A Treatise of Self-Denial, Treatise · Chapter 69 – Chapter 72
CHAP. LXIX. Corrupteth and debaſeth all that it diſpoſeth of.
7. ANother aggravation of the evil of ſelfiſhneſs is, that it corrupteth and debaſeth every thing that it diſpoſeth of. And on the contrary it is the excellency of ſelf-denial (as joyned with the Love of God) that it rectifieth and ennobleth all your actions.
Let the work be never ſo Holy in its own nature, yet if you do it but for your ſelves, you make a prophane employment of it; and to you it is not Holy. A ſelfiſh carnal perſon is ſerving himſelf even in Preaching, and hearing, and praying, and Sacraments, and other acts of worſhip and Church-communion: Much more in the common buſineſs of his life. Even when he thinks he is ſerving God, he is but ſerving himſelf of God, and provoking God by this abuſe: when he thinks he is very holy becauſe of his ſervices, he is doubly unholy, in that he even prophaneth holy things. And as it is not God indeed that he ſerveth, ſo from God he muſt not expect a Reward. And as far as a mans ſelf and fleſh is below the bleſſed God, ſo far, in a ſort, is the work of ſelfiſh men debaſed, in compariſon of thoſe works of the Saints that are performed purely for God. They make but a low unprofitable drudgery of that which in the hands of others is the higheſt and nobleſt work on earth. For the action can be no better than the End; and therefore is baſe as it is baſe.
But on the other ſide, ſelf-denial makes noble the actions that in themſelves ſeem baſe. If you are gone out of your ſelves, and can truly ſay, that it is God you ſerve and ſeek in your employments, you may be ſure that God will take them for his ſervice, and ſet them on your account among the works that he hath promiſed to Reward (ſuppoſing that the Matter be ſuch as he alloweth of, and that you think not by good Intentions to turn ſin to holineſs, and make him a ſervice of that which he forbiddeth.) O what an honour, what an encouragement, what a comfort is this, to every Chriſtian! The actions of a Prince or Conqueror are baſe, if ſelf be their End, and the reſpect to God do not ennoble them. And the work of the pooreſt perſon is honourable that is done for God. It is a great temptation to ſome poor Christians to grudge at their condition, becauſe they are ſo unſerviceable to God. Alas thinks a poor Tradeſman, or Plowman, or Servant, What do I but drudge in the world? I have neither parts not place to do God ſervice with! But ſuch d… very much miſtake the matter. It is not the parts and place but the hearty performance of your works for God that makes them ſuch as he will take for ſervice. O thinks a poor woman or toiling ſervant; I can do nothing either for the Converſion of Souls, or the good of Church or Commonwealth, but am made unſerviceable: But do you not know that any thing is acceptable ſervice which God commandeth, and is heartily intended to his honour and his Pleaſure: It is not the mettle but the ſtamp of the Prince that makes a piece to be currant money. If the Kings ſtamp were put by his appointment on a piece of Braſs or Copper, it would paſs for Coin. Believe it ſirs, if your ſtudy be to Pleaſe the Lord in your Callings, and you can but get above your ſelves, and do the baſeſt ſervile works, as commanded you by God, that you may be Accepted by him, and offer your ſelves and all your labors purely to him, and to his honour, and his will, God will take theſe for honourable ſervices; and you are as truly at his work even in your ſhops and fields as Princes are in Ruling, or Paſtors in teaching or guiding the flock: you that are poor, and cannot ſet ſo much time apart for reading and other holy duties as ſome other do, ſee that you neglect no holy opportunity that you can take, and then conſider, that if God ſet you to do him ſervice even by waſhing diſhes, or ſweeping channels, or the meaneſt drudgery, he will accept it; and the more, by how much the more humble ſubmiſſion and ſelf-denial is found in it. Take him as the only Lord and Maſter of your ſouls and lives, and all that you have, and when you are called to your daily labour, look but to your hearts that God be your End, and that you can truly ſay, [I do not this principally to provide for my ſelf, but as an obedient child in my Fathers ſervice, becauſe he bids me do it, and it is pleaſing to him through Chriſt; I do it not principally from ſelf-love, but from the Love of God that commandeth me my work; and as a traveller that laboureth in his way for the love of his home, ſo I am here at labour in this world in the place that God hath ſet me, that I may in his appointed way attain the everlaſting glory that he hath promiſed] I ſay, do but ſee to it, that thus you dedicate your labours to God, and you may take comfort in the daily labours of your lives, even the meaneſt and moſt contemptible, as well as Princes and Preachers may in their more honourable works. Nay all your labours are honoured and ſanctified by this: For all is Holy that is heartily devoted to God, upon his invitation. And thus all things are pure to the pure. For it is Gods intereſt in your work that is the holineſs and excellency of them. Were ſervants and labouring people more Holy and ſelf-denying, they might have more true comfort in their daily labour, than the beſt of the unſanctified can have from their prayers or other worſhip of God. Not that worſhip may be therefore neglected, but that a Chriſtian muſt do nothing at all but for God; and then he may be ſure of Gods Acceptance.
CHAP. LXX. Deny Self or you will deny Chriſt.
8. MOreover, the ſelfiſh will never ſuffer as Chriſtians, but deny Chriſt in a day of trial; when the ſelf-denying will go through all, and be ſaved. Nothing doth ſo througly try whether ſelf or God be beſt beloved, as ſuffering for his cauſe. In this it is that Chriſt uſeth to try mens ſelf-denial: and it is a principal use of perſecution. When you hear of coming before Rulers and Judges, and being hated of all men for Chriſts name ſake, then ſelf riſeth up to plead for its intereſt, and never maketh more ado than when it ſeeth the flames. The fleſh cannot Reaſon, but it can ſtrive againſt Reaſon, and draw it to its ſide. No Reaſon ſeemeth ſufficient to it, to perſwade it to chooſe a ſuffering ſtate. If you perſwade a Carnal man to let go his eſtate, to be poor and deſpiſed in the world, and to give up life it ſelf if it be called for, and all this for the hope of an inviſible felicity, you loſe your labour (till God ſet in,) and all ſuch reaſoning ſeems to him moſt unreaſonable. And what a dreadful caſe ſuch ſouls are in, my Text and many another paſſage in Scripture may convince you. If you cannot drink of his cup, and be baptized with his baptiſm, you cannot be advanced with him to glory. Through many tribulations we muſt enter into the Kingdom of God. The pleaſing of the fleſh is the high way to miſery by diſpleaſing God: and the voluntary ſubmiſſion to the ſuffering of the fleſh for the cauſe of Chriſt, is the high way to felicity, 2 Tim. 2. 11, 12. [It is a faithful ſaying: for if we be dead with him, we ſhall alſo live with him; if we ſuffer, we ſhall alſo reign with him; if we deny him, he alſo will deny us] Rom. 8. 17. [Yea, and all that will live godly in Chriſt Jeſus ſhall ſuffer perſecution] 2 Tim. 3. 12. The day of trial is a kind of Judgement day to the ſelfiſh unſanctified man: For it diſcovereth his hypocriſie, and ſheweth him to be but droſs, and ſeparateth him from the ſuffering ſervants of Chriſt.
But ſelf-denial maketh ſuffering light, and will make you wiſh that you had any thing worth the reſigning unto Chriſt, and any thing by the denial whereof you might ſerve him. For him you would ſuffer the loſs of all things, and account them droſs and dung that you may win him, Phil. 3. 8. He will count us worthy of the Kingdom for which we ſuffer, 2 Theſ. 1. 5. As the Captain of our ſalvation was made perfect by ſuffering, Heb. 2. 10. ſo alſo muſt his members, by filling up the meaſure, and being made partakers of his ſufferings, and knowing the fellowſhip of them, 2 Cor. 1. 5, 6, 7. Phil. 3. 10. And the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory by Chriſt Jeſus, after we have ſuffered a while, will make us perfect, ſtable, ſtrengthen and ſettle us, 1 Pet. 5. 10.
If therefore you would not prove Apoſtates, and deny Chriſt in a day of trial, and be denied by him before his Father aud the holy Angels, ſee that you now learn this needful Leſſon of ſelf-denial.
CHAP. LXXI. The ſelfiſh deal worſe with God than with Satan.
9. COnſider alſo that ſelfiſh Carnal men deal worſe with God, than they do with the Devil and ſin it ſelf. God offereth them Chriſt and pardon, and eternal life if they will but deny themſelves in a thing of nought, and they will not be ruled or perſwaded by him: The Devil offereth them but the delights of the fleſh, and the pleaſures of ſin for a ſeaſon, and they will deny ten thouſand ſold more for this. They will deny God their Maker and Redeemer, their Lord and Judge, their Preſerver and their hope: though he have the only Title to them, and their lives and ſouls be in his hand: They will for the ſake of a filthy luſt, or of a ſhort and miſerable life, deny him that never did them wrong, nay that hath always ſhewed them kindneſs, even all the kindneſs that ever they received; and that when they know that their everlaſting ſtate muſt ſtand or fall according to his judgement. They will deny the Lord Jeſus the Redeemer of their ſouls: They will deny and reſiſt the holy ſpirit of God: They will deny his Laws, his Goſpel-promiſes, and all his Mercies: They will deny his Miniſters and all their perſwaſions and daily labours: They will deny their deareſt Chriſtian friends, and deny their own Conſciences and Convictions; and deny themſelves the Peace and Joy which they might find in a holy walking with God: Yea they will deny themſelves everlaſting life, and the favour of God, and caſt themſelves into endleſs miſery; and all this for a thing that is ten thouſand times worſe than nothing, or for a very ſenſual brutiſh Pleaſure. And yet theſe men cannot deny themſelves in life, or liberty, in gain, or honour, no nor in the filthieſt luſts, for the ſake of Chriſt and their own ſalvation: Even when they may know that they moſt deny themſelves when they will not deny themſelves. They deny themſelves eternal glory, becauſe they will not deny themſelves in temporal vanity. Heaven and earth will witneſs againſt ſuch ſottiſh and unrighteous dealing as this, if true Converſion do not prevent it. Hath God, hath Chriſt, hath your own ſalvation deſerved no better at your hands than this? O miſerable ſouls! All things can be eaſily denied ſave ſin and Carnal ſelf, and theſe cannot be denied. God can be denied, Chriſt and Scripture and Heaven it ſelf can be denied, for fleſh and ſin; and fleſh and ſin cannot be denied for God and for eternal Glory. Do you think that this will look like wiſe or righteous dealing when you ſtand in judgement? Ask now any ſtander by that is impartial, whether God or the fleſh ſhould be denied? Whether Heaven or Earth ſhould be denied, ſeeing one of them you muſt deny? And if any impartial man will be now againſt you, what think you will God be, who is not only impartial, but wronged by you, and a hater of your unrighteous dealing?
CHAP. LXXII. To be left to ſelf, is the ſoreſt plague.
10. LAſtly, remember, that to be given over to our ſelves is the heavieſt plague on this ſide Hell: And therefore he that delighteth not to be miſerable ſhould not deſire to be ſelfiſh. To be given over to the Love of your ſelves, is to turn from the Love of the bleſſed God to the Love of a filthy ſinner, and ſo to forfeit Gods love to you. To be given over to care for your ſelves, is to forfeit the fatherly care of God, and to be at the care of a ſilly inſufficient improvident ſinner. To be given over to your own Conceits or Wiſdom, is to be forſaken of the Sun, and left in darkneſs, and ſpend the reſt of your days in a Dungeon, the beginning of the endleſs utter darkneſs. To be given over to your own wills, is to be at the choice and diſpoſal of a fool and of an enemy; and to be in ſuch hands as will certainly undo you, and to be caſt out of the hands of God: To be given over to ſeek your ſelves, is to loſe your ſelves and God, and your ſalvation. To be given over to live as your own, is to forfeit the Protection of God, without which you cannot be kept an hour out of hell. To be given over to the defending of your ſelves, and delivering your ſelves in danger of ſoul and body, is even to be expoſed to certain and perpetual perdition. To be given over to be ruled by your ſelves, is to be relinquiſhed as Rebels, and expoſed to the tyranny of ſin and Satan. So that in all things it is moſt certain, that you are never well but in the hands of God, and never ſo ill as when you are moſt in your own hands. In Paradiſe innocent man was wholly at the Government of God: and when by caſting off his Government he had forfeited the benefit of it, the moſt of the world became even brutiſh: And when God had owned the Government of Iſrael above other Nations, and kept the choice of the Soveraign under him in his own hands, at laſt the fooliſh people in imitation of the Nations muſt needs have a King, and extort the Nomination out of the hands of ſpecial extraordinary Providence, that they might have more of it in their own; and this was an increaſe of their miſery. Woe to that man that ever he was born, that is finally given over to himſelf: For this is a ſign that God hath forſaken them, and they ſtand at the brink of eternal death. O think of this you that are ſelf-conceited, and ſelfwilled, and ſelf-lovers, and ſelf-ſeekers, and know not how to deny your ſelves: Muſt ſelf be ſo regarded and tenderly uſed? Take heed, you may have enough of ſelf with everlaſting vengeance, if God once give you over to your ſelves, and ſay of you as of them, Pſal. 81. 11, 12. [But my people would not hearken unto my voice; and Iſrael would none of them: So I gave them up to their own hearts luſt, and they walked in their own Counſel.] So much for the Aggravations.