such useless members forseiting their very sustenance then surely he that is such or worse speeds fair if you leave him food and raiment 4. And the great command of doing all to Gods Glory and serving him with our substance will not be obeyed if you leave your Riches and Estates in the hands of such persons meerly because they are your Children No doubt but that is a selfish and unconscionable course and the thing that sets up the ungodly to disturb the Church Lord it over the world while parents furnish them with Riches to do the Devil eminent service with Object But who knows but God may convert them Answ You cannot guide your actions by things unknown You have no promise of their conversion nor much probability when they have frustrated all your Counsels and means of their good education and grace is supernatural and therefore you must proceed upon grounds that are known And for remoter Kindred if they may be as serviceable to God with what I give them as others nature teacheth me to prefer them before others but otherwise Grace teacheth me both to love a godly stranger better than ungodly kindred and to lay out all that I have as may be most serviceable to God CHAP. LVII Q. How we must love our Neighbours as our selves Quest 7. HOw is it that Self-denial requireth us to love our neighbour as our selves Is it with the same degree of Love Answ I answered this on the by before Briefly 1. The chief part of the precept is Negative thus q. d. Set not up thy self against the welfare of thy neighbour Draw not from him or covet not that which is his to thy self and confine not thy love and care of thyself 2. And it comprehendeth this positive and that as to the kind of Love we should love both our selves and neighbours as means to God and for the interest of God and in that respect there is an equality we must appretiative or estimatively love a better and more serviceable man that hath more of Gods Spirit in him above our selves and an equal person equally with our selves with this Rational Love which intendeth all for God 3. But Natural Love which is put into a man for self-preservation will be stronger to self than to another and alloweth us caeteris paribus to prefer and first preserve and provide for our selves And in this regard our neighbour must be loved but as a second self or next our selves 4. But this Natural Love in the exercise of it at least in imperate acts is to be subservient to our Rational spiritual Love and to be over-mastered by it And therefore it is that as Reason teacheth an Heathen to prefer his Country before his life though the instinct of Nature incline us more to life so faith teacheth a Christian much more to prefer Gods honour and the Gospel Church Common-wealth and his neighbours good when it more conduceth to these ends than his own before himself his liberty or life CHAP. LVIII Q. Is Self-revenge and Penance self-denial Quest 8. WHether self-denial require us after sin to use vindictive penance or punishment of the flesh by fasting watching going barefoot lying hard wearing hair-cloth or to do this ordinarily as some of the Papists Monks and Fryars do Answ The easiness of this case may allow a brief decision 1. The Body must be so far afflicted as is needful to humble it and subdue it to the spirit and tame its Rebellion and fit it for the service of God 2. The exercise of a holy revenge on our selves may be a lower end subservient to this 3. It must also be so far humbled as is necessary to express Repentance to the Church when Absolution is expected upon publick Repentance 4. As also to concur with the soul in secret or open humiliation But 1. He that shall think that whippings or sackcloth or going bare-foot or other self-punishing are of themselves good works and meritorious with God or satisfie his Justice or are a state of perfection doth offer God a hainous sin under the name and conceit of a good work 2. And he that shall by such self-afflicting unfit his Body for the service of God yea that doth not cherish it so far as is necessary to fit it for duty is guilty of self-murder and defrauding God of his service and abusing his creature and depriving others of the help we owe them so that iâ— one word the Body must be so used as may best fit it for Gods service And to think that self-afflicting is a good work meerly as it is penalty or suffering to the body or that we may go further herein is to think 1. That we should use our Body worse than our beast for we will no further afflict him than is necessary to tame him or serve our selves by him and not to disable him for service 2. And it will teach men to kill themselves for that is a greater penalty to the body than whipping or fasting 3. And it is an offering God a sacrifice of cruelty and Robbery which we commit against himself and man But I must needs add that though some Fryars and Melancholy people are apt to go too far in this and pine their bodies or misuse them with conceits of merit and satisfaction yet almost all the common people run into the contrary extream and pamper and please their flesh to the displeasing of God and the ruine of their souls And I know but few that have need to be restrained from afflicting or taking down the flesh too much CHAP. LIX Q. Is self-denial to be without Passion Quest 9. WHether self-denial consist in the laying by of all Passions and bringing the soul to an impassionate serenity Answ The Stoicks and some Behmenists think so But so doth not God or any well informed man For 1. God would not have made the Affections in vain It is not the Passions but the disorder of them that is sinful or the fruit of sin 2. We are commanded to exercise all the Affections or Passions for God and on other sutable objects We must Love God with all the heart and soul and might which is not without affection or passion We must Love his servants his Church his Word his wayes We must fear him above them that can kill us we must hunger and thirst after his Righteousness and pant after him as the Hart doth after the Water-brooks We must be angry and sin not A zeal for God is the life of our Graces we must always be zealous in a good matter fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. We must hate evil and sorrow for it when we are guilty and grieve under the sense of our miscarriages and Gods displeasure And all these expresly commanded in the Word are holy Affections or Passions of the soul 3. Yea it is the Work of the Holy Ghost to sanctifie all these Passions that they may be used for God and they are called by
it were estrangeth him from himself that he may have communion with God and this makes him vile in his own eyes and abhor himself in dust and ashes He is lost in himself and seeking God he finds himself again in God It is not a Stoical Resolution but the Love of God and the Hopes of Glory that make him throw away the world and look contemptuously on all below so far as they are meer provision for the flesh Search now and try your hearts by these evidences whether you are possessed of this necessary grace of self-denial O make not light of the matter Sirs and presume not of it till you find good grounds For I must tell you that self is the most treacherous enemy and the most insinuating deceiver in the world It will be within you when you are not aware of it and will conquer you when you perceive not your selves much troubled with it and of all other vices is both the hardest to find out and the hardest to cast out the hardest to discover and the hardest to cure Be sure therefore in the first place that you have self-denial and then be sure that you use it and live in the practice of it And for this I must give you more particular advice CHAP. XII In what respect self must be denyed II. AND here I beseech you take heed of Self in all these following respects 1. You must Deny Self as it is Opposite to God and a Competitor with him and the Idol of the soul and of the world and this is in all the ten respects which I mentioned in the beginning and therefore shall not now rehearse And this is the principal part of self-denial 2. Self must be denyed as it is but conceived as separated from God and would be an End in a divided sense from God For our selves and all things else are created contingent dependent beings and must not be once thought of as if we were either our own beginning or end or in any capacity but subservient unto God Self becomes a Satan when it would cast off its due subordination to God and would be any other than the workmanship of God depending on him and ruled by him and living to him loving him desiring him and seeking after him and either mourning when we miss him or rejoycing when we find Communion with him 3. Self must be denyed as it stands up against the Truth of the Gospel and blindly and proudly quarrelleth with that word which faith relyeth upon for Justification and salvation Carnal self is both the most incompetent Judge of the word of God and of spiritual affairs and also the most forward and arrogant and audacious for all it is so incompetent And this is the damnable fountain of unbelief That self is an incompetent Judge of the word and waies of God is evident for 1. It is a natural enemy to them and an enemy is no competent Judge Rom. 8. 7. Because the Carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Deny therefore this enemy the power of judging the word of God Ill-will never saith well Enmity is credulous of all evil and overlooks the good and is accompanyed with false surmises and wresteth every word and suspecteth or maketh an evil sence where there was none there is not a worse expositor in the world And therefore no wonder if such a nature of enmity can find matter of quarrel with the very Scripture it self and with an holy life yea with God himself for it is him especially that the enmity is against 2. Moreover self is a party and therefore an incompetent judge It is self that the Scripture principally speaks against All over the Gospel there are the words of disgrace and the arrows of death directed against the very heart of Carnal self God there proclaimeth and manageth an open war against it And shall a party be the judge shall the traiterous delinquent be the judge A child will hardly speak well of the rod whatever he do by the Corrector but it 's not to be expected that a thief should love the halter or the gallows Gods word is the weapon that self must be slain by and therefore self is an incompetent judge of it 3. Moreover self is quite blind in the matters of God the natural man discerneth them not nor can do because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. And the ignorant and blind are incompetent judges 4. And the selfish man is no good student in the Laws of God even when he readeth the letter he doth not mind or savour the spirit of them Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit A fair world it would be if every Colliar should judge the Privy Council and the Judges of the Land or if every thief should sit upon his accuser and his Judge and every traitor should judge the Prince And a thousand-fold more insufficient is self to judge the Word of God And yet as insufficient as it is it is exceeding arrogant and steps up into the judgment-seat at every Chapter that is read or heard and if this blind and malicious Judge be unsatisfied forsooth the Scripture must be dark or contradictory or what he pleases This horrible presumptuous arrogancy of self is it that hath opened so many mouths against the blessed Doctrine of Salvation and made so many wretched Apostates in the world and cast so many others into doubtings of that word by which at last they must be judged and which should have been the ground of their faith and hope 4. Moreover self must be denyed as it stands up against the Lord Jesus Christ When Christ is presented in his wonderful Condescension in his Incarnation and mean despised life and in his ignominious death Proud self is offended at so low a Saviour and disdaineth that Humiliation which his own necessities did require and despiseth Christ because he became despised and a man of sorrows in our stead When he is propounded as the remedy of a miserable soul and as our only Life and Righteousness and Hope Self doth seduce the soul to undervalue him It will not easily be convinc'd of so much misery as to need such a remedy it is too well to value such a Physician it is too righteous to value the righteousness of a Mediator It hath too much Life and Hope at home in its own supposed innocency or sufficiency to set much by the Hopes that Christ hath purchased and to Live in him O down with self that Christ may be Christ to you How shall he come in while Self is the Porter that keeps the door How shall he pardon you when Self will not suffer you to feel the want and worth of pardon How shall he bind up your hearts when Self will not suffer them to be broken
interest and honour to your selves Holiness is an Inclination and Dedication to God by which two we are said to be separated to him And wickedness is an Inclination and Addictedness or Devotedness to our selves above God or as separated from God And this Inclination Disposition or Separation of man to Himself instead of God is it that I call self or selfishness and this self must it self be first destroyed as to the predominant degree And therefore let us First observe wherein this selfish Disposition doth consist which must be destroyed and then Secondly wherein the selfish Interest doth consist that must be denied And first the selfish Disposition consisteth in these several parts that follow 1. The principal part of it consisteth in an inordinate Self-love This is a corruption so deep in the heart of man that it may be called his very Natural Inclination which therefore lieth at the bottom below all his Actual sins whatsoever and must be changed into a New Nature which principally consists in the Love of God This is Original sin it self even in the heart of it This speaks what man by Nature is even an inordinate self-lover And as he is so he will act In this all other vice in the world is virtually contained even as all grace is in the Love of God which made the Schoolmen say that Love is the Form of all Grace not as they are this or that Grace in particular not of Faith as Faith nor of Hope as Hope but of Faith Hope c. as vital or gracious acts because the respect to the End is essential to the means as a means and therefore the respect to God as the End is Essential to Faith Hope c. as a means to him and therefore that Grace of Love which is terminated on the End must have an essential participation concurrence or influence on those that are directly terminated on the Way or Means and must convey somewhat of its very essence to them and so far as they partake of that essence of Love so far are they indeed those special Graces which carry the soul to God its End And in this sence we may allow the distinction between Fides Spes c. formata charitate which is true Christian Faith and Hope and Fides Spes c. informis which is but an opinion and dream And so it is in the body of sin When self-love doth reign it is the Heart of wickedness And though every sin hath its own specifick nature yet all are virtually in self-love and are so far mortal or prove men graceless as they are informed by the essential Communication of self-love For self being the End informeth all the means as they respect it I say the more to you of this because indeed it is a weighty truth for the right understanding of the true nature of Grace and sin and I doubt many are in the dark for want of understanding considering it A man that feareth and Loveth God and an unsanctified man may be both overtaken with the same sin perhaps a gross one as Noahs and Davids and Peters was and yet this may be a mortal sin in the ungodly I mean such as proves him in a state of death and yet not so in the gracious person The wicked will deride this in their ignorance as if we made God partial but it 's no such matter The Papists cannot endure it but suppose Peter David and Noah were quite without the Love of God and so were again unsanctified men but this is their error It was not from the Power of reigning self-love and the Habitual absence of the Love of God that these men or any Saints did sin but from a particular act of mortified self-love by a surprize upon the neglect of the actual exercise of the Love of God But all the sins of unsanctified men or at least their common sins are from the Habitual reign of self-love and the Habitual absence of the Love of God And therefore the sins of the Saints are as the Schoolmen speak of the graces of the ungodly unformed they be not Mortal sins in the sense aforesaid because they be not naturalized informed animated by the malignity and venom of the Mortal End and Principle which is Habitual reigning self-love But those of the wicked are sins informed by this inordinate self-love as an habitual reigning sin and therefore being animated by its malignity are mortal Yet say not that this makes God partial and not to hate the same sin in one as he doth in another For two things must be taken in 1. Where the heart is sanctified such sins are strangers perhaps one Godly man of ten or twenty may be guilty of one of them as Noah was of drunkenness once in all his life since his conversion For it will not stand with grace to live in them For such as a mans Love and Inclination and nature is such will be the drift of his Life And would not you have God make a difference between those that sin once and those that live in it 2. Besides will not any honest man make a great difference of the same acts according as they come from different hearts you will not take a passionate word from a Father Husband or Wife so ill as the same word from a malicious enemy If an unthrifty Son should spend you twenty shillings wastfully you will not prosecute him as you would do a thief or an enemy that takes it from you violently Wilful murder and casual man-slaughter have not the same punishment by the Law of the Land If you will make such a difference your selves of the same words or deeds as they come from different meanings and affections quarrel not with God for doing that which you confess is just and necessary to be done 1. The Faculty where this Disposition is principally seated is the Will which in man is the Heart of Morality whether Good or Evil. And the Principal Act is an Inordinate Adhesion of man to himself and Complacency in himself And this is the inordinate self-love that must be first mortified 2. The next faculty that self hath corrupted is the Understanding and here we first meet with the sin of self-esteem which is the second part of selfishness to be mortified It is not more natural for man to be sinful vile and miserable than to think himself vertuous worthy and honourable All men naturally over-value themselves and would have all others also over-value them This is the sin of Pride But of this I must speak by it self CHAP. XIV Self-conceitedness must be denied 3. THe next part of selfishness to be mortified is in the same faculty and it is called self-conceitedness And it consisteth of two parts the first is a Disposition to selfish opinions or conceits that are properly our own and the second is to think better of those conceits than they do deserve Naturally men are prone to spin themselves a web of
according as their self-interest commandeth them more than according to the Interest of Christ Let a man be never so eminent in holiness and never so useful and serviceable in the Church and one that hath proved faithful in the greatest tryals if he do but oppose a selfish man and be thought by him to be against him he hateth him at the heart or hath as base contemptuous thoughts of him as malice can suggest He can as easily nullifie all his graces and multiply his smallest infirmities into a swarm of crimes by a censorious mind and a slanderous tongue as if vertue and vice received their form and denominations from the respect of mens minds and waies to him and all men were so far good or evil as they please him or displease him and he expects that others should esteem men such as he is pleased to describe or call them Let all the Countrey be the witnesses of a mans upright and holy life yea let the multitude of the ungodly themselves be convinced of it so far as that their consciences are forced to bear witness of him as Herod did of John Mark 6. 20. that he was a just man and an holy yet can the selfish hypocrite that is against him blot out his uprightness with a word and make him to be Proud or False or Covetous or what his malice please yea make him an Hypocrite as he is indeed himself No man can be good in their eyes that is against them or if he be acknowledged honest in the main it is mixt with exceptions and charges enough to make him seem vile while they confess him honest and if they acknowledge him a man they will withal describe him to be so plaguy or leprous that he shall be thought not fit for humane converse Such a man is an honest man say they but he is a peevish humorous self-conceited fellow And why so Because he is against some opinion or interest of theirs He is proud because he presumeth to dissent from them or reprehend them He raileth every time he openeth their errours or telleth them of their mis-doings He is a Lyar if he do but contradict them and discover their sins though it be with words of truth and soberness In a word no person no speeches or writings no actions can be just that are against a selfish man In differences at Law his cause is good because it is his and his adversaries is alwaies bad because it is against him In publick differences the side that he is on that is for him is alwaies right let it be never so wrong in the eyes of all impartial men The cause is good that he is for which is alway that which seems for him though it be undoubted Treason and perfidious Rebellion accompanied with perjury murder and oppression And the cause must be alwaies bad that is against him and they are the Traytors and Rebels and Oppressors that resist him His own murders are honourable Victories and other mens Victories are cruel and barbarous murders All is naught that is against themselves They are Affected to men according to their self-interest they judge of them and their actions according as they do Affect them they speak of them and deal by them according to this corrupted judgement But as for any that they imagine do Love and Honour them they can Love them and speak tenderly of them be they what they will A little grace or vertue in them seemeth much And their parts seem excellent that indeed are mean If they drop into Perjury Fornication Treason or such like scandalous sins they have alwayes a mantle of Love to cover them or if they blame them a little they are easily reconciled and quickly receive them to their former honour If they have any thing like Grace it 's easily believed to be Grace indeed if they be but on their side If they have nothing like Grace they can Love them for their good natures but indeed it is for themselves When this self-love describeth any person when it writeth Histories or Controversies about any cause or person that they are concerned in how little credit do they deserve Whence is it else that we have such contrary descriptions of Persons and Actions in the writings of the several Parties as we find How holy and temperate and exceedingly industrious a man was Calvin if the whole multitude of sober godly men that knew him may be credited or if we may believe his most constant intimate acquaintance or if we may judge by his judicious pious numerous writings And yet if the Papists may be believed contrary to the witness of a Popish City where he was bred he was a stigmatized Sodomite he was a glutton that eat but once a day and that sparingly he was an idle fleshly man that preached usually every day and wrote so many excellent Volumes and he dyed blaspheming and calling on the Devil that is in longing and praying for his remove to Christ crying daily How long lord how long and how comes all this inhumane forgery about Why one lying Pelagian Apostate Bolsecke wrote it whom Calvin had shamed for his errours and a peevish Lutheran Schlusselburgius hath related part of it from him and this is sufficient warrant for the Papists ordinarily to perswade their followers it is true and with seared Consciences to publish it in their writings though Massonius and some other of the soberer sort among themselves do â—â—ame them for the forgery So do they by Luther Beza and many more Among our selves here how certainly and commonly is it known to all impartial men acquainted with them that the persons nick-named Puritans in England have been for the most part a people fearing God and studying an holy life and of an upright conversation so that the impartial did bear them witness that in the scorners mouth a Puritan was one that was Integervitae scelerisque purus and this was the reason of their suffered-scorn and that the name was the Devils common engine in this Land to shame people from reading and hearing Sermons and praying and avoiding the common sins and seriously seeking their salvation A Puritan was one that Believeth unfeignedly that God is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 12. 6. that strives to enter in at the strait gate and lives as men that believe that Heaven is worth their labour and that Gods Kingdom and its Righteousness should be first sought Mat. 6. 33. And yet if Fitz Simon and other Jesuits and Bishop Bancroft Dr. P. Heylin Mr. Tho. Pierce and other such among us are to be believed what an abominable odious sort of people are they and especially the Presbyterians who are the greatest part of them what intolerable hypocritical bloody men And what 's the reason of these accusations Much is pretended but the sum of all is that they were in some things against the Opinions or Interests of the persons that abuse
for our selves and not as duly subordinate to God The soul having unfaithfully and rebelliously withdrawn it self from God in point of Love and subjection it become its own Idol and looks no higher than it self and Loveth God and all things but for it self and principally for its carnal pleasure And the Propensity to this with the Privation of the souls Inclination to God is Original sin the Disposition suited to the actual sin that caused it which was a retiring from God to self He that feeleth not this evil in himself hath no true knowledge of Original sin And it 's the want of the sense of this great evil and so the want of being acquainted with their hearts that causeth so many to turn Pelagians and to deny the being of Orignal sin 2. Both selfishness and the want of a true discerning of it doth breed and feed abundance of errours and teach men to corrupt the whole body of Practical Divinity and to subvert many Articles of faith which stand in their way How comes the world to be all in a flame about the Universal Reign of the Pope of Rome but from the dominion of selfishness Whence is it that the Nations of the earth have been so troubled for Patriarchs Metropolitans and Diocesans that must do their work by others and for many things that at best can pretend to be but humane indifferent changeable forms but from the prevalency of Self Whence is it that mens consciences have been ensnared and the Churches troubled by so many Ceremonies of mens invention and the Church must rather lose her faithfullest Pastors than they be permitted to worship God as Peter and Paul did Hath not selfishness and Pride done this It is self that hath taught some to plead too much for their own sufficiency and to deny the need of special Grace And so far hath it prevailed with some of late as to lead them Doctrinally to deny that God is the Ultimate End of man and to be Loved for himself and above our selves and all things but only they say he is our finis cujus vel rei to be loved amore concupiscentiae In a word it is this woful principle that hath corrupted Doctrine Discipline and Worship in so many of the Churches 3. We shall never have Peace in Church or Common-wealth while selfishness bears sway Every mans Interest will be preferred before the publick Interest and rise against it as oft which will be oft as they seem inconsistent This is the Vice that informeth Tyranny whether it be Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy when selfish interest is preferred before the Common Interest This makes our people think themselves too wise or too good to learn or to be guided by their Pastors and every man of this strain seems wise enough to lead off a party of the Church into a mutiny against the Pastors and the rest This makes the labours of Reconcilers unsuccessful while selfishness engageth so many wits and tongues and pens and parties against the most necessary equal terms and endeavours of such as would Reconcile Were it not for these selfish men how soon would all our rents be healed how soon would all our wars be ended and all our heart-burnings and malicious oppositions be turned into charitable consultations for an holy peace If once men were carryed above themselves they would meet in God the Center of Unity 4. It is for want of self denial that we undergo so many disappointments and suffer so much disquietment and vexation Were our wills more entirely subjected to the will of God so that his will were preferred before our own we should Rest in his will and have no contradictory desires to be disappointed and no mâ—tâ—er left for self-vexation Had we no disease we should feel no pain and it is our self-will rebelling against the will of God that is our disease Self-denial removeth all the venom from our hearts Persecution and poverty and sickness may touch our fleâ—h but the heart is fortified so far as we have his Grace O how happily doth it quiet and calm the mind when things befall us that would even distract a selfish man O happy man where God is All and Self is Nothing There Duty and Love and Joy are all and trouble and distress is nothing These are not our matters now Partly because we are above them and partly because they belong not to our care but to his Povidence Let us do our Duty and adhere to him and let him dispose of us as he sees meet Who would much fear a Tyrant or any other enemy that saw God and Glory which faith can see Did we see the glorious Throne of Christ we should be so far from trembling at the bar of Persecutors that we should scarce so much regard them as to answer them the infinite Glory would so potently divert our minds As we scarce hearken to our childreâ—s impertinent babblings when we are taken up with great Affairs so if a Tyrant talk to us of â—â—â—â—ging or imprisonment we should scarce hearkeâ— to such trivial impertinencies were we so far above our selves as Faith and Love should advance the soul I have further shewed you in the following Treatise how self-denial disableth all Temptations how it conduceth to all eminent works of Charity but especially to the secret works of the sincere It is of absolute necessity to salvation It is thething that hypocrites are condemned for want of It is the wisdom of the soul as being the only way to our own security And it is the holiness and justice of the soul as it is conjunct with the Love of God in that it restoreth to God his own The excellency of Grace is manifested in self-denial To do or suffer such little things as self is not much against is nothing But to be Nothing in our selves and God to be our All and to close with our first and blessed End this is the nature of Sanctification Alas poor England and more than England even all the Christian world into what confusion and misery hath selfishness plunged thee Into how many pieces art thou broken because that every hypocrite hath a self to be his principle and end and forsakes the true Universal End How vain are our words to Rulers to Souldiers to Rich and Poor while we call upon them to Deny themselves And must we lose our labour and must the Nation lose its peace and hopes Is there no remedy but selfishness must undo all If so be it known to you the principal loss shall be your own ☞ and in seeking your safety liberty wealth and glory you shall lose them all and fall into misery slavery and disdain Deny your selves or save your selves if you can God is not engaged to take care of you or preserve you if you will be your own and will be reserving or saving your selves from him ☞ And though you may seem to prosper in self-seeking waies they will end yea shortly end
let out that dangerous venomous wind that puffs you up And if you should have any Knowledge of the most precious truths as long as you are thus proud and self-conceited it will not be savoury and effectual on your hearts Humility feedeth and Pride starveth every Grace The Spirit of God will not dwell with the proud He will beat you out of your selves unless you drive him away from you Some seeming raptures and comforts the self-conceited have which are but the deluding flatteries of self and the encouragements that Satan giveth to his servants For Satan will needs be a comforter for a while as the Holy Ghost is to the Saints and his followers also have their joys But it is the humble soul that hath the solid comforts From the dust of Humiliation we have the clearest sight of Glory and consequently the sweetest tasts of it As high as the rain comes from it is the lowest valleys that receive it most and retain it Faith it self will not prosper in the proud and self-conceited To such the Gospel will be foolishness or an offence It is only the humble that savingly close with its mysteries Humility cherisheth the fear of God and makes us say How shall we do this evil or neglect this duty But Self-conceitedness and Pride is blind and bold and destroyeth in mens apprehensions the difference between things sacred and common the holy and the unclean It disposeth them to such an unreverent boldness with holy things as usually ends in a prophane contempt so that such can at last despise holy Ordinances which they should live upon Repentance and this Pride are deadly foes To be Penitent and Proud is to be Hot and Cold alive and dead Though Christ love not to find you in the dust of earthly-mindedness yet he loves to find you in the dust of humility The Publican that hanged down the head did â—it the way better to the sight of God than the self-conceited Pharisee The most self-denying humiliation is the nearest way to heaven and the most self-exalting Pride is the surest and nearest way to hell I had rather sit with Mary washing and wiping the feet of Christ than ask as the Mother of James and John to sit at Christ's right hand and left hand in his Kingdom Mary was in a manner thanked for the Love of her humility and they were in a manner denied the request that so little savoured of self-denial Our Lord doth not use to thank people for their service and yet he did that which was next to it to this humble self-denying penitent woman He doth not use to deny his own Disciples an heavenly request and yet he did that which was next to a denial when self brought him the petition He that hath taught us not to press to the highest room lest with shame we hear Sit lower doth hereby tell us what we must expect from himself And he that hath bid us sit down at the lower end that we may hear Friend sit up higher doth express his purpose for humble self-denying souls I had rather from the dust hear his Come up higher than from self-exaltation to hear Come down lower O you that are proud self-conceited wretches did you but know what good it doth an humble soul to feel Christ take him up from the dust you would soon fall down that you might tast their comforts in his lifting up O what a blessed feeling it is to feel ones self in the arms of Christ Our common compassion that makes us run to take up one that falls before us is a spark of that compassion in Christ who meddles with him that walks before us but a man that falls down in a swoon we are all ready to lay hands on O happy fall that makes us feel the arms of Christ Though the fall into sin be never the better that occasioneth it yet the fall into Humiliation is the better that prepareth for it He that in his agony had an Angel to minister to him will not leave the self-denying humble soul without his Angel or some way of relief that is sutable to the necessity Christ himself will not communicate himself to the proud and self-conceited He is wisdom but not to them that are wise in their own eyes already He is Righteousness but not to them that Justifie themselves He is Sanctification but not to those that never found their own uncleanness He is Redemption but to none but those that feel themselves condemned He hath the white raiment and the treasures of grace and glory but it 's only those that penitently feel that they are poor and miserable and blind and naked Truly Sirs though I have no mind to trouble the well-grounded peace or comfort of any of your Souls yet I would advise you if you have never so good thoughts of your selves suspect lest it should be the fruit of self-conceiteduess And if you should have never so much peace and joy look well whether it come from God or self-conceit And if it come not in against self it 's ten to one but it comes from self If your Peace and Comfort be not won from Christ in a way of self-denial and as the spoils of the flesh you have it not in the ordinary way of God Did you come to your Joy and Peace by humility and self-denial and patience and mortification and by becoming little Children and the servants of all and by learning of Christ to be meek and lowly If not take heed lest you nourish a changeling an Imp of Hell and a selfish brat instead of the fruit of the Spirit the peace and joy of the Holy Ghost If you feel no great matter at home to trouble you you are too Righteous to be Justified by Christ If you groan not under your ignorance and unbelief you are too wise to be Christ's Disciples If you mourn not under the load and pain of sin you are too well to be Christ's Patients If you are readier to justifie and excuse your selves than to condemn your selves and had rather hear your selves praised than reproved admonished or instructed and like Diotrephes love to have the preheminence you are too high for Christ to take any acquaintance with you and too full of self to have any room for his Love and Spirit and heavenly Consolations He that gave us the Parable of the importunate widdow Luke 18. 2 3. would have us understand that bare necessity is not enough to fit us for relief for then the worst of men should be the fittest but it must be Necessity so felt as to humble us and drive us to importunity with God The Prodigal was miserable when he was denied the husks but he never felt his Fathers embracements till he came to himself by denying himself and returning to his Father And this the self-conceited will not be perswaded to The first that must touch Christ after his Resurrection is not a King nor a Lord no nor a
it and if I should not taste it why should I touch it or be medling with it and if I may not meddle with it why should I look upon it or hearken to them that would entice me to it so that the Denying of your senses and your Appetite is the sure and easie way to prevent those dreadful gripes that else may follow 3. Moreover if you deny not your sensitive appetites you will never be acquainted with heavenly delights The soul cannot move two contrary ways at once towards earth and towards heaven When you gaze upon this world and feed your appetites with fleshly delights you have no heart nor mind to the delights above It is the soul that retires from creatures and sensual objects that is free for God and ready to entertain the motions of Grace Not that I would have you turn Hermits and Monks and forsake the company of men all worldly business No it is an higher and nobler course that I propound to you even in the midst of the world to live as without the world as if there were nothing before you for sensuality to seed upon To live so fully to God in the world that you may see God in all the creatures and converse with him in those same objects by which the sensual are turned from him and to live in the greatest fulness of all things as if there were nothing but penury to your flesh and seeing God in all and using all for God and denying self where you have opportunity to please it this is the most noble life on earth But if you find that you cannot attain to this and that you cannot deny your selves the delights of earth unless you withdraw from the sight of the objects do so and spare not so far as may consist with your serviceableness to God and humane Society But still you shall find that whether earthly delights are present or absent your minds must retire from that which doth allure and gratifie the flesh if ever you would enjoy Communion with God and taste of the delights of an heavenly conversation 4. And by pleasing your senses you will increase their vitious inordinate desires The more you gratifie them the more they 'l crave you feed your disease by yielding to such desires but never think to quiet it by contenting it The more the flesh hath the more it would have The only way to abate the rage of sensual desires is to deny them and use them constantly to that denial The safest food and raiment is that which best strengthneth and furnisheth us for Gods service with the least content and pleasure to our sensual appetites and desires And the same I must say of house and lands and labours and friends and all the Creatures that 's the best state of life in which God is served and pleased best with the least content and pleasure to the flesh Carnal delights and spiritual are so contrary the one so drossie and sordid and the other so sublime and pure that they will not well consist together but the delights of the flesh do corrupt or weaken the spiritual delights 5. Lastly Consider what a base unmanly thing it is for a man to be a slave to his sensitive appetite As truly as the horse was made to be ruled by the rider and all the bruits to be under man so was the appetite all the senses made to be ruled by reason no sense should be pleased till Reason do consent a beast hath no rule for his eating drinking but his appetite and therefore mans reason is to moderate him But a man hath a better guide than appetite or sense to follow you should not eat a bit or drink a drop meerly because the appetite would have it but Reason must be advised with and God must give advice to Reason A Swine that will drink whey till he burst his belly is blameless because he knew not the danger and had not Reason to restrain him But a man that hath Reason and yet will eat and drink and sleep and use the Creatures meerly to please the appetite of his flesh is utterly unexcusable What must the light of Reason be put out or put under the cover of sensual concupiscence must a nature that is kin to Angels be enslaved to that which is kin to beasts Unworthy is he of the honour or glory of a Saint that casteth away the honour of his manhood and makes himself a very beast What else doth that wretch that when he seeth a dish before him that he loves doth never ask whether it be wholesom or unwholesom bute eats it as an Horse doth his provender meerly because his appetite would have it Yea perhaps though he know or be told that it is unwholesom yet as long as it pleases his taste he cares not And what else doth that wretch that when he sees the cup must needs be tasting he loves it and that 's reason enough with him What a base unmanly thing is it much more unchristian to be a Slave to a fleâ—â—ly appetite Would one of these Gentlemen-gluttons Drunkards or Whoremongers or any of our voluptuous Epicures that must needs have that they love be contented to become a servant to a Beast would you take a Dog or a Swine for your Master and serve them and obey them and do what your brutish Master would have you why what 's the matter that many of our worshipful and honourable Beasts do not see that they do as bad What is your own fleshly sensual Appetite any better than that of a Beast A Dog hath as good a scent as you and a Swine hath as good a taste or sight as you and also as strong a lust as you What great difference is there betwixt the serving your own flesh and anothers your own brutish part or any other brute that lives about you Wonderful if the favour of God be nothing with you and if damnation be nothing with you that yet you are insensible of your honour in the world and that you that cannot put up a disgraceful word or blow can yet put up at your own hands such a bestial indignity as the subjecting of a Rational immortal soul to that bruitish flesh which was made to be its servant CHAP. XIX Self-interest And 1. Pleasure And 1. Of the Taste to be denied 2. I Have told you what the selfish Disposition is that must be mortified and denied and now I must tell you what is the selfish Interest that must be denied Having described self-denial from the Faculties I must now describe it by its Objects The selfish Interest consisteth in this Trinity of Objects Pleasure Profit and Honour not spiritual but carnal not heavenly but worldly Pleasure Profit and Honour sometime all these are comprehended in the word Pleasure alone and then it is taken more comprehensively and not only for sensual Pleasure called voluptuousness as it is here in this distribution And
torment is will know that time is a commodity of greater worth than so contemptuously to be cast away for nothing O remember when thou art next in idle talk Did God make thee for this doth he continue thee among the living and keep thee out of hell and yet prolongeth thy days that thou shouldest waste thy time in idleness and vanity Hast thou so many sins to mortifie and so many other works to do which heaven or hell lyeth on and so short and uncertain a time to do them in and yet hast thou leasure for idle talk 5. Moreover this sin is so much the greater because it is not a rare or seldom sin but frequently committed and continued in It is not like the sin of David or Noah that though greater yet was but once committed But this is made great by the number and continuance How many thousand idle words have you been guilty of in your time 6. And it is a sin that tendeth to greater sins For idle words are the ordinary passage to backbiting railing lying and contentious words Prov. 10. 19. In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin but he that refraineth his lips is wise Thus a fools lips enter into contention Prov. 18. 6. His mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul Eccles 5. 7. In the multitude of dreams and many words are divers vanities but fear thou God Eccles. 10. 12 13. The Lips of a fool will swallow up himself the beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness and the end of his talk is madness Idleness is the beginning but worse than Ideness is the end 7. It is a sin that habituateth the speaker and hearers both to vanity use makes us disposed to that which we use It will grow strange to you to speak of better things when you are used to vanity And the use of hearing you is an exceeding wrong to the souls of the hearers And a small matter confirmeth such bad hearts as the most have in the vanity that they are in You cast water on their graces and your own if there were any If any of them had better thoughts your idle talk doth drown and divert them 8. And it is a sin that hindreth abundance of Edification that holy conference might bring It 's a precious thriving course for Christians to be communicating experiences and declaring the excellencies and loving-kindness of God and exciting one another and this you lay by and turn to vanity Nay perhaps some other that is in the company may be purposed to set upon such profitable discourse and your idle talk doth hinder them and suppress the exercise of Gods graces for your good At least there may be much precious matter in them that wants but vent if you would but begin it may be poured forth as precious ointment Many wise and able men are too backward in beginning edifying discourse that yet are exceeding fruitful when you have once set them a work And idle talk is the hinderer of this 9. And it is a very fruitless sin You offend God for nothing What get you by an hours idle talk or what have you to tempt you to it 10. And it is a wilful sin and usually accompanied with much Impenitency which makes it much the greater Men use not to lament it and call themselves to account for it and say what have I done but go on in it as if it were no sin And now you see the greatness of the sin I beseech you make more conscience of it than you have done And that you may avoid it observe these brief Directions Direct 1. Labour for understanding in the matters of God for that 's it that must furnish the tongue and prevent vanity Prov. 11. 12. 10. 19. A foolish head will have a foolish tongue Dir. 2. Get a deep impression and lively sense of the matters of God upon the heart For a man never talks heartily that talks not from the Heart He that is full of the Love of God possessed of the Spirit of Christ taken up with the riches of grace and of glory will scarce want matter to talk of nor an holy disposition to set him a work For the Word of God will be as a fire in his heart he will be weary with forbearing till the flames burst out Psal 119. 11. 40. 8. 57. 7. 119. 111. 39. 3. Jer. 20. 9. The hearty experienced Christian is usually the fruitful Christian in word and deed Dir. 3. Preserve a tender conscience that may check you when you begin to turn to vanity The fear of God is the souls preserver Psal 19. 9. Prov. 16. 6. 23. 17. Dir. 4. Walk as before the Lord Live and think and speak as in his presence If the presence of an Angel would call you off from idle words what then should the presence of God himself do Dare you run on in idle foolish prating when you remember that he heareth you Dir. 5. Keep out of the company of idle talkers lest they entangle you in the sin unless when you have a call to be among them Prov. 13. 20. We are apt to let our discourse run with the stream Direct 6. When you are with the ungodly maintain in you a believing compassion to their souls And then the sense of their condition will heal your discourse Dir. 7. Provide matter of holy discourse of purpose beforehand As you will not travel without money in your purses to defray your charges so you should not go into company without a provision of such matter as may be profitable for the company that you may be cast upon Study and contrive how to suit your speeches to the Edification of others or else to draw good from others even as Ministers study for their Sermons Dir. 8. Speak not till you have considered what is like to be the effect of it and weighed the quality of the person and other circumstances to that end Do not speak first and consider after but first think and then speak Dir. 9. Be still sensible of the worth of time and opportunity and then you will be as loth to cast it away on idle talk as a good husband will be to cast away his money for nothing Dir. 10. Keep up a sense of your own necessity which may provoke you to be better husbands of your tongues and time and engage those you converse with to mind you of your idle talk and take you off it as soon as you begin Dir. 11. See that your heart and tongue and all be Absolutely devoted to God and then you will question any by-expense of words and Whatsoever you do in word or deed you will do all in the name of Christ and to the glory and praise of God Col. 3. 17. 1 Cor. 10. 31. Dir. 12. Be Resolute for God and be not ashamed to own him and his cause A sinful bashfulness hinders much good Observe these
Directions for this part of self-denial CHAP. XXII False Stories Romances and other tempting Books 5. ANother point of sensuality to be denied is The reading or hearing of false and tempting Books and those that only tend to please an idle fancy and not to edifie Such as are Romances and other feigned histories of that nature with Books of tales and jests and foolish complements with which the world so much aboundeth that there 's few but may have admittance to this Library of the Devil Abundance of old feigned Stories and new Romances are in the hands especially of Children and idle Gentlemen filthy lustful Gallants or â—…ty persons that savour not greater matters but have spirits sutable to such gawds as these But if they were only toyes I should say the less but having seen by long observation the mischief of them I desire you to note it in these few particulars 1. They ensnare us in a world of guilt by drawing us to the neglect of those many those great and necessary things that all of us have to mind and study O for a man or woman that is under a load of sin unassured of pardon and salvation that is near to death and unready to die to be seen with a story or Romance in their hand what a gross incongruity is this It 's fitter the Book of God should be in your hand It 's that which you must live by and be judged by There 's much that you are yet ignorant of which you have more need to be acquainted with than Fables Are you not ignorant of an hundred truths that you should know that God hath revealed to further your salvation and can you lay them all by to read Romances Are you travelling towards another world with a Play-book in your hand O that you did but know what greater matters you have to mind and to to do Do all that you have to do first that 's of a thousand times more worth and weight and need and then come to me and I will answer your Objections What harm is it to read a Play-book First Quench the fire of sin and wrath that is kindled in your souls and see that you understand the Laws of God and read over those profitable Treatises of Divines that the world aboundeth with and your souls more need and then tell me what mind or time you have for Fables 2. Moreover it dangerously bewitcheth and corrupteth the minds of young and empty people to read these books Nature doth so close with them and delight in them that they presently breed an inordinacy of affection and steal away the heart from God and his holy Word and ways It cannot be that the Love and delights of the heart can be let out on such trash as these and not be taken off from God and the most needful things That is the most dangerous thing to the soul that works it self deepest into the affections and is most delighted in instead of God And therefore I may well conclude that Play-books and History-Fables and Romances and such like are the very poyson of youth the prevention of grace the fuel of wantonness and lust and the food and work of empty vicious graceless persons and it 's great pity that they be not banished out of the Common-wealth 3. Moreover they rob men of much precious time in which much better work might be done much precious knowledge might be got while they are exercised in these Fables Those hours must be answered for And there is not the worst of you but then had rather be able to say I spent those days and hours in prayer and meditating on the life to come and reading the Law and Gospel of Christ and the Books which his Servants wrote for my instruction than to say I spent it in reading Love-books and Tale-books and Play-books All these considered I beseech you throw away these pestilent vanities and take them not in your hands nor suffer them in the hands of your children or in your houses but burn them as you would do a conjuring-book as they did Acts 19. 19. that so they may do no mischief to any others CHAP. XXIII Vain Sports and Pastimes to be denied 6. ANother part of fleshly interest to be denied is vain sports and pastimes and all unnecessary Recreations For this also is one of the harlots that the flesh is defiled with Recreations are lawful and useful if thus qualified 1. If the matter of them be not forbidden For there 's no sporting with sin 2. If we have an holy Christian end in them that is to fit our bodies and minds for the service of God and do not do it principally to please the flesh If without dissembling our hearts can say I would not meddle with this recreation If I thought I could have my body and mind as â—ell strengthned and fitted for Gods service without it 3. If we use not recreations without need as to the said End nor continue them longer than they are useful to that End and so do not cast away any of our precious time on them in vain 4. If they be not uncivil excessively costly cruel or accompanied with the like unlawful accidents 5. If they contain not more probable incentives to vice than to vertue as to Covetousness Lust Passion Prophaneness c. 6. If they are not like to be more hurtful to the souls of others that joyn with us than profitable to us 7. If they be not like to do more hurt by offending any that are weak or dislike them than good to us that use them 8. If they be used seasonably in a time that they hinder not greater duties 9. If we do it not in company unfit for us to joyn with 10. Especially if we make a right choice of Recreations and when divers are before us we take the best that which is least offensive least expensive of time and cost and which best furthereth the health of our bodies with the smallest inconvenience These Rules being observed Recreations are as lawful as sleep or food or Physick But alas they are made another thing by the sensual ungodly world Sometime they must sport themselves with sin it self in the abuse of Gods Name and Servants and Creatures Tipling and prophane Courses are some mens chiefest recreations And though the Law of the Land forbid most of their sports and the Law of God commandeth them to obey all the Laws of men that are not against the Law of God yet this is a matter of nothing to their consciences And let the matter be never so lawful they make all impious by a carnal end It 's none of their intention to strengthen and fit themselves for the service of God and an holy righteous life by their recreations but it 's meerly because their fancy and flesh is pleased in them Even as the Drunkard Glutton or Whoremonger that have no higher end than Pleasure and can give you no better account
deluded souls that they do amiss but they say What harm is there in cards or dice or hunting or bowling or such like rerceations How shall we live without recreation Answ But is there no harm in needless flesh-pleasing and in the loss of precious time to men that are ready to step into eternity O that ever men should make such a question Sppose your recreations were the lawfullest in the world in their own nature Can there be a greater villany than to set your hearts on them and make a God of them and cast away pretious hours on them in using them needlesly Recreations are your physick or your sauce therefore must not become your food nor made a meal of They are only as whetting to the mower which must never be used but when there 's need To spend half the day in needless whetting deserves no wages O did you know but what your work and time and what 's before you you would be better husbands and then you might so contrive your business as to lose no time in recreation For either your calling puts you on the labour of the mind as Students or of the body as labouring men If study be your calling you need no exercise of recreation but for your bodies for variety of studies is the best or sufficient for the mind And two hours walking is bodily recreation enough in a day for almost any student that is in a capacity to labour And if you be labouring men or your calling lie in bodily motion then you need no recreation for your bodies besides your Callings but only for your mind And if you love God and his Word what better Recreation for your minds can you devise than thinking of the Love of God in Christ and meditating on the Law of God Psal 1. 2. and calling upon him and rejoycing in his praises and the Communion of his Saints Is not a day in his Courts better than a thousand any where else The Spirit of God by David said so Psal 84. 10. But alas it is this unmortified flesh and tyrannizing sensuality that blindeth you that you cannot see the truth or else all this would be as plain to you as the high way CHAP. XXIV Vain Company to he denied 7. ANother sensual vice to be denied is A love to vain ungodly Company This is a sin that I think none but utterly graceless men are much carried away with For the Godly are all taught of God to love one another 1 Thes 4. 9. and to delight in the Saints as the most excellent on Earth Psal 16. 2 3. and to take pleasure in their communion and to look on the ungodly with a differencing belief as fore-seeing their everlasting misery if they return not so that it is the ungodly that I have now to speak to Some fall in love with the company of good fellows as they call them and some love the company of harlots some of gamesters and most of merry pleasant companions and men that are of their own disposition and the love of such company ticeth them to the frequent committing of the sin They would not go to gaming but for company They would not go to the Alehouse but for company and when they are there perhaps they will swear and drink and mock at godliness for company But are you willing also to go to hell for company Is the company of those sinners better than the company of God and his favour were it not better to be that while with him in prayer or about his work If you love a tipling fellow better than God speak out and say so plainly and never dissemble any more nor say that you love God above all or that you are Christians Have you more delight in the Company of them that would entice to sin than in the Company of the godly that would draw you from it This is a most certain mark that yet you are the children of the Devil and in a state of damnation It is not possible for a sanctified child of God to do so See the description of the man that shall be saved in Psal 15. vers 4. In his eyes a vile person is contemned but he honoureth them that fear the Lord Birds of a feather will flock together The company which you love shews what courses you love and what you are You delight in the company of those that Christ will judge as his enemies and how then will he judge of you You delight most in the company of those notorious fools that know not the plainest and needfullest things in all the world that know not that God is better than the world and holiness than sin and know not the way of their own salvation If you are content to have the company of the ungodly for ever you may take it here But if you would not dwell in hell with them do not go on in sin with them O when you shall see those very men arrested by death and haled at the bar of God and cast into damnation then you will have no mind of their company Then O that you could but say that you were none of them Like a man that is enticed by thieves to joyn with them but when the hue and cry overtakes them and they are apprehended how glad would he be then to be from among them I tell you sinners if grace recover you you shall wish in the sorrow of your hearts that you had never seen the faces of those men that enticed you to evil but if grace do not recover you you shall wish ten thousand times in Hell that you had never seen their faces but then your wishes will be in vain In the name of God bethink your selves whether your companions can bear you out at last and save you from the wrath of God and warrant your Salvation Nay whether they can save themselves Alas you know they cannot God saith If you live after the flesh ye shall die Rom. 8. 13. and if these men say as the Devil to Eve you shall not die are they able think you to make it good What can they overcome the God of heaven O Sirs away as you love your souls from such mad and miserable company as this CHAP. XXV Pleasing Accommodations Buildings Gardens Horses c. 8. ANother sensual delight to be denied is Pleasing accommodations in Buildings Rooms Walks Gardens Grounds Cattle and such like It 's lawful to be thus accommodated and lawful to desire and use such accommodations with such cautions as I gave before about recreations 1. If you do not with Ahab desire to be accommodated by that which is another mans coveting your neighbours possessions or unlawfully procuring it 2. If you be not at too much cost upon such things expending that upon them that should be laid out on greater and better things 3. But especially if you desire such accommodations for right ends sincerely referring all to Gods honour and desiring them
thy course and judge at last whether the friend that thou didst chuse or that thou didst neglect and abuse was the better and would have stood thee in more stead in thy deepest exâ—remities Christ hath resolved you once for all that he that loveth Father or Mother more than him is not worthy of him and cannot be his Disciple Nay if he hate not Father Mother and all that is If he will not cast them all away and forsake them as men do hated things rather than forsake Christ and the glory which he hath promised Luke 14. 26. 33. And therefore seeing Christ hath thought meet to instance in the forsaking of carnal friends for his sake as a duty of all that will be his Disciples you may see that this is a very considerable part of your self-denial And doubtless it is a point that Christians are usually put to the tryal in or else Christ would not have instanced in it Few turn to Christ but their carnal friends will turn from them No greater enemies to a man in the matters of his salvation except carnal self than carnal friends and therefore either God or they must be denied For when God is for holiness and they against it when they are for sinful pleasures and gain and God against it both cannot be pleased and therefore one of them must be denied God or they CHAP. XXX Revengeful passions to be denied 13. ANother part of self-denial consisteth in the denying of Revengeful Passions that provoke us against those that have done us wrong or that we judge to be our enemies It is the common saying of such persons as are disposed to this sin that Revenge is sweet it easeth the minds of malicious persons to have their will upon their adversaries and to see them at their feet Nothing of all his honours and prosperity could satisfie â—aman till he was revenged of Mordecai As a burning fâ—stering â—oâ—l or apâ—steme is eased by opening and vent so is a boiling paâ—â—ionate mind when by railing speeches or revengeful actions it venteth it self against them that they hate But in this also self must be denied by all that will be Christs Disciples for he forgiveth none but those that can heartily forgive another And that we may know that this is a part of self-denial of great necessity he hath put it into our prayers and will not have us so much as ask for forgiveness our selves if we cannot forgive that we may know that seeing it is not to be asked for on lower terms it is not to be hoped for The forgiving grace of God in Christ doth so melt and overcome the hearts of all true Christians that it disposeth them in their measure to imitate him in forgiving And they cannot find in their heart to take another by the throat for an hundred pence when their Lord hath forgiven them ten thousand talents Mat. 18. 24. 28. The grace that is most gloriously manifested in the Gospel must needs make the deepest imprestion on the soul and consequently conform the soul into its image and doubtless this is love and compassion and forgiving mercy and therefore he that cannot love his enemy bless them that curse him and pray for them that hate and persecute him and return good for evil can be no child of God Mat. 5. 44 45 46. It is an inhumane oblivion of our own condition for a man to seek revenge of another for a trifle for it can be no greater as it is against such simple worms as we when so many and hainous sins have been forgiven us Doth God remit to us the everlasting torments and shall we inflict on another the venom of our private spleen I know the furious Bedlams and malicious wretches do take all this but for unsatisfactory talk it is not words that will serve their turns to repair their honour and ease their devilish rancorous minds Flesh and blood say they cannot endure it Answ And therefore flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God nor corruption inherit incorruption 1 Cor. 15. 50. Grace can do more than flesh and blood and if you cannot forgive you cannot be forgiven If it be so hard to you to sorbear yea to love an enemy it shall be as hard for you to be saved and escape the portion of the enemies of God and if the word of Gods command be but wind with you the word of his promise shall be as uneffectual to your salvation as the word of his precept and perswasion was uneffectual to your conversion and obedience As God is Love so his sanctified ones are turned into Love Love is their new nature and Love is not of a Revengeful disposition Love is the Divine Nature in us and malice provoking to Revenge is the Devilish nature And a believer is more afraid of the anger of God than to take his sword of Revenge out of his hand He hath learn'd 1 Pet. 2. 21 23. 1 Thes 4. 6. Rom. 12. 19. Avenge not your selves but give place to wrath vengeance is mine and I will repay saith the Lord. Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good CHAP. XXXI New Vain Histories and other Mens Matters c. 14. ANother piece of Carnal pleasure to be denied is the Delight men have in reading unprofitable Histories and hearing News that do not concern us and medling with other mens matters where we have no Call With some fancies this is a notable part of carnal delight Many School-boys and young effeminate wits are as much poysoned and carried away with reading Romances feigned histories and tale-books and play-books as by almost any piece of sensuality O the precious hours that have been lost upon this trash and trumpery but of this I spoke before that which now I speak is even true History and Reports as matter of meer News to please a busie ranging mind History is a very profitable study if it be used for right ends and be rightly chosen It 's a very great help to understand the Scriptures and to know the former and present state of the Church and see the wonderful works of providence that otherwise would be as lost to us It is not fit that the wondrous works of God should die with those that have seen them and not be transmitted to posterity God should have the honour of his glorious works from generation to genetion and how shall that be if all be forgotten He that knoweth nothing of any age but that which he lives in is as fooli as he that knows nothing of any Country or Town but that which he lives in Some History is essential to our faith and much more is integral to it yet much more is very serviceable to it He that hath not some competent acquaintance with Church-History will be at great disadvantages in the holding and defending his â—aith it self against an Infidel or the purity of Religion against a Papist And he that knoweth not the present
mean that we are employed in yet all is but the serving of God as long as we do them all for him this is the main difference between an unsanctified scholar and a servant of God in all their studies One of them is but recreating his curious fancy or inquisitive mind and seeking matter of honour and applause or some way or other studying for himself but the other is searching after the nature and will of his Creator and learning how to do his work in that manner as may please and honour him most So that when they are reading the same books and studying the same subjects they are upon quite different works as having contrary ends in all their studies the one is content with bare speculation and aery knowledge which puffeth up and the other studieth and knoweth practically to feed the holy fire of love in his heart and to guide and quicken and strengthen him for obedience 3. Moreover there is a difference commonly in the subject which they most desire to know for though there is no truth but a wicked man may know which a true Christian knoweth and also but few truths but what he may for selfish ends be desirous to know yet ordinarily a carnal heart is much more forward to study common Sciences than Divinity and in Divinity to study least the practical part and to be most in points that exercise the brain and lie further from the heart but the sanctified man delighteth most in knowing the mysterie of Redemption the riches of grace the glory which he hopeth for the nature and will of God the way of duty the temptations that are before him and his danger by them and the way to escape with such other useful truths which he must live upon One feeds but upon the air and chaff of words and notions or common truths and the other is taken up with the most spiritual heavenly and necessary matters yea it is not so much the truth as the matter or thing revealed by it which the Christian looks after it is not only to understand the meaning of the Scripture but to find and love and enjoy that God that Christ that Spirit that Life which is revealed in those words of Scripture but the hypocrite sticks most in a Grammatical superficial kind of knowledge 5. Carnal knowledge would break Gods bounds and would needs know that which else they might know and cannot see the strength of a reason which the wise can see yet will they sooner quarrel with the light than with their eyes and suspect the reasons and words of God rather than their purblind minds But spiritual knowledge is modest and humble and obedient presumeth not to climb any higher than the ladder lest he lose more by such a step too high than he got by all his labor hitherto find himself all in pieces at the bottom while he would needs climb above the top He finds work enough in what God hath commanded him to study in his word and therefore hath no leisure to look after things that God hath hid from him It is for the use of knowledge that he would know and therefore he hath no great mind of that which is useless and he knows that God is the best Judge of that and therefore he takes that to be best for him which is prescribed him 6. Carnal Students are apt to learn in the wayes which their interests and fancies lead them to but holy Students learn of God in his prescribed way that is 1. In his Church which is his School 2. And in and by his holy Scripture which is the book he sets us to learn And 3. By his Ministers whom he commandeth to teach us 4. And in obedience to his spirit that must make all effectual And 5. In fervent prayer to God for that spirit and a blessing This is Gods way in which he will bring men to saving knowledge 7. Also Carnal Students observe not commonly Gods order in their learning but they begin at that which suteth best with their carnal interest or disposition as being least against it and they catch here and there a little and make what their list of it and force it to their carnal sense and to speak for that which their minds are most affected to But the sanctified student begins at the bottom and first seeks to know the Essentials of Religion Points that life lieth most upon and so he proceeds in order and takes the lesson which God and his Teachers set him and takes up truths as they lie in order of necessity and use 8. And in the manner also the difference is great The Carnal student searcheth presumptuously self-conceitedly and unreverently and speaks of holy things accordingly and censureth them when he should censure himself and actions by them and bendeth the words of God to his own carnal interest and will But the spiritual student searcheth meekly with fear and reverence with self-suspicion and consciousness of his exceeding darkness and with a willingness and resolution to submit to the light for conviction and for the guidance of his conversation And now you see what carnal studies are remember that to avoid them is part of your self-denial Restrain your ranging phantasies understanding as you would do a ranging appetite If you have a mind that would fain reach higher than God hath given you light in Scripture or a mind that must needs be satisfied of the reasons of all Gods ways and murmureth if any of its doubts be unresolved remember that this is self that must be denied and if any be wise in his own eyes he must become a fool that he may be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. and as little children must you come to the School of Christ if you will indeed be his Disciples And remember that this Intellectual voluptuousness licentiousness and presumption of Carnal minds is a higher and in some respects greater and more dangerous vice than brutish sensuality And you may cheat and undo your souls in a civil course of carnal selfish studies as well as in a course of more gross and sensual vâ—luptuonsness CHAP. XXXIII Factious Desire of the success of our own Opinions and Parties as such c. 16. ANother selfish Interest to be denied is The factious desire of the success of any odd opinions which we have espoused and of the increase and prosperity of any dividing party in the Church which we have addicted our selves unto It exceedingly delighteth a Carnal mind that his Judgement should be admired and he should be taken as the light of the Country round about him and therefore when he hath hatcht any opinions of his own or espoused any whereby his singularity may be manifested or by which his selfish interest may be promoted he is as careful to promote these opinions and the party that holdeth with him as a Covetous man is to promote his gain There is indeed as much of self in many mens
affections It is Gods highest honour to be highliest esteemed and dearliest beloved as being the most perfect and transcendent Good And Proud men in this world aspire to his Prerogative and much affect to be beloved of all and fain they would sit near mens hearts and be the darlings of the world This is a fine but dangerous sin and I doubt many that are guilty of it never well considered that it is a sin and so great a sin as indeed it is Deny your selves in this It is God that must be Loved of all and not you You must be content to be hated of all men for his name sake that he may be beloved Mens hearts were not made to be your throne but Gods Your work is to Love and not ambitiously to seek for love So far as your interest in mens affections doth conduce to Gods honour and service and their good desire it and spare not But see that these be really your ends But for your selves take heed of desiring or seeking for mens Love They are apt enough to have inordinate affections to the creature without your temptations To Love God in you and Love you for God is their duty which you may provoke them to in season But seek not for any nearer interest in them nor for such a love as terminateth in your selves Nature is exceeding ambitious of being beloved but steal not Gods due You are to be sutors and sollicitors for him to win the hearts of as many as you can and not to speak for your selves in his stead Thankfully accept of mens Ordinate Love to you if you have it but if they deny it for you or for the sake of Christ and turn it into hatred do you deny your selves herein and remember that it 's no more than you were forewarned of and no more than your Lord and his worthiest servants have endured What a Pattern is Paul that tells his converts he seeks not theirs but them as parents lay up for the children and not children for the parents and would gladly spend and be spent for them though the more he love the less he were beloved 2 Cor. 12. 14 15. See that you Love God and them and that is your duty do that and you need not take care for the Love of men to you Their Love is none of your felicity and therefore their hatred depriveth you not of your felicity for that lieth only in the Love of God Here therefore self must be denied CHAP. XLIII The Reputation of Riches to be denied 3 ANother part of the Honour which self must be denied in is The Reputation of your Riches For wealth is one thing that men are proud of Some desire to be esteemed richer than they are and therefore go in the best apparel they can get that they may not be thought to be persons of the lowest poorest sort And some that are Rich do glory in their Riches and think they are much more to be honoured than the poor But alas if they had well read and considered what Christ hath said of the danger of the rich particularly in Luke 12. 16. 18. 8. 14. Mat. 13. 22. Mark 10. 23. and what James saith to them James 5. 1 2. c. they would see that Riches is not a thing to be Proud of Not many great and noble are called God hath chosen the poor of this world Rich in faith to be heirs of the Kingdom The talents for which we must give such an account at the bar of Christ should be rather the matter of our fear and trembling than of our Pride That which makes our passage to heaven to be as the Camels through a needle's eye I think should not much lift us up All the Riches of the world do make you never the better thought of with God or any wise man Nor will they cause you to live a moneth the longer or quiet your Consciences or save you from death or the wrath of God The only worth of Riches is that you are better furnished than others to do God some good service by relieving the poor and helping the Church and furthering many such good works And for the sake of these good ends you must patiently bear a state of Riches yea and thankfully receive them if they are given you by God though the care and labour in a faithful distribution of them and the danger of abusing them and the reckoning to be made for them are so great as may deter a wise man from a greedy seeking them or glorying in them CHAP. XLIV Comeliness and Beauty to be denied 4. ANother part of the Honour that self must be denied in is The Reputation of your personal comeliness or beauty For such fools and children sin hath made folks that many much set by the Reputation of these And hence is most commonly the abuse of Apparel Every proud person is desirous of that which will make them seem the handsomest or beautifullest persons unto others and make it their care to set forth themselves to the eyes of beholders What they indeed are we can see as well in the meanest attire but what they would be thought to be we may best see in this But of this I spoke before yea some think that they are not Proud of their comeliness yet cannot endure to be esteemed ill-favoured or uncomely and so shew that Pride which they would deny I confess these are commonly but the temptations of women and procacious youth But one would think it should be easie for a few sober thoughts to cut their combs and let them see how little cause they have to be proud of beauty or comeliness of the flesh Alas what is that body that you are proud of Filth and corruption covered with a cleaner skin than some of your neighbours Ah but the skin is thin and if that be all you have to glory in it is as frail as contemptible There 's many a pretty flower in the common field that 's trodden down by the feet of beasts that have a gloss and hue incomparably beyond your beauty I asked you before what beauty you will have to glory of when you have dwelt but a few moneths in the grave or if the small Pox or Leprosie should clothe you with another coloured skin or if a Cancer should but seize upon your face and turn it into such an ugly shape as makes men tremble to behold it or when wrinkled age hath made you as another person or when death hath deprived you of that soul which was your beauty and laid you out as a prey and sacrifice to corruption Ah that ever such a skin full of dirt such a bag of filth should yet be proud that 's carried about by a living soul and by it kept a little while from falling down as a sensless clod and turning into a stinking corpse They are short-sighted and short-witted as well as graceless that cannot look so far before them