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
If selfish interest led them not to this and if they were more tender of the Interest of Christ than of their own and of mens souls than of their flesh it would not be thus But the same argument that tempts the sensual to Hell doth tempt such Magistrates to set up Liberty for drawing men to Hell The wicked sell their souls to spare their flesh and let go Heaven to enjoy the Liberty of sinning and run into Hell to scape the trouble of an holy life And such Magistrates sell the peoples souls to spare the flesh of the deceivers and in tenderness and mercy to their bodies they dare not restrain men from seeking their damnation Is faith and holiness propagated by perswasion and not by force Surely then Infidelity Popery and Ungodliness are propagated by perswasion too Again I tell you self-love doth make such Rulers wiser than to grant Commission or Liberty to all that will to tice their souldiers to mutinies or rebellion their wives to Adultery their children to prodigality or their servants to thievery But the love of Christ and mens salvation is not so strong as to satisfie them whether men should be hindred from raising mutinies in his Church and from destroying souls Forsooth they tell us that Christ is sufficient to look to his own cause Very true and they shall one day know it But must he not therefore teach or rule by men Is not Adultery Murder Theft Rebellion against the Cause of Christ and his Laws as well as Popery and Infidelity And must they therefore be let alone by man Christ is sufficient to Teach the world as well as to Govern But doth it follow that men must be no Teachers under him Nothing but selfishness could cause this blindness And because I know that this stream proceeds from the Roman spring and it is their great design to perswade the world that it belongs not to Magistrates to meddle with Religion but only to cherish them that the Pope approveth of and to punish those whom the Pope condemns and that Christ must Govern and judge of matters of Religion himself that is by his pretended Roman Vicechrist I shall only now say this that if Rome were acquainted with self-denial and if the selfish carnal interest of Riches and Rule and worldly greatness had not blinded them they could never have believed themselves that Christ did appoint the Pope of Rome to be his Universal Vicar and that Princes and Magistrates in their own Dominions have not more Power to judge who is to be tolerated or punished by the sword than the Pope of Rome when no Priest or Prelate upon earth as such hath any thing to do with such a judgement no not in the places where they live All that they have to do herein is to judge who is the Heretick or offendor in order to his censure and excommunication But it's Magistrates only that must judge who is the Heretick or effendor in order to corporal punishment or restraint And this I undertake to make good against all the Papists in the world much more that the Roman Tyrant hath no such Power at the Antipodes and in all the Christian Nations on earth Remember in all this that I speak not against a Toleration of Godly tolerable men Episcopal Presbyterian Independent Anabaptist c. that will walk in Charity Peace and Concord ☞ we shall never be well till these are closed But do we not know that Papists have Italy and Spain and Germany and France at hand to help them And that if we grant them such a liberty as shall strengthen them and make way for their power we give away our own liberty and are preparing faggots for our martyrdom and giving away the Gospel that by wonders of mercy hath been till now preserved and I hope shall be preserved in despite of Rome and Hell Nor yet do I plead for any cruelty against a Papist but for a necessary Defence of the interest of Christ and the souls of men and the hopes of our posterity True Humanity abhorreth cruelty Did Magistrates well know their dependence upon God and that they are his officers and must make him their end they would not take their flocks to be their masters though they may take them for their charge nor would they set up a carnal interest of the multitude against the pleasing of God and mens salvation nor would they think so highly of mens conceits and wills as to judge it a matter of so much moment to allow them in Religion to say or do what they list If allowing a mans self in the practice of Known sin is inconsistent with a state of grace and a sign of a miserable slave of Satan I leave it to you to consider what it will prove to allow others even Countries and Nations in Known sin And if Rulers know not that setting up an Universal Vice-christ and worshipping bread though they think there is no bread with Divine worshp and serving God in an unknown tongue with other points of Popery are sin and that opposing and reproaching the holy Scriptures Ordinances and Ministry are sin wo to such Rulers and wo to the Nations that are Ruled by such O what a blessing is a holy self-denying Magistracy to a Nation If one could have told you twenty years ago that you and such as you should be Rulers in this Land how confidently would you have promised an universal encouragement to godliness and a vigorous promoting the cause of Christ and a zealous suppressing of all that is against it Little would you or I have thought that after Professors of godliness were in power so many years should have been spent in destroying Charity and Unity and cherishing almost all that will stand up for the Devil and plead his cause against the Doctrine and Discipline and Worship and Churches and Officers of Jesus Christ And that in their dayes it should have been put to the Question whether the Ministry it self should be taken down And that men in power should write for Liberty for all that will call it self Religion even Popery not excepted nor I think Infidelity or Mahumetism it self and that those that write so should be men in Power My heart would have risen against him as an odious calumniator that should have presumed to tell me that such men as have attempted this would ever have come to such a pass and I should have encountred them with Hazaels question Are they dogs that they should do so vile a thing and exercise such cruelty on souls and seek to bring back the people of God to the Romish vomit and set up the greatest tyranny on earth and all under pretence of a Religious Liberty But alas it is not Magistrates only that are so wanting in self-denial Ministers also are guilty of this crime Or else we should not have been so forward to divisions and so backward to the cure nor would men of this profession for
the interest of their opinions and parties have cherished dissension and fled from concord and have had a hand in the resisting and pulling down Authority and embroiling the Nations in wars and miseries And whence is it but for want of self-denial for our own faults must be confessed that the Ministers of Christ are so much silent in the midst of such heinous miscarriages as the times abound with I know we receive not our Commission as Prophets did by immediate extraordinary inspiration But what of that The Priests that were called by an ordinary way were bound to be plain and faithful in their Office as well as the Prophets And so are we How plainly spoke the Prophets even to Kings and how patiently did they bear indignities and persecutions But now we are grown carnally wise and cautelous for holy wisdom and caution I allow and if duty be like to cost us dear we can think that we are excused from it If Great men would set up Popery in the Land by a Toleration alas how many Ministers think they may be silent for fear lest the contrivers should call them seditious or turbulent or disobedient or should set men to rail at them and call them Lyers and Calumniators or for fear lest they should be persecuted and â—uined in their estates or names If they do but foresee that men in power or honour in the world will charge them with Lies or unchristian dealing for speaking the words of Truth and Soberness against the Introduction of Popery and impiety and that they shall be made as the scorn and off-scouring of all the world and have all manner of evil saying falsly spoken of them for the sake of Christ his Church and truth they presently consult with flesh and blood and think themselves discharged of their duty when God saith Ezek. 33. 6. c. If the watchman see the sword come and blow not the Trumpet aud the people be not warned if the sword come and take any person from among them he is taken away in his iniquity but his blood will I require at the watchmans hand And were we no watchmen yet we have this command Lev. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Yet now many Ministers will be cruelly silent lest they should be charged with malice and hating those whom they are commanded to rebuke The sword of violence I perswade them not to meddle with but were it not for want of self-denial the sword of the spirit would be more faithfully managed against the sins of the greatest enemies of Christ and of the Gospel than it is by most though it should cost us more than scorns and slanders and though we know that bonds and afflictions did abide us And verily I cannot yet understand that the contempt and scorn of the Ministry in England is fed by any thing so much as selfishness Could we be for all mens Opinions and Carnal interests O what experience have I had of this all men for ought I see would be for us Is it a crime to be a Minister Doubtless it 's then a crime to be a Christian And he that rails at us as Ministers to day it 's like will rail at us as Christians to morrow But if such will vouchsafe to come to me before they venture their souls and soberly debate the case I undertake to prove the truth of Christianity The world may see in Clem. Writers exceptions against my Treatise of Infidelity what thin transparent Sophisms and silly Cavils they use against the Christian cause When they have well answered not only that Treatise but Du Plessis Grotius Vives Ficinus Micraelius the ancient apologies of the Christian writers of the Church let them boast then that they have confuted Christianity The Devil hath told me long ago in his secret temptations as much against the Christian Faith as ever I yet read in any of our Apostates But God hath told me of much more that 's for it and enabled me to see the folly of their Reasonings that think the mysteries of the Gospel to be foolishness But if it be not as Ministers and Christiâ—nâ— that we are hated what is it then If because we are ingnorant insufficient negligent or scandalous why do they not by a legal trial cast us out and put those in our places that are more able diligent and godly when we have provok'd them to it and beg'd it of them so often as we have done If it be because we are not Papists it is because we cannot renounce all our senses our Reason the Scripture the Unity Judgment and Tradidion of the far greatest part of the Universal Church If I have not already proved that Poperty fighteth against all these and am not able to make it good against any Jesuit on earth let them go on to number me with Hereticks and let them use me as they do such when I am in their power If we are hated because we are not of the Opinions of those that hate us it seems those Opinions are enemies to Charity and then we have little reason to embrace them And if this be it we are under an unavoidable necessity of being hated For among such diversity of Opinions it is impossible for us to comply with all if we durst be false to the known truth and durst become the servants of men and make every self-conceited Brother the Master of our Faith If we are so reviled because me are against an Universal Liberty of speaking or writing against the truths and wayes of Christ and of labouring in Satans harvest to the dividing of the Churches and the damnation of souls it is then in the up-shot because we are of any Religion and are not despisers of the Gospel and of the Church and of mens salvation and because we believe in Jesus Christ I have lately found by their exclamations and common defamations and threatnings and by the Volumes of reproaches that come forth against me and by the swarms of lyes that have been sent forth against me through the Land that even the present Contrivers of Englands Misery Liberty I would say and of Toleration for Popery and more are themselves unable to bear contradiction from one such an inconsiderable person as my self and they have got it into the mouths of souldiers that my writings are the cause of wars and that till I give over writing they shall not give over fighting though I do all that I am able to do for Peace And if this be so what a case would they bring the Nation into by giving far greater Liberty to all than ever I made use of Unless they still except a Liberty of contradicting themselves they must look for other kind of usage when Libertinism is set up Yea if they will seek the ruine of the Church and Cause of Christ they must look that
store of Christians among us If Christ would have left out but this one point of self-denyal from his Laws and conditions of salvation what abundance of Disciples would he have had in the world and how many millions might have come to Heaven that now must be shut out It is this point that hindereth all sorts of Heathens and Infidels from being Christians The Jews will believe in no Christ but one that will restore their Temple and outward glory and make them great and Rulers of the world and therefore they will not be the servants of that Christ that calleth them to the contempt of all these things and of life it self for the hopes of an invisible Kingdom The Mahometans had rather believe in Mahomet that giveth them leave to please their lust than in Christ that calleth them to mortification and self-denyal and tells them of nothing but suffering and patience duty and diligence till they come into another world The Idolatrous Heathens abhor Christianity when they hear how much they must do and suffer and all for a reward in the life to come It s an informing instance that Pet. Maffaeus gives us in his Indian History of the first King of Congo that was baptized He quickly received the Articles of faith and the form of Worship and the outside and cheaper part of Religion and so did many of his Nobles and followers But when he was called to confession and understood that he must leave his gluttony and drunkenness and whoredom and oppression and inordinate pleasures he would be a Christian no more his Nobles perswading him that the forsaking of all this mirth and pleasure and delights of the flesh and taking up so strict a life was too dear a price to pay for the hopes of a life to come and it was better keep the pleasure they had and put another life to the venture And thus Christianity had been quickly banished that Kingdom again if it had not taken deeper rooting in his Son and Heir Alphonsus and made him venture his Crown and Life for the sake of Christ And thus is it at the heart with the most even of Baptized persons and those that take themselves to be Christians Because it is the Religion of the Country and they are taught that there is no salvation without it they will be Baptized and be called Christians and say their Prayers and come to Church and say they believe in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and they will go as far with you in Religion as they can without denying themselves but for the rest which is the life and truth of Christianity they will not understand it or believe that it is of such necessity God forbid say they that none should be Christians and saved but those that thus deny themselves and take up their cross and forsake all they have and accept not Life it self from Christ They say they believe in Christ and yet they say God forbid his word should be true or God forbid we should believe Christ that hath spoken this in the Gospel See what kind of Christians multitudes are Every man and woman on earth that take themselves for true Christians and yet do not deny themselves even life and all for the sake of Christ and the hope of everlasting glory are meer self-deceivers and no true Christians at all He that will save his life saith Christ shall lose it that is He that in his coming to Christ and Covenanting with him will put in an exception for the saving of his Life and will forsake all for Christ if he be put to it except Life it self this man is no true Disciple of Christ and shall be so far from saving his life that he shall lose both Heaven and Life and all and the Justice of God shall take from him that Life which he durst not resign to the will of mercy and he shall lose that for nothing which he would not lose for Christ and Heaven It is impossible for that man to be Christs Disciple that loveth his life better than Christ and the hopes of Life everlasting Mat. 10. 37 38. Luk. 14. 25 26 33. Some Self-denyal there may be in the unsanctified Many of them would leave a little pleasure or profit rather than be damned and many had rather suffer a little than venture upon eternal sufferings But I beseech you remember that this is the lowest degree of Self-denyal that is saving to set more by Christ and the hopes of glory than by all this world and life it self and to be habitually resolved to forsake life and all rather than to forsake him No less than this is proper self-denyal or will prove you Christians and in a state of life This was the tryal that Christ put one to that had thought to have been his Disciple Luke 18. 21. Yet lackest thou one thing sell all that thou hast and distribute to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven and come and follow me Not that every man must actually sell all but every man must set more by Heaven than all and therefore part with all when Christ would have him and he that is not thus resolved let him go never so far in all other things doth yet lack one thing and such a one thing as he shall never be saved without For the meaning of the text is that Christ would try by this command whether he set more by any thing than him and whether he set more by Heaven or Earth and so would have us all to judge of our selves by the same evidence within though he put not all on the same way of discovering it Many a man can deny self the superfluities of pleasure and as this rich man did can avoid enormous crimes and say of whoredom and theft and drunkenness and oppression and gross deceit All these have I avoided from my youth Education may moderate some selfish desires and natural temper may further that moderation and custom and good company and holy precepts may yet do more and wit may teach men to do or suffer somewhat rather than to run on the wrath of God and therefore many thousands may deny self the pleasure of some inordinate lust or of some recreation or excess in meat or drink and yet be far from denying life and all and so from the true self-denyal of a Christian Nay a man may deny self for self in many particulars and so may please self more than he denyeth it Many a civil ingenuous Gentleman and other persons will forbear the disgraceful sins of Drunkenness filthy speaking Whoredom Incivility notorious Prophaneness even because they are disgraceful and therefore are against the Interest of self so much as self can possibly spare a carnal heart may be brought to part with But still self is alive and predominant within them still it is the Ruling end and Principle But to go out of self to God and resign up our selves to him
upon the affairs of Nations and the wars of Princes and their confederacies and see who it is that rules in all how little will you see save here and there but carnal self It is self that makes the cause and manageth it It is self that maketh Wars and Peace Come down into our Courts of Justice and whose voice is loudest at the bar but selfs and who is it commonly else that brings in the Verdict at least who is it else that made and followeth on the quarrel How many causes hath self at an Assize for one that God hath Come lower into the Country and who is it that plows and sows who is it that keeeps House or Shop but self I mean what else but carnal self is the Principle what else but carnal self is the End what else but the will of self is the Rule and what else but selfish commodity or pleasure or honour are the matter or some provision that is made for these and consequently what else but self-respect is the form For the End informeth the means as means and therefore all that is done for self is self-service and self-seeking In a word as God is all in all to the sanctified so self is as all in all to the ungodly And alas how great a number are all these 3. Consider that it is a sin that is nearer us objectively than any other sin And the nearer the more dangerous Alas that a man should turn his own substance into poison feed upon it to his own destruction If you have drunk poyson you may cast it up again or nature may do much to work it out but if your own blood and humours and spirits be turned into venom that should nourish and preserve your life what then shall expell this venom and deliver you 4. Moreover it is the most obstinate disease in the world No duty harder except the Love of God than self-denial O how many wounds will self carry away and yet keep life and heal them all How commonly do we convince some carnal Gentlemen that One thing is needful and that its a better part than Earth and honour and sensuality that must be chosen or else they are undone and that the more they have the more they must forsake and the more self-denial is required to their salvation and that all their lands and wealth and honours and all their wit and parts and interest must be at the service of their Maker and Redeemer and that when they have all in the world that they can get that all must become Nothing and God must become all their treasure must become the dross and dung and Christ must become their treasure or they are lost I say how oft do we convince men of all estates of these important evident truths And yet this self is still alive and keeps the garrison of the heart and all that we can have from most of them is as the rich man Luk. 18. 23 24. to be very sorrowful that they cannot have heaven at easier rates and that Christ will not be a servant unto Self or they cannot have two Masters They go away sorrowful but away they go because they are rich which makes Christ say upon this observation How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God But when the Disciples were troubled at his observation he lets them know that it is Self and not Riches that is indeed the deadly enemy It is the selfish that trust in Riches and love and use them for themselves and deny not themselves and devote not all to God that will be kept out of Heaven by them Or in Christs own words Luk. 12. It is he that layeth up treasure for Himself and is not rich towards God Conquer self and Conquer all 5. Moreover self is the most constant malady the sin that doth most constantly attend us Many actual sins may be laid by and we may for the time be free from them But selfishness is at the heart and lives with us continually It parteth not from us sleeping or waking It goes to the worship of God with us it will not stay behind in the holiest ordinance It will not forbear intermixing it self in the purest duties but will defile them all So that above all sins in the world it s this that must have the strictest constantest watch or else we shall never have any peace for it 6. Yea this self doth lamentably survive even in the sanctified soul among the special graces of the Spirit and lamentably distempereth the hearts and lives of too many of the godly themselves Not that any godly man is selfish in a predominant sense or that self is higher or more powerful in his heart than God for that 's a contradiction such a man cannot be a godly man without Conversion But yet the very remnants of conquered Self what a smoak do they make in our Assemblies and what noisom scent in the lives of many godly men what a stir have we sometimes with those that we hope are godly before we can get them to an impartial judgment to lament their own fowl words or other miscarriages and to humble themselves or freely to forgive another that hath wronged them especially to confess disgraceful sins in any self-denying manner How close stick they to their own conceits how lamentably do they improve them to the contempt of Ministers trouble and division of the Church How wise are they in their own eyes and how hardly yield they to any advice that crosseth Self How hardly are they brought to any dear and costly duty How much do they indulge their appetites and passions and how cheap a Religion do many think to come to heaven with we can scarce please some of them they are so selfish either because we cross them in their opinions or in their wayes or because we allow them not so much special countenance and respect as self would have or deny them somewhat which self desires If they have any use for us if we leave not more publick or greater work which god hath set us on and allow them not that part in our time or labours or other helps which God and Conscience will not allow them they are offended take it ill that self is not preferred before God and the publick service Their selves are so dear to themselves that they think we should neglect all to serve them Let the most useful Minister live in a place that hath the plague or other contagious mortal sickness and most that are visited will take it ill if the Minister come not to them though they know that his life is hazarded by it and that his loss to the whole Church is more to be regarded than the content or benefit of particular persons and it is not the pleasing of them nor their benefit by him then that will countervail the Churches loss of him What is this but too much preferring self I
the man in Joh. 9. 25. One thing I know that whereas I was blind now I see It 's no self-conceitedness for a man that is brought from the blind distracted state of sin into the light of the sanctified to know that he is wiser than he was before and that he was formerly besides himself but now is come to his understanding again Nor is it any self-conceitedness for the meanest Christian to know that a wicked man is more foolish than he or for a Minister or any man that God hath caused to excel in knowledge to hold fast the truth he knows and to see and modestly oppose the errors of another and to know that in that he is wiser than they God doth not require that we shall turn to every mans opinion and reel up and down from sect to sect and be of the opinion of every party that we come among and all for fear of thinking our selves wiser than they David knew he had more Understanding than his Teachers Psal 119. 98 99. and true believers fear not to say We know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness 1 Joh. 5. 19. 3. 19. 2. 3. And Paul would not forbear the reproving of Peter for fear of being thought to be self-conceited Gal. 2. some men are so desperately self-conceited that they take every man to be self-conceited that is not of their conceits But when self is mens instructor and chooseth their Text and furnisheth them with matter and nothing is savoury but what is either suited to the common interest of self or which it hath not a special interest in when men are absolutely wise in their own eyes and comparatively wiser than those that know much more than they when self-interest serves instead of evidence to the receiving retaining or contending for a point when men think they know that which indeed they do not know and observe the little which they do know more than an hundred fold more that they are ignorant of doubtless here 's self-conceitedness with a witness and they that will not see it in a lower degree methinks should see it in such a case as this He that will not believe that a man is drunk when he reels and stammereth may know it when he lieth spewing in the streets Well Sirs I beseech you see that self in the understanding be mortified and pulled down It 's the throne of God the Lanthorn of holy truth the temple of the Spirit and shall self Rule there The understanding is it that guideth the soul and all the actions of your lives and if self rule there what a Ruler will you have and what a case will heart and life be in If your eye be dark your Light be dark how great will be your darkness and if it be selfish it is certainly so far dark O believe the Holy Ghost Prov. 26. 12. Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit there is more hope of a fool than of him For a meer fool that is ignorant only for want of teaching hath no such prejudice against the truth as the self-conceited have Nor is it so hard to make him know that he is ignorant nor yet to make him willing to Learn He that knoweth himself to be blind is willing to be led Moreover the self-conceited have much to unlearn before they can be fit to receive the truth in a saving maner O how many thousands are undone by self-conceitedness It is this that keeps out Knowledge and every Grace and consequently all true peace and comfort and this it is that defendeth and cherisheth all sin Let us shew men the plainest word of God for duty and against sin and shew them the clearest reasons and yet self-conceitedness bolts the door against all Yea so wonderfully doth this sin prevail that the ignorant silly people that know almost nothing are as proudly self-conceited as if they were the wisest men They that will not learn and cannot give an account of their knowledge in the very Catechism or Principles of Christian Religion nor cannot pray nor scarce speak a word of sense about the matters of Salvation but excuse themselves that they are no Scholars yet these very people will proudly resist their Teachers though they were the wisest and learned'st men in the Land Let us but cross their conceits of Doctrine or Practice in Religion about their own title to Church-priviledges or fitness for them and they are confident and furious against their Ministers as if we were as ignorant as they and they were the wisest men in the world so that pride and self-conceitedness makes people mad or deal like mad men We cannot humble men for sin nor reclaim them from it till they know the sin and the danger of it and self-conceitedness will not let them know it no nor let them come to us to be taught but they are wise enough already and if we tell them of the sin and danger they are wiser than to believe the Word of God or us They will tell us to our faces they will never believe such and such things which we shew them in the Scripture O the precious light that shineth round about you all and would make you wise if self-conceitedness did not keep it out by making you seem wise already 1 Cor. 3. 18. These men that thus deceive themselves by seeming wise to themselves must become fools in their own eyes if ever they will be truly wise and confess themselves as Paul himself did that they were foolish and deceived when they served their lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. This Pride and Self-conceitedness is like the barm in the drink that seems to fill up the vessel but indeed works it all over This is the Knowledge that puffeth up 1 Cor. 13. like the pot that by boiling seemeth to be filled that was half empty before but it 's empty in the bottom and presently boils over and is emptier than before So is it with the self-conceited that have a superficial knowledge while they are empty at the bottom and by the heat of pride that little they have boileth over to their loss It is the humble that God reveals his secrets to and the hungry that he filleth with good things and the full that he sendeth empty away He will have no Disciples that come not to his School as little Children teachable and tractable not thinking themselves too old or too wise or too good to be taught If you would see the mysteries of the Gospel savingly you must even creep to Christ on your knees and cry Lord be merciful to me a sinner He will not lift up your minds and hearts to heaven till you think your selves unworthy to lift up your very eyes to heaven because you have sinned against heaven And if you were even lifted to heaven should you there but be lifted up with pride or self-conceitedness you should soon have a â—rick in the flesh to
rest 1. That will that is not fetched from God and moved by his will as the lesser wheels in a clock are moved by the first wheel and by the pâ—â—â—â— is no better than self-will A will that is not dependent on Gods will is an Idol usurping the prerogative of God for it is proper to him to be dependent upon none and to have a will that is not ruled by a Superior will Little do the most know how great a sin this is to be self-willed You have a will to something or other continually and it is your will that ruleth the rest of your faculties and actions but what is it that ruleth your will whence do you fetch the rise and reason of your desires Is it from Gods will or is it not You pray to God Thy will be done and do your own wills answer these prayers or are they hypocritical dissembling words If indeed it be Gods will that you would have fulfilled then will the knowledge of that will of God determine your own wills As a servant dependeth on his Masters will for all the work that he is to do and doth not what he will himself but what his Master will have him do and as a Scholar dependeth on his Masters will and learneth only such books and lessons as he sets him so must we depend on the will of God and know what is his will before we give way to any will of our own The reason why you choose any trade or calling or course of life should be the will of God If you are in Poverty and desire to be richer and that to please your own wills and not that you think that it would be any more pleasing to God this is self-willedness If you desire any change in your condition if you undertake any thing in the world know why you do this whether it be principally because you think it is the will of God or because it is your own will I tell you again you should not have one wish or desire in your souls till you can prove or find that God would have it so and if your own wills be made the absolue rulers of your ways you make Gods of your selves and God will deal with you accordingly 2. Yea if you do think the will of God is according to your will and you are moved the more to it on that account yet if your own wills do lead and make the first choice and Gods will be brought in but to follow and incourage yours this is still Self-willedness and Self-idolizing This is the common trick of the ungodly They first give way to their own self-will and then they will go to Scripture for somewhat to bear them out and will needs believe that God's is agreeable to theirs that so they may go on with peace of Conscience They go for counsel to God as Balaam did not sincerely to know the will of God with a resolution to obey it but with a desire that God would conform his will to theirs I tell you if the matter be never so much commanded in the Scriptures and never so agreeable to the will of God yet if you desire and do it from your selves and not for this reason because it is the will of God and do not let Gods will lead your own but let your own will lead and Gods will follow this is no better than self-willedness were the matter never so good in it self 3. If the end that moveth your will be not the service and glory of God but only your own Interest this is but self-will God giveth you leave to look to your selves as his servants in a due subserviency to him But if you will principally look at your own interest and make light of Gods and fetch the reason of your will and desires from your own ends and commodity rather than his Glory this is an ungodly selfish-will And yet alas how many are there that know not any better frame of will than this If they were truly to give an account of the principal reason and motive of every desire of their hearts why they would have this or why they would do that must they not confess it is for themselves because it serveth their own ends or interests and because it pleaseth their own wills and not because it furnisheth them better to serve and please the will of God If you ask men in their buying and selling and marrying and trading and dealing with men why it is that they do this or that can they truly say I do it because I think in this way I can do God the best service and the Church or Commonwealth most good and this is my chief reason Alas I fear they are too few that have any higher principal end and motive than self Self-will is the spring of their whole Conversations that sets them upon all they do Nay doubtless in the very duties of Religion in praying hearing reading and the like they are but serving self while they take on them to serve God and their holiest devotions is but such a serving of God as flatterers will serve their Prince or Landlord meerly that he may do them a good turn and may serve their Ends and be serviceable to them or else as some Indians serve the Devil for fear of him lest he should do them a mischief The will that is moved chiefly by self-interest is a self-will 4. And much more is it self-willedness when men contradict the Will of God when Scripture saith One thing and they another when they disrelish Gods Laws and dislike the work that he sets them on when they have a Will to that which God forbids and would fain be doing with unlawful things yea and it doth not satisfie their corrupt desires to see that the express will of God is against them this is self-will in a high degree 5. So also when mens wills are to that which is against the honour and interest of God which would hinder this Gospel and the saving mens souls and is displeasing to him this is self-willedness in a high degree And thus you see what it is to be self-willed And now do but consider whether this part of self be commonly denied in the world Among the millions of desires that are in mens hearts how few of them are kindled by the commands of God or moved by his Interest and Glory How commonly are the word and ways of God distastful to the world How ill do men like the disposals of his providence And what a striving is there in their wills against him And were it not that God is above them and unconquerable and they know that striving will not help them you should have most of the world in open war against the God of Heaven I speak no more than I am able to prove The Dominion of self is so great in the wills of all that are unsanctified that their wills are utterly against the Will of God and
state of the world and of the Church through the world doth scarce know how to order his affections or compose his prayers even in those greatest petitions about the honour Kingdom will of God They cannot grieve with the Church in grief nor mourn with it when it mourns so that it is a great duty of a Christian to labour to understand by History the former and present state of the Church And it is a great mark of a gracious soul that longs to hear of the prosperity of the Saints and free progress of the Gospel and a mark of a graceless person that careth not for these things But when History is not used to acquaint us with the matters of God or to surnish us with useful knowledge but to please a ranging carnal mind then it is but sinful sensuality or vanity Many persons have no such delight to read the useful History of Church-affairs as they have to read the curiously penned though less useful History of other matters Though I know that the History of the whole world is very serviceable to the knowledge of Divine things yet they that use it to holy ends will make choice accordingly and be no more in it than may suit with those ends It is the most humane with the most light ridiculous passages that are most pleasing to vain unsanctified wits but the godly delight in it so far as it shews them something of God and leadeth them to him In the very reading of Scripture a carnal reader may be much pleased with the History that hath no savour in the Doctrine but is weary to read it and yet I must add this caution by the way If we find a carnal kind of delight in Scripture-history or any other that is profitable we must not therefore cast off the History but seek after the cure of our disease that we may spiritually take pleasure in all for God and he may be the beginning end the life the All of our studies and delights And though our carnal delight in News and History be a sin in us yet God doth sometime make it an occasion of Good by leading us to that holy truth which after may be the means of our sanctification though at first we received it but as a Novelty And so the carnal pleasure that many have in hearing News and sitting with folks that will talk of other mens matters or things that concern them not is nothing but a sinful pleasing of the fancy and loss of time and neglect of greater matters which call for all our time and care It was the voice of the Athenians Act. 17. 21. for all the Athenians and strangers that were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing yea novelty of Doctrine and Religion and Teachers is a snare and bait to carnal fancies which many are taken by that are forsaken of God having first forsaken him and proved false to the truth received CHAP. XXXII Unnecessary Knowledge and Deligh therein 15. ANother part of Carnal Pleasure which self must be denied in is A desire after unnecessary Knowledge and Delight therein This is the common sin of man but not of all alike Even they that can live without the Knowledge of the saving Principles of Religion do yet itch to know unprofitable things and many a foolish question they will be asking about matters unrevealed or that concern them not when they overlook that which their salvation lieth on but the learneder sort and especially more prying wits and those that are bred up among disputes are the pronest to this sin and though it be an odious vice yet it so befooleth many that they reckon it confidently among their vertues God cannot be known too much nor can any man be too much in love with the true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ without this knowledge the mind is not good nor can the heart be sanctified or the man be saved Nor can any man know too much of the will and word of God nor yet of his works in which he revealeth himself to the world But the Carnal knowledge which is to be denied is of another nature than the sanctified knowledge of believers I shall shew you the difference in certain particular respects 1. This desire to know which is in the unsanctified is partly from meer nature and partly from a distempered fantasie which is like a crorupt enraged appetite that chooseth that which is unwholsom and yet is over-greedy after it But the desire after knowledge in the sanctified is kindled by the love of God and the love of those holy and heavenly things which they are inquiring after It is not the Love of God that sets ungodly men upon their studies but a common and carnal desire to know and this appears in the end which is next 2. This carnal knowledge is but to feed and furnish and please a carnal fancy because it is some adding to our understandings and because it is naturally pleasant to know and because it brings in some novelty and variety and because it makes us seem wiser than other men and furnisheth us with matter of discourse and ostentation and rids the mind of some troublesom doubts therefore even the worst have a mind to know But this is the knowledge that must be denied that which must be valued and sought after is To know God that we may love and reverence and trust and admire and honour him and enjoy him To know Christ that we may have more Communion with him To know the word and works of God that in them we may know his nature and his will and knowing his will may serve him and please him These must be the ends of Christian knowledge There is nothing in the world that God hath revealed but in its place we may be willing to know so that we stick not in the creature or sense of the words or common verities but use every thing as a book or looking-glass we love not a book so much for the letters as for the matter which they contain we love not a Glass for it self so much as for its use to shew us the face which we would see in it so if we go to the creatures but as a book in which we may read the mind of God and see his nature and as a glass in which his glory doth shine forth our study and knowledge will be sanctified and divine And thus as Paul would know nothing but Christ Crucified so every Christian should be able to say that he would know nothing but God in Christ for though we know a thousand matters and that of the lowest nature in themselves yet as long as we study them not for themselves but for God it is not them that we know so much as God in them and so all is but the knowing of God even as in our duty though the works may be many and
Heresies and Church-divisions as any Sensualist hath in his way And hence it is that a zeal for selfish opinions is easily got and easily maintained when zeal for the saving truths of God is hardly kindled and hardly kept alive Yea multitudes in the world do make the very truth to be the matter of their carnal interest in it while they some way get a seeming peculiar interest and promote it but as an opinion of their own or of their party and use it for selfish carnal ends And hence it is that many that are called Orthodox can easily get and keep a burning zeal for their Orthodox opinions when Practical Christians do find it a very hard matter to be zealous for the same truths in a Practical way Many ungodly men will be hot in Disputing for the truth and crying down all that are against it and perhaps so far exceed their bounds that the godly dare not follow them And the reason is clear Whether it be Truth or Error that a man holds if he hold it but as a conceit of his Own or as the opinion of his party or to be noted in the world as one that hath found out more truth than others or any way make it but the matter of his selfish interest nature and corruption will furnish him with a zeal for it It 's easie to go where sin and Satan drives and to be zelous where zeal hath so small resistance and to swim down the stream of corrupted nature But it is not so easie to be zealous in the practical saving entertainment of the truth and exercising that faith and love to God and holy obedience which truth is sent to work in us A schismatical or Opinionative use of truth it self is but an using it for self against the God of truth and it is no more wonder to see men zealous in this than to see men forward and hot in any evil We cannot tell how to quench or restrain this selfish carnal kind of zeal But when men should use the truth for God and their salvation against Satan and sin and self then it 's hard to make them zealous They are like green wood or wet fuel on the fire that will not burn without much blowing and soon goeth out when it seemed to be kindled if once you leave it to it self Paul spoke not non-sense when he said For ye are yet Carnal for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are ye not Carnal 1 Cor. 3. 3 4 5. How secretly soever it may lurk there is doubtless much of self and flesh in Heresies and unjust Divisions I know that most of them little perceive it James and John in their zeal which would have called for fire from heaven did not know what spirit they were of But God would not have spoke it if it were not true Rom. 16. 17. Now I beseech you brethren mark them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Though they little believe that that there is any such wickedness in them as this yet the Spirit of God that is the searcher of hearts is acquainted with it and assureth us that both at the bottom and the End Church-dividing courses have a carnal selfish nature It is some secret interest of self though scarce discerned that kindleth the zeal and carrieth on the work It is not God that is served by the divisions of his Church Many Sects now among us do put a face of Truth and Zeal upon their cause But self is the more dangerously powerful with them by how much the less suspected or observed The Papists under the pretence of the Churches Union are the great dividers of the Christian world unchurching the far greatest part of the Church and separating from all that be not Subjects of the Pope of Rome And do you think it is self and flesh that is the Principle and Life and End of this their Schism were it not for the upholding of this usurped power and worldly immunities and greatness of the Clergy it is morally impossible that so many men of reason and learning could concur in such a schism and in so many gross conceits as go along with it It is not the Pope that they are principally united in For the far greatest part of them it it too evident that it is selfish and fleshly interest that is their Center to which the Pope is but a means Hence it is that many of their Jesuits and Fryars are carried abroad the world with such a fire of zeal to promote their cause that they will compass sea and land for it and day and night are busie at the work to plot and contrive and insinuate and deceive and think no cost or pains too great For a selfish sinful zeal and diligence hath so many friends and so little hindrance that it 's easily maintained but so is not the healing peaceable practical and holy zeal of true believers Well! Consider what I say to you from the Word of the Lord There is a selfish dividing Zeal in Religion which must be denied as well as whoredom or drunkenness If you ask me how it 's known Briefly now I shallonly tell you this much of it 1. That it is usually for either an Error or a particular Truth against the interest and advantage of the body of unquestionable Christian verities They can let Religion suffer by it so their opinion do but thrive 2. It is usually for an Opinion by reason of some special endearment or interest of their own in it 3. They cry up that opinion with a zeal and diligence much exceeding that which they bestow upon other opinions of equal weight and lay a greater stress upon it than any shew of reason will allow them 4. They usually are zealous for a party and division against the Unity of the Catholick Church 5. Their Zeal is most commonly turned against the faithful Pastors of the Church For it 's hard to keep in with schism and with faithful Pastors too And if the Ministers will not own their sin and error they will disown the Ministers The Anabaptists and other Sects of late would never have been so much against Christ's Ministers if the Ministers had not been against their way 6. Their course doth in the conclusion bring down Religion and hinder the thriving of the Gospel and of Godliness Mark what is the issue of most of those ways that these men are so hot for Doth it go better or worse with the Church and cause of Christ in general where they are than it did before Is Religion in more strength and beauty and life and honour or doth real
quiet the mind when it cannot abate the pain of the body and must use to submit to a lesser evil to avoid a greater or to obtain a greater good than it depriveth us of Paul and Silas could sing with their bodies sore and their feet in the stocks To be joyful in tribulation should be no strange matter to a Saint much more with a patient submission to undergo it We may not thrust our selves into the fire nor choose suffering without a call but we must suffer rather than sin and choose the wounds and hurts of the body before the wounds and losses of the soul But because flesh and blood will draw back and make too great a matter of sufferings I shall briefly give you ten Considerations that may perswade you herein to deny your selves and in two cases I desire you to make use of them First in case you have no way to escape suffering but by sinning then deny your selves and choose to suffer Secondly in case of Gods afflictions which unavoidably lie upon you then deny your selves by a quiet and patient submission And for both consider 1. That is the best condition for us in which we may be most serviceable to God And if we suffer for Righteousness we may serve God as well in such suffering as in a prosperous state Or if God himself afflict us we may serve him in our affliction Our patience then is the service that we are called to The sufferings of the Saints have done very much to the promoting of the Gospel and building of the Church Men will see that there is somewhat worth the suffering for in the Christian Religion and see that Heaven is taken by believers for a certain thing when they can let go earth for it They will be moved to enquire what it is that moves you to such constancy and patience And why should we not be willing of that condition in which we do our Master the best service what ever the doing of it shall cost us The commodity of our end is the chiefest commodity 2. That is the best condition for us in which we may have most of God But certainly we may have as much and usually more of God in suffering especially for his cause than we can have in prosperity especially when we sin to escape these sufferings Is it bodily ease or God that you set most by It will be seen by your choice If you prefer your ease before him you must expect to have no better than you choose If you prefer him before your ease and prosperity you must be gladder of God with adversity and pain than of prosperity and ease without him A beast hath health and ease as well as you and yet you will not think him as happy If you are tormented or lose your health for Christ you lose nothing but what a Turk or Infidel hath yea but what a beast hath as well as you But you may have that of God by the advantage of your suffering that none but Saints have And God's presence can make a suffering state as sweet as a prosperous And he hath given you ground in his promises to expect it Isa 43. 1 2 3. When thou passest through the fire I will be with thee 1 Cor. 10. 13. There hath no temptation taken you but what is common to man but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that your able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it 1 Pet. 4. 14. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you On their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified ver 16. If any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalf What is the Scripture fuller of than comforting promises to the sufferers for Christ To fly from such sufferings then is but to fly from the presence of God and our own consolations 3. At least these sufferings further our sanctification and make us better And is not that our best condition that makes us best Common experience as well as Scripture may satisfie us that a suffering state doth very much further humiliation and mortification and bring men to a deeper sense of sin help all the truths of God to work and make them more sensible and serious than in prosperity Then we do not only hear but feel that sin is evil and that the world is vain and that the threatnings of God are true Why Christian if thou didst but know that thou shouldst have more of the spirit and its graces and less of sin in a suffering estate than in ease and plenty wouldst thou not even choose it and be glad of it Is not sin worse than suffering to thee and holiness better than ease and peace Alas what senseless careless persons should we be if it were not for the help of suffering Grace useth to work by means and this is the common means 4. Consider that pain and suffering we shall have whether for Christ or not The worst men undergo almost as much by ordinary sicknesses and losses and crosses as the Martyrs do that suffer for Christ sin will bring suffering and it 's better have that which is sanctified by the interest of Christ than that which is not 5. And a Christian that hath so much ado to curb and rule the flesh in prosperity me thinks should the more patiently bear adversity because God sets in by it and helps him to subdue the flesh and tame the body and bring it in subjection And as it is but this burdensome flesh that suffereth which hath been the cause of so much suffering to our minds so our warfare against this flesh which we mannage through the course of our lives goes on more prosperously in the time of its sufferings than in prosperity A weakned enemy is easilier conquered Do not therefore too much take part with the suffering flesh but self-denyingly justifie the proceedings of the Lord. 6. And consider that the pains and suffering will be but short It is but a little while and you shall feel no more than if you had felt nothing And that which shortly will not be is next to that which is not As it makes all the pleasures and glory of the world to be a dream and next to nothing because it 's but a while and they are gone and never return again So it makes our sufferings next to nothing that they are passing away and almost over And then all tears will be wiped from your eyes and pain will be forgotten or remembred only to encrease your joy When you are past the brunt and safe with Christ you will never repent of your sufferings on earth nor will it trouble you then to think of the shame or sickness or pain and torment that here you were put
of your worth and it is for want of real worth that you are Proud More light and grace and parts would shew you that which would make you blush at the things that you were Proud of 8. And consider that you take the Course to provoke God to bereave you of his Gifts He gave them to you for another use If you will turn them against his face by Pride when he gave them to keep you humble when you will exalt your carnal selves by it which he gave you to exalt his Majesty what can you expect but he should take them from you And it 's an easie matter with him to do it yea to take away your very understandings and leave you to the heavy plague of Madness seeing you were Proud of your understandings when alas poor worms you had so little cause 9. If once you grow Proud of your parts and gifts you are in the high way to be given over to some fearfull fall at best to particular scandals if not to some damnable heresie or Apostasie God may prevent it by your Humiliation but you are in the common road that leads to it It 's much to be feared that God will so far leave you to your selves as to let you fall into the dirt of some notorious sin that your shame may fly abroad the world instead of the vain-glorious fame which you desired and that you may have somewhat to humble you that shall be written in your foreheads and cannot be denied or hid Or if you be hypocrites and for damnation it is most likely that you are in the ready way to some desperate Heresie or flat Apostasie For we see that these are too frequently the consequents of spiritual Pride 10. Lastly Consider that the Gifts that you are Proud of are in danger of being unsuccessful to the Church God may I confess do good to others by them though they do but choak your selves but ordinarily he denieth success to the Proud and blesseth weaker endeavours of the humble Yea often such men and all their parts become a plague and trouble to the Church For they use them to forment the Heresies and Divisions which they are given over to and do more hurt than the ignorant or the common sortt of the Prophane Learn therefore to deny your selves in the Reputation of your performances If you feel any tickling delight when you are applauded cast water on it suddenly as on a fire kindled in your souls from Hell If you perceive the least stirring of discontent or envy when the Preaching or prayers of another are preferred and yours less set by take heed and quench it for you are entertaining a dangerous temptation But if you should be so far lifted up as to set up your Judgments above their worth and rise against your Teachers and the Church of Christ and desire to step beyond your callings that your parts may be taken notice of and you may be somebody in the Church and verifie the Prophesie of Paul Acts 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them I say when once you come to this it 's time to fear lest you be utterly forsaken and become the shame and scorn of men as you became the scourge and troublers of the Church and lest your self-exalting lay you as low as hell CHAP. XLVIII Reputation of being Orthodox how far 8. ANother piece of vain-glory to be denied is The Reputation of being Orthodox or of the right religion The thing it self is in the Essentials of absolute necessity to salvation But the Reputation of it is a thing that we must much deny our selves in For it commonly falls out in most of the world that the thing it self and the Reputation of it are inconsistent and no man can be Orthodox and of the right Religion but he must be taken to be heterodox and of the wrong Religion For the wrong is in most places taken for the right But through the great Mercy of God it is not commonly so in England nor in the Reformed Churches abroad in any great and necessary points Among us Truth hath the advantage of Reputation and so may it continue while the Sun endureth But yet there is use for this part of self-denial even with us We converse among many Sects and Parties of various Opinions and all of them are Confident that they are in the right and that we are Erroneous and against the Truth so say the Papists and so say the Libertines and many others And there is no way to gain the Reputation of being sound and Orthodox with any of these men but by turning to them and forsaking the truth and ceasing to be Orthodox indeed In Spain or Italy or with English Papists you must be accounted Hereticks or yield to heresie you must either cease to be true Catholicks or be content to be esteemed no Catholicks You have your choice whether you will reâ—lly be Schismaticks or be esteemed and called Schismaticks And so you will be used among most Sects who judge of Truth and Error according to their own deluded apprehensions Yea and among the Orthrdox â—â—deed because they also have their errors and are not Orthodox in all things you must look for the same measure in those particulars wherein they are mistaken For thinking themselves in the right they will too often take it for their duty to let fly at others as erroneous or dangerous persons that are not of their mind And in this mistake they think they do God service to defame dissenters and raise jealousies and suspicions of them and bid men take heed of them as of men that hold some dangerous opinions when it is themselves that are deceived and should turn those jealousies and cautions homewards In such Cases as these it is a hard strait that a servant of Christ is put to when he must either err or be supposed to err But the principal temptation lieth in those Countries where Error hath got the major vote and is patronized both by Book and Sword and custom hath fixed the name of Truth upon the foulest Heresies and the name of Heresie upon saving Truths Here a poor Christian is sorely tempted and put to a lamentable strait O saith he if I were reputed but to be base or beggarly or contemptible I could bear it but Heresie and Schism are such odious things that no man should be patient under the imputation of them Answ Are they such odious things Take heed of them then lest out of your own-mouths you be judged If you think the matter so small that you will rather be an Heretick or Scismatick than be called or accounted one it seems you take it for no odious thing Is the name or the thing more odious to you Had you rather be erroneous or be thought to be so If the Thing be most odious to you the Name will be the more tolerable But if the Name
God is and to what end he made redeemed sustaineth and governeth the world And then bethink you whether it be meet that this glorious God should be neglected and frustrated of the end of all these works and whether any thing besides him be fit to be the creatures end You think it meet that every workman should have the use of his own work Doth any man make a House for its own sake or for his use to dwell in Is it for the things sake that any man makes an Instrument or for his service by it Do you think that God made you for your selves and not for himself and service give therefore to God the things that are Gods All souls are his and therefore all should acknowledge him and submit to his dispose and pleasure Shall the pot quarrel with the Potter or claim title to it self and say I am mine own It is against the clearest reason in the world that any but the Creator Redeemer and Perserver of the world should be Lord and the Governour and the end of it and that men should prefer themselves before him Direct 4. Moreover it will further your self-denial to remember what you will get by selfishness God will have his Ends and Honour out of you one way or other whether you will or no He will have your goods from you and your lives from you and the faster you hold them the more you will suffer when he wringeth them out of your hands The most covetous man would part with his money to buy a Lordship if he knew it would else be taken from him A worldly treasure is obnoxious to rust and mothes and Thieves and if you exchange it not for the heavenly treasure in time and remove not your riches to the world that you must for ever live in what will you do when you must remove your selves And all your self-denial is but such an exchange or removal which all should be glad of that know they must be gone themselves Nay more consider still that selfishness makes you an Idol to your self and therefore you do but set up your sâ—lves as a Mark for the jealous God to shoot at and every hour you have reason to expect that the terrible hand of Justice â—â—ould lay hold upon you and trâ— you at the bar of that God whose Prerogative you did Usurp Direct 5. And it may much further your selfdenial to take a considerate survey of all the world and see but what self-seeking hath already done and is still doing in it What a doleful sight of wickedness confusion and misery must you see which way ever you look and all is most evidently the fruit of selfishness Me thinks it â—â—ould awaken every sober man against it that doth but observe what work it hath made that seeth Families disordered and ruined by it Neighbours set in dissention by it Churches divided by it Religion dishonoured by it and multitudes of them that seem to be religious to be so lamentably deceived and enslaved by it Princes and great men blinded by it Judges and Learned men befooled by it and the Nations of the world almost all set together by the ears by it So that it hath turned the world into the Confusion of Babel that no man can understand a word of the Language that tendeth to Unity Peace and building up Princes understand it not too many Preachers understand it not but the Language of scorn and strife and dissention they understand so that the world is cast all into a hurly burly and every mans hand is against his Brother when he scarce knows why No Church or State can stand without disturbance No truths without contradiction Under pretence of coming in to Christ they are busily uncovering his House when the door is wide open and there are more to invite them than to hinder them Me thinks as a man that observeth the carriage of mad men or drunken men should never have any mind to be mad or drunken so he that observeth but what self-seeking hath done in the world should have little mind to be self-conceited self-willed or self-seeking but should love and honour self-denial Direct 6. If you would promote self-denial keep with you the continual feeling of your own unworthiness and insufficiency No man will trust upon a broken staff if he know it nor be so foolish as to go about to walk upon the water which he knows will not bear him One would think this should be an easie and an effectual remedy Should it not be easie for such wretched sinners as we to carry about with us a sense of our unworthiness For such Lepers to carry about us a sense of our uncleanness Me thinks so many and great Diseases should make us feel them O then consider as creatures you are utterly insufficient for your selves and as sinners much more God never made you to live upon or to your selves or without him or without the help of others There are few beasts when they are first brought forth into the world but are more able to help themselves than man When he is newly born he can do nothing to help himself And when he comes to Age he is naturally formed to a sociable life so that if he should retire from the world and live onely by and of himself he would soon find what it is to be selfish Much more if he be left to himself by God or forsake God and trust to and depend upon himself But if ever innocent man had been sufficient for himself yet sinful man can have no pretence to such a priviledge while he beareth about him so many convincing evidences of the contrary every day Do you not feel sin as a heavy burden pressing you down and perceive how easily it entangleth and besetteth you sure you do if you be not past feelin And do you not know enough of the nature and desert of sin to drive you out of your selves and bring you to him that calleth the weary and heavy laden to come to him for ease and rest Mat. 11. 28. Do you not feel a continual burden of infirmities and doth not experience tell you that you are not sufficient to relieve your selves in any pain or sickness that doth befal you you cannot support your selves a moment you are still in the hands of that invisible God whom you abuse by your self-seeking You would drop into Hell if he withdrew the hand of his patience and support as sure as a stone would fall to the earth that were loose in the Air As truly as the earth beareth you so truly doth he bear the earth and you It is easier for Houses and Towns and Mountains to stand in the Air without the Earth than for you or any thing to subsist a moment without the Lord. Who keeps your heart and pulse still beating and your blood and spirits in continual motion and warm in your veins Is it God or you Who is it that causeth
one sin were but rooted out of the hears of the Ministers themselves that are the Preachers of self-denial it would make so sudden and wonderful a change in the Church as would be the glory of our Profession the Joy of the godly and the admiration of all O happy and honourable Magistrates at Court and Country if self were but throughly conquered and denyed O happy and Reverend Ministry the pillars of Religion the honour of the Church if it were not for the shameful prevalency of self O happy Churches happy Cities Corporations Societies and Countrys were it not for self But alas this is it that saddeth our hearts and makes us look for more and more sad tidings concerning the affairs of the Church from all parts of the world or frustrates our hopes when we look for better For we know on the one side that without self-denial there will never be true Reformation or Unity neither sin nor division will ever be overcome and on the other side we see that selfishness is so natural and common and obstinate that so many men as are born into the world so many enemies are there to Holiness and Peace till grace â—â— all change them and that all endeavours perswasions convictions do little prevail against this deadly rooted sin so that men will preach against it and yet most shamefully live in it and after all rebukes chastisements and heavy judgements of God the Church is still bleeding and Princes Pastors and People are self-conceited self-willed and self-seekers still Alas for the cause and Church of Christ Must we give it up to the lusts of self Must we sit down and look on its miserable torn condition with lamentation and despair and shall we deliver down this despair to our Posterity Were not our hope only in the Omnipotent God it must be so When we look at men at Magistrates or Ministers we see no hope What higher professions can be made by those in succeeding Ages than have now been made And yet what negligence of Magistrates and what contentiousness of Ministers destroy all hopes So that we look at the Restauration of the Church as at the Resurrection that must be done by Omnipotency God must raise up another Generation of more self-denying prudent zealous Magistrates and of more self-studying peaceable Humble Zealous Industristous Ministers before the Healing work be done The selfish spirit that prevaileth now in the most is neither fit to be the Matter or Instrument of the Reformed Peaceable state which we expect While the enemies are destroying us by secret fraud and open force we stand at a distance and unite not against them yea we are calling each other Heretick and Deceivers and teaching them how to revile us and putting such words into their mouth against us as may help our people to despise us and reject us and warrant them from our own mouths or pens to rail at us and forsake us One part of us being Hereticks or Deceivers by the testimony of the other part and the other part by the testimony of too many of them Dear Brethren if selfishness shall not now be left when we are in the sight of the havock it hath made and stand in the field among those that it hath slain and see the Church of God so horribly abused by it when then shall it be forsaken I here intreat every man that loveth his present or everlasting Peace and the Peace of the Church or Commonwealth that he will resolve upon a deadly enmity with this selfishness in himself and others And that you will suspect it and watch against it in every work you have to do Are you upon any imployment spiritual or secular Presently enquire when you set upon it Is there no self-interest and selfish disposition lurking here How far is my own worldly fleshly ends or prosperity concerned in it And if you discover that self is any way concerned in it I beseech you suspect it and follow self with an exceeding watchful eye and when you have done your best it is ten to one but it will over-reach you O look to it that you be not ensnared before you are aware Take heed of it especially you that are great and honourable and have so much self-interest to tempt you in the world How hardly will you escape When all other enemies are conquered you have yet self the greatest enemy to overcome Take heed of it you that have any rising thriving project little know you on what a precipice you stand Take heed of it you that are in deep and pinching wants lest self make them seem more grievous than they are and provoke you to venture upon sin for your relief Take heed all you that have raging appetites or passions or lustful inclinations and remember your enemy is now discovered and you have him to deal with before your face and therefore see that you be resolute and vigilant Take heed all you that have Learning Parts or fame and honour or any thing that self hath to glory in and to abuse lest the noblest gifts should by this deadly principle be turned into a plague to the Church and to your souls Suspect self in the choice of your parties and opinions Suspect it in your publick labours yea and in your private duties and greatest diligence in Religious Works lest when your eyes are open'd at last it should appear that you preached or prayed or professed or wrote or lived for self and not for God I do but transcribe the counsel to you that God is daily giving in to my own soul as I feel exceeding great use of it to my self so I am sure there is to others and wo to me and you if we take it not and be not found among the self-denying Doubtless God will put you to the tryal and find you frequent use for this grace Let me take the boldness to tell you from my own though alas too small experience that as it is meer selfishness that is the perplexer and disquieter of the mind without which nothing that befalls us could discompose it so it is God only that quiets it and gives it rest And I bless the Lord I can truly say that I have found that content in loving and closing with the will of God and endeavouring to know no interest but his to disquiet or quiet me which I never could find in any other way When God is enough for us and his will is in our eyes the will of a Father infinitely good it may satisfie the soul in the darkest condition when we understand not the particular meaning of his providence nor what he is doing with us yet still we may be sure that he is doing us good And therefore a child may not only submit to the will of God because it cannot be resisted as enemies must be forced to do but he may Rest in that will as the Center of his desires and the very felicity and Heaven of