we should take Liberty to contradict them and to speak for Christ and the souls of men till they have deprived us of tongues or pens or lives And they must expect that we obey God rather than men and that as Paul did Peter Gal. 2. 11. we withstand them to the face and that Satan shall not be unresisted because he is transformed into an Angel of Light nor his Ministers be unresisted because they are transformed into the Ministers of Righteousness nor the false Apostles and deceitful workers because they are transformed into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 13 14 15. Nor must they think to do so horrid a thing as to weave their Libertinism Toleration of Popery into a new Fundamental Constitution of the Common-wealth which Parliaments must have no power to alter and that the ages to come shall curse us for our silence and say that Ministers and other Christians were all so basely selfish as for fear of reproaches or sufferings to say nothing but cowardly to betray the Gospel and their Countrey If the rattling of the hail of persecution on the tiles even on this flesh which is but the tabernacle of our souls be a terrible thing how much more terrible is the indignation of the Lord and the threats of him that is a consuming fire If you can venture your life against an enemy in the field we are bastards and not Christians if we cannot venture ours and give them up to persecuting rage as long as we know that we have a Master that will save us harmless and that the God whom we serve is able to deliver us that he hath charged us not to fear them that kill the body and after that can do no more c. and that he hath told us that we are blessed when men revile us and persecute us and say all manner of evil against us falsly for his sake bidding us Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is our reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets that were before us Mat. 5. 10 11 12. and when we are told that he that will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for the sake of Christ shall finde it Mat. 16. 25. and when we know that we own a cause that shall prevail at last and resist them whose end shall be according to their works 2 Cor. 11. 15. And what though this be unknown to the opposers That will not warrant us to betray a cause that we know to be of God nor will the ignorance of others excuse us for neglecting known truth and duty If the souls of private persons be worth all the study and labour of our lives and we must deal faithfully with them whatever it shall cost us surely the safety of a Nation and the hopes of our posterity and the publick interest of Christ is worthy to be spoken for with much more zeal and we may suffer more joyfully for contradicting a publick destroyer of the Church than for telling a poor drunkard or whoremonger of his sin and misery Hither to I have permitted my pen to express my sense of the common want of self-denial in the Land Now give me leave as your most affectionate faithful friend to turn my stile a little to your self and earnestly to entreat of you these following particulars I. In general that as long as you live you will watch against this common deadly sin of Selfishness and study continually the duty of Self-denial We shall be empty of Christ till we are Nothing in our selves Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Self is the strongest and most dangerous enemy that ever you fought against It is a whole Army united and the more dangerous because so near Many that have fought as valiantly and successfully against other enemies as you have at last been conquered and undone by Self And conquer it you cannot without a conflict And the conflict must endure as long as you live And combating is not pleasing to the enemy And therefore as long as self is the enemy and self-pleasing so natural to corrupted man that should be wholly addicted to please the Lord Self-denial will prove a difficult task And if somewhat in the advice that would engage you deeper in the conflict should seem bitter or ungrateful I should not wonder And let me freely tell you that your prosperity and advancement will make the work so exceeding difficult that since you have been a Major General and a Lord and now a Counsellor of State you have stood in a more slippery perillous place and have need of much more grace and vigilancy than when you were but Baxter's Friend Great places and employments have great temptations and are great avocations of the mind from God And no errour scarcely can be small that is committed in publick great Affairs which the honour of God and the temporal and spiritual welfare of so many do in somesort depend upon These times have told us to our grief what Victory and Prosperity can do to strengthen the selfish principle in men They have swallowed Camels since they were lifted up that would have strained at Gnats in a lower state The Ministery and Ordinances and Holy Communion that once were sweet to them are grown into contempt Centaury and Wormwood are excellent helps to procure an appetite and strengthen the stomach but marrow and sweetness breed a loathing The Vertiginous disease is not so strong with them that are on the ground as with them that stand on the top of a steeple I had rather twenty times look up at them that are so exalted than stand with them and have the terror of looking down Had not professors been intoxicated by prosperity they had not believed and lived so giddily I have often seen mens reason marr'd with a cup or two too much but seldom by too little And too many I have known that have wounded conscience and sold their souls for the love of Prosperity and Wealth but none that ever did it for Poverty For a rich man to be saved is impossible to man though all things are possible with God Matth. 19. 26. Luke 18. 27. For my own part I bless God that hath kept me from greatness in the world and I take it as the principal act of Friendship that ever you did for me that you provoked me to this sweet though flesh-displeasing life of the Ministry in which I have chosen to abide I had rather lie in health on the hardest bed than be sick upon the softest And I see that a fether-bed maketh not a sick man well The sleep of the labouring man is sweet The plow-mans brown bread and cheese is more savoury to him and breedeth fewer sicknesses than the fulness and variety of the rich This Country Diet doth not cherish Voluptuousness Arrogancy Vain-glory Earthly-mindedness Uncharitableness and other selfish diseases so much as worldly
hope not habitually but in that act before the Church and honour of God Let a Minister or any other man resolve to bestow all that God hath given him for his service on the poor or pious uses Perhaps he shall displease as many as he pleaseth because he hath not enough for all and if he give to nineteen the twentieth will say He past by me and I am never the better And thus this insatiable unreasonable self will hardly be pleased And among the godly how much doth it prevail O how many Ministers in England can tell by sad experience how much of self surviveth in Professors so much that we can hardly rule them or keep them from breaking all to pieces and every man running away of his own The ruine of England's expected Reformation the fall of our hope in too great a measure the multiplying of sects the swarms of errors the rage against the faithfullest Ministers the neglect of Discipline and obstinate refusal of penitent confessions and humbling self-denying duties the backwardness to learn the forwardness to be teachers the high esteem of weak parts and weaker grace the commonness of backbiting censuring and slandering especially those that are not of their fond opinions the rising designs of many the tenderness of their reputations the contendings for preheminence all these with many others do too loudly tell the world how much of self and how little self-denial is in many that seem godly 7. But yet this is not the highest discovery of the power of Carnal self Though its sad to think that it should be so potent in any that have grace yet it s sadder to think that it hath too much Power in the wisest and most learned Magistrates and Ministers that should be the greatest enemies of it in the rest A Magistrate as a Magistrate is for the common good Political societies consisting of Soveraign and Subject are therefore called Commonwealths from the final Cause which is the common good or weal of all so that it is essential to a Magistrate to be for the common good And yet self creeps in and makes such work with many of them that its hard to judge whether it have left them the essence of the Magistracy and whether they should be called Magistrates or no. But yet it s sadder that the Learned Godly Preachers of self-denial should have so little of it as too many have Alas that Ministers do not remember how ill Christ took the first contendings among his Disciples who should be the greatest that they do not imprint upon their minds the image of Christs setting a child before them and after girding himself and washing their feet I think those men that make a Sacrament of this do err much less than those that forget it And I suspect that our contrariety to this example will tempt some ere long into this contrary extream and it may be set up as a Sacrament indeed O woful case to be daily lamented by all the compassionate members of the Church that the Learned Zealous Pastors of it are the leaders fomenters and continuers of her divisions and when they have opportunity to seek for healing they want a will and so much of self surviveth in them that though God call to them for Peace and Unity and the bleeding Church is begging it of them on her knees yet self hath such power over them that God is not heard and the Church cannot be regarded but Peace and Piety and all must be sacrificed to the will and Interest of self As if they were the Priests of self and the honour of God and Peace of the Church were the daily sacrifice which they have to offer Not a motion can be made for Reformation or Unity but some selfish Ministers rise up to strangle it under pretence of mending the terms Not a consultation can be held but self creeps in yea openly appears and ravels the work and will needs be the doer of all that 's done or nothing must go on that 's done against it O Blessed Nation if self-denial were more eminent predominant therein O pretious Ministry and Great and Honourable if we truly sought our honour in the habit of children and by being the servants of all O happy Churches abounding in Holiness and Peace if once the Pastors and People were better skilled in the practice of self-denial I must confess to the praise of Gods grace many such Ministers and people I have had the happiness to converse with and how sweet the fruit hath been both to them and me both they and I are ready to confess But one self-seeking unmortified Minister is enough to disturb a whole society and break the good endeavours of many And alas how many such are abroad that talk of almost nothing but their opinions or parties or carnal interests and are not in the harvest as Reapers to gather but as wild beasts that are broken in to make spoil or Sampsons Foxes to set all on fire running up and down from Country to Country with fire-brands at their tails and stings in their mouths which they call by the reverend name of Zeal But you may think I have been long in discoveries aggravations and complaints and therefore I will go no further in that sort of work but only to adjoyn these three or four practical consectaries following CHAP. X. Some weighty Consectaries Consect 1. SO common and Potent is selfishness in the world that its enough to convince a rational Considerate man of the truth of the doctrine of the fall of man and of Original corruption against all the objections that all the Socinians or Pelagians in the world do make against it He that thinks that God made man in this distempered distracted state that selfishness doth hold the world in hath unreasonable thoughts of the workmanship of God He that seeth even children before they can speak or go so selfish as they are all mankind without exception to be naturally as so many Idol gods in the world and can believe that this is the Image of God in which they were created doth make the Image of Satan to be the Image of God No wiser no better is the Doctrine that denieth Original sin when self hath such a tyrannical universal raign in all the world Consect 2. So deep rooted and powerful and universal is this abominable vice that it must teach us what to expect in all places we live in and may help us to make the truest Prognosticks or probablest conjectures of any mutations where the will of man is like to be the determiner Know once but where self-interest lies and you may know what almost all men will endeavour and might write a probable Prognostication of the changes that are like to be in States and Kingdoms and anywhere in the world were it not for the interposition of two greater Powers that have got the victory of self and that is Grace and Divine-over-ruling Providence I
turn them into mortal sins If Princes rule fight for themselves I have told you already what they do but if this were done for God it would have another form and another reward as it had another End What a doleful case is it that such excellent works as alms-deeds and acts of bounty to Church or poor or Commonwealth in buildings lands or any the like works should be all turned into sin and death by such a selfish vain-glorious intent And that their souls should be suffering for those works that others receive much good by What a sad case is it that Historians Lawyers Physicians Philosophers Linguists and the Professors of all the Sciences should undo themselves for ever by those excellent works that edifie the world Nay what can be more lamentable to think of than that able and learned Divines themselves should lose their own souls in the studying and preaching those precious truths that are saving unto others and that such excellent writings as remain a standing blessing to the Church should be the Authors of mortal sin And yet so it is if the renown and immortality of a name on Earth be the End that all this work is done for 12. Lastly Consider that if Honour be good for you it is better attained by minding your duty for the Honour of God and denying your own Honour than by seeking it For Honour is the shadow that will follow you if you fly from it and fly from you if you follow it What Christ here saith of Life is true of Honor He that seeketh and saveth it shall lose it and he that loseth it for Christ shall find it The greatest Honour is to deny our selves and our own honour and to do most for the Honour of God and to be contented to be nothing that God may be all For you have his promise that them that honour him he will honour but they that despise him shall be lightly esteemed THough I have endeavoured by a right limitation and exposition of the foregoing parts of self-denial to prevent mistakes and give you those grounds by which objections may be answered yet the stir that is made in the world about this point by Papists and many other mistaking Sects doth perswade me to give a more distinct Resolution of some of the principal doubts that are before us and therein to shew you that self-denial consisteth not in all things that by some are pretended to be parts of it but that there is a great deal of sin that goes under the name of self-denial among many of these sorts of mistaken persons CHAP. LI. Q. Whether Self-denial lie in renouncing Propriety Quest 1. WHether doth self-denial require us to renounce Propriety and to know nothing as our own as the Monks among the Papists swear to do as part of their state of perfection a book called The way to the Sabbath of Rest dothteach us Answ 1. That there should be no Propriety in goods or estate among men is contrary to the will of God who hath made men his Stewards and trusted several persons with several talents and forbidden stealing and commanded men to labour that they may have to give to him that needeth and he that hath this worlds goods and seeth his brother have need must not shut up the bowels of his compassion It is a standing duty to give to the poor and we shall therefore have the poor always with us for this exercise of our Charity And he that hath nothing can give nothing nor use it for God Why did Paul require them to give to the distressed Saints and maintain the Ministry and gather for such uses every first day of the week if he would have men have nothing to give This therefore is a conceit that needs nothing but Reason and the reading and belief of Scripture to confute it 2. But as no man is a Proprietary or hath any thing of his Own in the strict and Absolute sense because all is Gods and we are but Stewards so no man may retain his humane analogical propriety when God calleth him to give it up No man may retain any thing from Gods Use and service which he hath a propriety in We have so much Propriety as that no man must rob us and so much as our works of charity are rewardable though it be but giving a cup of cold water which could not be without propriety for who will reward him that gives that which is none of his own yea it is made the matter of the last judgement I was hungry and ye fed me I was naked and ye cloathed me c. Which they could not have done if they had not had food and cloathing to bestow So that the denial of propriety would destroy all exercise of charity in such kinds and destroy all Societies and orderly converse and industry in the world But yet when God calls for any thing from us we must presently obey and quit all title to it and resign it freely and gladly to his will And 3. There must be so much vigour of charity and sense of our neighbours wants as that no man must shut up the bowels of compassion but as we must love our neighbours as our selves so must we relieve them as a second self yea and before our selves if Gods service or honour should require it If we must lay down our lives for the brethren much more our estates So that Levelling Community is abominable but Charitable Community is a Christian duty and the great Character of sincere Love to Christ in his members And therefore in the Primitive Church there was no forbidding of Propriety but there was 1. A resignation of all to God to signifie that they were contented to forsake all for him and did prefer Christ and the Kingdom of God before all and 2. There was so great vigor of true Charity as that all men voluntarily supplied the wants of the Church and poor and voluntarily made all things as common that is Common by voluntary Communication for use though not common in primary title And so no man took any thing as his Own when God and his Churches and his Brethrens wants did call for it O that we had more of that Christian Love that should cause a Charitable Community which is the true Mean between the Monkish Community and the selfish tenacious Propriety Levelling hath not destroyed one soul for ten thousand that an inordinate love of Propriety hath destroyed CHAP. LII Q. Whether it lie in renouncing Marriage Quest 2. WHether Self-denial consists in the forswearing or renouncing of Marriage or the natural use of it by those that are marryed Answ. To forbid Marriage simply is called by the holy Ghost a Doctrine of Devils 1 Tim. 4. 1 3 and was one of the Heresies that the Apostles were called out to encounter in their own days But yet a Married state doth ordinarily not always call men off from that free attendance on the
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
common good as may exceedingly promote it if they be observed by posterity must have a great regard to his present and surviving fame because the honour of his Laws will depend much upon the honour of his name and if once the people vilifie him they will be likely to vilifie and cast off his Laws to the hurt of Church and Common-wealth and their own undoing And even as to the success of their present Government they should be very careful of their fame so also a Minister of the Gospel must be very careful of his present and future reputation For at present the saving good of his auditors doth much depend upon it For if they have a base esteem of the Pastor they will be unlikely to give diligent intention to his Doctrine but disesteem it as they do the speaker and it is not likely to go to their hearts Nor will they seek his advice in the great matters of salvation and the difficult cases and dangers that they meet with but to the great hazard of their souls will slight the necessary assistance of him that is appointed to be their guide to heaven and will set light by all the Ordinances of God And therefore the Pastors Reputation is ten thousand times more beneficial and necessary to the people than to himself For alas it is but their good thoughts and words that he receiveth which add little to his happiness but it 's everlasting life which they may receive by that Word of God and help from him which is furthered by his Reputation And therefore as Ministers should be exceeding watchful against Pride that they desire not Honor for themselves so when they are sure that God is their end they must be exceeding careful of their own Reputation and avoid all occasions appearances of evil and purchase it by all just means For though honour be worth little yet the Cause of God and the souls of men are worth much and we must not be prodigal of our Masters Talents and such as are very useful to his service Our Reputation is Gods and the Churches due and to be cherished for their use Especially those Ministers must be careful of their Reputation that by Reformation or Publick useful writings are capable of profiting Posterity and they may desire the surviving of their honours which for it self might not be desired because their works and writings and Doctrine are like to be much blasted by their own defamations and do little good to any that come after Nay the precious truths and cause of God may be most dangerously wronged and disadvantaged by it and get such a blot and dishonour by their dishonour that any that shall seek the promoting of it hereafter may be greatly hindered and disadvantaged thereby For it will seem enough to cast off such a Doctrine for ever that by the dishonour of the maintainers it was once dishonourable and rejected as an error And doubtless some things have been thus made Heresies and so will be long rejected as Heresies in many parts of the Christian world because they were once called by that name and that was because the Person that did own them had some such dishonour or disadvantage as left his Doctrine open to this reproach And therefore you may here see what a Potent instrument Reputation is in the Devils hand to do his work and what abundance of advantage he gets by defaming Gods servants Principally by this means did he long keep the world from the entertainment of the Gospel the servants of Christ being contemptible in their eyes and the preaching of the cross but foolishness to them By this means did the Pharisees hinder the Jews from believing in Christ And by this means is Heathenism Infidelity and Mahometanism continued in possession of most of the world to this day By this means it is that Popery keeps the common people in thraldom as the voluminous lies of Cochlaeus Bolsecus and many others concerning Luther Calvin Zuinglius and other of our Reformers and Writers do fully testifie And by personal reproaches and dishonours it is that the Doctrine of the Reformed Divines is made so odious among the Lutherans and the like instances might be given in others If now any weighty Christian Verity should be asserted by any Pastor of the Church in a sounder and clearer manner than is commonly known or owned if the person that doth it should but fall under any reproach which he shall be sure of if the Devil can procure it it 's two to one but for his sake his Doctine will be stigmatized with the name of error and so lie buried for ever till Divine Omnipotency commands its Resurrection And hence it is that there is not one Instrument that ever God raiseth up to vindicate any truth or ordinance or do him any special service but Satan raiseth up tongues and pens if not hands and swords against him and an Army of reproachers will presently be on the back of him Now in all such cases as these it is a great duty for any servant of Christ to be very regardful of his Reputation even with Posterity For his good name may much promote the Truth as we know the Name of Austin Calvin and many another doth at this day And if it be our great duty to extend our service of God as far as we can to all Countries and to all posterity to do them good then is it our duty to endeavour that a good Reputation should go along with our labours to further the success or remove impediments And thus while we are sincere and intend all for God we may and must regard our honour and yet in so doing we Deny our selves because we do it not for our selves but for God and his Church 2. And if honour be given in to us this way even as we partake of it our selves as a Means to Gods honour we must thankfully accept it esteem it and rejoyce in it And therefore it is made the matter of many promises and spoken of in Scripture as a blessing Prov. 22. 1. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and 10. 7. The memory of the Just is blessed but the name of the wicked shall rot Eccles 7. 1. A good name is better than precious oyntment with many the like Thus much I have said to prevent a mis-application of that which followeth and to help you so to understand me on this point of Honour as not to run from extream into extream and to sin by seeking to avoid sin But alas this kind of seeking our Honour for God and his Church and not for our selves and as our own I doubt is more rare than the neglect of honour The sin that I disswade you from is in these two points 1. That you do not Affect and seek after Extending or surviving Reputation for your selves and out of a Proud desire to be still some body in the estimation of the world 2.