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
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
turning from Cod to self and to the creature for self so that he now studyeth and useth and loveth the Creature but for himself And so he would have himself and all as far out of the hands of God in his own as possibly he can I gave you my thoughts in the beginning that this was the meaning of mans knowing Good and Evil by the Fall And since I wrote that I meet with the same Exposition in Damascene do Orthodox fid li. 11. c. 11. p. mihi 113. part of whose words I shall here translate In the midst of Paradise God planted the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge And the Tree of Knowledge was for the tryal and proof and the exercise of mans obedience and disobedience And therefore it is called the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil Or because it gave man a power to Know his Own nature which indeed to the perfect is good but to the infirm is evil and to them that are yet prone to concupiscence as strong meats to the weak and those that need milk For the Lord that created us would not have us careful and troubled about many things nor to become Contrivers and Providers for our own lives into which it was that Adam fell For when he had eaten he knew that he was naked and made hmself an apron of fig-leaves to cover his nakedness But before both Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed And God would have had us insensible of or not to suffer by such things For this is but an insensibility or impassibility But we had One work only to do without vexation and care which is the work of Angels unweariedly and continually to praise our Creator and to delight in the contemplation of him and to cast all our care on him as he taught us by the Prophet David saying Cast thy care on the Lord and he shall nourish thee aud the Lord taught his own Disciples in the Gospel Take no care what you shall eat nor wherewith you shall be cloathed and again Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and these things shall be added to you and to Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful Mary hath chosen best part which shall not be taken from her that is to sit at his feet and hear his word and this is the tree of Life So far Damascene who you see driveth at the same sense though it be not clearly and fully exprest by him And as man by his Fall desired to know what was good and evil for himself that is to his own Nature for his daily provision and safety that he might be able to choose for himself and not trust himself wholly on the Provision of God so accordingly God in judgment hath given him over to himself according to his desire of which more anon And accordingly our Restauration from this lapsed state consisteth in retiring from our selves to God and giving up to him again those minds those thoughts those wills those affections that have been all this while detained from him and mis-imployed by self Down then with this Idol and set up God Did you make your selves or redeem your selves or do you sustain your selves or are you sufficient for your selves Let him that doth all this for you be acknowledged to have the only Title to you And consider what an odious crime it i for such worms to exalt themselves as Gods and so deny the Lord to be their God CHAP. LXIV Enemy to all Morality Faith Prayer Obedience 2. MOreover this Self is the Enemy as of God himself so also of all the frame of Morality Of Every Article of your Belief and Every Petition in the Lords Prayer and of every one of the ten Commandments and of the whole Word of God 1. For your Belief it advanceth your own Reason against it as to the Truth of it so that you cannot discern these things of God because they are spiritually discerned It shutteth up your understandings against the Meaning of it so that when you know the Grammatical sense of the words you know not haâ— the meaning yet for all that The words are written to signifie the spiritual apprehensions and affections which the holy inditers had of the matter signified by them And till you come by the help of those words to have the same impress upon your souls the same apprehensions and affections which the inditers had and intended to express by them you have not the perfect understanding of the Scriptures And therefore while you are wholly without their spiritual Apprehensions and Affections you do not so much as sincerely or truly understand them however you may be able to speak as good Grammarians and true Expositors in the explaining of them to others And also selfishness in the Will doth make you disrelish the Doctrine which you should believe because that being Practical either the Doctrine or its consequence or the Practice that it puts you on is against your carnal self and interest 2. And for Prayer I might easily shew you that self contradicteth all the parts of it You should first Pray that the Name of God may be Hallowed making his Glory the End of your desires But self must be its Own End and seek the Honour of its Own Name and less regardeth the Hallowing of Gods You must pray that the Kingdom of God may come But this Kingdom treadeth down self as an enemy and therefore no marvel if self be unwilling of it Would you be deposed and subjected to a spiritual government and do nothing nor have nothing but at the pleasure of Christ The Reign of self is contrary to his reign You must pray that the Will of God may be done But self hath a Will that is contrary to Gods Will and every carnal man would be a Lawgiver to himself and unto others and had rather have his Own will done than Gods Oâ— else whence come all the sins of your lives which are nothing but the doing of your own wills and the not doing the Will of God! You must pray each day for your daily bread as children that live not on their own provision but on their Fathers love and bounty and have their address to him for all they want desiring but such supplies as are necessary or useful to them for his service But self desireth more than daily bread desireth not so much to strengthen you for Gods service as to delight and gratifie the flesh and had rather have its stock in its own possession than daily to fetch it as you use it from God You must pray daily for the forgiveness of your sins as people that are grieved for them and weary of them and hate them and are sensible of the want and worth of pardon and of the abundant Grace of Christ that purchased it and the preciousness of the Gospel-promises that conveigh it and of your own
that blemisheth Judges and Justices and Officers with the stains of partiality avarice and injustice It is this that disturbeth the peace of Nations that will not let Princes Rule for God and consequently overthrows their Thrones that will not let subjects Obey them in the Lord but le ts in wars and miseries upon them that sets the Nations together by the ears and so continueth them yea it is self that will not let neighbours live together in Peace that provoketh people to disobey their Teachers and Teachers to be man-pleasers and neglect the people that will not let Masters and Servants Parents and Children Husband and Wife live peaceably and lovingly one with other It is the common make-bate and troubler of the world Nay it is self that causeth most of the new Opinions and practises in Religion that sets up Popery and most other Sects and causeth the Pastors to contend for superiority to the troubling of the Church after all the plain prohibitions of Christ In a word selfishness is the grand enemy of God and man the Disease of Depraved lapsed nature the very heart of Original sin and the old man the root of all the Iniquity in the world the breach of every Commandment of the Law the enemy of every Article of Faith and every Petition in the Lords Prayer and by that time we have added the rest of its deformity you will see whether it be not the very Image of the Devil as the Love of God and our neighbour which is its contrary is the image of God But now on the contrary side Self-denial complyeth with all Divine Revelations and disposeth the soul to all holy Requests and to the observation of every Command of God It humbly stoopeth to the mysteries of Faith which others proudly quarrel with in the dark It makes a man say O what am I that I should set my wit against the Lord and make my Reason the Touch-stone of his truth and think to Comprehend his judgements that are incomprehensible It causeth a man to sit as a little child at the feet of Christ to learn his will and say Speak Lord for thy servant heareth It silenceth the carpings of an unsatisfied understanding and limiteth the enquiries of a busie prying presumptuous wit and subdueth the contradictions of flesh and blood It casteth off that Pride and self-conceitedness that hindreth others from believing In Prayer it bringeth an emptied soul that is not stopped up against the grace and blessings of God It layeth us low in a receiving posture It emptieth us of our selves that we may be filled with God It hath nothing to say against any one of those Requests which Christ hath put into our mouths but subscribeth to them all It is the highest ambition the greatest desire of a self-denying soul that Gods Name may be hallowed and honoured whatever become of his own Name or honour and that the Kingdom of God may flourish in which he desireth to be a subject and that the will of God may be done and the will of himself and all the world conformed and subjected to it And so of the rest of the Petitions Self-denial is half the life of Prayer And it is a dutiful observer of all the Commandments It giveth up our Love to God as his Own and consequently worshippeth him in Love and Reverenceth his name and observeth his time and indeed is wholly devoted to him And it giveth our neighbour that part of our Love which belongeth to him and therefore will not dishonour superiors or encroach upon the possessions of others or injure them for his own ends And indeed what should draw a self-denying man to sin were he but perfect in self-denial when the poise is taken off the wheels all stand still Self-denial doth frustrate Temptations and leave them little to work upon What should move a self-denying man to be Proud or covetous or injurious to others no man doth evil but it seemeth good and for some good that he imagineth it will do him And this seeming good is to carnal self And therefore a self-denying man hath taken off the byass of sin and turned out the deceiver and when Satan comes he hath little in him to make advantage of O how easily may you take sin out of the hands of the self-denying and make them cast it away with lamentation when other men will hold it as fast as their lives O try this speedy way of Mortification Would you but destroy this Original breeding sin you would destroy all All the sins of your lives are the fruits of your selfishness kill them at the heart and root if you would go the nearest way to work What abundance of sin doth self-denial kill at once Indeed it is the sum of mortification And therefore be sure that you deny your selves CHAP. LXV Contrary to the State of Holiness and Happiness 3. MOreover Selfishness is contrary to the State of Holiness and Happiness contrary to every grace and contrary to the life of Glory For it is the use of all grace to recover the soul from selfishness to God that God may be Loved and Self-love may be overcome that God may be trusted and pleased and his service may be our care and business when before our care was to Please our selves And the very felicity of the soul consisteth in a closing and communion with God The soul that will be happy must be conscious of self-insufficiency and must go out of it self and seek after life in God It must forsake it self and apply it self to him Men lose their labour till they deny themselves by going to a broken empty cistern and forsaking the fountain of living waters The nearer men are to God and the more fully they are conformed to him and close with him and know him and love him the happyer they are Glory it self is but the nearest and fullest intuition and fruition of God And he that hath most of him here in his soul and in the creatures providences and ordinances is the happiest man on Earth and likest to the glorified And there is no approach to God but by departing from carnal self I know self-seeking men do think of finding more peace and comfort in that way but they are alway deceived of their hopes It is self-denial that is the way to peace and comfort While we rest on our selves or are taken up with anxious caring for our selves we are but tost up and down as on a tempestuous sea and are seeking Rest but never find it but when we retire from our selves to God we are presently at the harbour and find that Peace which before we sought in vain I confess in the too-little experience that I have my self of the way of peace and quiet to the soul I must needs say there is none to this There is none but this Never can I step out but self meets with somewhat that is vexatious and displeasing to it This business goes cross