it were estrangeth him from himself that he may have communion with God and this makes him vile in his own eyes and abhor himself in dust and ashes He is lost in himself and seeking God he finds himself again in God It is not a Stoical Resolution but the Love of God and the Hopes of Glory that make him throw away the world and look contemptuously on all below so far as they are meer provision for the flesh Search now and try your hearts by these evidences whether you are possessed of this necessary grace of self-denial O make not light of the matter Sirs and presume not of it till you find good grounds For I must tell you that self is the most treacherous enemy and the most insinuating deceiver in the world It will be within you when you are not aware of it and will conquer you when you perceive not your selves much troubled with it and of all other vices is both the hardest to find out and the hardest to cast out the hardest to discover and the hardest to cure Be sure therefore in the first place that you have self-denial and then be sure that you use it and live in the practice of it And for this I must give you more particular advice CHAP. XII In what respect self must be denyed II. AND here I beseech you take heed of Self in all these following respects 1. You must Deny Self as it is Opposite to God and a Competitor with him and the Idol of the soul and of the world and this is in all the ten respects which I mentioned in the beginning and therefore shall not now rehearse And this is the principal part of self-denial 2. Self must be denyed as it is but conceived as separated from God and would be an End in a divided sense from God For our selves and all things else are created contingent dependent beings and must not be once thought of as if we were either our own beginning or end or in any capacity but subservient unto God Self becomes a Satan when it would cast off its due subordination to God and would be any other than the workmanship of God depending on him and ruled by him and living to him loving him desiring him and seeking after him and either mourning when we miss him or rejoycing when we find Communion with him 3. Self must be denyed as it stands up against the Truth of the Gospel and blindly and proudly quarrelleth with that word which faith relyeth upon for Justification and salvation Carnal self is both the most incompetent Judge of the word of God and of spiritual affairs and also the most forward and arrogant and audacious for all it is so incompetent And this is the damnable fountain of unbelief That self is an incompetent Judge of the word and waies of God is evident for 1. It is a natural enemy to them and an enemy is no competent Judge Rom. 8. 7. Because the Carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Deny therefore this enemy the power of judging the word of God Ill-will never saith well Enmity is credulous of all evil and overlooks the good and is accompanyed with false surmises and wresteth every word and suspecteth or maketh an evil sence where there was none there is not a worse expositor in the world And therefore no wonder if such a nature of enmity can find matter of quarrel with the very Scripture it self and with an holy life yea with God himself for it is him especially that the enmity is against 2. Moreover self is a party and therefore an incompetent judge It is self that the Scripture principally speaks against All over the Gospel there are the words of disgrace and the arrows of death directed against the very heart of Carnal self God there proclaimeth and manageth an open war against it And shall a party be the judge shall the traiterous delinquent be the judge A child will hardly speak well of the rod whatever he do by the Corrector but it 's not to be expected that a thief should love the halter or the gallows Gods word is the weapon that self must be slain by and therefore self is an incompetent judge of it 3. Moreover self is quite blind in the matters of God the natural man discerneth them not nor can do because they are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. And the ignorant and blind are incompetent judges 4. And the selfish man is no good student in the Laws of God even when he readeth the letter he doth not mind or savour the spirit of them Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit A fair world it would be if every Colliar should judge the Privy Council and the Judges of the Land or if every thief should sit upon his accuser and his Judge and every traitor should judge the Prince And a thousand-fold more insufficient is self to judge the Word of God And yet as insufficient as it is it is exceeding arrogant and steps up into the judgment-seat at every Chapter that is read or heard and if this blind and malicious Judge be unsatisfied forsooth the Scripture must be dark or contradictory or what he pleases This horrible presumptuous arrogancy of self is it that hath opened so many mouths against the blessed Doctrine of Salvation and made so many wretched Apostates in the world and cast so many others into doubtings of that word by which at last they must be judged and which should have been the ground of their faith and hope 4. Moreover self must be denyed as it stands up against the Lord Jesus Christ When Christ is presented in his wonderful Condescension in his Incarnation and mean despised life and in his ignominious death Proud self is offended at so low a Saviour and disdaineth that Humiliation which his own necessities did require and despiseth Christ because he became despised and a man of sorrows in our stead When he is propounded as the remedy of a miserable soul and as our only Life and Righteousness and Hope Self doth seduce the soul to undervalue him It will not easily be convinc'd of so much misery as to need such a remedy it is too well to value such a Physician it is too righteous to value the righteousness of a Mediator It hath too much Life and Hope at home in its own supposed innocency or sufficiency to set much by the Hopes that Christ hath purchased and to Live in him O down with self that Christ may be Christ to you How shall he come in while Self is the Porter that keeps the door How shall he pardon you when Self will not suffer you to feel the want and worth of pardon How shall he bind up your hearts when Self will not suffer them to be broken
were in Gods hands than his own and would not undertake the charge if it were offered him Alas thinks he I am almost below a man and am I fit to make a God of I come off so lamely in the duty of a Creature as deserves damnation and am I fit to arrogate the work of the Creator 8. Moreover it is the high Prerogative of God to be the Soveraign Ruler of the world to make Laws for them which must be obeyed and to reward the obedient and punish the disobedient God is King of all the earth even King of Kings and Lord of Lords and all shall obey him or be judged by him for their disobedience But sin turned man into a Rebel against Heaven and a Traitor to his Maker so that now the selfish unsanctified man disliketh Gods Government at least in the particulars and would Govern himself The Law of God contained in his Word and Works he murmurs at as too obscure or too precise and strict for him He finds that it crosseth his Carnal interest and speaks not good of him but evil and therefore he is against it as supposing it to be against him and his pleasure profit and honour in the world If men had but the Government of themselves what a difference would there be between their way and Gods If corrupt unsanctified selfish man might make a Law for himself in stead of the Word of God what a Law would it be and how much of the Law of God should be repealed If sinners might make a Scripture you should find in it no such passages as these Except a man be Converted or born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven without Holiness none shall see God If self might make Laws you should not read in them If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Nor should you there find that the Gate is strait and the way is narrow that leads to life and few there be that find it or that the righteous are scarcely saved As all the Scripture is now for Holiness and against Prophaneness Ungodliness and Sensuality if self had the framing of it it should all be changed and it should at least speak peace to fleshly-minded men All those true and dreadful passages that speak fire and brimstone against the unsanctified and threatned everlasting torments should be razed out and you shall find no talk of damnation in the Scripture for such as they no talk of the worm that never dyeth or the fire that is never quenched or of Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity I know you not or that the way of the ungodly shall perish or that God doth laugh at them because he seeth that their day is coming Abundance of the Bible would be wiped out if Carnal self had but the altering of it Nay it would be quite made new and made a contrary thing the Articles of our Creed would be changed the Petitions of our Rule for Prayer would be most altered every one of the ten Commandments would be altered as I shall after shew Idolatry should be no sin but the principal Law for self would be set up as the Idol of the world will-worship would be no sin men would he held guiltless that take the name of God in vain The Lords day should be a day of mirth and carnal pleasure every Subject would be the Soveraign and every Inferiour the Superior Revenge would be made lawful for themselves though not for others Fornication and Adultery would be no mortal sin Stealing would be made tolerable to themselves it should be lawful to them to do any wrong to the name and reputation of another in a word every man would do what he list and his will should be his Law and himself should be his own Judge a gentle tender Judge no doubt Thus would self Rule But sanctification brings men to Deny this self and to lay down the Arms of Rebellion against God and to see how unfit we are to Rule our selves that we are too foolish and sinful and partial to make Laws and too partial also and tender to execute them and that as we were made to obey so obey we must and come again into our ranks and willingly subject our selves to the Soveraign of the world Self denyal teacheth a man to have his own Carnal wisdom and reasonings that rise up against the Laws of God and to Love them the worse because they are thus his own and to love the Laws of God the better because they are God's and because they are against his Carnal self The stamps of God on them doth make them currant with him when if they had but the private stamps of self he would disown them as counterfeit or treasonable He hath indeed a flesh that is restrained by Gods Laws and striveth against them but he thinks never the worse of the Law for that but approveth and liketh it in the inner man and if he might have his choice he would not blot out one Commandment nor one Direction nor one Article of Faith nor a tittle of the Law because that self is not the Chooser in him but he hath learned to submit to the will and wisdom of the Lord. And though he love himself and have a nature that is unwilling of suffering and feareth the displeasure of God and the threatnings of his holy Law yet doth he unfeignedly justifie the Law and acknowledge it to be holy and just and good and would not have the very threatnings of it to be repealed and blotted out if he had his choice for he knows that the Determinations of God are the best and that none but he is fit to govern and therefore he desires that he himself may be taught better to obey and not that he may rule and wisheth that he were more conformed to the Law and not that the Law were conformed to him and fain he would have his own will brought up to Gods but wisheth not Gods will to be crookened and brought down to his As far as men have self-denyal this is so 9. Moreover as it is Gods Prerogative to be the Soveraign Ruler of our selves so also of all others as well as us But when sin had set up self man would not only Rule himself but would rule all others An eager desire there is in the unsanctified selfish heart that he might be Ruler of Town and Country and all might be brought to do his will And hence it is that there is such resisting and grudging at good Governors and that men are so ambitious and fain would be highest because they would have their own wills fulfilled by all and therefore would have power to force men to it Hence it is that there is such a stir in the world for Crowns and Kingdoms and few men have ever been heard of that have refused a Scepter when it was offered
by Christ And therefore it is past dispute that none but the self-denying are sanctified and therefore none bâ— they do truly take the Holy Ghost for their Sanctifier and truly believe in him So far as men are in Love with the disease it is certain they will not use the Physitian Reas 5. No man is a true Christian and in a state of salvation that denyeth renounceth or rejecteth the word of God But all men that have not self-denyal that hear the word of God do renounce deny it or reject it and therefore no man without self-denyal is a true Christian or can be saved In the Scriptures it is that we have eternal life it s they that must make us wise to salvation the man that will be blessed must meditate in them day and night Psal 1. 3. And it is not the hearers but the Doers of them that are blessed But nothing is more clear than that the voice of Scripture calleth aloud on all men to deny themselves and that the scope of it is to cry down self and set up God in Jesus Christ It is the very drift and meaning of it from end to end to take down self and abase men in their own eyes and bring them home to God from whom they are revolted Reas 6. No man can be a Christian or be saved without saving Grace But no man without self-denyal hath saving Grace For it is the nature of every Grace to carry man from himself to God by Christ It is the work of godly sorrow to humble proud man and break the heart of carnal self It is the work of faith for a self-denying soul to pass out for hope and life to Christ It is the work of Love to carry us quite above our selves to that infinite goodness which we love it is the nature of holy fear to confess our guilt and insufficiency and to suspect our selves and dread the fruit of our own ways Confidence doth bottom us upon God and Hope it self doth imply a Despairing in our selves Thankfulness doth pay the homage to him that hath saved us from our selves And every grace hath self-denyal as half its very life or soul And therefore it is certain that no man hath any more grace than he hath self-denyal Reas 7. They that reject the Ministry and the fruit of all the Ordinances of God are not true Christians nor cannot be saved But so do all among us that have not self-denyal For the use of the Ministry is to call home sinners from themselves to God The use of every Ordinance of God is to get or keep down carnal self and exalt the Lord. Confession is nothing but self-abasing and he must confess that will have the faithful and just God to forgive him for he that covereth his sin shall not prosper 1 John 1. 9. Prov. 28. 13. Prayer is a confession of our own emptiness insufficiency and unworthiness and a flying from our selves for help unto another In Baptism we come as condemned prisoners for a pardon as it were with ropes about our necks and strip our selves of the rags of our filthiness that by the blood of the lamb we may be washed from our blood and our sins may be buried as in the depth of the Sea In the Lords Supper we renew the same Covenant and receive the same renewed pardon and still fly from our selves to Christ for life and renounce our carnal selves by solemn Covenant as a people coming home to God So that never was any Ordinance of God effectual and saving on the soul of any further than it brought them to self-denyal or preserved exercised or manifested it Reas 8. He that can do no work sincerely nor go one step in the way of life is no true Christian nor in a state life But this is the case of all that have not self-denyal For self is their Principle Rule and End and he that hath either a false Principle Rule or End cannot be sincere in any of the means much less when he is out in all of these A selfish man is seeking himself in his very Religion and is serving himself when he seemeth to be serving God And indeed he doth not any service sincerely unto God because he makes not God his End And therefore cannot be accepted Reas 9. No man is a true Christian or can be saved that sticks in the depth of his natural misery in his lapsed state But so do all men that have not self-denyal for it is self that they are faln to and must be saved from Reas 10. No man can be a true Christian and be saved that is not a member of the Holy Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints But so is none but the self-denying for every true member of the Church hath a publick spirit preferring the Churches interest to his own and suffering with fellow members in their suffering and having a care of one another 1 Cor. 12. But the self-seeking unsanctified person is a stranger to this disposition Reas 11. He that is led by the greatest enemy of God and his own soul is not a true Christian nor in a state of life But so is every man that hath not learned to deny himself For self is the greatest enemy of God and us Escape but your own hands and you are out of danger All the Devils in Hell cannot destroy you if you would not be your own destroyers Reas 12. Lastly It is a plain contradiction to be saved without self-denyal For as its self that we must be saved from both as our End and Means and greatest enemy so to stick in self is still to be lost and miserable and therefore not to be saved So that the case is as plain as a case can be that no man can be a true Christian or Disciple of Christ without self-denyal and consequently none without it can be saved I have been the briefer upon the Arguments because the matter of some of them may come to be fullier opened anon in the Application CHAP. III. Use 1. A general complaint of the Prevalency of Selfishness Use 1. AND now we have seen from the words of Christ the absolute Necessity of self-denyal and that there is no true Christianity nor salvation without it let us next take a view of our selves and of the world and Judge of our condition by this certain Rule Look well into your selves and into the world and tell me whether you find not cause to lament 1. That true Christianity is so rare a thing even among the professors of Christianity seeing self-denyal is so rare 2. That Grace is so weak and small in the most of the regnerate seeing self-denyal is so little and imperfect O if the name of Christians would prove us Christians and the magnificent Titles we give to Christ would prove that we are his true Disciples if reading and hearing and outward duties and a cheap Religiousness would serve turn we have then great
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
sometime all is comprehended in the term world and selfishness in the word flesh the world being that harlot with which the flesh commits adultery So 1 Joh. 2. 15 16. Love not the world nor the things that are in the world If any man Love the world the Love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the Lust of the flesh the Lust of the eyes and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but is of the world and the world passeth away and the Lust thereof but he that doth th will of God abideth for ever To these three heads therefore we shall reduce all that we have to say of this matter I. The selfish fleshy Pleasure that must be denied consisteth in these particulars following which I shall but briefly touch because they are so many 1. One Principal part of Sensuality or Self-interest consisteth in meats and drinks to please the Appetite So far as these are taken to fit us for Gods service and used to his Glory so far they are sanctified as before was said but when they are meerly to please the appetite they are offered to an enemy and are the fuel of lust Do you see any thing that your Appetite desireth whether meats or drinks whether for quality or quantity Take it not touch it not meerly upon that account but enquire whether it tend to the strengthning and fitting your bodies or minds for the service of God and if so take it if not let alone If your appetite had rather have Wine than Beer or strong Beer than small take it not meerly upon that account If your appetite would fain have one cup more when nature hath as much as is profitable deny that appetite If your appetite would fain be tasting of any thing that is not for your health deny that appetite If it would fain have one bit more when you have as much before as is wholesom or useful to you deny that appetite Or else you are guilty of flesh pleasing and plain Gluttony Quest But is it not lawful at a feast to taste of another dish or eat another bit when I think that nature needs no more what perplexities then will you cast men into to know just how many morsels they may eat Answ It is gluttony and no beter to take the creatures of God in vain and sacrifice them to a devouring throat which should be used only for his service That which is a mans ultimate end is his God What would you have plainer than express words of Scripture that tell you that whether you eat or drink it must be all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. 31. and that the fleshly do make their bellies their Gods Phil. 3. 18. And therefore when you have taken as much as suiteth with your end the service and glory of God you must not take more for another end the pleasing of your fleshly desires But for the scruples that you mention about the just proportion we need not be disquieted with them For God hath given us sufficient means to direct us to know what is for our good and what is superfluous and it is our duty in an even and constant way to use our Reason and keep as near the due proportion as we can and when we know that this is our desire and endeavour it were a sin against God to trouble our selves with continual or causless scruples or fears lest we do exceed or miss the rule For what can we do more than go according to the best skill we have and if for want of skill we should a little mistake it is pardoned with the rest of our daily infirmities and to trouble and distract our selves with causeless fears would more unfit us for Gods service than some degree of mistake in the proportion would do and so would be as great a sin as that which we feared And therefore our way is quietly and comfortably without distracting fears or scruples to do our best and use our prudence with self-denial and remember that we have to do with a Father that knows the flesh is weak when the spirit is willing But yet wilfully to cast away one cup or one morsel on the pleasing of our appetites when it no way fits us for the service of God and will do us no other good this is not self-denial but sensuality Quest But nature knows best what 's good for it self and therefore that which it desireth is to be judged best A Beast liveth as healthfully as a man that obeyeth his appetite only Is it not lawful to take either meat or drink on this account that the Appetite is pleased with it Answ 1. Some Beasts would presently kill themselves in pleasing their appetites if man that is Rational did not rule restrain and moderate them A Swine will burst himself with whey in half an hour A Beast in new after-grass will surfeit if he be suffered No Beast knows poyson from food but would soon perish by it in obeying his appetite 2. And yet as a Bâ—â—st hath no Reason so he is better provided to live without Reason than man is His appetite is not so corrupted by sin as ours is Original sin hath depraved and enraged our appetites And if man had not more use for his reason than a Beast even in ordering his natural actions God would not have given him reason to rule his appetite and commanded him to use it herein And who knows not that if a man did follow his appetite alone as Beasts do he were like to murder himself the next day or week or at least in a very little space The appetite would presently carry us to that for quality or quantity or both that would cast us into mortal diseases and soon make an end of us And in those diseases the pleasing it usually would be certain death And indeed this is a beastly doctrine that man that hath reason to rule his sensual inclinations should lay it by and please his appetite without it like a brute what more do all Gluttons Drunkards and Whoremongers but follow ther fleshly desires And if the desires of the flesh might be followed who would not be such as they in some measure That which is no sin in a Beast is a hainous sin in a man because man hath reason to rule his appetite and a Beast hath none and therefore is not capable of sin And for the body it 's certain that most of the diseases in the world are bred and fed by the pleasing of the appetite and I think that there 's few that are laid in their graves but this was the cause of it though the ignorant know it not and the sensual are loth to believe it And for the question whether we may not take any meat or drink purposely to please the appetite I answer yes as a means to fit us for duty but not as your chief end 1. Sometimes especially in weak bodies the
mean that we are employed in yet all is but the serving of God as long as we do them all for him this is the main difference between an unsanctified scholar and a servant of God in all their studies One of them is but recreating his curious fancy or inquisitive mind and seeking matter of honour and applause or some way or other studying for himself but the other is searching after the nature and will of his Creator and learning how to do his work in that manner as may please and honour him most So that when they are reading the same books and studying the same subjects they are upon quite different works as having contrary ends in all their studies the one is content with bare speculation and aery knowledge which puffeth up and the other studieth and knoweth practically to feed the holy fire of love in his heart and to guide and quicken and strengthen him for obedience 3. Moreover there is a difference commonly in the subject which they most desire to know for though there is no truth but a wicked man may know which a true Christian knoweth and also but few truths but what he may for selfish ends be desirous to know yet ordinarily a carnal heart is much more forward to study common Sciences than Divinity and in Divinity to study least the practical part and to be most in points that exercise the brain and lie further from the heart but the sanctified man delighteth most in knowing the mysterie of Redemption the riches of grace the glory which he hopeth for the nature and will of God the way of duty the temptations that are before him and his danger by them and the way to escape with such other useful truths which he must live upon One feeds but upon the air and chaff of words and notions or common truths and the other is taken up with the most spiritual heavenly and necessary matters yea it is not so much the truth as the matter or thing revealed by it which the Christian looks after it is not only to understand the meaning of the Scripture but to find and love and enjoy that God that Christ that Spirit that Life which is revealed in those words of Scripture but the hypocrite sticks most in a Grammatical superficial kind of knowledge 5. Carnal knowledge would break Gods bounds and would needs know that which else they might know and cannot see the strength of a reason which the wise can see yet will they sooner quarrel with the light than with their eyes and suspect the reasons and words of God rather than their purblind minds But spiritual knowledge is modest and humble and obedient presumeth not to climb any higher than the ladder lest he lose more by such a step too high than he got by all his labor hitherto find himself all in pieces at the bottom while he would needs climb above the top He finds work enough in what God hath commanded him to study in his word and therefore hath no leisure to look after things that God hath hid from him It is for the use of knowledge that he would know and therefore he hath no great mind of that which is useless and he knows that God is the best Judge of that and therefore he takes that to be best for him which is prescribed him 6. Carnal Students are apt to learn in the wayes which their interests and fancies lead them to but holy Students learn of God in his prescribed way that is 1. In his Church which is his School 2. And in and by his holy Scripture which is the book he sets us to learn And 3. By his Ministers whom he commandeth to teach us 4. And in obedience to his spirit that must make all effectual And 5. In fervent prayer to God for that spirit and a blessing This is Gods way in which he will bring men to saving knowledge 7. Also Carnal Students observe not commonly Gods order in their learning but they begin at that which suteth best with their carnal interest or disposition as being least against it and they catch here and there a little and make what their list of it and force it to their carnal sense and to speak for that which their minds are most affected to But the sanctified student begins at the bottom and first seeks to know the Essentials of Religion Points that life lieth most upon and so he proceeds in order and takes the lesson which God and his Teachers set him and takes up truths as they lie in order of necessity and use 8. And in the manner also the difference is great The Carnal student searcheth presumptuously self-conceitedly and unreverently and speaks of holy things accordingly and censureth them when he should censure himself and actions by them and bendeth the words of God to his own carnal interest and will But the spiritual student searcheth meekly with fear and reverence with self-suspicion and consciousness of his exceeding darkness and with a willingness and resolution to submit to the light for conviction and for the guidance of his conversation And now you see what carnal studies are remember that to avoid them is part of your self-denial Restrain your ranging phantasies understanding as you would do a ranging appetite If you have a mind that would fain reach higher than God hath given you light in Scripture or a mind that must needs be satisfied of the reasons of all Gods ways and murmureth if any of its doubts be unresolved remember that this is self that must be denied and if any be wise in his own eyes he must become a fool that he may be wise 1 Cor. 3. 18. and as little children must you come to the School of Christ if you will indeed be his Disciples And remember that this Intellectual voluptuousness licentiousness and presumption of Carnal minds is a higher and in some respects greater and more dangerous vice than brutish sensuality And you may cheat and undo your souls in a civil course of carnal selfish studies as well as in a course of more gross and sensual vâ—luptuonsness CHAP. XXXIII Factious Desire of the success of our own Opinions and Parties as such c. 16. ANother selfish Interest to be denied is The factious desire of the success of any odd opinions which we have espoused and of the increase and prosperity of any dividing party in the Church which we have addicted our selves unto It exceedingly delighteth a Carnal mind that his Judgement should be admired and he should be taken as the light of the Country round about him and therefore when he hath hatcht any opinions of his own or espoused any whereby his singularity may be manifested or by which his selfish interest may be promoted he is as careful to promote these opinions and the party that holdeth with him as a Covetous man is to promote his gain There is indeed as much of self in many mens
the burdens that are here upon you which should make you long to be with God One would think the feeling of them should force you to consideration and weariness of them and make the thoughts of rest to be sweet to you Have you yet not sin enough and sorrow and fear and trouble enough Or must God lay a greater load on you to make you desire to be disburdened Every hour you spend and every creature you have to do with afford you some occasion of renewing your desires to depart from these and be with Christ Direct 7. Observe and magnifie that of God which is here revealed to you in his word and works Study him and admire him in Scripture study and admire him in the frame of nature And when you look towards Sun or Moon or Sea or Land and perceive how little it is that you know and how desirable it is to know them perfectly think then of that estate where you shall know them all in God himself who is more than all Study and admire him in the course of Providences study and admire him in the person of Christ in the frame of his holy life in the work of Redemption in the holy frame of his Laws and Covenants study and admire him in his Saints and the frame of his holy Image on their souls This life of studying and admiring God and dwelling upon him with all our souls will exceedingly dispose us to be willing to come to him and to submit to death Direct 8. Live also in the daily exercise of holy Joy and Praise to God which is the heavenly Employment For if you use your selves to this heavenly life it will much incline you to desire to be there Exercise fear and godly sorrow and care in their places but especially after Faith and Love be sure to live in holy Joy and Praise Be much in the consideration of all that Riches of grace in Christ communicated and to be communicated to you And be much in Thanks to God for his mercies and chearing and comforting your soul in the Lord your God And thus the Joy of Grace will much dispose you to the Joys of glory the Peace which the Kingdom of God consisteth in will incline you to the peace of the everlasting Kingdom and the chearful Praising of God on Earth in Psalms or other ways of Praise will prepare and dispose you to the heavenly Praises And therefore Christians exceedingly wrong their souls and hinder themselves from a willingness to be with God in spending all their days in drooping or doubting or worldly dulness and laying by so much the Joy of the Saints and the Praises of God Direct 9. Dwell on the believing fore-thoughts of the everlasting glory which you must possess Think what it is that others are enjoying while you are here and what you must be and possess and do for ever Daily think of the Certainty Perfection and Perperuity of your Blessedness What a life it will be to see the blessed God in his Glory and taste of the fulness of his love and to see the glorified Son of God and with a perfected soul and body to be perfectly taken up in the Love and Joy and Praises of the Lord among all his holy Saints and Angels in the heavenly Jerusalem You must by the exercise of Faith and Love in holy Meditation and Prayer even dwell in the Spirit and converse in Heaven while your bodies are on earth if you would entertain the news of death as beseems a Christian But of this at large elsewhere Direct 10. Lastly if you would be willing to submit to death resign up your own understandings and wills to the wisdom and the will of God and Know not good and evil for your carnal selves but wholly trust your lives and souls to the Wisdom and Love of your dearest Lord. Must you be carking and caring for your selves when you have an Infinite God engaged to care for you O saith self I am not able to bear the terrors and pangs of death O saith Faith My Lord is easily able to support me and it is his undertaken work to do it My work is but to Please him and it 's his work to take care of me in life and death and therefore though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death yet will I fear no evil O saith Self I am utterly a stranger to another world I know not what I shall see nor what I shall be nor whither I shall go the next minute after death None come from the dead to satisfie us of these things O but saith Faith My blessed Father and Redeemer is not a stranger to the place that I must go to He knows it though I do not He knows what I shall be and do and whither I shall go and all is in his power And seeing it belongs not to me but to him to dispose of me and give me the promised reward it is meet that I rest in his understanding And it is better for me that his Infinite Wisdom dispose of my departing soul than my shallow insufficient knowledge I may much more acquiesce in his knowledge than my own O but saith self I fear it may prove a change of darkness and confusion to my soul what will become of me I cannot tell O but saith Faith I am sure I am in the hands of Love and such Love as is Omnipotent and engaged for my good and how can it then go ill with me If I had my own will I should not fear And how much less should I fear when I am at the will of God even of most Wise Almighty Love There is no true Centre for the soul to Rest in but the Will of God It is our business to Obey and Please his Will as dutiful Children and to commit our selves contentedly to his Will for the absolute disposal of us It is not possible that the Will of an Heavenly Father should be against his Children whose desire and sincere endeavour hath been to Obey and Please his Will And therefore learn this as your great and necessary Lesson with Joyful Confidence to Commit your selves and your departing souls to your Fathers Will as knowing that your Death is but the execution of that Will which is engaged to cause all things to work together for your good Rom. 8. 28. And say with Paul I suffer but am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day 2 Tim. 1. 12. 1 Tim. 4. 10. Therefore we labour and suffer because we trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe say therefore as Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Or rather as Christ Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Luke 23. 46. If the hands and Will of the Father was the Rock and
turning from Cod to self and to the creature for self so that he now studyeth and useth and loveth the Creature but for himself And so he would have himself and all as far out of the hands of God in his own as possibly he can I gave you my thoughts in the beginning that this was the meaning of mans knowing Good and Evil by the Fall And since I wrote that I meet with the same Exposition in Damascene do Orthodox fid li. 11. c. 11. p. mihi 113. part of whose words I shall here translate In the midst of Paradise God planted the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge And the Tree of Knowledge was for the tryal and proof and the exercise of mans obedience and disobedience And therefore it is called the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil Or because it gave man a power to Know his Own nature which indeed to the perfect is good but to the infirm is evil and to them that are yet prone to concupiscence as strong meats to the weak and those that need milk For the Lord that created us would not have us careful and troubled about many things nor to become Contrivers and Providers for our own lives into which it was that Adam fell For when he had eaten he knew that he was naked and made hmself an apron of fig-leaves to cover his nakedness But before both Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed And God would have had us insensible of or not to suffer by such things For this is but an insensibility or impassibility But we had One work only to do without vexation and care which is the work of Angels unweariedly and continually to praise our Creator and to delight in the contemplation of him and to cast all our care on him as he taught us by the Prophet David saying Cast thy care on the Lord and he shall nourish thee aud the Lord taught his own Disciples in the Gospel Take no care what you shall eat nor wherewith you shall be cloathed and again Seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and these things shall be added to you and to Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful Mary hath chosen best part which shall not be taken from her that is to sit at his feet and hear his word and this is the tree of Life So far Damascene who you see driveth at the same sense though it be not clearly and fully exprest by him And as man by his Fall desired to know what was good and evil for himself that is to his own Nature for his daily provision and safety that he might be able to choose for himself and not trust himself wholly on the Provision of God so accordingly God in judgment hath given him over to himself according to his desire of which more anon And accordingly our Restauration from this lapsed state consisteth in retiring from our selves to God and giving up to him again those minds those thoughts those wills those affections that have been all this while detained from him and mis-imployed by self Down then with this Idol and set up God Did you make your selves or redeem your selves or do you sustain your selves or are you sufficient for your selves Let him that doth all this for you be acknowledged to have the only Title to you And consider what an odious crime it i for such worms to exalt themselves as Gods and so deny the Lord to be their God CHAP. LXIV Enemy to all Morality Faith Prayer Obedience 2. MOreover this Self is the Enemy as of God himself so also of all the frame of Morality Of Every Article of your Belief and Every Petition in the Lords Prayer and of every one of the ten Commandments and of the whole Word of God 1. For your Belief it advanceth your own Reason against it as to the Truth of it so that you cannot discern these things of God because they are spiritually discerned It shutteth up your understandings against the Meaning of it so that when you know the Grammatical sense of the words you know not haâ— the meaning yet for all that The words are written to signifie the spiritual apprehensions and affections which the holy inditers had of the matter signified by them And till you come by the help of those words to have the same impress upon your souls the same apprehensions and affections which the inditers had and intended to express by them you have not the perfect understanding of the Scriptures And therefore while you are wholly without their spiritual Apprehensions and Affections you do not so much as sincerely or truly understand them however you may be able to speak as good Grammarians and true Expositors in the explaining of them to others And also selfishness in the Will doth make you disrelish the Doctrine which you should believe because that being Practical either the Doctrine or its consequence or the Practice that it puts you on is against your carnal self and interest 2. And for Prayer I might easily shew you that self contradicteth all the parts of it You should first Pray that the Name of God may be Hallowed making his Glory the End of your desires But self must be its Own End and seek the Honour of its Own Name and less regardeth the Hallowing of Gods You must pray that the Kingdom of God may come But this Kingdom treadeth down self as an enemy and therefore no marvel if self be unwilling of it Would you be deposed and subjected to a spiritual government and do nothing nor have nothing but at the pleasure of Christ The Reign of self is contrary to his reign You must pray that the Will of God may be done But self hath a Will that is contrary to Gods Will and every carnal man would be a Lawgiver to himself and unto others and had rather have his Own will done than Gods Oâ— else whence come all the sins of your lives which are nothing but the doing of your own wills and the not doing the Will of God! You must pray each day for your daily bread as children that live not on their own provision but on their Fathers love and bounty and have their address to him for all they want desiring but such supplies as are necessary or useful to them for his service But self desireth more than daily bread desireth not so much to strengthen you for Gods service as to delight and gratifie the flesh and had rather have its stock in its own possession than daily to fetch it as you use it from God You must pray daily for the forgiveness of your sins as people that are grieved for them and weary of them and hate them and are sensible of the want and worth of pardon and of the abundant Grace of Christ that purchased it and the preciousness of the Gospel-promises that conveigh it and of your own