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
the interest of their opinions and parties have cherished dissension and fled from concord and have had a hand in the resisting and pulling down Authority and embroiling the Nations in wars and miseries And whence is it but for want of self-denial for our own faults must be confessed that the Ministers of Christ are so much silent in the midst of such heinous miscarriages as the times abound with I know we receive not our Commission as Prophets did by immediate extraordinary inspiration But what of that The Priests that were called by an ordinary way were bound to be plain and faithful in their Office as well as the Prophets And so are we How plainly spoke the Prophets even to Kings and how patiently did they bear indignities and persecutions But now we are grown carnally wise and cautelous for holy wisdom and caution I allow and if duty be like to cost us dear we can think that we are excused from it If Great men would set up Popery in the Land by a Toleration alas how many Ministers think they may be silent for fear lest the contrivers should call them seditious or turbulent or disobedient or should set men to rail at them and call them Lyers and Calumniators or for fear lest they should be persecuted and â—uined in their estates or names If they do but foresee that men in power or honour in the world will charge them with Lies or unchristian dealing for speaking the words of Truth and Soberness against the Introduction of Popery and impiety and that they shall be made as the scorn and off-scouring of all the world and have all manner of evil saying falsly spoken of them for the sake of Christ his Church and truth they presently consult with flesh and blood and think themselves discharged of their duty when God saith Ezek. 33. 6. c. If the watchman see the sword come and blow not the Trumpet aud the people be not warned if the sword come and take any person from among them he is taken away in his iniquity but his blood will I require at the watchmans hand And were we no watchmen yet we have this command Lev. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Yet now many Ministers will be cruelly silent lest they should be charged with malice and hating those whom they are commanded to rebuke The sword of violence I perswade them not to meddle with but were it not for want of self-denial the sword of the spirit would be more faithfully managed against the sins of the greatest enemies of Christ and of the Gospel than it is by most though it should cost us more than scorns and slanders and though we know that bonds and afflictions did abide us And verily I cannot yet understand that the contempt and scorn of the Ministry in England is fed by any thing so much as selfishness Could we be for all mens Opinions and Carnal interests O what experience have I had of this all men for ought I see would be for us Is it a crime to be a Minister Doubtless it 's then a crime to be a Christian And he that rails at us as Ministers to day it 's like will rail at us as Christians to morrow But if such will vouchsafe to come to me before they venture their souls and soberly debate the case I undertake to prove the truth of Christianity The world may see in Clem. Writers exceptions against my Treatise of Infidelity what thin transparent Sophisms and silly Cavils they use against the Christian cause When they have well answered not only that Treatise but Du Plessis Grotius Vives Ficinus Micraelius the ancient apologies of the Christian writers of the Church let them boast then that they have confuted Christianity The Devil hath told me long ago in his secret temptations as much against the Christian Faith as ever I yet read in any of our Apostates But God hath told me of much more that 's for it and enabled me to see the folly of their Reasonings that think the mysteries of the Gospel to be foolishness But if it be not as Ministers and Christiâ—nâ— that we are hated what is it then If because we are ingnorant insufficient negligent or scandalous why do they not by a legal trial cast us out and put those in our places that are more able diligent and godly when we have provok'd them to it and beg'd it of them so often as we have done If it be because we are not Papists it is because we cannot renounce all our senses our Reason the Scripture the Unity Judgment and Tradidion of the far greatest part of the Universal Church If I have not already proved that Poperty fighteth against all these and am not able to make it good against any Jesuit on earth let them go on to number me with Hereticks and let them use me as they do such when I am in their power If we are hated because we are not of the Opinions of those that hate us it seems those Opinions are enemies to Charity and then we have little reason to embrace them And if this be it we are under an unavoidable necessity of being hated For among such diversity of Opinions it is impossible for us to comply with all if we durst be false to the known truth and durst become the servants of men and make every self-conceited Brother the Master of our Faith If we are so reviled because me are against an Universal Liberty of speaking or writing against the truths and wayes of Christ and of labouring in Satans harvest to the dividing of the Churches and the damnation of souls it is then in the up-shot because we are of any Religion and are not despisers of the Gospel and of the Church and of mens salvation and because we believe in Jesus Christ I have lately found by their exclamations and common defamations and threatnings and by the Volumes of reproaches that come forth against me and by the swarms of lyes that have been sent forth against me through the Land that even the present Contrivers of Englands Misery Liberty I would say and of Toleration for Popery and more are themselves unable to bear contradiction from one such an inconsiderable person as my self and they have got it into the mouths of souldiers that my writings are the cause of wars and that till I give over writing they shall not give over fighting though I do all that I am able to do for Peace And if this be so what a case would they bring the Nation into by giving far greater Liberty to all than ever I made use of Unless they still except a Liberty of contradicting themselves they must look for other kind of usage when Libertinism is set up Yea if they will seek the ruine of the Church and Cause of Christ they must look that
store of Christians among us If Christ would have left out but this one point of self-denyal from his Laws and conditions of salvation what abundance of Disciples would he have had in the world and how many millions might have come to Heaven that now must be shut out It is this point that hindereth all sorts of Heathens and Infidels from being Christians The Jews will believe in no Christ but one that will restore their Temple and outward glory and make them great and Rulers of the world and therefore they will not be the servants of that Christ that calleth them to the contempt of all these things and of life it self for the hopes of an invisible Kingdom The Mahometans had rather believe in Mahomet that giveth them leave to please their lust than in Christ that calleth them to mortification and self-denyal and tells them of nothing but suffering and patience duty and diligence till they come into another world The Idolatrous Heathens abhor Christianity when they hear how much they must do and suffer and all for a reward in the life to come It s an informing instance that Pet. Maffaeus gives us in his Indian History of the first King of Congo that was baptized He quickly received the Articles of faith and the form of Worship and the outside and cheaper part of Religion and so did many of his Nobles and followers But when he was called to confession and understood that he must leave his gluttony and drunkenness and whoredom and oppression and inordinate pleasures he would be a Christian no more his Nobles perswading him that the forsaking of all this mirth and pleasure and delights of the flesh and taking up so strict a life was too dear a price to pay for the hopes of a life to come and it was better keep the pleasure they had and put another life to the venture And thus Christianity had been quickly banished that Kingdom again if it had not taken deeper rooting in his Son and Heir Alphonsus and made him venture his Crown and Life for the sake of Christ And thus is it at the heart with the most even of Baptized persons and those that take themselves to be Christians Because it is the Religion of the Country and they are taught that there is no salvation without it they will be Baptized and be called Christians and say their Prayers and come to Church and say they believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and they will go as far with you in Religion as they can without denying themselves but for the rest which is the life and truth of Christianity they will not understand it or believe that it is of such necessity God forbid say they that none should be Christians and saved but those that thus deny themselves and take up their cross and forsake all they have and accept not Life it self from Christ They say they believe in Christ and yet they say God forbid his word should be true or God forbid we should believe Christ that hath spoken this in the Gospel See what kind of Christians multitudes are Every man and woman on earth that take themselves for true Christians and yet do not deny themselves even life and all for the sake of Christ and the hope of everlasting glory are meer self-deceivers and no true Christians at all He that will save his life saith Christ shall lose it that is He that in his coming to Christ and Covenanting with him will put in an exception for the saving of his Life and will forsake all for Christ if he be put to it except Life it self this man is no true Disciple of Christ and shall be so far from saving his life that he shall lose both Heaven and Life and all and the Justice of God shall take from him that Life which he durst not resign to the will of mercy and he shall lose that for nothing which he would not lose for Christ and Heaven It is impossible for that man to be Christs Disciple that loveth his life better than Christ and the hopes of Life everlasting Mat. 10. 37 38. Luk. 14. 25 26 33. Some Self-denyal there may be in the unsanctified Many of them would leave a little pleasure or profit rather than be damned and many had rather suffer a little than venture upon eternal sufferings But I beseech you remember that this is the lowest degree of Self-denyal that is saving to set more by Christ and the hopes of glory than by all this world and life it self and to be habitually resolved to forsake life and all rather than to forsake him No less than this is proper self-denyal or will prove you Christians and in a state of life This was the tryal that Christ put one to that had thought to have been his Disciple Luke 18. 21. Yet lackest thou one thing sell all that thou hast and distribute to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven and come and follow me Not that every man must actually sell all but every man must set more by Heaven than all and therefore part with all when Christ would have him and he that is not thus resolved let him go never so far in all other things doth yet lack one thing and such a one thing as he shall never be saved without For the meaning of the text is that Christ would try by this command whether he set more by any thing than him and whether he set more by Heaven or Earth and so would have us all to judge of our selves by the same evidence within though he put not all on the same way of discovering it Many a man can deny self the superfluities of pleasure and as this rich man did can avoid enormous crimes and say of whoredom and theft and drunkenness and oppression and gross deceit All these have I avoided from my youth Education may moderate some selfish desires and natural temper may further that moderation and custom and good company and holy precepts may yet do more and wit may teach men to do or suffer somewhat rather than to run on the wrath of God and therefore many thousands may deny self the pleasure of some inordinate lust or of some recreation or excess in meat or drink and yet be far from denying life and all and so from the true self-denyal of a Christian Nay a man may deny self for self in many particulars and so may please self more than he denyeth it Many a civil ingenuous Gentleman and other persons will forbear the disgraceful sins of Drunkenness filthy speaking Whoredom Incivility notorious Prophaneness even because they are disgraceful and therefore are against the Interest of self so much as self can possibly spare a carnal heart may be brought to part with But still self is alive and predominant within them still it is the Ruling end and Principle But to go out of self to God and resign up our selves to him
opinions out of their own brain to have a Religion that may be called their own And it 's their Own in two respects 1. Because it is of their own devising and not of Gods revealing or appointing 2. Because it suiteth with their own carnal ends and interests Men are far readier to make themselves a faith than to receive that which God hath formed to their hands And they are far readier to receive a Doctrine that tends to their carnal commodity or honour or delights than one that tends to self-denial and to abase themselves and exalt the Lord. 2. And when they have hatched or received such opinions which are peculiarly their Own they are apt to like them the better because they are their own and to value them because of the Interest of self O Sirs that you did but know the commonness and danger of self-conceitedness in the world Even with many that seem humble and verily think that it is the spirit of God that beareth the greatest sway in their understandings yet self doth there erect its throne O how secretly subtilly will self insinuate and make you believe that it 's a pure self-denying light which guideth you an dt hat what you hold is meerly by the cogent evidence of truth or the illumination of the Spirit when it is but a Viper that self hath hatched and doateth on because it is her own Because the Papists have gone too far in teaching men to depend on the Church and on their Teachers therefore self-conceitedness takes advantage of their error to draw men into the contrary extream and make every Infant-Christian to think himself wiser than his most experienced Brethren and Teachers and every raw unstudied Christian to think himself wiser than those that have been searching into the word of truth by study and prayer almost all their days and therefore to cry down that learning wisdom and study which they are unacquainted with that seeing they have it not themselves they may at least be thought as wise men without it as those that have it and so may provide for the reputation and interest of self O what sad work hath this great sin of self-conceitedness made in the world In too many places men make it their Religion to strive who shall be greatest for wisdom and abilities in the eyes of men and it is the very work of their Prayers and conference and teaching to exercise self-conceitedness and to make it appear that they are some body in knowledge Hence is it that they are so apt to fall upon novelties which either few receive or none before themselves devised that being singular self may be the more observed and they may have something which may be called their Own Hence also it is that they are so little suspicious of their own opinions never bending their studies impartially to try whether they are of God or not but rather to maintain them and to find out all that can be said for them and against the contrary minded Hence is it that men have such light and contemptuous thoughts of the judgment of those that excel them in knowledge and that the voice of Corah and those other Conspirators Numb 16. 3. is grown so common in the mouths of ignorant proud professors Ye take too much upon you say they to their Guides and Teachers seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift ye up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord It is the Holiness of the Congregation and all its members and the presence of God himself among them that is pleaded against the Superiority of Moses Aaron as if with so Holy a people that had God himself to be their Teacher and Guide there were no need of men to be lift up above the Congregation of the Lord. But it was self that was intended what ever was pretended From this self-conceitedness also it is that the weightiest common truths that self hath no special interest in are so little valued and relished and insisted on and that a less and more uncertain point which self hath espoused shall be more relished insisted on and contended for Hence also is most of the common confidence of men in their own Opinions that when the point is doubtful if not certainly false in the eyes of wiser men than themselves yet the fool rageth and is confident Prov. 14. 16. He can carry on a conceit of his Own with as brazen a face and proud contempt of other mens arguments as if he were maintaining that the Sun is light and other men pleaded to prove it dark when alas it is self-interest that is the life the strength the goodness of the cause Hence also it is that men are so quarrelsom with the words and ways of others that they can scarce hear or read a word but these pugnacious animals are ready to draw upon it as if they had catch'd an advantage for the honouring of their valour and were loth to lose such a prize and opportunity for a victory and triumph Hence it is that hiâ—â—ing at the sayings and doings of others is the first and most common and most sensible part of their Commentaries And that they can make heresies and monsters not only of tolerable errors but of truths themselves if they have but the inexpiable guilt of crossing the wisdom of these self-conceited men Hence it is that opinions of their own are more industriously cultivated and studiously cherished by a double if not a tenfold proportion of Zeal and diligence than common truths that all the godly in the world have as much interest in as they though the common truths be incomparably the greater And hence it is that men are so tenacious of that which is their Own when they easilier let go that which is Gods and must have all come to them and every man deny his own judgment except themselves and that it must be the glory of others to yield to them and their glory to yield to none but to have all men come over and submit to them All these are the fruits and discoveries of self as it reigns in mens understandings who possibly may think that it 's Christ and the Spirit that 's there exalted Yet mistake me not I do not say or think that a man should forsake a certain truth for fear of being accounted self-conceited nor that he must presently captivate his own understanding to a learneder man or the stronger or more numerous side for fear of being self-conceited Much less must I deny that grace of God that hath made me savingly wise by his illumination that was formerly foolish disobedient and deceived in the days of my ignorance The world must give us leave to triumph over our own former folly with Paul Tit. 3. 3 4 5. and say with the same Paul that we were no better than mad when we were enemies to the Gospel Act. 26. 11. and with
the man in Joh. 9. 25. One thing I know that whereas I was blind now I see It 's no self-conceitedness for a man that is brought from the blind distracted state of sin into the light of the sanctified to know that he is wiser than he was before and that he was formerly besides himself but now is come to his understanding again Nor is it any self-conceitedness for the meanest Christian to know that a wicked man is more foolish than he or for a Minister or any man that God hath caused to excel in knowledge to hold fast the truth he knows and to see and modestly oppose the errors of another and to know that in that he is wiser than they God doth not require that we shall turn to every mans opinion and reel up and down from sect to sect and be of the opinion of every party that we come among and all for fear of thinking our selves wiser than they David knew he had more Understanding than his Teachers Psal 119. 98 99. and true believers fear not to say We know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness 1 Joh. 5. 19. 3. 19. 2. 3. And Paul would not forbear the reproving of Peter for fear of being thought to be self-conceited Gal. 2. some men are so desperately self-conceited that they take every man to be self-conceited that is not of their conceits But when self is mens instructor and chooseth their Text and furnisheth them with matter and nothing is savoury but what is either suited to the common interest of self or which it hath not a special interest in when men are absolutely wise in their own eyes and comparatively wiser than those that know much more than they when self-interest serves instead of evidence to the receiving retaining or contending for a point when men think they know that which indeed they do not know and observe the little which they do know more than an hundred fold more that they are ignorant of doubtless here 's self-conceitedness with a witness and they that will not see it in a lower degree methinks should see it in such a case as this He that will not believe that a man is drunk when he reels and stammereth may know it when he lieth spewing in the streets Well Sirs I beseech you see that self in the understanding be mortified and pulled down It 's the throne of God the Lanthorn of holy truth the temple of the Spirit and shall self Rule there The understanding is it that guideth the soul and all the actions of your lives and if self rule there what a Ruler will you have and what a case will heart and life be in If your eye be dark your Light be dark how great will be your darkness and if it be selfish it is certainly so far dark O believe the Holy Ghost Prov. 26. 12. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than of him For a meer fool that is ignorant only for want of teaching hath no such prejudice against the truth as the self-conceited have Nor is it so hard to make him know that he is ignorant nor yet to make him willing to Learn He that knoweth himself to be blind is willing to be led Moreover the self-conceited have much to unlearn before they can be fit to receive the truth in a saving maner O how many thousands are undone by self-conceitedness It is this that keeps out Knowledge and every Grace and consequently all true peace and comfort and this it is that defendeth and cherisheth all sin Let us shew men the plainest word of God for duty and against sin and shew them the clearest reasons and yet self-conceitedness bolts the door against all Yea so wonderfully doth this sin prevail that the ignorant silly people that know almost nothing are as proudly self-conceited as if they were the wisest men They that will not learn and cannot give an account of their knowledge in the very Catechism or Principles of Christian Religion nor cannot pray nor scarce speak a word of sense about the matters of Salvation but excuse themselves that they are no Scholars yet these very people will proudly resist their Teachers though they were the wisest and learned'st men in the Land Let us but cross their conceits of Doctrine or Practice in Religion about their own title to Church-priviledges or fitness for them and they are confident and furious against their Ministers as if we were as ignorant as they and they were the wisest men in the world so that pride and self-conceitedness makes people mad or deal like mad men We cannot humble men for sin nor reclaim them from it till they know the sin and the danger of it and self-conceitedness will not let them know it no nor let them come to us to be taught but they are wise enough already and if we tell them of the sin and danger they are wiser than to believe the Word of God or us They will tell us to our faces they will never believe such and such things which we shew them in the Scripture O the precious light that shineth round about you all and would make you wise if self-conceitedness did not keep it out by making you seem wise already 1 Cor. 3. 18. These men that thus deceive themselves by seeming wise to themselves must become fools in their own eyes if ever they will be truly wise and confess themselves as Paul himself did that they were foolish and deceived when they served their lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. This Pride and Self-conceitedness is like the barm in the drink that seems to fill up the vessel but indeed works it all over This is the Knowledge that puffeth up 1 Cor. 13. like the pot that by boiling seemeth to be filled that was half empty before but it 's empty in the bottom and presently boils over and is emptier than before So is it with the self-conceited that have a superficial knowledge while they are empty at the bottom and by the heat of pride that little they have boileth over to their loss It is the humble that God reveals his secrets to and the hungry that he filleth with good things and the full that he sendeth empty away He will have no Disciples that come not to his School as little Children teachable and tractable not thinking themselves too old or too wise or too good to be taught If you would see the mysteries of the Gospel savingly you must even creep to Christ on your knees and cry Lord be merciful to me a sinner He will not lift up your minds and hearts to heaven till you think your selves unworthy to lift up your very eyes to heaven because you have sinned against heaven And if you were even lifted to heaven should you there but be lifted up with pride or self-conceitedness you should soon have a â—rick in the flesh to
giveth him not his own in Love or Praises Object What say you then by the wishes of Moses and Paul Answ 1. The saying of Moses is very plain Exod. 32. 32. He doth not desire that his soul might be made a ransom for Israel but that if God would not pardon them but destroy them and cast them off he would blot out Moses name from his Book that is from among the number of the living so that his saying is no other than such as Elias or Jonas was What good will my life do me if I live to see thy people cast off and all thy wonders for them buryed therefore either let them live in thy sight or kill me with them This is the plain meaning of Moses request And for Pauls the difficulty is somewhat greater 1. Some think that Paul meaneth Rom. 9. 3. that he once wished himself to be no Christan in the days of his ignorance and all through his Zeal for the Jewith Nation But this is improbable 2. Some think that he meaneth only I could wish to be given up to death for them as the accursed under the Law 3. Some think he meaneth only I could wish my self yet unconverted to Christ so they were converted 4. Some think the meaning is I could wish my self cast out of the Church and given up to Satan for any bodily suffering 5. Some say it is only to have his salvation deferred 6. And some that it is damnation for a time But 7. The plain meaning seemeth to be this so great is my Love to my Countrymen the Jews that if it were offered to my choice whether they or I without them should enjoy Christ I would yield to be cast out of his sight for ever rather than they should where mark 1. That it is not a wish that it were so for he knew that this was no means to promote their salvation but it 's a discovery of his affection that would with or choose this if it were a means to that End 2. And it is not the sin of not Loving Christ that he would choose but only the misery of being deprived of his blessed presence 3. And the Reasons of this his choice are these two conjunct 1. Because the souls of so many thousands is in impartial Reason more to be valed than the soul of one 2. And principally because by the conversion and salvation of a whole Nation God may be more honored and served than by one And note farther 1. That this is not set as a mark for every Christian to try the truth of his Love by 2. But yet no doubt but it is a duty and degree of Grace that every one should aim at For 1. We see among Heathens that nature it self teacheth them that a man should lay down his life for his Country because a Country is better than a man And proportionably Reason tells us that the salvation of a Country being a greater good than of any one it should be more preferred And Self-love goeth against plain Reason when it contradicteth this What mans Reason doth not tell him that it were better he should die than the world should be destroyed or the Sun turned into darkness yea or that one Church or Country perish And so of salvation 2. And it is agreeable to the nature of Love to desire that most that most Pleaseth him whom we Love and therefore to desire rather that God may have multitudes than one and be served and Praised by them So much about the Matter of self-denial III. I Have finished the two first things which I promised you under the use of Exhortation viz. the trial of your self-denial and the particulars in which it consisteth and must be exercised and there I have shewed you 1. In what respect self must be denied 2. What that selfishness is that must be denied as to the inward Disposition and 3. What is that objective self-interest that must be denied which consisteth in so many Particulars that I cannot undertake to enumerate all but I have mentioned twenty Particulars under the general head of Pleasure and ten under the general Head of Honour and have referred you to another Treatise for that which consisteth in worldly profits And now I come to the third part of my work which is to shew you a little more fully the Greatness of the sin of selfishness and give you thence such moving reasons as may conduce to the cure of it which are these that follow CHAP. LXIII Motives 1. Selfishness the grand Idolatry of the world 1. SElfishness is the grand Idolatry of the world and self the worlds Idol as I have told you before It usurpeth the Place of God himself in mens Judgements wills affections and endeavours It was the work of the ten Discoveries in the Beginning of the Book to demonstrate this and therefore I shall say but little more But self-denial destroyeth the worlds great Idol and giveth God his own again The selfish lean most to their own understandings but the self-denying trust the Wisdom of God The selfish are careful principally for themselves and their own felicity even a terrene and carnal kind of felicity But the self-denying are principally careful how they may Please and Honour God and promote the welfare of his Church and in this way attain the spiritual everlasting felicity of the Saints The selfish must have their own humors pleased and their own wills accomplished and their own desires granted But the self-denying do slay their own carnal wills desires and conceits and lay them dead at the feet of Christ that his will alone may be exalted The selfish would have all men love them admire them and commend them But the self-denying would have all men to Love Admire and Glorifie the Lord above himself and all the world The selfish can bear with Gods enemies but not with their Own and they can suffer men to wrong Cod and sin against him more patiently than they can suffer them to wrong themselves But it is contrary with the self-denying A wrong to God and his Church seemeth far greater to them than a wrong against themselves In a word the selfish intend themselves and live to themselves and the self-denying intend God and live to him in the course of their lives And therefore when the selfish are troubled about many things the self-denying are minding the One thing Necessary And when the selfish are seeking to know what is good or evil to their flesh the self-denying are seeking to Please the Lord and desire to know nothing but him in Christ crucified and they could part with all the knowledge of the creatures as useful to themselves if they could but know more of God in Christ The selfish would be in his own hands at his own dispose and government and the self-denying would be in the hands of God and at his dispose and Government And doubtless the very state of mans Apostacy did lie in
be most odious to you it is Dishonour and not Error or Schism that you are against Had you rather part with Truth and Religion or with the name Reputation of them If you set so much by self and so little by Truth as to let go Truth for fear of being thought to let it go for shame do not take on you to be Lovers of Truth but of your selves nor haters of Error but of Dishonour And consider further that you may lose the Reputation of being Orthodox and Catholick and of the right Religion without losing any of the favour of God nay it may be a suffering for his sake that may advance you in his favour and assure you of the Reward of Martyrs For saith Christ Mat. 5. 11 12. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you So that you see the thing that you so abhor is matter of exceeding joy Even to be falsly counted an Heretick or Erroneous for the sake of Christ and Truth we are blessed when we are falsly reviled as Erroneous and have all these evil sayings against us But to be such indeed is to be accursed Though the name of Heresie will stand with the special Love of God yet Heresie it self he utterly abhors And whether do you think it is better to part with truth and the Favour of God with it or with the name and Reputation of Truth while we keep both Truth and the favour of God Deny your selves then even as to the Reputation of Faith and Orthodoxness For you will certainly deny the Faith if you cannot deny the name of it to preserve it CHAP. XLIX Reputation of Godliness and Honesty how far 9. ANother piece of Honour that self must be denied in is The Reputation of Godliness and Honesty Concerning both the former and this I must say by way of caution that the Reputation both of Faith and Godliness is a great Mercy and not to be despised nor prodigally cast away by our own negligence or miscarriages nor unthankfully to be received But yet 1. It is not to be desired for it self but for God that it may help and advantage us to serve him or as it is a Mercy that brings the report of his love 2. And the greater the Mercy is the greater is our temptation when it would deprive us of a far greater mercy than it self I have oft thought it was a very high passage for an Heathen to say as Seneca did that No man doth shew a higher esteem of goodness than he that can let go the Name or Reputation of being a good man rather than let go his goodness it self The world is so much unacquainted with goodness that they know it not when they see it but call it by those odious names that least agree with it Their Judgements follow their Natures dispositions and interests And therefore they cannot take that to be good which is contrary to these A feather-bed is no better to a swine than a mire-lake A banquet is not so good to a Cow as a green pasture As the person is himself so do all things seem good or evil to him The Toad or Snake hath no such odious apprehensions of it self as men have And hence it is that to ungodly men the best men and best actions seem to be the worst And hence also it is that in all Ages Godliness haâ—h been matter of reproach and the best have been laden with the he aviest calumnies David had enemies that laid to his charge the things that he never thought of And it seems by the strain of Shimei in his railing that they took him to be but a Traitor because King Saul was against him and to be a bloody man because he had been engaged in the wars 2 Sam. 16. 7 8. Come out come out thou bloody man and thou man of Belial the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast raigned See what a wicked person David was esteemed by such fellows as this And yet he so far denied himself here as that he would not hear of revenge upon the railer but makes it as a tryal sent from God And two special reasons moved him to bear it One was the remembrance of that sin against God and his Servant Uriah which he knew God was now chastising him for And therefore being under the rod of the Lord he durst not think of revenge upon the instrument and being sensible that he had brought all this upon himself he durst not let fly too much at others The other was that God had raised up by permissive providence the Son of his bowels against him and therefore he thought it an unseemly thing to be much offended with a stranger for less And such Reasons as these have we also to perswade us to Patience and Self-denial in the like Case The Lord Jesus himself who had no sin at all escaped not these censures of malicious men He was esteemed a friend or Companion of Publicans and Sinners yea a gluttonous person and a wine bibber yea a deceiver yea a conjurer that did his works by the help of the Devil Mat. 11. 19. Luk 7. 34. Mat. 27. 63. Job 7. 12. Mat. 12. 27. What usage the holy Apostles themselves had and how they behaved themselves under all you may conjecture by that one passage to mention no more 1 Cor. 4. 9 10 11 12 13. For I think God hath set forth us the Apostles last as it were men appointed to death For we are made a spectacle to the world and to Angels and to men we are fools for Christs sake but ye are wise in Christ we are weak but ye are strong ye are honourable but we are despised Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling place and labour working with our own hands being reviled we bless being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we intreat we are made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things to this day The like usage had the Christians after the Apostles days They were slandered by the Pagans as if they sacrificed and eat their own children and putting out the lights had commonly been unclean together after their holy exercises And when they cast them to the Lions to be devoured and many wayes tormented them it was as ungodly men for preaching against the Heathen Gods and refusing to offer sacrifice to them And therefore the rabble was wont thus to cry for Judgement against them Tollite impios Tollite impios Away with the ungodly Christians The wicked multitude that were drowned in filthiness and ungodliness did think themselves Religious men and the Christians to be ungodly
So that they were fain to live and die under a Reputation as contrary to the truth as darkness is contrary to light And this usage hath still been the attendant of true Godliness When the Papists burn Gods servants at the stake it is for supposed Heresie and impiety they put a painted cap and coat upon them made of paper on which the Images of Devils are pictur d to make the people believe that they are ungodly persons the servants of the Devil and possessed by him already and unworthy to live any longer among men When they butchered the poor Waldenses and Albigenses by thousands it was under the name of ungodly hereticks The ignorant ungodly rabble among us now that hate and revile those that seek after God more diligently than themselves have yet more devilish wit than to oppose them directly under the name of honest godly men but they first make the world believe that they are Hypocrites and Proud and Self-conceited and Covetous and secretly are as bad as others and these are the things if you will believe them that they hate and speak against them for But then how comes it to pass that it is their Praying and Preciseness that is so much in the scorners mouths Doth that signifie Hypocrisie or Pride Why do they not commend the good while they speak against the evil and joyn with them in the holy Worship and ways of God while they oppose their supposed viciousness Doth the name Puritan signifie a covetous man or a vicious person or rather one that will not be content to venture his soul in the common impure ungodly courses of the world And how comes it to pass that a man may quietly enough follow such vices if he will but forbear the profession of Godliness But to leave these wretches in the dirt where we find them by this you may see the common measure that is to be expected from the world If you will be truly godly you must be taken for ungodly or for hypocrites that seem to be godly when you are not But it 's easie to bear this charge when it falls upon a whole society and takes us but in the crowd among the rest and when we have so much honourable company to suffer with us But it goes nearer us when we are singled out by name and noted and talk'd of all about as Hypocrites or Proud or worse than others But that also must be born by those that will be Christians But the greatest trial of all is when the Servants of God that should help us in our suffering have got a hard report of us and by misinformation we have lost our credit even with them Under all these false and injurious reports direct and stablish your own minds by the help of these Considerations following 1. It may be there is some special cause that you should try and judge your selves and so God doth suffer other men to judge you to awaken you to self-judging However make this use of it and you are sure to be no losers by the reproach Enter into your hearts and search them throughly as before the Lord and see if there be any way of wickedness in them which hitherto you have not discovered Try whether there be Hypocrisie and Pride or not Especially when it is the servants of God that think hardly of you and above all if it be wise impartial men that are acquainted with you it 's then your duty to be very jealous of your hearts and ways and to fear lest you are guilty and to search the more diligently and not be quiet till you either find out your sin or be sure that you are clear And if you be clear in that point yet suspect and search lest there be some other secret or allowed sin which God would detect to you or excite you against by the injurious censures of those that have reproached you 2. When you have search'd and cleared your own Consciences then consider further that though you are not such as you are censured to be yet sinners you are and you know your sins in other kinds are so many and so great that you should bear the more patiently to be hardly thought of when you know your selves to be so bad If indeed you are godly you have seen a sink of uncleanness in your selves and have condemned your selves oft and loathed your selves for your abominations and bewailed them before the Lord. And is it suitable for such a spirit to be eager after the Reputation of sincerity and to be much troubled that you are taken by others to be naught 3. And consider also that your Case may be as Davids was and God may possibly make this reproach a chastisement for some former sin and a means to humble you for it more throughly and to reclaim you from it Perhaps he bids by permissive providence some Shimei curse you It may be the voice of a slanderer must do that which the voice of a Preacher could not do And then it is your work to look behind you and within you more than without you and to hearken more to the voice of God and Conscience than of the slanderer and to take it as the rod of God and a call to a more serious Repentance 4. And consider that when you are under the false Censures of the world you may have the inward peace of a good conscience which is better than all the applause of men And this being a continual feast they cannot do much against your quietness as long as they cannot deprive you of this 5. Yea moreover you have the Approbation of God himself and that should satisfie against the censure of all the world Even a Proud man if he have any wit can bear the Contempt of the ignorant vulgar if he have but the applause of great and wise and learned men As that Orator that valued the judgement of Socrates above all the rest of his auditory But all the wisest men in the world are fools in comparison of God Having his Approbation you have the Greatest the Best and the Wisest on your side and a Judgement for you that will weigh down the judgement of ten thousand worlds 7. And if you value not Gods approbation above mans it 's a sign that you are hypocrites indeed and so the censure is not unjust But if you do then you will acquiesce in it though man condemn you and say as the Apostle Rom. 8. 33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that Justifieth who is he that condemneth And as 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgment but he that judgeth me is the Lord. And remember that the great day of Judgment is near at hand that will set all straight which the slanderous tongues of men made crooked Stay but a while and the Glory of Christ and the