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
Lands his Money to be his own and therefore he thinks he may use them for himself and give God only some small Contribution lest he should disturb his Possession he saith as the impious ones Psal 12. 4. Our lips are our own who is Lord over us Though all of them know speculatively that all is Gods yet practically they take it and use it as their own But when Grace teacheth them to deny themselves it strippeth them naked of all that they seemed Proprietors of and maketh them confess that nothing is their own but all is Gods and to God they do devote it and use it for him and give him his own which the first Christians signified by selling all and laying at the Apostles feet And therefore he asketh God what he shall do with it and how he shall use it and if God take it from him he can bless the name of the Lord with Job Job 1. 21. as knowing he taketh but his own and can say with Eli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. 18. He knows that God may do with his own as he list Mat. 20. 15. and that he can have nothing but of his bounty and therefore that it is his Mercy that leaveth him any thing but it were no wrong to him if he took away all And thus he understandeth that he is but a Steward and therefore must use all that he hath for him that he received it from If he have Children his desire is to know which way they may be most serviceable to God and to that he will devote them If he have Wealth or Honour and Power among men his care is to know which way he may employ them for his Masters use and so he will imploy them If he have Wit and Learning his care is to serve God by it If he have strength and time he is thinking which way to improve them for his Lord. And if vain Companions or the World or fleshly Delights would draw him to lay them out for them he remembers that this were to waste his Masters stock upon his enemies So that though the sanctified man hath all things yet he knows that he hath nothing All things are his as Gods Steward but nothing is properly and ultimately his own All things are his for God but nothing is his for his Carnal-self nor ultimately for his personal or natural self Upon this ground he gives the Devil the World and the Flesh a Denyal when they would have his Time his Tongue his Wit his Wealth or any thing that he possesseth he telleth them They are none of mine but God's I received them and I must be accountable for them I had them not from you and therefore I may not use them for you I must give to God the things that are God's that which is yours I will readily yield you Justice requireth that every one have his own And thus Self-denyal doth take off the sanctified from giving that which is God's unto themselves Object But do we not lawfully use his Mercies for our selves Is not our Meat and Drink and Cloaths and Houses and Goods our own and may we not use them for our selves Answ Improperly they are our own so far our own as that our Fellow-servants may not take them from us without our Lords consent as every servant may have a peculiar stock entrusted in his hands or may have his tools to do his work with which indeed are his Masters but are his to use But as to a strict Propriety they are none of ours but God is the only Proprietary of the world And for the use of them it may be for our selves in subordination to God but never ultimately for our selves We may not use one Creature but ultimately and principally for God When we eat or drink we must never make the pleasing of our Appetite our end but must do it to strengthen and chear and fit our selves for the service of God and therefore we must first ask God and not our Appetite what and how much we must eat and drink And we must no further please our Appetite than the pleasing of it doth fit us for the service of God It is the express Command 1 Cor. 10. 31 Whether ye eat or drink or what ever ye do do all to the Glory of God You may not wear your Cloaths meerly and ultimately for your bodies but only to fit your bodies for Gods service and therefore you must advice with his Word and with your end what you should put on You may not provide a house to dwell in nor Friends nor Riches nor any thing else for the pleasing of your flesh as your ultimate end but for the service of your Lord. For you must put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13. 14. 6. As man had his Being and well-being from God so is it God only that can preserve and continue them Innocent man understood this and therefore lived in a Dependance upon God looking to his hand for the supply of his wants and casting all his care upon him and trusting him wholly with himself and all and not distracting his own mind with cares and distrustful fears but quieted and contented his mind in the Wisdom Goodness and All-sufficienly of God But when man was fallen to himself from God he desired presently to have his portion or stock in his own hands and grew distrustful of God and began to look upon himself as his own preserver in a great measure and therefore he fell to carking and caring for himself and to studious contrivances for his own preservation and supplies He searched every Creature for himself and laboured to find in it some good for himself as if the care of himself had been wholly divolved on himself I have been as much troubled to understand that Text in Gen. 3. 22. as any one almost in the Bible being somewhat unsatisfied with some ordinary expositions and yet it is too hard for me But this seems to me the most probable Interpretation that in his estate of innocency Adam was as a Child in his Fathers house that was only to study to please his Father and to do the work that he commanded him but not to take any thought or care for himself for while he was obedient it was his Fathers part to preserve him and provide for him to keep off death and danger and supply all his wants And therefore though man had the faculty or power of knowing more perfect than we have now yet he did not need to trouble himself about these matters of Self because they belonged to God and consequently had not the actual consideration of knowledge of them for that would have been but a vain and troublesome knowledge and consideration to him For though the knowledge of all things Necessary to be known was part of his perfection yet the actual knowledge
the matters of salvation But see what self can do If the same men have but their tithe to gather they will not think it a needless thing to go or send to every family and speak with them all about their own business At least if it were any considerable sum they would not lose it for want of speaking for Our neighbours do many of them think it much that we should call them to be personally Instructed or Catechized and they will not come at us but say What needs all this ado have we not teaching enough at Church Its Children that must be Catechized and we are past Children You see how little interest God and their Ministers and their own salvation hath in them But will you see what carnal self can do more Had I but money enough I would undertake to make them come to me and follow me as a horse will follow his provender Had I but ten pound a piece to give them yea or but ten shillings I do not think I should have any refuse to come and fetch it unless it were those that now are the forwardest in seeking relief for the wants of their souls Had I but the estates or lives of all these men in my power how easily would they be ruled and how diligently and submissively would they attend that now for God and their everlasting life disdain to come and seek instructions And yet these men would scarce believe you if you should tell them that self and the world is made their God and that God himself is denyed and rejected by them Moreover a long time I have been perswading all the families in the Town and Parish to read the Scripture and daily call upon God together I have proved it their duty from Scripture and this doth not prevail But see what flesh and self can do If these men were but sure of ten or twenty shillings a time for every Morning and Evening that they pray together I warrant you what ever the heart did the lips should be taught to do their part O how busie would all the Town and Parish be to learn to pray that now look not after it I do not believe that there is ever a house among them all that would not very shortly set up prayer if they were but paid for it after these rates Judge now whether God or self bear sway among these men and whether soul or body be more regarded Moreover we have too many drunkards in the Town that no means that we can use will restrain and keep sober They love the drink and they cannot forbear and tell them of Gods word that doth threaten them with damnation and they will for all that be drunk the next day But if one of these wretches might have but ten pound a week on condition he would forbear I do not think for all this but he could forbear Or if he were sure that for every cup of drink he should drink after it a cup of piss or gall I warrant you he would soon begin to abate We have abundance of ignorant sensual men that for love of sin refuse Church-Government and will not come under it But if the Magistrate would but make a Law that all men shall he members of a particular Church and submit to discipline or forfeit but twenty shillings a month how few refusers should we have in all the Town or Country We have many that seldom come to hear in the publick Assemblies but let the Parliament make a Law that they shall pay for their resusal and how readily will it bring the most of them unless they have hopes that the Law will not be executed And judge now whether self or God have greater Interests in these mens hearts I see but one piece of self-denyal among this sort of people in this Town and that this Though the officers are to give the money to the poor which they have from swearers drunkards unlicensed and abusive Ale-sellers prophaners of the Lords day c. yet that sort of the poor themselves do hate those officers that are zealous in their duties This is strange that the love of money doth not change them But whether it be that they can deny their flesh for the Devil though not for God and in enmity to godliness though not to further it or whether it be that the officers do use to give their mony to an honester sort of poor and these have none of it I cannot well tell And having given so many sad instances of the power of self and scarcity of self-denyal in others I hope the Magistrates will not take it ill if we help them to discern this enemy in themselves nor be offended that they come last unless it were in a more honourable cause I hear the best and wisest men that I can meet with complain that in most places Ale-houses flourish under the Magistrates Noses and that whoredom swearing prophaning the Lords days shall seldom be punished but when they are very much urged to it nor then neither if it will but displease a neighbour or friend especially if it be a worshipful swearer or drunkard that is to be punished We see in most places that it s more than the Justice can do to put down one Ale-house of many that they consess should be suppressed and I doubt but few can keep them from increasing Men say that there is so much ado before they can have Justice from many of them and those that seek it are counted but for busie troublesome fellows that many are ready to let all alone And whence is all this that men in Power can do so little against those that have no Power to resist them Why Alas the cause is plain Self is against it They have none but God and Ministers and a few precise fellows to perswade them to it and they have no greater motives than what is fetcht from Heaven and Hell to move them to it and these are but small matters with them I speak of the unsanctified It must be one that hath greater interest in them than God that must perswade them to it It must be more powerful matters than the promises of Heaven and the Threatnings of damnation that must prevail with such moderate Gentlemen as these And who is it that can do this that God and their salvation may not do Why even self carnal self If you know but how to engage their own self-interest in the business I warrant you it will go better on Let but every informer be well pâ—â—d for his pains and every Justice have a hâ—â—drâ—d pound from the Exchâ—quer for every due execâ—â—ion of such laws and how roundly would the work go on Then they would not say We cannot do it or We are not bound to look after them Do you think I wrong them or speak without proof I will leave it to your judgement when I have given you but these few instances Let but the Plague
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
Your own wills may be crost by every trifle Any man that is greater than you can cross them yea those that are under you can cross them The poorest beggar can rob you or scorn you or raise a slander of you or twenty ways can cross your self-wills A hundred accidents may cross them Your very Beast can cross you and almost any thing in the world can cross you much more can God at any time cross you and cross you certainly he will so that in your own wills there is no rest nor happiness But if you could bring your wills to Gods and take up your full content in this It is the Will of God then what a constant invincible content might you have Then all the world could not disturb you and rob you of your content because they cannot conquer the Will of God Hiswill shall be done and so you should alway have content CHAP. XVI Selfish Passions to be denied 5. ANother part of selfishness to be mortified and denied is selfish Passions The soul is furnished with Passions by God partly for the exciting of the will and other faculties that they do not sluggishly neglect their duties and partly to help them in the execution when they are at work So that they are but the wheels or the sails of the reasonable soul to speed our motion for God and our Salvation and not to be employed for carnal self When Passions and affections are sanctified and used for God they are called such and such particular Graces and the fervour of them is an holy Zeal But when they are used for carnal self they are our vices and the heat of them is but fury or carnal zeal and the height of vice But how rare is it to meet with men that are meek and patient in their own cause and passionate in a holy zeal for God I know many are passionate in disputes and other exercises about Religion and think that it 's purely zeal for God when self is at the bottom of the business and ruleth as well as kindleth the fire when they searce discern it and little know what spirit they are of But pure zeal for God conjoyned with self-denial is exceeding rare How few can say that their Love to God is greater and hotter than their Love to themselves The Desires of men are strong after those things that supply their own necessities and please their own corrupted wills but how cold are they after the honour of God How averse are men from that which hurteth the flesh as to go into a Pest-house or to take deadly poyson or to suffer any pain but few are so averse to the breaking of the Law of God A hard word or a little injury done to themselves will put them into a passion so that their anger is working out in reproach if not in more revenge but God may be abused from day to day and how patiently can they bear it There 's few carnal minds but can more patiently hear a man swear or curse or scorn at Scripture and a holy life than hear him call them Rogue or Knave or Thief or Lyar or any such disgraceful name It seems an intolerable dishonour with selfish persons that are advanced by Pride to be great in their own eyes for a man to give them the lye or to reproach their Parentage or make them seem base but they can hear twenty oaths and reproaches of the truths or ways of God as quietly and patiently as if there were no harm in them Their own enemies whom God commandeth them to love they hate at the heart but the enemies of God and holiness whom David hated with a perfect hatred Psal 139. 21 22. do little or nothing at all offend them It is not thus with self-denying gracious souls When David heard Shimei curle him he commanded his souldiers to let him alone for God had bidden him that is by that afflicting providence on David he had occasioned it and by the withdrawng of his restraint he had let out his malice for a trial to David Thus David could endure a man to go along by him cursing him and reviling him as a Traitor and a man of blood and throwing stones at him and he rebuked Abishai that would have taken off his head 2 Sam. 16. 7 8 9 13. But when the same David speaks of the wicked the froward the slanderer the proud the lyar and the deceitful he resolveth that he will not know them they shall not dwell in his house nor tarry in his sight he hateth them they shall depart from him he will cut them off and early destroy him from the Land and from the city of the Lord Psal 101. So was it with Moses when God was offended by the Idolatry of the Israelites he was so zealous that he threw down the Tables of Stone in which God had written the Law and broke them but when Miriam and Aaron spake against himself he let God alone with the cause and only prayed for them for saith the Text He was very meek above all the men that were on the face of the earth Numb 12. 3. Phinehas his zeal for God did stay the plague and was imputed to him for righteousness when the selfish zeal of Simeon and Levi was called but a cursed anger and brought a curse on them instead of a blessing from their dying Father that they should be divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel and left them the name of Instruments of cruelty Gen. 49. 5 6 7. Take warning then from the word of God use your passions for God that gave them you but when it is meerly the cause of self be dead to passion as if there were no such thing within you If the wrong be done to you think then with your selves alas I am such a silly wretched worm that a wrong done to me is a small matter in comparison of the least that 's done to God it is not great enough for indignation or passion Remember that it's Gods work to right your wrongs and your work to lament and hinder the abuse of God And therefore if men curse you or revile you or slander you if Gods interest in your reputation command you to seek the clearing of it then do it but not for your self but for God but otherwise be as a dead man that hath no eyes to see an injury nor no ears to hear it nor no heart to feel it nor no understanding to perceive it nor no hands to be revenged for it This is to be mortified and dead to self When Passion begins to stir within you ask What 's the matter who is it for and who is it that is wronged If it be God ask counsel of God what he would have you to do and let your passion be well guided and bounded and then it will be acceptable holy zeal but if it be but self that 's wronged remember that you are not your own and therefore
the names of the several graces of the Spirit And it is not Passion but disordered Passion that must be denied CHAP. LX. How far must we deny our own Reason Quest 10. HOw far must we deny our own Reason Answ 1. We must not be unreasonable nor live unreasonably nor believe unreasonably nor love or choose or let out any affection unreasonably We are commanded to be ready to give a reason of our hopes It is our Rational faculty that proveth us men and is essential to us And without it we can neither understand the things of God or man For how should we understand without an understanding But yet Reason must thus far be denied 1. We must not think highlier of our Reason than it deserves either in it self or as compared to others 2. We must not satisfie its curiosity in prying into unrevealed things 3. Nor must we satisfie or suffer its presumption in judging our Brethren or censuring mens hearts or ways uncharitably 4. Nor must we endure it to rise up against the Word or ways of God or contradict or quarrel with Divine Revelations though we cannot see the particular Evidence or Reason of each Truth nor reconcile them together in our apprehensions Though we may not take any thing to be the Word of God without Reason yet when he have Reason to it take to be his Word we must believe and submit to all that is in it without any more Reson for our belief For the formal Reason of our belief is because God is true that did reveal this Word And we have the greatest Reason in the world to believe all that he revealeth CHAP. LXI Q. Must we be content with affiictions permitted sin c. Quest 11. IF Self-denial require us to Content our souls in the Will of God then whether must we be content with his afflictions or permission of sin or the Churches sufferings and 1. How will this stand with our due sense of Gods displcasure and chastisements 2. And with our praying against them 3. And our use of means for their removal Answ 1. The Will of God is one thing and the Hurt which he willeth us is another and the Good En for which he willeth it is a third The afflicting Will of God is good and must be Loved as good and the End and Benefit of Chastisement is good and must be loved But the hurt as hurt must not be loved It is not Gods Will that we must resist or seek to change nor yet is it the End or Benefit of the Chastisement but only the hurt which our folly hath made a sutable means And we may not seek to remove this hurt till the effect be procured or on terms that may consist with the End of it And this is not against the Will of God that when the good is attained the Affliction be removed 2. And you must distinguish between his Pleased and Displeased Will his complacency and acceptance and his Displacency and Rejecting Will. Every act of Gods Will must be approved and loved as Good in God but it is not every one that we may Rest and Rejoyce in as Good to us and as our felicity We must be grieved for Gods Displeasure and yet Love even that holy will that is displeased with us and we must be sensible of Gods judgments and yet Love the Will that doth inflict them But it is only the Love of God and Pleasure of his Will to us that can be the Rest and felicity of our souls 3. Some acts of Gods Will are about the Means and have a tendency to a further end and some are about the End it self His Commanding Will we must Love and obey his forbidding Will must have the same affections his threatning Will we must love and fear his Rewarding Will we must Love and Rejoyce in His full Accepting Will that is his Love and Complacency in us we must Rest and Delight our souls in for ever And thus we must comply with the Will of God CHAP. LXII Q. May God be finally Loved as our Felicity and Portion Quest 12. YOu tell us that we must seek our selves but as Means to God How then may we make our salvation our End or desire the fruition of God when fruition is for our selves of somewhat that may make us happy Doth he not desire God as a Means for himself as the End that desireth him as his Portion Treasure Refuge and Felicity Answ There are such abundance of abstruse Philosophical Controversies de anima fine that stand here in the way that I must only decide this briefly and imperfectly for vulgar capacities Schoolmen and other Philosophers are not so much as agreed what a final Cause is But this much briefly may give some degree of satisfaction to the Moderate 1. No fleshly Profits Pleasures or Honours must be made our End This we are agreed on 2. The Ultimate End of all the Saints is an End that is sutable to the Nature of Love and that is perfectly to love God and Please him and serve him and to be perfectly beloved of him and behold his glory So that it is not an End of self-love or Love of Concupiscence or for our Commodity only but it is the End of the Love of Friendship Now all Love of friendship doth take in both the party Loving and the party beloved into the End For the End is a perfect Union of both according to their capacities And it being Intentio amantis the End of Love both God and our selves must be comprehended in it as the parties to be united and so it is both for him and for our selves 3. But yet though both parties as united be comprized in the End it is not equally but with great inequality For 1. God being Infinite Goodness it self must appreciative in estimation and affection be preferred exceedingly before our selves so that in desiring this blessed Union we must more desire it to Please and Praise him and give him his due for which he Created Redeemed and Glorified us than to be our selves happy in him 2. And God being not a meer friend but our Absolute Lord of Infinite Power and Glory it must be more in our Intention to bring to him eternally than to receive from him though both must be comprized For Receiving is for our selves further than we intend it for Returns but Returning is for God Not to add to his blessedness but to Please his Will and give him his own For he made all things for himself And so that in union with him we may give him his own in fullest love and Praise and service and thus please him must be the higest part of our Intention about our own felicity in enjoying him So that you may see that self-denial teacheth no man to ask Whether he could be content to be damned for Christ For this is contrary to our propounded End in the whole For a damned man hath no union of Love with God and