Secondly, I come to handle some reasons, with the most effectual enforcements. It is the duty of all that would be Christ's disciples to deny themselves; I shall prove it by several grounds.
1. We cannot else be conformed to our great Master. Jesus Christ came from heaven on purpose to teach us the lesson of self-denial; his birth, his life, his death, was a pattern of self-denial. His birth, it was a great step from God's bosom into the virgin's lap; a great condescension: 2 Cor. 8.9, 'When he was rich, he became poor, that we might be rich.' None can deny themselves so much as Christ did, because none was so rich as he. We may talk of flocks and herds, and the poor ornaments and supplies of a frail life; but he had the possession of a perfect happiness and glory in the divine nature, he was rich indeed. He needed not to have the respect of the creature to make him more happy; he was the lord of glory, and heir of all things. Yet when he was thus rich he made himself poor. He did not only subject himself to the law, and abject condition of the creature, but came in a poor, mean way, not in pomp, not in a princely equipage. As soon as he took our nature, he would have a feeling of our wants and miseries, therefore was born in a mean, obscure way. Born of a poor mother, in a poor place, wrapt up in cheap and unworthy swaddling-clothes, the fellow of God, the heir of all things, the lord of angels, he is thrust out among beasts in a stable. Christ would not come in pomp, but with slender provision and furniture, to put a disgrace upon worldly greatness and bravery. He would overturn the idol of the world, not only by power, but by the choice of his life. And as his birth, so was his life; he was exercised with sorrows and labours. Christ was not a man of pleasure, but a man of sorrow. Rom. 15.3, the apostle saith, 'Christ pleased not himself,' neither in the choice of his own life, nor in any delights that he could propose to himself of his own profit aud advantage, he was happy enough without them. So in his death. If any had reason or cause to love his natural life, Jesus Christ had. His soul dwelt with God in such a fellowship as we are not capable of; and yet he gave up himself to redeem us from the present world, Gal.1.4 It is but ridiculous to profess Jesus Christ to be our master, and not to conform to his example. We have no reason to be more tender and delicate of our interest than Christ was. What is our self to Christ's self? We are poor creatures under a law; Christ was God over all, blessed for ever. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord - 'It is enough for the disciple to be as his master, the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household!' Mark 10.25. We should not murmur, we cannot be worse used than Christ was; we have no cause to complain if we be reduced to a coarse robe, when we remember Christ's swaddling clothes; to complain of a hard bed or prison, when Christ was laid in a manger. Certainly an innocent poverty is more comfortable than all the pomp in the world, if we would but choose what Christ chose. Christ was a pattern of suffering from the cradle to the cross. They that caress themselves in all the delights of the world seem to profess another master than Christ. We are of a base condition, but two or three degrees distant from dust and nothing. The sun can go back ten degrees; Christ, the Lord of glory, might go back ten degrees, but we have not so much to lose.
2. This hath been practised, not only by the master, but by all the fellows in the same school. Christ set the first copy, and all the saints have written after it, some better, some worse: Rom. 14.7, 'None of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself, for whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord.' In the context the apostle speaks of the difference of weak and strong believers; some weak, some strong, but they all agree in this, none of us, not one that hath given up his name to Christ is allowedly a self-seeker; none live to them-selves. The example of the saints is to be considered, lest we should think it exceeds the capacity of the creature, and that only Christ could practise it. We find the children of God, those among them that have made the highest progress in Christ's school, they have had lowest thoughts of self. Paul, that was a glorious apostle, yet he saith in one place, 1 Tim. 1.15, that 'he was the greatest of sinners;' and in another place, Eph. 3.8, that 'he was less than the least of saints.' A man would have thought that Paul, with more congruity of speech, might have said, the greatest of saints and least of sinners, but he saith, the greatest of sinners, and the least of saints; not to lessen grace, but still to lessen self, and put a disgrace upon it. They that are the best scholars in this school most abhor self-conceit and self-seeking. As the laden boughs hang the head and bend downward, so do the children of God that have been most fruitful in the christian course; as the aim, the higher it is, doth cast the least shadows; so for self-seeking. I wonder how a man can look upon these two great instances of Moses and Paul without blushing. Of Moses: Num. 32.32, 'Blot me out of thy book,' upon condition he would save the people; as if he could take no comfort in his great spiritual privileges, when the glory of God should suffer loss by the loss of his people. So Rom. 9.3, 'Let me be accursed from Christ, for my brethren that are in the flesh.' Paul, in an excess of zeal, could be willing to bear the common punishment for a common good. We, that are so tender of our honour and respect, so wedded to our ease and private interests, how can we look upon these without shame? Can Paul and Moses wish to be a common sacrifice for God's glory, and for the redemption of others, and we be so tender to our own respects? Moses speaketh to God himself, and Paul calls God to witness - 'I lie not:' Rom. 11.1, 'I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also beareth me witness in the Holy Ghost.' There is a treble oath and asseveration - 'I speak the truth,' 'I lie not,' 'the Spirit bears witness with my conscience.' Or rather, there is a double asseveration. with an appeal to two witnesses, both to the Spirit and conscience, Not as if they could wish for hardness of heart; but with an excess of zeal they were carried so high in imitation of Christ, to part with their own happiness for a public good.
3. Jesus Christ may justly require it; all the idols of the world expect it from their votaries. In nature we are sensible that all respects to divine powers are commended by self-denial. We see it in pagans; when Baal was silent, his priests gashed themselves, 1 Kings 18.28; they cut themselves, after their manner, with knives and lances, so that the blood gushed out; to gratify their idol, they would not spare their own blood. So those hypocrites, Micah 6.6-8, see how liberal they are - 'Shall I give the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil,' etc. To part with a beast in sacrifice, they thought it was not self-denial enough; they devise something more costly, all their flocks and herds, their children, the fruit of their womb, their whole substance. So superstitious votaries among the papists, they mangle their flesh with scourges and whips, use excessive fasting and abstinence from meat, pinch their own flesh. And we fatten and feed ourselves, and cannot deny ourselves for Christ. See the instance in spiritual idols, how worldly and carnal men can deny themselves to compass their ends: Pa. 127.2, 'They rise early, go to bed late, eat the bread of sorrow;' they can deny themselves of sleep, and food, and rest, and all in a devotion to worldly interests: Eccles. 4.8, 'He bereaves his soul of all good.' There is no end of their toil; with an unwearied patience they lay out their strength in vain pursuits. Many a covetous man doth shame many a godly moan. Religion is a better thing; shall lust do more with them than the love of Christ with thee? Lust that will make a man labour in the very fire, though it be but for a thing of nought, to deny himself of the necessary support and conveniences of life. Consider the tyranny of worldly affection. Certainly we should have a stronger impulse, for we have a better reward; we are acted with a more mighty spirit. It is true, in carnal men it is not self-denial so much as the obstinacy of self-will and stomach. The kingdom of Satan is divided; self-will is set up against self-delight or ease. Nay, in pleasure, which doth seem of all vanities to be most soft and effeminate, yet men can deny themselves for their pleasure, their credit, estate, their conscience, and all sacrificed to the gullet of that great idol and Moloch-god, their belly.
4. Because self is the greatest enemy both to God and man.
(1.) It robs God of his honour. Self, it is a near and dear word to man; it is
both the idol and the idolater. It receives the worship which it performeth; as
the sea sends out waves to the shore, and then sucks them in again. Self is
made a god, and then god is made an idol; Phil. 3.20, 'Whose god is their
belly.' All their toil and labour is to feed and delight themselves, and to
exalt themselves. Self hath such sacrifices and devotions as God requires. Self
hath solemn worship. A carnal man prays, and what then? He makes God the
object, and self the end; so that self is the god. So self hath private and
closet duties, vain thoughts, and musings, in which we lift up ourselves in our
own conceit - 'Is not this great Babel that I have built?' Some time of the day
we consecrate to the great idol self, to puff up ourselves with the conceit of
our own worth. This is a more secret worship of self. The public worship of
self is in self-seeking, and the private in self-conceit, when we feast and
entertain our spirits with whispers of vanity, and suppositions of our own
excellency and greatness.
(2.) As it is God's, so it is man's enemy. Self parts itself against itself,
and is its own greatest enemy. Not only they of a man's own house are his
enemies, as Christ speaks, but his own heart is his enemy; self-will, self-wit
are the greatest foes you have in the world. Look, as the ape doth crush out
the bowels of her young ones while she embraceth them, so man wrongs himself
when he overloves himself; a man need fear and suspect no creature in the world
so much as himself, and that when we most respect self. The world and the devil
may trouble thee, but cannot hurt thee without thyself. No enemy can hurt us so
much as we hurt ourselves; therefore, if we would take revenge of them that
hate us most, we should begin with our own hearts. Men trust their hearts as
their best friends, and so they are deceived. It is the greatest judgment that
God can lay upon any creature, to give him up to himself: Ps. 81.12, 'So I gave
them up to their own heart's lusts, and they walked in their own counsels.' Oh!
it is a sad doom to be given up to self. On the other side, it is the greatest
conquest that can be, to conquer self; it is an enemy that will hardly be
subdued: Prov.16.32, 'Better is he that overcometh himself than he that
conquereth a city;' i.e., he that is able to conquer the masterless
bosom enemy, self, that is so apt to betray us.
5. Because those that are Christ's disciples are not their own men: Rom. 14.6, 'We are not our own, but the Lord's.' Our will should not be our own law, nor our profit our aim, because we are not our own. There are many relations between us and Christ which take away all the property we have in ourselves. We cannot say that our tongues are our own, to speak what we please, nor our works our own, nor our interests our own; no, thy tongue when thou speakest, it is not thine, but Christ's; and so thy estate when thou tradest, remember it is not thine, but Christ's; thy prayer, thy public service, they are not thine, but Christ's. Remember, thy strength is not thine own when thou art wasting it in lust and vanity: it is not thine, but Christ's. So our several relations. I have showed you before the title God hath to us; now let me open the several relations. We are but servants; now servants are not sui juris, masters of their own will, but subject to the will of another, by whose command and for whose profit they are to act. The property of servants, saith Aristotle, is not to do their own will and pleasure; they have given up themselves to another. So we are children, and God is our Father, and children are under government, they are to be guided by their father. Then the most honourable relation is that of a spouse, 1 Tim. 2.12. Now the woman, saith the apostle, must not rule over her own head; we are to be guided and directed by him. The most honourable relations put us upon self-denial.
6. Because it is the most gainful project in the world, therefore we must deny self. Self-denial is the true way of self-advancing. Leave as much as you can for Christ, you will lose nothing - 'He that loseth his life shall find it:' Mark 10.29,30, 'Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mother, and children, and lands, with persecution, and in the world to come, eternal life.' Though we have it not in specie, in kind, we shall have it over and above in value. God will not weary us with expecting too much. Here we have peace of conscience, and hereafter life eternal; others do but gain a shadow to the loss of the substance. They have neither quiet of conscience nor the hopes of glory: Mat. 16.26, 'What is a man profited if he should gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' etc. And the evangelist Luke hath it, chap. 9.25, 'Lose himself.' To seek the good of our souls, that is indeed to seek ourselves. Every man's mind, his soul, is himself; to lose his soul, that is indeed to lose himself; and when we lose ourselves, we lose all. When a man hath most need, riches fly away; you cannot bribe divine justice, nor keep the soul from hell. Therefore if you would seek yourselves indeed, seek yourselves in God.
7. Because otherwise a man can be nothing in religion, neither do nor suffer; and therefore we must resolve either to deny ourselves or to deny Christ. Before we go out of the world, we shall be put upon the trial. Peter denied his master, because he could not deny himself. All duties in religion put us upon self-denial - private duties upon the denial of lusts, and public upon the denial of interests; therefore we read of 'denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,' Titus 2.12. In private duties: whenever you go to pray, private duties are contrary to the inclinations and dispositions of the heart, which are for ease and pleasure, and the gratifications of the flesh. If thou hast no self-denial, thou wilt never bring thy heart to God in them. Then in public duties we must look for opposition. Advancers of public good are usually exposed to public hatred, they are sure to be spoken against; when the devil cannot prevail with instruments to slacken the work of God, then he stirs up the world against it. That must be a complete action wherein malice cannot find fault. It is true, we are not always exposed to persecution, but always to censure. Many that have neither heart nor hands to do good, yet have tongues to censure those that do it, magistrates and ministers. Therefore we must look for trouble, if not from malice, yet from envy. Who can stand before envy? If persecutors be under restraint, yet carnal professors will be apt to blemish what is not done by themselves. Therefore whosoever would be a disciple to God and Christ, this is his first lesson; this is the A B C of religion. We shall never digest the inconveniences of a spiritual life till we resolve upon it. We must make over our interests in our lives, and whatever is dear to us, reckon the charges, Luke 14.26. A builder spends cheerfully as long as his charges are within his allowance; but when that is exceeded, and he goes beyond what he hath reckoned upon, then every penny is disbursed with grudging. Most resolve upon little or no trouble in religion, and from thence it comes to pass that when they are crossed, they prove faint-hearted. Therefore put your life in your hand, and resolve to follow Christ wheresoever he goeth.
8. Every one must deny himself, because it is a special part of faith. Faith looks upon God's mercy in Christ, not only as true, but as good; better than life, and better than all the contentments of it, else it is not faith: 1 Tim. 1.15, 'This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation.' It doth not only look upon it as a wise and faithful saying, but as a thing of choice. There is not only assent to what is true, but there is consent and choice. Faith is an inclination of the soul to true worth, and therefore, with a resting upon the mercies of Christ there is a renouncing of interest; Mat 13.46, the merchant that found the rich pearl 'went and sold all to buy it' This is faith, to come and traffic with God for his mercy in Christ, to part with all, whatever is pleasant and profitable in the world, rather than be deprived of his grace: Luke 14.27-29, 'He that hates not his father and mother, yea, and his own life, cannot be my disciple;' and then our Lord brings the similitude of a man that goes about to build, and sits him down and counts the charge. In faith there is a sitting down and accounting the charges, or considering what it is to take Christ. The comforts of christianity we prize much, but they are only necessary to be propounded in case of distress of conscience. But he that desires to be a christian indeed is seriously to cast up his reckoning, what is required at his hands, thoroughly to examine whether he be willing to forego such hopes and contentments as are incompatible with the life he seeketh, or to endure all crosses and calamities wherewith he may be encumbered. The builder that goes hand over head to work, lays the foundation of his disgrace in the loss of his cost. Men labour to fortify their actual persuasion of the mercies of Christ before the carnal life be renounced. It is a mistake to look to faith first, and the settling our particular assurance, as if that were the difficultest thing in religion. The great difficulty lies in self-denial. As Christ put the young man in Mat. 19.26, upon the trial, Canst thou leave all, and follow me? so we are to put ourselves upon the trial, otherwise our application to God's mercy, and settling our particular persuasion, will be but a rash confidence. Every one hath some tender parts, and usually at first conviction our tender parts are touched. When God begins to work upon the heart, we should say, Soul, thou hast busied thyself in a wrong way, there is one thing necessary: come out of that way, or thou shalt never be happy. Forsake thy father's house: we are apt to stick at this, we are not able to renounce all for him. As when God called Abraham, he called him from his father's house; so when we are called to God, we are called from something pleasant and profitable to self.