Reason. The reason is, which I desire may not be forgotten, we have a better being in God than in ourselves. If we lose our natural life, we have in him a better life. If we lose our riches, we have them in heavenly treasures. The water is not lost that runneth into the sea ; it is in the ocean still, its better receptacle.
It was St Paul's desire ' to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is best of all,' Philip, i. 23. But if he will have me to serve the church here and enjoy my life longer, his will be done. So he liveth to the Lord, and dieth to the Lord; and whatsoever cometh, he is in utrumque paratus (/") : whether he liveth or dieth, he is the Lord's.
THE FOURTH SERMON.
For none of ns liveth to Jumsclf, and no man dieth to himself. For uhether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether ice die, ice die \mto the Lord: whether ive live therefore, or die, tfe are the Lord's. — Rom. XIV. 7, 8.
In these words the apostle taketh us off from ourselves, and assigneth us to a true end. As the first thing that grace doth, is to set God and Christ in his own place, the heart ; so, in the second place, it begets a regard of
VOL. V. u
806 THE cnmsTiAN's end.
ourselves, sucli as may stand with tho lovo of Christ. For till Christ hath a place in the heart, by our coming to some degrees of self-denial, self hindereth us in all our whole course, both of believing and doing. For wo have naturally contrary principles to all articles of faith, and contrary motions to all the commands of God. It hinders us in our duties to God, to others, to ourselves. And therefore to what I formerly said, I may add this consideration,
Dod. That it is no easy tJiiiir/ to he a Christian. If we were required to renounce anything else, we might obtain it of ourselves, sooner than deny ourselves ; for what is nearer to ourselves than ourselves ? ' Thousand rivers of oil, the first fruits of the body, would be given for the sin of the soul,' Micah vi. 7. That outward mortification, so much magnified in popery, is nothing to the renouncing of a lust. But if we would be Chris- tians to purpose, we must be stripped of ourselves ; as they say of the serpent, he must part with the old slough. "We must have an higher prin- ciple than ourselves before we can do it. A Christian is above himself, and better than himself, and stronger than himself, because he hath a better self than himself. And by virtue of that better self, which is grace in hia heart, he is able to bring under all his other self, not only his sinful self, but his natural self ; neither his life nor anything is dear unto him, in com- parison of Christ.
Therefore we must not have conceits of religion as easy. Indeed, if we had sanctified judgments, and hearts set at liberty, it were an easy thing. If we had judgments to see, that we are never more ourselves, than when we are not ourselves ; that we have a better being in Christ than in our- selves ; that ourselves are our worst enemies — if the judgment were thus possessed, and the will and affections made answerable to this judgment, it were easy to deny ourselves. But self hinders the knowledge of itself all it can. Pcccatum imjwdit sui corfnitionem : sin naturally hinders the know- ledge of its own foulness. That which should discern sin is clouded, and that which should hate sin is engaged to sin. So that under the use of means we must labour to know our condition, and the foulness and danger of that condition. And that is the excellency of God's ordinances and divine truths, that by them we come to know ourselves. But I will not enlarge myself in that.
What it is to live and die to the Lord we have declared. That it is to make Christ his chief aim and end, and do all in virtue of that end. Then is a Christian in his right temper, when God's end, Christ's end, and his end have the same centre — a qualification very excellent.
That that makes God delight in his children so much is, that they have the same end, the same God, the same Spirit with Christ. It is so excel- lent to prefix a right end to all our actions, that it spiritualiseth common actions. As St Paul saith of servants, ' They serve the Lord in serving their masters,' E2)h. vi. 5. Whatsoever the stuff of our actions be, yet in that aim and spirit in which they be done, they may be services of the Lord.
Now life implieth the whole course of our actions. All our actions should be to the Lord immediately and directly, or mediately and reductively, as they are quickened by the Spirit of God. And that is the excellency of a Christian. He considers of everything as it helpeth his last end ; as on the other sidoj a base worldling considers religion, and all things else, as they suit to his worldly aims. But to speak of the next point.