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And, alas, if the Soveraign Powers of the Nations of the world were not too sick of the same disease, gain would not be accounted Godliness, but Godliness the greatest gain: and carnal Policie would not go for Piety, but true Piety would go for the surest Policie: It would not be so common in most Nations to have the Truth [Page 47] and Cause of Christ disowned, and his servants persecuted, and their lives and blood to be made a sacrifice to carnal Self and worldly Interests. Nor would the breaches of the Churches be so long unhealed, and grow wider and wider, and few much regard them, but all have their own work to do which must be looked after. Yea and the Cause of Christ and the Gospel must be trod down if it stand in the way of their own: And the Churches must be set on fire by their wars and contentions for their selfish Interests. And if Self were not too strong among us, we should not have had such connivence at doctrinal and practical abominations, nor so much delay or neglect of healing the discomposed Churches, and uniting the divided Christians, or attempting it more effectually than we have done. But because I desire to speak to none but those that are within my hearing, I will return home to our selves.
7. THe last part of self to be denied is your inordinate Appetites, excited by the senses, commonly called the sensitive Appetite. These are not to be themselves destroyed; for the Appetite is natural and necessary to our welfare: but the inordinate desire is to be denied, and the Appetite restrained, and no further satisfied than is allowed by the word of God; and by this means the inordinancy of it may come to be mortified. Though selfishness hath defiled the whole man, yet sensual pleasure is the chief part of its interest, and therefore by the senses it commonly works, and these are the doors and windows by which iniquity entreth into the soul. And therefore a principal part of self-denial consisteth in denying the sensitive Appetite.
9. ANother piece of Honour that self must be denied in, is, The Reputation of Godliness and Honesty. Concerning both the former and this I must say, by way of caution, that the Reputation both of Faith and Godliness is a great Mercy, and not to be despised, nor prodigally cast away by our own negligence or miscarriages; nor unthankfully to be received: But yet 1. It is not to be desired for it self, but for God, that it may help and advantage us to serve him, or as it is a Mercy that brings the report of his love. 2. And the greater the Mercy is, the greater is our temptation, when it would deprive us of a far greater mercy than it self: I have oft thought it was a very high passage for an Heathen to say as Seneca did, that [No man doth shew a higher esteem of goodness, than he that can let go the Name or Reputation of being a good man, rather than let go his goodness it self.] The world is so much unacquainted with goodness, that they know it not when they see it; but call it by those odious names that least agree with it. Their Judgements follow their Natures, dispositions and interests: And therefore they cannot take that to be good which is contrary to these. A feather-bed is no better to a swine than a mire-lake: A banquet is not so good to a Cow as a green pasture. As the person is himself, so do all things seem good or evil to him. The Toad or Snake hath no such odious apprehensions of it self as men have. And hence it is that to ungodly men the best men and best actions seem to be the worst. And hence also it is, that in all Ages Godliness ha [...]h been [Page 310] matter of reproach: and the best have been laden with the he aviest calumnies. David had enemies that laid to his charge the things that he never thought of. And it seems by the strain of Shimei in his railing, that they took him to be but a Traitor, because King Saul was against him; and to be a bloody man, because he had been engaged in the wars, 2 Sam. 16. 7, 8. [Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial: the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul in whose stead thou hast raigned] See what a wicked person David was esteemed by such fellows as this! And yet he so far denied himself here, as that he would not hear of revenge upon the railer, but makes it as a tryal sent from God. And two special reasons moved him to bear it. One was the remembrance of that sin against God and his Servant Uriah, which he knew God was now chastising him for: And therefore being under the rod of the Lord, he durst not think of revenge upon the instrument; and being sensible that he had brought all this upon himself, he durst not let fly too much at others. The other was that God had raised up (by permissive providence) the Son of his bowels against him: and therefore he thought it an unseemly thing to be much offended with a stranger for less. And such Reasons as these have we also to perswade us to Patience and Self-denial in the like Case. The Lord Jesus himself who had no sin at all, escaped not these censures of malicious men. He was esteemed a friend or Companion of Publicans and Sinners, yea a gluttonous person, and a wine bibber; yea a deceiver; yea a conjurer that did his works by the help of the Devil, Mat. 11. 19. Luk 7. 34. Mat. 27. 63. Job. 7. 12. Mat. 12. 27. What usage the holy Apostles themselves had, and how they behaved themselves under all, you may [Page 311] conjecture by that one passage, (to mention no more) 1 Cor. 4. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. [For I think God hath set forth us the Apostles last, as it were men appointed to death: For we are made a spectacle to the world, and to Angels, and to men: we are fools for Christs sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised; Even to this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; and labour working with our own hands; being reviled, we bless; being persecuted we suffer it: being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things to this day] The like usage had the Christians after the Apostles days. They were slandered by the Pagans as if they sacrificed, and eat their own children, and putting out the lights had commonly been unclean together after their holy exercises: And when they cast them to the Lions to be devoured, and many wayes tormented them, it was as ungodly men, for preaching against the Heathen Gods, and refusing to offer sacrifice to them. And therefore the rabble was wont thus to cry for Judgement against them, [Tollite impios] [Tollite impios] Away with the ungodly Christians! The wicked multitude that were drowned in filthiness and ungodliness, did think themselves Religious men, and the Christians to be ungodly. So that they were fain to live and die under a Reputation as contrary to the truth, as darkness is contrary to light.
6. And consider whether there be not a Love of the deadly sin of Pride, and a final impenitency implyed in this ambition of a surviving name. For you [...]a design that is supposed to be executed after death. And as if you desired an eternity of wickedness, because your Pride it self can live no where but with your self, you would have it leave those tokens behind it, by which the world may know that you are Proud; and the effects of it you would have perpetuated on earth And had not the world enough of your Pride while you were alive and had not you enough of it Is this your Repentance, that you would leave the Monuments of your Pride unto Posterity, as if you were afraid there would be no surviving witness against you to condemn you This is a certain transcendency of sin! The common wicked ones would fain die the death of the Righteous, and wish their last end were like to his: But these men would have their Pride to live for ever; and when they themselves are in another world, they would have the demonstrations of their iniquity survive them.
Were it not for this one prevailing eneny, what work would the Gospel make in the world! O with what confidence should we come into the Pulpit, and speak the word of God to our hearers, had we any to deal with but this Carnal self! God can overcome it by his victorious grace; but it's so blind, so wilful, so near men, and so constant with them, that it will overcome us, and all that we can say or do, till God set in. When I come to convince a sinner of his guilt, and shew him the hainous nature of his sin, because it is his Own, he will be convinced of it: when I tell them of their misery, they will not be convinced of it, because it is their own. Were I to speak all this to another, and tell another of his sin and misery, I might have these mens consent, so it reflected not upon themselves. Were I to wring the unlawful gains out of the hands of another, I might have their consent: or were I to perswade another from his Pride, or lust, or passion, they would give me free leave, because it is not self that is concerned in it, nor self-denial that is necessary to it in them. But when we come to themselves, there is no dealing with them, till God by Grace or Judgement deal with them. They cannot endure to know the worst by themselves: much less to come out of it. If we tell them of their sin and danger, they say, we [Page 374] speak against them! And therefore they say, It is out of malice, or humour, or pride. And as well might all diseased persons say so of their Physicians, that when they tell them of their disease and danger, they speak against them, and speak out of malice or ill will. It is natural for men to think well of all that they love, and of all that they do: and whom do they love better than themselves Pride will not let men think so meanly and hardly of themselves as the Scripture speaks of them, and Ministers must plainly tell them. The Prophet wept that foresaw the cruelty of Hazael; but he had so good a conceit of himself that he would not believe he should be so cruel, 2 Kings 8. 13. Is thy servant a dog that he should do this] The false Prophet Zedekiah could not forbear, but struck Micaiah, when he made it known that he was a lying Prophet, 1 Kings 22. 24. And Ahab hated him, because he prophesied not good of him but evil. It was all the Proud men that rose up against Jeremiah, and contradicted his prophecie, and rejected his word, Jer. 43. 2. The word of God is quick and powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; and it is the plain word of that God, that feareth not the faces of the Proudest sinners on earth, and will not flatter, nor daub with any of them all, but will tell them to their faces what they are, and what will become of them if they do not turn, and what they must trust to: This is the word that God hath put into our mouths, and commanded us to preach to them: not the flattering words of an inferior, nor the tender language of a man-pleaser, but the commanding words of the God of heaven, and the peremptory threatnings of everlasting fire, against all unconverted, unsanctified men, denounced from him that feareth none of them all, but will make them all stoop at last to him, and fear, and tremble [Page 375] before his Majesty. And is it any wonder if Proud and selfish sinners are displeased with such a word as this They stand all the while they are hearing a plain and powerful Preacher, as prisoners arraigned at the bar; and sometime are ready to tremble as Felix did, when he heard Paul dilating of righteousness, and temperance and the judgement to come, Acts 24. 25. And can self endure to be thus used and arraigned for its life especially when they think it is but by a man For they have not the understanding to know that it is Christ that owneth all that his Messengers speak by his Commission. Hence it is that men hate those Ministers that they feel thus to judge them in their Doctrine, and take them for their enemies for telling them the truth, Gal. 4. 16. and think they are but the troublers of the Countrey, as Ahab called Elijah the troubler of Israel, which he had troubled himself, 1 Kings 18. 17. and meet them as he did the same Prophet, 1 Kings 21. 20. Hast thou found me O mine Enemy They meet not a Minister as the Messenger of God that calls them to repentance, but as an enemy in the field, to strive against him, and raise up all the reasonings and passions of their souls against him, because he condemneth their unregenerate state, tells them but what God hath charged him to tell them: when the poor sinners consider not, that before God hath done with them, as sure as they breathe, he will make them either by grace or Judgement, condemn themselves as much as any of his Ministers condemned them, (from the word of God) at whom they were most offended. Ah little do these Proud worms that rage at us now for faithful dealing, and for telling them that which they will shortly find true, little do they think that they shall shortly say the very same against themselves which they hated us for saying: Nay with an hundred times more [Page 376] bitterness and self-revenge will they speak these things against themselves, than ever we spoke them. Hence it is that faithful plain-dealing Ministers are commonly hated and persecuted by the ungodly, especially by the great ones and honourable sinners. For their message is against self, and therefore self will rise up against them, and so many selfish unmortified persons as there be in the Congregation, so many enemies usually hath such a Minister. And therefore the Lords of Israel petition the King that Jeremy may be put to death, Jer. 38. 4. And Amaziah the Priest calls Amos a conspirator against the King, and tells the King that the Land was not able to bear his words, and commands him to preach no more at the Kings Chappel or his Court, Amos 7. 10, 11, 12, 13. And what was the matter that deserved all this, yea and the death of almost all the Prophets and Apostles of Christ why, it was for speaking against self and its carnal interest: But was it not a truth that was spoken True or false, if it be against self, it cannot be born! As the Bishop of Ments that Luther speaks of, meeting with a Bible, and reading an hour in it, [I know not, saith he, what book this is, but I am sure it is against us] Meaning the Popish Clergy. So these men say by our preaching and by the word of God it self, Be it never so true, we are sure it is against us: Or rather [we will not believe it, because it is against us] But if these men had their wits about them, they would see that this is for them, which they think is against them. It is for their healing and salvation, had they hearts to entertain it, though it be for the troubling of them at the present by humiliation. O how tender are carnal persons of this self! How quickly do they feel, if a Minister do but touch them! How impatiently do they smart, if he meddle with the galled place, and plainly open their [Page 377] most disgraceful sins, and most dangerous courses, as one that had rather be guilty of displeasing them, than of silently permitting them to displease God, and undo their souls! They fret and fume at the Sermon, and go home with passion in their hearts and reproaches in their mouths against the Ministers: And are of the mind of the desperate Sodomites, Gen. 19. 9. that said to Lot when he exhorted them, [Stand back: This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a Judge: now will we deal worse with thee than with them] what, say they, can he not preach and let me alone hath he none to rebuke before the Congregation but me! And thus will every ungodly person reject the Word as they are selfish, and self must be let alone in all. But why must you be let alone will you be ever the safer or better for that! will God let you alone if we should let you alone No, he will not be frightened from dealing with you as you are: whatever his word hath said against you, he will certainly make good, though you should never more be told of it by Ministers. You have not silenced your Judge, when you have silenced his Messengers. He will handle you in another manner than Ministers do. O how easie is it to hear a Preacher threatning the everlasting wrath, in comparison of hearing the sentence of the Judge and feeling the execution! If we should yield to your desires, and let you alone, God would neither let you nor us alone; you would but go the quietlier to hell; and your blood will be required also at our hands, Ezek. 33. 6, 7, 8, 9. and then what would become both of us and you 59ce067264