kept safe and sound and man had not been lost nor his estate thus shattered and overthrown And therefore the returning self-denying convert is brought to an utter distrust of himself and resolved hereafter to trust himself upon nothing below All-sufficiency and Infinite Love He is so offended with himself for his former self-destruction and for undoing himself so foolishly that he calls himself to account and into judgement for it and condemneth himself as a Traytor to God and a Murderer of himself and will no more be in the hands of so treacherous a delinquent But as the eyes of a servant are on the hand of his Master so are his eyes on God for all supplies And this is the part of the work of the spirit of Adoption who teacheth us to cry Abba Father and as Children not to be very careful for our selves but to run to our Father in all our wants and tell him what we stand in need of and beg relief and to be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer with supplication and thanksgiving to make knownour requests to God Phil. 4. 6. And this acquiescence of the soul in the love of God is it that keepeth our hearts and minds in that Peace of God which passeth understanding vers 7. so that the more self-denyal the less is a man dependant on himself or troubled with the cares of his own preservation and the more doth he cast himself on God and is careful to please him that is his true Preserver and then quietech and resteth his mind in his All-sufficiency and infinite wisdom and love and so is a meer dependant upon God 7. Moreover It is the Prerogative of God as absolute Owner of us to be the sole Disposer of man and of all the other Creatures and to choose them their condition and give them their several Talents and determine of the events of all their affairs as pleaseth himself And innocent man was contented with this order and well pleased that God should be the absolute Disposer of him and all But when man turned from God to self he presently desired to be the Disposer of himself and not of himself only but of all the Creatures within his reach How fain would selfish corrupted man be the chooser of his own condition His will is against the will of God and he usually disliketh Gods disposal If he had the matter in his own hands almost nothing should be as it is but so cross would they be to God that all thing would be turned upside down If it were at their will there 's scarce a poor man but would be Rich and scarce a Rich man but would be richer The Servant would be master The Tenant would be a Landlord The Husbandman and Tradesman would be a Gentleman the Labourer would live an easier life His house should be better his cloathing should be better his fare should be better his Provision should be greater his credit or honour with men should be more the Gentleman would be a Knight and the Knight a Lord and the Lord would be a King and the King would be more Absolute and have a larger Dominion Nay every man would be a King and learn the doctrine of the Jews and many of this age among us to expect that the world should be ruled by them and they should reign as Lords and Princes in the earth If it were with selfish men as they would have it there 's scarce a man that would be what he is nor dwell where he doth nor live at the rates that now he liveth at The weak would be always strong and the sick would be well and always well and the old would be young again and never taste the infirmities of age and if they might live as long as they would I think there 's few of the unsanctified that would ever die nor look after Heaven as long as they could live on earth O what a brave life should I have thinks the selfish unsanctified wretch if I were but wholly at my own Disposal and might be what I would be and have what I would have What would men give for such a life as this Had they but their own wills they would think themselves the happiest men on earth that is if they could be delivered from the will of God and be from under his disposal and get the reins into their own hands Nay this is not all but the selfish person would be the disposer of all the world within his reach as well as of himself He would have Kingdoms at his dispose and all things carried according to his Will He would have all his neighbours have a dependance upon him Very bountiful he would be if he were the Lord of all For he would be the great Benefactor of the world and have all men beholden to him and depend upon him If he see things that little concern him he hath a will of his own that would fain have the Disposal of them If he hear of the affairs of other Nations some will he hath of his own which he would have fulfilled in them at least so far as any of his own interest may be involved in the business But when Sanctification hath brought men to self-denyal then they discern and lament this folly They see what silly giddy worms they are to be Disposers of themselves or of the world They see that they have neither wisdom nor goodness nor power sufficient for so great a work They then perceive that it were better make an Ideot the Pilot of a Ship or an Infant to be their Physitian when they are sick or the Disposer of their estates than to commit themselves and the world to their dispose They see how foolishly they have endeavoured or desired to rob God of his prerogative And therefore they return from themselves to him and give up all by free consent to his sole Disposal that so he may do with his own as he list He finds that he hath work enough to do of his own and is become too unfit for that and therefore he dare no more undertake the work of God for which he is infinitely unfit He finds that the more he hath his own will the worse it goes with him and therefore he will give up himself to God and stand to his will If he feels that Providence doth cross his flesh and that he hath Poverty when the flesh would have riches and slame when that carnal self would have honour and labour when the flesh would have ease and sickness when the flesh would have health he would not for all that have the work taken out of the hand of God but truly saith Not my will but thine be done and believeth that Gods disposal is the best and that his Father knows well enough what he doth And if it were put to his choice whether God or he should be the Disposer of his estate and honour and Life he had rather it
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
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
destroy the Church and Common-wealth and be a cruel enemy to mankind and to our Country and to rebel against the Powers that are ordained of God and thereby to receive damnation to our selves Rom. 13. 1 2 3. Heb. 13. 17. But yet this I must say that if a worthy person stand in competition with us self-denial requireth us to prefer them before our selves and to refuse honours and dignities when the good of the publick doth not call us to deny our selves more in the accepting them CHAP. LV. Q. Whether it be a denying our Relations Quest 5. WHether Self-denial consist in denying of Natural or Contracted Relations as of Father and Mother to Sons and Daughters of Brothers and Sisters Husband and Wife Master and Servant Prince and People Pastor and Flock Answ You might as wisely imagine that self-denial lieth in hating or denying any of Gods Works even the frame of nature or in denying food and rayment to our bodies or in denying our own lives so as to cut our throats For the same Law of Nature that made me a man and requireth me to preserve my life did make me a son and require me to love and honour my parents And it is in the Decalogue the first Commandment with promise as the Apostle calleth it Ephes 6. 2. It is frequently and expresly commanded in Scripture that children love honour obey their parents and terrible curses are pronounced on the breakers of these Commands Eph. 6. 1. 4. 5. 22 5. Colos 3. 20 21 22. 4. 1. Exod. 21. 17. Levit. 20. 9. Deuteron 21. 18 19. 27. 16. Prov. 30. 17. Mat. 15. 4. 19. 19. And if children were not bound to parents then parents should not be bound to educate children and then they would be exposed to misery and perish One would think that there should never such a Sect have risen up that should be worse than the very brutes who by the instinct of nature love their young ones and their dams But the Spirit foretold us that which is come to pass that in the last and perilous times there should be men that are disobedient to parents without natural affection 2 Tim. 3. 3. And for contracted Relations they are the express institution of God so frequently owned by him in Scripture and the duties of them so frequently commanded that I will not trouble you with the recital of the passages And as for the Adversaries objections they are frivolous The meaning of the Apostles words that we know no man after the flesh I have told you before The words of Christ to his Mother Joh. 2. 4. Woman what have I to do with thee which they alledge are nothing for their wicked cause they being no more but Christ's due Reprehension of his Mothers mistake who would prescribe him the time and manner of doing Miracles and have him do them in a way of ostentation which things did not belong to her but to the Spirit of God and the Lord himself And whereas they alledge that Text Luke 14. 26. that father mother brother sisters c. are to be hated for Christ I answer Even as our own lives are to be hated which are also numbred with them that is They must be all forsaken rather than Christ should be forsaken and therefore loved less than he and but for his sake If therefore this Text require you not at all to cut your own throats or some way kill your selves then it doth not require you to withdraw your due affections from Natural or Contracted Relations I must crave the Readers pardon that I trouble him with confuting such unnatural opinions and desire him to believe that it is not before I am urged to it by the arguments of some deluded souls that are not unlikely to do hurt by them with some CHAP. LVI Q. Or Relieving Strangers before Kindred Quest 6. WHether self-denial require that we should relieve godly strangers before our natural Kindred especially that are ungodly Or that we love them better Answ 1. Where our Natural Kindred are as holy and as needy as others there is a double obligation on us both natural and spiritual to love and relieve them 2. Where they are as Holy as others but less needy there may lie a double obligation on us to love them and yet not to give to them 3. If they be more needy or as needy as others though withal they be ungodly we are not thereby excused from natural affections or charitable relief 4. We must distinguish between children or such kindred as nature casteth upon our care for provision and such kindred as are by nature cast upon others If parents were not obliged to relieve and provide for their own children they would be exposed to misery and man should be more unnatural than brutes So that even when by ungodliness they are less amiable than others yet God hath bound men to provide for them more 5. Natural love and spiritual are much different you may have a stronger Natural Love to an ungodly child than to a Godly stranger but you must have a spiritual Love to that Godly stranger more than to your child And that spiritual Love must be at least as to the Rational and Estimative part much greater than the other Natural Love And yet you may be bound to Give more where you are not bound to Love more For it is not Love only that is the cause of giving but we are Gods Stewards and must dispose of what we have as he prescribeth us and his standing Law of Nature for the preservation of mankind is that parents take care of their children as such 6. The will and service of God being it that should dispose of all that we have we must in all such doubts look to these two things for our direction First to the particular Precepts of the Word and there we find the fore-said duty of parents expressed and withal the duty of relieving all that are needy to our power Secondly to the General Precept and there we find that we must honour God with our substance and lay out all our talents to his service And so the duty lieth plain before us If you have a child that is wicked yet as prents provide him his daily bread and leave him enough for daily bread when you die But more he should not have from me but the rest had I ten thousand pound a year I would lay out that way that my conscience told me may be most serviceable to God For 1. I am not bound to strengthen an enemy of Christ and enable him to do the greater mischief 2. Nor to cast away the mercies of God 3. If the Law required the parents to cause such a Rebellious son to be put to death Deut. 21. 18. then surely to provide him daily bread is now as much as a parent is obliged to And if it be an express Command that he that will not labour shall not eat 2 Thes 3. 10.
Commonweal or the good of all Now selfishness is contrary to this common good which is the End of all Societies Every selfish person is his Own End and cares not to hinder the common good if he do but think it will promote his own And how is that Family Church or Commonwealth like to prosper where most alas most indeed have an End of their own that is set up against the End and being of the Society For though the real good of particular persons is usually comprehended in the common good yet that is but in subserviency to the publick good and is not observed usually by these persons who principally look at themselves And it commonly falls out that the publick welfare cannot be obtained but by such self-denial of the Members which these men will not submit to though they incur a greater hurt by their selfishness Little do they think of the common good it is their own matters that they regard and mind So it go well with them let Church and Commonwealth do what it will They can bear any ones trouble or losses save their own They are every man as a Church as a Commonwealth as a world to themselves If they be well all is well with them If they prosper they think it 's a good world what ever others undergo If they be poor or sick or under any other suffering it is all one to them as if calamity had covered the earth and if they see that they must die they take it as if it were the dissolution of the world unless as they leave either name or posterity behind them in which a shadow of them may survive And therefore they use to say when I am gone all the world is gone with me 2. Moreover selfishness is contrary to that Disposition and spirit that every Member of a Society should be possessed with The publick good will not be attained without a Publick spirit to which a Private spirit is contrary Men must be disposed to the work that they must be imployed in The work of every Member of a Society is such as Mordecai is approved for Esther 10. 3. seeking the wealth of his people and speaking peace to all his seed Every true Member of the Church must have such a spirit as Nehemiah that in the midst of his own prosperity and honours is cast down in fasting tears and Prayers when he heareth of the affliction reproach and ruines of Jerusalem and saith Why should not my countenance be sad when the City the place of my fathers sepulchres lieth waste Neh. 1. 3. 2. 3 4. And as the captivated Jews Psal 137. that lay by all their mirth and musick and sit down and weep at the remembrance of Zion A private selfish disposition is quite contrary to this and is busie about his own matters and principally looketh to his own ends and interests what ever come of the Church and falls under the reproof that Baruch had from God Jer. 45. 4 5. Behold that which I have built will I break down and that which I have planted I will pluck up even this whole Land and seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not This Private disposition makes men so foolish as to lose themselves by seeking themselves looking to their own goods or cabbins when the ship is sinking in which they are and to their own rooms when the House is all on fire But a Publick Spirit saith If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning If I do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief Joy Psal 137. 5 6. His love is to the Church as the Spouse of Christ and as to the body of which he is himself a member and his Prayers and endeavours are for its prosperity and peace Psal 122. 6 7 8 9. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy Palaces For my Brethren and companions sake I will now say Peace be within thee because of the house of the Lord our God I will seek thy good The body of Christ is all animated by one spirit that it might aim at one end and it is so tempered by God that there should be no Schism in it but that the members should have the same care one for another that if one member suffer all the members should suffer with it or if one member be honoured all should rejoyce with it 1 Cor. 12. 13 24 25 26 27. There is no serving Publick ends with a Private selfish spirit 3. Moreover sefishness is an Enemy to the Laws of Societies whether it be the Laws of God or man For it would have them all bended to their private interest and fitted to their selfish disposition And therefore for the immutable Laws of God which they cannot change they corrupt them by misinterpretations expounding them according to the dictates of the flesh and putting such a sence on all as self can bear with And what they cannot misinterpret they murmur at and disobey And for the Laws of men where selfish persons are the makers of them you shall perceive by the warping of them who they were made for Hence it is that Princes and Parliaments have lookt at the Laws and Church and Ministers of Christ with an eye of Jealousie as if they had been some enemies that they stood in danger of and all for fear lest the personal selfish fleshly interest of Noblemen and Gentlemen and others should be incroacht upon by the Laws and Government of Christ And hence it is that so much endeavours and hopes of a Reformation have been so long frustrated and even among wise and Pious Law-makers there hath been so much pains to keep Ministers from doing their duty in Governing the Churches and laying such restrictions on them that Pastors might be no Pastors that is no Guides and Overseers of the Church in the worship of God And when good Laws are made they have as many enemies as selfish men If the Law were not hated the execution of it would not be hated so much 4. Also selfishness is an enemy to the very being of Magistracy and to all publick Officers and their work For the very End of the Magistracy is the Publick benefit as I said before of the end of a Commonwealth and therefore this selfishness is contrary to this end and such men will not value a Magistrate as a publick Officer but only as one that is able to help them or to hurt them which is but to fear him as a potent enemy and not to love or honour him as a Ruler They look at Magistrates as at Tyrants that are too strong for them and as a Cur will crouch to a Mastiff Dog so they will crouch to them to save themselves and this is their love and honour and obedience even such as Hobbs hath taught them
fleshly Pleasures tend He that by faith hath seen both Heav'n and Hell And what sin costeth at the last can tell He that hath try'd and tasted Better things And felt that love from which all pleasure springs They that still watch and for Christs coming wait Can turn away from or despise the bait Flesh Must I be made the foot-ball of disdain And call'd a precise fool or Puritane Spirit Remember him that did despise the shame And for thy sake bore undeserved blame Thy journey 's of small moment if thou stay Because dogs bark or stones lie in the way If life lay on it wouldst thou turn again For the winds blowing or a little rain Is this thy greatest love to thy dear Lord That canst not for his sake bear a foul word Wilt thou not bear for him a scorners breath That underwent for thee a cursed death Is not Heav'n worth the bearing of a flout Then blame not Justice when it shuts thee out Will these deriders stand to what they say And own their words at the great dreadful day Then they 'd be glad when wrath shall overtake them To eat their wrrds and say they never spake them Flesh How Forsake all Ne're mention it more to me I 'le be of no Religion to undo me Spirit Is it not thine more in thy Fathers hand Than when it is laid out at sins command And is that sav'd that 's spent upon thy lust Or which must be a prey to thieves or rust And wouldst thou have thy riches in thy way Where thou art passing on and canst not stay And is that lost that 's sent to Heav'n before Hadst thou not rather have thy friends and store Where thou may dwell for ever in the light Of that long glorious day that fears no night Flesh But who can willingly submit to Death Which will bereave us of our life and breath That laies our flesh to rot in loathsome graves Where brains and eyes were leaves but ugly caves Spirit So nature breaks and casts away the shell Where the now beauteous singing bird did dwell The secundine that once the infant cloath'd After the birth is cast away and loath'd Thus Roses drop their sweet leaves under-foot But the Spring shews that life was in the root Souls are the Roots of Bodies Christ the Head Is Root of both and will revive the dead Our Sun still shineth when with us it's night When he returns we shall shine in his light Souls that behold and praise God with the Just Mourn not because their bodies are but dust Graves are but beds where flesh till morning sleep's Or Chests where God a while our garments keep 's Our folly thinks he spoils them in the keeping Which causeth our excessive fears and Weeping But God that doth our rising day foresee Pittie 's not rotting flesh so much as we The birth of Nature was deform'd by sin The birth of Grace did our repair begin The birth of Glory at the Resurrection Finisheth all and brings both to persection Why should not fruit when it is mellow fall Why would we linger here when God doth call Flesh The things and persons in this world I see But after death I know not what will be Spirit Know'st thou not that which God himself hath spoken Thou hast his promise which was never broken Reason proclaims that noble heav'n-born souls Are made for higher things than worms and moles God hath not made such faculties in vain Nor made his service a deluding pain But faith resolves all doubts and hears the Lord Telling us plainly by his Holy Word That uncloath'd souls shall with their Saviour dwell Triumphing over sin and death and hell And by the power of Almighty Love Stars shall arise from graves to shine above There we shall see the Glorious face of God His blessed presence shall be our abode The face that banisheth all doubts and fears Shuts out all sins and dryeth up all tears That face which darkeneth the Suns bright rayes Shall shine us into everlasting joyes Where Saints and Angels shall make up one Chore To praise the Great Jehovah evermore Flesh Reason not with me against sight and sense I doubt all this is but a vain pretence Words against nature are not worth a rush One bird in hand is worth two in the bush If God will give me Heav'n at last I 'le take it But for my Pleasure here I 'le not forsake it Spirit And wilt thou keep it bruitsh flesh how long Wilt thou not shortly sing another song When Conscience is awakened keep thy mirth When Sickness and Death comes hold fast this earth Live if thou canst when God saith come away Try whether all thy friends can cause thy stay Wilt thou tell death and God thou wilt not die And wilt thou the consuming fire defie Art thou not sure to let go what thou hast And doth not Reason bid thee then forecast And value the least hope of endless joyes Before known vanities and dying toyes And can the Lord that is most just and wise Found all mans duty in deceit and lies GET thee behind me Satan thou dost savour The things of flesh and not his dearest favour Who is my Life and Light and Love and All And so shall be whatever shall befall It is not thou but I that must discern And must Resolve It 's I that hold the stern Be silent Flesh speak not against my God Or else hee 'l teach thee better by the rod. I am resolved thou shalt live and die A servant or a conquered enemy LOrd charge not on me what this rebel sayes That alwaies was against me and thy wayes Now stop its mouth by Grace that shortly must Through just but gainful death be stopt with dust The thoughts and words of Flesh are none of mine Let Flesh say what it will I will be thine Whatever this rebellious Flesh shall prate Let me but serve the Lord at any rate Use me on earth as seemeth good to thee So I in Heav'n thy Glorious face may see Take down my Pride let me dwell at thy feet The humble are for earth and heav'n most meet Renouncing Flesh I Vow my self to thee With all the Talents thou hast lent to me Let me not stick at honour wealth or blood Let all my dayes be spent in doing good Let me not trifle out more precious hours But serve thee now with all my strength and powers If Flesh would tempt me to deny my hand Lord these are the Resolves to which I stand Richard Baxter October 29. 1659. The laâ—e Lord Chief Justice Oliver St. John See my Reasons of the Christ â—â—â—g since written I may with Tertullian call all our enemies to search their Court Records and â—ce how many of us have been cast out or silenced for any immorality but for obeying Conscience against the interest or wills of some who think that Conscience should give place to their Commands Read the two or three last Chapters in Dr. Holden's Analâ—fidei Read Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Rogers books against me and the souldiers openly thâ—â— calumaiâ—â—ed me and thâ—e in eâ— my death as the said Authors â—eâ—red them to call me to a trâ—al even for speaking and writing against their casting dow the Government of the Land â—â—ing 〈◊〉 themselves and aâ—â—â—pting at once to Vo e out all the â—arâ—â—h 〈◊〉 I know that it hardneâ—h thousands in impenitency to say that Others have done worse and Is the matter mended with you And will it also eâ—se men in heâ—l to think that some others suffer more The Quuakers and other Self-esteemers are reverthemore reconcil'd to us now we have been eleven years turned out of all So common it is for selfish meâ— to make their gain sayers as odious as they can devise that I conâ—eâ—s I wondred that I me with no more of this dealing my self from Papists Anabaptists or any that have turned their stiâ—e against me And at last Mr. Pierce hath answered my expectation and from my own confession not knowing me himself hath drawn my picture that I am Proâ—â—i Lazie False an Hypocrite uâ—just a Reader c. And from this Bolsecks credit I make no doubt but the Papists will think they may warrantably descrâ—bâ— me if I be thought worthy their reâ—embrance in all following Ageâ— though now I have nothing from them but good wordâ— But it is a small thing to be judged by man especially when our â—â—uâ—â— enjoy the Lord. They way-laid the Messengers that I sent Letters by to friends took them from the â— by force seâ—â— them to 〈…〉 to the Council of State to the trouble of those I wrote to though nothing was found but â—â—noâ—ency And this was by my old 〈…〉 who differed from â—â—â— in nothing but â—â—tant 〈…〉 Changes of our Government and yet 〈…〉