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
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 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
break out in the Town and infect but a quarter as many houses as here are infectious Alehouses that harbour tiplers and drunkards and see whether the Magistrates of this or any Town will not a little better bestir themselves and send to search after infected places and nail up their doors and write on them Lord have mercy on us that all may take warning and keep away They will not here be offended with Informers nor say Am I bound to look after them And why are they not as zealous against sin as against the plague Great reason Self is for sin and God only is against it but self is against the Plague because it is concerned in it sin doth but hurt the soul and bring men to Helfire but the plague destroys their body and this is the greater matter with them because they have flesh and sense to judge of it but they have not faith to believe the other Again let but one house in the Town be on fire and all are up to quench it and the Bell is rung and the Magistrate doth not think that he wants a Call himself to look after it And when the fire of Hell is kindling in an Ale-house that 's nothing but must be let alone there 's no such zeal nor no such haste And why so Why one they see in good sadness and perceive that it is fire indeed but the other they believe in jest as if it would prove but a painted fire Again let but an ungodly fellow slander the Magistrate or call him all to naught especially if he give him but two or three boxes on the ear and see whether he will let that man alone But let the same man abuse the name of God and break his Laws and with too many he may be let alone unless they be urged to do Justice And how comes this difference Why self is toucht in one and it is but God But God! O Atheists that 's touched in the other Self can do more with them than God can do Remember still when I say that self can do more with them than God that I speak not of what God could do by his Omnipotency if he would but of the final Causality or the small interest that God hath in their hearts by holy Faith and Love Again let but a servant rob the Magistrate and carry his money and goods to an Ale-seller to reset and try whether he will look after him and the Ale-seller And why not as soon and as zealously when Ale-sellers reset mens sons and servants and drown mens understandings and turn them into beasts Why because in one it is but God and mens souls that are concerned a matter of nothing but in the other it is self a greater matter with them Shall I give you but one instance more that the Ale-sellers themselves will take my part in so far as to bear me witness that its true Here are Farmers of the Excise that have power to know what Ale-houses are in the Town and their gain lyeth on it and there shall scarce a man in Town or Country sell Ale so secretly but they will know it nor sell a Barrel but what they are acquainted with They do not say I am not bound to go search after them nor that they be not able to discover them and to bring them to pay Excise But the Justices too commonly can overlook abundance that the Excise-men can find and they cannot make one of twenty pay when the other can And what 's the matter Why one works for self and money and the other works but for God and his own and other mens salvation a small matter See then beyond denyal what self and money can do with such men when God and mens salvation can do next to nothing But I must desire you not to mistake me and think I speak this of any honest godly Magistrate and abuse the good by joyning them with the bad No far be it from me to be so injurious For its evident that they can be no good men nor have any true Love of God in their souls that are such in a predominant sense as I have here described It is not in my thoughts to lay this blame on any honest Godly Magistrate for none but the ungodly would do as I have mentioned and prefer themselves before the Lord and the bodies of men before the souls And alas if the Soveraign Powers of the Nations of the world were not too sick of the same disease gain would not be accounted Godliness but Godliness the greatest gain and carnal Policie would not go for Piety but true Piety would go for the surest Policie It would not be so common in most Nations to have the Truth and Cause of Christ disowned and his servants persecuted and their lives and blood to be made a sacrifice to carnal Self and worldly Interests Nor would the breaches of the Churches be so long unhealed and grow wider and wider and few much regard them but all have their own work to do which must be looked after Yea and the Cause of Christ and the Gospel must be trod down if it stand in the way of their own And the Churches must be set on fire by their wars and contentions for their selfish Interests And if Self were not too strong among us we should not have had such connivence at doctrinal and practical abominations nor so much delay or neglect of healing the discomposed Churches and uniting the divided Christians or attempting it more effectually than we have done But because I desire to speak to none but those that are within my hearing I will return home to our selves The holy ordering and instructing of families and suppressing sin in Children and servants is one of the most effectual works for the building up of the Church and the glory and stability of the Common-wealth O if Parents and Masters would but sanctifie their houses to the Lord and teach their families the will and fear of God and do their best by punishment when instruction will not serve to hinder sin how fast would Reformation then go on And what hindreth why carnal Self If it were but for wordly commodities they would do more Would you have me prove it Let experience speak Let a servant or child go prayerless to their work and few regard it but they will not go without meat or drink or cloaths The Master will suffer them to neglect Gods service but if they neglect his own and should do him no more or better service than they do to God they should soon hear of it and be turned out of door and they were no servants for him They will teach their children to do their own work or set them Apprentices to learn it but the work of God and their salvation they shall for them have little teaching in how plainly soever God hath commanded it them Deut. 11. 18 19. 6. 6 7 8. Ephes 6. 4. Let
a servant or child reproach his Master or Parent or call them all to naught and they think not fit to put up that nor indeed is it but let them swear by the name of God or break his Laws and they can patiently bear with it and a cold rebuke like Eli's will serve turn They can get them into field or shop to work together but they cannot get them before and after to prayer together And why is all this Why one is for Self and the other is for God One is for the body and the other is for the soul So that you see what Self can do and how commonly it is the master of Families Towns and Countries because it is the master in mens souls God must be loved above all and our neighbour as our selves But if God were allowed but so much love as a very neighbour should have it would not be all so ill with the selfish world as now it is But because I have been so long on this first discovery of the power of Self and the scarcity of Self-denyal I will be shorter in the rest that follow CHAP. V. The power of Selfishness upon mens opinions in Religion 2. ANother instance Discovering the Reign of selfishness in the world is The great Power that it hath to form mens Opinions and Conceptions in Religion Though the understanding naturally be inclined to Truth yet a selfish by as upon the soul especially on the will doth commonly delude it and make the vilest error seem to be Truth to it and the most useful Truth to seem an error The Will hath much command over the Understanding and when selfishness is become the very habit the byas the nature of the will you may easily conjecture how it will pervert the understanding But what need we more than experience to satisfie us Do you not see that where self is but deeply engaged the judgement is bribed or overmastered and carried from the Truth So that as the eye that looks through a coloured glass doth see all things as if they were of the same colour as the glass So the understanding that is mastered by a selfish inclination thinks every thing is truth that savoureth his self-interest And here I shall offer you some more particular instances 1 We all see that almost all the world is of that Religion or Opinion which hath the countenance of the Government that they live under and the persons that have greatest power on their reputation or at least which is consistent with their safety if not rising and prosperity in the world The Turks are commonly Mahometans the subjects of Rome and Spain and Austria c. are generally Papists those in Denmark Sweden Saxony c. are generally Lutherans those of Scotland England Helvetia c. are commonly Calvinists as they are called I know the power of education is great and hearing evidence only on one side may byas a well meaning man But Papists and Protestants as to the learned part have the Books of the contrary-minded at hand And therefore that Opinions should run in a stream and whole Countreys almost be of a party must needs be much from the power of selfishness because they are swayed by them that have the power of their reputation and estates and liberties in the world 2. Moreover when a man is by custome grown self-conceited or by the power of Pride is wise in his own eyes how hard a matter do we find it to convince such men by the clearest evidence They will not see when they can hardly wink so close as to keep out the light It is their opinion and therefore shall be so and they will hold it because it is their own 3. Especially if it be an Opinion of a mans own invention which is doubly his own both as he is the contriver and possessor how close will he stick to it too commonly beyond the evidence of truth because that self hath so greâ—â—â—n interest in it 4. Yea if a man be but deeply engaged for it either by laborious Disputes or confident owning it or any way so as that his credit lyeth on it how tenacious will he be of it because of the powerful interest of Self 5. And if it be but an Opinion that seems to befriend any former Opinion that we have much engaged for how much doth selfishness usually appear in our inordinate propensity to it 6. Also if we live in dayes of persecution how easily do we receive those Opinions that would keep us from prison and fire Or if any suffering lye upon it we commonly take that side to be right that is safest to the flesh except when self would be advanced by the occasion of sufferings And in prosperity if there be any controversie arise which our gain is concerned in how easily believe we the thriving opinion If any Oath Engagement or Duty be imposed on us by those that have Power to do us harm the generality are for it be it what it will In all these cases it is commonly Carnal Self that is the Judge And how far Self commands in such cases you may see by these discoveries following 1. In studying the case mens thoughts run almost all one way They study what to say for their own opinions and how to answer all that is against them but they study but very little what may be saâ—d on the other side They sit at their studies with a byassed will inclining or commanding their understanding what to do even to prove that to be true which they would have â—o be true whether it be so or not 2. And hence it is that the weakest Arguments on their own side do seem sufficient if not invincible and they stand wondering at the blindness of all those men that cannot see the force of them But no Arguments seem to have any weight that are brought against them And all this is from the power of self 3. Yea sometimes when they are silenced and know not what to say for their opinions nor how to answer the Arguments for the contrary yet they can say We are of this mind and we will be of this mind And why but because it is espoused to them and their own 4. And hence it is that if a man be but an admirer of us or of our own opinion in other things we are readier to receive an opinion from him than from another 5. And hence it is that Disputations do so sâ—ldome change mens minds because they take it to be a dishonour to be changed by another unless it be a person of great renown we envy to an Opposite the glory of altering our understandings But if we may have the doing of it our selves by the power of our own understandings and studies we will sometimes yield to change our minds He is a stranger to the ungodly world that seeth not how much self-interest doth to master their understandings and turn their hearts from the holy
upon the affairs of Nations and the wars of Princes and their confederacies and see who it is that rules in all how little will you see save here and there but carnal self It is self that makes the cause and manageth it It is self that maketh Wars and Peace Come down into our Courts of Justice and whose voice is loudest at the bar but selfs and who is it commonly else that brings in the Verdict at least who is it else that made and followeth on the quarrel How many causes hath self at an Assize for one that God hath Come lower into the Country and who is it that plows and sows who is it that keeeps House or Shop but self I mean what else but carnal self is the Principle what else but carnal self is the End what else but the will of self is the Rule and what else but selfish commodity or pleasure or honour are the matter or some provision that is made for these and consequently what else but self-respect is the form For the End informeth the means as means and therefore all that is done for self is self-service and self-seeking In a word as God is all in all to the sanctified so self is as all in all to the ungodly And alas how great a number are all these 3. Consider that it is a sin that is nearer us objectively than any other sin And the nearer the more dangerous Alas that a man should turn his own substance into poison feed upon it to his own destruction If you have drunk poyson you may cast it up again or nature may do much to work it out but if your own blood and humours and spirits be turned into venom that should nourish and preserve your life what then shall expell this venom and deliver you 4. Moreover it is the most obstinate disease in the world No duty harder except the Love of God than self-denial O how many wounds will self carry away and yet keep life and heal them all How commonly do we convince some carnal Gentlemen that One thing is needful and that its a better part than Earth and honour and sensuality that must be chosen or else they are undone and that the more they have the more they must forsake and the more self-denial is required to their salvation and that all their lands and wealth and honours and all their wit and parts and interest must be at the service of their Maker and Redeemer and that when they have all in the world that they can get that all must become Nothing and God must become all their treasure must become the dross and dung and Christ must become their treasure or they are lost I say how oft do we convince men of all estates of these important evident truths And yet this self is still alive and keeps the garrison of the heart and all that we can have from most of them is as the rich man Luk. 18. 23 24. to be very sorrowful that they cannot have heaven at easier rates and that Christ will not be a servant unto Self or they cannot have two Masters They go away sorrowful but away they go because they are rich which makes Christ say upon this observation How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God But when the Disciples were troubled at his observation he lets them know that it is Self and not Riches that is indeed the deadly enemy It is the selfish that trust in Riches and love and use them for themselves and deny not themselves and devote not all to God that will be kept out of Heaven by them Or in Christs own words Luk. 12. It is he that layeth up treasure for Himself and is not rich towards God Conquer self and Conquer all 5. Moreover self is the most constant malady the sin that doth most constantly attend us Many actual sins may be laid by and we may for the time be free from them But selfishness is at the heart and lives with us continually It parteth not from us sleeping or waking It goes to the worship of God with us it will not stay behind in the holiest ordinance It will not forbear intermixing it self in the purest duties but will defile them all So that above all sins in the world it s this that must have the strictest constantest watch or else we shall never have any peace for it 6. Yea this self doth lamentably survive even in the sanctified soul among the special graces of the Spirit and lamentably distempereth the hearts and lives of too many of the godly themselves Not that any godly man is selfish in a predominant sense or that self is higher or more powerful in his heart than God for that 's a contradiction such a man cannot be a godly man without Conversion But yet the very remnants of conquered Self what a smoak do they make in our Assemblies and what noisom scent in the lives of many godly men what a stir have we sometimes with those that we hope are godly before we can get them to an impartial judgment to lament their own fowl words or other miscarriages and to humble themselves or freely to forgive another that hath wronged them especially to confess disgraceful sins in any self-denying manner How close stick they to their own conceits how lamentably do they improve them to the contempt of Ministers trouble and division of the Church How wise are they in their own eyes and how hardly yield they to any advice that crosseth Self How hardly are they brought to any dear and costly duty How much do they indulge their appetites and passions and how cheap a Religion do many think to come to heaven with we can scarce please some of them they are so selfish either because we cross them in their opinions or in their wayes or because we allow them not so much special countenance and respect as self would have or deny them somewhat which self desires If they have any use for us if we leave not more publick or greater work which god hath set us on and allow them not that part in our time or labours or other helps which God and Conscience will not allow them they are offended take it ill that self is not preferred before God and the publick service Their selves are so dear to themselves that they think we should neglect all to serve them Let the most useful Minister live in a place that hath the plague or other contagious mortal sickness and most that are visited will take it ill if the Minister come not to them though they know that his life is hazarded by it and that his loss to the whole Church is more to be regarded than the content or benefit of particular persons and it is not the pleasing of them nor their benefit by him then that will countervail the Churches loss of him What is this but too much preferring self I
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
comfort it will be to your soul in Hell to be extolled and well spoken of on earth Will you cast away your souls to leave a Name of renown behind you And how unsutable will such Honor be to your condition surely if you be there acquainted with it you must needs be more tormented both to remember that you were seeking the fame of the world instead of the eternal glory and to consider what a miserable wretch it is that men are praising and magnifying on earth Ah then you will think with your selves Little do the poor inhabitants of the earth know what I am suffering while they are extolling me Is the applause of mortals sutable to a poor tormented soul Alas that at one and the same time men should be extolling me and Devils tormenting me How little ease do all their acclamations afford this poor distressed soul How honorable are the names of Alexander the Great Caesar Aristotle here on earth but alas what cause have we to fear that they are lamenting their misery while we are speaking of their glory 5. And the sin is much the greater because it is not a mis-chosen means but a mistaken end that your souls have fastened on For it seems your very hearts are set upon your Honours and deeply and desperately set upon them when you dare contrive the continuation of them when you are dead Were it not a matter exceeding dear to you undoubtedly you durst not lay such a design for it 6. And consider whether there be not a Love of the deadly sin of Pride and a final impenitency implyed in this ambition of a surviving name For you â—â—a design that is supposed to be executed after death And as if you desired an eternity of wickedness because your Pride it self can live no where but with your self you would have it leave those tokens behind it by which the world may know that you are Proud and the effects of it you would have perpetuated on earth And had not the world enough of your Pride while you were alive and had not you enough of it Is this your Repentance that you would leave the Monuments of your Pride unto Posterity as if you were afraid there would be no surviving witness against you to condemn you This is a certain transcendency of sin The common wicked ones would fain die the death of the Righteous and wish their last end were like to his But these men would have their Pride to live for ever and when they themselves are in another world they would have the demonstrations of their iniquity survive them 7. And I beseech you consider what a fearful thing it is to die in contrived beloved sin when men have none but a death-bed Repentance we have much cause to fear lest it be but fear that is the life of their Repentance But when they have not this much but are desirous to leave the Monuments of their vice to all Generations from whence then shall we fetch our hopes of their forgiveness And O what a power hath Pride in that soul where the thoughts of Death it self will give no stop to it but still they are desirous that Pride may over-live them One would think that the serious thoughts of a grave much more of our passage into another world should level all such thoughts of a surviving honour even in an unsanctified soul But I much fear lest it be infidelity it self that is the root of all and that men do not soundly believe an everlasting life with â—…d which makes them desire to have somewhat like 〈…〉 Immortality here on earth 8. And consider what a silly immortality you desire The honour can be no greater than the persons are that honour you nor no longer And it is but poor mortals that will magnifie your Names and what can they add to you and it will be but a very little while for it is not long that the world is to continue 9. And consider what a wickedness is here commonly included Proud men desire to be thought better than they are and spoken of accordingly They limit not mens estimation to the truth of their deserts Otherwise if the best and greatest of you all were thought no better or greater than you are alas how far would men be from admiring you what would you be thought but worms and sinners and such as after all your glory cannot forbid a crawling worm to feed upon your face or heart and such as deserve no less than hell and have many a secret sin that the world was unacquainted with But it is not a true but false Esteem that the Proud desire They care not how great or how good or how wise and learned the world and succeeding ages think them And thus they desire to cheat mens understandings and to leave a false History of themselves on earth and to have all men believe and report untruths to magnifie men whose souls it 's much to be doubted are in hell or if they be not must needs abhor such doings And thus every Proud and selfish man would be a false Historian and cheater of the world 10. Yea which is yet the worst of all they would continue sacrilegiously to rob the Lord of his honour even when they are dead It is an undue honour which is stoln from God which they so much seek for For were it but such as is a useful means to his honour he would not be offended with them And when the Saints say Not unto us Lord but unto thy name give the glory these sinners are not content to rob God of his honour as long as they live but they would do it even after death If we had not certainly known the truth of it we should have thought it an incredible thing that ever any man should come to that impiety pride and madness as to desire to be worshipped as a God when he was dead Much more that the most of the world should be so far distracted as to do it And yet so it hath been and so it is in too great a measure And truly the wicked or Proud disposition that is predominant in the hearts of all the unsanctified doth take up no snorter where it hath but hopes of success to actuate it Not a man of them but would be honoured as Gods when they are dead Though I know those of them that feel not this much in themselves will hardly believe it Consider what an hainous injury this is to God and to the souls of men that you should leave your Names as Idols to the world to entice so many thousand men to sin and to be a standing enemy to the honour of God by encroaching on his right and turning the eye of mens observation and admiration from him to you 11. Consider also how that by these desires of earthly honour to your selves and making this the End of your endeavours you corrupt abundance of excellent works materially considered and
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
God is and to what end he made redeemed sustaineth and governeth the world And then bethink you whether it be meet that this glorious God should be neglected and frustrated of the end of all these works and whether any thing besides him be fit to be the creatures end You think it meet that every workman should have the use of his own work Doth any man make a House for its own sake or for his use to dwell in Is it for the things sake that any man makes an Instrument or for his service by it Do you think that God made you for your selves and not for himself and service give therefore to God the things that are Gods All souls are his and therefore all should acknowledge him and submit to his dispose and pleasure Shall the pot quarrel with the Potter or claim title to it self and say I am mine own It is against the clearest reason in the world that any but the Creator Redeemer and Perserver of the world should be Lord and the Governour and the end of it and that men should prefer themselves before him Direct 4. Moreover it will further your self-denial to remember what you will get by selfishness God will have his Ends and Honour out of you one way or other whether you will or no He will have your goods from you and your lives from you and the faster you hold them the more you will suffer when he wringeth them out of your hands The most covetous man would part with his money to buy a Lordship if he knew it would else be taken from him A worldly treasure is obnoxious to rust and mothes and Thieves and if you exchange it not for the heavenly treasure in time and remove not your riches to the world that you must for ever live in what will you do when you must remove your selves And all your self-denial is but such an exchange or removal which all should be glad of that know they must be gone themselves Nay more consider still that selfishness makes you an Idol to your self and therefore you do but set up your sâ—lves as a Mark for the jealous God to shoot at and every hour you have reason to expect that the terrible hand of Justice â—â—ould lay hold upon you and trâ— you at the bar of that God whose Prerogative you did Usurp Direct 5. And it may much further your selfdenial to take a considerate survey of all the world and see but what self-seeking hath already done and is still doing in it What a doleful sight of wickedness confusion and misery must you see which way ever you look and all is most evidently the fruit of selfishness Me thinks it â—â—ould awaken every sober man against it that doth but observe what work it hath made that seeth Families disordered and ruined by it Neighbours set in dissention by it Churches divided by it Religion dishonoured by it and multitudes of them that seem to be religious to be so lamentably deceived and enslaved by it Princes and great men blinded by it Judges and Learned men befooled by it and the Nations of the world almost all set together by the ears by it So that it hath turned the world into the Confusion of Babel that no man can understand a word of the Language that tendeth to Unity Peace and building up Princes understand it not too many Preachers understand it not but the Language of scorn and strife and dissention they understand so that the world is cast all into a hurly burly and every mans hand is against his Brother when he scarce knows why No Church or State can stand without disturbance No truths without contradiction Under pretence of coming in to Christ they are busily uncovering his House when the door is wide open and there are more to invite them than to hinder them Me thinks as a man that observeth the carriage of mad men or drunken men should never have any mind to be mad or drunken so he that observeth but what self-seeking hath done in the world should have little mind to be self-conceited self-willed or self-seeking but should love and honour self-denial Direct 6. If you would promote self-denial keep with you the continual feeling of your own unworthiness and insufficiency No man will trust upon a broken staff if he know it nor be so foolish as to go about to walk upon the water which he knows will not bear him One would think this should be an easie and an effectual remedy Should it not be easie for such wretched sinners as we to carry about with us a sense of our unworthiness For such Lepers to carry about us a sense of our uncleanness Me thinks so many and great Diseases should make us feel them O then consider as creatures you are utterly insufficient for your selves and as sinners much more God never made you to live upon or to your selves or without him or without the help of others There are few beasts when they are first brought forth into the world but are more able to help themselves than man When he is newly born he can do nothing to help himself And when he comes to Age he is naturally formed to a sociable life so that if he should retire from the world and live onely by and of himself he would soon find what it is to be selfish Much more if he be left to himself by God or forsake God and trust to and depend upon himself But if ever innocent man had been sufficient for himself yet sinful man can have no pretence to such a priviledge while he beareth about him so many convincing evidences of the contrary every day Do you not feel sin as a heavy burden pressing you down and perceive how easily it entangleth and besetteth you sure you do if you be not past feelin And do you not know enough of the nature and desert of sin to drive you out of your selves and bring you to him that calleth the weary and heavy laden to come to him for ease and rest Mat. 11. 28. Do you not feel a continual burden of infirmities and doth not experience tell you that you are not sufficient to relieve your selves in any pain or sickness that doth befal you you cannot support your selves a moment you are still in the hands of that invisible God whom you abuse by your self-seeking You would drop into Hell if he withdrew the hand of his patience and support as sure as a stone would fall to the earth that were loose in the Air As truly as the earth beareth you so truly doth he bear the earth and you It is easier for Houses and Towns and Mountains to stand in the Air without the Earth than for you or any thing to subsist a moment without the Lord. Who keeps your heart and pulse still beating and your blood and spirits in continual motion and warm in your veins Is it God or you Who is it that causeth