His end his will his wisdome must be ours As all Rivers run into the Sea and do not stay within themselves and so are kept from being harmfull If the Sun should keep its light the Clouds their rain the Earth its sap unto themselves what use were there of them or benefit by them God hath made all things in such a sweet subordination that each one serving that which is above it self inanimate animate and both man and man God all the services of all the creatures should finally meet and run into God who alone is worthy of all service and obedience Self-depending is when we put confidence for Spirituall ends which respect righteousnesse and salvation in our graces expecting pardon of sin favour with God and finall happinesse from our own duties as the Jews did Rom. 10. 3. And when for other Civill and publick ends wee put confidence in Men Counsels Horses Treasures in an Arm of flesh rising and sinking confiding and drooping or desponding according as second causes doe ebb or flow A sin which in these times wee are too much guilty of and whereby God being so greatly provoked might justly leave us to our selves that when wee finde our selves fatherlesse we might be driven more closely to finde mercy in him It is a sin very injurious to the Love Power Wisdome Mercy Truth of God upon which Attributes of his our confidence should cast anchor For all these are immutable alwayes the same ever equally neer unto us tender of us ready to engage themselves for us And therefore there should not be such changes such risings and fallings in our dependance upon him But wee weak men are like a Ship at anchor though the anchor be fastned unto a sure Rock which moveth not yet the Ship notwithstanding is subject still to tossings and unquietnesse when windes and wayes beat upon it So though our anchor and confidence have a sure and stedfast ground to keep it unmovable yet according to the different aspect of second causes our hearts are too apt to waver and change one while to say with David I shall never be moved and presently upon the turne of things to be faint and troubled againe Therefore wee should pray and labour for a more stable and composed frame of heart Say not one while The enemy is strong now we shall be devoured say not another time The enemy is weak now we shall prevail and have an end of trouble But let us learn to sanctifie the Lord God of Hosts himself in our hearts let him be our fear and let him be our hope when he humbleth us let us fear and yet still trust in him because if we repent and return hee will lift us up for it is all one with him to help whether with many or them that have no power And when hee exalteth us let us rejoyce and yet still tremble because if we be proud and provoke him hee lifteth us up in anger that hee may make our ruine and fall the greater as the Psalmist speaks Thou hast lifted me up and cast me down Let us be the more earnestly exhorted unto the practise of this duty by how much the more necessary it is and foundamental unto salvation for which purpose let us learn and put in use these few brief but excellent Rules 1. To exalt the Word and Counsel of God in our judgements In matters of Faith Worship and Obedience let us fetch our light from him and not lean on our own wisdom nor be wise in our own eyes Prov. 23. 4. Isai. 5. 21. nor suffer natural and carnal reasonings to elude and shift off any Divine truth whereby lust should be restrained and conscience guided 2. To exalt the authority of God in our wills to say as Paul did Lord what wilt thou have me to do This is the great point upon which all duty hangs The principal point in difference between God and sinners is whose Will shall stand his or theirs Cesset voluntas propria non erit infernus said Bernard truly Conquer Will and you conquer Hell 3. To exalt the honour of God in all our aimes Let us be willing that it go well or ill with our selves according as the one or the other doth most make for God's glory and for the advancing of his Name to say as David If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me his habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. To say with Iob cap. 1. 21. as well when he taketh away when he giveth Blessed be his Name To say with Paul Let Christ be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death Phil. 1. 20. It is fitter that he should have his honour then that we should have our ease It may be our prayer that he would glorifie himself in our deliverance but it must be our choice rather not to be delivered then that he should not be glorified If thou wilt Lord be glorified by our deliverance we shall admire and magnifie thy mercy But if thou wilt be glorified by our destruction we must needs adore thy dominion over us and acknowledg thy righteous judgment in proceeding against us Lastly To set up the love of Christ and his Church uppermost in our hearts this love will constrain us and make us willing to be offered up in the publick service to say with Ionah Cast me into the sea so the tempest may be stilled to say with Esther I If perish I perish to say with Paul I will very gladly spend be spent though the more abundantly I love the less I be loved and we are glad when we are weak and you are strong This publick Love will cry down all private interest and make us say to our selves as Elisha to Gehazi Is this a time to receive money and to receive garments and olive-yards and vine-yards and sheep and oxen and men-servants and maid-servants 2 Kin. 5. 16. and as Ieremy to Baruch The Lord is breaking down and plucking up and seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not Ier. 45. 4 5. Certainly that man cannot without great repentance and restitution expect mercy from Christ who so he may promote his own private and sordid ends quocunque modo and make a prey and merchandize of the calamity of his brethren and the times cares not how he defraud spoile devoure suck from the publick into his own Cisterne regards not which way the Church or the State fall back or edge sinke or swim so he may sleep in a whole skin and secure his own stake and fish in troubled waters and with the unjust Steward write down fifty for an hundred and like a Fly suck fatnesse and nourishment unto himself out of the wounds and sores out of the blood and tears out of the ruines and calamities of
SELF-DENIALL Opened and Applyed IN A SERMON BEFORE The Reverend Assembly OF DIVINES On a Day of their private HUMILIATION BY EDWARD REYNOLDS D.D. Minister of the Word of God at Braunston in Northamtonshire and a Member of That ASSEMBLY The Second Edition LONDON Printed by T. Maxey for Robert Bostock at the signe of the Kings Head in Paul's Church-yard 1652. To the Reverend Assembly of DIVINES Brethren and Fathers THis Sermon was preached by your command and in your alone audience nor had it gone further then those wals had not the importunity of many Reverend Brethren amongst your selves urged the Publication of it The Argument of the Sermon taught me to lay aside mine own judgment touching the expediency or seasonablenesse of this action seeing the judgments of so many godly and learned Brethren concur for it I have this advantage and benefit by the publishing of it that I may return some small tribute of thanks for those many grave judicious and learned Debates those many gracious and heavenly excercises that sweet and most delightfull Society whereof I have been made a partaker by sitting amongst you which truly have made my life amidst many great losses and greater infirmities more cheerfull to me then even mine own judgment in such sad and calamitous times could otherwise willingly have allowed it to be Yet it will be a farther accession unto this content if you shall be pleased to accept of this poor part of my labours first preached in your hearing and now submitted to your view from him whose hearts desire and prayer is That the Lord whose you are and whom you serve would prosper all your Labours for the good of his Church and make you happy Instruments of healing the Breaches reconciling the Differences preventing the Confusions and advancing the Peace of his Sion Your most humble servant in the Lord E.R. SELF-DENIAL Opened and Applyed in a Sermon before the Reverend Assembly of DIVINES MATTH. 16. 24. Then said Iesus unto his Disciples If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his crosse and follow me WE may observe of CHRIST that usually when there appeared in him any evidences of humane frailtie lest his servants should thereat bee offended and stumble hee was pleased at the same time to give some notable demonstration of his divine Power hee was born weak and poor as other Infants but attended on by * a multitude of glorious Angels proclaiming him to the Shepherds and by a speciall * Starre leading the wise men to worship him Hee was hungry and Tempted by Satan as other men but by his divine power a he vanquished the enemy and was ministred unto by Angels He was deceived in the fig-tree which he went to for fruit and found none and so shewed the infirmitie of an humane ignorance but withall immediately did b manifest his divine power in drying it up from the roots c He was crucified as the Apostle telleth us in weaknesse and yet withall he did even then manifest himself The Lord of glory by d rending the rocks opening the graves darkning the Sun converting the thief and the Centurion and e so triumphing over principalities and powers On the other side we may observe when holy men in Scripture f have been in any notable manner honoured by God he hath been pleased so to order it that some intercurrent providence or other should fall out to humble them lest they should be too highly exalted in their owne thoughts It was so with g David After his Kingdom setled and great Victories over enemies obtained steps in a great sin which humbled and afflicted him all his life after So with h Hezekiah after he had been raised up by a great deliverance from a potent enemy and a sentence of death hee falls into a sin of pride and vain-glory upon which the Lord revealed unto him his purpose of leading his people and children into captivity and giving up his Treasures into the hands of the King of Babylon which caused him to humble himself for the pride of his heart So with i Paul hee was caught up to the third Heavens and heard unspeakable words and saw visions of the Lord but withall there was given him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him left he should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations And so it was with Peter here in this Chapter Hee made a glorious confession of Christ the Messiah Thou art Christ the Son of the living God and Christ highly honoured him for it And I also say unto thee saith Christ Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church Which * though we are to understand principally of the Rock which he had confessed as the Learned expound it yet there is something of * speciall honour therein bestowed upon Peter We read in Scripture of a two-fold foundation of the Church A personall foundation which is but one for other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Christ Iesus 1 Cor. 3. 11. And a Doctrinal foundation for the Church is said to be built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Ephes. 2. 20. and so we read of Twelve foundations in the new Jerusalem Revel. 21. 14. Now amongst these as Peter had the precedence in faith to make the first confession of Christ to be the Messiah so hee had the honour to be the first of those twelve Foundations who should first of all plant the Gospel and gather a Church unto Christ after his Resurrection as we finde he did Acts 2. In which respect haply it is that the Gospel of the Circumcision is said to have been committed unto Peter Gal. 2. 7 8. because the Gospel was by Christs appointment to be first of all preached to the Jews who were God's first-born Acts 3. 26. and 13. 46. Exod 4. 22. Now from this time of Peter's Confession Christ to take off all mistakes touching his Kingdom began to acquaint his Disciples with his Sufferings whereat Peter is presently offended and taketh upon him to advise his Master and rebuke him Be it far from thee this shall not be unto thee Hereupon Christ sharply reprehends him It is not now Thou art Peter but Thou art Satan a Tempter an Adversary to the work of Christs mediation for so much the word elsewhere implies Num. 22. 22. 2 Sam. 19. 22. not now a stone for building but a stone of offence Thou savourest not the things of God but the things which are of men that is Thou hast a carnal and corrupt judgment of me and of my Kingdom conceiving of it according to the common apprehensions and expectations of men and not according to the counsell and will of God In this Reprehension there is 1. A personal correption ver. 22. 2. Doctrinall Instruction teaching his Disciples and the people That all they
Israelite The Daughter of Pharaoh is no fit wife for Solomon till she forget her own people and her father's house Psalm 45. 10. Rahab Babylon Tyre Ethiopia Philistia must renounce their naturall and Gentilitian honours and derive their genealogy from Zion before they can be usefull unto the service and glory of God All my springs saith he speaking of Sion are in thee Psalm 87. A man who works all for and out of himself is like a standing Lake which harbours Toads and Vermine of very little use of no pure use at all but they who deny themselves and work for God and from God are like the streams of a spring their sweetness and pureness running out of the springs and fountains of Sion make them fit for their Master's use and prepared unto every good work Let us therefore I say pray for all who are in publick imployment That God would give them publick spirits For the King's Majesty That God would fill his heart with this excellent grace and with the love of the common welfare above all other respects or Interests That he may bewail his poor people as David did What have these sheep done that in a difference of mine they should suffer such bitter things That God would mercifully preserve him from joyning with the Enemies of pure Religion to the endangering thereof for the promoting of such ends as those Enemies of God even according to the principles and practices of their Religion are much more likely in the conclusion to betray and destroy then promote or preserve For the Parliament That God would double upon them the Spirit of Selfe-Deniall that as they have denied themselves their ease pleasures estates and have indefatigably wrastled with mountainous difficulties to vindicate publick liberty and reformation so God would keep it alwayes in the imaginations and resolutions of their hearts to seek the wealth of the people and as Mordecai did to speak peace unto them and to their seed Ester 10. 3. That God would cause them still to speak comfortably unto the Levites who teach the good knowledge of the Lord and to command them to carry forth all filthinesse out of the holy place as good Hezekiah did 2 Chron. 29. 5. 30. 22. That no jealousies may ever break asunder but that piety and wisdom may most sweetly knit together the Civill and the Ecclesiasticall Dispensations in things pertaining to God and his House For the Armies That God would pour out upon them the noble spirit of selfe-deniall and carry them by his power and blessing with unwearied resolutions to the services they are intrusted withall That nothing but the alone desires of anhappy and well-grounded peace may put spirits and vigor into the sword of war For our selves That we may in all matters of duty and service deny our selves It is a singular mercy of Christ unto us so to order the businesse of his Church as that the reverence of the persons and function of his Ministers should be as it were complicated and linked up together with his own honour according as he hath said He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me whosoever entertaine honourable thoughts of Christ by our Ministry cannot but therewithall reverence us and esteem the feet of those beautifull who discover such glad tydings unto them And it is but a counterfeit and hypocriticall pretence of zeal for piety which is accompanied with any low thoughts or contemptuous undervaluing of the Ministers of the Gospel The Galathians received Paul as an Angel of God yea as Christ himself and would have plucked out their own eyes to have given them unto him But though Christ hath joyned these things together yet it is our duty in all our aimes and desires to abstract and prescinde our Master's interest from our own reward to seek Christ's honor alone and to leave unto him the care of ours I dare not think or suspect that in any of our humble advices and petitions to the honourable Houses of Parliament we have at all pursued any private Interest of our own but only that service which wee are perswaded Christ hath entrusted his Ministers withall which I am fully assured hath been the only scope we have aimed at yet because some are jealous with a jealousie of suspition that it is so Let us our selves also be jealous with a jealousie of fear and caution that it may not be so and let us pray for humble and selfe-denying hearts that God would enable us to passe through evill report and through good report and would furnish us with such spirituall meeknesse and wisdome as that we may be able to make it manifest to the consciences of all even of enemies themselves that as we preach not our selves but Christ Iesus the Lord so we seek not our selves or our own things but the things of Iesus Christ nor affect dominion over the people of God but would only be helpers of their joy and furtherers of their salvation and servants unto them for Iesus sake I have done with the first part of my exhortation to stir us up in behalf of our selves and others to pray unto God to bestow this excellent grace upon all who are entrusted in publick services unto which had I sooner thought of it I would have subjoyned a-like exhortation unto every one of us in our Ministry to presse and urge the practice of this duty upon our people especially when we preach before those who are called unto publick trusts and in whose hands the managing of great and common affaires is deposited For certainly self-seekers can never serve the publick with fidelity I now proceed unto my last part of my application viz. An exhortation unto us our selves to practice this heavenly duty wherin I can but offer a sceleton and some naked lineaments of what might have been more fully enlarged I shall branch this exhortation likewise into two parts One concerning our generall Ministry the other concerning our particular Relation unto the service of this Assembly For the former I shall need say nothing of the third way of self-deniall there being none I presume either here or in our Ministry who so value their own graces as to seek righteousnesse from them or to hang salvation upon them Of the two former let me crave leave to offer a word or two First That we would study to deny our selves in those more peculiar and speciall failings which we are subject unto as Ministers of the Gospell many particulars might be singled out I shall name but two at this time namely Affection of New Lights in Doctrine and of New senses and Expositions of Scripture For the former there are in this age of Liberty for usually such men do Captare Tempora impacata inquieta as Petrus Aerodius a learned Civilian telleth us very many itching and wanton wits men of an Athenian temper who spend all their time in nothing else but to hear and to tell some