12. The words of a wise mans mouth are gracious but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself Eccles 10. 14. A fool is full of words And therefore Solomon opposeth the tongue of the just and the heart of the wicked Prov. 10. 20. The tongue of the just is as choice silver the heart of the wickd is little worth See Pro. 17. 27 28. Psal 37. 30 31. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his tongue talketh of judgement and whence is this The Law of his God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide It is a sign that a man hath little feeling of the greatness of his own sin of the greatness of Gods Love in Christ of the greatness of the joy that is set before him of the greatness of duty that lyeth on him when he can spend so much of his time in talking of meer vanity You cannot get a dying man or a man that 's taken up with any great important business to jest and prate with you of idle matters It 's only alienated idle minds that can give way to a course of idle words nay it is a sign that Conscience is not so tender as it ought to be when men can knowingly go on in a course of sin Doth not Conscience ask you what you are doing and whether this discourse do tend to edification and the cherishing of grace What Consciences have you that look no better after your tongues but will let them wander so long after vanity before they call them to account Do you remember Gods presence and withall his holiness and jealousie Can you talk so idly and God stand by and hear every word and put down all How can you be so contemptuously fearless of his presence 2. The tongue of man is a noble member called our glory Psal 30. 12. 57. 8. given us for the Praise of our great Creator and for other high and noble ends And should it be abased and abused to idleness and vanity You will not take the cloaths that adorn your bodies to cloath a Maukin or sweep the Oven or wipe your dishes with and why should you use your tongues to filth or base unprofitable things that are given you for the noblest uses in the world even the honour of God the edifying of your brethren the reproof of sin and your own salvation 3. Consider what abundance of great and needful employment you have for your tongues and then tell me whether you should spare them to idleness and vanity O what work hath that little member to perform what matters have you to mind and talk of what transcendent subjects what matter of highest excellency and greatest necessity you have a life of sin to look back upon and lament you have many a sin to confess to others you need much help against temptations and for the strengthning and exercise of your graces what need to make sure of your title to salvation and to prepare for death and to get ready the graces that you must use in you last necessities and yet have you words to spare for vanity What abundance of poor souls about you are ignorant hard-hearted sensual covetous empty of grace in a state of death and need all that ever you can do for their recovery and all too little and yet can you find in your heart to talk with them of vain unprofitable things Alas Sirs most of the persons about you are within a step of death and going to the bar of God and want nothing but one stroak of death to make them past help and send them to damnation And can you find in your hearts to talk idly with such men O cruel unmerciful people that regard no more your neighbours miseries If you came to them at the point of death or if their houses were on fire would you sit down and tell them an old tale or talk of the weather or this trifle or that what an absurdity would this be and insensibility of your brethrens case And will you do so in a case ten thousand fold greater Can you find in your heart to stand jesting prating with a poor unregenerate man that is within a step of Hell Have you not more need to call to him to look about him in time and to remember eternity and to turn and live If you see but the nakedness of the poor or the sores of a Cripple it should move you to compassion And will not mens ignorance and ungodliness move you Their miseries cry aloud to you for pity though themselves are silent O help to save us from sin and hell as you have the hearts of men and yet will you stop your ears and fall a prating and jesting with them you rob them of the means that God hath commanded you to use for their recovery God hath commanded that the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another Col. 3. 16. yea that you daily exhort one another while it is called to day lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3. 13. Nay you have the great mysteries of the Gospel to discourse of with the Godly the glorious things of everlasting life to make mention of to one another yea you have the high praises of God to advance in the world and all his blessed attributes to magnifie and all his glorious works to praise all the experiences of your own souls to lay open his many great mercies towards you to admire and thankfully contess And yet have you leasure for idle talk For number of objects you have God and all his works in heaven and earth that are revealed to talk of you have all his providences all his judgments all his mercies and all his word And is not this field large enough for your tongue to walk in but you must seek out more work in vanity it self For Greatness you have the greatest things in all the world to mind and talk of For necessity you have the matters of your own and other mens salvation to discourse of For excellency you have God and his Image and works and ways and heaven it self to talk of For delightfulness you have the sweetest objects in the world even goodness it self salvation the way to it to be the matter of your discourse And lest one thing should weary you you have a world of variety to employ your speeches on even God and all his works and word and ways before-mentioned And is it not a shame to talk of vanity yea to go seek for recreation in vanity while all these stand by and offer themselves to the subjects of your wise and fruitful and delightfullest discourse Consider whether this be wise or equal dealing 4. Moreover a course of idle talk is a thief that robs us of our precious time And he that knows what God is or what duty is or what his soul is or what everlasting joy or
giveth him not his own in Love or Praises Object What say you then by the wishes of Moses and Paul Answ 1. The saying of Moses is very plain Exod. 32. 32. He doth not desire that his soul might be made a ransom for Israel but that if God would not pardon them but destroy them and cast them off he would blot out Moses name from his Book that is from among the number of the living so that his saying is no other than such as Elias or Jonas was What good will my life do me if I live to see thy people cast off and all thy wonders for them buryed therefore either let them live in thy sight or kill me with them This is the plain meaning of Moses request And for Pauls the difficulty is somewhat greater 1. Some think that Paul meaneth Rom. 9. 3. that he once wished himself to be no Christan in the days of his ignorance and all through his Zeal for the Jewith Nation But this is improbable 2. Some think that he meaneth only I could wish to be given up to death for them as the accursed under the Law 3. Some think he meaneth only I could wish my self yet unconverted to Christ so they were converted 4. Some think the meaning is I could wish my self cast out of the Church and given up to Satan for any bodily suffering 5. Some say it is only to have his salvation deferred 6. And some that it is damnation for a time But 7. The plain meaning seemeth to be this so great is my Love to my Countrymen the Jews that if it were offered to my choice whether they or I without them should enjoy Christ I would yield to be cast out of his sight for ever rather than they should where mark 1. That it is not a wish that it were so for he knew that this was no means to promote their salvation but it 's a discovery of his affection that would with or choose this if it were a means to that End 2. And it is not the sin of not Loving Christ that he would choose but only the misery of being deprived of his blessed presence 3. And the Reasons of this his choice are these two conjunct 1. Because the souls of so many thousands is in impartial Reason more to be valed than the soul of one 2. And principally because by the conversion and salvation of a whole Nation God may be more honored and served than by one And note farther 1. That this is not set as a mark for every Christian to try the truth of his Love by 2. But yet no doubt but it is a duty and degree of Grace that every one should aim at For 1. We see among Heathens that nature it self teacheth them that a man should lay down his life for his Country because a Country is better than a man And proportionably Reason tells us that the salvation of a Country being a greater good than of any one it should be more preferred And Self-love goeth against plain Reason when it contradicteth this What mans Reason doth not tell him that it were better he should die than the world should be destroyed or the Sun turned into darkness yea or that one Church or Country perish And so of salvation 2. And it is agreeable to the nature of Love to desire that most that most Pleaseth him whom we Love and therefore to desire rather that God may have multitudes than one and be served and Praised by them So much about the Matter of self-denial III. I Have finished the two first things which I promised you under the use of Exhortation viz. the trial of your self-denial and the particulars in which it consisteth and must be exercised and there I have shewed you 1. In what respect self must be denied 2. What that selfishness is that must be denied as to the inward Disposition and 3. What is that objective self-interest that must be denied which consisteth in so many Particulars that I cannot undertake to enumerate all but I have mentioned twenty Particulars under the general head of Pleasure and ten under the general Head of Honour and have referred you to another Treatise for that which consisteth in worldly profits And now I come to the third part of my work which is to shew you a little more fully the Greatness of the sin of selfishness and give you thence such moving reasons as may conduce to the cure of it which are these that follow CHAP. LXIII Motives 1. Selfishness the grand Idolatry of the world 1. SElfishness is the grand Idolatry of the world and self the worlds Idol as I have told you before It usurpeth the Place of God himself in mens Judgements wills affections and endeavours It was the work of the ten Discoveries in the Beginning of the Book to demonstrate this and therefore I shall say but little more But self-denial destroyeth the worlds great Idol and giveth God his own again The selfish lean most to their own understandings but the self-denying trust the Wisdom of God The selfish are careful principally for themselves and their own felicity even a terrene and carnal kind of felicity But the self-denying are principally careful how they may Please and Honour God and promote the welfare of his Church and in this way attain the spiritual everlasting felicity of the Saints The selfish must have their own humors pleased and their own wills accomplished and their own desires granted But the self-denying do slay their own carnal wills desires and conceits and lay them dead at the feet of Christ that his will alone may be exalted The selfish would have all men love them admire them and commend them But the self-denying would have all men to Love Admire and Glorifie the Lord above himself and all the world The selfish can bear with Gods enemies but not with their Own and they can suffer men to wrong Cod and sin against him more patiently than they can suffer them to wrong themselves But it is contrary with the self-denying A wrong to God and his Church seemeth far greater to them than a wrong against themselves In a word the selfish intend themselves and live to themselves and the self-denying intend God and live to him in the course of their lives And therefore when the selfish are troubled about many things the self-denying are minding the One thing Necessary And when the selfish are seeking to know what is good or evil to their flesh the self-denying are seeking to Please the Lord and desire to know nothing but him in Christ crucified and they could part with all the knowledge of the creatures as useful to themselves if they could but know more of God in Christ The selfish would be in his own hands at his own dispose and government and the self-denying would be in the hands of God and at his dispose and Government And doubtless the very state of mans Apostacy did lie in
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
and possess no interest but him and in him and to have nothing that we esteem or love or care for in comparison of him knowing that for him we were made redeemed preserved and sanctified and therefore desiring to be wholly and only his and to have no credit no goods no life no self but what is his for his service at his will and at his Disposal and Government and provision this is the true self-denyal which the spirit of God worketh in a prevailing though not a perfect measure in every gracious believing soul But alas Sirs how strange is this in the world and how weak and low in the souls where it is found And what matter of Lamentation would a survey of the world or of our selves present us with Is not SELF the great Idol which the whole world of unsanctified men doth worship Who is it that ruleth the children of disobedience but carnal self For what is all the stir and stirrings the tumults and contentions of the world but for self This ruleth Kingdoms and this is it that raiseth wars and what is it except the works of Holiness but self is the author of Look unto the Thrones and Kingdoms of the earth and conjecture how many self hath advanced and placed there and how feâ— have stayed till God enthroned them and gave them the Crown and Scepter with his approbation Among all the Nobles and great ones of the earth that abound in riches how few are there that were not set a work by self and ruled by it in the getting or keeping or using their riches dignities and honours Look on the great Revenews of the Nation and of the world and consider whether God or self have the more of it One man hath many thousands a year and another hath many hundreds and how much of this is devoted to God and how much to carnal self And the poor that have but little would think us injurious to them if we should call to them for any thing for God who have not enough for themselves when indeed God must have all and self must have nothing but what it hath by way of return from God again and that for God and not for self but as subservient unto him Alas of many hundred thousand pounds a year which the inhabitants of a Country possess among them how little hath God that should have all and how much hath self that should have nothing O dreadful reckoning when these Accounts must be all cast up Judge by the use of all whether self have not yet Dominion of all If men throw out to God his tenth which is none of their own or if they cast him now and then some inconsiderable alms when in his member he is fain to beg for it first they think they have done fair though self devour all the rest Is it more think you for God or self that our Courts of Law are filled with so many Suits and Lawyers have so much employment Is it more think you for God or self that Merchants compass Sea and Land for commodity Who is it that the Souldier fights for is it for God or self Who is it that the Tradesman deals for that the Plowman labours for that the Traveller goes for is it more for God or self Who is it that the most of mens thoughts are spent for and the most of their words are spoken for and the most of their rents and wealth laid out for and the most of their precious time imployed for is it for God or self Consider of it whether it be not self that finally and morally rules the world What else do most live for or look after And is not the common Piety Religion and Charity of the world a meer sending God some scraps of the leavings of carnal self If the flesh be full or have enough then God shall have the cruâ—â— that fall from its Table or at most so much as it card â—are but till the flesh have done and be satisfied Gâ—â— Gâ—â—st stay even for these scarps and crums and if theâ—… but say I want it my self or have use for it my self they think it a sufficient answer to all demands One may see by the irregularity of the motions of the world the confusions and crossings and mutabilities and contradictions the doing and undoing again the differences and fierce contendings that it is not God but self that is the End and Principle of the motions Nay most men are so dead to God and alive only to themselves that they know not what we mean when we tell them and plainly tell them what it is to live to God and what it is to serve him in all their affairs and to eat and drink and do all things for his glory but they ask in their hearts as Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should serve him And when they read these passages about self-denyal and about referring all to God they will not understand them for they are unacquainted with God and know no other God indeed but self though in name they do Nay it were well if self were kept out of the Church and out of the Ministers of the Gospel that must teach the world to deny themselves that it did not with too many choose their habitations and give them their call and limit them in their labours and direct them in the manner and measure It were well if some Ministers did not study for self and preach and dispute for self and live for self when they materially preach against self and teach men self-denyal And then for our People alas it rules their families it manageth their business it drives on their trades it comes to Church with them and fights within them against the word and perverteth their judgement and will let them relish nothing and receive nothing but what is consistent with selfish interest in a word it makes men ungodly it keeps thâ—m ungodly and it is their very ungodliness it self O we it not for carnal self how easily might we deal withâ—â—â—â—rts of sinners but this is it that overcometh us CHAP. IV. The Prevalency of Selfishness in all Relations BEside all the generals already mentioned it will not be amiss to give you some particular Instances of the power of selfishness and the rareness of self-denyal in the world that you may see what cause of lamentation is before us 1. How ready and speedy how effectual and diligent how constant and unwearied are they in the service of self and how slow and backward how remiss and negligent how unconstant and tired are they in the works that are meerly for God and their salvation Do I need to prove it to you You may as well call for proof whether there are men in the world I were best for instance begin next home Many Ministers think it a drudgery and a toil that God requireth at their hands to confer with every family in their Parishes and instruct them privately in
to be harlots It would make the ears of a modest person to glow on his head to hear the ribbaldry that is ordinary in some prophane families especially in many Inns and Alehouses where the quality of the company the nature of the employment is such from whence no better can be expected Let all that would be accounted Christians deny and abhor this part of sensuality in themselves and theirs Again consider the command of God But fornication all uncleanness or Covetousness let it not once be named amongst you as becometh Saints neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting which are not convenient but rather giving of thanks Eph. 5. 3 4. 4. 29 30. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers und grieve not the holy spirit of God Mark here how such filthy speech is called Corrupt Communication or rotten like Carrion in a ditch which should cause all that pass by to stop their noses And yet this is our peoples sport what say these wretches may we not jest and be merry when we mean no harm without all this ado Have you no honester mirth than this nor no more cleanly jests than these will you feed upon that which is Carrion or corrupt and make it your Junkets to delight your palate will you make merry with that which God condemneth and threatneth to shut you out of his Kingdom for and makes the mark of the unsanctified and chargeth you not once to name it that is not without distaste and rebuke Have you nothing but filthiness and the service of the Devil and the wrath of God to play with and to make merry with Prov. 10. 23. It is a sport to a fool to do mischief I may well say of this as Solomon of another sin Prov. 26. 18 19. As a mad-man that casteth firebrands arrows and death so is the man that deceiveth his neighbour and saith Am not I in sport It 's mad sporting with sin especially to choose it purposely for a recreation and specially such an odious sin as this that infecteth others and banisheth all gracious edifying conference and increaseth the corruption of the mind and prepareth people to actual whoredom self-pollution and abominable uncleanness for thoughts and words are but preparatives to deeds CHAP. XXI Idle and worldly talk to be denied 4. ANother part of sensuality to be denied is Idle and worldly talk which most men make their daily recreation It is not to be made light of that Christ himself hath told you that for every idle word men shall give account in the day of Judgment Matth. 12. 36 37. such an account as that they shall be charged on you as sins and if they be not repented of and pardoned through the blood of Christ they will be your condemnation as well as greater sins By idle words is meant not only all wicked all lying words which are vain in a high degree and worse but also useless unprofitable speeches that tend not to any good and which you have no call to speak Tit. 3. 9. And that which the Apostle calls foolish talking Eph. 5. 4. When that Christian wisdom is left out that should guide and season our speech and direct it to some good end especially when by vain jesting men will make fools of themselves to please others or when they lay by Christian gravity and by jesting affect to become ridiculous Eph. 5. 4. much more when men jest with holy things and speak unreverently contemptuously or scornfully of the matters of God which is impiety in an high degree The same may be said of proud boasting words and of multitude of words even when the matter is good but the multitude of words unseasonable and unprofitable as also of rash unconsidered words that tend to stir up strife and passion as also censuring back-biting reproach flattery dissembling and many the like but the thing that I principally speak of now is the pleasing of a mans self by a course of idle unprofitable talk And alas how common is this sin Not only the fooliâ—â— multitude are guilty of it but persons of judgment and gravity and reputation How many may you come in company with before you shall have any edifying Communication that tends to minister grace to the hearers vanity is become the common breath of the greatest part What the better can any man be for their discourse unless by taking warning by them to avoid the vanity which we hear them guilty of Even antient persons with whom the words of wisdom should be found Job 12. 12. and who should be examples unto youth are yet given up to idle talk and an old story is more savoury with them than heavenly discourse even Parents and Masters that should be examples to their families will in their hearing multiply idle words as if they would teach them to be vain as they are when alas the souls of those about them have need of other manner of discourse and it 's another task that God hath set them Deut. 6. 6 7 8. 11. 18 19. Whence is it that Children learn a course of idle fooliâ—h talking more than of their own parents For one word of God and the Doctrine of the Gospel and the matters of salvation that their families hear from most of them they hear an hundred yea a thousand of the world and of unprofitable things Had God but the Tithe of their words we should account them very pious And they that cannot spare him the tithe of their words I doubt do not allow him the Tithe of their affections and would not allow him the tithe of their increase if they could tell how to keep it Not but that with some persons that are called to much worldly business more than ten parts of their daily speeches may â—â—wfully be about the creatures But then even those with godly men are ultimately for God and so are sanctified and not unprofitable and also they are glad to redeem what time they can for speeches of an higher and more excellent subject And the commonness of this sin of idle talk yea with many that we hope are godly doth make me think that it's thought to be a smaller matter than it is and I doubt this conceit is it that makes it to be so common And therefore I shall here give you some of the aggravations of this sin that you may hereafter judge of it as it is and not be encouraged in it by false apprehensions A custom of vain words is a sign of a vain and empty mind were the heart but full of better things the tongue would be employed in better speeches Either the head or heart or both is empty and vain in that measure as the tongue is vain Eccles 5. 3. A dream cometh through the multitude of business and a fools voice is known by multitude of words Eccles 10.
So that they were fain to live and die under a Reputation as contrary to the truth as darkness is contrary to light And this usage hath still been the attendant of true Godliness When the Papists burn Gods servants at the stake it is for supposed Heresie and impiety they put a painted cap and coat upon them made of paper on which the Images of Devils are pictur d to make the people believe that they are ungodly persons the servants of the Devil and possessed by him already and unworthy to live any longer among men When they butchered the poor Waldenses and Albigenses by thousands it was under the name of ungodly hereticks The ignorant ungodly rabble among us now that hate and revile those that seek after God more diligently than themselves have yet more devilish wit than to oppose them directly under the name of honest godly men but they first make the world believe that they are Hypocrites and Proud and Self-conceited and Covetous and secretly are as bad as others and these are the things if you will believe them that they hate and speak against them for But then how comes it to pass that it is their Praying and Preciseness that is so much in the scorners mouths Doth that signifie Hypocrisie or Pride Why do they not commend the good while they speak against the evil and joyn with them in the holy Worship and ways of God while they oppose their supposed viciousness Doth the name Puritan signifie a covetous man or a vicious person or rather one that will not be content to venture his soul in the common impure ungodly courses of the world And how comes it to pass that a man may quietly enough follow such vices if he will but forbear the profession of Godliness But to leave these wretches in the dirt where we find them by this you may see the common measure that is to be expected from the world If you will be truly godly you must be taken for ungodly or for hypocrites that seem to be godly when you are not But it 's easie to bear this charge when it falls upon a whole society and takes us but in the crowd among the rest and when we have so much honourable company to suffer with us But it goes nearer us when we are singled out by name and noted and talk'd of all about as Hypocrites or Proud or worse than others But that also must be born by those that will be Christians But the greatest trial of all is when the Servants of God that should help us in our suffering have got a hard report of us and by misinformation we have lost our credit even with them Under all these false and injurious reports direct and stablish your own minds by the help of these Considerations following 1. It may be there is some special cause that you should try and judge your selves and so God doth suffer other men to judge you to awaken you to self-judging However make this use of it and you are sure to be no losers by the reproach Enter into your hearts and search them throughly as before the Lord and see if there be any way of wickedness in them which hitherto you have not discovered Try whether there be Hypocrisie and Pride or not Especially when it is the servants of God that think hardly of you and above all if it be wise impartial men that are acquainted with you it 's then your duty to be very jealous of your hearts and ways and to fear lest you are guilty and to search the more diligently and not be quiet till you either find out your sin or be sure that you are clear And if you be clear in that point yet suspect and search lest there be some other secret or allowed sin which God would detect to you or excite you against by the injurious censures of those that have reproached you 2. When you have search'd and cleared your own Consciences then consider further that though you are not such as you are censured to be yet sinners you are and you know your sins in other kinds are so many and so great that you should bear the more patiently to be hardly thought of when you know your selves to be so bad If indeed you are godly you have seen a sink of uncleanness in your selves and have condemned your selves oft and loathed your selves for your abominations and bewailed them before the Lord. And is it suitable for such a spirit to be eager after the Reputation of sincerity and to be much troubled that you are taken by others to be naught 3. And consider also that your Case may be as Davids was and God may possibly make this reproach a chastisement for some former sin and a means to humble you for it more throughly and to reclaim you from it Perhaps he bids by permissive providence some Shimei curse you It may be the voice of a slanderer must do that which the voice of a Preacher could not do And then it is your work to look behind you and within you more than without you and to hearken more to the voice of God and Conscience than of the slanderer and to take it as the rod of God and a call to a more serious Repentance 4. And consider that when you are under the false Censures of the world you may have the inward peace of a good conscience which is better than all the applause of men And this being a continual feast they cannot do much against your quietness as long as they cannot deprive you of this 5. Yea moreover you have the Approbation of God himself and that should satisfie against the censure of all the world Even a Proud man if he have any wit can bear the Contempt of the ignorant vulgar if he have but the applause of great and wise and learned men As that Orator that valued the judgement of Socrates above all the rest of his auditory But all the wisest men in the world are fools in comparison of God Having his Approbation you have the Greatest the Best and the Wisest on your side and a Judgement for you that will weigh down the judgement of ten thousand worlds 7. And if you value not Gods approbation above mans it 's a sign that you are hypocrites indeed and so the censure is not unjust But if you do then you will acquiesce in it though man condemn you and say as the Apostle Rom. 8. 33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that Justifieth who is he that condemneth And as 1 Cor. 4. 3 4. With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgment but he that judgeth me is the Lord. And remember that the great day of Judgment is near at hand that will set all straight which the slanderous tongues of men made crooked Stay but a while and the Glory of Christ and the
sin and misery I might have these mens consent so it reflected not upon themselves Were I to wring the unlawful gains out of the hands of another I might have their consent or were I to perswade another from his Pride or lust or passion they would give me free leave because it is not self that is concerned in it nor self-denial that is necessary to it in them But when we come to themselves there is no dealing with them till God by Grace or Judgement deal with them They cannot endure to know the worst by themselves much less to come out of it If we tell them of their sin and danger they say we speak against them And therefore they say It is out of malice or humour or pride And as well might all diseased persons say so of their Physicians that when they tell them of their disease and danger they speak against them and speak out of malice or ill will It is natural for men to think well of all that they love and of all that they do and whom do they love better than themselves Pride will not let men think so meanly and hardly of themselves as the Scripture speaks of them and Ministers must plainly tell them The Prophet wept that foresaw the cruelty of Hazael but he had so good a conceit of himself that he would not believe he should be so cruel 2 Kings 8. 13. Is thy servant a dog that he should do this The false Prophet Zedekiah could not forbear but struck Micaiah when he made it known that he was a lying Prophet 1 Kings 22. 24. And Ahab hated him because he prophesied not good of him but evil It was all the Proud men that rose up against Jeremiah and contradicted his prophecie and rejected his word Jer. 43. 2. The word of God is quick and powerful and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and it is the plain word of that God that feareth not the faces of the Proudest sinners on earth and will not flatter nor daub with any of them all but will tell them to their faces what they are and what will become of them if they do not turn and what they must trust to This is the word that God hath put into our mouths and commanded us to preach to them not the flattering words of an inferior nor the tender language of a man-pleaser but the commanding words of the God of heaven and the peremptory threatnings of everlasting fire against all unconverted unsanctified men denounced from him that feareth none of them all but will make them all stoop at last to him and fear and tremble before his Majesty And is it any wonder if Proud and selfish sinners are displeased with such a word as this They stand all the while they are hearing a plain and powerful Preacher as prisoners arraigned at the bar and sometime are ready to tremble as Felix did when he heard Paul dilating of righteousness and temperance and the judgement to come Acts 24. 25. And can self endure to be thus used and arraigned for its life especially when they think it is but by a man For they have not the understanding to know that it is Christ that owneth all that his Messengers speak by his Commission Hence it is that men hate those Ministers that they feel thus to judge them in their Doctrine and take them for their enemies for telling them the truth Gal. 4. 16. and think they are but the troublers of the Countrey as Ahab called Elijah the troubler of Israel which he had troubled himself 1 Kings 18. 17. and meet them as he did the same Prophet 1 Kings 21. 20. Hast thou found me O mine Enemy They meet not a Minister as the Messenger of God that calls them to repentance but as an enemy in the field to strive against him and raise up all the reasonings and passions of their souls against him because he condemneth their unregenerate state tells them but what God hath charged him to tell them when the poor sinners consider not that before God hath done with them as sure as they breathe he will make them either by grace or Judgement condemn themselves as much as any of his Ministers condemned them from the word of God at whom they were most offended Ah little do these Proud worms that rage at us now for faithful dealing and for telling them that which they will shortly find true little do they think that they shall shortly say the very same against themselves which they hated us for saying Nay with an hundred times more bitterness and self-revenge will they speak these things against themselves than ever we spoke them Hence it is that faithful plain-dealing Ministers are commonly hated and persecuted by the ungodly especially by the great ones and honourable sinners For their message is against self and therefore self will rise up against them and so many selfish unmortified persons as there be in the Congregation so many enemies usually hath such a Minister And therefore the Lords of Israel petition the King that Jeremy may be put to death Jer. 38. 4. And Amaziah the Priest calls Amos a conspirator against the King and tells the King that the Land was not able to bear his words and commands him to preach no more at the Kings Chappel or his Court Amos 7. 10 11 12 13. And what was the matter that deserved all this yea and the death of almost all the Prophets and Apostles of Christ why it was for speaking against self and its carnal interest But was it not a truth that was spoken True or false if it be against self it cannot be born As the Bishop of Ments that Luther speaks of meeting with a Bible and reading an hour in it I know not saith he what book this is but I am sure it is against us Meaning the Popish Clergy So these men say by our preaching and by the word of God it self Be it never so true we are sure it is against us Or rather we will not believe it because it is against us But if these men had their wits about them they would see that this is for them which they think is against them It is for their healing and salvation had they hearts to entertain it though it be for the troubling of them at the present by humiliation O how tender are carnal persons of this self How quickly do they feel if a Minister do but touch them How impatiently do they smart if he meddle with the galled place and plainly open their most disgraceful sins and most dangerous courses as one that had rather be guilty of displeasing them than of silently permitting them to displease God and undo their souls They fret and fume at the Sermon and go home with passion in their hearts and reproaches in their mouths against the Ministers And are of the mind of the desperate Sodomites Gen. 19. 9. that said to Lot when he