son, the son of the promise, from whom the Messiah was to spring, to offer him upon a mount he should be shown; this was a great trial of faith, a hard lesson of self-denial to learn, and yet he withheld not his son from God; by which he gave evidence of a self-denying spirit, of his love to God, his fear of him, and obedience to his command.5. Health and hazard of life; as when men risk their health in the service of God and Christ, and true religion; so Epaphroditus, for the work of Christ, was nigh unto death; and many, like the apostle Paul, have spent and been spent in the cause of God, by hard studies and frequent ministrations; so Paul and Barnabas hazarded their lives, through the rage of men, for the name of our Lord Jesus, preaching the gospel; and Aquila and Priscilla were ready to lay down their own necks for the apostle, that is, to risk their lives for his sake. - 6. Life itself is to be laid down when called for, the apostle Paul did not count his life dear to himself, but was ready to part with it for the sake of the gospel; and of others we read, that they loved not their lives unto death; and this is the great instance of self-denial Christ gives, Matt. xvi. 24, 25.

Secondly, Another branch of self-denial lies in denying sinful self; this lesson, not nature but grace teaches, even to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, which include all kinds of sin; internal lusts and external actions of sin; sins of heart, lip, and life; every thing that is contrary to God and his righteous law. This is a hard lesson to learn; to part with sinful self is not an easy task, sin is so natural to men, they are conceived and born in it, are trangressors from the womb, and have lived in sin from their youth upward; sin and the soul have been long companions, and are loath to part; sin is as natural to the sinner as blackness to the Ethiopian, and spots to the leopard; it is as grateful to him as cold water to a thirsty soul; and is like a sweet morsel in his mouth, and he hides and spares it, and cares not to forsake it; it promises him much pleasure, though short-lived, vain and fallacious; some sins are right-hand and right-eye sins, as dear as the right hand and right eye be; and to cut off and pluck out such and cast them away is a great piece of self-denial; and is hard work, until the Spirit of God thoroughly convinces a man of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, what an evil and bitter thing it is, and how pernicious in its effects and consequences; and then being called and required to forsake it, does and says with Ephraim, What have I to do any more with idols? and this self-denial appears by loathing it, and themselves for it; by detesting and abhorring it, and themselves on account of it; and by repenting of it in deep humiliation for it, by lamenting the indwelling and prevalence of it, and by praying against it; by abstaining from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, and from all appearance of sin; by making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it; by opposing them, resisting unto blood, striving against sin; and by declaring to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness: so persons and things are said to be denied, when there is an aversion to them, a rejection of them, a disowning them as belonging to them, and as having any connexion with them; so Moses was denied by the Israelites, and Christ by the Jews. A branch of this part of self-denial lies

in parting with sinful companions, which are a sort of second self; and especially sinful relations, whom to part with is difficult work, as to withstand their solicitations, earnest entreaties, enticing language, and fair promises of pleasure and profit; as also to bear their reproaches, revilings and censures, on refusing to associate with them; for he that departs from evil, maketh himself a prey, Isa. lix. 15; but being called, by divine grace, to come out from among them, and to be separate from them; and being convinced of the folly and danger of keeping company with them, and having better companions, and more preferable communion and fellowship, they are called into; and having had too long an abode with them to their great grief and loss, determine through the grace of God to leave them, and to have nothing more to do with them; which is self-denial.

Thirdly, Another branch of self-denial is to deny righteous self, which is not to refuse to do works of righteousness for necessary uses, to glorify God, to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, and a profession of it; to show the genuineness and truth of faith, and to do good to others; this the grace of God teaches and obliges unto; but to deny righteous self, is to renounce all trust in and dependence on a man's own righteousness for justification before God, and, acceptance with him; and to submit to the righteousness of Christ, and depend upon that for such purposes. Now this is a hard lesson to learn, for a man to quit all trust in himself that he is righteous, and to depend upon the righteousness of another; to live out of himself upon another; to be beholden entirely to the free grace of God, and to the righteousness of Christ, disclaiming all works done by himself for his justification and whole salvation, is disagreeable to self: it is against the grain; a man's righteousness is his own, and he does not care to part with it, he would fain hold it fast; it is the effect of great toil and labour, and which he has endeavoured to establish and settle fast, and to have it all pulled down at once he cannot bear it; it is matter of glorying and boasting, and to have this excluded, and to be stripped of all his feathers, is not pleasing to flesh and blood; it is his idol he has bowed unto, and to take this away from him is as cutting as it was to Micah, when his images were stolen from him, and he said, Ye have taken away my gods, and what have I more? but when the Spirit of God convinces a man of the insufficiency of his own righteousness to justify him before God, and of the excellency of the righteousness of Christ for such a purpose, then he quits his own, and lays hold on that; an instance of this kind of self-denial we have in the apostle Paul, who was at first a self-righteous man, who thought that touching the righteousness of the law he was blameless; he counted it gain unto him, and trusted in it, and expected to be justified and saved by it; but when he came to see the imperfection of it, and was convinced of its unprofitableness to God, he counted it loss and dung, and rejected it as such, desiring to be found in Christ, and in his righteousness, and not his own, Phil. iii. 6-9.

II. There are various arguments or motives which may be made use of to excite truly gracious souls to the exercise of this grace of selfdenial in the several branches of it.

1. It is required of them; it is an injunction of Christ on his disciples, even all of them, and therefore to be strictly regarded, complied with, and exercised; If any man will come after me, is desirous of being a disciple and follower of Christ, let him deny himself, Matt. xvi. 24; nay this is necessary to a man's being a disciple of Christ, he cannot be one without it; see Luke xiv. 26, 27.-2. Christ has not only commanded it, but he has set an example of it himself; he denied himself for our sakes; came forth from his Father, and came down from heaven to serve us; though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty, might be made rich; though he was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, yet he so far humbled and denied himself as to be found in fashion as a man, and in the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, the death of the cross; he pleased not himself, but patiently bore the reproaches of men, which could not but be very disagreeable to him; and he endured. the contradiction of sinners against himself; and in all which and more he was an example of self-denial, Phil. ii. 5-8. 3. The examples of saints in all ages may serve to excite and encourage to it; as of Abraham, in leaving his country and father's house, and especially in offering up his son at the command of God; in Moses, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; in the Old Testament saints and martyrs, who suffered bonds, imprisonment, trial of cruel mockings, and death itself, in various shapes; and so in others since: in the apostles of Christ, who left all and followed him: an instance of denial of sinful self may be obseved in Zaccheus and others; and of righteous self in the apostle Paul. — 4. If a man does not deny himself, as required of God, he sets up himself for God, makes a god of himself, and is guilty of idolatry; such live to themselves, and not unto God and Christ, which the love of Christ constrains unto, namely, that they who live, should not live to themselves, but to him who died for them and rose again; yea, that they should none of them neither live to themselves, nor die to themselves, but to the Lord; that both living and dying they may appear to be his, and not their own. 5. The loss and gain of not denying and of denying self, should be considered. Such who think to save themselves by not denying themselves, lose themselves and their own souls; lose Christ and his righteousness, heaven and eternal life; when those who deny themselves for Christ's sake, find the life of their souls, gain Christ and his righteousness, have treasure in heaven, the recompense of reward, the more enduring substance.

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OF RESIGNATION TO THE WILL OF GOD.

SUBMISSION, Or Resignation of the will of man to the will of God, is a part of self-denial, as has been observed in the preceding chapter, and therefore properly next requires a distinct consideration. It is no other than an entire acquiescence in the will of God in all things, and especially in adverse dispensations of providence, which is a trial. of it; as in Eli, when he was told of the distresses that should come upon his family, said, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good!

1 Sam. iii. 18; and in much the same temper and disposition of mind was David, when he ordered the ark to be carried back to Jerusalem, which he was obliged to leave, 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26. This is no other than for a man to have his will swallowed up in the will of God, and to have no will of his own, but what is the Lord's; or only to will what he wills, and is pleasing to him; this, in its highest perfection, was in Christ in the midst of his agonies; Not my will, but thine be done! Something of this kind may be expected from a follower of Christ; but that anything similar to it should drop from the lips of a heathen, is somewhat extraordinary; and yet Epictetus gives this advice, "Will nothing but what God wills;" there is indeed a difference between giving advice and acting up to it, and between theory and practice; yet this same heathen says, " I yield my appetite to God; does he will that I should have a fever? I will it also. Does he will that I should attempt any thing? I likewise will it. Would he have me desire any thing? I also will it. Would he have me enjoy any thing? The same is my will. Does he nill? I also nill. Would he have me die? I am willing to die." How far he said this with truth, and acted according to it, I will not say; but to have the will so resigned to the will of God highly becomes a Christian. But,

I. There must be much done to the will of man, and much management of it, under the power of divine grace, to bring the will of man to be subject to the will of God. For,

1. The will of man is very stubborn and inflexible; we often read of the hardness of the heart, and of its being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; and of the stony heart, a heart as hard as a stone, yea, as an adamant stone, on which no impressions can be made, nor becomes pliable and flexible by any methods made use of; and such is the obstinacy of the will of man. 2. It is averse to all that is good; it hates the good and loves the evil; it hates the good law of God, and is not subject to it; nor can it be, without the power of divine grace; it hates good men, and all their good instructions; as men to do good have no knowledge, so neither will they understand; they have no will nor desire to understand what is good, and still less to practise it.3. The will of man is biassed to and bent upon that which is evil; their hearts are fully set in them to do evil, Eccles. viii. 11; their language is, we will walk after our own devices, &c.-4. The will of man is opposite to the will of God in all things; yea, in things that are most for his good; even for his everlasting welfare and happiness. The will of God is, that men should be saved, or have everlasting life and salvation only by Christ; but the will of men is averse to this way of salvation; Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life, John v. 40; the will of God is, that men should be justified in his sight, not by the works of the law, but by the righteousness of Christ; but, on the contrary, so stout-hearted, and far from this way of righteousness, are men, that they seek justification, not by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law, and go about to establish their own righteousness, and will not submit to the righteousness of Christ. God has set up Christ as king 5 Μηδεν αλλο θελε, η ἡ ὁ Θεος θελει. Arrian. Εpict. et 1. 2, c. 17.

h Ib. 1. 3, c. 26.

over Zion, and requires obedience to his word and ordinances; but such is the perverseness of men's wills, that they declare, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us; and therefore break the bands, and cast away the cords of his laws and ordinances from them and if they are so averse to the methods of his grace and kingdom, then much more so to the dispensation of his providence.-5. The carnal mind and will of man is enmity itself against God, his law and gospel, his purposes and providences; it is full of rebellion to him; it rebels against the light of nature and against the law of God; the Israelites were always a rebellious people, though favoured with the knowledge of the will of God above all people; and so the elect of God, whilst in a state of nature, are styled rebellious.-6. It is one of the characters of sinful men, that they are self-willed, 2 Pet. ii. 10; men naturally desire to have their own wills and ways; they do not care to be contradicted and gainsayed; even God's elect, before conversion, are studiously fulfilling the desires of the flesh, or the wills of the flesh, their carnal wills, and choose to live to the lusts of the flesh, and not to the will of God. In such a bad and depraved state is the will of man naturally; so that much must be done with it to bring it into subjection to the will of God.

Now the various steps which God takes, and the various things he does to the will of man, in order to work it up, and bring it to a submission to his will, are these: -1. He breaks the wills of men, he crosses them, by one afflictive providence after another; and brings them by degrees to give up their wills to his; he will not let them have their own wills and ways; but thwarts them, and denies them those things their wills are set upon; until at length they are content that his will should be done; as creatures not used to a yoke, at first are very reluctant, and wriggle and toss about, and will not easily submit, until some rough methods are taken to break them. Graceless men are sons of Belial, children without a yoke; such are the people of God before conversion; but then they are called to take a yoke upon them, not only of Christ's commands and ordinances, but of afflictions and reproaches for Christ's sake; when they are, at first, like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, and it sits uneasy upon them; but afterwards, when they are more used to it, they become more patient and quiet under it; hence it is said to be good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth; for thereby he is inured to it, and bears it more quietly and patiently, Lam. iii. 27; it not being perceived so heavy as at first. 2. The Lord exerts his mighty power upon the wills of men, and of unwilling makes them willing; when the power of God is put forth upon them, then they are made willing, as to serve the Lord, and to be saved by him in his own way; so to part with every thing he calls for, and to bear and suffer whatever is his will and pleasure; but such a willing disposition is not by might and power of men; a man cannot make himself willing, or work himself to such a submissive frame; but it is effected by the Spirit of God, and the power of his efficacious grace; and this is not done by force and compulsion; God does not force the will, but allures and attracts it; works upon it, as Austin says, with an omnipotent sweetness, and a sweet omnipotence.