First, And as a foundation for all the rest, I shall consider the extent of this duty, both in regard of the object, or the things which are to be denied, and in regard of the subject, or the persons who are to practise it.
I. For the object - A man's own self, it is a bundle of idols.
Since God was laid aside, self succeeded in the crown; we set up everything
that we call our own. Everything before which we may put that possessive 'ours'
may be abused and set up as a snare, all the excellences and comforts of human
life, both inward and outward.
For the understanding of this, and that you may know how far self is to be
denied, I must premise some general considerations, and then instance in
some particulars; for it seemeth harsh and contrary to reason that a man
should deny himself, since nature teacheth a man to love himself and cherish
himself: Eph. 5.29, 'No man ever hated his own flesh;' and grace doth not
disallow it. Therefore -
[1.] In general, you must know when respects to self are culpable.
There is a lawful self-love - 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,' James
2.8; in which there is, not only a direction to love our neighbour, but a
concession and allowance implied to love ourselves; and in so doing, we do
well. By an innocent and natural respect nature fortifies itself, and seeks its
own preservation. A man may respect himself in a regular way. That self which
we must hate or deny is that self which stands in opposition to God or
competition with him, and so jostleth with him for the throne; lay aside God,
and self steppeth in as the next heir; it is the great idol of the world, ever
since the fall, when men took the boldness to depose and lay aside God, as it
were, self succeeded in the throne. Fallen man, like Reuben, went up to his
father's bed. Self intercepted all those respects and embraces which were due
to God himself, and so man became both his own idol and idolater. It is with
God and self as it was with Dagon and the ark; they can never stand together in
competition; set up the ark, and Dagon must fall upon his face; set up Dagon,
and the ark is deposed and put down. Well then, if we would know when self is
sinfully respected, we must consider what are the rights and the undoubted
flowers of the crown of heaven; I mean, what are those special privileges and
respects that are so appropriated to the godhead, as that they cannot without
treason to the King of all the earth, be alienated from him or communicated to
any creature. Now these are four: -
(1.) To be the first cause, upon whom all things depend in their being
and operation.
(2.) To be the chiefest good, and therefore to be valued above all
beings, interests, and concernments in the world.
(3.) To be the highest lord and most absolute sovereign, who swayeth all
things by his laws and providence.
(4.) To be the last end, in which all things do at length terminate and
centre.
(1.) As God is the first cause, so he would keep up the respects of the
world to his majesty by dependence and trust. Now it is the ambition of man
to affect an independency, to be a god to himself, sufficient for his own
happiness. Our first parents greedily catched at that bait: - Ye shall be as
gods,' Gen. 3.5. The devil meant it not in a blessed conformity, but a cursed
self-sufficiency; and we are all apt to be taken in the same snare, which
certainly is a very grievous sin. Nothing can be more hateful to God. This
therefore is a great part of self-denial, to work us off from other
dependences, and to trust in God alone.
(2.) As God is the chiefest good, so he must have the highest esteem.
Valuing other things above God is the ground of all miscarriage in the business
of religion. When anything is honoured above God, or made equal with God, or
indulged against the will of God, Dagon is set up, and the ark is made to
fall.
(3.) As God is the highest lord and most absolute sovereign, it is his
peculiar prerogative to give laws to the creature; therefore self is not to
interpose and give laws to us, but only God; his will must stand. The great
contest indeed between God and the creature is, whose will shall stand, God's
will or ours; who shall prescribe to us, self or God. Fleshly nature sets up
laws against laws, and our fleshly wills set up providence against providence.
Self-will is bewrayed by murmuring against God's providence, by rebellion
against his laws, and when we are obstinate in our homage and obedience to
self: Jer. 18.12, we will walk in the way of our own heart; and Jer. 44.17,
whatsoever cometh out of our mouths, that we will do. So James 1.14, the
apostle makes it to be the root of all sin when a man is drawn away by his own
lusts and his own will, that is set up against the laws of God. So in
providence, a stubborn creature will not submit when God's will is declared. It
was a great submission, and an act of self-denial in Christ - 'Not as I will,
but as thou wilt;' but self saith, Not as thou wilt, but as I will; for we by
murmuring set up an anti-providence against God.
(4.) As God is the last end of our beings and actions, the supreme cause is
to be the utmost end: Prov. 16.4, 'God made all things for himself.' But
now, in all that we do we look to ourselves; vain man sets up self at the end
of every action, and jostles out God. In all the actions of life they are but a
kind of homage to the idol of self, if they eat and drink, it is to nourish
self, a meat-offering and drink-offering to appetite. If they pray or praise,
it is but to worship self, to advance the repute of self; the crown is taken
off from Gods head, he is not made the utmost end. If they give alms, they are
a sacrifice offered to the idol of self-estimation; 'They give alms to be seen
of men,' saith Christ, and in this self is set up, and God is deposed and laid
aside.
[2.] Let me give you some particular instances. To instance in
excellences, moral or natural, or in civil interest.
In moral excellences: righteousness, that is apt to be a snare in point of
self-dependence. Paul found it to be zeimian, a loss, Phil. 3.7, a
hindrance from casting ourselves entirely upon grace. It is the highest point
of self-denial for a man to deny his own righteousness, to see the dung and
dross that is in himself and all his moral excellences. So also, concerning our
own wisdom, that is a self that comes to be denied. It is said to Babylon: Isa.
47, 'Thy understanding hath undone thee.' So of all men, when we presume upon
our own sense and apprehension, we soon go wrong. This is the main thing to be
considered here; for Peter, out of carnal wisdom, dissuades Christ, and then
Christ saith, 'Whoever will come after me, let him deny himself,' deny the
dictates of his own reason and will. He that makes his own bosom his oracle,
asketh counsel of a fool; we shall be cavilling and disputing till we have
disputed ourselves out of all religion: Job. 6.24, 'Cause me to understand
wherein I have erred.' Till we come to see by divine light, carnal wisdom is
always making lies and ill reports of religion; we think it folly and
preciseness to be strict, and that zeal is fury, and it is cowardice and
disgrace to put up wrong. We shall still be calling good evil, and evil good,
because we are wise in our own eyes; there is a woe pronounced upon such' Isa.
5.21,22, 'Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes. and prudent in their
own sight!' etc. It is an excellent point of self-denial to 'become a fool,
that we may be wise,' 1 Cor. 3.18. As when we look in a perspective-glass we
wink with one eye, that we may see the more clearly with the other; so here we
must put out the eye of carnal wisdom, and become fools, that we may be wise
for Christ.
So for all civil interests: life, that is the most precious possession of the
creature, and yet not too good to be denied: ver. 25, Christ instanceth -
'Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it.' That is the gospel
way of thriving, to lose all for God. Now this is to be denied, not only in
purpose and vow, but when it comes to trial; as it is said of the saints: Rev
12.11, 'They loved not their lives to the death.' When it comes to a point,
either they must leave their God or lose their lives on the account of
religion. The loving-kindness of God is better than life. So for estate: Mat.
19.27, 'We have left all and followed thee,' say the disciples; we must leave
our coat, as Joseph did, that we may keep our conscience whole. The best usury
in the world; ten in the hundred would in the world be counted an oppression;
but now here is a hundred for one, Mark 10.32. So also for fame and esteem in
the world; though to an ingenious spirit this is exceeding precious, yet John
the Baptist, speaking of Christ, saith, 'He must increase, but I must
decrease.' We must be content to be ciphers, that Christ may rise up into the
greater sum; as one in a crowd that holds another upon his shoulders, he is
lost in the throng, but the other is exposed to the view of all. So for our
friends: Luke xiv. 26, 'Whosoever hates not his father, and his mother,' etc.
There are many cases wherein we are to deny our friends; as suppose, when we
shall incur their displeasure, out of faithfulness to Christ. Carnal parents
will frown upon us, and, it may be, withdraw maintenance, and other
conveniences of life; but it is better an earthly father should frown than that
God should frown, it will be made up in spiritual relations. So in case of
doing justice and right we must not own father, mother, brothers, or sisters,
for this is but more handsome and natural bribery. Levi was commended for this
by the Lord: Deut. 33.9, 'He saith to his father and mother, I have not seen
him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children, but
observed my word, saith the Lord.' It is good to be blind and deaf to all
relations in this case. Asa spared not his own mother, but deposed her, being
idolatrous. See Deut. 13.6-9, 'If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy
son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thy
own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go serve other gods, which thou
hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers,...thou shalt not consent unto him, nor
hearken unto him; neither shall thy eye pity him; neither shalt thou spare,
neither shalt thou conceal him; but thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall
be first upon him to put him to death, and after-ward the hand of all the
people,' etc. We are apt to look upon these rules as calculated for Utopia, and
have but a grammatical knowledge of them. So also for carnal things: if it be a
right hand or a right eye, it must be plucked out, and cut off, Mat.5. If it be
as gainful and as profitable a sin as the right hand is profitable to us, yet
it must not be spared. 'We must deny all ungodliness,' Titus 2.12, though ever
so pleasing. Thus for the object, it extendeth to all things.
II. For the subject: see the extent of it, it reacheth all sorts of
men; Christ saith, 'If any will come after me, he must deny himself.' It is
notable, that circumstance in Mark, when Christ gives the lesson of
self-denial: Mark 8.34, 'When he had called the people unto him, with his
disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny
himself.' There is no calling, no sex, no age, no duty, no condition of life
that is excluded, but one way or other, they are put upon self-denial. No
calling: magistrates, and those who are called to public trust, they are most
obliged, in regard of God and men, to deny themselves. It is notable, the
self-denial of Joseph, though he were a great officer in Egypt, yet his family
ran the same lot with other tribes. And Joshua, in the division of the land, he
took his own lot and share last, Joshua 19.49. Men in public places are most
liable to mind private interest, to the neglect of the public; but they ought
not to feather their nests with public spoils.
So for men of private stations. It is not the duty of public persons only, all
conditions are liable to self-seeking; many times your private callings may be
against the public interest, either of religion or civil welfare, as they that
made shrines for Diana, when the gospel came, and reformation likely to be
wrought, Acts 19.24, they cried, 'Our gain will be gone.' Therefore in this
case you should be content to sink and to suffer loss, as the lighter elements
descend to conserve the universe. Or, it may be, you have thriven by iniquity
of traffic; now you are to deny yourselves by making restitution: Luke 19.8, 'I
will restore fourfold, and give to the poor.' Restitution is a hard duty, but a
necessary one; and you must vomit up your sweet morsels wherewith you have
surefeited, or else conscience will not be healthy. And so for other callings
and relations: minister and people. Ministers, of all men, had most need to
practise this duty. We are to deny our own ends. How many carnal ends may a man
promote by his service in the ministry? Fame, applause, the satisfying of our
necessity; we are not to preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. We are to
deny ourselves in our learning and parts; we are debtors to the learned and
unlearned, we are to become all things to all; and Christ hath lambs as well as
sheep. We must be content to go back ten degrees, that we may condescend to
all, not to soar aloft in speculation; possibly this may be more for our fame
and repute of learning, but less for profit. So for people: in hearing you must
deny the curiosity of the ear, that others may profit by plainer lessons, and
that every one may have his portion in due season.
It is a great part of self-denial to suffer the words of exhortation. Guilt is
apt to recoil when tender parts are touched. Now you are to deny yourselves, to
love tho reproof as well as the comfort, and count it precious oil. Consider
the submission that was in Hezekiah when the prophet came with the bitter
threatening of a curse that should cleave to his posterity - 'Good is the word
of the Lord!' a sweet submission of a sanctified judgment. Isa. 39.8. All that
was good in it was, that it should not come in his days. So also for all sexes:
it is a duty for men; not only for men, who are called out to public actions,
but for women also, they are to deny themselves in their delicacies of life,
that they may exercise themselves in the grave duties of religion, that they
may not wax wanton. It is necessary also in all duties; to instance in those
two great ones which do divide and take up the whole christian life, prayer and
praise, both of them should be practised with self-denial. When we come for
grace, we should deny our own merit - O Lord, not for our own righteousness.
And when grace is received, when we come to praise God, self must vanish, that
God may have all the praise, Mat. 16. When the good servant gives an account of
his faithfulness, he saith, 'Not my industry, but thy pound hath gained ten
pounds;' he gives it all to grace. So 1 Cor. 15.10, the apostle checks himself,
as if he had spoken unbeseeming - 'I laboured more than you all, yet not I, but
the grace of God that was with me;' so Gal. 2.20, 'I live,' then presently
draws in his words again, 'not I, but Christ liveth in me.' As the elders throw
their crowns at the Lamb's feet, so all our excellences must be laid at the
feet of Christ; as the stars disappear when the sun ariseth, so we must shrink
into nothing in our own thoughts. When Joab had conquered Rabba, he sent for
David to take the garland of honour; so when we have done anything by grace, we
must send for Christ to take the honour. Prayer is the humble appeal to mercy,
disclaiming of merit; and praise is the setting of the crown upon Christ's
head; not I, but the grace of God that is wrought in me.
To apply this, all men are to practise this duty, in all things, at all
times, and with all their hearts.
[1.] All men are to practise it. Oh! do not put it off to others; no man
can exempt himself. Usually, when these duties are pressed, we think they are
calculated for men in great places, and rich men; but it is a duty that lies
upon all, all are apt to seek themselves. When Christ spake something
concerning Peter, it is said, 'Peter looked about on the disciple Jesus loved.'
So we are apt to look about to others. Look for it, before you die you will be
eminently called to this service. Never christian went out of this world, but,
one time or other, God tried him in some eminent point of self-denial. As it is
said, God tempted Abraham, tried him in that difficult point of offering his
son, Gen. 22.1; so Christ tried the young man - 'Go, sell all that thou hast,
and give to the poor,' Mat. 22.
[2.] For the object - in all things. Let not your self-denial be partial
and halting; as Saul slew some of the cattle, but spared the fat, and Agag.
Many can deny themselves in many things, but they are loth to give up all to
God without bounds and reservations. As Joshua deposed all the kings of Canaan,
so every lust is to be cast out of the throne. He that denies himself only in
some things, really he denies himself in none. Jehu put Baal's priests to
death, but continued the calves in Dan and Bethel, out of interest and reasons
of state. Herod denied himself in many things, but could not part with his
Herodias.
[3.] You must deny yourself always; it must not be temporary and
vanishing. In a good mood we can give up and renounce all, and be humble, and
ascribe all to grace. We may hang the head for a day like a bulrush, Isa.58.
There should be a constant sense of our unworthiness kept up, and a purpose of
renouncing all and giving up all. It is not enough to deny a man's self in a
thing wherein there is no pleasure, and when his soul abhors dainty food, but
it must be in things which are desirable, and this must be constantly practised
too. Ahab humbled himself for a few days.
[4.] It must be with all our heart. Which signifies that it must not be
done by a mere constraint of providence, as a mariner in a storm casts away his
goods by force, but as a bride leaves her father's house: Ps. 45.10, 'Forget
thy father's house;' it must be out of a principle of grace, and out of love to
Christ. Now you must not do it politicly, but with your whole heart. There is
no such great self-seeking as is carried on usually under the colour of
self-denial. As the apostle speaks of some, 2 Cor. 11.12, that would preach the
gospel freely, to shame and cast contempt upon Paul. The devil disguiseth
himself into all forms and shapes. As Jacob put on Esau's clothes that he might
appear rough and hairy, and so get the blessing; so many seem to deny
themselves of the comforts of life, but it is but for their own praise. The
Pharisees were liberal in alms; they could deny themselves in giving, which
others could not do; but it was to be seen of men. Therefore this self-denial
must not be self-seeking, carried on under a pretence, for that is abominable
to God. Thus for the extent of the duty.