Directions and Persuasions to a Sound Conversion, Direction 7
DIRECT. VII My next Direction is this: If you would be truly Converted, be sure that you make an absolute resignation of your selves, and all that you have to God.
This is the very form, and life of Sanctification. To be Sanctified, is to be separated, in heart, life, and profession, from all other Masters, and Ends, to God. When the heart that was set upon the world, and flesh, is separated from them, and inclined to God by the power of Love, and devoted to him, to serve and please him; this is indeed a Sanctified Heart: And when the life that before was spent in the service of Satan, the world, and the flesh, is now taken off them, and spent, as to the drift, and course of it, in the Service of God, for the Pleasing, and Glorifying of him, from the impulse of Love; this is indeed a Holy life. And herein consisteth the very nature of our Sanctity. And when a man doth but profess to renounce the Devill, the world, and the flesh, and to give up his heart, and life to God, this is a Profession of Holiness. God is both on the title of Creation, Preservation, and Redemption, or absolute Lord or Owner, and we are not our own but his! And therefore we must give to God the things that are Gods, and Glorifie him in our Souls, and bodies, which are his, 1 Cor. 6 19, 20. As we are his Own, so he will have his Own, and be served by his Own: Do not imagine that you have any title to your selves, or propriety in your selves; but without any more adoe, make a full, unreserved, absolute resignation of your selves, of your understandings, and of your wills, of your bodies, and of your names, and of every penny-worth of your estates, to God, from whom, and for whom you have them. Think not that you have power to dispose of your selves, or of any thing that you have. Ask not flesh and blood, what life you shall lead, or what mind or will you shall be of: But ask God, to whom you do belong. Ask not your carnal selves, what you shall do with any of your estates, but ask God, and then ask Conscience, which is the way that God would have me use it in, that is, which way may I use it to be most serviceable to God? And that resolve upon. No service that you do to God, will prove you Sanctified, unless you have heartily, and absolutely given up, and devoted your selves to him; and he that gives up himself, must needs give up all that he hath with himself. For he cannot keep it for himself (ultimately) when even himself is given up to God. Though you be not bound to give all that you have to the poore, nor all to the Church, nor to deny your own bodies, or families their due supplies, yet must it all be given up to God, even that which you make use of for your selves, and families: For as you are given up to God your selves, so you must feed your selves as his, and cloath your selves, and your families as his, to fit your selves, and them for his Service, and not as your own, for the satisfying of your flesh. Thus it is that all comes to be pure to the pure, Sanctified to them that are themselves first Sanctified: because when you feed your selfe, you do but feed a Servant of God, that is Consecrated to him, and separated from things common, and unclean. And even as the Tythes, and Offerings, that were given for the food, and maintenance of the Priests, and Levites, were called the Lords Portion, and Holy to the Lord, because they were their portion that were separated to his Altar; Even so that which is necessary to fit you for Gods Service, while you use it to that very end, is Sanctified in your Sanctification, and is Holy to God; for all his Saints are a Holy Nation, a Royal Priesthood, to offer up acceptable sacrifice to him. And thus, whether you eat, or drink, or what ever you do, you must do all to the Glory of God, 1 Cor. 10. 31. For Of him, and Through him, and To him are all things, and therefore to him must be the Glory for ever, Rom. 11. 36. God who is the End of your hearts, and lives, must be the End of every action of them, unless you will step out of the way of Order, and Safety, and Holiness. For every action that is not from God, and by God, and for God, is contrary to the nature of true Sanctification. If then you would be Christians indeed, be heartily willing that God should have his own. Understand what an excellent honour, and priveledge, and happiness it is to you to be his. If his Right to you will not move you, let your own necessity, and benefit at least move you, to give up your selves, and all you have to God. Bring you hearts to the barre, and plead the Cause of God with them, and convince them of Gods title to them, and how sinfully they have robbed him of his own all this while: Have your daies and hours, your wealth and interest, been used purposely for God as his own! O what abundance be there, that in word, and confident profession, do give up themselves, and all to God, and yet in the Use of themselves, and all, do plainly shew that it's no such matter; but they dissembled with God, and yet never knew so much by themselves. How little do they use for God, when they have with seeming devotion resigned all to him? If a Lord, or Knight, or Gentleman, of 4000l, or 3000l a year, or 400l, or 300l a year, were to shew the accomts of all his expences, how much of all this should you find expended for God, when they have acknowledged that all is his? One would think by their lives, that they look to be saved by robbing God, and confessing the robbery; by saying that all is Gods, while they allow him next to nothing.
The devoted, resigned, Sanctified Soul, hath the true principle of all obedience, and that which will do much to repel all temptations, and carry him through the greatest straits and tryals. If I am not my own, I need not be over solicitous for my self, but may expect that he that oweth me should care for me: Nor do I need to use any sinfull shifts for my own preservation. If I have nothing of my own, what need I to sinne, for the saving of any thing? What need I to venture upon unwarrantable means, to preserve either credit, or goods, or life? It is Self, and Own, that are the root of all sinne, the heart of the old man, and the seed of Hell: Nothing else is pleaded against God, and our Salvation. If the flesh would have you abuse Gods Creatures, you must remember they are not your own. If the Devil would entice you to sinne against God, either for the Geting, or Keeping of any Creature, it would easily repel the temptations, were you but rightly sensible, that nothing is your own: For God hath no need that you should sinne, to get Riches, or Honours, for him. If you are called to let go your houses, or lands, or friends, or lives, or to deliver up you bodies, to the flames, did you but rightly take them as none of your own, how easy would it be. You can be content that another man give his goods, or life it self to God, when ever God requireth it: but your own you cannot be content to part with; and that because it is your own, But if you had rightly resigned all to God, and took not your selves, or any thing for your own, but lookt upon your selves, and all as Gods, the greatest works of obedience, or suffering, would be much more easy to you; and you would have little difficulty, or hindrance in your way. Self denial is but Sanctification it self; denominated from the wrong End, and Principle, which we forsake. And where self is denied, and dead, what is there left to draw us from God, or stand up against him, in any part of our lives. So much interest as self hath in you, so much the world, and the Devil hath in you. And nothing is more proper to a miserable Hypocrite, then deep Reserves of life, or worldly things to themselves, while they seem to give up all to God.
O happy Soul, that is wrought to this sincerity, by the Spirit of Grace! to say unfeinedly, O Lord I devote, and resign my self wholly unto thee! I am not my own, nor desire any further to be, then to be thine: I have nothing that is my own, nor desire to have any thing that shall not be thine. Happy and truly wise is that man, that keeps as constant, and faithful a reckoning, how he layes out himself, and all that he hath for God, as a faithfull Steward doth, of his receivings, and layings out for his Masters use. Every penny that is reserved from God, is the fuell of sinne, and a Sacrifice to the Devil, and the flesh; and if it be pardoned to the truly penitent, by the Sacrifice of Christ, that's no thanks to us, that would else have made it the fuel of Hell. God is not so careless of us, or his Mercies, but that he keeps an exact account of all that we have from him, and will require an account of our improvement of all: Not only requiring his Own againe, but his own with advantage, Matth. 25 27. Why else did he give us such leisure, and ability to improve it? I can never forget what a sinfull thought was once in my mind, which I will venture to confess, because it may possibly be the case of others, that so they may beware. I hearing of some that used to lay by the tenth part of their yearly comings in for charitable uses, I purposed to do so too, and thought it a fair proportion; But since I have perceived what a vile and wicked thought that was, to offer to cut out a scantling for God, or give him a limited share of his own, or say that so much he shall have, and no more. Though we cannot say that God must have all in any one kind of service only; either only for the Church, or only for the poore, or only for publike uses; yet must we resolve, that in one way or other he must have all; and the particular proportions to the poore, or Church, or other uses, must be assigned by truly Sanctified prudence, considering which way it may be most serviceable to God. I must relieve my owne family, or kindred, if they want: but not because they are my own, but because God hath commanded me, and so hath made it a part of my obedience: But if I see where I may do more service to God, by relieving a stranger, and that God doth more require it, I must yet preferre them before all the kindred that I have in the world. When the Christian pattern was set us by the Primitive Church, Acts 2. and 4. They sold all, and laid down the whole price at the Apostles feet, which was not distributed to their natural kindred only, but to all the poor Christians, that had no other relation to them, even as every one had need. And as it is the loving of our Spiritual Brethren in Christ, that is made the sign of our translation from death to life, so is it the relieving of Christ in these his Members, that is, the relieving them, because they are his Members, that is made the very matter of our Cause in the last Judgment, and the ground of the sentence of life, or death, Matth. 25. I must provide for my own body, and you must provide for your children, but that is (as I said before) not as I am my own, nor as your children are your own; but as I am a Servant of Christ, that must be supported in his Service, or as your selves, and yours, are put under your care, and duty by God. So that I may give it to my self, or others, when I can truly say, I do but use it principally for God, and think that the principal Service I can do him by it: but I may neither take to my self, nor give to any that are nearest to me, any more then God commandeth, or his Service doth require. When you and yours have your daily bread, (which also must be used for him) you must not go to flesh and blood, but to God, to ask which way you shall dispose of the remainder. This is a strange Doctrine to the unsanctified world; but that is because they are unsanctified. And it is a Doctrine that a worldly Hypocrite is loath to believe, and understand; but that is because of Carnality, and Hypocrisie, that alwaies deals with God, like Ananias and Saphira, lying to the Holy Ghost, and giving God but halfe, (and few so much as half) when they daily confess that all is from him, and should be his, and pretend to be wholly devoted to him. There are few men so bad, but will spare God something, rather then go to Hell: But indeed this is not to devote it to God, but to use it for themselves, thinking by their Sacrifices, to stop the mouth of Justice, and to please God by a part, when they have displeased him in the rest. I much fear (and not without apparent cause) that abundance among us, that think themselves Christians, do worship, and serve God, but as some Indians are said to offer sacrifice to the Devil, not for any love they have to him, or his service, but for fear he should hurt them. And there are few Hyporcites but will pretend it is from very love.
O Sirs, it's a greater matter to resign, and give up your selves, and all you have to God, and heartily to quit all claim to your selves, and all things, then many a thousand self-deluding professours do imagine. Many look at this, but as some high extraordinary strein of Piety, and the Papists almost appropriate it to a few that live in Monastical orders, when indeed the sincerity of this Resignation, and Dedication, is the very sincerity of Sanctification it self.
And let me tell you, that the Unfeigned Convert that attains to this, hath not only pluckt up the Root of sinne, (though all of us have too many strings of it left) nor only stopt up the spring of temptation, and got the surest evidence of his uprightness, but also is got himself into the safest, and most comfortable state. For when he hath abso…ulutely resigned himself, and all to God, how confidently may he expect that God should accept him, and use him as his own; and how comfortably may he commit himself, and his cause, and all good affairs to God, as knowing that God cannot be negligent, and careless of his own. It's an Argument that may make us confident of success, when we can say as David, Psal. 119. 94. I am thine, save me. Isa. 63. 19. Even Christ himself doth ingratiate his Elect with the Father on this account, I…h. 17. 6, 9, 10. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me: I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine: and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And indeed by resigning all to God, it is the more our own; that is, we have unspeakably more of the benefit of it, and so there is no way to make it our own, but by quitting it absolutely up to God: This is the mistery that the world will not learn, but God will teach it all that shall be saved by the Spirit, and by Faith, Matth. 16. 24, 25, 26. Then Jesus said to his Disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross, and follow me: For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Me thinks a man that hath time, and strength, and money, should long to be disbursing all for God, that he might put it in the surest hands, and it may be out of danger; yea that it may be set to the most honest, and profitable usery. For when God hath it, from the dedication of an upright heart, it is sure: but till God have it, is in hazzard; and all that he hath not is lost, and worse then lost. When it is in our hands, thieves may steal it, bad Servants, or unadvised Children may consume it, and our own thievish flesh may steale it worst of all, and consume it on our lusts; or if our Children consume it not, their Children may: Or if they save it, they may lose it most of all, by feeding their pride, and fleshly minds by it: But if once it be in Gods hands, it is safe. You can make no comfortable account of one penny, nor of one hours time, unless you can tell God that he had it himself; that you used it for him: Or that you live to him in the maine, and that the rest is pardoned. O that those Parents understood this Doctrine, that had rather strenghten the fetters, and temptations of their Children with it, and help them into that state which few are saved in, then to devote and use their estates for God. Though Christ hath told them how hardly the Rich are saved, and how few such come to Heaven, yet what care is taken to leave their Children rich; and how little to further the Work of God, or their own accounts, that they may hear the Well done, good and faithfull servant: thou hast been faithfull over a few things: I will make thee Ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Matth. 25. 21, 23.
O Sirs, if you would be good husbands, and provident indeed for your Souls, see that your hearts prove not false to you in this, and make no secret reserves for your selves, but that God have your selves first, and all things with your selves; as Christ first gives himself to you, and all things with himselfe, Rom. 8. 32. Never think your hearts right, but when they can readily say, We are not our own, 1 Cor. 6. 19. Think not that you come aright to God in any duty, if you do not heartily devote your selves to him, and intreat him to accept you, as wholly his, who neither are, nor desire to be your own: and intreat him accordingly to use you for himself. Say not that any thing is your Own that you possess, Acts 4. 32. In respect to God, and a Communion of Charity, though it be your owne (as a Talent that God doth intrust you with) in respect of men, by a Legal Propriety.
And then trust God boldly, for you are his Owne: Serve him cheerfully, and draw neere him believingly; for you are his Own. In poverty, sickness, temptations, and the approach of death, rejoice in him confidently, for you are his Own. Into his hands commend your departing Spirits; for they are his Own. What reason of distrustfull feares can you now have? Do you fear lest God will yet hate you? why remember that no man ever yet hated his own flesh, Ephes. 5. 29. Nay, for shame, think not the blessed God to be worse then the wicked world: and Christ faith of the world, Joh, 15. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. And will not God then Love his Own do you think? And if you are willing to be his Own, Christ is certainly willing that you should be his Own; and will Own all that Own not themselves, but him. He calleth his Own sheep by name, and leadeth them out; and when he putteth forth his Own sheep he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice, Joh. 10. 3. 4. And Joh. 13. 1. Having loved his Own which are in the world, to the End he loved them.
If you are but truly willing to be his Own People, he is certainly willing to be your Own Saviour and your Own God, Not that you can have such a propriety in him, as he hath in you. But in these Relations he will be your Own; and Glory, and Help, and Salvation shall be yours. And you may well conclude that God, even our Own God, shall bless us, Psal. 6. 7, 6. There is much comfort may be fetcht from that in Luke 15. 31. Though Parables must not be strecht too far: Sonne thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.
And upon this ground it is, that we have the greater encouragement, to believe that God accepteth of our very Infants themselves; because it is his Will that they should be Devoted, engaged, and dedicated to him: And that which he would have us dedicate and offer to him, he will surely accept in that Relation to which he would have it offered.
I beseech you therefore Remember what it is to be truly Converted: It is to be called from things common, and unclean, and separated to God: It is to be brought nigh to him, as the Children of his Houshould, that are themselves, and all that they have in his hands: It is to be taken off your Selves, and your Own, and to lose your selves, and all you have in God, by the most gainfull loss, lest indeed you lose your selves, and all, while you perswade your selves you save, or gain. It is a taking God in Christ for your All, and so being content to have Nothing but him, and for him. It is a changing of your old Master self, for God a better Master: and your old work, which was self-seeking, and self-pleasing, to self-denial, and to the seeking, and pleasing of God. See now that this be done, and that your treacherous hearts hide nothing for themselves, as Rachel under pretence of necessity, hid her Idols, but say, Here I am, to be thine, O Lord, and to do thy Will.
More I would have said on this point, but that I have written of it already, in a Sermon on 1 Cor 6. 19, 20. Of the Absolute Dominion of Christ, and our self-resignation; which I desire you here to peruse, to set this further home.