THE

PRACTICAL WORKS

REV. RICHARD BAXTER.

THE

PRACTICAL WORKS

THE REV. RICHARD BAXTER;

A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
AND
A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF HIS WRITINGS,
BY THE
REV. WILLIAM ORME,
ArXIIOR OF ** THE L[FE OF JOHN OWEN, D.D. J '*** BIBLIOTHECA BIBLICA," ETO.

IN TWENTY-THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. XI.

LONDON:
JAMES DUNCAN, 37, PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCXXX.

LONDON :
rniNTED BK MILLS, JOWETT, AND MILLS,
BOLT-COURT, FLEET-STBEET.

THE

PRACTICAL WORKS

REV. RICHARD BAXTER.

VOLUME XI.

CONTAINING

A TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL ; OBEDIENT PATIENCE.

VOL. XI.

RICHAKD EDWARDS, CRANF COCRT, FIEET STREET, LONDO-N.

CONTENTS

OF

THE ELEVENTH VOLUME.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. PAGE
Pbemonition  iii
Epistle Dedicatory  v
Preface  xxvii
CHAP. I. Of the nature of Selfishness, as opposite to God ;
invading his prerogative in ten particulars . . 57
U. Reasons of the necessity of Self-denial  76
III. Use 1 . A general complaint of the prevalency of
Selfishness  82
IV. The prevalency of Selfishness in aU relations • • 87
V. The power of Selfishness upon men's opinions in
religion  93
VI. Men's great averseness to costly or troublesome
duties  96
vn. Men's tenderness of Self in cases of suffering . . 102
VIII. The partiality of men's judgment in their own
cases  103
IX. The great power and prevalency of Selfishness
discovered  110
X. Consectaries : 1. This evinceth the fall of man,
and original corruption. 2. It tells us what
to expect from man, and gives us the truest
prognostic of affairs, so far as the will of man
determineth them. 3. It warranteth a mode
rate incredulity and jealousy of man. 4. It
calleth us to be jealous of ourselves  115

iv CONTENTS. PAGE
CHAP. XI. t/se2. To try our Self-denial, whether it be
sincere  117
XII. Exercise Self-denial. Ten cases in which Self
must be denied  120
XIII. I. Selfish dispositions to be denied; and
1 . Self-love.'.  124
XIV. 2. Self-conceitedness must be denied •••• J 28
XV. Self-wiU must be denied  139
XVI. Selfish passions to be denied  ,  148
XVII. Self-imagination to be denied . . ,  150
XVIII. "Inordinate appetite to be denied  152'
XIX. II. Self-interest to be denied. And 1. Pleasure.
1. That of the taste. 2. Lustful plea
sures to be denied ..-.,.,  158
XX. 3. Wanton talk, love-songs, &c. to be denied. . 165
XXI. 4. Idle and worldly talk tobe denied  168
XXII. 5. False stories, romances, and other iJle
tempting books  ,,..,...,... 17G
XXUI- 6. Vain sports and pastimes to be denied . . 1*7
XXIV. 7. Vain and sinful company to be denied • • 182
XXV. 8. Pleasing accommodations, houses, gardens,
horaes, &c  1 84
XXVI. 9. Self-denial in apparel needful  188
XXVII, IQ. S^lf-denial against eas^, arid idleness,
and worldly peace  ,  195
XXVIII. U- Delight in worldly prosperity to be
denied ..••«•••..•  201
XXIX. 12. Children and relations how to be denied 204
XXX. 13. Revengeful passions to be denied •,  211
XXXI. 14. Useless history and pews to be denied. . 212
XXXII. 15. Unnecessary knowledge and delight
therein, to be denied  21*
XXXIII. 16. 'A factious desire of the success of our
own opinions, and the thriving of our
own parties, as such, to be denied . . 219
XXXIV. 17. Carnal liberty to be denied. There is
a holy liberty, which none must deny :
and an indifferent liberty ; how far this
must be denied  ,  222
XXXV. IS. Our native country and habitations to
be denied  229
XXXVI. 19. Bodily health and ease from pains ,, 231

CONTENTS. V
PAGE
CHAP. XXXVIL 20. Natural life to be denied  236
XXXVIII. Twenty reasons to move us to deny our
lives, and yield to violent or natural death
with comfortable submission, when God re
quireth it  241
XXXIX. An answer to such doubts as are raised by
the fears of death  264
XL. Directions to procure a willingness to die  267
XLI. III". Self-denial in point of honour and pride.
1. Of climbing into dignities, or high places 273
XLII. 2. The love and commendations of others,
to be denied  278
XLIII. 3. The reputation of wealth to be denied . . , 279
XLIV. 4. Comeliness and beauty to be denied .... 280
XLV. 5. Strength and valour to be denied  282
XLVI, 6. Wisdom and learning to be denied .... 283
XLVII. 7. Reputation of spiritual gifts and abilities
to be denied  284
XLVIII. 8. The reputation of being orthodox, how
to be denied  289
XLIX. 9. The reputation of godliness and honesty,
how to be denied  291
L. 10. A renowned and perpetual name to be denied 298
LI. Quest. I. Whether Self-denial consist in renounc
ing propriety ?  30!)
LII. Quest. 'S. Whether it consist in renouncing mar
riage ?  ^  310
LIII. Ques*. 3. Whether it lie in solitude and re
nouncing secular affairs?  312
LIV. Quest. 4. Or in renouncing public offices and
honours?  3J3
LV. Quest. 5. Or in denying our relations?  314
LVI. Quest. 6. Whether Self-denial require us to
give more to godly strangers, than to kindred
that are ungodly ?  316
LVII. Quest. 7- How we must love our neighbours
as ourselves ?  318
LVIII. Quest. 8. What penance or self-revenge it
requireth ?  ibid.
LIX. Quest. 9. Must all passion be denied ?  320
LX. Quest. 10. How far must we deny our reason? ibid.
LXI. Quest. II. How far must we be content with
God's afflicting wdU ? &c  321

vi CONTENTS. PAGE
CHAP. LXIL Quest. 12. May God be finally loved as our
felicity and portion, for ourselves ?  322
LXIII. Motives to Self-denial: 1. Selfishness is the
grand idolatry. .  325
LXIV. 2. It is the enemy of all moral good* • •  328
LXV. 3. It is contrary to the state of holiness and
happiness  335
LXVI. 4. Self-seeking is self-losing : Self-denial is
our safety  337
LXVII. 5. It is the powerful enemy of all ordinances 341
LXVIII. 6. It is the enemy of all societies, and rela
tions, and common good  347
LXIX. 7. It corrupteth and debaseth all that it dis
poseth of  354
LXX. 8. Deny Self, or you vidll deny Christ  356
LXXI. 9. The selfish deal worse with God than with
the devil  358
LXXII. It is the heaviest plague to be left to our
selves  359
LXXIII. IV. Ten directions to get Self-denial  360
The conclusion  • • •  368

OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
Preface  ccclxxxiii
CHAP. I. What true Patience is, and is not, towards God
and man. How we possess our souls in Pa
tience. What Impatience is worst ? Wherein
lieth the sinfulness of Impatience towards
God  385
II. Arguments and helps for patient and obedient
sufferings in particular instances  397
Case i. In pain and sickness of body : particular helps . . 398
II. Under the sentence of death, against inordinate
fears  402
III. Under poverty and want, through losses, or any
other causes  ->  405
IV. Under the suifferings and death of friends  409
1. Of children  410
3. Of ungodly kindred  411
3. Some dear friend, who died in pain or misery ibid.
4 . Some pillars in church or state  403

CONTENTS. vii
page
Case V. Unkindness and injury of friends and relations . . 415
VI. Injuries from malicious enemies  419
1 . Personal  ibid.
2. Persecuting  t  421
VII. Oppression and injustice by men of wealth and
power  431
vm. Superior's sufferings by bad cliildren, servants,
tenants or subjects  - •  439
IX. False accusations, defamations ; duty made odious
crimes ; reputation ruined  443
X. Vexatious, strong temptations of Satan, especially
to melancholy persons  448
XI. Settled doubts of sincerity and salvation. Temp
tations to despair  450
XII. The loss of teachers, and suitable means of
grace and salvation  460
XIII. When God seemeth not to bless means to us ;
preaching, praying, &c.  468
XIV. Weakness of grace, knowledge, faith, love,
comfort, great corruptions  :  477
XV. When God doth not bless the labours of our call
ings, ministers', parents' endeavours for chil
dren, for near relations, tradesmen, endea
vours for the church  483
XVI. The common sin and misery of the world, and
fewness of wise and godly men  491
XVII. The Sfid distemper and divisions of Christians,
and the hurt they do to the world, and to one
another, and the dishonourable state of the
church  498
XVIII. Heavy judgments on the land by plagues, po
verty, fire and wars  , . 502
XIX. The prosperity and triumphs of wicked enemies
ofthe church  507
XX. Na probability in any visible means that ever the
world should be much better. Twelve gene
ral directions to get and use Patience in every
case  *  610

TREATISE

SELF-DENIAL.

' 1 have no man likeminded who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their
own, not (he things which are Jesus Christ's.'' Phii. B. 30, 21.

VOL, XI.

PREMONITION

fONCERNINO

THE SECOND EDITION.

Readeh,
I TAKE the love of God and Self-denial to be the sum of all
savinjr grace and religion ; the first of the positive part, and
the second of the oppositive or negative part : and I judge
of the measure of my own, and all other men's true piety,
by these two. And it is the rarity of these two, which as
sureth me of tla^e rarity of sincere godliness. O how much
selfishness, and how little love of God, are too often found
among those contenders for supposed true doctrine, true
worship, true discipline, and the true church ! Who can
say that their zeal for these things doth eat up themselves,
their charity, their peaceableness, and their brethren ? The
same men that will not abate an opinion, a formality, a sin
gularity, for the church's peace and concord, or for the in
terest of love, and the healing of our wounds, will as hardly
abate a jot of their wealth, their worldly honour, their car
nal interest, or selfish wills ; which shews that their zeal
and seeming orthodoxy and wisdom (as in them) is not from
above, but from beneath ; Jamtsiii. 15 — 17.
O that men knew what heart's-ease Self-denial bringeth,
by mortifying all that corrupteth and troubleth the souls of
sinners ! And if that part of religion which seemeth hard
est and harshest, be so sweet, what is our love and delight
in God, but the foretaste of heaven itself.
But the soul is seldom fit to relish this doctrine aright,
till sorae special providence or conviction have made all the
world notoriously insufficient for our relief. But he that in
or after sharp affliction, will still be selfish in a predominant

iV A PKEMONITION.
degree, is next to hopeless. I remember, that one account
ed of eminent wisdom", a little before he forsook the land
of his nativity, made this the first word that ever he spake
to me, ' I thank you especially for your book of Self-de
nial ;' and when we are going out of the world, we shall all
be much fitter to relish and understand the doctrine of Self-
denial, than now we are.
But though undeniable reason thus presented, by the
grace of God, do much cure some particular souls, yet alas,
the world, the most of the church visible, and the land is so
far uncured, as that selfishness still triumpheth over our in
nocency, piety arid peace, and seemeth to deride our hopes
of remedy. Were profession as rare as true Self-denial, I
should be of their mind who reduce the church into a much
narrower room than either the Roman, the National, the
Presbyterian, or Independent. Alas, how few are those true
believers, whose inordinate Self-love, Self-conceited
ness, Self-will, and Self-seeking, are truly conquered
by Faith, and turned into the love of God as God, and
of the PUBLIC GOOD, and of their neighbour as them
selves ; and into a humbled undebstanding, conscious
of its ignorance ; and into a humbled submissive will,
which is more disposed to follow, than to lead ;. and into a
life entirely devoted to God, and to the common good !
But this complaint was made before ; but what we most
feel, we are most inclined to utter ; and to press that on
others which we find most necessary to ourselves. And I
must say, that of all the books which I have written, I pe
ruse none so often for the use of my own soul, in its daily
work, as my " Life of Faith," and this " Of Self-denial,"
and the last pa.rt of the " Saints' Rest."
One little thing I will here tell the reader, that no book
of mine (except the two first') had ever the word ' dedicatory'
joined to the Epistle by my consent, but I have very often
prohibited it in vain ; whether by the oblivion or self-con
ceit of the booksellers or printers, I cannot tell. Not that
I condemn the word in others, but that my Epistles were
still of so different an importance, as did require a different
title.
RICHARD BAXTER.
¦¦ The lale Lord Chief Justice Oliver St. John.

TO THE HONOURABLE

COLONEL JAMES BERRY,

ONE OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE, &c.

Sir,
Providence having deprived me of the opportunity of
nearer converse with you, which heretofore I have enjoyed,
yet leaving me the same affections, they work towards you
as they can ; and have chosen here to speak to you in the
hearing of the world, that my words may remain to the ends
intended, when a private letter may be burnt or laid aside.
Flattery, I am confident, you expect not from me, because
you know me, and know me to be your friend. (And yet
my late monitor hath made many smile, by accusing me of
that fawning crime.) I am told what it is to bless ray friend
with a loud voice, Prov. xxvii. 14. I have learned myself,
that^ " open rebuke is better than secret love ;" and that,
" faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an
enemy are deceitful ;" Prov. xxvii. 5, 6. And therefore 1
shall do as I would be done by. Faithfulness and useful
ness shall be the measure of my message to you ; and they
have commanded me to set before you this lesson of self-
denial, and earnestly entreat you, that you will faithfully
read, and learn, and practise it. Though I judged you have
lealrned it long ago, I think it not needless to mind you of
it again ; my soul being astonished to see the power of self
ishness in the world, even in those that by confessions and
prayer, and high professions, have frequently condemned it^
Yet this is. the radical, raortal sin. Where this lives, all
sins virtually live. Say that a man is selfish, and (in that
measure) you say all that is naught of him, as to his inclina
tion. That selfishness is the sum of vice, and the capital
enemy of God, of commonwealths, of order and governmen.t

VI EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
of all grace and virtue, of every holy ordinance and duty,
especially of unity and brotherly love, and of the welfare of
our neighbours, and of our own salvation, I have manifested
to you in the following discourse. But alas, what need we
words to manifest it, when the flames of discord, and long
continued di-visions among brethren, do manifest it ! When
hatred, strife, variance, emulation, backbiting, violence, re
bellions, bloodshed, resisting and pulling down of govern
ments, have so long lamentably declared it ! When such
havoc is raade by it before our eyes, and the evil spirit goes
on and prospereth, and desolation is zealously and studious
ly carried on, and the voice of peace-makers is despised, or
drowned in the codfused noise ! "Presumptuous are they,
self-willed, they have not been afraid to speak evil of digni
ties.;" 2 Pet. ii. 10. To speak evil? Was that the height
of presumption and self-willedness then? Alas, how much
further hath it proceetied now ! Even under the cloak of
liberty and religion 1 How many conquerors that have often
triumphed over their eneraies, are conquered by themselves,
and livc'in continual captivity under this homebred, most
imperious tyrant !
Whence is it but for want of self-denial, that there is
such scrambling for rule and greatness, for riches and ho
nours, among all, as if they thought it raore desirable to fall
frora a high place than a low ! And at death, to part with
riches than with poverty ! And at judgment, to have much
to answer for, than little ! And to go to heaven as a camel
through a needle's eye, than by the more plain and easy way !
Whence is it but for want of self-denial, that men are so
hardly convinced of their sins, be they never so open, and
odious, and scandalous, if they be but such as will admit of
an excuse before the world ? Most sins that are confessed,
are such as seem not to be disgraceful, or such whose jus
tification would double the disgrace, or such as are confes
sed in pride, that the confessor may gain the reputation of
humility. Whence is it but for want of self-denial, that Christian
love is grown so cold, while all profess it to be the badge of
Christ's disciples ? And that so many professors have so
little chatity for any but those of their own opinions ; un
less it be a slandering charity, or a persecnting, or murder
ing charity ? That all is commendable, or excusable, that is

EPISTLE DEDICATGUy. YH
done by men of their own conceits ; and all cpndemnable,
or a diminutive good, that is found In those that differ frora
them ; especially if they dispute, or write against them.
Whence is it but for want of self-denial, that raen who
know that whoredom, and drunkenness, and theft, are sins,
can yet be ignorant (in the midst of light) that discord and
church-divisions are sjns ? And that they hear him with
heart-rising, enmity or suspicion, that doth declaim against
them ? As if uniting were the work of satan, and dividing
were become the work of Christ. I raean not dividing from
those without, buf dividing in his church, and araong his
members ; who are all baptized with one Spirit, into one
body (1 Cor. xii. 13.), even the body of Christ, (not of the
pope,) of which even apostles are but merabers, (and there
fore Peter was not the head) (1 Cor. xii. 27, 28.) ; which is
so terapered together by God, that there should be no sphisra
in it, but that the merabers should have the same care one
of another (1 Cor. xii. 24, 25.) ; and that for all the plain
and terrible passages against divisions, that are found in
the word of God, it seeras to sorae a venial sin, and to others
a commendable virtue, if not a mark of Christian piety. I
may seem to speak incredible things of the delusions of
selfish professors of religion, if they were not attested by
the common and lamentable experience of the times.
And whence is it but for want of self-denial, that peace
makers succeed no better in their atterapts ? That while all
men cry up peace and unity, raost men are destroying thera,
and few are furthering them, and fewer do it with zeal and
diligence ; so few, that they are borne down in the crowd,
and speed no better than Lot among the rabble ofthe Sodom
ites, that cried out against him, " This one fellow came in
to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge : now will we deal
worse with thee than with thera ;" Gen. xix. 9. How long
have some been longing, and praying, and moving, and la
bouring for peace araong the professed sons of piety and
peace in England ; and all (for ought I see) almost in vain ;
unless to the condemnation of a selfish, unpeaceable gene
ration ! (But yet let the sons of peace plead for it, as long
as they have a tongue and breath to speak).
Whence can it be but for want of self-denial, that magis
trates professing a zeal for holiness, regard no more the in
terest of Christ ; but that the narae (and but the name) of

V!H EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
liberty (a liberty that hath neither moral good or evil in it),
is set in the balance against the things of everlasting con-
sequencej and thought sufficient to overweigh them ? And
that the mere pretence of this indifferent carnal liberty, is
thought an argument of sufficient weight, for the introduc
tion of a wicked damning liberty, even a liberty to deceive
and destroy as many as they can, and to hinder those that
endeavour men's salvation ? And what is the argument
pleaded for all this ? It is partly a pretence of tenderness
and mercy ; and partly because men cannot be made reli
gious by force. And must such ignorant and juggling con
fusions serve turn, to cheat a nation of their religion and
liberties, and many thousands of their salvation ? As ifall
the controversy were, whether we should force others to be
of our religion ? When it is only or principally, whether
we may hinder them from robbing us of our own ; and from
tempting unstable souls to sin and to damnation ; and from
hindering the means of men's salvation ; and from the open
practice of idolatry, or ungodliness : and if we cannot force
them to the Christian faith, cannot we hinder them
from drawing others from it ? And are we unmerciful to
them, if we give them leave to damn themselves (for that is
the mercy that is pleaded for), and only hinder thera from
damning others ? Is it cruelty, or persecution, to hinder
them from enticing souls to hell, as long as they may freely
go thither themselves ? I should rather think that if we
did our best to save themselves, it were far from cruelty :
for exaraple ; if infidel or Papists' books be prohibited, what
cruelty or persecution is this? If Quakers be hindered
from railing at God's ordinances in the open streets and
assemblies, what cruelty or persecution is this? But some
think it enough for this toleration, that they think as confi
dently they are in the right, as we do that they err! And
so do heathens, Mahometans, and infidels. And what !
shall every raan have leave to do evil, that can but be igno
rant enough to think (or say he thinks) that he doth well ?
And must magistrates rule as men that are uncertain whe
ther there be a Christ, or a church, or a heaven, or hell, be
cause some are found in their dominions so foolish or im
pious as to be uncertain ofit? In plain English, is it any
hindrance to raen's salvation, and furtherance of their dam
nation, to be made infidels. Papists, and such as deny the

EPISTLE DEDICATORY. IX
essentials of Christianity, or not? If not, then away with
Christianity and reformation ; why do we pretend to it our
selves? But if it be, will merciful rulers set up a trade for
butchering of souls ; and allow men to set up a shop of poi
son, for all to buy and take that will ? Yea, to proclaim
this poison for souls, in streets and church-assemblies, as if
men's souls were no raore worth than rats, or raice, or hurt
ful vermin, or it were some noble achievement to send as
many as may be to the devil ? Judge impartially, whether
all this be not for want of self-denial. If selfish interest
led them not to this, and if they were more tender of the in
terest of Christ than of their own, than of men's souls than
of their flesh, it would not be thus. But the same argument
that tempts the sensual to hell, doth tempt such magistrates
to set up liberty for drawing men to hell. The wicked sell
their souls to spare the flesh, and let go heaven to enjoy
the liberty of sinning ; and run into hell to escape the trou
ble of a holy life : and such magistrates sell the people's
souls to spare the flesh of the deceivers ; and in tenderness
and mercy to their bodies, they dare not restrain men from
seeking their damnation. Is faith and holiness propagated
by persuasion, and not by force? Surely then infidelity,
popery and ungodliness, are propagated by persuasion too ?
Again I tell you, self-love doth make such rulers wiser than
to grant commission or liberty to all that will, to entice their
soldiers to mutinies or rebellion, their wives to adultery,
their children to prodigality, or their servants to thievery :
but their love of Christ and men's salvation is not so strong
as to satisfy tbem whether men should be hindered from
raising mutinies in his church, and from destroying souls !
Forsooth they tell us that Christ is sufficient to look to his
own cause. Very true, (and they shall one day know it).
But must he not therefore teach or rule by men ? Is not
adultery, raurder, theft, rebellion, against the cause of Christ,
and his laws, as well as popery and infidelity ? And must
they therefore be let alone by man ? Christ is sufficient to
teach the world, as well as to govern. But doth it follow
that men must be no teachers, under him ? Nothing but
selfishness could cause this blindness.
And because I know that this stream proceeds from the
Roman spring, and it is their great design to persuade thc
world, thatit belongs not to magistrates to meddle with ro-

X EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
ligion, but only to cherish them thatthe pope approveth of,
and to punish those whom the pope condemns, and that
Christ must govern and judge of matters of religion himself;
that is, by his pretended Roman vicechrist ; I shall only now
say this, that if Rome were acquainted with self-denial, and
if the selfish, carnal interest of riches and rule, and worldly
greatness had not blinded thera, they could never have be
lieved themselves, that Christ did appoint the pope of Rorae
to be his universal vicar ; and that princes and raagistrates
in their own dominions, have not more power to judge who
is to be tolerated or punished by the sword, than the pope
of Rome ; when no priest, or prelate upon earth (as such)
hath any thing to do with such a judgment ; no, not in the
places where they live. All that they have to do therein,
is lo judge who is the heretic, or offender, in order to his
censure and excommunication ; but it is magistrates only
that must judge who is the heretic or offender, in order to
corporal punishment or restraint. And this I undertake to
make good against all the Papists in the world : much more,
that the Roman tyrant hath no such power atthe antipodes,
and in all the Christian nations of the earth.
Remember in all this, that I speak not against a tolera
tion of godly, tolerable men, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Inde
pendent, Anabaptist, 8cc. that will walk in charity, peace and
concord ; we shall never be well till these are closed.
But do we not know that Papists have Italy, and Spain,
and Germany, and France at hand to help them ? And that
if we grant them such a liberty as shall strengthen them and
make way for their power, we give them our own liberty, and
are preparing faggots for our own martyrdom, and giving
away the Gospel, that by wonders of mercy hath been till
now preserved, (and I hope shall be preserved in despite of
Rome and hell). Nor yet do I plead for any cruelty against
a Papist, but for a necessary defence of the interest of Christ
and the souls of men, and the hopes of our posterity. True
humanity abhorreth cruelty.
Did magistrates well know their dependence upon God,
and that they are his officers, and must make him their end,
they would not take their flocks to be their masters, though
thoy raay take them for their charge ; nor would they set up
a carnal interest of the multitude against the pleasing of
God, and men's salvation : nor would they think so highly

EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XI
of raen's conceits and wills, as tojudge it a raatter of so much
moment, to allow them in religion to say and do what they
list. If allowing a man's self in the practice of known sin
is inconsistent with a state of grace, and a sign of a misera
ble slave of satan, I leave it to you to consider, what it will
prove to allow others; even countries and nations, in known
sin. And if rulers know not that setting up an universal
vicechrist, and worshipping bread (though they think there
is no bread) with divine worship, and serving God in an un
known tongue, with other points of popery, are sin ; and
that opposing and reproaching the holy Scriptures, ordinan
ces and ministry, are sin ; woe to such rulers, and woe to
the nations that are ruled by such. O what a blessing is a
holy, self-denying magistracy to a nation I If one could have
told you twenty years ago, that you, and such as you should
be rulers in this land, how confidently would you have pro
mised an universal encouragement to godliness, and a vigo
rous promoting the cause of Christ, and a zealous suppres
sing of all that is against it ! Little would you or I have
thought, that after professors of godliness.were in power, so
many years should have been spent in destroying charity and
unity, and cherishing almost, all that will ^tand up for the
devil, and plead his cause against the doctrine, and discipline,
and worship, and churches, and officers of Jesus Christ , and
that in their days it should have been put to the question.
Whether the ministry itself should be taken down ? and that
men in power should write for liberty, for all that will call
itself religion, even popery not excepted, (nor, I think, infi
delity or Mahometanism itself) ; and that those that write
so should be raen in power. My heart would have risen
against hira as an odious calumniator, that should have pre
sumed to tell me, that such men as have atterapted this
would ever have come to such a pass : and [ should have
encountered them with Hazael's question, " Are they dogs,
that they should do so vile a thing ?" and exercise such
cruelty on souls, and seek to bring^back the people of God
to the Romish vomit, and set up the greatest tyranny on
earth, and all under pretence of a religious liberty ?
But alas, it is not magistrates only that are so wanting
in self-denial. Ministers also are guilty of this crime, or
else we should not have been so forward to divisions, and so
backward to the cure ; nor would men of this profession, for

Xll EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
the interest of their opinions and parties, have cherished dis
sension, and fled from concord, and have had a hand in the
resisting and pulling down authority, and embroiling the
nations in wars and miseries. And whence is it but for want
of self-denial, (for our own faults must be confessed) that
the ministers of Christ are so much silent in the midst of
such heinous miscarriages as the times abound with? I know
we receive not our comniission as prophets did, by imme
diate, extraordinary inspiration : but what of that ? The
priests that were called by an ordinary way, were bound to
be plain and faithful in their office, as well as the prophets ;
and so are we. How plainly spoke the prophets, even to
the king ! and how patiently did they bear indignities and
persecutions ! But now we are grown carnally wise and
cautelous ; (for holy wisdom and caution I allow ;) and if
duty be like to cost us dear, we can think that we are ex
cused from it. If great men would set up popery in the land
by a toleration, alas ! how many ministers think they may
be silent, for fear lest the contrivers should call them sedi
tious, or turbulent, or disobedient, or should set men to rail
at them and call them liars and calumniators ; or for fear they
should be persecuted, and ruined in their estates and names.
If they do but foresee that men in power and honour in the
world will charge them with lies or unchristian dealing for
speaking the words of truth and soberness against the in
troduction of popery and impiety, and that they shall be
made as the scorn and offscouring of all the world, and have
all manner of evil sayings falsely spoken of them for the sake
of Christ, his church and truth, they presently consult with
flesh and blood, and think themselves discharged of their
duty ; when God saith, " If the watchman see the sword
come, and blow not the trurapet, and the people be not
warned ; if the sword corae and take any person from among
them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I
require at the watchman's hand;'! Ezek. xxxiii. 6. And
were we no watchmen, yet we have this command, " Thou
shall not hate thy brother in thy heart ; thou shalt in any
wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him ;"
Lev. xix. 17. Yet now many ministers will be cruelly silent,
lest they should be charged with malice, and hating those
they are commanded to rebuke. The sword of violence 1
persuade them not to meddle with ; but were it not for want

EPISTLE DEDICATOltV. Xlll
of self-denial, the sword of the Spirit would be more faith
fully raanaged against the sins of the greatest eneraies of
Christ and of the Gospel, than it is by most, though it should
cost us more than scorns and slanders, and though we knew
that bonds and afflictions did abide us.
And verily, I cannot yet understand, that the contempt
and scorn of the ministry in England is fed by any thing so
rauch as selfishness. Could we be for all raen's opinions and
carnal interests, (O what experience have I had of this !) all
raen, for aught I see, would be for us. Is it a crirae to be a
rainister? Doubtless it is then a crirae to be a Christian.
And he that rails at us as ministers to-day, it is like will rail
at us as Christians to-morrow. But if such will vouchsafe
to come to me, before they venture their souls, and soberly
debate the case, I will undertake to prove the truth of Chris
tianity. The world raay see in Clera. Writer's exceptions
against my " Treatise against Infidelity," what thin transpa
rent sophisms, and silly cavils, they use against the Chris
tian cause •". When they have well answered, not only that
treatise, but Du Plessis, Grotius, Vives, Ficinus, Micrelius,
and the ancient apologies of the Christian writers of the
church, let them boast then that they have confuted Chris
tianity. The devil hath told me long ago in his secret temp
tations, as much against the Christian faith, as ever I yet
read in any of our apostates ; but God hath told me of much
more that is for it, and enabled me to see the folly of their
reasonings, that think the raysteries of the Gospel to be
foolishness. But if it be not as rainisters and Christians that we are
hated, what is it then ? If because we are ignorant, insuffi
cient, negligent or scandalous, why do they not by a legal
trial cast us out, and put those in our places that are more
able, diligent and godly, when we have provoked them to it
and begged it of them so often as we have done ' ? If it be
because we are not Papists, it is because we cannot renounce
all our senses, our reason, the Scripture, the unity, judg
raent and tradition of the far greatest part of the universal
¦> See my Reasons of the Christian Religion, since written.
¦= I may, with Tertullian, call all our enemies to search their court records, and
aee how many of us have been cast out or silenced for any imraorality, but for obeying
conscience against the interest, or wills, of some who think Hiat conscience should
give place to their comraands. Read the two or three last chapters in Dr. Holden's
AnaL iidei.

XIV EPISTLE UEDU.A TORY.
church. If I have not already proved that popery fighteUv
ngainst all these, and am not able to make it good against
any Jesuit on earth, let them go on to number me with he
retics, and let them use me as they do such, when I ara in
their power. If we are hated because we are not of the
opinions of those that hate us, it seems those opinions are
eneraies to charity ; and then we have little reason to em
brace them. And if this be it, we are under an unavoidable
necessity of being hated : for, among such diversity of
opinions, it is impossible for us lo comply with all, if we
durst be false to the known truth, and durst becorae the ser
vants of men, and make every self-conceited brother the
master of our faith. If we are so reviled, because we are
against an universal liberty of speaking or writing against
the truths and ways of Christ, and of labouring in Satan's
harvest, to the dividing of the churches, and the damnation
of souls, it is then in the upshot, because we are of any re
ligion, and are not despisers ofthe Gospel, and ofthe church,
and of men's salvation ; and because we believe in Jesus
Christ. I have lately found by their exclamations, and com
mon defaraations, and threatenings, and by the volumes of
reproaches that corae forth, against rae, and by the swarms
of lies that have been sent forth against me through the land,
that even the present contrivers of England's raisery, (liberty,
I would say) and of toleration for popery, and more, are
themselves unable to bear contradiction from one such an
inconsiderable person as myself; and they have got it
into the mouths of soldiers, that my writings are the cause
of wars, and that till I give over writing, they shall not give
over fighting (though I do all that I am able for peace '').
And if this be so, what a case would they bring the nation
inlo, by giving far greater liberty to all, than ever I made
use of! Unless they still except a liberty of contradicting
themselves, they must look for other kind of usage, when li
bertinism is set up. Yea, if they will seek the ruin of the'
church and cause of Christ, they raust look that we should
take liberty to contradict them, and to speak for Christ and
-t Read Mr. Stubbs'sand Mr. Rogers's books against me; and the soldiers openly
thus calumniated me and threatened my death, as the said authors desired them to
call me to a trial, even for speaking and writing against Iheir casting down the govern
ment ofthe land, and setting up themselves, and attempting at once to vote out all the
parish minislers. '

EPISTLEDEDICATORY. XV
the souls of men, till they have deprived us of tongues, or
pens, or lives ; and they must expect that we obey God ra
ther than men, and that, as Paul did Peter (Gal. ii. 11.), we
withstand them to the face ; and that satan shall not be un
resisted, because he is transformed into an angel of light ;
nor his ministers be unresisted, because they are transform
ed into the rainisters of righteousness ; nor the false apos
tles and deceitful workers, because they are transforraed into
the apostles of Christ ; 2 Cor. xi. 13—15. Nor must they
think to do so horrid a thing, as to weave their libertinism,
and toleration of popery, into a new fundamental constitu
tion ofthe coramonwealth, which parliaments raust have no
power to alter, and that the ages to come shall curse us for
our silence, and say that ministers and other Christians were
all so basely selfish, as for fear of reproaches or sufferings
to say nothing, but cowardly to betray the Gospel with their
country ^ If the rattling of the hail of persecution on the
tiles, even on this flesh, which is but the tabernacle of our
souls, be a terrible thing ; how much more terrible is the in
dignation of the Lord, and the threats of him who is a con
suming fire ! If you can venture your life against an enemy
in the field, we are bastards, and not Christians if we cannot
venture ours, and give them up to persecuting rage, as long
as we know that we have a master that will save us harmless,
and that the God whom we serve is able to deliver us, and
that he hath charged us not to fear them that kill the body,
and after that can do no more, &,c. ; and that he hath told us
that we are blessed when men revile us and persecute us,
and say all manner of evil against us falsely for his sake ;
bidding us, " rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is our
reward in heaven ; for so persecuted they the prophets that
were before us ;" Matt. v. 10—12. And when we are told
that "he that will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever
shall lose his life, for the sake of Christ, shall find it ;" Matt.
xvi. 25. And when we know that we own a cause that shall
prevail at last, and resist them " whose end shall be accord
ing to their works ;" 2 Cor. xi. 15.
And what though this be unknown to the opposers ; that
will not warrant us to betray a cause that we know to be of
'= T know that it hardeneth thousands in impenitency, to say that others have
done worse ; and is five matter mended with you ? And will it also ease men in hell
lo think that some otrhers suffer more?

XV) EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
God ; nor will the ignorance of others excuse us for neg
lecting known truth and duty. If the souls of private per-
sons be worth all the study and labour of our lives, and we
must deal faithfully with them, whatever il shall cosl us ;
surely the safety of a nation, and the hopes ofour posterity,
and the public interest of Christ, is worthy to be spoken for
with rauch more zeal, and we may suffer more joyfully, for
contradicting a public destroyer ofthe church, than for tel
ling a poor drunkard or whoreraonger of his sin and raisery.
Hitherto I have permitted my pen lo express my sense
of the common want of self-denial in the land i now give
rae leave, as your raost affectionate, faithful friend, to turn
my style a little to yourself, and earnestly to entreat of you
these following particulars.
I. In general that as long as you live you will watch
against this common deadly sin of selfishness, and study
continually the duty of self-denial. We shall be empty of
Christ, till we are nothing in ourselves. " Blessed are the
poor in spirii, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Self is
the strongest and most dangerous eneray that ever you
fought against. It is a whole army united ; and the more
dangerous because so near. Many that have fought as va
liantly and successfully against other eneraies as you, have
at last been conquered and undone by self. And conquer
it you cannot without a conflict ; and the conflict must en
dure as long as you live ; and combating is not pleasing to
the enemy ; and therefore as long as self is the eneray, and
self-pleasing is natural to corrupted man, (that should be
wholly addicted to please the Lord), self-denial will prove a
difficult task : and if somewhat in the advice that would
engage you deeper in the conflict, should seem bitter or un
grateful, I should not wonder. And let me freely tell you,
that your prosperity and advancement will make the work
so exceeding difficult, that since you have been a Major
General, and a Lord, and now a Counsellor of State, you
have stood in a raore slippery, perilous place, and have need
of much raore grace and vigilancy, than when you were but
Baxter's friend. Great places and employments have great
temptations, and are great avocations of the mind from God.
And no error scarcely can be small, that is comraitted in
public, great affairs ; which the honour of God, and the
temporal and spiritual welfare of so raany, do in some sort

EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XVII
depend upon. These times have told us to our grief, what
victory and prosperity can do, to strengthen the selfish prin
ciple in men: they have swallowed camels since they were
lifted up, that would have strained at gnats in a lower state.
The ministry, and ordinances, and holy communion that once
were sweet to them, are grown into contempt. Centaury
and wormwood are excellent helps to procure an appetite
and strengthen the stomach ; but marrow and sweetness
breed a loathing. The vertiginous disease is not so strong
with them that are on the ground, as with them that stand
on the top of a steeple. I had rather twenty times look up
at them that are so exalted, than sland with them, and have
the terror of looking down. Had not professors been in
toxicated by prosperity, they had not believed and lived so
giddily. I have often seen men's reason marred with a cup
or two too much, but seldom by too little. And too many
I have known, that have wounded conscience and sold their
souls for the love of prosperity and wealth ; but none that
ever did it for poverty. For a rich man to be saved is im
possible to man, though all things are possible wilh God ;
Matt. xix. 26. Luke xviii. 27. For my own part, I bless
God that hath kept me from greatness in the world, and I
take it as the principal act of friendship that ever you did
for me, that you provoked me to this sweet, though flesh-
displeasing life of the ministry, in which I have chosen to
abide. I had rather lie in health on the hardest bed, than
be sick upon the softest : and I see that a feather-bed mak
eth not a sick man well. The sleep of the labouring man
is sweet : the ploughman's brown bread and cheese is more
savoury to him, and breedeth fewer sicknesses than the ful
ness and variety of the rich. This country diet doth not
cherish voluptuousness, arrogancy, vainglory, earthlyraind-
edness, uncharitableness, and other selfish diseases, so much
as worldly greatness doth.
Experience telleth us that most raen are best in a low es
tate ; insomuch that a bad man in sickness will speak bet
ter, and seem more penitent and mortified, than raany better
men in health. It is a wonderful hard thing to live like a,,
Christian in full prosperity ; and to be above this world, and
have lively apprehensions ofthe invisible things, and live a
heavenly conversation, in health and wealth, when our flesh
hath so much provision at hand, to accommodate and please
VOL. XI. c

XVIU EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
it. Prosperity doth powerfully corrupt the mind ; it breed
eth many dangerous errors and vices ; and it maketh use
less that knowledge which men have ; so that though such
men can speak the same words as another, about the mat
ters ofthe life to come, it is but dreamingly, and without
life. Their knowledge hath but little power on their hearts
and lives. The world is so great with them, which is as no
thing, that God and everlasting life are as nothing to them,
which are all. They are so full of the creature, that they
have no room for Christ ; and so busy about earth that they
have butlittle time for heaven ; and taste so much sweetness in
their present pomp, that they cannot relish the true and du
rable delights. They know their morals^ as they know some
astronomical or geometrical verities, by an opinion or un
effectual knowledge ; so that indeed they know not what
they know. Pausanias in his prosperity desiring to hear
some secrets of philosophy, had no more from Simonides,
but, ' Remember that thou art a raan ;' he contemned this at
the present, as a ridiculous memento of that which no man
could forget ; but when he was reduced to an extremity, he
then remembered the philosopher's lesson, and perceived
there was more in it than he understood when he contemn
ed it. How little is there in a prosperous state, that should
seem desirable in a wise man's eyes ! Why is it that great
travellers and statesmen, and all that have most tried the
world, desired to withdraw frora it toward the evening of
their age, and to retire themselves into a private life, that
they may there look towards eternal things, and cry out of
the vanity and vexation which they have here found ? Must
we not conceive them wiser after rauch experience than be
fore ; and therefore wiser in their recess, than in their aspir
ings ; and therefore that it is folly to be ambitious, and wis
dom to contemn the world ? Why else do dying men most
contemn it ? Dear friend, you will think of these things
more understandingly and more feelingly one of these days,
when you come to die, than you can do now. I would not
for allthe world have been without the advantages of look
ing death so often in the face, as I have done since you first
knew me. Ifl have been but awhile without this sight,and
have but conceited that yet I have many years to live, alas,
how it hath enervated my knowledge and my meditations !

EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XIX
So that twenty times thinking the same holy thoughts, will
not do so touch as once will do, when I seem to be nearer
my everlasting state.
And what doth worldly greatness add to your real worth
in the eyes of God, or of wise men ? Magistracy, as a thing
divine, I honour : but James hath taught me, not to be par
tial to the rich as rich, and call up the man with the gold
ring and gay attire, and say to the poor, ' Sit there at my
footstool.' As to be proud of fine clothes is a childish or
womanish piece of folly, below a man ; so to be proud of
victories, and dignities, and wealth, and worldly honours,
is the vanity of an infidel or atheist, and below a Christian
that hath the hopes of heaven. If a raan be holy, he is
above his worldly greatness, and beareth it as his burden,
and feareth it as his snare. And if he be carnal, he is the
faster in his misery ; and golden fetters are stronger than
any others. A pebble-stone on the top of Atlas is but a
pebble ; and a pearl is a pearl in the bottom ofthe sea. A
nettle on the top of a mountain is but a nettle ; and a cedar
in the lowest valley is a cedar. If God dwell with the con
trite, and have respect to him that is poor and humble, and
trembleth at his word, it seems they are most to be respect
ed, and are the most honourable, if God can put raore honour
upon us by his approbation than raan. God will not ask
us, where we have grown (in order to our justification) but
what fruit we have borne : nor whether we were rich or
poor, but whether we were holy or unholy : nor what was
our station, but how we behaved ourselves in it.
Prosperity usually breedeth a tenderness, and sickly
frame of soul, so that we can scarce look out of door, but
our affections take cold ; and can scarce feed on the most
wholesome food, but we receive it with some loathing, or
turn it to the matter of some disease. But to worldly vani
ties, it breeds a canine appetite ; so that ambitious wretches
are like dogs, that greedily swallow the morsel that you cast
them, and presently gape for more. Butwholesome poverty
hardeneth us against such tenderness and infirmities, and
breedeth not such diseases in the soul.
" A poor man's rod when thon dost ride,
Is both a weapon and a guide ;"
Saith our serious poet. I sleep most sweetly when I have

XX EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
travelled in the cold ; frost and snow are friends to the seed,
though they are enemies to the flower. Adversity indeed is
contrary to glory, but it befriendeth grace. Plutarch tells
us, that whf n Caesar passed by a smoky, nasty village, at
the foot of the Alps, some of his commanders raerrily asked
him, whether there was such a stir for commands, and digni
ties, and honours among those cottages, as there was at
Rome? The answer is easy. Do you think that an Antony,
a Mark, a Jerome, or such other of the ancient retired
Christians, were not wiser and happier men than a Nero or
a Caligula, yea, or a Julius or Augustus Cassar ? Is ita de
sirable thing to be a lord or ruler, before we turn to common
earth ; and as Marius that was one day raade emperor,
and reigned the next, and was slain by a soldier the next;
so to be worshipped to-day, and laid in the dust if not in
hell, to-morrow ? It was the saying of the emperor Severus,
' Omnia fui, sed nihil expedit;' and of king David, " I have
seen an end of all perfection." O value these Ihings but as
they deserve ! Speak impartially ; are not those that are
striving to get up the ladder, foolish and ridiculous, when
those that are at the top, have attained but danger, trouble
and envy; and those that fall down are accounted misera
ble? " Sed nulla aconita bibnntur
Fictilibus  " Juvenal.
There are more draughts of poison given in golden than in
earthen vessels, saith the poet. The Scythian, therefore,
was no fool, who, when the eraperor Mich. Paleologus sent
hira precious ornaments and jewels, asked what they were
good for ; whether they would preserve him from calamity,
sickness or death ; and sent them home when he heard they
were of no more use. You desire not the biggest shoes or
clothes, but the raeetest ; so do by your dignity and estate.
As you must ask your daily bread, so must you desire no
more ; neither poverty, nor riches, but convenient food ; yet
so as to learn to abound and to want, and in every state to
be content : bearing riches and dignity if cast upon you,
without seeking ; but not desiring or gaping afler thera, nor
glorying in them; undergoing them as a burden with pa
tience and self-denial, and carefully using all for God ; but
neither desiring nor using them for carnal self. •' They that

EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXI
will be rich (or great) fall into temptation and a snare, and
into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in
destruction and perdition : for the love of money is the root
of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred
from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows ;" 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10.
Remember where you begun, and where you must end.
Naked you came into the world, and naked you must return
to dust. You brought no riches hither, and none shall you
take hence, unless you learn the blessed art of raaking friends
of the unrighteous raammon, and laying up a good founda
tion against the time to come, and laying up a treasure in
heaven, by the right improvement of your present mercies.
Though our life be not circular, but progressive, the end, as
to our naturals, is more like to the beginning than to the
middle. If we die not children, yet more like to children
then we live. It is sad that the height and perfection ofour
age should be the height of our folly ; and that childhood
and retired age should be least entangled with these vani
ties. And it is a laraentable stupidity that alloweth self so
confidently to play its game, so near eternity, where one
would think the noise of damned souls, and the triumphant
joy s of blessed saints, that passed to rest by the way of self-
denial, should raar the sport, and turn their pride into shame
and trembling ; and the great things of mortality that are
even at hand, should drown the noise of pomp and pleasure,
and make the greatness ofthis world appear an inconsidera
ble thing. The Lord grant that you be no less humble, and
heavenly, and true to Christ, and above this world, than
when you and I had our first familiar converse, (and sure by
this time you should be rauch better). It is said of Agatho
cles, king of Sicily, that having been a potter's son, he
would always have together, earthen and golden vessels at
his table, to remember him of his original. You tread on
earth, and bear about you such evidences of your frailty, as
serve to tell you whence your flesh is, and whither it is go
ing, and how it should be used now. Remeraber also your
spiritual new birth, by what seed you were begotten, and by
what railk you were nourished, and see that you degenerate
not, and do nothing unworthy that noble birth, and the hea
venly nature then received.
II. And remeraber that self-denial is never right, unless

xxu EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
it be caused by the love of God ; and as you deny yourself
so you entirely and unreservedly devote yourself to him
To this end I crave your observation of these few unquest
ionable precepts. '
1. Take heed of unbelief, and dread all teraptations tend
ing to it, and live by that faith which maketh absent things
to be to you as present, and things unseen, as if they were
seen. When heavew once loseth its interest in the soul, the
world may play 'rex,' and delude and destroy us at its plea
sure. 2. Take heed of all intrusions of selfishness : especially
overvalue not your own understanding in the things of God.
Draw not a great picture of a little man. Be not easily
drawn to contemn the judgments of those thathave searched
the holy Scriptures, with equal diligence and humility, and
with much' more advantages of retiredness, and time, aud
helps, than you.
3. Take heed of engaging your hand, or tongue, or se
cret thoughts, against the faithful rainisters of Christ; but
further the work of Christ in their hands with all your power.
I ara no prophet, but yet presume lo say, that if the re
proaches of a faithful ministry in England be purged away
without some dreadful judgment of God on the apostate re-
proachers, or else a desertion of the nation, by a removal of
our glory, I shall wonder at the patience and forbearance of
the Lord. Itis a dreadful observation, to see so much of
the spirit of malignity possessing those that once said they
fought against malignants. And that the ministers and ser
vants of the Lord, are railed at by many of them, as formerly
they were by the worst of those that their hands destroyed ;
and with this dreadful aggravation, that then it was but some
that were reviled, and now with many it is all : then it was
under the name of Puritans and Roundheads, and now it is
openly as ministers, under the name of priests, and black-
coats, and presbyters, and pulpiteers. What have these
souls done, that they are so far forsaken by the Lord ? The
Judge of all the world is at the door, thatwiU plead his ser
vants' cause in righteousness. It is hard kicking against
the pricks. He that despiseth, despiseth not men, but God.
Persecution under pretence of liberty, is heightened with
hypocrisy, and is one of the greatest sins in the world. But
men are not catched in spiders' webs, though flies are : our

EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXUI
Lord will make us a way to escape. Persecution never con
quered Christ; and because he lives, we shall live also.
Here is the faith and patience of the saints.
I know that malice wants not words to cloak their iniqui -
ty : he that hath will and power to do hurt, hath so much wit
as to pretend some reason for it : though I think that ma
lice did never walk more nakedly, since the primitive perse
cutions, than it doth in England at this day. Their princi
ples and profound contrivances they can hide, but their
malignity goes stark naked, and is almost grown past shame.
They talk against mercenary ministers as if they had never
read ICor.ix., Mal. iii., and such ;]other Scriptures; or as
if they envied food and raiment to them that watch and la
bour for their souls, to whom they are commanded to give
double honour (1 Tim. v. 17.), when they envy not provender
to their horses, nor fodder to their labouring ox, nor the
crumbs to their very dogs ^ But the matter is, that their
wit is too scant and narrow for their malice ; and therefore
the Popish and malignant enemies have nt) fairer pretence
to cast out the ministry, than by this engaging the covetous
ness of the ignorant and ungodly sort against thera. They
talk ofour want of a just call ; but what is it in point of
calling that is wanting? Abilities say sorae, succession
say others, miracles say others ; and indeed it is what the
interest of selfish men doth dictate to the accusers. O that
they would tell us what is the due call ; and where is the
ministry on earth that hath it, if we have it not ? If they
would have all laid by that work not miracles, we may see
what they would have done to the church. If we are not
what they would have us be, and do not what they would have
us do, why do they not come in charity and meekness, and
shew us the course that we should take ? If we are fools,
or beside ourselves, it is for them. The God whom we
serve, that will shortly judge us, is our witness, that we have
chosen the calling that we are in, for their salvation and for
his glory ; and that we labour in itin season and out of sea
son to please Christ, and to profit them, rather than to please
or accommodate our flesh. You brought me into the ministry ;
I am confident you know to what ends, and with what inten
tions I desired it : I was then very ignorant, young and raw :
' The Quakers and other self-esteemers ate never the more reconciled to us, now
we have been eleven years turned out'ofalU

xxiv EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
though my weakness be yet such as I must lament, I raust
say, lo the praise of the great Shepherd of the flock, that he
hath since then afforded rae precious opportunities, rauch
assistance, and as much encouragement as to any man that
I know alive. You know my education and initial weak
ness was such, as forbiddeth me to glory in the flesh : but
I will not rob God of his glory, to avoid the appearance of
ostentation, lest I be proud of seeming not to be proud. I
doubt not but many thousand souls will thank you, when
they have read that you were the raan that led me into the
rainistry. And shall I entertain a suspicion that you will
ever hearken lo those raen that would rob you of the reward
of raany such works, and engage you against the King of
saints ? Is it gain, or ease, or worldly advantages that con
tinueth me in the work ? Let me speak as a fool, seeing it
is for the Lord, in imitation of Paul, that was no fool. Was
I not capable of secular and military advancement as well
as others that are grown great? Did I ever solicit you so
much as for my arrears (which is many hundred pounds)?
You could scarce do the thing that would gratify my flesh
more, than to silence and depose me from the ministry.
Might I consult with the flesh, I should be more against my
own employment than many of my enemies are. Did I but
turn physician I could get raore worldly wealth, and my pa
tients would not be so froward, and quarrelsome, and un
thankful as most ministers find their carnal auditors to be.
When men come to me for physic for their bodies how sub
missive are they : and how they entreat, and what thanks
afler will they return ! But when we would help their souls,
what cavils, and quarrels, and unthankful obstinacy do we
meet wilh ! We must be much beholden lo them to accept
our help, and all will not serve turn. My patients that have
bodily diseases will pay me if I would take it ; bul if by
giving them twice as much as I receive, I could satisfy and
further the case of diseased souls, how joyful should I be !
And must we deny ourselves and all things in the world for
our peoples' sake, and afler all be reproached, as if we were
a mercenary generation and sought ourselves ? O how will
God confound this ingralitude when he comes tojudge !
Something they might say if the ministers of England
had the provision of the French and other Popish clero-y,
(I will not presume to compare now our calling, fidelity sTnd

EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXV
maintenance with magistrates, judges and raen of other pro
fessions). Should I suppose the raagistracy epitoraized in
you, and the ministry in me, I should give you an undue
advantage ; for I suppose there are far more ministers better
than me than there are magistrates better than you ; and
yet I think you wduld not judge of me as the ministers are
judged of. As there are no such commissioners for ejection
of scandalous, insufficient, negligent magistrates as are for
the ejection of such ministers, so if there were, I should not
doubt but you would quickly see which part were liable to
more exceptions. But when I look on the faithful ministers
round about me, how many of them could I narae, with whora
ray conscience tells rae I am not worthy to be compared in
holiness, 1 am then amazed at the ingratitude of the apos
tates ofthis age. How constantly and zealously do they
preach in public, at home and abroad, some of them raany
times a week ; how diligently do they instruct the ignorant
in private, from house to house; how unblamably, and
meekly, and self-denyingly do they behave themselves ; aud
are men that once made profession of religion become the
enemies of such a ministry? " O my soul, come not thou
into their secret ; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not
thou united :" Gen. xlix. 6. I had rather be in the case of
Turks, yea, of cannibals, than of those men.
I know that many think our very ignorant dividers to
have more illumination, and that the pastors ofthe flocks are
carnal, ignorant men ; (as the blind man that rushed against
another, and asked him whether he were blind, that he could
not go out of his way ?) But I have long tried the spirits,
and I have found that these camelions have nothing within
bul lungs : and that straw and little sticks may make the
quickest and the lightest blaze, but will not make a durable
tire as the bigger fuel doth. A bittern hath a louder voice
than a swan or eagle; and in some one thing a bungler may
excel a better workman; and what if onevminisler excel in
one gift, and another in another, and few in all ; is not this
like the primitive administration ? You be not angry wilh
your apple-tree that it bears not plums, nor with your pear-
tree that it bears not figs.
But I have been too tedious. I beseech you interpret
not any of these words as intended for accusation or unjust
(suspicion of yourself : God forbid you should ever fall from

XXVI EPISTLE DEDICATOR y.
that integrity that I am persuaded you once had. But my
eye is on the times with grief, and on ray ancient, dearest
friend with love : and in an age of iniquity and temptation
my conscience and the world shall never say that I was un
faithful to my friend and forbore to tell him of the comraon
dangers. Dear friend, take heed of a glittering, flattering world.
Remeraber that greatness makes few bad men good, and few
good men better. As Seneca saith, ' The carcase is as truly
dead that is embalmed, as that which is dragged to the grave
with hooks.'
And this I say, " The time is short i it remaineth that
they that weep, be as if they wept not ; and they that re
joice, as though they rejoiced not: and they that buy, as
though they possessed not ; and they that use this world, as
they that use it not; for the fashion of this world passeth
away;" lCor.vii.29 — 31. And when the soul of the worldly
fool is required of him, then whose shall all their dignities,
and honours, and riches be ? In the meantime, God judgeth
not by outward appearance as raan judgeth, nor honoureth
any for being honoured of men.
' Solus honor merito qui datur, ille datur.' — Juvenal.
These truths (well known to you) I thought raeet to set
before your eyes, not knowing whether I shall ever more
converse with you in the flesh ; and also to desire you
seriously to read over these popular sermons (persuaded to
the press by the iraportunity of sorae faithful brethren that
love a mean discourse on so pecessary a subject). " Watch
and pray, that ye enter not into temptation." I rest.
Your Friend,
RICHARD BAXTER.
September 12, 1659.

THE

PREFACE.

Readers,
I HERE present to your serious consideration, a subject of
such necessity and consequence, that the peace and safety
of churches, nations, families and souls do lie upon it. The
eternal God was the beginning and the end, the interest, the
attractive, the confidence, the desire, the delight, the all of
man in his upright uncorrupted state. Though the Creator
planted in man'sMiature the principle of natural self-love, as
the spring of his endeavours for self-preservation, and a
notable part of the engine by which he governeth the world,
yet were the parts subservient to the whole, and the whole
to God ; and self-love did subserve the love of the universe
and of God ; and man desired his own preservation for these
higher ends. When sin stepped in it broke this order ; and
taking advantage from the natural innocent principles of
self-love, it turned man from the love of God, and much
abated his love to his neighbour and the public good, and
turned him to himself by an inordinate self-love which ter
minateth in himself, and principally in his carnal self, in
stead of God and the comraon good ; so that self is become
all to corrupted nature, as God was all to nature in its in
tegrity. Selflshness is the soul's idolatry and adultery, the
sum of its original and increased pravity, the beginning and
end, the life and strength of actual sin, even as the love of
God is the rectitude and fidelity ofthe soul, and the sum of
all our special grace, and the heart of the new creature, and
the life and strength of actual holiness. Selfishness in one
word expresseth all our aversion positively, as the want of
the love of God expresseth it privatively ; and all our sin is
summarily in these two, even as all our holiness is summarily

xxviii PREFACE.
in the love of God and in self-denial. It is the work of the
Holy Ghost by sanctifying grace to bring off the soul again
from self to God Self-denial therefore is half the essence
of sanctification. No man hath any more holiness than he
hath self-denial. And therefore the law (which the sanc
tifying Spirit writeth on the heart) doth set up God in the
first table, and our neighbour in the second, against the
usurpation and encroachment of this self. It saith nothing
of our love and duty to ourselves, as such, expressly. In
seeking the honour and pleasing of God, and the good of
our neighbour, we shall most certainly find our own felicity,
which nature teacheth us to desire. So that all the law is
fulfilled in love, which includeth self-denial, as light in
cludeth the expulsion of darkness, or rather as loyalty in
cludeth a cessation of rebellion and a rejection of the leaders
of it, and as conjugal fidelity includeth the rejection of
harlots. The very meaning of the first commandment is,
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," &c.,
which is the sum of the first table, and the comraandment
that animateth all the rest. The very meaning of the last
commandment is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy
self;" which is the summary of the second table, and in
general forbiddeth all particular injuries to others, not
enumerated in the foregoing precepts, and secondarily
animateth the four antecedent precepts. The fifth com
mandment looking to both tables and conjoining them, com
mandeth us to honour our superiors in authority, both as
they are the officers of God, and so participatively divine,
and as they are the heads of huraan societies, and our sub
jection necessary to coramon good : so that self-denial is
principally required in the first commandment, that is, the
denying of self as opposite to God and his interest ; and
self-denial is required in the last commandment, that is, the
denying of self, as it is an enemy to our neighbour's right
and welfare, and would draw from him unto ourselves. Self-
love and self-seeking as opposite to our neighbour's good,
is the thing forbidden in that commandraent ; and charity,
loving our neighbour as ourselves and desiring his welfare
as our own, is the thing commanded. > Self-denial is required
in the fifth commandment in a doulble respect, according to
the double respect of the commandment: 1. In respect to
God, whose governing authority is exercised by governors.

PREFACE. XXIX
their power being a beam of his majesty, the fifth command
ment requiring us to deny ourselves by due subjection, and
by honouring our superiors ; that is, lo deny our own aspir
ing desires, and our refractory minds and disobedient self-
willedness, and to take heed that we suffer not within us
any proud or rebellious dispositions or thoughts that would
lift us up above our rulers, or exerapt us from subjection to
them. 2. In respect lo human societies, for whose good
authority and governraent is appointed ; the fifth command
raent obligeth us lo deny our privale interest, and in all
competitions to prefer the public good, and maketh a promise
of temporal peace and welfare in a special raanner to those
that in obedience to this law do prefer the honour of govern
ment and the public peace and welfare before their own.
Thus charity as opposed to selfishness and including self-
denial, is the very sum and fulfilling of the law ; and selfish
ness is the radical comprehensive sin (containing uncharita
bleness) which breaks it all.
And as the law, so also the Redeemer, in his exaraple and
his doctrine doth teach us, and that more plainly and ur
gently, this lesson of self-denial. The life of Christ is the
pattern which the church must labour lo imitate ; and love
and self-denial were the summary of his life : though yet he
had no sinful self to deny, but only natural self. He denied
himself in avoiding sin ; but we must deny ourselves in re
turning from it. He loved not his life in coraparison of his
love to his Father, and to his church. He appeared without
desirable form or comeliness. " He was despised and rejec
ted of raen ; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.
He bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows, and was esteera
ed stricken, sraitten of God, and afflicted. He was wounded
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities ; the
chastisement of our peace was laid upon him. The Lord laid
upon him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and af
flicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a
lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is
dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment. He was cut off out of the land
of the living ; for the transgressions of his people was he
stricken. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He put him
to grief;" Isa. Iiii. What was his whole life but the exer
cise of love and self-denial? He denied himself in love to

xxx PREFACE.
his Father, obeying him to the death, and pleasing hira in all
things. He denied himself in love to mankind, in bearing
our transgressions, and redeeming us from the curse, by be
ing made a curse for us ; Gal.iii. 13. " He made himself of
no reputation, and took upon him the forraof a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross ;" Phil.ii.6— 8. And this
he did to teach us by his example, to deny ourselves, to " be
likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of
one mind, that nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
but in lowliness of mind, that each esteem the others better
than themselves : looking not every man after his own mat
ters, but every man also afterthe things of others ; and thus
the sarae raind should be in us that was in Christ Jesus ;"
Phil. ii. 3 — 5. He denied himself also in obedient submis
sion to governors. He was subject to Joseph and Mary ;
Luke V. 51. He paid tribute to Caesar, and wrought a mi
racle for money rather than it should be unpaid ; Matt. xvii.
24 — 26. He disowned a personal worldly kingdom (John
xviii. 36.) ; when the peo])le would have made hira a king, he
avoided it (John vi. 16.) as being not a receiver but a giver
of kingdoms. He would not so much as once play the part
of a judge or a divider of inheritances, teaching men that
they must be justly made such, before they do the work of
magistrates ; Luke xii. 14. And his Spirit in his apostles
teacheth us the sarae doctrine ; Rom. xiii. lPet.ii.l3 — 17.
Ephes. vi. 1. 5. And they seconded his example by their
own that we might be followers of them, as they were of
Christ. What else was the life of holy Paul and the rest of
the apostles, but a constant exercise of love and self-denial ?
Labouring and travelling night and day, enduring the basest
usage from the world, and undergoing indignities and ma
nifold sufferings from unthankful men, that they might please
the Lord, and edify and save the souls of men ; and living
in poverty, that they might help the world to the everlasting
riches. In a word, as love is the fulfilling of the whole law
as to the positive part, so is selfishness the evil that stands
in contrariety thereto, even self-conceitedness, self-willed
ness, self-love and self-seeking ; and thus far self-denial is
the sum of our obedience as to the • terminus a quo :' and
Christ hath peremptorily determined in his Gospel, that " if

PREFACE. XXXI
any raan will come after hira, he must deny himself and take
up his cross and follow him :" and that whosoever will put
in a reserve, but for the saving of his life, shall lose it ; " and
whosoever will lose his life for his sake, shall find it ;" Matt,
xvi. 24, 25. And that he that doth not follow him, bearing
his cross, and that " forsaketh not all he hath for him, cannot
be his disciple ;" Luke xiv. 27. 33.
According to the nature of these holy rules and exam
ples, is the nature of the workings of the Spirit of Christ
upon the soul. He usually beginneth in shewing man his
sin and misery, his utter insufficiency to help himself, his
alienation from God, and enmity to him, his blindness and
deadness, his emptiness and nothingness, and then he bringa
him from himself to Christ, and sheweth him his fulness and
sufficiency, and by Christ he coraeth to the Father, and God
doth receive his own again. It is one half of the work of
sanctification, to cast ourselves from our understandings,
our wills, our affections, and our conversations ; lo subdue
self-conceitedness, self-willedness, self-love and self-seek
ing : to mortify our carnal wisdom, and our pride, and our
concupiscence, and our earthly members. And the olher
(and chiefest part) consisteth in setting up God where self
did rule ; that his wisdora may be our guide ; his will our
law, his goodness the chiefest object of our love, and his ser
vice the work and business of our lives. The Spirit doth
convince us that we are not our own, and have no power at
all to dispose of ourselves or any thing we have, but under
God as he commands us. It convinceth us that God is our
Owner and absolute Lord, and that as we are wholly his, so
we must wholly be devoted to hira, and prefer his interest
before our own, and have no interest of our own but what is
his, as derived frora hira, and subservient to him. Fear doth
begin this work of self-denial ; but it is love that brings us
up to sincerity.
The first state of corrupted man is a stale of selfishness
and servitude to his own concupiscence ; where pride and
sensuality bear rule, and have no more resistance than now
and then some frightening, ineffectual check.
When God is calling men out of this corrupted, selfish
state, he usually (or Oft at least,) doth call them into a state
of fear ; awakening them to see their lost condition, and
terrifying them by the belief of his threatenings, and the

XXXU PREFACE.
sense of his indignation; and making use of their self-love,
to cause them lo fly from the wrath to come, and to cry
out to the messengers of Christ, " What shall we do to
be saved ?"
Some, by these fears are bul troubled and restrained a
little while, and quickly overcoming them, settle again in
their selfish, sensual, senseless state. Some have the be
ginnings of holy love conjunct with fear (of whom more
anon). And some do, from this principle of self-love alone,
betake themselves to a kind of religious course, and forsake
the practice of those grosser sins that bred their fears, and
fall upon the practice of religious duties, and also with some
kind of faith do trust on the satisfaction and merits of Christ,
that by this means they may get some hopes that they shall
escape the everlasting misery which they fear. All this re
ligion, that is animated by fear alone, without the love of
God and holiness, is but preparatory to a state of grace ; and
if men rest here, il is bul a slate of hypocrisy or self-deceiv
ing religiousness : for it is slill the old principle of selfish
ness that reigns. Till love hath brought man up to God, he
hath no higlier end than himself.
The true mark by which these slavish professors and hy
pocrites may discern themselves, is this ; they do the good
which they*would not do, and the evil which they do not,
they would do. They had rather live a sinful life, if they
durst; and they had rather be excused from religious duties
(except that little outward part, which custom and their cre
dit engage them lo perform). They are but like the caged
birds, that though they may sing in a sunshine day, had ra
ther be at liberty in the woods. They love not a life of per
fect holiness, though they are forced to subrait to some kind
of religiousness, for fear of being damned. If they had their
freest choice, they had rather live in the love of the creature,
than in the love of God ; and in the pleasures of the flesh,
than in the holy course that pleaseth God.
The third state is the state of love : and none but this is a
state of true self-denial, and of justification and salvation.
When we reach to thi^ we are sincere ; we have then the
spirit of adoption, disposing us to go lo God as to a Father.
But this love is not in the same degree in all the sancti
fied. Three degrees of it we may distinctly observe. 1. Oft-
times in the beginning ofa true conversion, though the seed

PREFACE. XXXIU
of love is cast into the soul, and the convert had rather en
joy God, than the world, and had rather live in perfect ho
liness, than in any sin, yet fear is so active, that he scarce
observeth the workings ofthe love of God within him. He
is so taken up with the sense of sin and misery, that he hath
little sense of love to God, and perhaps may doubt whether
he hath any or none.
2. When these fears begin a little to abate, and the soul
hath attained somewhat of the sense of God's love to itself,
it loveth him more observably, and hath some leisure to think
of the riches of his grace, and of his infinite excellencies, and
attractive goodness, and not only to love him because he
loveth us, and hath been merciful to us, but also because he
is goodness itself, and we were made to love him. But yet
in this middle degree of love, the soul is much more fre
quently and sensibly exercised in minding itself than God,
and in studying its own preservation, than the honour and
interest of the Lord. In this slate it is, that Christians are
almost all upon the inquiry afler raarks of grace in thera
selves ; and asking, ' How shall I know that I have this or
that grace, and that I perform this or that duty in sincerity,
and that I ara reconciled to God, and shall be saved?' Which
are needful questions, but should not be more insisted on
than questions about our duty and the interest tif Christ.
In this state, though a Christian hath the love of God, yet
having much of his ancient fears, and self-love, and the love
of God being yet too weak, he is much more in studying his
safety than his duty ; and asketh oftener, ' How may I be sure
that I am a true believer?' than, ' Whatis the duty of a true
believer ?' There is yet too much of self in this religion.
3. In the third degree of love to God, the soul is ordi
narily and observably carried quite above itself to Gwd ; and
mindeth more the will and interest of God, than its own con
solation or salvation. Not that we must at any time lay by
the care of our salvation, as if it were a thing that did not
belong to us ; or that we should separate the ordinate love
of ourselves from the love of God, or set his glory and our
salvation in an opposition ; but the love of God, in this de
gree is sensibly predominant," and we refer even our own
s,alvation to his interest and will. In this degree, a Christian
is grown more deeply sensible he is not his own, but his
that raade him and redeemed him; and that his principal
VOL. XI. D

xxxiv PREFACE.
Study must not be for himself, but for God ; and that his own
interest is in itself an inconsiderable thing, in comparison ot
the interest of the Lord, and that rewarding us with conso
lation is God's part, and loving and serving him is ours (as
sisted by his grace) ; and that the diligent study and prac
tice of our duty, and the lively exercise of love to God, is
the surest way to our consolation.
In our first corrupt estate we are careless of our souls,
and are taken up with earthly cares. In our estate of pre
paration we are careful for our souls, but merely from the
principle of self-love. In our first degree of the state of
saving grace we have the love of God in us ; bul it is little
observed, by reason of the passionate fears and cares of our
own salvation, that most take us up. In our second degree
of holy love, we look more.sef^bly after God for himself,
bul so that we are yet most sensibly minding the interest of
our own souls, and inquiring afler assurance of salvation. In
our third degree of saving grace, we still continue the care
of our salvation and an ordinate self-love ; but we are sen
sible that the happiness of many, even of church and com
monwealth, and the glory of God, and the accomplishment
of his will, is incomparably more excellent and desirable than
our own felicity ; and therefore we set ourselves to please
the Lord,'and study what is acceptable to him, and how we
raay do him all the service that possibly we can, being con
fident that he will look to our felicity, while we look to our
duty ; and that we cannot be miserable while we are wholly
his, and devoted to his service. We are now raore in the
exercise of grace, when before we were more in trying whe
ther we have it : before we were wont to say, ' O that I were
sure that I love God in sincerity !' now we are more in these
desires ;• ' O that I could know and love hira more, and serve
hira better! that I knew raore of his holy will, and could
raore fully accomplish it ! And O that I were more ser
viceable to him ! And O that I could see the full prospe
rity of his church, and the glory of his kingdom !' This high
degree of the love of God, doth cause us to take ourselves as
nothing, and God as all ; and as before conversion we were
careless ofour souls, through ignorance, presumption or se
curity, and after conversion were careful of our souls,
through the power of convincing, awakening grace ; so now
we have somewhat above our souls (much more our bodies)

PREFACE. xxxv
to mind and care for : so that though still we must examine
and observe ourselves, and that for ourselves, yet more for
God than for ourselves : when we are mindful of God, he will
not be unmindful of us : when it is our care to please him,
the rest of our care we may cast on him, who hath promised
to care for us. Even when we suffer " according to his will,
we may commit the keeping of our souls to him in well do
ing, as to a faithful Creator ;" 1 Pet. iv. 19. And it is not
possible in this more excellent way (1 Cor. xii. 31.) to be
guilty of a careless neglect of our salvation, or of the want of
a necessary love to ourselves ; for the higher containeth the
lower, and perfection containeth those degrees tbatare found
in the iraperfect. This neglect of ourselves through the love
of God, is consequentially the most provident securing of
ourselves: this carelessness is the wisest care: this igno
rance of good and evil for ourselves, while we know the
Lord, and know our duty, is the wisest way to prevent the
evil. To be something in ourselves, is to be nothing ; but
if we be nothing in ourselves, and God be all to us, in him
we shall be something. Be not wanting to God, and I am
sure you cannot be wanting lo yourselves. He will reward
ifyou will obey.
I have shewed you hitherto the nature and necessity of
self-denial. O that I could next shew you the nations, the
churches, that are such indeed as I have described ! But
when I look into the world, when I look into the churches
of all sorts, and consider men of all degrees, my soul is even
amazed and melted into grief ; to think how far the most
forward professors are swerved from their holy rule and pat
tern ! O grievous case ! How rare are self-denying men !
Nothing in the world doth raore assure me that the number
that shall be saved are very few, when nothing is more evi
dent in Scripture, than that none but the self-denying shall
be saved ; and nothing more evident in the world, than that
self-denying men are very few. Would God but excuse men
in this one point, and take up with preaching and praying,
and numbering ourselves .with the strictest party, then I
should hope that many comparatively would be saved.
Would he give raen leave to seek themselves in a religious
way, and to be zealous only from a selfish principle, and
would he but abate men this self-denial and the superlative
love of God, I should hope true godliness were not rare.

xxxvi PREFACE.
But if self-denial be the mark, the nature of a saint, and this
as effected by the love of God, theiy alas, how thin are they
in the world ! And how weak is grace even in those fevv I
It is the daily grief of ray soul to observe how the world is
captivated to SELF ; and what sway this odious sin doth
bear among the most forward professors of religion ; and
how blind raen are that will not see it ; and that it hath so
far prevailed that few men lament it, or strive against it, or
will bear the most suitable remedy. Alas, when we have
prevailed with careless souls, to raind their salvation, to read
and pray, and hold communion with the godly, and seem
well qualified Christians, how few are brought to self-denial !
And how strong is self still in those few ! What a multi
tude that seem of the highest forra in zeal, and opinions, and
duties, delude themselves with a selfish kind of religious
ness ! And it grieveth ray soul to think, how little the raost
excellent means prevail, even with professors themselves,
against this sin ! What abundance of labour seemeth to be
lost, that we bestow against it ! When I have preached over
all these following serraons against it, (though grace hath
made them effectual with some, yet) selfishness still loo'much
bears sway in many that heard thera. O what a rooted sin
is this ! How powerful and obstinate ! Men that seem di
ligently to. hear, and like the serraon, and write it, and re
peat it when they come home, and coraraend it, do yet con
tinue selfish. And jthey that walk evenly and charitably
among us in all appearance, as long as they are smoothly
dealt with, when once they are but touched and crossed in
their self-interest, do presently shew that there is that with
in them which we or they before perceived not. It was
(doubtless) from too much experience of the selfishness
even of professors of religion, and of the successfulness of
temptations in this kind, that satan did tell God so boldly,
that Job would sin if he were but touched in his self-in
terest ; " Doth Job (saith he) fear God for nought ? Hast
thou not made an hedge aboul him, and about all that he
hath on every side ? Thou hast blessed the work of his
hands, and his substance is increased in the land : but put
forth thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will
curse thee lo thy face-;" Jobi.9 — 11. As if he should have
«aid, ' Glory not of Job or any of thy servants : it is not thee
but themselves that they seek : they serve thee but for their

PREFACE. X"XXVU
own commodity : it is self and not God that ruleth them,
and that they do all this for. Seem but to be their enemy,
and touch their self-interest, and cross them in their com
modity, that they may serve thee for nothing, and then see
who will serve thee.' This was the boast of satan against
the saints of the Most High, which hypocrites that encou
raged him hereto would have fulfilled ; and which God doth
glory in confuting ; and therefore he gives the devil leave to
try Job in this point, and putteth all that he hath into his
power ; ver. 12. And when satan by this succeeded not,
he yet boasteth that if he might but touch him more neajrly
in his self-interest, he doubted not to prevail. " Skin for
skin, yea all that a raan hath will he give for his life : put
forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and
he will curse thee to thy face ;" Job ii. 4, 5. This confi
dence had satan, even against such a servant of the Lord,
" That there was none like him in the earth, a perfect and
upright man, that feared God and eschewed evil ;" Job i. 8.
And though the power of grace in Job did sharae the boasts
of satan, yet how frequently doth he prevail with men that
seem religious ? How truly may we say of many among us,
' Now they seem godly, but let the limes turn, and godliness
undo them in the world, and then see whether Jhey will be
godly. Now they seem faithful to their pastors and bre
thren ; but give them a sufficient reward, and see whether
they will not play the Judas. Now they seem peaceable,
humble men ; but touch them in their self-interest, cross
them in their commodity or reputation by an injury, yea, or
by justice, or necessary reproof, and then see what they will
prove.' O that the devil could not truly boast of thousands
that by a few foul words, or by crossing their self-willedness,
he can make them speak evil of their neighbours, and fill
them with malice and bitterness against their truest friends !
O where are the men that maintain their love, and meekness,
and concord any longer than they are pleased, and their wills
and interests are complied with, or not much contradicted ?
Besides what I have raore largely spoken of this coramon
master, sin, in the following discourse, take notice here of a
few ofthe discoveries ofit.
1. Observe but the striving there is for command and
dignity, and riches, and this even among professors of reli
gion, and judge by this whether, they are self-denying men.

xxxviii PREFACE.
Who is it for but themselves that men make such a stir, for
offices and honours, and places of superiority ? Surely if it
were for the good of others, they would not be so eager and
so forward. We oannot perceive that their charity is so hot,
as to make thera' so arabitious to be serviceable to their
brethren. If that be it, let thera keep their service till it be
desired or much needed, and not be so eager to do men good
against their wills, and without necessity. As Greg. Mag.
saith of the rainistry, ' Si non ad elationis culpam, sed ad
utilitatem adipisci desiderat, prius vires suas cum eo quidem
subiturus onere metiatur ; ut et impar abstineat, el ad id
cum metu cui se sufficere existimat accedat.' Men use not
to be ambitious of duty or trouble. He that desireth go
vernment ultimately and principally for himself, desireth ty
ranny, and not a lawful government, whose ultimate end is
the common good. And will not the wrath of the King of
Kings be kindled without so rauch ado, or hell be purchased
at cheaper rates, than all the contrivance, cares and hazards
that ambitious men do draw upon themselves ? ' O ambitio,
(inquit Bernardus) ambienlium crux, quoraodo omnes tor
ques ? Omnibus places, nil aerius crucial, nil molestius in-
quietat, nil taraen apud raiseros raortales celebrius negotiis
ejus.' Wonderful! that such abundant warning taraeth not
these proud, aspiring minds ! They set up or admired them
but yesterday, whom they see taken down or despised to
day, and see their honour turned to scorn, and yet they imi
tate their folly ! They see the sordid relics of the most re
nowned conquerors and princes levelled with the dirt ; and
yet they have not the wit to take warning, and hurable thera
selves that they raay be exalted ! They know how death
will shortly use thera, and read of the terrors that pride and
ambition bring men to ; but all this doth not bring them to
their wits. When death itself comes, then they are as sneak
ing, shrinking worms as any ; and the worm of ambition that
fed "upon their hearts in their prosperity, doth breed a gnaw
ing worm in their consciences, which will torment them
everlastingly. But, (ut Juvenal,)
' ¦— Mors sola fatetur,
Quantula sunt hominum corpuscula.  '
This ' iErugo mentis,' as Ambrosecalls it, and * regnandi
dira cupido,' (ut Virgil,) doth keep men from knowing what

PREFACE. XXXIX
they know, and denieth them the use of their understand
ings. All former professions are forgotten ; repentings are
repented of ; the best parts are corrupted and sold to the
devil (as truly, as witches sell themselves, though not so
grossly), and men are any thing that self would have them
be, where the humour of ambition doth prevail, and this se
cret poison insinuateth itself into the mind : this ' subtile
malum (ut Bernard) secretum virus, pestis occulta, doli ar-
tifex, mater hypocrisis, livoris parens, vitiorum origo, tinea
sanctitatis, excaecatrix cordiura, ex remediis raorbos creans,
ex.medicina languorem generans.' The God of vengeance
that abhorreth the proud, and beholdeth them afar off, and
that did cast aspirers out of paradise, will shortly take these
gallants down, and lay thera low enough, and raake thera
wish they had denied theraselves.
2. Observe but raen's desire of applause, and their great
impatience of dispraise, and judge by this of their self-de
nial. Who is it that is angry with those that praise them,
yea, though they exceed their bounds, anjl ascribe more to
them than is due ? Saith Seneca, ' Si invenimus qui nos
bonos viros dicat, qui prudentes, qui sanctos, non sumus
modica laudatione contenti ; quicquid in nos adulatio sine
pudore congessit, tanquam debitum prehendimus : optimos
nos esse, sapientissimosque affirmantibus assentimus, quam
sciamus illos ssepe multa mentiri. Adea quoque indulgemus
nobis, ut laudari velimus in id, cui contraria maxime faci
mus.' Even proud men would be praised for humility, and
covetous raen for liberality, and fools for wisdom, and igno
rant men for learning, and treacherous hypocrites for since
rity and plain honesty ; and few of the best do heartily dis
taste their own commendations, or refuse any thing that is
offered them, though beyond desert. But if tbey think
they are lightly or hardly thought of, or hear of any that
speak against them, or dishonour them in the eyes of men,
you shall see how little they can deny themselves. O how
the hearts of many that seemed godly men, will swell against
thera that speak to their disparagement ! What uncharita
ble, unchristian deportment, will a little injury produce !
What bitter words ! What estrangedness, and division, if
not plain hatred, and reviling, and revenge ! Yea, it were
well (in comparison) if a due reproof, from neighbours or
from ministers (that are bound to do it by the Lord) would

^* PREFACE.

not draw forth this secret venom, and shew the world the
scarcity of self-denial. Let others speak never so well of
God, and of all good men, and be never so faithful and ser
viceable in the church, yet if they do but speak ill of them
(though it is like deservedly and justly), these selfish men
qannot abide them. By this you may perceive what interest
is strongest with them ; were they carried up from them
selves by the love of God, they would delight to hear the
praise of God, and of their brethren, and be afraid to hear
their own ; and say from their hearts, " Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto -Tis, but to thy name be the glory ;" Psal. cxv. 1. To
praise another may be our gain (in the discharge of a duty,
and exercise of love) ; but to be praised ourselves, is usually
our danger. Pride needeth no such fuel or bellows. ' Non
laudato, sed laudantibus prodest,' saith Augustin. ' Esse
humilem est nolle laudari in se : qui in se laudari appetit.
superbus esse convincitur.' Idem. It is the expectation of
these proud and selfish men, that tempteth raen to the odious
art of flattery, wljen they find it is the way lo please. And
when one is fiattering, and the other pleased with it, what a
foolish and sordid employment have they ? ' Et Vani sunt
qui laudantur, et mendaces qui laudant,' saith Augustin. It
IS God to whom the praise is due, whom we know we cannot
praise tpo much, whose praises we should love lo speak and
hear. ' In laude Dei est securitas laudis ; ut laudator non
timet, ne de laudato erubescat,' saith Augustin. We may
boldly praise him, of whom we are sure we never need to be
ashamed. It is God in his servants that we must praise, and
it IS only his interest in our own praise, that we must regard.
3. Observe but upon what account it is that most men's
affections are carried to, or against their neighbours, and
then judge by this of their self-denial. Even men that would
be accounted godly, do love or hate men according as their
self-interest commandeth them, more than accordincr to the
interest of Chnst. Let a man be never so eminentin holi
ness, and never so useful and serviceable in the church and
one that hath proved faithful in the greatest trials, if he do
but oppose a selfish man, and be thought by him to be against
him, he hateth him at the heart, or hath as base, contemp
tuous thoughts of him, as malice can suggest. He can as
easily nullify all his graces, and magnify his smallest infir
mities into a swarm of crimes, by a censorious mind and a

PREFACE.

xli

slanderous tongue, as if virtue and vice received their forra
and denorainations from the respect of men's minds and ways
to hira ; and all men were so far good or evil, as they please
him, or displease him ; and he expects that others should
esteera men such as he is pleased to describe or call them.
Let all the country be the witnesses of a raan's upright and
holy life, yea, let the multitude of the ungodly theraselves be
convinced of it, so far as that their consciences are forced
to bear witness of him, as Herod did of John, " Thathe was
a just man and a holy" (Mark vi. 20.) ; yet can the selfish hy
pocrite that is against him, blot out his uprightness wilh a
word, and make hira lo be proud, or false, or covetous, or
what his raalice pleases ; yea, raake him a hypocrite, as he
is indeed himself. No man can be good in their eyes that is
against them : or if he be acknowledged honest in the main,
it is mixed with exceptions and charges enough lo make hira
seera vile, while they confess hira honest : and if they ac
knowledge him a man, they will withal describe him to be
plaguy or leprous, that he shall ba thought not fit for hu
man converse. ' Such a man is an honest man (say they) ;
but he is a peevish, humorous, self-conceited fellow.' And
why so ? Because he is against some opinion or interest of
theirs. He is proud, because he presumeth to dissent from
them, or reprehend them. He raileth, every tirae he open
eth their errors, or telleth them of their misdoings. He is a
liar, if he do but contradict them, and discover their sins,
though it be with words of truth and soberness. In a word,
no person, no speeches, or writings, no actions can be just,
that are against a selfish man. ' In differences at law, his
cause is good, because it is his : and his adversary's is al
ways bad, because it is against him. In public differences
the side that he is on (that is for hira) is always right, let it
be never so wrong in the eyes of all impartial raen : the cause
is good that he is for, (which is always that which seeras for
hira) though it be undoubted treason and perfidious rebel
lion, accorapanied with perjury, murder and oppression : and
the cause must be always bad thatis against him ; and they
are the traitors, and rebels, and oppressors that resist hira.
His own murders are honourable victories, and other men's
victories are cruel and barbarous murders. All is naught
that is against themselves. They are affected to men accord
ing to their self-interest : they judge of them and their ac-

xlil PREFACE.
lions according as they do affect them : they speak of them,
and deal by thera, according to this corrupted judgraent.
But as for any that they imagine do love and honour
them, they can love them and speak tenderly of them, be
they what they will. A little grace or virtue in them, seem
eth much : and their parls seera excellent that indeed are
mean. If they drop inlo perjury, fornication, treason, or such
like scandalous sins, they have always a mantle of love to
cover them. Or if they blame them a little, they are easily
reconciled, and quickly receive them to their former honour.
If they have any thing like grace, il is easily believed to be
grace indeed, if they be bul on their side : if they have no
thing like grace, they can love them for their good natures,
but indeed it is for themselves.
When this self-love describeth any person, when il writ
eth histories or controversies about any cause or person that
they are concerned in, how little credit do they deserve !
Whence is it else that we have such contrary descriptions
of persons and actions in the writings of the several parties
as we find ? How holy, and temperate, and exceedingly in
dustrious a man was Calvin, if the whole multitude of sober,
godly men that knew hira may be credited ; or if we raay be
lieve his most constant, intimate acquaintance ; or if we raay
judge by his judicious, pious, nuraerous writings : and yet
if the Papists may be believed (contrary to the witness of a
Popish cily where he was bred), he was a stigmatized So
domite ; he was a glutton (that eat but once a day, and that
sparingly); he was an idle, fleshly man, (that preached
usually every day, and wrote so many excellent volumes) ;
and he died blaspheming and calling on the devil, (that is,
in longing and praying for his remove to Christ, crying
daily, 'How long. Lord! how long!') and how comes all
this inhuman forgery about ? Why one lying Pelagian apos
tate, Bolseck, wrote il, (whom Calvin had shaved for his
errors,) and a peevish Lutheran, Schlasselburgius, hath re
lated part of it from him ; and this is sufficient warrant for
the Papists, ordinarily to persuade their followers it is true,
and with seared consciences to publish it in their writings,
though Massonius and some other of the soberer sort, araong
theraselves, do sharae them for the forgery. So do they by
Luther, Beza, and many more.
Among ourselves here, how certainly and commonly is it

PREFACE. xliii
known to all impartial men acquainted with thera, that the
persons nicknaraed Puritans in England, have been (for the
most part) a people fearing God and studying a holy life, and
of an upright conversation ; so that the impartial did bear
them witness that in the scorner's mouth, a Puritan was one
that was, ' Integer vitee, scelerisque purus ;' and this was the
reason of their suffered scorn ; and that the name was the
devil's comraon engine in this land, to shame people from
reading and hearing sermons, and praying, and avoiding the
common sins, and seriously seeking their salvation. A Pu
ritan was one that " Believeth (unfeignedly) that God is :
and that he is a rewarder of thera that diligently i?eek him"
(Heb. ii. 6.) ; that strives to enter inal the straight gate, and
lives as men that believe that heaven is worth their labour,
and that God's kingdom and its righteousness should be first
sought ; Malt. vi. 33. And yet if Fitz Simon and other
Jesuits, and Bishop Bancroft, Dr. P. Heylin, Mr. Thoraas
Pierce ^, and other such among us are to be believed, what
an aborainable, odious sort of people are they (and especial
ly the Presbyterians, who are the greatest part of them), what
intolerable, hypocritical, bloody men ! And what is the rea
son of these accusations? Much is pretended; bul the sum
of all is, that they were in some things against the opinions
or interests of the persons that abuse them. The Jesuits
know that they were averse from their doctrines and prac
tices. The rest were angrv because some of them would be
excused from two or three ceremonies, and from vowing
obedience to the ceremony -makers. Yea, many of their ac
cusers think themselves injured, if not oppressed and per
secuted, as long as they are withheld from silencing, eject
ing or persecuting these, that would fain serve God accord
ing to his word, as the sufficient rule, and have nothing im
posed on them in matter of worship, but necessary things,
. e So common it is for selfish men to make their gainsayers as odious asthey can
devise, that I confess I wondered that I met with no more of this dealing myself from
Papists, Anabaptists, or any that have turned their style against me ; and at last
Mr. Pierce hath answered my expectation, and from my own confession (not know
ing me himself) hath drawn my picture, that Jam proud, lazy, false, a hypocrite, un
just, a reader, &c. And from this Bolseck's credit,! make no doubt but the Papists
will think they may warrantably describe me (if I be thought worthy their remem
brance) in all following ages ; though now I have nothing from them but good
woi'ds. But it is a small thing to be judged by man, especially when our souls
enjov the Lord

xliv .PREFACE.
according to the apostle's decree. Acts xv. 28. By all this
judge how rare self-denial is, when the interest of raen's own
opinions, persons or parties can cause such unchristian deal
ing from self-esteeming professors and preachers of the Gos
pel. Selfishness is the greatest liar, and slanderer, and the
most malicious calumniator in the world.
4. Observe but how light most raake of their own sins.
and how easily they aggravate the sins of others ; and how
light they make of the good that is in others, in coraparison
of that which is in themselves, or those that are of their side ;
and judge by this of their self-denial! Judah would have
judged Tharaar hardly ; but he was not so severe against
himself! David pronounceth very peremptorily the sentence
of death against the offender, till he heard frora Nathan,
" Thou art the raan." How hard is it to convince a selfish
hypocrite of any sin that will admit of an excuse or cloak !
All the town can see the pride of some, the covetousness of
others, the unpeaceable, unchristian behaviour of others, and
yet themselves, that should most observe it and best discern
it, perceive il not, nor will by any means be brought to see
it. No minister can put them down when they are justify
ing themselves, nor make them humbly and heartily confess
that they have sinned. (But God will ere long convince
them irresistibly, and teach their tongues another kind of
language.) Let the case of another come before them, an4
how readily will they adjudge hira to penitent confession,
reparation, restitution, and , thorough reforraation ; but the
ease is altered when it becoraes their own. Such incompe
tent judges are these selfish hypocrites.
5. Observe but how easily men fall out with one another,
and how hardly they are reconciled, and how much ado any
peacemaker shall have to end the difference ; and observe
also whether all the quarrel be not about some selfish in
terest, and judge by this of their self-denial. When do
they so fall out with raen for wronging God, or the Gospel,
or their own souls, as they do for wronging thera ?
And ifa rainister that can bear an injury against hiraself
do faithfully rebuke thera that deal injuriously against Christ,
and against the church, and the souls of men (especially if
they be great men in the world that are reproved), itis strange
to see how self makes thera storra. though they have read
what a mark of rebellion and prognostic of misery it was.

PREPACK. . xlv
even in kings, to reject the reproofs of the messengers of the
Lord ; much more to hate or persecute the reprover.
6. Observe also how forward many are, unreasonably to
exalt their own understandings above those that are far, wiser
than theraselves ; and judge by this of their self-denial.
Though their brethren and teachers have studied, and prayed,
and sought after knowledge, ten or twenty times more than
they, and have as faithfully obeyed according to their know
ledge, and indeed be incomparably beyond them in under
standing, yet hovv coraraonly shall you meet with unstudied,
inexperienced novices (notably described, 1 Tim. iii. 6. vi. 4.)
of undigested notions, and green and raw apprehensions,
that are so puffed up with a litlle smattering, seeming know
ledge, that they despise both ministers and people that be
not of their mind, and vilify them as a sort of ignorant, de
luded men. And do they indeed excel us in knowledge as
much as they pretend ? O that they did ! that so we might
see the church furnished with wiser, better teachers, and
might ourselves have the privilege of being their . hearers,
and of being betier instructed by them ! But how evident
is it to all that have eyes that it is in pride and not in know
ledge that they excel ; and that all this' comes from the do
minion of self, and that they speak evil of the things they
know not! Jude 10.
7. Observe also, how far men are carried by the fond
overvaluing of their own opinions against all reason and
former promises, and against all bonds to God and raan, and
then judge of their self-denial. If once they feel a new ap
prehension, it tickleth thera with delight, as being an eleva
tion of their understandings above other raen's ; and as pa
rents are fond of their children, because they are their own,
so are the proud through the corruption of their rainds as
fond of an opinion which they call their own, if there be any
thing of singularity init to make them seem persons of more
than ordinary understanding. And when they are once pos
sessed of it how partially do they indulge it ! How light
do they make of the strongest arguments that are brought
against it ! How contemptuously do they think and speak
ofthe persons, the judgments, the writings, the reasonings,
of any that are against them ! Nay, usually they will notbe
persuaded so rauch as once to read the writings that con-
"tradict them ; or if they do, ilis with so rauch prejudice and

xlvi PREFACE.
partiality, that they have in their minds confuted thera, be
fore they read or understand them : and instead of consider
ing the weight of arguments, and comparing faithfully cause
with cause, they only study what to say against their adver
sary (for so they account those that would cross or confute
their opinions).
Nay, observe but what a change a new opinion makes
upon thera, in reference lo their forraer friends. How strange
do they look at them that cannot follow them in their fan
cies, though before they were their bosom friends; yet
without any change in theraselves, they have lost their in
terest in these changelings ; and though before they ho
noured and praised thera, yet all is changed when they them
selves are changed ; and their friends raust seera lo have
lost their wits and honesty (or never to have had any) as soon
as theraselves have lost their huraility and charily. How
much am I able to say of this from sad experience of the
change of many of my ancient friends ! Some of them are
changed lo a reproaching of the Scripture, church, and min
istry, and ordinances, and to a denying ofthe Christian faith ;
and these I have lost (for they have lost themselves) ; and
indeed these have constrained me to withdraw from them
my ancient love of complacency, though I have a love of
compassion to them slill. Others are secretly ensnared by
the Papists ; and these I have lost (though they seem to bear
me some respect). Others are changed to opinions which
they think meet to hide ; and these look strange at me,
especially since I wrote against these hiders. Others are
changed in the point of baptism ; and these are greatly
offended wilh me, for dissenting and giving the reasons of
my dissent. And what uncharitable dealings some of them
have been guilty of I shall not now express \ Some of them
have turned lo one opinion, and some lo another, and alraost
all that make these turns have left their charity behind them.
Some of them take up new causes in the commonwealth ;
and these are as angry with me as the rest, because I can
nol follow them in their changes. How raany ways hath a
raan to lose a selfish friend ! I was once beloved by all these
'' They waylaid the messengers that I sent letters by to friends, took them from
them by force, and sent them to Sir H. Vane, to the Council of State, to the trouble
of those I wrote to, though nothing was found but innocency. And this was by ray
old professed friends of Bewdley, who differed from mein nothing but infant baptisra,
and their changes of our governinent ; and yet thus studiously sought my utter ruin.

PREFACE. xlvii
men ; and now I am either hated or looked at as a stranger
(at least) ; when I am where I was when I had their love.
If I know my heart I speak not this in any great sense of
the loss of my own interest, but in the sense of the lament
able power and prevalency of self-love and self-conceited
ness in the world. And while I am bitterly censured by
alraost every party, how easily could I recover my interest
and reputation with any one of them, if I could but be of
their raind and side I How wise and how honest a rnan
could I be with the Anabaptists, if 1 would but be rebap
tized and turn to thera. And how rauch should I be valued
by the Papists if I would turn to thera. The like I raay say
of all the other forenamed parties ; for every one of them
have by word or writing signified so much lo me. Even
the Grotian prelatists would wipe their mouths and speak
me fairer if 1 could turn to them. Mr. Pierce himself, that
hath exceeded all men (in his lale book abounding with
visible falsehoods and unchristian abuse of the servants of
the Lord, whom he calleth Puritans) yet telleth me, p. 212.
* We contend for your fellowship, and daily pray for your
coming in ; if you, by name, should have occasion to pass
this way, and present yourselves with other guests, at the
holy supper of our Lord, no man on earth should be more
welcome; but if you and your partners will continue your
several separations, and shut yourselves out from our com
munion, as it were judging yourselves unworthy ofthe king
dom of God, and excommunicating yourselves,' &c.— See
here the power of selfishness ! A man that is painted out
as lazy, a reader, a proud hypocrite, and much more, should
be as welcome as any man on earth, if he will but have com
raunion with thera in their way ! How rauch more if he were
but of their party ! This would cure hypocrisy, pride, and
all these crimes. And till we can comply with them, we
¦ excoraraunicate ourselves, and judge ourselves unworthy
of the kingdom of God !' He that thinks that bishops
should not be, as now, diocesan, and undertake many hun
dred parishes, and then feed and govern thera by others ;
and he that subraits not to their raode. in a surplice, or sorae
forra of prayer, doth therefore judge himself' unworthy of
the kingdom of God ;' as if God's kingdom were confined
to them, and lay in meats and drinks, and not in righteous
ness and peace ! And as if we continued in an excommu-

xlviii PREFACE.
nication of ourselves, because we are not of their party ;
when yet we deny no Protestants to be our brethren, nor
refuse local coraraunion with them, so they will grant it us
on Scripture terms ; which if they will not, we will yet hold
communion with them in several congregations. But thus
it appeareth how strong self-interest is in the world ; and
how charitable men are to those of their own opinions or
parlies, and how easily many do take liberty to speak their
pleasure against any that are not of their mind.
8. Observe also how forward men are to teach, and how
backward to be learners, and then judge of their self-denial.
Why are so many unwilling to enter by the way of ordina
tion, but (too coramonly) because they judge better of their
own abiUties than ordainers do, and therefore suspect that
they may be rejected by the ordainers, or disgraced at the
least, while they think highly of theraselves. But if they
were self-denying men, they would think the sober, faithful
pastors much fitter judges of their abilities than themselves,
and would not run before they are sent. Many that re
proach the ministers as deceivers, will needs be themselves
the teachers of the people ; as if they should say, ' We (silly,
ignorant souls) are wiser and fitter lo be teachers than you ;
come down and let us take your places.' In conference you
may observe that most are forwarder to speak than to hear ;
which shews that they overvalue their own understandings.
And so much are proud men delighted to be thought the
oracles of the world, that if you will but seem to hearken to
them, and learn of them, and yield to their opinions, you
win their hearts, and shall be the men that have their com
mendations. Insomuch that some late ambitious persons
that have thought to rise by the art of dissiraulation, have
found that there is no way for the deceiving *of the people,
and procuring the goodwill of most, like this ; even to seem
of every man's opinion that they talk with, and to make
every sect and parly believe that they are their friends and
of their mind ; especially if you will seem to be changed by
their arguments, and give them the glory of your convictions
and illuminations, you "will then be the dearly beloved of
their hearts. In all this you may see the rarity of self-denial.
Yea, in the very work of God, too raany ofthe most zealous
godly ministers that have been the instrmaents of converting

PREFACE. xlix.
many souls, are touched a little with the temptation to this
selfishness, looking too much to their ^wn part in the work.
9. Observe but how commonly with men called Chris
tians, the interest of Christ is trodden in the dirt, when it
seemeth to cross any interest of their own. An argument
drawn from the commands of God, or the necessity of the
church or of the souls of men. seems nothing to them if their
honour, or gain, or greatness, or safety, do stand up against
it, and be inconsistent with its conclusion. Hence it is that
the souls of hypocrites do cheat themselves by a carnal re
ligiousness, serving God only in subservience to themselves.
Hence it is that hypocrites do^most shew themselves in
matters of selfrinterest ; in the cheap part of religion they
seem to be as good as any ; as zealous for their party and
opinions (which they call the truth) ; and as long and loud
in prayer, and for as strict a way of discipline with others ;
but touch them in their estates or names ; call thera to costly
works of charity, or to let go their right for peace, or public
good, or to confess and lament any sin that they commit,
and you shall then see that they are but common men, and
self bears rule instead of Christ. Hence also it is that so
many persons can bear with themselves in any calling op
trade of life that is but gainful, be it never so unjust, and
will not believe but it is lawful, because it is profitable ; for
they suppose that gain is godliness ; 1 Tim. vi. 6. Hence it
is that so many families will be so far religious as will stand
with their commodity, but no further ; yea. that so many
ministers have the wit to prove that most duties are to them
no duties, when they will cost them much labour or disho
nour in the world, or bring them under sufferings from men.
And hence it is that so many carnal politicians do in their
laws and counsels always prefer the interest of their bodies
before God's interest and men's souls; yea, some are so far
forsaken by coramon reason, and void of the love of God
and his church, as to maintain that magistrates in their laws
and judgments must let matters of religion alone ; as ifthat
self, even carnal self, were all their interest, and all their
God ; and as if they were of the profane opinion, ' Every
man for himself and God for us all ;' or as if they would
look to their own cause, and bid God look to his.
From the power of this selfishness it is that so many
princes and states turn persecutors, and stick not to silence,
VOL. XI. E

1 PREFACE.
banish (and some of the bloodier sort, to kill) the ministera
of Christ, when they So but think they stand cross to their
carnal interests ; and ifyou will plead the interest of Christ
and souls against theirs, and tell them that the banishment,
imprisonment, silencing or death of such or such a servant
ofthe Lord, will be injurious to many souls, and therefore
if they were guilty of death in some cases, they should re •
prieve them, as they do women with child, till Christ be
formed in the precious souls that they travail in birth with
(so their lives be not raore hurtful by any contrary raischief,
which death only can restrain, which is not to be supposed
of sober men) ; yet all this seems nothing to a selfish per
secutor, that regards not Christ's interest in coraparison of
his own. Self is the great tyrant and persecutor of the
church. 10. Observe also how few they be that satisfy their souls
in God's approbation, though they are misjudged aind vilified
by the world ; and how few that rejoice at the prosperity of
the Gospel, though themselves be in adversity ; most men
will needs have the hypocrite's reward. Matt. vi. 2., even
some coraraendation from men ; and too few are fully pleased
with His eye that seeth in secret, and will reward them
openly ; Matt. vi. 4. 6. And hence it is that injurious cen
sures and hard words do go so near them, and they make so
great a matter of them. Those times do seem best to selfish
raen which are most for them ; if they prosper and their party
prosper, though raost of the church should be a loser by it,
they will think that it is a blessed time ; but if the church
prosper, and not they, but any suffering befal them, they
take on as if the church did stand or fall with them. Self-
interest is their measure, by which they judge of times and
things. 11. Observe also how eagerly raen are set to have their
own wills take place in public businesses, and to have their
own opinions to be the rule ofthe church and coramonwealth,
and then judge by this of their self-denial. Were not self
predominant there would not be such striving who should
rule, and whose will should be the law ; but men would
think that others were as likely to rule with prudence and
honesty as they. How eager is the Papist to have his way
by an universal monarch ! How eager are others for one
ecclesiastical national head ! How eager are the popular

PREFACE. li
party for their way ! As if the welfare of all did lie in their
several modes of government. And so confidently do the
Libertines speak for theirs, that they begin now to make
motions that our parliaraent-raen shall be hanged or beheaded
as traitors, if any should raake a motion in (a free) parlia
raent against the general liberty which they desire. Won
derful ! that raen should ever grow to such an overpowering
of themselves and overvaluing their own understandings, as
to obtrude so palpable and odious a wickedness upon par
liaments so confidently, and to take thera for traitors that
will not be traitors or grossly disobedient against the Lord.
Self-denial would cure these pereraptory demands, and
teach men to be more suspicious of their own understand
ings. 12. Lastly, Observe but how difficult a thing it is to
keep peace(asin families and neighbourhoods) so in churches
and commonwealths, and judge by this of men's self-denial.
Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, masters and ser
vants, live at variance, and all through the conflicts that
arise between their contraiy self-interests. If a beast do
but trespass on a neighbour's grounds; if they be but as
sessed for the state or poor above their expectations ; if in
any way of trading their commodity be crossed ; you shall
quickly see where self bears rule. This makes it so difficult
a work to keep the churches from divisions. Few men are
sensible ofthe universal interest, because they are captivated
to their own ; and therefore it is that men fear not to raake
parties and divisions in the church ; and will tear it in pieces
to satisfy their interests or selfish zeal. Hence it is that
parties are so much multiplied, and keep up the buckler
against others, because that selfishness makes all partial.
Hence it is that people fall off from their pastors, or else
fall out with them, when they are crossed in their opinions,
reproved for their sins, or called to confess or raake restitu
tion, and perhaps that they raay sacrilegiously defraud the
church of tithes or other payments that are due. Hence it
is also that members so often fell out with one another for
foul words, or differences of judgment, or some point
or other of self-interest ; nay, sometiraes about their
very seats in the place of worship : while every raan is for
himself, the ministers can hardly keep them in charity and
peace.

lii PREFACE.
And is any of this agreeable to our holy rule and pat
tern ? No raan can think so that hath read tbe Gospel, but
he that is so blinded by selfishness as not to understand what
makes against it. And here besides what is more largely
spoken after, let me tell of a few of the evils of this sin, and
the contrary benefits of self-denial.
1. The power of selfishness keeps men strangers to
themselves ; they know not their original nor actual sins
with any kindly humbling knowledge. The very nature of
original sin doth consist in these two things, Privatively, in
the want of our original love or propensity to God as (Jod ;
I mean the privation of the root, or habit, or inclination to
love God for himself, as the beginning or end of us and all
things, and the absolute Lord, and infinite, simple, inestima
ble good. And positively, in the inordinate propensity or
inclination to ourselves, as for ourselves, and not as duly
subordinate to God. The soul having unfaithfully and re
belliously withdrawn itself from God, in point of love and
subjection, it becomes its own idol, and looks no higher
than itself, and loveth God and all things but for itself (and
principally for its carnal pleasure) ; and the propensity to
this, with the privation of the soul's inclination to God, is
original sin ; the disposition suited to the actual sin that
caused it, which was a retiring from God to self. He that
feeleth not this evil in hiraself hath no true knowledge of
original sin : and it is the want of the sense of this great
evil (and so the want of being acquainted wilh their hearts)
that causeth so raany to turn Pelagians, and to deny the
being of original sin.
2. Both selfishness and the want of a true discernment
of it, doth breed and feed abundance of errors, and teach
men to corrupt the whole body of practical divinity, and to
subvert many articles of faith which stand in their way.
How comes the world to be all in a flame about the universal
reign of th^ pope of Rome, but from the dominion of selfish
ness ? Whence is it that the nations of the earth have been
so troubled for patriarchs, metropolitans and diocesahs that
must do their work by others, and for many things that (at
best) can pretend to be but human, indifferent, changeable
forms, but frora the prevalency of self? Whence is it that
raen's consciences have been ensnared, and the churches
troubled by so many cereraonies of men's invention, and the

PREFACE. Hii
church must rather lose her most faithful pastors, than they
be permitted to worship God as Peter and Paul did ; hath
not selfishness and pride done this? It is self that hath
taught some to plead too much for their own sufficiency,
and to deny the need of special grace. And so far hath it
prevailed with some of lale, as to lead thera doctrinally to
deny that Grod is the ultimate End of man, and to be loved
for himself, and above ourselves and all things ; but only
{they say) he is our 'finis cujus vel rei' to be loved ' amore
concupiscenliEe.' In a word, it is this woful principle that
hath corrupted doctrine, discipline and worship in so many
of the churches.
3. We shall never have peace in church or coramonwealth
while selfishness bears sway. Every man's interest will be
preferred before the public interest, and rise against it as oft
(which will be ofl) as they seem inconsistent. This is the
vice that informeth tyranny, whether it be monarchy, aris
tocracy or democracy, when selfish interest is preferred be
fore the -common interest. This makes our people too wise
or too good to learn or to be guided by their pastors, and
•every man {of this strain) seems wise enough jto. lead offa
party of the church into a mutiny against the pastors and
the rest. This makes the labours of reconcilers unsuccess
ful, while selfishness engageth so many wits, and tongufis,
and pens, and parties, against the most ne,cessary equal terras
and endeavours of such as would reconcile. Were it not for
these selfish men, how soon would all our rents be healed ;
how soon would all our wars be ended ; and all our heart
burnings and malicious oppositions be lurned inlo charitable
consultations for a holy peace ! If once men were carried
above themselves, they would meet in God the centre of
unity. 4. It is for want of self-denial that we undergo so many
disappointments, and suffer so much disquietment and vex
ation. Were our wills more entirely subjected to the will
of God, so that his will were preferred before our own, we
should rest in his will, and have no contradictory desires to
be disappointed, and no matter left for self-vexation. Had
we no disease we should feel no pain ; and it is our self-will
rebelling against the will of God that is our disease. Self-r
denial removeth all the venom from our hearts : persecution,
and poverty, and sickness may touch our flesh, but th§

liv PREFACE.
heart is fortified so far as we have this grace. O how hap
pily doth it quiet and calra the mind, when things befal us
' that would even distract a selfish man ! O happy man
where God is all and self is nothing ! There duty, and love,
and joy are all, and trouble and distress is nothing. These
are not our matters now ; partly because we are above them,
and partly because they belong not to our care, but to his
providence. Let us do our duty and adhere to him, and let
him dispose of us as he sees meet. Who would much fear
a tyrant or any othSr enemy, that saw God and glory, whicli
faith can see ? Did we see the glorious throne of Christ,
we should be so far from trerabling at the bar of persecutors,
that we should scarce so rauch regard them as to answer
them ; the infinite glory would so potently divert our minds.
As we scarce hearken to our children's irapertinent bab
blings when we are taken up with great affairs, so if a tyrant
talk to us of hanging or iraprisonment, we should scarce
hearken to such trivial irapertinencies, were we so far above
ourselves as faith and love should advance the soul.
I have further shewed you in the following treatise, how
self-denial disableth all teraptations ; how it conduceth to
all eminent works of charity, but especially to the secret
works of the sincere. It is of absolute necessity to salva
tion : it is the thing that hypocrites are condemned for want
of: il is the wisdom of the soul, as being the only way to
our own security : and it is the holiness and justice of the
soul (as it is conjunct with the love of God), in that it res
toreth to God his own. The excellency of grace is raanifested
in self-denial. To do or suffer such little things as self is
not much against, is nothing ; bul to be nothing in ourselves
and God to be our all, and to close wilh our first and blessed
end, this is the nature of sanctification.
Alas, poor England (and more than England, even all
the Christian world), into what confusion and misery hath
selfishness plunged thee ! Into how many pieces art thou
broken, because that every hypocrite hath a self to be his
principle and end, and forsakes the true universal end!
How vain are our words lo rulers, to soldiers, to rich and
poor, while we call upon them to deny theraselves ! And
must we lose our labour ? and raust the nation lose its peace
and hopes ? Is there no reraedy, but selfishness must undo
all? If so, be it known to you, the principal loss shall be

PREFACE. Iv
your own : and in seeking your safety, liberty, wealth and
glory, you shall lose thera all, and fall into misery, slavery
and disdain. Deny yourselves, or save yourselves, if you
can. God is not engaged to take care of you, or preserve
you, if you will be your own, and will be reserving or saving
yourselves frora him. And though you may seem to pros
per in self-seeking ways, they will end, yea.' shortly end in
your confusion. You have seen of late years in this land,
the glory of self-seekers turned to shame ; but it is greater
shame that is out of sight. The word and works of God
have warned you. If yet the cause and church of God shall
be neglected, and yourselves and your own affairs preferred,
and men that shall not be tolerated to abuse you, shall be
tolerated to abuse the souls of men, and the Lord that raade
thera ; and if God must be denied because you will not deny
yourselves, you shall be denied by Christ in your great ex
tremity, when the reraerabrance of these things shall be your
torraent. Hearken and amend, or prepare your answer ; for
behold the Judge is at the door.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.

IXIKE IX. 23, 24.
And he said fo them all, If any man will come afler me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me : for whosoever
will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for
my sake, the same ^all save it.

CHAPTER I.
What Se^shness and Self-denial are, at the root.
I HAVE already spoken of Conversion in a foregoing dis
course, both opening to you the true nature of it, and the
reasons of its necessity, and persuading men thereunto. But
lest so great a work should miscarry with any for want of a
more particular explication, I should next open the three
great parts of the work distinctly and in order i that is, I.
From what it is thatwe must tum. II. To whom we must
turn. III. And by whom we must turn. For though I
touched all these in the foregoing Directions, and through
the discourse, yet I am afraid lest so brief a touch should be
ineffectual. The first of these I shall handle at this time from this
text, meddling with no more but what is necessary to our
present business.
You may easily see that the doctrine which Christ here
proclaimeth to all that have thoughts of being his followers,
is this, that, ' All that will be Christians must deny them
selves, and take up their cross and follow Christ, and not

58 TREATISE OF SELF DENIAL.
reserve so muchas their very lives, but resolve to resign up
all for him.'
Self-denial is one part of true conversion ; for the open
ing of this I must shew you,
I. What is raeant by self.
II. And what by denying this self.
III. Andthe grounds and reasons ofthe point.
And IV. I shall briefly apply it.
I. 1. Self is soraetiraes taken for the very person, con
sisting of the soul and body siraply considered ; and this is
ca.lled natural or personal self. 2. Self is taken for this
person considered in its capacity of earthly comforts, and in
relation to the present blessings ofthis world, that tend to
the prosperity of man as in the flesh ; and this may be called
earthly self (yet in an innocent sense). 3. Self is taken for
the person as corrupted by inordinate sinful sensuality ;
which may be called carnal self. 4. Self may be taken for
the person in his sanctified estate ; which is spiritual self.
5. And self may be taken for the person in his naturals and
spirituals conjunct, as he is capable of a life of everlasting
felicity ; which is the immortal self.
II. By denying self, is meant disclaiming, renouncing,
disowning and forsaking it. Self is here partly as a party
disjunct from Christ, and withdrawn from its due subordina
tion to God, and partly as his competitor and opposite ; and
accordingly it is to be denied, partly by a neglect, and
partly by an opposition.
Before I come to tell you how far self must be denied, I
must tell you wherein the disease of selfishness doth con
sist ; and for brevity we shall dispatch thera both together.
And on the negative, 1. To be a natural individual per
son distinct from God our Creator, is none of our disease,
but the state we were created in ; and therefore no man
must under pretence of self-denial either destroy himself, or
yet with some heretics aspire to be essentially and perso^
nally one with God, so that their individual personality
should he drowned in him as a drop is in the ocean.
2. The disease of selfishness lieth not in having a body
that is capable of tasting sweetness in the creature, or in
having the objects of our sense in which we be delighted,
nor yet in all actual sweetness and delight in them ; nor in
a simple love of life itself; for all these a^e the effects of-the

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 59
Creator's will. And therefore this self-denial doth not con
sist in a hatred or disregard of our own lives, or in a destruc
tion of our appetites or senses, or an absolute refusal to
please them in the use of the creatures which God hath
given us.
3. Yea, though our natures are corrupted by sin, self-
denial requireth not that we should kill ourselves, and des
troy our human natures that we raay thereby destroy the sin.
Self-murder is a most heinous sin, which God condemneth.
4. Our spiritual self, or self as sanctified, must notbe so
denied as to deny ourselves to be what we are, or have what
we have, or do what we do. We may not deny God's graces,
nor deny that they are in us as the subject, nor raay we res
train the holy desires which God exciteth in us, or deny to
fulfil them, or bring thera towards fruition when opportunity
is offered us.
5. We may not deny to accept of any mercy which God
shall offer us, though but a comraon creature : nor to use
any talent for his service if he choose us for his stewards ;
much less may we refuse any spiritual mercy that may fur
ther our salvation. It is not the self-denial required by
Christ, that we deny to be Christians, or to be sanctified by
the Spirit, or to be delivered from our sins and enemies ; or
that we deny to use the means and helps offered us, or lo
accept of the privileges purchased by Christ ; much less to
deny our salvation itself, and to undo our own souls. In a
word, it is not any thing that is really and finally to our hurt
and loss.
But (as to the affirmative) I shall shew you what the dis
ease of selfishness indeed is, and so what self-denial is.
1. When God had created man in his own image, he gave
him a holy disposition of soul, which might incline him to
his Maker as his only felicity and ultimate end. He made
him to be blessed in the sight of his glory, and in the ever
lasting love of God, and delight in hira, and praises of hira.
This excellent employment and glory did God both fit him
for, and set before him.
But the first temptation did entice him to adhere to an
inferior good, for the pleasing of his flesh and the advancer
ment of himself to ,a carnal kind of felicity in himself, that
he might be as God, knowing good and evil. And thus raan
was suddenly taken with the creature as a raeans to the

60 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
pleasing of his carnal self, and so did depart from God his
true felicity, and retired into himself in his estimation, affec
tion and intention ; and delivered up his reason in subjec
tion to his sensuality, and raade hiraself his ultimate end.
With this sinful inclination are we all born into the
world, so that every man according to his corrupted nature
doth terminate his desires in hiraself; and whatever he raay
notionally be convinced of to the contrary, yet practically
he makes his earthly life and the advancement and pleasure
which he expecteth therein, to be his felicity and end.
Self-denial now is the cure of this : it carrieth a man from
himself again, and sheweth hira that he never was raade to
be his own felicity or end ; and that the flesh was not raade
to be pleased before God ; and that it is so poor, and low,
and short a felicity, as indeed is but a name and shadow of
felicity ; and when it proceeds to that, a mere deceit. It
sheweth him how unreasonable, how impious and unjust il
is, that a creature, and such a creature, should terminate
his desires and intentions in himself: and this is the prin
cipal part of self-denial.
2. As God was man's ultimate end in his state of inno
cency, so accordingly man was appointed to use all creatures
in order to God, for his pleasure and glory. So that it was
the work of man to do bis Maker's will, and he was to use
nothing but with this intention.
Bul when man was fallen from God to hiraself, he after
wards used all things for himself, even his carnal self; and
all that he possessed was become the provision and fuel of
his lusts ; and so the whole creation which he was capable
of using, was abused by hira to this low and selfish end, as
if all Ihings had been raade but for his delight and will.
But when man is brought to deny himself, he is brought
to restore the creatures to their former use, and not to sacri
fice them to his fleshly mind ; so that all that he hath and
useth in the world, is used to another end (so far as he de-
nyeth himself) than formerly it was ; even for God and not
himself. 3. In the state of innocency, though man had naturally
an averseness from death and bodily pains, as being natural
evils, and had a desire of the welfare even of the flesh itself:
yet as his body was subject to his soul, and his senses to his
reason, so his bodily ease and welfare was to be esteemed

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 61
and desired, and sought, but in a due subordination to his
spiritual welfare, and especially to his Maker's will. So that
though he was to value his life, yet he was much more lo
value his everlasting life, and the pleasure and glory of his
Lord. But now when man is fallen from God to himself, his
life and earthly felicity is the sweetest and dearest thing to
hira that is. So that he preferreth it before the pleasing of
God, and everlasting life ; and therefore he seeketh it more,
and holdeth it faster, as long as he can, and parteth with it
more unwillingly. As innocent nature had an appetite to
the objects of sense, but corrupted nature hath an enraged,
greedy, rebellious and inordinate appetite to them, so inno
cent nature had a love to this natural, earthly life, and the
comforts ofit; but corrupted nature hath such an inordinate
love to them, as that all things else are made subordinate to
them and swallowed up in this gulf; even God hiraself is
so far loved as he befriendeth these our carnal ends, and
furthereth our earthly prosperity and life.
But when men are brought to deny themselves, they are
in their measures restored to their first esteem of life, and all
the prosperity and earthly comforts of life. Now they have
learned so to love them, as to love God better ; and so to
value them, as to prefer everlasting life before them ; and so
to hold them and seek their preservation as to resign them
to the will of God, and to lay thera down when we cannot
hold them with his love, and to choose death in order to life
everlasting, before that life which would deprive us of it.
And this is the principal instance of self-denial which Christ
giveth us here in the text, as it is recited by all the three
Evangelists that recite these words, " He that saveth his life
shall lose it," Sic, and, " What shall it profit a man to win
all the world, and lose his soul?" By these instances it
appears, that by self-denial, Christ doth mean a setting so
light by all the world and by our own lives, and consequently
our carnal comfort in these, as to be willing and resolved to
part with them all, rather than with him and everlasting life ;
even as Abraham was bound to love his son Isaac, but yet
so to prefer the love and will of God, as to be able to sacri
fice his son at God's comraand.
And the Lord Jesus himself was the liveliest pattern to
us of this self-denial that ever the world saw ; indeed his

()1 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
whole life was a continued practice of it. And it hath oft
convinced me that it is a special part of our sanctification,
when I have considered how abundantly the Lord hath exer
cised himself in it for our exaraple. For as it is desperate
to think with the Socinians that he did it only for our ex
araple, so it is also a desperate error of others, to think that
it was only for satisfaction to God. and not at all for our ex
ample. Many do give up themselves to flesh-pleasing upon
a raisconceit that Christ did therefore deny his flesh to pur
chase thera a liberty to please theirs ; as in his fasting and
temptations, and his sufferings by the reproach and ingrati
tude of men, and the outward poverty and meanness of his
condition, the Lord was pleaded to deny himself, so especi
ally in his last passion and death. As I have shewed else
where, he loved his natural life and peace : and therefore in
manifestation of that he prayeth, " Father, if it be thy will,
let this cup pass frora rae :" but yet when it came to the
comparative practical act. he proceeded to choose his
Father's will wilh death, rather than life without it, and
therefore saith, " Not ray will (that is, my simple love of life)
but thy will be done." In which very words he manifesteth
another will of his own besides that which he consenteth
shall not be done, and sheweth that he preferred the pleasing
of his Father in the rederaption of the world before his own
life. And thus in their raeasure he causeth all his members
to do ; so that life, and all the comforts of life, are not so
dear to them as the love of God and everlasting life.
4. When God had created man he was presently the
owner of him, and raan understood this, that he was God's
and not his own ; and he was not to claim a property in
himself, nor to be affected to hiraself as his own, nor to live
as his own, but as his that raade hira.
But when he fell from God, he arrogated practically
(though notionally he raay deny it) a property in hiraself,
and useth hiraself accordingly.
And when Christ bringeth men to deny themselves, they
cease to be their own in their conceits any more : then they
resign themselves wholly to God as being wholly his. They
know they are his both by the right of creation and of re
demption ; and therefore are to be disposed of by him, and
to glorify him in body and spirit which are his ; 1 Cor. vi.
19.20. Rom. xiv; 9. To be thus heartily devoted to God

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 63
as his own, is the form of sanctification : and to live as
God's own, is the truly holy life.
5. As man in innocency did know that he was not his
own, so he knew that nothing that he had was his own, but
that he was the steward of his Creator, for whoni he was to
use them, and to whora he was accountable.
But when he was fallen from God to hiraself, though he
had lost the right of a servant, yet he graspeth at the crea
ture, as if he had the right of a lord : he now takes his goods,
his lands, his raoney to be his own ; and therefore he thinks
he may use them for himself, and give God only some small
contribution, lest he should disturb his possession : he saith
as the impious ones, Psal. xii. 4., "Our lips are our own,
who is Lord over us ?" Though all of them know specula
tively that all is God's, yet practically they lake it and use
it as their own.
But when grace teacheth thera to deny themselves, it
strippeth them naked of all that they seemed proprietors of,
and maketh thera confess that nothing is their own, but all
is God's, and to God they do devote it, and use il for him,
and give hira his own ; which the first Christians signified
by selling all and laying at the apostles' feet. And there
fore he asketh God what he shall do with it, and how he
shall use it ; and if God take it from him, he can bless the
name of the Lord wilh Job (Job i. 21.), as knowing he taketh
bul his own ; and can say with Eli, " It is the Lord, let him
do what seemeth him good ;" 1 Sara. iii. 18. He knows that
God may do with him as he list (Matt. xx. 15.), and that he
can have nothing but of his bounty: and therefore that it is
his mercy that leaveth him any thing ; but it. were no wrong
to him if he took away all. And thus he understandeth that
he is but a steward, and therefore must use all that he hath
for him that he received it from. If he have children, his
desire is to know which way they may be most serviceable
to God ; and to thathe will devote them. If he have wealth,
or honour, and power among men, his care is lo know which
way he may employ thera for his Master's use, and so he
will employ them. If he have wit and learning, his care is
to serve God by it. If he have strength and tirae, he is
thinking which way to iraprove them for his Lord. And if
vain companions, or the world, or fleshly delights would
draw him to lay them out for them, he reraerabers that this

64 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
were to waste his Master's stock opon his enemies. So that
though the sanctified man hath all things, yet he knows
that be hath nothing. All things are his as God's steward,
but nothing is properly and ultimately his own. All things
are his for^God ; but nothing ia bis for his carnal self, nor
ultimately for his personal or natural self. Upon this ground
he gives the devil, the world and the flesh a denial when
they would have his time, his tongue,, his wit, his wealth, or
any thing that he possesseth: he telleth them, ' They are
none of mine, but God's ; I received them, and I must be
accountable for them. I had them not from you, and there
fore I may not use them for you : I must give to God the
things that are God's : that which is yours I will readily
yield you. Justice requireth that every one have his own.'
And thus self-denial doth take off the sanctified from giving
that tvhich is God's unto themselves.
Object. ' But do we not lawfully use his mercies for our
selves? Are not our meat, and drink, and clothes, and
houses, and goods our own, and may we not use them for
ourselves ?'
Answ. Improperly they are our own : so far our own,
as that our fellow-servants may not take them frora us with
out our Lord's consent : as every servant may have a pecu
liar stock entrusted in his hands, or may have his tools to
do his work with, which indeed are his Master's, but are his
to use. But as to a strict property they are none of ours,
but God is the only Proprietary of the world.
And for the use of thera. it may be for ourselves in sub
ordination to God, but never ultimately for ourselves. We
may not use one creature but ultimately and principally for
God. When we eat or drink we raust never raake the pleas
ing ofour appetite our end, but must do it to strengthen,
and cheer, and fit ourselves for the service of God ; and
therefore we must first ask God and not our appetite, what
and how much we raust eat and drink : and we must no fur
ther please our appetite, than the pleasing of it doth fit us
for the service of God. It is the express coramand, 1 Cor,
X.31., "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do
all to the glory of God." You may not wear your clothes
merely and ultimately for your bodies, but only to fit your
bodies for God's service ; and therefore you must advise with
his word, and wilh your end what you should put on. You

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 66
may not provide a house to dwell in, nor friends, nor riche.^,
nor any thing else for the pleasing of your flesh, as your
ultimate end, but for the service of your Lord. For you
must " put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provi
sion for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof;" Rora. xiii. 14.
6. As raan had his being aud wellbeing frora God, so is
il God only that can preserve and continue them. Innocent
man understood this, and therefore lived in a dependance
upon God; looking to his hand for the supply of his wants,
and casting all his care upon him, and trusting hira wholly
with hiraself and all, and not distracting his own mind with
cares and distrustful fears, but quieted and contented his
mind in the wisdora, goodness and all-sufficiency of God.
But when man was fallen to himself from God, he desired
presently to have his portion or stock in his own hands, and
grew distrustful of God, and began to look upon himself as
his own preserver (in a great measure), and therefore he fell
to carking and caring for himself, and to studious contri
vances for his own preservation and supplies. He searched
every creature for hiraself, and laboured to find in it some
good for himself, as if the care of himself had wholly de
volved on himself. I have been as much troubled to under
stand that text in Gen. iii. 22. asany one almost in the Bible,
being somewhat unsatisfied with some ordinary expositions ;
and yet it is too hard for me. But this seeras to rae the raost
probable interpretation ; that in his estate of innocency,
Adam was as a child in his Father's house, that was only to
study lo please his Father, and to do the work that he com
manded him, but not to take any thought or care for himself,
for while he was obedient, ilwas his Father's part to preserve
him and provide for him, to keep off death and danger, and
supply all his wants. And therefore though raan had the
faculty or power of knowing more perfect than we have now,
yet he did not need to trouble hiraself about these raatters
of self, because they belonged to God; and consequently
had not the actual consideration or knowledge of them, for
that would have been but a vain and troublesome knowledge
and consideration to him ; for though the knowledge of all
things necessary to be known, was part of his perfection,
yet the actual knowledge of many things unnecessary and
vexatious or tempting, may be part of a man's infeUcity and
misery ; and so " he that increaseth knowledge increaseth
VOL. XI. F

Q6 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
sorrow;" Eccl. i. 18. As raan that foreknoweth his own
death, is through the fear of it all his lifetime subject to
bondage (Heb.ii. 15.), and the fear is more grievous than the
death itself, when a beast that knoweth nothis death is freed
from those fears. Indeed in our fallen estate there is some
use for more ofthis kind of knowledge than before : but in
innocency raan needed only to know his Maker, and his will
and works, and the creature as his utensils, and the glftss in
which he was to be seen, and to fear with raoderation the
death which he had threatened, merely as threatened by him.
Bul by the templation of satan man grew desirous to be past
a child, at his Father's finding, and under his care, and would
take care and thought for himself, and know what was good
or evil for hiraself as to the natural raan ; and so far turned
his eye to the creature to study it for hiraself, when he
should have studied God in it ; and to search afler good and
evil to hiraself in it, while he should have searched afterthe
attributes of God in it, and daily gazed wilh holy love and
adrairation upon his blessed face that shined in this glass :
and so he would use the creature directly for hiraself, which
he shonld have used only for God's service. And thus I
conceive raan did indeed by his fall attain to much more
actual knowledge as to the number of objects than he had
before ; which knowledge was indeed in itself considered
physically good, but not good to him as any part of his
felicity or his virtue, but rather by participation his sin and
misery, as being unsuitable to his condition. It was better
wilh him when he knew one God, and all things in God, as
they conduced to the love and service of God, and were
suitable to bis state, than when he turned his mind from
God, and fell to study the creature in itself, and for himself,
as good or evil to himself, and so lost hiraself and his un
derstanding in a crowd of unnecessary and raisused objects ;
like a foolish patient that having a most judicious and faith
ful physician that will take care of his health, and provide
him the best and safest remedies, doth grow to an eager
desire to be acquainted himself with the nature of each
medicine, and to be skilful in the cure of his own disease,
that he raay trust his physician no longer, but raay be his
own physician ; and therefore hearkeneth to a seducer that
tells him, 'The physician doth but keep thee in ignorance,
lest thou shouldst be as wise as he, and able to cure or pre-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 67
serve thyself ; hearken to me, and I will teach thee to know
all these things thyself, and so thou mayst take care of thy
self.' So man was seduced by satan to withdraw himself
from the fatherly care of God, by a desire himself to be wise
for himself in the knowledge of all that in the creature which
might be directly good or evil to hiraself, so taking on him
self the work of God, and casting off the work that God had
set him, and withdrawing himself frora his necessary depen
dance on his Maker. And accordingly rauch of this selfish
knowledge ofthe creature he did attain; but with the woful
loss of the divine knowledge of the creature, and of the filial
soul-contenting knowledge of God ; yea, and of hiraself, as
in his due subordination to God. This seems the sense of
this text, and this is the case of fallen mankind.
Naturally now every raan would fain have his safely and
comforts in his own hand. He thinks them not so sure and
well in the hand of God. O what would a carnal man give
that he had but bis life and health in his own hand, and might
keep them as long as he saw good ! When he is poor, he
had rather it were in his hand to supply his wants, than in
God's ; for he thinks it would go better with him. When
he is sick, he had far rather it were in his own hand to cure
hira, than in God's ; for then he should be sure of it. If he
be in any strait, he cannol be content with a bare promise
for his deliverance ; but unless he see sorae probability in
the means and work, and unless he be acquainted with the
particular way by which he must be delivered he is not sa
tisfied ; for he cannot trust God so well as hiraself. Is not
this the case of all you that are carnal? Would you not
think your case rauch safer and better if il were in your own
hands, than you do now it is in God's ? What would you
not give, that you were but as able to give ease, and health,
and wealth, and honour, and life to yourselves, as God is !
Hence it is that you so anxiously contrive for yourselves,
and trouble yourselves with needless cares; because you
dare not trust God, but think you are fallen to your own care
and finding. You think yourselves quite undone when you
have nothing left you but God and his promise to trust upon,
and when you see nothing in yourselves and the creature to
support you. And thus are all men fallen frora God to
theraselves. But sanctification teacheth raen that self-denial which

68 ' TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
according to its measure, doth heal them of this disease.
Though some actual knowledge of good and evil, and some
care of our natural selves be now become a necessary duty,
as suited to our lapsed state, which yet had never been but
through sin : yet that which is sinful self-denial doth des
troy. It sheweth man that he is every way insufficient for
himself, and that he is not the fountain of his own felicity;
nor doth it belong to hira, but to God, to preserve hira and
secure his welfare. He seeth what a folly it is to depart
frora the tuition of his heavenly Father, and as the prodigal
son to desire to have his portion in his own hands. Expe
rience tells him with smart and sorrow that he hath not been
so good a preserver of hiraself, nor used himself so well as
to desire to be in the same hands any longer that hath so
abused him. Yea, he knoweth that it was God that indeed
preserved him, while he was over-solicitous about it himself,
and would needs have the raanaging of his own affairs. He
now believes that he can be nowhere safe but in the hands
of God, and no way sufficiently provided for, but by his wis
dora, love and power : nor dare he trust himself hereafter
with himself or any creature. He finds that he hath but tur
moiled and distracted his mind by undertaking the manage
ment of his own preservation : and that he hath brought
himself into a wilderness, and lost hiraself and ravelled his
own affairs : when if he had committed himself to God, and
been satisfied in his wisdom, love and power, all had been
kept safe and sound, and man had not been lost, nor his es
tate thus shattered and overthrown. And therefore the re
turning, self-denying convert is brought to an utter distrust
of himself, and resolved hereafter to trust himself upon no
thing below AU-sufficiency and Infinite love. He is so of
fended with himself for his former self-destruction, and for
undoing himself so foolishly, that he calls himself to account
and into judgment for it, and condemneth himself as a trai
tor to God, and a murderer of himself, and will no more be
in the hands of so treacherous a delinquent ; but as the eyes
.of a servant are on the hand of his master, so are his eyes
on God for all supplies. And this is the part of the work of
the Spirit of adoption, who teacheth us to cry Abba, Fa
ther : and as children, not to be very careful for ourselves,
but to run to our Father in all our wants, and tell him what
we stand in need of, and beg relief: and " to be careful for

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 69
nothing ; but in every thing by prayer with supplication and
thanksgiving to make known our requests to God ;" Phil.
iv. 6. And this acquiescence of the soul in the love of God,
is it that " keepeth our hearts and minds in that peace of
God which passeth understanding," (ver. 7.) so that the more
self-denial, the less is a man dependent on himself, or trou
bled with the cares of his own preservation ; and the more
doth he cast himself on God, and is careful to please him
that is his true preserver, and theu quieteth and resteth his
mind in his all-sufficiency and infinite wisdom and love ; and
so is a mere dependant upon God.
7. Moreover, it is the prerogative of God, as absolute
owner of us, to be the sole disposer of raan, and of all the
other creatures ; and to choose them their condition, and
give thera their several talents, and deterraine of the events
of all their affairs, as pleaseth hiraself. And innocent raan
was contented with this order, and well pleased that God
should be the absolute disposer of him and all.
But when man turned from God to self, he presently de
sired to be the disposer of himself ; and notof himself only,
but of all the creatures within his reach. How fain would
selfish, corrupted man be the chooser of his own condition !
His will is against the will of God, and he usually disliketh
God's disposal. If he had the matter in his own hands, al
most nothing should be as it is ; but so cross would they be to
God, that all things would be turned upsidedown. If it were
at their will, there is scarce a poor man but would be rich ;
and scarce a rich man but would be richer. The servant
would be master; the tenant would be landlord ; the hus
bandman and tradesman would be a gentleman ; the labourer
would live an easier life ; his house should be better ; his
clothing should be better ; his fare should be better ; his
provision should be greater ; his credit or honour with men
should be more ; the gentleman would be a knight, and the
knight a lord, and the lord would be a king, and the king
would be more absolute, and have a larger dominion. Nay
every man would be a king, and learn the doctrine of the
Jews, and many of this age among us, to expect that the
world should be ruled by them ; and they should reign as
lords and princes in the earth. If it were with selfish men
as they would bave it, there is scarce a man that would be
what he is, nor dwell where he doth, nor live at the rates that

70 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
now he liveth at. The weak would be always strong ; and
the sick would be well, and always well ; and the old would
be young again, and never taste the infirmities of age ;. and
if they might live as long as they would, I think there are
few of the unsanctified that would ever die, or look after
heaven as long as they could live on earth. ' O what a brave
life should I have,' thinks the selfish, unsanctified wretch,
' if I were but wholly at my own disposal, and might be what
I would be, and have what I would have !' What would men
give for such a life as this ! Had they but their own wills,
they would think themselves the happiest raen on earth :
that is, if they could be delivered frora the will of God, and
be from under his disposal, and get the reins into their own
hands !
Nay this is not all, but the selfish person would be the
disposer of all the world within his reach, as well as of him
self. He would have kingdoms at his disposal, and all things
carried according to his will. He would have all his neigh
bours have a dependance upon him ; very bountiful he would
be, if he were the lord of all ; for he would be the great be
nefactor of the world, and have all raen beholden lo him,
and depend upon him. If he see things that little concern
him, he hath a will of his own that would fain have the dis
posal of them. If he hear of the affairs of other nations,
some will he hath of his own, which he would have fulfilled
in them, at least so far as any of his own interest may be in
volved in the business.
But when sanctification hath brought men to self-denial,
then they discern and lament this folly. They see what silly,
giddy worms they are, to be disposers of themselves, or of
the world. They see that they have neither wisdora, nor
goodness, nor power sufficient for so great a work. They
then perceive that it were better raake an idiot the pilot of
a ship, or an infant to be their physician when they are sick,
or the disposer of their estates, than to comrait themselves
and the world to their disposal. They see how foolishly they
have endeavoured or desired to rob God of his prerogative :
and therefore they return frora theraselves to hira, and give
up all by free consent tp his sole disposal, that so he raay do
with his own as he list. He finds that he hath work enough
to do of his own, and is becorae too unfit for that ; and there
fore he dare no raore undertake the work of God. for which

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 71
he is infinitely unfit. He finds that the more he hath his
own will, the worse it goes with him ; and therefore he will
give up himself to God and stand to his will. If he feels
that providence doth cross his flesh, and that he hath po
verty, when the flesh would have riches ; and shame, when
that carnal self would have honour; and labour, when the
flesh would have ease ; and sickness, when the flesh would
have health ; he would not for all that have the work taken
out ofthe hand of God, but truly saith, " Not ray will, but
thine be done ;" and believeth that God's disposal is the
best ; and that his Father knows well enough what he doth ;
and if it were put to his choice, whether God or he should
be the disposer of his estate, and honour, and life, he had
rather it were in God's hands than his own; and would not
undertake the charge if it were offered him. ' Alas,' thinks
he, ' I am almost below a man, and am I fit to make a God
of? I come off so lamely in the duty of a creature as de
serves damnation ; and am I fit to arrogate the work of the
Creator ?'
8. Moreover, it is the high prerogative of God to be the
Sovereign Ruler of the world ; to make laws for them, which
must be obeyed ; and to reward the obedient, and punish the
disobedient. God is King of all the earth ; even King of
kings, and Lord of lords ; and all shall obey him, or be
judged by him for their disobedience.
But sin turned raan into a rebel against heaven, and a
traitor to his Maker ; so that now the selfish, unsanctified
man disliketh God's governraent, at least in the particulars,
and would govern hiraself. The law of God contained in his
word and works he murmurs at as too obscure, or loo pre
cise and strict for him. He finds that it crosseth his carnal
interest, and speaks not good of him but evil ; and therefore
he is against it as supposing it to be against him, and his
pleasure, profit and honour in the world. If men had but the
government of themselves, what a difference would there be
between their way and God's? If corrupt, unsanctified,
selfish man might raake alaw for hiraself instead of the word
of God, what a law would it be ? and how rauch of the law
of God should be repealed ? If sinners raight raake a Scrip
ture, you should find in it no such passages as these, " Ex
cept a raan be converted, or born again, he cannot enter into
the kingdora of heaven : wiihout holiness none shall see

72 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
God." If self might make laws, you should not read in
them, " If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if by the
Spirit ye mortify the deeds ofthe body, ye shall live." Nor
should you there find, that " the gate is strait, and the way
is narrow that leads to life, and few there be that find it ;" or
that " the righteous are scarcely saved." As all the Scrip
ture is now for holiness, and against profaneness, ungodli
ness and sensuality; if self had the framing of it, it should
all be changed, and it should at least speak peace to fleshly-
minded men. All those true and dreadful passages that
speak fire and brirastone against the unsanctified, and
threaten everlasting torraents, should be razed out; and
you should find no talk of daranation in the Scripture for
such as they ; no talk of " the worra that never dieth, or the
fire that is never quenched ;" or of " Depart frora rae all ye
workers of iniquity ; I know you not ;" or that " the way of
the ungodly shall perish ;" or that " God doth laugh at
thera, because he seeth that their day is coming." Abun
dance of the Bible would be wiped out, if carnal self had but
the altering of it. Nay, it would be quite made new, and
made a contrary thing. The articles of our creed would be
changed : the petitions of our rule for prayer would be most
altered : every one of the ten comraandraents would be al
tered, as I shall after shew. Idolatry should be no sin, but
the principal law ; for self would be sel up as the idol of the
world. Will-worship would be no sin ; men would be held
guiltless that take the name of God in vain ; the Lord's day
should be a day of mirth and carnal pleasure ; every subject
would be the sovereign; and every inferior thesuperior : re
venge would be made lawful for themselves, though not for
others : fornication and adultery would be no mortal sin :
stealing would be made tolerable to themselves : it should
be lavvful to them to do any wrong to the narae and reputa
tion of another. In a word, every man would do what he
list, and his will should be his law, and himself should be his
own judge; a gentle, tender judge no doubt. Thus would
self rule.
But sanctification brings raen to deny this self; and to
lay down the arras of rebellion against God ; and to see how
unfit we are to rule ourselves ; that we are too foolish, and
simple, and partial to make laws, and too partial also and
tender to execute them ; and that as we were made to obey.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 73
SO obey we raust, and corae again into our ranks, and will
ingly subject ourselves to the Sovereign of the world. Self-
denial teacheth a man to hate his own carnal wisdom and
reasonings that rise up against the laws of God ; and to love
them the worse because they are thus his own : and to love
the laws of God the better, because they are God's, and be
cause they are agaiust his carnal self. The stamp of God on
them doth make them current with him, when if they had
but the private stamp of self, he would disown them as
counterfeit or treasonable. He hath indeed a flesh that is
restrained by God's laws, and striveth against them ; but he
thinks never the worse of the law for that, but approveth
and liketh it in the inner man : and if he might have his
choice, he would not blot out one commandment, nor one
direction, nor one article of faith, nor a tittle of the law, be
cause that self is not the chooser in him ; but he hath learned
to subrait to the will and wisdora of the Lord.
And though he love hiraself, and have a nature that is
unwilling of suffering, and feareth the displeasure of God,
and the threatenings of his holy law ; yet doth he unfeign
edly justify the law, and acknowledge it to be holy, and just,
and good ; and would not have the very threatenings of it
to be repealed and blotted out, if he had his choice ; for he
knows that the determinations of God are the best, and that
none but he is fit to govern, and therefore he desires that he
himself raay be taught better to obey, and not that he raay
rule ; and wisheth that he were raore conforraed to the law :
and not that the law were conforraed to him ; and fain he
would have his own will brought up to God's, but wisheth
not God's will to be crookened and brought down to his.
As far as raen have self-denial, this is so.
9. Moreover, as it is God's prerogative to be the sove
reign Ruler of ourselves, so also of all others as well as us.
But when sin had set up self, raan would not only rule him
self, but would rule all others. An eager desire there is in
the unsanctified, selfish heart, that he might be ruler of town
and country, and all might be brought to do his will. And
hence it is that there is such resisting and grudging at good
governors, and that men are so ambitious, and fain would be
highest, because they would have their own wills fulfilled by
all, and therefore would have power to force men to it.
Hence it is that there is such a stir in the world for crowns

74 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
and kingdoms; and few men have ever been heard of, that
have refused a sceptre when il was offered them, yea, or that
would not step out of their way for it, and wound their con
sciences, and hazard all their hopes of heaven for il, if they
found themselves in a likelihood of obtaining it ; because
where self doth reign at horae, it would reign also over all
others. Nothing raore pleaseth the carnal raind, than to
have his will, and to have all men do as he would have them,
and lo see all at his beck, and each man seeking to know
his pleasure, ready lo receive his word for law. This is the
reign of self.
But sanctification teacheth men self-denial, doth make
them look first at the doing of God's will ; and would have
all the world obedient to that ; and for their own wills, they
resign them absolutely lo God's, and would not have men
obey thera but in a due subordination to the Lord. As they
affect no dominion or govemment but for God, so they de
sire not men to obey their wills any further than it is neces
sary to the obedience of God's will, to which they are ser
viceable and conforra. The self-denying, sanctified man
hath as careful an eye up and down the world for God's in
terest, as the self-seeker hath for his own : and as eagerly
doth he long lo hear of the setting up of the name, and
kingdom, and will or laws of God in the world, as the am
bitious man longs for the setting up of his own. And it as
much rejoiceth the holy, self-denying man to hear that God's
laws are set up and obeyed, and that the world doth stoop
to Jesus Christ, as it would rejoice the carnal, selfish wretch
to be the lord and raaster of all himself, and his will become
the law of the world. A holy, self-denying man would be
far more glad to hear that Africa, America, and the rest of
the unbelieving part of the world were converted lo Christ
by the power of the Gospel, and that the heathens were his
inheritance, and the kingdoms of the world become the
kingdoms of Christ, than if he had conquered all these him
self, and were become the king or emperor of the world.
For as self is the chief interest of an unsanctified man ; so
Christ and the will of God, is the chief interest of the sanc
tified : for he hath destroyed the contradictory interest of
self, and renounced it, and hath taken God for his end, and
Christ for the way, and consequently for his highest interest;
so that he hath now no business in the world but God's bu-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 75
siness ; he hath no honour to regard but God's honour ; he
hath none to exalt but the King of kings ; he knows no gain
but the pleasing of God ; he knows no content or pleasure
but God's pleasure : for the life that he now lives in the
flesh, he lives by faith of the Son of God, that hath loved
him and given himself for him ; and thereby hath drawn hira
out of hiraself to the fountain and eud of love : and so il is
not he that lives, but Christ liveth in him : Gal. ii. 20.
10. Lastly, it is the high prerogative of God, to have the
honour, and power, and glory ascribed to him, and be praised
as the author of all good to the world : and his glory he will
not give to another. Man and all things are created, and
preserved, and ordered for his glory : nor shall man have any
glory but in the glorifying of his Lord : when we fell short
of glorifying the Lord, we also fell short of the glory which
we expected by him.
But when sin turned man from God to himself, he be
came regardless of the honour of God, and his mind was
bent on his own honour, so that he would have every knee
bow to himself, and every eye observe him, and every mind
think highly of him, and every tongue to praise and magnify
him. It doth him good al the heart, to have virtue, and
wisdora, and greatness ascribed to hira, and an excellency in
all ; and to have all the good that is done ascribed lo him,
and to be taken to be as the sun in the firmament that all
must eye, and none can live without, and lo be esteemed the
benefactor of all. When he hears that raen extol him and
speak nothing of him but well, and great things ; and when
he sees them all observe and reverence him, and lake him as
an oracle for wisdom, or as an angel of God, O how this
pleaseth his unsanctified, selfish mind ! Now he hath his
end, even that which he would have; and "verily," saith
Christ, " they have their reward."
But when sanctification hath taught men to deny them
selves, they see then that they are vile and miserable sinners,
and loathe themselves for all their aborainatlons ; and are
base in their own eyes, and humble theraselves before the
Lord, and abhor themselves in dust and ashes, and say, " To
us belongeth shame and confusion of face ; not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us. but to thy name give the glory ;" Dan.ix.
7. 8. Psal. cxv. 1. The holy, self-denying soul desireth no
glory and honour, but what may conduce to the glory and

76 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
honour of his Lord : his heart riseth against base, flattering
worldlings, that would rob God and give the honour to him ;
nor can they do him a greater displeasure than to ascribe
that to him which belongeth only to God, or to bring to him
or any creature, his Maker's due. If God be honoured, he
takes himself as honoured, if he be never so low ; if God be
dishonoured, he is troubled, and his own honour will not
make him reparation. As he liveth himself to the glory of
God, and doth all that he doth in the world to that end ; so
would he have all others do so too. And if God be most ho
noured by his disgrace and shame, he can subrait.
And thus I have shewed you the true nature both of self
ishness and of self-denial. But observe that I describe it as
it is in itself; but yet there is too much selfishness in the
best, which may hinder the fulness of these effects. But
self-denial is predominant in all the sanctified, though it be
not perfect.

CHAPTER n.
Reasons ofthe Necessity/ of Self-denial to Salvation.
Ill, And now you have seen the true description of self-de
nial, and I hope, ifyou have studied it, you know what it is
that is required ; I shall next shew you sorae of the reasons
ofits necessity, and prove it to you beyond dispute, that it is
no indifferent thing, nor the high attainment of sorae few of
the saints, but a thing that all must have that will be saved,
being of the very essence of holiness itself; so that it is as
possible to live without life, as to be holy without self-de
nial ; and as possible to be saved whether God will or no,
as to be saved without self-denial in a predominant degree.
And if any of you think it strange that salvation should be
laid on so high a duty, and that no man can be a true dis
ciple that denieth not himself, even to the forsaking of his
life, and all, when God requireth it, I shall shew you that
reason that should easily satisfy you.
Reason 1. ' Till a man deny hiraself, he denieth God, and
doth not indeed believe in him, and love him, and take him
to be his God.' And I hope you will grant that no man can
be saved that believes not in God, nor loveth hira, nor takes

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 77
him for his God. He that will deny God and yet think to
be saved, must think to be saved in despite of God. The
first article of our faith, and of our baptismal Christian co
venant is, ' to believe in God the Father, and take hira for
our God, and give up ourselves to be his people.' But this
no man can do without self-denial. For by all that I have
s«id in the description of it, you may see that selfishness is
most contrary to God, and would rob hira of all his high pre
rogatives, and God should be no God, if the selfish sinner
had his will : and he doth not heartily consent that he shall
be God to him, I have formerly told you, that self is the
God of wicked men, or the world's great idol ; and that the
inordinate love of pleasure, profits and honour, in trinity, is
all but this self-love in unity ; and that in the malignant tri
nity of God's eneraies, the flesh is the first and foundation,
the world the second, and the devil the third. Every raan is
an idolater so far as he is selfish. God is not a bare narae :
he that takes away his essence, or attributes and preroga
tives, and yet thinks he believeth in hira, because he leaveth
hira his naraes and titles, doth as bad as they that set up an
image, and worship that instead of God, or that worship the
sun or moon as gods, because they somewhat represent his
glory ; for sure a bare name hath as little substance as an
image ; much less can you say it hath more than the sun.
Now selfish, ungodly raen do all of thera rob God, and give
his honour and prerogatives to theraselves, and put him off
with empty titles : they call him their God, but will not
have him for their end, their portion and felicity, nor give
him the strongest love of their hearts : they will not take him
as their absolute Owner ; and devote themselves and all they
have to him, and stand with a willing raind to his disposal.
They will not take hira for their sovereign, and be ruled by
hira, nor deny theraselves for him, nor seek his honour and
interest above their own. They call him their Father, but
deny him his honour ; and their master, but give him not
his fear; Mal, i, 6, They depend not on his hand, and live
not by his law, and to his glory ; and therefore they do not
take him for their God. And can you expect that God
should save those that deny him, and would dethrone him,
that is, his very enemies ?
Reason 2. ' Yea, more than so ; God will not save those
that make themselves their own gods, when they have re-

78 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
jected him.' But all these unsanctified selfish men do make
themselves their own gods ; for in all the ten particulars
before mentioned, they take to theraselves the prerogatives
of God. 1. They would be their own end, and look no fur
ther. 2. They use all creatures bul as means to this end ;
yea, God himself is esteemed bul for themselves. 3. They
love their present life and prosperity better than God. 4.
They would be their own, and live as their own, and not as
those that are none of their own. 5. They would have the
creatures to be their own, and use them as their own, and
not as God's. 6. They must care for. themselves, and shift
for themselves, and dare not trust themselves wholly upon
God. 7. They would dispose of themselves and their own
condilions, and of all things else. 8. They would rule them
selves, and be from under the laws and government of God.
9. They would be the rulers of all others, and have all men
do their wills, 10. And they would be honoured and ad
mired by all, and have the praise ascribed to them. And if
all this be not lo sel up themselves as gods or idols in the
world, I know not what is. Certainly God is so far from
having a ihought of saving such vile idolaters (in this con
dition), that they are the principal objects of his high dis
pleasure, and the fairest marks for his justice to shoot at:
and he is engaged to pull them down, and tread them into
hell. Should God stand by and see a company of rebellious
sinners sit down in his throne, or usurp his sovereignty and
divine prerogatives, and let them alone, yea, and advance
them to his glory ? No, he hath resolved that " he that
humblelh himself shall be exalted, and he that exalteth
himself shall be brought low." And what higher self-exal
tation can there be, than to make ourselves as gods to our
selves ? And therefore who should be brought lower than
such ?
Reason 3. ' No man can be a Christian that takes not
Christ for his Lord and Saviour ; but no man without this
self-denial can take Christ for his Lord and Saviour, and
therefore no man without self-denial can be a Christian and
so be saved.' He that raakes himself his end, cannot make
Christ, as Christ his way ; for Christ is the way to the Fa
ther, and not to carnal self. Nay, the business that Christ
came upon into the world, was to pull down and subdue
this self. Moreover, whoever taketh Christ for his Saviour,

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 79
must know from what it is that he must save hira ; and that
is principally from self: and no man can take Christ for his
Saviour that renounceth not self-confidence, and is not wil
ling to be saved from the idolatry of self-exaltation. No
man can take Christ for his Master or Teacher, that comes
not into his school as a little child, renouncing the guidance
of carnal self, and sensible of his need of a heavenly teacher.
No man can take Christ for his King and Lord, and give up
hiraself as his own, and as his subject, that hath not learned
to deny that self that claims property and sovereignty in
his stead. There is no antichrist, nor false Christ, that ever
was in the world, that doth raore truly oppose Christ, and
resist him in all the parts of his office, than carnal self. It
is this that will not stoop to his righteousness, or to his
guidance, and to his leaching and boly government. Self
is the false Christ or saviour of the world, as well as the false
god. And therefore there can be no salvation where self is
• not denied and taken down.
Reason 4. ' He that believeth not in the Holy Ghost, and
taketh him not for his Sanctifier, cannot be a true Christian,
or be saved. But no man without this self-denial believeth
in the Holy Ghost, and taketh him for his Sanctifier.' And
therefore without this self-denial no man can be a true
Christian, or be saved. The very nature of sanctification
consisteth in the turning a man from hiraself lo God : in
destroying selfishness, and devoting the soul to God by
Christ. And therefore it is past dispute, that none but the
self-denying are sanctified ; and therefore none but they do
truly take the Holy Ghost for their Sanctifier, and truly be
lieve in him. So far as men are in love with the disease,
itis certain they will not use the physician.
Reason 5. ' No man is a true Christian and in a state of
salvation, that denieth, renounceth or rejecteth the word of
God.' But all men that have not self-denial (that hear the
word of God) do renounce, deny.it, or reject it; and there
fore no man wiihout self-denial is a true Christian, or can
be saved.' In the Scriptures it is that we have eternal life :
it is they that mnst make us wise to salvation ; the man
that will be blessed, must meditate in them day and night
(Psal. i. 2.) ; and it is not the hearers but the doers of them
that are blessed. But nothing is more clear, than that the
voice of Scriptu;:e calleth aloud on all men to deny them-

80 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
selves ; and that the scope of itis to cry down self, and set
up God in Jesus Christ. It is the very drift and meaning
ofit from end to end to take down self, and abase men in
their own eyes, and bring them horae to God frora whom
they are revolted.
Reason 6. ' No raan can be a Christian or be saved with
out saving grace.' But no man without self-denial hath
saving grace. For it is the nature of every grace to carry
man from himself to God by Christ. It is the work of godly
sorrow to humble proud man, -and break the heart of carnal
self. It is the work of faith, for a self-denying soul to pass
out for hope and life to Christ. It is the work of love to
carry us quite above ourselves to that Infinite goodness
which we love. It is the nature of holy fear to confess our
guilt and insufficiency, and to suspect ourselves, and dread
the fruit of our own ways. Confidence doth bottora us upon
God, and hope itself doth iraply a despairing in ourselves.
Thankfulness doth pay the horaage to hira that hath saved •
us from ourselves. And every grace hath self-denial as half
its very life and soul. And therefore it is certain that no
raan hath any more grace than he hath self-denial.
Reason 7. ' They that reject the ministry and the fruit of
all the ordinances of God, are not true Christians, and can
not be saved.' But so do all araong us that have not self-
denial. For the use of the rainistry is to call home sinners
from themselves to God, The use of every ordinance of
God, is to get or«keep down carnal self, and exalt the Lord.
Confession is nothing but self-abasing : and he must confess,
that will have the faithful and just God to forgive hira ; for
"he that covereth his sin shall not prosper;" lJohni.9.
Prov. xxviii. 13. Prayer is a confession of our own erapti •
ness, insufficiency and unworthiness, and a flying* from our
selves for help unto another. In baptism we come as con
demned prisoners for a pardon, as il were with ropes about
our necks, and strip ourselves of the rags of our filthiness,
that by the blood of the Lamb we may be washed from our
blood, and our sins may be buried as in the depth of the
sea. In the Lord's supper we renew the same covenant, and
receive the sarae renewed pardon; and still -fly frora our
selves lo Christ for life ; and renounce our carnal selves by
soleran covenant, as a people coraing home to God. So that
never was any ordinance of God. effectual and saving on

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 81
the soul of any, farther than it brought them to self-denial,
or preserved, exercised or raanifested it.
Reason 8. ' He that can do no work sincerely, nor go one
step in the way of life, is no true Christian, nor in a state of
life.' But this is the case of all that have not self-denial.
For self is their principle, rule and end : and he that hath
either a false principle, rule or end, cannot be sincere in any
of the means ; much less when he is out in all of these. A
selfish raan is seeking himself in his very religion : and is
serving himself when he seemeth to be serving God. And
indeed he doth not any service sincerely unto God. because
he makes not God his end ; and therefore cannot be ac
cepted. Reason 9. ' No man is a true Christian, or can be saved,
that sticks in the depth of his natural misery, in his lapsed
state.' But so do all men that have not self-denial ; for it
is self that they are fallen to, and must be saved from.
Reason 10. ' No man can be a true Christian and be saved,
that is not a member of the holy catholic church, and the
communion of saints.' But so are none but the self-denying ;
for every true member of the church hath a public spirit,
preferring the church's interest to his own, and suffering with
fellow-members in their suffering, and having a care of one
another; 1 Cor. xii. 25,26. But the self-seeking unsancti
fied person is a stranger to this disposition.
Reason 11.' He that is led by the greatest enemy of God
and his own soul, is not a true Christian, nor in a slate of
life.' But so is every man that hath not learned to deny
himself. For self is the greatest enemy of God and us.
Escape but your own hands and you are out of danger. All
the devils in hell cannot destroy you, if you would not be
your own destroyers.
Reason 12. Lastly, ' It is a plain contradiction lo be
saved without self-denial.' For as it is self that we must
be saved frora both as our end and means and greatest enemy,
so to stick in self is still to be lost and raiserable, and there
fore not to be saved. So that the case is as plain as a case
can be, that no man can be a true Christian or disciple of
Christ without self-denial ; and consequently none without
it can be saved, I have been the briefer upon the argu
ments, because the matter of some of them raay corae to be
more fully opened anon in the application.
vot. XI. 0

82 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
CHAPTER III.
Use 1. A general Complaint ofthe Prevalency of Selfishness.
IV. And now we have seen from the words of Christ the
absolute necessity of self-denial, and that there is no true
Christianity nor salvation without it, let us next take a view
of ourselves and of the world, and judge of our condition by
this certain rule.
Look well into yourselves, and into the world, and tell
me whether you find not cause to laraent, 1. That true
Christianity is so rare a thing, even araong the professors of
Christianity, seeing self-denial is so rare. 2. That grace is
so weak and sraall in the raost of the regenerate, seeing self-
denial is so little and imperfect.
O ! if the name of Christians would prove us Christians,
and the magnificent titles we give to Christ would prove
that we are his true disciples ; if reading, and hearing, and
outward duties, and a cheap religiousness would serve turn,
we have then great store of Christians among us ! If Christ
would have left out this one point of self-denial from his
laws and conditions of salvation, what abundance of disciples
would he have had in the world ! and how many railhons
raight have come to heaven, that now raust be shut out! It
is this point that hindereth all sorts of heathens and infidels
frora being Christians. The Jews will believe in no Christ
but one that will restore their teraple and outward glory,
and make them great, and rulers of the world ; and there
fore they will not be the servants of that Christ that calleth
them to the contempt of all these things, and of life itself,
for the hopes of an invisible kingdom. The Mahometans
had rather believe in Mahomet that giveth them leave to
please their lust, than in Christ that calleth them to mortifi
cation and self-denial, and tells them of nothing but suffer
ing and patience, duty and diligence, till they come into
another world : the idolatrous heathens abhor Christianity,
when they hear how much they must do and suffer, and all
for a reward in the life to come. It is an inforraing instance
that Pet. Maffiaeus gives us in his Indian History of the first
king of Congo that was baptized : he quickly received the
articles of faith, and the form of worship, and the outside

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 83
and cheaper part of religion ; and so did many of his nobles
and followers ; but when he was called lo confession, and
understood that he must leave his gluttony, and drunken
ness, and whoredom, and oppression, and inordinate plea
sures, he would be a Christian no more; his nobles per
suading him that the forsaking of all his mirth, and pleasure,
and delights of the flesh, and taking up so strict a life, was
too dear a price to pay for the hopes ofa life to come ; and
it was better keep the pleasure they had, and put another
life to the venture : and thus Christianity had been quickly
banished that kingdom again, if it had not taken deeper
rooting in his son and heir Alphonsus, and made him ven
ture his crown and life for the sake of Christ. And thus is
it at the heart with the most, even of baptized persons, and
those that take theraselves lo be Christians : because it is
the religion ofthe country, and they are taught that there is
no salvation without it, they will be baptized and be called
Christians, and say their prayers, and come to church, and
say they believe in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
and they will go as far with you in religion as they can with
out denying themselves ; but for the rest, which is the life
and truth of Christianity, they will not understand it, or be
lieve that il is of such necessity : ' God forbid,' say they,
' that none should be Christians and be saved, but those
that thus deny themselves, and take up their cross and for
sake all they have, and accept not life itself from Christ.'
They say they believe in Christ, and yet they say, ' God for
bid his word should be true ;' or, ' God forbid we should
believe Christ that hath spoken this in the Gospel !' See
what kind of Christians multitudes are ! Every man and
woman on earth that take themselves for true Christians,
and yet do not deny themselves, even life and all for the
sake of Christ and the hope of everlasting glory, are raere
self-deceivers, and no true Christians at all. " He that will
save his life,'' saith Christ, " shall lose it ;" that is, he that
in his coming to Christ, and covenanting with hira, will put
in an exception for the saving of his life, and will forsake all
for Christ if he be put to it, except life itself, this man is no
true disciple of Christ, and shall be so far from saving his
life, that he shall lose both heaven, and life, and all ; and
the justice of God shall take from him that life which he
durst not resign lo the will of raercy ; and he shall lose that

84 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
for nothing, which he would not lose for Christ and heaven.
It is impossible for that man to be Christ's disciple, that
loveth his hfe better than Christ and the hopes of the hfe
everlasting; Matt. x. 37, 38. Luke xiv. 26,27.33. Sorae
self-denial there may be in the unsanctified : many of them
would leave a little pleasure or profit rather than be damned ;
and many had rather suffer a little, than venture upon eter
nal sufferings. But I beseech you remeraber that this is
the lowest degree of self-denial that is saving, to set more
by Christ and the hopes of glory, than by all this world and
life itself; and to be habitually resolved to forsake life and
all, rather than to forsake hira. No less than this is proper
self-denial, or will prove you Christians and in a state of life.
This was the trial that Christ put one to, that had thought
to have been his disciple ; " Yet lackest thou one thing ;
sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me ;"
Luke xviii. 22. Not that every man raust actually sell all,
bul every raan must set more by heaven than all, and there
fore part wilh all when Christ would have him; and he that
is not thus resolved, let him go never so far in all other
things, doth yet lack " one thing," and such a " one thing"
as he shall never be saved without. For the meaningof the
text is, that Christ would try by this command, whether he
set raore by any thing than hira, and whether he set more
by heaven or earth ; and so would have us all to judge of
Ourselves by the same evidence within, though he put not
all on the same way of discovering it. Many a man can
deny self the superfluities of pleasure, and as this rich man
did, can avoid enormous crimes, and say of whoredom, and
theft, and drunkenness, and oppression, and gross deceit,
" All these have I avoided from my youth." Education may
moderate some selfish desires, and natural teraper may
further that raoderation ; and custora, and good company,
and holy precepts may yet do more ; and wit may teach men
to do or suffer somewhat rather than to run on the wrath of
God ; and therefore many thousands may deny self the plea
sure of sorae inordinate lust, or of some recreation, or excess
in meat or drink, and yet be far from denying life and all,
and so from the true self-denial of a Christian : nay, a man
may deny self for self in many particulars, and so may please
self raore than he denieth it. Many a civil ingenuous gen-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAI. 85
tleman and other persons, will forbear the disgraceful sins of
drunkenness, filthy speaking, whoredom, incivility, notorious
profaneness, even because they are disgraceful, and there
fore are against the interest of self ; so rauch as self can pos
sibly spare, a carnal heart may be brought to part with.
But still self is alive and predominant within them, still it is
the ruling end and principle. But to go out of self to God,
and resign up ourselves to him, and possess no interest but.
him and in him, and to have nothing that we esteem, or love,
or care for in comparison of him, knowing that for him we
were made, redeemed, preserved and sanctified, and there
fore desiring to be wholly and only his, and to have no ere -
dit, no goods, no life, no self, but what is his, for his service,
at his will and at his disposal, and governraent, and provi
sion ; this is the true self-denial, which the Spirit of God
worketh in a prevailing, though not a perfect raeasure, in
every gracious, believing soul.
But alas, sirs, how strange is this in the world, and how
weak and low in the souls where it is found ; and what raat
ter of lamentation would a survey of the world or of our
selves present us with ! Is not SELF the great idol which
the whole world of unsanctified men doth worship ? Who
is it that ruleth the children of disobedience, but carnal self?
For what is all the stir and strivings, the tumults and con
tentions ofthe world, but for self? This ruleth kingdoms,
and this is it that raiseth wars ; and what is it, except the
works of holiness, but self is the author of? Look unto the
thrones and kingdoms of the earth, and conjecture how many
self hath advanced and placed there, and how few have staid
till God enthroned them and gave them the crown and scep
tre with his approbation. Among all the nobles and great
ones of the earth, that abound in riches, how few are there
that were not set a-work by self and ruled by it, in the get
ting, or keeping, or using their riches, dignities and honours !
Look on the great revenues of the nation, and of the world,
and consider whether God or self have the more of it. One
man hath many thousands a year, and another hath many
hundreds, and how much ofthis is devoted to God, and how
much to carnal self? And the poor that have but little,
would think us injurious to them if we should call to them
for any thing from God, who have not enough for themselves ;
when indeed God must have all, and self must have nothing.

86 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
but what it hath by way of return from God again, and that
for God, and not for self, but as subservient unto him. Alas,
of many hundred thousand pounds a year, which the inhabi
tants of a country possess among them, how little hath God
that should have all. and how rauch hath self that should
have nothing ! O dreadful reckoning when these accounts
raust be all cast up ! Judge by the use of all, whether self
have not the dominion of all. If men throw out lo God his
tenth, which is none of their own ; or if they cast him now
and then some inconsiderable alms, when in his members he
is fain to beg for it first, they think they have done fair,
though self devour all the rest. Is it more, think you, for
God or self that our courts of law are filled with so many
suits, and lawyers have so much employraent ? Is it more,
think you. for God or self that merchants compass sea and
land for commodity ? Who is it that the soldier fights for,
is it for God or self ? Who is it that the tradesman deals
for, that the ploughman labours for, that the traveller goes
for, is it more for God or self? Who is it that the most of
men's thoughts are spent for, and the most of their words
are spoken for, and the most of their rents and wealth laid
out for, and the most of their precious time employed for,
is it for God or self? Consider of it whether it be not self
that finally and morally rules the world. What else do raost
live for or look after ? And is not the common piety, reli
gion and charily of the world, a mere sending God some
scraps of the leavings of carnal self ? If the flesh be full,
or have enough, then God shall have the crurabs that fall
frora its table, or at most so much as it can spare : but till
the flesh have done and be satisfied, God must slay even for
these scraps and crumbs ; and if they can but say, ' I want
it myself, or have use for it myself,' they think il a sufficient
answer to all demands. One may see by the irregularity of
the motions ofthe world, the confusions, and crossings, and
mutabilities, and contradictions, the doing and undoing
again, the differences and fierce contendings, that it is not
God, but self that is the end and principle of the motions.
Nay, most men are so dead to God, and alive dnly to them
selves, that they know not what we mean when we tell them,
and plainly tell them what it is to live to God, and what it
is to serve him in all their affairs, and to eat, and drink, and
do all things for his glory ; but they ask in their hearts as

TREATISE OF .SELF-DENIAL. 87
Pharaoh. "Who is the Lord, that I should serve him?"
And when they read these passages about self-denial, and
about referring all to God, they will not understand them ;
for they are unacquainted with God. and know no other god
in deed but self, though in narae they do.
Nay. it were well if self were kept out of the church,
and out of the ministers of the Gospel, that must teach the
world to deny themselves ; that it did not with too many
choose their habitations, and give thera their call, and limit
them in their labours, and direct them in the manner and
measure ; it were well if some ministers did not study for
self, and preach and dispute for self, and live for self, when
they materially preach against self, and teach raen self-denial.
And then for our people, alas, it rules their families, it ma-
nageth their business, it drives on their trades ; it comes to
church with them, and fights within thera against the word,
and perverteth their judgment, and will let thera relish no
thing, and receive nothing but what is consistent wilh self
ish interest. In a word, it makes men ungodly, it keeps
them ungodly, and it is their very ungodliness itself. O !
were it not for carnal self, how easily might we deal with all
sorts of sinners ! But this is it that overcometh us.

CHAPTER IV.
The Prevalency (f Selfishness in all Relations.
Beside all the generals already mentioned, it will not be
araiss to give you sorae particular instances of the power of
selfishness, and the rareness of self-denial in the world, that
you may see what cause of lamentation is before us.
1. How ready and speedy, how effectual and diligent,
how constant and unwearied are they in the service of self !
And how slow and backward, how remiss and negligent,
how inconstant and tired are they in the works that are
merely for God and their salvation ! Do I need to prove it
to you ? Y'ou may as well call for proof whether there are
men in the world. I were best for instance begin next
home. Many ministers think it a drudgery and a toil that
God requireth at their hands to confer with every family in
their parishes, and instruct them privately in the matters of

86 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
salvation. But see what self can do : if the same men have
but their tithe to gather, they will not think it a needless
thing, to go or send to every family, and speak with thei%
all about their own business. At least if it were any consi
derable sum, they would not lose il for want of speaking for.
Our neighbours do many of them think it much that we
should call them to be personally instructed or catechised,
and they will not come at us ; but say, ' What needs all this
ado ? have we not teaching enough at church. It is chil
dren that must be catechised, and we are past children.'
You see how litlle interest God and their ministers and their
own salvation have in them ; but will you see what carnal
self can do more ? Had I but money enough, I would un
dertake to make them come to me, and follow rae as a horse
will follow his provender ! Had I but ten pounds a piece to
give them, yea, or but ten shillings, I do not think I should
have any refuse to come and fetch it, unless it were those
that are now the most forward in seeking relief for the wants
of their souls. Had I but the estates or lives of all these
men in my power, how easily would they be ruled, and how
diligently and submissively would they attend, that now for
God and their everlasting life, disdain to come and seek in
structions ! And yet these men would scarce believe you,
ifyou should tell them that self and the world is made their
God, and that God himself is denied and rejected by them.
Moreover, a long time I have been persuading all the fa
milies in the town and parish to read the Scripture, and
daily call upon God together. I have proved it their duty
from Scripture, and this doth not prevail. But see what
flesh and self can do ! If these men were but sure of ten or
twenty shillings a time, for every morning and evening that
they pray together, I warrant you, whatever the heart did,
the lips should be taught to do their part. 0 how. busy
would all the town and parish be to learn to pray, that now
look not afler it ! I do not believe that there is ever a house
among them all that would not shortly set up prayer, if they
were but paid for it after these rates. Judge now whether
God or self bear sway among these men, and vvhether soul
or body be more regarded.
Moreover, we have too raany drunkards in the town, that
no means that we can use will restrain and keep sober. They
love the drink, and they cannot forbear ; and tell them of

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 89
God's word, that doth threaten them with damnation, and
they will for all that be drunk the next day. But if one of
these wretches might have but len pounds a week on con
dition he would forbear, I do not think for all this, but he
could forbear. Or if he were sure that for every cup of drink,
he should drink after it a cup of gall, I warrant you he would
soon begin to abate.
We have abundance of ignorant, sensual men that for love
of sin refuse church-government, and will not come under it.
But if the magistrate would but make a law, that all men
shall be members of a particular church, and submit to dis
cipline, or forfeit but twenty shillings a month, how few re
fusers should we have in all the town or country !
We have many that seldom come lo hear in the public
assemblies ; but let the parliament make a law that they
shall pay for their refusal, and how readily will il bring the
most of them ! (unless they have hopes that the law will not
be executed.) And judge now whether self or God have
greater interests in these men's hearts.
I see but one piece of self-denial among this sort of peo
ple in this town, and that is this : though the officers are lo
give the money to the poor which they have from swearers,
drunkards, unlicensed and abusive ale-sellers, profaners of
the Lord's day, &.C., yet that sort of the poor themselves do
hate those officers that are zealous in their duties. This is
strange, that the love of money doth not change them. But
whether it be that they can deny their flesh for the devil,
though not for God ; and in enmity lo godliness, though not
to further it ; or whether it be that the officers do use to
give their money to an honester sort of poor, and these have
none of it, I cannot well tell.
And having given so many sad instances ofthe power of
self, and scarcity of self-denial in others, I hope the magis
trates will not take it ill if we help them to discern this ene
my in themselves, nor be offended that they come last, unless
it were in a raore honourable cause. I hear the best and
wisest men that I can meet wilh. complain that in most pla
ces, alehouses flourish under the magistrates' noses ; and
that whoredom, swearing, profaning the Lord's day shall sel
dom be punished, but when they are very much urged to it,
nor then either if itwill but displease a neighbour, or a friend,
especially if it be a worshipful swearer or drunkard that is

90 TREATISE OF SELF DENIAL.
to be punished. We see in most places, that it is more than
the justice can do to put down one alehouse of many that
they confess should be suppressed ; and I doubt but few can
keep them from increasing. Men say that there is so much
ado before they can have justice frora raany of thera, and
those that seek it are counted but for busy, troublesome
fellows, that men are ready to let all alone. And whence is
all this, that men in power can do so little against those that
have no power to resist them ? Why, alas, the cause is plain ;
self is against it. They have none but God and ministers,
and a few precise fellows to persuade them to it : and they
have no greater motives than what are fetched from heaven
and hell lo move thera to it ; and these are but sraall raatters
with them (I speak of the unsanctified). It must be one
that hath greater interest in them than God, that must per
suade them lo il. It must be more powerful matters than
the promises of heaven and the threatenings of damnation,
that must prevail wilh such moderate gentleraen as these.
And who is it that can do this, that God and their salvation
raay not do? Why even self, carnal self. Ifyou know but
how lo engage their own self-interest in the business, I war
rant you it will go better on. Let but every inforraer be paid
well for his pains, and every justice have a hundred pounds
frora the exchequer for every due execution of such laws, and
how roundly would the work go on ! Then they would not
say, ' We cannot do it,' or ' We are not bound to look after
them.' Do you think I wrong them or speak without proof?
I will leave it lo your judgment when I have given you but
these few instances. Let but the plague break out in the
town, and infect but a quarter as raany houses as here are
infectious alehouses that harbour tipplers and drunkards,
and see whether the raagistrates of this or any town will not
a little better bestir theraselves, and send to search after in
fected places, and nail up their doors, and write on them,
' Lprd have mercy on us,' that all may take warning and keep
away. They will not here be offended with informers, nor
say, ' Ara I bound to look after them ?' And why are they
not as zealous against sin as against the plague ? Great
reason ; self is for sin, and God only is against it ; but self
is against the plague, because it is concerned in it. Sin doth
bul hurt the soul, and bring them to hell-fire ; but the plague
destroys their body ; and this is the greater matter with them.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 91
because they have flesh and sense to judge of it ; bul they
have not faith to believe the other.
Again, let but one house in the town be on fire, and all-^
are up to quench it, and the bell is rung, and the raagistrate
doth not think that he wants a call hiraself to look after it.
And when the fire of hell is kindling in an alehouse, that is
nothing, but must be let alone ; there is no such zeal nor any
such haste. And why so ? Why, one they see in good sad
ness, and perceive that il is fire indeed ; bul the olher they
believe in jest, as if it would prove but a painted fire.
Again, let but an ungodly fellow slander the magistrate
or call hira all to naught, especially if he give hira but two
or three boxes on the ear, and see whether he will let that
man alone. But let the same man abuse the narae of God,
and break his laws, and with too many he raay be let alone,
unless they be urged to do justice. And how comes this dif
ference? Why self is touched in one, and it is but God (but
God ! O atheists !) that is touched in the olher. Self can do
more with thera than God can do ; (remember slill when I
say that self can do more with them than God, that I speak
not of what God could do by his omnipotency if he would ;
but of the final causality, or the small interest that God hath
in their hearts by holy faith and love).
Again, let but a servant rob the magistrate, and carry his
money and goods to an ale-seller to receive ; and try whe-
ther he will look afler him and the ale-seller. And why not
as soon and as zealously, when ale-sellers receive men's sons
and servants, and drown men's understandings, and turn them
into beasts ? Why ? because in one it is but God and men's
souls that are concerned (a matter of nothing) ; bul in the
other it is self (a great matter with thera).
Shall I give you but one instance more, that the ale-
sellers themselves will take my part in, so far as to bear me
witness that it is true ! Here are farraers of the excise that
have power to know what alehouses are in the town, and
their gain lieth on it ; and there shall scarce a man in town
or country sell ale so secretly but they will know it ; nor sell
a barrel but what they are acquainted with. They do not
say, ' I am not bound to go search afler them ;' nor that they
be not able to discover them, and to bring them lo pay ex
cise. But the justices (too coraraonly) can overlook abun
dance that the exciseraan can find ; and they cannot make

92 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
one of twenty pay, when the other can : and what is the
matter? Why one works for self and raoney, and the olher
works but for God, and his own and other men's salvation
(a small matter) ! See then beyond denial what self and
money can do with such raen. when God and men's salvation
can do next to nothing.
But I must desire you not to raistake me, and think I
speak this of any honest, godly magistrate, and abuse the
good by joining them with the bad. No, far be it frora me
to be so injurious. For it is evident that they can be no
good men, nor have any true love of God in their souls,
that are such in a predorainant sense as I have here des
cribed. It is not in my thoughts to lay this blame on any
honest, godly magistrate ; for none but the ungodly would
do as I have mentioned, and prefer themselves before the
Lord, and the bodies of men before the souls.
And, alas ! if the sovereign 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 policy would not go for piety, but true piety would
go for the surest policy. It would not be so coraraon in
most nations to have the truth 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 araong us,
we should not have had such connivance at doctrinal and
practical abominations, nor so much delay or neglect of heal
ing the discomposed churches, and uniting the divided Chris
tians, 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 ourselves.
The holy ordering aud instructing of families, and sup
pressing sin in children and servants, is one of the most ef
fectual works for the building up of the church, and the
glory and stability of the commonwealth. 0 if parents and
masters would but sanctify their houses to the Lord, and

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 93
teach their families the will and fear of God, and do their
best (by punishraent, when instruction will not serve) to hin
der sin, how fast would reformation then go on ! And what
hindereth ? why carnal self. If it were but for worldly com
modities they would do more. Would you have rae prove it?
Let experience speak. Let a servant or child go prayerless
to their work, and few regard it ; but they will not go with
out raeat, or drink, or clothes. The raaster will suffer them
to neglect God's, service; but if they neglect his own, and
should do him no more or betier service than they do to God,
they should soon hear of it, and be turned out of door ; and
they were no servants for hirn. They will teach their chil
dren to do their own work, or set them apprentices to learn
it ; but the work of God and their salvation, they shall for
them have litlle leaching in, how plainly soever God hath
commanded it them ; Deut.xi. 18, 19, vi. 6 — 8. Ephes. vi. 4.
Let a servant or child reproach his master or parent, or
call them all to naught, and they think not fil to put up
that (nor indeed is it) ; but let them swear by the name of
God, or break his laws, and they can patiently bear with it,
and a cold rebuke, like Eli's, will serve turn. They can get
them into field or shop to work together, but they cannol
get them before and after to prayer together. And why is
all this ? Why one is for self, and the other is for God :
one is for the body, and the other is for the soul. So that
you see what self can do, and how commonly it is the mas
ter of families, towns and countries, because it is the master
in raen's souls.
God must be loved above all, and our neighbour as our
selves ; but if God were allowed but so much love as avery '
neighbour should have, it would not be all so ill with the sel
fish world as uow it is. But because I have been so long on
this first discovery of the power of self, and the scarcity of
self-denial, I will be shorter in the rest that follow.

CHAPTER V.
The Power of Selfishness upon Men's Opinions in Religion.
2. Another instance of discovering the reign of selfishness
in the world, is, ' The great power that it hath to form men's

.94 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
opinions and conceptions in religion.' Though the under
standing naturally be inclined to truth, yet a selfish bias upon
the soul, especially on the will, doth commonly delude il, and
make the vilest error seem to be truth lo il, and the most use
ful truth lo seem an error. The will hath much command
over the understanding ; and when selfishness is become the
very habit, the bias, the nature of the will, you may easily
conjecture how il will pervert the understanding. Bul what
need we raore than experience lo satisfy us ? Do you not
see that where self is but deeply engaged, the judgment is
bribed or overmastered, and carried from the truth ? So that
as the eye that looks through a coloured glass, doth see all
things as if they were ofthe same colour as the glass ; so the
understanding that is mastered by a selfish inclination, thinks
every thing is truth that savoureth his self-interest. And
here I shall offer you some more particular instances.
1 . We all see that almost all the world is of that religion
or opinion which hath the countenance of the government
that they live under, and the persons that have greatest power
on their reputation ; or al least whicli is consistent wilh their
safely, if not rising and prosperity in the world. The Turks
are commonly Mahometans ; the subjects of Rome, and
Spain, and Austria, 8cc. are generally Papists ; those in Den
mark, Sweden. Saxony, &c. are generally Lutherans ; those
of Scotland, England, Helvetia, &c. are commonly Cal
vinists (as they are called). I know the power of education
is great, and hearing evidence only on one side, may bias a
well-meaning man ; but Papists and Protestants (as to the
learned part) have the books of the contrary-minded al
hand ; and therefore that opinions should run in a stream,
and whole countries almost be of a party, must needs be
much from the power of selfishness, because they are swayed
by thera thathave the power of their reputation, and estates,
and liberties in the wprld.
2. Moreover, when a raan is by custom grown self-con
ceited, or by the power of pride is wise in his own eyes, how
hard a matter do we find it to convince such men by the
clearest evidence I They will not see, when they can hardly
wink so close as lo keep out the light. It is their opinion,
and therefore shall be so ; and they will hold it because it
is their own.
3. Especially if it be an opinion of a mau's own inven-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 95
lion, which is doubly his own, both as he is the contriver
and possessor, how close will he stick to it, too coraraonly
beyond the evidence of truth, because that self hath so great
an interest in it !
4. Yea, if a raan be but deeply engaged for it, either by
laborious disputes, or confident owning it, or any way, so as
that his credit lieth on it, how tenacious will he be ofit, be
cause ofthe powerful interest of self!
5. And if it be but an opinion that seeras to befriend any
forraer opinion that we have rauch engaged for, how rauch
doth selfishness usually appear in our inordinate propensity
to it! 6. Also if we live in days of persecution, how easily do
we receive those opinions that would keep us from prison
and fire ! Or if any suffering lie upon il, we commonly lake
that side to be the right that is safest to the flesh, (except
when self would be advanced by the occasion of sufferings).
And in prospeTity, if there be any controversy arise, which
our gain is concerned in, how easily believe we the thriving
opinion ! If any oath, engagement, or duty be imposed on
us by those who have power to do us harm, the generality
are for it be it what it will. In all these cases it is com
monly carnal self that is the judge.
And how far self commands in such cases, you raay see
by these discoveries following.
1. In studying the case, men's thoughts run almost all
one way. They study what to say for their own opinions,
and how lo answer all that is against them ; but they study
but very little what may be said on the olher side. They sil
at their studies with a biassed will, inclining or command
ing their understanding what to do ; even to prove that to
be true, which they would have to be true, whether it be so
or not. 2. And hence it is that the weakest arguments on their
own side do seem sufficient, if not invincible ; and they stand
wondering at the blindness of all those men that cannot see
the force of thera ; but no arguments seem to have any
weight, that are brought against them. And all this is from
the power of self.
3. Yea, sometimes when they are silenced, and know not
what to say for their opinions, nor how to answer the argu
ments for the contrary, yet they can say, ' We are of this

96 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
mind, and we will be ofthis mind.' And why, bul because
il is espoused to them and their own ?
4. And hence it is, that if a man be but an admirer of us,
or of our own opinion in other things, we are readier to re
ceive an opinion from him than frora another.
5. And hence it is that disputations do so seldom change
men's minds, because they take it to be a dishonour to be
changed by another (unless it be a person of great renown) ;
we envy lo an opposite the glory of altering our understand
ings ; but if we may have the doing of it ourselves by the
power of our own understandings and studies, we will some
times yield to change our minds. He is a stranger lo the
ungodly world that seeth not how much self-interest doth,
to raaster their understandings, and turn their hearts, from
the holy doctrine of Christ, and how much it doth to make
them like or dislike their teachers, or any point or practice
in religion. And he is a stranger even among divines them
selves, that seeth not the sway that self doth bear in their
judgments, and disputes, and course of life, and the choice
of their parly or society to which they join themselves.

CHAPTER VI.
Men's great Averseness to Costly or Troublesome Duties.
3. Another discovering instance of the rarity of self-
denial, is this, ' The great averseness of men to any costly,
or troublesome, or self-denying duty,' how necessary soever,
how plainly soever revealed in the Scripture, and how ge
nerally soever acknowledged by the church : as if self had a
negative voice in the making of laws for the government of
the world, and none must be binding without his consent,
I shall come d,own to some raore particular instances,
1. The great duty of charitable relieving our brethren in
necessity to the utraost of our power, is commoilly made al
most nothing of in the world. And men cheat their souls by
thinking they are passed from death to life, because they
love the brethren with such a cold and barren love as will
neither lay down estate for them, nor venture life for them,
but think they are real Christians, because they can say as
the believers that James raentioneth, " Depart in peace, be

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 97
ye warmed aud filled j but give them not that which is ne
cessary thereto ;" James ii, 16. Though it be told them
plainly by Christ himself, that it is not a fruitless, ineffec
tual love, but that which causeth them to feed, and clothe,
and visit the saints, that must stand them in stead at judg
ment (Matt. XXV.), and the apostle asketh them, " How the
love of God can dwell in that man, that sees his brother have
need, and shutteth up the bowels of his compassion from
him;" 1 John iii. 17. Yet do men think by dropping now
and then a penny, they have discharged all this great duty.
And when they see many ways by which they might promote
the Gospel, and help the church, and serve God with their
estates, yet self will not let them see the meaning of the
plainest Scriptures that do require it.
2. When men should practise the great duty of forgiving
injuries, trespasses and debts, and of loving our enemies, and
blessing them that curse us, and praying for thera that hate
and persecute us, how stubbornly doth selfishness resist
these duties ! What abundance of words raay you use in
vain, with most men, to persuade them to any of this work !
No, they must have their right, and that which is their own,
though it be to the undoing of their brother. Passion and
revenge even boil within them, and the thoughts of an in
jury stick in their minds; and if they do take on thera dis-
semblingly to forgive it, yet they cannot forget it, nor hear
tily love a brother that displeaseth them, much less an ene
my : and all this is frora the dorainion of self, and shews
that it prevaileth above God in the soul, and therefore shews
a graceless heart.
3. When the ministers of the Gospel themselves should
be painful in their great and necessary work, and should
watch over all the flock (Acts x. 28.), " warning every man
and teaching every raan in all wisdora, that they raay pre
sent every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Col. i. 28.) ; con
descending to men of the lowest sort, and teaching thera in
season, and out of season, what reasonings and shifts will
self bring to resist so great and excellent a duty, and prove
it no duty ; and that God will give them leave to spare their
pains ; and all because of the powerful interest of self !
4. And let the sairie ministers have a disordered flock,
that hath scandalous members, especially if they be great
ones, or many, and how rarely will they do their duty to
VOL. XI. H

98 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
them, in plain reproof, and in case of irapenitency and con
tinuance in sin, by public admonition and rejection! What
shiftings and cavillings will they find against this displeas
ing work of" discipline ! even when they will reproach a man
themselves whose opinion is against discipline, and when
they have preached, and written, and disputed so rauch for
it, and almost all parties are agreed ofthe necessity ofit in
the substance ; yet when it comes to practice, it cannot be
done without procuring men's haired and opposition, and
laying us open lo much incommodity, and therefore self doth
persuade us to forbear ; and whether God or self have the
more servants, even yet in a reformed ministry, I leave you
lo judge, as your observation of the congregations through
the land shall direct you. But were it not for self, I should
undertake to do more for discipline and personal instruction
wilh most ministers by one argument, than I have done by
a volume, and you raight see an unaniraous concurrence in
the work, and consequently a great alteration in the churches.
5. And whence is it but frora selfishness, that plain and
close application in our sermons is taken to be an injury to
those that think themselves concerned in it ? Ifa minister
will speak alike to all, and take heed of meddling with their
sores, they will patiently hear him ; but if he make them
know that he meaneth them in particular, and deal closely
with them about their miserable state, or against any spe
cial, disgraceful sin, they fall a railing at hira, and reproach
ing him behind his back ; and perhaps they will say, they
will hear him no more, ' O!' saith the selfish, ungodly wretch,
' I know he meant me to-day : had he nobody but me lo
speak against?' As ifa sick raan should be angry with the
physician, for giving directions and medicines to him in par
ticular, and say, ' Had he nobody to give physic to but me?
Were there not sick men enough in the town besides me?'
When Christ told the despisers of the Gospel of the certain
and dreadful destruction that was near them, it is said that
" When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his para
bles, they perceived that he spake of them, (a heinous bu
siness !) and therefore they sought to lay hands on him, but
that they durst not do it for fear of the multitude ;" Matt.
xxi. 41. 44, 45.
6. Nay, let a minister preach but any such doctrine as
seems consequentially to be agaipsl self, and to conclude

TREATISE OF .SELF-DENIAL. 99
hardly of them, and they are ready lo say. as Ahab of Mi-
caiah, " I hate him ; for he prophesieth not good of me, but
evil;" 1 Kings xxii. 8. Let us but tell them how few will
be saved ; what holiness, and striving, and diligence is ne
cessary, though we have the express word of God for il
(Heb.xii. 14. Matt.vii.13,14. Lukexiii.24. 2Pet.i. 10.),
yet because they think that it makes against their carnal
peace, they cannot abide it. Plain truth is unwelcome lo
thera because it is rough, and grates upon the quick, and
tells them of that which is troublesome lo know : though
they must know their sin, and danger, and misery, or else
they can never escape it ; yet they had rather venture on
hell, than hear the danger. And as a sottish patient, they
love that physician better that will tell them there is no dan
ger, and kt thera die, than he that will tell thera, ' Your
disease is dangerous ; you raust bleed, or vomit, or purge, or
you will die.' O what a wrong they take il to be told thus !
If a minister tell one of them that hath the death-marks of
ungodliness in the face of his conversation, ' Neighbour, I
must deal plainly with you ; your state is sad ; you are un
sanctified, and unjustified, and in the slavery of the devil,
and will be lost for ever, ifyou die before you are converted
and made a new creature ; and therefore turn presently as
you love your soul,' itis ten to one but he should have a re
proachful answer instead of thanks and obedience. And all
this shews that self bears the rule. 1 will give one instance
from the Gospel, that will tell you plainly the power of self.
In Luke iv. 20. &c. you read of an excellent sermon preached
by Jesus Christ hiraself, so that all did wonder at his gra
cious words : yet few were converted by it, but they fell on
cavilling against hira, because of his supposed parentage and
breeding. Whereupon Christ telleth them that Elias and
Elisha, though most excellent prophets, were sent but for
the sake of a few, and therefore it was no wonder if of all
that multitude it was bul a few that should be converted
and saved by him. This very doctrine so nettled these
wretches, that the text saith, that " all they in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and
rose up and thrust him out of the cily, and led him to the
brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might
cast hira down headlong ;" ver. 28, 29, See what entertain
ment such doctrine had even from Christ himself! As if

100 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
they should have said, ' What ! are we all unconverted and
ungodly? Shall none be saved but a few such as you?'
Self was not able lo bear this doctrine, they would havehad
his life for it.
7. Again, let but a rainister or a private Christian deal
closely with ungodly men or hypocrites about their parti
cular sins, by private reproof, and see whether self be not
lord and king in them. O how scurvily they will look at
you ! and their hearts do presently rise against you with
displeasure, and they meet you with distaste and passion,
and plead for their sins, or at least excuse or extenuate them ;
or bethink themselves what they may hit you in the teeth
with of your own. Or if raalice itself can fasten nothing on
you, they let fly at professors, or those that they think are
of your mind and way. In a word, they shew you that they
take it not well that you raeddle with them, and let not their
sin alone, and look to yourselves, for all that God hath ex
pressly commanded us, " Thou shalt not hate thy brother in
thy heart : thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and
not suffer sin upon him ;" Lev. xix. 17. And, " Exhort one
another daily, while il is called to-day, lest any be har*
dened by the deceitfulness of sin;" Heb. iii. 13. So Matt.
xviii. 15, 16. Try but plain dealing with your neighbours
one twelvemonth, with as much prudence, and love, and le
nity as will stand with faithfulness ; and when you have
done, I dare leave it to yourselves to judge, whether God
or self have the raore servants in the world, and whether self-
denial and sanctification be not very rare.
8. Yet further, you see it is the duty of Christians to
admonish and faithfully reprove one another ; but because
most men take it ill, and plain dealing will displease and
lose a friend, how few even of professors will be brought to
perform it ! yea, of those that expect a minister should re
ject the offender, when it cannot be done till after admoni
tion, and impenitency thereupon. No, this is a troublesome
duty, and self will not give tbem leave to do it.
9. Moreover, you know that church-government and
discipline is an undoubted ordinance of Christ, which the
church hath owned in every age ; (though in the execution
some have been negligent, and some injurious;) and that
open, scandalous sins raust have open confession and repenn
tance, that the ill effects raay be hindered or healed, andthe

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 101
church see that the person is capable of their communion,
and that the absolution raay be open and well grounded.
And yet let any raan (except the truly penitent and godly)
be called, after a scandal, to such a necessary confession,
and how hardly are they brought to it ! What cavilling shall
you have against the duty ! They will not believe that it is
their duty ; not they ! And why so ? is it because it is not
plainly required by God ? No, but because it tends (they
think) to their disgrace ; and self is against it : and when
you have shewed thera such reasons for it that they cannot
answer ; yet, the sura is, they will not believe it ; or if they
believe it, they will not do it. What ! will they make thera
selves the laughing-stock and talk ofthe country ? No, they
will never do it ; and it is an injury, they think, for God or
man to put them upon it. God commands, and self forbids ;
God bids thera yield, lest they perish in impenitency ; self
bids them not to yield, lest they shame themselves before
men : God persuadeth, and self dissuadeth, and which is it
that raost commonly prevails ? (Though to avoid the shame
of excoramunication, self also will sometimes make them
yield.) Did but the magistrate by a penalty often or twenty
pounds upon refusers, persuade thera to this, not one of a
hundred would then refuse ; but when God urgeth thera with
the threatening of hell, the wages of impenitency, they make
little or nothing of it : as if they could escape it by not be
lieving it, or some way or other could deal well enough with
him. Judge by the performance of this one duty, whether
God or self have more disciples.
10, Lastly, let me instance in one duty more. Suppose
a deceitful tradesman, or oppressing landlord, or any one
that gets unlawfully from another, is told from the word of
God that it is his duty to make restitution, either to the per
son, or to his posterity, (or to God by the poor, if neither
can be done ;) and to give back all that ever he thus unjustly
came by, though he had been possessed of it (without dis
grace) never so long : see what entertainment this doctrine
will have with the most. Self will not lose the prey that it
hath got hold of, till death shall wring it out of its jaws, and
hell make them wish they had never raeddled with it, or else
had penitently and voluntarily restored it. O what abun
dance of objections hath self against it ! and no answer will
satisfy from God or man, Ofa thousand unjust getters, how

102 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
many do restore, and say as Zaccheus, " Behold Lord, the
half of my goods I give to the poor ; and if I have taken any
thing from any manby false accusation, I restore him four
fold?" Luke xix. 8.
Nay, let us instance in a duty of lesser self-denial, than
this of restitution. If two do but fall out, and one give rail
ing words to the other ; or if one slander his neighbour and
do him wrong ; though il be undoubtedly the will of Christ
that he penitently ask him forgiveness that he hath wronged
(Luke xvii. 4.), yet proud-hearted, selfish men will refuse il.
What ! will they stoop to such a fellow, and ask him for
giveness (especially if it be their inferior) ? No, they scorn
it ; never talk to thera of it raore ; they will never do it. And
why so? would not God have them do it? Hath not he
said, " He that humblelh himself shall be exalted ?" Yea,
bul what tell you them what God saith, and what Scripture
saith, as long as self, and flesh, and pride are against it.
Judge now by these ten duties that I have named, whether
God or self be king with most.

CHAPTER VII.
Men's exceeding Tenderness of self in case of any Suffering.
4. Another discovering instance ofthe dorainion of self,
and the scarcity of self-denial, is,' The exceeding tenderness
of ourselves in any case of suffering, and the great matter
that we make of it, and our displeasure against all that are
the causes ofit, be it never so just.' I shall here also give
you some more particular instances.
1. When did you ever see an offender (at least very few)
that justified the judge, and heartily confesseth that his pu
nishment is due (unless some few at the gallows, when the
sight of death takes down their pride)? But at raost, every
one that suffereth for his fault doth repine at it, and at them
that caused it, and think they have wrong, or are hardly
deall with. If all the swearers, cursers, profaners of the
Lord's day, drunkards, or ale-sellers that harbour them, or
are otherwise guilty, were accused by their neighbours, and
punished by the magistrate but according to theiaw, how ma
ny of all these are there that would notbe displeased with the

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 103
accusers and with the magistrate, and think himself wronged,
and bear them a grudge in his mind that did it ? And why
so? Is if not just and according to the laws of God and
man? Must we make astir in choosing parliament-men?
and raust they sit there raonth after month, and use their
utmost skill and diligence to make such laws as are necessary
for the common good, and when all is done, must not these
laws be executed ? Why then it were betier spare the par
liament-men the labour of sitting about thera, and ourselves
the trouble of choosing us parliament-men, than do all this
for nothing. What! is every ale-seller, or drunkard, or
swearer, or profane person, wiser than all the parliament and
the prince, or are they all better, and juster, and honester
than they ? No ; but it is self that stands up against all.
It is in vain to tell them of kings, or parliaments, or laws,
or common good, as long as you go about to cross the flesh,
and trouble them in their privale interest; set but self
against all, and all goes down before it as nothing. There
is scarce a thief or a murderer that is hanged, but thinks he
hath hard measure, because il is against himself.
2. Nay, il is not only penalties, but words, that men are
very sensible of, if they be but against themselves. An
angry or disgraceful speech, or any contempt or disrespect,
doth seem a great matter against them ; and they have ag
gravations enough lo lay upon il. So tender are they of
themselves, that you may see how litlle they deny themselves.
3. Yea, God's own corrections do seem so heavy to them,
that they murmur and are impatient under them. A little
loss or cross to self doth lie as a mountain on them. Poverty,
or sickness, or disgrace, or troubles, do make them cora
plain as if they were alraost quite undone : and all this
shews how little they have learned to deny theraselves.

CHAPTER VIII.
The PartiaUty of Men's PracticalJudgment in their own Case.
5. Another discovering instance of the dominion of self,
is, 'The strange partiality of men's practical judgments when
the cause is their own, and the equity of their judgments
when the case is another man's.'

104 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
For particular instances of this, you raay take up those
that were raentioned before. I will give you but a few.
1. Take but a dull and backward rainister (for I know
you will expect that I begin next horae), and he that is most
averse to particular instruction, and discipline, and self-
denying duties, will be content that another man should
perform them, and will commend and extol him for a worthy
man ; except he perceive that another's diligence disgraceth
his selfishness and negligence, and then indeed he raay pos
sibly repine at it.
2. A raan that will not corae near us to be instructed or
catechized, will yet let his children or servants corae. Why
what is the raatter ? Doth he more regard their salvation
than his own ? or hath he not a soul to save or lose as well
as they ? and hath he not need of teaching ? Yes ; but
they are not himself: if they learn a catechism, it is no trou
ble to him : if their ignorance be opened, he takes it to be
less dishonour to him than if he shew his own. He can
yield to their submission without self-denial, but not to his
own. 3. Take a common glutton or drunkard that cannot for
bear, but must needs have that which the flesh desires, and
they can be content that another man be teraperate and
sober ; and if a neighbour should have the cup before him
as they have, of a provocation to their appetite, they could
be content that they let it alone ; yea, they can tell them
that it is the best way, and give thera good counsel ; and
yet when the case is their own, itis otherwise. I have
known drunkards that would persuade their children to take
heed of it, and swearers that would whip their children for
swearing, and persons that would not read or pray, that
would be content to have their children do it. And why is
all this ? Why that which goes by their own throats, must
cost them self-denial in the displeasing of their greedy ap
petites ; but that which goes by the throat of another doth
cost them nothing : self is not so much against their chil
dren's abstinence and reformation as their own.
4. The same magistrate that will not trouble himself and
displease his neighbours, by suppressing alehouses and pu
nishing vice, will perhaps be content if it were done by
another ; so that self might have none of the trouble and
ill. will.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 105
5. Some raen that will not instruct their famiUes, nor
pray with them morning and night, will confess it is well
done of others that do it. Yea, some that will not be per
suaded to a holy, heavenly life, will confess it is the best
and wisest course, and approve of it in others, and wish
they might but die in such men's case ; and yet they will
not themselves be brought to practise it. They will cora
raend Peter, and Paul, and the fathers, and the raartyrs for
a holy life, and as I said, keep holy-days for them, and yet
they will not be persuaded to imitate thera. And why so ?
Why it costs thera nothing to coraraend holiness in others ;
but to practise it themselves, must cost them self-denial.
6. If another man be so ingenuous as to forsake an old
self-espoused opinion, which their reputation seems to lie
upon, and this upon their arguing, or in conforraity to their
minds, they will commend his great self-denial and sincerity ;
but yet they will not do so themselves, where the case is
perhaps more clear and necessary.
7. Take a raan that is never so worldly and unraerciful,
that gives not to the poor any considerable part of his estate,
nor doth any thing worth the raentioning for the church,
and yet this man will consent that another shall be as boun
tiful and charitable as he will : when you can hardly screw
a groat out of his purse, he will be content if another will
give a hundred ; and he will commend the liberal, and speak
well of thera, when he will not imitate them. And why is
this ? Why it costeth him nothing for another to be liberal,
and therefore he can advise il, or consent to it wiihout self-
denial ; but self is against it when he should do it himself.
8. Take the most selfish, unsanctified man, that cannot
love an eneray, nor forgive a debt or a wrong, and he will
yet coraraend it in another, and advise them to it, arid speak
well of those that will do so by him. And why is this ?
Why it costeth him nothing to have another raan love an
eneray, or forgive a debt or wrong ; but he cannot hiraself
do it wiihout self-denial.
9, Those raen that love not to be touched themselves by
the minister's application, can yet endure well enough that
others be dealt as sharply with as may be ; and they are
glad to hear any sharply reproved whose sins they do dislike.
The covetous raan loves to hear us reprove the drunkard,
and the drunkard is content to have the covetous repre-

106 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
bended : erroneous professors, dividers and hypocrites do
hale the minister that reprehendelh their own sin, and can
scarce endure to hearhim, butsayhe is bitter, ora persecutor,
or raileth al the godly ; (alas, that wickedness should have so
impudent a plea!) but they can freely give us leave to deal
as plainly as we will with the openly profane : scarce any
sect can endure you to speak against their own mistakes ;
but you may speak as freely against the contrary-minded
as you please. How easily can Papists endure one to speak
against Protestants ; or Anabaptists endure one to speak
against ipfanl baptism ! And the openly profane can well
enough endure to have sects, and schisraatics. and heretics
reproved : and why is all this, but frora the dominion of self.
and the scarcity of self-denial in the world ? To have an
other rebuked, toucheth not self, and therefore may be borne.
The poor man loves lo hear us preach against the vices
of the rich, and to reprehend the luxury of gentleraen, and
the cruelty of oppressors : the subject too often loves to
hear the ruler's faults laid open : the countryman loves to
hear the courtiers', the ministers', but especially the lawyers'
faults laid open ; here you may speak freely ; but self must
be let alone, upon pain of their displeasure, and many a
reproach. 10. So also in case of personal close reproof; those that
cannot endure it themselves, do think it the duty of others
lo endure it, and expect that others should submit lo them;
and if any will say, 'Neighbour, I thank you for your plain
and friendly dealing, and having so much compassion on
my soul, as to help to save me from my sins. 1 confess I
am a vile unworthy sinner ; bul by the grace of God I will
do so no more ; or if I be any more overtaken, I pray you
tell me of il, and let me not alone in it.' I say, if another
should answer them thus, and thank them for their reproof,
they would think the better of him, and take it well. But
yet they will not do so themselves ; for it costeth self no
thing to have another submit and humble himself.
11. So those that are most backward to the admonish
ing of others, lest they lose their love, can like to have a
minister or another do it ; for that doth not put them to
deny themselves.
12. Nay, take a scandalous professor that is drawn to
public confession as a bear lo the stake, and if it were an-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 107
other man's case, he would think it but reasonable and meet,
and would persuade him to it. If another had committed
the same sin against God as he hath done, or had slandered
or wronged him, and would freely without urging, confess
in the congregation with tears in his eyes, that he hath sin
fully provoked God, and offended the church and wronged
his brother, and laid a stumbling-block in the way of the
ungodly and the weak, and dishonoured his holy profession,
and is never'able to make satisfaction for such heinous sins,
and is unworthy any more lo be a meraber of the church,
and to have any communion wilh Christ or them ; and should
earnestly entreat them to pardon hira, and pray for hira, and
retain him in their communion, and entreat God lo pardon
him ; would not the stander-by think this were well done.
and a better way to his recovery than lo refuse it ? And
all is, because that self is not touched in another raan's case;
unless he apprehend it like lo become his own ; and then
he may be against il, and scoff at this as loo precise a course.
13. Take also the extortioner, or any man that hath de
frauded or injured another, and that will not be persuaded
to make restitution of all that he hath got amiss ; and let
this man hear ofthe case of Zaccheus, and he will say il was
well done : or let another's case be propounded to him, and
he can tell them, that, ' Restitution is the safest way ; what
ever il cosl you, it is fit that every man should have his own.'
Self will give him free leave to consent to another raan's
restitution; but not to his own.
14. Moreover, suppose that persecution were afoot, and
a man must either knowingly sin against God, or lose his
estate, and part wilh all that he hath in the world, and burn
al a stake for the cause of Christ : the selfish, unsanctified
person will not be persuaded that this is his duly, or al least,
he will not be persuaded to submit to it ; he cannot suffer,
nor burn ; he will trust God with his soul, rather than men
with his body (as such speak that despise God, and reject
him, and prefer the world before him. and call this trusting
him). But if this were another man's case, they could tell
him that il is belter displease men than God, and that it is
belter venture a short life, than an endless life ; and that it
is little profit to win all the world, and lose his own soul ;
and that il is the wisest way to make sure work for eternity,
and not to venture on endless misery ; and they could con-

108 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
sent that another should rather suffer than sin ; why else
do they commend the martyrs for it ? and what is the reason
for this strange partiality ? Why, self is the great ruler, and
God hath but the name. Self is partial in their own cause,
but not in another man's ; and therefore they can consent to
his suffering without self-denial ; and hence comes the dif
ference. 15. Moreover, when offenders raurraur at their punish
ment, ask but the standers-by, and they are of another mind.
When the ale-seller thinks he is wronged if he be put down,
ask but the poor women whose husbands used to be drunk
there, and whose children lack meat, and drink, and clothes,
because the alehouse devours that which should buy them,
and they will be quite of another judgment, and think you
love not God or the country, if you will not suppress them.
16. Also when you hear men extenuating their sin, and
excusing it, put but the case as another man's, and let them
not understand that it is their own, and you shall hear an
other judgment. So Nathan came about David, and put
but a far lower case as another's about the robbing a poor
man of his only sheep, and he could presently say and swear.
" As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall
surely die. because he had no pity ;" and his anger was
greatly kindled against the man ; 2 Sam. xii. 5. 6. But why
was he not as angry with hiraself for a greater sin ? 0 ! self
had got the belter in that grievous fall, till grace broke his
heart by true repentance. So when Judah heard of Thamar's
fornication, he commandeth, " Bring her out that she may
be burnt ;" Gen. xxxviii. 24. But when he understood that
it was by himself, the case was altered.
17. Let a man that has been provoked by injuries and ill
words, have done or spoken as bad himself against another,
and he can make but a small raatter of thera, or think they
should be easily put up or pardoned, when yet the same
words spoken against hira, do seem intolerable.
18. Let a man speak with others in poverty, sickness or
any affliction, and what good counsel can he give him to
submit to God, and take all patiently ! But let the suffering
be his own, and he cannot take the counsel that he gives.
19. Nay more, men are not only partial for themselves,
but for any that are near themselves, or that self is related
to. Let another raan's son or servant do evil, and you can

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 109
be content that he be rebuked or corrected ; but if it be a
son, or kinsman, or servant of your own, the case is altered ;
it is then a wrong to puqish him, because of his relation to
you. Let a stranger do amiss, and, you can give way to
justice ; but if the drunkard, or ale-seller, or swearer be your
friend, then he must be borne with and forgiven, and the
justice must be entreated for him.
Let a scandalous or insufficient minister or schoolmaster
be offered to any place, if he be a stranger you can be con
tent that he be rejected ; but if he be a kinsman, or child,
or friend of yours, what an alteration doth this make in the
case ! Then he must be borne wilh and tried, and you hope
he will raend, and his faults are made the least of, and his
virtues more than indeed they are.
Nay, any man that doth but love yourselves, and honour
you, and think highly of you, shall have a more favourable
construction for all his words, and actions, and intentions,
than one that you imagine is against you, or hath low
thoughts of you, or is against your interest or opinion.
Sirs, I have run into abundance of instances, but not a
quarter so many as might be given ; and all is to meet with
the turnings and windings of this serpent, self ; and to let
you see (if light itself can make you see, against the blind
ing power of self) how rare self-denial is in the world, and
what a large dorainion self obtaineth.
I would here have added some more discoveries, as, 6.
From the excessive care, aijd cost, and labour that almost
all the world is at for self ; and the little they are at for
God, or the good of others. 7. The large proportion that
is expended on self, in comparison of God and others. 8.
The zeal of men to vindicate self, but the little zeal for God
or others. 9. The rigorous laws that are made in the cause
of self (thieves and traitors must die), and the remissness of
lawgivers in the cause of God ; blasphemy, malignity and
impiety are not so roughly handled. 10. The firmness of
men to carnal self, and their great mutability and unfaithful
ness to God. But I had rather omit somewhat than to be
too tedious, and therefore I go no further in these discoveries,
save only to add a few of those aggravations that shew you
the extent of self s dominion, as you have seen the sad dis
coveries of the reality of it.

110 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
CHAPTER IX.
The great Power and Prevalency of Selfishness discovered.
And that you may see what cause we have for our lamenta
tions, consider the greatness of selfish tyranny in these
particulars. 1. Consider what apower it is that self beareth down in
the world. The commands ofthe God of heaven are over
come by it. The promises of eternal life are trod under foot
by it. The threatenings of endless torraents are nothing lo
il. Il casts by heaven ; il ventures upon hell ; it tramples
upon the precious blood of Christ ; il will not hear the voice
of wisdora itself; nor the voice of goodness and mercy it
self; it refuseth him that speaks from heaven ; love itself is
not lovely where self is judge ; it quencheth all the motions
of the Spirit ; it despiseth ministers ; it turneth mercies in
lo wantonness and sin. Like Sampson il breaks all bonds
that are laid on il; and till it be weakened itself, there is no
holding, no ruling, no saving the soul that is ruled by it.
2. Consider also the exceeding number of its subjects.
Truly if there were no other proof that the sanctified and
the saved are very few, this one is so full and sad a proof,
that it tempteth me sometimes to think thera much fewer
than willingly I would do. Alas, how few self-denying per
sons do you meet with in the world ! Yea, in the church !
Yea, among the stricter professors ! Look over all the world,
and see how few you can find at work for any one but for
carnal self! If you observe the courts, and see whose work
is done raost there ; and look into the armies of the world,
and see who it is that ruleth there ; ifyou look upon the
affairs of nations, and the wars of princes, and their con
federacies, and see who il is that rules in all, how litlle will
you see (save here and there) but carnal self? Il is self
that makes the cause and managelh it ; it is self that maketh
wars and peace. Come down inlo our courts of justice,
and whose voice is loudest al the bar but selfs? and who
is il commonly else that brings in the verdict ? at least, who
is it else that made and followeth on the quarrel ? How
many causes hath self at an assize, for one that God hath !
Come lower into the country, and who is it that ploughs

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. Ill
and sows ? who is it that keeps house or shop but self? 1
mean, what else but carnal self is the principle ? What else
bul carnal self is the end ? What else bul the will of self is
the rule ? And what else but selfish commodity, or pleasure,
or honour are the matter, or some provision that is made for
these? and consequently what else but self-respect is the
form? For the end inforraeth the means as raeans, and
therefore all that is done for self, is self service and self-
seeking. In a word, as God is all in all to the sanctified,
so self is as all in all to the ungodly. And alas ! how great
a nuraber are all these !
3. Consider that it is a sin that is nearer us objectively
than any other sin ; and the nearer the raore dangerous.
Alas ! that a man should turn his own substance into poi
son, and feed upon it lo his own destruction ! Ifyou have
drunk poison, you raay cast it up again, or nature may do
much lo work it out ; but if your own blood, and humours,
and spirits be turned into venom, that should nourish and
preserve your life, what then shall expel this venom, and
deliver you?
4. Moreover it is the most obstinate disease in the
world. No duty harder (except the love of God) than self-
denial. 0 ! how many wounds will self carry away and yet
keep life, and heal them all ! How commonly do we con
vince some carnal gentlemen that " one thing is needful ;"
and that it is a belter part than earth, and honour, and sen
suality that must be chosen, or else they are undone ; and
the more they have, the more they must forsake, and the
more self-denial is required to their salvation ; and that all
their lands, and wealth, and honours, and all their wit, and
parts, and interest must be al the service of their Maker and
Redeemer ; and that when they have all in the world that
they can gel, that all must become nothing, and God must
become all ; their treasure must become the dross and dung,
and Christ must become their treasure, or they are lost ; I
say, how oft do we convince raen of all estates of these ira
portant, evident truths ! And yet this self is still alive, and
keeps the garrison of the heart ; and all that we can have
frora raost of thera, is, as the rich raan, Luke xviii. 23,24.,
to be very sorrowful that they cannot have heaven at easier
rates, and that Christ will not be a servant unto self, or that
they cannot have two masters ! They go away sorrowful

112 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
(but away they go) because they are rich ; which makes
Christ say upon this observation, " How hardly shall they
that have riches enter into the kingdora of God !" But
when the disciples were troubled at his observation, he lets
thera know that it is self and not riches that is indeed the
deadly enemy. It is the selfish that trust in riches, and
love and use them for themselves, and deny not themselves,
and devote not all to God, that will be kept out of heaven
by them ; or in Christ's own words, it is " he that layeth up
treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God ;" Luke xii.
21. Conquer self, and conquer all.
5. Moreover, self is the raost constant raalady ; the sin
that doth raost constantly attend us. Many actual sins
may be laid by, and we may for the time be free from them.
But selfishness is at the heart, and lives with us continually ;
it parteth not from us sleeping or waking ; it goes to the
worship of God with us ; it will not stay behind in the holiest
ordinance ; it will not forbear inlerraixing itself in the purest
duties, bul will defile thera all. So that above all sins in
the world, it is this that must have the strictest and most
constant watch, or else we shall never have any peace foril.
6. Yea, this self doth lamentably survive even in the sanc
tified soul, among the special graces of the Spirit, and la
raentably distempereth the hearts and lives of too many of
the godly themselves. Not that any godly raan is selfish in
a predominant sense ; or that self is higher or more power
ful in his heart than God, for that is a contradiction ; such
a man cannot be a godly man (without conversion). Bul
yet the very remnants of conquered self, what a smoke do
they raake in our assemblies, and what noisome scent in the
lives of raany godly raen ! What a stir have we soraetimes
with those that we hope are godly, before we can get them
to an irapartial judgment ; to lament their own foul wordsj
or other miscarriages, and to humble themselves, or freely to
forgive another that hath wronged thera ! Especially to
confess disgraceful sins in any self-denying raanner ! How
close stick they to their own conceits ! how lamentably do
they improve thera, lo the conterapt of rainisters, and trouble
and division of the church ! How wise are they in their own
eyes, and how hardly yield they to any advice that crosseth
self ! How hardly are they brought to any dear and costly
duty ! How much do they indulge their appetites and pas-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 113
sions ! and how cheap a religion do raany think to come to
heaven with ! We can scarce please some of them they are
so selfish ; either because we cross them in their opinions,
or in their ways ; or because we allow them not so much spe
cial countenance and respect as self would have ; or deny
them somewhat which self desires. If they have any use
for us, if we leave not raore public or greater work which
God hath set us on, and allow them not that part in our tirae,
or labours, or other helps, which God and conscience will
not allow them, they are offended and lake it ill, that self is
not preferred before God and the public service. Their selves
are so dear to themselves, that they think we should neglect
all to serve them.
Let the most useful minister live in a place that hath the
plague, or olher contagious mortal sickness ; and most that
are visited will take it ill if the minister come not to them,
though they know that his life is hazarded by il, and that
his loss to the whole church is raore to be regarded than the
content Or benefit of particular persons ;. and it is not the
pleasing of thera, nor their benefit by hira then that will
countervail the church's loss of hira. What is this but loo
much preferring self (I hope not habitually, bul) in that act,
before the church and honour of God ?
Let a minister or any other man resolve to bestow all that
God hath given him for his service, on the poor, or pious
uses ; perhaps he shall displease as many ashe pleaseth, be
cause he hath not enough for all ; and if he give to nineteen,
the twentieth will say, ' He passed by me ; and I am never
the better.' And thus this insatiable, unreasonable self will
hardly be pleased ; and among the godly how rauch doth it
prevail ! O how many ministers in England can tell by sad
experience, how rauch of self snrviveth in professors ! so
rauch that we can hardly rule them, or keep them frora
breaking all to pieces, and every nian running a way of his
own. "The ruin of England's expected reformation ; the fall
ofour hopes in too great a measure ; the multiplying of sects ;
the swarms of errors ; the rage against the raost faithful rai
nisters ; the neglect of discipline, and obstinate refusal of
penitent confessions, and humbling, self-denying duties ; the
backwardness to leam ; the forwardness to be teachers : the
high esteem of weak parts, and weaker grace ; the coramon
ness qf backbiting, censuring and slandering, especially
VOL. XI, I

114 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
those that are notof their fond opinions ; the rising designs.
of many ; the tenderness of their reputations ; the contend
ing for pre-eminence ; all these, with many others, do too
loudly tell the world how much of self and how little self-
denial is in many that seem godly.
7. But yet this is not the highest discovery of the power
of carnal self. Though it is sad to think that it should be
so potent in any that have grace ; yet it is raore sad to think
that it hath too rauch power in the wisest and raost learned
raagistrates and rainisters, that should be the greatest ene
raies of it in the rest. A raagistrate, as a raagistrate, is for
the common good. Political societies consisting of sove
reign and subject, are therefore called comraon wealths, from
the final cause, which is the common good or weal of all ;
so that it is essential to a magistrate to be for the common
good. And yet self creeps in, and makes such work with
many of thera, that it is hard to judge whether it have left
them the essence of the magistracy, and whether they should
be called magistrates or no.
But yet it is more sad, that the learned, godly preachers
of self-denial should have so little of it, as too raany have.
Alas, that rainisters do not remember how ill Christ took
the first contendings among his disciples, who should be the
greatest ; that they do not imprint upon their rainds the
iraage of Christ's setting a child before thera, and after gird
ing himself, and washing their feet. I think those men that
raake a sacrament of this, do err much less than those that
forget it. And I suspect that our contrariety to this exam
ple, will terapt some ere long into this contrary extreme, and
it may be set up as a sacrament indeed. O woful case ! to
be daily lamented by all the compassionate members of the
church ; thatthe learned, zealous pastors of it are the leaders,
fomenters, and continuers of her divisions : and when they
have opportunity to seek for healing, they want a will ; and
so much of self surviveth in them, that though God call to
them for peace and unity, and the bleeding church is begging
it of thera on their knees ; yet self hath such power over
thera, that God is not heard, and the church cannot be re
garded ; but peace, and piety, and all raust be sacrificed to
the will and interest of self ; as if they were the priests of
self, and the honour of God and peace of the church were
the daily sacrifice which they have to offer ! Not a motion

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 115
can be raade for reformation or unity, but some selfish mi
nisters rise up to strangle it, under pretence of mending the
terms. Not a consultation can be held, but self creeps in,
yea, openly appears, and ravels the Work, and will needs be
the doer of all that is done, or nothing must go on that is
done against it.
O blessed nation, if self-denial were more eminent and
predominant therein ! O precious ministry, and great and
bonourable, if we truly sought" our honour in the habit of
children, and by being the servants of all ! O happy churches,
abounding in holiness and peace, if once the pastors and
people were better skilled in the practice of self-denial ! I
must confess, to the praise of God's grace, raany such mi
nisters and people I have had the bappiness to converse
with ; and how sweet the fruit hath been both to them and
rae, both they and I are ready to confess. But one self-
seeking, unmortified rainister, is enough to disturb a whole
society, and break the good endeavours of many. And,
alas ! how many such are abroad, that talk of almost nothing
but their' opinions, or parties, ot carnal interests, and are not
in the hafvest as reapers to gather, but as wild beasts that
are broken in to make spoil, or Sampson's foxes to set all
on fire ; running up and down from country to country with
firebrands at their tails, and stings in their mouths, which
they call by the reverend name of zeal.
But you may think I have been long in discoveries, ag-
oravations and complaints ; and therefore I will go no fur
ther in that sort of work, but only to adjoin these three or
four practical consectaries following.

CHAPTER X,
Some weighty Consectaries.

Consect. 1. So coramon and potent is selfishness in the world,
that it is enough to convince a rational, considerate man of
the truth ofthe doctrine of the fall of man, and of original
corruption, against all the objections that all the Socinians
or Pelagians in the world do raake against it. He that
thinks that God raade man in this distempered, distracted
state, that selfishness doth hold the world in, hath unrea-

116 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
sonable thoughts of the workraanship of God. He that seeth
even children, before they can speak or go so selfish as they
are, and all raankind, without exception, to be naturally as
so raany idol gods in the world, and can believe that this is
the image of God, in which they were created, doth make
the image of satan to be the iraage of God. No wiser, no
better is the doctrine that denieth original sin, where self
hath such a tyrannical, universal reign in all the world.
Consect. 2. So deep rooted, and powerful, and universal
is this aborainable vice, that it raust teach us what to expect
in all places we live in, and raay help us to raake the truest
prognostics, or raost probable conjectures of any mutations
where the will of man is like to be the determiner. Knovy
once but where self-interest lies, and you may know what
alraost all men will endeavour, and might write a probable
prognostication of the changes that are like to be in states,
and kingdoms, and anywhere in the world, were il not for
the interposition of two greater powers that have got the
victory of self; and that is grace, and divine, over-ruling
providence. I say were it not that these step in, and cross
self, and hinder its designs, you might foresee in self-intefest
the changes that are made in human affairs.
Consect. 3. And so potent and common is the dominion of
self, that il may warrant an honest, raoderate incredulity and
jealousy of alraost all raen, in cases where the interest of
self is much concerned. Let him be never so ingenuous, let
his parts and profession be never so promising, let his forr
raer engageraents to you be never so great, let him be your
own brother ; yet be not too confident of him, if his carnal
self be concerned or engaged against you. For you shafl
see by experience, as long as you live, that self will still bear
dominion in the most.
Consect. 4, Above all, every wise and godly man should
herein maintain the greatest jealousy of his own> heart. Keep
the heart above all keepings ; and keep out self above all
sins whatever. Take heed of selfishness as ever you would
be Christians, and live as Christians, and have the peace of
Christians. And to that end be always suspicious of every
cause, opinion, controversy, or practice, where self is much
concerned. The very names of Self and Own, should sound
in a watchful Christian's ears as very terrible, wakening

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 117
words, that are next to the naraes of sin and satan ; and at
least carry in them much cause of suspicion.
And this hath led me up to the next use of the point.

CHAPTER XI.

Use 2. To Try onr Self-denial : ' the Sincerity of the least
degree.
Of Exhortation.
Beloved hearers, I have now before me as great a sin and
danger to deter you from (even selfishness and its effects),
and as great a duty to offer to your entertainment (even self-
denial) as any (save one) that I ara acquainted with in the
world. The raising up the soul to God is indeed the greatest
work ; but the mortifying of the flesh, and the denying of
self is surely the next to it, being a real part of the change.
You hear ministers tell you of the odiousness, and danger,
and sad effects of sin ; but of all the sins that ever you heard
of, there is scarce any more odious and dangerous than this,
and yet I doubt there are raany that never were rauch trou
bled at it, nor sensible of its malignity. My principal re
quest therefore to you is, that as ever you would prove Chris
tians indeed, and be saved from sin, and damnation that fol
lows it, take heed of this deadly sin of selfishness, and be
sure you be possessed with true self-denial ; and if you have
it, see that you use and live upon it.
And for your help herein, I shall, 1. Tell you how your
self-denial must be tried ; and 2, How it must be exercised ;
and 3, I shall give you some further reasons lo persuade you
to it ; and 4, Some directions for the procuring and
strengthening it.
The trial of your self-denial may be performed by the
help of the signs that have been given you before. In the
ten parliculars mentioned in the beginning, you raay see what
is selfishness.- and what is self-denial. But for your further
satisfaction, I shall only tell you in a few words, how the
least measure of true self-denial may be known. And, in
one word, that is thus : ' Wherever the interest of carnal self
is stronger and more predominant habitually than the in-

118 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
terest of God, of Christ, of everlasting life, there is no ti^ue
self-denial or saving grace ; but where God's interest is the
strongest, there self-denial is sincere.' If you further ask
me how this may be known, briefly thus :
1. What is it that you live for? what is that good which
your mind is principally set to obtain? and whatis that end
which you principally design and endeavour to obtain, and-
which you set your heart on, and lay out your hopes upon?
Is it the pleasing and glorifying of God, and the everlasting
fruition of hira ? Or is it the pleasing of your fleshly mind
in the fruition of any inferior thing ? Know this, and you
raay know whether self or God have the greatest interest in
you. For that is your God which you love most, and please
best, and would do most for,
2. Which do you set most by, the means of your salva
tion and the glory of God, or the means of providing for
self and flesh? Do you set raore by Christ and holiness,
which are the way to God ; or by riches, honour, and plea
sures, which gratify the flesh? Know this, and you may
know whether you haye true self-denial.
3. Ifyou are truly self-denying, you are ordinarily ruled
by God, and his word a,nd Spirit, and not by carnal self.
Which is the rule and raaster of your lives ? Wl^ose word
and will is it ordinarily that prevails ? When God draws,
and self draws, which do you follow in the tenor of your life?
Know this^ and you may kno\j(^ vvhether you have true self-
denial. 4. If you have true self-denial, the drift of your lives is
carried on in a successful opposition to carnal self, so that
you not ouly refuse to be ruled by it, and love it aa your
God, but you fight against it, and tread it down as your
enemy. So that you go armed against self in the course of
your lives, and are striving ag-ainst self in every duty ; and
as others think, it then goes best with them, when self is
highest and pleased best ; so you will know that it then
goeth best with you, when self is lowes,t, and most effeq-
lually subdued.
5. If you have true self-denial, there is nothing iip, this
world so dear to you, but on deliberation you would leave
it for God He that hath any thing which be loveth so well
that he cannot spare it for God, is a selfish and unsanctified
wretch. And therefore God hath still put men to it, in the

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 119
trial of their sincerity, to part with that which was dearest
to the flesh. Abraham must be tried by parting with his
only son. And Christ raakes il his standing rule, " He that
forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be my disciple ;" Luke
xiv. 33. Yet it is true that flesh and blood raay make much
resistance in a gracious heart ; and many a striving thought
there may be, before with Abrahara we can part with a son,
or before we can part with wealth or life ; but yet on delibe
ration, self-denial will prevail, and there is nothing so dear
to a gracious soul, which he cannot spare at the will of God.
and the hope of everlasting life. If with Peter we should
flinch in a temptation, we should return with Peter in weep
ing bitterly, and give Christ those lives that in a terapta
tion we denied hira. For, habitually, God is dearest to
the soul.
6. In a word, true self-denial is procured by the know
ledge and love of God, advancing him in the soul to the de
basing of self. The illuminated soul is so rauch taken with
the glory and goodness of the Lord, that it carrieth hira out
of himself to God, and as it were estrangeth him from him
self, thathe raay have coramunion with God ; and this raakes
hira vile in his own eyes, and abhor himself in dust and ashes ;
he is lost in hiraself, and seeking God, he finds himself again
in God. It is not a stoical resolution, but the love of God
and the hopes of glory that raake him throw away the world,
and look conteraptuously on all below, so far as they are
raere provision for the flesh.
Search now, and try your hearts by these evidences,
whether you are possessed of this necessary grace of self-
denial. O raake not light of the raatter, sirs, and presurae
not ofit, till you find good grounds ! For I raust tell you
that self is the most treacherous eneray, and the raost insi
nuating deceiver in the world. It will be within you when
you are not aware ofit, and will conquer you when you per
ceive not yourselves much troubled with it ; and of all olher
vices is both the hardest to find out, and the hardest to cast
out ; the hardest to discover, and the hardest to cure. Be
sure therefore in the first place that you have self-denial ;
and then be sure that you use it and live in the practice of
it. And for this I raust give you more particular advice.

120 TREATISE OF SELF DENIAL.
CHAPTER XII,
In what respect Self must be Denied.
II, And here I beseech you take heed of self in all these
following respects, 1, You must deny self as it is opposite
to God, and a competitor with him, and the idol of the soul
and of the world ; and this is in all the ten respects which I
mentioned in the beginning, and therefore shall not now re
hearse. And this is the principal part of self-denial.
2. Self must be denied as it is bul conceived as sepa
rated from God ; and would be an end in a divided sense
from God. For ourselves and all things else are created
contingent, dependent beings, and must not be once thought
of as if we were either Our own beginning, or end, or in any
capacity, but subservient unto God. Self becomes a satan,
when it would cast off its due subordination to God, and
would be any other than the workraanship of God, depend
ing on hira, and ruled by hira, and living to him, loving him,
desiring him, and seeking after him, and either mourning
when we raiss hira, or rejoicing when we find communion
with him.
3. Self must be denied as it stands up against the truth
of the Gospel, and blindly and proudly quarrelleth with that
word which faith relieth upon for justification and salvation.
Carnal self is both the most incompetent judge of the word
of God, and of spiritual affairs, and also the most forward,
and arrogant, and audacious, for all it is so incompetent.
And this is the daranable fountain of unbelief. That self is
an incorapetent judge of the word and ways of God, is evi
dent : for, (1.) Il is a natural enemy to them, and an enemy
is no competent judge, " Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be ;" Rom. viii. 7. Deny therefore this enemy
the power of judging the word of God. Ill-will never saith
well. Enraity is credulous of all evil, and overlooks the
good, and is accompanied with false surmises, and wresteth
every word, and suspecteth or maketh an evil sense where
there was none : there is nota worse expositor in the world.
And therefore no wonder if sucih a nature of enmity can find
matter of quarrel with the very Scripture itself, a,nd wilh a

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 121
holy life, yea, with God himself; for it is hini especially that
the enraity is against.
(2.) Moreover self is a party, and therefore an incompe
tent j udge. It is self that the Scripture principally speaks
against. All over the Gospel there are the words of disgrace,
and the arrows of death directed against the very heart of
carnal self. God there proclaimeth and manageth an open
war against it. And shall a party be the judge ? Shall the
traitorous delinquent be the judge? A child will hardly
speak well of the rod, whatever he do by the corrector ; but
it is not to be expected that a thief should love the halter, or
the gallows. God's word is the weapon that self must be
slain by } and therefore self raust be an incompetent judge
ofit. (3.) Moreover self is quite blind in the matters of God.
" The natural man discerneth them not, nor can do, because
they are spiritually discerned ;" 1 Cor. ii. 14. And the ig
norant and blind are incompetent judges.
(4.) And the selfish man is no good student in the laws
of God ; even when he readeth the letter, he doth not mind
or savour the spirit of them, " For they that are after the
flesh, do mind the things of the flesh ; but they that are after
the Spirit, the things of the Spirit ;" Rom. viii. 5. A fair
world it would be, if every collier should judge the privy
council, and the judges of the land., or if every thief should
sit upon his accuser and his judge, and every traitor should
judge the prince. And a thousandfold raore insufficient is
self to judge the word of God. And yet as insufficient as it
is, it is exceeding arrogant, and steps up into the judgment-
seat, at every chapter that is read or heard : and if this blind
and raalicious judge be unsatisfied, forsooth the Scripture
must be dark or contradictory, or what he pleases. This hor
rible, presumptuous arrogancy of self is ilthat hath opened
so many mouths against the blessed doctrine of salvation,
and made so many wretched apostates in the world, and cast
so many others into doubtings of that word by which at last
they must be judged, and which should have been the ground
of their faith and hope.
4. Moreover, self must be denied as it stands up against
the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ is presented in his
wonderful condescension, in his incarnation, and mean, des
pised life, and in his ignorainious death, proud self is off'ended

I22 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
at so low a Saviour, and disdaineth that humiliation which
his own necessities did require, and despiseth Christ because
he became despised, and a raan of sorrows, in our stead.
When he is propounded as the reraedy of a raiserable sonl,
and as our only life, and righteousness, and hope, self doth
seduce the soul to undervalue him : it will not easily
be convinced of so rauch raisery as to need such a remedy :
it is too well to value such a physician ; it is too righteous
to value the righteousness of a Mediator. It hath too much
life and hope "dt home, in its own supposed innocency or
sufficiency, lo set much by the hopes that Christ hath pur
chased, and to live in him.
O down with self, that Christ raay be Christ to you !
How shall he come in, while self is the porter that keeps the
door ? How shall he pardon you, when self will not suffer
you to feel the want and worth of pardon ? How shall he
bind up your hearts, when self will not suffer them lo be
broken? How shall he clothe you wilh his righteousness,
while self keeps on your own defiled rotten rags ? Down
therefore with self, that Christ may be exalted. Away with
your own conceited righteousness, that he may be your
righteousness ; down with your selfish, foolish wisdom.
that the supposed foolishness ^of God may fee your wis
dom. Level this raountain, which satan hath built up in
enmity against the holy mountain of the Lord.
5. Moreover, self raust be denied as it is the great re-
sister of the Holy Ghost. The sanctifying Spirit hath no
greater enemy, at least, except the devil himself. One half
of the work of sanctification, is to destroy this carnal self;
and therefore no wonder if hence it find the chief resistance.
Not a holy motion can be made to the soul, but self is against
it. No work hath the Spirit to do upon us, but self is ready
to gainsay it, and contradict it, and work against it ; when
ever therefore this mortal principle is contending against the
Spirit of God, dishonouring holiness, dissuading you from
duty, persuading you to sin, down with it and deny it, as
you would be true to the Spirit and yourselves.
6. Moreover, self must be denied as it traitorously com
plieth with the enemies of Christ and your own salvation,
when it lakes part with satan, and pleads for sin, and saith
as wicked men say, and entereth a conspiracy with all that

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 123
would undo you, and all this under pretence of your own
good. Whenever it speaks for sin, you may be sure it
speaks against God and you. and therefore it is reason you
should deny it. Self also must be denied when it riseth up
against the supposed tediousness or difficulty of duty ; when
it grudgeth at a holy life, and saith, ' What a stir is here !
what a weary life is this ! what do I get by serving God ?'
Now self is playing the traitor against God and you ; and
therefore deny it.
7. Moreover, when self doth rise up against sufferings,
and raake you believe that they are intolerable, and that it
is unreasonable for a raan to forsake all that he hath for fear
of a sinful word or deed, when we sin every day, when we
have done our best ; il is time now to stop the mouth of self,
for it plays the devil's game against God and you, and would
persuade you to prefer a short, uncertain, miserable life, be
fore eternal life, and to give up yourself lo wilful sin, be
cause God beareth with the sins of men's infirmity. It is
reason that you should deny so unreasonable an enemy to
God and you.
8. Moreover, self must be denied when il stands up against
the ordinances of God. When it pleadeth against the argu
ments of the word, and findeth fault with the law that it
should obey, and quarrelleth with prayer and all holy duties,
and would raake all instituted means ineffectual for your
saving good, it is time now that you deny it.
9. When self doth rise up against the officers of Christ,
and would make you believe your teachers fools, and you
are wise ; that they are beside the truth, and you are in the
right ; or that they speak against you out of malice or sin
gularity, or sorae such distemper, and so would deprive you
of the saving benefit of their doctrine and office, it is time
now to deny self, ifyou know but what belongeth .to your
peace. And though I grant tha,t you must not follow a
teacher into a certain sin and error, yet when it is not God,
but self that riseth up against your teachers, and possesseth
you with a spirit of bitterness, disobedience, contradiction
and malignity, this self must be denied.
10., Lastly, As self is against the good of our neighbour
or human societies, it raust be denied ; for we must love our
neighbour as ourselves ; that is, both self and neighbour
must be loved in a due subordination to God, as means to

124 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
his glory, and in this notion of a raeans, the love should be
equal; though there is also a natural love in order to self-
preservation put into us by the Creator, which our love to
every neighbour is not to equal in degree, yet our love to
societies should exceed it ; and our love to a neighbour
should come so near it, that we should • deligere proximum
proxima dilectione,' love him as a second self, and so study
his welfare, as to proraote it to our power, and not to covet
or draw frora hira ourselves, nor do him any wrong. This
is the sense of the tenth commandment, and sum of the
secona table.

CHAPTER XIII.
I. Selfish Dispositions must be Denied; and, 1. Self-love.
Having seen in what respects and upon what accounts it
is that self must be denied, I ara next lo tell you the parti
culars of that selfish interest that must be denied, and the
parls that are contained in this needful work.
And here you must remember what saving faith is, that
seeing how self opposeth it, you may know wherein it must
be denied. 'Saving faith is such a belief in Christ for reconciliation
with God, and the everlasting fruition of him in glory, as
makes us forsake all the things of this world, and give
up ourselves to the conduct of the word and Spirit, for the
obtaining of it.'
When a man can strip himself of all the pleasures, and
profits, and honours of this world, first in his estimation,
and love, and resolution, and then in the actual forsaking of
them at the call of God, because of the firra belief and hope
that he hath of the fruition of God in glory, as purchased
and promised by Jesus Christ ; this is a Christian, a disciple
of Christ, a true believer, and none but this. And (as I have
told you) as God in unity, and Father, Son and Holy Ghost
in Trinity, is the object of our saving faith, so carnal self in
unity, and pleasure, profits and honours in trinity raust be
renounced by all true Christians ; as being that which we
turn frora, when we turn to God, So that, in brief, to deny
yourselves doth generally consist in denying all your own

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 125
dispositions and interests whatsoever, as they are against
God the Father, Son or Spirit, or stand not in a due subser
viency to hira. And this interest which you must deny,
consisteth in your pleasures, profits and honour ; of these
therefore I shall speak distinctly, though but briefly.
1. You must begin at the denial and mortification of
your corrupt and selfish disposition, or else you can never
well deny your selfish interest. It is not enough to keep
under this selfishness by denying it somewhat that it would
have, but the selfish inclination or nature itself must be so
far mortified and destroyed, that it shall not reign as for
merly it did. For this which we call selfishness is not your
very persons, nor any spiritual or right natural desire of your
own good ; but it is the inordinate adhering of the soul to
yourselves, by departing frora God, to whora you should
adhere, and so a carrying over God's interest and honour lo
yourselves. Holiness is an inclination and dedication to
God, by which two we are said to be separated to him : and
wickedness is an inclination, and addicledness or devoted
ness to ourselves above God, or as separated from God ; and
this inclination, disposition or separation of man to himself
instead of God, is it that I call self or selfishness ; and this
self raust itself be destroyed as to the predominant degree.
And therefore let us first observe wherein this selfish
disposition doth consist, which must be destroyed ; and
then secondly, wherein the selfish interest doth consist that
must be denied.
And first, the selfish disposition consisteth in these
several parts that follow.
1. The principal part of it consisteth in an inordinate
self-love. This is a corruption so deep in the heart of man,
that it may be called his very natural inclination, which
therefore lieth at the bottom, below all his actual sins what
soever ; and must be changed into a new nature, which prin
cipally consists in the love of God. This is original sin it
self, even in the heart ofit. This speaks what man by nature
is ; even an inordinate self-lover ; and as he is, so he will
act. In this, all other vice in the world is virtually con
tained ; even as all grace is in the love of God ; which made
the schoolmen say, that love is the forra of all grace ; not
as they are this or that grace in particular ; not of faith as
faith, nor of hope as hope ; but of faith, hope, &c. as vital

126 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
or gracious acts. Because the respect to the end is essen
tial to the means as a raeans ; and therefore the respect to
God as the end, is essential to faith, hope, &c. as a mejvns
to him : and therefore that grace (of love) which is terminated
on the end, raust have an essential participation, concurrence
or influence on those that are directly terminated on the
ways or means, and raust convey somewhat of its very es
sence to them ; and so far as they partake of that essence
of love, so far are they indeed those special graces which
carry the soul to God its end. And in this sense we may
allow the distinction between ' fides,' ' spes,' &c., ' formata
charitate' (which is true Christian faith and hope), and ' fides,'
' spes,' &c., ' inforrais' (which is but an opinion and a dream).
And so ilis in the body of sin ; when self-love doth reign, it is
the heart of wickedness : and though every sin hath its own
specific nature, yet all are virtually in self-lovcj and are so
far mortal, or prove men graceless, as they are informed by
the essential communication of self-love ; for self being the
end, informeth all the means as they respect il, I say the
more to you ofthis, because indeed itis a weighty truth, for
the right understanding of the true nature of grace and sin ;
and I doubt many are in the dark for want of understanding
and considering it, A man that feareth and loveth God,
and an unsanctified raan may be both overtaken with the
sarae sin ; perhaps a gross one, as Noah's, or David's and
Peter's was ; and this raay be a mortal sin in the ungodly,
I mean, such as proves him in a state of death, and yet not
so in the gracious person. The wicked will deride this in
their ignorance, as if we made God partial ; but it is no such
matter. The Papists cannot endure it, but Suppose Peter,
David and Noah, were quite without the love of God, and
so were again unsanctified men ; but this is their error. It
was not from the power of reigning self-love, and the habit
ual absence of the love of God, that these men (or any saints)
did sin, but from a particular act of mortified self-love bya
surprise upon the neglect of the actual exercise of the love
of God. But all the sins of unsanctified men, or at least
their comraon sins, are from the habitual reign of self-love,
and the habitual absence of the love of God ; and therefore
the sins of the saints are, as the schoolmen speak of the
graces of the ungodly, unformed : they be not mortal sins
in the sense aforesaid, because they be not naturalized, in-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 127
formed, animated by the malignity and venom of the mortal
end and principle, which is habitual, reigning self-love : but
those ofthe wicked are sins informed by this inordinate
self-love as an habitual, reigning sin ; and therefore being
animated by its malignity are mortal : yet say not that this
makes God partial, and not to hate the same sin in one as
he doth in .another. For two things must be taken in, I.
Where the heart is sanctified, such sins are strangers : per
haps one godly man often or twenty may be guilty of one
of them, as Noah was of drunkenness, once in all his life
(since his conversion) ; for it will not stand with grace to
live in thera ; for such as a man's love, and inclination, and
nature is, such will be the drift of his life. And would not
you have God make a difference between those that sin
once, and those that live in it ? 2, Besides, will not any
honest man make a great difference ofthe sarae acts accord
ing as they corae frora different hearts ? You will not take
a passionate word frora a father, husband or wife, so ill as
the same word from a malicious enemy. If an unthrifty son
should spend you twenty shillings wastefully, you will not
prosecute him as you would do a thief or an enemy that
takes it from you violently. Wilful raurder and casual man
slaughter have not the same punishment by the law of the
land. Ifyou will make such a difference yourselves ofthe
same words or deeds as they come from different meanings
and affections, quarrel not with God for doing that which
youtconfess is just and necessary to be done.
The faculty where this disposition is principally seated,
is the will ; which in man is the heart of morality, whether
good or evil. And the principal act is an inordinate adhe
sion of man to himself, and coraplacency in himself : and
this is the inordinate self-love that must be first mortified.
2. The next faculty that self hath corrupted, is the un
derstanding ; and here we first meet with the sin of self-
esteem, which is the second part of selfishness lo be morti
fied. It is not raore natural for man to be sinful, vile and
miserable, than to think himself virtuous, worthy and ho
nourable. All men naturally overvalue themselves, and
would have all others also overvalue thera. This is the sin
of pride. But ofthis I must speak by itself.

128 TREATISE OF SEIF-DENIAL,
CHAPTER XIV.
Self-conceitedness must be Denied.
3. The next part of selfishness to be raortified. is in the
same faculty, and it is called self-conceitedness. And it
consisteth of two parts : the first is a disposition to selfish
opinions or conceits that are properly our own. And the
second is to think better of those conceits than they do de
serve, 1, Naturally men are prone to spin theraselves a web of
opinions out of their own brain, and to have a religion that
may be called their own ; and it is their own in two respects ;
1. Because it is of their own devising, and not of God's re
vealing or appointing. 2. Because it suiteth with their own
carnal ends and interests. Men are far readier to make
themselves a faith, than to receive that which God hath
formed to their hands. And they are far readier to receive
a doctrine that tends to their carnal commodity, or honour,
or delights, than one that tends to self-denial, and to abase
theraselves, and exalt the Lord,
2. And when they have hatched or received such opinions
which are peculiarly their own, they are apt to like them
the better, because they are their own, and to value them
because of the interest of self. O sirs, that you did but
know tbe comraonness and danger of self-conceitedness in
the world ! Even with raany that seem humble, and verily
think that it is the Spirit of God that beareth the greatest
sway in their understandings, yet self doth there erect his
throne ! O how secretly and subtilely will self insinuate,
and make you believe that il is a pure self-denying light
which guideth you, and that what you hold, is merely by
the cogent evidence of truth, or the illumination ofthe Spi
rit, when il is but a viper that self hath hatched and doateth
on, because it is her own. Because the Papists have gone
too far in teaching men to depend on the church and on
their teachers, therefore self-conceitedness takes advantage
of their error, to draw men into the contrary extreme, and
make every infant Christian to think himself wiser than his
most experienced brethren and teachers, and every raw, un
studied Christian to think himself wiser than those that have

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 129-
been searching into the word of truth by study and prayer
almost all their days, and therefore to cry down that learn
ing, wisdom and study, which they are unacquainted with ;
that seeing they have it not themselves, they raay at least
be thought as wise men without it, as those that have it,
and so may provide for the reputation and interest of self.
O wh..t sad work hath this great sin of self-conceitedness
raade in the world ! In too raany places raen raake it their
religion to strive who shall be greatest for wisdora and abi
lities in the eyes of raen ! and it is the very work of their
prayers, and conference, and teaching to exercise self-con
ceitedness, and lo make it appear that they are somebody
in knowledge ; hence is it that they are so apt to fall upon
novelties which either few receive, or none before thera
selves devised, that being singular, self raay be the raore ob
served, and they may have something which may be called
their own. Hence also it is that they are so little suspicious
of their own opinions, never bending their studies impar
tially to try whether they are of God or not, but rather to
maintain them, and to find out all that can be said for thera,
and against the contraryminded. Hence is it that men
have such light and contemptuous thoughts of the judgraent
of those that excel them in knowledge, and that the voice of
Corah, and those olher conspirators (Numb. xvi. 3,), is grown
so common in the mouths of ignorant proud professors.
" Ye lake too much upon you (say they to their guides and
teachers) seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of
them, and the Lord is araong them : wherefore then lift ye
up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?" It is
the holiness of the. congregation, and all its members, ahd
the presence of God himself among them, that is pleaded
against the superiority of Moses and Aaron, as if wilh so
holy a people, that had God hiraself to be their Teacher and
Guide, there were no need of raen to be lift up above the
congregation ofthe Lord; but ilwas self that was intended,
. whatever was pretended. From this self-conceitedness also
it is that the weightiest comraon truths that self hath no
special interest in, are so little valued, and relished, and in
sisted on ; and that a less and more uncertain point which
. self hath espoused, shall be more relished, insisted on. and
contended for ; hence also is most of the coraraon confidence
of raen in their own opinions; that when the point is
vol. xi. k

130 TREATISE 01" SELF-DENIAL. 1;
doubtful, if not certainly false, in the eyes of wiser men
than themselves, yet " the fool rageth and is confident,"
Prov. xiv. 16. He can carry on a conceit of his own with as
brazen a face, and proud contempt of other men's argu
raents, as if he were raaintaining that the sun is light, and
other men pleaded to prove it dark, when, alas, it is self-in
terest that is the life, the strength, the goodness of the
cause. Hence also it is that men are so quarrelsorae with
the words and ways of others, that they can scarce hear or
read a word, but these pugnacious aniraals are ready to
draw upon it, as if they had catched an aidvantage for the
honouring of their valour, and were loath to lose such a prize
and opportunity for a victory and triumph : hence it is that
hissing at the savings and doings of others, is the first, and
most common, and most sensible part of their commen
taries ; and that they can make heresies and raonsters not
only of tolerable errors, but of truths theraselves if they
have but the inexpiable guilt of crossing the wisdom of
these self-conceited men. Hence it is that opinions of their
own are more industriously cultivated and studiously
cherished, by a double if not a tenfold proportion of zeal
and diligence, than common truths that all the godly in the
world have as much interest in as they, though the com
mon truths be incomparably the greater. And hence it is
that men are so tenacious of that v\^hich is their own, when
they more easily let go that which is God's ; and must have
all come to them, and every man deny his own judgraent, ex
cept themselves ; and that it must be the glory of others to
yield lo them, and their glory to yield to none, but to have
all raen come over and submit to them. All these are the
fruits and discoveries of self as it reigns in men's under
standings, who possibly may think that it is Christ and tbe
Spirii that is there fexalted.
Yet mistake me Hot ; I do not say or think that a man
should forsake a certain truth for fear of being accounted
self-conceited, nor that he must presently captivate his own
understanding to a raore learned man, or the stronger, or
more numerous side, for fear of being self-conceited. Much
less must I deny thdt grace of God that hath made me sav
ingly wiseby his illuriiination, that was formerly foolish, diso
bedient, and deceived in the days of my ignorance. The
world must give us leave to triuraph over our own former

TREATISE OF &ELF-DEN];AL. I3l
folly with Paul (Tit. iii. 3— 7) ; and say with the same Paul,
that we were no belter than raad when we were eneraies to
the Gospel (Acts xxvi. 11.), ahd with the man in John ix. 25,
" One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I
see." It is no self conceitedness for a man that is brought
from the blind distracted state of sin, into the light of the
sanctified, to know that he is wiser than he vvas before ; and
that he was formerly besides Wraself, but now is come to
his understanding again. Nor is it any self-conceitedness
for the raeanest Christian to know that a wicked man is
more foolish than he ; or for a minister or any raan that God
hath caused to excel in knowledge, to hold fast the truth he
knows, and to see and modestly oppose the errors of ano
ther, and to know that in that he is wiser than they. God
doth not require that we shall turn to every man's opinion,
and reel up and down from sect to sect, and be of the opi
nion of every party that we come among, and all for fear of
thinking ourselves wiser than they. David knew he had
more understanding than hia teachers (Psal. cxix. 98, 99.) ;
and trne believers fear not to say, " We know that we are of
God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness ;" 1 John v.
19. iii. 19. ii.3. And Paul would not forbear the reproving of
Peter, for fear of being thought to be self-conceited; Gal. ii.
Some raen are so desperately self-conceited that they take
every raan to be self-conceited that is not of their conceits.
But when self is men's instructor, and chooseth their text.
and furnisheth them with matter, and nothing is savoury but
what is either suited to the common interest of self, or
which it hath not a special interest in; when men are abso
lutely wise in their own eyes, and comparatively wiser than
those that know rauch more than they ; when self-interest
serves instead of evidence to the receiving, retaining, or
contending for a point; when men think they know that
which indeed they do not know, and observe the little which
they do know, more than an hundredfold more that th^y are
ignorant of ; doubtless bere is self-conceitedness with a wit
ness ; and they that will not see it in a lower degree, methinks
should see it in such a case as this. He that will not be
lieve that a man is drunk when he reels and staramereth,
may know it when he lieth spewing in the streets.
Well, sirs, I beseech you see that self in the understand-
ipg be mortified and pulled down. It is the throne of God,

132 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
the lanthorn of holy truth, thelemple ofthe Spirit, and shall
self rule there? The understanding is it that guideth the
soul and all the actions of your lives ; and if self rule there,
what a ruler will you have ; and what a case will heart and
life be in! If your eye be dark, your light be dark, how
great will be your darkness ! and if it be selfish, it is cer
tainly so far dark. O believe the Holy Ghost ; " Seest thou
a man wise in his own conceit ? there is raore hope of a fool
than of hira ;" Prov. xxvi. 12. For a mere fool that is igno
rant only for want of teaching hath no such prejudice against
the truth, as the self-conceited have ; nor is it so hard to
make him know that he is ignorant, nor yet to make him
willing to learn. He that knoweth hiraself to be blind, is
willing to be led. Moreover the self-conceited have much
to unlearn, before they can be fit to receive the truth in a
saving manner. O how many thdusands are undone by self-
conceitedness ! It is this that keeps out knowledge, and
every grace, and consequently all true peace and comfort ;
and this it is that defendeth and cherisheth all sin. Let us
shew men the plainest word of God for duty and against sin,
and shew thera the clearest reasons, and yet self-conceited
ness bolls the door against all. Yea, so wonderfully doth this
sin prevail, that the ignorant, silly people, that know almost
nothing, are as proudly self-conceited as if they were the
wisest raen. They that will not learn, and cannot give an
account of their knowledge, in the very catechisra or prin
ciples of Christian religion, neither can pray, nor scarce
speak a word of sense about the raatters of salvation, but ex
cuse theraselves that they are no scholars, yet these very
people will proudly resist their teachers, though they were
the wisest and most learned men in the land. Let us but
cross their conceits of doctrine or practice in religion, about
their own title to church privileges, or fitness for them, and
they are confident and furious against their ministers, as if
we were as ignorant as they, and they were the wisest men
in the world. So that pride and self-conceitednesa makes
people mad, or deal like raadraen. We cannot hurable men
for sin, nor reolaira them frora it, till they know the sin, and
the danger of it. And self-conceitedness will not let them
know it, no, nor let thera corae to us to be taught ; bul they
are wise enough already ; and if we tell thera of the sin and
danger, they are wiser than to believe the word of God or

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 133
us ! They will tell us to our faces, they will never believe
such and such things, which we shew them in the Scripture.
O the precious light that shineth round about you all, and
would make you wise, if self-conceitedness did not keep it
out by making you seem wise already ! These raen that thus
deceive themselves, by seeming wise to themselves, raust
become fools in their own eyes, if ever they will be truly
wise (1 Cor, iii. 18.) ; and confess themselves, as Paul him
self did, that they were foolish and deceived, when they
served their lusts and pleasures ; Tit. iii. 3. This pride and
self-conceitedness is like the barm in the drink, that seems
to fill up the vessel, but indeed works it all over : this is the
knowledge that puffeth up (1 Cor. xiii. 4.), like the pot tbat
by boiling seeraeth to be filled, that was half empty before,
but it is empty in the bottom, and presently boils over, and
is eraptier than before. So is it with the self-conceited, that
have a superficial knowledge, while they are empty at the
bottom, and by the heat of pridej that little they have boil-
eth over to their loss. It is the humble that God reveals
his secrets to, and the hungry that he filleth with good
things, and the full that he sendeth erapty away. He will
have no disciples that corae not to his school as little chil
dren, teachable and tractable, not thinking themselves too
old, or too wise, or too good to be taught. If you would
see the mysteries of the Gospel savingly, you must even
creep to Christ on your knees, and cry, " Lord be merciful
to me a sinner !" He will not lift up your minds and hearts
to heaven, till you think yourselves unworthy to lift up your
very eyes to heaven, because you have sinned against heaven.
And if you were even lifted lo heaven, should you there but
be lifted up with pride or self-conceitedness, you should
soon have a prick in the flesh, to let out that dangerous, ve
nomous wind that puffs you up.
And if you should have any knowledge of the most pre
cious truths, as long as you are thus proud and self-con
ceited, it will not be savoury and effectual on your hearts.
Humility feedeth, and pride slarveth every grace. The Spirit
of God will not dwell with the proud : he will beat you out
of yourselves, unless you drive him away frora you. Some
seeming raptures and comforts the self-conceited have, which
ate but the deluding flatteries of self, and the encourage
ments that satan giveth to his servants. (For satan will,

134 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
needs be a comforter for a while, as the Holy Ghost is ta
the saints; and his followers also have their joys.) But it
is the hurable soul that hath the solid comforts ; from the
dust of hurailiation, we have the clearest sight of glory, and
consequently, the sweet tastes of it. As high as the rain
comes from it, it is the lowest vallies that receive it most,
and retain it. Faith itself will not prosper in the proud and
self-conceited ; to such the Gospel will be foolishness or an
offence. It is only the humble that savingly close with its
mysteries. Humility cherisheth the fear of God, and makes
us say, ' How shall we do this evil ? or neglect this duty ?'
But self-conceitedness and pride is blind and bold, and des
troyeth in men's apprehensions, the difference between things
sacred and common, the holy and the uiiclean ; it disposeth
thera to such an unreverent boldness with holy things, as
usually ends in a profane conterapt : so that Such can at
last despise holy ordinances which they should live upon.
Repentance and this pride are deadly foes. To be penitent
and proud, is to be hot and cold, alive and dead. Though
Christ love not to find you in the dust of earthlyminded-
ness, yet he loves to find you in the dust of huraility. The
publican that hanged down the head, did hit the way better
to the sight of God, than the self-conceited Pharisee. The
most self-denying humiliation is the nearest way to heaven,
and the most self-exalting pride is the surest and nearest
way to hell. I would rather sit with Mary washing and
wiping the feet of Christ, than ask, as the mother of James
and John, lo sil at Christ's right hand and left hand in bis
kingdom. Mary was in a manner thanked for the love of
her huraility ; and they were in a manner denied the request
that so little savoured of self-denial. Our Lord does not use
to thank people for their service, and yet he did that which
was next to it, to this humble, self-denying, penitent wo
man. He doth not use to deny his own disciples an hea
venly request ; and yet he did that which was next to a de
nial, vvhen self brought him the petition. He that hath
taught us not to press to the highest room, lest with shame
we hear, ' Sit lower,' doth hereby tell us What we must expect
from himsclf. And he that hath bid us sit down at the lov/et
end, that we raay hear " Friend sit up higher," doth express
his purpose fbr humble, self-denying souls. I had rather
from the dust hear his ' Come up higher, than from self-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 135
exaltation to hear " Come down lower." O I you that are
proud, self-conceited wretchfes, did you but know what good
it doth an humble soul, to feel Christ take him up from the
dust, you would soon fall down that you might taste their
comforts in his lifting np. O what a blessed feeling it is, to
feel one's self in the arms of Christ! Our compassion that
raakes us run to take up one that falls before us, is a spark of
that compassion in Christ. Who meddles with him thatwalks
before us? but a raan that falls down in a swoon, we are all
ready to lay hands on ! O happy fall, that raakes us feel the
ai-ras of Christ! Though the fall into sin be never the bet
ter, that occasioneth it, yet the fall into humiliation is bet
ter, that prepareth for it. He that in his agony had an angel
to minister to him, will not leave the self-denying humble
soul, without his angel, or some way of relief that is suita
ble to the necessity. Christ himself will not communicate
himself to the proud and self-conceited. He is wisdora, but
not to thera that are wise in their own eyes already. He is
righteousness, but not to thera that justify themselves. He
is sanctification, but not to those that never found their own
uncleanness. He is redemption, but to none but those that
feel themselves condemned* He hath the white raiment,
and the treasures of grace and glory ; but it is only for those
that penitently feel that they are poor, and raiserable, and
blind, and naked. Truly sirs, though I have no raind to
trouble the well-grounded peace or corafort of any of your
souls, yet I would advise you, if you have never so good
thoughts of yourselves, suspect lest il should be the fruit of
self-conceitedness; and ifyou should have never so much
peace and joy, look well whether it come from God or self-
conceit ! And if it corae not in against self, it is ten to one
but it comes from self. If your peace and comfort be not
won from Christ, in a way of self-denial, and as the spoils
of the flesh, you have it not in the ordinary way of God.
Did you corae to your joy and peace by huraility, and self-
denial, and 'patience, and mortification, and by becoming
little children, and the servants of all, and by learning of
Christ to be meek and lowly? Knot, take heed lest you
nourish a changeling, an imp of hell, and a selfish brat, in
stead of the fruit of the Spirit, the peace and joy of the
Holy Ghost. If you feel no great matter af home to trouble
you, you are too righteous to be justified by Christ. If

136 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
you groan not under your ignorance and unbelief, you are
too wise to be Christ's disciples. If you raourn not under
the load and pain of sin, you are too well to be Christ's pa
tients. Ifyou are readier to justify and excuse yourselves,
than to conderan yourselves, and had rather hear yourselves
praised, than reproved, admonished, or instructed, and like
Diotrephes, love to have the pre-erainence, you are loo high
for Christ to take any acquaintance with you ; and too full
of self to have any roora for his love, and Spirit, and hea
venly consolations. He that gave us the parable of the im
portunate widow (Luke xviii. 2 — 5.), would have us under
stand that bare necessity is not enough lo fit us for relief
(for then the worst of raen should be the fittest), but it must
be necessity so fell, as to humble us, and drive us to impor
tunity with God. The prodigal was miserable when he was
denied the husks ; but he never felt his father's embrace
ments till he carae to himself by denying himself, and re
turning to his father. And this the self-conceited will not
be persuaded to. The first that must touch Christ after his
resurrection, is not a king, nor a lord, no, nor a man, but a
woman that had been a sinner. When she held him by the
feet, love did begin low in humility, but it tended higher,
and ended higher. Christ hath told us that where much is
forgiven, there will be much love. For there is raost of the
fruits of God's love, and least of self, and most tp abase
self. It is not possible that love to Christ should dwell
or work in any but the humble, that feel at the heart that
they are unworthy of love, and worthy of everlasting wrath,
The proud and self-conceited cannot love him; for they
cannot be rauch taken with Christ's love to them, except as
the Pharisee, in a way of self-flattery. But the poor soul
that was lost, will heartily love him that sought and found
hira ; and he that was dead, will love when he finds himself
alive ; and he that was condemned both by God and con
science, will surely love the Lord that ransomed him I And
it is the apprehensions that men have of themselves that
much causeth all this difference. The self-abhorring, self-
judging, self-denying sinner is melted with the love of God
in Christ, because it is to such a worthless, sinful wretch.
' What Lord,' saith he, 'is the blood of Christ, the pardon of
sin, the Spirit of grace, the privileges of a child, and ever
lasting glory for such an unworthy wretch as I, that have so

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL, 137
long offended thee, and so rauch neglected thee, and lived
such a life as I have done, and 'ara such an erapty unprofit
able worra?' O what a wonder of raercy is this ! But the
full soul loathes the honeycomb. The self-conceited un
humbled sinner looks as mindlessly at Christ, as a healthful
raan at the physician, or an innocent raan at a pardon.
And that good that is in the proud and self-conceited
doth seldom do rauch good to others (much less to them
selves). As such do but serve themselves, so ordinarily
God doth not bless their endeavours ; but as they are per
verted, they are the likest to pervert others, and propagate
their self-conceitedness : two words frora an hurable self-
denying raan, doth oftentiraes raore good than a serraon
from the self-conceited.
I admonish you therefore in the narae of God, that you
take heed of this part of selfishness and raortify it. It will
else keep out God, and almost all that is good. Ifyou are
proud and self-conceited, you will hear a ministerrather to
cavil with hira, than to be edified : and when any thing frora
God doth cross your foolish wisdom, you will but slight it,
or make a jest at it : and if any truth of God do strike at the
heart of your selfish interest, you will but fret at it, and
secretly hale it, and perhaps, as the devil's open soldiers,
publicly reproach it ; and as the Jews did against Stephen
(Acts vii. 54.), even gnash the teeth at the preacher, or
as they did by Paul ; " They gave hira audience to that
word (even that word that raade against theraselves) and
then lifted up their voices, and said. Away with such a fel
low from the earth; for it is not fit that he should live;"
Acts xxii, 22. This entertainment we slill raeet with frora
our hearers, when self hath brought thera the next step to
hell. O sirs, suspect your own understandings ; think not of
thera beyond the proportion of your attainraents, nor beyond
your experience, and the helps, aud tirae, and opportunities
which you have had for knowledge, nor beyond the raeasure
of your diligence for the improving of these ; for these are
God's ordinary way of giving in a ripeness in knowledge.
Read and study Heb. v. 12. 14, 1 Tira, iii. 6. Set not up
your own conceits too boldly. against those of longer stand
ing and diligence in holy studies, much less against your
teachers, and much less against a multitude of rainisters ;

138 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
arid much less against all the church of God ; and least of all,
against God hiraself, as speaking to you by the Holy Scrip
tures. O take warning by the swarms of heresies and scan
dals that have been caused by self-conceitedness and pride.
Object. ' If you may think yourself wiser than rae and
others without self-conceitedness, why may not I think my
self wiser than you and such others, without self-conceited

ness

V

Answ. I may not do it in the cases before-mentioned. I
may not think rayself to be what I ara not, nor exalt myself
above them that are wiser than I, nor against my guides', or
the church of God.
Object. ' But it is but your conceit that you are wise
enough to be a teacher, or wiser than others, and why may
not I as well conceit it?'
Answ. No raan on his own conceits must become a
teacher; but the judicious of that calling raust call them,
and judge of their abilities. And conceits are as the ground
of thera is. The true understanding bf the grace that we
have received is a duty, and fitteth us for thankfulness ; but
the false conceit that we have what we have not, is a dan
gerous delusion; " For he that thinketh he is something
when he is nothing, deceiveth himself;" Gal. vi. 3. What
if a blind raan should argue as you do with one that sees,
and say, ' You say that you see so far off, and why may not
I say so loo ?' Would you not answer hira, ' I know that
which I say to be frue, and so do not you ?' And what if he
still go on and say, ' You think that I ara blind, and I think
that you are blind; and why may not I be believed as well
as you ?' Would this kind of talk prove the raan to have his
eyesight, or should il raake me question whether I have
mine ? He that seeth knoweth that he seeth, whoever ques
tion it ; and if another make doubt of it, let raen that have
eyes in their head be judges, but not the blind. But I confess,
spiritual blindness hath this disadvantage, that whereas I
can easily make any other blirid man know that he is blind,
and therefore be willing to be led or helped, here the more
blind raen are, raost commonly they are the most confident
that they see, and scornfully say, as the Pharisees to Christ,
" Are we blind also?" John ix, 40. For pride will not let
them know their ignorance. The same light that cureth
ignorance raust reveal it. Especially when raen are born

TREATISE OF SELF-DENJAL. 139
blind and never knew the saving illumination of the saints,
they will not believe that there is any other light than they
have seen. But I have been somewhat long on this part ; I
pass now to the next.

CHAPTER XV.
Self-will to be denied.

4. Th e fourth part of selfishness to be raortified, is self-
will. And this is the fruit of self-conceit, and also a natural
corruption of the soul ; and a raost deep-rooted obstinate
vice it is. Every wicked raan is a self-willed raan, against
God, and all that speak for God. And till self be mortified
in the will, there is no saving grace in that v\^ill.*
Quest. ' But what will is it that is to be called a self-
will?' Answ. Not that which is from God and for God ; but
all the rest, 1, That will that is not fetched from God, and
moved by his will, as the lesser wheels in a clock are moved
by the first wheel and by the poise, is np better than self-
will, A will that is not dependent on God's will, is an idol,
usurping the prerogative of God ; for it is proper to him to
be dependent upon none, and to have a will that is not
ruled by a superior will. Little do the most know how
great a sin this is, to be self-willed. You have a will lo
something or other continually ; and it is your will that
ruleth the rest of your faculties and actions : but what is it
that ruleth your will ? whence do you fetch the rise and
reason of your desires ? Is it from God's will, or is it not ?
You pray to God, " Thy will be done," and do your own
wills answer these prayers ? or . are they hypocritical, dis
sembling words ? If indeed it be God's will that you would
have fulfilled, then will the knowledge of that will of God
determine your own wills. As a servant dependeth on his
master's will, for all the work that he is to do, and doth not
what he will himself, but what his raaster will have hira do ;
and as a scholar dependeth on his master's will, and learneth
only such books and lessons ashe sets hira; so must we
depend on the will of God, and know what is his will, before
we give way to any will of our awn. The reason why you

140 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
choose any trade or calling, or course of life, should be the
will of God. Ifyou are in poverty, and desire to be richer,
and that to please your own will, and not that you think
th-at it would be any more pleasing to God, this is self-
willedness. If you desire any change in your condition, if
you undertake any thing in the world, know why you do
this ; whether it be principally because you think it is the
will of JGod^ or because it is your own will. I tell you
again, you should not have one wish or desire in your souls,
till you can prove or find that God would have it so ; and if
your own wills be made the absolute rulers of your ways,
you make gods of yourselves, and God will deal with you
accordingly. 2. Yea, if you think the will of God is according to your
will, and you are moved the more to it on that account, yet
if your own wills do lead and make the first choice, and
God's will be brought in but to follow and encourage yours,
this is still self-willedness and self-idolizing. This is the
common trick of the ungodly. They first give way lo their
own self-will, and then they will go to Scripture for some
what to bear them out ; and will needs believe that God's is
agreeable to theirs, that so they raay go on with peace of
conscience. They go for counsel to God as Balaara did, not
sincerely to know the will of God, with a resolution to obey
it, bul with a desire that God would conform his will to
theirs, F tell you if the matter be never so much com
raanded in the Scriptures, and never so agreeable to the
will of God, yet ifyou desire, and do it from yourselves, and
not for this reason, because it is the will of God, and do not
let God's will lead your own, but let your own will lead, and
God's will follow, this is no better than self-willedness, were
the raatter never so good in itself.
3, If the end that moveth your will, be not the service
and glory of God, but only your own interest, this is but
self-will. God giveth you leave to look to yourselves as
his servants, in a due subserviency to him. But ifyou will
principally look at your own interest, and make light of
God's, and fetch the reason of your will and desires from
your own ends and commodity, rather than his glory, this
is an ungodly selfish will. And yet alas, how manv are
there that know not any better frame of will than this ! If
they were truly to give an account of the principal reason

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 141
and motive of every desire of their hearts, why they would
have this, or why they would do that, must they not confess
it is for themselves, because it serveth their own ends or in
terests, and because it pleaseth their own wills, and not
because it furnished them better to serve and please the will -
of God ? If you ask men in their buying and selling, and
raarrying, and trading, and dealing with men, why it is that
they do this or that, can they truly say, ' I do it because I
think in this way I can do God the best service, and the
church and commonwealth most good, and this is my
chief reason ?' Alas, I fear they are too few that have any
higher principal end and motive than self. Self-will is the
spring of their whole conversations, that sets thera upon all
they do. Nay doubtless, in the very duties of religion, in
praying, hearing, reading and the like, they are but serving
self, while they take on thera to serve God ; and their holiest
devotions are but such a serving of God, as flatterers will
serve their prince or landlord with, raerely that he raay do
them a good turn, and may serve their ends, and be service
able to them ; or else as some Indians serve the devil, for
fear of him lest he should do them a mischief. The will that
is moved chiefly by self-interest, is a self-will.
4. And much more is it self-willedness, when raen con
tradict the will of God ; when Scripture saith one thing and
they another ; when they disrelish God's laws, and dislike
the work that he sets them on ; when they have a will to
that which God forbids, and would fain be doing with unlaw
ful things ; yea, and it doth not satisfy their corrupt desires
to see that the express will of God is against them ; this is
self-will in a high degree.
5. So also when men's wills are to that which is against
the honour and interest of God ; which would hinder his
Gospel, and the saving raen's souls, and is displeasing to
him, this is self-willedness in a high degree.
And thus you see what it is to be self-willed. And now
do but consider whether this part of self be commonly denied
in the world. Among the millions of desires that are in men's
hearts, how few of them are kindled by the commands of
God, or moved by his interest and glory ! How coraraonly
are the word and ways of God distasteful to the world ! How
ill do men like the disp&sals of his providence ! And what
a striving is there in their wills against him ! And were it

142 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
not that God is above them and unconquerable, and they
know that striving will not help them, you should have most
of the world in open war against the God of heaven ; I speak
no more than I am able to prove. The dominion of self
is so great in the wills of all that are unsanctified, that their
wills are utterly against the will of God ; and it is merely
because there is no remedy that they submit lo him so far
as they do. These very persons that think they love and
serve hira as well as the precisest, would be in arms against
him before to-morrow, and pull God out of heaven, if it were
in their power : or if they had but as rauch hope to prevail
against God, as they have against his servants, what work
would be in the world ! I know these men will not believe
this by themselves : no, self is too strong in them to let
them so far know themselves ; but the case is plain. For as
God himself tells us, that ever since the fall an enmity is
put between Christ and this serpentine seed ; so we see it
manifested by daily sad experience. How generally is the
will of God disliked by the world. What hath God spoke
against in his word but sin ? and what else hath he com
manded his raessengers to cry out against? And yet wha,t is
there that raore pleaseth the minds of the raost ? And how
stubbornly do they resist not only God, but magistrates
and rainisters that would draw thera from it ? What is it
that God commendeth to the world so much as an holy arid
heavenly life ? And what is the heart of raost raen more
against? and how much do they strive against all our per
suasions that would bring them to it? and how obstinately
do they resist us, if not deride and scorn that holiness which
the will of God hath so abundantly commended to them ?
His whole wotd speaks for it ; his prophets, apostles, and
all his servants are examples of it ; his son Jesus Christ in
his sacred person, and office, and holy life, hath yet more
notably commended it to the world ; and it was a principajl
part of his business in the flesh, to set men a pattern of ho
liness and self-denial : and yet many scorn it, and hate it,
and most dislike it, and even fight against this holy will of
God, that is, against God himself, if they had but any hope
to get the better. There is no doubt of it, though they
will not know so much by themselves. Do you think it is
for nothing that God calleth them his eneipies, and resolveth
them the reward of enemies, even Ipecause they would not

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 143
have Christ to rule over them? Luke xix. 27. Doubtless
God sentenceth no man unjustly : if he say they are such,
and condemn thera as such, it is certain that they are such.
O but the infinite dreadful God is out of their reach ; but
they be not out of his reach. Their raalice cannot hurt him
any more than it can stop the course of the sun ; but his
displeasure will quickly Ibring them down. In the mean
tirae, these wretches should consider what a God they have
had to do with, that beareth with their malignity. The sun
or raoon forbear not to shine even on the dogs that bark at
them. Thy rebellious self hath hitherto been maintained
by the mercy of that will of God which thou hast resisted ;
but this patience will not always last : take therefore this
necessary advice in time. Down with thine own, idolatrous
self-will ; know not a will or desire in thyself, that is not
moved by the will of God, even by his word as thy ground,
and his pleasure and honour as thy chiefest end. Destroy
that will that springs but from self, and is moved but by the
interest of self. Slay it before the Lord as his enemy, as
Samuel did Agag. Though an hypocritical Saul will spare
this king of rebellion, designed to destruction, yet so will
not an obedient servant of God. I will not bid thee offer
it in sacrifice to God's will, for it is too vile to be an accept
able sacrifice ; but utterly destroy it as the accursed thing.
Know not hereafter such a thing within thee as a will that
is originally or finally thine own. If the word and the glory
of God be the movers of it, thou mayest call that God's
will, as well as thine own; itis thine subjectively, but it is
God's as the principal efficient and end. O that you did
but know what your own wills are, and what they have done
against you, and what they may yet do, if they be not raor
tified ! You would not then be so indulgent to thera, and
pamper and please them, and be so desirous to have your
own wills as you have been. To this end I pray you consi
der but of these particulars following.
1 . The will of man is the terrestrial throne of God. It is
there that he raust reign. The will is to rule all the inferior
faculties; and God is to rule the will. And shall self pre
surae to dethrone the Lord, and sit down in his place ? He
that rules the wiU rules the raan. And shall self be thy
ruler ? And will God puf up all this ?
2. It is God only that hath the sovereign authority, and

144 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
self hath none. but under hira. We are not our own; and
therefore have nothing to. do with ourselves but at the will
of God that is our owner. Take heed therefore of this
usurpation. 3. Thy own will is a corrupt and sinful will, and therefore
unfit to be thy governor: what, wilt thou chuse an unjust,
a wicked, and unraerciful governor, that is inclined to do
evil? Why such is thine own will; but the will of God, is
perfectly good, that hath not the least inclination to evil,
nor possibility of such a thing. Be ruled by it, and you are
raost certain to have the raost j ust, and holy, and faithful,
and raerciful ruler in the world. To prefer self-will before
the will of God, is as the Jews, to prefer a raurderer, Ba-
rabbas, before the Lord of life.
4. Moreover, our own wills are guided by a dark under
standing : and therefore ready on every occasion to turn
aside. Thougli the will coraraandeth, yet the understanding
guideth it : and therefore as the dark understanding is
commonly at a loss, or quite mistaken, judging evil to be
good, and good to be evil ; so the will raust be an unhappy
governor, that followeth the direction of so ignorant a
counsellor. But if you will deny your own wills, and be
ruled bythe will of God, you need not fear raisleading, see-
ins: his wisdom is infallible and infinite, Chuse not a blind
guide then, when you may have the conduct of wisdom it
self; when God is content to be your governor, prefer Jnot
such foolish sinners as yourselves before him,
5. Moreover, your self-will hath almost undone you al
ready ; it hath been the cause of all your sin and misery :
never any hurt befell you, or any raan on earth, but from
self-will. And yet will you follow it still, and take no
warning, as if it had not done enough against you? But on
the contrary, you were never hurt in all your lives by follow
ing the will of God ; unless it be such a hurl as the searching
or cleansing of a sore, without which it cannot be healed;
or such a hurt as the taking of physic, without which you
can have no cure. Tell me if you can, whenever the will of
God did wrong you ? when did you speed the worse for the
following of his counsel ? Look back upon your lives, and
tell me whether all your smart and loss have come frbm your
following God's will or your own ; and which you think you
have more cause to repent. of.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 145
6. There is none followeth self-will to the end, but is
everlastingly undone by it ; it leadeth directly to the dis
pleasing of God's will, and so to hell : but on the contrary,
there is none that sincerely and finally follow the will of
God, that ever do miscarry ; he is the safest conductor ; he
never led a soul to hell. All that follow him, live with him ;
for whither should he lead thera but to himself? And where
God is, there is life and glory. To obey his will, is to
please his will ; and to please him, is our very end. It can
not go ill with them that please the Lord and Judge of all
the world, the dispenser of all rewards and punishments.
7. Your own wills are so mutable as well as raisguided,
that they will bewilder you, and toss you up and down in
perpetual disquietness ; though I know you think that is
the only way to your content, and nothing will content you
unless you have your will. But you are lamentably deluded ;
your wills are like the will of a man in a fever, that' would fain
have cold water, which pleaseth him in the drinking; but af
terwards may be his death. You love that which hurleth
you; yea, that which is no betier than poison lo your souls.
You would soon undo yourselves, if ypu had your own wills.
It is none of the least of God's mercies to you to cross your
wills, and to deny you that which you have a raind to. You
will not let your children eat or drink what they will, but
what you will, that know better what is good for them. A
patient can deny his own will for his health, and subrait
himself to the will of his physician ; and should not you
much more subrait to God? Yea, you should desire hira to
deny your own wills, whenever he seeth thera contrary to
his will, and to your own good : had you but the skill of
judging aright of God's dealings, Iam persuaded that upon
the review of your lives, you would find, that God hath
shewed you more mercy in the crossing of your wills, than
in accomplishing them. Be not therefore loo eager for
the time to come, to have what you love, till you are surer
that you love nothing but that which is good for you. and
which you should love. The present contenting of diseased
self-will, is but the breeding after disquietness. But in the
will of God you may have full and durable content. For
his. will is always for good, and therefore hath nothing that
should cause your discontent. His will is still the same and
unchangeable ; and therefore will not disquiet you by rau-
VOL. XI. L

146 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
tations. He knows the end at the beginning, and sets you
upon nothing but what he is sure will corafort you at the
last. It belongeth to his will and not to yours to dispose
of you and all your affairs. And therefore there is all the
reason in the world, that God's will should be set up, and in
it you should rest yourselves content, and that self-will
should be denied as the disturber of your quietness.
8. Moreover, self-will is satan's will, and stirred up by
him against the Lord. How else do you think the devil
rules the children of disobedience, but by self-conceit and
self-will ? If therefore you would deny the devil, deny self-
will ; for in being ruled by it you are ruled by him; and
in pleasing it, you please him. God himself tells you this in
plain expressions, Eph. ii. 1 — 3. They that walk in tres
passes and sins> and so are dead in them, according to the
course of this world, and in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, these theHoly
Ghost there tells you, do walk according to the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience.
9. It is the very j^erfection , and felicity of man, to be
conformed to the will of God, and to rest wilh full content
therein ; and it is the corruption and misery of man, to have
a selfish misguided will of his own, and strive against
his Maker's wiU. And so far as you stick in your own wills,
and are set upon them, and must have them fulfilled, and
cannot rest in the will of God. so far you are still unsancti
fied and unsaved, and in the power of your great disease.
And so far as you are dead to self-wiU, and look up to the
will of God both for direction and conteixt, and will th^t
which he willeth, even because he willeth it, and would haye
ypu will it, and can rest your. souk, in this as full safigfae'i
tion, ' It is my Father's will, and therefore best ;' so far are
you sanctified and restored to God.
10. Lastly, let me tell you, that it is best for you to deny
self-will in time, and give your wills, to the will of God ; for
when you have done all that you can, God will have his
will, and you shall not have your own will long. You may
strive against the will of Ggd„ but you shall not frustrate it.
You may break his laws, but shall not escape his judgments.
You raay rebel against, his coraraanding will, but you can
not resist his , punishing will. When; you have done your

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 147
worst, it is God's will that must stand ; and such a will as
is little to the pleasure of your wills. But gelf-will is never
of long continuance ; its content is short. Now you will
have your will, let God say what he will to you; you love
to please your appetite in meats and drinks ; you love to
be carnally merry, and spend your time in vain sports and
pleasure; you love to be respected and humoured by all,
and to be honoured and counted somebody in the world ;
you love to be provided for, for the time to corae, and to be
wealthy that you may take out of a full heap, or at least not
want for the contentment of your flesh ; and therefore you
must have your wills, and have that you love, if you can tell
how to get it : but how long will you have your wills ? How
long will you have thatyou love, though God forbid it?
When death comes, will you have it then? When you lie
in pain, expecting every hour to appear in another world,
will you then have your wills ? When you are in hell, will
you then have your wills, or that you love? O sirs, self-
will is short-lived, as to its delights and pleasure ; but the
will of God is everlasting. And, therefore, if you take up
with your own wills, how short will be- your content! But if
you look for content in the will of God. you will have ever
lasting content. Your own wills may be crossed by every
trifle ; any raan that is greater than you can cross them ;
yea, those that are under you, can cross them. The poorest
beggar can rob you, or scorn you, or raise a slander of you,
or twenty ways can cross your self-wills ; a hundred acci-
derits may cross them. Your very beast can cross you ;
and alraost any thing in the world can cross you ; much
more can God at any time cross you ; and cross you cer
tainly he will : so that in your own wills there is no rest nor
happiness, Bnt if you could bring your wills to God's,
arid take up your full content in this, ' It is the will of
Gbd,' then what a constant, invincible content might you
have ! Then all the world could not disturb you and rob
ybu of your content, because they cannot conquer the will
of God : his will shall be done ; and so you should always
have content.

148 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
CHAPTER XVI.
Selfish Passions to be Denied.
5. A^^other part of selfishness tobe mortified and denied,
is, selfish passions. The soul is furnished with passions by
God. partly for the exciting of the will and other faculties,
that they do not sluggishly neglect their duties ; and partly
to help them in the execution when they are at work : so
that they are but the wheels or the sails of the reasonable
soul, to speed our motion for God and our salvation, and
not to be employed for carnal self. When passions and
affections are sanctified and used for God, they are called
such and such particular graces, and the fervour of them is
an holy zeal ; but when they are used for carnal self they are
our vices ; and the heat of thera is but fury, or carnal zeal,
and the height of vice. But how rare is it to raeet with men
that are meek and patient in their own cause, and passion
ate in a holy zeal for God ! I know raany are passionate in
disputes and other exercises about religion, and think that
it is purely zeal for God. when self is at the bottom of the
business, and ruleth as well as kindleth the fire, when they"
scarce discern it, and litlle know what spirit they are of; but
pure zeal for God, conjoined wilh self-denial, is exceeding
rare. How few can say, that their love to God is, greater
and hotter than their love to themselves ! The desires of
raen are strong after those things that supply their own ne
cessities, and please their own corrupled wills ; but how
cold are they afler the honour of God ! How averse are men
frora that which hurleth the flesh ; as to go into a pest-
house, or lo lake deadly poison, or to suff'er any pain ; but
few are so averse to the breaking ofthe law of God. A hard
word, or a little injury done lo theraselves, will put them
into a passion, so that their anger is working out in re
proach, if not in more revenge : bul God may be abused from
day to day, and how patiently can they bear it ! There are
few carnal minds but can more patiently hear a man swear,
or curse, or scorn at Scripture and a holy life, than hearhim
call them rogue, or thief, or liar, or any such disgraceful
name. It seems an intolerable dishonour with selfish per
sons that are advanced by pride to be great in their own

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 149
eyes, for a man to give them the lie, or to reproach their
parentage, or make them seem base ; but they can hear
twenty oaths and reproaches of the truths or ways of God,
as quietly and patiently as if there were no harra in thera.
Their own eneraies, whom God commandetli thera to love,
they hate at the heart; but the eneraies of God and holiness,
whom David hated with a perfect hatred (Psa. cxxxix. 21,
22.), do little or nothing at all offend them. It is not thus
with self-denying gracious souls. When David heard Shimei
curse hira, he coraraanded his soldiers to let him alone, for
God had bidden hira ; that is, by that afflicting providence
on David he had occasioned it, and by the withdrawing of
his restraint, he had let out his raalice, for a trial for David.
Thus David could endure a man to go aloflg by him cursing
him, and reviling him as a traitor, and a man of blood, and
throwing stones at him ; and he rebuked Abishai that would
have taken off his head ; 2 Sam. xvi. 7 — 10. But when the
same David speaks of the wicked, the froward, the slan
derer, the proud, the liar, and the deceitful, he resolveth that
he will not know them, they shall not dwell in his house,
nor tarry in his sight ; he hateth them ; they shall depart
frora hira ; he will cut thera off, and early destroy them from
the land, and from the city of the Lord ; Psal. ci. So was
it with Moses : when God was offended by the idolatry of
the Israelites, he was so zealous that he threw down the ta
bles of stone, in which God had written the law, and broke
thera ; but when Miriara and Aaron spake against hiraself,
he let God alone wilh the cause, and only prayed for them ;
for saith the text, " He was very meek above all the men
that were on the face of the earth ;" Numb. xii. 3. Phineas's
zeal for God did stay the plague, and was imputed to him
for righteousness ; when the selfish zeal of Simeon and Levi
was called but a cursed anger, and brought a curse on them
instead of a blessing from their dying father, that they
should be divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel; and left
them the- narae of instruraents of cruelty; Gen xlix. 5 — 7.
Take warning then from the word of God ; and use your
passions for God that gave them you ; but when il is merely
the cause of self, be dead to passion, as if there were no
such thing within you. If the wrong be done to you,
think then with yourselves, ' Alas, I ara such a silly
wretched worm, that a wrong done to me is a small matter

150 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
in coniparison of the least that is done to God; itisnot
great enough for indignation or passion.' Remeraber, that
it is God's work to right your wrongs, and your work to
lament.and hinder the abuse of God. And therefore if men
curse you, or revile you, or slander you, if God's interest in
your reputation command you to seek the clearing of it,
then do it, but not for yourself, but for God : but otherwise,
be as a dead man thathath no eyes to see an injury, nor ears
to hear it, nor heart to feel it, nor understanding to per
ceive it, no, nor hands to be revenged for it : this is to
be mortified, and dead to self. When passion begins to stir
within you, ask, ' What is the matter? who is it for? and
who is it that, is wronged?' If it be God, ask counsel of
God, what he would have you to do, and let your passion
be well guided and bounded, and then it will be acceptable
holy zeal : but if it be but self that is wronged, remember
that you are not your own ; and therefore take no thought
of the business, but leave God to look lo his own, and do
with it as he please : if you are his. your cause is his. and
therefore let him look to it that is concerned in it more than
you, and that hath said, " Vengeance is mine, and I will
repay."

CHAPTER XVII.
Self-imagination to be Denied.
6. Another part of self to be raortified and denied, is
self-iraagination. It is the selfishness of raen's thoughts,
that is the vanity of their thoughts ; and these are tbe ima
ginations that are only evil continually. The thoughts
should be let out on God and his service ; so that our medi
tation of him should be sweet, and we sbould delight in the
Lord (Psal, civ, 34.); and in the multitude of our thoughts
within us, his comforts should delight our souls (Psal. xciv.
19.). His word should be our meditation all the day (Psal,
cxix. 97. 99.) ; and in his law we should meditate day and
night (Psal. i. 2.). God should be the spring, the end, the
sum of all our thoughts ; if we find a thought in our minds
that savoureth not of God, yea, that is not sent by him,
and doing his work, we must disown it, apprehend il, and

TREATISE OF SELF-DKNIAI^. 151
cast it out. But alas, how contrary is the case with the
most ! As self is advanced highest in their imagination, so
doth it there attract and dispose of the thoughts. What
are all the thoughts of unsanctified men employed for, but
for themselves and theirs ? Their fantasies hunt about the
world ; but it is their own game and pleasure that they
range about. The thoughts of one man run upon his covet
ousness, and another man's upon his filthy lusts, and ano
ther man's on his sports and pleasures, and another man's
upon his honour and reputation with men ! They feed the
imaginations of their mind upon almost nothing but selfish
things ; sometimes delighting themselves with the very
thoughts of men's esteem of them, or of their worldly
plenty, or of their sinful lusts and pleasures ; and sometimes
troubling themselves with the thoughts of their wants, or
low condition, or crosses, or injuries from men; sometimes
contriving how they raay attain their desires, and carking
and caring for accomplishing their selfish ends : morning
and evening, at home or abroad, as the thoughts of the sanc
tified are on God, and heaven, and the way thereto, so the
thoughts of the unsanctified are all upon self, and the inte
rest of self, and the means thereto. O cleanse your minds,
sirs, ofthis great self- pollution ; keep them more clean and
chaste to God. Deny self this room in your imaginations^
and waste not thoughts and precious time, on such unjust
and unprofitable employment. It is an impertinency, to be
so much solicitous about the charge of God, and to care so
much when he hath bid us " be careful for nothing." It is
a debasing of our miuds to feed thera so long on so low an
object, when they might be taken up with God. Care not
therefore what you shall eat or drink, or wherewith you shall
be clothed ; for after all these things do the selfish unsanc
tified Gentiles seek ; and our Father knoweth that we have
need of all these things : but seek ye first the kingdora of
God and his rightebuSness, and all these things shall be
added to you ; Matt. vi. 31—33, Self doth but rob you of
the fruit of your thoughts which you might reap by feeding
them on God.

152 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Inordinate Appetite to be Denied.
7. The last part of self to be denied, is your inordinate ap
petites, excited by the senses, coraraonly called the sensi
tive appetite. These are not to be theraselves destroyed ;
for the appetite is natural and necessary to our welfare : but
the inordinate desire is to be denied, and the appetite re
strained, and no further satisfied than is allowed by the
word of God ; -and by this raeans the inordinacy of it may
come to be raortified. Though selfishness hath defiled the
whole raan, yet sensual pleasure is the chief part of its in
terest, aftd therefore by the senses it commonly works, and
these are the doors and windows by which iniquity entereth
inlo the soul. And therefore a principal part of self-denial
consisteth in denying the sensitive appetite.
Quest. ' But how far is this appetite to be denied V
Answ. 1. Whenever it craveth any thing that is forbid
den : this is past doubt. It must not be pleased to the dis
obeying of God. 2. When it enticeth us towards that
which is forbidden, and would be feeding on the baits and
occasions of sin ; unless the thing desired be necessary, it
is h^re to be denied. For sin and hell are dangers that no
wise man will draw too near to. 3. Whenever the pleasing
of the sense conduceth not to God's service, and doth not
fit or furnish us for our duty, it is unlawful.
Quest. ' But may not the creatures be received for de
light as well as for necessity ?'
Answ. It is an ill-expressed question ; as if delight itself
were never necessaiy. Necessity is either absolute, as of
those things without which we cannot be saved ; or it is
only to our bettering and the greater securing of our salva
tion ; and so it is taken for that which is any way useful
and profitable to it ; directly and indirectly. We may and
must make use of the creatures, 1. Not only for our own
necessity, but principally for the service and glory of God ;
1 Cor. X. 31. And 2. Not only for our absolute necessity,
Jut also when they in any raeasure further us in or to the
service of God ; so be il they be not on any other account
unlawful. 3. We raay use the creatures for delight, when

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 153
that delight itself is a means to fit us for the work of God,
and is sincerely sought for with that intent. But we may
not use them for any other delight, but that which itself is
necessary or useful to God's service. Reasons are evident.
(1.) Because we should else make that delight our ultimate
end, which is as bad as brutish ; for either it raust be an
end, or means. If it be not used as a means to God as
our ultiraate end, it must be our ultimate end in itself,
which is no better than to take his place. (2.) That action
is idle, and consequently a sinful miseraploying of our fa
culties, which doth not conduce to the end that we were
made for, and live for. (3.) It is a raiseraploying of God's
creatures, and a sinful casting thera away for any end
which is not itself a raeans to the great end of our lives.
All is lost that is no way useful to God and our salvation.
It is contrary to the end of their creation and ours. (4.) It
is a sinful robbing God of the use of his talents, if we use
them for any end that is not subservient to himself as the
chief end. For certainly he raade all things for hiraself, and
that which is not employed for him, is taken from him
injuriously. All men must answer for the. mercies which
they have received ; whether they have so used them for
God, as that they can give hira his own with the iraprove
ment. (5,) The sensitive appetite by reason of its inordi
nacy, is grown a rebel against God and reason ; and an
eneray to him and to ourselves. And no man should unne
cessarily please or feed so dangerous an enemy. Sin doth
most make its entrance this way ; and most men lie in sin
before our eyes, by pleasing their. senses : and shall we run
ourselves on such a great and visible danger, against the
warning of so many experiences? Yea, we know that we
have been often this way overtaken ourselves, and that abun
dance of sin hath crept in at these passages ; and yet shall
we plead for liberty to undo ourselves? The godly are so
conscious of their weakness or proneness to sin, that they
are jealous of themselves ; and therefore it beseemeth not
such to do any thing needlessly that may tempt them to it,
and is so likely to prove a snare. If Paul must beat and
tame his body to bring it into subjection, lest when he had
preached to others, he should be cast away himself (1 Cor.
ix. 27.), much morehave we need to be watchful that are more
weak. We are comraanded expressly to raake no provi-

154 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
sion for the flesh, to satisfy the lusts (or desires) thereof
(Rom. xiii. 14.) ; and therefore they that eat, or drink, or do
any thing else for the mere satisfaction of the desires of the
flesh, and for its delight, do break this express command of
God. And how is it said, that they that are Christ's have
crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts, or desires
thereof, if they may use the creatures merely to delight and
please the flesh ? this is not crucifying its affections and
desires ; Gal. v. 24.
Job's covenant with the eyes that they gaze not on allur
ing objects (Job xxxi. 1.), was an act of self-denial that
others need as well as Job. Such a covenant with our taste,
and with our ears, and with every sense, that they move not
but by the consent of God and reason, and let not in any
sin inlo the soul, is a most eminent part of this necessary
duty. David's adultery and raurder did first make its en
trance at the eye. Had Noah more jealously watched his
appetite, he. had not by drunkenness been a warning to
posterity. It was Achan's eyes that betrayed his heart to
gold, and silver, and rich attire, though an accursed thing ;
Josh. vii. 20, 21. What sin almost doth not enter at some
of these ports ?
Be sure therefore that no sin be without its guard : ac
custom yourselves to deny them, and the conquest will be
easy. It is not to deny thera any thing that is useful to you
for God's service, and a true means to your holy ends, that
I advise you to ; but only that which would betray you by
delighting in them. Itis not to destroy the body, but to
tame it, keep it under, and bring it into subjection: and
this must be done. To move to this, consider yet further
these three or four things more distinctly.
1. It is for want of this part of self-denial that the world
is so full of scandals, and the consciences of men so full of
wounds, , and professors walk so unevenly with God, and
seera to be but as other raen. Here one drops intp tippling,
if not stark drunkenness; and there another into wantonness,
if not fornication ; and many live in gluttony, and never see
it nor repent of it; and many are drowned in covetous
desires and practices ; and some give up theraselves to sen
sual pastimes ; and all because they ao not make this cove
nant with their senses, nor have ever yet learned to deny
themselves ; but because it pleaseth them, they think it is

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 155
not displeasing to God ; and that it is no sin, but a part of
their Chistian liberty : yea, many of them think that by this
doctrine of self-denial, we would deny them the use of the
raercies of God, and consequently hinder thera from thank
fulness for them : and thus they raake a religion of pleasing
the flesh , which is the deadly eneray to God and religion.
They iraagine a liberty purchased thera to please il, and
fulfil its desires; and they raeasure out raercies as they
please it, and they would return God a fleshly thanks for
these mercies, and offer him a sacrifice as the heathens did
to Ceres and Bacchus ; whereas the Gospel knoweth no
raercy, but either eternal raercy, or that which is a raeans to
it; nor will it call that a mercy which hath not a tendency
to God ; nor did Christ purchase us any liberty, but what
is from sin or punishment, and is for his service : he did
not suffer in the flesh to procure us liberty unptpfitably, to
indulge and please the flesh, and to strengthen our enemy,
and by use to give it the mastery, when this mastery is the
damnation of most of the world. If Christians had learned
raore to deny their senses, they would walk raore blarae-
lessly and inoffensively in the woild : if they would keep at
a distance from the bait, and when they cannol do so, yet
shut up these doors, that it raay be at a distance frora their
rainds, how safely would they walk that now are stumbling
at every creature that is given for their relief! The objects
of sense are these lower things, so contrary to the objects
of faith, that the raore we love one of thera, the less we shall
regard the other ; and therefore these are always work
ing against each other. And as the objects of faith are then
most sweet and powerful with us, when faith is set most
fully upon thera ; so the objects of sense are then raost
powerful to draw us frora God, when the doors of sense are
set wide open, and the appetite let loose upon them.
2. And you may further observe, that almost all the
grossest sins in the world, do begin with some little liberty
of the senses, which at first we take for a lawful or indiffer
ent thing. The filthiest whoredoms do usually begin in
lustful looks, and thoughts, and speeches, and so proceed
to lascivious behaviour, and so to filthiness itself. And the
glutton and the drunkard are first ensnared by the eye,- and
then by tasting, and so proceed by little and little to excess J
see therefore that you keep as far from the baits of sensuality

156 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
as you can : and lay a comraand upon your senses to for
bear : if you look upon it, you are next to touching it, and
if you touch it, you are next to tasting it, and ifyou taste it,
you are like to let il down, and if you let it down, you are
like to venture again, and let down raore ; and all raust up
again, or you are lost. And therefore keep out the first
beginnings, and think with yourselves, ' If sin be the poison
of ray soul, the digesting of it will be ray ruin : and if I
cannot digest il, why should I let it down ? And if I may
not letil down, what reason have I to be tasting it? and if
I should not taste it, why should I touch it or be meddling
wilh il ? and if I may not meddle wilh it, why should I look
upon il or hearken to them that would entice me lo it ?' So
that the denying of your senses and your appetite, is the
sure and easy way to prevent those dreadful gripes that else
raay follow.
3. Moreover, if you deny not your sensitive appetites, you
will never be acquainted with heavenly delights. The soul
cannot move two contrary ways at once, towards earth and
towards heaven. When you gaze upon this world and feed
your appetites with fleshly delights, you have no heart or
mind to the delights above. It is the soul that retires from
creature, and sensual objects, that is free for God, and ready
to entertain the motions of grace. Not that I would have
you turn hermits and monks, and forsake the company of
men and all worldly business ; no, it is a higher and nobler
course that I propound to you : even in the raidst of the
world to live as without the world, and as if there were no
thing before you for sensuality to feed upon : to live so
fully to God in the world, that you may see God in all the
creatures, and converse with him in those same objects, by
which the sensual are turned from him : and to live in the
greatest fulness of all things, as if there were nothing but
penury to your flesh, and seeing God in all, and using all
for God, and denying self, where you have opportunity to
please it; this is the most noble life on earth. But if you
find that you cannot attain to this, and that you cannot deny
yourselves the delights of earth, unless you withdraw from
the sight of the objects ; do so and spare not, so far as may
consist with your serviceableness to God and human so
ciety : but still you shall find that whether earthly delights
are present or absent, your minds must retire frora that

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL, 157
which doth allure and gratify the flesh, if ever you would
enjoy coramunion with God, and taste of the delights of an
heavenly conversation.
4. And by pleasing your senses, you will increase their
vicious, inordinate desires. The more you gratify them, the
more they will crave : you feed the disease by yielding to
such desires ; but never think to quiet it by contenting
it. The more the flesh hath, the raore it would have.
The only way to abate the rage of sensual desire, is to deny
thera, and use them constantly to that denial. The safest
food and raiment is that which best strengtheneth and fur
nisheth us for God's service, with the least consent and
pleasure to our sensual appetites and desires. And the same
I must say of house, and lands, and labours, and friends,
and all the creatures ; that is the best state of life in which
God is served and pleased best, with the least content and
pleasure to the flesh. Carnal delights and spiritual are so
contrary ; the one so drossy and sordid, and the olher so
sublime and pure, that they will not well consist logether ;
but the delights of the flesh do corrupt or weaken the spiri
tual delights.
5. Lastly consider,, what a base unmanly thing it is for
man to be a slave to his sensitive appetite. As truly as the
horse was made to' be ruled by the rider, and all the brules
to be under raan, so was the appetite and all the senses
made to be ruled by reason ; and no sense should be pleased
till reason do consent ; a beast has no rule for his eating
and drinking but his appetite ; and therefore man's reason
is to raoderate hira : but a raan hath a betier guide than
appetite or sense to follow : you should not eat a bit or
drink a drop merely because the appetite would have it, but
reason must be advised with, and God must give advice to
reason. A swine that will drink whey till he burst his belly,
is blaraeless, because he knew not the danger, and had not
reason to restrain him : but a man that hath reason, and yet
will eat, and drink, and sleep, and use the creatures merely
to please the appetite of his flesh, is utterly inexcusable.
What raust the light of reason be put out, or put under the
cover of sensual concupiscence ? Must a nature thatis kin
to angels,, be enslaved to that which is kin to beasts ? Un
worthy is he of the honour or glory of a saint, that casteth
away the honour of his manhood, and makes himself a very

158 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
beast. What else doth that wretch, that when he seeth a
dish before him that he loves, doth never ask whether it be
wholesome or unwholesome, but eats it as, a! horse doth his
provender, merely because his appetite would have it ; yea,
perhaps though he know, or be told that it is unwholesome,
yet as long as it pleases his taste, he cares not ? And what
else doth that wretch, that when he sees the cup, raustneeds
be tasting? he loves it, and thatis reason enough with him.
What a base unmanly thing is it (much more unchristian),
to be a slave to a fleshly appetite ! Would one of these
gentlemen-gluttons, drunkards, or whoremongers, or any of
our voluptuous epicures, that must needs have that they
love, be contented to become a servant to a beast? Would
you take a dog or a swine for your raaster, and serve
them, and obey thera, and do what your brutish master
would have you? Why, what is the matter that many of
our worshipful and honourable beasts do not see that they
do as bad ? What is your own fleshly sensual appetite any
better than that of a beast ? A dog hath as a good a scent
as you ; and a swine hath as good a taste or sight as you,
also as strong a lust as you. What great difference is there
betwixt the serving your own flesh and another's, your own
brutish part, or any olher brute that lives about you? Won
derful ! if the favour of God be nothing wilh you, and if
damnation be nothing with you, that yet you are insensible
of your honour in the world, and that you that cannot put
up a disgraceful word or blow, can yet put up at your own
hands such a bestial indignity, as the subjecting of a ra
tional immortal soul, to that brutish flesh, which was made
to be its servant !

CHAPTER XIX.

II. Self-interest. And 1. Pleasure. And 1. Of the Taste to
be Denied.
I HAVE told you what the selfish disposition is that must
be mortified and denied ; and now I must tell you what is
the selfish interest that raust be denied : having described
self-denial frora the faculties, I raust now describe it by its
objects.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 159
The selfish interest consisteth in this trinity of objects,
pleasure, profit, and honour, not spiritual, but carnal ; not
heavenly, but worldly pleasure, profit, and honour. Some
tiraes, all these are comprehended in the word ' pleasure'
alone ; and then it is taken more comprehensively, and not
only for sensual pleasure, called voluptuousness, as it is
here in this distribution ; and sometimes all is comprehend
ed in the terra ' world,' and selfishness in the word ' flesh ;'
the world being that harlot with which the flesh commits
adultery. So 1 John ii. 15, 16. " Love not the world, nei
ther the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in hira. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world :
and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof ; but he
that doeth the will of God, abideth for ever." To these
three heads therefore we shall reduce all that we have to
say of this matter,
1. The selfish, fleshly pleasure that must be denied, con
sisteth in these particulars following, which I shall but briefly
touch, because they are so many. 1. One principal part
of sensuality or self-interest, consisteth in meats and drinks
to please the appetite. So far as these are taken to fit us
for God's service, and used to his glory, so far they are
sanctified, as before was said ; but when they are raerely
to please the appetite, they are offered to an enemy, and are
a fuel to lust. Do you see any thing that your appetite de
sireth, whether raeats or drinks, whether for quality or
quantity ? Take it not, touch it not, merely upon that ac
count ; but enquire whether it tend to the strengthening
and fitting your bodies or minds for the service of God ;
and if so, take it ; if not, let it alone. If your appetite had
rather have wine than beer, or strong beer than small, take
it not merely on that account : if your appetite would fain
have one cup more, when nature hath as much as is profit
able, deny that appetite. If your appetite would fain be
tasting of any thing that is not for your health, deny that
appetite. If it would fain have one bit more, when you
have had as much before as is wholesome or useful to you,
deny that appetite : or else you are guilty of flesh-pleasing,
and plain gluttony.
Quest. ' But is it not lawful at a feast to taste of another

160 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
dish, or eat another bit, when 1 think that nature needs no
more ? What perplexities then will you cast men into, to
know how many morsels they may eat ?'
Answ. It is gluttony, arid no better, to take the creatures
of God in vain, and sacrifice them to a devouring throat,
which should be used only for his service. That which is a
man's ultiraate end, is his God. What would you have
plainer than express words of Scripture, that tell you, that
whether yo'u eat or drink, il raust be all to the glory of God
(1 Cor. X. 31.); and that the fleshly do make their bellies
their gods (Phil. iii. 19.) ; and therefore when you have
taken as rauch as suiteth with your end, the service and
glory of God, you must not take more for another end, the
pleasing of your fleshly desires. But for the scruples that
you raention, about the just proportion, we need not be dis
quieted with thera ; for God hath given sufficient means to
direct us, to know what is for our good, and what is super-
fluohs ; and it is our duty in an even and constant way to use
our reason, and keep as near the due proportion as we can ;
and when we know that this is our desire and endeavour, it
were a sin against God to. trouble ourselves wilh continual
or causeless scruples or fiears, lest we do exceed or miss the
rule. For what can we do more, than go according to the
besl skill we have, and if for want of skill we should a little
mistake, it is pardoned with the rest of our daily infirmities ;
and to trouble and distract ourselves with causeless fears,
would more unfit us for God's service, than some degree of
mistake in the proportion would do, and so would be as great
a sin as that which we feared. And therefore our way is
quietly and comfortably, without distracting fears or scru
ples, to do our best, and use our prudence with self-denial,
and remember that we have lo do with a Father that knows
the flesh is weak when the spirii is willing. But yet wilfully
to cast away one cup or one morsel, on the pleasing of our
appetites, when it no way fits us for the service of God, and
will do us no other good, this is not self-denial but sensuality.
Quest. ' But nature knows best what is good for itself,
and therefore that which it desireth is to be judged best :
a beast liveth as healthfully as a man, that obeyeth his ap
petite only. Is it not lawful to take either meat or drink on
this account, that the appetite is pleased with it ?'
Answ. 1. Some beasts woiild presently kill themselves

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 161
in pleasing their appetites, if man that is rational did not
rule, restrain and moderate them. A swine will burst him
self with whey in half an hour. A beast in new after-grass
will surfeit, if he be suffered. No beast knows poison frora
food, but would soon perish by it, in obeying his appetite.
2. And yet-as a beast has no reason, so he is better provided
to live without reason, than raan is. His appetite is not so
corrupted by sin as ours is! Original sin hath depraved
and enraged our appetites. And if man hath not more use
for his reason than a beast, even in ordering his natural ac
tions, God would not have given him reason to rule his ap
petite, and commanded him to use it herein. And who
knows not that if raan did follow his appetite alone as beasts
do, he were like to raurder hiraself the next day or week, or
at least in a very litlle space ? The appetite would pre
sently carry us to that for quality, or quantity, or both, that
would cast us into mortal diseases, and soon make an end
of us ; and in those diseases, the pleasing it usually would
be certain death. And indeed this is a beastly doctrine,
that raan that hath reason lo rule his sensual inclinations,
should lay it by, and please his appetite without it like a
brute ! What more do all gluttons, drunkards, and whore
mongers, but follow their fieshly desires ? And if the de
sires of the flesh raight be followed, who would not be such
as they, in sorae measure? That which is no sin in a beast,
is a heinous sin in a man, because man hath reason to rule
his appetite, and a beast hath none, and therefore is not ca
pable of sin. And for the body, it is certain that raost of
the diseases in the world are bred and fed by the pleasing
ofthe appetite; and I think that there are few that are laid
in their graves, but this was the cause of it, though the
ignorant know it not, and the sensual are loath to believe il.
And for the question, ' Whether we may not take any
meat or drink purposely to please the appetite ?' I answer,
yes, as a means to fit us for duty ; but not as your chief
end. 1. Sometimes, especially in weak bodies, the very
pleasing of the appetite doth recreate nature, and further
strength, 2. And sometiraes the appetite shews what sort
of food nature will best close with and concoct, so that as
to the quality, if reason have nothing against it, it hath
something for, it ; because it is a sign that it is like to be
best digested, which is more desired. And so if you thus
VOL. XI. M

162 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
far follow the appetite, as a sign directing your reason what
is best, and take nothing ultiraately to please it, but by
pleasing it to preserve the health or vigour of your bodies
for God's service ; thus you may do, and yet be self-deny
ing : for this is not a sensual serving of our flesh. But if
you will, 1 . Take that which reason tells you is unhealthful in
quality. 2. Or that which reason tells you is either hurtful,
but needless and unprofitable in the quantiiy. 3. Or have
mastered your reason so far by your appetite, that you will
not believe that is hurtful or needless which you love, but
judge what is good for you, merely by your appetite, as a
beast. 4. Or if you raake the pleasing of your appetite your
chief end, in any raeat or drink that you take ; all this is
bestiality, sensuality, carnality, gulosity, and contrary to
true moderation and self-denial.
Live therefore like men, and not like beasts ; like Chris
tians, and not like atheists and epicures : he hath as base
a god as most of the vilest heathen idolaters, that makes
his belly his god. He that cannot deny hiraself a delicious
cup or raorsel, would ill deny himself a kingdora if it were
made the bait of sin. He that will not displease his appe
tite in so small a matter, would hardly leave his estate, or
liberty, or life, if he were put to it, either to sin, or leave
them. As he is a faithful servant to God indeed, that will
not displease him in the smallest matter, so he is most fully
obedient to the flesh, that cannot deny it the least thing
that it desireth. Though I know that the smallness of the
matter doth often so relax the cautelousness of the godly,
that they venture on a small thing, who would not on a
greater : yet even with thera it is sorae aggravation of the
sin, that they cannot bear so small a matter as the displeas
ing of their appetites in such a trifle : and that they cannot
deny themselves, where they may do it at so cheap a rate;
and that they have the hearts to displease God, and wrong
their souls, for a cup or a morsel which their appetite hath
a mind to. He sels litlle by heaven or the favour of God,
that will venture it for so small a thing. It hath ofttimes
abated my corapassion to dying men, when 1 have known
that their death was caused by a wilful obeying their appe
tite against the persuasion of their physician ; and be the
person never so dear to rae, I feel that there is a somewhat
in nature that inclineth us to consent to the sufferings of the

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 163
wilful, or abateth our pity of them in their misery. It was
an aggravation of Adam's sin, that a forbidden morsel could
entice him to venture on the wrath of God, and the ruin of
himself and his posterity. And il will be a double aggra
vation of your sin, if you will take the sarae course, -and
take no warning by him, or by the sinning world that hath
followed hira lo this day, " When the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that il was pleasant to the eye;
and a tree to be desired lo make one wise, she took of the
fruit thereof and did eat;" Gen. iii. 6. Thus entered sin,
and death by sin.
2. Another part of self-interest to be denied, is the pleas
ing of lustful venereous inclinations. Not only in avoiding
the gross act of adultery and fornication itself, but also in
avoiding the pleasing of any of the senses by lascivious ac
tions that lead to this : especially some men that are natu
rally prone to lust, have need to sel a work both faith and
reason, and sometimes call for help from others to quench
the dangerous hellish flames ; for it is a sin that God hath
spoken terribly against, and that so often that intim.ateth
man's proneness to il, and expresseth God's detestation of
it. And seldora doth Paul rebuke it, bul he reckoneth up
the several kinds, that he may make it odious, and none may
escape. " Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which
are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness. lascivious
ness, &c. of the which I tell you before, as I have also told
you in time past, that they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God ;" Gal. v. 19. The sins which
he would not have the Ephesians name, are, "Fornication
and all uncleanness, neither filthiness nor foolish talking,
nor jesting, which are not convenient: because no whore
raonger; nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an
idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
of God ;" Eph. v. 3 — 5. So " Mortify therefore your mera
bers which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness
which is idolatry ; for which things' sake the wrath of God
cometh on the children of disobedience;" Col. iii. 5, 6.
" Be not deceived ; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, &c. shall inherit the kingdora of God ;" 1 Cor. vi.
9, 10. "The law is made for whoremongers, for them that

164 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
defile themselves with mankind." &c. 1 Tim. i. 10. "Whore
mongers and adulterers God will judge;" Heb. xiii. 4.
Read also, 1 Cor. v. 11. Matt. xv. 19. Heb. xii. 16.
I Thess. iv. 3. Rom. i. 28, 29, &c. I Cor. vi, 13, 18. and
jc, 8. " These filthy dreamers defile the flesh," 8cc. Jude
7, 8. " But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the
lust of uncleanness — Having eyes full of adultery, and that
cannot cease frora sin ;" 2 Pet. ii. 10. 14. Abhor therefore
this filthy damnable sin, which God abhorreth. And to
that end please not the flesh by any beginning of it. or any
thing that savoureth of it, or makes way to it. Chambering
and wantonness are mentioned by the apostle araong the
fulfilling of the fleshly lusts ; Rora. xiii. 13, 14. The al
lurements of the lusts of the flesh and wantonness was the
course ofthe wretched apostates, 2 Cor. xii. 21. Mark vii.
22. And Christ himself hath told you, that " he that look
eth on a woman to lust afler her, hath coraraitted adultery
already in his heart;" Matt, v, 28, Suffer not therefore
your eye to entice your hearts, by gazing on beauty or any
alluring objects ; touch them not, come not near them with
out necessity. The fire of lust doth need no blowing up ;
but in some it needeth all that ever they can do to quench
it. Fly therefore frora the temptations and occasions, ifyou
would escape; cast not yourselves upon opportunities of
sinning; let temptations have as little advantage as you
can. A weak Christian may walk more evenly that flieth
from temptations, and keeps at a distance from that which
would ensnare him, than a strong Christian that suffers the
bait to be near him. David's woeful experience could tell
you, what it is to give way to a wandering, lustful eye, when
Joseph's resolution may tell you what an advantage it is, to
fly away and not to stand a parley with temptations. As
ever you would escape this sin, this horrible soul-destroy
ing sin, keep off frora all opportunities of committing it, and
live not with temptations near you : especially take heed
that you suffer not an unclean spirit to possess your minds ;
but cast out the first impure thoughts with abhorrency. 0
the daily filthiness that lodgeth in the thoughts and imagi
nations of some men ! They can scarce look on a woman
of any comeliness, but they have presently some filthy
thought. If they attempted actual uncleanness. a chaste
person may easily reject them with detestation ; but in this

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 165
secret way of heart-filthiness, they will commit fornication
with whom they please, and as many as they please, and as
often as they please ; but the ruin and sin are only their
own. As you love the favour of God, the credit of the
Gospel, and the peace and salvation of your own souls, deny
yourselves not only the lust of uncleanness, but of unchaste
behaviour, and wanton dalliance, and the filthiness of your
thoughts. For how unfit is that raind to converse with
God, and to be eraployed in holy ordinances, that cometh
but newly from thinking of filthiness, and feeding on lust !

CHAPTER XX.
Wanton Discourse, Songs, S^c, to be Denied.
3. Another part of self-interest or sensuality to be denied,
is, the use of wanton, filthy discourse, and of wanton books,
and songs, and ballads, coraraonly called love-songs. As
these are the fruits of vain rainds that do invent thera, so
do they breed and feed the like vanity in others. Indeed
they are the devil's psalms and liturgy, in which he is served
with mirth and jollity, by persons of corrupt and sensual
minds. They that will not be at the pains to learn a cate
chism, will learn a wanton song or ballad, which one would
think should be as hardly learned. When we desire them
to learn any thing that is necessary to their salvation, they
tell us that they are no scholars, and they have weak merao
ries, and they cannot learn. But they can learn an idle tale,
or a filthy song, though they are no scholars, and though their
meraories be weak. Their weak raemories are strong enough
to keep any thing tbat is naught ; like a riddle that will
not hold the corn, but it will hold the straws and rubbish ;
or like a sieve that will not hold the milk, but it will hold
the hairs and filth. And so rauch greater is this sin than
many others, because it is studied for, and laboured for, and
therefore is coramitted purposely, resolvedly, and with de
light, and not as sorae other sins which men are tempted
to by sudden passions or surprisal ! What abundance of
children are sent to school to the devil, and must bestow
many days and hours in learning their lessons ; and when

166 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
they have learned them, he raust hear thera say them over,
usually more than once a day ! As they are at work in their
shops or fields, they are at it, either by wanton songs, or
ribald, filthy talk : yea, they be not ashamed to sing them
as they go about the streets : mark this, you that are the
servants of Christ! Will you everraore be ashamed of
your Master, or of his holy service? will you be ashamed to
confess hira in the open streets, or lo be heard at prayer, or
reading, or singing the praise of God in your houses-; when
the devil's servants are trained up in their very childhood
to sing his psalras in the open streets, and publicly to serve
hira without fear or sharae ? May not a raan conjecture by
their education, what trade they are intended for? They
that serve an apprenticeship to a trade, are sure intended
to live upon it. One would think by the talk and the songs
of many of our children in the streets, that the parents had
bound thera apprentices to a brothel-house, and intended
that their trade should be fornication, whoredom, and all
uncleanness ! why else do they learn the art of talking of
it. but in order to the art of practising it? Sure I am, they
are the apprentices of satan : and a doleful case it is to
think on ; that as the Turks do lake the children of Chris
tians, and breed them up to be their array of janizaries, to
fight against Christians, as their stoutest soldiers, when
they come to age ; so the devil and their own parents do
take the children that in baptism were dedicated once to
Christ, and listed under his comraand, and they teach men
to fight against Christ, by cursing, and railing, and swear
ing, and raocking at godliness, and by bawdy songs and
ribaldry. Christ telleth us that " out of the abundance of
the heart the raouth speaketh ;" and therefore they cannot
in reason blarae us, if we judge of their hearts by their
tongues : for though the tongue be too often better than
the heart, it is seldora worse. And surely if many of our
wretched neighbours may be judged of by this rule of
Christ, we must needs conclude that they have lustful, fil
thy adulterous hearts ; what else can we think of them when
their discourse and songs are filthy, but that their hearts are
filthy? Christ hath warranted us to conclude, that rotten
speeches come from the abundance ofa rotten heart. Young
people, I beseech you regard your credit, if you regard not
your salvation. Will you openly proclaim in the ears of

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 167
the world that you are trained soldiers of the devil, learning
to be whores or whoremongers, or that you have lust and
whoredom in your hearts? Is it your meaning to tell this
to all the town? what doth it in your mouths, if it be not
in your hearts? will you not judge by a raan's language
what coimtryraan he is ? If he speak Welch, you will think
he is a Welchman : if Irish, you will think he is an Irish
man ; if English, you will conjecture he is an Englishman :
and ifyou speak the language of harlots and brothel-houses,
what can we think but that you are such yourselves, or at
least that you are learning to be such ? For sharae do not
so disgrace your parents that breed you up, and the houses
thatyou live in ! What raay folk think and say, when they
hear you talk filthily, and singing filthy songs? will they
not think that you have adulterers or filthy persons to your
parents, that teach or suffer you to learn such things ? and
that they are bringing you up for their own profession ?
Will they not think that you live in whore-houses, and not
in Christian families ? Do not for shame proclaim this sus
picion of your parents, or the families you dwell in, in the
hearing of the world, unless you think it an honour to be
harlots. It would make the ears of a modest person glow
on his head, lo hear the ribbaldry that is ordinary in some
profane farailies ; especially in raany inns and alehouses,
where the quality of the corapany and the nature of the em
ployraent is such frora whence no better can be expected.
Let all that would be accounted Christians, deny and ab
hor this part of sensuality in theraselves and theirs. Again
consider the coraraand of God ; " But fornication, and all
uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not once be named
araongst you, as becometh saints : neither filthiness, nor
foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient; but
rather giving of thanks :" Eph. v. 3, 4, " Let no corrupt
comraunication proceed eut of your mouth, but that which
is good to the use of edifying, that it may rainister grace
unto the hearers ; and grieve not the" holy Spirit of God :"
Eph, iv. 29, 30. Mark here, how such filthy speech is called
• corrupt' coramunication, or rotten like carrion in a ditch,
which should cause all that pass by to stop their noses.
And yet this is our people's sport : what say these wretches,
' May we nbt jest and be merry, when we mean no harm,
without all this ado?' Have you no honester rairth than

168 TREATISE OF SELF-DENlAL.
this ? nor raore cleanly jests than these? will you feed upon
that which is carrion, or corrupt, and raake it your junkets
to delight your palate ? will you raake raerry with that which
God conderaneth, and threateneth to shut you out of his
kingdora for, and raakes the mark of the unsanctified, and
chargeth you not once to name it, that is, not without dis
taste and rebuke ? Have you nothing but filthiness, and the
service ofthe devil, andthe wrath of God to play with, and
to raake raerry wilh ? " Il is a sport to a fool to do mis
chief;" Prov. X. 23. I may well say of this, as Solomon of
another sin, " As a madman that casteth firebrands, arrows
and death, so is the raan that deceiveth his neighbour, and
saith, Ara not I in sport?" Prov. xxvi. 18, 19. It is mad
sporting with sin, especially to choose it purposely for a re
creation ; and especially such an odious sin as this, that
infecteth others, and banisheth all graciou.s edifying con
ference, and increaseth the corruption of the raind, and
prepareth people to actual whoredora, self-pollution, and
aborainable uncleanness : for thoughts and words are but
preparative lo deeds.

CHAPTER XXI.
Idle and Worldly Talk to be Denied.
4. Another part of sensuality to be denied, is, idle and
worldly talk, which raost raen raake their daily recreation.
Il is not to be raade light of that Christ hiraself hath told
yoa, that for every idle word raen shall give account in
the day of judgment (Malt, xii. 36, 37.); such an account
as that they shall be charged on you as sins ; and if they
be not repented of, and pardoned through the blood of
Christ, they will be your condemnation, as well as greater
sins. By idle words is raeant, not only all wicked, and all
lying words, which are vain in a high degree and worse; but
also useless unprofitable speeches, that tend not to any
good, and which you have no call lo speak (Tit. iii. 9.) ;
and that which the apostle calls ' foolish talking,' Eph, v, 4,
When that Christian wisdora is left out that should guide
and season our speech, and direct it to some good end :
especially when by vain jesting men will make fools of

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL, 169
themselves to please others : or when they lay by Christian
gravity, and by jesting affect to become ridiculous (Eph.
V. 4.), much more when men jest with holy things, and
speak unreverently, conteraptuously or scornfully of the
matters of God, which is irapiety in a high degree : the sarae
may be said of proud boasting words, and of multitude of
words, even when the matter is good, bul the multitude of
words unseasonable and unprofitable ; as also of rash un
considered words, that lend to stir up strife and passion : as
also censuring, backbiting, reproach, flattery, dissembling,
and many the like : but the thing that I principally speak
of now, is the pleasing of a man's self by a course of idle,
unprofitable talk. And alas, how common is this sin ! Not
only the foolish multitude are guilty of it, but persons of
judgraent, and-gravity, and reputation. How raany raay you
corae in corapany with, before you shall have any edifying
coraraunication, that tends to minister grace to the hearers !
Vanity is become the comraon breath of the greatest part.
What the better can any raan be for their discourse, unless
by taking warning by thera, to avoid the vanity which we
hear thera guilty of? Even ancient persons, wilh whora the
words of wisdora should be found (Job xii. 12.), and who
should be examples unto youth, are yet given up to idle talk ;
and an old story is more savoury wilh thera than heavenly
discourse : even parents and masters that should be exam
ples to their families, will in their hearing multiply idle
words, as if they would teach to be vain as they are; when
alas, the souls of those about thera have need of other man
ner of discourse ; and it is another task that God hath set
them ; Deut. vi. 6 — 8. and xi. 18, 19. Whence is it that
children learn a course of idle, foolish talking, more than of
their own parents ? For one word of God, and the doctrine
ofthe Gospel, and the matters of salvation, that their farai
lies hear frora most of them, they hear a hundred, yea a
thousand of the world, and of unprofitable things. Had
(jod but the tithe of their words, we should account them
very pious. And they that cannot spare him the tithe of
their words, I doubt do not allow him the tithe of their af
fections, and would not allow him the tithe of their increase,
if they could tell how to keep it. Not but that with some
persons, that are called to rauch worldly business, more
than ten parts of their daily speeches may lawfully be about

170 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
the creatures : but then even those wilh godly men are ul
timately for God, and so are sanctified, and not unprofitable:
and also they are glad to redeem what tirae they can for
speeches ofa higher and raore excellent subject.
And the comraonness .of this sin of idle talk, yea,, with
many that we hope are godly, doth raake rae think that it is
thought to be a smaller matter than it is ; and I doubt this
conceit is ilthat makes il to be so coramon. And therefore
I shall here give you some of the aggravations of this sin,
that you may hereafter judge of it as it is, and not be en
couraged in it by false apprehensions.
1 . A custom of vain words, is a sign of a vain and empty
mind : were the heart but full of belter Ihings, the tongue
would be employed in better speeches. Either the head or
heart, or both is empty and vain, in that measure as the
tongue is vain. "A dream cometh through the raultitude of
business, and a fool's voice is known by the multitude of
words ;" Eccles. v. 3. " The words of a wise man's mouth
are gracious ; bul the lips of a fool will swallow up him
self;" Eccles.. X. 12. " A fool is full of words ;" Eccles.
X. 14. And therefore Solomon opposeth the tongue of the
jusl, and the heart ofthe wicked, " The tongue of the just
is as choice silver : the heart ofthe wicked is little worth;"
Prov. X. 20. See Prov, xvii, 27, 28, " The mouth of the
righteous speaketh wisdora, and his tongue talketh judg
raent :" and whence is this ? "The law of his God is in his
heart : none of his steps shall slide ;" Psal, xxxvii. 30, 31.
It is a sign that a man hath little feeling of the greatness of
his own sin, of the greatness of God's love in Christ, of the
greatness of the joy that is set before hira, ofthe greatness
of duty that lieth on him, when he can spend so rauch of
his tirae in talking of mere vanity. You cannot. get a dy
ing man, or a man that is taken up with any important bu
siness, to jest and prate with you of idle matters. It is only
alienated idle rainds that can give way to a course of idle
words : nay, it is a sign that conscience is not so tender as
it ought to be, when raen can knowingly go on in a course
of sin: doth not conscience ask you what you are doing,
and whether .this discourse do tend to edification, and the
cherishing of grace? What consciences have you that
look no bettej after your tongues, but will let them wander
so long after vanity, before they call thera to account ? Do

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 171
you reraember God's presence, and withal his holiness and
jealousy? Can you talk so idly and God standby, and
hear every word, and put down all ? How can you be so
conteraptuously fearless of his presence?
2. The tongue of man is a noble member, called our glo
ry, Psal. xxx. 12. and Ivi. 8.. given us for the praise of our
great Creator, and for olher high and noble ends. And
should it be abased and abused to idleness and vanity ? You
will not take the clothes that adorn your bodies to clothe a
maukin. or sweep the oven, or wipe your dishes with ; and
why should you use your tongues to filth, or base unprofit
able things, that are given you for the noblest uses in the
world, even the honour of God, the edifying of your bre
thren, the reproof of sin, and your own salvation?
3. Consider, what abundance of great and needful em
ployment you have for your tongues; and then tell me, whe
ther you should spare them to idleness and vanity ? O what
work hath that little member to perforra ! what matters
have you to mind and talk of! what transcendent subjects !
what raatter of highest excellency, and greatest necessity !
You have a life of sin to look back upon and lament : you
have many a sin to confess to others : you -need much help
against temptations, and for the strengthening and exer
cise of your graces : what need to raake sure of your title
to salvation ! and to prepare for death, and to get ready the
graces that you must use in your last necessities ! and yet
have you words to spare for vanity? What abundance of
poor souls about you are ignorant, hard-hearted, sensual,
covetous, empty of grace, in a state of death, and need all
that ever you can do for their recovery, and all too little ;
and yet can you find in your heart to talk with thera of vain,
unprofitable things ? Alas sirs, raost of the persons abput
you are within a step of death, and going to the bar of God,
and want nothing but one stroke of death lo make them
past help, and send them to damnation : and can you find
in your hearts lo talk idly to such raen ? O cruel unmerci
ful people, that regard no more your neighbours' miseries !
If you carae to them at the point of death, or if their houses
were on fire, would you sil down and tell them an old tale,
or talk of the weather, or this trifle, or that? what an ab
surdity would this be, and insensibility of your brethren's
case ? . And will you do so in a case ten thousandfold

172 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
greater? Can you find in your heart to stand jesting and
pratingwith a poor unregenerate raan that is within a step of
hell ? Have you not raore need to call to him to look about
him in time, and to reraeraber eternity, and to turn and
live? If you see but the nakedness of the poor, or the
sores ofa cripple, it should raove you to corapassion : and
will not men's ignorance and ungodliness move you ? Their
miseries cry aloud to you for pity, though themselves are
silent, ' O help to save us from sin and hell, as you have the
hearts of raen,' and yet will you stop your ears, and fall a
prating and jesting wilh thera? you rob them ofthe means
that God hath commanded you to use for their recovery.
God hath commanded, that " the word of Christ dwell in
you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one an
other" (Col. iii. 16.); yea, that you " daily exhort one ano
ther while it is called to day, lest any be hardened through
the deceitfulness of siu ;" Heb. iii. 13.
Nay, you have the great mysteries of the Gospel to dis
course of with the godly ; the glorious things of everlast
ing life lo make mention of to one another ; yea, you have
the high praises of God to advance in the world, and aU his
blessed attributes to magnify, and all his glorious works to
praise, and all the experience of your own souls to lay open,
and his many and great raercies towards you to adraire and
thankfully confess. And yet have you leisure for idle talk ?
For nuraber of objects, you have God and all his works in
heaven and earth (that are revealed) to talk of ; you have
all his providences, all his judgraents, all his raercies, and
all his word: andis this not field large enough for your tongue
to walk in, bul you must seek out more work in vanity it
self? For greatness, you have the greatest things in all the
world to mind and talk of: for necessity, you have the
matters of your own and other men's salvation to discourse
of: for excellency, you have God and his image, and works,
and ways, and heaven itself to talk of: for delightfulness,
you have the sweetest objects in the world, even goodness
itself, salvation, and the way to it, to be the raatter of your
discourse. And lest one thing should weary you, you have
a world of varietyto employ your speeches on; even God,
and all his works, and word, and ways before-mentioned.
And is it not a shame to talk of vanity, yea, to go seek for
recreation in vanity, while all these stand by, and offer

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 173
themselves to bethe subjects of your wise, and fruitful, and
delightfullest discourse. Consider whether this be wise or
equal dealing.
4. Moreover a course of idle talk, is a thief that robs us
of our precious time. And he that knows what God is, or
what duty is, or what his soul is, or what everlasting joy
or torment is, will know that tirae is a coraraodity of greater
worth than so contemptuously to be cast away for nothing.
O reraeraber when thou art next in idle talk, did God make
thee for this ? doth he continue thee among the living, and
keep thee out of hell, and yet prolongeth thy days, that
thou shouldst waste thy tirae in idleness and vanity ? Hast
thou so many sins to raortify, and so raany other works to
do, which heaven or hell lieth on, and so short and uncertain
a tirae to do thera in, and yet hast thou leisure for idle talk ?
5, Moreover, this sin is so much the greater, because it
is not a rare or seldom sin, but frequently committed and
continued in. It is not like the sin of David or Noah, that
though greater, yet wds but once committed : but this is
made great by the number and continuance. How many
thousand idle words have you been guilty of in your time !
6. And il is a sin that tendeth to greater sins. For idle
words are the ordinary passage to backbiting, railing, lying,
and contentious words, " In the raultitude of words there
wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise ;"
Prov. X. 10. Thus " a fool's lips enter into contention ;
his mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of
his soul ;" Prov. xviii. 6, 7. " In the multitude of dreams,
and many words, are divers vanities : but fear thou God ;"
Eccles. V. 7. " The lips of a fool will swallow up himself;
the beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and
the end of his talk is raadness ;" Eccles. x. 12, 13. Idleness
is the beginning, but worse than idleness is the end.
7. It is a sin that habituateth the speakers and hearers
both to vanity : use makes us disposed to that which we
use. Il will grow strange to you to speak of better things
when you are used to vanity. And the use of hearing you,
is an exceeding wrong to the souls of the hearers. And a
small matter confirmeth such bad hearts as the most have,
in the vanity that they are in. You cast water on their graces
and your own, if there were any. If any of thera had better
thoughts, your idle talk doth drown and divert them.

174 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
8. And it is a sin that hindereth abundance of edifica
tion that holy conference raight bring. It is a precious
striving course for Christians to be coraraunicating expe
riences, and declaring the exercises and lovingkindness of
God, and exciting one another : and this you lay by, and
turn to vanity. Nay, perhaps sorae other that is in the com
pany raaybe purposed to set upon sucb profitable discourse,
and your idle talk doth hinder them, and suppress the ex
ercise of God's graces for your good. At least there may
be much precious raatter in thera, that wants but vent, and
ifyou would but begin, it may be poured forth as precious
ointraent. Many wise and able men are too backward in
beginning edifying discourse, that yet are exceeding fruit
ful when you have once set them a-work. And idle talk is
the hinderer of this.
9. And it is a very fruitless sin. You offend God for
nothing. What get you by an hour's idle talk ? or what
have you to tempt you to il ?
10. And it is a wilful sin, and usually accompanied with
much impenitency, which makes it much the greater. Men
use not to lament it, and call themselves to account for it,
and say, ' What have I done ?' but go on in it as if it were
no sin. And now you see the greatness of the sin, I beseech you
make more conscience of it than you have done. And that
you may avoid it, observe these brief directions.
-Direct. 1 . Labour for understanding in the raatters of
God : for that is it that raust furnish the tongue, and pre
vent vanity ; Prov. xi. 12. x, 19. A foolish head will have
a foolish tongue.
Direct. 2. Get a deep impression and lively sense ofthe
raatters of God upon the heart. For a man never talks
heartily, that talks not from the heart. He that is full of
the love of God, possessed of the Spirit of Christ, taken up
with the riches of grace and of glory, will scarce want mat
ter to talk of, nor a holy disposition to set hira a-work :
for the word of God will be as a fire in his heart ; he will be
weary with forbearing, till the flaraes burst out, Psal. cxix.
11. xl. 8. lvii. 7. cxix. 111. xxxix. 3. Jer. xx. 9. The hearty
experienced Christian is usually the fruitful Christian in
word and deed.
Direct. 3. Preserve a tender conscience, that may check

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 175
you when you begin to turn to vanity. The fear of God is
the soul's preserver ; Psal. xix, 9, Prov, xvi. 6. xxiii. 7.
Direct. 4. Walk as before the Lord : live, and think, and
speak as in his presence. If the presence of an angel would
call you off frora idle words, what then should the presence
of God hiraself do ! Dare you run on in idle, foolish prat
ing, when you remeraber that he heareth you ?
Direct. 5. Keep out of the corapany of idle talkers, lest
they entangle you in the sin : unless when you have a call
to be araong thera ; Prov. xiii. 20. We are apt to let our
discourse run wilh the streara.
Direct. 6. When you are with the ungodly, maintain in
you -a. believing corapassion to their souls ; and then the
sense of their condition will heal your discourse.
Direct. 7. Provide raatter of holy discourse of purpose
beforehand. As you will not travel without money in your
purses to defray your charges ; so you should not go into
company without a provision of such matter as may be pro
fitable for the company that you raay be cast upon. Study
and contrive how to suit your speeches to the edification of
others, or else lo draw good frora others, even as ministers
study for their sermons.
Direct. 8. Speak not until you have considered what is
like to be the effect of it, and weighed the quality of the
person, and other circurastances to that end. Do not speak
first, and consider after, but first think, and then speak.
Direct. 9. Be still sensible of the worth of tirae and op
portunity, and then you will be as loath lo cast it away on
idle talk, as a good husband will be to cast away his money
for nothing. Direct. 10. Keep up a sense of your own necessity, which
may provoke you to be betier husbands of your tongues and
time : and engage those you converse with, to mind you of
your idle talk, and take you off it as soon as you begin.
Direct. 11. See that your heart and tongue, and all be
absolutely devoted to God ; and then you will question any
by-expense of words: and "Whatsoever you doin word or
deed, you will do all in the narae of Christ, and lo the glory
and praise of God ;" Col. iii. 17. 1 Cor. x. 31.
Direct. 12. Be resolute for God, and be not asharaed to
own hira and his cause. A sinful bashfulness hinders rauch
good. Observe these directions for this part of self-denial.

17 6 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
CHAPTER XXII.
False Stories, Romances, and other tempting .Books.
6. Another point of sensuality to be denied, is, the read
ing or hearing of false and tempting books, and those that
only lend lo please an idle fancy, and not to edify. Such
as are romances, and other feigned histories of that nature,
wilh books of tales, and jests, and foolish corapliraents, with
which the world so rauch aboundeth, that there are few hut
raay have admittance to this library of the devil. Abun
dance of old feigned stories, and new romances are in the
hands, especially of children, and idle gentlemen, and filthy,
lustful gallants, or erapty persons that savour not greater
raatters, but have spirits suitable to such gauds as these.
Bul if they were only toys, I should say the less ; but hav
ing seen by long observation the raischief of them, I desire
you lo note it in these few parliculars.
I. They ensnare us in a world of guilt, by drawing us to
the neglect of those many, those great and necessary things-
thai all of us have to mind and study. O ! for a raan or wo
man, that is under a load of sin, unassured of pardon and
salvation, that is near to death, and unready lo die, to be
seen with a story or romance in their hand ; what a gross
incongruity is this ! It is filler the book of God should be
in your hand. Il is that which you must live by and be
judged by. There is much that you are yet ignorant of,
which you have more need to be acquainted with than fa
bles. Are you not ignorant of a hundred truths that you
should know, that God hath revealed to further your salva
tion : and can you lay thera all by to read roraances ? Are
you travelling towards another world with a play-book in
your hand ? O that you did but know what greater matters
you have lo raind and lo do ! Do all that you have to do
first, that is ofa thousand tiraes more worth, and weight, and
need ; and then come to me, and I will answer your objec
tions, ' What harra is it to read a play-book?' First, quench
the fire of sin and wrath that is kindled in your souls ; and
see that you understand the laws of God. and read over
those profitable treatises of divines, that the world abound
eth wilh, and your souls raore need, and then tell rae, what
mind or time you have for fables.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 177
2. Moreover it dangerously bewitcheth and corrupteth the
minds of young and erapty people, to read these books. Na
ture doth so close with them, and delight in thera, that they
presently breed an inordinacy of affection, that steal away
the heart from God, and his holy word and ways. It cannot
be that the love and delights of the heart can be let out on
such trash as these, and not be taken off frora God and the
most needful things. That is the most dangerous thing to the
soul, that works itself deepest into the affections, and is
most dehghted in, instead of God. And therefore I may
well conclude that play-books, and history-fables, and ro
mances, and such like, are the very poison of youth, the
prevention of grace, the fuel of wantonness and lust, and the
food and work of erapty, vicious, graceless persons ; and it
is great pity that they be not banished out of the common
wealth. 3. Moreover they rob men of rauch precious tirae, in
which rauch better work raight be done : rauch precious
knowledge raight be got while they are exercised in these
fables. Those hours raust be answered for : and there is
not the worst of you but then had rather be able to say, ' I
spent those days and hours in prayer, and meditating on the
life to come, and reading the law and Gospel of Christ, and
the books which his servants wrote for my instruction,' than
to say, ' I spent it reading love-books, and tale-books, and
play-books.' All these considered, I beseech you throw
away these pestilent vanities, and take them not in your
hands, nor suffer thera in the hands of your children, or in
your houses, but burn thera as you would a conjuring-book,
and as they did. Acts xix. 19. that so they raay do no mis
chief to any others.

CHAPTER XXIII.
Vain Sports and Pastimes to be Denied.
6. Another part of fleshly interest to be denied, is, vain
sports and pastimes, and all unnecessary recreations. For
this also is one of the harlots that the flesh is defiled with.
Recreations are lawful and useful if thus qualified. I , If
the matter of them be not forbidden : for there is no sport-
VOL. XI. N

178 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
ing with sin. 2. If we have a holy, Christian end in themj
that is, to fit our bodies and minds for the service of God :
and do not do it principally to please the flesh. If without
dissembling, our hearts can say, ' I would not meddle with
this recreation, if I thought I could have my body and mind
as well strengthened and fitted for God's service without it.'
3. If we use not recreations without need, as to the said
end ; nor continue them longer than they are useful to that
end ; and so do not cast away any of our precious time on
them in vain. 4. If they be not uncivil, excessively costly,
cruel, or accompanied with the like unlawful accidents. 6.
If they contain not more probable incentives to vice than to
virtue : as to covetousness, lust, passion, profaneness, &c.
6. If they are not like to be more hurtful to the souls of
others that join with us, than profitable to us. 7. If they be
not like to do more hurt by offending any that are weak, or
dislike them, than good to us that use thera. 8. If they be
used seasonably, in a time that they hinder not greater
duties. 9. If we do it not in company for us to join with.
10. Especially if we may make a right choice of recreations,
and when divers are before us, we take the best ; that which
is least offensive, least expensive of time and cost, and which
befit furthereth the health of our bodies, with the smallest
inconvenience. These rules being observed, recreations are as lawful as
sleep, or food, or physic.
But, alas, they are made another thing by the sensual un
godly world. Sometimes they must sport themselves with sin
itself, in the abuse of God's name, and servants, and crea
tures : tippling, and profane courses are sorae men's chiefest
recreations : and though the law ofthe land forbid most of
their sports, and the law of God coraraandeth them to obey
all the laws of raen that are not against the law of God, yet
this is a raatter of nothing to their consciences. And let the
raatter be never so lawful, they make all impious by a car
nal end. It is none of their intention to strengthen and fit
theraselves for the service of God, and a holy, righteous
life, by their recreations ; but it is raerely because their
fancy and flesh is pleased in thera : even as the drunkard,
glutton, or whoremonger, that have no higher end than plea
sure, an^ can give no better account why they feed their lust,
but because they love it, and it is their delight ; just so is

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 179
it vvith sportful youths wa.d^ gallants. How few of many
thousands can you come to that are at cards, dice, or danc
ing, that can truly say, they would not do any of this but
for God, and to fit theraselves for his service ! Did you
ever know such a one? I believe in some better kind of
recreations you may know some such ; but scarce in these.
Alas, this sin is not of so small a stature as too many irape
nitent souls imagine. It is one of the crying sins of the
land, and I believe one that brought down the vengeance of
the late war upon us ; and yet it is not half cured after all.
The gentry of England, that should have been educated in
learning and the fear of God, and been the exaraples ofthe
people in temperance and holiness, have been lamentably
brutified and drowned in this-^with other parts of gross) sen
suality. Instead of serious prayer, and holy conference, -and
instructing of their families, cards and dice took up the
lime, and cursing and swearing were the common attend
ants of thera ; and their children and servants learned of
thera, and took the sarae course. They bestowed raore tirae
in these, and in hunting, hawking, bowling, cocking, stage-
playing, and such like, than they did in the serious wor
shipping of God ; yea, than they did in the works of any
lawful calling : for indeed they lived as without a calling,
doing very little else but rise, and dress thera, an^ corapli
ment those about thera, and drink, and eat, and so to their
sports at home or abroad, and then to eating and drinking
again, and so to their vain discourses, and so to their beds
again : and this was the ordinary course of their lives : "they
sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play," Exod.
xxxii. 6. 1 Cor. x. 7. In the sins of Sodom did they live,
" pride, fulness of bread, and idleness," Ezek. xvi. 49. They
trod the steps of hira that Christ had told thera, did cry in
vain for a drop of water to cool his tongue (Luke xvi. 19.),
gallantly clothed, and fared deliciously every day (or sump
tuously). Their whole life almost was a sacrifice to their
flesh, to their belly, their fancies, and their lusts ; till God
broke in upon them in his wrath, and found them another em
ployraent, and shortened their store, and diminished their full
estates,and broughtthera into conterapt and trouble; and yet
how coraraon is the sin to this day? " Woe unto thera that
rise up early inthe morning that they may follow strong drink,
that continue till night, till wine inflame thera ; and the harp

180 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
and the viol, the tabret and pipe, and winfe are in their
feasts ; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither
consider the operation of his hands : therefore my people
are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge,
and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude
dried up with thirst : therefore hell hath enlarged herself,
and opened her raouth without raeasure, and their glory,
and their raultitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth
shall descend into it ;" Isa. v. 11 — 14. " Woe to them that
are at ease in Zion,  that stretch themselves on their
couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves
out ofthe stall, that chant to the sound of the viol, and in
vent to themselves instruments of music  that drink
wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief oint
ments : but they are not grieved forthe affliction of Joseph ;"
Amos vi. 1. 4 — 6.
The precious time that this sort of men lay out in their
needless sports and recreations, is more worth than all their
estates ; and if their sin had no other aggravation but this,
I confess I should take it for a far greater sin than any
that thieves are usually hanged for at the gallows ! What I
for men that have received more from God than others, and
are obliged more to him, and are capable of doing him more
eminent service, for such as these to live like epicures ! and
when they are hastening to an endless life, to waste the
most, yea, almost all this precious time in flesh-pleasing
sensuality! I think itis one of the greatest sins in the
world ! And no wonder that Christ raade such a choice of
such a one as these, to acquaint them who they are that
shall be damned, Luke xvi. And if conversion make not a
wonderful change on them, they must look undoubtedly to
speed as he ; and to have the same account of the cause of
their misery, " Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime re-
ceivedest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things :
but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented ;" Luke
xvi. 25.
Abundance of them bestowed raore upon hawks and
dogs, than would have maintained many poor families : and
play for large sums at cards, and dice, and cookings, and
horse-races. Covetousness, and luxury, and passion, and
swearing, and cursing, were the virtues that their sports did
exercise : and others must be their companions in the same

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 181
iriipieties, that they perish not alone. Unmerciful and op
pressing they are in their very sports, treading down the
hedges and corn of poor men, in following their game, and
never making them reparation for their loss, but raging at
them if they do but complain. No fitter company for them,
than the most impious swearers, and ribald filthy speakers,
and the like : who was offended al it, they cared not ; but
made it !in additional part of their sport, to cast a scorn at
those that durst not and would not be as bad as they. And
all this is. when they have variety of civil, cheap, inoffen
sive recreations at hand, which raight better have fitted a
Christian's end.
And the youthful part of the vulgar, are, in their degree,
ofthe sarae spirit with those epicures, and ofthe like prac
tice, as far as their estates and leisure will allow thera. Wit
ness the eagerness of the rabble in following after wakes,
and may-games, cock-fighting, dancing, dice, and cards.
and such like exercises. And more pleasure they have in
these than in prayer, or God's praises, or holy instructions,
or conferences As much as the most sordid whoremonger
or drunkard is enslaved in his proper flesh-pleasing sin, so
much are our voluptuous youlhs and others addicted to
gaming, sports, and pastimes, and enslaved to this flesh-
pleasing sin of theirs. Ah poor people ! Doth time run on so
fast, and are you hastening to the dreadful bar of God : and
do you want pastime? Is your work so great, and your tirae
so short, and utterly uncertain ; and yet raust you hunt
about for pastime? Must it go with you in heaven or hell
forever, as you spend this hasty inch of tirae, and yet have
you days or hours to spare for needless recreation I O what
a cursed thing is sin, that can so bereave men of the use of
reason, in that one thing for which their reason was given
them ! Yea, we can scarce convince these poor deluded
souls that they do araiss ; but they say, ' What harm is
there in cards, or dice, or hunting, or bowling, or such like
recreations? How shall we live without recreation?' Answ.
But is there no harm in needless flesh-pleasing, and in the
loss of precious time, to raen that are ready to step into
eternity ? O that ever raen should raake such a question !
Suppose your recreations were the mostlawful in the world
in their own nature ? Can there be a greater villany, than
to set your hearts on thera, and make a god of them, and

182 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL;
cast awayprecious hours on them, in using them needlessly?
Recreations are your physic, or your sauce ; and therefore
raust not becorae your food, nor raade a meal of. They are
only as whetting to the mower, which must never be used
but when there is need ; to spend half a day in needless
whetting, deserves no wages. O did yoti know but what is
your work, and time, and what is before you, you would be
better husbands ; and then you raight so contrive your busi
ness, as to lose no time in recreations. For either your call
ing puts you on the labour of the mind, as students, or of
the body, as labouring men. If study be your calling, you
need no exercise of recreation but for your bodies, for va
riety of studies is the best or sufficient for. the mind: and
two hours' walking is bodily recreation enough in a day,
for almost any student that is in a capacity to labour : and
if you be labouring men. or your calling lie in bodily motion,
then you need no recreations for your bodies besides your
callings, but only for your raind : and if you love God and
his word, what better recreation for your rainds can you de
vise, than thinking of the love of God in Christ, and medi
tating on the law of God (Psal. i. 2.). and calling upon him,
and rejoicing in his praises, and the comraunion of his
saints ? Is not a day in his courts, better than a thousand
any where else ? The Spirit of God by David said so, Psal.
Ixxxiv. 10. But alas, it is this unraortified flesh, and ty-
ranizing sensuality that blindeth you, that you cannot see
the truth : or else all this would be as plain to you as the
high way.

CHAPTER XXIV.
Vain Company to be Denied.

7. Another sensual vice to be denied, is, a love tb vain,
ungodly corapany. This is a sin that I think none but ut
terly graceless raen are rauch carried away with. For the
godly are all taught of God to love one another (1 Thess.iv.
9.), and to delight in the saints as the raost excellent on
earth (Psal. xvi. 2, 3.), and to take pleasure in their com
raunion: and to look on the ungodly with a differencing be
lief, as foreseeing their everlasting misery, if they return

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 183
not: so that it is the ungodly that I have now to speak to.
Some fall in love with the corapany of good fellows, as they
call them : and some love the company of harlots, and some
of gamesters ; and most of raerry, pleasant corapanions, and
men that are of their own disposition : and the love of suoh
company, enticeth them to the frequent committing of the
sin. They would not go to gaming but for corapany ; they
would not go to the alehouse but for corapany; and when
they are there, perhaps they will swear, and drink, and raock
at godliness for company. But are you willing also to go
to hell for company? Is the company of those sinners, bet
ter than the corapany of God, and his favour? Were it not
better to be that while with him in prayer, or about his
work ? If you love a tippling fellow better than God, speak
out, and say so plainly, and never dissemble any more, nor
say that you love God above all, or that you are Christians.
Have you more delight in the corapany of thera that would
entice to sin, than in the corapany of the godly that would
draw you from it? This is a raost certain raark, that yet you
are the children of the devil, and in a state of damnation.
It is not possible for a sanctified child of God to do so.
See the description of the man that shall be saved, in Psal.
XV. 4. " In his eyes a vile person is contemned, but he ho
noureth them that fear the Lord." Birds of a feather will
flock together. The company which you love, shews what
courses you love, and what you are. You delight in the
corapany of those that Christ will judge as his eneraies ;
and how then will he judge of you ? You delight most in
the company of those notorious fools, that know not the
plainest and most needful things in all the world ; that know
not that God is better than the world, and holiness than sin ;
and know not the way of their own salvation. If you are
content to have the company of the ungodly for ever, you
may take it here. But if you would not dwell in hell with
them, do not go on in sin with them. O when you shall see
those very men arrested by death, and haled at the bar of
God, and cast into daranation, then you will have no mind
of their company ! Then, O that you could but say, that
you were none of thera ! Like a raan that is enticed by thieves
to join with them ; but when the hue and cry overtakes them,
and they are apprehended, how glad would he be then to
be from araong them ! I tell you sinners, if grace recover

184 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
you, you shall wish in the sorrow of your hearts that you
had never seen the faces of those raen that enticed you to
evil ; but if grace do not recover you, you shall wish ten
thousand tiraes in hell that you had never seen their faces :
but then your wishes will be in vain. In the name of God
bethink yourselves, whether your companions can bear you
out at last, and save you from the wrath of God, and warrant
your salvation? Nay, whether they can save themselves;
alas, you know they cannot : God saith, " If you live after
the flesh, ye shall die" (Rora. viii. 13.); and if these men
say (as the devil lo Eve) " You shall not die," are they able,
think you, to raake it good ? What ! can they overcome
the God of heaven? O sirs, away, as you love your souls,
from such mad and raiserable company as this.

CHAPTER XXV.
Pleasing Accommodations, BuiMings, Gardens, Houses, Sfc.
8. Another sensual delight to be denied, is, pleasing ac
commodations, in buildings, rooms, walks, gardens, grounds,
cattle, and such like. It is lawful to be thus accommo
dated, and lawful to desire and use such accommodations,
with such cautions as I gave before about recreations, 1. If
you do not wilh Ahab desire to be accoraraodated by that
•which is another raan's, coveting your neighbour's posses
sions, or unlawfully procuring it. 2. If you be not at too
much cost upon such things, expending that upon them that
should be laid out upon greater and better things. 3. But
especially, if you desire such accomraodations for right
ends, sincerely referring all to God's honour, and desiring
thera, not principally to please your own fancy, and carnal
raind, but for the enabling you the better and more cheer
fully lo serve God. Nothing but God may be loved for it
self. When the pleasing of the flesh and fancy is the ut
most thing we look at in any of our desires, they are wicked
and idolatrous. Our houses therefore must be fitted to ne
cessary uses, and not to inordinate delights. Our gardens,or-
chards, walks, and such like, must be first suited to necessity,
and then so much delight as is useful to us for the promoting
of our holiness ; but not to any useless tempting delight.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 185
But worldlings and sensual persons will not be tied to
these Christian rules. Alas, it is the farthest raatter from
their rainds, to raake heaven the end of all their earthly pos
sessions and accommodations. They may hypocritically
talk of God, and of serving hira by their estates ; but really
it is the pleasing of a fleshly mind that is the thing which
they intend. They have more delight in their houses, and
gardens, and lands, and cattle, than in God and the hopes
of life everlasting. They desire fair houses that they may
bethought to be no mean persons in the world, and that they
raay please their huraours that run afler creatures for felicity
and content. I would desire such raen to consider these
things. 1. Alt these are but the baits of satan to delight you
and entangle your desires, and find you work in seeking af
ter them, while you neglect far greater matters. Can you
have while lo look so much after superfluities and delights
in the world, when you have necessaries yet to look after
for your souls ? Have you not greater things to mind than
these, which these occasion you to neglect?
2. Do you really find that they conduce to your main
end, even to make you more holy, or more serviceable to
God ? Nay, do not your own consciences tell you, that
they hinder you, and cross those ends ? And yet will you
go against your experience ?
3. If you are hurable, conscionable Christians, you feel
cause enough already lo lament, that your love to God and
delight in him, is no more ; and yet are you preparing snares
for your souls, to steal away that little remnant of your
affections, which you seemed to reserve for God ?
4. If you have any spark of grace in you, you know
that the flesh and the world are your raost dangerous ene
mies ; and you know that the way that the world doth undo
men^ is by enticing thera to over-value it and over-love
it ; and that those that love it most, are deepest in a state
of condemnation ; and the less men love it, the less they are
hurt or endangered by it. And do you not know that you
are liker to over-love a sumptuous house, with gardens,
orchards, and such accommodations, than a raean habitation?
Why should you be such eneraies to your own salvation,
as to raake teraptations for yourselves ? Have you not temp
tations enough already ? Do you deal wilh those you have

186 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
so well, and overcorae them so easily and so constantly, as
that you have reason lo desire raore? If Christ your gene
ral send you upon a holler service, you raay go on with cou
rage, and expect his help ; but if you will so glory in your
own strength, as to run into the hotter battle, and call for
more and stronger eneraies, it is easy to conjecture, how
ypu will come off". If you are Christians, know yourselves ;
you know that in the meanest slate, you are too prone to
over-love the world, and that under (Jod's medicinal afflic
tions, you cannot be so weaned frora it -as you ought ! Are
you not daily constrained to groan and complain to God
under the burden of too rauch love of the world, and too
much delight in worldly things ? If this be not your case,
I see not how you can have any sincerity of saving grace.
And if it be your case, will you be so sottish, and hypocri
tical, as to coraplain daily to God of your sin, and in the
raean tirae lo love and cherish it? to groan under your dis
ease, and wilfully eat and drink that which you know doth
increase it? What will you think of a man that will pray
to God to save him frora uncleanness, and yet will dwell no
where but in a brothel-house ? What do you better, that
must needs have the world in the loveliest garb, and must
needs have house, and grounds, and all things in that plight,
as are fittest to entice the heart ; and then will complain to
God, that you over-love the world, and love him too little?
To your shame you may speak it, when you do it so wilfully,
and cherish the sin which you thus complain of. If God call
you into a state of fulness and temptations, watch the more nar
rowly over your affections, and your practices ; and use no
more of the creatures for yourself, if you have ten thousand
pounds a-year, than if you had but a hundred ; but do not
seek and long for temptations : wish not for danger, unless
you were better able to pass through it,
5, Remember when your fancies desire such things, not
only that it is an enemy that desireth them, and to pleaseyour
eneray is not safe for you ; but also that it is the way that
raost have perished by, to 'have the world before them in
too pleasing and lovely a condition. Remember Nebuchad
nezzar's case (Dan, iv. 30.), that for glorying in his pompous
buildings, was turned as a madman among the beasts. Re
raember the rich man's sad example, Luke xii. 20. and xvi.
and think whether it be safe to imitate them. If men must

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 167
perish for loving the creature raore than God, raethinks you
should long most for that condition, in which the creature
appeareth least lovely, or is least likely to steal your love
from God, and in which you may love him and enjoy him
most. 6. And bethink you how unsuitable it is to your condi
tion, to desire sumptuous buildings, and enticing accora
raodations to your flesh. Have you not taken God for your
portion, and heaven for your horae ? And are you not
strangers and pilgrims here ? And is not God and ever
lasting glory sufficient for you ? You profess all this, if you
profess to be Christians ; and if you be not, you should not
profess that you are. And what! do you begin to repent of
your choice ? Must you yet turn to the pomp and vanity of
the world again? And will you quil your hopes of God and
glory? Ah,poorsouls! what litlle need have you of such great
matters on earth ? You have but a little to do wilh them !
and but a little while to stay with them ! And will not a
mean habitation, and shorter accoraraodations serve you for
so short a tirae ? Stay but a while, and your souls shall
have house-room enough in heaven or hell, and a narrow
grave of seven feet long will serve your bodies till the resur
rection. And cannot you make shift wilh an ordinary ha
bitation, and with small and comraon things till then?
Naked you came into the world, and naked you must go out:
raake not then so great a stir in dressing, and undressing,
and feathering a nest, that will be so soon pulled down.
7, And it is a dangerous sign that your time on earth is
short, when you have most content in outward things, I
have told you once in another discourse (which I have since
seen more of) that people that much set their hearts upon
any earthly thing, do use to be snatched away by death just
when they have attained it, before they can have the com
fort of possessing it. Just when their houses are built ; just
when their debts are paid, and their estates cleared and set
tled ; just when they have such and such a thing which they
earnestly desired, then they are gone ; as the fool in Luke
xii. 20, " This night shall thy soul be required of thee; then
whose shall those things be which thou hast provided ?"
8. And you do but prepare for a double sorrow, when
youraustleave all these. Do youthink thatthe moreyoulove
or delight in any thing below, you will not be the more loath

188 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
to leave it? Do not think only of the present content, but
ask your hearts, ' Shall I be'mo re willing to part with a sump
tuous house, and commodious gardens, walks, and fields,
than with a mean habitarion, and less pleasing things ?' 0,
how it tears the very heart of the worldling, when he sees
that he must for ever leave all that which he set so much by,
and which hath cost hira so dear ! If he set his heart but
on a horse, or any creature, the loss of it is a double suffer
ing. Much more will he be wounded wilh the loss of all,
that his mind was so much set upon.
Remember, therefore. Christians, that as these accom
modations are mercies which you raust faithfully use. when
they are cast upon you; so they are snares not to be sought
after ; and matter for your self-denial to neglect. As they
are provision for the flesh lo fulfil its desires, you must not
know them. You have a building of God to mind and look
after ; a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,
and it better beseemeth you, earnestly to groan, to be so,
clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up of life, 2 Cor.
V. 1, 2.4. Possess present ihings as not possessing them;
and use thera as not abusing them, for the forra of them
passeth away.

CHAPTER XXVL
Apparel as used for this Carnal End, S^c.
9. Another object of sensuality to be denied, is apparel,
as desired for this carnal end. Though clothing be a con
sequent of sin, yet now to man in this necessity it is a mercy
and a duty, so be it we use it with such cautions as in the
foresaid cases is expressed. 1. That our end be the furnish
ing our frail bodies for the work of God, and the preserving
them from that shame, and cold, and hurt which would unfit
us for his service. 2. And that our apparel be fitted as near
as we can lo these ends ; that is, to healthful warmth, and
comeliness ; and that under the name of comeliness we do not
fit them to carnal ends, to set us out to the eyes of men, and
to raise their esteem of our worth or comeliness of person:
but be satisfied if we avoid the shame of nakedness and con
temptible unhandsomeness. 3. To which end we should see

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL, 189
that we affect not to rise above those of our own rank, nor
equal ourselves in apparel with our superiors ; but go with
the lower sort of our condition, 4. And that we iraitate
not the fashions of light and vain persons ; but keep cora
pany in our attire with the raost wise and sober, and grave
persons about us. 5. And that we bestow no needless cost
upon our attire, because we must be accountable for all that
God entrusteth us with, 6, And that we change not cause
lessly. Thus must apparel be used : the cheapest that is
warm and comely, according to the fashion of the gravest
persons of our rank, and the lowest of them.
But alas, this childish trifle the devil hath made a bait
of sensuality. The care that people have about it, the cost
they bestow on superfluities, their desire to go wilh the
highest of their rank, to say nothing of mutable and immo
dest fashions, do shew to what end it is that they use it. I
desire these kind of people to think of these few things that
I shall say to thera.
1. This vanity of apparel, is the certain effect of the
vanity of your raind ; you openly proclaira yourselves to be
persons of a foolish, childish temper, and poor understand
ing : araong the raost ungodly people, they that have but
common wisdom, do look upon this vanity of inordinate ap
parel as quite below thera. And therefore it is coramonly
taken to be the special sin of woraen, and children, and
lightheaded, silly, erapty men. Those that have no inward
worth to commend them to the world, are silly souls indeed,
if they think any wise folks will take a silken coat instead
ofit! It is wisdom, and holiness and righteousness, that
are the ornaraents of raan ; and that is his beauty which
beautifieth his soul. And do you think that among wise
men fine clothes will go instead of wisdom, or virtue, or ho
liness? You may put as fine clothes upon a fool as upon
a wise raan ; and will that, think you, make him pass for
wise ? When a gallant came into the shop of Apelles, that
famous painter, to have his picture drawn, as long as he
stood silent, the apprentices carried themselves reverently
towards hira, because he shone in gold and silver lace ; but
when he began to talk, they perceived he was a fool, and
they left their reverence, and all fell a laughing at him.
When people see you in an extraordinary garb, you draw
their observation towards you, and one asketh,^ who is yon-

190 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
der that is so fine ? And another asks, who is yonder ? And
when they perceive that you are more witless and worthless
than other folks, they will but laugh at you and despise you.
Excess in apparel is the very sign of folly, that is hanged
out to tell the world what you are, as a sign at an inn-door
acquaints the passenger that there he may have entertain
ment. You draw folks to suspect that all is not well with
you, where there needs all this ado. It is sure a sorry honse
that needeth many props; and a diseased body that needeth
so much medicining; and a deforraed face that needeth
painting ; and what is gaudy attire to the body, but such
as painting is to the face ? If I see artificial teeth in your
heads, I raust think that you want natural ones th-at were
better. If I perceive your breath to be slill sweetened by
art, I shall suspect that it would stink without it. And if I
see people inordinately careful of their apparel, I must needs
suspect there is some special cause for it : all is not well
where all this care and curiosity is necessary. And what is
the deformity that you would hide by this ? Is it that of
your mind? Why you bewray it more ? You tell allthat
see you, that you are empty, silly souls, as plainly as a mor-
rice-dancer, or a stage-player, doth tell folks what he is by
his attire. Is it the deformities of your bodies that you
would hide this way ? I confess, that is the best excuse
that can be made for this excess : for apparel will do more
to hide the deformities of the body than of the raind. But
the shape of your clothes is fittest for this (so far it is fil lo
be atterapted :) for the bravery of them will do little, bul
draw men's observation the more upon your infirmity. If
you say that you have no such extraordinary necessity, then
I must say that you do yourselves wrong to entice people to
suspect it.
2. And also you raake an open ostentation of pride, or
lust, or both, to all that look upon you. In other cases you
are careful to hide your sin, and take it for -an heinous injury
if you be but openly told of it and reproved : how comes it
then to pass that you are here so forward yourselves to
make it known, that you must carry the signs of it open
in the world ! Is it not a dishonour to rogues and thieves.
that have been burnt in the hand or forehead, or must ride
about with a paper pinned to their backs, declaring their
crimes to all that see them ; so that every one may say,

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 191
yonder is a thief, and yonder is a perjured man : and is it not
much like it for you to carry the badge of pride or lust
abroad with you in the open streets or meetings? Why do you
desire to be so fine, or neat, or excessively comely? Is it not
to draw the eyes and observations of men upon you ? And to
what end? Is it not to be ihought either rich, or beautiful,
or of a handsome person? And to what end desire you
these thoughts of raen? Do you not know that this desire
is pride itself? You raust needs be somebody, and fain you
would be observed and valued ; and fain you would be noted
to be ofthe best or highest rank that you can expect to be
reckoned of: and what is this but pride? And I hope you
know that pride is the devil's sin, the firstborn of all ini
quity ; and that which the God of heaven abhors ! so that it
were more credit for you in the eyes of raen of wisdora to
proclaira youselves beggars, sots, or idiots, than to proclaim
your pride. And too oft it shews a pang of lust as well as
pride ; especially in young persons ; and few are so forward
to this sin as they. This bravery and finery is but the fruit
of a procacious mind; it is plainly a wooing, alluring act.
It is not for nothing that they would fain be eyed, and be
thought coraely or fair in others' eyes! Somewhat they
want ; you may conjecture what ! And even raarried peo
ple, if they love their credit, should take heed by such
raeans of drawing suspicion upon theraselves. Sirs, if you
are guilty of folly, pride and lust, your best way is to seek
of God an effectual cure, and to use such raeans as tends to
cure it ; and not such as tend to cherish it, and increase it ;
as certainly fineness in clothing doth. But ifyou will not
cure it, for sharae conceal it, and do not tell every one that
sees you what is in your heart: what would you think
of one that should go up and down the street, telling all
that meet hira, ' I am a thief,' or ' I am a fornicator,' would
you not think that he were a corapound of foolery and
knavery ? And how little do you come short of this that
write upon your own backs, ' Folly, pride and lust,' or tell
them by your apparel, 'Take notice of me: Iam foolish,
proud, and lustful?'
3. And if you be so silly as to think that bravery is a
raeans of honour, you should withal consider that it is but a
shameful begging of honour from those that look upon you,
when you shew them not any thing to purchase or deserve

192 TREATISE OF SELFrDENIAL.
it. Honour must be forced by desert and worth, and not
come by begging ; for that is no honour that is given to the
undeserving. It is but the shadow of desert, and will con
stantly follow it araong the wise and good, but never go
without it. Your bravery doth so openly shew your desire
of esteem and honour, that it plainly tells all wise men that
you are the less worthy of it. For the more a man desireth
esteem, the less he deserves it. And you tell the world by
your attire that you desire it ; even as plainly and foblishly
as if you should say lo the folks in the streets, ' 1 pray think
well of me, and take me for a handsome, comely person,
and for one that is above the common sort.' Would you
not laugh at one that should make such a request to you ?
Why, what do you less, when by your attire you beg esti
mation from them? And for what, I pray you, should we
esteera you? Is it for your clothes? Why I can put a sil
ver lace upon a raawkin, or a silken coat on a post, or an
ass. Is it for your comely bodies ? Why a wicked Absa
lom was beautiful, and the basest harlots have had as much
ofthis as you: a comely body, or beautiful face doth oft
betray the soul, but never saveth it from hell. And your
bodies are never the comlier for you dress, whatever they
may seem. Is it for your virtues that you would be esteem
ed ? Why pride is the greatest eneray to virtue, and as
great a deforraity lo the soul as the sraall-pox is to the body;
and he that will think you ever the honester for a new suit,
or a silver lace, doth as little know what honesty is as your
selves. For shame, therefore, give over begging for esteem,
at least by such a means as inviteth all wise men to deny
your suit ; but either let honour corae without begging for,
orbe without it.
4. Consider also that excess of apparel doth quite con
tradict the end that proud persons do intend it for. I con
fess it doth soraetimes ensnare a fool, and so accoraplish the
desires of the lustful ; but it seldora attaineth the ends of
the proud : for their desire is to be raore highly esteeraed, and
alraost all men do think the more meanly of them. Wise
raen have raore wit, than to think the tailor can make a wise
man or woman, or an honest man or woman, or a handsome
man or woraan : good raen pity thera, and lament their folly
and vice, and wish them wisdora and huraility. In the eyes
of a wise and gracious raan, a poor self-denying, humble,

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 193
patient, heavenly Christian, is worth a thousand of these
painted posts and peacocks. And it so falls out that the
ungodly theraselves frustrate the proud person's expecta
tions. For as covetous raen do not like covetousness in
another, because they would get raost theraselves ; so proud
persons like not pride in others, because they would not
have any to vie with them, or overtop them, and be looked
upon and preferred before thera. None look with such scorn
and envy at your bravery, as those that are as silly and sin
ful as yourselves, who cannot endure that you should excel
them in vanity ; so that good and bad do ordinarily despise
or pity you for that which you think should procure your
esteera. 5. Consider also, that apparel is the fruit or consequent
of sin, that laid man naked and open unto shame ; and is it
fit that you should be proud of that which is ordained to
hide your sharae ; and which should humble you, by minding
you ofthe siu that caused the necessity ofit?
6. And you should bethink you better than most gallants
do, what account you raean to raake to God for the money
that you lay out in excess of bravery. Will it, think you, be
a good and corafortable account, to say, ' Lord, I laid out
so rauch to feed and manifest my pride and lust,' when such
abundance of pious and charitable uses did call for all that you
could spare? Many a lord, and knight, and gallant bestoweth
raore in one suit of clothes, or in one set of hangings, or in
the superfluous dress ofa daughter, than would keep a fa
raily of poor people for a twelvemonth, or that wonld raain
tain a poor scholar for higher service than ever they thera
selves will do ; and raany a poor boy or girl goeth without
a bible, or any good books, that they may lay out all they
have on their backs.
7. Lastly, T beseech you not to forget what it is that you
are so carefully doing; and what those bodies are that
you so adorn, and are so proud of, and set out to the sight
ofthe world in such bravery. Do you not know yourselves?
Is it not a lurap of warm and thick clay, that you would
have men observe and honour? When the soul thatyou
neglect is once gone from them, they will be set out then
in another garb. That little space of earth that must re
ceive them, raust be defiled with their filthiness and corrup-
VOL. XI. o

194 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
tion ; and the dearest of your friends will have' no more of
your company, nor one smell or sight of you more, if they
can choose. There is not a carrion in the ditch that is more
loathsome than that gallant painted corpse will be a litlle
after death. And what are you in the raean time? Eveh
bags of filth, and living graves, in which the carcases of
your fellow-creatures are daily buried and corrupt. There
is scarce a day with most of you, but some part of a dead
carcase is buried in your bodies, in which, as in a filthy
grave, they lie and corrupt, and part of them turneth into
your substance, and the rest is cast out into filthy excre
ments. And thus you walk like painted sepulchres ; your
fine clothes are the adorned covers of filth, and phlegm, and
dung. If you did but see what is within the proudest gal
lant, you would say the inside did much differ from the out
side. It raay be a hundred worms are crawling in the
bowels of that beautiful damsel, or adorned fool, that set
out themselves to be admired for their bravery. If a little
of the filth within do but turn to the scab or the small-pox,
you shall see what a piece it was that was wont to have all
that curiouis trimraing.
Away then with these vanities, and be not children all
your days ; nay, be not proud of that which your children
themselves can spare ! Be ashamed that ever you have be6n
g-uilty of so much dotage, as to think that people should
honour you for a borrowed bravery, which you put off at
night, and on in the morning ! O poor deluded dust arid
worms'-meat ! lay by your dotage, and know yourselves :
look aftei^ that which may procure you deserved and perpe
tual esteem, and see that you make sure of the honour that
is of God. Away with deceitful ornaments and gaudsi and
look after the inward real worth. Grace is not set out and
honoured by fine clothes, but clouded, wronged and disho
noured by excess. It is the inward glory thd,t is the real
glory. The image of God must needs be the dhiefest beauty
of raan: let that shine forth in the holiness of your livefe,
and you will be honourable indeed. Peter telleth you of
such a conversation of woraen as raay win theit unbelieving
husbands without the word. And what is it? " While
they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear ;
whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning, of
plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 195
apparel; but the hidden raan of the heart, in that which is
not corruptible, even the ornaraent of a raeek and quiet spi
rit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after
this manner in old time, the holy woraen that trusted in
God adorned themselves, being in subjection to their hus
bands;" \ Pet. iii. 1—5.

CHAPTER XXVII.
Ease, Quietness and worldly Peace to be Denied.
10. Another part of carnal self-interest to be denied, is,
ease, quietness, and worldly peace, which the slothful and
self-seekers prefer before the pleasing of God. Both the
ease of the raind and of the body are here comprehended ;
and slothfulness in God's nearest service, and also in the
works of our callings to be reprehended.
The same fleshly power that draweth one man to whore
dora, and drunkenness, and covetousness, doth draw ano
ther to sloth, and idleness. It is but several ways of pleas
ing the same flesh, and obeying the same sensuality. And
because that idleness and sloth is so great and coraraon a
sin, and yet made so light of by the raost, I shall briefly
tell you the mischiefs ofit, and the resCsons that should make
you hate it.
1. Slothfulness doth contradict the very end of our crea
tion and preservation, and the frarae of our nature ; and so
provoketh God to cut us off, and cast us as useless into the
fire. Who dare so wrong the wisdom of God, as to say or
think that he made us to do nothing ? If a raan raake a
house, it is to dwell in ; if he raake a watch, it is to tell hira
the hour of the day, and every thing is for its proper use.
And is man made to be idle? What man, thatis the noblest
inferior creature, and an active creature, fitted for work, and
the highest work ! shall he be idle? Justly may God then
hew him down as a dead and withered tree, and suffer him
no more to cumber his ground.
2. Slothfulness is a sin that loseth the precious gifts of
God. Our faculties and our raembers are his gifts and ta
lents, which he hath committed to us lo use for his service ;
so are our goods and all that we have : and shall we hide

196 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
them in a napkin, or idly neglect to use them ? O, what
abundance of excellent raercies lie useless and idle, because
you are idle that should use them ! Every hour that you
lose in idleness, what noble faculties, and large provisions
are all laid by ! As much as in you lieth, you make the
whole creation to be, and work in vain. Why should the sun
shine an hour or minute for you in vain? Why should the
earth bear you an hour in vain ? Why should the springs
and rivers run for you an hour in vain ? Why should the air
refresh you an hour in vain ? Why should your pulse beat
one stroke in vain ; or your lungs once breathe a breath in
vain ? Shall all be at work for you to further your work,
and will you think that idleness is no sin ?
3. Moreover, laziness and sloth is a sin that loseth you
much precious time. All the time is lost that you are idle
in. Yea, when you are at work, if you do it slothfully, you
are losing much of your tirae. A diligent person will go
further, and do more in an hour, than the lazy flesh-pleaser
will do in two. When the slothful is praying, or reading,
and working in his calling, he is but losing half his time,
which diligence would redeem. And is our time so short and
precious, and yet is idleness an excusable sin? what, loiter
so near night ! so near eternity, when we have but a little
time to work ! O, work while it is day, for the night is
coming when none can work. Were it but for this, that
sloth doth steal so rauch ofour time, I must think it no bet
ter than an heinous thievery.
4. And by this means we rob ourselves. We might be
getting sorae good all the time that we are idle ; or doubly
advantage ourselves, if sloth did not keep us company in
our work. " The slothful is brother to him that is a great
waster;" Prov. xviii. 9. Slothfulness is self-murdering;
raen die while they lie still and wish. It is a sin that fa-
raisheth soul and body ; " The desire of the slothful killeth
hira, because his hands refuse to labour;" Prov. xxi. 25. It
is the common cause of beggary and want ; and what com
fort can you have under such afflictions which you bring
upon yourselves ? If you want food or raiment, if your
wives and children are in want, how can you think that God
should take care of you and afford you relief, when you hring
this on yourselves by pleasing your flesh which is his ene
my? Ifa soldier get hurt by trucking with the enemy, he

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 197
may rather look that his general should hang him than re
lieve him. And how should good men be moved to com
passionate you ? If God doth impoverish you, and you
come to want by innocency or a righteous cause, they must
needs be ready to relieve you : but if sloth, or pride, or glut
tony, or drunkenness bring you to it, till you repent, I see
not how they should relieve you, at least any further than
to keep you alive. For if you are set to please your flesh
by idleness, must I join with you to please it by such sup
plies as shall cherish you in your sin ? No, one flesh-pleaser
is enough for one man ! If you will please it either by idle
ness, or by luxury, yourselves, expect not that others should
please it by your relief, and make provision for your sin. If
I may not make provision for my own flesh to satisfy its
lusts, neither must I do it for another.
But that is not the worst, slothfulness is the common
cause of men's damnation ; when they see a temptation and
danger before them, slothfulness hindereth them from resist
ing it : when heaven is offered them, slothfulness raakes
them sit still and lose it. They must run, and strive, and
fight, and conquer, and these are not works for a slothful
person; especially when they raust be continued to the
death. So that it is manifest, that most raen in the world
are undone soul and body, by the sin of sloth.
5. And by this you rob others as well as yourselves ; you
owe the world the fruit of your labour ; you rob the souls of
men, to whom you should do good. You rob the churchy
that should be bettered by you. You rob the common
wealth, of which you are a meraber, and should bave benefit
by you. You owe your labours to church and eomraon-
wealth, and the souls of men, and will you not pay so greafc
a debt? You deserve no room in the church or common
wealth, but to be cut off as an unprofitable member, if you
bring no advantage to them. Tbey say the bees will not
suffer a drone in the hive. Nay, if you be hired servants, you
plainly rob your masters if yon are slothful, as much as if
you stole their money or goods. If you buy a hundred sheep
ofa man, and he let you have but fourscore, doth he not rob
or cheat you ? And if a man buy a year's or a day's labour
of you, and you let him have but half a year's labour, or half
a day's labour, because of your sloth, do you not defraud of
rob him of the other half? So that the idle are thieves to

198 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
themselves^ to the church, and the souls of men, to the com
monwealth, and those that they are related lo ; even to their
wives and children, for whom they should provide due main
tenance by their labour.
6. And you are injurious to the honest poor, in that you
disable yourselves from relieving them : when God com
mandeth you to work with your hands, not only for your
selves, but that you may have to give to them that need ;
Eph. iv. 28. What if all men should do as you do, how
would the poor be maintained, and the bhurchand common
wealth served ?
7. Yea, worst of all, you are guilty of robbing God him
self. It is him that you owe your labours to, and the im
provement of all the talents that he lendeth to you ; and
idleness is unfaithfulness to the God of heaven that setteth
you on work : even in working for men, you must do it ulti
raately for God. " Not with eye-service as raen-pleasers,
but in singleness of heart, fearing God : and whatsoever ye
do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto raen ; know
ing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the in
heritance, for ye serve the Lord : but he that doth wrojig,
shall receive for the wrong which he hath done ;" Col. iii.
22, 23. If it be an offence to wrong man, what is il to
wrong God? And ifyou may not be slothful in the works of
a man, what a crime is it to be slothful in the work of the
God of heaven ? The greater your master is, the more heinr
ous it is to be lazy in his service. Remember the curse on
them that do the wprk of the Lord deceitfully, Jer. xlviii. 10.
All work that you have to do is the work ofthe Lord.
8. And consider, that the idle forfeit the protection and
provision of God; even their daily bread. For must he
support and feed you to do nothing ? His own rule is, " that
if any man will not work, neither should he eat," 2 Thess. iii,
10, And if he may not eat, we raay not relieve him,
9. And if idleness had not been a heinous sin, the apostle
would never have commanded us lo avoid the company of
such, as if they were unfit to converse with Christians, 2
Thess. iii.
10. Consider what abundance of work we have to do,
and of how great iraportance ! O, what a deal have we to
do for our poor souls, and for raany about us, besides all our
bodily eraployraent in the world I Methinks, every man

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 199
that knows why he is a man, and what it is, in an inch of
time to work for everlasting, should never find an hour for
idleness in his life, but still cry out, ' How short and s(wift
is tirae, and how great and long is the work I' A man that
had all the town on fire about his ears, or a raan that were
fighting for his life, or a raan that were in a leaking vessel
ready to sink under hira, might better be lazy, than a raan
that is at work for an endless life.
11, Moreover, idleness is a base kind of vice: it is the
imitation of a block or a stone that lieth still, when that
which hath life will be in action.
12. And it is usually a continual sin, or at least makes
up a great part of the lives of many that are addicted to
it : a drunkard will not always be drunk ; and a liar will
not always be lying ; but a slothful person will be most
commonly slothful.
And, to conclude, lay all this together, and think what
a reckoning a slothful person is like to have, that by his sin
is always running behindhand, and will have the neglected
time, and raeans, and mercies of almost all his life to an
swer for.
And now you see the greatness ofthis sin, abhor it, and
awake from it. You have much to do, and souls to save ;
and the case of your flesh and fleshly minds is one thing
that must be denied, before it can be accomplished. The
slothful is still craving, yet a little slumber, and yet a little
ease ; and he is still upon delays, even when he is convinced
of his danger and his duty : when he knows that he must
turn or die, yet he is delaying and putting off till another
time. And so the vineyard and garden ofthe sluggard, are
grown over with nettles and weeds ; and he hath scarce a
duty to do> but there is a thorny hedge, or a lion in the way.
Deny this ease, and be up and doing.
And there are three sorts of persons that have especial
need of this advice. The first is those that by the phleg
matic disteraper of their bodies, are raore prone to heav-
ness and slothfulness than others. The more such are dis
posed to it, the more should they watch against it, and re
sist it.
The second sort are beggars, and other idle, wandering
persons, that make a trade of idleness, and worse i such also
as ballad-singers, stage-players, jugglers, cheaters, and most

200 TRBATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
ale-sellers that spend their time in tippling and talking witb
their guests ; and other idle persons, that will spend whole
hours together in twatling and talking idly, and of other
men's matters. All these live in a course of flesh-pleasing,
and of heinous sin ; and must better learn to deny the flesh
before they can be the true disciples of Christ. This is not
the life that God called you into his vineyar4 for ; no, nor
that he sent you inlo the world for, to waste your short and
precious days in potting, and piping, and prating, and other
ways of idleness : nor should such be suffered in a com
monwealth. The third sort are, too many lords, knights, and gen
tlemen, that think because they have enough to raaintain
them, that it is lawful to live an idle life ; or if they do any
thing that is profitable to the coraraonwealth, it is rather as
a recreation than as a calling : now and then an hour, in the
raidst of their pleasures and idleness, is the most. It is a
miserable life that this sort of persons live ; even in the sins
of Sodora (which cry for the vengeance of Sodora), pride,
fulness of bread, and idleness. As if these persons that
have raost wages should do God the least work, and they
that have raost of his stock in their hands, should raake the
least use of it ; or those that are obliged to God by the
greatest mercies, should do least in raanifesting their thank
fulness or fidelity ! What incongruities are these ! Who
should be so busy and laborious as those that have the
greatest account to raake, and those that are to be exem
plary to the rest ? Truly, gentlemen, I must deal plainly
with you, that idleness, and the expression of it among the
most of you, in hunting, and hawking, and bowling, and
compliraenting, and visitations, and vain discoursings, and
excess of drinking, and tedious meals, is become the com
mon shame ofyour order, and must be corrected before your
honour or consciences can be recovered ; and I am so far
frpm any partiality in this censure of you, that I must tell
you. if I knew one of my own profession that was guilty
but of the tenth part of sorae of your idleness, I would do
my best to rid the church of him, and have him cast out
among the sensual. And you may do well sometimes to ask
yourselves, whence it comes to pass, that negligent idle mi
nisters raust be sequestered and turned out of all, and idle
magistrates let alone ? One reason is, because gentlemen

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 201
can better cheap compel a minister to painfuluess than
themselves, and punish ministers for negligence, than thera
selves. And another reason is, because all faithful rainis
ters themselves, in love to the church, are the seekers of
this severity ; but magistrates are few of thera so self-deny
ing, and forward to seek for such severity against the idle
and negligent of their own order. But doth not your calling
require diligence, as well as ours ? It is a brutish, ungrate
ful conceit, of any raan, to think that he raay live idly, be
cause he is rich. The richest men in the vvorld are bound
to as diligent labour as the poorest, though not in the same
kind. And yet I can perceive that most of the poor are
even of the same raind ; and when they labour hardest, they
are idle in God's account, because they would live idly if
they could. It is no thanks to thera that they labour ; for
it is necessity that doth constrain thera. I can hear thera
say, that they would not work, at least but little, if they
had but money enough. God will judge these as idle per
sons, because he takes the will for the deed. You must
labour in obedience to God, and work as his servants, arid
that with cheerfulness and delight, and deny that self and
flesh that would have ease, if ever you would have the
heavenly reward.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Delight of Thriving and Prosperity, bjc.
II. Another selfish interest to be denied, is, a delight in
prosperity, and seeing ourselves thrive, and our designs
succeed for worldly things. The possession of these things
doth not so rauch delight, as the hopes and successes ofour
endeavours to attain thera. The very thoughts of prosper
ing in our undertakings, and of being in a thriving course,
and likely to reach sorae higher things which are in our eye
and hope, is the greatest part of the content of worldlings.
Men think that the world can do raore for them than it can,
and is sweeter than it is, and therefore they are very eager
in seeking it, and please theraselves much with the thoughts
of their supposed felicity ; but when they have reached the

202 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
matter of their desires, they find it is not the thing they
took it for. But in the meantirae they feed theraselves with
fancies and expectations, and think that though this dotb
not content thera, which they have attained, yet such or
such a thing more would do it ; and when they have, that,
yet, something more would do ; and still, though they come
short of the felicity they expect, yet it pleaseth them that
they think they are in the way to it, and, see their endea
vours seem to prosper. The poor raan that b-ath a desire
but to reach lo a competency, doth please himself much
when he perceiveth that he is fair for it. Much more do
the rich in the prospering of their designs, for the increase
of their riches ; and thus the " turning away of the simple
doth slay them, and the prosperity of fools doth destroy
them ;" Prov. i. 32. If their prosperity be such an eye
sore even to the godly in teraptation, when they judge ac*
cording to the flesh, no wonder if it be a great raatter in
their own eyes; Psal. Ixxiii. 3. If the best are in danger of
puffing up with carnal delight and confidence in their at
tainments, and saying in their prosperity, " we shall never
be moved," Psal. xxx. 6., no wonder if it be rauch more so
with others. Prosperity is as strong a trial to many as
suffering for Christ ; O, how eager is the flesh upon this
bait, and how close doth it cleave to what it doth attain !
See then that in this you deny yourselves : not in re
fusing prosperity when God bestows it on you, but in re
fusing the sensual delights which it affordeth the flesh to
satisfy its lust. Not in pulling down your houses, or cast
ing away your estates, or hindering your increase; but, 1.
See that you do not promise yourselves too much in the
creature ; feed not your carnal fancies with vain hopes.
Think not too highly of a prosperous state. Judge not of
it as it accommodaleth the flesh, but as it either helps or
hinders you for God and heaven ; and then you will per
ceive that it is a heavy charge and burden to the best, if
not a dangerous teraptation. O, if you knew but how dear
the raost do pay for their prosperity, you would pity them,
and have lower thoughts of prosperity.
2. Seek not pfter prosperity too eagerly. Seek first
the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and theni if
other things be cast in, or added to you, take them thank
fully, but with self-suspicion and holy fear ; but run not

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 203
after them. " Labour not for the meat that perisheth, bul
forthat which endureth to everlasting life ;" (John vi. 27.)
and then take your daily bread as from your father's pro
vision. Labour about the world, in obedience to God ; but
not for the world as your ultimate end.
3. When prosperity is given you by God, then above
all take heed how you use it. Let carnal self and corrupt
desires fare never the better for it, if you had all the coun
try, or were princes in the earth ; but as you have it from
God, remeraber you have it for God, and use it for him.
When the flesh would be pleased and lifted up, whether
with delicious meats and drinks, or carnal pomp, applause
or ostentation, or by sports, or idleness, or any other sen
sual delight, deny it these desires, as much as if you had
no riches, and use nothing but for health and the service of
God ; and tell the flesh, ' It was not for thee, to the pleasing
of thy desires, that God hath prospered me, but it was for
his own more blessed ends ; and therefore 1 will not serve
or please thee by my prosperity, but hira that gave it rae.'
Do not think you. have ever the more liberty to gratify your
appetites in eating and drinking, because you are rich, or
to gratify your flesh in inordinate sleep, or ease, or sports,
or idleness ; but let the flesh have as little as ifyou had the
meanest estate, in which necessity did not deny you that
which might fit you for the work of God.
Quest. But may not a gentleman fare better than a poor
man ? And raay he not spend raore tirae in ease or recre
ations ? Or raay he not wear raore suraptuous apparel ?
Answ. 1. A rich raan that hath a greater family, must
have a greater quantity of provision than a poor man that
hath but few ; and so must the poorest too that hath the
like number. And for the quality : raany poor are deprived
of that which is most healthful through their necessity ;
and therefore here it is lawful, for the rich to go beyond
them, and to use so ranch of the creature as is raost health
ful and useful to their duties. But for all this, the richest
man in England hath no more allowance lo eat or drink
one bit or cup for the mere pleasing of his carnal appetite,
without any higher end, than the poorest raan that is : it is
a sin to both. It was a rich raan that was tormented in
hell fot taking up his good things in this life, in being
clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring deliciously or

204 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
sumptuously every day. Luke xvi. 22. And the same an
swer I must give to the rest of the question, if a poor man
want that ease, or sleep, or recreation, that would fit him
for God's service; a rich may take it, but not a jot more.
He may not lie one hour in bed, nor spend one hour in talk,
or sports, or long dinners, beyond what is useful to his
Christian ends, let him be never so rich. Rich raen have
as rauch work to do as the poor, and as much need to watch,
pray and fast, and study to prepare for death and judgment,
which will not spare thera because they are rich. If it be
far hardest for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
God, by Christ's own testiraony, then it is clear that rich
men have far greatest need to be painful to overcome their
dangers, and make sure work for their iraraortal state.
3. And as for apparel, I grant, that rich men that are ma
gistrates, or in any office or calling that requires it. may
lawfully go in richer apparel than the poor ; but this should
not be one jot to please their carnal, proud fancies, or gratify
inordinate fleshly desires, but merely for health, and for
such ornament as tendeth to the honour of their office : so
that God, and not self, raust be the end of all. Take
warning therefore by the ruins of so many thousands as
prosperity hath undone, and by so many dreadful passages
of Scripture which shew the danger of it ; and see that if
you prosper in any worldly thing, you offer it all to God,
and deny yourselves, and prosper not to the fleah.

CHAPTER XXIX.
Children and Relations how to be Denied.
12. Another selfish interest is in friends and children, and
other near and dear relations, and this is also to be denied.
Not that you should imitate those unnatural heretics
that tell us that fathers and mothers, and brethren, and
sisters, and husbands, and princes, and wives, and subjects,
are all carnal relations that raust be disowned, any further
than justice binds us to a retribution to parents, or others
that have been at pains or cost upon us. No, this is worse
than heathenish impiety, and not only against the fifth
commandment, but abundance of the plainest passages

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL, 205
through the Scripture, To be without natural affection,
and disobedient to parents, is part of the character of those
impious professors of whom Paul prophesied, 2, Tim. iii.
2, 3, " If Christian servants have heathens to their masters,
they raust not therefore cast off the yoke, but count tbem
worthy of all honour, that the narae of God and his doc
trine be not blasphemed : and if they have believing mas
ters, they raust not despise them because they are brethren,
but the rather do them service because they are faithful."
This is the doctrine of the Gospel, which establisheth, and
not dissolveth, our relations : and " if any teach otherwise,
he is proud, knowing nothing, but dealing about ques
tions and strifes of words ;" 1 Tim. vi. 1 — 4. Believing
wives must stay even with unbelieving husbands, and win
them to Christ by an eminent subjection, chastity, mo
desty, and piety; 1 Pet. iii. 1 — 6. 1. Cor. vii. 13, 14. And
the like may be said of other relations. God calls us not,
as Popish votaries conceive, to renounce and separate from
our natural and olher near relations, on pretence of being
devoted to him. The words of Paul, 2 Cor. v. 16, are
abused by them. It is true, we raust know no man after
the flesh, no not Christ himself; that is, as esteeraing them
principally for carnal excellencies, as personages, greatness,
birth, &c., or to carnal advantages and ends, or preferring
the body and coramon relations before the inward spiritual
worth and spiritual relations ; and thus we must not know
either parents, or children, or husbands, or wives, after the
flesh ; nor should a Christian know or do any thing after
the flesh as a carnal man : but yet, as we slill continue our
relation to Christ as his disciples, and servants, and mera
bers, and redeemed ones, for all that we know him not after
the flesh, so must we continue our pelations to others, and
be faithful in the duties of those relations, and this after the
Spirit, and for God.
So that by this you may see, that it is our relations, car
nally considered, that are the fleshly interest which we must
not know ; that is, as they are looked upon as any part of
that self, or of the interest of that self which would be its
own end and God, and which is opposite to God, or not
subordinate to him. To look upon your children more as
yours than as God's is a carnal selfish thought : to love
them inordinately, and raore because they are your own

206 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
than because they are God's, and to love your own interest
in your children more than God's interest in them, is a
selfish regarding them after the flesh. Grace doth not de
stroy nature, nor natural relations or affections ; but it
sanctifieth them all to God, and carrieth us above it and
destroyeth it, as glorious intuition destroyeth gracious
knowing in part, that is, by perfecting it. Before sanctifi
cation, we know, esteera, regard, and love our parents,
children, husbands, wives, raerely as thus related to us, and
in these carnal respects, and rise no higher; and if we had
conversed with Christ hiraself, and eat and drank in his
presence, and loved hira accordingly, it would have been
but a selfish, carnal knowledge, esteera, and love. Bul now
we are sanctified, as God is exalted, aud self-denied and
annihilated, as opposed or separated from God, so are all
things that belong to self; and therefore, if we had loved
parents, or Christ himself, with such a carnal, selfish love
before, yet now we love them with higher love, that carrieth
self and all to God. And thus even self is so destroyed (as
opposite lo God and separate from hira), as thereby to be
exalted as united and subservient to hira. And so is the
love of friends, relations, or Christ himself (if we had loved
hira as a natural kinsman or brother, as some did that yet
believed not in him); il is destroyed, but by an exalting,
perfecting destruction. Just so far as self is dead, so far
carnal knowledge and self-interest in friends is dead, and
their dearness to us for that interest, and self and they are
all advanced and dedicated unto God. And thus it is that
the apostle would be understood, and thus it is that self
must be denied in your relations ; but because much duty
consisteth herein, I shall moreover tell you the several
parts of it in a few directions which shall mostly extend to
other relations, but principally to parents, because they are
aptest to exceed.
I. See that il be God more than yourselves that you
love in your children and other relations ; and to; that end,
see what of God is in them, as they are his creatures, as
devoted to him, as any way gifted by him for his service.
as sanctified if they are such. He that loveth any creature
for itself, and doth not principally love God in them, loveth
them but carnally.
2. See therefore that you value and love those raost, that

TREATISK OF SELF-DENIAL. 207
have most of God in them, and the best of his endowments.
Love a crooked, deformed child, that is godly, better than
the most coraely, or beautiful, or witty, that is ungodly.
When parents have a huraorous, unreasonable love, to one
child above the rest, without desert, or to a worse before a
better, this is but a carnal, selfish love.
3. Love none excessively, but with a raoderate love,
such as shall allow God and holiness the preeminence : so
that when you have the most love for your relations, you
may have more for God, at least in the estimation, resolu
tion, adhesion of your souls to him, if not in the passionate
part of love.
4. See that you subject them to the governraent of
Christ ; labour to win all other relations lo hira, and devote
your children to him betimes, that they may be his as soon
as yours. While they have no wills of their own to use,
they are to choose with your wills ; that is, you are to make
choice for thera : and therefore if you unfeignedly dedicate
thera to God, you have small reason to doUbt of his accept
ance. This all parents do virtually that are godly ; for he
that is hiraself devoted to God by sanctification, doth with
himself devote all that he hath, and virtually all that ever
he shall have : and if he understand himself, he will do it
actually. And hence it is that the seed of believers (yea,
of one believer,) are said to be holy ; not only or chiefly
because they are yours, born of your bodies, nor raerely frora
a promise of God, that hath no pre-supposed reason frora
the subject; but because they are the children of one that
hath devoted hiraself, and all that he hath, to God : and if
he understand himself, doth actually offer, dovote, and de
dicate his child to God in the solemn baptism, ordinance,
and covenant. And God will sure accept all, that upon his
own invitation are consecrated and offered to him.
5. See that you submit them heartily to the dispose of
God : so that whatever he doth with them, for sickness or
health, for poverty or riches, for honour or dishonour, for
life or death, you can patiently bear il, and say as Eli, " It
is the Lord, let him do as seemeth him good ;" 1 Sam. iii.
18. Murmur not if God afflict and take thera away, even
at once, as he did the sons of Job ; or if he should afflict
you in them, as he did David in Amnon and Absalom. Re
member that as the resignation of life itself, is the point by

208 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
which Christ, under the Gospel, doth try men's faith, so it
was the resignation of an only son, which was next to life,
by which he would try Abrahara, the father of the faithful,
before the incarnation of Christ. If therefore you will be
children of Abraham, you raust walk in the steps of faithful
Abraham, and remeraber that your children are not your
own ; and be content that God do with his own as he
pleases. 6. Make God their portion as rauch as in you lieth, and
seek raore for a spiritual than a teraporal felicity for them,
and acquaint thera with their Creator in the days of their
youth : as believing, that those of them that are the holiest
are the happiest.
7. Devote your children to such callings and employ
raents in which they are likeliest to be most serviceable to
God. Consider their dispositions and parts, and then never
ask what kind of life is the most honourable or gainful for
them, but in what way and course of life they raay most
serve God, and be most useful to his church ; and to tbat
let thera be devoted.
8. Favour them not in sin ; and suffer them not to dis
honour God that they are devoted to : remeraber Eli's ex
ample. Gentle reproofs, instead of necessary severe cor
rection, is called by God, " a despising him, and preferring
his sons before him" (1 Sam. ii. 29, 30), even because his
" sons made themselves vile, and he restrained thera not ;"
1 Sam. iii. 13. Take heed, as you love yourselves or them,
of taking their parts against God, or against correction, and
excusing the sin by which they do dishonour hira.
9. Give thera not, for their carnal advancement in the
world, that part of your estate which is due to God. You
owe it all to hira ; and in the disposing of it, he hath limited
you to begin at home, and provide so for your children that
they may have their daily bread, and so much more as they
are in likelihood the fittest stewards to improve for God.
But if you see the public state of the church or common
weal to stand in need of your assistance, and you shall then
give almost all to your children, to make them rich and
great in the world, and put off the works of greater moment
with some poor, inconsiderable alms or legacy, this is to
prefer self before the Lord ; even as it is imagined to sur
vive in your progeny ^ even when natural self can no longer

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. ' 209
enjoy it. It is a wonder, how so many raen, seeming holy
and devoted to God, can quiet their consciences in such a
palpable sin as this. If one of them have two hundred, or
three hundred pounds a year, it is a wonder if he leave a
hundred a year of it to any pious or charitable use ; but if
he leave forty or fifty pounds lo the poor, or build some
small almshouse, he thinks he hath done well : all the rest
raust go to leavQ_ his son in equal dignity and riches in the
world as himself. But of this I spoke before.
10. Lastly, be sure that you be very suspicious of self,
when the case of your children or any dear relation is before
you : for self is near you, and will stick close, and will not
easily be thrust out of your councils, nor shaken off. And
therefore in your own case, and your children's case, or the
case of your near friends, you will have much ado to over
corae the cunning and strong teraptations to partiality, if
you were the holiest saint on earth (though overcome them
you will in the main, if you have true grace) : but if you
are dead professors, it is twenty to one but they will
overcome you, and you will show the world that you are
selfish hypocrites, and more for your children and friends
than God.
Let me here give a few instances in this warning.
1. How often have we seen it here and elsewhere, that
people that make some show of religion, and are forward
to have vice punished, and discipline exercised, yet when
it falls on any children, or near relations of their own, they
are as rauch against it as they are for it in others ; yea, rise
up wilh passion and bitter reproaches of officers, rainisters,
or others that are the causes of it. As one hypocrite is
tried when he denieth to suffer for Christ himself, so others
show themselves hypocrites sooner by preferring their
children ; yea, their sinful children ; yea, the present ease,
or profit, or credit of their children, before their duty and
the honour of God. And they will rather have God pro
voked, sin unpunished, and their children's own salvation
hazarded, than they will have them justly and regularly
chastised ; yea, some of thera rise up as raalignant enemies
againt them that do it.
2. Again, when God hath convinced you of duty, if a
carnal friend, a husband, or a parent, do but contradict it,
VOL, XI, P

210 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
and persuade you from a known duty or a holy life, how
commonly do men obey, because forsooth they are their
friends that do persuade thera ?
3. Moreover, when the case falls out that a man cannot
follow God and his duty, and be true to his soul, but he is
like to lose his friends ; how coraraonly is God denied, that
friends raay not be denied, and conscience wounded, and
duty balked, that the favour of friends may not be lost.»
O, saith one, they are the frierids that I live by, my liveU-
hood is in their hands, I am undone if they cast me off!
Well, take thera, and raake thy best of thera. and keep them
as long as thou canst ; if thou canst live better wiihout God
than thisfn. of canst spare God's favour better than theirs,
and they are better friends to thee tb-ari Christ is, and would
be, take thy course, and judge at last whether the friend
that thou didst choose, or that thou didst neglect arid abuse,
was the better, and would have stood thee in raore stead in
thy deepest extreraities. Christ hath resolved you once for
all, that be that loveth father or mother more than him. is
not worthy of him. and cannot be his disciple : liay, if he
hate not father, and raother, and all ; that is, if he will not
cast thera all away, and forsake thera as men do hated
things, rather than forsake Christ and the glory which he
hath proraised ; Luke xiv. 26. 33. And therefore, seeing
Christ hath thought raeet to instance, in the forsaking of
carnal friends for his sake, as a drily of all that ivill be his
disciples, you may see that this is a very considerable part
of your self-denial ; and, doubtless, it is a pbint that
Christians are usually put to the trial in, or else Christ
would not have instanced in it. Few turn to Christ, but
theif carnal friends will turn frora them. No greater ene
mies to a raan in the matters of his salvation (except cafnal
self), than carnal friends ; and therefore either God or tliey
must be denied. For when God is for holiness, arid they
against it : when they are for sinful pleasures and gairi, and
God agairist it, both cannot bd pleased ; and therefdfe bne
of thera raust be denied, God or they.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 211
CHAPTER XXX.
Revengeful Passions to be .Denied.
13. Another part of self-denial consisteth in the denying
of revengeful passions, that provoke us against those that
have done us wrong, or that we judge to be our eneraies.
It is the coraraon saying of such persons as are disposed to
this sin, that ' revenge is sweet :' it easeth the rainds of raali
cious persons to have their will upon their adversaries, and
to see them at their feet. Nothing of all his honours and
prosperity could satisfy Haman till he was revenged of
Mordecai. As a burning, festering, boil, or imposthume, is
eased by opening and vent, so is a boiling passionate mind,
when by railing speeches, or revengeful actions, il venteth
itself against them that they hate. But in this also self
must be denied by all that will be Christ's disciples, for he
forgiveth none but those that can heartily forgive another :
and that we may know that this is a part of self-denial of
great necessity, he hath put it into our prayers, and will
not have us so rauch as ask for forgiveness ourselves, if we
cannot forgive : that we may know, that seeing it is not to
be asked fof on lower terms, it is not tp be hoped for. The
forgiving grace of God in Christ, doth so melt and over
come the hearts of all true Christians, that it disposeth
thera in their raeasure to iraitate hira in forgiving : and
they cannot find in their heart to take another by the throat
for a hundred pence, when their Lord hath forgiven them
ten thousand teilents : Matt, xviii. 24. 28. The grace that is
most gloriously manifested in the Gospel, must needs raake
the deepest impression on the soul, and consequently con
form the soul into its image : and doubtless this is love,
and compassion, and forgiving mercy ; and therefore he that
cannot love his enemy, bless them that curse him, and pray
for them that hate and persecute hira, and return good for
evil, can be no child of God ; Matt. v. 44 — 46. It is an
inhuman oblivion of our own condition, for a raan to seek
revenge of another for a trifle (for il can be no greater, as
it is against such simple worms as we), when so raany and
heinous sins have been forgiven us. Doth God rerait to us

212^ TREATISE OP SELF-DENIAL.
the everlasting torraents, and shall we inflict on another the
venora of our privale spleen ? I know the furious Bedlams,
and malicious wretches, do take all this but for unsatisfac
tory talk, and it is not words that will serve their turns to
repair their honour, and ease their devilish rancorous minds.
Flesh and blood, say they, cannot endure it. Amw. And
therefore, " flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God, nor corruption inherit incorruption; 1 Cor. xv. 50.
Grace can do more than flesh and blood ; and if you cannot
forgive, you cannol be forgiven. If it be so hard for you
to forbear, yea, to love an eneray, it shall be as hard to you
to be saved, and escape the portion ofthe enemies of God;
and if the word of God's command be but wind with you,
the word of his proraise shall be as ineffectual to your sal
vation, as the word of his precept and persuasion was in
effectual lo your conversion and obedience. As " God is
love," so his sanctified ones are turned into love : love is
their new nature, and love is not of a revengeful disposi
tion. Love is the divine nature in us, and malice provoking
lo revenge is the devilish nature ; and a believer is more
afraid of the anger of God, than to take his sword • of re
venge out of his hand. He hath learned, " Avenge not
yourselves, but give place to wrath : vengeance is mine,
and I will repay, saith the Lord. Be not overcome of evil,
but overcorae evil with good;" 1 Pet. ii. 21.23. 1 Thess.
iv. 6. Rora. xii. 19.

CHAPTER XXXI.
New, Vain Histories, and other Men's Matters, ^c.
14. Another piece of carnal pleasure to be denied, is the
delight raen have in reading unprofitable histories, and
hearing news that do not concern us, and meddling with
olher raen's matters where we have no call.
With some fancies this is a notable part of carnal de
light : many school-boys, and young effeminate witSj are
as much poisoned and carried away with reading romances,
feigned histories, and tale-books, and play-books, as by
almost any piece of sensuality. O, the precious hours that
have been lost upon this trash and trumpery ! but of this I

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 213
spoke before : that which now I speak is, even true history
and reports, as matter of mere news, to please a busy, rang
ing raind. History is a very profitable study, if it be used
for right ends, and be rightly chosen. It is a very great
help to understand the Scriptures, and to know the former
and present state of the church ; and see the wonderful
works of providence, that otherwise would be as lost to us.
It is not fit that the wondrous works of God should die
with those that have seen them, and not be transmitted to
posterity. God should have the honour of his glorious
works from generation to generation, and how shall that be
if all be forgotten? He that knoweth nothing of any age
but that which he lives in, is as foolish as he that knows
nothing of any country or town but that which he lives
in. Sorae history is essential to our faith, and rauch raore
is integral to it ; and yet rauch more is very serviceable to
it. He that hath not some competent acquaintance with
Church history, will be at great disadvantages in the hold
ing and defending his faith itself against an infidel, or the
purity of religion against a papist. And he that knoweth
not the present state ofthe world, and ofthe church through
the world, doth scarce know. how lo order his affections, or
compose his prayers even in those greatest petitions, about
the honour, and kingdom, and will of God. They cannot
grieve with the church in grief, nor mourn with il when il
mourns; so that it is a great duty ofa Christian to labour
to understand by history the former and present state of
the church : and it is a great mark of a graciqus soul that
longs to hear of the prosperity of the saints and free pro
gress of the Gospel ; and a mark of a graceless person that
careth not for these things.
But when history is not used lo acquaint us with the
matters of God, or to furnish us with useful knowledge, bul
to please a ranging, carnal mind, then il is but sinful sen
suality or vanity. Many persons have no such delight to
read the useful history of church affairs, as they have to
read the curiously penned, though less useful history of
other matters. Though I know that the history of the
whole world is very service-able lo the knowledge of divine
things, yet they that use it to holy ends will make choice
accordingly, and be no more in it than may suit vvith those
ends. It is the most human, with the most light,, ridi-

214 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
culous passages, that are raost pleasing to vain unsanctified
wits ; but the godly delight in it so far as it shows them
something of God, and leadeth them to him. In the very
reading of Scripture, a carnal reader may be rauch pleased
with the history, that hath no savour in the doctrine, but is
weary to read it : and yet I must add this caution by the
way ; if we find a carnal kind of delight in Scripture history,
or any other that is profitable, we must not therefore cast
off the history, but seek after the cure of our disease, that
we raay spiritually take pleasure in all for God; and he may
be the beginning, and end, and the life, and the all of our
studies and delights: and though our carnal (|glighl in
news and history be a sin in us, yet God doth sometimes
make it an occasion of good by leading us to that holy
truth, which after raay be the raeans of our sanctification,
though at first we received but as a novelty.
And so the carnal pleasure that many have in hearing
news, and sitting with folks that will talk of other men's
matters, or things that concern them not, is nothing but a
sinful pleasing of the fancy, and loss of time, and neglect
of greater matters which call for all our time and care. It
was the vice of the Athenians, " for. all the Athenians and
strangers that were there, spent their time in nothing else
but either to tell or to hear sorae new thing" (Acts xvii. 21) ;
yea, novelty of doctrine and religion, and teachers, is a
snare and bait to carnal fancies, which many are taken by
that are forsaken of God, having first forsaken him, and
proved false to the truth received.

CHAPTER XXXII.
Unnecessary Knowledge, and Delight therein.
16, Another part of carnal pleasure which self must be
denied in, is, a desire after unnecessary knowledge, and de
light therein. This is the coramon sin of man, but not of
all alike. Even they that can live without the knowledge
ofthe saving principles of religion, do yet itch to know un
profitable things ; and many a foolish question they will be
asking about matters unrevealed, or that concern them not,
when they overiook that which their salvation lieth on : but

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 215
the more learned sort, and especially raore prying wits, and
thpse that are bred up among disputes, are the pronest to
this sin : and though it be an odious vice, yet it so be-
fopleth many, that they reckon it confidently among their
virtues. God cannot be known too much, nor can any man be
too rauch in love with the true knowledge of God in Jesus
Christ. Without this knowledge the mind is not good, nor
can the heart be sanctified, or the man be saved; nor can any
man know too much of the will and word of God ; nor yet
of his works in which he revealeth hiraself to the world.
But the carnal knowledge which is to be denjed, is of an
other nature than the sanctified knowledge of believers. I
shall show you the difference in certain particular respects.
1. This desire to know, which is in the unsanctified, is
partly frora raere nature and partly from a distempered fancy,
which is like a corrupt, enraged appetite, that chooseth that
which is unwholesome, and yet is over greedy after it. But
the desire after knowledge in the sanctified, is kindled by
the love of God, and the love of those holy and heavenly
things which they are inquiring after. It is not the love
of God that sets ungodly men upon their studies, but a
common and carnal desire to know : and this appears in the
end, which is next.
2. This carnal knowledge is but to feed, and furnish, and
please a carnal fancy ; because it is sorae adding to our un
derstandings, and because it is naturally pleasant to know,
and because it brings in sorae novelty and variety, and be
cause it makes us seem wiser than olher raen, and furnisheth
us with matter of discourse and ostentation, and rids the
mind of some troublesome doub^ ; therefore, even the worst
have a mind to know. But this is the knowledge that
must be denied : that which must be valued and sought
after, is, to know God, that we may love, and reverence,
and trust, and admire, and honour him, and enjoy him. To
know Christ, that we may have more communion with him :
to know the word and works of God, that in thera we may
know his nature and his will, and knowing his will, raay serve
hira and please hira : these raust be the ends of Christian
knowledge. There is nothing in the world that God hath
revealed, but in its place we may be willing to know, so that
we stick not in the creature, or sense of the words, pr com-

216 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
mon verities, but use every thing as a book or looking-
glass : we love not a book so much for the letters, as for
the matter which they contain ; and we love not a glass
for itself, so much as for its use to show us the face which
we would see in il : so if we go to the creatures hut as a
book, in which we raay read the raind of God. and see his
nature, and as a glass in which his glory doth shine forth,
our study and knowledge will be sanctified and divine.
And thus, as Paul would know nothing but Christ crucified,
so every Christian should be able to say that he would know
nothing but God in Christ : for though we know a thousand
raatters, and that of the lowest nature in themselves, yet as
long as we study them not for theraselves, but for God, it is
not them that we know so much as God in them ; and so
all is but the knowing of God : even as in our duty, though
the works may be raany and raean that we are employed in,
yet all is but the serving of God, as long as we do them all
for him. This is the raain difference between an unsancti
fied scholar, and a servant of God in all their studies ; one
of them is but recreating his curious fancy or inquisitive
mind, and seeking matter of honour and applause, or sOme
way or other studying for himself: but the other is search
ing after the nature and will of his Creator, and learning
how to do his work in that manner as raay please and honour
him most. So that when they are reading the same books,
and studying the same subjects, they are upon quite dif
ferent works, as having contrary ends in all their studies :
the one is content wilh bare speculation and airy know
ledge, which puffeth up ; and the other studieth and knoweth
practically to feed the holy fire of love in his heart, and to
guide, and quicken, -and strengthen him for obedience.
3. Moreover, there is a difference commonly in the sub
ject which they most desire to know : for though there is
no truth but a wicked man may know, which a true Christian
knoweth, and also but few truihs but what he may for selfish
ends be desirous to know ; yet ordinarily a carnal heart is
much more forward to study comraon sciences than divinity,
and in divinity to study least the practical part, and to be
most in points that exercise the brain, and lie further from
the heart ; but the sanctified man delighteth raost in know
ing the mystery of redemption, the riches of grace, the
glory which he hopeth for, the nature and will of God, the

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 217
way of duty, the temptations that are before him, and his
danger by thera and the way to escape, wilh such other
useful truths which he raust live upon. One feeds upon the
air and chaff of words and notions, or coramon truths ; and
the other is taken up with the raost spiritual, heavenly, and
necessary raatters : yea, it is not so rauch the truth, as the
matter or thing revealed by it, which the Christian looks
after : it is not only to understand the raeaning of the
Scripture, but to find, and love^ and enjoy that God, that
Christ, that Spirit, that life, which is revealed in those words
of Scripture ; but the hypocrite sticks most in a gramma
tical, superficial kind of knowledge.
4. Moreover, carnal love of knowledge doth draw the
soul frora God to the creature : it is self and the creature
that is sought after in it, and therefore the raore such know
ledge, the further from God. This was Adara's temptation
and sin, to desire to know good and evil for himself, so
that he might have less need to live in an implicit belief
of God, and dependance on hira, but might be acquainted
what was good and evil for himself, that he might trust
hiraself, and live to himself; but spiritual knowledge carrieth
us from self.
5. Carnal knowledge would break God's bounds, ^nd
would needs know that which God hath not revealed, and
pry into the secrets of heaven : with a presumptuous im
modesty they would reach to that which is above raan,
while they are wilfully or negligently ignorant of that which
should heal thera of their brutishness. They are so shallow
that they comprehend not any one of the smallest creatures
of God, and yet they have arrogant, proud conceits, that
must be satisfied about the highest mysteries : and though,
through their own unpreparedness and ignorance, they know
not that which else they might know, and cannot see the
strength of a reason which the wise can see, yet will they
sooner quarrel with the light than wilh their eyes, and sus
pect the reasons and words of God rather than their pur
blind minds. But spiritual knowledge is raodest, and hum
ble, and obedient, and presumeth not to clirab any higher
than the ladder, lest he lose more by such a step too high,
than he got by all his labour hitherto ; and find himself all
in pieces at the bottora, while he would needs clirab above
the top. He finds work enough in what God hath com-

218 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
manded him to study in his word, and therefore hath no
leisure to look after things that God hath hid from him :
it is for the use of knowledge that be would know, and
therefore he hath no great mind of that which is useless ;
and he knows that God is the besl judge of that, and
therefore he takes that to be best for him which is pre
scribed him.
6. Carij?.! students are apt to learn in the ways which
their interests and fancies lead thera to, but holy students
learn of God in his prescribed way ; that is, 1. In his church,
which is his school. 2. And in and by his holy Scripture,
which is the book he sets us to learn. And 3. By his minis
ters, whom he commandeth to teach us- 4. And in obedi
ence to his Spirit, that must make all effectual. And 5.
In fervent prayer to God for that Spirit and a blessing.
This is God's way in which he will bring raen to saving
knowledge, 7. Also, carnal students observe not (coraraonly) God's
order in tbeir learning ; but they begin at that which suiteth
best with their carnal interest or disposition, as being least
against il ; and they catch here and there a little, and make
what they list of it, and force it lo their carnal sense, q.fid to
sneak for that which their minds are most affected to. But
the sanctified student begins at the bottora, and first seeks
to know the essentials of religion, and points that life lieth
most upon ; and so he proceeds in order, and takes the
lesson which God and his teachers set hira, and takes up
truths as they lie in order of necessity and use.
8, And in the raanner also the difference is great. The
carnal student searcheth presuraptuously, self-conceitedly,
and unreverently, and speaks of holy ihings accordingly,
and censureth them when he should censure himself /md
actions by them, and bendeth the words of God to his own
carnal interest and will. But the spiritual student searcheth
meekly with fear and reverence, with self-suspicion and
consciousness of his exceeding darkness, and with" a willing
ness and resolution to subrait to the light for conviction
and for the guidance of his conversation.
And now you see what carnal studies are, remember that
to avoid them is part of your self-denial, Restraip^ your
ranging fantasies and understanding, as you would do a
ranging appetite. If you have a mind that would fain reach

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL, 219
higher than God hath given you light in Scripture, or a mind
that raust needs be sarisfied ofthe reasons of all God's ways,
and murmureth if any of its doubts be unresolved, remem
ber-that this is self that must be denied ; and if any be wise
in his own eyes, he raust becorae a fool, that he raay be wise
(1 Cor, iii, 18.), and as little children raust you corae to the
school of Christ, if you will indeed be his disciples. And
reraeraber that this intellectual voluptuousness, licenrious-
ness, and presumption of carnal minds, is a higher, and in
some respects greater and more dangerous vice, than bru
tish sensuality. And you raay cheat and undo your souls
in a civd course of carnal, selfish studies, as well as in a
course of raore gross and sensual voluptuousness.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Factious Desire of the Success of our own Opinions and Parties,
as such, S;c.
16. Another selfish interest to be denied, is, the factious
desire of the success of any odd opinions which we have
espoused, and of the increase and prosperity of any dividing
party in the church which we have addicted ourselves unto.
It exceedingly delighteth a carnal mind, that his judg
ment should be admired, and he should be taken as the
light of the country round about hira ; and therefore when
he hath hatched any opinion of his own, or espoused any
whereby his singularity raay be raanifested, or by which his
selfish interest may, be promoted, he is as careful to proraote
these opinions, and the party that holdeth with hira, as a
covetous raan is to promote his gain, Theie is indeed as
much of self in raany raen's heresies and church-divisons,
as any sensualist hath in his way. And hence it is that a
zeal for selfish opinions is easily got and easily maintained ;
when zeal for the saving truths of God is hardly kindled,
and hardly kept alive. Yea, multitudes in the world do
make the very truth to be the matter of their carnal interest
in it; while they some way get a seeming peculiar interest,
and promote it but as an opinion of their own, or of their
party, and use it for selfish, carnal ends. And hence it is
that many that are called orthodox, can easily get and keep

220 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
a burning zeal for their orthodox opinions, when practical
Christians do find il a very hard raatter to be zealous for
the same truths in a practical way. Many ungodly men
will be hot in disputing for the truth, and crying down all
that are against it. and perhaps so far exceed their bounds.
that the godly dare not follow them ! And the reason is
clear. Whether it be truth or error that a man holds.if he
hold it but as a conceit of bis own. or as the opinion of his
party, or to be noted in the world, as one that hath found
out more truth than others, or any way make it but the mat
ter of his selfish interest, nature and corruption will furnish
hira with a zeal for il ; it is easy lo go where sin and satan
drives, and to be zealous where zeal hath so small resist
ance ; and lo swim down the stream of corrupled nature.
But it is not so easy lo be zealous in the practical saving
entertainment of the truth, and exercising that faith and
love to God and holy obedience which truth is sent to work
in us. A schismatical or opinionalive use of truth itself, is
but an using it for self against the God of truth ; and it is
no raore wonder lo see raen zealous in tbis, than to see men
forward and hot in any evil ; we cannot tell how to quench
or restrain this selfish, carnal kind of zeal. But when men
should use the truth for God and their salvation against sa
tan, and sin, and self, then it is hard to make them zealous ;
they are like green wood, or wet fuel on the fire, that will
not burn without much blowing, and soon goeth out when
it seemeth lo be kindled, if once you leave it to itself. Paul
spoke not nonsense when he said, " For ye are yet carnal ;
for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and di
visions, are ye not carnal and walk as men ? For while one
saith, I ara of Paul, and another I ara of Apollos, are ye not
carnal ?" 1 Cor. iii. 3 — 5. How secretly soever il raay lurk,
there is doubtless rauch of self and flesh in heresies and un
just divisions. I know that raost of thera little perceive it.
James and John in their zeal, which would have called for
fire from heaven, did not know what spirit they were of.
But God would not bave spoke it, if it were not true, " Now
I beseech you, brethren, mark thera which cause divisions,
and offences, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learn
ed, and avoid thera : for they that are such, serve not our
Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly ; and by good words
and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple ;" Rom.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL, 221
xvi, 17. Though they little believe that there is any such
wickedness in thera as this, yet the Spirit of God, that is
the searcher of hearts, is acquainted wilh il ; and assureth
us, that both at the bottom and the end, church-dividing
courses have a carnal, selfish nature : it is some secret in
terest of self, (though scarce discerned) that kindleth the
zeal, and carrieth on the work ; it is not God that is served
by the divisions of his church. Many sects now among us,
do put a face of truth and zeal upon their cause ; but self is
the more dangerously powerful with them, by how much the
less suspected or observed. The Papists, under the pretence
of the church's union, are great dividers of the Christian
world, unchurching the far greatest part of the church, and
separating frora all that be not subjects of tbe Pope of
Rome : and do you think it is not self and flesh that is the
principle and life, andthe end ofthis their schism? Were
it not for the upholding of their usurped power and worldly
immunities, and greatness of the clergy, il is morally impos
sible that so raany raen of reason and learning could concur
in such a schisra, and in so many gross conceits as go along
with it. It is not the pope that they are principally united
in ; for the greatest part of them, it is too evident that it is
selfish and fleshly interest that is their centre, to which the
pope is but a means. Hence it is that many of their Jesuits
and Friars are carried abroad in the world, with such a
fire of zeal, to promote their cause, thatthey will compass
sea and land for it, and day and night are busy at the work,
to plot, and contrive, and insinuate, and deceive, and think
no cost or pains too great. For a selfish, sinful zeal and di
ligence hath so many friends, and so little hindrance, that it
is easily maintained ; but so is not the healing, peaceable,
practical, and holy zeal of true believers.
Well ! consider what I say to you frora the word of the
Lord : there is a selfish, dividing zeal in religion, which raust
be denied as well as whoredora or drunkenness. Ifyou ask
me how it is known ; briefly now I shall only tell you this
much ofit: 1. Thatit is usually for either an error or a par
ticular truth, against the interest or advantage of the body
of unquestionable Christian verities. They can let religion
suffer by it, so their opinion do but thrive. 2. It is usually
for an opinion by reason of some special endearment or in
terest of their own in it. 3. They cry up that opinion with

222 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
a zeal and diligence much exceeding that which they be
stow upon other opinions of equal weight; and lay a greater
stress upon it, than any show of reason will allow them.
4. They usually are zealous for a party and division, against
the unity of the Catholic church. 5. Their zeal is most
coraraonly turned against the faithful pastors ofthe church;
for it is hard to keep in with schism, and with faithful pas
tors too : and if the rainisters will not own their sin and
error, they will disoWn the rainisters. The Anabaptists,
and olher sects of lale, would never have been so much
against Christ's ministers, if the ministers had not been
against their way. 6. Their course doth in the conclusion,
bring down religion, and hinder the thriving of the Gospel
and of godliness. Mark, what is the issue of most of those
ways, that these men are so hot for ! Doth it go better
or worse with the church and cause of Christ in general,
where they are, than it did before ? Is religion in more
strength and beauty, and life, and honour? Or doth real
holiness more abound ? If so, be not too hasty to censure
their zeal. But usually all these dividing ways, are the dis
eases of the church ; which cause its languishing, decay,
and dissolution. 7. Lastly, this selfish zeal is commonly
censorious, and uncharitable, and diminisheth Christian
love, and sets those reproaching and despising each other,
that should have lived in the union and coraraunion of
saints. Where you find these properties of your zeal and
desire, for the proraoting ofyour opinions or parties in re
ligion, you have great reason to raake it presently your bu
siness lo find out that insinuating self, which maketh your
religion carnal, and to deny and raortify it.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
Carnal Liberty to be Denied : ivhdt.
17. Another selfish interest to be denied, is, carnal liberty.
A thing that selfishness hath strangely brought of late into
so much credit, that abundance araong us think they are
doing some special service to God, their country, the fchurch,
and their own souls^ when they are but deeply engaged fbr
the devil, by a self-seeking spirit, in a carnal course. For

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 223
the discovery of this dangerous, coramon disease, I raust
first tell you, that there is a threefold liberty which must
carefully be differenced. 1. There is a holy, blessed liberty
which no man must deny. 2. There is a wicked liberty,
which no raan should desire. 3. And between these two
there is a coraraon, natural, and civil liberty, which is good
in its place, as other worldly matters are, but must be de
nied, when it stands in competition with higher and better
things ; and, as all other worldly matters, is holy when it is
holily esteemed and used ; that is, for God ; but sinful
when it is sinfully esteeraed and used, and that is for carnal
self. I. The first of these is not to be denied, but all other li
berty to be denied for it. This holy liberty consisteth in
these following particulars. 1. To be freed frora the power
of sin, which is the disability, the deformity, the death of
the soul. 2. From the guilt of sin, and the wrath of God,
and the curse of the law. 3. To be restored to God by
Christ, in union, reconciliation, and sanctification ; and our
enthralled spirits set free, to know, and love, and serve him,
and delight in hira. Where the Spirii of the Lord is, there
is liberty; 2 Cor. iii. 17. God is the soul's freedora, who is
its lord, and life, and end, and all. 4. To be delivered frora
satan as a deceiver, and eneray, and executioner of the wrath
of God. 5. To be freed frora that law or covenant of works,
which requireth that which to us is becorae irapossible,
6, To be freed from that burdensome task of useless cere
raonies, iraposed on the church in tiraes of infancy and
darkness. 7. To be freed frora the accusations ofa guilty
conscience, and those self-torraentings which in the Wicked
are the foretelstes of hell; 8. To be freed from such tempo
ral judgments here as might hinder our salvation, or our
service of God. 9. To be free frora the condemning sen
tence at the last day, and the everlasting torraents which
the wicked must endure. 10, And to be delivered into the
blessed sight of Grid, and the perfect fruition and pleasing
of him, in perfect love, and joy, and praise to all eternity.
This is the liberty which you must not deny, which I there
fore name, that by th^ way yOu may see, that it is not for
nothing that thfe other sorts of liberty are to be denied.
II. The second sort of liberty is, that which is wicked
and directly evil, which all men should deny ; and this is a

224 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
freedom from righteousness, as the apostle calls it, Rom. vi.
20. To be free from a voluntary subjection to God, and
free from those sighs and groans for sin, and that godly
sorrow which the sanctified undergo ; and to be free from
all those spiritual motions and changing works upon their
hearts, which the Spirit doth work on all the saints ; to be
free from holy speeches, and holy prayer, and other duties,
and from that strict and holy manner of living which God
commandeth ; to be al liberty lo sin against God, and to
please the flesh, and follow their own iraaginations and
wills, let God say what he will to the contrary : to be free
to eat and drink what we love and have a raind of, and to be
merry, and wanton, and lustful, and worldly, and take our
course without being curbed by so precise a law, as God
bath given us ; to be free from a heavenly conversation, and
those preparations for death, and that communion with God
vvhich the saints partake of : this is the wicked liberty of
the world, which the worst of carnal men desire ; and the
next beyond this, is a liberty to lie in the fire of hell, and a
freedora frora salvation, and from the everlasting joy, and
praises of the saints. If freedom from grace and hohness
deserve the name of freedora, then you may next call dam
nation a freedom. ;
And it is part also of this sinful, miserable liberty to be
free from the government, and officers, and good laws which
rule the church and commonwealth. And such wretches
there are in the world, that seriously j udge it a desirable
liberty to be free from these. They think that their country
is free, when every raan raay do what he lisl, and they have
no king or other governors, or none that will look after
thera, and punish their raiscarriages ; and they think the
church is free, when they have no pastors, or when pastors
have least power over them, and they may do what they list.
And indeed if they were rid of magistrates and ministers,
they were free ! As a school is free that hath shut out the
master, or have rejected him, and teach and rule one ano
ther ! And as a ship is free when the master and pilot are
thrown overboard ; and as an array is free when they have
cast off or lost their commanders! Oj to speak. more fitly,
as a hospital is free when they are delivered of their physi
cian; and as the madmen in bedlam are free when they have
killed, or escaped from their keepers ! As infidels keep their

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 22S
freedom, by refusing Christ in himself; so carnal dividers
and heretics keep their freedom, by refusing his officers,
and Christ in those officers ; " For he that heareth them,
heareth him; and he that despiseth them, despiseth him;
and he that despiseth, despiseth not man but God;" Luke x.
16. 1 Thess. iv. 8.
And another part of this ungodly liberty is, to be free
from the exercise, at least, of this power of magistrates and
ministers, so far as not to be restrained from sin, though they
be not free from the state of subjects. To swear, and be
drunk, and live as most ale-sellers, on the damning sins of
others, and make a trade of selling men their damnation, and
to have no raagistrate punish thera, no officer trouble thera,
and no neighbour accuse them ; this is their liberty. To
game, and roar, and revel, and have nobody say to thera,
why do you so, is part of their liberty. To have leave with
out restraint to raake all others as bad as themselves, and
if they are infidels or heretics, to persuade other men to it :
if they hold any opinion against the God that made them,
agaiq^t Christ, against the Spirit of God, against the word
and laws of God, against his ministers, his church, his ordi
nances, against any necessary point of faith, or if they have
any false conceit that leads straight to hell, that they raay
have full power, licence, and authority, to bring as many as
they can to be of the same mind, that they may not be un
profitable servants to tbe devil, nor go to hell^lone, this is
a great part of their irapious liberty. And because the
name of conscience is become honourable, they call this by
the name of liberty of conscience ; when indeed it is liberty
of practice that they mean, and not liberty of conscience ;
for their conscience cannot be altered by force, nor touched
by the sword. It is they that deprive raen of the liberty of
their consciences, whilst by false teaching they put out the
eye of conscience, and enslave it to sinful, false conceits.
And conscience is science ; and error is not science but ig
norance ; and therefore as error is not conscience, but the
destruction of conscience; so liberty to error, is no liberty
of conscience, but a liberty to destroy conscience : rauch
less is it liberty of conscience to sin against God, and draw
others from conscience into error, and poison men's souls,
VOL, XI. Q

226 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
and hinder the Gospel, and promote the work and kingdoni
of the devil.
And many of our miserable, sottish people take it for a
part of their desired liberty to be free from rainisters' spi
ritual oversight and government, and not be catechised or
called to an account, or exarained about the state of their
souls, nor questioned aboul their lives, but that they may
do what they will, and have sacraments, and all ordinances
on what terms and in what manner they will, and to have
rainisters bow their judgment to theirs, and lay their con
sciences at the feet of every carnal, ignorant wretch^ and be
but their servants to do what they would have them ; this is
the liberty that satan's servants do desire.
And withal, that they may be free from necessary pay*
ments for the safety of the coraraonwealth, and from the ne
cessary retribution to God, for the church and poor, yea
from giving but the ministers their own ; all this they take
for part of their liberty. But they are all such liberties as
Christ never purchased, and the Gospel never bestowed,
and never made the owners happy : it is a liberty to ^tarve
their own souls, and go quietly to everlasting torment, and
not be molested by preachers and puritans, but to sin against
God, and damn themselves, and be let alone, and have no
body tell them of it, or ask them, why will you do so ? In
a word, it is that liberty that Christ died to save his people
from, and which the Gospel would take down, and the Spi
rit, rainistry, and ordinances would overthrowj and which
no wise and good raan hath reason lo desire ; and it is that
liberty which God will save all those frora, whorai hewill
save from the flamesof hell.
III. The third sort of liberty is that which is initself in
different, or to be reckoned araong the common,, transitory
benefits of this life, which with God's blessing is a mercy 5
and well used may do good, but otherwise is hurtful, or lit
tle-worth. This liberty is not the natural liberty-of the will,
which in regard of its own illicit acts is nothing but the
power of self-determination ; and in regard of internal impe-
rate ticts, is nothing but a power or freedom to do what we
will. For these are so our own, if not ourselves, that no
man can take them frora us ; at least the first. Nor is it the
ethical 'liberty of the soul frora sin by gracious habits; for
this is ever good, as was said before. Nor is it a political

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 227
liberty from those tyrannous laws or practices of raen that
would root out the Gospel and pull down the kingdora of
Christ, and set up iniquity. This liberty must be desired,
and not denied, even when we submit ourselves to prose
cution; but it isi 1. The civil liberty of being from under
the government of others and of having a hand in govern
ment ourselves. 2. The liberty of being from nnder the go
vernment of strangers, conquerors, or enemies. 3. The li
berty of choosing our own governors, and having them not
by other men's election set over us. 4. A liberty from
burdensome payments and taxes, which are of no necessity
to our good. 5. A liberty from arbitrary government, and
from being liable to the mere will and passions of men. 6.
A protection from the abuses and injuries of others. 7. And
a liberty for our bodies from the restraint of imprisonraent.
All these are things that in theraselves are naturally good;
and especially the two last are very great mercies. But yet
as the five first are smaller matters^ so all of them are but
temporal, transitory things, and not to be regarded in com
parison of Christ and the heavenly liberties. The dearest
of them must be denied when they stand in the way of duty,
and cannot be had on terms of innocency. To sin for li
berty, is to leap out of the frying-pan into the fire, as the
proverb is ; to become the prisoners of the devil, that we
toay not be the prisoners of men ; to enslave the soul for
the liberty of the body. Believe it, sin makes deeper galls
than bolts or scourges do : it is an easy durance to lie in
gaol, in comparison of lying in sin, or under the wrath of
God. At the farthest, death will free you from imprison
ment, but death alone will not free you from sin. It is but
men's foolish conceits that makes iraprisonraent so grievous
to the most. It is the same earth that they tread on, and
the same air that they breathe in as before. The great trou
ble is that they have not their wills ; for when their own
wills do as much confine them, it is then no trouble. Ican
confine myself to one room, to one chair, the far greatest
part of the year for my studies ; and why should I not bear
as well to be so confined by another, if my oWn will could
butcomply with it? Never grudge at restraint or impri
sonment theni but find o"* some employment in it, whereby
you may be serviceable tO' God, or at least serve him by
your sufferings, and then rejoice in it, and bring your minds

228 TREATISE OF SEL^-DENIAL.
to your condition, and so you may set yourself at liberty
in spite of the greatest tyrant in the world. Imprisonment
is but a penal restraint ; and if it be not involuntary, it is
scarcely penal : it is therefore in your power whether you
will be prisoner or not, because it is in your power whether
it shall be involuntary or not. Be but willing of your con
finement, and you are at liberty ; and though you are not
out ofthe place, you are out of the prison. The same room
that is a prison to the rest, is none to the keeper that guards
them, because apprehending it to be for his commodity, he
is willing of it, and their prison is his home. And if you do
but apprehend how you are called from temptations, and
have an opporiunity of honouring God, or at least of being
more hurabled and raortified, and so bring your mind to
consent to your habitation, it is become your horae and place
of freedora : however he is unworthy of the liberty of the
saints, that cannot deny the liberty of his habitation or bo*
dily abode for the attaining of it.
And for the things that raen raake such a stir about in
the world, under the name of their civil liberties, s.ome of
thera are no liberties, but fancies or raiseries, and the rest of
them are no further lo be valued than they are subservient
to the kingdom of Christ, and the good of souls. Conceited
people call il their liberty to be governed rather by four hun
dred than by one, or by popularity than by other forms of
governraent, and a great stir they raake about this, as if their
felicity did consist init; when as the true liberty of acom-
raonwealth consisteth in the fullest conforraity of their laws
and their execution to the will of God ; in being free from
all laws or passions of raen that encourage iniquity, and are
against the Gospel or the coraraon good, and peace and wel
fare of the body : in a word, to have governraent best fitted
to the ends of governraent, which is such a temporal safety
and prosperity as most conduceth to the service and honour
of God ; but the species of government is none of tliis liberty
in itself considered. A people may be at much more liberty
under a pious monarch than an impious or unskilful demo
cracy. The free choice of the most when they are bad (as
where is it better?) may enslave the best; and the awe and
interest of the rich is commonly such upon the people, that
a free choice is soraewhat strange. And that sort of go
vernment may be fittest for one, people, that is unfit for an-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. '^29
other ; and their happiness lieth not in the species of^ go
vernment, let thera stretch their wits to invent new forras as
long as they will, but in the predorainancy of God and his
interest in the hearts ofthe governors, and in their laws, their
officers, and execution. This is it, and nothing but this in
government, that will give the commonwealth that desirable
liberty, in which their welfare doth consist.
And therefore those persons are enemies to (he liberty of
thoir country, that under that narae would advance such
kind of popular interest as is plainly against the interest of
Christ ; and raust have magistrates and ministers restrained
from doing the work of the omnipotent Sovereign, the one
from punishing sin (if it be against the first table, or come but
under the narae of conscience), and the other from exercis
ing church discipline, and all under pretence of the people's
liberties. All these are carnal liberties to be denied.

CHAPTER XXXV.
Our Native Country and Habitations Denied.
18. Another part of carnal self-interest to be denied, is,
our native country, or place of habitation, with all the com
forts and accomraodations they afford us. It is lawful to
have sorae special love to our own country ; but not such as
shall prevail against the love of Christ, or seera sufficient to
entangle us in sin. We must shew our love to it princi
pally by desiring and endeavouring, that God's name may
be hallowed, and his kingdom maintained, and his will ful
filled among and by our countrymen ; but if they should
turn eneraies to the Gospel or to godliness, we must love the
servants of God abroad, much better thart his enemies at
horae ; and wish the success of his servants, though of other
countries, against his enemies, though they were of our
own. And if we cannot serve God, or enjoy the freedom of
a good conseience at home, another nation, though it were
in the utmost parts of the earth, where we raay better serve
God, must seem a better place to us. And if we be banish
ed or necessitated to forsake our country, we must not stick
at it, for the cause of Christ. It is none of the greatest

230 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
trials to be put to remove from one country to another,, as
long as we have necessaries j wherever we come. We have
the same God to be with us, ^nd take care of us, beyond the
sea, as at home ;.ithe sarae eartb. and ajr,, and, aun to shine
upon us; the same Spirit, and grace, and proraises to accom
pany us; the same saints of God, and ordinances of wor
ship, may be had in other countries as our own. It is a
kind of childishness to make such a matter of being driven
out of one kingdom into another, when we have the same or
greater mercies in the other. All is but our Father's house;
arid we do but remove from room lo room. . " The earth is
the Lord's and the fulness thereo/," As I said before of im
prisonment, so I. say of banishment :. it is in our own wills
by consenting to it, to make it no banishment. If you will
iriake an affliction and a great matter of it, you may. A
merchant or factor can live for his commodity, far from
home, even among Turks and infidels, and take it for no ba
nishment ; much more should you do for the sake of Christ.
Every place is our own country where our master's work
lieth. We are but pilgriras ; and as long as we are not out
of our way, we need not complain much of being outnof our
country. Indeed we are l^ere but strangers, ,and this is not
our country, and therefore let us not over-love it upon a mis
take. , The .apostles of Christ did purposely leave their
countries, and travel about the countries of., the world, p)'
bring thpm the doctrine of salvation by Christ,,; An,d;ii^ it
not better be walking lights to illuminate the wprlpl, than
candles shut up within the walls, of our own habitation?
" By faith Abraham, when he was called to go into a pla,cf
which he should after receive for an inheritance^ obeyed, apd
went out, npt knowing whither he went. By faith he so
journed in the laiid of promise, as in a strange country,
dwelling in tabernacles — for he looked for a city which had
foundatipns, whose builder and maker is God ;" Hebj- ?^i- 8,
9. 19. " fhey confessed that they were strangers and pil
grims on the earth,; for they that say such things, decl3.rfi
plainly that they seek a country: and truly if tbey had beei)
mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
might have had opportunity to have returne4 '¦ but now they
desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefqrie God
is not asharaed to be called their God ; for he hath prepared
for them a city;" ver. 13—16. It was the sorest kind of

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 231
banishment that the saints endured, that is mentioned,
" they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being
destitute, afflicted, torraented ; of whora the world was not
worthy : they wandered in deserts and mountainsi and in
dens and caves of the earth ;",Heb. xi. 37, 38. We judge our
selves unworthy of Christ and the new Jerusalera, and our
heavenly country, if we cannot deny an earthly, sinful coun
try for them.

CHAPTER XXXVI.
Bodily Health and Ease from Torments.
19. But a far greater interest of self to be denied, doth
consist in our bodily health and ease, and frora those pains
and torraents which persecutors use to inflict upon the
godly. An averseness to suffering is natural to raan, and
in itself no sin ; but an excessive averseness doth signify
too much tenderness of the flesh, and too little power of
reason, which should quiet the mind when it cannot abate
the pain of the body, and must use to submit to a lesser
evil to avoid a greater ; or to obtain a greater good than it
depriveth us of: Paul and Silas could sing with their bodies
sore and their feet in the stocks. To be joyful in tribula
tion should be no strange matter to a saint, much raore with
a patient submission to undergo it. We raay not thrust
ourselves into the fire, nor choose suffering without a call ;
but we must suffer rather than sin, and choose the wounds
and hurts of the body before the wounds and losses of the
soul. But because flesh and blood will draw back, and
make too great a matter of sufferings, I shall briefly give
you ten considerations, that may persuade you herein to
deny yourselves ; and in two cases I desire you'to make use
of them. First, in case you have no way to escape suffering
but by sinning, then deny yourselves and choose to suffer.
Secondlv, in case of God's afflictions, which unavoidably
lie upon you, then deny yourselves by a quiet and patient
subraission; and for both consider, —
1. Thatis the b^st condition for us in which we may be
raost serviceable to God. And if we suffer for righteous
ness, we may serve God as well in such suffering as in a

232 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
prosperous state ; or if God hiraself afflict us, we may serve
him in our affliction : our patience then is the service that
we are called to. The sufferings of the saints have done
very much to the promoting of the Gospel and building of
the church : men will see that there is somewhat worth the
suffering for in the Christian religion, and see that heavea
is taken by believers for a certain thing, when they can let
go earth for it : they will be nibved to inquire, what it is
that raoves you to such constancy and patience ; and why
should we not be willing of that condition in which we do
our raaster the best service, whatever the doing of it shall
cost us ? The commodity of our end is the chiefest com
modity. 2. That is the best condition for us in which we may
have most of God. But certainly we may have as much,
and usually raore, of God in suffering, especially for his
cause, than we can have in prosperity : especially when we
sin to escape these sufferings. Is it bodily ease, or God,
that you set raost by ? It will be seen by your choice. If
you prefer your ease before him, you raust expect to have
no betier than you choose : if you prefer him before your
ease and prosperity, you must be gladder of God with ad
versity and pain, than of prosperity and ease without him.
A beast hath health and ease as well as ypu, and yet you
will not think him as happy. If you are tormented, or lose.
your health for Christ, you lose nothing but what a Turk, or
infidel hath ; yea, but what a beast hath as well as you !
But you may have that of God, by the advantage of your
suffering, that none but saints have ; and God's presence
can make a suffering state as sweet as a prosperous. And
he hath given you ground in his proraises to expect it,
" When thou passeth through the fire, I will be wilh thep ;"
Isa. xliii. 1 — 3. " There hath no temptation taken you,
but what is comraon to man ; but God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able : but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that
you raay be able to bear it ;" 1 Cor. x. 13. " If ye be re
proached for the narae of Christ, happy are ye ; for the spirit
of glory and of God resteth upon you : on their part he is
evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified ;" 1 Pet. iv.
14. " If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be
ashamed, but let hira glorify God on this behalf;" ver. 16.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 233
What is the Scripture fuller of than comforting proraises
to the sufferers for Christ? To fly frora such sufferings
then, is but to fly frora the presence of God and our own
consolations. 3. At least these sufferings further our sanctification,
and make us better. And is not that our best condition
that raakes us best? Common experience, as well as Scrip
ture, may satisfy us that a suffering stale doth very much
further humiliation and raortification, and bring raen to a
deeper sense of sin, and help all the truihs of God to work,
and make thera raore sensible and serious than in prosperity.
Then we do not only hear, bul feel that sin is evil, and tbat
the world is vain, and thatthe threatenings of God are true.
Why, Christian, if thou didst but know that thou shouldst
have raore ofthe Spirit and its graces, and less of sin, in a
suffering estate than in ease and plenty, wouldst thou not
even choose it and be glad of it ? Is not sin worse than
suffering to thee, and holiness belter than ease and peace ?
Alas, what senseless, careless persons should we be, if it
were not for the help of suffering ! Grace useth to work by
means', and this is the comraon means.
4. Consider, that pain and suffering we shall have, whe
ther for Christ or not. The worst men undergo almost as
much by ordinary sicknesses, and losses, and crosses, as the
martyrs do that suffer for Ghrist : sin will bring suffering,
and it is better have that which is sanctified by the interest
of Christ, than that which is not,
5, And a Christian that hath so much ado to curb and
rule the fleah in prosperity, methinks should the raore pa
tiently bear adversity, because God sets in by it, and helps
hira to subdue the flesh, and tarae the body, and bring it
in subjection. And as it is but this burdensorae flesh that
suffereth, which hath been the cause of so much suffering
to our minds, so our warfare against this flesh, which we
malnage through the course of our lives, goes on more pros
perously in the tirae of its sufferings than in prosperity, A
weakened eneray is more easily conquered. Do not therefore
too much take part with the suffering flesh, but self deny-
ingly justify the proceedings ofthe Lord,
6. And consider that the pains and suffering will be but
short. It is but a little while, and you shall feel no more
than if Vou had felt nothing ; and that which shortly will

234 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
not be, is next to that which is not. As it makes all tfie
pleasures and glory of the world to be a dreara, and next to
nothing, because it is but a while, and they are gone, and
never return again : so it raakes our sufferings next to no
thing, that they are passing away, and almost over, . And
then all tears will be wiped from your eyes ; and pain will
be forgotten, or remembered only to increase your joy.
When you are past the brunt, and safe with Christ, you will
never repent of your sufferings on earth, nor will it trouble
you then to think of the shame or sickness, or pain or tor
ment, that here you Were put to undergo. Yet a little while
and all will be over. '
7. In the meantime, consider also that they are all de
served sufferings : you deserve them from God, though not
from man ; nay, they are a thousandfold less than your
deservings. If free grace have pardonedyou the main, and
rescued you from the torments of hell, methinks the remem
brance of this wonderful raercy should make you patiently
bear the fatherly chastisements that tend to the perfecting
your deliverance. , ..
8. And so much the rather, because they are sufferings more
gainful to you than the greatest prosperity is to the world.
When you have suffered for Christ as rauch as your natures
are able to bear, you need not fear being losers by him ! as
he is engaged by promise to make you amends, and to give
you the reward of inheritance of glory, so. he is easily able
to accomplish it. All the saints of God are in the way to
glory, but his suffering saints arein the nearest way..i All
his servants are unspeakably gainers by hira, .but his) suf*
ferers are in the most thriving way ; they shall have; an
eminency of reward, or a reward above the comraon reward-.
" These are they that come out of great tribulation, and
have washed their robes and made them white in the )blood
ofthe Larab; therefore are they before the throne of God,
and serve hira day and night in ¦his temple, and he that
sitteth on the throne shall dwell among thera ;" Rev. vii, 14.
The churches therefore glory in their martyrs, and for the
patience and faith of Christi'ans^^ in all the persecutions and
tribulations which. they endure. " a manifest token of the
righteous judgraent of God, that they may be counted
worthy of the kingdora of God, for which they suffer ; seeing
it is a righteous thing with God to recorapense tribulation

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL, 235
to thera that trouble them ; and to them; that are troubled,
rest with the saints ;" 2 Thess. i. 4 — 6. " Peter said,. behold
we have forsaken all and followed thee ; what shall we
have therefore? .And Jesus said unto them, verily L say
unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regener-a-
tion, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his
glory, ye shall >also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve
tribes of Israel : and every one that hath forsaken houses,
or brethren, or sisters, or wife, or children, or lands, for
my names sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall in
herit everlasting life ;" Matt. xix. 27 — 29. And is it not
better suffer under these terms of inconceivable advantage,
than to suffer in a natural way for nothing ?
9. And consider, that if suffering seem so great a matter
to you, that you are resolved, though by the way of sin, to
avoid it, you will escape it at so dear a rate, that you will
wish a thousand times you had endured it. " There is no
escaping of Christian suffering when you are called to it, but
by running into eternal suffering. There is no escaping the
prison, and torment, and fire of martyrdora, when you are
called to it, but by running into the fire of hell. God can
deliver you indeed on easier terras, by forbearing to call you
to it, or rescuing by his power ; but you cannot rescue
yourselves by refusing to suffer and yielding to sin, without
paying dearer for your freedom than it is worth. And there
fore deny yourselves, and bear what God shall call you to,
lest Christ deny you, and raake you suffer a thousandfold
raore to all eternity.
10. Lastly, consider also, that this part of self-denial is
it that Christ hath fully and purposely taught us by his own
example. Are you better than the Lord of life ? And did
they not use him worse than you are used ? Do they slander
you ? And did they not so by him, calling him a gluttonous
person and a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and
sinners, a sabbath-breaker, an eneray to Caesar, a deceiver ;
yea, one that had a devil, and cast out devils by Beelzebub ?
Do they put a fool's. coat on you, and a reed in your hand,
and raake a laughingstock of you ? Reraeraber what they
did by Christ. They n^ixed scorn and cruelty togelher when
they crowned hira wilh a crown of thorns, and struck him
when they had covered his eyes, and bid hira read who
smote him. And do they worse than this by you ? They

230 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
spit in his face, and saved a murderer, that he raight be sure
to die. And do they worse than this by you ? " Run there
fore with patience the race that is set before you, looking
lo Jesus, tbe author and finisher of our faith, who for the
joy that was set before hirn endured the cross, despising the
sharae, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of
God I for consider hira that endured such contradiction of
sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your
mind ;" Heb. xii. 1 — 3. " If, when ye do well and suffer
for il, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God,
for even hereunto were ye called ; because Christ also suf
fered for us, leaving us an exaraple that ye should follow his
steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.
Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suf
fered, threatened not, but coramitted himself to him that
judgeth righteously ; 1 Pet. ii. 20 — 23.
Upon all these considerations, you may see that in the
greatest afflictions or torments of the flesh, we have reason
enough for the practice of self-denial : and therefore as Christ
used Peter, when he persuaded bim to have favoured him
self, and to have avoided suffering, when it was necessary
for us, bidding him, " Get behind rae Satan, thou art an
offence lo rae, for thou savourest not the things that be of
God, but those that be of raen ;" Matt. xvi. 23. So do you
deal by carnal self, when it would persuade you to favour
yourselves, and put by suffering by yielding to sin. Take
this self to be but a satan to you, that savoureth not heavenly
things but earthly, and comraand it to be silent, and to get
behind you ; and do not so much as make your flesh of your
counsel, nor hearken to any of its advice, in case of suffer
ing for Christ.

CHAPTER XXXVII.
Natural Life to be Denied.

20. But the greatest point of self-denial is yet behind:
nothing is so near to self as life : nothing that nature doth
so highly value, and dearly love, and tenderly look to, and
unwillingly let go. And yet this also must be denied for
Christ. All other parts of selfish interest are as it were
sumraed up and contracted in this ; and many a one can

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 237
yield in other points that, when he coraes to this, is utterly
stalled, and will go away sorrowful, rather than follow
Christ to the death. Nothing in this world is so dear to
natural man as his life; and, therefore, death is a thing
that he knows not how to choose, nor to subrait to, if he
could avoid it.
In three cases only, I remember that heathens them
selves have chosen death. First, in case of sorae extreme
torraent or other raisery, which they had no olher hope to
prevent or end. But this was but a choosing a speedier or
easier death before a raore grievous death, though reraote ;
or before a death that had so great a raisery for its fore
runner ; or at least before such a life as is a continual death.
And so the conquered heathens would frequently kill thera
selves, to prevent a raore dishonourable, cruel death, frora
the hand of the conqueror : and so raany a one in incurable
raisery wisheth rather to die than endure it, partly because
that the suffering is so great as to overcome all the comforts
of life (for I yield that sorae degrees of raisery with life are
raore terrible to nature than death) ; and partly, because that
they know they must die at last however. Secondly, in a de
sire of fame, that they may leave behind them an honourable
name when they are dead. But this is not to desire death
but life. Fain they would live for ever ; and because they
know that it cannot be obtained (on earth), they had rather
die some honourable death a little sooner, that their names
raay live when they are dead, than to die ignorainiously
shortly after. Thirdly : and sorae have chosen to die for
the public good of their country ; but as it is very uncertain
whether the desire of a living name were not their greater
motive, so it was but a choosing a present death for their
country, before a later unavoidable death without any such
advantage. In all these cases a natural man raay venture
on death that knows he cannot escape it long, but raust
shortly die whether he will or no ; but if they could avoid
it, there are very few would submit to death but believers,
and none but in one of these cases : — 1. To end or avoid
some extreme, intolerable, incurable raisery. 2. To deliver
their country or frierids. 3. And whether any would do it
upon their ungrounded hopes of better things in the life to
come, I leave to considerationi But if it be taken for
granted that a natural man may love — 1, the comforts of

238 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
life above itself; 2, and the good of his country, or the worid,
or his children, above his life ; 3, or some carnal felicity
falsely conceited to be had in another life : yet it is certain,
that none but a sanctified believer can love God better than
his life, or can prefer those spiritual, heavenly joys, which
consist in the holy love and fruition of God, before his life ;
and therefore he that for these can deny his life, is indeed a
Christian, and none but he. Though it be an ungrateful
word to the ears of some, I raust say it again, and none but
he ; for this is the very point in which Christ, for instance,
doth put our self-denial to the trial, " he that will save his
life, shall lose it." Whether you love an immortal, holy hfe
with God, or this earthly, fleshly life better, is the great
question on which it will be resolved whether you are
Christians or infidels at the heart, and whether you are
heirs of heaven or hell. Some love to God may be in the
unsanctified, but not a love to hira above their lives ; and in
sorae cases they may subrait to death, but not for the love
of God. But both these set togelher, that is, a submitting
to death for the love of God, or a loving of God above this
life, is the most infallible proof of your sincerity.
I confess flesh and blood raust needs think this is a v^ry
hard saying; and though they raight consent to acknow
ledge it a duty, and a reasonable thing to die for Christ,
and a note of excellency, and a coraraendable qualification
of some few extraordinary saints, yet it goeth very hardly
down with them that it should be the lowest raeasure of
saving grace, and that the weakest Christian must have it
that will be saved : for, say they, what oan the strongest do
more than die for Christ ? But to this I answer, 1. There
is no room for objections against so plain a word of God.
It is the wisdom of God, and not our reason, that dispbseth
of the crown of life ; and therefore it is his wisdora, and not
our reason, must determine by what we shall attain it. And
if God say plainly, that "if any man come to Christ; and
hate not his own life (that is, love itjiot so much less tbari
Christ, that for his sake he can use it as a hated thing is
used); he cannot be his disciple" (Luke xiv. 26), it' is too
late for the vote of man, or all the clamour of foolish reason,
to recall this resolution. The word of God will stand when
they have talked against it never so long : we may destroy
ourstelves by dashing against it, but we cannot destroyer

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 239
frustrate it. 2. And whereas men ask, what can the strongest
do more than die for Christ? I answer, abundance more:
they can die for hira with far greater love, and zeal, and
readiness, and joy, than the weak can do, and so bring much
more honour to him by their death. Thougli there be no
higher way of outward expressing our love to Christ, than
by dying for hira ; yet the inward work of love raay be in
very different degrees, in persons that use the s-ame expres-^
sion of it. Sorae may corae to the stake with a little love,
coraparatively, and some with fervent, hot affections : some
have much ado to yield to die, and some die so cheerfully, that
they rejoice in the opportunity of honouring God, and pass
ing to him. Yea, and in the expressions there is much dif
ference in the manner : some give up themselves with so
rauch readiness, . as works more on the slanders- by, than
their mere patience, or the death itself. And some are drawn
so hardly to it, as drowneth rauch of the honour and fruit
of their raartyrdom. Of this, read Mr. Pink's sermon on
Luke xiv. 26.
Object. ' But nature is of God, and nature teacheth us
to love and save our lives : and is it like that the God of
nature will comraand and teach us to cast thera away, and
so contradict his own law of nature ?'
Answ. 1. As nature teacheth you to love your lives, so
God doth not forbid you. Bul, 2. Is it natural to man to
be reasonable, as well as to be sensitive and animate ? To
bave a reasonable soul, as to have a teraporal life? 3. And
doth not reason tell us by the light of nature, that God
should be loved better than our lives? If it did not, yet by the
help of supernatural light, even reason clearly tells us this ;
and it is no contradiction for God to tell you, ' love your lives,
but love him better.' And he that bids you seek the pre
servation of your lives, doth plainly except, that you resign
them to his dispose, and that you seek not to save tbem from
him when he commandeth you to lay them down. So that
it is not simply against nature, to consent to die ; but when
it is for him that is the Lord and end of life, it is agreeable
to nature ; that is, though it be against our natural inclina
tion, as we are animate and sensitive, yet it is agreeable to
our true nature as reasonable. And therefore lay all toge
ther, and it is to be said to be agreeable to nature siraply in
inisuch a case, because it is agreeable to tl^e principal part

240 TREATISE OF SEIF-DENIAL.
in nature which should be predominant : it is agreeable to
nature also, that reason should dispose ofthe inferior powers
of the soul.
Object. ' But when you have said all that you can, as long
as you plead against my nature, I cannot consent to what
you say ; words are but wind. To persuade rae lo consent
to die, is as rauch as to persuade me not tp feel when I am
hurt, or to be hungry, thirsty, or sleepy, which are not in
my power, because these things are natural.'
Answ. 1. Though hunger and thirst, and other natural
and sensitive appetites and passions, be not in your power,
yet a consent of the will to deny these is in your power. As
natural as it is to hunger and thirst, your superior faculty
of reason can prevail with you to suffer hunger and thirst in
a siege or sickness, when the suffering ofit will save your
life. You will be ruled by your physician lo forbear not
only many a dish, but raany a meal which your appetite de
sireth ; and your reason can persuade you to suffer the open
ing ofa vein, and the drawing out of your own blood, yea, ,
or the cutting off a meraber, when it is to save your life ; for
all that feeling and self-love is natural to you. And you
are not acquainted with the nature of friendship, if you
would not suffer rauch for a friend ; nor with huraane affec
tions, if you would not suffer rauch for parents, or children,
or your country ; so that your will is free thouglf your sense
be not free, nor your natural appetite. Though you cannot
choose "but feel when you are hurt, you might consent to
that feeling for a greater good. 2. And according to the
tenour of this objection, you may as wisely and honestly
plead for most of the wickedness of the world, and say, ' it
is natural lo me to lust, and therefore I may play the adul
terer and fulfil it. It is natural to me to desire meat and
drink, and therefore I may eat and drink as long as I desire
it. It is natural lo me to seek to hurt those that I ara angry
with, or hate ; and therefore I may beat or kill them.' If
you must deny the passions and sensitive appetite, and the
inferior faculties of nature in one thing, why not in another?
These lower powers are made to be ruled by reason, as beasts
are made to be ruled by men, and raore ; and therefore, see
ing this arguraent from nature is but frora the brutish part
of nature, it is but a brutish arguraent. And if yet you say,
that for all these words, death is so great an enemy to you,

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 241
that you cannot choose it : I answer, that is because your
reason is not iUurainated and elevated by faith, to see the
necessity of choosing it, and lo see those higher and better
things which by this means you may obtain. Had you that
heavenly life of faith and love which the Spirit worketh in
the saints, it would carry you above this present life, and
take you up with higher matters, and shew you that (and
so shew it you) as should procure your own consent to die.
But because this is the great point that Christ doth pur
posely here try our self-denial by, and a point of such great
necessity to be looked after, I shall stay a litlle longer on
it, while I give you, 1. Some reasons to raove you; and
2. Some directions to assist you, to get a self-denying sub
mission to death when Christ requireth it.
The many lamentable defects in grace which the in
ordinate fear of death doth intimate, I have already opened
in the fourth part of the ' Saints' Rest ;' and therefore raay
not now repeat thera, but shall add some few considera
tions more.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.
^wenty Reasons for denying Life.
1. Consider that Our lives are not our own, but God, that
doth require them, is the absolute Lord of them : more truly
than you are owner of any thing that you have in the world,
is he the owner ofyour lives and you. And therefore both
in reason and justice we should be content that he dispose
of his own. If he may not freely dispose of you and your
lives, you raay as well deny him the dispose of any thing,
and so deny him to be God ; for he hath the same right to
you as to any thing else, and the same power over you. And
therefore if you consent that he shall be God (for which he
needs not your consent), you raust consent that he be the
owner and disposer of all, and of you as well as all things
else : otherwise he is not God.
2. You can be content that the lives of others, yea, that
all the world, should be at God's dispose : in reason you
VOL. XI. R

242 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL-
cannot wish it should be otherwise. You are content that
the lives of emperors and kings, that are greater than you,
should be at his dispose. And is there not the same reason
that he dispose of your life as of theirs ? Are you better
than they, or rapre your own ; or hath the world more need
of you than them ? : Or rather, is it not unreasonable selfish
ness that raakes so unreasonable a difference with you ? If
reason raight serve, the case is plain.
3. You are contented that far greater matters than your
lives should be at God's dispose. The sun in its course,
the frame of nature. heaVen and earth, and all therein, are
at his dispose, and would you wish it otherwise ? Days and
nights, and sumraer and winter, and times and seasons, are
al his dispose ; and you dare not raurraur that all the year
is not summer or daylight, and that there is any night or
winter. The angels of heaven are at his dispose to do his
will, and are content lo be used on earth fpr your service,
and they desire not to be frora under his dispose. And
should you desire it ? or rather desire that his will may be
done on earth as il is in heaven ? If you would not have the
crowns and kingdoms of the vvorld at his dispose, and
heaven and earth are at his dispose, you would not have him
to be God ; but if you would have these greatest things
at his dispose, what are you then, that your lives should
be excepted? 4. Whom would you have to be the disposer of men's
lives but God? Is any other fit for the undertaking? No
other can give life but he ; and no other can preserve and
continue it bul he ! If your life had been in any creature's
hand, you had been dead long ago ; for no creature isable
to uphold itself, much less another also. Is any creature
wise enough lo order the world and the affairs thereof? I?
any creature powerful enough to dispose of the world and
all things in it ? Is any creature good enough to do it with
out the communication of its iraperfection, which would dis
order and destroy all ? I know you raake no doubt pf any
of these things. No creature is, fit to be God ; and there
fore none is fit to undertake the work of God: and there
fore il must be God or none that must have the disposal of
your lives and you. , '.'.
But I know what it is that self would have ! You would
have the disposal of your own lives, or else have God to

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 243
dispose of them as you would have hira, which comes all to
one. But how unreasonable is this? Would you alone
have the disposal of your own lives? Or would you have
all men else in the world also to have the disposal of theirs?
If all should have this privilege, what a miserable privilege
would it prove ! No man then would die ; and tben either
you must forbear raarriage, or what would you do with yOur
posterity, when there were no roora on earth ? And then
you could not punish a malefactor wilh death ! And what
a world would it be, if all men were disposers of theraselves,
when there would be as many different ends and minds as
men? Every man would be for himself, and an enemy to
Others; andthe world would run every raan on his own
head, and a madder confusion than can be imagined would
seize on all. If you would have every man have the dispose
of his own life, you would have as many Gods as raen, and
so have no God ; and you would have as raany kings or
rulers as men, and so have no ruler : and you would have
the world lo be no world, when God were to thera as no
God. And if you would not have it thus with all, what
reason have you to desire it for yourself? What are you
more than all the world, that you should be exempted from
the comraon state of mortals, and be at your own disposal
more than they, and be instead of God unto yourselves?
5. You think it neither cruelty -nor injustice, that the
lives of brutes should be riiuch at your disposal ! Your poor
fellow-creatures must die when you require it. Birds, and
beasts, and fishes, even multitudes of thera, raust die to
feed you; yea, even for your delight, to make you a fSast,
when you have no necessity. ' The most harmless sheep you
will not spare : the raost laborious ox, the raost beautiful
bird, must give up their lives tb satisfy your pleasure. And
is not God ten thousand thousand times, even intiniteljl-
raore above you, than you are above your fellow-creatures ?
Is one creature fitter to kill another, and afterwards devour
it, and becorae its grave, than (jod to dispose of the
lives of all?
6. Where could you wish your livies to be better; than
in the hand of ' the most wise and gracious God? Ifyou
may rest content, or have confidence in any, it is in him.
You need not doubt of his goodness, for he is gbodness and-
love itself. And therefore though you ' see riot the world

244 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
to come that you are passing to, yet as long as you know
thatyou are in the hands of love itself, what cause have you
of disquiet or distrust ? And that you know that he is wise
as well as good, and almighty as well as wise ; and there
fore as he raeaneth you no harra (if you are his children), so
he will not mistake, nor fail in the perforraance. You need
not fear lest your happiness should raiscarry for want of
skill in hira that is omniscient, or for want of will in him
that is your father, or for want of power in him that is om
nipotent. You may far better trust God with your lives
than yourselves, for you have not wisdom enough to know
what is best for you, nor skill to accomplish it, nor power
to go through with it ; nay; you love not yourselves so well
as God doth love you. Did you but believe this, you would
better trust hira. You can trust yourselves in a narrow
ship upon the wide and raging seas, when you never saw
the country that you are going to ; and all because you be
lieve that the voyage is for your coraraodity, and that you
have a skilful pilot. And cannot you commend your souls
into the hand of God, to convey you through death to the
invisible glory, as confidently as you dare corarait your lives
to the conduct of a man, and to a tottering ship in a hazard
ous ocean ? You can trust your lives on the skill ofa phy
sician; and cannot you trust them on the will of God?, If
you had your choice, whether your lives should be at your
own dispose, or God's, you should far rather choose that God
might dispose of thera than yourselves ; as it is belter for
an infant to be guided and disposed of by the parents than
by itself. A good king will not kill his own subjects need
lessly, and a natural father or raother will not needlessly
kill their own children; yea, a very brute will tenderly che
rish their young. And dp yod think that God, who is in
finitely good, will causelesslyorinjuriously take your lives?
Or that he doth not mean you good even in your death ?
Object. ' But how can I think it for ray good to die ; and
to have my nature .dissolved ? , i
Answ. Paul " did desire to depart, or be dissolve4, and
to be wilh Christ as best of all ;" Phil. i. 23. And did not
he know what was for his good as well as ypu ? He was
" willing rather to be absent frora the body and present with
the Lord, than at liome in the body and absent from the
Lord ; and therefore groaned earnestly, desiring to be cloth-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 245
ed upon with his house which is from heaven, that mortality
might be swallowed up of life;" 2 Cor. v. 1,2.4.6.8. When
the hen hath sat to hatch her young ones, they raust leave
the shell as good for nothing, and raust corae into a wbrld
whichthey never saw before. And what of that? Should
they murmur at the breaking of their former habitarion ?
Or fear the passage into so light, so wide, so strange a place,
in comparison of that in which they were in before? No
more should we murmur at the breaking of tbese bodies,
and casting the shell of flesh, and passing under the con
duct of angels, into the presence of the Lord. God is but
hatching us here by his Spirit, that he may bring us out into
the light of glory. And should we grudge at this ?
7. And what if God call you to sacrifice your lives to
him, as he called Abraham to sacrifice his son ? What if he
call you to corae to hira by a persecutor's hand ? Or at least
to be willing of your natural death ? He calls you but to
give up a life which you cannot keep ; and to do that wiir
lingly, which else you must do whether you will or not :
willing or unwilling, die you must ! How loath soever you
are, you are sure to die! You raay turn you everyway,
and look about you on the right hand and the left, to all
the friends and means in the world, and you will never find
a medicine that will here procure immortality, nor ever
escape the hand of death. " It is appointed to all men once
to die, and after that the judgraent ;" Heb. ix. 27. And no
man can change the decrees of Heaven. And seeing all your
turnings and unwillingness cannot avoid it, is it not better
to submit to it willingly than unwillingly ? God doth im
pose it on you as a necessity. Your willingness may make
a virtue of necessity, and out of necessity extract a reward ;
but your unwillingness may turn your suffering into your
sin, and a necessary death unto an unnecessary misery now
(and hereafter if you be not true believers), as Paul saith of
his rainisterial labours, " Ifl do this thing willingly, I have
a reward : but if against my will, a dispensation, is coramib-
ed to me : for necessity is laid upon me" — 1 Cor. ix. 16, 17.
So I may say in the present case : if you give up your lives
willingly in the love of God, you have a reward ; but if you
do not, necessity is upon you, and die you must, whether
you will or no. You may escape the reward by your un-
vvillingness, but death you cannot escape. And raetliinks

246 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
you should s.ee that it is little thanks to you, to give up that
life which ypu cannpt keep ;'and yet this is all that God re
quireth. Perhaps ypu think, that thpiigh you cannot keep
itstill, yet soragvvhat longer you may keep it. But you be
not sure of that. The next hpur n^ay God deprive you of
it. And O, wh# SI dreadful thing it were, if as soon as you
have denied God ypurlives, he should snatch thera from you
in his fury, and cast you into hell! And if he should dis-
train.fpr his own, as soon;as you haye d.enied, it hira! And
you should die as enemies, that would not die as martyrs, and
a§ his friends! And in this sense hath my text been many
a time, fulfilled i " He that will save his life shall lose it."
8. Consider also, that it is up,pn terms ofthe highest advan
tage imaginable to yourselves, tbat(5odcalls'you to resign
and lay down your lives. It is npt indeed to lose them>but to
save them, as iny text doth promise you,' ',' He, that loseth; his
life shall save it." No more than you lose your clothes which
you put off at pight, and put on again in the morning; or
ratber> no more than. you lose your dirty, rotten rags, when
you put thera off at night, and are to have ip, tbe morning a
suit of princely attire in their stead. Will any man s-ay,
thpse; rags are lost? At least they will not say that the man
is a loser by the change. That is not lost that; is committed
tg God, upon, the ground of 9, promise., Nor that which is
laid out in his service, at hiS; coramand. Reason will tell us,
that no man can be a loser by a epurse of subraissive obedi
ence to God. You cannot ,be at so much cost fori him, or
offer him, ^p, dear a, service, which he is not able and willing
to satisfy you for a thousandfold. God vvill not be beholden
to any man. You cannot bring him in your debt, beyond
what he doth by his bountiful promise ; but if you could,
he would not continue in your debt. You will make no
thing of your death, if you do not either undergo il for
Christ, or bear it submissively by the power of heaverily love
constraining you. Merely to die whether you will or no,
as a fruit of sin. is common lo the most ungodly men; but
if the love of God can make you voluntarily submit to death
(whether natural, or violent from persecutors), what a glo
rious advantage may you make of it! You will l.Put
your salvation more out of doubt than any other course in
this world could do. For whosoever perisheth, it is most
certain that such as tbese shall be saved. 2. And therefore

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 247
you may die with the greatest confidence and joy, as having
seen the matter of your doubts removed, and dying in the
very exercise of those graces that have the promise qf sal
vation; and in sach a state as hath the fullest and raost fre
quent proraises in the Gospel. 3. And then the crown of
raartyrdom is the most glorious crown. You will not have
an ordinary place in heaven. These are that part of the
heavenly host that stand nearest to the throne of Gpd, and
that praise him with the highest joys, who hath brought
them through tribulations, and redeeraed thera by his blood.
Ifa raan should raake a raotion to you to exchange your
cottage for a palace and^ kingdora, you would not stick al
it as if it were against you, because you raust leave your
ancient horae : and how much less should you be against
it, when you are but moved to step out of your ruinous cot
tage into glory, when it would shortly fall upon your heads,
and you must leave it whether you will or no. for nothing.
9. What reason have you to be so tender of the flesh?
Is it the greatness of its sufferings that you slick at? Why,
yoa put poor beasts and birds to as rauch, and so do the
butchers daily for your use; and they raust suffer it. And
why shbuld the body be so dear to you ? For the raatter of
it, what is it but earth? And wherein is it raore excellent than
the beasts that perish ? I think God hath purposely cloth
ed your souls with so poor a dress, that you should be the
less unwilling to be unclothed, and might learn to set more
by your souls than by your bodies, and to make raore care
fully provision for them. It seems he hath purposely lodged
you in so poor a cottage, that you should not be at too
rauch care for it, nor be too loath to leave it. You have its
daily necessities, and infirraities, and pains, and somewhat
of its filth and loathsomeness, to tell you of its meanness ;
and why should you be so loath that so poor a collage, so
frail a body, should be turned lo dust? Dust it is, and to
dust it is sentenced. When the soul hath left it bul a week,
men can scarce endure to see it or sraell it! And should
the breaking of such an earthen vessel be so unpleasing a
thing to you? And for its uaefulness. though so far as itis
obedient, it was serviceable to your souls and God, yet
was it so refractory, ill-disposed, and disobedient, that it
proved no better than your enemy. Many a temptation il
hath entertained and cherished ; and many a sin hath it

248 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
drawn you to corarait; those senses have let in a world of
vanity ; those wandering eyes have called in covetousness,
and pride, and lust. Those greedy appetites have been so
eager on the bait, that they have too oft borne your faith
and reason, and drawn you to excess in meats and drinks,
for matter or manner, for quality or quantity, or both.
Many a groan those sins have cost you, and raany a smart
ing day they have caused you, and a sad, uncomfortable life
you have had by reason of thera, in comparison of what you
might have had. And this flesh hath been the mother, or
nurse of all. You were engaged by your baptismal covenant
to fight against it, when you entered into the church ; and
ifyou are Christians, this combat hath been your daily
work, and rauch of the business of your lives. And yet are
you loath to have the victory, and see your eneray under
feet? Do you fight against it as for the life of your souls,
and yet are you afraid lest death should hurt il or break it
down ? Have you fought yourselves friends with it, that
you are so tender of it? When you are the greatest friends
to it, it will be the raost dangerous enemy to you. And do
not think that it is only sin, and not the body, that is the
flesh, that is called your eneray in Scripture. For though it
be not the body as such, or as obedient to the soul, yet is
it the body as inclining to creatures, frora which the sinful
soul cannot restrain it ; and it is the body as having an in
ordinate sensitive appetite and imagination, and so distem
pered, as that it rebels against the Spirit, and casteth off
the rule of reason, and would not be curbed of its desires,
but have the rule of all itself. Was it not the very flesh
itself that Paul saith he fought against, and kept under, and
brought into subjection, lest he should be cast away? ICof.
ix. 26, 27, Why should sin be called ' flesh and body' but
that it is the body of flesh that is the principal seat of
those sins that are so called ? " If ye live after the flesh,
ye shall die ; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the
deeds of the body, ye shall live ;" Rora. viii. 13. " If ye
sow to the flesh, ofthe flesh ye shall reap corruption;" Gal.
vi. 8. That which is first in being, is first in sin ; but itis
the flesh or erabryo endued with sense, that is first in being.
Be not therefore too tender of that which corruption hath
made your prison and your enemy : many a time you have
been put to resist it, and vyatch and strive against it, and

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 249
when you have been at the best, it hath been hindering you
to be better; and when the spirit was willing the flesh was
weak, and quickly hath it caused your cooling and declen
sion. Many a blessed hour's communion between God and
your souls, that flesh hath deprived you of: and therefore,
though still you must love it, yet you should the less grieve
or be troubled at its sufferings, seeing they are but the fruits
of its sin, and a holy contentedness should possess your
minds, that God should thus castigatorily revenge his own
quarrel and yours upon it.
10. But yet consider, that were you never so tender of
the body itself, yet faith and reason should persuade you to
be content, for God is but preparing even for its felicity ;
his undoing it is but to make it up again. As in the new
birth he broke your hearts and false hopes, that he raight
heal your hearts, and give you sounder hopes instead of
thera ; so at death he breaketh your flesh and worldly hopes,
not to undo you, and leave it in corruption, but to raise it
again another manner of body than now it is, and give it a
part in the blessedness which you hoped for. If in good
sadness you believe the resurrection, what cause is there
for so much fear of death? You can be content that your
roses die, and your sweetest flowers fall and perish, and the
green and beauteous complexion ofthe earth be turned into
a bleak and withered hue, because you expect a kind of re
surrection in the spring. You can boldly lie down at night
to sleep, though sleep be a kind of death to the body, and
more to the soul, and all because you shall rise again in the
morning ; and if every night's sleep (or one at least) were a
gentle death, if you were sure to rise again the next morn
ing, you would raake no great raatter of it. Were it as cora
raon to raen to die every night, and rise again in the raorn
ing, as it is to sleep every night and rise in the raorning,
death would not seem such a dreadful thing. Those poor
raen that have the falling-sickness, do once in a day, or in
a few days, lie as dead men, and have as much pain as many
that die ; and yet because they use lo be up and well again
in a little time, they can go merrily about their business the
rest ofthe day, and little fear their approaching fall. How
much raore should the belief of a resurrection unto life, con-
" firm us against the fears of death ! And why should we not
as quietly comrait our bodies to the dust, when we have the

250 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
promise of the God of heaven, that the earth " shall dehver
up her dead," and that this body " thatis sown in corruption,
shall be raised in incorruption? It is sown in dishonour, it
is raised in glory : it is sown in weakness, it is raised in
power : it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual
body." So great and wonderful the change will be, as now
is inconceivable ! We have now a drossy lump of flesh, an
aggregation of the elements to a seed of life, which out of
thera forms itself a body, by the Divine iriflux. Like the
silkworm, which in the winter is but a seed, which in the
suraraer doth raove and attract that raatter from which it
gets a larger body, by a kind of resurrection : but il is ano
ther manner of body (I will not say of flesh), which at the
resurrection we shall have. Not flesh arid blood, nor a na
tural body, but of a nature so spiritual, sublime, and pure,
, thatit shall be indeed a spiritual body. And think not that
this is a contradiction, and that spirituality and corporeity
are inconsistent ; for " there is a natural body, and there is
a spiritual body :" the root of the fleshly, natural body, was
the " first raan Adam, who was made a living soul," to be the
root of living souls. The root of the spiritual body is Christ,
who being a "quickening Spirit,'" doth quicken all his mem
bers by his Spirit, which Spirii of grace is the seed of glory ;
and as from a holy and gracious Saviour we receive a. holy
and gracious nature, so from a glorified Saviour we shall re
ceive a glorious nature: we are now " changed from; glory
to glory" in the beginning, as "bythe Spirit ofthe Lord;"
but it is another kind of glory that this doth tend to.
" Howbeit, that is not first which is spiritual, but tlie natural,
and afterwards the spiritual. The first man was of the earth,
earthy : the second man is the Lord from heaven." And from
each of them we partake of an answerable nature. " As is the
earthy, such are they that are earthy," even all of us in our
fleshly state, having earthy bodies from an earthy Adam,
and natural bodies from the natural Adam. " And as is the
heavenly, such are they that are heavenly ;" for Ghrist makes
men like himself, even first gracious, and then glorious, as
Adam begets us like himself, that is, natural (and sinful).
And therefore all those that have " followed Christ in the re
generation," shall follow hira into glory, and having con
quered by hira, shall reign by hira and with him ; and having
received the holy nature here whieh is the seed of glory, they

TREATISE OP SELF-DENIAL. 251
shall receive tlie glorious nature there, which is the per
fection of that grace : and so as Christ hath a heavenly
spiritual body, and not an earthy, natural body, so shall his
raembers have, that they may be like him. " And as we have
here borne the image of the earthy," in having first a natural,
fleshly body, " we sliall also bear the image of the heavenly
Adara," in having a spiritual body, that is not flesh. Now,
lest any doubt ofit (saith the Spirit of God), " this, 1 say,
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdora of God;
neither doth corruption inherit incorruption;" 1 Cor. xv.
42—51.
Object. ' If there were but as rauch likelihood ofa resur
rection, as there is of the reviving of the plants in the spring,
I could believe it, for there is a life remaining in the root or
seed ; but the body of man hath neither root nor seed of
life, and therefore it is contrary to nature that it should
revive.' Answ. 1. If it be above nature, that is all, il is not con
trary to it ; or not so contrary as to be above the power of
the Lord of nature. Will you allow no greater works for
God than such as you can see a reason of, and can assign
a natural cause of? What did nature in the creation of
nature? Ilwas not certainly any cause of itself ! If Christ
rose without a natural cause, even so shall we. 2. Bul why
may I not say that the dead body of man hath a living root,
as truly as the plants in winter? The soul is the root of the
body, and the soul is still alive ; and Christ is the root of
the soul, and he is still alive. For though we are dead, " yet
our life is hid with Christ in God : and when Christ, who is
our life, shall appear (at the spring of resurrection), then
we shall also appear with hira in glory ;" Col. iii. 3, 4. And
though there be no physical contact between this living
soul and the body, yet there is a relative union, and a deep
rooted love ofthe soul to its body, and inclination lo it; so
that it is raindful ofit, and waiteth with longing for that hour
when the command of God shall send it to revive that body.
It is not incredible that a silly snail should, by its natural
life and power, make for itself a beautiful habitation ; or
that the life of a rose-tree, that was buried in the root, should
fabricate a sweet and beauteous rose, by which it may make
an ostentation of its invisible self to the world. In how
sraall a room doth the life of a silkworra lie (of which I

252 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
spoke before) in the winter ! That little grain of seed is
such as yields no sign of life to the beholder : yet doth it
form itself a larger body, and that body spin its silken web
out of its own substance ; and in that, house itself in a husk,
and take to itself another shape, and thence becorae a winged
fly, and so generate raore. But nearer us, in the generation
of raan, the vital principle in the seed doth quickly, with
concurrentcauses, forra itself abody. The warrath ofthe heri,
or other bird, can turn the egg into a chicken. Why then
raay not the living soul, that is the root and life of the body
in the dust, be the instruraent of God to reforra its own body ?
As certainly it will be the principle that shall reinform it.
But you say, the body being dead hath no natural root, nor
way of recess to life again, because the privation is total.
To which I answer ; first, the relative union between the
soul and it, and the soul's disposition to the return into its
body, is as potent a cause of its reviving as the natural union
of the root and the branches ; if, withal, you consider that
Christ is the root of the soul. Rational agents, if perfect,
will work as certainly as natural ; for natural causes do no
thing but by a power communicated to tbem frora an intel
lectual cause, even God hiraself. Why should nature do
any of these things, but because God, that raakes and ruleth
all, will have it to be so? Now Jesus Christ is the pohtical
head of the church. Tbe body in the grave hath its own
relation to hira. Christ is still living, and resolved, and
engaged by promise, and inclined by love, to revive that
body. And as Christ is the life of the soul, so the soul is
the life of the body ; and this soul, as I said, is waiting to
be sent again into it. And when the hour comes, what can
.hinder? The love of the soul to its body, and its desire to
be reunited, is a kind of natural cause of the resurrection.
A candle not lighted is as far from light, and as much with
out it, as a dead body is without life : and yet one touch of
a lighted candle will light that which never was lighted be
fore. And so may one touch of the living soul that is now
wilh Christ, put life into the body that lieth in the dust
And as the lighted candle makes the other like it, and com
municateth of its own nature to it ; so doth the glorified
soul communicate a new kind of excellency to the body,
which it never had before ; even to be a spiritual, glorious,
incorruptible, and immortal body. In the first creating of

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 253
man, the new forraed body, as td the raatter of it, was no
better than the body of a beast or any coramon piece of
earth. But the soul raade the difference ; when a rational
soul was breathed into that body, it advanced the very body
to a dignity beyond the body of brutes, even such as the
natural body of raan had before sin. When Christ was
about to repair fallen man, it was the Spirit of Christ in
forming the soul, that caused the renewed soul to communi
cate again a dignity to the bodies of sanctified raen above
other bodies. And so when the body was dead because of
sin (having the root of sin and death within it, and being
mortal therefore), yet the spirit was life because of righte
ousness (being the root of holy and righteous dispositions,
and the new life in man himself) ; Rom. viii. 10. For Christ,
the principal root of life, and the spirit and holiness, are
first in order of nature in the soul, and but by communica
tion, and secondarily in the body. But contrarily. sin raade
its entrance by the body, and hath its root and seat, first in
order of nature in the body; and it is so communicated to
the soul : thus sin comes in at the backdoor, even at the
wrong end, and by the baser part: but grace comes in the
right way, by the nobler part ; sin hath its root in the viler
part ; but Christ hath his seat first in the better part. And
yet I must add, 1. That sin is not ripe till il reach the will,
though it enter by the flesh and senses : it is not forraed,
nor to be called sin, till it reach the will, and as there it is
situated: but yet the thing itself is first in and by the flesh.
2. And the will is truly the seat of originial sin itself, as
well as the sensitive part ; but not the first root of the cor
ruption. Though sin be worst in the rational part, because
the corruption of the best is the worst, yet it is not first
there. But holiness is first also in the soul, and so corarau
nicated to the body. And so also glory itself willbe. And
therefore take notice of the wise and gracious providence
of God, that taketh the soul to heaven beforehand that it
may be first glorified, and so may be fit to communicate
glory to the body : and so as the natural soul dignified the
natural body, and the sanctified soul did sanctify the body,
' so the glorified soul by re-union with the body, shall com
municate its nature to the body at the resurrection, and so
itwill be made spiritual, immortal, and incorruptible bythe
soul; and the soul and body are made such by Christ.

254 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
So that by this time you may see that there is more
re-dson for the resurrection, for all the body is turned to
earth, than there is reason that a candle that is gone out
should be lighted again by another ; or than there is rea
son thai I should put on ray clothes in the raorning which
I put off al night. It is .true, those clothes have no power
to put on theraselves; nor is there any natural necessitating
cause of it ; but yet there is a free cause in me, that willin-
fallibly (if 1 live and be able) produce it ; for nature dis
poseth me to abhor nakedness, and desire my clothes, and
therefore in the raorning I will put thera on. And so nature
teacheth the separated soul to desire a re-union with its
body ; and therefore when the resurrection raorning comes,
il will gladly lake the word frora Christ, and give that vital
touch to the body that shall revive it, and so put on its an
cient garraent; bul wonderfully changed from fleshly to
spiritual, from dishonourable inlo glorious.
And now I hope you see, that you may put off these
clothes with patience and subraission, and that il is no
wrong to the flesh itself to be put off, but tendeth to its
highest advancement al tbe last ; though the first cause of
sin, and the nest of sin shall be so broken first, that it shall
first be seen what sin hath done, before il be seen what
grace will do ; and the fruit of our own ways raust first he
tasted, before we shall fully feed and live upon the blessed
fruit of the grace of Christ.
11. Moreover, as there is a resurrection for the body
itself, and that to a raore perfect estate than it can here
attain,- so the whole nature sh6.ll be perfected beyond our
present comprehension.^ This life was not intended to be
the place of our perfection, but the preparation for it. As
the fruit is far from ripeness.in the first appearance, or the
flower while it is but in the husk or bud ; or the oak when
il is but an acorn ; or any plant when it is but in the' seed ;
no more is the very nature of man on earth. As the infant
is not perfect in the womb, nor the chicken in the shell,
no more are our natures perfect in this world. Methinks
for the sake of the body itself, much raore of the soul, if
we are believers, we should submit contentedly to dfeathi
While you are here you know that creatures will fail you,
enemies will hateyou, friends will grieve . you, neighbours
will wrong you, satan will tempt you and molest you; the

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 255
world is changeable, and will deceive you ; all your com
forts are mixed with discomforts ; the body carrieth about
with it calamities enough of its own to weary it. What
daily pains raust it be at for the sustentation of itself in its
present state ; and yet what grief and sorrow raust it un
dergo ! Every member hath either its disease, or a dispo
sition thereto. What abundance of passages can pain and
sickness find to enter at ; and how many rooms that are
ready to receive thera I As every raeraber hath its use, so
every one is capable of sorrow ; and the sorrow of one is
at least as much coraraunicated lo the whole, as the useful
ness is ; tbe pain of the simplest -snember, even of a tooth,
can raake the whole body weary^ of itself What is the
daily condition of our flesh, but weakness and suffering,
with care and labour to prevent much worse, which yet we
know cannot long be avoided : the sorrow of many a man's
life hath made him wish he had never been born : and why
then should he not wish as much to die, which doth ten
thousandfold more for him, if he be a Christian, than to be
unborn would have done. Not a relation so comfortable,
but hath its discomforts; not a friend so suitable, but hath
some discordancy ; nor any so amiable and sweet, but hath
somewhat loathsome, troublesome, and bitter. Not a place
so pleasant and commodious, but hath its unfitness and dis
commodities ; not a society so good and regular, but hath
its corruptions and irregularities. And should we be so
loath to leave (whether naturally or violently) such a life as
this ? When the fruit is ripe, should it not be gathered ?
When the corn is ripe, would you have it grow there and
not be cut? When the Spirit hath hatched us for heaven,
sbould we be so loath to leave the shell or nest? When we
are begotten again to the hopes of immortality, should we
be so desirous to stay in the womb? O, sirs, it is another
kind of life that we shall have with God ! They are purer
comforts, that stay for u* above. -But ifyou will not have
the grapes tobe gathered and pressed, how can you expect
to have the wine? Methinks our flesh raight have enough
ere this time, of sickness, and pain, and want, and crosses,
and should be content to lie down in hope of the day when
these-^hall be no more.
Little would an unbeliever think what a bpdy God will

256 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
make of this, that now is corruptible flesh and blood ! It
shall then be loathsome and troublesome no more. It shall
be hungry, or thirsty, or weary, or cold, or pained no more.
As the stars of heaven do differ from a clod of earth, or from
a carrion in a ditch, so will our glorified, immortal bodies
differ from, this mortal, corruptible flesh. Ifa skilful work
man can turn a little earth and ashes inlo such curious
transparent glasses, as we daily see ; and if a little seed
that bears no show of such a thing, can produce the more
beautiful flowers ofthe earth ; and ifa little acorn can bring
forth the greatest oak ; why should we once doubt whether
the seed of everlasting .Jife and glory which is now in the
blessed souls with Christ, can by hira communicate a per
fection lo the flesh that is dissolved into its elements?
There is no true beauty bul that which is there received
frora the face of God : and ifa glimpse made Moses' face
to shine, what glory will God's glory communicate to us,
when we have the fullest endless intuition of it! There
only is the strength, and there is the riches, and there is the
honour, and there is the pleasure ; and here are but the
shadows, and dreams, and names, and iraages of these pre
cious things.
And the perfection of the soul that is now imperfect,
will be such as cannot now be known. The very nature
and manner of intellection, meraory, volition, and affec
tions, will be inconceivably altered , and elevated, even as
the soul itself will be, and much more, because of the
change on the corruptible body, which in these acts il now
raakes use of. But of these things I have spoken so much
in the ' Saints' Rest,' that I shall say no more of them now,
but this : that in a believer that expects this blessed change,
and knows that he shall never till then be perfect, there is
much unreasonableness in the inordinate unwillingness and
fears of death.
12. You know that fears and unwillingness can do no
good, but much increase your suffering, and make your
death a double death. If it be bitter naturally, make it not
raore bitter wilfully. I speak this as a violent death for
Christ, as well as of a natural death ; for as the one cannot
be avoided if we would, so the other cannot be avoided
when Christ calleth us to it, without the loss of our salva-

TREATI.se OF SELF-DENIAL. 257
tion ; and therefore it may be called necessary as well as the
olher. Necessary suffering and death is enough without
the addition of unnecessary fears.
13. Nay, were it but to put an end to the inordinate
fears of death, even death itself should be the less fearful to
us. These very fears are troublesome to many an upright
soul ; and should we not desire to be past them ! As a
woman with child is in fear of the pain and danger of her
travail, but joyful when it is over; so is the true believer
himself loo ofl afraid of the departing hour : but death puts
an end to all those fears. Is it the pain that you fear? Why,
how soon will it be over! Is it the strangeness ofyour souls
to God, and the place that you are passing lo ? This also
will be quickly over ; and one moment will give you such full
acquaintance with the blessed God, and the celestial inha
bitants, and the world in which you are lo live, that you will
find vouiself no stranger there ; but be more joyfully fami
liar and content than ever you were in the bosom of your
dearest friend.
The infant in the womb is a stranger to this lighter,
open world, and all the inhabitants of it ; and yet it is not
best to stay there. You can sail for commodity lo a coun
try that you never saw; and why cannot you pass witb peace
and joy to a God, a Christ, a heaven that you never saw?
Bul yet you are not wholly a stranger there ; is it not that
God thatyou have loved, and that hath first loved you?
Have you not been brought into the world by him, and lived
by himi and been preserved and provided for by him? And
do you not know him? Is il not your Father, and he that
hath given you his Son and his Spirit ? Have you not found
an inclination towards him, desires after him, and some
taste of his love, and communion wilh him, and yet are
you wholly unacquainted with him ? Know ye not him
whom you have loved above all ? In whom you have trust
ed? And whom you have daily served in the world? Who
have you lived to bul him? For whom else have you laid
out your time and labour ? And yet do you not know him?
And know you not that Christ that hath purposely come
down into flesh that you might know him ? And that hath
shewed himself to you in a holy life, and bitter death, and
in abundant precious Gospel mercies, and in sacramental
representations, that sobe might entertain a familiarity with
VOL. XI. s

258 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
you, and infinite distance raight not leave you too strange
to God? Know you not that Spirit that hath made so
many a motion to your soul? That hath sanctified you,
and formed the iraage of God upon you, and hath dwelt in
you so long? And raade your hearts his very workhouse,
where he bath been daily doing somewhat for God ? Itis
not possible that you should be utterly strange to him that
you live to, and live from, and live in; and not know him,
by whom you know yourselves and all things, nor see that
light by which you see whatever you see.
O but, you say, you never saw hira, and have no distinct
apprehension of bis essence. Answ. What! would you
make a creature of him, that can be limited, comprehended
or seen with fleshly, mortal eyes? Take heed of such ima
ginations. It is the understanding that must see him ; you
know that he is most wise, and good, and great ; and that
he is the creator, and suslainer, and ruler of the world,
and that he is your reconciled Father in Christ; and is this
no knowledge of him? And then, the heaven that you are
to go to, is it that you are an heir of, where you have laid
up your treasure, and where your hearts and conversation
hath so long been ; and yet do you not know it ? You have
had many a thought bf it, and bestowed many a day's la
bour for it, and yet do you not know it? O, but you never
saw it for all this ! Answ. It is a spiritual blessedness that
flesh and blood can neither enjoy nor see ; but by the eye
of the mind you have often seen, at least sorae glimpse of
il : you know that it is the present intuition and full frui
tion of God himself and your glorified Redeemer with his
blessed angels and s-aints in perfeci love, and joy. and
praise. And if you know this, you are not altogether
strangers to heaven. And for the saints and heavenly inha
bitants, you are not wholly strangers to thera. Some of
them you have known in the flesh, and others of them you
have known in the spirit ; you are fellow-citizens with the
saints, and of the household of God, and therefore cannot
be utterly unacquainted with them.
Bul methinks the stranger you are to God and to hea
ven, and to the saints, the more you should desire to be
there where there is no strangeness : this is not the time or
place of most intimate acquaintance. If you would be ac
quainted, you should draw nearer and not draw back. It

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 259
is death that raust open you the door into that presence
where strangeness will be no more.
And if it be the doubts of your interest in Christ and
life that makes you shrink and loath to die ; consider, that
to refuse lo die for Christ, is the way above all to increase
those doubts ; but to give up your lives for him, or cheer
fully to surrender your souls to him at his call, is the readi
est, surest way in the world to prove you at present in a
state of grace ; besides that you will be hastened into a
slate of glory, where you shall be quickly and fully passed
all doubts of your slate of former grace. In a word, as all
the fears and sorrows of this life will then be at an end, so
with the rest will our fears of death : and therefore death
should be the more welcorae; because it is the end, as of
all other troubles, so of these disturbing fears.
14. Consider also what a multitude have trod this bloody
way before you. Almost all that ever were born have died,
and are now in the world that you are passing to. You are
not tbe first that entered at this narrow gate; The dearest
saints of God have died. If Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Da
vid, Peter, and Paul could not escape the stroke of death,
what are you that you should murmur to follow such and so
raany that have gone before you? You need not fear being
solitary in heaven. There are millions and millions more of
saints, than there are on earth : many that you knew, and
millions more tbat will then be as dear to you as ifyou had
known them. Is it not better be among innocent souls than
a defiled, guilty world? Is it not belter be where no sin
entereth, and never a lust or passion coraes, than to live
as among wild beasts, with furious, unreasonable sinners?
Is il not better be where light is perfect, and all your doubts
are fully resolved, than in darkness, and perplexity, and
among an ignorant, blind generation, that are enemies lo
the light that you desire ? Is it not betier be where is no-
thin^but the perfect love of the infinite God, in perfect
saints and blessed angels, than to live among perverse, un
godly men that make you almost weary ofyour lives ? If it
be a delight to us to read the writings of the illuminated
saints of God, and we think them such jewels and orna
ments in our libraries, what a pleasure it would be tP converse
with them that wrote these books, and that in their celestial
perfection, where they have attained a thousand times more

260 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
light than before tbey had ; and where all the doubts are re
solved whicli their books could not resolve. O, blessed
society, in coraparison of that we now converse with!
15. Nay raore, lest the bloody way of death should seem
too strange and terrible to us, the Lord Jesus our head hath
trod that path 5 and that on purpose to conquer death, by
taking away the sting and principal cause of terrors, and
making that a passage to felicity that was a passage to ever
lasting misery ; so that ever since Christ hath gone this
way, there is no such danger in it to his followers. Where
the Captain of our salvation goeth, his soldiers may boldly
follow him. " Forasmuch as the children were partakers of
flesh and blood, he also hiraself likewise tbok part with
them, that he might destroy by death hira that had the power
of death, that is the devil ; and might deliver them that
through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to
bondage ;" Heb. ii. 14, 15. He hath cleared our way, and
taken out of it the sorest thorns, and hath prepared us a
habitation with himself. And shall we fear to go the way
that Christ hath gone, and purposely gone to clear it
for us ?
16. Moreover consider, that the celestial inhabitants
have purposely made theraselves farailiar with us in this
lower world, that they might acquaint us with themselves,
and lead us up to their blessed habitation, and fit us for it.
No man of comraon reason can doubt but that those more
capacious, glorious parts of the universe, are stored with
inhabitants answerable to their glory ; wben we see every
corner ofthe lower world to be replenished with inhabitants.
And Scripture and sorae experience tells us, that those
angels of God are conversant here about us raen : they bear
us up in their hands, that we dash not our foot against a
stone; they pitch their tents and encarap about us, as an
appointed guard for our security; it is their very office:
" for what are they but ralnistering spirits, sent forth to
minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation ?" Heb.
i. 14. They converse wilh us, though we see them not, and
are about us night and day ; they are araong us in our
holy asserablies, observing our behaviour before the Lord;
1 Cor.xi. 10. and they are witnesses of our good and evil;
Eccles. V. 6. From them, as the servants of God, was the
law received ; Acts vii. 53. Gal. iii. 19. Heb. ii. 2. They

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 261
read nur books, and study with us the mysteries of the
Gospel ; 1 Pet. i. 12. And as near as they are to God, they
are glad to make the church their book in which to read
his manifold wisdom, and know it by beholding it in us as
in a glass ; Ephes. iii. 10. The nations have their angels,
the churches have their angels, and the particular saintfs
also have their angels; Dan. x. 13, 20, 21. Rev. i. 20,
Acts Xli. 15. Matt, xviii. 10. They are not strangers with
us, but have charge of us to keep us in all our ways ; Psal,
xci. 10 — 12. They rejoice in our conversion; Luke xv. 10.
They are part of the heavenly society that we are already
listed in ; Heb. xii. 22. They ascend and descend as ordinary
passengers between heaven and earth ; Gen. xxviii. 12.
They are round about us, and we live as in their camp ;
Psal. xxxiv. 7. Before them we raust be confessed or de
nied ; Luke xii. 8, 9. They convoy our departed souls to
Christ ; Luke xvi. 22. They shall attend Christ at his se
cond coraing, as they proclaimed his first, and attended him
on earth ; Matt. xxv. 31. Mark viii. 38. They shall be his
heralds to call up tbe dead to judgraent ; Matt. xiii. 39 49.
and xxiv. 31. And at last we shall be their corapanions and
equal to them ; Luke xx. 36. So that you see we have the
same society invisible, which we shall have in heaven ; yea,
and sometime when God is pleased, they manifest their pre
sence by visible or audible apparitions. And shall we fear
to reraove into the presence of these blessed spirits that
now attend us and are still about us, and the instruments
of so much of our good ?
Yea, the Lord Jesus Christ came down to be familiar
with us, and to bring us into a state of friendship, and holy
boldness with God hiraself : and yet shall we draw back ?
17. I would put this question to you for your serious
answer: Can you be contented, yea, do you desire, to have
no more of God than here you bave ? Is this much of the
knowledge of him, and his will and works, sufficient for
you? Would you be no nearer him, and enjoy no more
of him? Whatever your flesh say, sure the love of God in
your hearts will not suffer you considerately to say so.
Consult with your new nature, with the holy principle that
is in you : methinks you should not be content to remain
for ever at such a distance from God as you are. Ifyou

262 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
can, I blame you not to be afraid of death : if not, why then
are you loath to go lo him ?
18. A.nd I would ask you also, whether you are content
with the measure of sanctification which you have, or whicb
is lo be attained in this life ? Are you content to live for
ever wilh no more knowledge or love of God ? No more
faith or love lo Christ ? No more sense of the worth of
grace? No more righteousness, or peace, or joy, in the
Holy Ghost? No more meekness, humility, or hea.yenly-
raindedness ? Are you contented rather to live for ever
under all the pride, and ignorance, and passion, and selfish
ness, and lust, and worldliness, and all other sins that here
beset you, rather than to remove to the place of perfection,
and yield that death shall break the vessel and nest of your
corruptions?. Ifyou care so little forthe grace of God, and
see so little beauty in his image, and see so little odiousness
in sin, that you had rather keep it for ever than go to God
by the passage of death, I blame you not lo be afraid lo die ;
but if otherwise, why do you desire perfection and deliver
ance, and yet be so loath to come and receive it, when you
know that it is not to be had on earth ?
19. Moreover, you are contented to remain for ever as
unserviceable to God as bere you are ? Alas ! how little
do you for him ! How much do you to displease him !
Lay together all the service of your lives, and how smafl
and poor a matter is it ! And WQ,uld you still live at these
rates? Will this content you? Methinks it should not if
you have grace in your hearts. Why then do you not desire
lo depart, and to be wilh Christ? There you shall be per
fectly fitted for his service, and therefore perfectly perform
il. What other service God will have for us, we cannot yet
tell : but love and praise we are sure will be the chief, and the
rest will be good, and holy, and honourable, whatever it be.
If you are Christians, methinks the sense of your unprofit
ableness, and of your unpleasing frame of heart and life,
shoidd be your daily grief; and therefore you should desire
the slate where you may be more servicable, and not be so
unwilling of it.
20. Lastly, I would ask you, arp you contented to attain
no olher end of all your life, and labours, and sufferings,
than here you do attain ? What is il that you pray for, and

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 263
seek and strive for ? Is il for no raore than is to be had on
earth ? If you have no higher design, intentions, or desires,
I cannot much blame you lo be loath to die ; but if you have,
methinks no raan should be unwilling to atiain his end.
What! have you done and suffered so much for heaven, and
now would you not go to il? Had you rather all your la
bour were lost? Do you desire to be happy, or do you not?
If you do (as certainly you do), would you not go where
happiness is to be had, when you are sure that it is not to
be had on earth ? What say you ! is there not plain reason
in all this that I propound to you? It is a sad case when
men seek not God and heaven as their felicity, but only as
a lesser evil than hell, which they would endure, rather than
enjoy, when they can keep no longer this earthly life, which
they account their felicity. Where this is the case, it is a
sad case ; and were not this a common case, there would
not be so much unwillingness to depart.
And now Christian reader, I beseech thee weigh these
foregoing considerations, and judge whether it be not a con
tradiction to thy profession, and unseemly for a believer to
be unwilling to die when God shall call him ; rauch raore to
cast away everlasting life, for the saving of his temporal
life but a little longer ! O, learn the needful lesson of self-
denial, especially in this point of denying your lives ! He
that can do this can do all, and may be sure that he is mor
tified indeed ; and he that can do all the rest, and sticks but
at this, and could part with any thing for Christ save his
life, doth indeed do nothing, nor is it esteeraed self-denying.
Il is a lesson therefore that is exceeding necessary to be
learnt, and worthy all your time and diligence, even to
deny your lives for the love of Christ.
Perhaps you will say. we live in days of peace and li
berty, and therefore are not like to be called to martyrdom :
what need then have we to learn this lesson ? I answer, 1.
You are uncertain what changes you may see ; bul if you
never suffer, yet you raust be sure thatyou have a heart that
would suffer if God did call you to it ; for though you raay be
saved without suffering, where you are not called to it, yet
you cannot be saved without a heart that would suffer if you
were put upon it. 2. And if you cannot deny your lives
for Christ, you will not sincerely deny your pleasures, or
profits, or honours for him. If you would not suffer death

264 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
for him if he called you lo il, you will not sincerely suffer
losses, and wrongs, and reproaches for him, which almost
every Christian must expect : so that to try your own sin
cerity, you should look after it. 3. And it is certain that
death will shortly come ; and then if you have not leamt
this lesson, lo deny yourselves even in case of life, you will
die unwillingly and uncomfortably.
At least, methinks I might reason thus with any man of
you, good or bad : either death is indeed lerrrible, or not.
If it be not, why do you so fear it when il coraes ? If it he,
why do you not as well fear it before it coraes, even in your
youth and health ; for you are sure then that you must die,
as if it Were upon you. A wonderful thing it is that man's
heart should be so unreasonably insensible, and that there
should be so great a difference in tbe affections of most in
regard of death. It is no matter of doubt or contrbversy
whether they shall die. He is a block, and not a man, that
knoweth it not as certainly now as he shall do in his sick
ness ; and yet, in health, tbese wretches will not be awakened
so much to fear it as may restrain thera from sin, nnd help
them lo prepare for it. It is troublesome, precise talk with
them, to talk of making ready to die : either they slight it,
or love not to hear or think of it. And yet the same men,
when death is coming, and they see they must away, are
even amazed with fear and horror ; and I cannot blame
them, unless they were in a belter case. But this I must
blame them for, as most unreasonable : that they can make
such a lamentable complaint when death and hell are near
at hand, and yet make so light of it all their lifetime.

CHAPTER XXXIX.
Ansv)er to their Doubts that fear Death.
But because this is the hardest part of self-denial, and yet
most necessary, and the particular subject of ray text, I
shall stay upon il yet so much longer as to resolve a ques
tion of some doubling Christians, and lo give you some di
rections for the furtherance of self-denial herein.
Object. ' If il be a necessary part of self-denial lo deny
our own lives, I am much afraid that I am no disciple of

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 265
Christ, as having no true self denial, for I find that for all
these reasons I cannot be willing to die ; but when you have
said all that can be said, death is the most terrible thing in
the world to me.' Answ. I pray you lay together these fol
lowing particulars for answer to this great and common
doubt. 1. Death, as death, is natuially dreadful to all;
and the best men. as men, are naturally averse to it, and
abhor it. No man can desire death, as death, nor ought to
do it. If it had not been an evil to nature, it had not been
fit to be the matter of God's punishment, and to be threat
ened to the world. Threatenings would not do their work,
if that which is threatened were not naturally evil, or hurt
ful and dreadful to the subject. To threaten men wilh a
benefit is a contradiction, as much as to promise hira a rais
chief, and raore. 2. Ilis not therefore a simple displacency,
or averseness to die, that God requireth you to lay by. Self-
denial consisteth not in reconciling us to death, as death ;
for then he might as well persuade us lo become angels as
to deny ourselves, and preachers had as hard a work lo do,
as to persuade men to cease to be men. Death will be an
enemy as long as il is death. Even the separated soul hath
so natural an inclination to union with its body, that the
separation is part of the penally lo it ; and though heaven
be their joy, and Christ their life and fulness, yet the sepa
ration from the body which they have even with Christ, is a
penalty, and tbey have not that perfeci measure of joy and
glory, as they shall have when they are joined to the body
again : so that separation, as such, is penal to the soul
in blessedness. And even the separated soul of Jesus
Christ, that was more blessed than ours, was, as separated,
in a state of penally, when his body was in the grave (of
which, see my Appendix to the Reformed Pastor, about the
descent into hell). 3. That whicli you have to look after,
therefore, in your souls, is not a love to death, or willingness
of death as death, which no man hath or should have ; but
it is, 1. A submission to it, as a less evil than sin and hell,
and the displeasure of God, and a choosing rather to die than
wilfully to sin and forsake the Lord. 2. And a love to that
glory in the fruition of God which death is the passage to.
Seeino- we cannot obtain the end of our faith and patience
by any easier passage than death, you must rather be con
tent to go this straight and grievous way than miss of the

266 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
state of eternal blessedness. Let death be never so odiou.s
and dreadful to you, ifyou had but rather die than forsake
Christ by sin, or miss of everlasting life with God, you have
that true self-denial, even of life itself, which is required in
ray text. 4. And yet even a gracious soul raay be so much
unprepared, as to desire to slay yet longer on earth, though
he be absent frora the Lord while he is present in the body,
that so a belter preparation raay be made. And also the
love of God may make a man desire to stay yet longer for
the service of the church, or to be, with Paul, in'a strait
between two ; Phil. i. 21 — 23. 5. Have you not such plea
sant apprehensions of the New Jerusalem, and the coming
of Christ in glory, and the blessed stale of the saints in
heaven, as that you could most gladly enter into that
blessed slate by any olher way than death ; and had
you not rather die than miss of that felicity? At least,
when you know that die you must, had you not rather die
sooner, even a violent death by persecution, thani miss of
your eternal life by saving your lives a little longer? 6.
And for your unwillingness to die, as death is the lasl ene
my to be conquered by Christ at the resurrection, so the
fears of death, and the power of it, is the last evil that we
shall be troubled wilh : and you must not expect to be fully
freed from these fears in this life, for death will be death,
and man will be man. But yet let me tell you, that before
you die God may very much abate your fears, and very or
dinarily doth so with his servants : 1. By giving them that
grace that is suited to a dying stale ; and 2. By the help of
sickness and pain itself; and that is one great reason why
sickness shall usually go before death, that pain and misery
raay raake the flesh even weary of itself, and make the
soul weary of its companion, and both weary of this mi
serable life.
And now I shall briefly name some few directions,
which, if you will practise, you will more easily submit
to death.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 26?

CHAPTER XL.
Directions to be willing to Die.
Direct. 1. By all means endeavour the strengthening of
your belief of the reality of eternal life, and the truth ofthe
promise of Christ concerning it ; for if you believe it not,
you cannol die for il, nor cheerfully submit to a natural
death through the hopes of it. This is the sum or principal
work of the Christian faith, to believe the everlasting life,
as procured for us by the love of the Father, the obedience,
death, resurrection, and intercession of the Son, and the
sanctification of the Holy Ghost. It is the unsoundness,
or the weakness of this belief, that is the principal cause of
our unwillingness to die.
Direct. 2. By all means endeavour to get and maintain
the assurance of your title to this promise and felicity. Get
sound evidence, and keep it clear : expunge all blots with
out delay. Take heed of such sin as woundeth conscience.
and wastelh corafort, and grieveth the Spirit of adoption by
which you are sealed lo the day of redemption, and by which
you have your peace and comforts. If by such sin your
souls are clouded and estranged from God, be diligent in
seeking for healing and reconciliation, and rest not till your
peace be made wilh God ; for while you think of him as
displeased, you will be afraid of coming to him, and this
will double the fears of death.
Direct. 3. Deny yourselves first in the carnal and worldly
coraforts ofthis life, or else you are unlikely to deny your
selves in the raatter of life itself. Disuse yourselves from
unnecessary pleasures of the flesh, and learn to endure dis
honour, contempt, and reproach from the world, and sick
ness and poverty, when it is inflicted on you by the hand of
God. Till you can deny your ease, and profit, and appe
tite, and honour, and all the delight of this present world,
you are never likely to deny your lives sincerely. To deny
your lives, doth contain the denying of all these, and more ;
and therefore you must learn the lesser ifyou would do
the greater. These are the parls of life, as il were, and it
is easier thus to overcome il in its parts, than in the

268 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
whole : when particular soldiers are destroyed, the army is
the weaker.
And the use of suffering the afflictions ofthis life, will
make you hardy, and make death seem a smaller matter;
for when you thus die daily, you will the more easily die
once. Besides, death is half disarmed when the pleasures and
interests of the flesh are first denied ; for the leaving of
fleshly contents and pleasures is much of the reason of men's-
unwillingness to die : and therefore when these are denied
beforehand, the reasons of your unwillingness are taken
away. If you pull down the nest, the birds will be gone.
Men that are loath to leave their country would willingly be
gone if their houses were fired, or they were turned out of
doors and their friends and goods were all sent away. This
is it that makes men so unwilling to die, because they prac
tise not mortification in their health, but contrarily study
to live as pleasingly as may be to the flesh, and think it
part of their Christian liberty, thus making Christ a carnal
Saviour, as the Jews conceive of their expected Messiah ;
and taking'up with a carnal, false salvation, not purchased
by Christ, but given by satan in the name of Christ, and
assumed by themselves. They raake il their business to
have buildings, and land^, and raeats, and drinks, and ho
nours, and all ihings as pleasing as may be to the flesh, and
then they complain that they are unwilling to die, and I
easily believe them : it is no wonder. They make it the
work of their lives to feather their nests, and make provi
sion for the flesh, and then complain that they are loath to
leave those nests that they have been feathering so long,
and loath to scatter all the heap and treasure which they
have been gathering. And did. you think that gathering it
was the way to make you willing to leave it ? Men load
themselves with the lumber and baggage ofthe world, and
then complain that they cannot travel on their journey, but
had rather sil down. They fall a building them habitations
in their way, when they should have none but inns or tents ;
and wben they have bestowed all their time, and cost, and
charges on them, they complain of their hearts for being
loath to leave thera. Such mad doings as these are not the
way to be willing lo die : to provide for self and flesh in
your lifetime, is not the way to deny your lives. Sirs, the

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 269
way is this, if you will learn it, and stick not at the cost and
trouble : self must be here stript naked of all its carnal com
forts, so that it shall have nothing left to fly to, or trust
upon, nor nothing left that it can take delight in, and then
it will away. If you would drive out an ill tenant, you will
cast out all their goods, and leave them nothing but the
bare walls, and not so much as a bed to lie on, and uncover
the house over their heads, and then they will be gone. So
ifyou cast out all your sensual coraraodities and delights,
that when the flesh looks about it shall see nothing but the
bare walls, and cannot find a resting place, then death will
be less grievous and less unwelcome ; or rather, indeed,
even the flesh and self must be raortified, and in the sense
in which it must be denied, il must have no being or life
(that is, as it is withdrawn frora its subordination lo God),
and then there will be nothing lo rise up against your sub
mission to death. Though nature, as nature, will keep you
frora loving death as death, yet were but self-denial perfect,
there would be nothing lo keep you from submitting to it,
and desiring lo pass through it to immortality. O, thatyou
would but try such a self-denying life, and you would cer
tainly die an easy, comfortable death.
Direct. 4. Suffer not unworthy thoughts of God to abide
in your soul. Think not of his infinite love and goodness
with doubtfulness or diminution. You will never be willing
to corae to God while you think of him as cruel, or as a
despiser of his creatures, or unwilling lo do good ; bul when
once you think of him as the surest, greatest good, and your
fastest friend, and the raost lovely object that can be con
ceived of, and these thoughts are deep and wrought into the
very nature ofyour soul, then you will be ready raore cheer
fully to die. No raan can love the presence of a tyrant, or
an eneray, or of hira that is so far above hira that there is no
communion with him to be had. If you entertain such
blasphemous thoughts of God, you are unlikely ever to de
sire his presence. See you think as honourably and mag
nificently of tbe goodness and love of God, as you do of his
knowledge or his power ; and as you would abhor any ex
tenuating conceptions of the one, so do of the other, and
then the loveliness and glory of his face will draw out your
desires, and make you long to be wilh God.
Direct. 5. And by such raeans as this aforesaid, labour

270 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
to bring up your souls to live in the love of God. It is love'
that is the divine and he-avenly nature in us ; and therefore
must incline us heavenwards. The nature of love is to long
after communion with bim that we love. The more love,
the more of God in the soul, and the more desire after God.
This is the grace that must live for ever, and therefore bend
eth towards the place of its perfection. It is want of love
to God, that maketh most of us so contented to be from
him. Strengthen and exercise all other graces, as far as in
you lieth; bul above-all, live in the exercise ofthis enjoy
ing, heavenly grace.
Direct. 6. Consider of all the burdens that are here upon
you, which should make you long lo be wilh God. One
would think the feeling of them would force you lo consider
ation and weariness of them, and make the thoughts of rest
to be sweet lo you. Have you yet not sin enough, and sor
row, and fear, and trouble enough ? Or must God lay a
greater load on you, to make you desire lo be disburdened?
Every hour you spend, and every creature you have to do
wilh, afford you some occasions of renewing your desires to
depart from these, and be wilh Christ.
Direct. 7. Observe and magnify that of God which is
here revealed to you in his word and works. Study him
and admire him in Scripture, study and admire him in the
frame of nature ; and when you look towards sun, or moon/
or sea, or land, and perceive how little it is that you know,
and how desirable itis to know them perfectly^ think then
of that estate, where you shall know them all in God him
self, who is more than all. Study and admire him in the
course of providences ; study and admire him! in the person of
Christ ; in the frame of his holy life ; in the work of redemp
tion; in the holy frame of his laws and covenants ; study
and admire him in his saints, and the frame of his holy image
on their souls. This life of studying and admiring God,
and dwelling upon him wilh all our souls, will exceedingly
dispose us to be willing to come to him, and to submit to
death. Direct. 8. Live also in the daily exercise of holy joy and
praise to God ; which is the heavenly employment. For if
you use yourselves to this heavenly life, it will much incline
you to desire lo be there. Exercise fear, and godly sorrow,
and care in their places ; but especially after faith and love,

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 271
be sure to live in holy joy and praise. Be much in the con
sideration of all that riches of grace in Christ, communicated
and to be communicated to you. And be much in thanks
to God for his raercies ; and cheering and comforting your
soul, in the Lord your God ; and thus tbe joy of grace will
rauch dispose you to the joys of glory ; and the peace
which the kingdora of God consisteth in, will incline you
to the peace of the everlasting kingdora ; and the cheerful
praising of God on earth, in psalms or other ways of praise,
will prepare and dispose you to the heavenly praises. And
therefore Christians exceedingly wrong their souls, and hin
der themselves from a willingness lo be with God, in' spend
ing all their days in drooping, or doubting, or worldly dul
ness, and laying by so much the joy ofthe saints, and the
praises of God.
Direct. 9. Dwell on the believing forethoughts of the
everlasting glory which you must possess. Think what it
is that others are enjoying while you are here; and what
you must be, and possess, and do for ever. Daily think of
the certainty, perfection, and perpetuity of your blessed
ness. What a life il will be, to see the blessed God in his
glory, and taste of the fulness of his love, and to see the
glorified Son of God, and with a perfected soul and body to
be perfectly taken up in the love, and joy, and praises ofthe
Lord, among all his holy saints and angels, in the heavenly
Jerusalem. You must by the exercise of faith and love, in
boly meditation and prayer, even dwell in the spirii, and
converse in heaven, while your bodies are on earth, if you
would entertain the news of death as beseems a Christian.
But ofthis at large elsewhere.
Direct. 10. Lastly, if you would be willing to submit to
death, resign up your own understandings and wills to the
wisdom and the will of God ; and know not good and evil
for your carnal selves ; but wholly trust your lives and souls
to the wisdom and love ofyour dearest Lord. Must you be
carking and caring for yourselves; when you have an
infinite God engaged to care for you ? O, saith self, I am
not able to bear the terrors and pangs of death. O, saith
faith. My Lord is easily able lo support me, and it is his
undertaken work to do it: ray work is bul to please hira;
and it is his work to take care of me in life and death ; and
therefore " though I walk through the valley of the shadow

272 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
of death, yet will I fear no evil." O, saith self, I am ut
terly a stranger to another world ! I know not what I shall
see, nor what I shall be, nor whither I shall go the next mi
nute after death : none come from the dead to satisfy us of
these things ! O, but saith faith. My blessed Father and
Redeemer is not a stranger to the place that I must go to !
He knows il, though I do not! He knows what I shall be
and do, and whither I shall go ; and all is in his power ; and
seeing il belongs not to me, but lo him lo dispose of me,
and give me the promised reward, it is meet that I rest in
his understanding ; and it is better for me, that his infinite
wisdom dispose of my departing soul, than my shallow, in
sufficient knowledge. I may much more acquiesce in his
knowledge than my own. O, but saith self, I fear il may
prove a scene of darkness and confusion lo my soul ! what
will become of me, I cannol tell. O, but saith faith, I ara
sure I am in the hands of Love ! and such love as is omni
potent, and engaged for my good ! And how can it then
go ill with me ? If I had my own will, I should not fear.
And how much less should I fear when I am at the will of
God, even of most Wise, Almighty Love?
There is no true centre for the soul to rest in but the will
of God. Il is our business lo obey and please his will, as
dutiful children ; and lo commit ourselves contentedly to
his will for the absolute disposal of us. It is not possible
that the will of a heavenly Father should be against his chil
dren, whose desire and sincere endeavour hath been to obey
and please his will. And therefore learn this, as your great
and necessary lesson, wilh joyful confidence to commit
yourselves, and your departing souls to your Father's will,
as knowing that your death is but the execution of that
will, which is engaged to cause "all things to work together
for your good ;" Rom. viii. 28. And say with Paul, I suffer,
but am not asharaed " for I know whom I have believ
ed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I
have committed to him against that day ;" 2 Tim. i. 12*
" Therefore we labour and suffer  because we trust in
the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of
those that believe ;" 1 Tira. iv. 10. Say therefore as Job,'
" Though he kill me, yet will I trust in him." Or rather as
Christ, "Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit;"
Luke xxviii. 46. If the hands and will of the Father were

TRBATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 273
the rock and comfort of Christ in his suffering and death,
so also they must be to us. See therefore that in your health
you kill your own wills, that when death comes, self raay
have no will to strive against the will of God ; but as your
heaven itself will be your rest in the will of God; so rest in
it in death, that you may have a taste of heaven in death,
and sure that will sweeten it, if any thing will.
II. I have hithertO' shewed you wherein self-denial doth
consist, first, as to the heart and root of it, which is the
raortification of the selfish inclination or disposition ; and
then, as to the first ofthe three parts of its objective inter
est, which is sensitive pleasure; I should now proceed to
the olher two parts ofits objective interest: and the se
cond is, worldly gain or profit, which the apostle John call
eth " the lust of the eyes," and puts next to the " lust of
the flesh." But I have already written a treatise of this by
itself, viz. " Ofour Crucifixion ofthe World;" and therefore
I raay well forbear it here.

CHAPTER XLI.
HI. Honour and Pride, and I. Climbing high, 8fc.
The third part of the objective interest of self, is that
which goes commonly under the name of honour ; and is
called by the apostle, " pride of life," and put by hira in
the third place. And of this, I intend, if God will give
me time and strength, to write also a treatise by itself,
and therefore should say nothing of it here ; bul only lest I
should not have tirae lo do that which I desire, I shall
briefly name you ten of the particulars under this head of
honour, which you must deny : that is, ten ways wherein
men exercise their pride.
1. One work of Pride is to climb higher into places of
superiority, and honour and command. Poor men that are
out of hope, and in no capacity for rising, feel not much of
this, though the disposition to it be in tbem as well as
others, because it is not drawn forth by temptations. But
where opportunity serveth, there is nothing wherein selfish
ness and pride doth more constantly and obstinately shew
VOL. Xl- '^

274 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
itself than in this. It is the nature of selfishness to aspire
after the highest exaltation in the world that can be attain
ed. We raay easily observe in kingdoms and corporations,
and all societies of men, what Christ observed at their feasts,
that " they choose out the chief rooms and sit with the
highest ;" Luke xiv. 7,- 8. What eager desires have they to
be above other men ! If any office or seat of honour be
void, there are few that apprehend any possibility of attain
ing it, that want a will to it; yea, few tbat will not seek and
strive for it, and envy those that carry it before them ; and
hate, or bear a grudge to those that were against their
rising : yea, few but venture on the most unlawful means to
accomplish their desires, and yet will scarce believb that
they are unlawful, because they think them necessary to
their ends. There are few, if they had the choice of aman
to any vacant place of honour, that would choose any other
bnt themselves ; unless their unfitness were likely more to dis
honour them, or some way to make their honours too burden
some to them. No man in their eyes is so fit as themselves,
or so worthy as themselves : or, if it be their children or
kinsraen that stand for it, or any that self hath special inter
est in, they seem the worthiest for the place, because they
are related to them. Especially if it be any eminent dig
nity or command, that seems to thera a prey that is worth
the hunting after. O, the blinding, bewitching, befooling
power of pride and selfishness ! How coraraonly doth it
rule! How few are those holy^ happy men, that have
escaped and overcome it ! How few societies be there in the
world, whether corporations, colleges, or the like, but pride
and selfishness make their governors ! How few nations on
the earth, where pride and selfishness maketh not their kings
or sovereigns ! And is it any wonder if they be all ill-go
verned then, where the devil doth so much to choose the
governors ? I know that God overruleth all, and restraineth
the lusts of men, and crosseth their designs ; but yet their
lusts and the devil may rule to their destruction for all that.
Object. ' But is it not lawful to seek for dignity and su
periority ?'
Answ. No ; not for self; but for God it is. You have
warnings enough, and plain enough from Christ, if warn
ings would serve turn ; he hath bid you " sit not down in
the highest room ;" he hath sharply rebuked them that

TREATISE OF SELF-DEN I AL. 275
Strive for precedency, and who shall be the greatest. He
hath told you, he that will be the greatest, must be the sef-
vant of all; and hath told you of stooping to the feet of the
meanest, and condescending to men of low degree ; and
hath set little children before you to be your teachers, and
assured you that there is no entrance into his kingdom in
any other posture. He hath told you that God resisteth
and abhorreth the proud, and that he that humblelh hiraself
shall be exalted, and he that exalteth hiraself shall be
brought low.
Object. ' But how shall I know whether I seek prefer
ment for God or myself? I hope it is God that I seek it for.'
Answ. 1. How shall a raan know his own raind? You
have dark hearts indeed ifyou cannot know your own in
tentions, ifyou are but observant, and diligent, and willing
to know them. 2. He that seeketh not dignities for hira
self, but for God, will never seek to put by another that
is as able and likely lo do God service in tbe place as he ;
nor will he seek it at all, if he see that God raay be served
as well without his seeking il ; but will stay until God call
him to it, and then he may expect his help and blessing.
Few do intend God in it, that are exalters of theraselves.
Indeed ifyou see that an eneray of the Gospel, or sorae un
worthy, ungodly raan is like to come into the place if you
seek il not, by which the church or the coraraonwealth, is
like to be rauch injured, then you may seek it by lawful
means ; so that you can truly say, I Would not do it for
myself ; but it is to serve Go.d for his people's good. 3.
Nay, he that seeketh not the dignity for himself, will seek
first and more to get in another, if he know another that is
fitter than hiraself, and likely to do God more service ; and
this he will do heartily, and not disserablingly. If you had
not rather a worthier and more useful man were preferred
before you, and seek not more for such than for yourselves,
you are plain self-seekers, whatever you raay pretend. If a
raan should corae to almost any of the rulers of nations,
churches, colleges, or corporations, thathave screwed thera
selves into the place of government, and ask them, did you
know no raan fitter for this place than yourself, and have
you sought first to get a fitter raan ? What can they for
sharae say to it ? If they say, no ; they proclaim theraselves
notorious self-seekers ! For it is very seldom^ that a hum-

276 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
ble man is allowed to judge himself the fittest. 4. And he
that seeketh dignities for God and not for himself, will use
them for God, and not for himself. For the intention will
command the use. He will deny himself in his superiorityi
as well as if he were in the lowest place ; and will con
trive how he may most serve and honour God ; and this will
be easily seen in his endeavours, whether it be God or self
that he serves and liveth to.
And now I advise all that love their souls, to take heed
ofthis aspiring act of selfishness. If you will needs seek
yourselves, and be your own exalters, you must trust to
yourselves, and be your own defenders; and then you will
find that the lowest condition in the hand of God, is more
safe and comfortable than the highest in your own hand.
If God sbould lift you up to the lop of the highest moun
tains, you may expect either a calm, or his protection in the
storra, and to be as safe as those below; but if you lift up
yourselves, and satan carry you to the pinnacle of the tem
ple, take heed lest you Ihence cast down yourselves by his
temptations that did lift you up. Dignities and honours,
are not indeed the things that they seem to be to carnal eyes
that see not the inside, but judge by the outward, glittering
show. There is most holy duty and work to be done, where
is the greatest dignity. And certainly the life of greatest
work and labour is not the life of greatest ease, or carnal
pleasure; especially when it is the work of God that you
must do ; a work which all the world is against, and which
satan and all his power will resist ; and which must meet
wilh enmity and abundance of enmity, whenever you set
about it. Though you are commanders, yet you are sol
diers ; and you that are leaders have the hottest standing,
and must expect the sharpest conflicts. Do you think of
your dignities and offices as places of mere superiority and
honour, and accommodation to your carnal selves? Then
are you carnal men, and enter upon you know not what, and
make yourselves traitors and enemies to God, whom he is
engaged to bring down and be avenged on at last ; you de
base the sacred coin which bears the stamp and name of
-God. Magistracy is holy, and the image Of God, and you
basely turn it into the image of the flesh ; and blot out
Ood's name from it, and starap upon it the name of self, and
traitorously raake it your own, which was eminently his.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 277
Believe it, whoever you are, if you seek for places of rule
and dignity with carnal, selfish expectations, you must ei
ther use them accordingly when you have them, which is
the readiest way to damnation in the world, or else you
must find your expectations crossed, and raiss of all your car
nal ends ; and find that the greatest toil and burden, which
you expected should have been your chief content. God
hath annexed the honour and outward greatness, partly to
encourage you to so hard a work, lest tbe burden should be
too heavy, and partly to enable you to perform it, and give
you some advantages against opposition. Bul though the
clothing of authority and rqle be splendid, the substance
thus covered is extraordinary labour, and duty, and suffer
ing. It is honourable, bul it is an honourable burden, and
an honourable, painful, difficult work. So that if men un
derstood what office and authorily is in church or coraraon
wealth, and looked after the substance as well as the orna
raents ; the work as well as the honour and greatness ; it
would be an erainent piece of self-denial for a man to submit
to the call of God, to be a prince, a judge, a justice, or but
a constable; and men would as hardly be drawn to take the
office, as they are now to do the work of the office in faith
fulness, and with courage and zeal for God ; and that is al
most as hard as an offender is drawn to the stocks. Offices
and high places are not intended to accommodate the flesh ;
nor are they things to be ambitiously desired and sought
for, by such as understand the ends and use of them; but
they are such laborious, hazardous ways of serving God,
which a wise man knows, raust cost hira more than the ho--
nour will repay ; and which a good man will not run away
from, when God calleth him thereto ; bul will so far deny
himself as to subrait to thera; butnot thrust hiraself into
thera, as the proud and selfish do. It is a work of patience
to a godly raan to be thus exalted; but it is a work of pride
and self-seeking in others. Deny yourselves so far as to
subrait to governraent and .dignity, and bear it pariently if
it be cast upon you, as being an excellent opportunity of
serving God ; bul wish not for it, because of the honour and
advantages lo the flesh ; much less contend for it, or set
your hearts on il. He that seeketh an office or honour for
himself, must have another heart before he will use it for
God. It is better with Saul to hide ourselves from honour.

278 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
than with Absalom to contrive and seek it ; but best of all
with David to stay till God call us, and then obey.

CHAPTER XLII.
The Love and good Word of others Denied,
2. Another part of selfish interest to be denied, is the
love, and good will, and word of others. This is a thing
that may and mast be desired to good ends ; but not for
carnal self. When Paul looked at God's honour and the
good of souls, he " became all things to all men that he
might by all means save some ;" and this he did, not for
self but for the Gospel's sake, and yet for himself in subor
dination to God, that he " might be partaker ofit with them."
He would " give no offence to Jew or Gentile, or the church
of God; out pleased all men in all things (that tended to
their good), not seeking his own profit, but the profit of many
that they may be saved ;" 1 Cor. x. 32, 33. And he hath
left it as the duty ofthe strongest Christians, " not to please
themselves, but every one to please his neighbour for his
good to edification." But wben Paul looked at himself,
and his esteem among men, then he saith, " With me it is a
very small thing, that I should be judged of you, or of man's
judgment;" 1 Cor. iv. 3. And " Do I seek to please men?
For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of
Christ ;" Gal. i, 10. Good natures are loath to provoke
others to displeasure ; and grace moveth us to please men
for the saving of their souls. Bul it is pride and selfrseek-
ing to desire to set up ourselves in men's esteem; and
to endear ourselves for ourselves into their affections. It
is God's highest honour to be most highly esteemed, and
most dearly beloved, as being the most perfect and trans
cendent good. And proud men in this would aspire to his
prerogative ; and much affect to be beloved of all ; and fain
they would sit near men's hearts, and be the darlings of the
world. This is a fine, but dangerous sin ; and I doubt many
that are guilty ofit, never well considered that it is a sin,
and so great a sin as indeed it is. Deny yourselves in this.
It is God that must be loved of all, and not you ; you must

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 279
be content to " be hated of all men for his sa.ke," that he
may be loved. Men's hearts were not made to be your
throne, but God's. Your work is to love, and not ambi
tiously to seek for love. So far as your interest in men's
affections doth conduce to God's honour and service, and
their good, desire it, and spare not ; but see that these be
really your ends. But for yourselves, take heed of desiring
or seeking for men's love. They are apt enough to have in
ordinate affections to the creature without your teraptations.
To love God in you, and love you for God, is their duty
which you may provoke them to in season ; but seek not
for any nearer interest in thera, nor for such a love as ter
minateth in yourselves. Nature is exceeding ambitious
of being beloved ; but steal not God's due. You are to be
suitors and solicitors for him, to win the hearts of as many to
hira as you can ; and not to speak for yourselves in his stead.
Thankfully accept of men's ordinate love to you, if you
have it ; but if they deny it to you, for the sakp of
Christ, and turn it into hatred, do you deny yourselves
herein, and remember that it is no more than you were fore
warned of; and no more than your Lord, and his worthiest
servants have endured. What a pattern is Paul, that tells
his converts, he "seeks not theirs but them, as parents lay
up for their children, and not children for the parents, and
would gladly spend, and be spent for thera, though the more
he love, the less he were beloved ;" 2 Cor. xii. 14, 15. See
that you love God and them, and that is your duty ; do
that and you need not take care for the love of men to you.
Their love is none ofyour felicity, and therefore their hatred
depriveth you not of your felicity ; for that lieth only in the
love of God. Here therefore self must be denied,

CHAPTER XLIII.
The Reputation of Riches to be Denied.
3. Another part of the honour which self must be denied
in, is the reputation of your riches ; for wealth is one thing
that men are proud of. Some desire to be esteemed richer
than they afe, and therefore go in the best apparel they can

280 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
get, that they may not be thought to be persons ofthe low
est, poorest sort. And some that are rich do glory in their
riches, and think they are much raore to be honoured than
the poor ; bul alas, if they had well read and considered
what Christ hath said ofthe danger ofthe rich, particularly
in Luke xii. xvi. xviii. and viii. 14. Matt. xiii. 22. Mark
X. 23. and what James saith to them, Jaraes v. 1, 2. Ste. they
would see that riches is not a thing to be proud of; " Not
raany great and noble are called. God hath chosen the
poor of this world, rich in faith, to be heirs ofthe kingdom."
The talents for which we must give an account al the bar
of Christ, should be rather the matter of our fear and trem
bling than of our pride. That which makes our passage to
heaven to be as the camel's through a needle's eye. I think
should not much lift us up. All the riches of the world do
make you never the better Ihought of with God, or any wise
man; nor will they cause you to live a month the longer,
or quiet your consciences, or save you from death, or the
wrath of God. The only worth of riches is, that you are
better furnished than others to do God some kind of service,
by relieving the poor, and helping the church, and further
ing raany such good works.; and for the sake of these good
ends, you must patiently bear a slate of riches, yea, and
thankfully receive them, if they are given you by God:
though the care and labour in a faithful distribution of them,
and the danger of abusing them, and the reckoning to be
raade for thera, are so great, as raay deter a wise raan from
a greedy seeking them, or glorying in thera.

CHAPTER XLIV.
Comeliness and Beauty to be Denied.
4. Another part of the honour that self raust be denied
in, is the reputation of your personal comeliness or beauty ;
for such fools and children sin hath raade folks, that many
rauch sel tfy the reputation of these : and hence is most
coraraonly the abuse of apparel. Every proud person is de
sirous of that which will make them seem the most hand
some or beatitiful persons unto others, and make it their

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 281
care to set fortii themselves to the eyes of beholders. What
they indeed are, we can see as well in the meanest attire ;
but what they would be thought lo be, we raay best see in
this : bul of this I spoke before. Yea, some that think they
are not proud of their comeliness, yet cannot endure to be
esteeraed ill-favoured or uncoraely, and so shew that pride
which they would deny. I confess these are coraraonly but
the temptations of women, and procacious youth ; but one
would think it should be easy for a few sober thoughts to
cut their combs, and let them see how litlle cause they have
to be proud of beauty or comeliness of the flesh. Alas,
what is that body that you are proud of? Filth and cor
ruption, covered with a cleaner skin than some of your
neighbours. Ah, but the skin is thin : and if that be all
you have to glory in, il is as frail as contemptible. There
is many a pretty flower in tbe common field that is trodden
down by the feet of beasts, that bave a gloss and hue incom
parably beyond your beauty. I asked you before, what
beauty you will have to glory of when you have dwell but a
few months in the grave ; or if the sraall-pox, or leprosy,
should clothe you wilh another coloured skin ; or if a can
cer should but seize upon your face, and turn it into such
an ugly shape, as raakes men trerable to behold it ; or when
wrinkled age hath raade you as another person ; or when
death hath deprived you of that soul, which was your beauty,
and laid you out as a prey and sacrifice to corruption. Ah,
that ever such a skin full of dirt, such a bag of filth, should
yet be proud, that is carried about by a living soul, and by
it kept a litlle while frora falling down as a senseless clod,
and turning into a stinking corpse ! They are shortsighted,
and short wilted, as well as graceless, that cannot look so
far before thera, or within them, as to see that which raay
take them down from being proud of any comeliness of the
flesh. One would think this should be so easy a part of
self-denial, as any graceless one might reach by a little use
of the reason that is left them.

282 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
CHAPTER XLV.
Strength and Valour to be Denied.
5. Another piece of vainglory to be denied, is in the re
putation of strength and valour. The witless part of men,
especially in their procacious humours, do use to be carried
away with this, as witless women with the former. Hence
coraraonly are their matches of running and wrestling, and
raany exercises of activity and strength ; yea, and hence
coraraonly are their duels and murders. It seems such a
dishonourable thing to thera to be thought a coward, or un
able to defend themselves, and to be crowed over by their
enemy, that they will venture body and soul upon it rather
than they will put up such indignities, or lie under the dis
honour of being cowards. Yea, and (would one think it)
some Jesuits are such carnal (ioctors, that they teach men
that if they be challenged, and their honour do lie upon it,
they may raeet the challenger there in a defensive posture,
•and fight with him to defend their honour : yea, and in
many other cases, they may kill another for their honour,
seeing their honour is more to them than their lives. 0,
raiserable teachers, and raiserable souls that do obey ther» !
Christ hath taught you another lesson, even " to despise the
sharae," Heb. xii. 2, 3, and to hurable yourselves, and in
timateth that such cannot be believers which "receive ho
nour of one another, and seek not the honour that cometfi
from God only ;" John v. 44. It is raore honour to obey
God in suffering, than to be so valiant as to raurder another
man. Tbe day is near, when he will appear the honburablie
man that was most like to Jesus Christ, that when he " was
reviled, reviled not again ; when he s.uffered, he threatpnjed
not, but coraraitted hiraself to hira that j udgeth righteously ;"
1 Pet. ii. 23. Blind sinners ! do you think il more honour
able to do hurt than lo suffer hurt ? Yea, lo be like the
devil, who is a murderer, than to Christ, that was a sufferer,
and came not to destroy men's lives, but to save them and
lay down his own. Can any thing be more honourable
than to be the children of the heavenly Father ? And if
you be such, you must " love your enemies, bless them that

T^^REATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 283
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
that despitefully use you and persecute you ;" Matt. v. 44.
What a case are those men's understandings in, that think
it their honour to revenge themselves when God hath so for
bidden it? Rom. xii. 19.

CHAPTER XLVI.
Wisdom and Leaming to be Denied.
6. Another piece of vainglory to be denied, is in the re
putation of wisdora and learning. The things themselves are
very excellent, and to be desired and much sought after,
but not for our own honour, but the service and honour of
the Lord ; and the greater is the worth of the thing, the
greater is the teraptation to vainglory in them that have it,
and the harder it is to deny themselves herein. This part
of self-denial consisteth not in a contempt of learning or
wisdom, nor a neglect of it, for this were a sin ; but in a
neglect of self, that would make an advantage of it for its
own camal exaltation, and in a contempt ofthe honour and
vainglory which raay redound by it to ourselves, further
than such honour is serviceable to God. O how sinful and
raiserable a life do abundance of learned men live in the
world ! Their whole life is but one continued vice, and that
a sin of a most heinous nature, even the exercise of pride
and self-seeking, when yet they take theraselves for saints,
because they are not such as are accounted scandalous sin
ners in the world. They sacrifice their precious tirae and
studies to their pride and fancies, and not to God. Too
many hours and years are spent to gain the reputation of
being learned men ; too raany disputations are managed ;
yea (odious sacrilege), too m-any serraons are preached, and
too raany learned books are written, to gain the reputation
of being learned men. Ah, raiserable, low, unworthy stu
dies ! Profane sermons ! Ungodly labours, and poor re
ward ! O, bow it nettleth some proud spirits, if they hear
that they are taken to be no scholars ; and how many take
their University degrees to be raerely the wings of this part
of their vainglory. Learning and degrees, and the reputa
tion of it, are all good, if they be Valued and used but for

284 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL
God : but-they are so much the worse when they are sacri
ficed to self, and raade the food and fuel of pride. Learn,
therefore, this part of self-denial.

CHAPTER XLVII.
Reputation of Gifts and Spiritual Abilities, Hfc.
7. Another piece of vainglory to be denied, is the repu
tation of our gifts and spiritual abilities : I raean such as
praying, and preaching, and disputing, and good conference,
to have readiness for words, and liveliness of expression,
and exactness of method : to be esteeraed in all these a very
able man by others, is a high part of self-interest to be de
nied. The duties themselves raust be denied by none, for
they are the service of God, commanded us by his word ;
but it is the honour that self presumeth to hunt after in
these holy things. And it is a double sin here to seek our
selves, when we are specially comraanded to seek God, and
where the work is instituted for that end ; and when we pre
tend to seek God and to deny ourselves. The grealef are
our abilities to do God service, the raore resolutely and
thankfully we should iraprove thera in his service ; bul we
must reraember, that they are given us to save others by our
improvement, and not to destroy ourselves by our pride.
Get as great abilities as you can, and when you have
them, thank God for them, and use them for him to the
uttermost of your power ; bul take heed lest pride should
sacrifice thera to yourselves, and pervert them from your
master's service.
The persons that have most need of this advice are es
pecially these following : 1. Young, inexperienced profes
sors, that are but lately turned lo a profession of a godly
life ; that have so much illumination as sheweth them much
that before they knew not, and raiseth them above the vul
gar measure, but yet hath made them bul smatterers and
half-knowing men. These are they that the apostle re
quireth should not be raade bishops or pastors ofthe church,
because of their proneness to this very sin that now we are
speaking of, " not a novice, lest being lifted up wilh pride,
he fall into the conderanation of the devil," (1 Tira. iii. 6.) :

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 285
the Spirit of God here intiraateth to us, that novices are the
most likely to be lifted up with pride, and that this pride
is the way to the condemnation of the devil.
2. And men of great abilities, natural or acquired, that
have withal unsanctified hearts, are ordinarily transported
with this odious vice. A strong wit and a voluble tongue,
and learning lo furnish it with raatter, are notable servants
to pride of heart, where that spiritual illumination and
holiness is wanting, that should abase the proud, and turn
men's parts a belter way. To all that are apl to be tainted
with this odious vice, I would recoraraend these following
considerations :
1. Consider what a dangerous sign it is of a graceless,
hypocritical heart, where pride of gifts doth rauch pre
vail. It is as inseparable frora a child of God lo be hum
ble and little in his own esteem, as for a new-born child
to be really lesser than raen al age. No more sincerity
than'humility in any.
2. Consider what cause of deep humiliation you carry
about you in every duly ! Besides all the wants and loath
some corruptions of your souls, which follow you wherever
you go, the very sins of your duties, one would think, should
humble you. O, to have such low conceptions, such dull
apprehensions, such heartless, unreverent, poor expressions
of such a God, such a Christ, such a glory, and such holy
truth, should raake us asharaed to open our lips before the
Lord, and wonder that he doth not tread us inlo hell, in
stead of regarding us or our services, and that fire doth not
come forth from his jealousy and consume us! It should
make us so far from glorying in our performances, that it
should drive us to Christ in every duty, to take hira with
us to shelter us from the flames of holy jealousy, so that
we should not dare to go any further than he goes before
us, and stands between us and the wrath of God, nor to
speak a word but in his name, nor to expect any welcome
but on his account. Shall a wretch be proud of that per
forraance whose failings deserve everlasting torraents ? Must
you be beholden to Christ to save you frora the hell thatthe
sins of your perforraances deserve, and yet dare you be
proud of thera ? Let a Papist run that desperate path, that
rails at us for saying that our best duties are raixed wilh
sin, and that this sin deserves the wrath of God ; let theni

286 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
refuse a physician that think not theraselves sick; andlet
them tell Christ they will not be beholden to hira for a par
don for the sins of their prayers and other duties ; but for
shame let not us be guilty of this, who profess to be better
acquainted with our infirmities.
3. Consider also that you have to do with so holy and
glorious a God, that to be proud before him, and that in
and ofour very service of him, is a sin whose greatness sur-
passeth our apprehensions. Had you to do with a manlike
yourselves, you might better lift up yourselves against him.
There is nothing comparatively in the presence of the great
est prince, lo hurable and abase you ; but to be proud before
the God of heaven, and that in and of our laraentably weak
addresses to hira ; O, what a horridly impious, unreason
able thing is this ! O man! if thy eyes were opened to see
a little, a very litlle of the glory of that blessed God thdu
speakest to, how flat wouldst thou fall down! How wouldst
thou fear and tremble ! and cry out as the prophet, " Woe
is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean hps,
and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts ;" Isaiah vi. 5.
Or, " Behold I ara vile, what shall I answer thee ? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth ;" Job xl. 4. And " I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; but now raine eye
seeth thee : wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and
ashes ;" Job xlii. 5, 6. One glimpse of God's raajesty would
take down thy self-exalting thoughts, and humble thee with
a witness. 4. Consider the examples of the holiest of God's ser
vants. The example of Job and Isaiah I have now mention
ed. Moses himself did think himself unraeet to speak in
God's raessage, " He said unto the Lord, I am not eloquent,
neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken to thy ser
vant: bul I am of a slow speech and of a slow tongue;"
Exod. iv. 10. And " He said, O, my Lord, send I pray thee
by the hand of him whom thou wilt send;" ver. 13. When
God sent Jeremiah he said, " Ah, Lord God, behold I camot
speak; for I ara a child;" Jer.i.6. And Paul criesout," Who
is sufficient for these things !" 2 Cor. ii. 16. So that it hath
been the course of the raost seraphical prophets, and holy
apostles lo have low thoughts of their own abilities for duty ;
and yet have you enough to be proud of?

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 287
5. And consider that the nature of the holy employment
that you are upon, one would think, should be enough to
humble you. It is a confessing of sin, unworthiness and
guilt, and will you be proud of this ? It is a confessing that
you deserve everl-asting torraent ; and will you be proud of
sucb a confession as this? The Lord be raerciful to us, and
save us frora this unreasonable vice ; who would think that
it should be thus with a raan in his wits ? To confess that
he deserveth hell-fire ; and to be proud of that confession!
your petitions are all humbling, if they be according to the
word ; you are beggars for your lives, for pardon of many
and heinous sins, and should come as with a rope about your
necks ; you beg for deliverance from eternal misery : and
should you be proud of such requests ? Should beggars be
proud, yea, such needy, miserable beggars, and be proud of
their very begging ? Nay, your very thanksgiving itself is
hurabling. For what do you give thanks for, bul for salva
tion frora these odious sins, and the daranation which you
have deserved ? And sb-all a thief be proud that he is par
doned and taken frora the gallows? Pride is contrary to
the very nature and meaning of all those holy duties that
you are proud of.
6. Yea, the gifts theraselves that you are proud of, should
hurable you. For, 1. They are frora God, and not your
selves. " For who raaketh thee to differ? And what hast
thou that thou didst not receive ? Now if thou didst re
ceive it, why dost thou glory as if thou didst not receive
it ?" 1 Cor. iv. 7. 2. You received thera not for yourselves,
but for God ; and therefofe have no reason yourselves to be
lifted up by them. 3. All gifts are for labour and duty,
and must be once accounted for ; and therefore should keep
you in humility and fear. To be proud of God's gifts, is to
be proud of that which is given you to destroy pride in your
selves and others ; for this is the end of thera.
7. Arid it is a sign that you want exceeding much of
that which you are proud of. You are proud of knowledge ;
whereas, if it were not for want of knowledge of that which
should hurable you, you toould not be so proud. You are
proud ofyour worth ; and it is for want of real worth that
you are proud. More light, and grace, and parts, would
shew ybu that which would raake you blush at the things that
you were proud of.

288 TREATISfe OF SELF-DENIAL.
8. And consider that you take the course to pfovoke
God to bereave you of his gifts. He gave thera to you for
another use. If you will turn them against his face by
pride, when he gave them to keep you humble ; when you'
will exalt your carnal selves by it, which he gave you to
exalt his Majesty, what can you expect but he should take
thera frora you ? And it is an easy raatter with him lo do
it ; yea lo lake away your very understanding, and leave you
to the heavy plague of madness, seeing you were proud ofyour
understandings, when alas, poor worras,you had so litlle cause.
9. If once you grow proud of your parts and gifts, you
are in the high way lo be given over to sorae fearful fall ;
at best lo particular scandals, if not to some damnable he
resy or apostacy. God may prevent it by your humilia
tion, bul you are in the coraraon road that leads to il. It is
much lo be feared that God will so far leave you to your
selves, as to let you fall into the dirt of some notorious sin,
that your shame may fly abroad the world, instead of the
vain-glorious farae which you desired; and thatyou may
have somewhat to humble you, tbat shall be written in your
foreheads, and cannot he denied or hid. Or if you be hy
pocrites, and for damnation, it is most likely that you are
in the ready way to some desperate heresy, or flat apostacy.
For we see that these are too frequently the consequents bf
spiritual pride.
10. Lastly, consider that the gifts you are proud of, are
in danger of being unsuccessful to the church ; God may,
I confess, do good to others by them, though they do but
choke yourselves ; bul ordinarily he denieth success to the
proud, and blesseth weaker endeavours of the humble. Yea,
often such men and all their parts become a plague and
trouble to the church. For they use them to foment the
heresies and divisions which they are given over to ; and
do more hurt than the ignorant, or the coramon sort of the
profane. Learn therefore to deny yourselves of the reputa
tion of your performances. If you, feel any tickling delight
when you are applauded, cast water on it suddenly, as on a
fire kindled in your souls from hell. Ifyou perceive the le-ast
stirring of discontent or envy, when the preaching or prayers
of another are preferred, and yours less set by, take heed,
and quench it; for you are entertaining a dangerous temp
tation. But if you should be so far lifted up, as to set up

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 289
your judgments above their worth, and rise against your
teachers and the church of Christ, and desire lo step beyond
your callings, that your parts may be taken notice of, and
you may be somebody in the church, and verify the pro
phecy of Paul, " Also of your own selves shall men arise,
speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after
them ;" Acts xx. 30. I say, when once you come to this,
il is time to fear lest you be utterly forsaken, and become
the shame and scorn of men, as you becarae the scourge
and trou biers ofthe church, and lest your self-exalting lay
you as low as hell.

CHAPTER XLVIII.
Reputation of being Orthodox, how far 
8. Another piece of vainglory to be denied, is the repu
tation of being orthodox, or ofthe right religion. The thing
itself is in the essentials of absolute necessity lo salvation ;
but the reputation of il, is a thing that we must deny our
selves in. For it coramonly falls oat in most ofthe world,
that the thing itself, and the reputation of it, are inconsis
tent; and no man can be orthodox, and of the right reli
gion, but he must be taken to be heterodox, and of the
wrong religion ; for the wrong is in most places taken for the
right. But through the great mercy of God, it is not cora
monly so in England, nor in the reforraed churches abroad.
in any great and necessary points. Araong us truth hath the
advantage of reputation! and so raay it continue while the
sun endureth ! But yet there is use for this part of self-
denial, even with us. We converse among many sects and
parties of various opinions ; and all of thera are confident
that they are in the right, and that we are erroneous, and
against the truth : so say the Papists, and so say the Liber
tines, and many others. And there is no way to gain the
reputation of being sound and orthodox with any of these
men, but by turning to them, and forsaking the truth, and
ceasing to be orthodox indeed. In Spain, or Italy, or with
English Papists, you must be accounted heretics, or yield
to heresy ; you must either cease lo be true Catholics, or be
VOL. XI. 17

290 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
content to be esteemed no Catholics : you have your choice
whether you really will be schismatics, or be esteemed and
called schismatics. And so you will be used araong most
sects, who judge of truth and error according to their own
deluded apprehensions. Yea, and araong the orthodox in
deed, because they also have their errors, and are not ortho
dox in all things, you must look for the same raeasure in
those particulars wherein they are raistaken. For thinking
theraselves in the right, they will loo often take it for their
duty to let fly al others, as erroneous or dangerous persons,
that are not of their mind ; and in this raistake, they think
they do God service to defame Dissenters, and raise jealou
sies and suspicions of thera, and bid raen take heed of them,
as of them that hold some dangerous opinions; when it is
theraselves that are deceived, and should turn those jealou
sies and cautions horaewards. In such cases as these it is
a hard strait that a servant of Christ is put lo ; when he
raust either err or be supposed lo err. But the principal
teraptation lieth in those countries, where error hath got the
major vole, and is patronized both by book and sword, and
custom hath fixed the name of truth, upon the foulest here
sies ; and the narae of heresy upon saving truihs : here a poor
Christian is sorely terapted and put to a laraentable strait.
O, saith he, ' If I were reputed but to be b-ase, or beggarly,
or conteraptible, I could bear it ; but heresy and schism are
such odious things that no man should be patient under the
imputation of them.' Answ. Are they such odious things?
Take heed of them then, lest out ofyour own mouths you
be judged. If you think the matter so small that you will
rather be a heretic or schismatic, than be called or accounted
one, it seeras you take it for no odious thing. Is the name
or the thing raore odious to you? Had you rather be erro
neous, or be thought to be so? If the thing be raost odious
to you, the name will be the more tolerable. But if the
name be most odious to you, it is dishonour, and not error
or schism that you are against. Had you rather part with
truth and religion, or with the name and reputation of them?
Ifyou sel so rauch by self, and so little by truth, as to let
go truth for fear of being thought to let il go ; for shame,
do not take on you to be lovers of truth, but of yourselves;
nor haters of error, but of dishonour.
And consider further that you raay lose the reputation

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 291
of being orthodox, and catholic, and of the right religion,^
without losing any of the favour of God ; nay, it may be a
suffering for his sake that may advance you in his favour,
and assure you in the reward of martyrs. For saith Christ,
" Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for
ray sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your
reward in heaven : for so persecuted they the prophets that
were before yoa;" Matt. v. 11, 12. So that you see the thing
that you so abhor, is raatter of exceeding joy ; even to be
falsely counted a heretic or erroneous for the sake of Christ
and truth ; we are blessed when we are falsely reviled as er
roneous, and have all these evil sayings against us. But to
be such indeed, is to be accursed ; though the name of he
resy will stand with the special love of God, yet heresy itself
he utterly abhors. And whether do you think it is better
to part wilh truth, and the favour of God with il ; or with the
name and reputation of truth, while we keep both truth and
the favour of God? Deny yourselves then, even as lo the
reputation of faith and orlhodoxness ; for you will certainly
deny the faith, if you cannot deny the name of it, to pre
serve it.

CHAPTER XLtX.
Reputation of Godliness and Honesty, hoiofar  -
9. Another piece of honour that self must be denied im
is, the reputation of godliness and honesty. Concerning
both the forraer and this, I raust 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 unthankfuUy to
be received : but yet, 1. It is not to be desired for itself, but
for God, that it may help and advantage us to serve hira, or
as it is a raercy that brings the report of his love. 2. And
the greater the mercy is, the greater is our temptarion, when
it would deprive us of a far greater mercy than itself: Ihave
oft thought it was a very high passage for a heathen to say
as Seneca did, that ' No man doth shew a higher esteem of

292 TKEATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
goodness, than he that can let go the name or reputation of
being a good man, rather than let go his goodness itself.' The
world is so much unacquainted with goodness, that they
know it not when they see it ; bul call il by those odious
names that least agree with it. Their judgraents follow their
natures, dispositions and interests ; and therefore they can
nol take that to be good, which is contrary to these. A fea
ther-bed is no belter to a swine than a mire-lake ; a banquet
is not so good lo 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 itself
as men have. And hence it is that lo ungodly men, the best
men and besl actions seem lo be the worst. And hence also
il is, that in all ages godliness hath been matter of reproach ;
and the best have been laden wilh calumnies. David had
enemies that laid to his charge the Ihings that he never
thought of. And it seems by the strain of Shemei in his
railing, that they took hira 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, " Come out, come out, thou
bloody man, and thou man of belial : the Lord hath re
turned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in
whose stead thou hast reigned ;" 2 Sam. xvi. 7, 8. 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 il as a trial sent from
God. And two special reasons moved hira to bear it. One
was the reraerabrance of that sin against God and his servant
Uriah, which he knew God was now chastising hira for; and
therefore being under the rod ofthe Lord, he durst not think
of revenge upon the instruraent ; and being sensible that he
had brought all this upon hiraself, he durst not let fly too
rauch al others. The other was that God had raised up
(by permissive Providence) the son of his bowels against
him ; and therefore he Ihought il an unseeraly thing to be
much offended with a stranger for less. And such reasons
as these have we also to persuade us lo patience and self-
denial in tbe like case. The Lord Jesus hiraself, who had no
sin at all, escaped not these censures of raalicious men. He
was esteemed a friend or companion of pubhcans and sinners,
yea, a gluttonous person, and a wine-bibber; yea, a de
ceiver ; yea, a conjurer, that did his works by the help of

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 293
the devil; Matt. xi. 16. Luke vii. 34. Matt, xxvii, 63.
John vii. 12. Matt. xii. 27. What usage the holy apostles
themselves had, and how they behaved themselves under all,
you may conjecture by that one passage (to mention no
raore), " For I think XJod bath set forth us the apostles last, as
il were raen appoinled to death : for we are raade a spectacle
to the world, and to angels, and to raen : we are fools for
Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ ; we are weak, but ye
are strong ; ye are honourable, but we are despised ; even lo
this present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked,
and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace ; and la
bour working with our own hands ; being reviled, we bless ;
being persecuted, we suffer il ; being defaraed, we entreat : we
are raade as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all
things to this day;" 1 Cor. iv. 9 — 13. The like usage had
the Christians afterthe apostles' days. They were slander
ed by the Pagans as if they sacrificed, and eat their own
children, and putting out the lights had coramonly been un
clean togelher after their holy exercises : and when they
cast them lo the lions to be devoured, and raany ways tor
mented thera, 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 lo cry for judgment
against thera, ' Tollite irapios! Tollite irapios !' Away with
the ungodly Christians ! The wicked raultitude 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.
And this usage hath still been the attendant of true god
liness. When the Papists burn God's servants at the stake,
it is for supposed heresy and impiety ; they put a painted
cap and coat upon them, made of paper, on which the
images of devils are pictured, lo raake the people believe
they are ungodly persons, the servants of the devil, and pos
sessed by hira already, and unworthy lolive any longer among
raen. When they butchered the poor Waldenses and Albi
genses by thousands, it was under the narae of ungodly he
retics. The ignorant, ungodly rabble araong us now, that
hate and revile those that seek afler God more diligently
than themselves, have yet more devilish wil than lo oppose
thera directly under the name of honest, godly men ; but they

294 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
first make the world believe that they are hypocrites, and
proud, and self-conceited, and covetous, and secretly are as
bad as others, and these are the things, if you will believe
them, that they hate and speak against thera for. But then
how comes it to pass that it is their praying and preciseness
that is so much in the scorners' mouths ? Doth that signify
hypocrisy or pride ? Why do they not comraend the good,
while they speak against the evil? and join with them in
the holy worship and ways of God, while they oppose their
supposed viciousness? Doth the name (Puritan) signify a
covetous man, or a vicious person ? or rather one that will
not be content to venture his soul in the common, impure,
ungodly courses of the world? And how comes it lo pass
that a man may quietly enough follow such vices, if he will
but forbear the profession of godliness? Bul (lo leave
these wretches in the dirt where we find them) by this you
may see the common measure that is to be expected from
the world. If you will be truly godly, you must be taken
for ungodly, or for hypocrites, that seem to be godly when
you are not.
But it is easy to bear this charge when it falls upon a
whole society, and takes us but in the crowd among the
rest, and when we have so much honourable corapany to
suffer wilh us ; but it goes nearer us when we are singlej^
out by narae, and noted and talked of all about as hypo
crites, or proud, or worse than others. But that also mus,t
be borne by those that will be Christians.
Bul the greatest trial of all is, when the servants of God
that should help us in our suffering, have gol a hard repoKt
of us. and by raisinforraalion we bave lost our credit even
with thera. Under all these false and injurious reports,
direct and stablish your own minds by tbe help of these
considerations following.
1. It may be there is sorae special cause that you should
try and judge yourselves ; and so God doth suffer olher
raen lo judge you. to awaken you to self-judging. How
ever, make this use of it, and you are sure to be no losers
by the reproach. Enter into your hearts, and search them
throughly as before the Lord, and see if there be any way
of wickedness in them which hitherto you have not dis
covered : Try whether there be hypocrisy^' and pride or
not ; especially when it is the servants of God that think

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 295
hardly of you ; and above all, if it be wise, irapartial men
that are acquainted with you, it is then your duty to be
very jealous of your hearts and ways, and lo fear lest you
are guilty, and to search the more diligently, and not be
quiet till you either find out your sin, or be sure that you
are clear. And if you be clear in that point, yet suspect
and search lest there be sorae other secret or allowed sin,
which God would detect to you, or excite you against by
the injurious censures of those that have reproached you.
2. When you have searched and cleared your own con
sciences, then consider further, that though you are not such
as you are censured to be, yet sinners you are, and you
know your sins in other kinds are so raany and so great, that
you should bear the raore patiently to be hardly thought of,
when you know yourselves to be so bad. If indeed you are
godly, you have seen a sink of uncleanness in yourselves,
and have conderaned yourselves oft, and loathed yourselves
for your abominations, and bewailed thera before the Lord.
And is it suitable for sucb a spirit to be eager after the repu
tation of sincerity, and to be rauch troubled that you are
taken by others to be naught ?
3. And consider also that your case raay be as David's
was, and God may possibly raake this reproach a chastise
ment for some former sin, and a raeans to humble you for
it raore thoroughly, and to reclaira you from it. Perhaps he
bids (by permissive providence) sorae Shiraei curse you. It
may be the voice of a slanderer raust do that which the voice
of a preacher could not do. And then it is your work to
look behind you and within you, more than without you,
and to hearken more to the voice of God and conscience,
than of tbe slanderer : and to take it as the rod of God, and
a call to a raore serious repentance.
4. And consider that whert you are under the false cen
sures of the world, you raay have the inward peace of a
good conscience, which is belter than all the applause of
men ; and this being a continual feast, they cannot do much
against your quietness, as long as they cannot deprive you
of this. 5. Yea, raoreover, you have the approbation of God him
self, and that should satisfy against the censure of all the
world. Even a proud raan, if he have any wit, can bear the
conterapt ofthe ignorant vulgar, if he have but the applause

296 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
of great, and wise, and learned raen; as that orator that va
lued the judgment of Socrates above all the rest of his au
ditory. Bul all the wisest men inthe world are fools in com
parison of God. Haviug his approbation, you have the
greatest, the besl, and tbe wisest on your side ; and a judg
ment for you that will lay down t'.:e judgraent of ten thou
sand worlds,
6. And if you value not God's approbation above man's,
it is a sign that you are hypocrites indeed, and so the cen
sure is not unjust ; but ifyou do, then you will acquiesce in
it, though man conderan you ; and say as the apostle, " Who
shall lay any thing lo the charge of God's elect? Il is God
that justifieth, who is he that conderaneth?" Rora. viii. 33,
34. And " Wilh rae it is a very sraall thing, that I should
be judged of you, or of raan's judgment  but he that
judgeth me is the Lord ;" 1 Cor. iv. 3, 4.
7. And remeraber that the great day of judgment is near
at hand, that will sel all straight which the slanderous
tongues of raen raade crooked. Stay but a while, and the
glory of Christ, and the sentence of your Judge, will dispel
all tbe unjust reproaches that were on you. and wash off all
the blots that were falsely laid on your good narae ; " and
he will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your
judgraent as the noon-day;" for " there is nothing hid that
shall not be then revealed."
8. In the raeantime God will lake care ofyour name; he
will make the very tongues tbat slander you to honour you ;
in the blindness of their reproaches, crossing themselves.
As the Papists by the poor Waldenses, saying they vvere the
more dangerous heretics, because they held all the articles of
faith, and lived godly and honestly, and were reputed holy,
but only that they were against the Church of Rome. As
you trust God with your health, and wealth, so must you
with your reputation, even in point of honesty, and be satis
fied thathe can clear you when he pleases.
9. And it is not God's ordinary way to leave the reputa
tion of his servants wholly uncleared even in this world. If
one condemn them, another shall justify them; and cpm-
raonly the wisest and besl raen justify them; and the most
foolish and ungodly are they that conderan them. And can
not you bear the words of fools and children ? The proudest
man can pass by a contempt or slander froma drunken man.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 297
an idiot, or a madman, as being no dishonour to him ; and
cannol you bear the censures of the distracted world ? ' Or
if they are belter men that slander you, it is two to one but it
is the more foolish or passionate sort of them ; and that the
judgment ofthe more wise and sober is against thera, and vin-
dicatelh your reputation. Or if at the preseni they do not,
it is ten to one but Providence shall work to the clearing of
your reputation, either in your lifetirae, or when you are
dead. Most of the servants of God that were most hated
and slandered, wbile they lived on earth, are cleared and ho
noured now they are dead. God is not disregardful of his
servants' names.
10. But however it go, you are secured ofthe raain ; that
which you expected or covenanted for wilb God, you shall
be sure of. If you have the thing, you raay easily bear the
want of the name. Hath the Spirit of God renewed and
sanctified you? Are you made the living raerabers of Christ,
andthe sons of God, and the heirsof heaven? I hope you
raay well spare then the applause of raen, and easily bear it^
if you be reputed lo be destitute of what you have. If you
are in health, il will not much trouble you if il be reported
that you are sick ; and ifyou are alive, you can bear it if the
report go that you are dead : for as long as you have the
thing, you can spare the name. And ifyou have Christ, and
grace, and pardon, and justification, and litle to eternal life,
cannot you endure to have men think that you are without
them? How basely do you undervalue these inestimable
things, when the thoughts ofa man's mind, or the words of
a man's mouth, can blast the coraforts of thera all! As if
you said lo the world, it is not Christ, and grace, and par
don, and salvation, that will serve me, without the applause
of men ! How basely think you of God, and how highly of
men, if this be your mind ! Il is raore excusable for a Ha-
raan to say of all his honour and wealth that they satisfy hira
not, or do hira no good, as long as he wants bul Mordecai's
obeisance, than for a Christian to say of God, of Christ, of
gl(^, all this will not serve ray turn as long as raen take rae
for a hypocrite or ungodly. For there is not a satisfying suf
ficiency in honours and vyealth, as there is in God and glory.
As long as you have the precious treasure, raethinks you
may give losers leave to talk. Il was not for the good words
of raen that ;you became Christians, and covenanted with

2.98 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
God, but for pardon and salvation; and these you shall
have ; God will perforra his covenant to you, and give you
both his kingdora, and so much of worldly things as over
plus, as is truly good for you ; and what would you have
raore ? You shall have the inheritance and crown of bless
edness ; and will not that serve your turn without a few
good words frora silly raan ! I hope you would be loath to
change rewards with the hypocrite ! Why then do you so
rauch desire his reward, and so rauch undervalue your
own ? Though his be present, and yours be future, I hope
you think it but a doleful hearing, to have Christ say,
" Verily they have their reward ;" in comparison of his pro-
raise to his reproached servants, " Verily great is your re
ward in heaven ;" Matt. vi. 2. v. 12.
And now, I hope, in all these len particular considera
tions, you raay see reason enough for self-denial in the very
reputation of your godliness and honesty ; and why you
should endure joyfully to be esteeraed ungodly and dis
honest, rather than be so.

CHAPTER L.
A Renowned and Perpetuated Name to be Denied.
10. The last point of honour which self raust be denied in,
is a renowned and perpetuated narae. For to that height
doth pride aspire, that no less will satisfy, where there is
any apparent hope of this ; though in those that sit so low
that they see no ground lo hope for such a thing, the de
sires after it are not so kindled as they be in others, that
think the prey is within their reach. Fain men would be
faraous and talked of through the world ; they would have
their real and supposed worth made known as far as may
be. And when they die, they would fain have their names
survive, that they may be great in the estimation of poste
rity, and magnified by all that mention thera. And so
deeply are men possessed with this dangerous sin, that they
account this perpetuated fame for their felicity. And there
was nothing that most of the heathens did prefer before il ;
but when they seemed to be most virtuous, heroical, and

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 299
patient, it was but to be thus esteemed of after they were
dead. If you ask rae, how far a surviving reputation may be
regarded ? I answer, 1. So far as the interest of God, or his
Gospel, church, or cause, or the public good, or tbe good of
our posterity is concerned in it, and may be promoted by it
thus far it is lawful and a duty to value it, desire it, and
seek il. For if we have thoroughly searched our hearts, and
can say unfeignedly that it is God, and his cause and ho
nour that we principally intend, and desire our own honour
but as a means to his, and therefore desire il no further
than itis such a means ; then we may justly desire both tbe
extension and surviving of our reputation, if we are ground-
edly persuaded tbat it is like to conduce to these happy
ends. As for exaraple : A prince that owns the cause of
God, and raakes such laws for the common good as may
exceedingly proraote it, if they be observed by posterity,
raust have a great regard to his present and surviving farae,
because the honour of his laws will depend rauch upon the
honour of bis name : and if once the people vilify him, they
will be likely to vilify and cast off his laws, to the hurt of
church and commonwealth, and their own undoing. And
even to the success of their present government, they
should be very careful of their fame : so also a minister of
the Gospel raust be very careful of his present and future
reputation. For al present, the saving good of his auditors
doth rauch depend upon it. For if they have a base esteera
of the pastor, they will be unlikely to give diligent atten
tion to his doctrine, bul disesteera it as they do the speaker
and il is not likely to go to their hearts ; nor will tbey seek
his advice in the great matters of salvation, and the difficult
cases and dangers that they raeet wilh ; but to the great
hazard of their souls will slight the necessary assistance of
hira that is appointed to be their guide to heaven, and will
set light by all the ordinances of God. And therefore the
pastor's reputation is ten thousand tiraes more beneficial
and necessary to tbe people than to himself. For, alas, it
is but their good thoughts and words that he receiveth ;
whicli add little to his happiness : bul it is everlasting life
which tbey may receive by that word of God and help from
hira, which is furthered by his reputation. And therefore,
g.s ministers, should be exceedingly watchful against pride ^

300 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
that they desire not honour for theraselves ; so when they
are sure that God is their end, tbey raust be exceeding care
ful of their own reputation, and avoid all occasions and
appearances of evil, and purchase it by all jusl means: for
though honour be worth little, yet the cause of God and
the souls of raen are worth ranch ; and we raust not be
prodigal of our Master's talents, and such as are very iise-
ful to his service : our reputation is God's and the church's
due, and to be cherished for their use. Especially those
ministers raust be careful of their reputation, that by re
forraation or public useful writings are capable of profiting
posterity : and they raay desire the surviving of their ho
nours, which for itself might not be desired ; because their
works and writings, and doctrines are like to be much
blasted by their own defamations, and do little good to any
that come afler ; nay, the precious truths and cause of God
may be most dangerously wronged and disadvantaged by
it ; and get such a blot and dishonour by their dishonour,
that any that shall seek the proraoting of il hereafter raay
be greatly hindered and disadvantaged thereby : for it will
seera enough to cast off such a doctrine for ever, that by
the dishonour ofthe raaintainers it was once dishonourable,
and rejected as an error. And doubtless sorae things have
been thus raade heresies, and so will be long rejected as
heresies in many parls of the Christian world, because they
were once called by that name ; and that was because the
person that did own them had some such dishonour or
disadvantage as left his doctrine open to this reproach.
And therefore you may here see what a potent instrument
reputation is in the devil's hand, to do his work ; and what
abundance of advantage he gets by defaming God's servants.
Principally by this raeans did he long keep the world from
the entertainment of the Gospel, the servants of Christ be
ing contemptible in their eyes, and tbe preaching of the
cross but foolishness to them. By this means did the Pha
risees hinder the Jews from believing in Christ : and by
this means is heathenism, infidelity, and Mahometanism
continued in possession of most of the world to this day.
By this raeans it is that popery keeps the commOn people
in thraldom : as the voluminous lies of Cochlasus, Bolsecus,
and many others concerning Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, and
other of our reformers and writers, do fully testify. And by

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 301
personal reproaches and dishonours il is that the doctrine
of the reformed divines is made so odious among the Lu
therans ; and the like instances might be given in others.
If now any weighty Christian verity should be asserted by
any pastor of the cliurch, in a sounder and clearer manner,
than is commonly known or owned, if the person that doth
il, should but fall under any reproach (which he shall be
sure of, if the devil can procure it), il is two to one but for his
sake his doctrine will be stigmatized with the name of
error, and so lie buried for ever, till Divine Omnipotency
commands its resurrection. And hence it is that there is
not one instrument that ever God raiseth up to vindicate
any truth, or ordinance, or do him any special service, but
satan raiseth up tongues and pens, if not hands and swords,
against him ; and an army of reproachers will presently be
on the back of him.
Now in all such cases as these, it is a great duly for
any servant of Christ lo be very regardful of his reputation
even wilh posterity : for his good name raay much promote
the truth, as we know the name of Austin, Calvin, and
many another doth at this day. And if it be our great
duty to extend our service of God as far as we can, lo all
countries, and to all posterity, to do thera good ; then it is
our duly to endeavour that a good reputation should go
along with our labours lo further the success, or remove
impediraents. And thus while we are sincere, and intend
all for God, we raay and raust regard our honour ; and yet
in so doing we deny ourselves, because we do it not for our
selves, but for God and his church.
And if honour be given in lo us this way, even as we
partake of it ourselves, as a means to God's honour, we
must thankfully accept it, esteem it, and rejoice in it. .A.nd
therefore it is raade the raatter of raany proraises, and
spoken of in Scripture as a blessing : " A good name is
rather to be chosen than great riches;" Prov. xxii. 1.
" The raeraory of the just is blessed : bul the name of the
wicked shall rot;" Prov. x. 7. "A good name is better
than precious ointment;" Eccles. vii. 1., with raany the like.
Thus rauch 1 have said to prevent a misapplication of
that wbich followeth ; and to help you so to understand rae
on this point of honour, as not to run from extreme into
extreme, and to sin by seeking lo avoid sin.

302 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
But alas, this kind of seeking our honour for God and
his church, and not for ourselves, and as our own, I doubt
is raore rare than the neglect of honour. The sin that 1
dissuade you from, is in these two points. 1. That you do
not affect and seek after extending or surviving reputation
for yourselves ; and out of a proud desire to be still some
body in the estimation of the world : 2. That if God deny
you even that honour which in the most lawful manner you
desire, that you subrait to his pleasure, and take it pa
tiently ; and in these two respects you raust here deny
yourselves. Above all others, these sorts of persons following are
in danger of this odious pride, in desiring for themselves
an extended and surviving narae : 1. Princes and soldiers
that have the management of the great affairs of the world,
fain would they be renowned to posterity ; and hence are
their aspiring ambitious designs. For this are their wars
and conquests, that they may be famous when they are dead
as well as while they live ; and thus they make their noble
conquests to be but murders of the vilest sort, and Worse
than any cut-throats and robbers by the highway, while
they intend thera but for theraselves and their own vain
glory ; and better raight they seek honour by whoredom,
drunkenness, or theft, which are far smaller sins. Whereas,
if their wars had been undertaken for God, and managed
according to his will, they had made thera truly honoured
and renowned. And frora this odious pride il is. that Ab
salom's pillars must be erected, and monuments must be
built to perpetuate their naraes, and tell the world what need
they have of raeans lo keep alive their raeraories, and how
destitute they are of nobler raeans, when raarbles and
monuraents raust be the great preservers of their fame.
Yea, it were well if this pride and selfishness did not cor
rupt the noblest of their works, and turn thera into deadly
sins ; if they did not build their hospitals, colleges, or
churches, and endow thera with revenues to perpetuate their
own names, rather than to do good. Though the works
themselves are so good and so rare- thst I would not cast
any dishonour upon them, seeing all that can be said is too
little lo provoke men to do the like ; yet ara I bound in duty
to tell them, that if self should be the end, instead of God,
and pride the cause, instead of charity, hell would be the

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 308
reward instead of heaven ; so great a matter is it to have an
honest heart and right intentions in the raost excellent and
noble works. Insorauch that a poor raan that hath a heart
to build a college or a hospital, if he had but raeans, shall
be rewarded by God, as if he had done it, if God were the
end and charily the principle ; when a rich man that doth
the work itself, shall have but a poor and teraporary reward,
if self be the end and pride the principle.
2. Another sort that are specially in danger ofthis sin,
are all rich men who would be great in the world, and per
petuate their names and raeraory in their houses, lands, and
posterity ; and therefore they would purchase towns and
lordships, that their houses raay be famous when they are
gone : for it seems a kind of life to them if their greatness
do but live in their posterity; " their inward thought is that
their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwellingplaces
to all generations : they call their lands after their own
naraes  This, their way, is their folly ; yet their pos
terity approve their sayings;" Psal. xlix. 11, 12. Hence
also is that ostentation of escutcheons, and arms, and of
ancient gentility or nobility, and much more such proud and
selfish vanity.
3. Another sort that are in danger of this sin are divines,
and learned men in all professions, who make their writings
but a means to perpetuate their own naraes to posterity.
Teraptations to this sin raay be offered to the best, and too
rauch entertainraent they raay have with our natures, be
cause of the reranants of selfishness and pride. But yet
they do not prevail with the sanctified so far as to aim more
at their own honour than at God's. The labours that in
theraselves are excellent, and a blessing to the church, are
lost to hira that was the author of them, if self be the end,
and pride the fountain. And exceeding great need have the
godliest raen to watch their hearts in this particular, for
they are very deceitful, and selfishness will too often inter
pose, where nothing but God and public good is discerned.
And now, because that the sin is very great and dangerous,
I shall here annex a few considerations, which, by opening
the evil of it. raay help you lo abhor it.
1. These proud desires of a great and surviving narae, do
shew that you lamentably overlook the true eternal honour
of the saints. Must you have honour ? Choose that which

304 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
lieth in the esteera of God. Must you be 'great and glori
ous ? Why you raay be so, and God would have you beso,
ifyou will but know where greatness and glory is to be had,
even in that blessedness that Christ hath purchased. Must
you have your greatness and honour perpetuated ? Why
you raay have that which will never bave an end ; and when
God hath set before you such an endless glory, are you look
ing after a name among mortal men, to leave behind you on
the earth ? Do you think to be saved indeed or not? If
you do, what need have you ofthe smoke of man's applause
when you are with God ? What unworthy thoughts have
you of heaven, if you think when you are there you shall
have need of raen's good thoughts or words on earth? But
it is a dangerous sign that you are indeed unbelievers, and
lay not up your treasure in heaven, when you are so careful
to perpetuate your naraes and shadows here wilh men. The
true relish of heavenly honour would put you out of love
with this.
2. And do you not plainly see in your own desires the
vanity of all these earthly ihings, when you are put at last
lo lake up wilh such a shadow, such a nothing, as is a sur
viving name ? Is this all that the world can do for you ?
And do you not see here the wondrous deceitfulness of the
world, and the foolishness of unsanctified men, that they
will thus slick to the world for very nothing ! When they
know that they shall have no raore frora it, they are con
triving for a narae when they are dead. Wonderful blind
ness ! that experience and the approach and thoughts of
death, should no more open your eyes. Surely, if this be
all that the world will do for you al the last, you should
even renounce it, and use il accordingly at the first.
3. You cannot bul know, that when you are dead and
gone, the honour of the world is none of yours, nor can it do
you any good any further than it relateth to your eternal
blessedness, and your honour is serviceable to the honour
of God. What good will it do you to be magnified by men
when you neither know nor feel it? What the betier is a
tree or a house, if raen commend it? And for your souls, if
they be wilh God, they will be far above the praise of men.'
4. Nay, as such a design is a dangerous sign of -your
damnation, so I beseech you think what corafort it will be
to your soul in hell to be extolled and well spoken of'on

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 305
earth ? Will you cast away your souls to leave a narae of
renown behind you ? And how unsuitable will such honour
be to your condition? Surely, ifyou be there acquainted
with it, you raustneeds be raore tormented, both to remera
ber that you were seeking the farae of the world, instead of
the eternal glory, and to consider what a miserable wretch
it is that men are praising and magnifying on earth. Ah,
then you will think with yourselves, ' Little do the poor in
habitants of the earth know what I am suffering while they
are extolling rae. Is the applause of mortals suitable to a
poor tormented soul ? Alas, that at one and the same time,
men should be extolling rae aud devils torraenting rae ! How
little ease do all their acclamations afford this poor dis
tressed soul!' How honourable are the naraes of Alexander
the Great, and Caesar, and Aristotle, here on earth ! But,
alas, what cause have we to fear that they are lamenting
their misery, while we are speaking of their glory !
5. And the sin is much the greater, because it is not a
mischosen means, but a mistaken end, that your souls have
fastened on. For it seeras your very hearts are set upon your
honours, and deeply and desperately set upon thera, when
you dare contrive the continuation of them when you are
dead. Were it not a matter exceeding dear to you, un
doubtedly you durst not lay such a design for il.
6. And consider whether there be not a love of the
deadly sin of pride, and a final irapenitency iraplied in
this ambition of a surviving name : for you lay a design that
is supposed to be executed after death. And as if you de
sired an eternity of wickedness, because your pride itself
can live no where but with yourself, 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 perpet
uated 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 raonu
raents ofyour pride unto posterity, as if you were afraid
there would be no surviving witness against you to con
demn you ? This is a certain transcendency of sin ! The
common wicked ones would fain die the death of the right
eous, and wish their last end were like to his. But these
men wpuld have their pride to live for ever ; and when they
VOL. XI. X

306 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
theraselves are in another world, they would have the de
raonstrations of their iniquity survive thera.
7. And I beseech you consider what a fearful thing itis
to die in contrived beloved sin ! Wben raen have none but
a deathbed repentance, we have rauch cause to fear, lest it
be but fear that is the life of the repentance ; but when they
have not this rauch, bul are desirous to leave the monu
ments of tbeir vice to all generations, from whence then
shall we fetch our hopes of their forgiveness? And, 0!
what a power hath pride in that soul, where the thoughts
of death itself will give no stop to it, but still they are de
sirous that pride may overlive them ! One would think that
the serious thoughts ofa grave, rauch raore of our passage
inlo another world, should level all such thoughts of a sur
viving honour, even in an unsanctified soul ! But I much
fear lest it be infidelity itself that is the root of all, and that
raeri do not soundly believe an everlasting life with God,
which raakes thera desire to have soraewhat like an immor
tality here on earth.
8. And consider what a silly iraraortality you desire.
The honour can be no greater than the persons are that ho
nour you, nor no longer. And it is but poor raortals that
will raagnify your names, and what can they add lo you?
And il will be but a very little while ; for it is not long that
the world is to continue.
9. And consider what a wickedness is here commonly
included. Proud men desire to be thought better than they
are, and spoken of accordingly : they lirait not raen's esti
mation to the truth of their deserts ; otherwise, if the best
and greatest of you all were thought no better or greater
than you are, alas, how far would men be frora admiring
you. What would you be thought but worms and sinners;
and such as after all your glory, cannot forbid a crawling
worm to feed upon your face -or heart ? And such as de
serve no less than hell ; and have raany a secret sin that the
world was unacquainted with. But it is not a true, but false
esteera that the proud desire ; they care not how great, or
how good, or how wise and learned the world and succeed
ing ages think thera ; and thus they desire to cheat men's
understandings, and to leave a false history of themselves
on earth, and to have all raen believe and report untruths,
to magnify men whose souls, it is much to be doubted, are

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 307
in hell, or if they be not, must needs abhor such doings.
And thus every proud and selfish man would be a false his
torian and cheater of the world.
10. Yea, which is yet the worst of all, they would con
tinue sacrilegiously to rob the Lord of his honour, even when
they are dead. Il is an undue honour, which is stolen frora
God, which they so much seek for (for were it but such as
is a useful means to his honour, he would not be offended
with thera). And when the saints say, " Not unto us. Lord,
but unto thy narae give the glory," these sinners are not
content to rob God of his honour as long as they live, but
they would do it even after death. If we had not certainly
known the truth of it, we should have thought it an incre
dible thing that ever any raan should come to that irapiety,
pride, and madness, as to desire lo be worshipped as a God-
when he was dead. Much raore, that the raost of the world
should be so far distracted as to do il : and yet so il hath
heen, and so it is in too great a measure. And truly the
wicked or proud disposition that is predorainant in the hearts
of all the unsanctified, doth take up no shorter where it
hath but hopes of success to actuate it. Not a raan of thera
but would be honoured as Gods when they are dead;
though I know those of thera that feel not this rauch in
theraselves, will hardly believe it. Consider what an
heinous injury this is to God, and to the souls of men, that
you should leave your naraes as idols to the world, to entice
so many thousand raen to sin, and to be a standing enemy
to the honour of God, by encroaching on his right, and
turning the eye of men's observation and adrairation frora
him to you.
1 1. Consider also, how that by these desires of earthly
honour to yourselves, and making this the end of your
endeavours, you corrupt abundance of excellent works,
(materially considered,) and turn them into mortal sins. If
princes rule and fight for theraselves, I have told you al
ready what they do; but if this were done for God, it
would have another forra, and another reward, as it had
another end. What a doleful case is it that such excellent
works, as almsdeeds, and acts of bounty to church, or
poor, or coraraonwealth, in buildings, lands, or any the like
works, should all be turned into sin and death, by such
a selfish vainglorious intent ! And that their souls should

308 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
be suffering for those works that others receive much good
by ! What a sad case is it, that historians, lawyers, physi
cians, philosophers^ linguists, and the professors of all the
sciences, should undo themselves for ever by those excel
lent works that edify the world! Nay, what can be more
lamentable to think of, than that able and learned divines
theraselves should lose their own souls in the studying, and
preaching those precious truths, that are saving unto
others ; and that such excellent writings as reraain a stand
ing blessing lo the church, should be the authors of mortal
sin ! And yet so it is, if the renown and imraortality of a
narae on earth be the end that all this work is done for.
12. Lastly, Consider that if honour be good for you, it
is better attained by rainding your duty for the honour of
God, and denying your own honour, than by seeking it;
for honour is the shadow that will follow you if you flyfrom
it, and fly frora you if you follow it. What Christ here
saith of life, is true of honour : he that seeketh and saveth
it shall lose it, and he that loseth it for Christ shaU find it.
The greatest honour is to deny ourselves, and- our own
honour, and to do raost for the honour of God ; and to be
contented to be nothing, that God may be all. For you
have bis promise, that thera that honour him he will honour,
but they that dispise him shall be lightly esteemed.
Though I have endeavoured by a right limitation and
exposition of the foregoing parts of self-denial, to prevent
mistakes, and give you those grounds by which objections
raay be answered, yet the stir that is raade in the world
about this point, by Papists and raany other mistaking
sects, doth persuade me to give a more distinct resolution
of some of the principal doubts that are before us, and
therein to shew you that self-denial consisteth not in all
things that by some are pretended to be parts of it; but
that there is a great deal of sin that goes under the name of
self-denial araong many of these sorts of mistaken persons.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 309
CHAPTER LI.
Whether Self-denial lie in renouncing Propriety "i
Quest. I. 'Whether doth self-denial require us to re
nounce propriety, and to know nothing as our own' as the
monks araong the Papists swear to do, as part of their state
of perfection ; and a book called, " The Way to the Sabbath
of Rest," doth teach us ?
Answ. 1. That there shall be no propriety in goods, or
estate araong men, is contrary to the will of God, who hath
made raen his stewards, and trusted several persons wilh
several talents, and forbidden stealing, and coraraanded raen
to labour that they raay have to give to hira that needeth;
and he that hath this world's goods and seeth his brother
have need, raust not shut up the bowels of his corapassion.
It is a standing duty to give lo the poor ; and we shall
therefore have the poor always with us for this exercise of
our charity. And he that hath nothing, can give nothing,
nor use it for God. Why did Paul require thera to give to
the distressed saints, and raaintain the rainistry, and gather
for such uses every first day of the week, if he would have
men have nothing to give? This therefore is a conceit
which needs nothing but reason, and the reading and belief
of Scripture to confute it.
2. But as no man is a proprietary, or hath any thing of
his own, in the strict and absolute sense, because all is
God's, and we are but stewards ; so no man raay retain his
huraan analogical propriety, when God calleth hira to give
it up. No raan may retain any thing from God's use and
service which he hath a propriety in. We have so much
propriety as that no raan must rob us ; and so much as our
works of charity are rewardable, though it be but giving a
cup of cold water, which could not be without propriety ;
for who will reward hira that gives that wbich is none of his
own? yea, it is raade the matter of the last judgment ; " I
was hungry, and ye fed me ; I was naked, and ye clothed
me," &c. Which they could not have done if they had not
had food and clothing lo bestow. So that the denial of
propriety would destroy all exercise of charity in such

310 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
kinds, and destroy all societies and orderly converse and
industry in the world.
But yet when God calls for any thing frora us, we must _
presently obey, and quit all title to it, and resign it freely
and gladly to his will.
And 3. There must be so much vigour of charity, and
sense of our neighbour's wants, as that no man raust shut
up the bowels of compassion; but as we must love our
neighbours as ourselves, so raust we relieve them as a
second self; yea, and before ourselves, if God's service or
honour should require it. If we must lay down our lives
for the brethren, much raore our estates. So that ' levelling
coraraunity' is aborainable ; but • charitable community' is a
Christi-an duly, and the great character of sincere love to
Christ in his merabers. And therefore in the primitive
church there was no forbidding of propriety ; but there was,
1. A resignation of all to God, to signify that they were
contented to forsake all for hira, and did prefer Christ and
the kingdora of God before all. And 2. There was so great
vigour of true charily, as that all men voluntarily supplied
the wants of the church and poor, and voluntarily made' all
things as comraon, that is, coraraon by voluntary communi
cation for use. though not common in primary litle ; and
so no raan look any thing as his own, when God, and his
churches, and his brethren's wants did call for it. 0 that
we had more of that Christian love that should cause a
• charitable community,' which is the true raean between the
' monkish coraraunity,' and the selfish tenacious propriety!
Levelling hath not destroyed one soul for ten thousand
that an inordinate love of propriety bath destroyed.

CHAPTER LII.
Whether it lie in renouneing Marriage?
Quest. 2. ' Whether self-denial consist in the forswear
ing or renouncing of marriage, or the natural use of it by
those that are married ?'
Answ. To forbid marriage siraply, is called by the Holy
Ghost " a doctrine of devils;" 1 "rim. iv. 1. 3. : and was one

TJJEATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 311
of the heresies that the apostles were called out to encoun
ter in their own days. Bul yet a married stale doth ordi
narily (not always) call men off from that free attendance
on the service of God wiihout distraction which is very
desirable ; and therefore those that are capable of doing
God any notable service, which marriage is like to hinder
them from, should avoid it, if they can, without a greater
evil. And therefore the church did think it for raany ages,
so fit for rainisters to be single, that they raight have the
less of worldly affairs and cares to call thera off frora the
Work of God, and their carnal relations raight not hinder
them frora more public duties or charitable works. The
Papists, therefore, mistakingly take the vow of chastity lo
be an entering into a state of perfection, and sinfully con
demn the marriage of priests ; when the apostle expressly
saith, " A bishop must be blaraeless, the husband of one
wife  having his children in subjection ;" 1 Tim. iii. 24.
And so of deacons, verse 12. And others run inlo the
other extreme. But the true meaning is this : 1. Ordinarily
marriage is raore distracting and hindering to us in the
service of God, than a single life ; especially to ministers,
and such as should wholly addict theraselves to the public
service of the church. 2. But yet all men are not alike
obliged to it or from it. Sorae raay be necessitated to il by
the teraper of their bodies to avoid a greater evil, even sin
itself; and sorae may have no such necessity. Sorae raay
have their worldly estate and affairs in such a plight, that
they can far better manage them wilh freedom for God's
service in a married than a single state ; but with others it
is not so ; and especially with very few ministers. So that
a single or married life is in itself indifferent; but as a
raeans to God's service, that is a duty to one that is a sin to
another ; but because that a single life is raore coraraonly
free and fittest for this great end, therefore the apostle pre
ferreth it as better, because raore suitable to the stale of
the raost (at least in those times), though to some, marriage
may be a duty. So that every one should impartially in
quire, in whicli state they raay do God the greatest service,
and that they should choose, not on popish ground, as if it
were coraraended to that particular person to whora it is
not coraraanded, and were an evangelical counsel of per
fection, and to be vowed ; but in a prudent ordering of our

312 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
lives, applying the general rules of Scripture to our several
estates. And thus according to the command of Christ,
" He tha.t, can receive this saying, let him."

CHAPTER LIII,
Or in Solitude and renouncing secular Affairs ?
Quest. 3, ' Whether self-denial consist in solitude> and
avoiding secular affairs, as trades, merchandise, labour, &c.?'
Answ. 1, Il is the standing rule of the apostle, of all
that are able, " That if any raan will not work, neither
should be eat;" 2 Thess, iii. 10.: and he calls those "disor
derly walkers, that work not at all;" 2 Thess. iii. 11. : and
requireth us to have " no corapany with such," command
ing men, with " quietness to work, and eat their own bread;"
verse 12. 14. But yet there are several sorts of labour:
some labour with the body, which is usually more private,
as to the extent (if not to the intent) of the benefit ; and
sorae labour with the mind, which is usually more for pub
lic good; as princes, judges, magistrates of all sorts, law
yers, physicians, ministers, &c. Now raen are to consider
whether by the labour of the mind or of the body they are
like to be more serviceable to God, and which they are
fittest for, and called to ; and that they ought to set them
selves to, and that in true self-denial, and fof God. To be
idle, is so far frora being a part of self-denial, that it is a
sinful part of fleshpleasing. And so is it to choose any
calling or employraent principally for fleshly ease or accom
modation. The apostles were some fishermen, and some of
other callings, and none of them renounced worldly labour,
or affairs, save only so far as they hindered thera from the
work of God, to which they (and all ministers) were wholly
to addict theraselves, as appears, 1 Tira. iv. 15. 2 Tim. ii.4.
To do therefore as raany monks do, to be employed in no
calling for the public good, under pretence of being reU
gious to themselves, is to be burdens to the earth, and
gross violators of the laws of God.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 313
CHAPTER LIV.
Or in renouncing Public Offices and Honours ?
Quest. A. 'Whether self-denial require raen to renounce
all public offices, and honours, and not to be raagistrates,
ministers, or the like ?'
Answ. It requireth us not to have such carnal thoughts
of these offices, as to look on them only as places of honour,
and power, and ease ; nor yet to desire thera for such car
nal ends ; nor yet to thrust ourselves upon thera without a
call, as being the judges of our own sufficiency. But self-
denial is so far frora forbidding the offices and eraployraents
theraselves, as that it is a great point of self-denial for a
raan that understandeth thera well, to undertake thera, if
he mean to manage thera sincerely and faithfully. For
were it not that the sweetness of God's interest and his ac
ceptance, and the benefits of the church, our brethren and
our souls, did ingratiate these offices and eraployments to
an honest mind, they would be so very burdensome, that
flesh and blood would either raake thera carnal by abuse,
or never endure them. And therefore hath God given them
an addition of honour to encourage them, and to put an
honour on their work, for the furthering of its success.
Experience certifieth me that the work of the ministry is
far more troublesome to the flesh, than the bodily labour of
a poor artificer or ploughman is ; so that without great self-
denial no man will be a minister, that doth not carnally
mistake the function for another thing than indeed it is.
And I think I may say the like in its degree, by the raagis
tracy ; especially by thera in highest power, who have the
greatest work. Certain I am, if they faithfully do their
duties, they will find more burden to tbe flesh and mind,
than poor men that have only a family to provide for.
Though raany' ignorant, ungodly poor people, that sit at
horae in peace, and little know the care, and grief, and
trouble of their rulers, do wickedly raurraur at their very
calling, as if they had nothing but honour, and idleness,
and excess ; yet if they had tried and tasted their care and
trouble a few months, they would think a private life tbe

314 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
easier, and confess that there is need of much self-denial
for a raan lo accept of magistracy or ministry, that under
standeth thera, and resolveth to use thera accordingly.
Moreover, these offices are of necessity to the common
good, and established to that end by God himself. And
the fifth commandment requires us to pay our superiors
their honour and obedience. And therefore to imagine thaf
it is any part of self-denial to refuse the office of magistracy
or rainistry, is to raake it self-denial to destroy the church
and commonwealth, and be a cruel eneray to raankind, and
to our country, and to rebel against the powers that are
ordained of God, and thereby to receive daranation to our
selves ; Rora. xiii. 1 — 3. Heb, xiii. 17,
But yet this I raust say, that if a worthy person sland
in competition with us, self-denial requireth us lo prefer
them before ourselves, and to refuse honours and dignities,
when the good of the public doth not call us to deny our
selves more in the accepting them.

CHAPTER LV,
Whether it be a denying our Relations ?
Quest. 5. ' Whether self-denial consist in denying of
natural or contracted relations, as of father and mother to
sons and daughters, of brothers and sisters, husband and
wife, master and servant, prince and people, pastor and
flock V
Answ. You might as wisely iraagine that self-denial
lieth in haling or denying any of God's works, even the
frarae of nature ; or in denying food and rairaent to our
bodies, or in denying our own lives, so as to cut our
throats. For the same law of nature that made rae a man,
and requireth me to preserve my life, did make me a son,
and require rae to love and honour my parents : And it is
inthe decalogue, the "first commandment with promise," as
the apostle calleth it, Ephes. vi. 2. It is frequently and
expressly comndanded in Scripture, that children love, ho
nour, obey their parents; and terrible curses are pro
nounced on the breakers of these comraands; Eph. vi. 1.4-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 315
V. 22. 25. Colos. iii. 20—22. iv. 1. Exod. xxi. 17.
Levit XX. 9. Deut. xxi. 18, 19. xxvii. 16. Prov.
xxx. 17. Matt. XV. 4. xix. 19. And if children were
not bound to parents, then' parents should not be bound
to educate children, and then they would be exposed to
misery and perish. One would think that there should
never such a'sect have risen up, that should be worse than
the very brutes, who by the instinct of nature love their
young ones, and their dams. But the Spirit foretold us,
that which is come to pass, that in the last and perilous
tiraes, there should be raen that are " disobedient to parents,
without natural affection ;" 2 Tira. iii. 3.
And for contracted relations, they are the express insti
tution of God, so frequently owned by hira in Scripture,
and the duties of thera so frequently comraanded, that I will
not trouble you with the recital of the passages. And as
for the adversaries' objections, they are frivolous. The
meaning of the apostle's words, " that we know no raan af
ter the flesh," I have told you before. The words of Christ
to his raother, " Woraan, what have I to do with thee ?"
(John ii. 4.) which they allege, are nothing for their wicked
cause ; they being no raore but Christ's due reprehension
of his raother's mistake, wbo would prescribe hira the tirae
and raanner of doing miracles, and have hira do thera in a
way of ostentation; which things did not belong to her,
but to the Spirit of God, and the Lord himself. And where
as they allege that text, " that father, mother, brother,
sisters, &c. are to be hated for Christ;" Luke xiv. 26. I
answer, even as our own lives are to be hated, which are
also numbered with them ; that is, they must be all for
saken, rather than Christ should be forsaken ; and there
fore loved less than he, and but for his sake. If therefore
this text require you not at all to cut your own throats, or
sorae way kill yourselves, then it doth not require you to
withdraw yOur due affections from natural or contracted
relations. I must crave the reader's pardon tbat I trouble
him with confuting such unnatural opinions, and desire
him to believe that it is not before I am urged to it by the
arguraents of sorae deluded souls that are not unlikely to
do hurt by them with some.

316 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
CHAPTER LVI.
Or Relieving Strangers before Kindred ?
Quest. 6. 'Whether self-denial require that we should
reUeve godly strangers, before our natural kindred, especi
ally that are ungodly ? Or that we love thera better?'
Answ. 1. Where our natural kindred are as holy and
needy -as others, there is a double obUgation on us, both
natural and spiritual, lo love and reUeve thera. 2. Where
they are as holy as others, but less needy, there raay he a
double obligation on us, to love them, and yet not to give
to thera. 3. If they be more needy, or as needy as others,
though withal they be ungodly, we are not thereby excused
from natural affections or charitable relief. 4. We must
distinguish between children, or such kindred as nature
casteth upon our care for provision, and such kindred as
are by nature cast upon others. If parents were not obliged
lo relieve and provide for their own children, they would
be exposed to misery, and man should be more unnatural
than brutes. So that even when by ungodliness, they are
less amiable than others, yet God hath bound raen to pro
vide for them more. 5. Natural love and spiritual are much
different ; you may have a stronger natural love to an un
godly child, than to a godly stranger, but you must have a
spiritual love to that godly stranger, more than lo your
child; and that spiritual love raust be (at least as to the
rational and estimative part) much greater than the other
natural love : and yet you may be bound to give more,
where you are not bound to love more. For it is not love
only that is the cause of giving ; but we are God's stewards,
and must dispose of what we have as he prescribeth us : and
his standing law of nature for the preservation of mankindj
is, that parents take care of their children, as such.
6. The will and service of God, being it that should
dispose of all that we have, we must in all such doubts look
lo these two things for our direction : Rrst, to the particu
lar precepts of the word ; and there we find the foresaid
duty of parents expressed, and withal the duly of relieving
all that are needy, to our power : Secondly, to the general

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 317
precept ; and there we find, that we raust honour God with
our substance, and lay out all our talents to his service.
And so the duty lieth plain before us. Ifyou have a child
that is wicked, yet as parents, provide him his daily bread ;
and leave him enough for d-aily bread, when you die. But
raore he should not have frora rae ; but the rest (had I ten
thousand pounds a year) I would lay out that way ray con
science told rae raay be raost serviceable to God. For, I. I
am not bound to strengthen an enemy of Christ, and enable
hira to do tlie greater raischief. 2. Nor lo cast away the
mercies of God. 3. If the law required the parents to cause
such a rebellious son lo be put to death, (Deut. xxi. 18.)
then surely lo provide hira daily bread, is now as rauch as a
parent is obliged to. And if it be an express coramand,
" That he that will nollabour, shall not eat," (2 Thess. iii. 10.)
such useless members forfeiting their very sustenance, then
surely he that is such or worse, speeds fair ifyou leave him
food and raiment. 4. And the great command of " doing
all to God's glory," and " serving him with our substance,"
will not be obeyed, if you leave your riches and estates in
the hands of such persons, raerely because they are your
children. No doubt but that is a selfish and unconscion
able course, and the thing that sets up the ungodly to dis
turb the church, and lord it over the world, while parents
furnish thera with riches to do the devil eminent service
with. Object ' But who knows but God raay convert thera ?'
Answ. You cannot guide your actions by things un
known. You have no promise of their conversion ; nor
much probability, when they have frustrated all your coun
sels and means of their good education ; and grace is su-
;pernatural: and therefore you must proceed upon grounds
that are known.
And for reraoter kindred, if they raay be as serviceable
to God with what I give thera as others, nature teacheth
me to prefer them before others; but otherwise grace
teacheth me, both to love a godly stranger better than un
godly kindred, and to lay out all that I have, as may be
most serviceable to clod.

318 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
CHAPTER LVII.
How we must love our Neighbours as ourselves.
Quest. 7. 'How is it that self-denial requireth us lo love
our neighbour as ourselves : is it with the sarae degree of
love?' Amw. I answered this on the by, before : Briefly, 1. The
chief part of the precept is negative : thus q. d. " Set not
up thyself against the welfare of thy neighbour : draw not
from him, or covet not that which is his to thyself, and con
fine not thy love and care to thyself." 2. And it compre
hendeth this positive, and that as to the kind of love, we
should love both ourselves and neighbours as raeans to God,
and for the interest of God ; and in that respect there is an
equality : we must 'appretiativ^' or estimatively love abetter
and raore serviceable man that hath more of God's Spirit in
him, above ourselves; and an equal person equally with
ourselves, with this rational love, which intendeth all for
God. 3. But natural love which is put into man for self-
preservation will be stronger to self than to another, and
alloweth us, ' czeteris paribus.' to prefer, and first preserve
and provide for ourselves. And in this regard, our neigh
bour raust be loved but as a second self, or next ourselves.
4. But this natural love in the exercise of it, at least in im
perative acts, is to be subservient to our rational spiritual
love, and to be over-mastered by it. And therefore it is
that as reason teacheth an heathen to prefer his country
before his life, (though the instinct of nature incline us
more to life,) so faith teacheth a Christian much more, to
prefer God's honour, and the Gospel, church, common
wealth, and his neighbour's good, when it more conduceth
to these ends, than his own, before hiraself, his liberty or
Ufe,

CHAPTER LVIII.
Is Self-revenge and Penance Self-denial ?
Quest. 8, ' Whether self-denial require us after sin, to use
vindictive penance or punishment of the flesh, by fasting,
watching, going barefoot, lying bard, wearing haircloth^

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 319
or to do this ordinarily? as sorae of the papists, monks,
and friars do ?'
Answ. The easiness of this case raay allow a brief de
cision. 1, The body raust be so far afflicted, as is needful
to humble it, and subdue il to the spirit, and tame its re
bellion, and fit it for the service of God, 2. The exercise
of a holy revenge on ourselves raay be a lower end, subser
vient to this, 3, Il must also be so far humbled as is
necessary to express repentance to the church, when abso
lution is expected upon public repentance, 4, As also to
concur with the soul in secret or open humiliation.
But, 1, He that shall think that whippings, or sack
cloth, or going farefoot, or other self-punishing, are of
themselves good works, and raeritorious with God, or satisfy
his justice, or are a state of perfection, doth offer God a
heinous sin, under the narae and conceit of a good work,
2, And he that shall by such self-afflicting unfit his body
for the service of God, yea that doth not cherish it so far as
is necessary to fit it for duty, is guilty of self-raurder, and
defrauding God of his service, and abusing his creature,
and depriving others of the help we owe thera ; so that in
one word, the body raust be so used as raay best fit it for
God's service. And to think that self-afflicting is a good
work, raerely as it is penally or suffering to the body, or
that we may go further herein, is to think, 1. That we
should use our body worse than our beast ; for we will no
further afflict him than is necessary to tame him, or serve
ourselves by hira, and not to disable hira for service.
2. And it will teach raen to kill themselves ; for that is
a greater penalty to the body than whipping or fasting.
3. And it is an offering God a sacrifice of cruelty and rob
bery, which we comrait against hiraself and raan.
But I raust needs add, that though sorae friars and rae
lancholy people are apt to go loo far in this, and pine their
bodies, or raisuse thera wilh conceits of raerit and satisfac
tion ; yet almost all the coraraon people run into the con
trary extreme, and pamper and please their flesh, to the
displeasing of God, and the ruin of their souls. And I
know but few that have need to be restrained from afflicting
or taking down the flesh too much.

320 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
CHAPTER LIX,
Is Self-denial to be without Passion?
Quest. 9. 'Whether self-denial consist in the laying by
of all passions, and bringing the soul to an impassionate
serenity?' Answ. The Stoics and sorae of the Behraenists think
so : but so doth not God, or any well-informed man. Fqr,
I. God would not have raade the affections in vain. Itis
not the passions, but the disorder of thera, that is sinful, or
the fruit of sin. 2. We are coraraanded to exercise all the
affections or passions for God, and on other suitable ob
jects. We raust love God wilh all the heart, and soul, and
might, which is not without affection, or passion. We
raust love his servants, his church, his word, his ways. We
must fear hira above thera that can kill us. We must hun
ger and thirst after his righteousness, and pant after him
as the hart doth afler the water-brooks. We raust be angry
and sin not. A zeal for God is the life of our graces : we
raust " always be zealous in a good raatter ; fervent in spi
rit, serving the Lord." We must " hale evil," and " sorrow
for il," when we are guilty, and grieve under the sense of
our miscarriages, and God's displeasure. And all these
(expressly coraraanded in the word) are holy affections or
passions of the soul.
3. Yea, it is the work of the Holy Ghost to sanctify all
these passions that they raay be used for God ; and they are
called by the naraes of the several graces of the Spirit.
And it is not passion, but disordered passion, that must be
denied.

CHAPTER LX.
How far must we deny our own Reason ?
Quest. 10. • How far must we deny our own reason ?'
Answ. 1. We must not be unreasonable, nor live unrea
sonably, nor believe unreasonably, nor love, or choose, ori

TREATISE OP SELF-DENIAL. 321
let out any affection unreasonably. We are coraraanded to
be ready to give a " reason of our hopes." It is our ra
tional faculty that proveth us raen, and is essential to us ;
and without it we can neither understand the things of God
or raan : for how should we understand without an under
standing? But yet reason must thus far be denied. 1. We raust
not think higher of our reason than it deserves, either in
itself, or corapared to others, 2. We raust not satisfy its
curiosity in prying into unrevealed things. 3. Nor must
we satisfy or suffer its presumption in judging our brethren,
or censuring men's hearts or ways uncharitably. 4. Nor
must we endure it to rise up against the word or ways of
God, or contradict or quarrel with divine Revelations,
though we cannot see the particular evidence or reason of
each truth, nor reconcile thera together in our apprehen
sions. Though we raay not take any thing to be the word
of God without reason ; yet when we have reason to take it
to be his word, we must believe and submit to all that is in
it, without any more reason for our belief. For the forraal
reason of our belief is because God is true, that did reveal
this word ; and we have the greatest reason in the world to
believe all that he revealeth.

CHAPTER LXI.
Must we be content with Afflictions, permitted Sin, Ssc. ?
Quest. 11. 'If self-denial require us to content our souls in
the will of God, then whether must we be content with his
afflictions, or permission of sin, or the church's sufferings ;
and, 1. How will this stand wilh our due sense of God's
displeasure and chastisements. 2. And wilh our praying
against thera. 3. And our use of raeans for their reraoval?'
Answ. I. The will of God is one thing, and the hurt which
he willeth us is another; and the good end for which he
willeth il, is a third. The afflicting will of God is good, and
must be loved as good : and the end and benefit of chastise
ment is good, and must be loved : but the hurt as hurt, raust
notice loved. It is not God's will thatwe must resist, or seek
VOL. XI. Y

322 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAJ..
to change ; nor yet is it the end or benefit ofthe chastis^iji^nt ;
but only the hurt, which our folly hath made a suitable
means. And we raay not seek to remove this hurt, till the
effect be procured, or on tearms that may consist with the
end of it. And this is not against the will of God, thjit
when the good is attained, the affliction be removed.
2. And you must distinguish between his pleasgd. and
displeased will ; bis complacency and acceptance, and his
displacency and rejecting wiU. Every act of God's will
must be approved and loved as good in God : but it is pot
every one that we raay rest and rejioice in as good to ns,
and as our felicity. We raust be grieved for God's displea
sure, and yet love even that holy will that is displeased
with us; and we raust be sensible of God's judgments,; and
yet love the will that doth inflict thera. But it is only the
love of God and pleasure of his will to ns, that can be the
rest and felicity of our souls,
3. Some acts pf God's will are about the means, and
have a tendency to a further end; and some are about the
end itself. His commanding will we must love and obey :
his forbidding will must have the same affections : his
threatening will we must love and fear ; his rewarding will
we raust love and rejoice in : his full accepting will, that is,
his love and complacency in us, we must rest and delight
our souls in for ever. And thus we must coraply with the
will of God.

CHAPTER LXII.
May God he finally Loved as our Felicity and Portion?
Quest. 12. ' You tell us that we must seek ourselves bnt as
means to God : how then may we make our salvation our
end ; or desire the fruition of God, when fruition is for our
selves, of somewhat that raay make us happy? Doth he
not desire God as a raeans for himself as the end, that de
sireth hira as his portion, treasure, refuge, and felicity?'
Answ. There are such abundance of abstruse philoso
phical controversies ' de anima et fine,' that stand here in
the way, that I raust only decide this briefly and imper
fectly for vulgar capacities. Schoolmen and other philoso
phers are not so much a? agreed what a final cause is. But

TREATISE OF SfiLF-DENIAL. 323
this much briefly may give some degree of satisfaction to
the moderate. I. No fleshly profits, pleasures, or honours
must be made our end. This we are agreed on. 2. The
ultimate end of all the saints, is an end that is suitable to
the nature of love ; and that is, perfectly to love God, and
please him, and serve him, and to be perfectly beloved of
him, and behold his glory. So that it is not an end of self-
love, or love of concupiscence, or for our coraraodity only ;
but it is the end of the love of friendship : now all love of
friendship doth take in both the parly loving, and the party
beloved into the end ; for the end is a perfect union of
both, according to their capacities. And it being ' intenlio
amantis,' the end of love, both God and ourselves must be
coraprehended in it, as the parties to be united; and so it
is both for him, and for ourselves.
3. Bul yet though both parties as united be comprised
in the end, it is not equally, but with great inequality. For,
1. God being infinite goodness itself, must 'appreciative' in
estimation and affection, be preferred exceedingly before
ourselves ; so that in desiring this blessed union, we must
more desire it to please and praise him, and give him his due,
for which he created, redeemed, and glorifieth us, than to be
ourselves happy in him. 2. And God being not a mere
friend, but our absolute Lord of infinite power and glory, it
must be more in our intention to bring to him eternally,
than to receive from him; (though both must be com
prised :) For receiving is for ourselves, further than we in
tend it for returns ; but returning is for God ; not lo add to
his blessedness ; but to please his will, and give hira his
own ; for he raade all things for himself. And so that in
union wilh hira we raay give him his own in fullest love and
praise, and service, and thus please him, must be the highest
part ofour intention, about our own felicity in enjoying hira.
So that you raay see, that self-denial teacheth no man
to ask, ' Whether he could be content to be damned for
Christ?' For this is contrary to our propounded end, in the
whole. For a daraned man hath no union of love with God,
and giveth him not his own in love or praises.
Object. ' What say you then by the wishes of Moses and
Paul?" Answ. 1. The saying of Moses is very plain, Exod. xxxii.
32. He doth not desire that his soul might be raade a

324 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
ransora for Israel, but that if God would not pardon them,'
but destroy thera and cast thera off", he would blot out
Moses' name from his book, that is, from among the num
ber of the living ; so that his saying is no olher than such
as Elias or Jonas was, " What good will my life do me, if
I live to see thy people cast off, and all thy wonders for
them buried ? Therefore either let thera live in thy sight or
kill me wilh them." This is the plain raeaning of Moses'
request. And for Paul's, the difficulty is soraewhat greater:
1. Sorae think that Paul raeaneth (Rora. ix. 3.) that he once
wished hiraself to be no Christian in the days of his ignor
rance, and all through his zeal for the Jewish nation. But
this is improbable. 2. Some think that he meaneth only, 1
could wish to be given up to death for them, as the ac
cursed under the law.
3. Some think that he meaneth only, I could wish myself
yet unconverted to Christ, so they were converted.
4. Some think the meaning is, ' I could wish myself
cast out of the church, and given up to Satan for any bodily
suffering.' 5 Some say it is only to have his salvation deferred.
6. And some, that it is damnation for a time.
But 7. The plain meaning seeraeth to be this ; ' so great
is ray love to ray countryraen, the Jews, that if it were of
fered to ray choice whether they, or I wiihout them, should
enjoy Christ, I would yield to be cast out of his sight for
ever, rather than they should,' where mark ; 1. That il is not
a wish th-dt it were so, for he knew that this was no means
to promote their salvation ; but il is a discovery of his af
fection that would wish or choose this if it were a means
to that eud. 2. And it is not the sin of not loving Christ
that he would choose, but 'only the raisery of being deprived
of his blessed presence. 3. And the reasons of this, his
choice, are these two conjunct : 1. Because the souls of so
many thousands is, in impartial reason, more to be valued
than the soul of one ; 2. And principally because by the
conversion and salvation of a whole nation, God may be
more honoured and served than by one.
And note farther, 1, That this is not set as a mark for
every Christian to try the truth of his love by. . 2. But yet
no doubt but it is a duty and degree of grace that evei-y

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 325
one should aim at. For 1. We see amorig heathens that
nature itself teacheth them that a man should lay down his
life for his country, because a country is better than a man.
And proportionably. reason tells us that the salvation of a
country being a greater good than of any one, it should be
more preferred; and self-love goeth against plain reason
when it contradicteth this. What raan's reason doth not
tell him that it were better he should die than the world
should be destroyed, or the sun turned into darkness ; yea,
or that one church or country perish ? And so of salvation.
2. And il is agreeable to the nature of love to desire
that most, that raost pleaseth him whora we love: and there
fore to desire rather that God may have multitudes than
one, and be served and praised by thera. So much about
the matter of self-denial.
III. I have finished the two first things which I pro
mised to you under the use of exhortation, viz. the trial of
your self-denial, and the particulars in which it consisteth,
and must be exercised ; and there I have shewed you, 1. In
what respect self must be denied. 2. What that selfishness
is that must be denied, as to the inward disposition ; and,
3. What is that objective self-interest that raust be denied,
which consisteth in so raany particulars that I cannot un
dertake to enuraerate all ; but I have mentioned twenty
particulars under the general head of pleasure, and ten un
der the general head of honour, and have referred you to
another treatise for that which consisteth in worldly profits.
And now I come to tbe third part of my work, which is to
shew you a little more fully the greatness of the sin of self
ishness, and give you thence such moving reasons as raay
conduce to the cure of it. which are these that follow.

CHAPTER LXIII.

Motives: 1. Selfishness the grand Idolatry ofthe World.
1. Selfishness is the grand idolatry of the world, and
self the world's idol, as I have told you before. It usurpelh
. the place of God hiraself in men's judgments, wills, affec
tions, and endeavours. It was the work of the ten disco-

326 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
veries in the beginning of the booh to demonstrate this :
and therefore I shall say but little more. But self-denial
destroyeth the world's great idol, and giveth God his own
again. The selfish lean most to their own understandings;
but the self-denying trust the wisdom of God. The selfish
are careful principally, for themselves, and their own feli
city, even a terrene and carnal kind of felicity ; but the
self-denying are principally careful how they may please
and honour God, and promote the welfare of his church,
and in this way attain the spiritual everlasting feUcity of
the saints. The selfish must have their own humours
pleased, and their own wills accoraplished, and their own
desires granted ; but the self-denying do slay their own car
nal wills, desires, and conceits, and lay them dead at the
feet of Christ, that his will alone may be exalted. The
selfish would have all raen love them, adraire them, and
coraraend thera. But the self-denying would have all men
to love, adraire, and glorify the Lord, above hiraself and aU
the world. The selfish can bear with God's enemies, but
not with their own ; and they can suffer raen to wrong God,
and sin against hira, more patiently than they can suffer
thera to wrong theraselves. But it is contrary with the self-
denying : a wrong to God and his chufch seemeth far
greater to them than a wrong against themselves. In a
word, the selfish intend theraselves, and live to themselves,
and the self-denying intend to God, and live to him, in the
course of their lives. And therefore when the selfish are
troubled about raany things, the self-denying are minding
the one thing necessary. And when the selfish are seeking
to know what is good or evil to their flesh ; the self-deny
ing are seeking to please the Lord, and desire to know no
thing but hira in Christ crucified ; and they could part with
all the knowledge of the creatures, as useful to themselves,
if they could but know raore of God in Christ. The selfish
would be in his own hands, at his own dispose and govern
raent, and the self-denying would be in the hands of God,
and at bis dispose and governraent.
And doubtless, the very slate of man's apostacy did he
in turning frora God to self, and to the creature for self; so
that he now studieth, and useth, and loveth the creature hut
for hiraself : and so he would have hiraself, and all -as far
out of the hands of God in his own, as possibly he can. I

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 327
gaVe you my thoughts in the beginning, that diis was tbe
meaning of man's knowing good and evil by the fall. And
since I wrote that, I met with the same exposition in ' Da
mascene, de Orthodox, fid. li. 11. c. 11. p. (mihi) 113. part
of whose words I shall here translate : — In the Midst of Pa
radise, God planted the tree of life, and the tree of know
ledge : and the tree of knowledge was for the trial, and
proof, and the exercise of man's obedience and disobe
dience. And therefore it is called the tree of knowledge of
good and evil ; or because it gave man a power to know his
own nature ; which indeed to the perfect is good, bul to
the infirm is evil ; and to tbem that are yet prone to concu
piscence, as strong meats to the weak and those that need
milk. For the Lord that created us, would not have us
careful and troubled about many things, nor to become
contrivers and providers for our own lives : into which it
was that Adam fell. For when be had eaten, he knew that
he was naked, and made himself an apron of fig-leaves to
cover his nakedness. But before both Adam and Eve were
naked and not ashamed. And God would have had us in
sensible of (or not to suffer by) such things ; for this is but
an insensibility and impossibility. But we had one work
only to do without vexation and care, which is the work of
ano-els, unweariedly and continually to praise our Creator,
and to deUght in tbe conteraplation of hira, and to cast all
our car^ on hira, as he taught us by the prophet David, say
ing, "Cast thy care on the Lord, and he shall nourish
thee ;" and the Lord taught his own disciples in the Gospel,
" Take no care what ye shall eat, nor wherewith you shall
be clothed ;" and again, " Seek first the kirigdbm of God
and his rigbteotisness, and these things shall be added to
you ;" and to Martha, " Martha, thou art careful and trou
bled about many things, but one thing is needful: Mary
hath chosen the best part which shall not be taken frora
her ;" that is, to sit al his feet, artd hear his word ; and this
is the tree of life. — So far Damascene, who you see driveth
at the same sense, thou^ it be not cletoly and fully ex
pressed by bim.
And as man, by his fall, desired to know what was good
and evil for himself, that is, to his own nature, for his daily
provision and safety, that he might be able to choose for
Mtriself, and hoit trust hiraself whtflly on the ptOvision of

328 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
God ; so accordingly God in judgment hath given him over
to himself, according to his desire, of which more anon.
And accordingly our restoration from this lapsed state,
consisteth in retiring from ourselves to God ; and giving up
to him again those minds, those thoughts, those wills, those
affections that have been all this while detained from him,
and miseraployed by self; down then with this idol, and set
up God. Did you raake yourselves? or redeera yourselves?
or do you sustain yourselves, or are you sufficient for your
selves ? Let hira that doth all this for you be acknowledged
to have the only title to you ; and consider what an odious
crime it is for such worras to exalt theraselves as gods, and
so deny the Lord to be their God.

CHAPTER LXIV.
Enemy to all Morality ; Faith ; Prayer ; Obedience.
2. Moreover, this self is the enemy, as of God himself,
so also of all the frame of morality : of every article ofyour
belief, and every petition in the Lord's prayer, and of
every one of the ten coramandraents, and of the whole
word of God.
1. For your Belief, it advanceth your own reason against
it, as to the truth of it ; so that you cannot discern these
things of God, because they are spiritually discerned. It
shutteth up your understandings against the raeaning of it ;
so that when you know the grararaatical sense ofthe words,
you know not half the raeaning yet for all that. The words
are written to signify the spiritual apprehensions and af
fections which the holy inditers had of the raatter signified
by them : and till you come by the help of those words to
have the sarae impress upon your souls, the same apprehen
sions and affections which the inditers had, and intended
to express by them, you have not the perfect understanding
of the Scriptures ; and therefore while you are wholly with
out their spiritual apprehensions and affections, you do not
so much as sincerely or truly understand them; however
you may be able to speak as good grammarians, and true
expositors in the explaining of them to others. And also

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 329
selfishness in tive will doth raake you disrelish the doctrine
which you should believe, because that being practical,
either the doctrine, or its consequence, or the practice that
it puts you on, is against your carnal self and interest.
2. And for prayer, I raight easily shew you, that self
contradicteth all the parts of it. You should first pray that
the name of God raay be hallowed, making his glory the
end ofyour desires; but self must be its own end, and seek
the honour of its own name, and less regardeth the hallow
ing of God's.
You must pray that the kingdora of God raay corae;
but this kingdora treadeth down self as an eneray, and
therefore no raarvel if self be unwilling of it. Would you
be disposed, and subjected to a spiritual governraent, and
do nothing nor have nothing but at the pleasure of Christ?
The reign of self is contrary lo his reign.
You must pray that the will of God may be done. But
self hath a will tliat is contrary to God's will ; and every
carnal man would be a law-giver to hiraself, and unto
others, and had rather bave his own will done, than God's.
Or else whence come all the sins of your Uves, which are
nothing but the doing of your own wills, and the not doing
the will of God?
You must pray each day for your daily bread, as chil
dren that live not on their own provision, but on their
Father's love and bounty, and have their address lo bim for
all they want, desiring but such supplies as are necessary
or useful to them for his service. But self desireth more
than daily bread, and desireth it not so much to strengthen
you for God's service, as to delight and gratify the flesh ;
and had rather have its stock in its own possession, than
.daily to fetch it as you use it from God.
You must pray daily for the forgiveness of your sins, as
people that are grieved for them, and weary of them, and
h-ate them, and are sensible of the want and worth of par-
, don, and of the abundant grace of Christ that purchased it,
and the preciousness of the Gospel-promises that convey
it, and of your own unworthiness by reason of this sin. But
self is not easily so far abased as to be heavy laden, and
sick of sin ; nor is it easily drawn to value grace, or feel
how much you are unworthy of it. or need it ; nor easily
driven to renounce all sufficiency and conceits of a righte-

330 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL
ousness of your own, and wholly to go out bf yourselves to
Christ for life : self cannot spare sin ; for it is its darhng
and play-fellow, its food, its recreation, and its life.
You must daily pray to be saved from temptation, and
delivered from evil ; even the evil of sin, as well as of
punishment. But self doth love the sin, and therefore can
not long to be delivered from it, and therefore loveth the
temptation that leadeth to it, and indeed is a continual
terapter to itself. Would the covetous worldling be de
livered from his worldliness ? Would the ambitious proud
person be delivered from his pride or honours ? or the sen
sual person from his sensual delights? No, they do not
love the preacher or people that are against them in these
ways; nor the holy self-denial that is contrary to them;
nor the Scripture that condemneth them ; nor indeed the
Lord himself that forbids them, and is the author of all
these laws and holy ways which they abhor. So that you
see how self is an enemy to every petition in the Lord's
Prayer. 3. And it is a violation of all the ten commandments.
The first and second it is most directly against, and is the
very thing forbidden in them : and all the rest it is against
consequently, and is the virtual breach of them, as dis
posing and drawing the soul thereunto.
The two tables have two great commandments, which
are the sum of the whole law, and all the other command
ments are consequents or particulars from these. The sum
of the first table is, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart ;" or above all. This is the first com
mandment : " Thou shall have none other Gods before me ;"
which is put first as being the fundamental law, command
ing subjection of self to the sovereign power of God, which
necessarily goes before all actual obedience to particular
precepts. But self is directly against this, and sets up man
as a God to himself: and all the unsanctified love them
selves better than God, and therefore cannot love him
above all.
And therefore neither second, third, or fourth com
mand can be sincerely kept by such ; for when self is set
up, and God denied, instead of the right worshipping of
God, they are worshipping themselves, or suiting God's
worship to the conceit and will of self. Instead of the

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 331
reverent use of his name, they are setting up their own
names, and Will venture on the grossest abuse of God's
name, rather than self should suffer or be crossed. And
instead of hallowing the Lord's Day, they devote both that
and every day to themselves.
The sum of the second table is, " Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself ;" and this is the meaning of the tenth
coraraandraent, which forbiddeth us to covet any thing
from him to ourselves : that is, that we set not up self and
its intefest against our neighbour and his good ; and be not
like a bruised or inflamed part of the body, that draweth the
blood or humours to itself, or like a wen or other tumor,
that is sucking from the body for its own nutrition : so that
it is but plainly this. " Be not selfish, or drawing, or de
siring any thing to thyself, which is not thy due, but be
longeth to another ; but let love run by even proportions,
between thy neighbour and thyself, in order to God and the
public good." And this coraraandraent brings up the rear,
that it may suraraarily comprehend and gather up all other
particulars that be not instanced in, in the foregoing com
mandraents. Now selfishness being the very sin that is
here forbidden, I need to say no raore to tell you that self
is the breaker of this law.
Next to this summary concluding precept, the greatest
in the second table (if not one of the first) is the fifth
comraandment ; which requireth the preservation of rela
tions and societies, and the duties of those relations, espe
cially of inferiors to superiors, for the honour of God and
the common good. And this is set before the rest, because
the public good is preferred to the personal good of any ;
and magistrates and superiors being God's officers, and for
the public good, are to be preferred before the subjects.
But what an enemy selfishness is to this coraraandraent, I
intend anon to shew you distinctly, and therefore now pass
it by. And for the following coraraandments, who ever mur
dered another but out of some inordinate respect to him
self, either to reraove that Other out of the way of his selfish
ends, or to be revenged on hira for depriving self of profit,
or honour, or soraething that it would have had, or in sorae
way or other to attain your own ends by another's blood?
And what is it but the satisfaction of your own filthy

-.^.^2 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
lusts, that causeth adultery and all uncleanness ? And
what is il but the furnishing and providing for self that
provoketh any man to rob another ? And what is il but
sorae selfish end that causeth any raan to pervert justice, or
slander, or bear false witness against his neighbour? so
that nothing is more plain than that selfishness is all sin
and villany against God and raan, coraprised in one word.
And therefore you need not ask me, which command
ment it is that doth forbid it ; for it is forbidden in every
one of the len commandments. The first condemneth
self as it is the idol set up, and loved, trusted, and served,
before God : the second condemneth it as the enemy of his
worship ; and the third condemneth it as the profaner of
his name ; and the fourth as the profaner of his hallowed
tirae. The second table in the tenth coramandment con
demneth self as it is the tumour and gulf that is contrary to
the love of our neighbour, and would draw all to itself.
The fifth coraraandraent condemneth it as the enemy of
authority and society : the sixth as the enemy to our
neighbour's life ; the seventh, eighth, and ninth, condemn
it as the enemy to our neighbour's chastity, estates, and
cause or name.
So that if you see any mischief done in persons, families,
towns, countries, courts, armies, or any where in the world,
you need not send out hue and cry to find out and appre
hend the actor : it is selfishness that is the author of all.
If the poor be oppressed by the rich, and their lives made
alraost like the life of a labouring ox or horse, till the cry
of the oppressed reach to heaven, who is it that doth all
this but self? The landlords and rich men raust rule and be
served by thera. I warrant you they would not do thus by
theraselves. If the poor be discontented and raurraur at their condi
tion, and , steal from others, who is it that is the cause of
this but self? If another were in poverty, they would not
murmur nor steal for him.
It is selfishness that blemishes judges, and justices and
officers with the stains of partiality, avarice, and injustice :
it is this that disturbeth the peace of nations ; that will not
let princes rule for God, and consequently overthrows their
thrones ; that will not let subjects obey thera in the Lord,
but lets in wars and raiseries upon thera ; that sets the na-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 333
lions logether by the ears, and so continueth them ; yea. it
is self that will not let neighbours live together in peace :
that provoketh people to disobey their teachers, and teach
ers to be man-pleasers, and neglect the people ; that will
not let masters and servants, parents and children, husband
•and wife, live peaceably and lovingly one with another ; il
is the coraraon raake-bate and troubler of the world.
Nay. it is self that causeth raost of the new opinions and
practices in religion ; that sets up Popery, and most other
sects ; and causeth the pastors to contend for superiority
to the troubling of the church, after all the plain prohibi
tions of Christ.
In a word, selfishness is tbe grand enemy of God, and
man ; the disease of depraved lapsed nature : the very heart
of original sin and the old raan ; the root of all iniquity in
the world : the breach of every coraraandraent of the law ;
the eneray of every article of faith, and every petition in the
Lord's prayer ; and by that time we have added the rest of
its deformity, you will see whether it be not tbe very image
of the devil, as the love of God and our neighbour which is
its contrary, is the iraage of God.
But now on the contrary side, self-denial coraplieth
with all divine Revelations, and disposeth the soul to all
holy requests, and to the observation of every coramand
of God. It hurably stoopeth to the mysteries of faith, which
othersproudly quarrel with in the dark. It makes a man
say, ' O what am I that I should set my wit agairist the
Lord, and make my reason the touchstone of his truth, and
think to coraprehend his judgments that are incomprehen
sible !' It causeth a man to sit as a little child, at the feet
of Christ to learn his will, and say, " Speak Lord, for thy
servant heareth." Il silenceth the carpings of an unsatis
fied understanding, and limiteth the inquiries of a busy,
prying, presumptuous wit ; and subdueth the contradictions
of flesh and blood : it casteth off that pride and self-con
ceitedness that hindereth others from believing.
In prayer it bringeth an empty soul, that is not stopped
up against the grace and blessings of God ; it layeth us
low in a receiving posture : it eraptieth us of ourselves, that
we may be filled with God : it hath nothing to say against
any one of those requests which Christ hath put into our

334 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
mouths, but subscribeth to them all. It is the highest am
bition, the greatest desire ofa self-denying soul, that God's
name may be hallowed and honoured ; whatever become of
his own narae or honour ; and that the kingdom of God
may flourish, in which he desireth to be a subject ; and that
the will of God raay be done, and the will of himself and
all the world conforraed and subjected to it : and so of the
rest of the petitions. Self-denial is half the life of prayer.
And it is a dutiful observer of all the commandments.
It giveth up our love to God as his own, and consequently
worshippeth hira in love, and reverenceth his name, and
observeth his time, and indeed is wholly devoted to him.
And it giveth our neighbour that part of our love whioh be
longeth to him ; and therefore will not dishonour superiors,
or encroach upon the possessions of others, or injure them
for his own ends.
And indeed what shbuld draw a self-denying man to
sin, (were he but perfect in self-denial) when the poise is
taken off, tlie wheels all stand still. Self-denial doth frus
trate teraptations, and leave thera little to work upon.
What should move a self-denying man to be proud, or co
vetous, or injurious to others ? No raan doth evil, but as it
seeraeth good, and for sorae good that he imagineth it will
do him : and this seeming good is to carnal self: and there
fore a self-denying man hath taken off the bias of sin, and
turned out the deceiver, and when satan comes, he hath
little in him to make advantage of. O how easily may you
take sin out of the hands of the self-denying, and make
them cast it away with lamentation, when other men will
hold it as fast as their lives ! O try this speedy way of mor
tification. Would you but destroy this original breeding
sin, you would destroy all. All the sins of your lives are
the fraits ofyour selfishness ; kill them at the heart and root,
ifyou would go the nearest way to work. What abundance
of sin doth self-denial kill at once ? Indeed it is the sum of
mortification. And therefore be sure that you deny your
selves.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 335
CHAPTER LXV.
Contrary to the State of Holiness and Happiness.
3. Moreover, selfishness is contrary to the state of holi
ness and happiness ; contrary to every grace, and contrary
to the life of glory. For it is the use of all grace to re
cover the soul from selfishness to God ; that God may be
loved, and self-love may be overcome ; that God may be
trusted, and pleased, and his service may be our care and
business, when before our care was tp please ourselves.
And the very felicity of the soul consisteth in a closing
and communion with God. The soul that will be happy,
must be conscious of self-insufficiency, and must go out
of itself, and seek afler life in God ; it must forsake itself,
and apply itself to him. Men lose their labour till they
deny theraselves, by goii^ to a broken, erapty cistern, and
forsaking the fountain of the living waters. The nearer
men are to God, and the more fully they are conformed to
him, and close with him, and know him, and love hira, th^
happier tbey are. Glory itself is but the nearest and fullest '
intuition and fruition of God. And he that hath most of
him here in his soul, and in the creatures, providences, and
ordinances, is the happiest man on earth, and likeliest to
the glorified. And there is no approach to God but by de
parting from carnal self. I know self-seeking men do think
of finding most peace and comfort in that way ; but they
are always deceived of their hopes : it is self-denial that is
tbe way to peace and comfort. While we rest on ourselves,
or are taken up wilh anxious caring for ourselves, we are
but tossed up and down as on a tempestuous sea ; and are
seeking rest but never find it: but when we retire from
ourselves to God, we are presently at the harbour, and find
that peace which before we sought in vain. I confess, in
the too little experience that I have myself of the way of
peace and quiet to the soul, I must needs say, there is none
but this. Never can I step out, but self meets with some
what that is vexatious and displeasing to it : this business
goes cross, and that business is troublesome : this person
18 troublesome, aad that person is abusive and injurious;

336 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
one is false and treacherous, or slanderous ; and another is
iraprudent and weak, and burdensorae : what between the
bails of prosperity, and the troubles of affliction, the per
verseness of adversaries, and the weakness of friends, and
the changes that all states and persons are liable to ; the
multitudes that would be pleased, and the labour and the
cost that it will stand us in to please them, and the multi
tudes that will be displeased when we have done our best j
and tbe murmurings, reproaches, and false accusations that
we shall be sure of from the displeased ; and which is the
worst of all, the burdensorae weaknesses and corruptions of
our own souls, and the sins of our lives, and the daily vexa
tion that our dark and shattered condition doth occasion to
ourselves ; I say, between all these disquieting perplexities,
enough to rack and tear in pieces the heart of man, I have
no way but to shut up the eyes of sense, and forget all self-
interest, and withdraw frora the creature, as if there were
no self or creature for it in the world, and to retire into
God, and satisfy ray soul with his goodness and all-suflS-
ciertcy, and faithfulness, and iramutability. And in him is
nothing to disquiet or discontent, unless you will call his
enmity to our own diseases and unhappiness a discontent
ing thing. And this is not my own experience alone, but
all that know what Christian peace and corafort is, do know
that they lose it, and are torn in pieces while they are car
ing and contriving for theraselves ; and that retiring into
God, and casting all their care on hira, and satisfying them
selves with hira alone, though all the creatures should turn
against thera, is the way to their content and quietness of
raind. The example of David is exceedingly observable ;
1 Sam. xxx. 6. When besides the distressed estate that he
was before in, the cily where he left his family and the
families of his followers, was taken and burnt down, and
their wives and children carried away, and all gone, so that
David and the people that were with hira, " lift up their
voice and wept, until they bad no raore power to weep ;" and
to raake up his calaraity. the soldiers that were with him
talked of stoning hira because of the loss of their wives and
children ; in this desolate condition, saith the text, " But
David encouraged (or coraforted) hiraself in the Lord his
God." And il is good for us soraetirae to have nothing in
this world left us that will afford us comfort, that we may

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 337
be driven lo God for it : until the house be as on fire over
our heads, and we are as it were fired out of every room of
it, we will hardly be gone, and partake ourselves to God our
only rest. Try it. Christians, when you will, and you shall
find it true, that selfish contents do but tice you to strag
gle away from your true corafort ; and when you have done
all. it is in returning unto God that you must find the com
fort which you lost by seeking it abroad. It is only in the
Gpd of peace that your souls will find peace, and therefore
away from self and creatures, and retire into God.

CHAPTER LXVI.
Self-seeking is Self-losing : Self-denying our Safety.
4. Moreover, consider that self-seeking is self-destroy
ing, 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 ourselves. But we were lost as soon as we
left hira and turned lo ourselves. If God care for you. In
finite Wisdom cares for you; whom no enemy is able to
overwit or circumvent ; who can foresee all your dangers,
and is acquainted wilh all the ways of your enemies, and
with all that is necessary to your preservation. But if you
be, al your own care, you are al the care of fools, and short-
wilted people, that are not acquainted wilh the depths of
satan, the subtleties 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 raen.
that though they have self-love, yet are so blinded by ira
piety that they will live like self-haters; and this expe
rience fully manifesteth, in that all sinners are self-de
stroyers : no enemy could do so much against us as the
best of us doth against hiraself: did a raan hate hiraself as
bad, as the devil hateth hira 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 corae, and undoing his own
soul, as the ungodly do. Should you sit down of purpose,
to ,study how to do all the hurt to yourselves that you can
VOL. XI. z

338 TREATISE OF SELE-DENIAL.
and to play the paft of your deadliest eneraies, I know not
what you could do more than is ordinary with ungodly men
to do, except to go a little further in the sarae way. No
thing but sin could alienate you frora God, or raake you
liable to his heavy wrath; and this no raan else could
raake you guilty of, if you did not voluntarily choose to be
evil. If you could ask any raan 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
raust needs tell you it was bimselfi' Ifyou come to any in
earthly raisery, and ask thera, who brought this upon them?
If they speak truly they raust say, it was theraselves. And
this vvill be a great aggravation of their misery, and the
fuel that will feed the unquenchable fire, to think that all
this was their own doing, and that they had not been de
prived of the heavenly glory but for their own refusal or
neglect. It will fill the soul with an everlasting indigna
tion against itself, to consider that it hath cast itstBlft wil
fully into such misery ! that, when satan could not, and
men could not, and God would not, if he had not done it
hiraself, he should be so witless and graceless as to be the
chooser of sin, the refuser of holittess, and his own undoer.
So that the experience of all the world telleth you, how un
safe raan is in his own hands ; the experience of those in
hell raay tell us, whither it is that self would lead us, if we
follow its conduct. Whither did self lead Adam when he
heaTkened to it. but to sin and death ? What work hath it
made over all the earth ! Do we not see a whole worid off
people, not one excepted, wounded, and slain, and brought
into so low and sad a state, and all this by themselves I 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 ; escape yourselves and yOu escape 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 yourselves thi-
thet: never will ybu 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 aje
nowhere more unsafe than in our own hands. God's will is
good, and would raake a good choice for us ; but our wills
are bad, and will make a bad choice for themselves. Ciod

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. , 339
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 aU the subtlety, and rage, and power of earth or
hell; but we are silly, impotent worms, and unable to de
fend ourselves, or to accomplish our own desires. So that
our safety consisteth in forsaking ourselves and cleaving
to the Lord. The raore 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 yourselves 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
yourselves. Forget yourselves, and reraeraber him ; and he
will remember you to your greates advantage than if you
had reraerabered yourselves. When any interest of your
own, riseth up against the interest or will of God, care not
then for yourselves 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. iii. 16, 17. when they were ready to be cast
into a flaming furnace, " Weare not careful to answer thee
in this matter : if it be so, the God whom we serve is able
to deliver us frora the burning fiery furnace, and he will
deliver us out of thy hand, O King : but if not, be it known
anto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor wor
ship 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 God's care, in- the raidst
of a flaming fire, than under your own- care in the greatest
pirosperity, or bonour in the world. While Abrahara and
Isaac depended upon God, they were safe, though in the
midst of dangers : but when they fell upon carnal shifting
fbr themselves, to say their wives were their sisters, they
brought theraselves but into a snare and double danger;
when you have cared, and contrived, and shifted for your
selves as long as you can, it is 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-

340 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
self? Cannot you do it better? and isit not your work?
and had you not rather your child would trust yoa 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 hi»
physician? or to be acquainted wilh his physic himself,
that so he raay be tampering with his own body, and have
the doing of the business himself, till by his unskilfulness
he hath undone hiraself, when he had a wise and faithful
physician that he raight have trusted to ! O thatmen 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 thera is the besl ! 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 lo their feli
city, to be contented to be nothing, that God raay be all ;
and then they would be raore in God than they could have
been in theraselves : and to be contented to die, that they
may live in God ; and to lose their lives, that they may
find them in hira. Let go your reputation with men, arid
you will find it made up a thousandfold in the approbation
of God. Let raen conderim you, so tbat God may but jus
tify 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 raake an ill bargain
that raakes 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. Il 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 il 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 all on his service upon the confidence
of his proraise.
But ifyou will go about to shift for yourselves, yoii wiU

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 341
lose yourselves : and if you will save yourselves, you will
undo yourselves ; and if you keep your rifches 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.

CHAPTER LXVII,
Selfishness the powerful Enemy of all Ordinances.
6, Moreover, it is self that is the most powerful resistor
of all the ordinances of God ; and it is self-denial that
boweth the soul to that holy corapliance wilh thera, which
wonderfully furthereth their success.
Were it not for this one prevailing eneray, what work
would the Gospel raake in the world ! O with what confi
dence should we corae into the pulpit, and speak the word
of God to our hearers, had we any to deal with but this
carnal self! God can overcorae it by his victorious grace ;
but it is so blind, so wilful, "^ so near raen, and so constant
wilh thera, 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 heinous nature of his sin, because
it is his own, he will not be convinced of it : when I tell
them of their misery, they will not be convinced of it, be
cause it is their own. Were I to speak all this to another,
and tell another of his sin and misery, I might have these
men 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 persuade 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 corae
to theraselves, there is no dealing with them, till God by
grace or judgment deal with them. They cannot endare to
know the worst by themselves ; rauch less to corae out of
it. If we tell thera of tbeir sin and danger, they say, we
speak against thera ! And therefore they say. It is out of
malice, or humour, or pride. And as well raight all dis
eased 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 Ul-will. It is natufal for

342 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
raen to think well of all thera thatthey love,and of all thatthey
do ; and whora do they love better than theraselves? 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 hiraself that he
would not believe he should be so cruel : " Is thy servant a
dog, that he should do thus?" 2 Kings viii. 13. The false
prophet, Zedekiah, could not forbear, but struck Micaiah,
when he raade it known that he was a lying prophet;
1 Kings xxii. 24. And Ahab hated hira, " because he pro
phesied not good of him, but evil." It was all the proud
men that rose up against Jeremiah, and contradicted his
prophecy, and rejected his word ; Jer. xliii. 5. The word of
God is quick and powerful, and a discemer ofthe 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 vvill tell them to their faces what they are, and what will
become of thera 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 ofa
raan-pleaser, but the commanding words of the God of hea
ven, and the peremptory ihreatnings of everlasting fire,
against all unconverted, unsanctified men, denounced from
hira that feareth none of thera all, but will raake them all
stoop at last to hira, and fear, and 'tremble before his Ma
jesty. 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 sometimes are ready to
tremble -as Felix did, when he heard Paul dilating of righte
ousness, and temperance and the judgraent to come; Acts
xxiv. 25. And can self endure to be thus used and ar
raigned for its Ufe ? especially when they think it is but by
a man ? For they have not the understanding to knbw that
it is Christ that owneth all that his messengers speak by his
coraraission. Hence it is that men hale those ministers
that they feel thus tojudge thera in their doctrine, and take
them for their enemies for telling them the truth ; Gal. iv. 16.
and think they are but the troublers of the country, as Ahah

TREATISE QP SELF-DENIAL. 343
called Elijah the troubler of Israel, which he had troubled
hiraself; 1 Kings xviii. 17. : and raeet them as he did the
same prophet. " Hast thou found me, O raine enemy ?"
1 Kings xxi. 20. They meet not a minister as the messen
ger of God that calls them to repentance, but as an enemy
in the field, to strive against him, and raise up all the rea
sonings and passions of their souls against hira, because he
condemneth their unregenerate state, tells them but what
God hath charged him to tell thera ; when the poor sinners
consider not, that before God hath done with thera, as sure
as they breathe, he will raake thera either by grace or judg
ment, condemn themselves as much as any of his ministers
conderaned thera (frora the word of God), at whom they
were most offended. Ab ! 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 theraselves,
which they hated us for saying : nay, with a hundred tiraes
more 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 coraraonly
hated and persecuted by the ungodly, especially by the
great ones and honourable sinners. For their message ia
against self, and therefore self will rise up against thera,
and so many selfish unmortified persons as there be in the
congregation, so many enemies usually hath such a minis
ter. And therefore the lords of Israel petition the king
that Jeremy may be put to death ; Jer. xxxviii. 4. And
Amaziah, the priest, calls Araos 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
king's chapel or his court; Amos vii. 10 — 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 bome ! As the bishpp of Mentg that Lu
ther 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 raen
say by our pt^aohing and by the word of God itself, ' Be it
ijever so true, we are sure it is against us :' or, rather, we

344 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
will not beUeve il, 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 il. though
it be for tbe troubling of them at the present by humiha
tion. O how tender are carnal persons of this self! How
quickly do they feel, ifa minister do but touch them! How
impatiently do they smart, if he meddle with the galled
place, and plainly open their raost disgraceful sins, and most
dangerous courses, as one that had rather be guilty of dis
pleasing them, than of silently permitting thera to displease
God. and undo their souls ! They fret and fume at the
serraon, and go home with passion in their hearts and re
proaches in their raouths against the minister : and are of
the mind of the desperate Sodomites, that said lo 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 thera; Gen. xix. 9. What, say
they, • can he not preach and let me alone ? hath he none to
rebuke before the congregation bul me !' And thus will
every ungodly person reject the word as they are selfish,
and self must be let alone in all. But why raust 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 frora dealing with you as you are ; what
ever his word hath said against you, he will certainly make
good, though you should never more be told of it by minis
ters. You have not silenced your Judge, when you have
silenced his messengers. He will handle you in another
manner than ministers do. O how easy is it lo hear a
preacher threatening the everlasting wrath, in comparison of
hearing the sentence of the Judge aud feeling the execu
tion ! If we should yield to your desires, and let you alone.
God would neither let yoa nor us alone ; you would but go
the raore quietly to hell ; and your blood will be required
also at our hands ; Ezek. xxxiii. 6 — 9. and then what would
become both of us and you ?
O were it not for the powerful resistance of this selfish
ness, what work would every serraon make that we preach
to you! O what abundance would be converted at a ser
mon ! for what should hinder it? I should make no doubt
of persuading you all to close with the Lord upon his rea-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 345
sonable terms, and to become a holy and heavenly people,
and presently to forsake your former sin, even this hour.
Nay, some ordinances there are that selfishness bath almost
shut out of the church ; as most of the exercise of the
ancient discipline, in open and personal admonitions, and
public confessions and lamentation of sin, with rejection of
the irapenitent, and the absolution of the penitent ; besides
raost of that privale address to pastors for their advice in
case of falls, and spiritual decays, or weaknesses, and diffi
culties that meet thera in doctrine or duty. Self will not
suffer raen lo stoop to most of these ! What, will they be
brought to open confessions and lamentations of sin, and to
follow the guidance and persuasions of a priest? No, all
the priests in England shall not raake such fools of thera ;
so wise are these selfish men for a little while ! Bul how
long will tbis bold ! and how long will madness go for wis
dom ! when they are dying, then they will send for the
rainister and confess ; and when sorae of thera corae to the
gallows, they will confess : and every one of them shall con
fess al last whether they will or no ; and God will indite
their confession for them, and open their shame to all the
world in another raanner than rainisters required them to
open it : but then confession will do nothing for remission,
and the preventing of execution, as now it might have done.
So also the duty ^f brotherly reproof and admonition of
offenders, is alraost quite cast out by selfishness ; and
especially, the patient and thankful receiving of it. And
those ordinances that are continued, are very much frus
trated by the opposition of selfishness. It is a very hard
task that Scripture and good books, and preachers have lo
do ; when we speak every word to enemies of the doctrine
which we preach, and we can do them no good bul by their
own consent ; and wbo will consent to that which he is an
enemy to? Our work is to subdue their flesh and carnal
wills to Christ ; and tbis flesh is so dear to thera that it is
themselves ; so that they take all that doctrine to be against
thera which sbould save them : and we have as .raany ene
raies as unconverted hearers in our asserably ; no wonder,
therefore, if they carp and quarrel, and strive, when the
self-denying hurably subrait and obey.
Self-denial openeth the heart ^o Christ, and giveth the

346 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
ordinances leave to work ; it taketh down all opposition and
contradiction ; so that though the soul may stay to search
the Scripture, and see whether tbe things tbat are taught be
so, yet it 'searcheth with a childlike teachableness, and
willingness to learn, and know and obey. It hath no mind to
quarrel wilh God ; how easily will a self-denying man sub
mit to those duties which another man abhors ? How easily
will he be persuaded to forgive a wrong, to part with his
right for a greater good to others, to let go a gainful trade
that is unlawful, or any sinful way of thriving : how easily
is he brought to ask forgiveness of those that he hath
wronged, to raake a public confession of his sins, if the
greatness of them, or his duty to God, or the good of
others, do require it ; to make restitution of all that he hath
gotten wrongfully ; to bear a plain and sharp reproof; to
part with his own for the relief of tbe poor ; to lay out his
estate to the best advantage of the cause and church of God.
and the coraraon good ; to let go any unlawful vanity ; any
excess in meat, or drink, or sport, or sleep, or any vanity
in apparel, or other work of pride : how easily can he bear
rebukes, reproaches, and neglects, and undervaluing or in
gratitude from others! But what ado shall we have with
carnal, unsanctified wretches, to persuade them to all, or
any of this ? From them a preacher hath such a work to
pull their beloved profitable sins (they seera profitable to
them till the reckoning coraes) as a raan hath to pull the
prey frora the jaws of a hungry wolf, or meat from the
mouth of a greedy dog ; but when we require the self-deny
ing to do the same thing, it is but as to bid a child obey his
Father whom he loveth and honoureth. The doing of these
duties, and forsaking these sins, is to an ungodly man as
the parting with a right hand, or aright eye, or the skin
from his back, or the flesh from his bones ; as we see by
the rarity, and the unsuccessfulness of the plainest reasons,
and great authority of God himself, and the few works of
piety, charity, or self-denial that are done by suoh at any
great cost. But to the self-denying, it is but as the cast
ing away a handful of earth, or casting off an upper gar
ment, for the doing of their work.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 347
CHAPTER LXVIII.
Enemy of all Society, Relations, and common Good.
6. Moreover, this selfishness is the enemy to all societies,
and relations, and consequently to the comraon godd. And
it is not only indirectly and consequentially, but directly
that it strikes at the very foundation of all. For the mani
festing of this, consider in what respects this selfishness is
at enmity with societies.
1. The end of societies is essential to them; and this
end is the common .good of the society ; and therefore a
republic hath its name frora hence, because it is constituted
and to be administered for the coramonwealth, or the good
of all. Now selfishness is contrary to this common good
which is the end of all societies. Every selfish person is
his own end ; and cares not to hinder the common good, if
he do but think it will promote his own. And how is that
family, church, or commonwealth like to prosper, where
most (alas, most indeed) have an end of their own, thatis
set up against the end and being of the society? For
though the real good of particular, persons is usually com
prehended in the coramon good, yet that is but in subser
viency to the pubUc good, and is not observed usually by
these persons, wbo principally look, at themselves. And it
commonly falls out that the public welfare cannot be ob
tained but by such selfrdenial of the merabers, which, these
men. will not submit to ; though they incur. a greater hurt
Jby their selfishness. Little do .they think of the. common
.good; itis their own matters thatthey regard and .mind.
So it .go well with them, let the church and commonwealth
-do what it wUl; they can bear any one's trouble or losses
save their own. They are every man as a church, as a com
monwealth, as a world to themselves. If they be well, all
is well with them ; if they prosper, they think it is, a good
world, whatever others undergo. If they be poor, orsicik,
or under any other suffering, .it is all one to them as if
calamity had covered the earth; and if they see that they
must die, they take it as if it were the dissolution of tbe
world, (unless as they leave .either, najme or posterity, be-

348 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
hind them, in which a shadow of thera may survive), and
therefore they use to say, ' When I am gone, all the world
is gone with rae.'
2. Moreover, selfishness is contrary to that disposition
and spirit that every raeraber of a society should be pos
sessed wilh. The public good will not be attained without
a public spirit, to which a pfivate spirit is contrary. Men
must be disposed to the work that they raust be employed in.
The work of every meraber of a society, is such as Mordecai
is approved for : " Seeking the wealth of his people, and
speaking peace to all. his seed;" Esth. x. 3. Every true
raeraber of the church raust have such a spirit as Nehemiah,
that in the raidst of his own prosperity and honours is cast
down in fasting, tears, and prayers, when he heareth of the
affliction, reproach, and ruins of Jerusalem, and saith,
" Why should not ray countenance be sad, when the city
the place of ray fathers' sepulchres lieth waste ?" Neh. i. 3.
ii. 3, 4. And as the captivated Jews ; (Psal. cx.xxvii.) that
lay by all their rairth and rausic. and sit down and weep at
the reraembrance of Zion. A privale, selfish disposition is
quite contrary to this ; and is busy about his own matters,
and principally looketh to his own ends and interests, what
ever come of- the church ; and falls under the leproof that
Baruch had frora God : " Behold that which I have built
will I break down, and that which I have planted I will
pluck up, even this whole land ; and seeketh thou great
things for thyself? seek them not ;" Jer. xlv. 4, 5. This
private disposition makes men so foolish as to lose them
selves, by seeking themselves ; looking lo their own goods
or cabins when the ship is sinking in which they are ; and
to their own rooms, when the house is all on fire. But a
public spirit saith, " If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my
right hand forget ber cunning. If I do not reraeraber thee,
let ray tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer
not Jerusalem above ray chief joy ;" Psal. cxxxvii. 5, 6. His
love is to the church as the spouse of Christ, and as to the
body of which he is hiraself a raember, and his prayers and
endeavours are for its prosperity and peace. " Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee : peace
be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces : for
my brethren and companions' sake, I will now say, peace
be within thee : because of the house of the Lord our God,

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 34&
I will seek thy good ;" Psal. cxxii. 6 — 9. The body of
Christ, is all animated by one spirii, that it raight aim at
one end ; and it is so tempered by God, that there should
be no schisra in it, but that the " merabers should have the
same care one for another, that if one meraber suffer, all the
merabers should suffer with it ; or if one raember be ho
noured, all should rejoice with it;" 1 Cor. xii. 13, 24 — 27.
There is no serving public ends wilh a private selfish spirit.
3. Moreover, selfishness is an eneray to the laws of socie
ties, whether it be the laws of God or raan. For it would
have thera all bended to their private interest, and fitted to
their selfish disposition. And therefore for the immutable
laws of God, which they cannol change, they corrupt them
by misinterpretations, expounding thera according to the
dictates of the flesh, and putting such a sense on all, as self
can bear with. And what they cannot raisinterpret, they
raurraur al and disobey. And for the laws of raen, where
selflsh persons are the makers of them, you shall perceive
by the warping of them, who they were raade for. Hence
it is that princes and parliaraents have looked at the laws,
and church, and ministers of CbSst, with an eye of jealousy
as if they had been sorae enemies that they stood in danger
of, and all for fear lest the personal, selfish, fleshly interest
of noblemen, and gentlemen, and others, should be en
croached upon by the laws and governraent of Christ. And
hence it is that so raany endeavours and hopes of a refbr
maiion have been so long frustrated, and even araong wise
and pious law-raakers there hath been so rauch pairis to
keep ministers from doing their duly in governing the
churches, and laying such restrictions on them, that pastors
raight be no pastors, that is, no guides and overseers of the
church in the worship of God. And when good laws are
made, they have as raany enemies as selfish raen. If the
law were not hated, the execution of it would not be haled
so much. 4. Also selfishness in an eneray lo the very being of
magistracy, and to all public officers, and their works ; for
the very end of the magistracy is the public benefit, as I said
before of the end of the commonwealth ; and therefore this
selfishness is contrary to his end ; and such men will nbt
value a magistrate as a public officer, but only as one that
is able to help them, or to hurt them ; which is but to fear

350 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
him as a potent enemy^. and not to love or honour him as a
ruler. They look at magistrates as tyrants that are too
strong for them; and as a cur will crouch to a mastiff dog,
so they will crouch to them to save themselves ; and this is
their love, and honour, and obedience ; (even suoh as Hobbs
hath taught them in his Leviathan.) But they do not re
verence that beara of divinity which God hath communi
cated to them in their authority ; nor love their governors
as the fathers of the church and coraraonwealth, for the
common good and the honour of God, whieh they are ap
pointed to promote.
5. And this selfishness is Ihe.deadly enemy of all right ad
ministrations of justice, and the due exercise of authority in
church or commonwealth. If a minister be selfish, he will
be shifting off the troublesome part of his duty, andwill
overrule his understanding to beUeve that it is no duty, be
cause disbelieving is easier than obeying. He will be for
ward in those duties that are necessary to his maintenance
and applause, and are iraposedi on him;by. thedaws oft men,
but out of the pulpit it is little that he will do : as if it were
the pulpit only that were '©od's vineyard where he is set to
labour. Flesh and blood shall be consulted, and men shafl
be pleased, and all that the interest of self may be maintained.
And if the people be selfish, they will rebel against their
most faithful guides, and kick against their doctrine and re
proofs, and fly frora discipline, which seeras to their distem
pered minds to be against them. Let but one mostnotorious,
lamentable instance suffice; The greater part of our pa
rishioners in most places of the land are lamentably igno
rant and careless in the raatters of their salvation, and all
that we can do is too Uttle to bring them to understand the
matters of absolute necessity ;. and yet almost: all: of them
are so much wiser in their own conceits than the ablef?t of
their teachers, that if we do not humour them, and be not
ruled by them in our doctrine and administrations, about sa
craments, prayers, burial, and the rest, yea, if we obey them
not in gestures and forras, they tura their backs upon officers,
and ordinances, and the church itself, and pour out their re
proach upon their teachers, as if we Were ignorant in com
parison of them (even of thera that know not so much as
children of seven or eight years old should know). See here
the wonderful bewitched power of a selfish disposition.

TREATISE OP SELF-DENIAL. 351
And in matters of the commonwealth, what is it more
than this ? nay, what is it besides this, that raaketh princes
becorae tyrants, and rulers keep under the ordinances and
interest of Christ, or fearfully neglect them, and look after
the church in the last place, when they have no business of
their own to call them off. and to begin to build God's house
when they have first built their own ? Not imitating Nehe-'
miah's labourers^ that had the sword in one hand, and the
trowel in the other, and builded in their arms. What else
makes them give God but their leavings, who giveth them
all ? And what else could make them such enemies to truth,
as to side with those parties, whatever they be, that side
most with them, and promote their interest ?
And, alas, what work doth selfishness made -with inferior
magistrates ? It is this only that opens the hand to a re
ward, and the ear to the solicitations of their friends ; and
it is this that perverteththe judgment, and this that oppress
eth the poor and innocent, and this that tieth the tongues
and hands of justices, so that abundance of thera do little
more than possess the roora, and stand like an armed statue
or a sign-post, which hurleth none ; alehouses do what they
list for them; and drunkards and swearers are bold at their
noses, and they are no terror to evil doers, nor revengers to
execute wrath upon them, nor ministers that use their power
for much good, but bear the sword almost in vain, contrary
to the very nature of their office ; Rom. xiii. 1 — 4.
And it is selfishness in (he people that causeth the trou-
Me of faithful magistrates : every man would do what he
li.sts. The worst offenderabhors him that would punish him :
and those that will commend justice, and cry down vice in
the general, yet when they fall under justice themselves, they
take all thai they suffer to be injury, and will do all that they
can against justice, and the officers of it, when it is to de
fend tiiemseives, or theirs, from the execution of it : so rare
a thing is it to meet with a raan that is a friend to laws and
justice, when themselves must suffer by it.
6. Selfishness also makes men withdraw from all those
necessary burdens and duties that are for the preservation of
(diurch or coramonwealth. Such wretches had rather the
Gospel were thrust out of doors than it should cost them
much : and bad rather have the unworthiest man that would
be their teacher for a little, than allow the best that mainte-

352 TREATISE OP SELF-DENIAL.
nance that the Gospel doth command, or give them what
the law hath made their own. They would venture the ruin
of church and state, and let all fall into the hands of the com
mon enemies, rather than hazard their persons, or lay out
their estates for the coraraon preservation. So that if the
hand of violence did not soraetimes squeeze these spunges.
and force these leeches to disgorge themselves, they would
but impoverish the coraraonwealth by their riches, and
weaken the body, like wens or iraposthuraes, by drawing to
themselves. 7. And then the selfish are such causes of division, that
if they did no olher harm, they would break both church and
state into pieces, if their huraour were predominant, and not
restrained or purged out. And in this regard, selfishness is
the direct enemy of societies, and is always at work to dis
solve them inlo independent individuals. A society is a po
litical body which raust have but one head, and one interest,
and one end ; but when selfishness prevaileth, there are as
many heads, and ends, and interests as persons. If they he
in a church, every one is the teacher and ruler ; and every
one must have his opinion countenanced, and his humour
satisfied ; every one raust have his way and: will : and how
is this possible, when their rainds are so various and con
trary to one another ; and their interests so inconsistent, and
there are as raany rulers as persons ? When every man is
drawing to himself, and there is no centre in which they can
unite, what work is there like to be in the church! What
progress could be raade in the building of Babel, when no
raan was ruled by another, but every raan ran confusedly
afler his single iraagination? What an array will it be, and
how are they like lo speed in fight, where every soldier is
instead of a captain and general to himself, and one runs
this way, and another that way, and one will have one course
taken, and another another course, and every one fightelh on
his own head? Such work doth selfishness make in the
church; it is this that hath broken it into so many parcels,
and would crumble it all lo dust if il should prevail.
And it is this also that causeth the divisions ofthe com
monwealth ; faction rising up against faction, and prince and
people living in jealousies of each other, as having contra
dictory interests ; which would not be, if the pleasing of

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 663
God. and the comraon good were the principal end and in
terest of them all, and selfishness did not prevail.
And this is il that keepeth Christian princes in most un"
godly wars, to the shedding of Christian blood, and the
weakening of the common interest, and the strengthening of
the common enemy, whom they should all join together to
resist. This also keepeth up so many parlies on religious pre
tences lo seek the undermining and ruin of each other, when
they should all join togelher against the coramon profane
ness ofthe world ; and all their conjunct endeavours would
be loo little. Thus selfishness is the grand eneray that by
divisions and subdivisions is slill al work for the dissolution
and ruin of church and state, and the confusion of the world,
andthe disturbance and destruction of order and government.
8. Yea, selfishness makes men false and treacherous, so
that they are not lo be trusted, and are unmeet raaterials for
any society. For whatever they proraise, pretend, or seem,
they are all for theraselves, and will be no further true and
faithful to the society, or any member ofit, than suiteth wilh
their own ends. Never trust a selfish person, if it be your
own brother, further than you can accoraraodate and please
him, and so oblige him to you upon his own account. It is
the complication of interests, that makes husband and wife
so much agree and love each other ; because that which one
hath, the other hath : bul if their interests fall out lo be any
whit divided, it is two lo one bul selfishness will divide their
affections. One would think that the bond of nature should
be so strong to constrain a son to love his father, that no
thing could dissolve it ; and yet s-ad experience telleth us
that even here, it is an unity of interest that doth raore with
many children than either nature or grace : and that vvhen
they have no more dependance upon their parents for their
coraraodity, their affections and respects are gone ; and if
they shall gain rauch by their death, they can bear it without
rauch sorrow, if not desire il. So potent is selfishness, that
it ^raakes not raen unfaithful only to their friends, and
treacherous to their governors, and false to all they have to
do with, but also unnatural to their nearest relations.
And therefore (next to true piety, which leads up all to
an unity in God, and therefore is the raost perfect polity,;
VOL. XI. A A

354 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
the chief point of huraan polity, for the preservation of com-
raonwealths. and all societies, is, a complication of interest :
when the constitution makes the governor and the governed
as husband and wife, that have nothing dividedly as their
own, but all in common, and take each other for belter or
worse, and know they must stand or fall together, and that
the good or hurt of one, is the good or hurl of both, and that
there is no manner of hope that either of them should thrive
by the ruin of the other. If politicians had the skill and
will to make such an union of interests between the sovereign
and the subject, and to make it visible that all raight under
stand it, their republics would be iraraortal, till either the
wrath of a neglected God, or the power of a foreign enemy
should dissolve thera : for nothing else but self could do it;
and self will not do it when it sees its own interest lie in the
preservation of the present state.

CHAPTER 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
joined with the love of God) that it rectifieth and ennobleth
all your actions.
Let the work be ever so holy in its nature, yet if you do
it but for yourselves, you raake but a profane eraployraent
of it; and to you it is not holy, A selfish, carnal person is
serving hiraself even in preaching ; and hearings and pray
ing, and sacraments, and other acts of worship and church-
communion ; much more in the coraraon business ot his
life. Even when he thinks he is serving God, he is but
seiTing himself of God, and provoking God by his abuse;
when he thinks he is very holy because of his services, he
is doubly unholy, in that he even profeneth 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 man'a 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

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAI,, 356
make but a low, unprofitable drudgery of that which in the
hands of others is the highest and noblest work on earth-
For the aciion can be no better than the end ; and there
fore is base as it is base.
But on the other side, self-denial makes noble the ac
tions that in themselves seem base. If you are gone out of
yourselves, and can truly say, that it is God you serve and
seek in your employments, you may be sure that God will
take thera for his service, and set them on your account
among the works that he hath promised to reward (suppos
ing that the raatter be such as he alloweth of, and that you
think not by good intentions lo turn sin into holiness, and
make hira 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, be
cause they are so unserviceable to God. Alas, thinks a
poor tradesman, or ploughman, or servant. What do I but
drudge in the world ! I have neither parts nor place to do
God service wilh! But such do very rauch raislakie thc
matter. It is not the parts and place, but the hearty per
forraance of your works for God that raakes thera such as
he will take for service. O, thinks a poor woman, or toil
ing 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 coraraandeth, and is
heartily intended to his honour and his pleasure : it is not
the raetal, but the stamp of the prince, that makes a piece
to be current money. If the king's starrip were put by his
appointraent 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 coraraanded you
by God, that you may be accepted by him, and offer your
selves and all your labours purely lo him, and to his ho
nour, and his will, God will lake these for honourable ser
vices ; and you are as truly at his work, even in your shops
and fields, as princes are in ruling, or pastors in teaching

356 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
or guiding the flock : you that are poor, and cannot set so
rauch time apart for reading and other holy duties as some
others do, see that you neglect no holy opportunity that
you can take, and then consider, that if God sel you to do
him service even by washing dishes, or sweeping channels,
or the meanest drudgery, be will accepi it; and the more,
by how much the raore humble submission and self-denial
is found in il. Take him as the only Lord and Master of
your souls and lives, and all that you have, and when you
are called lo 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 myself, but as an obedient child
in my Father's service, because he bids me do it, and it is
pleasing to hira through Christ ; I do it not principally
from self-love, bul from the love of God, that commandeth
rae ray work ; and as a traveller that laboureth in his way
for the love of his horae, so I am here at labour in this
world, in the place that God hath set rae, that I may in his
appoinled way attain the everlasting glory that he hath
promised.' I say. do but see lo it. that thus you dedicate
your labours to God, and you may take corafort in the daily
labours of your lives, even the meanest and most contempti
ble, 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 God's interest in your works, that is the
holiness and excellency of thera. Were servants and la
bouring people raore holy and self-denying, they might have
raore true corafort in their daily labour, than the best of the
unsanctified can have frora their prayers or other worship
of God. Not that worship raay be therefore neglected ; but
that a Christian must do nothing at all but for God ; and
then he may be sure of God's acceptance.

CHAPTER 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

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 357
will go through all ; and be saved. Nothing doth so tho
roughly try whether self or God be besl beloved, as suffering
for his cause. In this il is that Christ useth lo try men's
self-denial ; and it is a principal use of persecution. When
you hear of coming before rulers and judges, and being
haled of all men for Christ's name sake, then self riseth up
lo plead for its interest, and never makeUi more ado than
when it seeth the flames. The flesh cannol reason, but it
can strive against reason, and draw it to its side. No rea
son seemeth sufficient to il, to persuade it to choose a suf
fering stale. If you persuade a carnal man lo let go his
estate, to be poor and dispised in the world, and to give up
Ufe itself, 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 cannol drink of his cup, and be baptized with his bap
tism, 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 raisery by dis
pleasing God ; and the voluntary subraission to the suffer
ings of the flesh for the cause of Christ, is the high way to
felicity ; 2 Tira. ii. 11, 12. " It is a faithful saying; for if
we be dead wilh 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. viii. 17. " Yea, and all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ;" 2 Tira. iii.
12. The day of trial is a kind of judgment-day to the selfish,
unsanctified man ; for il discovereth his hypocrisy, and
sheweth him to be but dross, and separateth him from the
suffering servants of Christ.
Bul self-denial maketh suffering light, and will make
you wish that you had any thing worth the resigning unto
Christ, and any thing by tbe denial whereof you niight.
serve him. For hira you would suffer the loss of all things.,
and account them dross and dung that you may win him ;
Phil. iii. 8. He will count us " worthy ofthe kingdora for
which we suffer ;" 2 Thess. i. 5. As the " Captain of our
salvation was raade perfect by suffering, (Heb. ii. 10.) so
also raust his merabers, by " filling up the measare," and
feeing " made partakers of his sufferings," aud " knowing the

35S TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
fellowship of thera;" 2 Cor, i. 6—7. Phil. iii. 10. And the
" God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after we have suffered awhile, will
make us perfect, stablish, strengthen and settle us ;" 1 Pet.
V. 10. If therefore you would not prove apostates, and deny
Christ in a day of trial, and be denied by hira before his
Father and the holy angels, see that you now learn this
needful lesson of self-denial.

CHAPTER LXXI.
The Selfish deal worse with God than wilh Satan.
9. Consider also that selfish carnal men deal worse with
God, than they do wilh the devil and sin itself. God of
fereth them Christ and pardon, and eternal life, if they will
bul deny themselves in a thing of nought, and they will not
be ruled or persuaded by him : the devil offereth them but
tbe delights of the flesh, and the pleasures of sin for a sea
son, and they will deny ten thousandfold raore for this.
They will deny God their Maker and Redeeraer, 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 hira 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 slate raust sland or fall according to
his judgment. 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 per
suasions and daily labours : they will deny their dearest
Christian friends, and deny their own consciences and con
victions ; and deny themselves the peace and joy which
they raight find in a holy walking with God. Yea, they will
deny theraselves everlasting life, and the favour of God, and
cast themselves into endless misery ; and all this for a thing
that is ten thousand limes worse than nothing, or for a very

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 359
sensual, brutish pleasure. And yet these men cannot depy
theraselves in life, or liberty, in gain, or honour, no nor in
the filthiest lusts, for the sake of Christ and their own sal
vation ; even when they raay know that they most deny
themselves when they will not deny theraselves. They deny
theraselves eternal glory, because they will not deny thera
selves in teraporal vanity. Heaven and earth will witness
against such sottish and unrighteous deaUng as this, if true
conversion do not prevent il. Hath God, hath Christ, hath
your own salvation deserved no better at your hands than
this ? O raiserable souls ! All things can be easily denied
save sin and camal self, and these cannot be denied. God
can be denied, Christ, and Scripture, and heaven itself 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 sland
in judgraent? Ask now any stander-by that is impartial,
whether God or the flesh should be denied ? Whether hea
ven or earth should be denied, seeing one of thera you must
deny ? And if any impartial man will be now against you,
what think you vvill God be, who is not only irapartial, but
wronged by you, and a hater of your unrighteous dealing?

CHAPTER LXXIL
To be left to Self, is tke sorest Plague.
10. Lastly, reraeraber, that to be given over to ourselves,
is the heaviest plague on this side hell ; and therefore he
that delighteth not to be raiserable should not desire to be
selfish. To be given over to the love of yourselves, is to
turn frora the love of the blessed God lo the love of a
filthy sinner, and so to forfeit God's love to you. To be
given over to care for yourselves, is to forfeit the fatherly
care of God, and to be al the care ofa silly, insufficient, ira-
provident sinner. To be given over to your own conceits
or wisdom, is to be forsaken of the sun, and left in dark
ness, and spend the rest ofyour days in a dungeon, the be
ginning 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

300 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
undo you, and to be cast out of the hands of God. To be
given over to seek yourselves, is to lose yourselves 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 yourselves, and delivering yourselves in
danger of soul and body, is even to be exposed to certain
and perpeiual perdition. To be given over to be ruled by
yourselves, is to be relinquished as rebels, and exposed to
the tyranny, of sin and satan. So that in all things it is
raost 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 go
vernraent of God ; and when by casting off his government
he had forfeited the benefit of it, the raost of the world be
came even brutish : and wben God had owned the govern
ment of Israel above other nations, and kept the choice of
the sovereign 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 raight have
raore of it in their own ; and this was an increase of their
raisery. Woe to that man that ever he was born, that is
finally given over lo himself ; for this is a sign that God
hath forsaken him, and he stands al the brink of eternal
death. O think of this, you that are self-conceited, and
self-willed, and self-lovers, and self-seekers, and know not
how lo deny yourselves. Must self be so regarded and ten
derly used ? Take heed, you may have enough of self wilh
everlasting vengeance, if God once give you over lo your
selves, and say of you as of them ; " Bul my people would
not hearken unto my voice ; and Israel would none of me :
So I gave them up lo their own hearts' lusts, and they
walked in their own counsels;" Psal. Ixxxi. 11, 12. So
much for the aggravations.

CHAPTER LXXIII.
Ten Directions to get Self-denial.
IV. I COME now to the last part of my task, which is to tell
you what course you should take to procure self-denial. For

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 361
though it be the gift of God, yet there are certain raeans ap
pointed us for the attainraent of it, and God useth lo give it
raen in the use of his raeans, and by those raeans raust it be
confirraed and continued.
Direct. I. ' Set faith a work upon the promises of God
and upon everlasting life ;' for the flesh will not be taken oft*
these lower things, till you have found out belter, and such
as will be sure to save you harmless. The raost covetous
raan will let go silver, if he might have gold instead of il.
Set faith a pleading the case with the flesh ; and urge your
own hearts wilh the certainly, the nearness, the glory, the
eternity ofthe kingdom which by self-denial you may attain;
and if they will not yield to such a change as this, they are
unreasonable, unbelieving hearts.
Direct. 2. ' Never be deluded to forget the vanity, the
brevity and, the emptiness and insufficiency of all these
earthly things, which self so adhereth lo, as to neglect the
proraised life of blessedness. Acquaint your own hearts
what a nothing it is that they raake so much of, and follow
so greedily, and hold so fast ; shew them in the sanctuary
the glass ofthe word of God, which will tell them what will
be the end of all, and where all their worldly prosperity will
leave thera. Ask your hearts, ' Can I keep these things for
ever, or not? If not. is it not betier let thera go for sorae
thing, than for nothing ? and lo part with them as a child,
at the command of my heavenly Father, than to part with
them as a thief doth wilh his prize, at the gallows ? Is it not
belter let them go to ease me, and to secure my eternal peace,
than let thera go lo wound me and torment me? And while
I keep them, what will they do for me. that I should buy
them at so dear a rale ? O how dear must I pay for my ease,
and honour, and gluttony, and drunkenness, and sensual de
lights, if I part not wilh them when God commandeth ! How
cheap is a holy, blessed life, in comparison of this which I
must pay so dear for !'
Direct. 3. To promote your self-denial, ' Consider fre
quently and seriously, who God is, and lo what end he raade,
redeemed, sustaineth, and governeth the world : and then
bethink you, whether il be meet that this glorious God should
be neglected, and frustrated ofthe end of all these works !'
and whether any thing besides him be fil to be the creature's
end. You think it meet that every workman should have

362 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
the use of his own work. Doth any raan make a house for
its own sake, or for bis use to dwell in ? Is it for the thing's
sake that any man raakes an instrument ; or for his service
by it ? Do you think that God made you for yourselves, and
not for himself and service? Give therefore to God the
things that are God's : all souls are his, and therefore all
should acknowledge him, and subrait lo his dispose and
pleasure. Shall the pot quarrel with the potter, or claim title
to itself, and say, ' I ara mine own ?' It is against the clearest
reason in the world, that any but the Creator, Redeemer and
Preserver of the world should be Lord, and the Governor,
and the End of it ; and that men should prefer themselves
before hira.
Direct. 4. ' Moreover, it will further your self-denial to
reraeraber what you will get by selfishness.' God will have
his ends and honour out of you one way or other, whether
you will or no : he will have your goods from you, and your
lives from you ; and the faster you hold them, the more you
will suffer when he wringeth them out of your hands. The
raost covetous raan would part wilh his raoney to buy a
lordship, if he knew il would else be taken from him. A
worldly treasure is obnoxious to rust, and moths, and thieves ;
and ifyou exchange it not for the heavenly treasure in time,
and remove not your riches to the world that you must for
ever live in, what will you do when you raust reraove your
selves ? And all your self-denial is bul such an exchange
or reraoval which all should be glad of, that know they must
be gone themselves. Nay. more, consider still that selfish
ness makes you an idol to yourself, and therefore you do
but set up yourselves as a mark for the jealous God to shoot
at, and every hour you have reason to expect, that the terri
ble hand of Justice should lay hold upon you, and try you
at the bar of that God whose prerogative you did usurp.
Direct. 5. ' And it may much further your self-denial to
take a considerate survey of the world, and see bul what
self-seeking hath already done, and is still doing in it.' What
a doleful sight of wickedness, confusion and misery must
you see. which way ever you look : and all is most evidently
the fruit of selfishness. Methinks it should awaken every
sober raan against il, that doth but observe what work it
bath made ; that seeth farailies disordered and ruined by it ;
neighbours set in dissension by it ; churches divided by it ;

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 363
religion dishonoured by it ; and raultitudes of them that
seem to be religious, to be so lamentably deceived and en
slaved by it. Princes and great men blinded by it ; judges
and learned men befooled by it ; and tbe nations ofthe world
almost all set togelher by the ears by it : so that il hath
turned the world inlo the confusion of Babel, that no man
can understand a word ofthe language that tendeth to unity,
peace and building up. Princes understand it not: too
many preachers understand it not; but the language of scorn,
and strife, and dissension they understand : so that the world
is cast all into a hurly-burly, and every man's hand is against
his brother when he scarce knows why. No church or state
can stand wiihout disturbance ; no truths without contra
diction. Under pretence of coming in to Christ, they are
busily uncovering bis house, when the door is wide open, and
there are more to invite them than lo hinder thera. Me
thinks as a raan that observeth the carriage of madmen or
drunken raen, should never have any raind to be raad or
drunken ; so he that observeth but what self-seeking hath
done in the world, should bave litlle mind lo be self-con
ceited, self-willed or self-seeking, bul should love and ho
nour self-denial.
Direct. 6. ' If you would proraote self-denial, keep with
you the continual feeling of your own unworthiness and in
sufficiency.' No man will trust upon a broken staff if he
kuow it ; nor be so foolish as to go about lo walk upon tbe
water, which he knows will not bear him. One would think
this should be an easy and an effectual remedy. Should it
not be easy for such wretched sinners as we, to carry about
with us a sense of our unworthiness ? For such lepers to
carry about us a sense of our uncleanness ? Methinks so
many and great diseases should make us feel them. O then
consider, as creatures, you are utterly insufficient for your
selves ; and as sinners, much more. God never made you
to live upon, or to yourselves ; or without him, or wiihout
the help of others. There are few beasts when they are first
brouo-ht forth into the world, but are more able to help thera
selves than man ; when he is newly born he can do nothing
to help himself. And when he comes lo age. he is naturally
formed to a sociable life ; so that if he should retire from
the world, and live only by and of himself, he would soon
find what it is to be selfish : much more if he be left to him-

364 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
self by God, or forsake God, and trust to and depend upon
himself. But if ever innocent raan had been sufficient for
hiraself; yet sinful man can have no pretence to such a pri
vilege, while he beareth about him so many convincing evi
dences of the contrary every day. Do you not feel sin as a
heavy burden pressing you down, and perceive how easily
it entangleth and besettelh you ? sure you do, ifyou be not
past feeling. And do you not know enough of the nature
and desert of sin, to drive you out of yourselves, and bring
you lo him that calleth the weary and heavy laden to come
to him for ease and rest; Matt. xi. 28. Do you not feel a
continual burden of infirraities ? and doth not experience
tell you that you are not sufficient lo relieve yourselves in
any pain or sickness that doth befal you ? You cannol
support yourselves a raoraent ; you are slill in the hands of
that invisible God whora you abuse by your self-seekitig.
You would drop inlo hell if he withdrew the hand of his pa
tience and support, as sure as a stone would fall to the earth
that were loose in the air I As truly as the earth beareth
you, so truly doth he bear the earth and you. It is easier
for houses, and towns, and mountains to stand in the air
without the earth, than for you, or any thing, to subsist a
moment without the Lord. Who keeps your heart and pulse
slill beating, and your blood and spirits in continual raotion,
and warra in your veins ? Is it God, or you ? Who is it that
causeth your lungs to breathe, your storaach to turn your
raeat to nourishraent ; and that nourishraent into blood, and
spirits, and strength ? Is il God, or you ? Who is it that
causeth the sun to rise upon you in tbe morning lo light you ,
to your labours, and to set upon you al night, that the cur
tains of darkness may be drawn about you, and you may
quietly repose yourselves to rest ? Who giveth you strength
to labour in the day, and refresheth you wilh sleep at night,
and provideth all the creatures for your assistance ? Is it
you or God ? O sirs, methinks such silly worms, that can
not live a minute of themselves, and cannol fetch a breath of
themselves, should easily see that they should not Uve to
themselves, bul to hira frora whora and by whora they live.
Direct. 7. ' If you would live in self-denial, be sure that
you keep the raastery of your senses :' and do not let them
be ungoverned, but shut thera up when reason doth require
il. It is your appetite and senses that feed this carnal, sel-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 365
fish vice ; but reason and faith are both against it. When
ever you consult with sense, you raay know what bruti.sh
advice you raay expect. Ask not therefore whatis delight
ful, nor what is for your carnal ease and peace ; bul what is
necessary to please tbe Lord, and for your everlasting peace.
And if the terapter tell you, ' This is the easier and the
broader way;' tell hira that il is not the honester nor the
safer way : and the question is not, which is the fairest way ?
but, which is the way lo heaven ? Il is better go the hardest
way to glory, than the smoothest lo damnation. If you can
not keep under your sensitive appetite, -and subdue the eager
desires of the flesh, and learn to want, as well as to abound ;
to be empty, as well as lo be full ; you will never attain to
self-denial. Direct. 8. 'To promote your self-denial, methinks it
should be effectual lo understand the great advantage that
you have by the coraraunion and society which you enter
into when you deny yourselves.' Though a prince or lord
would he loath to enter into a college, or monastery, where
there is no propriety, and yet withal, no care or want ; yet a
poor labouring man, or a beggar would be glad of such a
life. So you that cannot live of yourselves, methinks should
be glad of such a coraraunity.
1. Consider that the Lord Jesus is the Head ofthe so
ciety, who hath undertaken to make provision for the whole,
and is engaged for their security, and to save them harmless :
and all the riches of his grace and love belong to that so
ciety, and will be yours ; which is raore than all that you can
-part wilh of your own, yea more than all the treasures of the
world. Il is therefore the noblest and richest society in
the world that you shall live in communion with, if you will
deny yourselves.
2. And the saints that are the members of that society
are the brethren of Christ and the heirs of heaven. And all
these are your brethren ; endeared in spgfcial love lo you,
engaged to assist you, by prayers, and counsel, and pains,
and purse, and every way that they can ; so that well might
Christ say that he that forsaketh any thing for him, shall
receive even a hundredfold in this life, and in the world to
come eternal life. For this one sorry self that you forsake,
and its poor accomraodations, you have God for your Father,
and Christ for your Head, and the Holy Ghost for your Sancti-

36G TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
tier and Comforter, and the Scripture for your guide, and
saints for your brethren, companions and assistants, engaged
to you in truer and dearer love than your unsanctified friends,
that cast you off for the sake of Christ. And had you ra
ther be toiling and caring for yourselves, than let go self, and
enter inlo so blessed a community, where you may cast all
your care away upon God, who hath promised to care for
you ; and may feed yourselves in the daily delightful fore
thoughts of life eternal?
Direct. 9. ' And methinks it should rauch proraote your
self-denial, lo study well the self-denying example of Christ,
and his erainent servants that have trod in his steps.' Christ
had no sinful self to deny, nor any corrupled flesh to mor
tify or subdue. And yet he had a self-denial in which wu
must imitate him; "For even Christ pleased not himself,
but as it is written. The reproaches of them that reproached
thee are fallen upon me ;" Rom. xv. 3. We are told there
fore by Christ's example, that it is not only the pleasing of
self as corrupted by sin, but also a pleasing of natural self,
in ihings where God may lay a restraint upon il, or put it to
the trial, that we must avoid, and in which we must deny
ourselves : even as Adam was to have denied his natural ap
petite before sin had corrupted il ; and Christ had an inno
cent natural will, of which yet he saith, " Not ray will, bul
thine be done." His whole life was a wonderful example of
self-denial : he lived in a low estate, and denied himself of
the glory and riches of the world, and " became poor, though
he were Lord of all, that by his poverty we might be made
rich ;" 2 Cor. viii. 9. He lived under the reproach of sin
ners ; of sinners that he created ; of sinners whom he died
for. He would wear no crown, but a crown of thorns ; he
would wear no robes, but the robes of their reproach ; he
yielded his cheeks to be smitten, and his face to be spit upon
by the vilest sinners, whom he could with a word have lurned
into hell. And al last he gave himself for us on the cross,
in suffering a reproachful, cursed death ; Heb. vii. 27. Tit.
ii. 14. Ephes. V. 2.25. Gal. i.4. And can you read such
an example of self-denial, given you by the Lord of glory,
and not be transformed into the image of it ? I think the
study of a self-denying Christ, is one of the most excellent
helps to self-deniaL Takeit from the apostle himself; "Ful
fil ye my joy, that ye be Uke-minded, having the same love.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 367
being of one accord, of one raind; let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let
each esteem other better than themselves : look not every
man on his own things, bul every man also on the Ihings of
others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus ; who being in the forra of God, thought it no robbery
to be equal with God ; but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in
the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled hiraself and becarae obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross : wherefore God also hath highly exalted
him;" Phil, ii.2 — 8. " Look therefore unto Jesus, the Author
and Finisher of our Faith, who for the joy that was set before
him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down
at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him that
endured such contradictions of sinners against himself, lest
ye be wearied and faint in your minds ;" Heb. xii. 2 — 4.
Direct. 10. But the greatest help to self-denial, is, ' To
retire from the creature unto God, and live in the love of
him, and employ the soul continually upon him.' Men will
not be frightened frora self-love. It raust be another more
powerful love that must draw thera from it : and that can be
none but the love of God. When you have soundly dis
cerned a surer friend than self, a wiser, a better, an abler
governor and defender, and one that much more deserveth
all your love and care ; then you will turn away frora self,
and never till then. See therefore that you espouse no in
terest but God's. ; and then you will have nothing to call you
from hira. Let love so close you wilh him, and unite you
lo him, that you raay know no happiness but his love and
glory, and see with no other Ught than his ; and know no
will but the will of God ; nor raeddle wilh any work, which,
for matter and end, you cannot call the work of God. Then
you have indeed denied yourselves, when you are nothing,
have, nothing, and do nothing, but as from God, and by him
and for him. Own not any self but in and for God, and
then you may love and seek it freely ; for this is to be called
a loving and seeking of God, and not of self. Own not any
knowledge, but that which is frora the light of God, by his
word, works. Spirit and ordinances, and which leadeth you
to God in holiness and peace, and guideth you in his ser
vice, and then you need not conderan yourselves of self

368 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL
conceitedness, or a selfish understanding. Know not any
will in yourselves, but that which is caused by the will of
God, and directed by it, and intended to fulfil il ; so that
you may be able to say of every desire of your soul, I desire
this, because that God would have me desire it, and I am
resolved to follow his will in the seeking of it, and the end
of my desire is, that I may please him, and his will may be
done, and then you may say, you have conquered self-will.
O see then that you be more with God ; and study his mind
and will, his excellency, sufficiency, and love, and remeraber
that you are a dependent being, that are nothing but in and
by hira, and therefore should know no interest but him and
his interest, nor possess any thing but for hira, nor know
any will or way but his will and way, and so let his be yours,
and yours be his, by a holy resignation, conformity and sub
serviency unto his ; and this is the true rectitude and holi
ness of man, this is a finding ourselves by losing ourselves,
and the only saving and exalting of ourselves, by denying
ourselves. Nothing bul the light of God will master self-
conceitedness ; and nothing but the love of God will over
come self-love ; and nothing bul an union and closure with
the will of God will overcome self-will ; and nothing bul an
espousing and intending God and his interest will cause a
true denial of carnal self-interest ; and nothing bul a seek
ing of God, conversing as wilh him, and living to him will
cure the soul of self-seeking, and an ungodly and unprofita
ble living to ourselves.
One olher Direction I should add, which is lo be always
jealous and suspicious of self; but this will fall in the Con
clusion.

THE CONCLUSION.

I HAVE now finished what I had to say to you on this great
and needful subject; and I have staid the longer on il, that
I raight occasion your own thoughts to be the longer on it;
for it is not a few hasty running thoughts that will make
any great impression on the soul. And now Christian
friends, whoever you are that hear or read these words, I
earnestly entreat you in the name of God, that you will set
your hearts to the deep consideraliori of the nature and
odiousness of this sin of selfishness ; and of the nature and

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 36.9
necessity of self-denial. You will never effectually hate
and resist the sin which you think lightly of, and is not in
any great discredit wilh you ; nor wiU you fly frora it with
fear, and care, and vigilancy, till you apprehend the dan-
gerousness of it. I have not only told you, but proved it
to you; that this is one of the most odious and dangerous
sins in the world, even the sum of all iniquity, that con
taineth a thousand sins in the bowels of il : this is it that
generateth all olher vices, and fills the worid with swarms of
mischief. It is this selfishness that corrupteth all estates,
and distracteth all societies, and disturbeth all affairs.
Never look further for the cai^se of your calamities : it is
self that causeth the raiscarriages and negligence of the
princes, governors, and magistrates of the world, while they
look at their own interest, and little at the things of Jesus
Christ, or at least prefer theraselves before him. It is self
that causeth the disobedience of subjects, while they judge
theraselves capable of censuring their rulers for matters that
are beyond their reach ; and grudge at all necessary burdens
for the coraraon good, because they are a little pinched by
them. It is self that hath kindled the raiserable wars that
are laying waste so many countries, and that makes such
woful havock in the world. Il is self that hath so lamenta
bly abused religion, and introduced so many fantastical
self-conceits under the name of high scholastical subtleties;
and thathath let in so raany errors in doctrine and worship,
and defiled God's ordinances, and corrupted and alraost ex
tinguished the discipline of Christ in tbe church. It is self
that hath caused the leaders of the assemblies, that should
be exemplary in unity, and holiness, and industry, lo be
some of thera idle and negligent, and sorae of thera carnal
and vicious, and so many of them in discord and fierce op
position of one another: so that every raan that is grown
up to a high degree of wisdora in his own eyes, (and such
degrees are soon attained) is presently venting his own con
ceits, and perhaps publishing thera to the world, and seek
ing out an adversary to shew his raanhood upon, and
reviling all that are not of his opinion ; as if there were no
difficulty in the matter, but he is learned and wise, and
they are all unlearned and ignorant : he is orthodox, and
they are heretics, or what his pride and self-conceitedness
VOL. XI. B B

370 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
is pleased to call thera. It is this selfishness that makes
even godly rainisters the dividers of the church, the reproach
of their holy calling, the occasion ofthe increase of triumph
of the adversaries, and the causes of no sraall part of all our
nnreformedness, distractions and calamity ; and the refusers
and resistors of tbe remedies that are tendered for healing
and reformation. I dare boldly say, if this one sin were but
rooted out ofthe hearts ofthe ministers theraselves that are
the preachers of self-denial, it would make so sudden and
wonderful a change in the church, as would be the glory of
our profession, the joy of the godly, and the admiration of
airi O happy and honourable magistrates at court and
country, if self were but thoroughly conquered and denied!
O happy and reverend ministry, the pillars of reUgion, the
honour of the church, if it were not for the shameful preva
lency of self! O happy churches, happy cities, corporations,
societies and countries, were it not for self! But alas ! this
is il that saddeth our hearts, and makes us look for more and
more sad tidings concerning the affairs of the church, from
all parls of the world ; or frustrates our hopes, when we look
for betier. For we know on the one side, that without self-
denial, there will never be true reformation or unity ; neither
sin nor division will ever be overcome ; and on the other
side, we see that selfishness is so natural, and common, and
obstinate, that so raany raen as are born into the world, so
many enemies are there to holiness and peace, till grace shall
change thera ; and that all endeavours, persuasions, convic
tions, do little prevail against this deadly rooted sin : so that
raen will preach against it, and yet raost sharaefuUy live in
it ; and after all rebukes, chastiseraenls and heavy judgrtients
of God, the church is still bleeding, and princes, pastors and
people are self-conceited, self-willed and self-seekers still.
Alas for the cause and church of Christ ! Must we give it
up to the lusts of sense ? Must we sit down and look on
its miserable torn condition, with laraentation and despair?
and shall we deliver down this despair to our posterity ?
Were not our hope only in the oranipotent God, it must be
so. When we look at]men, at raagistrates, or rainisters, we
see no hope. What higher professions can be made by those
in succeeding ages, than have now been made ? And yet
what negligence of magistrates, and what contentiousness
of rainisters destroy all hopes ! So that we look at the res-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 371
toration of the church, as at the resurrection, that must be
done by Omnipotency, God must raise up another genera
tion of more self-denying, prudent, zealous magistrates, and
of more self-studying, peaceable, humble, zealous, indus
trious ministers before the healing work will be done. The
selfish spirit that prevaileth now in the most, is neither fil to
be the matter or instrument of the reformed, peaceable state
which we expect. While the enemies are destroying us by
secret fraud and open force, we sland at a dislance and unite
not against them ; yea, we are calling each other heretics
and deceivers, and teaching thera how to revile us, and
putting such words into their mouth against us, as raay help
our people to despise us, and reject us, and warrant them
frora our own raouths or pens to rail at us, and forsake us :
one pai"t of us being heretics or deceivers by the testimony
of the other part, and the other part by the testimony of too
many of them.
Dear brethren. If selfishness ahall not now be left, when
we are in the sight of the havoc it hath made, and sland in
the field among those that it hath slain, and see the church
of God so horribly abused by it : when then shall it be for
saken? I here entreat every man that loveth his present or
everlasting peace, and the peace of the church or common
wealth, that he will resolve upon a deadly enmity with this
selfishness in himself and others ! And that you will sus
pect it, and watch against it in every work you have lo do.
Are you upon any employraent spiritual or secular? Pre
sently inquire when you set upon it, ' Is there no self-interest
and selfish disposition lurking here ? How far is my own
worldly, fleshly ends or prosperity concerned in it ?' And
if you discover that self is any way concerned in it, I be
seech you suspect it, and follow self with an exceeding
watchful eye ; and when you have done your best, it is ten
to one but it will overreach you. O look to it that you be
not ensnared before you are aware. Take heed of il, espe
cially you that are great and honourable, and have so much
self-interest to tempt you in the world ! How hardly will you
escape ! When all other enemies are conquered, you have yet
self, the greatest enemy to overcome. Take heed of it. you
that have any rising, thriving project, little know you on
what a precipice you stand : take heed of it you that are in
deep and pinching wants, lest self make thera seem more

372 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
grievous than they are, and provoke you to venture upon sin
for your relief. Take heed, all you that have raging appe
tites or passions, or lustful inclinations, and remeraber that
your enemy is now discovered, and you have him to deal with
before your face ; and therefore see that you be resolute and
vigilant. Take heed, all you that have learning, parts, or
fame and honour, or any thing that self bath to glory in, and
to abuse, lest the noblest gifts should by this deadly prin
ciple be turned inlo a plague to the church, and to your
souls. Suspect self in the choice of your parlies and
opinions ; suspect il in your public labours ; yea, and in your
private duties, and greatest diligence in religious works ;
lest when your eyes are opened at lasl, it should appear, that
you preached, or prayed, or professed or wrote, or lived for
self, and not for God. I do but transcribe the counsel to
you, that God is daily giving in lo my own soul : and as I
feel exceeding great use of it to myself, so I ara sure there
is to others ; and woe to rae and you if we lake it not, and
be not found among the self-denying. Doubtless God will
put you to the trial, and find you frequent use for this grace
Let rae take the boldness lo tell you from my own (though^
alas, too small) experience, that as it is raere selfishness, that
is the perplexer and disquieter of the mind, without which
nothing that befals us could discompose it; so it is God
only that quiets it, and gives il rest : and I bless the Lord,
I can truly say, that I have found that content in loving and
closing wilh the will of God, and endeavouring to know no
interest but his, to disquiet or quiet rae, which I never could
find in any olher way. When God is enough for us, and his
will is in our eyes, the will of a Father infinitely good, it may
satisfy the soul in the darkest condition ; when we under
stand not the particular meaning of his providence, nor what
he is doing wilh us, yet still we may be sure that he is doing
us good ; and therefore a child may not only submit to the
will of God, because it cannot be resisted, as enemies must
be forced to do ; but he raay rest in that will as the centre
of his desires, and the very felicity and heaven of his soul.
And now, sirs, I raust let go this subject, as to you that
have heard it preached ; for we must not be always on one
thing : but I am exceedingly afraid lest I have lost my la
bour with raost of you, and shall leave you as selfish as I
found you ; because sad experience tells rae that il is so na-

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 373
tural and obstinate an eneray that I have discovered, and
that you have now to set yourselves against. I have done
my work ; but self hath not done, but is still at work in you.
I cannot now go home with every one of you, but self will
go horae with you. I cannot be at band wilh every one of
you, when the next teraptation comes, bul self will be at
hand tp draw you to entertain il. When you are next
templed to error, to pride, to lust, to contention with your
brethren, by words or real injuries, what will you do then.
and how will you stand against this eneray? If God be not
your interest, and the dearest lo your souls, and you see not
with his light, and will not by his will, and self-denial be not
becorae as it were your nature ; you will never stand after
all this that I have said, but self will be your undoing for
ever ! If you have not soraewhat within you, as selflshness
is within you, lo be always at hand as it is, and ready, and
constant, and powerful to overcome it, il will be your ruin
after all the warnings that have been given you. And this
preserving principle must be the Spirit of God, by causing
you to deny yourselves ; believe in Christ, and love God
above all. I say again that you may think on il. and live
upon it : the sum of all your religion or saving grace is in
these three. Faith, Self-denial and the Love of God. De
parting frora carnal self, returning home to God by love, and
this by faith in the Redeemer, is the true Christianity, and
the life that leadeth to everlasting life.

A DIALOGUE OF SELF-DENIAL.
FLESH.
What ! become nothing ! ne'er persuade me to it.
God made me something : and I'll not undo il.
SPIRIT.
Thy something is not thine, but his that gave it ;
Resign it to him, if thou raean to save it.
FLESH.
God gave rae life : and shall I choose lo die
Before my time ? or pine in raisery ?

374 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
SPIRIT.
God is thy life : if then thou fearest death ;
Let him be all thy soul, tby pulse and breath,
f^ JL £j S Ml*
What ! must I hate rayself? when as ray brother
Must love me ? and I may not hate another?
SPIRIT.
Loathe what is loathsome : love God in the rest :
He truly loves himself, that loves God best.
FLESH.
Doth God our ease and pleasure to us grudge?
Or doth religion make a man a drudge?
SPIRIT.
That is thy poison which thou callest pleasure :
And that thy drudgery which thou count'st thy treasure.
FLESH.
Who can endure to be thus mewed up ?
And under laws for every bit and cup ?
SPIRIT.
God's cage is betier than the wilderness.
When winter comes, liberty brings distress.
FLESH.
Pleasure's man's happiness : the will's not free
To choose our misery : this cannot be.
SPIRIT.
God is man's end : with him are highest joys :
Sensual pleasures are but drearas and toys.
Should sin seem sweet ? Is satan turn'd thy friend?
Will not thy sweet prove bitter in the end?
Hast thou found sweeter pleasures than God's love ?
Is a fool's laughter like the joys above ?
Beauty surpasselh all deceitful paints :
What's empty mirth to the deUghts of saints ?
God would not have thee have less joy, but more:
And therefore shews thee the eternal store.
FLESH.
Who can love baseness, poverty and want?
And under pining sickness be content ?

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 375
SPIRIT.
He that hath laid his treasure up above.
And plac'd his portion only in God's love ;
That waits for glory when his life is done :
This man will be content with God alone.
FLESH.
What good win sorrow do us ? Is not mirth
Fitter to warm a cold heart here on earth ?
Troubles will come whether we will or no :
I'll never banish pleasure and choose woe.
SPIRIT.
Then choose not sin : touch not forbidden things :
Taste not the sweet that endless sorrow brings.
If thou love pleasure, take in God-thy fill :
Look not for lasting joys in doing ill.
FLESH.
Affliction's bitter : life will soon be done :
Pleasure shall be my part ere all be gone.
SPIRIT.
Prosperity is barren : all raen say.
The soil is best where there's the deepest way.
Life is for work, and not to spend in play.
Now sow thy seed : labour while it is day.
The Huntsraan seeks his garae in barren plains.
Dirty land answers best the ploughraan's pains.
Passengers care not, so the way be fair.
Husbandmen would have the best ground and air.
First think what's safe and fruitful : there's no pleasure
Like the beholding of thy chiefest treasure.
FLESH.
Nature raade me a man, and gave me sense :
Changing of nature is a vain pretence :
It taught me to love women, bonour, ease.
And every thing that doth ray senses please.
SPIRIT.
Nature hath raade thee rational ; and reason
Must rule the sense, in ends, degrees and season.
Reason's the rider, sense is but the horse :
Which then is fittest to direct thy course ?
Give up the reins, and thou becora'st a beast ;
Thy fall at death will sadly end thy feast.

376 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
FLESH.
Religion is a dull and heavy thing.
Whereas a raerry cup will raake me sing.
Love's entertainments warra both heart and brain :
And wind ray fancy to the highest strain.
SPIRIT.
Cupid hath stuck a feather in thy cap ;
And luU'd thee dead asleep on Venus' lap :
Thy brains are tippled with some wanton's eyes :
Thy reason is becorae lust's sacrifice.
Playing a garae at folly, thou hast lost
Thy wit, and soul, and winnest to thy cost.
Thy soul now in a filihy channel lies,
While fancy seems to soar above the skies.
Beauty will soon be stinking, loathsome earth :
Sickness and death raar all the wanton's mirth.
It is not all the pleasure thou can'sl find
Will countervail the sling that's left behind.
Blind, brutish souls ! that cannot love their God !
And yet can dote on a defiled clod !
FLESH.
Why should I think of what will be to-morrow ?
An ounce of mirth is worth a pound of sorrow.
SPIRIT.
But where's that mirth wben sorrows overtake thee?
Will il then hold when life and God forsake thee?
Forgetting death or hell will not prevent it:
Now lose thy day, Ihou'lt then too late repent it.
FLESH,
Must I be pain'd and wronged, and not feel ;
As if ray heart were raade of flint or steel?
SPIRIT.
Dost thou delighl to feel thy hurl and smart ?
Would not an antidote preserve thy heart ?
Irapatience is but self-tormenting folly :
Patience is cordial, easy, sweet and holy.
Is not that better which turns grief to peace.
Than that which doth thy misery increase ?
FLESH.
When sport, and wine, and beauty do invite.
Who is it whom such bails will not incite ?

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 377
SPIRIT.
He that perceives the hook and sees the end.
Whither il is that fleshly pleasures tend :
He that by faith hath seen both heav'n and hell.
And what sin costeth at the last can tell :
He that hath tried and lasted better things.
And felt that love frora which all pleasure springs.
They that still walch, and for Christ's coraing wait.
Can tum away frora, or despise the bait.
FLESH.
Must I be raade the football of disdain ?
And call'd a precise fool or Puritan ?
SPIRIT.
Remeraber hira that did despise the sharae.
And for tby sake bore undeserved blarae :
Thy journey's of sraall moment if thou slay
Because dogs bark, or stones lie in the way.
If life lay on it, wouldst thou turn again.
For the winds blowing, or a little rain?
Is this thy greatest love to thy dear Lord,
That canst not for his sake bear a foul word?
Wilt thou not bear for him a scorner's breath.
That underwent for thee a cursed death ?
Is not heav'n worth the bearing of a flout ?
Then blame not justice when it shuts thee out.
Will these deriders stand to what they say.
And own their words at the great dreadful day ?
Then they'd be glad, when wrath shall overtake them.
To eat their words, and say they never spake them.
FLESH.
How ? Forsake all ! Ne'er mention it more to rae,
I'll be of no religion to undo me.
SPIRIT.
Is it not thine more in thy Father's band.
Than when it is laid out at sin's command?
And is that savt'd that's spent upon thy lust ?
Or which raust be a prey to thieves or rust?
And wouldst thou have thy riches in thy way.
Where thou art passing on, and canst not stay ?
And is that lost that's sent to heav'n hefore ?
Hadst thou not rather have thy friends and store.

378 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL,
Where thou mayst dwell for ever in the light
Of that long glorious day tbat fears no night ?
FLESH.
But who can wilUngly submit to death.
Which will bereave us of our life and breath ;
That lays our flesh to rot in loathsome graves,
Where brains and eyes were, leaves but ugly caves ?
SPIRIT.
So nature breaks and casts away the shell.
Where the now beauteous singing-bird did dwell.
The secundine that once the infant cloath'd, ''
Afler the birth, is cast away and loath'd.
Thus roses drop their sweet leaves under-foot ;
But the spring shews that life was in the root.
Souls are the roots of bodies : Christ the head
Is root of both, and will revive the dead.
Our sun slill shineth when with us it's night :
When he returns, we shall shine in his light.
Souls that behold, and praise God wilh the just,
Moum not because their bodies are but dust.
Graves are but beds, where flesh till morning sleeps :
Or chests where God awhile our garraents keeps.
Our folly thinks he spoils them in the keeping ;
Which causeth our excessive fears and weeping:
But God, that doth our rising day foresee.
Pities not rotting flesh so muph as we.
The birth of nature was defoira'd by sin :
The birth of grace did our repair begin :
The birth of glory at the resurrection
Finisheth all, and brings both to perfection.
Why .should not fruit when it is raellow, fall?
Why should we linger here when God doth call ?
FLESH.
The things and persons in this world I see ;
But after death, I know not what will be.
SPIRIT.
Know'st thou not that which God hiraself hath spoken ?
Thou hast his promise which was never broken.
Reason proclairas that noble heav'n-born souls, .
Are made for higher things than worms and moles.

TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL. 379
God has not made such faculties in vain.
Nor made his service a deluding pain.
But faith resolves all doubts, and hears the Lord
Telling us plainly by his holy word.
That uncloath'd souls shall with their Saviour dwell,
Triuraphing over sin, and death, and hell.
And by the power of Almighty love.
Stars shall arise from graves to shine above.
There we shall see the glorious face of God :
His blessed presence shall be our abode :
The face that banisheth all doubts and fears ;
Shuts out all sins, and drietb up all tears.
That face which darkeneth the sun'a bright rays.
Shall shine us into everlasting joys.
Where saints and angels shall make up one choir.
To praise the Great Jehovah evermore.
FLESB.
Reason not with me against sight and sense :
I doubt all this is but a vain pretence.
Words against nature are not worth a rush '.
One bird in band is worth two in the bush.
If God will give me heav'n at last, I'll take it z
But for my pleasure here. 111 not forsake it.
SPIRIT.
And wilt thou keep it ? brutish flesh how long ?
Wilt thou not shortly sing another song?
When conscience is awakened, keep thy mirth J
When sickness and death comes, hold fast this earth z
Live if thou canst, wben God saith come away r
Try whether all thy friends can cause thy stay.
Wilt thou tell death and God, thou wilt not die ?
And wilt thou the consuming fire defy ?
Art thou not suw^o let go what thou hast ?
And doth not reason bid thee then forecast.
And value the least hope of endless joys.
Before known vanities and dying toys ?
And can the Lord that is most just and wise.
Found all man's duty in deceit and lies?

380 TREATISE OF SELF-DENIAL.
Get thee behind me satan ; thou dost favour
The things of flesh, and not his dearest favour.
Who is my life, and light, and love, and all.
And so shall be whatever shall befal.
It is not thou, but I, that raust discern.
And raust resolve : It's I that hold the stem:
Be silent Flesh ; speak not against ray God ;
Or else he'll teach thee better by the rod.
I ara resolved thou shalt live and die,
A servant, or a conquered enemy.

Lord, charge not on rae what this rebel says,
That always was against me and thy ways !
Now stop its mouth by grace, that shortly must
Through just but gainful death, be stopt with dust.
The thoughts and words of Flesh are none of mine.
Let Flesh say what it will. I will be thine.
Whatever this rebellious Flesh shall prate.
Let me but serve thee. Lord, at any rate.
Use me on earth as seeraeth good to thee.
So I in heaven thy glorious face may see.
Take down my pride: let me dwell at thy feet:
The hurable are for earth and heav'n raost raeet.
Renouncing Flesh, I vow rayself to thee.
With all the talents thou hast lent to rae.
Let rae not stick at honour, wealth or blood :
Let all ray days be spent in doing good.
Let rae not trifle out more precious hours ;
But serve thee now with all my strength and powers.
If Flesh would tempt rae to deny my hand ;
Lord, these are the resolves to which I sland.
RICHARD BAXTER.
October 29, 1659.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE:
ITS NATURE IN GENERAL;
AND
ITS EXERCISE IN TWENTY PARTICULAR CASES.

HELPS TO OBTAIN AND USE IT; AND TO REPRESS IMPATIENCE.

PREFACE.

I here offer to others the same which I have prepared for
myself, and find necessary for my daily use. All men raost
savour that whicli they find raost suitable to thera. When I
was young and lay under the sad suspicions of my own heart,
and the doubts of my sound conversion and justification, I
was far more pleased wilh a serraon that opened the nature
of saving grace, and helped me against such doubts, than
with a sermon of affliction, and its use ; yea, though I be
gan to be afflicted. But now this is the subject of my daily
necessary thoughts : man's implacable enraity maketh them
somewhat necessary ; but God's raore imraediate corrections
on my body, incomparably raore. And while every day al
most fills my ears with the sad complaints of weak, melan
choly, afflicted, impoverished, sick, pained or otherwise dis
tressed persons, and the weekly newsbooks tell us of foreign
wars, persecutions, ruins, implacable contentions, malignant
corabinations against the church, pursuing conscience and
obedience to God with diabolical rage, to drive it out ofthe
world, and ofthe successesofblood-thirsty raen, and deluge
of atheisra, idolatry, Sadduceeisra, infidelity, Mahoraetanisra,
hypocrisy, sensuality, arabition, worldliness, lying, perjury,
malignity and gross ignorance which hath even drowned the
earth, while there is little but doleful tidings, coraplaints
and fears frora kingdoras, churches, cities, farailies. and God
in judgraent perraitteth raankind to be worse than serpents.
toads orwolves, if not than devils, to one another; and while
wit and learning, reverend error and hypocrisy, are every
day as hotly at work, as any sraith in his flaraing forge, to
blow the coals of bloody raalice ; and hating and destroying
others, even those wbora they pretend to love as theraselves,
seemeth to raultitudes the raost honourable and necessary
work, and the killing of love, and of souls and bodies, is

CCClxXXiv PREFACE.
taken for raeritorious of everlasting happiness : I say, while
all this is so in the world, and while all flesh must look for
pain, sickness and death, and all raen are yet worse to them
selves, and greater burdens than all their eneraies are, I can
not think a Treatise of Patience needless or unseasonable.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE.

CHAPTER I.

What true Patience is, and is not, towards God and man. How
we possess our Souls in Patience. What Impatience is worst ?
Wherein lieth the Sinfulness of Impatience towards God.
Sect. 1 . 1 o what I have said for Patience frora the sufferings
of Christ, in another book for ray own use, my condition
calleth me to add some more, especially on the considera
tion of these texts of Scripture : •' Though he were a Son,
yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered ;"
Heb. V. 8, 9. " In your patience possess ye your souls ;"
Luke xxi. 19. Heb. xii. 1 — 14. Rom. v. 3, 4. xv. 4, 5.
" Ye have need of patience, that after ye have done tbe
will of God, ye may inherit the promise;" Heb. x. 36.
" Let patience have her perfect work ;" Jaraes i.3, 4. v. 7 — 12.
lPet.ii.19— 25. iii.9. Matt.v.lO— 12. lPel.iv.'l2— 19.
" Let thera that suffer according to the will of God comrait
the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as to a faith
ful Creator ;" Heb. vi. 15.
Sect. 2. What is Patience, 1. Towards God. 2. To
wards man.
1. Patience considered only physically, as mere suffer
ing, is no virtue or moral good. Devils, and malefactors,
and all men must suffer whether they will or not. 2. Stu
pidity, or natural dulness is not patience. 3. Nor to bear
the loss of any mercy because we undervalue it, as bad raen
can easily bear the loss of God's grace, and all the means
thereto. 4. Nor is il patience, but selfishness, and want of
love, in those that easily bear the loss or sufferings of
friends, (yea, and of the church or commonwealth) so they
be but well themselves, because they care not much for any
but themselves. 5. Much less is it patience, desperately to
despise and dare God's judgments, like men that are mad or
drunk, and take it to be valour to defy the gallows. 6. And
VOL. XI. ^ ^

386 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
it is not holy patience when raen restrain their passions,
only lest they thereby afflict themselves, and not in obedi
ence to God. 7. Nor when it is bul the sufficiency of the
worldly prosperity which yet is left, which maketh them
bear some diminution. He that hath still enough to gratify
his flesh, may bear the loss of that which it can spare, yea,
though it a little pinch him. 8. Yea, if a man be in great
est want, or pain and misery, and bear it quietly only be
cause he hopeth for deliverance in this world, il is but pru
dent forbearance of self-afflicting, and not the obedient pa
tience of faith. 9. Yea, a presumptuous, false hope of hea
ven itself, and of God's approbation of sorae bad cause for
which men suffer, raay soraewhat alleviate the sufferings of
ungodly men. Sorae poor men, and sick men think that
they shall be saved from sufferings hereafter, merely because
they have their sufferings in this life ; as if affliction without
holiness would serve. And many an erroneous person hath
suff'ered the raore easily for ill-doing, by thinking that ilwas
martyrdora for the cause of God. Cleraent, Ravilliac, Guy
Faux, Garnet, and raany such murderers, Knipperdolling,
and others at Munster, endured much by such presumption.
Sect. 3. But true patience is, when both body and mind,
having a natural and due eense of the suffering, we yet res
train inordinate passion, (grief, fear and anger,) and their ill
effects, especially repining thoughts or words of God, and
use no sinful means for our deliverance ; but still acknow
ledge the sovereignly, justice, wisdom and love of God, and
obediently do submit our wills to God's, and approve and
love his holiness and justice, though we love not suffering
itself, and comfortably hope for a happy issue, even amend
ment and increase of holiness here, and heaven hereafter,
where all our sufferings will end in everlasting joy. This is
patience. Sect. 4. Patience towards raen. is not, 1. To take hurt
or wrong for none.
2. Nor to be indifferent towards men's sins, as if they were
a small and tolerable evil : nor to let thera alone in the way
to hell, and make our pretence of patience and quietness, an
excuse for unbelief, and unraercifulness to souls ; especially
when they are public or common sins, which are defended
as well as committed by men pretending lo learning and
piety, endangering the church or land, either by their in-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 38?
crease, or by exposing us to the plagues of God. In this
case, (though sober wisdom must be used) it is sinful cruelty
to pretend patience, charity, or reve^'ence lo men, for the
omission of such duty as is needful lo reformation and de
liverance ; yea, to speak easily of heinous sin, as EU did to
his sons, on pretence of gentleness or patience, is but to
terapt men lo impenitence and damnation.
3. Nor is it patience, but contempt of God, for magis
trates, parents, or masters, lo forbear necessary justice and
correction, towards intolerable sin : or for pastors lo forbear
necessary reproof or discipline, to the corrupting or endan
gering of the church.
4. It is not jusl and moderate passion that is sinful im
patience. Fear is necessary for self-preservation : Christ
was heard in the thing that he feared. .Anger is necessary
to shew our displacency at sin, and to repel evil : Christ
looked with anger on obstinate sinners ; and God is said lo
be angry every day, and his wrath doth kindle the flames of
hell. Grief, if moderate, is but the necessary sense of evil,
by which we difference it from good. God made our pas-
siops for our good, and the right use of them is our duly.
5. Lawful and necessary defence ofour innoceu,cy, our
reputation, our lives, our liberties, our country, is not sinful
impatiency, any raore than to defend the reputation, estates,
or lives of others, whom we must love but as ourselves. Sel
fish malefactors, persecutors, destroyers, reproved sinners,
are wont to call them impatient, who let them not sin, slan
der, destroy and domineer without contradiction ; yea, that
praise not the plagues of the world and their destroyers.
Christis so accused for his words, of Herod and the Pharisees.
Sect. 5. But patience towards men hath all these proper
ties. 1. It maketh not suffering, or a wrong seem greater
than indeed it is. Impatience raaketh a tolerable pain or
injury to seem intolerable : a toothach seems as the break
ing of the bones : a man seems undone if he lose but bis
house, or his land, or friend : a threatening of men is a frighl-
ftil thing : martyrdom is more feared than hell. To be im
prisoned, or robbed, or persecuted, or falsely accused, to be
accounted wicked, and guilty, where we are innpcent. seem
,-9jll insufferable evils to th^ impatient ; which a patient man
Imiaketh not half so great a matter of. To be castdown from
honour or preferraent ; yea, to raiss of his aspiring hopes,

388 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
and have another set up before him. is a great and vexatious
thing to the ambitious. To have a man's opinion slighted,
contradicted and confuted, his understanding vilified, his
worth and parls disgraced, his will opposed, yea, to be but
raocked or scorned, seemeth a very troublesome injury to the
proud, which jiatient men would easily endure. Much ofthe
wickedness and vanities in the world, come from men's im
patient, overgreat sensibility of their cross. The thief ven
tureth on the gallows and hell, because he cannol bear his
wants. The fornicator, drunkard, and all the voluptuous,
venture on everlasting misery, because they cannot bear the
denying or displeasing of their fleshly appetite and lust.
The great tyrants of the earth, depopulate countries, raise
needless wars, and fill the world wilh hellish wickedness,
blood and misery, and their consciences with the most hei
nous guilt, because they cannot bear an equal, or a seeming
slight or wrong, or to see other princes greater than they, or
to be confined to moderate dominion (though large enough,
considering their account to God). Murders are committed
by the proud and impatient, because they cannot bear an in-
jury or affront. Yea, sacred church-tyrants rack and tear
Christ's church, by their needless irapositions, and stick not
at themost cruel persecutions and minings of' men betier
than themselves, because^ they cannol, bear that religion
which is not subject lo their wills, or to see any teach the
flocks in. any points, against their opinions ; or worship God
but in their words, or in obedience lo their pleasure : much
less to have any that differ from them, to be esteemed and
preferred before thera. As Nebuchadnezzar, by his idol,
(Dan. iii.) they cannot endure any that bow not to their idol
Will. A fiery furnace seeras not too hot for them, they can
better bear the raost profane and filthy sinner, who hateth
godliness and God, than the wisest and best that will not
honour and obey them. The sight of Mordecai depriveth
Haman of all the pleasure of his power and wealth.
2. Patience towards men doth not blind and pervert our
judgment, to think that things and persons are olher than
indeed they are, or that the cause is worse or better than it
is. It leaveth the judgment impartial, and quiet, and sedate
to right considerations and conclusions. Impatience seldom
useth a true balance. To a passionate raan or enemy, all
that their adversaries say or do, doth seem injurious or bad.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 089
A Dissenter from the oracle of pride and dorainion, seemeth
a fool, or knave, or a schismatic, if not unworthy lo live as a
man, at Uberty on the earth. All the undeniable good that
appeareth in them goeth but for hypocrisy. Yea, if God say,
that disobedience is to hira as the sin of witchcraft, and re
bellion against hira as idolatry, a papal spirit dares plead it
for itself, as if it were as bad as witchcraft to obey God be
fore hira, and such as he, or as bad as idolatry, not to rebel
against God's laws, if sucb command it. Yea, if all others
will not join wilh him in the false accusation, and defy Chris
tian love as much as he ; bul will speak for the innocent,
and gainsay such unjust aggravations, he is not able to en
dure their charily, but accuseth such as defenders of those,
whom his pride and impatience hath feigned lo be criminal
and intolerable.
3. Patience stops the injuries of raen that they go no
further than raan can reach. If men's scorns and slanders
come lo our ears, patience stops thera from coming lo the
heart. If raen take away our estates, patience hinders them
from taking away our peace and comfort. If raen lay us in a
prisoner a dungeon, patience disableth them lo keep out our
heavenly light and consolation. If men despise us, slight
us, cross our opinions or wills, patience doth not suffer this
to vex us, or cast us into malicious discontent. But impa
tience openeth the door of the heart to every cross, or in
jury, or displeasure : and when men can but touch our
outside or accidents, impatience doth more, and wounds the
,soul. It tormenteth a man at the heart, because another
hurts his flesh, or less than that, his goods, or name.''or sorae
superfluity, which even tbe flesh might spare.
4. Patience keepeth men from revenge, and all desires
of it : it hath no tendency to do hurt. Yea, it forgiveth in
juries, and desireth God (on his just terras) lo forgive them.
Yea, il is still joined with a true desire of the good of those
that do us wrong, and with just and prudent endeavours of
their welfare. Malchus's ear is healed by Christ, who prayed
for his enemies, as be taught Stephen and all his followers
lo do. It is true, we cannot forgive the sin, as il is against
God, nor the future punishment ; but we raay pray lo God.
to giye raen repentance and forgiveness. But impatience is
a hurtful and revengeful disposition ; il thirsteth after it ;

,390 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
it delighteth in il, and tejoicelh to hear of an adversaly's
sufl'erings. 5. Patience will keep a raan frora seeking his own de
fence atid right, not only by unjust means, but by means
otherwise lawful, when it is like to do more hurt to Others,
than good to hira ; if it be like to hurt the soul of an enemy
by hindering his conversi&n to a Christian life, it is not our
defended outward estate that will corapensate sUCh a hurt
and loss. This is the sense of Christ's command, of giving
our garment to hira that sueth us at law; and of turning the
other cheek to him that striketh us ; Matt, v* That is, pa
tience must submit to tolerable inj uries. rather than by im
patience to strive by Violence and self-defence, when it will
but exasperate another, whose soul is precious, and whom
we raust love as ourselves ; yea, we must not fly to the law
or magistrate lo defend a right which we can spare, when pa
tience and submission will do raore good to hira that wrongs
us, or to others, than the vindication of ouf right will do to
us or thera. But the raeaning is not, that intolerable injury
raay not be opposed, nor the coraraonwealth have the preser
vation of the law, and that thieves or murderers be tolerated ;
nor that all covetous, malicious, oppressing men should be
encouraged to injure Others, by knowing that they will never
seek their right. It is more for order and comraon good,
than for ourselves, that Wrongs must be resisted.
Sect, 6. By what bath been said, we may understand what
ilis in '.'patience to possess our souls." 1. A man loseth him
self or soul, when he lets ih the enemy or evil, inlo it> that
before was but without the doors. His soul must be gari-
soned with patience, against sufferings, which are more grie
vous at the heart, than in the outward accidents or the skin.
The spirit of a man, if sound, will bear his outWafd infirmi
ties, but a wounded spirit who can bear 'I Patience in trite
believers, and waiting hopefully on God, doth keep the ga-
risoii of the heart, when the outworks, our estates, our re
putations, our friends, our health, are taken from us. For, 1.
It keeps the soul against self-afflicting. 2. A'gainst temp
tations to sin by any unlawful means. 3; Against back
sliding by forsaking duty, and not continuing in the use of
the appointed raeans. 4. Against sinful doubts, that God
forsaketh us, or intends our hurt. Il keeps up the peace and
comfort of the afflicted, which is our strength. 5. And by

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 391
all this it helpeth to secure our salvation. 6. And so far as
outward deliverance or ease, or safely is good for us, ilis the
likeliest way to have il ; " Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth." Patient enduring and turning the
olher cheek, doth shame afflicters, and sooner raake them
forbear us, than impatient violence and self-defence. He
that resisteth, stirs up the wrath of his afflicter ; when he
th'dt blesseth him, and dotii him good, ^nd really raanifest
eth love to hira, doth heap coals of fire on his head. He that
cannol bear one blow, is like lo bear two : and he that can
not bear a lesser abuse, shall bear a greater. " Be patient,
brethren, and establish yourhearts, the Judge is at thedoor,
and the coming ofthe Lord draws nigh;" James iv. 8, 9.
But this is not a rule for governraenl, nor to whole king
doms, as if they must forbear a necessary self-defence against
destroying enemies ; but for private men whose self-defence
would hurt the common good.
Sect. 7. Bul is all impatience equally sinful? ' No ; here
the difference is very great.
1. Impatience towards men is a lesser sin, than agaiust
God. Man is a worm, and may do wrong, and deserve an
ger and accusation ; bul against God there is no pretence
for this.2. Irapatience towards men that deserve anger, and which
doth exceed only in degree, is not so bad, as to be angry
without just cause. Anger is ofttiraes a duty, as it is a dis-
pleasedness at any evil, and a jusl repelUng of it.
3. Anger, which desireth not another's pain, further than
jusl correction is necessary lo his or other's good, is not so
bad as that which tendeth to hurtf ulness and revenge.
4. Anger which is short (though too much) and is laid by
when it hath done its duty against evil, is not so bad as that
which continueth, and is turned into malice, and cannot for
give. " Let not the sun go down upon thy wrath."
5. Irapatience, which breaks forth into sinful words, (as
cursing, swearing, railing, &C,) is far worse than that which
dotb not. '
6. Irapatience, vi'hich is but such necessitated sense or
passion, as is the effect of natural bodily infirraity, is no sin
at all, farther than sin did bring that infirraity ; as sorae
children cannotchoose bul cry ; some women cannot choose
'but be afraid at sudden frightening occasions. One may

392 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
raake the stoutest man sometimes to start. Sick people, aud
aged, feeble persons are naturally less patient with matters
about them, than strong and healthful men. Some consti
tutions, especially woraen, can no raore avoid some hurtful
fear, grief, trouble of mind and anger, than a man in an ague
can forbear to shake : especially raelancholy and hysterical
persons. And God conderans not persons for being sick or
weak, infants or aged. The will hath but a political and not
a despotic power over raany passions, as it hath over the
tongue and hand.
7. Impatience which infecteth not the judgment and will,
but only consists in troublesome passion, is far less sinful
than that which doth. When il blindeth and perverteth a
raan's judgraent, especially in great points, to think ill of
godliness or duly, orlo accuse God, or distrust his promises,
or when it corrupteth the will, and love, and desire, and
turneth it frora God or any good, this is the damning sort of
passion. So that passion of lust and pleasure, in sensual
youths, in drunkards, fornicators, gamesters, turneth their
hearts lo sin frora the love of holiness. It becoraes deadly
wickedness when il captivateth the judgraent and the will :
and so when it vitiateth a raan's conversation, and carrieth
hira against conscience and reason to iniquity. When hy
pocrites cannot suffer for righteousness, nor endure contempt
and poverty in the world, they will force their judgments to
believe that such suffering is not necessary, and that il is
lawful lo do that which will deliver them, rauch raore if it
tend to their wealth, honour and preferraent. When sen
sual raen cannot bear a holy, sober, teraperate life, they can
raake theraselves believe that il is unnecessary. This is the
damnable sort of impatience.
8. Sorae excess of irapatience in the cause of God, is
more excusable than when it is in our own cause. Zeal is
a passion, but a great duty. Phinehas seemed to have been
irregular in his ze-al, bul his justice was imputed to him for
righteousness, and on it God staid the plague. Had not
Jehu's zeal been so much for hiraself, though it seemed cruel,
God would have excused it. Christ scourged the merchants
out of the temple, and the disciples reraerabered, " the zeal
of thy house hath eaten rae up." God speweth the lukewarm
Laodiceans out of his mouth. Indeed it is, an aggravation
ofthe sin, to father on God a censorious, persecuting, en-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 393
vious, dividing, hurtful zeal ; but when itis but some excess
of passion or impatience with sin, and maketh a man but too
eager in doing good, and not to hurt or injure any, the fault
is small. 9. There is some passion that raay be too rauch, and yet
doth but drive a raan to God and to his duty. Sorae excess
of fear and sorrow raay raake a man pray harder, and fly from
temptation and from sin the more, and live more watchfully,
and value the mercy of God more thankfully ; but there is
impatience which quite unfitteth men for their duty lo God
and man. When an irapatient, froward heart maketh one
unmeet for prayer, or meditation, or any holy and comfor
table thought of God, and unable to rule their sinful thoughts,
and unfit to converse with their farailies and relations with
any kindness, fruitfulness or peace, this is a very sinful pas
sion. When an impatient heart doth live in discontent with
God's provision and disposal, and faUeth melancholy by that
discontent, and giveth satan advantage thereby lo delude
their imaginations, and hurry them inlo desperate tempta
tions, and soraetiraes to go mad, and soraetiraes to make away
themselves, or al least to be unthankful for all God's raercies,
this is a very bad irapatience.
10. A passion towards men about sraall matters, whicli
is but a sudden displacency (as anger al a provoking word
or accident, wbich soon passeth away),- is a sraall matter if
it should be causeless, in comparison of a profane impatience
with men's duly. When raen cannot bear a plain reproof,
nor a searching book or serraon, nor holy discourse, nor a
godly life; when they think all too rauch, or prayer, or
preaching still too long, and can endure many hours more
easily at a play, or in a tavern, or coraraon and vain talk, or
worldly business, than one hour in spiritual eraployraent ;
when they bear raore easily with a swearer, a jester, an ig
norant, carnal, worldly corapanion, than with one that se
riously discourseth of death and judgment, and the world to
corae, this is a malignant sort of irapatience.
In a word, bad raen are incorapetent judges of patience
and irapatience. They take that man for a peevish, impa
tient person, who is angry with their sin, and giveth them
necessary reproof, or is not as cold as Eli to sinful children
or servants, or is of a quick and eager teraper, or sheweth
but half that zeal and fervency in holy things, which the nk-

394 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
lure and weight of the matter doth require: and they will
praise that man as a raild and patient person, who is sense
less of the greatest things which should affect him, and will
quietly let men sin and perish, and suffer them to be as bad
as they will, and never speak sharply or disgracefully of their
sin, nor cross and contradict them in the most dangerous
error, rauch less correct inferiors for doing evil, but be in
different in every cause of God, and live like a raan asleep,
or dead, when sin should be resisted, or duty done.
11. That irapatience is worst which sets raen upon un
lawful means of deliverance : as lying, stealing, defrauding,
unlawful ways and trades of getting, pleasing raen by sin ;
yea, raiserable witches raake compacts wilh the devil, and
sorae go to real or feigned conjurers to obtain their wills, in
their impatience. But that is a less sin which ventureth on
no forbidden remedy.
12. That impatience is the worst, which is justified, and
not repented of; when raen say, as Jonah did, " I do well to
be angry ;" and that deliberately, when the passion should
be over. And that is less, (and raore pardonable,) which is
confessed and lamented, and which we sincerely pray and
walch against, and fain would be delivered from.
Sect. 8. Quest. Wherein lieth the sinfulness of impatience
towards God, or under his hand, when men are his instru
ments, or permitted by him to afflict us, or inany other trial
which is of God ?
If we see not the evil of it, we shall not be diligent to
avoid it. Too many take it rather for a suffering than a sin.
Answ. 1. Impatience towards God- doth signify answer
able unbelief. Did we believe his promises, that " all shall
work togelher for our good," and of all the benefit that we
may get by patient suffering, it would do much lo pacify the
soul. But we are discontented at his usage, because we
cannot trust hira.
2. Yea, this sort of impatience imprieth some degree of
atheism or blasphemy : for it implieth some murmuring
against God's providence, and that implieth sorae accusation
of God ; and all accusation of God iraplieth an answerable
degree of blaspheray, and consequently denieth God to be
God. For if he be blaraeworthy in any thing, he is not ab-
sdluteiy perfeci : and if he be not perfect, he is not God.
3. Impatience signifieth strong self-willedness ; when

OBEDIENT patiencfI. 395
self-will is men's idol, it usurpelh God's prerogative ; and
when it should foUow his wiU by obedient submission, it sets
up itself, and must needs be fulfiUed, and cannot endure to
be crossed : as if we were gods, that must have the disposal
of all that shall befal us, and nothing must be otherwise than
we would have it. Self-will is the great idol of the world.
4 Impatience signifieth an answerable degree of over
loving the flesh and world, which also is a kind of idolatry :
were it predominant, it were mortal ; " For to be carnally
minded is death, and if any raan (so) love the world, the love
of tbe Father is not in hira." Follow any irap-atience up to
the spring, and you will find that it all cometh from tbis car
nal, worldly-creature, love. If we did not over-love our ease,
our lives, our reputation, our provision and estates, our chil
dren or friends, or any earthly thing, we could patiently bear
all our losses of them.
5. Impatience sheweth that we are answerably wanting
in our esteem of Christ, and grace, and glory, and that we
live not as we ought on the hopes of heaven. If we did,
God and our Saviour would be enough for us. Our heavenly
treasure being safe, would more satisfy us. Great men can
bear easily the loss of a penny or a pin : the things of the
flesh are less in coraparison of Christ and heaven, than a pin
is lo a lordship. Sense would do less to trouble us, if we
lived by faith.
6. Impatience sheweth that we are too unthankful to God
for all his raercies. A true Christian never loseth the tenth
part so rauch as he possesseth. When he loseth health, and
Wealth, and friends, he loseth not his God or Saviour, nor
his right to everlasting Ufe. Yea, when Gpd taketh away
one or two of his teraporal gifts, he leaveth us more than he
taketh away. And what unthankfulness is it to forget all
that we have received, and possess and hope for, because that
soraething is taken from us ? Yea, if God take away our
health or wealth at last, should all the years that we unwor
thily possessed them, be unthankfuUy forgotten?
7. Impatience sheweth that we are too much unhurabled
for our sins, and too insensible how ill we deserve of God.
He that deserveth the gallows and is pardoned, shonld not
be impatient of a sbort imprisonraent, and to pay the jailor's
fees. Can we believe that our sins are so many as we cus
tomarily confess them, and that we deserve hell-fire, and yet

396 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
impatiently repine at disgrace or injuries frora men, or atthe
loss of goods, or health, or friends ? This betrayeth an un
hurabled and unmortified soul (in such a degree), how hum
ble soever raen's words and confessions are.
8. Irapatience sheweth that we do not well understand
ourselves, or the providence of God. We neither understand
well our disease, nor the raeaning of our physician. Did we
know what a worldly heart is, or a hard heart, or a heart that
hath not by repentance got out the core of sin, and how use
ful affliction is lo heal all these diseases, we should not be
impatient of the sharpest cure.
9. Irapatience sheweth that we have not such a love of
holiness as we ought to have : else we should think no afflic
tions loo dear a raeans to procure the increase of it. When
God telleth us that he chasteneth us to raake us partakers
of holiness, and that il may bring forth the quiet fruit of
righteousness ; and that il raay be good for us that we are
afflicted, by reducing us by repentance from our wandering
folly, and worldly vanity -and deceit. A due esteem of so
great a benefit would raake us take affliction for a gain. Al
our true conversion we do in heart, resolution and vow, seU
all for the precious pearl, forsake all for Christ, and grace,
and glory. And should we not forsake that which affliction
takes from us, for the same use, if we be really ofthe mind
that we profess ? A little grace is.better than all that is taken
from us.
10. Irapatience, when il is great and tormenting, is a de
gree of likeness to hell itself. Hell is a state of sin torment
ing the sinner (God justly deserting and afflicting such).
Their own wicjiedness continually teareth and vexeth them,
and depriveth 'thera of all sense of God's love and raercy,
which raight ease them. And what a resemblance of this
hath the impatient soul ; which continually vexeth itself with
its own self-will, and fleshly mind, and worldly desires, which
are all unsatisfied, and hath no mortification, obedient sub
mission, faith, or hope to relieve and ease il, but is night and
day a self-lorraenler !
Such use to say, ' We cannol help it : our thoughts and
passions are not in Our power : we cannot choose but be
continually troubled with discontent, and anger, and grief,
and fear.'
11. Answ. This sheweth a further evil in your passion,

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 397
viz. That you are over-brutish, and that reason itself is de
throned, and bath lost its due governraent of sense and pas
sion. When a man can give you great and undeniable rea
sons enough, against all your discontents, and yet tbey are
impotent and cannot prevail. God gave you reason to bear
rule over passion, and he bath furnished you with arguraents
which should easily suffice. If your reason be enslaved, and
faith turned out of doors, and passion rule, whence carae this
but by your own wilful sin ? You say, ' You are not able lo
bear what you coraplain of.' Why, then you shall bear raore,
God will make you ^able to bear more, whether you will or
not, if you cannot obediently bear his trials.

CHAPTER II.
Arguments and Helps for Patient and Obedient Sufferings in
pai'ticular Instances.
Having thus far considered patience and impatience in the
general, it will be useful to apply some special remedies to
raany particular cases : And first, I will narae the several
cases, which I raean to speak lo : and they are
I. God's afflicting hand upon our flesh, in pains and
sickness. II. The sentence of death.
III. Loss of goods and estate, and suffering poverty
and want.
IV. The sickness and death of friends.
V. Unfaithfulness of friends.
VI. Persecution by wicked raen and eneraies.
VIL Dishonour and loss of reputation, even to scorn.
VIII. The unrighteousness of rulers, and the wrath of
powerful raen.
IX. The treachery and abuse of servants, and hearers,
and other inferiors.
X. Great and strong temptations of satan, &c.
XI. Trouble of conscience, and doubts of pardon and
salvation. XII. To lose the preaching of the Gospel, and other or
dinary means of grace.

398 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
XIII. When God seemeth to deny our prayers, and not
to bless his word and mercies to us.
XIV. Whea all our duties and lawful endeavours seem
frustrated by God.
XV. The great weakness of our faith, hope, love, and
other graces.
XVI. The raisery ofthe unconverted world, which lieth
in ignorance and wickedness.
XVII. The great weakness, scandals, and divisions of
Christians : the great and raanifold troubles of the church.
XVIII. The triumphs of sin and wickedness.
XIX. Public and national sins, plagues and miseries,
especially by war.
XX. The uncertainly of deliverance here, and the few
ness of those that shall be saved at last, ahd the delay of
our salvation. Each of these require some special helps
for patience, besides the coramon helps.
CASE I.
In Pain and Sicknesses of Body : Particular Helps.
Ofthe first of these I have spoken already in the " Medi
tations on Christ's Sufferings," and oft elsewhere. I shall
now briefly add,
1. Sinful souls ! Look back upon the folly, which was
the cause of all thy pains. As Adam and Eve's sin brought
sufferings inlo the world, upon our natures, so my own sin
is the cause of my own particular suffering. A sinful pleas
ing of my appetite wilh raw apples, pears, and plums,
wben I was young, did lay the foundation of all ray incura
ble diseases : and ray raany offences have since deserved
God's chastiseraenls! While conscience so justly accuseth
thyself, dare not to mutter discontents and accusations
against God. " I will bear the indignation of the Lord, be
cause I have sinned against him." My pain is to me as the
distress of Joseph's brethren was to them: "We were verily
guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish
of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not heai-:
therefore is this distress corae upon us,;" Gen. xlii. 21.
" What shall we say unto ray Lord ! What shall we speak,
or how shall we clear ourselves ! God hath found out tbe
iniquity of thy servants." Gen. xli.v. 16. So niay I say:
How oft hath God checked ray vain and wandering i,ra^gina-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 399
lions, and carnal thoughis, and I did not sufficiently re
gard hira ; and if God find out ray sin, and my sin find out
me, why sbould I blarae any but myself and sin ?
2. I can see the necessity of justice towards others ;
and why should I not see it towards rayself ? What is a
kingdora without it, bul a wilderness of wild beasts, or a
laud of Tories ? What is a school without it, but a raaster-
less house of rebellious folly? What is a faraily wiihout it,
but a pernicious equalling good and bad. If God raade no
laws lo rule mankind, he were not their moral governor, but
only a cause of physical raotion : if he raade no laws, then
there are no laws in the world but raan's ; and then there is
no sin against God, and law-raakers theraselves are lawless,
and can do nothing for which they need lo fear the dis
pleasure of God. Bul if God have raade laws, and will not
by execution correct disobedience, his laws are contempti
ble, and no laws, because no rules of judgraent. And should
I alone expect lo be free from Fatherly justice, and that my
sin should have no correction and rebukes?
3. It is bul the same vile flesh that suffers, which must
shortly rot and turn to earth, and if I can subrait to that,
why should I not subrait lo present pain ?
4. As sin made its entrance by the senses into the soul,
God wisely driveth it out the sarae way, and raaketh the
sarae passage the entr-ance of repentance. It is pleasure
that terapteth and destroyeth the sinner. It is sraart and
sorrow which contradicteth that deceitful pleasure, and
powerfully undeceiveth brutish sinners. And when repen
tance is necessary to pardon and salvation, and if it be not
deep, and true, and etiectual, it will not serve : why should
I be impatient with so suitable a reraedy and help, as ray
bodily pains and weakness are. Had I been in this pain
when I was tempted to any youthful folly, how easily should
i have resisted the temptations which overcame me.
5. The great benefit that I have found in former afflic
tions, assureth rae that they carae from Fatherly love ; yea,
have been so merciful a work of Providence, as I can never
be sufficiently thankful for : What have they done but keep
me awake, and call me to repentance, and lo iraprove ray
short and precious time, and to bid me work whUe it is
day? What have they done but keep me from covetousness,
pride, and idleness, and tell me where I must place aU my

400 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
hope, and how little the world, and all its vanities do sig
nify? And shall I think that the same God, who intended
me good by all the rest of the afflictions of ray life, doth
now intend my hurt at last? Experience conderaneth my
impatience. 6. As deliverances have eased many a pain already, and
turned all into thankfulness to God, so heaven will quickly
end the rest, and turn all into greater thanks and joy. And
can I be impatient if I firmly believe so good an end of all?
7. What ! did Christ suffer for my sin, and shall not I
patiently bear a gentle rod ?
8. What do the brutes that never sinned, endure by man,
and for his sins ? They labour, they are beaten, and hurt,
and killed for us, and eaten by us. What then do sinners
deserve of God ?
9. How rauch sorer punishraent in bell bath God for
given me, -through Christ? and how much sorer raust the
unpardoned endure for ever ? And cannol I bear these re
bukes for pardoned sin, when they are intended to prevent
far worse ?
10. How do I forsake all, and how could I suffer mar
tyrdora for Christ, if I cannot bear his own chastisement?
Are these sharper than the flames ?
11. God hath from my youth been training me up in the
school of affliction, and calling on rae, and teaching me to
prepare for suffering, and am I yet unprepared ?
12. Impatience is no remedy, bul a great addition to my
suffering ; both by adding to my sin, and by a foolish vexa
tion of rayself. If God afflict my body, shall I therefore,
foolishly vex ray soul ?
Lord ! all these reasons do convince rae of ray interest
and duty : I am fully satisfied of thy dorainion, wisdom, and
perfect goodness, and that all that thou doest is weU done,
and should not be accused. I am fully satisfied, that I
ought wilh an obedient wiU to accept of this chastisement,
and not lo raurraur against thy hand. But the grace and
strength lo do this must come all from thee. O strengthen '
' thy servant that he faint not, nor lay by his faith and hope,
or sin against thee.
Quest. ' But is there no raeans bul such reasoning with
ourselves to be used, lo help us to be obedient in our sick
nesses and pains ?'

OBEDIENT Pj^TIENCE. 401
Answ. What raeans but intellectual can be fit to quiet
souls? Opiate raedicines, that quiet the body, cannot
cause the submission ofthe mind. But 1. Preparatorily, it
is of great advantage not to use the body too tenderly in
our health : pamper it not, and use it not with loo great in
dulgence, as to its appetite, ease and pleasure. Be as care
ful of its health as you can, bul not of its sensual desires.
As they that fondly indulge their children, and let thera
have what they will in health, cannot rule them in sickness;
so il is with our bodies ; use them lo temperance and sea
sonable fasting, and daily labour, and a diel and garb
not over-pleasant: as Paul teacheth Tiraothy, "Endare
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ;" 2 Tira. ii. 3.
They that live in sensual pleasure, are dead while they live.
¦phey that raust have sport, and raeal, and drink, and ease,
because the flesh desireth it, and must take nothing that
appetite, or sloth, or fancy is against, do cherish the flesh
in such a state of self-pleasing, as will hardly be brought to
patient suffering.
2. Read the sufferings of Christ wilh due consideration.
3. Read oft the histories of the martyrs' sufferings.
4. Go oft to the hospitals, or sick that lie in pain, that
you raay see what is to be expected.
5. Look on the graves, and bones, and dust, and you
will perceive, that it is no wonder if such an end must have
a painful way.
6. Get deep repentance for sin. and holy self-displea
sure and revenge will make you consent to God's cor
rection. 7. Get but a sense of the danger of prosperity and
bodily delights, and ease, and how raany raillions are
tempted by it, into the broad way of damnation, and what
those poor souls must suffer for ever, and you will the easier
bear your pains ; and choose to be Lazarus, rather than
Dives, and a Job rather than a Nero.
6. But there is no effectual cure till faith and hope,
have such fast apprehensions of the glory, where all your
pains will end, as may teach you to take them but as physic
for your everlasting health. Therefore prayer for grace,
depending on Christ, obedience to the Spirit, and a fruitful
heavenly life, are the true preparations for patient sufferings.
VOL. XI. n n

402 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
CASE II.
Under the Sentence of Death, against inordinate Fears.
The next case that requireth obedient patience is the
sentence of death.
Of this I bave also spoken so oft, that I shaU now use
but these short remembrances.
1. He that would not die (when he knoweth that there
is no other way to Paradise) would have no more than he
shall possess on earth : which he may easily know is tran
sitory vanity, mixed with so much vexation more than most
of Ihe'brules themselves have, as would make man as un
happy a wight as they, if not much more ; and man's na
ture, which abhorreth death, doth abhor the ending of its
being, activity and delights ; and will any man's reason
then direct hira lo choose such an end of all? And to de
spair of ever having any life, activity or pleasure afler this?
Doubtless nothing but-hell is more contrary to our interest;
and our interest, if known, will be our desire and choice.
Who would willingly die as brutes ?
2. If it be such brutish unbelief aud desperation which
raaketh death frightful, as if there were no better to be had,
reason should make such inquiry and search, whether there
be no hopes ; and if this be bul faithfully done, the light of
nature and the Gospel will confute such desperation, and
give man the joyful prospect of happy imraortality. It is
the darkness of ignorance, error, and unbelief, that makes
us fear that, which should be our joyful hope.
3. But if il be the fear of hell or future punishment that
make us afraid of death, (as. alas, to most there is greater
cause than they will believe.) such fears should drive men
presently to the reraedy. We are not in hell, where there
is no hope, but on earth where raercy is ready to save us,
and seeking to us, and beggelh our acceptance. If you
fear death and hell, fly presently to Christ for grace ; repent
unfeignedly of all the sin which is your danger: give, up
your souls to be saved by Christ on his own reasonable
terms, and then you may boldly and joyfully hope thathe
will save them. All your fears, if you will truly repent and
trust in Christ, may be turned into assurance of salvatipn,
and glad desires to be with him !
4. Did we not all our lifetime know that we must die ?

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 403
And should a man therefore Uve in continual terror? If
not, how Uttle doth the case and reason differ at the last,
from that which he was all his life in ?
5. All that have been bom inlo this world since it was
made, have quickly passed out ageun. Death is as common
as birth. And hath God made all mankind lo Uve in con
tinual terror, so much more raiserable than the brutes,
that know not that they must die ? Shall I wish alone lo
be exempted from the case of all mankind ?
6. Yea, ,all the saints, that ever were on e-arlh (save
Enoch and Elias) died. All that are in heaven have gone
this way before rae. Faith can see beyond the gulf or
stream, which they are safely wafted over, and see them
stand safe and joyful on the shore of glory. And should I
not long lo be with so desirable company ? But of this I
have spoken elsewhere.
1. Do we believe in Christ, that he hath done and suf
fered all that he did, to purchase heaven for us, and his in
tercession and grace is to bring us to it, and when all is
done, would we not come there, and had we rather stay in a
sinful, malignant, vexatious earth?
8. Are we in good eamest when we pray, and labour,
and suffer for heaven, and raake it the end of all our reli
gion and obedience,, and raake that the business' of our
lives, and yet would we not go to that which we spend our
lives in seeking?
9. If our fears be unreasonable, necessitated by nature,
against the convictions of faith, even those fears should
make us desire death, as that which faith tells us will end
thera all, and be our only full deliverance.
10. Is it not unnatural, and contrary lo the very interest
and tendency of all our faculties, to fear and flee frora that
which is our felicity and joy? Doth our heavenly slate dif
fer frora the besl on earth, raore than a kingdora from a
prison ; and shall we fear il, as if it were evil, and fly from
the only hope and happiness of souls ?
Quest. ' These reasons to godly raen are undeniable ;
but the fears of death will not yield to reason : Have you
no other way or remedy against it ?'
Answ. Souls are wrought upon by soul-operations and
remedies. Bul further,
1. When fe^r cometh frora natural averseness to die, and

404 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
strangeness to the state of separated souls, and to some un
revealed Ihings of the unseen world, it is wisdora to cast
those dark and unknown frightful things quite out of our
thoughts, and quietly to shut our eyes against them. When
I was young, I was wont to go up the Wrekin-Hill with
great pleasure (being near my dwelling), and lo look down
on the country below me, and see the villages as little
things ; but when I was weak with age and sickness, the
last time I went up, if I did but cast ray eye down
wards, my spirits failed, and I was ready to fall down in
sudden death. Were I chained fast to the top of a high
spire-steeple, I am sure that I could not fall, and yet 1 am
confident that one look down would suddenly kill me.
What then should I do ? As on the hill I fixed my eyes on
the earth at my feet, till I carae down ; so I would in
such a height, either look only upward, or shut my eyes,
and take heed of looking down to the earth : so do here.
If faith and reason tell you, that death is not to be so feared,
and that all your hope and corafort raust be beyond it, and
that you are safe in God's proraise, and in the hand of
Christ ; bul yet the thoughts of a grave, and the separation
from the body, and of all that is unknown to us in the next
world, is frightful to you, shut your eyes, and think not
on those things ; wink, and say, they belong not lo my
thoughts. But then join the other reraedies. 2. Look upwards.
and dwell on the delightful thoughts of all that revealed joy
and glory, which is ready to receive us. and of the company
that is there, that hope and desire may conquer fear.
3. And especially trust Jesus Christ with your depart
ing souls, and trust hira quietly and boldly, as to all that he
hath revealed, and you know ; and as to all that is unre
vealed and unknown, he is fully able, wise, and willing.
Trust hira, for he coraraandeth it. Trust him, for he never
deceived any. He hath saved all departed souls, that ever
truly and obediently trusted hira. Cast away all distrust
ing, caring, fearing thoughts, that would take his work out
of his hand : against all such even wink, and trust him : it
is his part and not yours to know fully what he will do with
you, and lo receive you into his prepared mansions, and to
justify you against the accusations of satan, and the, guilt
of pardoned sin; and to bring you into the Jerusalem

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 405
above, and present you spotless to his Father. Cast there
fore all these cares on hira, who hath proraised to care for
you. Coramit yourselves to hira, and trust hira with his
own, which he hath wonderfully purchased : suspect not his
power, skill, or will : and beg his grace to increase your
faith, that you may not fear nor faint, through self-caring
and unbelief. CASE III.
Under Poverty and Want, through Losses, or any other Causes.
Another case that needeth obedient patience is poverty
and want; either through losses, which come by the
afflicting providence of God, or by robbery, or by op
pression of unjust men, by violence or injurious suits at
law, or by the failing of our trade or calling, or by multi
tudes of children, or by sickness, lameness, and disability
to work, or by the unhappiness or miscarriages and debts
of parents, or by rash suretyship, or any other way.
Poverty hath its teraptations. and they raay and will be
fell, but must not be over-felt. It is some trial to want
food and necessary clothing and habitation ; it is raore to
be put to beg it of others, or to be holden to thera, espe
cially who give it grudgingly : but yet to a single man
these are comparatively sraall. Hard fare and scant, with
patched or ragged garments, may be consistent with health,
when fulness causeth mortal diseases to the rich. But it is
far harder to bear the wants of an impatient wife, and cry
ing of children ; to have many lo provide for, and to have
nothing for thera : and it is yet harder to be in debt, and
bear the iraportunity, frowns, and threatenings of creditors.
What should the poor do in this distressed case, and how
should it be patiently endured?
I will first preraise this counsel, for prevention of such
necessity and distress, and then tell you how lo bear il
patiently. 1. Let not your own sin bring you into poverty, and
then if il be by the trying providence of God without your
guilt, it is the raore easily borne. Sorae run theraselves in
to want by idleness, refusing diUgent labour in their call
ing ; some bome to poverty by base and brutish sensuality,
by parapering the flesh in raeals and drinks ; their appetites
must be pleased till necessity displease them : some by

405" OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
covetous gaming losing their own, while they gaped after
another's ; some by foolish pride, living above their estates,
in worldly porap, in houses, furniture, apparel, and retinue:
sorae by rash bargains, and covetous venturousness: some
by rash, imprudent marriage : some by filihy, beastly lusts ;
and many by unadvised suretyship : wilfulness and guilt
are the sling and shame of poverty.
2. If you have little, live accordingly, and suit your
diel and garb according to your condition, with a contented
raind : nature is content with little ; but pride and appetite
are hardly satisfied : coarse diet and usage are as sweet and
safe to a contented raind, as daily feasting to the volup
tuous and rich.
3. If your labour will not get you necessaries for hfe
and health, beg rather than borrow, when you know you
are unable and unlike lo pay. Il is far easier begging be
fore you are in debt than after: two such burdens are
heavier than one. Such borrowing, if you conceal your
disability to pay, is one of the worst sorts of thievery, and
a great addition to your raisery.
4. Draw not others by suretyship or partnership, or un
faithful trading, into suffering wilh you. Be not guilty of
the sufferings of others : it is raore innocent, and more easy
to suffer alone,
5. Therefore raarry not till you have a rational proba--
bilily that you raay inaintain a wife and children : the case
of absolute necessity lo the lustful, is comraonly excepted ;
and so it ought when it is but harder living, that a woman
is by such a man put upon, and she knowingly consenteth to
the suffering ; but I know not how any such man's necessity
can warrant him lo make wife and children miserable, and
that by fraud, and without her knowing consent? Nor do
I think, that any man can be under such necessity, which
may not be cured by lawful means : it is a shame that any
should need such a reraedy ; bul I think Christ intimateth
a betier than such a wrong to others, if no less would serve.
Mall. xix. 20. xviii. 9.
II. ' But what is to be done for obedient patience when
poverty (however) is upon us.'
Answ. 1. Find out all your sin that caused it, and re
pent of that, and see that you are much more grieved for
that than your poverty; and presently fly to Christ by

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 407
faith, till your conscience have the peace and comfort of
forgiveness. 2. Reraember that whatever were the means or second
causes, God's will and providence is the overruling cause,
and hath chosen this condition for you, whether it be by
way of trial (as to Job and the apostles), or by way of
punishing correction. Therefore consider whose hand you
are in, and with whom it is you have to do ; and apply
yourselves first and principally lo God, for reconciliation,
and pardon of the punishment, and for grace to sland in all
your trials. Behave yourselves in all your wants, as a child
to a father, as if you heard God say. It is I that do il : it is
I that corrects thee, or that tries thee, or that chooses thy
diet and raedicine according to thy need, and for thy good.
3. Think of all those texts of Scripture, frora the raouth
of Christ and his apostles, which speak of the teraptation
and dangerousness of riches, and the difflculty of the salva
tion of the rich, and how few such are found Christians, or
saved ; and how commonly they prove worldly, sensual
brutes, and enemies, and persecutors of the faithful ; Malt.
xix._23, 24. James iv. v.
And then think of all those texts that tell you, th-at
Christ himself was poor, that he might make many rich,
and that the apostles were poor, and that Christ tried the
rich man, whether he was sound, by bidding hira " Sell all,
and give to the poor, and follow him," and trieth all his
disciples by taking up the cross and forsaking all. He
sheweth what the spirii of Christianity is, when he caused
all the first believers to sell all, and to live in comraon :
and he blesseth his poor, that are poor in spirit, because,
that " their's is the kingdom of heaven ;" Matt. v.
4. Study well the great advantages of poverty, and the
particular danger of riches. The damnation of souls cometh
from the love of this world, and fleshly prosperity and
pleasures, belter than God, and holiness, and heaven. And
what stronger teraptation to this can there be, than lo have
all fulness and pleasure, which the flesh desireth? Though
it was not for being rich that Dives (Luke xvi.) was daraned,
nor for being poor that Lazarus was saved ; yet it was
riches which furnished Dives with that porap and pleasure,
which drew his heart frora God and heaven ; and poverty
kept Lazarus frora those teraptations. Doth not reason and

408 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
experience tell you. That it is very much harder for a man
to be weaned from the love of this world, and to seek first
a better, who liveth in all plenty and delight, than a man
that is in continual affliction, and hath nothing in the
world to allure him to over-love it ? 0 ! what a help is it
to drive us to look homeward for a better habitation, and
to save us from the deceitful flatteries of the world,
and the lusts of brutish flesh, to be still wearied with one
cross or other, and pinched with wants, that even the flesh
itself may consent to die, or not be importunate with the
soul to serve it any longer. A man in raiserable poverty is
most inexcusable if his heart be not in heaven.
5. To be overmuch troubled at poverty is a sin of dan
gerous signification. It sheweth that you over-love the flesh
and the world, and do not sufficiently take God and hea
venly felicity for your portion. No raan is much troubled
for the want of any thing but that which he loveth : and to
over-love the world is a sin, which, if it prevail against the
greater love of God and glory, it is certainly damning.
And he that taketh not God's kingdom and righteousness
as better than the world, and seeketh it not first, cannot ob
tain it. If God and heaven seem not enough for you, unless
you be free frora bodily want, you trust not God aright.
6. Doth it not properly belong to God, to diet his
family, and to give every one what he seeth best ? If he had
made you worms, or dogs, or serpents, you could find no
fault with him. May he not diversify his creatures as he
please? Shall every fly and vermin raurmur that he is not
a man ? And may he not as freely diversify the provision
of his creatures, as their natures ? Must all be masters, and
yet none be servants ? Must the rich be bound to relieve the
poor, and raust there be no poor to be relieved ? " The poor
you have always with you," saith Christ. How shall men
be rewarded at last, as they clothed them, fed thera.
visited thera, &c. if there were none that stood in need there
of? Is not God wiser than we. lo know what is best for
us ? and can he not give us all that we desire if he saw it
besl? And do you think, thathe wanteth so rauch love to
his children as to feed and clothe them ? Were it for want
of love, he would not give them the far greater gifts, even
his Son, and Spirit, and life everlasting : if this were the
trial of his love, you might say that he most loveth the

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 409
worst of men, who more abound in riches than the most
cruel and persecuting tyrants, the most wicked, sensual,
profligate raonsters ? Were riches any special treasure, God
would not give thera to such flagitious eneraies, and deny
thera to humble, faithful persons. It is no small sin to raur
raur at God for maintaining and governing his family ac
cording to his wisdom and will, and for not being ruled by
the desires of our flesh.
7. Do you not see that riches bring more trouble to
them that have thera, than poverty doth to contented per
sons? They that have much, have much to do with it, and
many to deal with, many tenants, servants, and others, that
will all put them to sorae degree of trouble : they have raore
law-suits, losses, crosses and frustrations than the poor.
Their food and rest is not so sweet to thera, as to poor
labouring raen : their bodies are usually fuller of diseases :
thieves rob thera, when he is fearless that hath nothing
which other raen desire : he that hath little bath a Ught
burden to carry, and little to care for.
8. And do you think that a man will die ever the raore
willingly or corafortably for being rich ? No ; the more
they love the world, the raore it teareth their hearts to leave
it ! 0 what a horror il is for a guilty, miserable soul, to be
forced to quit for ever all that he flattered his soul in as his
felicity, and all that for which he neglected and sold his God
and his salvation ! No man till it come can fully conceive
the disraal case of a dying worldling.
CASE IV.
Under the Sufferings and Death of Friends. 1 . Of Children.
2. Of Ungodly Kindred. 3. Some dear Friend, who died
in Pain or Misery. 4. Some Pillars in Church or State.
Another case which requireth obedient patience is the
sufferings and death of friends, whether near us, as wife,
husband, children ; or raore reraote, as those that have been
most kind lo us, most faithful to God, or raost useful to the
church. It is not ouly lawful, but a duty, to be duly sensible" of
such a loss : to be void of natural affection, and lo bear all
men's sufferings too easily, saving their own, is the odious
quaUty of the basely selfish.
And alas ! many good Christians are yet with gieater

410 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
reason grieved, for the death of wicked children or relatives,
lest they be in helpless misery : and some parents mourn'
for their dead infants, as doubling of their salvation.
Soraewhat should be said against impatience in every
one of these several cases.
As to the last.
I. Faithful parents have no just cause to be impatient
at the death of infants.
1. For ray part, I think that God hath promised their
salvation : I speak not ofthe infants of heathens or infidels,
or of hypocrites, but of sincere Christians, (one at least) or
such pro-parents as take them for their own. I believe that
it is not another but the sarae covenant, which baptism
sealeth to the child and parent, and that as true faith is the
condition to the adult, so lo be the child of a true Christian
is all the condition to an infant, to be dedicated to God,
and accepted by hira ; and I believe that il is, the parent's
duty lo dedicate hira, and enter hira into covenant with
Christ ; and that all that so corae to Christ are received by
hira, and none cast out. And that this covenant on God's
part pardoneth their original sin, and puts thera inlo an in
fant right lo salvation ; and that all such, so dying, are
saved by promise. And if any thing hinder actual baptiz
ing, as long as a believer is justly supposed lo devote him
self and his child to God, as far as in him lieth, it is not
the bare want of water, or the outward ceremony, that de
priveth such of part in God's covenant.
All this I have elsewhere opened and confirmed. But
if this should prove an error, yet all grant that there is more
probability of God's special mercy lo the children of the
faithful, than to others ; but I think there is more.
2. And they are taken out ofa dangerous and troublesome
world. What abundance of sad thoughts must they have
undergone, and what abundance of teraptations, and what
abundance of sufferings of raany kinds, if they had lived till
old age ? Had it been but the fear of dying, to escape il is
no conteraptible raercy. To be al the harbour so easily and
quickly, while others raust be tossed many score years on
so tempestuous and dangerous a sea, is matter of rejoicing.
And though confirmed grace be never lost, such as I, who
incline to think that the grace given to the infants of be
lievers as such, is as losable as Adam's, or the angels that

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 411
fell was, must with Augustine take it for a mercy, that their
possible apostacy is by death prevented. For my own part
wben I see how many children of excellent men prove
wicked, and scourges to the church, and what a miserable
world it is tbat we are in, even sunk into darkness, wicked
ness, and self-destruction ; like the suburbs of hell, I have
many times rejoiced, but never grieved, that I never had a
child. And why then should I mourn if I had one, and
God had quickly taken him away ?
II. I confess the death of ungodly kindred is a humbling
case : to think where they are, as God's word tells us of all
the unconverted and unholy, and to think that they are past
all help and hope, remediless for ever. Bul yet we have all
this to command our patient subraission to God.
1. God, who is absolute Lord of his creatures, is wiser
and raore raerciful than we, and doeth all well, and to his
glory. And his will is still fulfilled, which is the end of all.
And if we knew what he knoweth, we should rest satisfied
in his works, as better than our will and way would have
been. 2. Wben we come to heaven we shall be fully reconciled
lo all the severest providences of God : for our mind and
will shall be conformed lo God's.
3. We should rejoice with the blessed, as well as be sor
rowful wilh the miserable. And, Oh ! what worlds of glo
rious angels and spirits are there for us to rejoice with, which
in proportion should quite overbalance our sorrow for the
damned. 4. The destruction of the wicked should call us to think
how unspeakably we are beholden to God for ourselves, and
so many of our friends, and all the faithful, that he did not
forsake iis, and cut us off in our impenitent state.
5. What are your kindred, that they should be more la
mented than all the rest of the ungodly world ? How incon
gruous had it been for you to cry and mourn inordinately for
the death of sorae one person, when the plague lately took
away in the city a hundred thousand ? And when the world
lieth in heathenisra, infidelity, Mahometanism, Popery, igno
rance and ungodliness, is il congruous for you lo be over-
troubled for one, because he is akin to you ?
III. But suppose the case be the death of some dear
friend of ours ? When we think of the great pain in which

412 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
they died, or ofthe grave where now they lie corrupting, or
of our former familiarity, our present losses, we are apt to
over-grieve. But,
1. We always knew tbat they must die. Do not as many
die as are born ?
2. We had a long time to prepare each other for our
parting, and doth it now corae as an unexpected thing?
What else did we live together for, but to help each other to
prepare for death ?
3. Should we not be thankful to God for the use and
corafort of thera so long ?
4. Is it not matter of greater joy, than our loss should
cloud, that they have ended all their work and suffering, and
have safely escaped all their enemies and dangers, and are
past all fears and sorrows, and are everlastingly delivered
frora all the guilt and power of sin, and have the end of all
their faith and patience, their work and hope, and are triumph
ing with Christ and all the blessed in heavenly endless joy
and glory ? Do we believe this, and yet do we not rejoice
with thera, but moum as those that have no such faith or
hope? 5. And as to their late pains, it is none when it is past:
I would not now wish myself that I had never felt the pain
that is past : much less do they wish it that are wilh Christ !
And yet we are more apt to keep imprinted on our minds,
the groans and dying sorrows of our friends, than all the for
mer comforts of their lives, or all the joy that they have now
with Christ, and shall have for ever.
6. Though natural affection be laudable, usually much
faultiness sheweth itself in our overmuch sorrow: 1. It
sheweth that we prepared not for it as we ought to do. 2.
It sheweth that we have too great a love still for this world
and present life. 3. And that our belief of heaven and the
blessedness ofthe spirits of thejustwith Christ, is very weak,
and too little effectual. 4. And it sheweth that we expect
a longer life on earth ourselves, than we have just cause to
do. If we knew we should die the next day or week, it would
be folly to raoum for our parting frora a friend that died but
the day before. Would we not have their corapany ? And
where can we have it but where we are lobe ourselves? And
are we so sottish as to forget how quickly we must follow
them and be gone ? If we love their company, we should

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 413
rejoice that we shall quickly meet them, and live with Christ
and them for ever. I have often thought (and mentioned it)
how like it was to this our folly, when I have seen a man
fetch his beasts home out of a pasture, and when one hath
gone through the gate, another bath looked and mourned
after him, not knowing that he was presently to follow. Alas !
it is want of conversing by faith with the saints above, whicli
raaketh us over-grieve for the raiss of thera here below.
And as to the loathsomeness of the grave and rottenness,
it is the fruit of sin, and we always knew that flesh was cor
ruptible. It is made of that which lately stood on our tables,
the flesh of sheep, and beasts, and swine, and birds, &c.
turned into the flesh of man : and before that, it was grass
growing for the food of cattle in the fields. Bul the soul
corrupteth not ; and if it change the rags of flesh, for a build
ing in the heavens, why should we repine at this ? The soul
is the raan ; and God will change these vile bodies/and raake
them incorruptible, and spiritual, and immortal, Uke to the
glorious body of Christ. Phil. iii. 19, 20.
IV. But our sorrows seera to be more justifiable, when
we mourn for the loss of the pillars, or useful servants of the
church. Their death is the loss of souls, yea, of many, and
a sign of God's displeasure to a land. But as to this also ;
1 . Magistrates, and rainisters, and all, are raortal : they
have their work and time, and then they must go horae.
They came not to abide on earth, but to do their message
and be gone. When they have faithfully finished their
course, they must go to their Master's joy, that he that sow
eth, and he that reapeth raay rejoice together.
2. Thank God for the good he hath done by thera, and
pray for a succession of raore. God will not serve hiraself
here by one generation only : as the sarae rose or other
flowers, which you get this year, will not serve you for the
next ; nor the same fruit or crop of corn, but every year must
bring forth its own fruit ; so raust it be wilh serviceable raen.
Elisha raust have his tirae and part, as Elias had ; and a Da
vid, Solomon, Hezekiah or Josiah, live not here always.
Every generation must have its proper servants, work and
honour. If some have till evening borne the burden and
heat of the day, allow them their rest, and let others work
the following day.
' 3- And God hath the fulness of the Spirit in Christ, to

414 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
send forth our successors : and he is the Lord of the church
and knoweth what is best, and what the people are fil to re
ceive, Christ lived on earth to no great age, and he tells
his apostles, " That it was expedient for them, that he go
away, that the Comforter might come." God will choose
his own servants, and their times, and we raust submit to
his disposal.
4. Paul was permitted at.Rome to dwell two whole years
in his own hired house, and receive all that came tq him-
preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things
which concem the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence,
no man forbidding hira. But I have been perraitted above
fifty years to preach the same Gospel, though long a law, and
bishops, and j ustices did forbid me (save that for nine or ten
years, they confined ray vocal preaching to my house).
James was cut off near the beginning of his apostleship :
Stephen was sooner cut off than he. Some excellent minis
ters hath God taken away young.
5. Christ is more worthy of their company than we are.
Heaven is more worthy of them than earth, than those that
hale them and abuse them ; " Of whora the world was not
worthy;" Heb. xi. 28. The world knoweth not the worth
of a saint, or how to use hira, or what use to raake of him.
6. We know not from what approaching evil, God in
mercy taketh them away. We have lately laraented the death
of raany excellent persons, raagistrates and ministers ; but
the storms that are now assaulting us, tell us. that il was a
seasonable and merciful change to thera. Christ saith, " If
ye loved rae, ye would rejoice, because I go to the Father ;"
John xiv. 28. They raourn not for their own removal:
would you wish them, here again from heaven? You do not
mourn, that Christ, and Abraham, and David, and, the apos
tles are gone to heaven ; nor that Lazarus changed his beg
gary for Abraham's bosom ; nor that the martyrs are gone
thither. The ancient churches were wonl with thankfulness
to recite the names of their departed pastors in their litur
gies, and to keep days of thanksgiving (which we call holyr
days) .in memorial of their martyrs. They may say as Christ,
" Weep not for me, but for yourselves and your children :"
for those that must endure. the storms that are coming upon
us, and must be sifted by satan and his ministers, to try
whether, their faith and constancy will fail. Christ purchased"

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 415
them for heaven, and he wiU have them there. It is his will
and prayer, " Father, I will that those whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am, that they may see the glory
which thou hast given me ; John xvii. 24. (a better sight than
we see here, when we are laid among malefactors in gaols^
or scorned for preaching). " If our hopes were in this life
only, we were of aU men most miserable :" and do we love
thera so littie as to wish thera with us is so raiserable a life ?
Is vanity and vexation, and the portion ofthe wicked, betier
than the Jerusalera above ? Our cows, and sheep, and hens,
&c. when they have bred up their young ones al great pains
and love, must part wilh them for us lo kill and eat, yea, and
with their own lives also : and shall we grudge that our
friends and we must die to go where God wiU have us ? If
God should not take our friends or us, tiU our wiUs con
sented, I doubt we should slay here loo long, unless pain
constrained us to consent ; but God is fittest to choose the
time. " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of all
his saints ;" Psal. cxvi. " Even the hairs of their head are
numbered." It is not then for want of love to them that they
are taken away by death, " They rest from their labour and
their works follow them." Were we not fools and slow of
heart to believe what the Gospel saith of blessed souls, we
should know that they ought to suffer with Christ, and then
to reign with hira, as he suffered, and then entered into his
glory. And, as David said of his child, we shall corae to them,
but they shall not retum to us.
CASE V.
Unkindness and Injury tf Friends and Relations.
Another case that calls for patience is the unkindness of
friends, and their injurious dealing wilh us. Husband and
wife often prove burdens and continual griefs to one another.
Parents and children prove worse than strangers. Those
thatwe have obliged by our benefits are ungrateful, and those
untrusty whom we have trusted.
1. It must be so ; man will be raan, uncertain and un
trusty. David and Paul say that all raen are liars ; that is,
such as will deceive those that too rauch trust thera. They
are all sinful, ignorant, erroneous, mutaljle and selfish : if
interest, change or temptations come, there is no hold of

416 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
thera, if God do not hold them up. Did you not know man
till now?
2. It is God's just rebuke for your loo much truslin man,
and for your erroneous, overvaluing man : and it is his mer
ciful remedy to drive you home from man to God. This de
ceit and failing of your friends is part of the curse pro
nounced, Jer. xvii. 5, 6. " Cursed be the man that trusteth in
man, and raaketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth
frora the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert,"
&c. But " blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and
whose hope the Lord is, for he shall be as a tree planted by
the waters," &c.
3. The failing of raan doth but tell us what we are our
selves, even untrusty and rautable as olher raen. It should
help to hurable us for the badness of our nature, and drive
us to seek to Christ for his confirming grace, and not to trust
ourselves too far.
4. And it should call us to exaraine whether we never
wronged and deceived others. Have we not put the best
side outward, and seeraed better to our friends than weare?
Have we not been less helpful, friendly and corafortable to
thera, than we proraised, or than we should have been, and
deceived their expectations? Have we not by our failings
or provoking harshness been their grief? Or worse, have
we not pleased them in their sin, and been temptations and
snares to their souls ?
5. Is there any friend that is nearer to you than your
selves ? And is there any that hath hurt you half so much
as you have, done yourselves ? Alas ! how little suffer we by
friends or foes, in coraparison of what we suffer by ourselves !
6. Christ went before us in this kind of suffering, to teach
us what to expect frora raen. Peter denied him with curs
ing and swearing, and that after warning and contrary pro
testations ; and all his disciples forsook hira and fled. And
yet he forsook not thera, but died for them, and as soon as
he was risen, kindly coraforteth them, " Go tell my brethren,
and tell Peter (saith he), I go to my Father and your Father,
to ray God and your God."
7. Were your friends so ranch obliged to you, as you
were to God and to your Saviour? or did they ever promise
and vow raore to you, than you did in your baptism to
Christ? And have you faithfully performed all your vows.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 417
and answered all your obligations? Did you ever oblige
any by such benefits as God hath bestowed upon you? No,
not by the thousandth, thousandth part. And have not you
raore unthankfuUy injured God, than ever any friend did in
jure you ? Let this then provoke you lo repenlancei
If ithe an unkind husband or wife ; first see that you be
innocent, and give no provocation. If you have deceived
them by seeming better than you are, or if you be a burden
to thera, no wonder if they deceive you, and be a burden lo
you. And next, reraeraber that you had your choice, and
that after tirae of deliberation. If you have by blind love,
or passion, or covetousness, or causeless haste deceived your
selves, repent, and raake the best of it for the future that ybu
can. Sin will not be without its sting.
9. If you love God and them, why are you not more
grieved that they wrong God, and that they hurt themselves,
than that the.y wrong you and deal unkindly by you. They
do a thousandfold more wrong to Christ, and more hurt lo
their own souls, than they can do lo you.
10. I fear most of us too little consider that friends over-
kind; and so over-loved, are oft more dangerous than the un
kind; yea; than eneraies* To be crossed by thera raay raany
ways do us good, but to over love thera, hath more danger
and hurl than I will now digress to raention. Corrupted
love is the raost sinful and worst affection.
11. And why do you not consider the benefit and com
fort, which you haye had by your friends, as well as the in
juries? What if they now deal unkindly by you ? Have
they not many years been kind and useful to you ? And
should tiiat be forgotten ? And if you corapare them, was
not the kindness longer and greater than the unkindness ?
If Job say, " shall we receive good at the hands of God and
not evil," we may much more say so of men.
12. Perhaps God permitteth it, that you may be the less
grieved to part with them at death. I have noted it in some
of my nearest acquaintance, that have lived ih the greatest
endearedness, that a little before death some unkindness
hath fallen out between thera, perhaps else death would have
torn their hearts raore grievously than that unkindness did.
When God would separate Paul and Barnabas for his work,
a little dissension became the cause. And when Paul was
TOi. Xli ^ ^

418 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
to be offered up, alraost all his old corapanions forsook him,
2 Tira. iv. 16. Who would have thought that David should
ever have dealt so unkindly with Mephibosheth ; bul his
prosperity was less sweet -and ensnaring by it.
13. It is purposely to keep us frora heart idolatry, and
drive us to God our surest friend, that he perraitteth friends
to fail us. It is not thera, but God that we live upon, and
that we raust trust to, if we would not be deceived : it is not
they but Christ that is our treasure. God never dealt un
kindly with us : he hath promised that he will never fail us
nor forsake us ; 2 Tira. iv. 16. When Paul had said, "At
my first answer no man stood with rae, but all men forsook
rae, (he addeth) yet the Lord stood with me, and strengthened
me," 8cc. David's lovers and friends stood aloof from him,
when God was his hope. " I looked on ray right hand and
beheld, bul there was no raan that would know me : refuge
failed me ; no -raan cared for my soul. I cried unto thee, 0
Lord, I said. Thou art my refuge and my portion," &c. :
Psal. xxxviii. 11. 15. xiv. 4, 5.
14. I confess that the case of a bad or unsuitable and un
kind husband or wife, is a very sharp trial. They are near
you, even in your boaom, bed and heart : they are still with
you, and a contentious woraan is as a continual dropping,
saith Solomon. To have a discontented, displeasing, angry,
provoking person always with one to the death, is a greater
affliction than any that ordinarily coraeth frora enemies. But
yet let such consider, 1. That il is a just chastisement for
their sins, and raay help to a raore deep repentance. 2. As
it is a great and constant trial, so it calleth for great and
constant patience, and exercise of grace : and what is more
like to increase grace, than great and constant exerciae ? 3.
It is a great and constant preservative against the flatteries
ofthis world, or building a palace or fool's paradise on earth ;
it is a daily voice to such, saying, ' This is not your rest;
look and long for better company and friends.' 4. And as
near as wife or husband is, God is much nearer to us, even
within us ; and should raake us rejoicingly forget all other
joys or sorrows, in coraparison of him.
15. The same I say of wicked children : the affliction is
grievous ; but, 1. It calleth men to exaraine how they have
discharged their duly to thera ; have you lovingly, familiariy,
and unweariedly instructed them, exhorted and admonished

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 419
tbem ? Have you not thrust them into corapany, caUings,
or places of teraptations, for a littie worldly wealth, or learn
ing or reputation ? Yea, have you kept thera from tempta
tions by prudent watchfulness and convincing dissuasions ?
Have you taught them as is required, Deul.v. 11.? Or have
you not slubbered over so great a duty ; and looked God
should save them merely for being yours ? 2. Bul remera
ber, that all the children of God in glory will be dear and
corafortable to you, as if they had been all your own.
CASE VI.
Injuries from Malicious Enemies. 1. Personal. 2. Persecuting.
Another trial, which requireth patience, is injuries from
malicious enemies. Either personal enemies, or such as hale
and persecute us for our duty. As lo the former sort>
consider, 1. We have the greater reason to be patient, when we
consider what poor and worthless worms we are ; and that
enmity and injury against such low and litlle creatures is a
smaller fault than if it were against nobler or more excellent
beings. We make no great matter of beating a horse or
dog. Though this must not diminish their repentance, il must
diminish our impatience.
2. And we are so bad that we give occasion of hatred
and hard thoughts of us to our enemies ; and though this
justify not their mistakes; who take us to be worse than we
are; yet it commandeth us who terapt them to it, the raore
patiently to bear it. They mistake us mostly by thinking
that the same sins that are in us are predominant, and in a
greater measure than they are. They call us erroneous, proud,
hypocrites, covetous, unpeaceable, &Cw And when we know
there is in us some error, some pride, hypocrisy, and the rest,
the conscience ofthis must make us the easier bear with, and
forgive the false accusers, that charge us with raore than we
are guilty ofi
3. And when We Consider we were enemies to God, and
have far more wronged hira by sin than any can wrong us,
and yet he forgiveth us ; it raust teach us to forgive the
wrongs and enraity of others. Yea, God hath made our for
giving others, a condition of his full forgiving us ; and we
cannot pray to him for forgiveness, and consequently not ex
pect it, on any lower terms ; yea, we must learn of God to

420 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
love our eneraies, and pray for them, and do them good, and
not seek revenge and satisfaction.
4. Which of us hath done no wrong to others? Have
we unjustly censured none, nor spoken evil of them, or beeu
angry, or reviled thera without jusl cause ? Have we never
tempted any to sin, nor encouraged them in it, nor omitted
any duty which we owed thera ? If we have, we may see
God's justice permitting injuries against us. as an equal cas
tigation. 5. However, conscience tells us that we have deserved a
thousandfold worse from God : and he useth lo make the
sins of men. the instruments of his punishraents on earth.
God punished David by the permitted sins of Absalora and
Shimei (though he caused not the sin). And David the more
patiently endured il, as acknowledging the providence of a
correcting God.
6. It is your own fault if all your enemies' wrongs do you
not much raore good than hurl. God hath told you how so
to iraprove thera ; and if you do. you may well be patient
with that which is your benefit and advantage ; yea, and
thankful too, which is more than patient. But ifyou do not
so improve them, you have more to be grieved for than your
injuries, even your own sin and omission, which loseth so
gainful an advantage;
7. If they repent, God will forgive thera all their greater
wrong against hira ; (O what a deal doth he forgive at once
to a converted sinner !) and then surely you will easily for
give your raile. Bul if they repent not, instead of impa
tience and revenge, pity them, and lament their case ; for
they will suffer more than you can now desire : would you
have them suffer raore than hell ?
8. Your happiness and all your great concerns are outof
the power of all your eneraies : it is but matters of litlle mo
ment that they can touch you in. They cannol take away
your God. your Saviour, your Coraforter, your glory ; no,
nor the least of your graces. They cannot deprive you of
your knowledge, or of love to God, of faith, or hope, or peac,e
of conscience, or joy in the Holy Ghost. They cannot bring
back tbe guilt of any pardoned sin, nor cast you into helL
9. And if impatience open the door of your heart, whieh
your eneraies could bring no nearer you than your estate,
your ears, or your flesh at raost, it is not they but yourselves

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 421
that are your chief tormenter. And will you torment your
selves because another wrongeth you ?
10. Do you not observe how sin hath set all the world in
a state of enmity to God, and all that is holy, and lo the way
of their own salvation ? And that all the unsanctified world
is in a war against God and goodness, under the unknown
conduct of the devil ? And do you make a great matter then
of some petty injury or enraity to you? This is more fool
ishly selfish, than if you should complain of a soldier for
taking a pin off your sleeve, when an army is plundering all
the town, and setting all the country on fire, and murdering
your neighbours before your face.
So much for patience in case of personal enmity and
injury. II. But if it be in the case of persecution for your duty
to God, impatience then is far more culpable. In this case I
premise this advice.
1. Search diligently lest some personal crimes of your
own be in the cause, as well as your religion. Soraetiraes the
sinful raiscarriages of Christians doth provoke the adversa
ries to think the worse of their way of religion for their
sakes, and so to persecute them for truth and duty, but pro
voked to it by former sin. In this case your first duly is to
repent of the sin which first provoked thera, and openly con
fess it and lament it : for while you remain impenitent, and
hide or justify your gross iniquity, you harden thera that
afflict you, and you provoke God to let thera loose. Espe
cially when you can aggravate all the miscarriages of your
persecutors, and cannol bear so much as the naming of your
own sin, but take it for enmity or injury to be caUed to repent.
If it be any sin of ours that hath made us stink in the
nostrils of our persecutors, we cannot comfortably suffer or
expect deliverance, till we repent.
2. Let us search wilh the severest suspicion and impar
tiality, that it be indeed truth and duly, and not error and
sin, for which we suffer. I doubl not but men raay be per
secutors and injurious, who do bul afflict raen for sin and
error, when it is done for such as are but those tolerable in
firmities, wbich all Christians in one kind or other are liable
to : or when the punishment is greater than the fault deserv
eth - and wben it is done in malice against the piety of the
persons, or tendeth to the hindrance of piety, and injury of

422 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
the church of God. But yet the guilt of his persecutors is
no justification of any one that suffereth for his sin or error,
nor should abate, but increase his repentance, in thathe oc
casions by his scandal the sin and misery of his persecutors.
Peter justly calleth us lo raake sure, that none of us suffer
as evil-doers ; rauch less as impenitent persons that cannot
endure to hear of it, I ara one that have been first in aU
the storms that have befallen the ministry these twenty
.years past, (lo look no further back) ; and yet my conscience
coraraandeth me to say, as I have oft done, that many through
mistake, I ara persuaded, now suffer as evil-doers for a cause
that is not good and justifiable. For the great difference
araong sufferers, proveth that sorae must needs be mistaken..
3. If we be sure that our cause is good, let us also make
sure that we use it well. A good cause raay be abused. Let
us see, 1. That we raix no error with it. 2. That we do not
raanage it partially and uncharitably : that we raake not the
contrary worse than it is. 3. Thatwe delight not to repre
sent our adversaries more odiously than there is cause. 4.
That we deny no just honour or obedience to our governors.
5. That we shew not the sarae spirii of persecution which
we exclaim against, by differing from them only in the man
ner of expression. If they unjustly say, that ' men are so
bad as to, be unworthy of Christian communion,' you agree
in unjust condemning others, and only wrong them several
ways. 6^ Let us see that while we are restrained from some
part of our work, we neglect not that which none forbiddeth
us. Are we. not shamefully guilty in this ? None forbid
deth ministers to catechise those that are under sixteen years
of age, or lo teach thera by preaching, or to pray with them,
and yet that is coramo,nly neglected. None forbid us to -
confer daily wilh our ignorant or vicious neighbours, to try
if we can convert them : nor to win thera by kindness, as
Christ went to publicans and sinners. None forbid reli
gious people to catechise and teach their farailies, and read
good books to them, and pray wilh them, and openly sing
the praises of God, as Daniel openly prayed in his house, to
be exaraples to ungodly families about them. And yet how
much is this neglected ! And a dumb and negligent father,
and master of a family will conderan hiraself by speaking
against durab and negligent ministers, and against those that
restrain hira from sorae public duties. Sorae think that if

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 423
a law were made (which God prevent) against all catechising
and teaching raen's farailies, and against praying and sing
ing the praises of God, it would by opposition stir up some
to do it better, that now neglect it, so prone are they to that
which is forbidden. And since it is come into the heads of
sorae clergymen, to preach openly, that it is unlawful to re
ceive dissenters to their communion, and they intend lo for
bid them, and excommunicate them, that they may be inca
pable of public trust, or votes ; I hear that some intend to
comraunicate, who before conderaned it as unlawful, and
sharply censured those that did it.
But when you have made sure, that you suffer not as evil
doers, upon raistake, but for your duty, and for righteous
ness, consider these following reasons for your patience.
1. Ifyou believe not that anything is done against you
by raan, but vvhat falls under the overruling, disposing will
and providence of God, you deny his government, and are
unfit to do or suffer. Though God caused none of the ma
lice, and sin of the raurderers of Christ, yet as to the effect
of their free, sinful volitions, there was nothing done but
what God's counsel fore-determined for the redempiion of
the world : and if you believe this, dare you irapatiently
grudge at the providence of God ?
2. Though you are innocent towards your persecutors,
and you suffer for well-doing, you are not innocent towards
God, who may use bad raen for jusl chastiseraent.
3. It is an unspeakable mercy to have unavoidable, de
served sufferings, to be made the sanctified means of your
salvation, and to be for ever rewarded for bearing that which
else would have been but the foretaste of hell. Sin brought
unavoidable pain and death on all mankind. No power, or
policy, or price can save you from it. If you deny Christ,
a,nd sell heaven to save your lives, you shall die for all that ;
and he that so saveth his life shall lose il, and lose his soul
also by such self-saving. " It is appoinled to all raen once
to die, and after that the judgraent." A martyr doth but die,
and so doth his persecutor ; and death to the ungodly is the
door of hell. And is it not a marvellous raercy, that suffer
ing but the sarae death, in faith, and hope, and obedience
for Christ, and for your duly, shall procure you a crown of
glory ? Even as the sarae outward blessings, which lo the
wicked are but the fuel of sin and hell, are by believers ira-

42^4 OBEOIENT PATlfiNCE.
proved for grace and glory ; so is it also with the case of
suffering. And what a terror is it lo conscience, wben the
sentence of death shall be passed upon you, to think, ' Now
that life is al an end, which I sold my soul to save f 0 tbat
I had rather chosen to die for ray duty, than by my sin : this
death would then have been the, entrance into heaven, which
is now the entrance into misery.' This made many dying
Christians in Cyprian's charge to be hardly comforted, be
cause they had not died martyrs, that death might have been
a double gain to them. Is it not better bave a glorious re
ward for dying, than die for nothing f
4. It is no small benefit to be called out to the exercise
of that, which every one must resolve on. a-nd be prepared
for, that will be saved : that we may not be deceived, but
know by experience, whether we are sincere or not. What
ever worldly hypocrites think, Christ was in good earnest
when he said, " He that forsaketh not all that he hath, even
life itself, cannol be ray (sincere) disciple ;" Luke xiv. 26.
30. 33. Holiness here and heaven hereafter, is that which
Christ carae to procure for his own, and that which all must
choose and trust to as their hope and portion, that will be
his. Worldlings never raake this choice, but being doubt
ful of the life lo come, prefer the present prosperity of the
flesh, and will be reUgious only in subordination thereto, and
hope for heaven (if there be any life to come) but as a re
serve and second good, because they ca,nnot keep the world ;
which they will not lose for the hope of heaven, as long as
they can keep it, but vvill rather venture their souls than bo
dies. "This being the true difference between the faithful and
the Worldly hypocrite, all that will be saved raust be such as
would let go life, and all the world, rather than by wilful sin
to forfeit their salva,lion, if they were called to il : though
all be not actually put upon the trial, and seeing it is so easy
for a prosperous raan to profess Christianity wilh a worldly
raind, and say that he would rather die than wilfully sin, be
ing in hope that he shall never be put to il ; il is a great ad
vantage to our assurance of salvation, to find that we can
suffer in a tirae of trial, and so that our resolution was not
false ; for so far as any raan loveth the world, the love of the
Father is not in him. The heat of persecution withereth the
corn that groweth on the rocks. They are offended and go
sorrowing away, because they cannotmake sure both of earth

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 423
and heaven. And as the faithful have the fullest proof of •
their sincerity in the greatest sufferings, no wonder if they
have the greatest comfort. No reasoning will so fully an
swer all their fears and doubts, whether they are sincere, and
shguld not forsake Christ in suffering.
5. Believers should much more pity their persecutors
than themselves. If a madman in Bedlam should spit in
your face, would you have your action against hira. or would
you be sorry for him ? They are preparing fuel for them
selves in hell, while they make a purgatory for you on earth.
O think who il is that ruleth them, and how he will reward
them, and how dear they will pay for this for ever, without
conversion ; and pray God to have mercy on them in time.
If the righteous be scarcely saved, and must suffer before
they reign, where shall the ungodly and sinners appear?
" It is a righteous thing with God to recorapense tribulation
to them that trouble you, and to you that are troubled, rest
wilh Christ ;" 2 Thess. i. 6, 7. Do but beUeve that dread
ful reckoning of their day that is coming, when in vain they
will wish the hills to cover them, and shall receive according
to their works, and then you will rather weep over their fore
seen misery, than raake too great a matter of your suffering
by them. They know nothing but present things, like beasts ;
but you foreknow things to corae. God beareth with them,
because he knoweth that their day is coming.
6. And reraeraber, that ifyou suffer for Christ and righ-«
teousness, the wrong is much more to him than to you : and
he will judge them that do but neglect his servants, much
more that persecute thera, as doing it all against himself;
and the cause and interest being much more his than yours,
cast it upon him, and trust him with his own cause. Who
is to be trusted if he be not ? And when is he to be trusted,
if not when we suffer for him? An honest master would
bear out his servant who suffereth for obeying hira, and will
not Christ? Do you think that Christ will be too slow, or
deal too gently in his revenge ? Sure you would wish no
greater punishment to persecutors than he hath threatened.
It were better a railstone were hanged about their neck,
and they cast into the sea, who offend but his little ones.
On whora this stone faUs, it wiU grind him to powder.
7. The' promises made to them that patiently suffer for
vttel^doi^g, are so many and great, I wiU not recite them,

426 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
supposing you cannot be ignorant of them. And do you not
believe the word of Christ ? He hath bound himself to save
you harraless, and to be with you in your sufferings, and
never to fail you nor forsake you ; and to give you for all
that you lose for hira a hundredfold (in value) in this world,
and in tbe|world to come, eternal life. If we trust these pro
mises, undoubtedly our patience and choice will shew it.
He that is offered a lordship in a foreign land, if he will leave
his native land and friends where he liveth in poverty or pri
son, if he trust the promiser. will leave all and go with him ;
but if he dare not venture, he doth not trust hira.
8. Do you suffer any thing but what Christ foretold you
of? Did he not tell you, that you raust sit down and count
what it will cost you to be a Christian, before you undertook
it? Did he not tell you. that you shall be hated of the
world, because you are not of the world ? yea, hated of aU
(worldly) men for his name's sake ? And did you not pro
fess to take him and his salvation on these terms ? and to
consent to his condilions ? If you thought thera too hard,
you might have refused thera. What hypocrites are they
that silence Christ's rainisters for scrupling to engage them
in covenant to Christ at their baptisra, by the syrabolical,
transient iraage ofa cross, as obliging thera to be the soldiers
of a crucified Christ, and when they have done, abhor all
that in Christianity which will bring the cross, and will ra
ther venture on hell than bear it ! Yea, will lay the cross
by persecution upon others. It is true, that it was in your
infancy that this covenant was raade by others for you ; but
did not you own it at age, when you called yourselves Chris
tians ? Alas ! hypocrisy undoes the visible church : men
mean nothing less than what they vow. They think that re
solution for suffering, or martyrdom, is proper to some rare,
extraordinary saints, and will not believe that none is a true
Christian nor can be saved without it ; that is, without pre
ferring heaven before earth, and the soul before the body.
Take any of these worldly hypocrites aside, and seriously
ask him, (in France or Flanders) how dare you persecute
the servants of Christ ? and they will say, ' It is not long of
us, we cannot help it ; the law and magistrates command
us: we shall suffer ourselves if we do not obey them.' Would
you think that these men did stand to their baptism ? As
if they plainly said, ' Whatever Christ saith, we will do any

OBEDIENT PATIENCE, 427
thing- against him and his servants that man's law bids us,
rather than we will suffer ourselves.' How far are these raen
from being re.ady for martyrdom, yea. or being Christians, or
the servants of drod. If you are Christians you have bound
yourselves by covenant to take up the cross and follow
Christ, though to the death, and to choose rather to suffer
than wilfully to sin.
9. And did not you as Christians, list yourselves as sol
diers under Christ, against the devil, flesh and world. And
is be a soldier indeed that expecteth no enemies ? And that
murmureth because be must come in danger, and see any
war? Did you not know that there is a war throughout all
the world, between Christ and satan, between the woraan's
and serpent's seed, and is hurting and killing any wonder in
a war? Or that be that is born after the flesh should per
secute him that is born after the Spirit ?
10. What hath a Christian to do in this life, but to pre
pare for a safe and happy death ? And if you had done this,
you had prepared for persecution and raartyrdom itself. If
you are ready to die by sickness, why not by fire or sword,
by axe or haller, if God will have it so ? Do you not know
that raost sicknesses do by tbeir length put the body to more
pain than ordinary martyrdom before they kill them ? How
easy a death is hanging, in comparison of dying by the stone
in the bladder, or by the cholic, or many other sicknesses ?
Yea, the painful death of burning being soon dispatched, is
little to these. And sure a fine, or prison, or poverty, is yet
less than any of these. O slothful raen ! unfaithful to your
selves, that have lived so long unprepared for death, when
yoa had nothing else to do, in the world. Your flying from
suffering by sin, doth shew that you have neglected the great
work of life, or that that which you lived for is yet undone.
You would have been ready to suffer, if you had been
ready to die. And doth this seera strange to you, after all
your warnings and professions ?
11, Haveyouadueesliraateof worldly Ihings? Are you
crucified to the world, and it to you by the cross of Christ?
Do you account them as loss and dung for him ? Do you
use them as ifyou used thera not, and possess thera as ifyou
possessed them not ? Do you judge of thera as death wiU
teach you to do ? If you do. sure you will not count that

428 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
persecution that taketh thera frora you an insufferable thing;
nor be irapatient to be deprived of thera,
12, Had you rather be in the case of the prosperous per
secutor, or the persecuted believer ? If the forraer. you are
no true Christians : if the latter raurraur not when you have
that which you prefer. Sure a true martyr at the stake, or
with Daniel in the lion's den. would be loath to change states
with-Nebuohadnezzar or Darius.
13. Do you think Christ loved Stephen the first martyr,
or James the first martyred -dpostle, or Peter and Paul that
died for the Gospel, less than he loved those that overlived
them and suffered no such thing ? Is not the crown of mar
tyrdom the most glorious ? Why are they said to live before
the rest a thousand years ? Had you not now rather have
Stephen's place in heaven, than theirs that suffered nothing
for Christ ? And if it be best at last, is it not raost eligible
now? 14. Are you afraid of men? You have a greater than
man to fear, and greater hurt than man can do you : " Fear
not thera that can kill the body, and after that have no more
that they can do, but fear hira that can destroy soul and
body in hell ! Yea. I say unto you, fear hira ;" Luke xu.4.
Are you afraid of a prison, or death, or fire ? Fear raore hell-
fire and death everlasting. When Bilney burnt his finger in
the candle, he reraerabered that hell-fire was raore intol-
lerable. 15. Wherein hath Christ been raore an example to you.
than in patient or obedient suffering, even unto death, and
to the most accursed, shameful death ? Do you think thathe
only suffered to keep as from all suffering ? Peter saith, it
was to leave us an example ; and Paul saith that we must be
conforraed to hira, and partakers of his sufferings. Why eke
doth Christ call us to bear the cross? And ia it not joyful
to see the footsteps of Christ in the way we go, and to know
that we follow hira ?
16. Sure that is not a slate of greatest fear and sorrow,
in which Christ hath coraraanded us to rejoice wilh the
greatest joy : but so he hath done in the case of persecution ;
" Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness
sake, for theirs is the kingdora of heaven. Rejoice and be
exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven ;" Malt.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 429
v. 10. 12. " Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial,
but rejoice, inasrauch as ye are partakers of Christ's suffer
ings, that when his glory shall be revealed, you raay be glad
also with exceeding joy ;" 1 Pet. iv. 12, 13. " They took
joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that in heaven
they had a better and enduring substance ;" Heb* x. 34.
So Heb. xi. throughout.
17. God hath proraised you that all your sufferings shall
work together for your good ; (Rom. viii. 28*) and taught
you how to make them your exceeding gain. Practise this
art, and you will be more patient, when you find the benefit
and feel that you are more than conquerors. Our victory is
by patient suffering. The worst men may conquer our bo
dies by force, but our souls are unconquered, and we are
conquerors of the temptation and real hurt, while we keep
obedient patience. When it is said of Job, " In all this Job
sinned not, nor charged God foolishly ;" satan was conquered,
and missed his end, while he seeraed to prevail upon his flesh.
By persecution you raay learn. 1. What a nature is in
lapsed raen. 2. That there are devils that keep up a war
against Christ. 3. How great their power is in the world,
by God's permission over wicked men. 4. How wonderful
a work of God it is, that the godly can live in so rauch peace
and safety as they do, among those that are the very ser
vants of the devil ; even as Daniel was kept in the den of
Uons, because God shut their mouths. 5. How great need
there is of sanctifying grace ? 6. How great a mercy is our
conversion, which cureth such a nature in us, 7. It calleth
us to continual Christian watchfulness, to beware of raen,
and especially of their temptations, and to be wise as ser
pents, and innocent as doves. 8. It driveth us to constant
prayer and dependance upon God for help and safety. 9. It
teacheth us lo keep up faith and hope, as having our eye
continually on God, and on the heavenly inheritance, with
out which we have nothing to support us. 10. And it as
sureth us that there is a day of judgment, in which Christ
will call over again in righteousness, aU the false judgments
and actions of this world. He that maketh all this use of
persecution, will have gain enough to plead for patience.
18. To review this last ; if you believe in Christ indeed,
vou do believe that he will corae again lo judge the worid
in righteousness, and to set all straight that here was made

430 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
crooked by the falsehood and malignity of raen. And will
not the foresight of that resolve you patiently to suffer?
Faith may foresee how poor blinded persecutors will then
have their eyes opened, and see hira wilh terror, whom they
persecuted in his servants, and how he will silence and con
demn thera, with, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever
lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ;" Matt. xxv.
41. 2 Thess. i. 6. 10—12. ii. 12. If the forethoughts of
that day do not quiet or resolve you. alas ! ydu have greater
matter of fe-ar and trouble than persecution, even your own
unbelief. Pray raore for faith, than for deliverance from raen.
19. Consider comparatively what man is, that hurteth
you ; and what God is, who bath promised lo help you and
reward you. Man is a worm, blinded and mad by the de
ceit of satan. They know not what they are doing against
themselves and God, as well as against you : they are all
the while going towards the grave, and their souls towards
the dreadful bar of God : their bones and dust are no whit
terrible. If God will here have mercy on them, he will make
them know, who it is they persecute, and how hard a work
it is barefoot to kick against the pricks, and make them, as
Paul, themselves undergo such persecutions for Christ, as
they madly used against others ; they will say, as Paul. " I
was mad against them :" And his case tells yOu. that if the
very captain of the persecutors were but converted, though
by a voice and miracle from heaven, the rest, instead of t'dking
it for a conviction, would presently persecute hira them
selves. But if God let them go on, alas ! where will they
shortly be ! O pray, pray hard for your persecutors, as
Christ did, before they are past prayers and hope, in hell.
But are these poor worms to be rauch feared ? How oft are
we charged, not to fear them ; Luke xu. 4. Matt. x. 28.
John xxiv. 27. Jer. xlvi, 27, 28. Ezek. iii. 8, 9. The fear
ful (that fear men) are numbered with unbelievers, and are
shut out among the dogs, if fear prevail against their faith ;
Rev. xxii.
And then think what that God is, that hath promised our
defence. When Infinite Power, Wisdom and Love, is set
against a few wasps and worms, shall our fear of them be
greater than our trust in him ? If it were but an angel from
heaven that appeared for our defence or encouragement,
against a dog that barked at us, it were a shame to us not to

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 431
J
trust hira. " If God be for us, who shall be against us ?"
Read PsaL xci. Rora. viii. Matt. vi. See Isa. viii. 13, 14.
xU. 10. 13, 14.
20. Can any thing do you greater good, that can out
wardly befal you, than that which both assureth you ofyour
right to heaven, and puts you presently in possession of it ?
And this will be the fruit of martyrdora. O what a change
will that day make ! from torment to our Master's joy! from
the raging army of the devil, to the heavenly choir of saints
and angels ! A strong faith would make us long for such a
day. As children of God, joint heirs with Christ, if we suffer
with him, we shall be glorified wilh him ; and the present
sufferings are not worthy to be corapared to the glory ; Rom.
viii. 18. 2 Cor. iv. 16. For whichcause we faint not; but
though our outward man perish, our inward man is renewed
day by day : " for our light affliction which is but for a rao
ment, worketh out for us a far raore exceeding and eternal
weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen : for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. Wherefore let them that suffer according
to the will of God, corarait the keeping of their souls to hira
in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator ;" 1 Pet, iv. 19.
CASE VII,
Oppression and Injustice by Men of Wealth and Power.
Another case that requireth patience, is oppression by
men of wealth and power in the world, and injustice of un
godly governors. Justice is so much due to all mankind,
and injustice so odious, that we are ready to take it the more
heinously when we cannot have our right. Oppressing land
lords raise their rents to such a height, that poor men with
the most tiring care and labour, can hardly live. And some
rich raen do think that their wills raust be poor men's rule,
and that they must deny thera nothing that they coraraand ; as
if the poor were slaves, that had no property or benefit of
the law. And worst of all, when in too raany nations on
earth, rulers are unjust, and haters of just and upright men,
and either break all bounds of law to ruin them, or else turn
the law itself against them ; and when they justify the wicked,
and condemn the innocent, yea, when piety, and honesty,
and conscience, are made the most intolerable crimes, an,d

432 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
filthiness, and sensuality do pass for works of one that may
be trusted ; these cases call for extraordinary patience, and
it is the more grievous because that magistracy is a special
ordinance of God, and the image of his supererainence and
governing power shineth in it : and to have satan get pos
session of it, and turn it against God himself who made it,
and make that the plague and calaraity of raankind; which
was instituted for order, justice and defence, and the up
holding of goodness, and suppression of sin, this is a most
grievous case. The sarae I say of cruel raasters tyrannizing
over their servants, and wicked parents oppressing virtue in
their children. Here patience is of great necessity;
And 1, W«i must here be very careful to distinguish be
tween true power and its abuse, and not to think evil of
power itself because it is abusedi And this raust be the
more carefully studied, because here practically to distin
guish is exceeding difficult. For the best things when cor
rupted, are the worst. It is hard to love rain and waters in
a deluge; when it drowneth the country, men and beasts.
One that had seen the fire of London, or yesterday the burn
ing of Wapping; might be tempted lo take fire to be more
terrible than amiable. If physicians killed twenty for one
they cured, raen wOuld grow into a dread or hatred of their
profession: and as to rulers, judges, and all sorts of magis
trates, the case is the same; They are God's ordinances
(in general) and good in themselves, and if well used would
be the great blessing of the world ; God's ordinary means
to protect the innocent, encourage the godly, and bring un
godliness to shame ; to keep rich raen frora oppressing the
poor, and the unruly multitude frora popular rage against
their neighbours or superiors; to keep up equity and jus
tice, and to frustrate treachery, perj ury and fraud ; in a word,
to be God's rainisters or officers for the coraraon good, and
to see his laws obeyed by the subjects, being themselves the
raost zealous in obeying them, and to be a terror lo blas
phemers, fornicators, murderers, thieves; oppressors and
other evil-doers, and apraise and defence lo thera thatdo well.
There are two cases which are no belter than ruin to man
kind : that is. to have no government, and to have utter
tyranny, which designeth the undoing ofthe subjects, souls
and bodies, by forcing them to sin against God to their dam-
ation (as far as force can do it), or commonly to die as mar-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 433
tyrs. and which is used to subvert the governraent of God,
and to set up wickedness and will, and to destroy the cora
mon welfare.
And there are two cases which are such as We raust sub-
mil to. One is the tolerable injustice, and oppression of
ungodly rulers, who vvill kill, and ruin, and persecute some
particular innocent men, but yet are for the common peace
and welfare, and do more good by their government than hurt
by their abuse. These must be patiently endured, so fai- as
the evil cannot lawfully be remedied. Tbe other sort is the
defective government of good rulers, who endeavour thfe
comraon good, and promote piety, and suppress sin, but with
such mixture of failings as follow their per.«onal imperfec
tions, and vvith such blots as David had in the case of Me
phibosheth and Uriah, and as Asa had, that oppressed many
of the people, and as Constantine had in the case of Cris
pus and Athanasius, and as Theodosius senior had in the
case of the Thessalonians, and as Theodosius junior and
Anastasius had in the case of the Eulychians, and as even
our King Edward VI, had about the death of the Duke of
Somerset, and he about his brother's death. Grotius own
eth the old saying, that the names of all good kings raay be
written ' uno annulo,' in one ring : I think that is too hard a
censure. But even the best are raen : and as a physician's
faults, though few, cosl the patient dearer than all their neigh
bour's faults do : so a prince's faults, though he be extraor
dinary good, may cost a kingdom dearer than the faults of
thousands else. Yet these honest princes are so great bles
sings lo the world, and so rare, that il is a happy nation that
hath no worse, and must be very thankful for them.
Bul there is a fifth sort iraaginable in Eulopia, and those
men of so perfect wisdom and goodness, as that all their go
vemment is just. Short of heaven, there is litlle or no hope
ofthis; unless there be a golden age lo come, or such a reign
of Christ for a thousand years as some describe, which is but
the reign of wisdom, justice, piety and love. But when God
hath some great blessing for a land, he useth lo raise up rulers
better than the rest of the nations have : and when sin pro
voketh hira, he reraoveth them quickly from an unworthy
land, as he did Josiah, and our King Edward VI. and Jovian
in the Roman empire. Yea, sometimes a wicked people and
VOL. XI. ^ ^

434 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
clergy prevail against a godly king, as they did against Lu
dovicus Pius in France.
2. Because bad rulers are a great national judgment, it
calleth a land to search after, and repent of national sins ;
for il is for such that this calaraity usually cometh. When
Gildas describeth the horrid wickedness ofthe British kings,
he describeth the great wickedness of the clergy and people
as the deserving cause. And no wonder, when in the days of
Hezekiah and Josiah, though the kings were excellently good,
yet the unreformed. obstinate clergy and people so provoked
God that he would not spare them, but cast thera off into
captivity and ruin. Bul usually God gratifieth their perni
cious desires, and giveth thera such bad kings as they would
have, as he did Saul. Jeroboam, &c.. and permits people to
please themselves lo death.
3. Take heed that selfishness and error cause you not to
judge worse of governors than they are. and lo take just res
traint or punishment, for oppression, and lo think all unjust
that is displeasing to you. This error is comraon lo the sel
fish, partial sort of men, that judge men and actions by self-
interest. 4. Take heed lest overmuch love to your estates or liber-
lies make sorae injustice -and injuries done you, by rich men
or rulers, to seem much greater than they are, and it be your
vice that rendereth them insufferable.
These Ihings being avoided, bear your oppressions with
these considerations.
1. God permitteth it for your sin, or fpr your trial ; there
fore be humbled underitas God'shand,and bearil obediently
till he deliver you.
2. If wealth and power be so liable to raake raen oppres
sors, do not you desire them, bul thank God for a safer sta
tion, and bear that which keeps you from it.
3. The sin of oppression is afar greater evil than the suf
fering of the oppressed ; therefore rather pity them as mise
rable, than yourselves.
4. Consider how much more many millions have suffered
by oppressions, than ever you did, or are like to do. How
many thousands were killed and ruined by Alexander ! How
many thousands by Julius Csesar ! How raany thousands in
raany Roman civil wars, under Anthony, Marius, Scylla,
Sejanus, 8cc. How many churches corrupted and persecu-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 435
ted by Constantius, Valens, Gensericus, Hunnericus, 8tc.
What a multitude did Justitian murder in Egypt, in bUnd
zeal for Christ ! How few ages have escaped the guilt of in
nocent blood ! How many thousands did the Pope's cause
slay in the Palestine wars, and in the Italian frequent wars,
and the rebellions against the emperors, Fredericks, Hen
rys, 8cc. Hovv many thousand Christians, Albigenses, Wal
denses and Bohemians, did they murder ! How many des
troyed in Piedmont, Rhelia and Germany ! Hovv many
thousands raurdered at once in France, and oft besides !
What dreadful work hath the Inquisition made in Flanders,
Holland, Spain and Italy 1 What a dreadful c-ase vvas Ireland
in, vvhen two hundred thousand Protestants were murdered,
and thousands were stripped and utterly undone ! Queen
Mary's bonfires were sharper than we have yet felt. While
satan in all ages fills the world vvith wars and blood, a little
tolerable oppression by landlords or inferior rulers, sbould
not be over tenderly and impatiently complained of, by te
nants, servants or any others.
5. Innocency is a sound and healdiful state, and can
bear much : Peter bids servants be patient when they suffer
undeservedly ; but it is not thankworthy lo be patient
vrtien they are beaten for their faults. Peace of conscience
maketh all sound within ; and then a man may bear the
more easily all that befalleth him from without : when he
can say, il is not for my sins, he may comfortably commit
his cause to God.
6. Whoever oppresseth you, God will never do ' you
wrong, and it is his hands that your great concerns are in :
hewiU use you with merciful justice, yea, and deliver you
from all the oppressions of men.
He suffereth men of the world to oppress the just, that
they may be driven to hira by prayer and faith, and raaybe
saved frora daraning worldly love, and God may have the
glory of their dehverance. How great a part of the Psalms
are written upon the occasion of oppression, plots, and
cruelties of wicked eneraies : and what abundance of pro
mises of deliverance from such, are recorded in sacred
Scriptures. 7. Patience and faith are a thousand times better than
money, or liberty, or any thing that oppressors can take

436 OBEDIENT PATIENCEi
from you : do you but take^the advantage of oppression to
exercise these, and all is lurned to your exceeding gain.
8. In this also nothing befalleth you, but what Christ
foretold you of, and taught you in what manner to bear.
The prosperity, power, and oppression of the wicked had
almost stumbled David himself, till he wenl into the house
of God, and understood their end : they are like gallants
sporting and feasting in a sumptuous house, which is to be
blown up or set on fire before the frolic is well ended, and
then who would be found araong thera ! He will think
himself happy that can say, I was none of thera : yea in
judgraent, how fain would they, as Pilate, wash their hands
frora innocent blood ? And even of oraissions, rauch more
of oppressions, say, " Lord, when saw we thee hungry,
naked, in prison," 8tc. ' Qui patitur vincit.' Christ hath
foretold you of all this, and taught you to love your ene
raies, and bless them that curse you, and pray for them that
hate and persecute you, and turn the other cheek to hira
that striketh you, and go two railes wilh hira that cora
raandeth you lo go one, and give hira your coal that sueth
you for another garraent : that is, rather suffer, than seek
private revenge ; yea, or seek to right yourselves, when it
will do no raore hurt to the souls of others by scandal, (?.'
alienation, or exasperation, than il will do good.
Righting one's self against injuries, especially of power
ful oppressions, will cosl one more than patient pulling up
all will do. As I went along the street, a Tory in Latin
reviled rae, and struck me on the head wilh his staff; I took
little notice of him, and wenl on ray way. and the hurt was
sraall : I saw another stricken, and he struck again, and it
raised a turault, and he and others were sorely hurt, and
went lo law after for reparation.
He that cannot bear one blow, raust bear many ; and he
that cannol bear to be oppressed in his estate, perhaps may
lose his liberty or Ufe : we live in a world of wicked men 5
and the wicked will do wickedly : and two rogues by per
jury raay take away the lives of the raost innocent and ex
cellent merabers of the coraraonwealth or city ! And what
conscience do such wretches make ofa malicious oath, that
use lo adorn their sentences with ' God daran-rae,' and witb
direful oaths?

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 437
Is not your oppression a reproof for your unthankful
ness, that God, by wonderful restraint, hath saved your
hves frora perjury and oppression so long? Is it not a won
der of Providence that purjury bath raurdered no raore?
Yea, that till Popery raade il seera needful to their ends,
few in many years did ever suffer by it ? Is il not a wonder
that the worthiest raen, both lay and clergy, are not
utterly destroyed, as to liberty and life, when two or three
atheists, infidels, papists, exasperated villains, raay swear
thera to the gaol, or the gallows, almost when they will ?
Yea, when even Walsh, the Popish priest, out ofKeling
teUs you that his Irishmen, have in all ages lived in con
tinual war. and murdering one another on the Ughtesl
causes, yet if Irish papists wiU come hither out of their own
land, and sel up the trade of swearing raen to death, I know
no remedy but to die in patience. I know some (the most
innocent and worthy men that I know) who dare not let
strangers speak wilh them, lest they should swear treason -
against them. For ray own part, before my weakness con
fined me to my chamber, I long confined myself to my
house, and refused to speak with unknown persons (to my
grief forced to reject the presence of foreigners that came
in want or begging) lest they should be raen that would
swear rae to the gallows, if they could bul say that once
they spake with rae, or saw rae : and, as the world now
goeth, if we escape with our lives by such avoiding
huraan converse wilh unknown persons (as we fly from
wolves and serpents) we shall esteem it a very great pro
tection by the providence of the all-ruling God. I doubl
not but (while I am sharply accused by some for coming
too near the Papists and Conformists) there are no small
number of them, whose faces I never saw, nor ever had any
thing to do with, who v/ould confidently swear sorae capital
crirae against rae. had they but the least advantage of
speech or presence, to make it seem but a possible thing,
only because I am accounted an adversa,ry to their side and
opinion in religion.
And why should all this seera strange or intolerable to
us. when Christ doth so often tell us, that rich raen are
usually the worst, and that he sent out his apostles as
larabs araong wolves? And when we know how Christ and
his apostles were used by the rulers and teachers of the

438 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
people ; yea, and Christians after thera, in raauy ages to
this day.
9. Consider how great the temptations are, of men that
are in power, wealth and pleasure ; and then you will pity
them, and pray for them. Who knoweth what you vvould
have done yourselves, if you had their teraptations ? They
have a stronger worldly interest to tempt them against that
law of Christ, which calls thera another way, than olher
raen have. They have raore full and constant provision fbr
all the desires of the flesh ; they are raore than any olher
raen assaulted by subtle and designing seducers, who have
their worldly ends (on church-pretences usually) to attain
by their seduction : they are more in danger of the infec
tious breath of flatterers, and the false accusers of godliness
and good men, than any others: they use to be deprived of
the comraon needful benefit to mankind, of faithful and
plaindealing friends and raonitors, and truth is usually kept
far from thera, and out of such a hearing as is needful for
conviction. And to live continually under such dangerous
temptations, needeth more than man for their preservation,
from deceit, aud sin, and the ruin of themselves nnd hurt of
others. 10. Our obedience to God were far from a tried praise
worthy degree, if il cost us little or nothing; and doubtless
Christ will bear all your charges. 0 what an excellent ser
vant is that, vvho will cheerfully do all his duty, to an un
just and abusive master! What an excellent child is that,
who useth all due reverence, obedience, love and patience,
to a froward, harsh, yea, and a raalignant father. Not disr
obeying God, nor hazarding his soul by wilful sin, or for
saking godliness, and yet not dishonouring his parents, or
disobeying them in any lawful thing! What an excellent
wife is that, who constantly and patieijtly performeth all
loving -and cheerful duty, to an abusive, furious, drunken,
profane, mahgnant husband 1 This requireth abundance more
grace, than to live in cheerful love and duty to a, godly,
lender, loving husband. The former sort is called., more
acceptable to God, and the latter sort of duty, is no
glory; 1 Pel.'ii. 20. To suffer for sin, is indeed a bitter
s'uffering, even for that which is worse than suffering. " It
is belter, if the wiU of God be so, that we suffer for well
doing than for evil doing : For Christ also hath once suf-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 439
fered for sins, the just for the unjust;" 1 Pet. in. 17, 18.
" For hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his
steps : who did no sin, neither was guile found in his raouth :
who when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suf
fered, he threatened not, but committed all to hira that
judgeth righteously ;" 1 Pet. ii. 21—23. O follow this excel
lent example : there lieth more of Christianity in leaming
of Christ to suffer from fooUsh wicked men, than raost will
think of.
" Servants obey in all things your raasters according to
the flesh ; not with eye-service as raen-pleasers, but in sin
gleness of heart, fearing God ; and whatever ye do, do it
heartily as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that of the
Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance ;" Col. iii.
22. " Not only to the good and gentle, but also to the fro
ward ;" 1 Pet. ii. 18. These are the excellent precepts of
Christ. It is therefore inconsiderately said by many, ' If I had
deserved such usage, I could have borne it.' As if suffering
without sin, were not a lighter burden than sin and suffer
ing for it. The oppressor hurts himself a hundred times
more than he can hurl you, (ifyou do no worse lo yourself
than he doth.) as guilt of oppression is a cause to such to
weep and howl for the raiseries that shall come upon them :
their riches are corrupled, and their gold and silver cankered,
and the rust of them shall eat their flesh as fire, and they
heap up treasure for the last days. The cries of the poor
labourers oppressed by them, are entered inlo the ears of
the Lord ; " 'They Uve in pleasures and wantonness on earth,
and nourish their hearts, in feasting and fulness, and con
demn and kill the just, who resist them not. Be patient
therefore brethren lo the coming of the Lord ,-" Jaraes v.
"God will speedily avenge his elect that cry lo hira, though
now he delay ;" Luke xviii.
CASE VIIL
Superiors Sufferings by .Bad Children, Servants, Tenants or
Subjects.
Another case that needeth patience, is the suffering of su
periors by bad children and servants, tenants, tradesmen and
others, whom th'ey must iise and trust. Of bad children I

440 OBEDIENT PATIENCE,
have partly spoken before ; natural love maketh this one of
the heaviest g.ffliclions in the world. When parents have
been al all that suffering, care, labour and cost, which go to
the bringing of children inlo the world, and bringing them
up from the breasts to maturity, and teaching them their
duty to God and man, and preparing them to be useful to
themselves and others, that afler all this, they should prove
brutish, fleshly sols, tiiat are slaves to their bellies, and wal
low in the sink of filthy lust, and savour nothing but pride
and fleshly pleasure, and the belief of God's word hath no
power lo change thera, yea, perhaps prove haters of serious
holiness, and enemies of good raen, and plagues to their
country, and fight against the only raeans of their ovvn and
other men's salvation. Oh ! what a he-drtbrea,king affliction
is this I Yea, when in case of the most ungodly error, or
swinish appetite and lust, the counsel, the lears, the prayers
of parents cannot raove them to any true repentance or re
formation. I confess, I that never had a child, am no fit
judge of the heaviness of this cross.
I have written my thoughts to such miserable ypuths, and
partly tp parents, in a small book, called " Compassionate
Counsel to Young Men," I here briefly a.dd,
1. In this sad case, make not light of it, or as ungodly
parents do, that are troubled raore for their children's wast-
fulness and want than for their souls. And yet be not over-
rauch cast down: neglect no means (prayer, counsel, com
pany, &c.) which raay tend to their recovery, while there is
any lippe ; and especially look back (not with despair) but
with, true repentance upon your own sins of youth against
God, your parents, and yourselves. And then examine whe^
ther you have dealt with Christian wisdora and fidelity to
have prevenle.d their misery, in their education. Did you
with love and diligence labour to make them luiderstand the
things of God and their salvation ? Did you labour to bring
it to their hearts, that they might fear (5od and liis judgT
raents, and know the evil and danger of sin? Did you la
bour lo raake religion pleasant to thera by shewing them the
goodness of it, and avoiding harsh, averting ways? Did you
watch over their ways, and keep them frora a custom of
pleasing their appetites overmuch ? And did you engage
thera in wise and good company, and use thera in religious
exercises, and keep thera frora the infectious company of

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 441
bad licentious youlhs, especially in plapea of splays and gam
ing, drinking and idleness, wicked schools, or acaderaies,
where teraptations are too strong for fleshly, inexperienced
-youth. If you have failed in these duties, a,nd have sent
your children araong the vicious, sensual and malignant,
vvhether on pretence of leaming, ministry, courtship, breed
ing, or gainful trades, no wonder if both they and you do
suffer by it, and if they he plagues to their country and to
you, who have been plagues and treacherous to them, and
sent them as inlo a pest-house, or a slews, ?ind then are
grieved for their diseases.
2. Be humbled for the viciousness of your own natures,
which had the root of all these sins, and conveyed them
originally lo your children.
3. Let it make you the more sensible of the greatness of
God's mercy, vvhich hath healed your natures, and pardoned
your sin, and saved you from that wilful sottishness and
wickedness, which others are given over to, of which you
vvere in danger.
4. The thoughts ofthe far greater raisery of most of the
world, who lie in idolatry, infidelity, wickedness or error,
may somewhat drown the sense of a particular affliction : as
the common plague in London did overcome the sense ofthe
loss of our ovvn friends ; and the comraon fire overcarae the
sense of tiie loss of our houses.
5. Yet while there is life there is hope. God bath ways
enough to hurable and break the stiffest. and the hardest
heart : therefore pray for them and warn them to the last.
6. Grace maketh all Christ's members dear to us as well
as our o^n kindred. Christ himself answered, when they
mentioned his mother and brethren, that they that heard
God's word and kept il, were his mother, sisters and bre
thren. And when one said, " Blessed is the womb that bare
thee," he said, " Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the
word of God, and do it." Therefore rejoice in the welfare
of all the children of God in heaven and on earth, who wiU
be as dear to you as your own children.
7. Submit to God's absolute dorainion, who besl knoweth
what to do with his own, and never did wrong to any, nor
^an do, and will satisfy all at last of the wisdora and good
ness of all his dispensations.
II. Bad servants also are to sorae an exercise of patience.

442 OBEDIENT PATIENCE,
sorae will not learn nor be reforraed, but hate goodness and
live wickedly: some in drunkenness, filthiness, gaming and
play-houses ; sorae deceive and rob their raasters ; some are
eyeservants and slothful, and raake no conscience of any
fault or neglect which they can bul hide, or excuse with
lying ; sorae burn their raasters' houses, or undo them, orat
least rauch daraage thera by heedlessness, carelessness and
forgetfulness ; and the best ofttiraes prove very costly by
their neglects.
In all these cases, 1, Repent of all your neglects of them.
Ifyou have not diligently taught thera the .principles of re
ligion, which should have made them better, or if you have
not seriously endeavoured their true conversion and sanc
tification, and bringing heavenly things to their hearts, which
would have kept out the love of sin; or if you have not
taught them a conscionable life, by a careful exaraple of it
in yourselves ; be hurabled, and acknowledge the justness
of your correction, and bear il as the fruit of your own sin.
2. Be sure that the sin and raisery of your servants be
raore grievous to you than your own loss and suffering by
thera. It is but temporal Ihings that you lose.
3. Remeraber what unprofitable, and unfaithful servants
you have been to God, and how rauch raore he daily beareth
with in us all.
4. Reraember that the frailty of raan is suoh, that nothing
will be done perfectly which imperfect persons do. The
wisest and best are liable to raany oversights, forgetfulness
and omissions, and have much which must be borne with.
5. Be the more careful that you fail not in any of the
duly which you owe to them or any others : for our own sin
hurls us raore than others.
III. What I say of servants, raay serve as to the case of
bad tenants, who will not pay their rents ; and bad tradesmen
that unconscionably borrow and break, and live on olher
men's estates, and ruin others by their falseness. God will
permit raan's badness to shew itself; and he will have all
worldly things appear to be transitory, and unsatisfactory,
and accorapanied wilh vexation.
IV. As to the patience necessary in princes and magis
trates lo bad, provoking subjecis, I am not to meddle with
it, being discharged by rulers frora being a raonitor to them.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 443
CASE IX.
False Accusations, Defamations; .Duty made odious Crimes;
Reputation Ruined.
Another case that needeth patience is, false accusation,
defaraalion, and taking away our good narae ; when innocent
men are proclaimed tobe guilty of odious crimes, which they
detest far more than their accusers do. Yea, wben the raost
conscionable men, that most fear all sin, are defamed by
their teachers themselves, as well as by the brutish rabble,
to be the worst of men in the land, unfitfor human converse,
or to be merabers of any society, and unworthy to live, at
least, out of gaols. Sin is so much worse than poverty, or
any bodily suffering, that the iraputation of it unjustly, seem
eth a greater trial than to be taken for a beggar, or a leper.
But the great trial is, when godly raagistrates or ministers
of Christ are taken for rogues, traitors, schisraatics, uncon
scionable villains, by which their endeavours for the souls
of men are rendered useless : and worst of all, wben a ma-
Ugnanl generation shall make the generality of men, fearing
God, and living reUgiously, to be taken for the most wicked,
dangerous hypocrites in the land. By this, young and in
experienced persons, and the ignorant multitude, are brought
to a contempt or hatred of serious, practical religion, and
madethe enemies of their best friends, and. Q,f the means of
their own salvation.
1. In this sad case, we must not on pretence of patience,
and conterapt of honour, be insensible of the snares that are
laid by satan to deceive the multitude, and undo souls ; nor
of the heinous wrong that is done to Christ, and the Chris.
tian reUgion and narae. Yea, tbis horrid crirae when it i«
common, doth so much threaten the destruction of a land,
and the removal of the Gospel, that it should raake us all
mourn and earnestly pray, that God would not leave so bad
a people, that say, " Depart frora us, we would not the know
ledge of thy ways." What wonder if Christ give up that
land to darkness and deceit, and satan, and take away his
Gospel, when the practice of it is raade a coraraon scorn, and
taken for an intolerable evil. When God's peculiar people
were delivered inlo captivity, the reason is given. " All the
chief of the priests and the people transgressed very rauch,
and the Lord sent his raessengers, because he had compas-

444 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
sion on his people, and his dwelling-places ; but they mocked
the raessengers of God. and despised his words, and raisused
his prophets, till the wrath ofthe Lord arose against his peo
ple, and there was no remedy ;" 2 Chron. xxxvi. 14. " I will
get me to the great men. and speak to thera ; for they have
known the way of the Lord. But these have altogether bro
ken the yoke, and burst the bonds : therefore a Uon shall
slay thera," &c. Jer. v. 5.
When Christ and his apostles were taken for intolerable.
God would tolerate the nation no longer, but gave them up
to the raost cruel destruction that hath been heard of in the
world, and the reranants of them are scattered, cursed peo
ple in all countries to this day. When they cried of such as
Paul, " Away wilh such a fellow from, the earth, it is not fit
that he should live ;" God concluded, ' Away with such a
wicked nation, scatter thera as cursed over the earth.' They
that will themselves escape the destruction in such a land,
must moum -4nd cry for all its abominations ; Ezek. ix. 4.
And must grieve for the reproach of the soleran assemblies ;
Zeph. iii^ 18, And a Noah, Daniel or Job in it, may save
none but their own souls.
But yet ^s our reputation is bul our own personal interest,
whether we are defaraed for the comraon cause of conscience
and obedience to God, or whether it be by any private, ma
licious slander against ourselves, we raay bear it patiently.
For, 1. What is our reputation, but the thoughts and
words of raen concerning us ? And how sraall a matter is
this as to ourselves ! If they think well of you, you are never
the better ; and if they think ill of you, you are not the
worse. If you be poor, or sick, or pained, will it ease you,
or make you rich, for men to think and say thatyou are well
or rich ? And if you be rich and well,, will it make you poor
or siqk for men to think or say that you are so ? And as the
thoughts of raen alter not your state, so what is raan that
his thoughis should be so rauch regarded by you? Thoughts
are such unseen, transitory actings of the mind, tha,t we have
much ado to raake raen believe that there is any law. for
them, or any great sin in them, or that God himself regard
eth thera. And when a raan is asleep, or thinks of other
things, those thoughts are all laid by ; and he raust quickly
die, and lie in darkness, and, then what are his thoughts, or

OBEblENT PATIENCE. 445
what is il to you what that rotten carcase lately thought of
you when it lived?
2. The usual cause of irapatience under personal disgrace
and slander, is pride in ourselves, which is matter of a thou
sandfold raore hurt and grief than the loss of our reputation
is. Pride is an overvaluing our reputations or honour with
men. A desire to be better thought of than we deserve, as
to greatness, wisdora or goodness, or else an over great es
teera and desire of that reputation, which is indeed our due,
did you not overvalue it, you could raore easily spare it, and
bear the loss of it. O fear the deviUsh sin of pride a thou
sandfold raore than any dishonour I A truly hurabled soul
can easily bear the words and thoughts of raen, as to its own
interest : for he knoweth his own failings, and liveth not on
man. 3. If you will not be hypocrites, let there be some pro
portion between your confessions to God, and your sense of
the accusations and reproaches of raen. In prayer you study
enlarged confessions, and how rauch evil do you (truly) say
of yourselves. And if another should wrongfully add sorae
what raore, raethinks you raight endure it. Is it not an in
congruous thing to hear one in prayer an hour together on
a day of hurailiation accuse himself of the breach of every
one of the ten comraandraents ; or for troubled; fearful per
sons, in all their discourse with rainisters or friends, to ac
cuse themselves as utterly graceless, and resist all that can
be said to the contrary ; and yet for the sarae persons to be
disquieted and impatient, if another accuse thera overmuch,
yea, or less than they accuse themselves ? There is some
hypocrisy in this.
4. Praise is a more dangerous thing lo us than dispraise ;
and therefore our friends usually hurt us more than our ene
mies. Flattery is pleasing to nature, and dispraise displeas
ing ; buf il is pleasing things only that are overloved, and
things overloved that undo the soul. Praise is the usual fuel
of pride, and pride the ready way to ruin; but dispraise
calleth us to examine and judge ourselves, and is a help to
humiUation. And though praise be due to aU that is good,
and other men owe it lo wise and good raen ; yet the wisest
and best are so apt to be tickled and pleased wilh il, that
they seldora escape sorae degree of proud infection by it.
5, It is God's judgraent lo which we stand or fall. If

446 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
he calls us his children, it is a small matter what men call
us. If he justifieth us, who is he that shall condemn us?
As Paul saith, " It is a small matter to me to be judged of
man (or at raan's bar, or day) ; I have one that judgeth me,
even the Lord ;" 1 Cor. iv. 3. Why should he raake a great
matter what men think or say of him, who believeth that he
must live or die for ever, as God shall judge him, and not as
men judge hira.
6. The thoughis and words of men, do not so rauch as
touch our skin. If they be let inlo your hearts, and made
our pain, it is not they, but ourselves that do it.
7. What kind of men be they that slander, reproach, and
scorn men for their duty to God or man ? Are they not mi
serable fools, led blindfold towards hell in satan's chains?
And are we not happy and safe in Christ's justification?
And will a lord or prince be cast down if a bedlara shall re
vile hira, or because a child of seven years old thinks meanly
ofhira? How easily do learned raen bear the contempt of
the unlearned, and great raen bear the obloquy of beggars ?
Itisnot wise or godly raen that dishonour you for being
wise and godly; but only the ignorant and ungodly that
speak against that which they never knew.
8. If it be for your obedience lo God, the reproach is
more against hira than you : it was he, and not you thatmade
the law which you obey. He that accuseth any one for obey
ing his father, raaster or prince, doth most accuse them that
coraraanded him. If it be a fault and dishonour to mind
heaven above earth, and to obey God and his word, before
man, it is long of God that so comraanded us, and not of us.
And if they accuse God, be sure he is sufficient, lo confute
them, and to defend hiraself; he will stop the mouths of all
blasphemers, and you may boldly trust him if you suffer for
hira, and your cause is his. A barking dog raay sooner stop
the course of the sun. than a blaspheraer conquer God. ,
9. Yea. it is one of the greatest honours in the world to
be dishonoured for God. You are raost deeply engaged
for his cause and he for you : you are principal soldiers in
his array ; for suffering is the victory of the soldiers of Chrst.
If God's narae, and cause, and interest, and proraise cannot
put honour on you, nothing can;
10. The reproacher raore dishonoureth hiraself than you.

OlJEDIENT PATIENCE. 447
It is a dishonour indeed lo be a false accuser, but none to
be a patient sufferer.
11. And though we be not guilty of what raalicious liars
accuse us, we are guilty of raany other sins, which God may
correct us for by their tongues.
12. Christ went before us in this kind of suffering. " He
made himself of no reputation, but endured the cross, des
pising the shame. He endured the contradiction of sinners
against himself;" Heb. xii. 2, &c. He that came into the
world to destroy the works of the devil, and lo save men
frora sin, was said to be a sinner, and to have a devil, and
to do his rairacles by the devil's help. They accused him to
be a glutton and a wine-bibber, and a sabbath-breaker,
and a farailiar with publicans and sinners, and a despiser of
traditions, and ceremonies, and church-government, and an
usurper, and a traitor against Caesar, and a blasphemer
against God ; and that it raight be believed, crucified him
as such between raalefactors, as worse than Barabbas„a raur
derer. and fastened his accusation on his cross, and lo this
day they call hira a deceiver. And his apostles were ac
cordingly accused; Paul was called a pestilent fellow, a
raover of sedition, that taught raen against Caesar and the
law, and turned the world upside down, not worthy to live
upon the earth. The apostles were made a gazing-stock,
the scorn of raen, the filth and offscouring of all things.
And did we not rqsolve to follow Christ and them, and to
bear this cross ?
13. But O what a joyful support to us should it be, to
foresee by faith the approaching day, when aU this will be
set right, and godUness will be a dishonour no more ; when
Christ will corae to be glorified in his saints, and adraired in
aU thera that now beUeve! 2 Thess. i. 10. 11. And when
these accusers .and slanderei's will all be silenced, confuted
and confounded: and sin will be an everlasting sharae. Owhat
a change will that day make ! Then who will have the bo
nour and glory, and who will be cast out as the dung?
Object. ' But odious Ues are divulged, printed, and be
heved of me, and strangers, and posterity will not know but
all is true.'
Answ. And what if it be so? It toucheth you not now ;
and neither your body.in the grave will feel it, nor your soul
in heaven. "Be patient, brethren, to the coming of , our

448 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
Lord;" Jaraes v. Lies and false history are the devil's waj^j
by which he deceiveth raost ofthe world. It is little thought
by the readers how rauch history is false. Turks and hea
thens think odiously of Christians ; and Papists of Protes
tants, and by raultitudes of lies, cherish hatred and blood-
guiltiness in their followers. Pity the liars, alas ! it is they
that are the sufferers, that by this are hardened in mortal
sin, O what a blessed day is at hand, when all these slan
derers will change their tone, and God will openly justify
his servants !
And in the raean tirae the wicked will believe the father
of lies, and we cannol help it, Bul the faithful honour up
right men not the less, but the raore for caluranies which
they endure, and had they not been prone to over-honour
them, holy days and relics had not been used as they are.
Let it be your care lo give the liars no occasion by your
sin ; and then mourn for the success of satan, but joyfully
wail for the judgment of God.
CASE X.
Vexatious, strong Temptations of Satan, especially to Melancholy
Persons.
Another case that needeth patience is, molesting, strong
temptations of satan, especially to afflicted, sad, discon
tented and melancholy persons. As to alluring temptations
to sinful love and pleasure, it is abhorrence, and watchful
ness, and fear, that are more necessary than patience. Bnt
vexing temptations. Which would draw men to raurrauring,
anger, raalice, fear, hurtful grief, and such olher sins, must
be overcome by patience and watchfulness conjunct. But
because against this I have written a treatise of " The Cure
of Melancholy and overmuch Sorrow," and another of " The
True Method of Peace of Conscience," I will here only say
this little following :
1. God did not think raeet to keep innocent Adam aftd
Eve, no nor Christ hiraself, from being templed. This life
is appointed for trial and conflict, in order to a better. Not to
be templed, were not to be men on earth; There is no crown
of glory, but to them that overcorae ; and no victory vvhere
there is no fight or strife. It is not force, but temptations,
by which satan conquereth the world, and which all must
conquer that will be saved. Yea, Christ was tempted to the

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 449
most odious crirae, to worship the devih Bul lo be terapted
is no sin of ours : resist and conquer, and it increaseth our
acceptance with God, and (which sorae call our merit) our fit
ness for the reward. It may be an advantage to our own
confirraed, rooted faith and holiness, and contribute lo our
greater glory in heaven.
2. Satan is a conquered enemy : Christ our Head was
terapted that he raight overcorae him for us. And as he
said, " Be of good cheer, I have overcorae the world ;" so
we raay believe and rejoice, that he hath overcome the de
vil, thatwe might overcome him. " He was tempted, thathe
raight succour thera that are terapted ;" Heb. ii. 18.
3. All that are in heaven (that had the use of reason)
came thither by overcoming of temptations on earth. And
would you go a way different from them all ?
4. The tempter cannol do what he will, bul what God
permitteth him, who hath promised lo restrain hira, that he
may not overpower us ; " There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man : bul God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be templed above that ye are able ;
but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that
ye may be able to bear it;" 1 Cor. x. 13.
6. But alas ! we comraonly are guilty of giving the temp
ter his advantage against us. We provoke God by sin lo
turn him loose upon us, and we give him entertainment by
long parleys wilh him, and by thinking over all that he hath
against us, and leaving his imaginations open to his access,
and oft also our eyes and ears to feed them. In these cases
true repentance is needful to our deliverance from terapta
tions. Yea, and our own mistakes, corruptions, discontents,
irapatience and sinful passions are the very strength of the
tempter, and he findeth within us the fire which he bloweth
up. In this case the cure must be raostly wrought upon
ourselves. 7. Strong love and resolution rejoice lo conquer strong
temptations : as strong raen love not lo be tied to the work
of children and women, but would have such as exerciseth
their strength. It is the joy of friendship, to undergo much
for a friend: " Love is strong as death ; raany waters cannot
quench it, nor the floods drown it;" Cant. vin. 7. Ifyou
Would give all the substance of your house for love, it would
VOL. XI. *^ ^

450 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
be utterly conteraned. Jacob will serve long and patiently
for love. And when satan sheweth his malice against Christ
and us, strong love will do as Samson and David by the Phi
listines, go out against them in God's strength, and over
come them. And though we are weak, God's grace is suffi
cient for us, and his strength is raanifested in our weakness.
- 8. Remeraber who, the terapter is, that you ra-ay meet his
teraptations with hatred and abhorrence. God in mercy put
an enmity against devils inlo our natures, as soon as the de
vil's enraity had conquered raan, that so we might abhor
whatever we know to be frora thera. What if the devil ap
peared lo you in sorae shape, and persuaded you lo despair,
or to blaspherae God, or to doubt of the life to come, or lo
any other sin or mischief? Would it not be a sufficient pre
servative to know that itis the devil that raakes the motion 1
I do not think that the present forward servants of the de
vil would obey hira as they do, if they saw him to be the
tempter. If he brought the cup to the drunkard in a known
apparition and shape, sure it would go down wilh terror, if at
all : if he brought a harlot lo Ihewhoremonger's bed, it would
cool his lust: if he appeared and persuaded the malignant to
hale, deride and persecute men for obeying God, il would
sure abate their rage. ¦' And why should itnot work alike in
troubling temptations, when you know they corae frora him,
(which the nature and fruit of them may make you know) ?
9. Let temptations move you to study their confutation.
Know every snare, and the remedy : God hath furnished you
in Scripture with arraour against all, ifyou will use it.
10. Long for the blessed day when the terapter and trou
bler shall be cast out, and never raore raolest the faithful
soul with any motion against God or comfort.
CASE XL
Settled Doubts qf Sincerity and Salvation. Temptations to
Despair.
But it is yet a' heavier affliction, when a soul is In a set
tled doubtfulness ofits sincerity, j ustification and salvation,
yea, and strongly persuaded that be hath no grace, nor ever
shall have, and hath little hope left of mercy and salvatipn ;
and the more he exaraines and thinks of it, the raore he be
lieveth this sad conclusion.
For an ungodly raan to know that he is ungodly, is the

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 461
most hopeful preparation to his recovery, and not lo be stifled
or raade light of; but if it be a sincere person,
1. Before I tell you how far patience is useful in this case,
I must tell you that on pretence of patience, the cure must not
be neglected, nor conterapt or senselessness indulged. Sin
is it that bringeth men into this dark, uncomfortable state ;
and it is present sin in which it doth consist: search there
fore what guilt of former sin was the cause, and see that it
be truly repented of: and then search how rauch present sin
doth cherish it. Usually there is much ignorance in il of
the covenant of grace ; and a great defectiveness in our sense
of the infinite goodness of God, and of the wonders of his
love in Christ, and of the ocean of raercy continued in the
work of raan's redempiion. And there is much unbelief or
distrust of God and our Redeemer, and of the promises of
grace and salvation ; and loo little trust to the strengthen
ing and comforting help of the Holy Ghost. And there is
too litlle care to cure men's sinful fears and passions ; and
sometimes too littie care lo forbear renewing the wounds of
conscience by yielding to temptations, and renewing guilt.
And where these are the causes, they must first be resisted,
and partly overcome.
2. And while the soul sincerely repenteth and striveth
against that sin (especially distrust of God and Christ), it
must be considered that God giveth not all his grace at
once. Infants are not strong: faith, hope, love and comfort
are weak before they are strong,'and usually are long in get
ting strength : and weak faith hath always unbelief joined
with il ; and every weak grace is clogged and clouded by its
contrary sin. And while grace is weak, and sin thus cloud-
elh it, it cannot be expected that the soul should have cer
tainty of sincerity and salvation, or be free from grief, aud
fears, and doubting. Bat patient waiting upon Christ in
tiie use of hia appointed means, may in time bring faith and
every grace to greater strength, and so the soul to raore as
surance. 3. A man that hath not attained to a certainty of salva
tion, may yet have more cause of hope and joy, than of fear
and sorrow, upon the mere improbabihty of his damnation.
I have oft instanced thus : It would torment a good Chris
tian, if be believed he should ever comrait but such sins as
David and Peter did (to pass by Soloraon), and no Chris-

452 OBEDIENT PATIENCi:.
tian ordinarily is sure that he shall not commit as great sin :
and no wise man that by God's grace is resolved against it,
should torment himself wilh such a fear.
No wife is certain, but she may hate or forsake her hus
band, or he raay hate and murder her ; nor any child, but
that the father or raother raay raurder it. And yet it is so
unlikely, that it is folly to be sad wilh such a fear. The old
fathers, who Ihought that no ordinary Christian (but a few
confirraed ones) can be certain of perseverance or salvation,
and those Lutherans and Arrainians that are of the same
raind, did not yet live in terror for fear of apostacy and dam
nation, but rejoiced in the corafort of probable hope.
4. If your fears be, whethe?f'you are true Christians, pre
sently become such, and'so end those fears. It may be it is
too hard for you lo know whether you have been such till
now ; bul you may presently resolve it for the tirae to come :
do bul understand the baptisraal covenant, and consent to
il, and that work is done. Present consent, that is unfeigned,
is true Christianity. If you can say, that now you are truly
willing that Christ with his grace and glory be yours, and
you his on his Gospel terras, that is, your Priest, Prophet
and King, you are true Christians.
Your concluding that the day of grace is past, and God
will never give you grace, nor pardon you, while he is daily
entreating you lo be reconciled to him, and accept his grace,
is an abusive suspicion that God is not sincere, and a con
tradiction to the tenor of his word and instituted ministry.
When he bids us go to the highways and hedges, and com
pel (even the basest) lo come in, for a wiUing soul to suspect
that God is unwilling, is abusively to give hira the lie ; but
if you are unwilling yourselves, why coraplain you ? It is
an odd sight, to see a beggar in the cold entreated to come
to the fire, or a man in the sea entreated to corae into the
ship, and he wiU not corae, and yet cry and coraplain thathe
shall never be taken in ; that is, because he will not.
5. It is a great raercy of God that you have hearts so far
awakened, as lo be troubled with care and fear of your ever
lasting stale, which you see the stupid, drearaing world so
Utile regard. And here are two comfortable evidences ap
pear in most Christians in these troubles. First, your fear
of punishment hereafter sheweth that you have some behef
of the word of God, for you beUeve his threatenings ; else

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 453
why do you fear thera? And ifyou believe that his threaten
ings are true, it is scarce possible that you should believe
that his proraises are false ; therefore your defect is in the
application of these proraises lo yourself ; and to doubl of
our own faith or sincerity, is not to doubt of the truth or
word of God. and is not daraning unbelief (though sorae rais-
takingly have written so). Secondly, and you have so rauch
of the applying act, as consisteth in consent and desire. You
would fain have Christ, and grace, and glory ; and you con
sent to be his as he consenteth to be yours : else why do
your coraplaints and troubles signify so much ? And desire
signifieth love and willingness -as really as joy doth, though
not so pleasingly. So that here is faith, or consent, or wil
lingness, and love to thatwhichyoumournfor want of : and
those are evidences of grace.
Object. ' Bul may not a wicked man be terrified with the
fear of damnation ?'
Answ. Yes, but if this fear were joined with a willingness
to be a tru e Christian, and to be j ustified, sanctified and ruled
by Christ, he should be saved.
Object. ' Bul may he not be willing of Christ and holi
ness, as a means to his salvation, though else he had rather
be ungodly and live in sin ?'
Answ. 1. He cannol truly desire salvation itself, as in
deed il is salvation : not lo be tormented in bell he may de
sire ; but salvation is lo be saved frora sin and separation
frora God, and to live in perfect holiness, love and joy in the
heavenly society, praising God araong the blessed for ever.
The heart of the ungodly is against this holy life. 2. And
every man hath some end : if this be not the end intended
by any man, it must be some sinful pleasure that he muslin-
tend or desire. And to make perfect holiness (which mor-
tifielh all such desires and pleasures) to be desired as a means
to attain those pleasures (which il destroyeth), is a contra
diction. So that a wicked man cannot truly desire perfect
holiness more than sinful pleasure, neither as his end, nor
as the means thereto. Yet I wiU not deny bul that while he
hateth it, he may consent that God should raake hira holy
as a ' rainus malura,' a lesser evil than the pains of hell, which
he hateth raore. But God hath not promised to give men
Christ and hohness, because they hate hell more than il, and
desire -it not for itself.

454 OBEDIENT PATIENCE,
Object. ' I fear that this is ray case ; for I have a great
unwillingness to prayer, raeditation and every holy duty,'
Answ, 1. Is your unwillingness to believe and trust God,
and love hira perfectly, and to live in his thankful, joyful
praises, and to love his word, and ways, and servants, and
that for ever, greater than your willingness and desire? It
is these inward acts that are the holiness of the soul, and to
be willing of these, is to be willing to be holy, 2. As to
outward exercises, by praying, and such like, there may be
some such disturbance ofthe spirits raised by them, through
temptations and false thoughts and fears, as put the mind
into renewed trouble : and it is that disturbance and trou
ble in the duly, that raany are against, rather than the duty
itself. And such raay find, that at the sarae time they would
fain have that calmness, confidence and deUght in God,
which they would be glad to express by holy prayer, 3.
And we must distinguish between a degree of unwillingness
or backwardness, which is predominant and effectual, and a
degree which doth bul strive against holiness, but not over
corae. Every Christian hath flesh, which lusteth against
the Spirii, and would draw back ; and therefore hath some
degree of backwardness to his duty : but if this did prevail,
he would give it over, which he doth not. 4. And yet for
a time in temptation and melancholy, he may be deterred
from some outward duty, and give il over, and yet not lose a
holy state of soul. Many a true Christian is many years af
frighted from the Lord's supper: and sorae such persons in
deep raelancholy and teraptations, have given over outward
prayer, and Hearing serraons and reading, and yet have not
given over a desire of holiness, which is heart prayer, nor a
desire to love and obey God's word. Sick men cease out
ward duty in their beds, when they cease not inward piety.
6. It may be God seeth that you were grown dull and
sluggish, and he useth this trouble to aw-ake you lo a greater
care of your duty and salvation : or he saw you in danger of
overloving sorae worldly vanity, and he useth this to imbit-
ter and divert you, thatyou may know better what to mind
and desire.
7. The effects of a melancholy disease, or of a natural
timorousness of the weak and passionate, are rauch different
from rational, well-grounded doubts of sincerity and salva
tion. A melancholy person can think of nothing with con-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 455
fidence and comfort : there is nothing but trouble, confusion,
fears and despair in his apprehension. He still seems to
himself undone and hopeless, A person naturally liraorous,
cannol choose but fear, if you shew hira the clearest rea
sons of stssurance. These are Uke pain in sickness, which
faith and reason will not cure ; but should help us to strive
against and bear. God will not irapute our diseased misery
to us as our damning sin.
8. It is one thing to have grace, and another thing to
know that we have it ; many have it, who doubt whether it
be sincere. And it is an unspeakable mercy lo have it, though
you doubt of it. God knoweth his grace in us, and will own
it, when we doubt of it or deny it. As long as this founda
tion of God is sure, that God knoweth who are his, and while
we name Christ, we depart from iniquity, we are safe, though
through fear we are uncomfortable.
9. Though true faith do of its own nature lend to the
peace and quietness of the believer, yea, and to fill his soul
with joy; yet it doth not always quiet it ; but it always con
senteth to the baptisraal covenant, which maketh us Chris
tians, and so far trusteth Christ for pardon, grace and glory,
as to cast our souls and hopes upon him, and to forsake all
other trust and hopes rather than to forsake him. As I have
oft said. If a prince say to a beggar, go out of thy own coun
try with me in this ship, and trust me to convey thee to
Mexico or China, and I will make thee a lord or prince ; if
he venture and go with him, though he trembles with fear at
every wave or pirate in the voyage, he truly Irasleth him,
and shaU speed accordingly. If a physician say, ' Trust rae
and take ray raedicine, and I wiU undertake lo cure you ;' if
the patient take his medicine, he shaU be cured, though he
tremble wilh fear, and doubt ofthe success : he trusteth him
practically, if he cast his hope upon hira, though with fear.
Though faith and obedience be forraally two Ihings, faith,
which will cause us to consent, venture, and follow or obey
Christ : preferring heaven, whatever we lose by it, is saving
faith, whatever doubts, fears or disquietment reraain. If this
were'better understood, timorous and dark or raelancholy
Christians, (whoknow there is none but Christ lo trust lo, and
therefore resolve to be ruled by hira) would not so ordinarily
think they have no true faith, because it doth not cast out
all their doubts and fears, and quiet and corafort them ; which

456 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
indeed a strong' faith would do, which is not hindered by er
ror or diseases.
10. We greatly wrong God and ourselves in contenting
ourselves wilh poor, diminutive thoughts ofthe essential love
and goodness of God. When we think of the sun (a thou
sand times bigger than all the earth), and of all the stars, and
the incoraprehensible orbs of the heavens, and the incon
ceivable swiftness of their raotions, and the power and ex
tent of their rays of light and eraanations, we are over
whelraed with the thoughts ofthe greatness, power and wis
dora of God ; but when we think of his goodness and love,
we scarce think rauch raore highly of il than of the good
ness and love of a father, a friend, or sorae excellent man.
And should we raatch his power bul wilh a raan's, what mad
ness and ugly blasphemy were il !
Yet I would not have the presumptuous here to mistake,
and hence to conclude that a God so good will not condemn
the rejecters of his grace, and say, ' Essential, Infinite Love
will make all raen as happy as he can.' For, 1. Experience
assureth us of the contrary ; that he maketh great variety of
creatures, and permitteth pain and misery in the world. 2.
And the execution of justice on the impenitent, wicked sub
jects, is good, as a means to the right govemment of free
agents. 3. and the infiniteness of God's goodness and love
doth not appear in his loving any creature which is finite,
bul in loving that which is infinite, and that is hiraself.
But yet we must conceive of his essential attributes as
equal in theraselves. And if God's goodness and love were
conceived of by man, in any propqrlion to his greatness and
power, we could never so easily ^suspect his kindness, nor
fear that he will damn those who unfeignedly desire to please
him ; nor should we fly from him as from a hurtful enemy,
bul long lo be nearer him in holy communion, as we desire
the company of our wisest, dearest friends ; nor should we
be so distrustful -of hira, as if he were no security to us from
our dangers ; but the narae of the Lord would be our strong
tower, to which when we fly, we should beUeve that we are
safe, and our trust in God would be the quieting of our tor
raenting fears and cares.
11. And we have these poor thoughts of the love of God
to raan, because we do not sufficiently study the rairaculous
demonstrations of it in our Redeemer : diversions cause us

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 457
to neglect this study ; and perverseness and unbelief do cause
us to give it too narrow a roora and too slight and short en
tertainraent in our thoughts. Nothing in this world doth
better deserve our raost diUgent and deUghtful study, than
the Gospel of Christ, and the wonderful work of Divine Love
in man's redemption and salvation ; study tbis till you firmly
believe it, and taste it, and il will be as angel's food, a hea
venly feast here sent down to earth, lo draw raen's hearts to
God in heaven. The love of God will turn your very hearts
into retuming holy love. It waa drops of love that Christ
svveat in the shape of blood in his agony, and it was a streara
of love, which flowed from his pierced side, in the shape of
blood and water. It is love which the three witnesses on
earth, and the three from heaven attested. God knew how
much sin had obscured his love and goodness to man, raore
than his power and greatness, by making raan an unraeet re
ceiver and discerner of it, by reason of guilt, fear and naugh
tiness of heart ; and therefore how very backward man is to
believe and relish God's love. Therefore while satan more
industriously inticelh the soul of man to the idolatry of crea
ture carnal love, than ever he did intice the bodies of men to
worship Baal or such like ; God hath set up his own image
sent down to raan frora heaven, in opposition lo satan's idols,
that sense raay bave suitable raeans for the moral conquest
of tbe tempter, and the replenishing of the soul with a truly
excellent facilitating love ; and in a congress of the love of
God and man, in and by him that is God and man, heaven
may be here begun, and may have a more full communion
with souls on earth, than it had before Christ's incarnation.
Study the Gospel aright, as the book of Divine Love, and it
will tui-n you from raany. unprofitable studies, and cure sin
ful, raelancholy fears, betier that all other raedicines in the
world. And even those that said with Thoraas, "Unless I
may see and feel, I will not beUeve ;" or as a holy divine in
deep raelancholy, rashly said to rae, ' If an angel frora hea
ven should tell me that I bave free grace, I would not believe
hira ;' would repent as both these did ; and when by faith
you have as it were put your finger inlo his wounded side,.
the sense of Divine Love wiU raake you cry out, " My Lord,
and ray God."
12. And it greally hurleth Christians, that they are not
duly sensible, how rauch it is'satan's design and work in all

458 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
his temptations to. misrepresent God to man, and hide his
love and goodness from us ; as he doth il in the wicked by
drawing thera lo fleshly, deluding love, and raaking them ig
norant, unbelieving or forgetful of the love of God ; so he
doth much against better raen by raising raany objections
against it, and filling them wilh false-imaginations, and di
minutive or suspicious thoughts against God, as if he were
far more terrible to us than araiable.
13. And it wrongs sorae that they raisunderstand the
office of conscience, as if it always spake as an oracle from
God, whereas it is but the act of a dark understanding,
which very usually erreth, and raisjudgethof ourstate« and
a mistaking conscience accusing falsely, as graceless, Sec,
shall no raore condemn us at God's bar than a slandering
eneray. " I judge not my ownself, (saith Paul,) I know no
thing by myself (inconsistent with sincerity), yet ara I not
thereby justified: there is one that judgeth rae, even the
Lord :" that is, il will not really go with rae as I judge, but
as God judgeth.
14. And alas ! when • fear beareth down both faith and
reason, as to the act, no silencing reason prevaileth with the
soul. I prove to thera frora the Gospel this great truth ;
that Christ damneth none (that hear the Gospel) but those
that wilfully reject him and refuse his offered grace, out of
greater love to something else, and this to the last. I oft
convinced dejected Christians that this is true, and that this
is not their case ; they do not continue to refuse Christ and
his grace by preferring soraething else. And yet this quiet-*
eth thera not. nor receive they the conclusion ; for fear, and
feeling, and weakness, and raelancholy, overpowereth their
reason, as bitter physic would not let children believe that
it was good for thera, and given thera in love.
15. Though no pretence of patience raust abate our de
sires after full assurance and perfection, yet while we find by
experience that God will have raen on earth to differ rauch
from those in heaven, and to have but low and little things
in coraparison of their" joy and glory, it is our great duty to
be thankful for our present measure, and to wait in hope for
more. He that hath no comfortable apprehension of his
condition, can have no thankfulness for it: and we are all
obliged lo great thankfulness for the least degree af grace

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 459
and hope : and thankfulness is somewhat more than pa
tience, and therefore doth include it.
The acts of the understanding and of the will go toge
ther : and if we had as full an understanding of the heavenly
stale, as those have that possess it, our wills by answerable
love and joy Would now enjoy it ; and so we should have the
peculiar privileges ofthe glorified here on earth. But this
, is no more suited to our present state in flesh, than it is lo
an infant in the womb lo know what cities, courts and
churches are, or what trades, and merchandize, and husban
dry is, or what books, and arts, and sciences are, or what
meatjcand drink, and recreation are. We must be content
on earth wilh the measure wbich God designeth unto earth.
We see by constant experience, that he hath precluded the
heavenly state frora all our senses : he will not let us see
what is done above. The first martyr had such a sight by
miracle, but we raust not expect it. He will not let our de
parted friends appear to us here to give us notice of what
they see. He will not send angels lo satisfy our desire of
such knowledge : nay, infernal devils shall appear but rare
ly : the rareness of all these leaveth sadness in doubt whe
ther there be any such thing or not. And Paul's sight of
paradise was such as raust not be uttered to us.
And full subjective certainly of salvation, which exclud
eth all doubts and fears, is so high a degree as few in flesh,
I think, obtain. Objective certainly every true Christian
hath ; that is, his salvation (if he so die at least) is abso
lutely certain itself, so that his beUef and hope of it shall
never deceive him. But to be certainly known lo men, that
is, with an apprehension which as much excludeth doubts
and fears as sight and possession would do, or as the light
and the visible objects exclude all doubts, whether we be
hold thera, or as we know that two and two are four, or that
every effect hath a cause, and every relate a correlate, and
that full contradictions are inconsistent ; I think this degree
of certainty none have on earth, without sorae miraculous
inspiration or revelation. But we may attain to so firra an
apprehension of that truth and blessedness, which is certain
initself, as may raake our hope, and joy, and desire far
greater than our doubts, and fears, and aversation. And this
joyful life of well-grounded hope raay be called a certainly
or full assurance ; though yet it be far short of perfect, and

460 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
the certainty of beatifical vision and fruition. And alas ! it
is but very few true Christians who attain this quieting, joy
ful degree. All this being considered, you see that while we are on
earth, we must not look for heaven ; nor in the wilderness
for the Land of Proraise : Joshua, and Caleb's encouraging
words, and the bunch of grapes, and God's proraise and
presence, and his conducting light, provision, and protec
tion, raust quiet us in our journey; and some few have
Moses's Pisgah-sight. Murmuring al wilderness-wants, dan
gers, and difficulties, was the Israelites' sin and fall. We
must not look for the harvest at seed-lirae, nor fo8»moi-e
knowledge and assurance, and joyful apprehensions of hea
ven, on earth, than is suitable to the state of travellers in
flesh : we are yet, alas ! too sinful ; and sin will breed
doubts and fears: we are here very ignorant, and conscious
that we are very liable lo err ; and that every man hath
many errors ; and therefore we are apt to doubt even of that
which we see and feel, yea, and to fear where we see con
vincing evidence of certainly ; and we can scarce tell when
and how to trust our own understanding : we are in a dark
world ; and in a dark body, and chained lo it in our act
ings : all our grace and goodness is imperfect ; and tiU
every grace be perfect in us, assurance of salvation will not
be perfect: for the perfection of e very-grace is necessary lo
it. And is it any wonder that such a wight as man, in flesh,
and sin, and under teraptations, and in a dark raalignant
world, which God hath very rauch forsaken, should not have
the joy of full assurance of invisible glory ? The Christians
of all those ages, who held that none (or only a few rare
persons) could be certain of their salvation, could not have
that certainly which they thought none had? Yet they
did, and we raust rejoice in hope, and be thankful here for a
travelling degree.
CASE XII.
The Loss of Teachers, and suitable Means of Grace and Salvation.
Another great affliction which requireth patience is, the
loss of the sound and serious preaching of the Gospel, by
the death or banishraent, or silencing of our teachers, while
our own great wants and weaknesses call for the best as
sistance. The soul being more precious than the body, the

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 461
welfare of it is more valuable, and its loss and famine raore
laraentable : and we see tbat God ordinarily worketh ac
cording to the aptitude of means ; and when he taketh away
such needful raeans, it is a sad degree of his own forsaking
us, and denying to us further grace. Alas ! how bad are we
under the best helps, and how dark and doubling under the
raost clear convincing teaching, how cold and dull under
the raost warra and lively ministry? And what shall we
then be, if God reraove our teachers frora us? May we not
turn cold, and dull, and worldly, and deceived under cold,
dull, deceiving worldly pastors? And now grow careless of
our own souls, under those that are careless of their own
and our's ? If in the coraraunion of wise and holy Chris
tians, we found it hard to grow in grace, raay we not fear
declining when we are separated frora such, and dwell as
Lot in Sodom, and raust converse with worldly, or raalig
nant raen?
As lo the sad case, 1. You raay have the greater cora
fort, because you make not light of the affliction ; and raay
be the raore patient believingly, because you are not patient
. as conteraptuous unbelievers. The patience of camal raen
under such a loss, is a greater evil than the lossi tself; and
the patience of faith is a greater good than the helps which
you lose. Had you been so blind, and dead, and bad, as to
let go the Gospel, and be easily quiet and content, as long
as you enjoy your honour, wealth, and ease, this had been
a far greater raisery than the want of teachers ; as a mortal
sickness which causeth loathing and indigestion, is worse
than the hardest fare with appetite and health. Thank God
that you are sensible of your loss.
2. Ifyou are true Christians you have the law and Gos
pel written upon your hearts, whence none can by violence
take it from you, you raay lose the provision ofyour house,
and the food on your tables ; yea, and cast up that which
you have eaten ; but if it be digested and turned inlo your
flesh and blood, it is not so .easily taken from you. O bless
God, that before he took away the raeans, he did convert
you by thera, and taught you effectuaUy before he took
away your teachers. When the word was digested and
turned into knowledge, faith, repentance, desire, obedience,
patience, hope, and love, neither raen nor devils can take it
frdm you ; your heart, where it is sown and rooted, is not

462 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
within their reach, unless you will give thera the key, and
foolishly betray yourselves. Wben God hath raade you hia
habitation by his Spirii, and Christ dwelleth in your hearts
by faith, and the kingdom of God, and life eternal is begun
within you, the loss of your outward helps will not undo
you. I am not imitating them that tell you that all raen have
sufficient light within them, or that call you to undervalue
the word written and preached, on pretence of that sufii-
ciency, as ifyou need no other notice of God and Christ, but
to be told that be is in you. But yet rejoice that God, is
within you, though all these outward raeans were gone : that
is, that your faith and love have within you such an object to
live upon as your Fatiier, Saviour and Sanctifier, and such
an agent as the Spirit to actuate all. When they silence
your teachers, bum your books, shut up your church doors,
they cannol shut out the Spirit of Christ, nor deprive you of
its life, and light, and love.
3. If raen take away the raeans foreraentioned, they do
not therefore take away all. 1. You have all God's works
to view and study : sun and stars, heaven and earth, sea and
land, cities and country, fields and meadows, beasts and
raen, good and bad. And you are taught already by the
Gospel, to see not only the great Creator in all these, but
also the gracious Redeeraer, purchasing, upholding, and
using all as delivered to hira for the good of his elect.
2. You have the daily use of raeditation, as on all the
works of God. so also on Christ and the Gospel which you
have leamt ; yea, and of the joys of heaven.
3. You have daily and hourly leave lo open your case to
God ; you have access lo hira by Christ in prayer, thanks
giving and joyful praise. If you have but an appetite, you
bave here a continual feast, which you may enjoy in every
place ; in your closet, in the fields, in a prison,
4. Il is very Ukely that you may save your Bibles, and
other good books, -and so have God's word still al hand. It
was written in Hebrew and Greek, but God hath used man
to translate and unseal it to you ; and you may choose your
tirae, and choose the subject which you would read: and
the writings of your teachers are usually more accurate than
their speaking ; and at a cheap rate you may have choice
and excellent helps. And you may read them in your fa-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 463
rallies, to your children and servants, and set up raany
teachers for one. Undervalue not these remaining helps.
5. And if God continue to you in the public assemblies,
but sound doctrine and lawful communion, do not say all
means are gone. If it be bul the reading ofthe holy Scrip
tures, and singing psalms, and praying,.no worse than is ex
pressed in the liturgy of this nation, it is a mercy not lo be
despised, Il vvas bul a little part of the New Testament
which was contained in Peter's speech, which converted
three thousand ; Acts ii. And but a little part which was
in the words of Paul, which the Gentiles desired might be
again spoken to thera the next day. And bul a little part
which Paul wrote to any one church, when he required them
to read it publicly, and to read that lo one church which
was written to another. Christ's own sermon, Luke iv. and
that to his disciples. Malt. v. were bul a litlle of what bare
reading now can tell us. Ezra was put to spend much of
the day in a pulpit, to read the law, and make them under
stand the reading : that is, when by their captivity they had
lost the language in which the law was written, he was fain
to read it in Hebrew, to translate it by word of raouth, and
tum the Hebrew into the Chaldean tongue, which they un
derstood. This was far less than the bare reading of both
Law and Gospel already translated doth for you. The quan
tity of one or two of our chapters, were received in the days
of the apostles wilh great joy, lo the conversion of.raany
souls. And in Queen Mary's days, some poor women would
hire a boy secretly in a corner to read to thera a litlle of the
English Bible, yea, of the primraer, Bul the full soul loathes
the honeycomb, when to tbe hungry every bitter tiling is
sweet. There are some ignorant Christians that think it enough
to charge any thing in worship or religion to be unlawful be
cause it is human, the work of man. It is like, these will
not be grieved that their teachers are silenced, for they were
men. And as men have written sorae forras of prayer, so
they are men thathave written the many hundred holy books
that are now among us. And preaching and praying arethe
words and works of men. The singing psalms were turned
into metre by men : yea, all our EngUsh Bibles were raade
English by men, and you read and hear no Engljsh words
but the words of men, though they signify the wprd of God.

464 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
The dividing of the Scripture into chapters and verses, is the
invention and work of raen. And I think they were but mert
that taught you to speak and read. God worketh by man
on raan, as sociable, fit instruraents : and if you despise all
in religion that is the work of man, you will despise
the word and work of God, and shew that you are less than
men. 4. When God taketh teachers frora one people (before
death) he usually sends them to another : and it proveth oft
to the advantage ofthe church. When the disciples were
all driven away frora Jerusalera, they went preaching the Gos
pel inlo all countries about. Persecution drove the apos
tles all over the world : it sent Paul to Rorae, to preach it
at the doors of Nero. When he and Barnabas were driven
frora one city, they carried the Gospel to another. Perse
cution had a great hand in sending the Gospel lo most na
tions in the world that had it. Yea, the very banishment of
Nestorius, Dioscorus, and such others, as heretics, for some
forras of speech, had a great hand in tbe sending of Chris
tianity inlo Persia, India, and raany reraote parts of the
East, South and North ; and of late to New England, and
other plantations in Araerica, it was sent by the prelates
and other rulers from this land. A captive maid, it is said,
began the conversion of the Iberians ; as Fruraentius and
Edesius did of the Indians (or rather, planted a ministry in
Habassia, miscalled India, which before had none but lay
Christians since the eunuch's days).
And every good Christian is of a public spirit, and lov
eth Christ's greatest interest with the greatest love, and
therefore loveth the church and the word better than him
self, or his native soil. Why then should we not the more
patiently bear the loss of those labourers, whom God sends
to do greater work abroad ? Is it like that Mr. John ElUot
would ever have done half the good in England that he hath
done in America ? We pray that God's name may be hal
lowed, and his kingdom corae, and his will be done on earth
as it is in heaven, and England is a very little part of the
earth. 5. We raust have our tirae of rest with Christ, when W6
have had our tirae of labour. If God call home his servants
to hiraself, rejoice wilh thera that there rejoice, "and have
fought a good fight, and have finished their course, iand do

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 465
receive the crown of righteousness ;" grudge them not their
rest and happiness. God sent thera hither to work, run and
fight, and not to reign or long abide. It raay seem hard to
us that so holy a raan as Stephen should do Christ no lon
ger service in his church ; and that James, who hoped to
have sat next to Christ in his kingdom on earth, should so
quickly be taken from his apostleship ; but he had his pe
tition to be near to Christ in a better manner than he de
sired; and Stephen and he did more ina day by dying, than
most others do by living long. The foundation of the church
was to be laid in blood ; and none is loo precious for so great
a work, for which Christ's blood was not too precious.
6. Ministers are not idle or useless when they are si
lenced ; they are praying for the church, and they are lights
in the houses and corapany where they corae, and Christ
disdained not oft to preach to one woraan or man ; ;^as John
iv. ix. &c And some of thera publish Grod's truth by writ
ing, and that to a far greater extent and nuraber, than ever
they could have done by voice. The word of God is not
bound, when we are bound,
7, Yea, the silence and sufferings of Christ's faithful rai
nisters, do powerfully preach : it raaketh men see the evil of
that proud and raalignant spirit, which hateth such men, and
cannot endure them. The vulgar are hardly brought lo wis
dom by mere words, or to know the difference between good
and evil, till by sense and experience they feel and taste the
several fruits. The cured blind man (John ix.) could quickly
discern that God heareth not sinners, but if any raan be a
(true) worshipper of God him he heareth ; and that he must
needs be of God that could open his eyes ; and that there
fore those men were not of God that hated and persecuted
him that did so much good. The vulgar hate popery far
more for Queen Mary's bonfires, and the Inquisition, and
the French, Bohemian, Polonian. Piedmont and Irish mas
sacres, than for any doctrinal error in their religion. And
when long experience hath assured them that the persecuted
ministers preached the true Gospel of Jesus Christ wilh great
plainness, seriousness, and love lo souls, and that they
sought no worldly gain or honour, but men's salvation ; and
that they lived as they preached, and when they see that it
is this very sort of raen that papists bend their raalice against,
VOL. XI. H H

466 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
and study to extirpate, silence, and destroy, and that godli
ness and conscience, is the intolerable enemy which they
would drive out ofthe land, and that the raost wicked, sen
sual, filthy, debauched, unconscionable malignants, are their
agents, and the raen that they eraploy and trust, who will
obey thera before God, and against hira ; this loudly tells the
people what they are ; and by their fruits, wolves, thorns
and thistles are known : they can tell whose servants they
are by their works, better than by their livery, clothing, or
names. To hinder the Gospel and good of souls, and make
the godly abated, scorned, persecuted people, and cause men
of no conscience lo be better thought of, is the devil's work.
yea, his chiefest work in the world. And they are so far his
servants that do it, by what naraes or titles soever they be
called. And as huraan nature hateth cruelty, and Christia
nity hateth ungodUness, raalignity and persecution, so these
works do effectually preach lo the people, and tell them
who are their friends, and who their foes ; what to love, and
what to hate.
8. God will do his work by others when we are dead and
gone. Successive generations must partake of his mercies,
and do his service here, and not the same raen still continue.
And when we grow dull with age and weakness, young men
of greater vigour and alacrity shall succeed us.
9. And it hath hitherto been God's way to carry on his
work with great changes and variety in the world. As he
causeth winter and summer, nights and days, so his church
hath had hitherto its turns of prosperity and adversity. And
prosperity hath increased the number of Christians, and ad
versity hath tried thera, and increased the grace of those
that persevere.
10. It is more our diligence and faithful use of means, by
which we grow in grace, than by the enjoyment of the best,
if we be slothful under it : and sometimes God seeth that
fullness breedeth wantonness and loathing, and like fooUsh
children we play with our meat, or quarrel about it ; and
then il is time to take il away, and let fasting help us to a
better appetite. I have known those that when they lived
among the ignorant, and could hardly hear a good sermon
without going divers railes for it. and hardly borrow a good
book, and rarely speak with a serious Christian, were so hun
gry, affectionateand diUgent, that they evidently profited very

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 467
much ; but when they came where they had variety, choice
and fulness of teachers, books and religious converse, some
grew more notional, worldly and cold ; and some self-con
ceited, proud and quarrelsome ; and some downright here*
tical or schismatical. And do we need any more to justify the
afflicting providence of God in taking away, and silencing
ministers, than the sad review of our comraon miscarriages ?
Have not pious ministers been disgracefully guilty of over
valuing their own judgments and opinions, and laying life
and death on words they understood not, and raising hatred,
censures and contempt against their brethren that differed
from them, though wiser and better than themselves ? What
shameful and doleful work did the Nestorian, and Eutychian,
and Monothelite controversies make? The doleful wars
about predestination, grace and free will, which have tom
the church, and destroyed love these twelve hundred years ;
I have fully proved to be sharaeful and sinful, most about
ambiguous words, or unrevealed things in a book called
" CathoUc Theology." We have heard with grief what un
christian contentions there have long been beyond sea,
among Protestants called Lutherans and Calvinists, and how
oft the former have persecuted the latter. We have heard
of late, how sorae represent Calvinists, as if they vvere as
bad as heathens ; and some in the pulpits say, ' The religion
of the Arrainians is the religion Of the devil.' If none of
these speak the words of truth or charily, nor know either
what they say, or what manner of spirit they are of; is il not
just with God to silence thera all ? What dreadful work
hath the interest and controversies of Diocesanes's liturgy
and ceremonies here raade ! And when we cannot bear with
one another, it is just wilh God, to bear wilb none of us.
How long have Episcopal, Presbyterians, Independents and
Anabaptists been censuring, conderaning, and sorae of thera
persecuting one another ; and been teaching the people to
believe that those that they accuse deserve il ! And if we
thus shew that we all deserve it, how can we open our
mouths against God's justice if he reject us all ?
11. As when God taketh away health, strength and life
from the aged, they must be thankful that they enjoyed
them so long, and consider how they used them while they
had them : so when he taketh away rainisters and public
helps, we must be thankful that we had so long peaceable

468 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
enjoyment of them, and consider whether it be not for our
abuse, that we are deprived of thera.
12. God is not lied lo outward helps, though he lie us to
thera while we raay have them. If he take them from us,
he can give us that grace in our secret closets, which we had
in the public asserablies ; and we raay expect his assistance
and blessing in any means whicli he appointeth us to use.
CASE XIII.
When God seemeth not to bless Means to us ; Preaching,
Praying, ^c.
Another great trial of patience is, when praying and
' preaching seem to us lo be all lost, and God denieth his an
swer and his blessing. When we hear frora day to day, and
understand and reraeraber little that we bear, and find not
that we are any stronger in faith, love and patience than we
were ; when we pray daily for raore grace, and yet find no
raore than we had before ; and we pray for our country, and
our rulers, and teachers, and for raany friends, and God seem
eth to deny us alraost all.
And this is not only grievous in itself, but in the temp
tations which it occasioneth. 1, Satan hence would tempt
us lo doubt, whether God regarded raan, and man's con
cerns, as the Scripture tells us that he doth. 2. And he
would tempt us to doubl whether the promises of God are
to betrusted. 3. And consequently lo question all religion,
and to give over praying and other means, as ifall were vain;
or at least to use thera heartlessly, with litlle faith, and hope,
and corafort : and how should patience here be exercised,
and these temptations overcorae?
I, Our first work must be lo understand God's instituted
means, and the promises of God concerning their success.
that we may be neither too high nor too low in our expec
tations, nor charge God foolishly through our mistake.
What is il that God denieth you ? Is it outward things
as health, wealth, deliverances frora dangers, the Ufe of your
friends, the conversion of your relations, Ste. ? and why
think you that prayer in such cases is in vain ?
1. Did you think that il was ever the mind and promise
of God, that on pretence of hearing prayer, he should give
up to us the government ofthe world ? And that we should
never be poor, nor sick, nor die till we are wilUng? I doubt

OBEDIENT PATIENCE, 469
then few would ever consent, but live longer than Methu
selah in earthly prosperity and pleasure. And must our
friends never suffer nor die as long as we ^.ill pray against
it ? Where then would there be room for those that are bom
(unless God made our friends a burden to us ; and would
not that be as much against our prayers as their death) ?
Did you think that God raust reverse his first sentence, if
you will but pray for it ? " Dust thou art. and to dust shall
thou i-eturn. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread
till thou return unto the ground ;" Gen. iii. 17 — 19. Must
there be no thoms or briars, no cold or winter, no night or
darkness, if you will but pray that there be none ? You will
say, it is raoderate and reasonable prayers that you make.
But 2. Who must be judge what requests are reasonable,
God, or you? Ifyou must be judge, how can we tell what
bounds your desires will have ? You will not ask to live in
prosperity a thousand years ; but when death is coming at
a hundred years' end, you would live yet longer, and so on
for ever, still longer and longer ; and a thousand years would
not raake you willing, if either faith or affliction do itnot.
3. And would you have all others have the sarae grant,
that affliction and death should be kept off if they do but
pray for il ; and that God should give thera what they ask ?
This would infer a thousand contradictions. A thousand
men would ask to be kings of England, when there can be
bul one. Many would ask for the same lordships, lands or
offices: some of them would take you for enemies, and ask
for your death or ruin, and it may be you would ask for theirs.
They would have your house, your wife, your trade, and you
would have theirs. So many would live long, as that you
would want food and room. What a mad wish were this,
for all men to have their wills ! The world is full of folly
and wickedness, and wrath and malice ; should all such per
sons have their wills? What is this conceit but a dream of
raiUions of mischiefs, confusions and impossibilities ? One
may see by such desires how the world would be governed,
if God gave it up to the will of raan. Could there be any
unity, where every raan would rule, and every raan hath an
interest cross to others ? Can there be any order or good
ness, when all raen are partly bad, and every bad raan would
have bis will ?
But you will say, that it is not bad raen, nor bad desires

470 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
that you would have God to grant but only what is just and
good. Answ. But who shall be judge, what is just and
good? If every man must be judge, unjust and wicked
prayers must be granted: and the judgment and wishes of
many will be against yours. If it be you that must be judge,
though it is like that is it that you would have, you cannol
for shame sure-speak it out. This were for God to resign
his place to you, and raake you the God and Governor of
the world, and only those prayers must be granted which you
think just and good. Whence are all the bloody wars in
the world, but that one king would have that whicli another
hath, or have his will against another? You may see then
that it is v.;orse than madness to desire, that any but God
should be the highest disposer of the affairs of men, and de
termine what shall befal us in this world.
4. And do you think that God is unfit to do it? Doth
he want wisdom to know what is best ? Doth he want good
ness to choose what is best ? Or doth he want power to do
what is best? Whohath it if God wants it? And how
come they to it if not by him ? And doth he give more than
h2 hath himself? If he hath any imperfection he is not God.
5. It is most certain that all things are done well by God,
and as they should be ; and therefore the cause of your dis
satisfaction-is in yourselves. And indeed in these several
evils you raay find it. 1. By your sin you provoked God in
justice to correct you, and deny your prayers. 2. And by
your present badness you raake yourselves unfit for that
which you desire, that is good. 3. And by your blindness
and fleshly mind, you desire that which is not to be desired, 4.
And after all this by your idolatrous, usurping self-wiU, you
are discontented with God for not giving you your desires.
These four things contain your case : and is not every one
of them a shameful evil ?
II. But suppose that it be not outward things, but more
grace, and assurance, and comfort, and deliverance from
temptation and sin, that you pray against, and God doth
not give it you : is not this cause of questioning tbe success
of prayer, or of doubting at least of my own success, and
whether my prayers were not all in vain ?
Answ. That I may give you full satisfacticTn, I will tell
you, 1. What kind of means prayer is. 2. What prayer it
' is that is such a means. 3. What may be expected by means

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 471
of prayer, and what not. 4. I will prove to you that prayer
is not in vain, nor God's promises to it broken. 5. I will
shew you why you should be patient under God's denials.
I. Prayer is not a purchasing means, nor a raeriting by
giving God any thing which may benefit him ; nor doth it
work any change on God ; but il procureth blessings by the
fitting the petitioner to receive thera. And that in several
respects, 1. Even naturally considered, it is a contradiction
for a man to be unwillingly happy, and lo atiain the happi
ness which he desireth wiihout so rauch as asking hira that
alone can give it. 2. Morally considered, a raan is very un
fit for, and unworthy ofthe benefit which he thinks not worth
his asking ; especially if it be the greatest blessing that raan
is capable of, which he so despiseth. 3. And legally con
sidered, the gift cannot be his, that performeth not the con
dition imposed by the donor, especially when it is bul so rea
sonable a one, as ask and have.
So that you see though prayer purchase not, and change
not God, it is a naturally, morally and economically neces
sary qualification and condition of our reception, and thus
only it hath the nature of a means.
II. There are three sorts of pr-ayer, which are not in vain,
and yet much differ as to their success. 1. There is prayer
that is not dissembled, but coraeth only frora natural prin
ciples or coraraon grace ; such as Ahab's hurailiation, and
the mariner's prayers in Jonah ; and il is like the Ninevites.
•and Simon Magus's desires to escape punishment. This is
not in vain, I cannol say that God is under ariy proraise to
grant il, but he ofl doth grant il, and pity such as cry lo him
in their misery. Which it seems was the case described,
Psal. Ixxvin. cvii. And whether Manasseh's was any bet
ter, I know not.
2. There is the prayer of sincere, weak Christians, who
are guilty of much weakness of faith, and coldness of desire,
these yet through Christ have certain promises of necessary
things. 3. There are the fervent and faithful prayers of men
of eminent faith and holiness ; and these oft prevail for ex
traordinary blessings, which are not promised to the prayers
of every true Christian. EUas, and EUsha, and Peter did
rairacles by prayer. There are devils, and sins, and suffer
ings, that go not out but by fasting and prayer. The effec
tual fervent prayer of an excellent, righteous raan, availeth

472 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
more than ordinary Christians. If church history may be
credited, such were the prayers of Gregory of Neocaesarea,
Martin of Tours, and some other holy men that prevailed for
wonders or rairacles with God. All atiain not their success.
III. And I will tell you what grant of prayers you may
or raay not expect frora God. 1 . The attaining of salvation,
or our ultimate end, every true Christian doth pray for, and
shall obtain. 2. The obtaining of all those means which are of
absolute necessity to salvation, every true Christian prayeth
for, and shall obtain ; such as are our part in the merits and
intercession of Christ, the pardon of sin as to the damning
punishment, the necessary grace of the Spirit, deliverance
from the dorainion of sin : these we raay be sure of.
3. There be some subordinate means so ordinarily need
ful, though not absolutely necessary, that we must pray for
them wilh great earnestness, -and may pray for them with
great hope, though not with certainty of obtaining them;
such are the use of Bibles, the benefit of a faithful minister.
sacraments. Christian society, tirae of preparation for a com
fortable death. &c.
4. There are sorae things which seem better to selfish
persons, and tb flesh and blood, than indeed they are, and
are of very mutable, various use ; sometimes they are good
for us, and al olher tiraes hurtful ; to one man they are good,
and to another bad : such are outward prosperity, wealth,
honour, ease, health, friends and life. God best knoweth
both to whora these things are good, and when, and how far,
' and how long ; and because we know not, we cannot tell
when, and how far, and to whora God will give them, when
we pray for them ; but we raust ask in hope, according to
our best understanding, and wiUingly leave all to the wisdom
and wiU of God.
5. There are sorae things which would be certainly good
for us if we had them, whieh sin raaketh us unfit to receive,
or, as the Scripture speaketh, " unworthy of," not only in
the sense of the law of works, as all are, but even of the law
of grace, or God's ordinary Gospel dispensation. Such are
gre-dter raeasures of grace, and of victory over sin, assistance
in duty, and the enjoyraent of the best raeans, and freedom
frora sorae temptations and afflictions. Guilty, culpable
Christians of the worst sort, that have less faith, and desire
and obedience than better raen, cannot expect that in that

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 473
condition their prayers should prevail as much as better;
and that God should not punish them by any correction, or
deny them greater grace and glory.
6. A strong Christian who hath before lived by faith, in
a holy fruitful life, and overcome the strong temptations of
flattering prosperity, and fetched most of his daily comforts
from the hopes of heaven, may expect with high probability,
though not with absolute certainty, that God should give him
in answer to his prayers, an answerable victory over all the
teraptations of adversity, and deliver him ftom such suffer
ings as else would belo bis greater hurt than good.
7. Those that God called to propagate tbe Gospel by the
attestation and seal of miracles, had answerable faith and
grant of their prayers.
IV. By thus rauch you raay see, that while prayer and
hope are guided by God's word of precept and proraise, they
are far from being in vain : and though he give us not all
that we desire, be giveth us all that we ought to desire ab
solutely, and all that we should conditionally desire, if we
have the condition.
For, 1. Prayer goeth to him that can easily give us what
ever we need, without loss, or cost, or difficulty. To him
who is more full of goodness than the sea of water, or the
sun of light. And if the sun be an intellectual, free agent,
it should in reason be no hard matter to beUeve, that it is
willing to give us light.
2. We eome not to God before he calleth us :' he hath
commanded us to ask : it is in his own appointed way and
mesns tbat we wait for mercy,
3. Sincere prayer cometh from God, and therefore is ac
ceptable to him. It is his Spirit that giveth us holy desires,
and teacheth us what and how to ask ; and causeth us to
believe and hope for mercy. And God despiseth not his
Spirit's work. If it cause us but to groan out sincere de
sires, he knoweth the meaning of them.
4. In prayer we retire from ourselves to God. We exer
cise repentance in humble confession : we acknowledge our
insufficiency, emptiness and unworthiness, and so are the
more fit, as beggars, to receive the gifts of his free grace.
5 True prayer disposeth us to the right use of all that
God shall give, and that is the way to obtain our desire.
Prayer confesseth sin, and impUeth that we take heed of sin-

474 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
ning for the tirae to corae : it Confesseth unworthiness, and
therefore iraplieth a proraise to be thankful. It trusteth to
God, and seeketh all ofhira, and therefore iraplieth our pur
pose to, Uve to hira and please hira.
6. We go to God in the narae of Christ, and have a Me
diator whora he heareth always. We plead his worthiness,
and that by his own coramand.
7. And prayer hath many promises from God, who is
faithful, and never brake his promise. " Ask and ye shall
receive." 8. Lastly, though we have not all that we would have, yet
experience greally encourageth us to pray, and tells us that
prayer hath prevailed with God.
I know that the devil and unbelief has many dissuading
objections. As, 1, ' That God is not moved by our words, much less
by long prayers,'
Answ. But our hearts are moved while just desire is ex
cited and exercised, and thereby made more fil lo receive
God's gifts. We pull the boat to the shore, and not the
shore to the boat, when we lay hold on the shore and pull at
it. If this reason were good, all raeans in the world were
vain as well as prayer. If we do good, and obey God. and
forsake sin, if it were to perfection, all this raaketh no change
in God : shall we therefore conclude, that it is vain, and no
means of his acceptance and blessing. Your eating, and
drinking, and trading, and ploughing, and sowing, and study,
and travels, raake no change in God : are they therefore all
in vain? And will he give you all that you want without
them ? Changes are made upon the receiver, not on God,
Object. 2. ' God knoweth what we want without dur
prayer, and he knoweth our desires.'
Answ. What though you know what a beggar wants, or
what your child wants ; will you think him a fit receiver, who
thinks hiraself too good lo ask, or thinks you must give him
all without asking ? Is il not God himself that hath bid you
pray, and are his terras too hard ? Have you less need than
Christ himself had, who spent whole nights in prayer ?
Object. 3. ' Many live in prosperity that never pray, and
raany in adversity that pray,'
Answ. Dives lived in prosperity, (Luke xvi.) and so did
Herod and Pilate, and so do many Turks and heathens : is

OB.EDIENT PATIENCE, 475
Christianity therefore in vain ? And will you be contented
with the portion of such raen ? Go into the sanctuary and
see their end. Are those now in prosperity who are in hell
with devils, past help and hope ? Prayer is not to make us
richer and greater in the world than otlier raen, but to make
us better, and obtain salvation. Do you judge of men by
their case in this world or the next? And are those men
prosperous, who are the slaves of the flesh, and the world,
and the devil ? And are they not better, who are secured of
the love of God?
V, But I will next tell you, what cause you have* of pa
tience, even when God seemeth to deny your prayers,
1. It is an unspeakable mercy, that he will not deny us
any thing that is necessary to our salvation. Is that man
miserable, and should he raurraur, who is a child of God, a
raember of Christ, and an heir of heaven ; and is pardoned,
sanctified, and shall be saved ? Is there not enough in Christ
and heaven to satisfy you ?
2, God gave you raercy, yea, invaluable mercy, before
you asked it : he gave you your being and reason unasked :
he gave the world a Saviour unasked : he gave you Chris
tian parents, teachers and books unasked : and he gave you
his first grace unasked, and raany a deliverance since ; there
fore if he deny you what you ask, it is not because he is
backward to give.
3. If it be any outward thing that he denieth you, be
think you whether God or you be more fit to dispose of
such. Have you more authority and right ? He owed you
nothing : if he have given you long ago, be thankful for that
though it be past, it was freely given. And who is wiser,
andjbetter knoweth how to use you and all raen ? Is it God
or yoa ? Who is betier, or more unlikely to choose araiss?
And again, remember how great a sin it is, to grudge at
God for his govemment of the world, and to desire to de
pose him, and to dispose of any thing ourselves. Is this
your §ubje*^tion and submission lo his will ? Did not Christ
by his example teach you better, when he said, " Not as I
win, but as thou wilt?" And "if this cup may not pass
from me unless I drink it, thy will be done ;" Matt. xxvi.
39. 42. Man's duty, holiness, interest and rest Ueth in bringr
ing over his own will entirely to the will of God, and his sin
and misery in resisting it.

476 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
4. Either you are sure that what you ask is best for you,
or not. If it be wealth or health, you are not sure ; more
perish by prosperity than by adversity. I before told you
th^t raen are condemned for loving somewhat more than God,
and holiness, and heaven, and preferring it in their choice.
And do you think men are more like to over-love sickness,
and poverty, and crosses, more than health, and wealth, and
pleasure ? And would you have God give you that which is
worst for you, only because you pray for it or would have it?
You will not do so by your child, no nor by your swine,
lest he burst his belly.
But if it be grace, and that which you are sure is best for
you, your first duty is to exaraine whether there be not some
great irapediraent in yourselves, which is the cause of God's
denial. Do you go to the root ofyour old sins in your pe
nitent confession ? Do you hide no secret guilt or sin. and
deal too gently with it? Do you hurable yourself to those
that you have wronged by word or deed ? Do you make
just restitution, so far as you are able, to all that you have
defrauded ? Do you not dally with teraptation, and wilfully
renew your guilt? Do you not overrauch hanker after
worldly prosperity, or some sinful pleasure ? Do you not
wilfully orait some certain duty lo God or man, in your re
lation or converse, and look after none but yourself, and Uve
unfruitfully to others, your children, servants and neigh
bours ? If conscience find such guilt as this, presently en
deavour faithfully lo araend it, and then beg God's further
grace, and you shall find him not unwilling to give it you.
But if none of this be the case, but you have the testi
mony of your consciences, that excepting your unwilling im
perfections and infirraities, in simplicity and godly sincerity
you have your conversation in the world, and endeavour true
obedience to Christ ; theri you raay be sure that God hath
denied you no grace essential lo Christianity, and necessary
to salvation. 5. And as to increase of grace and higher raeasures, re
raeraber that even the desire of il is an unspeakable raercy :
for the desire of perfection is lb? raark of sincerity, and so
of salvation. Be thankful to God for those desires. But
this is the affliction next to be spoken to more distinctly.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE, 477
CASE XIV.
Weakness of Grace, Knowledge, Faith, Love, Comfort, Great
Corruptions.
It is one of the greatest burdens to an upright soul, to be
kept under spiritual languishing and weakness, and to have
but a low degree of grace. When knowledge is so sraall
that it will not free us from daily uncertainties about truth,
and duty, and sin; and all that. plead fpr their several opi
nions perplex us ; and Scripture seemeth unintelligible to
us, and we do but grope after God as in the dark, and are
overwhelmed with strange, unsatisfied thoughts of God, and
of Christ, and of the world which we are going lo.
When faith is so weak, that we trust Christ for heaven
and earth, with fear, and unquietness, and distrust ; and can
scarce tell whether our faith overcome the world ; and our
trusting Christ for heaven would make us forsake earth and
life, rather than hazard it by wilful sin ; when doubts and
fears do tell us that we have little faith.
What a calaraity is it, when our hopes of heaven do so
little rejoice us, that every worldly suffering seeras strong
enough to quell and quench our joy! Yea, we have more
dread than desire, more trouble than joy, when we think of
dying, and of the next life !
What a calamity it is, when our love to God, and Christ,
and glory, is so small, that we are in fear that we love raore
this body, and worldly prosperity, and pleasure ! When all
the thoughts of God's essential goodness, his love and
mercy to us and others, and all the wonderful love and mercy
of our Redeeraer, and all the raercies on earth, and proraises
of heaven, will scarce warra our hearts with love and thank
ful joy in God ! And yet we can easily love, and over-love
our flesh, our house, our lands, our friends, and fanciful
amorousness is a comraon disease.
What a calamity is it that we have no raore governraenl
ofour thoughts, to keep out covetousness. pride and lust, and
to cast out satan's aborainable temptations.
And that when we know that God trieth us to exercise
our patience, we can no better overcome fear, anger, grief
and discontent. Should we be patient under all this want
of grace ? . , ¦ i j
Answ. This is to me the greatest burden in this worid.

478 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
and I suppose il is so to all sound Christians, as to conside
rate trouble of mind, though loss of friends or bodily pains
may stir up raore passion. That which was beforer said about
uncertainly of salvation, must be t-aken in about this case.
And, 1. Let us make sure ofour sincerity, before we talk
of imperfections ; if we can know that we have the truth of
special grace, we may know what to say to the case of our
infirmities. And for that, still reraember what I said before
about the sincerity of faith. If you have so well thought of
this world and the next, and of Christ, that you are soundly
resolved to trust Christ for grace and glory, to the forsaking
of all that stands against it, you have saving faith and title
to salvation. I opened it before to you by two similitudes,
of a patient that practically trusteth his physician, and a
poor prisoner that practically trusteth one that promiseth
hira a lordship in a foreign land. Though you venture with
fear and trerabling, if you will venture all on Christ, and
leave all for hira so far as he requireth you, it is saving faith.
Practically trust hira and he will save you.
2. When you are gol thus far, remember that as you
were born in sin, so you too long Uved in it. Sin had along
tirae to darken your understandings, and harden your hearts,
and corrupt your wills, and set you at a greater distance
frora God : and do you think all this raust be undone and
cured very easily, and in a raoraent, or as soon as you de
sire il? Il is an unspeakable raercy that it is so far cured,
as that you are translated from death to life, and made new
creatures, and the heirs of heaven: and raoreover, that Christ
hath undertaken the perfect cure in his tirae and way. Grace
somewhat imitateth nature : you were not born as soon as
conceived, nor were you at ripe age as soon as born. Your
growth and strength oarae by degrees in time ; you had not
your learning all at once, but by long study. You get not
your riches by trading or labour in a few days : your land
brings not fruit to perfection as soon as it is sowed ; nor
your trees as soon as they are graffed or planted : and must
not so great a work as the cure and sanctifying ofa soul, be
done by such degrees ?
3. And consider that you mustnot be mere patients, but
also agents in the increase of your grace and strength. It
must be had by exercise ; the frequent acts must increase
he habits, and God will not do it all without you : he hath

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 470
appointed you raeans to use, and will try and exercise your
obedience therein. As he giveth not life and strength lo
those that will not take their food, nor the fruit of the earth
without our labour, so neither hath he promised to give
more grace, save in the patient use of the means which he
hath appointed. Time, means and diligence are needful.
4. And alas ! most Christians are too slothful, and use
means negligently, and then look that God should give them
as much grace, at their mere wish and prayer, as if they were
laborious and diligent. And too many do venture on sin,
and so keep under grace by careless living.
5. And sorae unskilfully use raeans for one sort of grace
when it is another that they most need, and should use the
means accordingly. When they should excite and feed their
faith, and hope, and holy love, by the consideration of God's
truth and goodness, and his love in Christ, andby heavenly
doctrine and thoughts endeavour to [get a heavenly mind,
sorae study sraall controversies, and some perplex them
selves with scruples about duties and sins of their own mak
ing, and some plunge themselves into confounded and be
wildering thoughts, and think over again all satan's terap
tations ; and sorae only strive to get a more passionate
weeping sorrow ; and much neglect all serious endeavours
for a believing, loving, joyful soul.
6. You must reraeraber that raany Christians grow in
grace and do not know it, but think that they go backward,
or have none ; because they do not sufficiently observe
wherein tbe nature of sanctification doth principally consist :
sorae lay it on passion, and sorae on raeraory, and sorae on
the belief of their own sincerity, justification and salvation,
and some on words and free expression, whereas it chiefly
consisteth in the estimation of the judgment, the resolution
ofthe will, and the obedience of our lives. If you esteem
God's grace and glory better, and sin worse, and the world
to be good or bad, as it serveth grade or sin, then you grow
in understanding. If you are raore firmly resolved to place
your hopes, and make your choice according to this estima
tion, and to please God, and secure grace and glory, what
ever it cost you, and lo avoid wilful sin, which is your dan
ger, and to use the world for holy ends, especially ifyou love
wisdom, and holiness, and justice belter, and hate sin raore
than you did heretofore, then your will doth grow in grace.

480 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
And if you shew this will and choice in more obedience of
life, avoiding known sin more, and endeavouring to do good,
and devoting yourselves more entirely lo God, then you
grow in holiness of life. Though your memories grow
weaker, and though your holy passions and feelings should
grow less, and are less able for long meditation, or to keep
an order or steadiness in your thoughts, and though you
want words in prayer and discourse, and though fears and
peevish angriness, and troubling thoughts should by weak
ness or temptation get raore advantage of you, yet aU this
stands wilh rootedness and growth in grace.
7. Forget not what you were heretofore. Had you not
formerly a higher esteem of worldly things, and less fear of
sinning than you have now ? Growth in grace may be like
the growth of your trees, or corn, or flowers, or the shadow
on your dial. You do not see these grow or move; bul if
you corae afler a sufficient time, you may see that they are
grown. We are bigger at age than in childhood, and yet we
never saw ourselves grow : it is by insensible degrees.
Strong Christians have more knowledge than they had, and
a more fixed resolution for God and heaven, and a greater
contempt of worldly vanity, and victory over fleshly desires
and wilful sin, though they perceive not bow these grow.
8. Be thankful that you desire lo be belter : those de
sires (as is aforesaid) prove sincerity, and are the earnests
of what you do desire, and are a greater blessing than all
the riches of the world : God that gave thera you will not
see thera lost. The grace which we have on earth, is de
siring, seeking grace : desires are our besl evidence here ;
" Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteous
ness ;" for they shall be satisfied hereafter. W^ raust know
the difference between earth and heaven : il is there that we
shall have all that we desire. Here desiring and seeking is
our work : perfection is the prize and crown ; which is not
to, be had till we have done our race and warfare. The womb
is but the place of preparation for what is to be enjoyed in
the open world ; and no great matters are there to be ex
pected ; we raust not look for raore on earth than its part.
9. And when all is done, God is a free agent, and giveth
his grace in sucb variety as he pleases, and doth not give to
all alike. As he freely diversifielh nature and coraraon gifts,
so doth he several degrees of grace. It is an unspeakable

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 481
mercy to have so much as shall save us from the hell we de
serve, and give us right to life eternal ; though we yet are
faint through weakness, and have not the strength and com
fort which we desire.
10. And though we have yet rauch corruption left uncur
ed, we have helps appointed us lo overcorae them ; and the
exercise of grace against all such enemies, is much of its glory,
and sheweth its araiable worth ; as darkness sets out thie
worth of light, and sickness of health, and death of life.
Diseases occasion the honour of our physician. Where sin
hath abounded, grace hath superabounded. The whole need
not the physician. We raust have daily use for Christ, both
to pardon us, and to cure us ; God could have prevented
Adam's fall ; bul he hath permitted it, and perraitteth all
the sin in the world, though he cause it not : and he know
eth how to use it to his glory. All souls in heaven were
once sinful, saving Christ's : we must daily be washed in
his blood. We shall never perform a duty so innocently as
to need no Saviour and pardoning grace. Where there is
no enemy, there is no war ; and wbere there is no war, there
is no victory ; and where there is no victory, there is no
triumph. 11. And tbat God wbo freely pardoned all our reigning
sins before conversion, will surely pardon all our mere infir
mities, when we renew our faith and our repentance. He
that through Christ can forgive such as were enemies, will
forgive a son : and being reconciled by Christ's de-alb, we
shall be saved by his life.
Not that any of these considerations sbould reconcile us
to sin, or abate our hatred of it ; it must be our grief that
any thing should cleave to us which is hateful to God, which
kiUed Christ, and which is so contrary to holiness and hea
ven : but use no such impatience as hindereth the sense of
the love of God, or the grace of Christ, or the thankful ac
knowledgment of his mercy. Fight against sin as well as
you can, and serve your Lord as' well as you are able : but
do not sil down and cry, because sin is loo strong for you,
and because you can serve God no better; coraplain to
Christ in order to beg his help and grace ; but use not cora
plaint instead of endeavour.
Thank God thatyou are weary of sin, and say with Paul,
VOL. XI. ' '

482 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
" O wretched raan, who shall deliver me t" so you will but
say next, " I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
And now you are weary and heavy laden, corae to Christ for
ease and rest. And reraeraber, that (if you were ungodly)
you could once have endured sin without weariness. Who
heard you then impatiently cry out against il ? Yea, you
were loath to think of leaving it* And look aboul you on
the multitude of the ungodly, and you shall see how far they
are frora being irapatient with their sin, though it be mortal ;
when they can scarce be patient towards hira that would
but save thera frora il. They grudge at God because he
will not give thera leave to sin, and not because he doth not
cure thera. O how contrary is the impatience of saints and
wicked sinners !
12. While you remeraber what grace you want, remem
ber also both what you bave received, and what is proraised
you, that thankfulness and hope may keep you from discou
ragement. You are not cured, but you are alive ; and Christ
hath promised you a cure. In many things we all offend;
Jaraes ii. 2. " He that saith be hath no sin, is a liar ;"
1 John i. 8. Paul tells us that he had not obtained perfec
tion, bul he rejoiced that he was pressing towards the raark;
Phil. iii. 12, 13. " We may rejoice that our Captain hath
overcome the world ;" John xvi. 33. " And he will shortly
bruise satan under our feet;" Rom. xvi. 20. vii. 26, Christ,
that cured all bodily diseases on earth, will cure spiritual
blindness, lameness and deadness too, if we have but grace
enough to go to hira for more.
13. Lastly, the raore weary you are of sin and weakness.
-and the more desirous you are to know God better, and
love him more, and praise hira with greater cheerfulness and
joy, the raore you should long to be with Christ. Heaven
will deliver you frora all imperfection ; from all darkness,
unbelief and dulness ; from all sad, uncomfortable thoughts,
and from all, both alluring and molesting temptations. O
that we could believe that more strongly, and then our ho
nest impatience with sin and imperfection would but quicken
us to tbe raeans of our deliverance, and help our joy in the
foresight of that blessed change, which will leave no raatter
of discontent, -and will give us raore than we could here
jiesire. But to those who are overmuch dejected at their imper-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 483
fections aud remaining faults. I add these cautions. 1. Sefe
that il be not the disgrace, or the outward troublesorae
fruits of your sin, which grieve you more than the sin itself.
2. Take heed, lest while you complain of your badness,
there be no secret pride and hypocrisy, to make you angry
wilh those that think you bul as bad as you call yourself;
It is an odd kind of contradiction, at once to be irapatient
because we are so bad, and also irapatient with thera that
take us to be so ; and not to endure another lo say that of
us which we say ourselves.
3. The worse you take yourselves arid your sins to be;
the raore you should esteem and desire a Saviour and his
grace to heal you, and rejoice that a full remedy is at hand;
and freely offered you ; and be the more thankful for that
mercy which is given, and which is promised to so unworthy
sinners-. 4. Shew your impatience with sin and wants, by haling
sin, and diligent using the raeans of Cure, -and not by idle;
discouraged, despairing coraplaintsi
5. Reraeraber that our Head is perfect for us : his raerits
and righteousness are perfect : he is fully perfected in glory:
and is it nothing that he is related to us, as our Surety, Sa
viour and Head ? He hath his glory for our good.
6. Remember that no sin or imperfection shall condemn
iis, but that which we had rather keep than leave, and love
more than hate it : and that all things are tolerable which
will end in heaven. We groan, being burdened both with
sin and sorrow in the flesh ; bul we wait for full deliverance
from the bondage ofour corruption, into the glorious liberty
of the sons of God.
Case x\^.
When God doth not Bless tlie Labours of our Callings, Minis
ters, Parents' Endeavours for Children, for near Relations,
Tradesmen, Fmdeavours for the Church.
Another case which greally needeth patience, is, when
God doth not bless and prosper our endeavours ; when mi
nisters study, and preach, and pray, and yet see but small
fruit of their labours ; few converted, reformed or strength
ened, but all tbeir labour seemeth lost. When parents take
pains with their children, and they remain still obstinate
and wicked. Wben magistrates' endeavours are frustrated

484 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
by a contentious, rebellious people. When men labour in
their lawful callings, and all goeth backward, and God seem
eth not lo bless their labours. In sickness our physic doth
not prosper. When we are falsely accused, our just defence
is not believed. When we endeavour the public good, vve
prosper not. This raaketh raen fear that God forsaketh them.
These several causes should be severally considered.
And the case of unprosperous rainisters, I confess, is very
bad. When a raan frora his youth is devoted lo that holy
work, and by many years' hard study prepared for it, and is
drawn to il by a longing desire lo do good, and studieth for
it all his life, and spends tirae and strength in constant la
bour, and after all can see sraall fruit ; this lieth heavy, and
tempteth them to doubt whether they were called of God,
and whether they are not unfit for the work, or unfaithful
in it. Through God's great mercy it is not my own trial :
I know not that ever I laboured any where in vain ; but I
have lived near far belter men, who have lived lo above four
score years of age, and have said, that they know not of
two souls converted by them in the parishes where they
lived : sorae speed better upon such as carae from other
parishes, and some on very few at all. And alas ! to see no
better fruit of such employraent, than barely to have a
benefice to live on, and sorae reverence from the people, or
a few good words, is a poor encouragement.
But, 1. The first thing lo be done in this sad case, is, to
search whether the fault be not in ourselves. Whether we
choose sucb subjects to preach on as are most suitable to
the hearer's state, and raost fit to convince and win them ;
whether vve study plainness and farailiar words, and a close.
convincing way of speech : whether by familiar conversa
tion with thera we get their love and also find out their ig
norance, error and sin, their objections and doubts, that we
raay know what they need ; and whether we deal with them
privately and personally as well as publicly, for their instruc
tion : whether our lives preach to thera as well as our
longues, and shew them thatwe believe what we speak ; and
whether we do all in the expression of unfeigned love, and do
thera all the good we can for their bodies, and quarrel not
with them for worldly things, but lose our right rather than
scandalize thera, and harden thera against the truth. If any
of this be amiss, it must be amended ; if not, then consider.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 485
2. That lo labour is our part, and to prosper is God's.
Paul and Apollos can but plant and water, but il is God that
must give the increase. Christ hiraself both preached and
wrought miracles in some places, when yet few believed on
him ; yea, though the people cried him up, it was no great
nuraber that were thoroughly converted by all his preaching
and works ; that being reserved for the coming down of the
Holy Ghost, afler his death and resurrection. And in some
places few were converted by the apostles : Even araong the
learned philosophers al Athens, how little was their success ?
3. God knoweth his chosen, and all shall come to Christ
that the Father hath given him, and none of them shall be
lost : and God loveth souls and holiness belter than we do :
all souls are his ; and Christ knoweth the price of Ihem.
And we know that all that God doth is good, and we shall
see the reason of it at last.
The prophets and apostles had more unthankful requi
tals, than the raere loss of their labour with the greater part.
They were also persecuted, scorned and killed, by thera
whose salvation they desired. " Which of tbe prophets
have not your fathers killed and persecuted," saith Christ,
Matt, xxiii. See Isa. Uii. 1. &.c. John xii. 37, 38. Acts
xvii. xix. 9. xxviii. 24. Yea, to sorae the word is the sa
vour of death unto death, and Christ is a stone of stumbling,
and ministers are the scorn of the world, and the offscour
ing of all things ; and, alas ! they must be witnesses against
their hearers to their condemnation, and raust " shake off
the dust of their feet against thera."
4. If our success were according to our own desires, it
would be beyond what God intendeth for raen in the world :
we would have every raan in the world converted and saved,
ll is our duty lo desire and endeavour il as far as we are
able ; for it is not God's decrees, but his coraraands which
are our rule ; Luke iv. 25. " Many widows (saith Christ)
were in the days of EUsha, but it was not to many that he
was sent." We may have comfort in our just desires and
endeavours. 5. God will accept and reward us, according to our faith
ful work, and not according to our success. A bad man may
be used to save other raen's souls, when his own is lost;
" Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in
the eyes of the Lord, and ray God shall be ray strength ;"

486 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
Isa. xlix. 5. Il is spoken both of the prophets and of Christ.
It was to "the lost sheep ofthe house of Israel," that Christ
saith he was sent ; and he is called a raeraber ofthe circum
cision. And yet Israel was not gathered, when he would
have gathered thera as a hen doth her chickens ; Matt, xxiii.
But they were to be utterly ruined for rejecting him ; 2 Cor.
ii. 14, 16. " Now thanks be to God, who causeth us lo
triuraph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his
knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a
sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved, and in them
that perish. To the one the savour of death lo death, and
to the other the savour of life unto life ; and who is suffi
cient for these ihings ?" faithful labour is never wholly
lost. 6. And one soul is so precious, as is worth more than all
the labour of our lives, He is a hypocrite hiraself, and no
faithful rainister of Christ, that had not rather save one soul,
though he live in poverty, than have the richest bishopric,
and save none. His money shall perish with hira, who lov
eth raoney better thf^n the soul of the poorest beggar.
7. There may perhaps be raany raore souls converted
than the preacher ever heareth of. The work hath often
obscure beginnings. You know not what workings raay be
in the secret hearts of sinners : and sorae are bashful, and
sorae have not opportunity to shew theraselves. I have vi
sited some aged women before death, who were not noted
for any zealous profession of religiion, but what they shewed
in the church-assemblies, and I found them of solid under
standing and experience ; and perceived by their talk that
they had been constant in all secret duties, aud conscionable
in all their course. And when I inquired farther, I found
that they had husbands that restrained them from the so
ciety p,f godly people, and from all open raanifestation of
what was in their hearts, save what their church-worShip and
upright living shewed. And this is the case of some children
and servants, \vho are under the restraint of bad parents and
masters. We must pot then conclude, that all the seed is
lost, which seemeth buried, and appeareth not to us.
8. It is not lost labour which doth but restrain men from
» being worse. The suppressiop of vice, and the keeping up
a profession of the truth, is worth all our labour ; as also
the keeping out heresies and errors ; and it is worth our la-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 487
bour to feed Christ's sheep, and help to confirra such as are
true Christians already, and to increase the grace they h-ave ;
and to corafort the sad, and resolve the doubting, and edify
the body of Christ, Surely, the work which is to be
done in guiding and edifying the converted, requireth as
great skill at least, as that which is required lo the convert
ing of infidels and wicked raen ; (though the change raade
on the learners be not so great, in regard of the ' terrainus a
quo ;' for the higher includeth the lower,) and raore learn
ing is necessary to teach the higher forra, than to teach the
alphabet. Some are for planting, -and sorae for watering ;
sorae went forth to make disciples of the nations, and bap
tize them, and some were to guide thera when baptized, and
teach them to observe all Christ's coraraands. •
9. If your study and doctrine edify and save yourselves,
it is an unspeakable raercy ; you have had the corafort of
sweet and holy studies, and the pleasant work of opening
and pleading saving truth : and if all this study and preach
ing have but prevailed with yourselves, aud conquered your
own sins, and subdued your souls to the obedience of Christ,
how happy are you ! Yet all this is not said to make you
indifferent as to your success ; I further, therefore, advise
you, 1. Long for the winning and edifying of souls ; for I
have observed, that few prosper this way, but those that
earnestly desire it.
2. Pray hard for them to God, and see that you neglect
not your own duty. Study for eminent abilities : preach
plainly, earnestly, reverently ; exhort them personally, do
them good charitably ; hurt none ; avoid scandal ; live as
you leach ; shun all unnecessary crossness and singularity ;
" keep the unity of the Spirii in the bond of peace with all
true believers ;" and patiently leave the issue lo God.
3. Ifyou are distasted through prejudice, and have long
laboured without any notable success, advise wilb your
brethren whether you should not reraove. and another be
not more fit for that people, and you for another, and do ac
cordingly. II. As lo the second cause of the frustration of all en
deavours for the souls of children and servants, I touched it
before, I confess it is a grievous case to bring up children
who will be slaves of satan, plagues to the church, and fire
brands inhell; and to speak to them in vain, as blocks or

488 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
madmen. But good men have lived comfortably that had
bad children : Adam had a Cain. Noah had a Ham. Abra
hara had an Ishraael. Isaac had an Esau, Jacob's sons greatly
sinned ; Eli had an Hophni and Phinehas, Sarauel's sons
forsook their father's way ; David had an Araraon and an
Absalora, Soloraon had a Rehoboam, Hezekiah had a Ma
nasseh, Job justly feared his sons' forgetting God in their
fulness, and lost thera in it : Christ saith, the son shall be
against the father; Matt, xiii. 12.
And if you have bul one good child, you owe great
thanks to God for that. If a rainister raust not deny God
his thanks, nor hiraself his coraforts, though most of his
flock prove obstinate and perish ; neither raust parents be
unthankful or uncomfortable, if raost of their children
should be obstinate and perish, if God perrait it, who hath
more interest in them than you have ; you must submit, and
take comfort in your good desires and faithful duty : Bul 0
see carefully that you neglect not love, and prudent dili
gence, and good example, and that you keep out of tempt
ing corapany, and keep under suitable raeans.
III. And it is as near a trial, when a husband cannot
convert a wicked wife, nor a wife a wicked husband, but
one raust lie in the bosom ofa slave of satan, and an enemy
of Christ, and no persuasion will do such good. The near
ness maketh the affliction very great, such as few that have
not had sad experience of it can know. Il is a very hard
thing to love such with a true conjugal love, who have no
true loveliness of soul, but hate the holy ways of Christ;
and il is not easy lo keep up innocency, and godliness, and
peace, under the constant opposition of one so near.
Bul yet this must be patiently borne, when it cannot
be remedied. For, 1. Usually il is a jusl correction for a
sinful choice, which must be repented of; and it is a raercy
that your repentance hath sorae hel]).
2. It raay be such a constant exercise of your grace,
especially patience and prudence, as raay render you better
and stronger Christians, than those that have less exercise
by trials. 3. The greatness of the temptations must cause you to
double your watchfulness and resolutions against the sins
which you will be tempted to, and to perform all the duties
of our place. As, 1. See that no pretence of love, or pleas-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 489
ing, or obedience, draw you to imitate a husband or a wife
in sin, and to become as bad as they, or to receive any
error from them, or grow cold to holy duties. Some woraen
that have Papists or other erroneous husbands, cannol tell
how to love and please thera, without being flattered or
drawn into their errors ; strong constant trials need strong
and constant watch and resolution : for if you be overcorae
to be as they, it is a thousand tiraes worse than all the grief
that you have by them.
2. See that their badness destroy not conjugal affections
towards them : those may be loved as husbands or wives.
who cannot be loved as sincere Christians.
3. See that you exceed mere carnal persons in all the
duties of your relations. If your difference and grief do
cast you into sourness and unpleasing discontented conver
sation, or if you be as peevish and froward as comraon per
sons, you will be a scandal lo those that you should win.
and drive them further from religion and salvation. You
must shew, if you are wives, more love and meekness, and
patience, and obedience, thau carnal persons do. as well as
more forwardness in religion. Froward impatient wives do
harden many ill husbands in their sin. It hath much pleased
rae lo hear a husband saying of a good wife. ' I differ frora
my wife in religion and church orders ; I go lo one church,
and she lo another-: I think she is too precise and strict ;
but I think there is not a belter wife, a belter mother, and
a betier mistress in the land.' A good Christian raust be
good in all relations.
4. Continue prayers and winning endeavours while there
is hope. 5. And let the sense of another's sin and misery pro
voke you lo be thankful to God for his grace, and that he
bath not left you to the like.
IV. And as to the next case (when God blasteth our
labours and estates, and prospereth not our callings.) it is
an usual trial : some are ruined by deceivers, and breakiiig
tradesmen, some by losses at sea. some by suretyship, some
by fire, some by false servants, some by prodigal sons, sorae
by soldiers, some by unjust suits at law, sorae over- reached
in bargains' about land; and divers olher ways there are by
which the rich have been brought to poverty; (to say
nothing of gaming, luxury, and such vice, which belongs

490 OBEDIENT PATIENCE,
not to this present case) and by which lawful means of living
want success.
And here, 1. Il is your duly to see that there be no
guilt of any other unpardoned sin which God punisheth this
way. Sometiraes an estate is blasted by God, because it
was unlawfully got by ancestors : soraetimes the owner is
guilty of forraer defrauding others, and hath made no resti
tution ; soraetiraes God thus punisheth sorae other secret
sin, as fornication, lying, flesh-pleasing, and such like.
Search deep, and see that no such guilt be unrepented of,
and be as a raolh or fire lo consume your wealth.
2. Especially search lest your hearts grow secretly into
a worldly disposition, and loo great hopes of riches and
prosperity, and toO great a desire after plenty, and too much
pleasure in the possession, or the hopes of it : if this be your
case, it is God's great mercy to blast all to you, and to
break your idol, and to fire you out of the garrison that you
trust. They that trust in riches, Christ tells you, are as
hardly saved as for a " camel (or cable) lo go through the
eye of a needle :" and it is men's hope which causest their
trust. When you hope for raore frora riches than they can
give, you are said lo trust in thera. If ever God save you,
he will save you frora this worldly mind and love : and sure
prosperity is not the likeliest way to that ; but rather wither
ing the object of your hopes,
3. However, make this use of your crosses, to be more
weaned frora the world, and more careful to lay up a trea
sure in heaven, where fire, rust, or moth corrupts not, and
thieves, pirate, or soldiers cannot steal, and then your loss,
be it never so great, is raade your gain.
4. And let your crosses and frustrations call you to ex
ercise the graces suitable to your condition ; lo renew re
pentance, subraission to God's will, prayer and dependance
for your daily bread, abatement of pride, not disdaining the
lowest employraent. nor to be beholden to others: and if
you can follow Christ and his apostles in a holy poverty, you
shall quickly be above conterapt and want. And let il
raake you ply that calling and work which will never disap
point you : believe and hope strongly, pray earnestly, obey
diligently, be steadfast, unraovable. always abounding in
the work of the Lord, forasmuch as your labour shall not be
in vain, though all your worldly wealth be blasted.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 491
V. The last care is the saddest trial of all, when just en
deavours for church and state, for societies and posterity
seera all in vain : when hopes of peace and piety, and public
good have been high raised, and all soon blasted and tumed
into shame. But ofthis I raust speak anon. I conclude all
this c-dse of labour frustrate, and hopes cast down, with this
necessary warning ; Judge of God's love lo you by the great
and sure tokens of his love, and not by uncertain transitory
things : If God loved those best that prosper raost in ho
nour and wealth, Turks and tyrants, and the raost luxurious
wicked men, would have the best proofs of his love. If your
souls prosper in the increase of faith, and in sweeter or de
siring thoughts of heaven, and in delight in God and holi
ness, and in victory over all your carnal affections, and dis
contents, and ina more willing obedience to all God's laws,
and in a word, in a fuller corapliance of your wills to the
will of God, then you are truly prosperous persons, and
have the certain tokens of the love of God ; when the pros
perity of fools will destroy thera. and turn lo the increase of
their sin. and will b^ but as fuel to hell-fire, and prepare
for endless raisery.
CASE XVI.
The common Sin and Misery of the World, and fewness of
Wise and Godly Men.
A heavier trial of our faith and patience yet is, the
misery of this world by the universal corruption of mankind,
the prevalency of most odious wickedness, and paucity of
wise and godly raen : that at five thousand, six hundred and
eighty-two years after the Creation, most of the earth
seeraed forsaken of God : five parts of six being hea
thens, Mahometans and infidels ; and ofthe sixth part, the
far greatest part are Papists, and laraentable ignorant
Greeks, Armenians, Abassines, Jacobites, Nestorians, Sec.
And of the Protestants, so few that so much -as seem to be
practisers of the Christian faith and hope, but raost live in
worldUness, and sensuality, if not also in enmity to serious
piety, and persecution of aU that practise what themselves
profess. This is a manifold and grievous trial. 1. To our faith ;
while satan taketh advantage by it to make us doubt whe
ther raan was made for another life, when his nature seeraeth

492 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
to have no inclination to it, but rather to abhor it : and lo
doubt howChristis theSaviour ofthe woild,and died for all,
and would have all to be saved and come lo the knowledge
of the truth, when so few of the world shall be saved, and
so many kingdoms and ages damned, when we ourselves
can scarce bear the pain of tbe stone or cholic patiently, or
the raiscarriage or misery of a child or friend. And it
maketh it the harder to us lo perceive the goodness, love,
and araiableness of God, who can convert and save the
world, and will not.
I have answered all this so fully in a little book called
" The Vindication of God's Love," that to avoid repetition, 1
vyill say but this litlle following :
1. We are fully certain of God's perfect goodness, by
all his works; it being equal to his greatness ; and there
fore no arguraent can be of force against a certain truth :
Nothing can be true that is inconsistent with so sure and
greath a truth.
2. God's goodness is infinite in act, in his blessed self-
love : no finite creature is an object fit lo deraonstrate infi
nite love in perfect act, nor capable ofit.
3. Il is certain ' de facto' that God hath raade toads,
serpents, dung, and puts sensitive nature in raen and brutes
to great pains and death ; therefore it is certain that all this
is consistent with God's perfeci goodness.
4. God's love to his creature is his beneficence or com
placence. He was no ways bound to make all his creatures
equal, nor to give as much lo a fly or flea as to a man, nor
to a raan as lo an angel, or to the sun : nor is it meet that
he complacenlially esteera any creature better than it is.
5. It is no way unraeet that God should make a middle
rank of active natures between necessitated brutes and im
rautable confirmed spirits, even a rank of intellectual free
agents to be governed morally by laws, in a life of trial,
wilh a power of selfrdetermining as lo their wills, and to
leave them to their own deterrained choice, decreeing ac
cordingly to judge thera; yet resolving to secure the salva
tion of sorae. If it be not against God's goodness to piake
brules that have no intellects nor capacity of glory, it is not
contrary to it. to raake intellectuals raerely capable, and
leave thera to their free wills.
6. While we are thankful for God's mercies to his pecu-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 493
liar people, the church, we must not, as some peevishly and
ra.shly do, deny what he doth for the rest of the world. He
useth them not according to the terras of the first law: " In
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die : he leaveth
not himself wiihout witness while he winbeth al their igno
rance ;" Acts xiv. In that he giveth them abundance of
teraporal raercies, fruitful lands and seasons, health and
tirae, and punisheth them not as they deserve : so that, " that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God
hath shewed it to them : for the invisible ihings of hira
frora the creation of the world are clearly seen, being under
stood by the things that are raade, even his eternal power
and godhead ; so that they are without excuse, because,
when they knew God, they glorified hira not as God ;"
Rora. i. 19—21. " Who hath raade of one blood all nations
of raen, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath de
termined the times before appointed, and the bounds of
their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if haply
they may feel after hira and find him, though he be not far
frora every one of us ;" Acts xvii. 25 — 27. " And in every
nation he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is
accepted ofhira ; for he is no respecter of persons ;" Acts x.
" He that coraeth to God raust believe that be is, and that
he is a rewarder of thera that diligently seek him:" And
Noah that believed the warning of God, "and prepared the
ark, being moved by fear, became an heir of the righteous
ness of faith;" Heb. xi. 6, 7. " God will render lo every
man according lo his deeds : to them who by patient con
tinuance in well doing do seek for glory, and honour, and
immortality, eternal life : but unto them that are conten
tious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness,
indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish to every
soul of man that doth evil, ofthe Jew first, and also ofthe
Gentile ; but glory, and honour, and peace to every man
that worketh good, lo the Jew first, and also to the Gen
tiles ; for there is no respect of persons wilh God : for as
raany as have sinned wiihout law. shall also perish wiihout
law, and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged
by the law : for not the hearers of the law are just before
God, but the doers of the law shall be justified : for when
the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law ; these having not the law, are

494 OBEDIENT PATIENCEi
a law unto themselves, which shew the work of the lavv
written in their hearts, their conscience also beareth wit
ness ; and their thoughts the raeanwhile. either accusing or
excusing one another; in the day when God shall "judge
the secrets of man according to ray Gospel ;" Rom. ii.
The world is not left in despair as devils, under the sen
tence of the broken law of innocence, but is under the edi*
tion of the law of grace which was made to Adam and
Noah, and is used on terms of mercy and forgiveness, or
else they should not receive all the raercies as they do : they
are all obliged to repent in hope, and to use sorae raeans
for recovery and salvation : and God under the law pro
claimeth hiraself to be " The Lord, the Lord God, raerciful
and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and
truth> keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquityj
transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear," &ci
Exod. xxxiv. 5 — 7. God would be no otherwise knovvn to
any mert on earth.
And how far raen keep or break this law of grace, their
Judge best knoweth: but we know that they shallbe judged
according lo the law that they are under, and the measure
of talents deUvered lo them : to whom rauch is given, of
thera rauch is required : Melchizedec was king of Jerusalemj
even of righteousness and peace : and Job and his friends
seera to have been great men of several Countries : in Nine
veh they " believed God, proclaimed a fast, and God saw
tbeir works, that they turned from their evil ways, and God
repented of the evil," &c. Jonah iii. " From the rising of
the sun to the going down of the sarae, ray narae shall be
(or is) great araong the Gentiles, and in every place incense
shall be (or is) offered to my narae, and a. pure offering : fot
my narae shall be (or is) great among the heathens, saith
the Lord of Hosts ;" Mal. i. IL
John and Christ preached repentance and remission of
sin, before that they preached that Jesus was the Christ : and
the vefy apostles that dwell with Christ and followed him,
did not believe till after his resurrection, that he raust be
crucified and die for our sins, and rise again, and ascend
and intercede in heaven, &,c. They were fools, and slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken, how. that
Christ ought to suffer such Ihings. and so to enter into his
glory ; Luke xxiv.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 495
'We are too like the Jews, who were so proud of their
peculiarity, that they deceitfully took their outward privi
leges lo signify much more for thera than they did : as if all
the rest of the world had been quite forsaken and had been
no people of God, because they had not their covenant of
peculiarity ; when as indeed their peculiarity was mostly
typical, in that they were a type of the peculiar catholic
church under the Gospel, and that Christ was to be a Jew
according to the flesh ; even as their law and the righteous
ness of it was excellent as typical, and as a schoolmaster
to lead us to Christ, though it was called faulty, and was lo
be done away, that a better covenant might take place.
God promised Abrahara temporal greatness, viz. that his
seed should be as the stars of heaven, and he should have a
land that flowed with milk and honey : and all this was
made good ; but in such good as this, how small was the
portion of the Israelites ! How small and poor their land
and kings, in comparison to the Romans, Turks, Chinese,
Indians, &c. The whole land of the twelve tribes, not so
big as England ; and they lived most in vexation or cap
tivity by the Philistines or others, till David conquered, and
Solomon reigned in peace and luxury ; and no longer did
David's line reign over any raore than two of the twelve
tribes, and those ere long went into captivity; so that the
glory ofthe Jews' kingdora was the divinity of their typical
law, and that the Messiah, and the original of the Gospel
iShurch, was to spring from them.
And as to tbeir goodness, all the history and prophets
tell us how bad they were ; and if the lives of raost of their
kings be corapared with Alexander Severus, M. Aurelius,
Antonine Philos. and Anton. Pius, and Trajan, and Titus,
&c. there will no great cause appear lo think that none but
Jews could be saved ; the pride of their peculiar covenant
set them ata greater distance from all others than their real
greatness, wisdom and goodness.
"What advantage then hath tbe Jew. and what profit is
there of circumcision? Much every way; chiefly because
to them were coraraitted the oracles of God ;" Rora. iii. 1, 2.
And the Christian church hath now the said oracles and
the covenant of peculiarity in a more excellent kind than
ever the Jews had : but let us not follow thera in our pride,
lest we follow them in destruction ; for if we be worse than

496 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
others, we shall suffer more than others, as our Ughfrwas
greater. Though we only are the church and the peculiar
people, the rest of raankind are part of the kingdora of the
Redeeraer, who " died, rose, and revived, to this end, that
he raight be Lord of the dead and the living ;" Rom. xiv.
9. 10. " For all power is given hira in heaven and earth,
and he is head over all to the church ;" Eph. i. 22, 23.
Matt, xxviii. 19. And our covenant of peculiarity, is no re
peal of the old law of grace made to raankind in Adam and
Noah by God the Redeemer, who ruleth all upon terms of
mercy and grace ; and was known accordingly as a merci-
• ful, pardoning God, before he was incarnate or known as
such : and so is slill known, when as incarnate he is not
known ; and is past doubt, that as rauch of his grace
and raercy of rederaption went before bis incarnation, so
much of il still extendeth further than the knowledge of his
incarnation ; as the light of the sun is not utterly gone,
when clouds keep it unseen, and before it riseth, and after
it is set.
And as to the question, ' How many among the uncalled
world do fear God and work righteousness, and are ac
cepted of him? Who art thou that judgest another's ser
vant? To his own master he stands or falls :' only I repeat,
that Abraham, the father ofthe faithful, who "saw Christ's
day." ihought that there had been " fifty righteous persons
in Sodom ;" a city so bad, that fire from heaven must con
surae it. And all history tells us. that in all countries there
are pious, virtuous persons, who are haled and derided by
the sensual herd, yea, and persecuted in raost places.
This much I think needful to be considered, that we
wrong not God, and ourselves, and others, by clouding his
mercy and goodness, and raaking difficulties lo our faith
and love.
7. And again, and again. I repeat, that no raan is fit to
judge diminutively of God's raercy and love, who knoweth
not what he saith; (and yet speaketh against a certain
truth.) Bul they that say, raore are daraned than are glori
fied, know not what they say : for it is visible, that all the
earth is to the rest of the world, no bigger thau an inch to
all England, that I say not, to all Europe : and we see that
each region hath inhabitants connatural here below (water,
earth, air). And we see that the superior regions are most

OBEDIENT PATlENCji. 497
glorious as well as vast : and I think, that few men of sense
do think, that sun, moon, and stars, and all the orbs, are
made for no higher use than to shine upon, or serve this
dirty worid of earth : so that again I say, that hell is like
the gaUows. and earth like the gaol, to a whole kingdom or
vast empire : and il is no sign of a bad prince, to have one
gaUows and one gaol in his dominions.
8. And we must remember that though heU be bul one
word, il signifieth divers degrees of punishmeni-': and Christ
who best knew, tells us. that they who " knew not their
Lord's will, shall be beaten with few stripes :" and even to
" Sodora in the day of judgment it shall be easier" than to
those that refuse the Gospel : and il is an airy, active life of
misery that the devils themselves have now.
9. And we see by the pain and death of brutes, that
God doth lay such pain and death on them wiihout desert
by any sin : and is it any diminution of his goodness to lay
raore on sinful man ? All confess that he might have killed
and annihilated us without our sin : he that gave a man life
freely for thirty, fifty, sixty years, was not bound to con
tinue it for ever. And he that made toads and snakes might
have made us such ; and yet it is certain, that most men
had rather endure any tolerable degree of pain, than either
to be annihilated or made loads or sn-akes : and we cannot
certainly teU how far those pains may be called tolerable,
which Christ calleth by the narae of " easier and few
stripes." 10. It is "most certain that when we come to heaven, we
shall be fully reconciled to all God's dealings, and rejoice
in the glory of his holiness and justice, and see no cause to
think diminutively of his goodness and his grace.
11. And in the meantime, let us rejoice that he hath
made us vessels of mercy, and that he hath endued so raany
thousands on earth with his grace, and that the heavenly
church is so great and glorious : there will be no want of
number there.
12. And as to the temptations hence to unbeUef, con
sider, that the heavenly hopes, and desires, and Uves of all
the godly, do prove that God intended them for heaven ;
all the work of his sanctifying Spirit is not delusion : and
the fear and hope that huraan nature bath of another life.

VOL, XI. ^ ^

498 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
doth shew that we have another to expect : and that the
wicked have no such heavenly desire, doth but shew, that
they are incapable of heavenly feUcity, but not that all
others are so loo. CASE XVII.
The sad Distempers and Divisions qf Christians, and the hurt
they do to the World, and to one another, and the dishonour
able state af the Church.
Another exercise of our patience is, the great imperfec
tion, scandals and divisions of Christians, and the hurt they
do to one another, aud to the world, and the dishonourable
broken slate that they are in.
It is a doleful case to think, how narrow, and low, and
corrupt a state the church was in for four thousand years
before Christ's incarnation : how small it was for the two
first centuries : how quickly, shameful heresies did corrupt
it; how laraentably they raultiplied even under persecution:
how quickly the advanced, enriched clergy, were corrupted ;
what odious schisras they raade in the church; how they
grieved the hearts of peaceable princes, who with all their
power, were unable to keep even coraraon love and peace
among the prelates, and to get thera lo live but as quietly
with each olher as the heathen did. What. a sharae is it to
think, how the raajority carried it in their most, famous
councils ; and inlo how raany sects the church was broken,
and most of thera by bishops continued lo this day!
Greeks, Muscovites, Arraenians^ Nestorians, Jacobites, Mel-
chiles, Papists, &c. And that so many hundred years' exr-
perience doth not end or heal their rents. To read the dole
ful divisions and cruelties by, the Arrians, the bloody feuds,
aboul Nestorians, Eulychians. Monotbelites the Tria Gapi-
tula, iraages. excommunications, particular raen's striving.
for preeminence, to read how the Papacy sprang up. and
to read the schisms and lives , of the Popes, the General
Council's dismal accusations of some of them, their igno
rance, simony and wickedness. To read of the wars between
the Pope and Emperors, Frederics, Henry IV. and Henry V.,
Otho,, 8itc. And how coramonly the clergy swore, and un-
swore, and forswore; soraetiraes for the Pope, and some-
limes for the Emperor. To read how a council of bishops
made it the Henrician heresy to hold that emperors hava a

OBEDIENT" PATIENCE. 499
power to invest bishops ' baculo et annulo.* and that the
pope may not excommunicate and depose them; and that
they decreed to dig up the carcases of the dead bishops and
burn them as Henrician heretics, who had been for the em
perors against the popes: to read of all the horrid cruelties
of bishops and clergymen, in inquisitions, the murder of
raany hundred thousand Waldenses artd Albigenses. and the
raany raassacres and burnings for religion since : to see at
this day, that the clergy will not by reason or request, be
entreated to give one another, or the kingdoms of Europe
any peace. What clamours! what preaching! what writ
ings ! what railings ! what diabolical slanders and persecu
tions of one another! To see prisons filled, houses rifled^
multitudes of true Christians undorie and hunted by one
another ! To see how ignorant the mOst zealbus Christians
are in many places, and, alas ! even the teachers of thera ;
and how contentious and prone lo sects arid bitter censures,
and to justify unjustifiable things, and lo raake odious one
another, and to speak evil of the things they understand
not, and to be raost confident unto rage, wbere they are raost
raistaken! To hear how confidently coritrary sides appeal
to God, and father all their cause on himi How confidently
and religiously they seem lo die, who are executed for con
trary causes ! The pious words e. g. and prayers of those
in 1660i on one side, and the pious Words and pi'ayers of
the Jesuits and other Papists lately! To hear some swear
others giiilty unto death, and the Jesuit appeal to God that'
it was all false, and renounce all equivocatic*n!s' and absolu
tions at thei* death ! Yea, to hear- lately in this parish at
the comraunion publicly while they received 'the s-acraraent
on it, one raan swear or vow bef6re God those visible actions
of another, which that other, the^re aind then, as soleranly
vowed to be all false ! To read every week's newsbooks,
whose studied work is wilh the greatest wit, and veheraencyi
and gross lies to draw Christians lo hate and destroy each
other ; and while they cry up love and peace, for the sarae
raen so to fi^ht against.it, worse than all their public ene
raies, so'lhat there appeareth no hope of saving the land ; yea, ,
the raost upright Christians frora the lies, rage and raalice of
rirofessed Christians. So that raen seera incarnate devils.
And, alas ! the few sincere souls live below the holy joy
which their Christian faith and hope bespeaketh,' in loo

500 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
much fear and grief, or tenderness of the body. How can
patience endure to see all this.
The case is doleful ; but, 1. Remeraber that all this doth
but tell us what sin is, and what it hath done lo mankind, and
yet men will hardly believe that it is so bad.
2, All this raay help you to believe that there is a hell and
devils, that God is not lo be accused ofit, when sin itself is
so rauch of misery and hell,
3, All this doth most notably set forth the excellency
of wisdom, godliness and justice, when the contraries are so
odious. It is not godliness, truth or justice, but the want,
of thera in whole or part, which is the cause of all this evil.
Do but think if all England, or all the world, were bul such
as those few hurable, holy, charil-able, peaceable, patient
Christians, which you and I know ! O what a quiet and
blessed land and world would it then be I I knovv the
places where they live in so great holiness, love and peace,
that il is a great delight lo live among them. Were all .
such as some of my beloved friends and daily corapanions
-are, and have been, it would be such a reserablance of hea
ven, as would leave no roora for the sad coraplaint of this
objection. And by this we see what an excellent thing true
faith and godliness is in itself. And though in the same
persons there be the reranants of ignorance, error and sin,
which are a trouble to others and theraselves, this is because
that grace is yet imperfect, but its excellence appeareth in
being contrary lo sin. and so far subduing it, and keeping it
as fire in the chiraney, frora doing that raischief which reign
ing sin doth : and raaking men so, good and useful, notwith
standing their reraaining faults,
4. And in a life of trial which prepareth us for the re
ward, il is no wonder if where there be soraewhat left for
all grace lo oppose, and exercise itself against. What war,
what victory is there where there is no eneray ! and what
crown !
5. The church is Christ's hospital, and is it a wonder
that all are sore and sick ? We are here under his cure : he
hath done rauch already ; raore than all the world could do,
in the work of true regeneration and sanctification : he hath
broken the head of the serpent, and the heart of sin : and it
is dying daily more and raore, and it is not the imperfection
that inust cause us to undervalue so great a work.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 501
b. Christ knoweth his own grace in all beUevers, even
the weakest, notwithstanding all their faults and foUies ;
and he loveth his own, while he hateth their sin, much more
than any man can do : and he pardoneth their remaining in
firmities, and loveth their persons, and calleth thera his bre
thren, and so raust we. If Christ can pardon sin. and love
the uprightness ofthe imperfect, we raust imitate hira.
7. As we must live in constant need of our Creator for
our daily bread, or life, or preservation, so must we live in
daily need of the pardoning and healing grace of our Re
deemer: as once creating puts us- not into a slate of self-
sufficiency and independence, so neither doth once redeem
ing us. And the daily benefit of a Saviour's pardon, and
healing grace, is our daily corafort.
8. As I told you before about the iraperfection of each
ones grace, God will have a difference between earth and
heaven, and what we want here, we shall there have in per
fection ; even greater perfection than we can bere believe.
9. The faults of all Christians teach us all to think hum
bly of ourselves, and also not to over-value imperfect man,
nor to trust the besl loo far ; nor lo take all for true or good,
which they do or teach ; bul lo walk caulelously with all men,
and to put our whole trust in God alone.
10. And the worse we all are, the raore we discern the
freeness of God's love and grace, and the great cause of
thankfulness that we have for all our raercies.
11. And when we see that the best on earth are so ira
perfect, it should help us all to long for heaven ; where there
is no ignorance or error, no sin, no raalice, no proud cen
soriousness, no divisions, but God is joyfully praised by all,
as wilh one soul, one mind, one love, one mouth.
12. In all ages and countries where the church hath
been most degenerate, God hath had many that have main
tained their integrity, and have not consented to the corrup
tions and contentions ofthe tiraes, nor run into the guilt of
the arabitious clergy, or of unruly heretics ; and a fevv such
as are his jewels, are worth raany of the earthly, drossy
world. 13. And what wonder is it if nominal Christians that are
real hypocrites and wicked men, be haters and persecutors of
the just, and the plagues ofthe world, and the chiefest in
struments of the devil on earth. Certainly the false pro -

502 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
fession of Christianity is so far from making men good, and
saving them, that it subliraateth their wickedness, and raakes
them the worst s^nd raost raiserable of men.
14. It soraewhat lendeth to allay the fears of weak Chris
tians who tiiink that their faults are inconsistent with since
rity, when they see that so raany of all sorts are so faulty :
they see what God's raercy beareth with in all.
16. And it is no real cause of dishonour to charity ; for
no eneray can find any fault in tha,t. There is no sin against
God or raan, which Christ bath not forbidden, and is ^not
more against than the most righteous alive is ; it is therefore
utter impudence, to charge those faults of men on Christ,
which he forbiddeth and abhorreth. What would they have
hira lo do more to signify his hatred of sin, than to condemn
it, and prepare hell for all that live and die impenitent ? and
himself to die, rather than il shall go unpunished, even in
those that are forgiven ? and to do so much as he hath done
to destroy it ?
16. And if the wicked will perish by the scandal which
they take at Christian's faults, their impudence raaketh their
damnation just. It were else easy for thera to see a diffe
rence between the iraperfections of a saint, and the wicked
ness of a beastly or malignant sinner : and they should ra
ther gather, that if the faults of serious believers are odious,
their own reigning sin is much more so ; and therefore this
should hasten tbeir repentance.
17, And O how desirable should the common sin and ig
norance, and divisions in this world, make Christ's appear
ing and glorious kingdora to us, when the whole church
shall be presented spotless, and beautiful in holiness and
love, and Christ will be glorified in his saints, and admired
in all believers ! The holy cily of God, the Jerusalem above,
bath nothing but perfect araiableness, concord, love, and
joy, where all are, though many, yet but one.
CASE XVIII,
Heavy Judgments on the Land, by Plagues, Poverty, Fire and
Wars.
Another trial of our patience is, public, and coramon,
and heavy chastisements of Gpd, upon whole cities, cpiin-
tries and kingdoms ; especially by plagues, faraine, fire and
war. 1. In 1665 howdolefijl was the case of London ! When

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 503
a hundred thousand died in a short time ; when men were
cast by heaps into pits for burial, and when good and bad
were swept away, and the living were hard put to it to bury
the dead, and husbands and wives, and parents and children
who were burying their friends, expected to be presently
dead themselves ; and when the houses that were not used
to prayer, had praying doors, ' God be raerciful to us,' being
written on thera to notify their case : and when we were glad
to fly into reraote and solitary places, and were afraid to
meet a man, lest he should infect us.
2. And how doleful was the very next year's case, where
the rich and famous city of London was burnt ! Oh what a
sight were those dreadful, raging, raounting flaraes ! How
raany thousand houses were consuraed in three days, which
pride had adorned with costly furniture, and where luxury
had wasted tbe creatures of God ! What treasures that had .
been long in heaping up, were there consuraed 1 To see the
streets crowded wilh men astonished, that looked on all
their wealth consuraed, and could do nothing 10 save it from
the flames ; and others carrying out their goods, and some
laying them in vaults for safety, and sorae in churches, and
altogether there consuraed ! The booksellers hoped that
the faraous structure and vaults of St. Paul's church might
have saved their great treasure of excellent books, which yet
did but increase the church's ruin. Yea, the houses ofthe
most just and godly raen no raore escaped than the rest, even
where God was daily called upon and worshipped ! No,
nor the churches, where raany holy, excellent raen had been
faraous, fruitful preachers, and where the bodies of thou
sands of true saints had been buried. About seventy
churches burnt down ; when it was but about four years be
fore that raost or raany of their faithful pastors had been
cast out or forbidden to preach the Gospel ; and now those
that were set up in their steads are driven out by the flaraes,
as they lately fled away frora the plague ; and raost of thera
to this day, or very many, lie unbudl, and God's worship is
performed in such poor wooden tabernacles, as before would
have been made a scorn. And how raany thousand farailies
had no habitation, and were reduced to poverty, and to this
day live in the distress which those flaraes did bring upon
them ! And since then, how many dreadful fires have con
sumed many corporations in this land ! Near us,how ca-

501 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
lamitous was that in Southwark ! and but a fortnight past,
that raore dreadful fire al Wapping, where aboul a thousand
houses, that had above three thousand farailies, were burnt.
3. And though God hath not yet tried us wilh any com
raon destructive faraine, poverty causeth thousands to die of
sicknesses taken by want ; even by driaking water, and
wanting fire and clothes, and eating unwholesome food.
And we have oft had notice of the case of Germany, after
the wars, about 1627, when they were fain to watch the
graves, lest the dead bodies should be digged up and eaten ;
and of the more miserable case of Rochel, and others like
wise. 4. But alas ! bloody wars have been raore coramon, and
men to raen raore terrible than raad dogs, or wolves, or ti
gers. We had sad experience of it in England, Scotland
and Ireland ; but olher countries have felt rauch more.
They that have not tried il, know not what it is to live un
der the power of savage soldiers, who domineer over all, and
raake all slaves to them in their own houses, and keep them
under daily fear of death, and take away all they have, and
make no more to kill raen, than to kill dogs or flies ; and if
they can but call them eneraies, think hira the most honour
able who killeth most. O what disraal sights were our
fields, covered with the dead, and garrisons stormed, and all
countries filled with raen-hunters, who took their neigh
bour's estates and lives for their lawful prey. Besides that
one party of thera grew lo that inhumanity and blasphemy,
as lo make a scorn of death and hell, and so to defy God.
as that lo tbis day the word. ' God daran rae.' continueth
with them a word of course. And others that professed
piety, fell into pride and presuraption, and contentious sects,
for which they usually raged and were confident, Is il not
hard lo think of such things wilh patience, much raore to
see and feel rauch of thera ?
But God hath not left us without reraedy. I. As to
plagues. 1. The great numbers that die togelher, make us
think otherwise of it than is meet : it is but death, and all
raust die. Not one more dieth ofthe plague, than would
ere long if there were no plague ; and it is usually a shorter
pain than other fevers bring ; and the pain is small in
coraparison of the stone in the bladder, and many olher
diseases.

OBEDIENT PATIENCE, 505
-, And the terror of raen's danger and dying multitudes
usually doth raore to awaken men to repentance and serious
preparation, than other diseases use to do. Though fear
alone make not a sound repentance, fear is a great and ne
cessary preparatory. I have reason to hope, that the great
plague in London was a help lo the conversion of many hun
dred souls ; not only as il called men to review their Uves,
and bethink thera of their state ; but as it raade thera far
raore impartial hearers of public preaching and private coun
sel. There was then in London no scorning al holy serious
ness and diligence for salvation, in comparison of what is
now. The houses that now roar out drunken songs and
scorns at godliness, and revile, threaten and curse the reli
gious sort, had other language then, when ' Lord have raercy
on us' was written on the doors. When the public minis
ters fled, God stirred up the charily of many silenced rainis
ters, who till then had forborne public preaching, and they
ventured among them, and begged money out of the coun
try for the poor ; visited them, and preached to them in the
deserted pulpits. And tbe sense of approaching death so
awakened both preachers and hearers, that multitudes of
young men and others were converted lo true repentance.
And this was the chief occasion ofthe public preaching
of the silenced ministers ever since. They had so great ex
perience of God's blessing, and their young converts were
so sensible of the benefit, that both preachers and hearers
then resolved lo hold on as long as they could.
And was not London now a gainer by this plague? Did
it not make men better ? Compare il and olher places then.
At Oxford the parliament of lords, bishops and commons,
who fled thither from the plague, even then in the beat of it
were making that Swearing Act, which ruineth and imprison
eth nonconformists that come witbin five miles of any cily,
or burgess corporation, and lake not their oath and declara
tion ; (yea, and sorae lawyers say, conformists too, that have
bul once preached in that whichthey call a conventicle, and
take not the oath.) But in London there is no such work ;
they were not then sending the preachers to gaol, or hunt
ing thera as rogues or rebels, but gladly hearing thera, and
begging for their prayers.
II. And as to famine or coramon poverty, I have spoken
ofit before. The great distress that the fires and other

506 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
means have brought on raany thousand families, hath but
drawn out the charity of others, and exercised the repen
tance, humiUty and mortification of the poor, and so hath
prepared both sorts, rich and poor, for a greater reward : it
hath done much to try men's charity, and to shew the diffe
rence between man and raan. I that have had the oppor
tunity to try both sorts, have found by long experience, that
whereas raaUgnant, worldly raen were wont to say, that
these religious persons were but hypocrites ; though they
read the Scripture and prayed rauch, they were as covetous
and uncharitable as others ; il is so rauch contrary , that they
excel others in charity as much as in piety ; and I can
sooner get ten pounds, or twenty, for the poor, from reli
gious persons, than ten shillings from those that speak
against them, that are of greater wealth than they.
III. And though the aforesaid flames of London, South
wark, Wapping, Northampton, &c. were great corrections,
let us not raake thera greater than they are. As to the loss
of estate by thera, il is but what the richest merchant is
liable to by piracy or shipwreck, and not so much as death
will shortly bring on all, when all the world must be forsa
ken. 2. And it was a great mercy of God, that men's lives
were preserved when their wealth was gone ; so that they
had tirae to iraprove the correction. 3. And a great help it
was lo raen of any sense and consideration, to see the vanity
of all worldly wealth and treasure, and to prepare for the
time when it must be finally left. And the flaraes of Lon
don and its after ruins, were a notable fore-signification of
the great flaraes and ruins of the final judgraent day ; and it
loudly called on men to examine what the corporation com
mon sin of England is, which laid so raany corporations in
ashes ; and to repent in tirae. And we need not raake it an
aggravation that it was done by raalice ; for it is easier to
our consciences, that it be done by others than ourselves ;
and it helpeth those raen to see the evil of those destructive
principles which engage raen to no such raischief on pre
tence of the service ofthe church. 4. Yea, and it is a pre
signification of the new heaven and earth, when all things
shall be restored, to see such a city so soon rebuilt, in far
greater splendour than before.
IV. But cruel wars and soldiers, are a raore sharp cala
mity ; but yet leave us alleviating considerations, and mat-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 507
ter enough to exercise and help our patience. For, 1. It
doth lively telfus what man is in his corrupted state, and
,what sin is, and what we had been if grace had forsaken us.
2. It tells us what our slate on earth is ; a militant life ;
and calls us to remember our spiritual enemies and warfare,
and to live as armed in constant watchfulness. 3. It helps
our faith to believe that there are devils, and a hell, when
we see the works and instruments of devils upon earth, and
see earth made so like lo heU. 4. Il teacheth us to set Ught
by earthly treasure, which thieves and plunderers can so
quickly take away ; and to live in constant preparation for
death, when men are so ready to take away our lives. 6.
And it tells us how much we are beholden to God for our
preservation, and for our peace, that all men be not thus
continually as incarnate devils to one another. 6. And it
calls us to long for the world of perfect love and peace,
where there are no such men, and no such doings. How
sweet will everlasting peace and joy be when we come newly
out of such a world of savage cruelty! 7. And God often
by wars, prepareth people for a betier peace than they had
before ; the sweetness of which doth make the miseries of
war forgotten. 8, And usually il is the most wicked raen
that are cut off by war, while the pious and peaceable look
on and escape ; wicked raen are mad with sin, and will not
give peace to theraselves or others : while they run with
rage lo raurder others, they are killed theraselves, and " God
is known by the judgment which he execuleth, while the
wicked are snared in the work of their own hands, and
dashed in pieces by thejr own rage ; for the wicked are like
the raging sea ; which casts out dirt ; there is no peace to
the wicked saith the Lord ;" Isa, xlix. And while raen
" bite and devour one another, they are devoured one of
another ; and they that lead into captivity, shall be led into
captivity ; and they that kill wilh the sword, shaU be killed
by the sword,"
So that it should seera no strange thing to a soldier
of Christ that the world which he is passing through is
malignant,
CASE XIX.
The Prosperity and Triumphs of wicked Enemies ofthe Church.
Another great trial ofour patience is, the triuraph-of the

508 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
wicked enemies ofthe church, and that the saints are usually
under their feel in sufferings and scorn. I spake before of
persecution, and as to the prosperity and triumphs of ma
lignants. David, who was under the like temptation, hath
long ago given us considerations sufficient for our patience ;
Psal. xxxvii, Ixxiii. And the triumph of the wicked is but
for a moraent. and their motion as the grasshoppers, that
fall as they rise. Their victories, and glory, and rage, are
like a squib of gunpowder, which raakes a noise and is pre
sently extinct: they are moved dust, which the wind of
God's displeasure blows inlo our eyes : they are dying while
they are raging, and tbeir own death is at hand and lingei-
eth not, while they are killing others. Go inlo the sanctuary
and see their end, and it may silence all irapatience ; for see
their corpse in rottenness, and their souls in hell, and pity
will overcome envy, and their case will appear to you a
thousand limes more sad than theirs that suffer by them for
righteousness sake. Their contrivances do bul plot them
selves into misery. All the blood which they shed, raust be
reckoned for : and precious in the sight of the Lord is the
death of his saints, even when tbey seera deserted. Where
now is Alexander, Caesar, Tamerlane, and such other fa
mous murderers called conquerors ? Are they now triumph
ing ? Is il an ease to their tormented souls, or Ufe to their
dust, that living fools do magnify their names, and their dear-
bought victories and raurders ? If il be no glory lo a ser
pent, crocodile, or a wolf, or a raad dog, lo kill men. no
nor to the devil, who is a murderer from the beginning, why
should it be a glory to these instruments of the devil ? 0
what a dreadful search will it be to Babylon, when in her
shall be found the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus,
and upon her shall corae at once all the righteous blood that
hath been shed ! The blood of the raany hundred thousand
Waldenses. Albigenses. Bohemians, &,c. did but render the
Papacy more odious : their Inquisition, and Alva's cruelties
lost them the low countries. They got nothing in France
by the sudden murder of thirty or forty thousand Protes
tants ; nor will they get at last by their preseni cruellies.
The two hundred thousand murdered by the Irish, prepared
for the murderer's greater ruin, but did not satisfy their de
sires. Queen Mary's fires did but make Popery the more
easily and coramonly hated and extirpated in the days of her

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 509
successor. Persecutors are not iraraortal. but must die as
well as others : and they have not always the choice of their
successors. And as their names rot with their carcases, and
to pious, sober and wise posterity no names are more odious,
so their designs and works also often perish wilh thera. We
have seen in our days and land, the same men that were the
terror of the nation in war, laid in a grave and left lo the
comraon earth, where no one is afraid of thera. And the
sarae raen that were lift up by raany victories. Ihought kings.
parliaraent. rainisters. and people must subrait to their will,
as being in their power, within one or two years were hanged,
drawn and quartered, and their quarters hung up over the
gales of the cily : their victorious array being dissolved
without one drop of bloodshed.
If we saw a drunken raan, or a madraan raging in the
streets, so that people were afraid to corae near hira, who
would think such a raan therefore ever tbe raore happy ? Or
who would desire to be in his case ? If we judge of them
by that part they are now acting on the slage, under great
naraes and garbs, we shall be deluded as they are. Look on
them undressed, and off the stage, see what they are under
the pangs of death, or when the soul is dragged away to pu
nishraent, and hath left their ghastly faces and carcases for
the grave. See what God saith of thera in his word, and be
lieve his prognostic what shall befal them. Is Ahab ever
the better for being recorded in Scripture, as an enemy to
faithful prophets ? Or Cain ever the belter for being the
first raurderer in the world ? Or Herod ever the better for
being mentioned in the Gospel? Or Pilate, for having his
name in the creed? Or are the flames ever the easier to Di
ves, because he once fared sumptuously, and was clothed
richly every day. while Lazarus lay at his gate in sores. The
tirae is short ; the conqueror and the conquered will be equal
in the dust, where they wiU cease lo trouble, and lie in
peace ; bul the persecutor and the persecuted (for righteous
ness sake) will be as distantly separated as hell frora heaven.
The raen of this world, who have their portion in this life,
are God's sword and rod lo correct bis children; bul as they
now glory in their shame, so they shaU shortiy be ashamed
of their glorying, and wish in vain that all their proud op
pressions and cruel victories had been not done, or could be
undone.

510 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
CASE XX.
No Probability in any Visible Means tkat ever tke World should
be muck better. Twelve General Directions to get and use
Patience in every Case.
And it adds much to the trial ofour faith arid patience, that
there is no apparent means of deliverance, nor probability,
in the eye of reason, that ever the world should become bel
ter, but il groweth worse and worse. Could we see any
hope of betier days, we raight the raore easily wait in pa
tience. 1. The heathen world is out of our reach: we know
not how to send any probable raeans araong thera. The
Roraan Jesuits and friars, who have greaterstocks of raoney,
have been encouraged by kings, especially of Portugal, to
go among some heathens wilh their ambassadors, orby their
help : and to their due praise be it spoken, in Congo, Japan,
China* and some other countries, they look great' pains, and
didmuch. But raost that they did was quickly undone,
partly by the pravity of sensual heathens, and partly by their
depravation of the Christian' doctrine which they shoiild-
have preached. They consulting with carnal wisdom, durst'
not tell men long of Christ's crucifixion: and they didbut
change their heathenish images for Agnus Dei's and pic
tures of the Virgin Mary, and olher trinkets like their own ;
which was easily received, but raade not sound Christians,
while the people Ihought that Christianity lay in such litlle
things: and two things broke down all their paper build
ing. In Congo they Uked the profession of Christianityi
when il touched not the flesh, and lay but in opinions,
names and relics ; but when Iheywere told that they raust
feave drunkenness, whoredom and riotous ' sports, they cast
off all, and would go no further. In Japan (and most places)
when they perceive that the design is secular, to subject all
kingdoms lo the pope, the princes abhor them, and cruelly
persecuted the new raade Christians, till they bad utlerlyi
extirpated Christianity there.
The -Pro testant princes and slates are little regardful for
the conversion of heathens, but contend abouttheir own do
minions, interests and wills, when they should confederate
for the promoting of the Gospel of salvation, Saii»e that old
Mr. John Elliot and his helpers, have by long, unwearied la
bour done much intensively, but not rauch extensively' in

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 511
New England : and how to carry it farther they know not.
Merchants that should contrive to make their factories ser
viceable hereto, take little care ofit, bul prosecute the way of
their own gain.
The most capable persons were princes by their ambas
sadors ; but who much regards it ? Or rather, the neigh
bour nations of Christians, who live near the heathens and
Mahometans, and traffic with them. But alas ! these are
mostly an ignorant sort of Christians, unfit to manage so
great a work, such as the Arrainians, Georgians, Circas
sians, Mengrelians, Abassines, and raost of the Jacobites
and Nestorians ; or ignorant and vicious also, such as raostly
are the Greeks and Moscovites ; or conteraned by those
that master thera, such as are the Transilvanians and Hun
garians. So that they are a scandal to the Turks and
heathens, and bring Christianity wilh thera into conterapt.
And among Christians how small is the number of those
that are sincerely godly, and keep sound doctrine, and live
accordingly : and there appeareth no probabiUty of reforra
ing them. The great and famous Eastern churches are
mostly gone to Mahoraetanisra. And the servitude of the
Greeks keeps them in ignorance, and ignorance cherisheth
all vice. The Muscovites have neither bishops nor priests
that can preach, or desire it, nor emperors that will suffer it,
but are ignorant slaves under the name of Christians. The
Roman party are armed with wealth, learning, policy and
power to keep up the papal claim and corruptions, and keep
out that reforraation, which would restore Christianity to its
forraer purity. The reforraed in France are under heavy
sufferings, and near extirpation. The Lutherans too bitter
eneraies to concord, and raost Gerraans too sensual in their
livesi The Protestant churches seera every where dechn
ing, if not hastening to ruin. Sorae rulers thathave pro
fessed reformation are serving the Papists, with resolved
violence to root it out, and bring themselves and subjects
under a foreign jurisdiction. And George Herbert's pro
phecy seeraeth to go on, that religion is forsaking Europe,
and flying to Araerica. Scultetus in " Curriculo vitee suse,"
tells us that one time aU seemed 'so strongly for reformation
in Germany, Bohemia, France, England, &c. that many said
the golden age was coming : and in one year all was changed
and brought as low as forraeriy. And if we raight judge by

512 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
probabilities, all of Christianity saving a lifeless name, and
shell, and cereraonies, is like to be rooted out of the earth.
And the devil reigneth as powerfully by wicked rulers, and
prelates, and priests, called Christians, as by Mahoraetans.
And godliness is as effectually destroyed in such a kingdom
as Moseovy, as ilis in some infidel lands. And vvhen Christ
coraeth, will he find faith on the earth?
This case indeed is a great trial of our faith and patience ;
but let us consider, 1. That this world was never intended
lo be the place of our felicity or long abode, but only as is
aforesaid, as the worab where we are conceived and formed
for a better world : or as the wilderness to the Israelites,
where they were to be tried by difficulties in their way to
the land of promise : or as a winter journey through dirty or
craggy ways horaeward. And what if this womb, this wil
derness, these ways never araend ? What man is so weak as
to be discouraged, because posterity is Uke to find the ways
as foul or rough as be hath done? Or because the desarts
of Lybia, or Arabia, or tbe dangerous passages over the
Alps will be no better to the next generation that they are
to this? It is indeed the desire of every true Christian that
the world were better ; and these desires are not vain ; they
shew the honesty of them that wish it : but God will not do
all that he hath made il our duly lo desire. We raust desire
the conversion and salvation of raany that never will be con
verted and saved.
2. God will give us all th-at we desire, bul it is not on
earth. If we did still see by faith the greater, perfect, glo
rious world, which we are near, it would quiet us against all
our perplexing doubts and troubles in this world. All is
well in heaven, even betier than we can desire : there is no
ignorance, no infidelity, atheisra, Mahoraetanisra ; no wars,^
no sects, no cruellies, no contentions ; reformation is there
perfect, and the church all holy.
3. In all reason our affections should be but proportioned
to their objects. It is our duly to mourn for the miserable
world, and the corrupt slate of the church on earth ; but
seeing the heavenly glory incoraparably exceedeth the
world's raisery, our joy should be far greater to think of
heaven, than our trouble when we think of earth. Again I
say, all the earth is no bigger compared to heaven, than our
gaol is, compared to all this kingdom, yea, lo all the king-

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 513
doms on earth ; and it is our duty to be sorry, if those in
prison do not amend, and that those raust die that are con
deraned. But should we not raore rejoice, if it wenl as well-
as we could wish with all the rest of the kingdora, or of the
world. Heaven, which is many thousand tiraes bigger than
earth, hath nothing but perfect felicity and glory, perfect
knowledge, love and joy.
4. And tbis earth shall serve to all God's ends. He will
gather all his chosen ; and he will be glorified in his provi
dence towards the rest. Out ofthis Bedlam, Christ bringeth
many to saving wisdom ; and out of this gaol God's mercy
taketh many sons to glory : he reprieveth all, and pardoneth
all that are penitent believers ; and traitors and eneraies are
reconciled to him by Christ, and being justified by faith
have peace with God. God placed raan in an earthly para
dise as the passage to the heavenly ; and raan's own wilful sin
and folly turned his paradise into a prison, and it is now a
house of correction, where God joineth instruction, and by
the book and rod doth teach his chosen saving wisdora :
and as the Israelites in the wilderness had their suitable
mercies for their forty years ; and as Jeremy led the cap
tive Jews lo build, and plant, and raarry in Babylon, and
pray for its peace, as the place in which their own peace
must be had, till seventy years were past (which is the age
of man), so God here giveth us great mercies suitable lo our
wilderness and captive state ; and when a little is over, we
shall have better than we could here believe. And though
I would not cherish that sinful desire, which would have
that on earth which is proper to heaven, nor have I skill
enough in the exposition of hard prophecies to raake a par
ticular determination about the thousand years' reign of
Christ on earth before the final judgment, yet I raay say,
that I cannot confute what such learned raen as Mr, Mead,
Dr, Twisse, and others (after tbe old fathers) have hereof
asserted. And I ara certain that Christ teacheth us all to
pray that God's narae raay be hallowed, his kingdora corae,
and his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven ; and that
he appointeth us to use no prayer or means in vain. And
raany are ready to believe the old saying, that as the world
was made in six days, and the seventh was made a day of
holy rest, and a day with the Lord is as a thousand years :
VOL. XI. L ^

514 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
SO after six thousand years of sin and sorrow, a thousand
years holy rest shall follow. Of this I ara uncertain : but 1
believe there will be a new heaven and earth, in which will
dwell righteousness. We must not look for too great mat
ters in a sinful, cursed earth. We would fain have all the
blessedness of heaven, bul we are loath to die, and-therefore
would have it here on earth ; and the rather because as hear
say without sight doth not give a man a satisfactory con
ception of any house or place that he would know ; so such
a sensible conception we would have of heaven, Bul death
is the wages of sin, and die we must ; " but the gift of God
is etemal life, through Christ who hath overcorae hira that
hath the power of death, by the fear of which we are kept
in bondage," And we raay rejoice by an iraplicit trust to
Christ, in the hope of that glory which we can in the fiesh
have no explicit idea or conception of ; where will be no sin,
no death, no fear, no iraperfection, no unbelief, or censo
rious distaste at any of God's words or works ; but beatify
ing vision, and fulness of everlasting joy in glory.
And against this and other objections, you must still
remeraber that a suffering condition is not so bad for the
church on earth, as unbelief and flesh would raake you
think. For,
1. A fleshly prosperity is too brutish and short to be true
feUcity. It is the portion of the wicked, and the occasion
of their deceit and ruin ; Psal. xvii. 14. Luke xii. 15.20,21.
And is the church less happy, because it is saved from so
dangerous teraptations ?
2. Forget not the invaluable riches of the church, in its
lowest state. Their God, their Christ, their Coraforter, the
proraises, and all suitable providences fitted to their good,
are a thousandfold greater riches and honour, than all the
kingdoras and power of the ungodly world.
3. The church in its raost depressed state, hath impreg
nable strength and safety : their God is invincible : their
Saviour is the rock which the gates of hell shall not prevail
against; Matt. xvi. 18.
4. When they are most scorned and contemned, and
used as fools and rogues, and as the basest and most odious
of mankind ; they are the merabers of Christ, the children
of God, and bear his image, and are the charge of angels,
and passing to a crown of glory. And what is any dishonour

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 515
from man, as set against such honours with God and all the
blessed ? " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God ;" Matt. v. " The reproach of Christ is greater riches
than worldling's treasure ;" Heb. xi. 26. Ephes. ii. 7. v. 25.
27. i. 22, 23. iii. 10.
5. Remember that the far greatest part of the church,
even all since the creation, are in possession of heaven al
ready, and it is but a small remnant as the gleanings, that
are here yet behind ; Heb. xii. 22, 23. read -the description
of them there : Christ is not ashamed to call thera brethren ;
(Heb. ii. 11.) and useth them as such : in his Father's house
he hath many mansions for them ; John xiv. 1 — 3. And if
you saw all those millions in heaven with Christ, could you
for sharae grudge that the few behind are passing thither
through temptation and tribulation? Or that il must be as
by swimming, or on broken pieces of the ship, that they
raust corae all safe to land, as Acts xxvii. If all be well in
heaven, grudge not at the way : these things are never the
worse or raore uncertain in themselves, for being unseen.
6. And how great security hath God given the church of
all this heavenly glory promised. Can we fear that Christ
will be defeated of the greatdesign of man's redemption, and
reigning in the New Jerusalem, where he is to be its Ught
instead of the sun ? And doth not God love his church
much better than we do ; and better know how to deal with
it, and all the world ? Shall we, blind sinners, who do no
thing thoroughly well, be afraid lest God will miscarry, or
do any thing amiss ?
8. The church raust have its purgatory on earth ; and
prosperity filleth it wilh hypocrites who corrupt il ; and ad
versity raust refine frora such dross.
9. Particular Christians are better by afflction; and
what else is the church but particular Christians ? God wiU
not leave our temptations to the daraning love of the world
too strong*
10. The church must be conforraed to its Head, who suf
fered, and then entered into glory.
1 1. While all individuals are sinful and imperfect, what
wonder if aU the church do suffer by it ?
12. Most exercises must shine and increase by exercise ;
like some jewels that must be rubbed : as fire in a flint, or
steel, that must be called into sight by violence. We are

516 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
but like coraraon mon in appearance, till soraev«hat more
than coraraon work, or suffering call us out, and shew 'our
difference from hypocriles-
These, and raany. such considerations before intimated,
raay convince us that the worst state of the church or world,
is no just cause of censuring God's providence, nor of dis
couragement or impatience lo any true believer : bul still in
patience we raay possess our souls.
I will draw out this Treatise no longer, but lo remember
all Christians, that the common great defect of patience is
a great dishonour lo our profession of faith and heavenly
hope, and leadeth us to that within as the cause, which we
should be greally humbled for ; and that it is a disease so
painful lo ourselves, as should raake us loath to cherish or
excuse il. A tender state of body is not desirable, which
can endure no cold or air ; no diet but curiously drest; nei
ther winter nor suraraer, &c. Much worse is a lender, im
patient mind, that is hardly pleased by raan or God ; that is
irapatient at every loss or cross, at every real or supposed
wrong, at every danger, threatening or ill news ; that must
be stroked, and rocked, and used as a child, Alas ! many
people that truly fear God, have so great a want of patience,
as that one can hardly live quietly with thera ; but he raust
have extraordinary skill, and care, and tenderness, if not
flattery, who will not be a trouble to thera.
And yet because sorae causelessly judge theseto be worse
than they are, I will say again, that passion and the will's
defection, are very different sorts of irapatience.
I conclude wilh these few brief directions, for establish
ing the heart with patience in all trials whatsoever.
I. Understand well the true nature of patience and im
patience, that you mistake not natural temper for either sav
ing grace, or daraning sin. The passions raust be distin
guished frora the judgraent and will. A raan ofa choleric
temper, and aged, sick, or weak persons raay be peevish,
and impatient with the little provocations which daily befal
thera, so far as to be angry and trouble theraselves and
others. Children will cry, and raost woraen are more easily
cast into passion than men ; they are apt to fear beyond all
reason, and lo be troubled and troublesome to others with
unquiet grief, displeasedness or anger. This must neither
be raade light of, as no fault, nor yet raade a greater fault

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 517
than it is. Many raen have stronger natures, and free from
passion, (and some alraost to stupidity,) which joined with
grace and a due sense of weighty things, is a great advan
tage and ornament : bul it is found oft in the most, grace
less, wicked men, who deceive themselves by it, and think
they are better than passionate, honest men. Yea, it usually
proveth a great hindrance to their repentance and reforma
tion ; no sermon, no reason, no thought of death or eternity
will move and change their senseless hearts.
But the saving grace of patience is principally in this,
when a man hath so resolvedly given up hiraself to God by
Christ for life eternal, and is so rauch under divine autho
rity, that he can endure the loss of all, even reputation, es
tate, friends, liberty or life, rather than forsake Christ, or
hazard his salvation by wilful sin ; and therefore also striveth
against all sinful passions, and repenteth of that which doth
surprise hira.
And daraning irapatience is, when a raan cannot delibe
rately bear the loss of corporal prosperity, for the sake of
Christ and righteousness, nor hold on in a holy, righteous,
sober life ; bul will rather fall off, and wilfully sin, and ven
ture his soul, than deny his flesh, and be undone in the
world : such take godliness for a grievous yoke, or else they
would not be impatient to bear il, and they take not God and
heaven for their best.^
II. Nothing therefore will make one patient in a holy,
saving sense, but the well-grounded resolved choice of God's
love in Christ, and the blessedness of another world, as that
portion which must raake us happy, whatever we lose or
suffer on earth. Therefore faith and hope raust be above,
and fetch from heaven the matter of our constant resolution,
or else there can be no true patience : if we live raore on
earthly hopes and comforts than heavenly, and more to the
flesh than to the Spirit, there can be no true patience, rauch
less durable : for in the world we shall have troubles ; and
if we have not. yet a content in the love of it is raore darana
ble than trouble.
III. Therefore the true conterapt of fleshly prosperity
and worldly things, by raortification, is absolutely necessary
to patience. While the body and its appetite, ease or life
is over-dear to us, we shall never patiently lose or spare
them ; and while we love the ^esh and world,- reputation.

518 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
wealth and pleasure too much, we shall be overrauch trou
bled to lose thera. Account all loss and dung for Christ,
as Paul did, and you will easily bear the loss of it.
IV. Think what you have, as well as what you want ;
reckon up truly all the riches of grace in Christ ; to be a
child of God, beloved by hira, an heir of heaven, a meraber
of Christ, pardoned, justified, sanctified, under God's true
promise of everlasting joy ; and compare this with your suf
fering, and think whether il becomes an heir of heaven tobe
impatient, in the way.
V. Therefore be diligent to make your calling and elec
tion sure ; neither neglect necessary obedience, nor cherish
causeless doubtsj lest you lose that comfort of hope which
must make you patient in all trials ; else when heaven and
God's love should support you under all, you will be still
questioning your title to it, and so have nothing to set
against all your sufferings and fears. If this anchor of hope
be not well-grounded, what shall uphold raen in sufferings
and, death ?
VI. Live in the constant belief and apprehension of
God's absolute disposal of all the world ; and see all things
and persons as in his hand, and reraember that there is no
thing coraes to pass without him, and that he useth even
the permitted sins of men to his good and holy ends.
Think on no man, action, or event, as independent upon
God; bul reraeraber still with whora you have to do, and
who it is that overruleth all, and whose rod your enemies
and afflictions are : -and this will tell you that nothing is
done araiss by hira, and that nothing shall be finally hurt
ful, lo the faithful; and that we raust not dare to accuse
our Maker : and it will raake you say, " It is the Lordj
let hira do as seemeth hiragpod; The will'of the Lord be
done," VII. Here see still the certain endi of all: how the suf
ferings of the faithful will end ; and how the power, wealth,
prosperity and triumph of the wicked will end. Go into the
sanctuary. Believe what God hath foretold youy and faith
may fully satisfy you.
VIIL Keep, a due humbling sense, of your' own and
other's sin, and of; God's coraraon raercies to you and all
men, that you raay still perceive how rauch better God
dealeth with you than you deserve. It is no smalh mercy to

OBEDIENT PATIENCE. 519
be alive, out of hell, and to have the free offers of a Saviour,
of pardon and salvation, and to have God entreating you to
be reconciled to him, and promise you Christ and life, if you
do but wiUingly accept his gift.
IX. Be acquainted wilh your chief temptations, both to
impatience and to other sins, that you may live in arras
and watchful resistance. 1. Renew not your own wounds
and sufferings by gross negligence or wilful sin, and yield
ing to the terapter ; for if you put God to use a sharper
rod, your patience will have a harder work. And do not by
rashness make your own suffering, and run into il, (as by
rash words, by suretyship and imprudent actions raany do)
you may more confidentiy look for God's support under the
cross wbich he layeth on you for trial, than that which you
make for yourselves ; though there also repentance may
give us a comfortable reraedy. 2. And understand what are
your teraptations to irapatience. Is it crosses, poverty,
threatenings of men, a froward corapanion, a wicked child, or
rather a weak and peevish, passionate teraper ? Whatever
it is, get those particular considerations against it, which
must be your arraour, and live in the daily use of them.
X. Resist the beginnings of unbelieving, troubling
thoughts, and roll them not in your raind. Abhor the first
degrees of distrusting God, or discontent with his provi
dence, or any secret accusation of his disposals ; and turn
your thoughts presently to his love, and raercies, and pro
mises, and Christ's abundant grace ; pore not upon troubling
and discontented things any further than is necessaiy to
avoid the evil ; but study the satisfactory proraises and terras
of further grace and endless glory. Be careful (with dis
trust and trouble) for nothing, but in all wants and straits
go to God and open all to hira, and ask hiin for your daily
bread, reraerabering thathe clotheth the lillies of the field,
and that a sparrow moveth not without his providence,
and that all the hairs of your head are nurabered, and that
he knoweth what you need, and what is best for you, and
that sufflcient to the day is the evil thereof. Think what
a mercy it is tbat he coramauds you, to " cast all your care
on God, who careth for you :" and whether if the king bid a
beggar or prisoner, trust bim, and cast all his care on hira,
it would not corafort hira.
XI. Forget not all the wonderful dehverances that you

520 OBEDIENT PATIENCE.
and the church of God have had, and how oft his mercies
have confuted and reproved your distrust.
XII. Lastly, thoroughly study a crucified Christ, and
the reasons and use of the cross, and why he will have us
imitate him and follow him in sufferings to glory. And
never think God disappointeth you, if he will but bring you
safe to heaven. And read oft the sufferings of Christ, and
his serraons ; Matt. V. John xii. 14 — 16. Matt. vi. Rora. viii.
1 Pet. iii. iv. Jaraes iv. v. Rev. ii. iii. Rora. v. 3, 4.
Col. i. 11. Heb. vi. 12. xu. 1, &c. Rom. xii. 12, &c.
XV. 4, 5. 1 Tim. vi. 11. " For you have need of patience,
that after you have done the will of God you raay inherit
the proraise ;" Heb. x. 36. " Count it all joy when you fall
into divers (trying) teraptations, knowing that the trying of
your faith (which is raore precious than gold which perish
eth,) worketh patience ; but let patience have its perfect
work." And shew that you are patient toward God by your
patience toward raen. " Now the God of patience and con
solation grant you to be like-minded one towards another
according to Christ Jesus ;" Rom. xv, 6. So prayeth your
brother and corapanion in tribulation, and in the kingdom
"and patience of Jesus Christ.
RICH. BAXTER.
December 27, 1682.

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