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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 them 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 cannot 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 misguided, 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 afterwards may be his death. You love that which hurteth you; yea, that which is no better than poison to your souls. You would soon undo yourselves, if you 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 mind 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 submit himself to the will of his physician; and should not you much more submit to God? Yea, you should desire him to deny your own wills, whenever he seeth them contrary to his will, and to your own good: had you but the skill of judging aright of God's dealings, I am persuaded that upon the review of your lives, you would find, that God hath shewed you more mercy in the crossing of your wi!ls, than in accomplishing them. Be not therefore too 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 mu

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tations. He knows the end at the beginning, and sets you upon nothing but what he is sure will comfort you at the last. It belongeth to his will and not to yours to dispose of you and all your affairs. 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.

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8. Moreover, self-will is satan's will, and stirred 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 selfwill; 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 trespasses 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 the Holy 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 perfection and felicity of man, to be conformed to the will of God, and to rest with 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 will. 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 unsanctified and unsaved, and in the power of your great disease. And so far as you are dead to self-will, and look up to the will of God both for direction and content, and will that which he willeth, even because he willeth it, and would have you will it, and can rest your souls in this as full satisfaction. 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 God, but you shall not frustrate it. You may break his laws, but shall not escape his judgments. You may rebel against his commanding will, but you cannot resist his punishing will. When you have done your

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worst, it is God's will that must stand; and such a will as is little to the pleasure of your wills. But self-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 come, 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 that you 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, selfwill 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 everlasting content. Your own wills may be crossed by every trifle; any man 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 accidents may cross them. Your very beast can cross you; and almost any thing in the world can cross you; much more can God at any time cross you; and cross you certainly he will so that in your own wills there is no rest nor happiness. But if you could bring your wills to God's, and take up your full content in this, It is the will of God,' then what a constant, invincible content might you have! Then all the world could not disturb you and rob you of your content, because they cannot conquer the will of God: his will shall be done; and so you should always have content.

CHAPTER XVI.

Selfish Passions to be Denied.

5. ANOTHER part of selfishness to be 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 them is but fury, or carnal zeal, and the height of vice. But how rare is it to meet with men that are meek and patient in their own cause, and passionate in a holy zeal for God! I know many 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 little know what spirit they are of; but pure zeal for God, conjoined with 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 men are strong after those things that supply their own necessities, and please their own corrupted wills; but how cold are they after the honour of God! How averse are men from that which hurteth the flesh; as to go into a pesthouse, or to take deadly poison, or to suffer any pain; but few are so averse to the breaking of the law of God. A hard word, or a little injury done to themselves, will put them into a passion, so that their anger is working out in reproach, if not in more revenge: but 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 hear him call them rogue, or thief, or liar, or any such disgraceful It seems an intolerable dishonour with selfish persons that are advanced by pride to be great in their own

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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 harm in them. Their own enemies, whom God commandeth them to love, they hate at the heart; but the enemies 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 him, he commanded his soldiers to let him alone, for God had bidden him; that is, by that afflicting providence on David he had occasioned it, and by the withdrawing of his restraint, he had let out his malice, for a trial for David. Thus David could endure a man to go along 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 slanderer, 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 from him; he will cut them 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 tables of stone, in which God had written the law, and broke them; but when Miriam and Aaron spake against himself, he let God alone with 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 name of instruments 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 it 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 am such a silly wretched worm, that a wrong done to me is a small matter

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