The Monster of Sinful Self-Seeking, Title page – Dedication
THE MONSTER OF SINFUL SELF-SEEKING, ANATOMIZED.
TOGETHER WITH A description of the Heavenly and Blessed SELFE-SEEKING.
In a SERMON Preached at Pauls the 10. of December, 1654.
By EDM: CALAMY, B. D. and Pastor of Aldermanbury, London.
1 COR. 10. 24.
Let no man seek his owne, but every man anothers wealth.
1 COR. 13. 5.
Charity seeketh not her owne.
ROM. 15. 2, 3.
Let every one please his neighbour, for his good to edification: For even Christ pleased not himselfe.
Qui neglectâ proximorum curâ, sui tantùm amator est, id assequitus, ut ne seipsum quidem verè amet; Quemadmodum enim in membris, unius detrimentum ad alia quoque membra pervadit; & in aedificiis, unius partis ruina, ad alias extenditur: sic & in Ecclesiâ, qui fratrem suum negligit, se seque tantummodo, & suam procurat utilitatem, sibi etiam ipsi vel invitus damno est. Nam qui in rebus necessariis, periclitantem vidit fratrem, manum que non porrigit, in gehennam mittitur, majori detrimento, quam erat illud quo frater afficiebatur, &c. Theophyl.
LONDON, Printed by I. G. for NATH: WEBB, and WILL: GRANTHAM, at the Bear in St. Pauls Church-yard, neer the little North door, 1655.
PACK Mayor.
A speciall Court holden on Tuesday the 19. day of December, 1654.
ORdered that Mr. Calamy be desired from this Court, to print his last Sermon at Pauls.
SADLER.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, CHRISTOPHER PACK, Lord Major, AND The Right VVorshipfull Aldermen of the famous City of London.
RIGHT HONOURABLE,
THis ensuing Sermon was ordered by you to be printed, it hath stuck long in the birth, by reason of multitude of intervening impediments: Now at last it is come into the world, and is Civitas Dei incipit et construitur ex amore Dei, et crescit ad odium suiipfius. Civitas vero Diaboli incipit ab amore sui, et crescit usque ad odium Dei per contemptum proximorum. Qui enim proximū odit, et contemnit, mox etiam Deum odio babebit, et contemnit. Aug de Civ. Dei, lib. 1.here humbly presented to you, as an expression of that respect and service which I acknowledge to be due, and shall ever be ready to pay. The subject matter of it is to discover and Anatomize that ugly and deformed Monster of sinfull selfe-seeking, and …o shew the sinfulnesse and cursednesse of it. There are two Cities (saith Austin) The City of God, and the City of the Devill: The City of God is begun and built up by the love of God, and increaseth, even to the hatred of our selves; but the City of the Devill, begins from the love of our selves, and increaseth, even to the hatred of God, by the contempt of our brethren; for he that hateth and contemneth his brother, will in a litle while hate and contemne God. It cannot be denied, (no not by one made up of Charity) that there are many Citizens of this City of the Devill. Many who instead of loving God, to the contempt of themselves, love themselves to the contempt of God: Many who seek their owne, and not the things of Jesus Christ', or which is as bad, if not worse, who seek their owne, under the hpocriticall pretence of seeking the things of Christ. It is reported of Cnidius a great Architectist, who building a sumptuous Watch-Tower for the King of Egypt (to discover the dangerous rocks by night to his Marriners) caused his owne name to be engrav'd upon a stone in the wall in great letters, and afterwards covered it with Lime and Morter, and upon the outside wrote the name of the King of Egypt in Golden Characters, as pretending that all was done for his glory and honour: But herein was his cunning, he knew that the water in a little time would consume the plaistering (as it did) and then his name and memory should abide & continue to after Generations. There are many such in this Nation, who in their outward discourse and carriage, pretend to seek onelyonly the glory of God, the good of his Church, and the happinesse of the State. But if we had a window to look into their hearts, we should finde nothing there written, but selfe-love and selfe-seeking. My care hath been in the following discourse, to set out the greatnesse and grievousnesse of this sinne, and how destructive it is both to Church and Common-wealth. Besides what is there said, give me leave to adde:
1. That it is one of the greatest curses under Heaven, for God to give a man over to his owne hearts lust, to doe whatsoever seems good in his owne eyes, to make himselfe the principle, rule, and end of all his actions. Better be given over to the Devill, then to our selves. I read of one given over to Satan for his Salvation, but never of any given over to himselfe, 1 Cor. 5. 5.but for his ruine and destruction.
2. That this sinfull selfe-seeking is not onelyonly a sinne that makes the times perillous, but our condition damnable. … Tim. 3. 2.It shuts the man who is guilty of it unavoidably out of Heaven. When he dyes his Motto may be,
Here lies a Man-pleaser, and a selfe-pleaser, but not a God-pleaser, who sought himselfe while he lived, and lost himselfe when he died. Who loved himselfe for a minute, and hated himselfe to all eternity:
Or thus,
Here lies a man who lived in ease while he lived, and now lives in easelesse torments: Who by over-pampering his body, destroyed his Soule: Who lived undesired, and dyed unlamented, who lived to himselfe, and thereby undid himselfe.
The Lord preserve you from this sinne, and make you true Decet sa…è cum qui mag… vir futurus est, ne que seipsum, neque s…a diligere; sed ju…a semp…r five ab ipso, five ab also geran…ur.Common-wealth (not private-wealth) men. It becomes him, (saith a wise Heathen) who would be a great man to love neither himselfe, nor any thing that is his, but just things, whether done by himselfe, or by another.
I have made bold to adde a few lines to that discourse which I had before you concerning the blessed and heavenly self-seeking, wherein I shew, That a selfe-denying, selfe-examining, selfe-judging Christian, is the truest selfe-seeker. That he that preferres the keeping of a good Conscience before the keeping of his Estate, or Life, the good of Church and State before his own good, is a blessed selfe seeker. He that loves himselfe and not God, loves not himselfe, and he that loves God and not himselfe, loves himselfe; according to that excellent saying of A…st. Nescio quo inexplicabili mod…, &c. I know not by what Nescio quo inexplicabili mod… quisqu… …, non Deum amat, non se am…t, & quisqu… D…um, non s…psum amat, ip…e se amat Qui enim non potest vivere, d… se, mo…itur utique amando se: cum ve…ò ille dil…gitur de quo vivitur, …on se diligendo mag… diligit, qui prop…rca se non diligit, ut cum diligat de quo vivit. Aug de T…ctat. 123 in Joanne….unexpressable way, but sure I am of this truth, That he that loves himselfe, and not God, loves not himselfe; and he that loves God, and not himselfe, he loves himselfe. For he that cannot live of himselfe, dies presently by loving himselfe; but when he is loved from whom, and by whom we live, in not loving himselfe, he loves himselfe the more, because therefore he loves not himselfe, that he might love him by whom he lives.
The Lord make you such selfe-seekers: Such a one was Nehem…ah, of whom it is said, that he sought not his owne, but the Neh. 2. 10.welfare of the people of God; Such another was David, who preferred Jerusalem before his chiefe joy: Such were Old Psal. 137. 6.Ely, Ezra, Jeremiah, Daniel, &c. Such ought you to be.
It is not long since you kept a Fast, to humble your selves before the Lord, in reference to the many sad, lamentable, and unusual Fires kindled amongst us. Now it ought to be your care (as the true fruit of this Fast) not onelyonly in your personall capacities to abstaine from, but as you are publique Magistrates of this City, to indeavour (so far as your power will reach) to suppresse all those sins for which God hath threatned this great Judgement. This is a divine, blessed, and most heavenly self-seeking. God hath threatned to destroy a Nation by fire,
1. For Sabbath breaking, Jer. 17. 27.
2 For despising and misusing the godly Ministry, 2 Chron. 36. 16. 19.
3. For assuming the Office of the Ministry without a lawfull call. Numb. 16. 16, 17, 18, 35.
4. For worshipping God after a false manner, Lev. 10. 1. 2.
5. For breaking the Brotherly Covenant, Amos. 1. 9, 10.
6. For pride, Idlenesse, fulnesse of bread, uncharitablenesse, for giving our selves over to Fornication, and going after strange flesh, which were the sins of Sodom (Ezek. 16. 49. compared with Jude 7.) and for which God raigned fire and brimstome from heaven for their destruction.
The Lord cloath you with zeale as with a Garment, and inable you to be instrumentall to quench the burnings which these sins have kindled, and to make this famous City a habitation of Justice, and a Mountaine of holynesse, Jer. 31. 23. That the name of it, from this day may be, The Lord is there, Ezek 48. 35. So prayeth
Your Servant in the work of the Lord, Edm: Calamy.