The happiness of a Christian is to be independent on the creatures. He may use them as subordinate helps, but he is to depend only on this Lord, what to believe, what to speak ; and not to take up this or that opinion to please this or that man, therebj' to rise to greatness.
It is a base thing to say, I believe as my parents believe. Are you your parents' ? Your parents are the servants of this great Lord, whose you are, and to whom it is your duty to yield yourselves.
Use 1. And therefore, in solicitation to any sin, make that use of it, that the holy apostle doth in that gross sin that reigns so much in the world, and brings many to hell, defilement of body. Saith he, ' Our bodies are bought with a j)rice,' 1 Cor. vi. 20. ' And shall I take the members of Christ, and make them members of an harlot?' 1 Cor. vi. 15. So when we are tempted by corruption, and Satan joining with it, reason thus : Shall I defile this bodj' of mine ? My body is not mine, it is the Lord's ; my members are not mine, they be dedicated and consecrated to him. What should such base abominable thoughts do in a heart consecrated to Christ ? I am his, my thoughts his ; my desires should be his.
Let those that be given to swearing, and blaspheming, and idle talk, consider that their tongues are not their own ; and yet for whom do they employ their tongues as an instrument, but for Satan ?
Use 2. So when we come to die, make use of it, not only for comfort, but for duty. ' We are Christ's,' and therefore if he doth call us by any kind of death, if he sends for us by a bloody death, go to Christ that way, because he is Lord, and disposeth of whatsoever befalleth us, and determineth
* That is, ' choose.'— G. J Qu. ' Gal. i. 10 ' ?— Ed.
t That is, ' gOYernment.' — G.
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by what death we shall glorify him. Be of Saint Paul's resolution, to * glorify God both living and dying,' Phil. iii. 13, seq. He knew God should be glorified by his death as well as by his life. So we may glorify Christ by any death, be content to yield ourselves an}^ kind of way to him.
There be two virtues we ought specially to exercise in the hour of death : assurance of faith that we are Christ's, and a resignation to his will, that in faith and in obedience we may commit ourselves to him, as to a faithful Creator and Redeemer. This is our duty.
And it is no easy matter to do this. Many bequeath themselves to God, but, alas ! they have alienated themselves before to the world. They have given their bodies to wine, to women, as the Scripture phrase is, Rev. xiv. 4. Or they have given their spirits to the world. As we use to say in our common speech of some men, they are given to the world. But when they have given their strength to the flesh before, and do at time of death bequeath their spirits to the Lord, will he own them ? Alas ! they are alienated before, and so put out of their own disposing. And therefore ordinarily, unless the Lord work a miracle, it is impossible to die in the Lord, if a man have not lived to the Lord before ; w^hich may teach us to give ourselves really to him in our lifetime, that our lives being a service to Christ, we may comfortably die to him, and have our souls to dis- pose of.
The like subjection must be shewed in all conditions whatsoever. If God will have me to honour him in a mean calling, I am not mine own, I am his ; my life, and all my condition of life, are only to him. IMy calling, my estate, it may be, is low, that my pride may be humbled. But God hath set me in my calling ; he will have me to honour him in it. In the meanest calling, a man shall have enough to give an account of;* and therefore there is no reason to be ashamed of our calling. I am the Lord's, in my life, in all the passages of it ; in my calling, in all the troubles of it, I am to look for support and protection and provision and direction from God. I am here by his appointment. And therefore he that hath set me in this place will provide for me, protect me, guide me by his Spirit what to do in my place. And so it is a ground for contentation in all conditions.
You see, then, there is great reason why we should not live to ourselves, but to the Lord ; that we should not die to ourselves, but to the Lord. For it is a great comfort, and a special duty ; and therefore, in a word, we cannot have a more comfortable experiment in all divine truths than this, that God in Christ hath passed over himself to be ours, and we have passed over ourselves to him, if we have grace to do it. And then to plead and improve it when it is done, there is not a comfort of greater comprehension ; and therefore the apostle dwelleth on the point, ' No man liveth to himself, no man dieth to himself ; but we live to the Lord, and die to the Lord.' To what end is all this, but that we should settle it as a bottom and ground of comfort and contentment and happiness, that we are not our own, but the Lord's ?