[2.] They have resigned themselves to God, are not their own, and have nothing their own, but in order to God : 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20, ' Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own ? For ye are bought with a price : therefore glorify God in your body, and iu your spirit, which are God's ; ' Eom. xiv. 18, ' He that in these things serveth; Christ, is acceptable to God, and approved of men.'
[3.] You cannot seek great things for yourselves, but you must make- light of Christ ; when a man seeks things, but doth not seek the thinga- of Christ also : Phil. ii. 2, ' All seek their own, and not the things which are Jesus Christ's.' They are propounded as aavarara, that is, his own things chiefly and principally. If he be thus addicted to his own things, he will seek them before and more than the things of Christ ; his own profit and preferment, his own })raise and glory, more than the l)rofit, praise, and honour of Christ and his gospel. The Gadarenes preferred hogs before Christ, the merchants their merchandise, the farmers their farms. Mat. xxii. 3. At least it will be a blot upon your service ; you cannot act with such a pure spirit when you seek your
SEU:\ION UPON JEREMIAH XLV. 5. 487
€!'.vn ease, safety, profit, not caring what becometli of Christ and liis interest in the world.
[4.] Self-seeking is very dishonourable to religion. The world is very sensible of it : Job i. 9, ' Doth Job serve God for nought ? ' The world, which is upheld by a combination of interests, judge of others by themselves, think religion is but a cleaner way of self-seeking. Therefore if we seek great things for ourselves, we lie open to their reproach.
[5.] Our Redeemer pleased not himself, Eom. xv. 3 ; therefore he taught us not his religion that we might make an advantage of it to f-cramble for worldly things.
[6.] It is not only an evil thing, but an evil sigu, to be carried out to temporal things for self-ends. Some sins are evil, but not evil signs; as sudden pa.ssions, fainting in great troubles, vain thoughts. But this is an evil sign : James iv. 4, ' Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God ; ' and 1 John ii. 15, ' Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world ; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.'
2. Es})ecially in tlie calamities of the church and people of God. The time maketh sins more odious : ' Is this a time to receive money,' &c., 1i Kings V. 26. It is to lay a stumbling-block in the way of new con- verts. Christ was angry witli the pharisees for not discerning the signs of the times. It is noted as a great shame in the enemies that ihey gave themselves to jollity when the people of God were devoted to destruction : Esther iii. 15, ' And the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city Shushan was perplexed.' That jollity is noted when the riiin of God's people was determined, and that they used carnal jollity when it was a time of mourning. It is too soft and delicate a thing for one's self to desire security and safety when the whole is in ilanger. It is as if we were building our own nests when the tree is cut- ting down, or mending oin- cabin when the ship is likely to be torn in pieces or sinking. Is it a time to drive a trade for ourselves when we should drive it for heaven ? We will not be diverted from the creature when God seemeth ready to snatch it out of our hands. The holy men of God would take their share and lot with God's people. Joseph was high, yet made no provision for his children in Egypt ; they went with their brethren into Canaan. Moses chose rather affliction with the people of God, &c., Heb. xi. 25. God maketh him his minister to disinherit the «eed of Moloch, and people of God come out of Moses' loins : ' Blot me out of thy book,' Joshua thought of no inheritance for himself, till by lot he had given inheritance to all the tribes.
Use. To dissuade us from seeking great things for ourselves. To this end —
1, Take down self. What greatness is in this self that thou shouldst be of such account with God, or that thou dost so project for it ? What a low conceit of themselves have the best saints had ? 'lam a worm, and no man,' saith Christ. The least of saints, the greatest of sinners, saith Paul. The best of God's children have abhorred themselves, like the spire of a 8teei)le, miniinus in suiiimo, the least at the highest. David a king, yet like a weaned child.
488 SERMON UPON JEREMIAH XLV. 5.
2. What are tbese great tilings which carnal sense craveth ? The world, oiKijfxa, 1 Cor. vii. 31, an empty pageantry, a fair outside, not bldu-deep. Broken cisterns hold but a little ; if God shall fill them up, they cannot hold, but leak out our comfort if not filled again. God hath written a book on purjDOse to take off men's hearts from the creatures, and employed Solomon about it, who took not only a sensual but a critical delight in them, and he found them all vanity and vexation ot spirit.