So Titus and Aristides, and many others, have been famous for preferring the public good above their own advantage. My prayer is, and shall be, that all our rulers may be so inspired of God, that they may be willing to be any thing or nothing, to deny, and trample sinful self under foot, for the honour of God, and the public good; than neither saints nor heathens may be witnesses against them in that day wherein the hearts and practices of all the rulers of the world shall be laid open, before him who shall judge the world in righteousness and truth.

Rem. 6. Seriously consider, that self is a great hinderance to divine things, therefore the prophets and apostles were usually carried out of themselves, when they had the clearest and most glorious visions. Self-seeking so blinds the soul, that it can neither see beauty in Christ, nor excellency in holiness; it distempers the palate, that a man cannot taste sweetness in the word and ways of God, nor in the society of his people; it shuts the hand against all the soulenriching gifts of Christ, it hardens the heart against all his knocks and entreaties: it makes the soul as an empty vine, and as a barren wilderness. Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit to himself,' Hos. x. 1. There is nothing that shows a man to be more empty and void of God, Christ, and grace, than self-seek

X 2

ing.* The Pharisees were great self-seekers, and great undervaluers of Christ, his word, and Spirit.

There is not a greater hinderance to all the duties of piety, than self-seeking; Oh! this is it that keeps many a soul from looking after God, and the precious things of eternity; they cannot wait upon, nor act for God, nor abide in those ways wherein they might meet with him, by reason of self. Self-seeking is that which puts many aman upon neglecting the things of his peace. Self-seekers will neither go into heaven themselves nor suffer others to enter, who are ready to take the kingdom by violence, as we may see in the Scribes and Pharisees. Oh! but a gracious spirit is led quite in different ways; as you may see in that sweet scripture, Cant. vii. 13. At our gates are all manner of pleasant fruit, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O beloved! All the church hath, and is, is only for him; let others bear fruit to themselves, and lay up for themselves, gracious spirits will hide and lay up for Christ. All the divine endeavours and productions of saints, fall into God's bosom, and empty themselves into his

* Self-seekers with Esau, prefer a mess of pottage above their birth-right; and with the men of Shechem, esteem the bramble above the vine, the olive, and the figtree, yea, empty things above a full Christ, and base things above a glorious Christ.

lap. As Christ lays up his merits, his graces, his comforts, and his crown for them; so they lay up all their fruits, their loves, their graces, their experiences, and their services, only for him who is the soul of their comforts, and the crown and summit of all their royalty and glory, &c.

CHAPTER II.

The second Device that Satan hath to ensnare and destroy the great and honourable of the earth, is,

BY engaging them against the people of the most High, who are his jewels, his pleasant portion, the delight of his eye, and the joy of his heart. Thus he drew Pharaoh to engage against the children of Israel, and that was his overthrow. He engaged Haman against the Jews, and so brought him to hang upon the gallows he had made for Mordecai. So he engaged those princes and presidents against Daniel, which was the utter ruin of them and their relations.

* The saints' motto is, "For thee, O Lord, for thee!" Or, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us!?!

So in Rev. xx. 7, 8, 9. And when the thousand years had expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. And he shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; whose number is as the sand of the And they went up upon the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and consumed them.’ -Now the remedies against this device are these:

sea.

Remedy 1. Against this device of Satan, consider, that none have engaged against the saints, but have been ruined by the God of saints. Divine justice hath been too many for all that have opposed and engaged against the saints, as is evident in Saul, Pharaoh, Haman, &c. He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.' When men of Balaam's spirit and principles have engaged against the saints, the angel of the Lord hath met them in the way of their destruction.

What a harvest hath hell had in our days,

As they said once of the Grecians in the epigram, whom they thought invulnerable: "We shoot at them, but they fall not down; we wound them, and not kill them," &c. The number of opposers makes the Christian's conquests the more illustrious, said Pedarelus in Erasmus.

of those who have engaged against the Lamb, and those that are called chosen and faithful?

How hath Divine justice poured out their blood, as water upon the ground? How hath he laid their honour and glory in the dust, who in the pride and madness of their hearts, have said even as Pharaoh: We will pursue, we will overtake, we will divide the spoil, our lusts shall be satisfied upon them. We will draw our sword, our hand shall destroy them. In the things wherein they have spoken and done proudly, justice hath been above them.' History abounds in nothing more than in instances of this kind, &c.*

Rem. 2. Dwell some time every morning upon these following scriptures, wherein God hath

* Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, who could not, on the day bishops Latimer and Ridley were burnt at Oxford, sit down to dinner till he heard, fire was set to them. Sit down to dinner he did, but the hand of vengeance was soon visibly laid on him, for he was presently taken from the table to his bed, where languishing fifteen days a most dreadful spectacle he died! And that matchless tyrant of cruelty, Bonner, bishop of London, who had made prisoners of, and caused so many to be put to death, for loving the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, was himself at last made prisoner in the Marshalsea, where he died in great poverty and misery; and as I have been told, his body was buried under the prison-wall, none lamenting him. The judgment threatened Jehoiakim, king of Judah, was fulfilled in him: there was none to lament him, to say, Ah! brother, or, ah! sister, but he was buri ed with the burial of an ass, Jer. xii. 19, 20. D.