1. Our great aim should be to enjoy God ; that is the happiness to which we are poised and inclined by the bent of nature. An immortal soul was made for an eternal good ; nothing beneath God will satisfy it ; and the heaven that we expect is nothing else but the filling up the soul with God. There is a great controversy in the world between God and self while we are here ; but now in heaven the quarrel is taken up, and we and God are united in the nearest and closest way of union and communion, that we may enjoy him forever. Now when we rest in any low enjoyment, and are satisfied with it without God, that is self-seeking ; in effect it is self-destroying, self-losing. But the scripture speaks according to our aim and intention ; we intend to seek ourselves, though in effect, we do but lose ourselves. Of this the scripture speaks — ' All seek their own, and not that which is Jesus Christ's.' In effect, neither their own, nor Christ's, but the carnal and corrupt heart of a man counts nothing our own things, but the concernments of the flesh. Of this kind of self-seeking they are guilty that do God's work, but not ■with God's end ; not to enjoy him, but to enjoy the world ; they make
280 A TREATISE OF FELF-DENIAL. [BoOK I.
a mere merchandise of oLedience ; if they have worldly gain, they are satisfied ; for other things they will give God a bill of discharge : Mat. vi. 12, ' They have their reward.' They will acquit and release God of all the grant and promise that he hatli made of heaven to them in tlie covenant of grace, if God will give them a patent to enjoy as much of the world as they can, which argues a sordid and base spirit : Eom, xvi. 18, ' They are such as serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts c^ the simple.' The apostle speaks of false teachers, tliat did not make God their end, but were wholly bent upon their secular profit ; that reprove not for, but soothe men up in, their sin. In their preaching there is no salt, and in tlieir private visits there is a great deal of worldly com- pliance, and all because they have set up another God, such a base thing as the belly, instead of Christ.
2, The next aim of the creature should be to glorify God in all the motions and operations of the soul. This must be the settled frame and constitution of souls, to enjoy God, that is our happiness ; to glorify God, that is our work ; and therefore, when the aim of the heart is at our own glory and praise, this is self-seeking. Now, that you may discern it the better, and see when the soul is guilty of it, I shall show you how far we are to intend the glory of God in every action of ours ; I shall do it in .these propositions —
[1.] This must be the end that we must propose to ourselves in all our civil actions ; lliongh the action be civil, yet the end must be religious, that I may glorify God, and do good to others, 1 Cor. x. 31, though it be but in such a natural action, as eating and drinking ; this must be the fixed aim, ' to do all to the glory of God,' otherwise you set up another God, Moloch instead of God. When merely you eat to gratify your own flesh, it may be a meat-offering and drink-offering to appetite. So also for your traffic ; if it be merely for wealth, it is but consecrating yourselves to mammon, and setting the world in the place of God. This is the great mercy of God, that, considering our necessity, he hath so %Yisely ordered it that he might lose no part of our time. Our very natural actions may be religious. Works of nature may become acts of grace, and our traffic may be a kind of worship when our ends are to glorify him ; otherwise we set up self in his place. Your very eating is idolatry when it is merely to please and gratify self. Your table it is a table of devils — 'Whose God is the belly,' Phil. iii. 18. And then, as for your traffic : when you trade in the world merely to grow rich, and have not an aim at the glory and service of God, you set up another god ; mammon is your God, Mat. vi. 24, ' No man can serve two masters ; ye cannot serve God and mammon.' But here ariseth a question worthy to be discussed, AVhether in every action we are bound actually to intend God's glory ? I answer, We should labour as much as we can to make our thoughts actual ; this is the very vitality and vigour of the spiritual life, when all our natural actions are raised up to a supernatural intention. As a christian is not to have evil aims, so he is not to be like a blind archer, to shoot at random and without a mark. Why should we forget God at any time, that doth always remember us ? There is not a moment that passeth but God looks after thee, or else thou couldst not live ;