4. The new nature is requisite, that we may in all things mind God's glory. It is more easy to convince us of our obligations to live unto God, than to get a heart and a disposition to live to God. The new creature, which is created after God, ever bendeth and tendeth towards him. As the flower of the sun doth follow the sun, and openeth and shutteth according to the absence of the sun ; so doth the heart of a christian move after God. We say, A qua in tantum ascendit, &c.; nature i riseth no higher than its spring, head and centre ; self is our principle and end : Hosea x. 1 , ' Israel is an empty vine ; he bringeth forth fruit to himself.' We live to ourselves, and seek after* our own interests, till God give us another heart ; when the heart is changed, a man's felicity and last end is changed. And therein the new nature doth most bewray itself,
5. The more our lusts are mortified, the more sincerely shall we aim at the glory of God. That which is lame is easily turned out of the way. And if we have not a command over our affections, they will be interposing and perverting all our actions ; and when God should be at the end of all our actions, the idol that our lust hath set up will be at the end of them. We will subordinate them to our pleasure, honour, and profit. Any lust is a great engrosser ; the belly will be God, and honour command us as a God, and mammon will be God ; our hearts are corrupted, and some created thing is set up instead of God. Therefore mortification is the guai'd of sincerity ; otherwise we shall love the creature for itself alone, or for ourselves alone, and so be turned from God, whom alone we should honour, please and obey.
Use 2. Is this the temper and disposition of our souls ? — do we make the glory of God our great end and scope ? If it be so, then —
1. We will prefer God's honour above our own interests, though never so dear to us. A notable instance we have in our Lord Jesus Christ, who came as God's servant in the work of redemption ; and we read of him in the general, Kom. xv. 3, ' That he pleased not himself,' that is, he did not gratify his own natural and human will. More particularly, Phil. ii. 6-8, ' That he emptied himself, and made himself of no reputation, and humbled himself to the death of the cross.' To promote his Father's glory he willingly submitted to all manner of indignities ; for this end and purpose more expressly we have the workings of his heart set forth, John. xii. 27, 28, ' Father,
^ Qu. 'water'?— Ed.
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 137
save me from this hour, but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify thy name. And there came a voice from heaven, saying, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again,' His desires of his own safety were moderated, and submitted to the conscience of his duty, and he preferreth the honour of God, and seeks to advance it above his own ease ; for Christ endeth all debates with this, ' Father, glorify thy name.' Now certainly all that have the spirit of Christ will be tender of God's glory, and account that dearer to them than anything else, and submit to the bitter cup, so God may have honour thereby. You will think Christ's example too high, who submitted the sensible consolations of the godhead to the respects of God's glory ; and this is not possibly practicable by any creature. It is true every ordinary christian doth not come to this height, but the thing is imitable ; witness Paul, who valued the glory of God above that personal contentment and happi- ness that should come to him by his own salvation : Eom. ix, 3, ' For I could w^sll that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.' It is not a hasty speech ; he calleth God to witness that this was the real disposition of his heart ; he speaketh advisedly and with good deliberation. But how then can it be made good ? There is a holy part and a happy part in religion ; he did not wish less love to Christ, nor to be less beloved of him. But you will say, A regular love beginneth at home. True, but it is not his salvation and their salvation that cometh in competition, but his salvation and the glory of God ; and he was much more affected with God"s glory than his own good. This should shame us that stand upon our petty interests. We are not called to such self-denial. Surely we should be contented to do anything, and be anything, so God may be glorified ; poor or rich, so God may be glorified by our poverty or riches; as travellers take the way as they find it, so it will lead to their jom*- ney's end. Decline no service nor suffering for God's sake when he calleth us to it : Phil. i. 20, ' So also now Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death ' ; so Christ be glorified in his body. That is a lower and more moderate interest, the suspension and delay of salvation, laying it at God's feet ; the glorifying of God in his calling was more welcome than liis present entrance into glory. So Acts XX. 24, ' I count not my life dear to me, so I may finish my course with joy,' When they told him of dangers, he went bound in the spirit to Jerusalem. Well then, a heart that is truly affected with God's gloiy standeth upon no temporal interests and concern- ments, and preferreth God's honour before its own ease, honour, pleasure, esteem, yea, life itself