1. What is the great work of the cross? The answer to this is
of great moment.--2. The work of the cross is self-denial.--3.
What was the cup and cross of Christ?--4. What is our cup and
cross?--5. Our duty is to follow Christ as our captain.--6.
Of the distinction in self, a lawful and unlawful self.--7.
What the lawful self is.--8. That it is to be denied in some
cases by Christ's doctrine and example.--9. By the Apostle's
pattern.--10. The danger of preferring lawful self above our
duty to God.--11. The reward of self-denial an excitement to
it.--12. This doctrine as old as Abraham.--13. His obedience
of faith memorable.--14. Job a great instance of self-denial,
his contentment.--15. Moses also a mighty example, his neglect
of Pharaoh's court.--16. His choice.--17. The reason of it,
viz. the recompense of reward.--18. Isaiah no inconsiderable
instance, who of a courtier, became a holy prophet.--19. These
instances concluded with that of holy Daniel, his patience and
integrity, and the success they had upon the king.--20. There
might be many mentioned to confirm this blessed doctrine.--21.
All must be left for Christ, as men would be saved.--22. The
way of God is a way of faith and self-denial.--23. An earnest
supplication and exhortation to all, to attend upon these things.
But fourthly, What is the great work and business of the cross
respecting man?
Answ. I. This indeed is of that mighty moment to be truly, plainly,
and thoroughly answered, that all that went before seems only to
serve for preface to it; and miscarrying in it to be no less than
a misguidance of the soul about its way to blessedness. I shall
therefore pursue the question, with God's help, and the best
knowledge He hath given me in the experience of several years'
discipleship.
II. The great work and business of the cross of Christ in man
is self-denial; a word of as much depth in itself as of sore
contradiction to the world, little understood but less embraced by
it, yet it must be borne for all that. The Son of God is gone before
us, and, by the bitter cup He drank and the baptism He suffered, has
left us an example that we should follow in his steps; which made
him put that hard question to the wife of Zebedee and her two sons,
upon her soliciting that one might sit at his right and the other at
his left hand in his kingdom, "Are ye able to drink of the cup that
I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized
with?" It seems their faith was strong; they answered, "We are
able." Upon which he replied, "Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and
be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with;" but their reward
he left to his Father. (Matt. xx. 21, 22, 23.)
III. What was his cup he drank, and baptism he suffered? I answer,
they were the denial and offering up of himself by the eternal
Spirit to the will of God, undergoing the tribulations of his life
and agonies of his death upon the cross for man's salvation.
IV. What is our cup and cross that we should drink and suffer? They
are the denial and offering up of ourselves, by the same Spirit, to
do or suffer the will of God for his service and glory, which is
the true life and obedience of the cross of Jesus; narrow still,
but before an unbeaten way. For when there was none to help, not
one to open the seals, to give knowledge, to direct the course
of poor man's recovery, He came in the greatness of his love and
strength; and though clothed with the infirmities of a mortal man,
being within fortified with the almightiness of an immortal God, He
travelled through all the straits and difficulties of humanity, and
first, of all others, trod the untrodden path to blessedness.
V. O come! let us follow Him, the most unwearied, the most
victorious captain of our salvation; to whom all the great
Alexanders and mighty Cæsars of the world are less than the poorest
soldier of their camps could be to them. True, they were all great
princes of their kind, and conquerors too, but on very different
principles. For Christ made himself of no reputation, to save
mankind; but these plentifully ruined people to augment theirs. They
vanquished others, not themselves; Christ conquered self, that ever
vanquished them; of merit therefore the most excellent Prince and
Conqueror. Besides, they advanced their empire by rapine and blood,
but He by suffering and persuasion; He never by compulsion, they
always by force prevailed. Misery and slavery followed all their
victories, his brought greater freedom and felicity to those he
overcame. In all they did they sought to please themselves; in all
He did he aimed to please his Father, who is King of kings and Lord
of lords.
It is this most perfect pattern of self-denial we must follow, if
ever we will come to glory; to do which let us consider self-denial
in its true distinction and extent.
VI. There is a lawful and unlawful self: and both must be denied
for the sake of him, who in submission to the will of God counted
nothing dear that he might save us. And, though the world be
scarcely in any part of it at that pass as yet to need that
lesson of the denial of lawful self, that every day most greedily
sacrifices to the pleasure of unlawful self; yet to take the whole
thing before me, and for that it may possibly meet with some that
are so far advanced in this spiritual warfare as to receive some
service from it, I shall at least touch upon it.
VII. The lawful self which we are to deny, is that conveniency,
ease, enjoyment, and plenty, which in themselves are so far from
being evil, that they are the bounty and blessings of God to us, as
husband, wife, child, house, land, reputation, liberty, and life
itself; these are God's favours, which we may enjoy with lawful
pleasure and justly improve as our honest interest. But when God
requires them, at what time soever the lender calls for them or
is pleased to try our affections by our parting with them; I say,
when they are brought in competition with him, they must not be
preferred, they must be denied. Christ himself descended from the
glory of his Father, and willingly made himself of no reputation
among men, that he might make us of some with God; and, from the
quality of thinking it no robbery to be equal with God, he humbled
himself to the poor form of a servant; yea, the ignominious death of
the cross. (Phil. ii. 5, 6, 7, 8.)
VIII. It is the doctrine he teaches us in these words, "He that
loveth father or mother, son or daughter, more than me, is not
worthy of me." (Matt. x. 37.) Again, "Whoever he be of you that
forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be my disciple." (Luke, xiv.
33.) And he plainly told the young rich man that if he would have
eternal life, he should sell all and follow him; (Mark, x. 21, 22;)
a doctrine sad to him as it is to those that, like him, for all
their high pretences to religion, in truth love their possessions
more than Christ. This doctrine of self-denial is the condition
to eternal happiness, "He that will come after me, let him deny
himself, and take up his cross and follow me." (Matt. xvi. 24.)
IX. This made those honest fishermen quit their lawful trades and
follow him, when he called them to it, and others that waited for
the consolation of Israel to offer up their estates, reputations,
liberties, and also lives, to the displeasure and fury of their
kindred and the government they lived under for the spiritual
advantage that accrued to them by their faithful adherence to his
holy doctrine. True, many would have excused their following him in
the parable of the feast: some had bought land, some had married
wives, and others had bought yokes of oxen, and could not come;
(Luke, xiv. 18, 19, 20;) that is, an immoderate love of the world
hindered them: their lawful enjoyments, from servants became their
idols; they worshipped them more than God, and would not quit them
to come to God. But this is recorded to their reproach; and we may
herein see the power of self upon the worldly man, and the danger
that comes to him by the abuse of lawful things. What, thy wife
dearer to thee than thy Saviour! and thy land and oxen preferred
before thy soul's salvation! O beware, that thy comforts prove not
snares first, and then curses: to overrate them, is to provoke him
that gave them to take them away again: come, and follow him that
giveth life eternal to the soul.
X. Woe to them that have their hearts in their earthly possessions!
for when they are gone, their heaven is gone with them. It is too
much the sin of the greatest part of the world, that they stick
in the comforts of it. And it is lamentable to behold how their
affections are bemired and entangled with their conveniencies and
accommodations in it. The true self-denying man is a pilgrim; but
the selfish man is an inhabitant of the world: the one uses it, as
men do ships, to transport themselves or tackle in a journey, that
is, to get home; the other looks no further, whatever he prates,
than to be fixed in fulness and ease here, and likes it so well,
that if he could, he would not exchange. However, he will not
trouble himself to think of the other world, till he is sure he must
live no longer in this: but then, alas! it may prove too late; not
to Abraham, but to Dives he may go; the story is as true as sad.
XI. But on the other hand, it is not for nought that the disciples
of Jesus deny themselves; and indeed, Christ himself had the eternal
joy in his eye: "For the joy that was set before him," says the
author to the Hebrews, "he endured the cross;" (Heb. xii. 2;) that
is, he denied himself, and bore the reproaches and death of the
wicked; and despised the shame, to wit, the dishonour and derision
of the world. It made him not afraid nor shrink, he contemned it;
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. And to their
encouragement, and great consolation, when Peter asked him, what
they should have that had forsaken all to follow him, he answered
them, "Verily I say unto you, that ye, which have followed me in
the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of
his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the
twelve tribes of Israel," (Matt. xix. 27-29,) that were then in an
apostacy from the life and power of godliness. This was the lot of
his disciples; the more immediate companions of his tribulations,
and first messengers of his kingdom. But the next that follows is
to all: and "every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for
my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit
everlasting life." It was this recompense of reward, this eternal
crown of righteousness, that in every age has raised, in the souls
of the just, a holy neglect, yea, contempt of the world. To this is
owing the constancy of the martyrs, as to their blood, the triumph
of the Truth.
XII. Nor is this a new doctrine; it is as old as Abraham. (Gen.
xii.) In several most remarkable instances, his life was made up
of self-denial. First, in quitting his own land, where we may well
suppose him settled in the midst of plenty, at least sufficiency:
and why? Because God called him. Indeed this should be reason
enough, but such is the world's degeneracy that in fact it is not:
and the same act, upon the same inducement, in any now, though
praised in Abraham, would be derided. So apt are people not to
understand what they commend; nay, to despise those actions, when
they meet them in the people of their own times, which they pretend
to admire in their ancestors.
XIII. But he obeyed: the consequence was, that God gave him a mighty
land. This was the first reward of his obedience. The next was, a
son in his old age; and which greatened the blessing, after it had
been, in nature, past the time of his wife's bearing of children.
(Gen. xxii. 2.) Yet God called for his darling, their only child,
the joy of their age, the son of a miracle, and he upon whom the
fulfilling of the promise made to Abraham did depend. For this
son, I say, God called: a mighty trial: that which, one would have
thought, might very well have overturned his faith, and stumbled
his integrity; at least have put him upon this dispute in himself.
This command is unreasonable and cruel; it is the tempter's, it
cannot be God's. For, is it to be thought that God gave me a son to
make a sacrifice of him? that the father should be butcher of his
only child? Again, that he should require me to offer up the son of
his own promise, by whom his covenant is to be performed; this is
incredible. I say, thus Abraham might naturally enough have argued,
to withstand the voice of God, and indulge his great affections
to his beloved Isaac. But good old Abraham, that knew the voice
that had promised him a son, had not forgotten to know it, when it
required him back again; he disputes not, though it looked strange,
and perhaps with some surprise and horror, as a man. He had learned
to believe that God, that gave him a child by a miracle, could work
another to preserve or restore him. His affections could not balance
his duty, much less overcome his faith; for he received him in a way
that would let him doubt of nothing that God had promised to him.
To the voice of this Almightiness he bows, builds an altar, binds
his only son upon it, kindles the fire, and stretches forth his hand
to take the knife: but the angel stopped the stroke: Hold, Abraham,
thy integrity is proved. What followed? a ram served, and Isaac was
his again. This shows how little serves, where all is resigned,
and how mean a sacrifice contents the Almighty, where the heart is
approved. So that it is not the sacrifice that recommends the heart,
but the heart that gives the sacrifice acceptance.
God often touches our best comforts, and calls for that which we
most love, and are least willing to part with. Not that he always
takes it utterly away, but to prove the soul's integrity, to caution
us from excesses, and that we may remember God, the author of those
blessings we possess, and live loose to them. I speak my experience;
the way to keep our enjoyments is to resign them; and though that
be hard, it is sweet to see them returned, as Isaac was to his
father Abraham, with more love and blessing than before. O stupid
world! O worldly Christians; not only strangers, but enemies to this
excellent faith! and whilst so, the rewards of it you can never know.
XIV. But Job presses hard upon Abraham: his self-denial also was
very signal. For when the messengers of his afflictions came thick
upon him, one doleful story after another, till he was left almost
as naked as when he was born; the first thing he did, he fell to
the ground, and worshipped that power, and kissed that hand that
stripped him; so far from murmuring, that he concludes his losses
of estate and children with these words: "Naked came I out of my
mother's womb, and naked shall I return: the Lord gave and the Lord
hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job, i. 21.) O
the deep faith, patience, and contentment of this excellent man!
one would have thought this repeated news of ruin had been enough
to have overset his confidence in God; but it did not; that stayed
him. But indeed he tells us why; his Redeemer lived; "I know," says
he, "that my Redeemer lives." (Job, xix. 25, 26.) And it appeared
he did; for he had redeemed him from the world: his heart was not
in his worldly comforts: his hope lived above the joys of time and
troubles of mortality; not tempted by the one, nor shaken by the
other; but firmly believed, that when after his skin worms should
have consumed his body, yet with his eyes he should see his God.
Thus was the heart of Job both submitted to and comforted in the
will of God.
XV. Moses is the next great example in sacred story for remarkable
self-denial, before the times of Christ's appearance in the
flesh. He had been saved when an infant, by an extraordinary
providence, and it seems, by what followed, for an extraordinary
service: Pharaoh's daughter, whose compassion was the means of his
preservation, when the king decreed the slaughter of the Hebrew
males, (Exod. ii. 1, 10,) took him for her son, and gave him the
education of her father's court. His own graceful presence and
extraordinary abilities, joined with her love for him, and interest
in her father to promote him, must have rendered him, if not capable
of succession, at least of being chief minister of affairs under
that wealthy and powerful prince. For Egypt was then what Athens and
Rome were after, the most famous for learning, art, and glory.
XVI. But Moses, ordained for other work and guided by a higher
principle, no sooner came to years of discretion, than the impiety
of Egypt, and the oppressions of his brethren there, grew a burden
too heavy for him to bear. And though so wise and good a man could
not want those generous and grateful acknowledgments, that became
the kindness of the king's daughter to him; yet he had also seen
that God that was invisible; (Heb. xi. 24-27;) and did not dare to
live in the ease and plenty of Pharaoh's house, whilst his poor
brethren were required to make brick without straw. (Exod. v. 7, 16.)
Thus the fear of the Almighty taking deep hold of his heart, he
nobly refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and
chose rather a life of affliction, with the most despised and
oppressed Israelites, and to be the companion of their tribulations
and jeopardies, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
esteeming the reproaches of Christ, which he suffered for making
that unworldly choice, greater riches than all the treasures of that
kingdom.
XVII. Nor was he so foolish as they thought him; he had reason on
his side; for it is said, he had an eye to the recompense of reward,
he did but refuse a lesser benefit for a greater. In this his wisdom
transcended that of the Egyptians; for they made the present world
their choice, as uncertain as the weather, and so lost that which
has no end. Moses looked deeper, and weighed the enjoyments of this
life in the scales of eternity, and found they made no weight there.
He governed himself not by the immediate possession, but the nature
and duration of the reward. His faith corrected his affections, and
taught him to sacrifice the pleasure of self, to the hope he had of
a future more excellent recompense.
XVIII. Isaiah[1] was no inconsiderable instance of this blessed
self-denial; who of a courtier became a prophet, and left the
worldly interests of the one, for the faith, patience, and
sufferings of the other. For his choice did not only lose him the
favour of men, but their wickedness, enraged at his integrity to
God, in his fervent and bold reproofs of them, made a martyr of him
in the end, for they barbarously sawed him asunder in the reign of
king Manasseh. Thus died that excellent man, and commonly called the
Evangelical Prophet.
[1] Dorotheus in his Lives of the Prophets.
XIX. I shall add, of many, one example more, and that is from
the fidelity of Daniel; a holy and wise young man, who when his
external advantages came in competition with his duty to Almighty
God, relinquished them all; and instead of being solicitous how to
secure himself, as one minding nothing less, he was, to the utmost
hazard of himself, most careful how to preserve the honour of God,
by his fidelity to his will. And though at the first it exposed him
to ruin, yet, as an instance of great encouragement to all that like
him will choose to keep a good conscience in an evil time, at last
it advanced him greatly in the world; and the God of Daniel was made
famous and terrible through his perseverance even in the eyes of
heathen kings.
XX. What shall I say of all the rest, who counted nothing dear that
they might do the will of God, abandoned their worldly comforts,
and exposed their ease and safety, as often as the heavenly vision
called them,[2] to the wrath and malice of degenerate princes and an
apostate church? More especially Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Micah, who
after they had denied themselves, in obedience to the divine voice,
sealed their testimony with their blood.
[2] Dorotheus in his Lives of the Prophets.
Thus was self-denial the practice and glory of the ancients, that
were predecessors to the coming of Christ in the flesh: and shall
we hope to go to heaven without it now, when our Saviour himself is
become the most excellent example of it? and that not as some would
fain have it, viz. for us, that we need not; (1 Peter, ii. 21;) but
for us, that we might deny ourselves, and so be the true followers
of his blessed example.
XXI. Whoever therefore thou art that wouldst do the will of
God, but faintest in thy desires, from the opposition of worldly
considerations, remember I tell thee, in the name of Christ, that
he that prefers father or mother, sister or brother, wife or child,
house or land, reputation, honour, office, liberty, or life, before
the testimony of the light of Jesus, in his own conscience, shall be
rejected of him in the solemn and general inquest upon the world,
when all shall be judged, and receive according to the deeds done,
not the profession made, in this life. It was the doctrine of Jesus,
that if thy right hand offend thee, thou must cut it off; and if thy
right eye offend thee, thou must pluck it out: (Matt. v. 29, 30:)
that is, if the most dear, the most useful and tender comforts thou
enjoyest, stand in thy soul's way, and interrupt thy obedience to
the voice of God, and thy conformity to his holy will revealed in
thy soul, thou art engaged, under the penalty of damnation, to part
with them.
XXII. The way of God is a way of faith, as dark to sense, as mortal
to self. It is the children of obedience, who count, with holy Paul,
all things dross and dung, that they may win Christ, and know and
walk in this narrow way. Speculation will not do, nor can refined
notions enter; the obedient only eat the good of this land. (Isaiah,
i. 19.) They that do his will, says the blessed Jesus, shall know
of my doctrine; (John, vii. 17;) them He will instruct. There is no
room for instruction, where lawful self is lord, and not servant.
For self cannot receive it; that which should is oppressed by self,
fearful, and dare not. O! what will my father or mother say? How
will my husband use me? or finally, what will the magistrate do
with me? For though I have a most powerful persuasion, and clear
conviction upon my soul, of this or that thing, yet considering how
unmodish it is, what enemies it has, and how strange and singular I
shall seem to them, I hope God will pity my weakness: if I sink, I
am but flesh and blood; it may be hereafter He may better enable me;
and there is time enough. Thus selfish, fearful man.
But deliberating is ever worst; for the soul loses in parley: the
manifestation brings power with it. Never did God convince people,
but, upon submission, he empowered them. He requires nothing without
giving ability to perform it: that were mocking, not saving men.
It is enough for thee to do thy duty, that God shows thee thy
duty; provided thou closest with that light and spirit by which he
gives thee that knowledge. They that want power, are such as do
not receive Christ in his convictions upon the soul, and such will
always want it; but such as do, they receive power, like those of
old, to become the children of God, through the pure obedience of
faith.
XXIII. Wherefore, let me beseech you, by the love and mercy of God,
by the life and death of Christ, by the power of his Spirit, and
the hope of immortality, that you, whose hearts are established in
your temporal comforts, and so lovers of self, more than of these
heavenly things, would let the time past suffice: that you would
not think it enough to be clear of such impieties, as too many are
found in, whilst your inordinate love of lawful things has defiled
your enjoyment of them, and drawn your hearts from the fear, love,
obedience, and self-denial of a true disciple of Jesus. Turn about
then, and hearken to the still voice in thy conscience; it tells
thee thy sins, and thy misery in them; it gives a lively discovery
of the very vanity of the world, and opens to the soul some prospect
of eternity, and the comforts of the just that are at rest. If thou
adhere to this, it will divorce thee from sin and self: thou wilt
soon find, that the power of its charms exceeds that of wealth,
honour, and beauty of the world, and finally will give thee that
tranquillity which the storms of time can never shipwreck nor
disorder. Here all thy enjoyments are blest, though small, yet
great by that presence that is within them.
Even in this world the righteous have the better of it, for they use
the world without rebuke, because they do not abuse it. They see and
bless the hand that feeds, and clothes, and preserves them. And as
by beholding him in all his works, they do not adore them, but him;
so the sweetness of his blessings that gives them, is an advantage
such have upon those that see him not. Besides, in their increase,
they are not lifted up, nor in their adversities are they cast down:
and why? Because they are moderated in the one, and comforted in the
other, by his divine presence.
In short, heaven is the throne, and the earth but the footstool of
that man that hath self under foot. And those that know that station
will not easily be moved; such learn to number their days, that they
may not be surprised with their dissolution; and to redeem their
time, because their days are evil; (Ephes. v. 16;) remembering they
are stewards, and must deliver up their accounts to an impartial
judge. Therefore not to self but to him they live, and in him die,
and are blessed with them that die in the Lord. And thus I conclude
my discourse on the right use of lawful self.