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lusts, that causeth adultery and all uncleanness? And what is it but the furnishing and providing for self that provoketh any man to rob another? And what is it but some selfish end that causeth any man 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 man, comprised in one word.

And therefore you need not ask me, which commandment it is that doth forbid it; for it is forbidden in every one of the ten 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 time. The second table in the tenth commandment condemneth 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 commandment 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 apprehend the actor: it is selfishness that is the author of all. If the poor be oppressed by the rich, and their lives made almost 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 must rule and be served by them. I warrant you they would not do thus by themselves.

If the poor be discontented and murmur at their condition, 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 them in the Lord, but lets in wars and miseries upon them; that sets the na

tions together 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 teachers 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; it is the common make-bate and troubler of the world.

Nay, it is self that causeth most 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 prohibitions of Christ.

In a word, selfishness is the grand enemy of God, and man; the disease of depraved lapsed nature: the very heart of original sin and the old man; the root of all iniquity in the world the breach of every commandment of the law; the enemy 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 the very image of the devil, as the love of God and our neighbour which is its contrary, is the image of God.

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But now on the contrary side, self-denial complieth with all divine Revelations, and disposeth the soul to all holy requests, and to the observation of every command of God.

It humbly stoopeth to the mysteries of faith, which others proudly quarrel with in the dark. It makes a man say, 'O what am I that I should set my wit against the Lord, and make my reason the touchstone of his truth, and think to comprehend his judgments that are incomprehensible!' 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." It silenceth the carpings of an unsatisfied 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-conceitedness 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 emptieth 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

mouths, but subscribeth to them all. It is the highest ambition, the greatest desire of a self-denying soul, that God's name may be hallowed and honoured; whatever become of his own name or honour; and that the kingdom of God may flourish, in which he desireth to be a subject; and that the will of God may be done, and the will of himself and all the world conformed 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 him 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 which belongeth 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 should draw a self-denying man to sin, (were he but perfect in self-denial) when the poise is taken off, the wheels all stand still. Self-denial doth frustrate temptations, and leave them little to work upon. What should move a self-denying man to be proud, or covetous, or injurious to others? No man doth evil, but as it seemeth good, and for some good that he imagineth it will do him: and this seeming good is to carnal self: and therefore 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 morstification. Would you but destroy this original breeding sin, you would destroy all. All the sins of your lives are the fruits of your selfishness; kill them at the heart and root, if you 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 yourselves.

CHAPTER LXV.

Contrary to the State of Holiness and Happiness.

3. MOREOVER, selfishness is contrary to the state of holiness and happiness; contrary to every grace, and contrary to the life of glory. For it is the use of all grace to recover 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 to 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 after life in God; it must forsake itself, and apply itself to him. Men lose their labour till they deny themselves, by going to a broken, empty 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 him, the happier they 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 departing 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 the way to peace and comfort. While we rest on ourselves, or are taken up with 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 somewhat that is vexatious and displeasing to it: this business goes cross, and that business is troublesome: this person is troublesome, and that person is abusive and injurious :

one is false and treacherous, or slanderous; and another is imprudent and weak, and burdensome: what between the baits of prosperity, and the troubles of affliction, the perverseness 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 multitudes that will be displeased when we have done our best; and the murmurings, reproaches, and false accusations that we shall be sure of from the displeased; and which is the worst of all, the burdensome weaknesses and corruptions of our own souls, and the sins of our lives, and the daily vexation 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 selfinterest, and withdraw from the creature, as if there were no self or creature for it in the world, and to retire into God, and satisfy my soul with his goodness and all-sufficiency, and faithfulness, and immutability. And in him is nothing to disquiet or discontent, unless you will call his enmity to our own diseases and unhappiness a discontenting thing. And this is not my own experience alone, but all that know what Christian peace and comfort is, do know that they lose it, and are torn in pieces while they are caring and contriving for themselves; and that retiring into God, and casting all their care on him, and satisfying themselves with him alone, though all the creatures should turn against them, is the way to their content and quietness of mind. The example of David is exceedingly observable; 1 Sam. xxx. 6. When besides the distressed estate that he was before in, the city 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 him, "lift up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep;" and to make up his calamity, the soldiers that were with him talked of stoning him because of the loss of their wives and children; in this desolate condition, saith the text, "But David encouraged (or comforted) himself in the Lord his God." And it is good for us sometime to have nothing in this world left us that will afford us comfort, that we may

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