laws of his Creator and Redeemer as too nice and severe; and the entire observance of them, as unnecessary and troublesome strictness: as if the wisdom of God did not know better than he, the just bounds and measures, where man was to be restrained, and where he might be indulged: as if God did not best know, what belongs to human nature, and the ordering and regulating men's affections and actions: as if there were in the infinitely good God envy, ill-will, and an evil eye towards us, in denying us any thing that is for our good. But to suppose this, to have such an inward thought, is blasphemy in a high degree.

It becomes us therefore to have our minds deeply affected with these truths; that it cannot be liberty to be loose from God: that the substance of all he commands us, is in its own nature unchangeably good; and all his laws are such as it is most fit for us to be governed by: that both his commands and restraints proceed from his tender love and care of us.

Though souls, as yet unskilful and unexperienced in religion, do not understand thus much at first, but are apt to think, that God might have dealt less severely with them than he hath done; yet they come to be of another mind, when they are once grown up to good maturity in Christ. They then evidently see, that all God commands, or forbids, is out of the most tender goodness: and therefore what at first was grievous to them, becomes their choice: nor do they wish to be indulged in this or that which is forbidden; nor that they might be free from this or that which is commanded. They "esteem," with David, "all God's precepts

с

They do not

concerning all things to be right." think "the way that leads to life too strait or narrow;" nor wish it broader than it is. They do not wish the yoke, or burden, of Christ to be more easy, or lighter, than it is: all they wish is, that they were more strong to bear it; to obey more cheerfully, and constantly. They "choose the way of truth, the way of God's precepts ;" they choose it, as that which best tends in itself to their happiness and welfare. That which grieveth them is, that they are not so strong in obedience as they should be and they pray for grace, to enable them to obey better; but seek not an indulgence, or relaxation. They know for certain, that the only way to have their wills, is to give and resign them to God: and that it is for their own advantage, not God's, that he calls for their hearts; that he requires them for this end, that he may fill them with true peace, rest, and heaven: that he commands them to quit and forsake their false selves, that they may enjoy their best and true selves: that he forbids them to gratify that which the world accounts selflove, because it is indeed no other than self-hatred.

The great foundation of men's backwardness to receive this doctrine, is their mistake of that which they call themselves; their generally valuing themselves by their body, and their reference to this present world: by which means they are chiefly carried out in their affections towards the things thereof; to the pleasing of the body, and satisfying its appetites, though never so unreasonable, and prejudicial to their soul's welfare.

The vulgar opinion is, that the body is the man; a Psal. cxix. 128. b Matt. vii. 14. c Ibid. xi. 29. d Psal. cxix. 30.

and consequently, to love the body is for a man to love himself; and "to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof," is to make provision for himself. But the ancient and wisest philosophers, as also the primitive fathers, the Greek especially, those great lights of the church, would not so much as allow the body to be one half or part of the man this was their sense, Animus cujusque is est quisque, that Every man's soul is the man ;' that, "Ανθρωπός ἐστιν οὐ τοῦτο τὸ ὁρώμενον, «The man is not that part which is seen:' and the holy Scriptures put soul' for the person very frequently.

Man is a creature that can think, reason, and understand that which doth this, is the soul only; and therefore this is the true man. To do acts proper to a man, is above the power of body or matter and therefore both in the holy Scriptures, and in the writings of philosophers, the body is called by those low names of a house and tabernanacle, wherein the soul dwelleth.

Upon this account God, though he allows us to provide for the necessaries and due conveniences of the body, forbids us to love our bodies better than our souls, or equally with them; and permits us not to satisfy the cravings of our bodily appetites, to the hurt and damage of our souls. And all the declarations of his will, concerning us, are for the great end of restoring to the soul its dominion over the body and sensual part, and maintaining its dignity and superiority. And when it is able so to do, by cleaving to God, and willing as he wills, its slavery ceaseth; and it hath recovered true ampli

a Rom. xiii. 14.

tude, largeness, and liberty. "I will walk at liberty," saith the Psalmist," for I seek thy precepts.'

Adam, affecting to be loose from the will of God, thought to have gained more liberty: but he was sadly mistaken; for he hereby became a poor contracted and straitened thing. And David would once be free to gratify the unwarrantable desires of his heart but by this licentious and false freedom he lost the true, he miserably sunk himself into a poor, narrow, and slavish spirit; and therefore he prays, that God would "renew a right spirit within" him; and that he would establish" him 727) "with a free spirit."

CHAP. VII.

That self-resignation is the sum of the gospel commands. That all the ordinances of the gospel, and even faith itself, are in order to this.

d

כּל־האדם

SELF-RESIGNATION is the sum of the gospel commands it is "the whole duty of man," totum hominis, the whole concernment of a Christian; the abridgment of all the laws of Christ. "If there be any other commandment," as the apostle saith of love, “it is briefly comprehended in this;' Thou shalt resign thyself: thou shalt deny thine own will, and surrender it up to the divine will.

This is the great lesson in the school of Christ: "If any man," saith our Saviour, saith our Saviour, "will come b Psal. cxix. 45. c Ibid. li. 12. d Eccles. xii. 13.

e Rom. xiii. 9.

after me," will be my disciple, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.""a

This

As Plato would have it written upon his school door; Μηδεὶς ἀγεωμέτρητος εἰσίτο, • Let none enter, that is unskilled in geometry:' so this is the most proper motto for the school of Christ; Let none enter in here, that is not resolved on self-resignation. "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" was St. Paul's first saying to Christ: and it is the first lesson to be minded by all his disciples. And as it is the alpha, so is it the omega also; it is both the first and the last lesson of Christianity. All is done, when this is done; and till this lesson be learned, all that we have done, or learned, signifies but very little. little. When we have well gotten this, we are άλndãs pantai, "disciples indeed:" it is not the "saying, Lord, Lord, but the doing the will of God," will give us that title.

d

It is observable, that in Rom. xii. (a chapter as full and thick set with practical rules, as richly fraught with divine morality, and matters of Christian practice, as any one chapter in the Epistles,) I say, it is observable, that in this chapter the apostle, describing and inculcating the most excellent and becoming instances of practical Christianity, sets first, as comprehensive of all the particular duties mentioned afterwards, the duty of giving up ourselves as a sacrifice and entire oblation to God. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies," that is, yourselves, (bodies being here put for the whole man, because of the decorous allusion to the bodies of beasts offered in sacrifice under the law,) "a a Matt. xvi. 24. b Acts ix. 6. © John viii. 31.

d Matt. vii. 21.