpuscula This Aerugo mentis as Ambrose calls it and regnandi dira cupido ut Virg. doth keep men from knowing what they know and denyeth them the use of their understandings All former professions are forgotten repentings are repented of the best parts are corrupted and sold to the Devil as truly as Witches sell themselves though not so grosly and men are any thing that self would have them be where the humour of Ambition doth prevail and this secret poison insinuateth it self into the mind This subtile malum ut Bernard secretum virus pestis occulta doli artifex mater hypocrisis livoris parens vitiorum origo tinea sanctitatis exâ—aecatrix cordium ex remediis morbos creans ex medicina languorem generans The God of Vengeance that abhorreth the Proud and beholdeth them afar off and that cast aspirers out of Paradise will shortly take these Gallants down and lay them low enough and make them wish they had denyed themselves 2. Observe but mens desire of applause and their great impatience of dispraise and judge by this of their self-denial Who is it that is angry with those that Praise them yea though they exceed their bounds and ascribe more to them than is due Saith Seneca Si invenimus qui nos bonos viros dicat qui prudentes qui sanctos non sumus modica laudatione contenti quicquid in nos adulatio sine pudore congessit tanquam debitum prehendimus Optimos nos esse sapientissimosque affirmantibus assentimus quum sciamus illos saepe multa mentiri Adeo quoque indulgemus nobis ut laudari velimus in id cui contraria maxime facimus Even Proud men would be praised for Humility and covetous men for Liberality and fools for Wisdom and ignorant men for Learning and treacheros hypocrites for sincerity and plain honesty and few of the best do heartily distaste their own commendations or refuse any thing that 's offered them though beyond desert But if they think they are lightly or hardly thought of or hear of any that speak against them or dishonour them in the eyes of men you shall see how little they can deny themselves O how the hearts of many that seemed godly men will swell against them that speak to their disparagement What uncharitable unchristian deportment will a little injury produce What bitter words What estrangedness and division if not plain hatred and reviling and revenge Yea it were well in comparison if a due Reproof from neighbours or from Ministers that are bound to do it by the Lord would not draw forth this secret Venom and shew the world the scarcity of self-denial Let others speak never so well of God and of all good men and be never so faithful or serviceable in the Church yet if they do but speak ill of them though it 's like deservedly and justly these selfish men cannot abide them By this you may perceive what interest is strongest with them were they carryed up from themselves by the Love of God they would delight to hear the Praise of God and of their Brethren and be afraid to hear their own and say from their hearts Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy name be glory Psal 115. 1. To praise another may be our gain in the discharge of a duty and exercise of Love but to be Praised our selves is usually our danger Pride needeth no such fuel or bellows Non laudato sed laudantâ—bus prodest saith Augustine Esse humilem est nolle laudari in se Qui in se laudari appetit superbus esse convincitur inq id It is the expectation of these proud and selfish men that tempteth men to the odious art of flattery when they find it is the way to please And when one is flattering and the other pleased with it what a foolish and sordid employment have they Et Vani sunt qui laudantur mendaces qui laudant saith Austin It is God to whom the Praise is due whom we know we cannot Praise too much whose praises we should love to speak and hear In laude Dei est securitas laudis ut laudator non timet ne de laudato erubescat saith Austin We may boldly Praise him of whom we are sure we never need to be ashamed It is God in his servants that we must praise and it is only his Interest in our own Praise that we must regard 3. Observe but upon what account it is that most mens Affections are carried to or against their neighbours and then judge by this of their self-denial Even men that would be accounted godly do Love or hate men
the Root I HAVE already spoken of Conversion in the foregoing Discourse both opening to you the true nature of it and the reasons of its necessity and perswading men thereunto But lest so great a work should miscarry with any for want of a more particular explication I should next open the three great parts of the work distinctly and in order that is 1. From what it is that we must Turn 2. To whom we must Turn 3. And By whom we must Turn For though I touched all these in the foregoing Directions and through the discourse yet I am afraid lest so brief a touch should be uneffectual The first of these I shall handle at this time from this Text medling with no more but what is necessary to our present business You may easily perceive that the Doctrine which Christ here proclaimeth to all that have thoughts of being his followers is this that All that will be Christians must Deny themselves and take up their Cross and follow Christ and not reserve so much as their very lives but resolve to resign up all for him Self-denyal is one part of true Conversion For the opening of this I must shew you 1. What is meant by Self and 2. What by Denying this Self and 3. The Grounds and Reasons of the point and 4. I shall briefly apply it I. Self is sometime taken for the very person consisting of soul and body simply considered and this is called Natural or Personal Self 2. Self is taken for this Person considered in its capacity of earthly comforts and in relation to the present blessings of this world that tend to the prosperity of man as in the flesh And this may be called Earthly Self yet in an innocent sense 3. Self is taken for the Person as corrupted by inordinate sinful sensuality which may be called Carnal Self 4. Self may be taken for the Person in his sanctified estate which is Spiritual Self 5. And Self may be taken for the person in his Naturals and Spirituals Conjunct as he is capable of a Life of Everlasting Felicity which is the Immortal Self II. By Denying Self is meant disclaiming renouncing disowning and forsaking it Self is here lookt on partly as a party disâ—unct from Christ and withdrawn from its due subordination to God and partly as his Competitor and opposite and accordingly it is to be denyed partly by a neglect and partly by an opposition Before I come to tell you how far self must be denyed I must tell you wherein the disease of selfishness doth consist and for brevity we shall dispatch them both together And on the Negative 1. To be a natural Individual person distinct from God our Creator is none of our disease but the state which we were created in And therefore no man must under pretence of self-denyal either destroy himself or yet with some Hereticks aspire to be essentially and personally one with God so that their individual personality should be drowned in him as a drop is in the Ocean 2. The disease of selfishness lyeth not in having a Body that is capable of â—asting sweetness in the Creature or in having the Objects of our sence in which we be delighted nor yet in all actual sweetness and delight in them nor in a simple love of life it self For all these are the effects of the Creators Will. And therefore this self-denyal doth not consist in a hatred or disregard of our own lives or in a destruction of our appetites or senses or an absolute refusal to please them in the use of the Creatures which God hath given us 3. Yea though our Natures are corrupted by sin self-denyal requireth not that we should kill our selves and destroy our humane natures that we may thereby destroy the sin Self-murder is a most hainous sin which God condemneth 4. Our spiritual self or self as sanctified must not be so denyed as to deny our selves to be what we are or have what we have or do what we do we may not deny Gods Graces nor deny that they are in us as the subject nor may we restrain the holy desires which God exciteth in us or deny to fulfil them or bring them towards fruition when opportunity is offered us 5. We may not deny to accept of any mercy which God shall offer us though but a common Creature nor to use any talent for his service if he choose us for his stewards much less may we refuse any spiritual mercy that may further our Salvation It is not the self-denyal required by Christ that we deny to be Christians or to be sanctified by the spirit or to he delivered from our sins and enemies or that we deny to use the means and helps that are offered us or to accept of the priviledges purchased by Christ Much less to deny our salvation it self and to undo our own souls In a word it is not any thing that is really and finally to our hurt or loss But as to the Affirmative I shall shew you what the disease of selfishness indeed is and so what self-denyal is 1. When God had created man in his own Image he gave him a holy disposition of soul which might incline him to his Maker as his only Felicity and Ultimate End He made him to be blessed in the sight of his Glory and in the everlasting Love of God and delight in him and praises of him This excellent employment and glory did God both fit him for and set before him But the first temptation did entice him to adhere to an inferiour good for the pleasing of his flesh and the advancement of him self to a carnal kind of felicity in himself that he might be as God in knowing good and evil And thus man was suddenly taken with the Creature as a means to the pleasing of his carnal self and so did depart from God his true felicity and retired into himself in his estimation affection and intention and delivered up his Reason in subjection to his sensuality and made himself his Ultimate End With this sinful inclination are we all born into the world so that every man according to his corrupted nature doth terminate all his desires in himself and what ever he may notionally be convinced of to the contrary yet practically he makes his earthly life and the advancement and pleasure which he expecteth therein to be his felicity and end Self-denyal now is the cure of this It carryeth a man from himself again and sheweth him that he was never made to be his own felicity or end and that the flesh was not made to be pleased before God and that it is so poor and low and short a felicity as indeed is but a name and shadow of felicity and when it pretends to that a meer deceit It sheweth him how unreasonable how impious and unjust it is that a Creature and such a Creature should terminate his desires and intentions in himself And this is the principal part
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
let out that dangerous venomous wind that puffs you up And if you should have any Knowledge of the most precious truths as long as you are thus proud and self-conceited it will not be savoury and effectual on your hearts Humility feedeth and Pride starveth every Grace The Spirit of God will not dwell with the proud He will beat you out of your selves unless you drive him away from you Some seeming raptures and comforts the self-conceited have which are but the deluding flatteries of self and the encouragements that Satan giveth to his servants For Satan will needs be a comforter for a while as the Holy Ghost is to the Saints and his followers also have their joys But it is the humble soul that hath the solid comforts From the dust of Humiliation we have the clearest sight of Glory and consequently the sweetest tasts of it As high as the rain comes from it is the lowest valleys that receive it most and retain it Faith it self will not prosper in the proud and self-conceited To such the Gospel will be foolishness or an offence It is only the humble that savingly close with its mysteries Humility cherisheth the fear of God and makes us say How shall we do this evil or neglect this duty But Self-conceitedness and Pride is blind and bold and destroyeth in mens apprehensions the difference between things sacred and common the holy and the unclean It disposeth them to such an unreverent boldness with holy things as usually ends in a prophane contempt so that such can at last despise holy Ordinances which they should live upon Repentance and this Pride are deadly foes To be Penitent and Proud is to be Hot and Cold alive and dead Though Christ love not to find you in the dust of earthly-mindedness yet he loves to find you in the dust of humility The Publican that hanged down the head did â—it the way better to the sight of God than the self-conceited Pharisee The most self-denying humiliation is the nearest way to heaven and the most self-exalting Pride is the surest and nearest way to hell I had rather sit with Mary washing and wiping the feet of Christ than ask as the Mother of James and John to sit at Christ's right hand and left hand in his Kingdom Mary was in a manner thanked for the Love of her humility and they were in a manner denied the request that so little savoured of self-denial Our Lord doth not use to thank people for their service and yet he did that which was next to it to this humble self-denying penitent woman He doth not use to deny his own Disciples an heavenly request and yet he did that which was next to a denial when self brought him the petition He that hath taught us not to press to the highest room lest with shame we hear Sit lower doth hereby tell us what we must expect from himself And he that hath bid us sit down at the lower end that we may hear Friend sit up higher doth express his purpose for humble self-denying souls I had rather from the dust hear his Come up higher than from self-exaltation to hear Come down lower O you that are proud self-conceited wretches did you but know what good it doth an humble soul to feel Christ take him up from the dust you would soon fall down that you might tast their comforts in his lifting up O what a blessed feeling it is to feel ones self in the arms of Christ Our common compassion that makes us run to take up one that falls before us is a spark of that compassion in Christ who meddles with him that walks before us but a man that falls down in a swoon we are all ready to lay hands on O happy fall that makes us feel the arms of Christ Though the fall into sin be never the better that occasioneth it yet the fall into Humiliation is the better that prepareth for it He that in his agony had an Angel to minister to him will not leave the self-denying humble soul without his Angel or some way of relief that is sutable to the necessity Christ himself will not communicate himself to the proud and self-conceited He is wisdom but not to them that are wise in their own eyes already He is Righteousness but not to them that Justifie themselves He is Sanctification but not to those that never found their own uncleanness He is Redemption but to none but those that feel themselves condemned He hath the white raiment and the treasures of grace and glory but it 's only those that penitently feel that they are poor and miserable and blind and naked Truly Sirs though I have no mind to trouble the well-grounded peace or comfort of any of your Souls yet I would advise you if you have never so good thoughts of your selves suspect lest it should be the fruit of self-conceiteduess And if you should have never so much peace and joy look well whether it come from God or self-conceit And if it come not in against self it 's ten to one but it comes from self If your Peace and Comfort be not won from Christ in a way of self-denial and as the spoils of the flesh you have it not in the ordinary way of God Did you come to your Joy and Peace by humility and self-denial and patience and mortification and by becoming little Children and the servants of all and by learning of Christ to be meek and lowly If not take heed lest you nourish a changeling an Imp of Hell and a selfish brat instead of the fruit of the Spirit the peace and joy of the Holy Ghost If you feel no great matter at home to trouble you you are too Righteous to be Justified by Christ If you groan not under your ignorance and unbelief you are too wise to be Christ's Disciples If you mourn not under the load and pain of sin you are too well to be Christ's Patients If you are readier to justifie and excuse your selves than to condemn your selves and had rather hear your selves praised than reproved admonished or instructed and like Diotrephes love to have the preheminence you are too high for Christ to take any acquaintance with you and too full of self to have any room for his Love and Spirit and heavenly Consolations He that gave us the Parable of the importunate widdow Luke 18. 2 3. would have us understand that bare necessity is not enough to fit us for relief for then the worst of men should be the fittest but it must be Necessity so felt as to humble us and drive us to importunity with God The Prodigal was miserable when he was denied the husks but he never felt his Fathers embracements till he came to himself by denying himself and returning to his Father And this the self-conceited will not be perswaded to The first that must touch Christ after his Resurrection is not a King nor a Lord no nor a
And from each of them we partake of an answerable Nature As is the Earthy such are they that are earthy even all of us in our fleshly state having earthy bodies from an earthy Adam and natural bodies from the natural Adam And as is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly for Christ makes men like himself even first gracious and then glorious as Adam begets us like himself that is natural and sinful And therefore all those that have followed Christ in the Regeneration shall follow him into Glory and having conquered by him shall reign by him and with him and having received the holy nature here which is the seed of glory they shall receive the glorious nature there which is the perfection of that Grace And so as Christ hath an heavenly spiritual body and â—â—â— an earthy natural body so shall his Members have that they may be like him And as we have here born the image of the earthy in having first a natural fleshly body we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly Adam in having a spiritual body that is not fleâ—â— Now lest any doubt of it saith the Spirit of God this I say that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit incorruption 1 Cor. 15. 42. to 51. Object If there were but as much likelihood of a Resurrection as there is of the Reviving of the plants in the Spring I could believe it for there is a life remaining in the Root or Seed but the body of man hath neither Root nor seed of life and therefore it 's contrary to nature that it should revive Answ 1. If it be above nature that is all it is not contrary to it Or not so contrary as to be above the power of the Lord of nature Will you allow no greater works for God than such as you can see a reason of and can assign a natural cause of what did Nature in the creation of nature It was not certainly any cause of it self If Christ rose without a natural cause even so shall we 2. But why may I not say that the dead body of man hath a living Root as truly as the plants in winter The soul is the Root of the body and the soul is still alive And Christ is the Root of the soul and he is still alive For though we are dead yet our Life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life shall appear at the Spring of Resurrection then we shall also appear with him in Glory Col. 3. 3 4. And though there be no Physical contact between this living soul and the body yet there is a Relative Union and a deep rooted Love of the soul to its body and inclination to it so that it is mindful of it and waiteth with longing for that hour when the command of God shall send it to revive that body It is not incredible that a silly snail should by its natural life and power make for it self a beautiful habitation Or that the life of a Rose-tree that was buried in the root should fabricate a sweet and beauteous Rose by which it may make an ostentation of its invisible self to the world In how small a room doth the life of a silk-worm lie of which I spoke before in the winter That little grain or seed is such as yields no sign of life to the beholder yet doth it form it self a larger body and that body spin its silken web out of its own substance and in that house it self in a husk and take to it self another shape and thence become a winged Fly and so generate more But nearer us in the generation of man the vital principle in the seed doth quickly with concurrent causes form it self a body The warmth of the body of the Hen or other Bird can turn the egge into a Chicken Why then may not the living sâ—ul that is the Root and life of the body in the dust be the instrument of God to reform its own body as certainly it will be the principle that shall reinform it But you say the body being dead hath no natural root nor way of recess to life again because the privation is total To which I answer First the Relative union between the soul and it and the souls disposition to the Return into its body is as potent a cause of its reviving as the natural union of the Root and branches if withal you consider that Christ is the Root of the soul Rational agents if perfect will work as certainly as Natural For natural causes do nothing but by a Power communicated to them from an Intellectual cause even God himself Why should Nature do any of these things but because God that makes and ruleth all will have it to be so Now Jesus Christ is the Political Head of the Church The body in the grave hath its own Relation to him Christ is still living and resolved and engaged by promise and enclined by Love to revive that body And as Christ is the life of the soul so the soul is the life of the body and this soul as I said is waiting to be sent again into it And when the hour comes what can hinder The Love of the soul to its body and its desire to be reunited is a kind of natural cause of the Resurrection A candle not lighted is as far from light and as much without it as a dead body is without life And yet one touch of a lighted candle will light that which never was lighted before And so may one touch of the living soul that 's now with Christ put life into the body that lieth in the dust And as the lighted candle makes the other like it and communicateth of its own nature to it so doth the glorified soul communicate a new kind of excellency to the body which it never had before even to be a spiritual glorious incorruptible and immortal body In the first creating of man the new formed body as to the matter of it was no better than the body of a Beast or any common piece of earth But the soul made the difference when a Rational Soul was breathed into that Body it advanced the very body to a dignity beyond the bodies of brutes even such as the natural body of man had before sin When Christ was about to repair faln man it was the spirit of Christ informing the soul that caused the renewed soul to communicate again a dignity to the bodies of sanctified men above other bodies And so when the body was dead because of sin having the root of sin and death within it and being mortal therefore yet the spirit was life because of Righteousness being the Root of holy and Righteous dispositions and the new life in man himself Rom. 8. 10. For Christ the principal root of life and the spirit and holiness are first in order of nature in the soul and but by
the burdens that are here upon you which should make you long to be with God One would think the feeling of them should force you to consideration and weariness of them and make the thoughts of rest to be sweet to you Have you yet not sin enough and sorrow and fear and trouble enough Or must God lay a greater load on you to make you desire to be disburdened Every hour you spend and every creature you have to do with afford you some occasion of renewing your desires to depart from these and be with Christ Direct 7. Observe and magnifie that of God which is here revealed to you in his word and works Study him and admire him in Scripture study and admire him in the frame of nature And when you look towards Sun or Moon or Sea or Land and perceive how little it is that you know and how desirable it is to know them perfectly think then of that estate where you shall know them all in God himself who is more than all Study and admire him in the course of Providences study and admire him in the person of Christ in the frame of his holy life in the work of Redemption in the holy frame of his Laws and Covenants study and admire him in his Saints and the frame of his holy Image on their souls This life of studying and admiring God and dwelling upon him with all our souls will exceedingly dispose us to be willing to come to him and to submit to death Direct 8. Live also in the daily exercise of holy Joy and Praise to God which is the heavenly Employment For if you use your selves to this heavenly life it will much incline you to desire to be there Exercise fear and godly sorrow and care in their places but especially after Faith and Love be sure to live in holy Joy and Praise Be much in the consideration of all that Riches of grace in Christ communicated and to be communicated to you And be much in Thanks to God for his mercies and chearing and comforting your soul in the Lord your God And thus the Joy of Grace will much dispose you to the Joys of glory the Peace which the Kingdom of God consisteth in will incline you to the peace of the everlasting Kingdom and the chearful Praising of God on Earth in Psalms or other ways of Praise will prepare and dispose you to the heavenly Praises And therefore Christians exceedingly wrong their souls and hinder themselves from a willingness to be with God in spending all their days in drooping or doubting or worldly dulness and laying by so much the Joy of the Saints and the Praises of God Direct 9. Dwell on the believing fore-thoughts of the everlasting glory which you must possess Think what it is that others are enjoying while you are here and what you must be and possess and do for ever Daily think of the Certainty Perfection and Perperuity of your Blessedness What a life it will be to see the blessed God in his Glory and taste of the fulness of his love and to see the glorified Son of God and with a perfected soul and body to be perfectly taken up in the Love and Joy and Praises of the Lord among all his holy Saints and Angels in the heavenly Jerusalem You must by the exercise of Faith and Love in holy Meditation and Prayer even dwell in the Spirit and converse in Heaven while your bodies are on earth if you would entertain the news of death as beseems a Christian But of this at large elsewhere Direct 10. Lastly if you would be willing to submit to death resign up your own understandings and wills to the wisdom and the will of God and Know not good and evil for your carnal selves but wholly trust your lives and souls to the Wisdom and Love of your dearest Lord. Must you be carking and caring for your selves when you have an Infinite God engaged to care for you O saith self I am not able to bear the terrors and pangs of death O saith Faith My Lord is easily able to support me and it is his undertaken work to do it My work is but to Please him and it 's his work to take care of me in life and death and therefore though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death yet will I fear no evil O saith Self I am utterly a stranger to another world I know not what I shall see nor what I shall be nor whither I shall go the next minute after death None come from the dead to satisfie us of these things O but saith Faith My blessed Father and Redeemer is not a stranger to the place that I must go to He knows it though I do not He knows what I shall be and do and whither I shall go and all is in his power And seeing it belongs not to me but to him to dispose of me and give me the promised reward it is meet that I rest in his understanding And it is better for me that his Infinite Wisdom dispose of my departing soul than my shallow insufficient knowledge I may much more acquiesce in his knowledge than my own O but saith self I fear it may prove a change of darkness and confusion to my soul what will become of me I cannot tell O but saith Faith I am sure I am in the hands of Love and such Love as is Omnipotent and engaged for my good and how can it then go ill with me If I had my own will I should not fear And how much less should I fear when I am at the will of God even of most Wise Almighty Love There is no true Centre for the soul to Rest in but the Will of God It is our business to Obey and Please his Will as dutiful Children and to commit our selves contentedly to his Will for the absolute disposal of us It is not possible that the Will of an Heavenly Father should be against his Children whose desire and sincere endeavour hath been to Obey and Please his Will And therefore learn this as your great and necessary Lesson with Joyful Confidence to Commit your selves and your departing souls to your Fathers Will as knowing that your Death is but the execution of that Will which is engaged to cause all things to work together for your good Rom. 8. 28. And say with Paul I suffer but am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day 2 Tim. 1. 12. 1 Tim. 4. 10. Therefore we labour and suffer because we trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe say therefore as Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Or rather as Christ Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Luke 23. 46. If the hands and Will of the Father was the Rock and
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