not as certainly now as he shall do in his sickness And yet in health these wretches will not be awakened so much to fear it as may restrain them from sin and help them to prepare for it It 's troublesome precise talk with them to talk of making ready to die Either they slight it or love not to hear or think of it And yet the same men when death is coming and they see they must away are even amazed with fear and horror And I cannot blame them unless they were in a better case But this I must blame them for as most unreasonable that they can make such a lamentable complaint when death and Hell are near hand and yet make so light of it all their life time CHAP. XXXIX Answer to their doubts that fear death BUt because this is the hardest part of self-denial and yet most necessary and the particular subject of my Text I shall stay upon it yet so much longer as to resolve a question of some doubting Christians and to give you some Directions for the furtherance of self-denial herein Object If it be a necessary part of self-denial to deny our own lives I am much afraid that I am no Disciple of Christ as having no true self-denial For I find that for all these Reasons I cannot be willing to die but when you have said all that can be said death is the most terrible thing in the world to me Answ I pray you lay together these following particulars for answer to this great and common doubt 1. Death as death is naturally dreadful to all and the best men as men are naturally averse to it and abhor it No man can desire death as death nor ought to do it If it had not been an evil to nature it had not been fit to be the matter of Gods punishment and to be Threatned to the world Threatnings would not do their work if that which is threatned were not naturally evil or hurtful and dreadful to the subject To threaten men with a benefit is a contradiction as much as to promise him a mischief and more 2. It is not therefore a simple Displacency or Averseness to die that God requireth you to lay by Self-denial consisteth not in reconciling us to Death as death For then he might as well perswade us to become Angels as to deny our selves and Preachers had as hard a work to do as to perswade men to cease to be men Death will be an enemy as long as it is death Even the separated soul hath so natural an inclination to union with its Body that the separation is part of the penalty to it And though heaven be their joy and Christ their life and fulness yet the separation from the body which they have even with Christ is a penalty and they have not that perfect measure of Joy and Glory as they shall have when they are joyned in the body again So that separation as such is penal to the soul in blessedness And even the separated soul of Jesus Christ that was more blessed than ours was as separated in a state of penalty when his body was in the grave Of which see my Appendix to the Reformed Pastor about the Descent into Hell 3. That which you have to look after therefore in your souls is not a love to death or willingness to death as death which no man hath or should have but it is 1. A Submission to it as a less evil than sin and Hell and the Displeasure of God and a choosing rather to die than wilfully to sin and forsake the Lord. 2. And a Love to that glory in the fruition of God which death is the passage to Seeing we cannot obtain the end of our faith and patience by any easier passage than death you must rather be content to go this strait and grievous way than miss of the state of eternal blessedness Let death be never so odious and dreadful to you if you had but rather die than forsake Christ by sin or miss of everlasting life with God you have that true self-denial even of life it self which is required in my Text. 4. And yet even a gracious soul may be so much unprepared as to desire to stay yet longer on earth though he be absent from the Lord while he is present in the body that so a better preparation may be made And also the love of God may make a man desire to stay yet longer for the service of the Church or to be with Paul in a strait between two Phil. 1. 21 22 23. 5. Have you not such pleasant apprehensions of the New Jerusalem and the coming of Christ in glory and the blessed state of the Saints in heaven as that you could most gladly enter into that blessed state by any other way than death And had you not rather die than miss of that felicity At least when you know that die you must had you not rather die sooner even a violent death by persecution than miss of your eternal life by saving your lives a little longer 6. And for your unwillingness to die as death is the last enemy to be conquered by Christ at the Resurrection so the fears of death and the power of it is the last evil that we shall be troubled with and you must not expect to be fully freed from these fears in this life for death will be death and man will be man But yet let me tell you that before you die God may very much abate your fears and very ordinarily doth so with his servants 1. By giving them that grace that is suited to a dying state and 2. By the help of sickness and pain it self And that is one great reason why sickness shall usually go before death that pain and misery may make the flesh even a weary of it self and make the soul a weary of its companion and both a weary of this miserable life And now I shall briefly name some few Directions which if you will practise you will more easily submit to death CHAP. XL. Directions to be willing to die Direct 1. BY all means endeavour the strengthening of your Belief of the Reality of eternal life and the truth of the promise of Christ concerning it For if you Believe it not you cannot die for it nor chearfully submit to a natural death through the hopes of it This is the sum or principal work of the Christian faith to Believe the everlasting life as procured for us by the love of the Father the Obedience Death Resurrection and Intercession of the Son and the Sanctification of the Holy Ghost It is the unsoundness or the weakness of this Belief that is the principal cause of our unwillingness to die Direct 2. By all means endeavour to get and maintain the Assurance of your Title to this Promise and Felicity Get sound evidence and keep it clear Expunge all blots without delay Take heed of such sin as woundeth Conscience
that is but gainful be it never so unjust and will not believe but it is lawful because it is profitable for they suppose that gain is godliness 1 Tim. 6. 5. Hence it is that so many families will be so far Religious as will stand with their commodity but no further Yea that so many Ministers have the wit to prove that most Duties are to them no Duties when they will cost them much labour or dishonour in the world or bring them under sufferings from men And hence it is that so many Carnal Polititians do in their Laws and Counsels alwaies prefer the interest of their bodies before Gods interest and mens souls Yea some are so far forsaken by common reason and void of the Love of God and his Church as to maintain that Magistrates in their Laws and Judgments must let matters of Religion alone as if that self even carnal self were all their Interest and all their God and as if they were of the Prophane Opinion Every man for himself and God for us all or as if they would look to their own cause and bid God look to his From the Power of this selfishness it is that so many ☞ Princes and States turn persecutors and stick not to silence banish and some of the bloodier sort to kill the Ministers of Christ when they do but think that they stand cross to their carnal interests And if you will plead the Interest of Christ and souls against theirs and tell them that the banishment imprisonment silencing or death of such or such a servant of the Lord will be injurious to many souls and therefore if they were guilty of death in some cases they should reprieve them as they do women with child till Christ be formed in the precious souls that they travail in birth with so their Lives be not more hurtful by any contrary mischief which death only can restrain which is not to be supposed of sober men yet all this seems nothing to a selfish Persecutor that regards not Christs interest in comparison of his own ☞ Self is the great Tyrant and Persecutor of the Church 10. Observe also how few they be that satisfie their souls in Gods Approbation though they are mis-judged and vilified by the world and how few that rejoyce at the prosperity of the Gospel though themselves be in Adversity most men must needs have the Hypocrites reward Matth. 6. 2. even some commendation from men and too few are fully pleased with his eye that seeth in seret and will reward them openly Matth. 6. 4 6. And hence it is that injurious censures and hard words do go so near them and they make so great a matter of them Those times do seem best to selfish men which are most for them If they prosper and their party prosper though most of the Church should be a loser by it they will think that it is a blessed time But if the Church prosper and not they but any suffering befall them they take on as if the Church did stand or fall with them Self-interest is their measure by which they judge of times and things 11. Observe also how eagerly men are set to have their Own wills take place in publick businesses and to have their own opinions to be the Rule for Church and Common-wealth and then judge by this of their self-denial Were not self predominant there would not be such striving who should Rule and whose will should be the Law but men would think that others were as likely to Rule with Prudence and Honesty as they How eager is the Papist to have his way by an Universal Monarch How eager are others for one Ecclesiastical National Head How eager are the Popular party for their way as if the welfare of all did lie in their several modes of Government And so confidently do the Libertines speak for theirs that they begin now to make motions that our Parliament-men shall be hanged or beheaded as Traitors if any should make a motion in a free Parliament against the General Liberty which they desire Wonderful that men should ever grow to such an over-weening of themselves and over-valuing their own understandings as to obtrude so palpable and odious a wickedness upon Parliaments so confidently and to take them for Traitors that will not be Traitors or grosly disobedient against the Lord Self-denial would cure these peremptory demands and teach men to be more suspicious of their own understandings 12. Lastly Observe but how difficult a thing it is to keep Peace as in families and neighbourhoods so in Churches and Common-wealths and judge by this of mens self-denial Husbands and Wives brothers and sisters masters and servants live at variance and all through the conflicts that arise between their contrary self-interests If a beast do but trespass on a neighbours grounds if they be but assessed for the State or poor above their expectations if in any way of trading their commodity be crost you shall quickly see where self bears Rule This makes it so difficult a work to keep the Churches from Divisions Few men are sensible of the Universal Interest because they are captivated to their own And therefore it is that men fear not to make parties and divisions in the Church and will tear it in pieces to satisfie their interest or selfish zeal Hence it is that Parties are so much multiplied and keep up the buckler against others because that selfishness makes all Partial Hence it is that people fall off from their Pastors or else fall out with them when they are crost in their opinions reproved for their sins or called to consess or make restitution and perhaps that they may sacrilegiously desraud the Church of Tithes or other payments that are due Hence it is also that members so oft fall out with one another for foul words or differences of judgement or some point or other of self-interest Nay sometimes about their very seats in the place of Worship while every man is for himself the Ministers can hardly keep them in Charity and Peace And is any of this agreeable to our holy Rule and Pattern No man can think so that hath read the Gospel but he that is so blinded by selfishness as not to understand what makes against it And here besides what is largelier spoken after let me tell of a few of the evils of this sin and the contrary benefits of self-denial 1. The Power of selfishness keeps men strangers to themselves They know not their Original nor Actual sins with any kindly humbling knowledge The very nature of Original sin doth consist in these two things Privatively in the want of our Original Love or Propensity to God as God I mean the Privation of the Root or Habit or Inclination to Love God for himself as the Beginning or End of us and all things and the absolute Lord and infinite simple inestimable Good And Positively in the inordinate Propensity or Inclination to our selves as
the burdens that are here upon you which should make you long to be with God One would think the feeling of them should force you to consideration and weariness of them and make the thoughts of rest to be sweet to you Have you yet not sin enough and sorrow and fear and trouble enough Or must God lay a greater load on you to make you desire to be disburdened Every hour you spend and every creature you have to do with afford you some occasion of renewing your desires to depart from these and be with Christ Direct 7. Observe and magnifie that of God which is here revealed to you in his word and works Study him and admire him in Scripture study and admire him in the frame of nature And when you look towards Sun or Moon or Sea or Land and perceive how little it is that you know and how desirable it is to know them perfectly think then of that estate where you shall know them all in God himself who is more than all Study and admire him in the course of Providences study and admire him in the person of Christ in the frame of his holy life in the work of Redemption in the holy frame of his Laws and Covenants study and admire him in his Saints and the frame of his holy Image on their souls This life of studying and admiring God and dwelling upon him with all our souls will exceedingly dispose us to be willing to come to him and to submit to death Direct 8. Live also in the daily exercise of holy Joy and Praise to God which is the heavenly Employment For if you use your selves to this heavenly life it will much incline you to desire to be there Exercise fear and godly sorrow and care in their places but especially after Faith and Love be sure to live in holy Joy and Praise Be much in the consideration of all that Riches of grace in Christ communicated and to be communicated to you And be much in Thanks to God for his mercies and chearing and comforting your soul in the Lord your God And thus the Joy of Grace will much dispose you to the Joys of glory the Peace which the Kingdom of God consisteth in will incline you to the peace of the everlasting Kingdom and the chearful Praising of God on Earth in Psalms or other ways of Praise will prepare and dispose you to the heavenly Praises And therefore Christians exceedingly wrong their souls and hinder themselves from a willingness to be with God in spending all their days in drooping or doubting or worldly dulness and laying by so much the Joy of the Saints and the Praises of God Direct 9. Dwell on the believing fore-thoughts of the everlasting glory which you must possess Think what it is that others are enjoying while you are here and what you must be and possess and do for ever Daily think of the Certainty Perfection and Perperuity of your Blessedness What a life it will be to see the blessed God in his Glory and taste of the fulness of his love and to see the glorified Son of God and with a perfected soul and body to be perfectly taken up in the Love and Joy and Praises of the Lord among all his holy Saints and Angels in the heavenly Jerusalem You must by the exercise of Faith and Love in holy Meditation and Prayer even dwell in the Spirit and converse in Heaven while your bodies are on earth if you would entertain the news of death as beseems a Christian But of this at large elsewhere Direct 10. Lastly if you would be willing to submit to death resign up your own understandings and wills to the wisdom and the will of God and Know not good and evil for your carnal selves but wholly trust your lives and souls to the Wisdom and Love of your dearest Lord. Must you be carking and caring for your selves when you have an Infinite God engaged to care for you O saith self I am not able to bear the terrors and pangs of death O saith Faith My Lord is easily able to support me and it is his undertaken work to do it My work is but to Please him and it 's his work to take care of me in life and death and therefore though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death yet will I fear no evil O saith Self I am utterly a stranger to another world I know not what I shall see nor what I shall be nor whither I shall go the next minute after death None come from the dead to satisfie us of these things O but saith Faith My blessed Father and Redeemer is not a stranger to the place that I must go to He knows it though I do not He knows what I shall be and do and whither I shall go and all is in his power And seeing it belongs not to me but to him to dispose of me and give me the promised reward it is meet that I rest in his understanding And it is better for me that his Infinite Wisdom dispose of my departing soul than my shallow insufficient knowledge I may much more acquiesce in his knowledge than my own O but saith self I fear it may prove a change of darkness and confusion to my soul what will become of me I cannot tell O but saith Faith I am sure I am in the hands of Love and such Love as is Omnipotent and engaged for my good and how can it then go ill with me If I had my own will I should not fear And how much less should I fear when I am at the will of God even of most Wise Almighty Love There is no true Centre for the soul to Rest in but the Will of God It is our business to Obey and Please his Will as dutiful Children and to commit our selves contentedly to his Will for the absolute disposal of us It is not possible that the Will of an Heavenly Father should be against his Children whose desire and sincere endeavour hath been to Obey and Please his Will And therefore learn this as your great and necessary Lesson with Joyful Confidence to Commit your selves and your departing souls to your Fathers Will as knowing that your Death is but the execution of that Will which is engaged to cause all things to work together for your good Rom. 8. 28. And say with Paul I suffer but am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day 2 Tim. 1. 12. 1 Tim. 4. 10. Therefore we labour and suffer because we trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe say therefore as Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Or rather as Christ Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Luke 23. 46. If the hands and Will of the Father was the Rock and
and say as Zachaeus Luke 19. 8. Behold Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation I restore him four fold Nay let us instance in a duty of lesser self-denyal than this of Restitution If two do but fall out and one give railing words to the other or if one slander his neighbour and do him wrong though it be undoubtedly the will of Christ that he penitently ask him forgiveness that he hath wronged Luke 17. 34. yet proud-hearted selfish men will refuse it What! will they stoop to such a fellow and ask him forgiveness specially if it be their inferior No they scorn it never talk to them of it more they will never do it And why so would not God have them do it Hath not he said He that humbleth himself shall be exalted Yea but what tell you them what God saith and what Scripture saith as long as self and flesh and pride are against it Judge now by these ten duties that I have named whether God or self be King with most CHAP. VII Mens exceeding tenderness of Self in case of any suffering 4. ANother Discovering instance of the Dominion of self and the scarcity of self-denyal is The exceeding tenderness of our selves in any case of suffering and the great matter that we make of it and our displeasure against all that are the causes of it be it never so just I shall here also give you some more particular instances 1. When did you ever see an offender at least very few that Justified the Judge and heartily confesseth that his punishment is due unless some few at the Gallows when the sight of death takes down their pride But at most every one that suffereth for his fault doth repine at it and at them that caused it and think they have wrong or are hardly dealt with If all the Swearers Cursers Prophaners of the Lords day Drunkards or Ale-sellers that reset them or are otherwise guilty were accused by their Neighbours and punished by the Magistrate but according to the Law how many of all these is there that would not be displeased with the accusers and with the Magistrate and think himself wronged and bear them a grudge in his mind that did it And why so Is it not just and according to the Laws of God and man Must we make a stir in choosing Parliament-men and must they sit there moneth after moneth and use their utmost skill and diligence to make such Laws as are necessary for the common good and when all is done must not these Laws be executed why then it were better spare the Parliament-men the labour of sitting about them and our selves the trouble of choosing us Parliament-men than do all this for nothing What is every Ale-seller or Drunkard or Swearer or Prophane person wiser than all the Parliament and the Prince or are they all better and juster and honester than they No but its self that stands up against all It s in vain to tell them of Kings or Parliaments or Laws or common good as long as you go about to cross the flesh and trouble them in their private interest set but self against all and all goes down before it as nothing There 's scarce a Thief or Murderer that 's hanged but thinks he hath hard measure because it is against himself 2. Nay it is not only penalties but words that men are very sensible of if they be but against themselves An angry or disgraceful speech or any contempt or disrespect doth seem a great matter against them and they have aggravations enough to lay upon it So tender are they of themselves that you may see how little they deny themselves 3. Yea Gods own Corrections do seem so heavy to them that they murmur and are impatient under them A little loss or cross to self doth lye as a mountain on them Poverty or sickness or disgrace or troubles do make them complain as if they were almost quite undone and all this shews how little they have learned to deny themselves CHAP. VIII The partiality of mens practical judgement in their own Case 5. ANother Discovering instance of the Dominion of self is The strange Partiality of mens practical Judgements when the Cause is their own and the equity of their judgements when the Case is another mans For particular instances of this you may take up those that were mentioned before I l'e give you but a few 1. Take but a dull and backward Minister for I know you will expect I begin next home and he that is most averse to particular Instruction and Discipline and Self-denying duties will be content that another man should perform them and will commend and extoll him for a worthy man except he perceive that anothers diligence disgraceth his selfishness and negligence and then indeed he may possibly repine at it 2. A man that will not come near us to be instructed or Catechized will yet let his children or servants come Why what 's the matter doth he more regard their salvation than his own or hath he not a soul to save or lose as well as they and hath he not need of teaching Yes but they are not himself If they learn a Catechism it is no trouble to him If their ignorance be opened he takes it to be less dishonour to him than if he shew his own He can yield to their submission without self-denyal but not to his Own 3. Take a common glutton or drunkard that cannot forbear but must needs have that which the flesh desires and they can be content that another man be temperate and sober and if a neighbour should have the Cup before him as they have or a provocation to their appetite they could be content that they let it alone yea they can tell them that it is the best way and give them good counsel and yet when the case is their own it is otherwise I have known drunkards that would perswade their children to take heed of it and swearers that would whip their children for swearing and persons that would not read or pray that would be content to have their children do it And why is all this why that which goes by their own throats must cost them self-denyal in the displeasing of their greedy appetites but that which goes by the throat of another doth cost them nothing self is not so much against their childrens abstinence and reformation as their own 4. The same Magistrate that will not trouble himself and displease his neighbours by suppressing Ale-houses and punishing vice will perhaps be content if it were done by another so that self might have none of the trouble and ill will 5. Some men that will not instruct their families nor pray with them morning and night will confess it is well done of others that do it Yea some that will not be perswaded to an holy heavenly life will confess
to God by sanctification doth with himself devote all that he hath and virtually all that ever he shall have And if he understand himself he will do it actually And hence it is that the Seed of Believers yea of one Believer are said to be Holy Not only or chiefly because they are yours born of your bodies nor meerly from a promise of God that hath no presupposed reason from the subject But because they are the children of one that hath devoted himself and all that he hath to God and if he understand himself doth actually offer devote and dedicate his child to God in the solemn Baptism Ordinance and Covenant And God will sure accept all that upon his own invitation is consecrated and offered to him 5. See that you submit them heartily to the dispose of God So that whatever he do with them for sickness or health for poverty or riches for honour or dishonour for life or death you can patiently bear it and say as Eli It is the Lord let him do as seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. 18. Murmur not if God afflict and take them away even at once as he did the sons of Job or if he should afflict you in them as he did David in Amnon and Absalom Remember that as the Resignation of Life it self is the point by which Christ under the Gospel doth try mens faith so it was the resignation of an only son which was next to life by which he would try Abraham the Father of the faithful before the Incarnation of Christ If therefore you will be children of Abraham you must walk in the steps of faithful Abraham and remember that your children are not your own and be content that God do with his own as he pleases 6. Make God their portion as much as in you lieth and seek more for a spiritual than temporal felicity for them and acquaint them with their Creator in the days of their youth as believing that those of them that are the Holiest are the Happiest 7. Devote your children to such callings and imployments in which they are likeliest to be most serviceable to God Consider their dispositions and parts and then never ask what kind of life is the most honourable or gainful for them but in what way and course of life they may most serve God and be most useful to his Church And to that let them be devoted 8. Favour them not in sin and suffer them not to dishonour God that they are devoted to Remember Eli's example Gentle reproofs instead of necessary severe correction is called by God A despising him and preferring his sons before him 1 Sam. 2. 29 30. even because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not 1 Sam. 3. 13. Take heed as you love your selves or them of taking their parts against God or against correction and excusing the sins by which they do dishonour him 9. Give them not for their carnal advancement in the world that part of your estate which is due to God You owe it all to him and in the disposing of it he hath limited you to begin at home provide so for your children that they may have their daily bread and so much more as they are in likelyhood the fittest stewards to improve for God But if you see the publick state of the Church or Commonweal to stand in need of your assistance and you shall then give almost all to your children to make them rich and great in the world and put off the works of greater moment with some poor inconsiderable alms or Legacy this is to prefer self before the Lord even as it is imagined to survive in your progeny even when natural self can no longer enjoy it It 's a wonder how so many men seeming holy and devoted to God can quiet their consciences in such a palpable sin as this If one of them have two hundred or three hundred pound a year it 's a wonder if he leave an hundred a year of it to any pious or charitable use but if he leave forty or fifty pound to the poor or build some small Almes-house he thinks he hath done well all the rest must go to leave his son in equal dignity and riches in the world as himself But of this I spoke before 10. Lastly be sure that you be very suspicious of self when the case of your children or any dear Relation is before you For self is near you and will stick close and will not easily be thrust out of your Counsels nor â—â—aken off And therefore in your own case and your Childrens case or the case of your near friends you will have much ado to overcome the cunning and strong temptations to Partiality if you were the holiest Saint on earth though overcome them you will in the main if you have true grace But if you are dead professors it 's twenty to one but they will overcome you and you will shew the world that you are selfish hypocrites and more for your Children and Friends than God Let me here give a few instances in this warning 1. How oft have we seen it here and elsewhere that people that make some shew of Religion and are forward to have vice punished and discipline exercised yet when it falls on any children or near relations of their own they are as much against it as they are for it on others yea rise up with passion and bitter reproaches of Officers Ministers or others that are the causes of it As one Hypocrite is tried when he denieth to suffer for Christ himself so others shew themselves Hypocrites sooner by preferring their children yea their sinful children yea the present ease or profit or credit of their children before their duty and the honour of God And they will rather have God provoked sin unpunished and their childrens own salvation hazarded than they will have them justly and regularly chastised yea some of them rise up as malignant enemies against them that do it 2. Again When God hath convinced you of duty if a carnal friend a husband or a parent do but contradict it and perswade you from a known duty or a holy life how commonly do men obey because forsooth they are their friends that do perswade them 3. Moreover When the case falls out that a man cannot follow God and his duty and be true to his soul but he is like to lose his friends how commonly is God denied that friends may not be denied and conscience wounded and duty bawk'd that the favour of friends may not be lost O saith one they are the friends that I live by my livelihood is in their hands I am undone if they cast me off Well! take them and make thy best of them and keep them as long as thou canst if thou canst live better without God than them or canst spare Gods favour better than theirs and they are better friends to thee than Christ is and would be take
the more you should desire to be there where there is no strangeness This is not the time or place of most intimate acquaintance If you would be acquainted you should draw nearer and not draw back It 's death that must open you the door into that presence where strangeness will be no more And if it be the doubts of your interest in Christ and life that makes you shrink and loth to die Consider that to refuse to die for Christ is the way above all to increase those doubts but to give up your lives for him or chearfully to surrender your souls to him at his call is the readiest surest way in the world to prove you at present in a state of grace besides that you will be hastened into a state of glory where you shall be quickly and fully past all doubts of your state of former grace In a word as all the fears and sorrows of this life will then be at an end so with the rest will our fears of death And therefore death should be the more welcome because it is the end as of all other troubles so of these disturbing fears 14. Consider also what a multitude have trod this bloody way before you Almost all that ever were born have died and are now in the world that you are passing to You are not the first that entred at this narrow gate The dearest Saints of God have died If Abraham Moses Joshua David Peter and Paul could not escape the stroak of death what are you that you should murmur to follow such and so many that have gone before you You need not fear being solitary in heaven There are millions and millions more of Saints than there are on earth Many that you knew and millions more that will then be as dear to you as if you had known them Is it not better be among innocent souls than a defiled guilty world Is it not better be where no sin entreth and never a hâ—st or passion comes than to live as among Wild beasts with furious unreasonable sinners Is it not better be where Light is perfect and all your doubts are fully resolved than in darkness and perplexity and among an ignorant blind generation that are enemies to the light which you desire Is it not better be where is nothing but the perfect love of the Infinite God in perfect Saints and blessed Angels than to live among perverse ungodly men that make you almost weary of your lives If it be a delight to us to read the writings of the illuminated Saints of God and we think them such Jewels and Ornaments in our Libraries what a pleasure would it be to converse with them that wrote these Books and that in their celestial perfection where they have attained a thousand times more light than before they had and where all the doubts are resolved which their books could not resolve O blessed Society in comparison of that we now converse with 15. Nay more lest the bloody way of death should seem too strange and terrible to us the Lord Jesus our Head hath trod that path and that of purpose to conquer death by taking away the sting and principal cause of terrors and making that a passage to felicity that was a passage to everlasting misery So that ever since Christ hath gone this way there is no such danger in it to his followers Where the Captain of our salvation goeth his Souldiers may boldly follow him For asmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part with them that he might destroy by death him that had the power of death that is the Devil and might deliver them that through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Heb. 2. 14 15. He hath cleared our way and taken out of it the forest thorns and hath prepared us an habitation with himself And shall we fear to go the way that Christ hath gone and purposely gone to clear it for us 16. Moreover Consider that the Celestial inhabitants have purposely made themselves familiar with us in this lower world that they might acquaint us with themselves and lead us upto their blessed habitation and fit us for it No man of common reason can doubt but that those more capacious glorious parts of the Universe are stored with inhabitants answerable to their glory when we see every corner of the lower world to be replenished with inhabitants And Scripture and some experience tells us that those Angels of God are conversant here about us men They bear us up in their hands that we dash not our foot against a stone they pitch their tents and encamp about us as an appointed guard for our security It is their very office for what are they but ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation Heb. 1. 14. They converse with us though we see them not and are about us night and day They are among us in our holy assemblies observing our behaviour before the Lord 1 Cor. 11. 10. and they are witnesses of our good and evil Eccles 5. 6. From them as the Servants of God was the Law received Acts 7. 53. Gal. 3. 19. Heb. 2. 2. They read our books and study with us the Mysteries of the Gospel 1 Pet. 1. 12. And as near as they are to God they are glad to make the Church their book in which to read his manifold wisdom and know it by beholding it in us as in a glass Ephes 3. 10. The Nations have their Angels The Churches have their Angels and the particular Saints also have their Angels Dan. 10. 13 20 21 Rev. 1. 20. Acts 12. 15. Mat. 18. 10. They are not strangers with us but have charge of us to keep us in all our ways Psal 91. 10 11 12. They rejoyce in our conversion Luke 15. 10. They are part of the heavenly Society that we are already listed in Heb. 12. 22. They ascend and descend as ordinary passengers between heaven and earth Gen. 28. 12. They are round about us and we live as in their Camp Psal 34. 7. Before them we must be confessed or denied Luke 12. 8 9. They convoy our departed souls to Christ Luke 16. 22. They shall attend Christ at his second coming as they prcolaimed his first and attended him on earth Matth. 25. 31. Mar. 8. 38. They shall be his Heralds to call up the dead to judgement Mat. 13. 39 49. 24. 31. And at last we shall be their companions and equal to them Luke 20. 36. So that you see we have the same Society invisible which we shall have in heaven Yea and sometime when God is pleased they manifest their presence by visible or audible apparitions And shall we fear to remove into the presence of these blessed spirits that now attend us and are still about us and the instruments of so much of our good Yea the Lord Jesus Christ came
find in a holy walking with God Yea they will deny themselves everlasting life and the favour of God and cast themselves into endless misery and all this for a thing that is ten thousand times worse than nothing or for a very sensual brutish Pleasure And yet these men cannot deny themselves in life or liberty in gain or honour no nor in the filthiest lusts for the sake of Christ and their own salvation Even when they may know that they most deny themselves when they will not deny themselves They deny themselves eternal glory because they will not deny themselves in temporal vanity Heaven and earth will witness against such sottish and unrighteous dealing as this if true Conversion do not prevent it Hath God hath Christ hath your own salvation deserved no better at your hands than this O miserable souls All things can be easily denied save sin and Carnal self and these cannot be denied God can be denied Christ and Scripture and Heaven it self can be denied for flesh and sin and flesh and sin cannot be denied for God and for eternal Glory Do you think that this will look like wise or righteous dealing when you stand in judgement Ask now any stander by that is impartial whether God or the flesh should be denied Whether Heaven or Earth should be denied seeing one of them you must deny And if any impartial man will be now against you what think you will God be who is not only impartial but wronged by you and a hater of your unrighteous dealing CHAP. LXXII To be left to self is the sorest plague 10. LAstly remember that to be given over to our selves is the heaviest plague on this side Hell And therefore he that delighteth not to be miserable should not desire to be selfish To be given over to the Love of your selves is to turn from the Love of the blessed God to the Love of a filthy sinner and so to forfeit Gods love to you To be given over to care for your selves is to forfeit the fatherly care of God and to be at the care of a silly insufficient improvident sinner To be given over to your own Conceits or Wisdom is to be forsaken of the Sun and left in darkness and spend the rest of your days in a Dungeon the beginning of the endless utter darkness To be given over to your own wills is to be at the choice and disposal of a fool and of an enemy and to be in such hands as will certainly undo you and to be cast out of the hands of God To be given over to seek your selves is to lose your selves and God and your salvation To be given over to live as your own is to forfeit the Protection of God without which you cannot be kept an hour out of hell To be given over to the defending of your selves and delivering your selves in danger of soul and body is even to be exposed to certain and perpetual perdition To be given over to be ruled by your selves is to be relinquished as Rebels and exposed to the tyranny of sin and Satan So that in all things it is most certain that you are never well but in the hands of God and never so ill as when you are most in your own hands In Paradise innocent man was wholly at the Government of God and when by casting off his Government he had forfeited the benefit of it the most of the world became even brutish And when God had owned the Government of Israel above other Nations and kept the choice of the Soveraign under him in his own hands at last the foolish people in imitation of the Nations must needs have a King and extort the Nomination out of the hands of special extraordinary Providence that they might have more of it in their own and this was an increase of their misery Woe to that man that ever he was born that is finally given over to himself For this is a sign that God hath forsaken them and they stand at the brink of eternal death O think of this you that are self-conceited and self-willed and self-lovers and self-seekers and know not how to deny your selves Must self be so regarded and tenderly used Take heed you may have enough of self with everlasting vengeance if God once give you over to your selves and say of you as of them Psal 81. 11 12. But my people would not hearken unto my voice and Israel would none of them So I gave them up to their own hearts lust and they walked in their own Counsel So much for the Aggravations CHAP. LXXIII Ten Directions to get self-denial IV. I Come now to the last part of my task which is to tell you what course you should take to procure self-denial For though it be the gift of God yet there are certain means appointed us for the attainment of it and God useth to give it men in the use of his means and by those means must it be confirmed and continued Direction 1. Set faith a work upon the promises of God and upon everlasting life For the Flesh will not be taken off these lower things till you have found out better and such as will be sure to save you harmless The most covetous man would let go silver if he may have gold instead of it Set faith a pleading the case with the flesh and urge your own hearts with the Certainty the Nearness the Glory the Eternity of the Kingdom which by self-denial you may attain and if they will not yield to such a change as this they are unreasonable unbelieving hearts Direct 2. Never be deluded to forget the vanity the brevity and the emptiness and insufficiency of all these earthly things which self so adhereth to as to neglect the promised life of blessedness Acquaint your own hearts what a nothing it is that they make so much of and follow so greedily and hold so fast shew them in the Sanctuary the glass of the word of God which will tell them what will be the end of all and where all their worldly prosperity will leave them Ask your hearts Can I keep these things for ever or not If not Is it not better let them go for something than for nothing and to part with them as a child at the command of my heavenly father than to part with them as a thief doth with his prize at the Gallows Is it not better let them go to ease me and to secure my eternal peace than let them go to wound me and torment me And while I keep them what will they do for me that I should buy them at so dear a rate O how dear must I pay for my ease and honour and gluttony and drunkenness and sensual delights if I part not with them when God commandeth How cheap is a holy blessed life in comparison of this which I must pay so dear for Direct 3. To promote your self-denial Consider frequeâ—tly and seriously who
your lungs to breathe your stomach to turn your meat to nourishment and that nourishment into blood and spirits and strength Is it God or you Who is it that causeth the Sun to rise upon you in the morning to light you to your labours and to set upon you at night that the Curtains of darkness may be drawn about you and you may quietly repose your selves to rest Who giveth you strength to labour in the day and refeâ—â—eth you with sleep at night and provideth all the creatures for your assistance Is it you or God O Sirs me thinks such silly worms that cannot live a minute of themselves and cannot fetch a breath of themselves should easily see that they should not live to themselves but to him from whom and by whom they live Direct 7. If you would live in self-denial be sure that you keep the mastery of your senses and do not let them be ungoverned but shut them up when reason doth require it It is your Appetite and senses that feed this carnal selfish vice but reason and faith are both against it Whenever you consult with sense you may know what brutish advice you may expect Ask not therefore what is delightful nor what is for your carnal ease and peace but what is necessary to please the Lord and for your everlasting peace And if the tempter tell you This is the easier and the broader way tell him that it is not the honester nor the safer way And the question is not which is the fairest way but which is the way to Heaven It 's better go the hardest way to glory than the smoothest to damnation If you cannot keep under your sensitive appetite and subdue the eager desires of the flesh and learn to want as well as to abound to be empty as well as to be full you will never attain to self-denial Direct 8. To promote your self-denial me thinks it should be effectual to understand the great advantage that you have by the Communion and Society which you enter into when you deny your selves Though a Prince or Lord would be loth to enter into a Colledge or Monastery where there 's no Propriety and yet withal no care or want yet a poor labouring man or a beggar would be glad of such a life So you that cannot live of your selves me thinks should be glad of such a Community 1. Consider that the Lord Jesus is the Head of the Society who hath undertaken to make provision for the whole and is engaged for their security and to save them harmless and all the Riches of his grace and love belong to that Society and will be yours which is more than all that you can part with of your own yea more than all the treasures of the world It is therefore the noblest and richest Society in the world that you shall live in communion with if you will deny your selves 2. And the Saints that are the Members of that Society are the Brethren of Christ and the Heirs of Heaven And all these are your Brethren endeared in special love to you engaged to assist you by prayers and counsel and pains and purse and every way that you can so that well might Christ say that he that forsaketh any thing for him shall receive even an hundred fold in this life and in the world to come eternal life For this one sorry self that you forsake and it 's poor accommodations you have God for your Father and Christ for your Head and the Holy Ghost for your Sanctifier and Comforter and the Sripture for your guide and Saints for your Brethren Companions and Assistants engaged to you in truer and dearer love than your unsanctified friends that cast you off for the sake of Christ And had you rather be toiling and caring for your selves than let go self and enter into so blessed a Community where you may cast all your care away upon God who hath promised to care for you and may feed your selves in the daily delightful fore-thoughts of life eternal Direct 9. And me thinks it should much promote your self-denial to study well the self-denying example of Christ and his eminent servants that have troden in his steps Christ had no sinful self to deny nor any corrupted flesh to mortifie or subdue And yet he had a self-denial in which we must imitate him Rom. 15. 3. For even Christ pleased not himself but as it is written The reproaches of them that reproached thee are faln upon me We are told therefóre by Christs example that it is not only the pleasing of self as corrupted by sin but also a pleasing of natural self in things where God may lay a restraint on it or put it to the tryal that we must avoid and in which we must deny our selves Even as Adam was to have denyed his natural appetite before sin had corrupted it and Christ had an innocent natural will of which yet he saith Not my will but thine be done His whole life was a wonderful example of self-denial He lived in a low estaâ—â— and denyed himself of the Glory and Riches of the world and became poor though he were Lord of all that by his poverty we might be made rich 2 Cor. 8. 9. He lived under the reproach of sinners of sinners that he created of sinners whom he dyed for He would wear no Crown but a Crown of Thorns He would wear no Robes but the Robes of their reproach He yielded his cheeks to be smitten and his face to be spit upon by the vilest sinners whom he could with a word have turned into Hell And at last he gave himself for us on the Cross in suffering a reproachful cursed death Heb. 7. 27. Tit. 2. 14. Eph. 5. 2. 2. 25. Gal. 1. 4. And can you read such an example of self-denial given you by the Lord of glory and not be transformed into the image of it I think the study of a self-denying Christ is one of the most excellent helps to self-denial Take it from the Apostle himself Phil. 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Fulfil ye my joy that ye be like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him Look therefore unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the
fleshly Pleasures tend He that by faith hath seen both Heav'n and Hell And what sin costeth at the last can tell He that hath try'd and tasted Better things And felt that love from which all pleasure springs They that still watch and for Christs coming wait Can turn away from or despise the bait Flesh Must I be made the foot-ball of disdain And call'd a precise fool or Puritane Spirit Remember him that did despise the shame And for thy sake bore undeserved blame Thy journey 's of small moment if thou stay Because dogs bark or stones lie in the way If life lay on it wouldst thou turn again For the winds blowing or a little rain Is this thy greatest love to thy dear Lord That canst not for his sake bear a foul word Wilt thou not bear for him a scorners breath That underwent for thee a cursed death Is not Heav'n worth the bearing of a flout Then blame not Justice when it shuts thee out Will these deriders stand to what they say And own their words at the great dreadful day Then they 'd be glad when wrath shall overtake them To eat their wrrds and say they never spake them Flesh How Forsake all Ne're mention it more to me I 'le be of no Religion to undo me Spirit Is it not thine more in thy Fathers hand Than when it is laid out at sins command And is that sav'd that 's spent upon thy lust Or which must be a prey to thieves or rust And wouldst thou have thy riches in thy way Where thou art passing on and canst not stay And is that lost that 's sent to Heav'n before Hadst thou not rather have thy friends and store Where thou may dwell for ever in the light Of that long glorious day that fears no night Flesh But who can willingly submit to Death Which will bereave us of our life and breath That laies our flesh to rot in loathsome graves Where brains and eyes were leaves but ugly caves Spirit So nature breaks and casts away the shell Where the now beauteous singing bird did dwell The secundine that once the infant cloath'd After the birth is cast away and loath'd Thus Roses drop their sweet leaves under-foot But the Spring shews that life was in the root Souls are the Roots of Bodies Christ the Head Is Root of both and will revive the dead Our Sun still shineth when with us it's night When he returns we shall shine in his light Souls that behold and praise God with the Just Mourn not because their bodies are but dust Graves are but beds where flesh till morning sleep's Or Chests where God a while our garments keep 's Our folly thinks he spoils them in the keeping Which causeth our excessive fears and Weeping But God that doth our rising day foresee Pittie 's not rotting flesh so much as we The birth of Nature was deform'd by sin The birth of Grace did our repair begin The birth of Glory at the Resurrection Finisheth all and brings both to persection Why should not fruit when it is mellow fall Why would we linger here when God doth call Flesh The things and persons in this world I see But after death I know not what will be Spirit Know'st thou not that which God himself hath spoken Thou hast his promise which was never broken Reason proclaims that noble heav'n-born souls Are made for higher things than worms and moles God hath not made such faculties in vain Nor made his service a deluding pain But faith resolves all doubts and hears the Lord Telling us plainly by his Holy Word That uncloath'd souls shall with their Saviour dwell Triumphing over sin and death and hell And by the power of Almighty Love Stars shall arise from graves to shine above There we shall see the Glorious face of God His blessed presence shall be our abode The face that banisheth all doubts and fears Shuts out all sins and dryeth up all tears That face which darkeneth the Suns bright rayes Shall shine us into everlasting joyes Where Saints and Angels shall make up one Chore To praise the Great Jehovah evermore Flesh Reason not with me against sight and sense I doubt all this is but a vain pretence Words against nature are not worth a rush One bird in hand is worth two in the bush If God will give me Heav'n at last I 'le take it But for my Pleasure here I 'le not forsake it Spirit And wilt thou keep it bruitsh flesh how long Wilt thou not shortly sing another song When Conscience is awakened keep thy mirth When Sickness and Death comes hold fast this earth Live if thou canst when God saith come away Try whether all thy friends can cause thy stay Wilt thou tell death and God thou wilt not die And wilt thou the consuming fire defie Art thou not sure to let go what thou hast And doth not Reason bid thee then forecast And value the least hope of endless joyes Before known vanities and dying toyes And can the Lord that is most just and wise Found all mans duty in deceit and lies GET thee behind me Satan thou dost savour The things of flesh and not his dearest favour Who is my Life and Light and Love and All And so shall be whatever shall befall It is not thou but I that must discern And must Resolve It 's I that hold the stern Be silent Flesh speak not against my God Or else hee 'l teach thee better by the rod. I am resolved thou shalt live and die A servant or a conquered enemy LOrd charge not on me what this rebel sayes That alwaies was against me and thy wayes Now stop its mouth by Grace that shortly must Through just but gainful death be stopt with dust The thoughts and words of Flesh are none of mine Let Flesh say what it will I will be thine Whatever this rebellious Flesh shall prate Let me but serve the Lord at any rate Use me on earth as seemeth good to thee So I in Heav'n thy Glorious face may see Take down my Pride let me dwell at thy feet The humble are for earth and heav'n most meet Renouncing Flesh I Vow my self to thee With all the Talents thou hast lent to me Let me not stick at honour wealth or blood Let all my dayes be spent in doing good Let me not trifle out more precious hours But serve thee now with all my strength and powers If Flesh would tempt me to deny my hand Lord these are the Resolves to which I stand Richard Baxter October 29. 1659. The laâ—e Lord Chief Justice Oliver St. John See my Reasons of the Christ â—â—â—g since written I may with Tertullian call all our enemies to search their Court Records and â—ce how many of us have been cast out or silenced for any immorality but for obeying Conscience against the interest or wills of some who think that Conscience should give place to their Commands Read the two or three last Chapters in Dr. Holden's Analâ—fidei Read Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Rogers books against me and the souldiers openly thâ—â— calumaiâ—â—ed me and thâ—e in eâ— my death as the said Authors â—eâ—red them to call me to a trâ—al even for speaking and writing against their casting dow the Government of the Land â—â—ing 〈◊〉 themselves and aâ—â—â—pting at once to Vo e out all the â—arâ—â—h 〈◊〉 I know that it hardneâ—h thousands in impenitency to say that Others have done worse and Is the matter mended with you And will it also eâ—se men in heâ—l to think that some others suffer more The Quuakers and other Self-esteemers are reverthemore reconcil'd to us now we have been eleven years turned out of all So common it is for selfish meâ— to make their gain sayers as odious as they can devise that I conâ—eâ—s I wondred that I me with no more of this dealing my self from Papists Anabaptists or any that have turned their stiâ—e against me And at last Mr. Pierce hath answered my expectation and from my own confession not knowing me himself hath drawn my picture that I am Proâ—â—i Lazie False an Hypocrite uâ—just a Reader c. And from this Bolsecks credit I make no doubt but the Papists will think they may warrantably descrâ—bâ— me if I be thought worthy their reâ—embrance in all following Ageâ— though now I have nothing from them but good wordâ— But it is a small thing to be judged by man especially when our â—â—uâ—â— enjoy the Lord. They way-laid the Messengers that I sent Letters by to friends took them from the â— by force seâ—â— them to 〈…〉 to the Council of State to the trouble of those I wrote to though nothing was found but â—â—noâ—ency And this was by my old 〈…〉 who differed from â—â—â— in nothing but â—â—tant 〈…〉 Changes of our Government and yet 〈…〉