A Treatise of Self-Denial, Treatise · Chapter 66
CHAP. LXVI. Self-ſeeking is ſelf-loſing: ſelf-denying our ſafety.
4. MOreover, conſider that ſelf-ſeeking is ſelf-deſtroying, and ſelf-denial is the only way to our ſafety. We were well when we were in the hands of God, and had no need to care for our ſelves. But we were loſt as ſoon as we left him and turned to our ſelves. If God care for you, infinite Wiſdom cares for you; whom no enemy is able to over-wit or circumvent; who can foreſee all your dangers, and is acquainted with all the ways of your enemies, and with all that is neceſſary to your preſervation. But if you be at your own care, you are at the care of fools, and ſhort-witted people, that are not acquainted with the depths of Satan, the ſubtilties of men, nor the way of your eſcape, but may eaſily be over-reached to your undoing. If you are in your own hands, you are in the hands of bad men, that though they have ſelf-love, yet are ſo blinded by impiety that they will live like ſelf haters; And this experience fully manifeſteth, in that all ſinners are ſelfdeſtroyers: No enemy could do ſo much againſt us as the beſt of us doth againſt himſelf: Did a man hate himſelf as bad as the Devil hateth him, he could ſhew it by no worſe a way than ſin; nor do himſelf a greater miſchief than by neglecting God, and the life to come, and undoing his own ſoul, as the ungodly do. Should you ſit down of purpoſe to ſtudy how to do all the hurt to your ſelves that you can, and to play the part of your deadlieſt enemies, I know not what you could do more than is ordinary with ungodly men to do, except to go a little further in the ſame way. Nothing but ſin could alienate you from God, or make you liable to his heavy wrath: and this no man elſe could make you guilty of, if you did not voluntarily chooſe to be evil. If you could ask any man that is this day in Hell, or that will ever be there, what brought him thither, and who it was long of that he came to ſuch a miſerable end, he muſt needs tell you it was himſelf. If you come to any in earthly miſery, and ask them, who brought this upon them? If they ſpeak truly they muſt ſay, it was themſelves. And this will be a great aggravation of their miſery, and the fewel that will feed the unquenchable fire, to think that all this was their own doing, and that they had not been deprived of the heavenly Glory but for their own refuſal or neglect. It will fill the ſoul with an everlaſting indignation againſt it ſelf to conſider that it hath caſt it ſelf wilfully into ſuch miſery! that, when Satan could not, and men could not, and God would not, if he had not done it himſelf, he ſhould be ſo witleſs and graceleſs as to be the chooſer of ſin, the refuſer of holineſs, and his own undoer. So that the experience of all the world telleth you, how unſafe man is in his own hands: the experience of thoſe in Hell may tell us, whither it is that ſelf would lead us, if we follow its conduct. Whither did ſelf lead Adam when he hearkened to it, but to ſin and death? what work hath it made over all the earth? Do we not ſee a whole world of people, not one excepted, wounded, and ſlain, and brought into ſo low and ſad a ſtate, and all this by themſelves! and yet ſhall we go on in ſelfiſhneſs ſtill? Of all the enemies you have in the world, pray God to ſave you from your ſelves; ſcape your ſelves and you ſcape all. You will never miſcarry by any other hands. The Devil and wicked men will do their worſt; but without you they can do nothing. Never will you come to Hell if you run not your ſelves thither: Never will you be ſhut out of Heaven if you run not from it by your own neglect, and prefer not the proſperity of the world before it. And therefore you ſee that we are nowhere more unſafe than in our own hands. Gods Will is good, and would make a good choice for us: but our wills are bad, and will make a bad choice for themſelves. God is unchangeable, and the ſame for ever; but we are giddy and uncertain, and if we are in a good mind to day, are in danger of being in a bad to morrow. God is able to ſecure us againſt all the ſubtilty, and rage, and power of Earth or Hell: but we are ſilly impotent worms, and unable to defend our ſelves, or to accompliſh our own deſires. So that our ſafety conſiſteth in forſaking our ſelves and cleaving to the Lord. The more of your happineſs lieth on your own hands, the greater is your danger: and the more of it is on the hands of God, the greater is your ſafety. Fly therefore from your ſelves to God, as you would fly out of a torn or ſinking Veſſel into the ſtrongeſt ſhip; or as you would haſte away from a tottering Houſe that is ready to fall upon your heads: ſo haſte away from ſelf to God. Study his Love, and fall in Love with him; and that will be more gainful to you, than ſtudying and carnally Loving your ſelves. Forget your ſelves, and remember him; and he will remember you to your greater advantage than if you had remembred your ſelves. When any intereſt of your Own, riſeth up againſt the Intereſt or will of God, care not then for your ſelves or for your own; ſet as light by it as if it were nothing worth; and ſay as the three witneſſes of God in Dan. 3. 16, 17. when they were ready to be caſt into a flaming furnace [We are not careful to anſwer thee in this matter: If it be ſo, the God whom we ſerve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thy hand O King: But if not, be it known unto thee O King, that we will not ſerve thy gods or worſhip the golden Image which thou haſt ſet up] Care you for your Duty, and God will care for your ſafety better than you can do: you are ſafer under Gods care in the midſt of a flaming fire, than under your own care in the greateſt proſperity, or honour in the world. While Abraham and Iſaac depended upon God, they were ſafe, though in the midſt of dangers: but when they fell upon carnal ſhifting for themſelves, to ſay their Wives were their Siſters, they brought themſelves but into a ſnare and double danger; when you have cared, and contrived, and ſhifted for your ſelves as long as you can, it's God that muſt do the deed, and defend and deliver you, and provide for you when all is done. Is it wiſe, or ſafe, or profitable for your child to be caſting for proviſion of meat, and drink, and clothes for it ſelf? Cannot you do it better? and is it not your work? and had you not rather your child would truſt you with it, and meddle with his own buſineſs, and be careful to pleaſe you, and then to depend on your care and love? What good will it do a ſimple patient, to know the ingredients of every medicine compounded for him, and given by his Phyſician? or to deſire to be acquainted with his Phyſick himſelf that ſo he may be tampering with his own body, and have the doing of the buſineſs himſelf, till by his unskilfulneſs he hath undone himſelf, when he had a wiſe and faithful Phyſician that he might have truſted to! O that men knew how ready a way it is to their undoing, when they muſt be ſatisfied of all the Reaſons of the ways of God! and when they muſt have their own wills and ways, and muſt ſee a ground of ſafety in the creature! and muſt take that courſe that ſelf tells them is the beſt! when they are reſolved to look to their eſtates, and honours, and lives, and dare not caſt them on the wiſdom, and care and will of God! O that men knew how ſure and near a way it is to their felicity, to be contented to be Nothing that God may be all; and then they would be More in God than they could have been in themſelves: and to be contented to Die, that they may Live in God; and to loſe their lives that they may find them in him. Let go your Reputation with men, and you will find it made up a thouſand-fold in the approbation of God. Let men condemn you, ſo that God may but Juſtifie you! Let Riches go, and ſee whether you will not find more in God, than you could poſſibly loſe for him. Can any man be a loſer by God? or can he make an ill bargain that makes ſure of Heaven? Do you think there is any want of Riches or Honour there? O Sirs, win God and win all: win Heaven and never fear being loſers. It ſeems a great loſs to fleſh and blood to lay down your eſtates, and honour, and life, for Chriſt and the hopes of a life to come: But it is becauſe the fleſh is blind, and cannot ſee ſo far off as everlaſting is. The loſs is not ſo great as to exchange your braſs, your dirt, for gold and jewels: or to exchange your ſickneſs for health. It is the moſt profitable Uſury to make God your debtor, by putting all your ſtock into his hand, and venturing it all on his ſervice upon the confidence of his promiſe.
But if you will go about to ſhift for your ſelves, you will loſe your ſelves: and if you will ſave your ſelves, you will undo your ſelves; and if you will keep your Riches or Honours, you do but caſt them away: For all is loſt that is ſaved from God: and that is beſt ſaved that is loſt for God.