: : which all our actions should be directed, namely, the glory of God. When we fell to loving ourselves, we fell from loving God: and therefore when the psalmist saith, there were none that sought God, namely, as the last end, he presently adds, "they are all gone aside," namely, from their true mark, and therefore become filthy. Psal. xiv. 3. Since it is natural, it is also universal. Ps. xiv. 1. The not seeking God is as universal as our ignorance of him. No man in a state of nature, but has it predominant; no renewed man on this side heaven but has it partially: the one has it flourishing, the other has it struggling. If to aim at the glory of God as the chief end, and not to live to ourselves, be the greatest mark of the restoration of the Divine image, 2 Cor. v. 15, and a conformity to Christ, who glorified not himself, Heb. v. 5, but the Father, John xvii. 4, then every man wallowing in the mire of corrupt nature, pays a homage to self, as a renewed man is biassed by the honour of God. The Holy Ghost excepts none from this crime, "all seek their own." Phil. ii. 21. It is rare for them to look above or beyond themselves: whatsoever may be the immediate subject of their thoughts and inquiries, yet the utmost end and stage is their profit, honour, or pleasure: whatever it be that immediately possesses the mind and will, self sits like a queen, and sways the sceptre, and orders things at that rate that God is excluded, and can find no room in his thoughts; "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts." Psal. x. 4. The whole little world of man is so overflowed with a deluge of self, that the dove, the glory of the Creator, can find no place where to set its foot; and if ever it gain the favour of admittance, it is to disguise and be a vassal to some carnal project; as the glory of God was a mask for the murdering his servants. It is from the power of this principle that the difficulty of conversion arises. As there is no greater pleasure to a believing soul than the giving itself up to God, and no stronger desire in it than to have a fixed and unchangeable will to serve the designs of his honour: so there is no greater torment to a wicked man than to part with his carnal ends, and lay down the Dagon of self at the feet of the ark. Self-love and self-opinion in the Pharisees, waylaid all the entertainment of truth. They sought honour one of another, and not the honour which comes from God. John v. 44. It is of so large an extent, and so insinuating a nature, that it winds itself into the exercise of moral virtues, mixes with our charity, Matt. vi. 2, and finds nourishment in the ashes of martyrdom, 1 Cor. xiii. 3. This making ourselves our end, will appear in a few things. [1.] In frequent self-applauses, and inward overweening reflections. Nothing is more ordinary in the natures of men, than a doting on their own perfections, acquisitions, or actions in the world. Most think of themselves above what they ought to think. Rom. xii. 3. Few think of themselves so meanly as they ought to think. This sticks as close to us as our skin. And as humility is the beauty of grace, this is the filthiest soil of nature. Our thoughts run more delightfully upon the track of our own perfections, than the excellency of God. And when we find any thing of a seeming worth, that may make us glitter in the eyes of the world, how cheerfully do we grasp and embrace ourselves! When the grosser profanenesses of men have been discarded, and the floods of them dammed up; the head of corruption, whence they sprang, will swell the higher within, in self-applauding speculations of their own reformation, without acknowledgments of their own weaknesses, and desires of Divine assistance to make a further progress. "I thank God, I am not like this publican." Luke xviii. 11. A self-reflection, with a contempt rather than compassion to his neighbour, is frequent in every Pharisee. The vapours of self-affections, in our clouded understandings, like those in the air in misty mornings, alter the appearance of things, and make them look bigger than they are. This is thought by some to be the sin of the fallen angels, who reflecting upon their own natural excellency superior to other creatures, would find a blessedness in their own nature, as God did in his; and make themselves the last end of t of their actions. It is from this principle we are naturally so ready to compare ourselves, rather with those that are below us, than with those that are above us; and often think those that are above us, inferior to us, and secretly glory that we are become none of the meanest and lowest in natural or moral excellencies. How far were the gracious penmen of the Scripture from this, who when possessed and directed by the Spirit of God, and filled with a sense of him, instead of applauding themselves, publish upon record their own faults to all the eyes of the world! And if Peter, as some think, dictated the gospel which Mark wrote as his amanuensis, it is observable, that his crime in denying his Master is aggravated in that gospel in some circumstances, and less spoken of his repentance, than in the other evangelists. "When he thought thereon, he wept," Mark xiv. 72; but in the other, "He went out, and wept bitterly." Matt. xxvi. 75. Luke xxii. 62. This is one part of atheism and self-idolatry, to magnify ourselves with the forgetfulness and to the injury of our Crea tor. [2.] In ascribing the glory of what we do or have, to ourselves, to our own wisdom, power, and virtue. How flaunting VOL. I.-19 is Nebuchadnezzar, at the prospect of Babylon, which he had exalted to be the head of so great an empire, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built?" Dan. iv. 30. He struts upon the battlements of his palace, as if there were no God but himself in the world, while his eye could not but see the heavens above him to be none of his own framing; attributing his acquisitions to his own arm, and referring them to his own honour, for his own delight; not for the honour of God, as a creature ought; nor for the advantage of his subjects, as the duty of a prince: he regards Babylon as his heaven, and himself as his idol, as if he were all, and God nothing. An example of this we have in the present age. But it is often observed, that God vindicates his own honour, brings the most heroical men to contempt and unfortunate ends, as a punishment of their pride, as he did here, "While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven." Dan. iv. 31.1 This was Herod's crime, to suffer others to do it: he had discovered his eloquence actively, and made himself his own end passively, in approving the flatteries of the people; and offered not with one hand to God the glory he received from his people with the other. Acts xii. 22, 23. Samosatenus is reported to have put down the hymns which were sung for the glory of God and Christ, and caused songs to be sung in the temple for his own honour. When any thing succeeds well, we are ready to attribute it to our own prudence and industry: if we meet with a cross, we fret against the stars and fortune, and second causes, and sometimes against God; as they curse God as well as their king, Isa. viii. 21, not acknowledging any defect in themselves. The psalmist by his repetition of "Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy name give glory," Psal. cxv. 1, implies the naturality of this temper, and the difficulty to cleanse our hearts from those self-reflections. If it be angelical to refuse an undue glory stolen from God's throne, Rev. xxii. 8, 9, it is diabolical to accept and cherish it. To seek our own glory is not glory, Prov. xxv. 27. It is vile, and the dishonour of a creature, who by the law of his creation is referred to another end. So much as we sacrifice to our own credit, to the dexterity of our hands, or the sagacity of our wit, we detract from God. [3.] In desires to have self-pleasing doctrines; when we cannot endure to hear any thing that crosses the flesh; though the wise man tells us, "It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than the song of fools." Eccles. vii. 5. If Hanani the seer reprove king Asa for not relying on the Lord, his passion shall be armed for self against the prophet, and arrest him a prisoner. 2 Chron. xvi. 10. If Micaiah declare to Ahab the evil that shall befall him, Amon the governor shall receive 1 Sanderson's Sermons. orders to clap him up in a dungeon. Fire doth not sooner seize upon combustible matter, than fury will be kindled, if self be but pinched. This interest of lustful self barred the heart of Herodias against the entertainment of the truth, and caused her savagely to dip her hands in the blood of the Baptist, to make him a sacrifice to that inward idol. Mark vi. 18, 19. 28. [4.] In being highly concerned for injuries done to ourselves, and little or not at all concerned for injuries done to God. How will the blood rise in us, when our honour and reputation are invaded, and scarce reflect upon the dishonour God suffers in our sight and hearing. Violent passions will transform us into Boanerges in the one case, and our unconcernedness render us Gallios in the other. We shall extenuate that which concerns God, and aggravate that which concerns ourselves. Nothing but the death of Jonathan, a first born and a generous son, will satisfy his father Saul, when the authority of his edict was broken by his tasting of honey; though he had recoinpensed his crime committed in ignorance, by the purchase of a gallant victory. But when the authority of God was violated in saving the Amalekites' cattle, against the command of a greater Sovereign than himself; he can daub the business, and excuse it with a design of sacrificing. He was not so earnest in hindering the people from the breach of God's command, as he was in vindicating the honour of his own, 1 Sam. xv. 21. He could hardly admit of an excuse to salve his own honour; but in the concerns of God's honour, pretend piety, to cloak his avarice. And it is often seen, when the violation of God's authority and the stain of our own reputation are coupled together; we are more troubled for what disgraces us, than for what dishonours God: when Saul had thus transgressed, he is desirous that Samuel would turn again to preserve his own honour before the elders, rather than grieved that he had broken the command of God. ver. 30. [5.] In trusting in ourselves. When we consult with our own wit and wisdom, more than inquire of God, and ask leave of him: as the Assyrian, "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent." Isa. x. 13. When we attempt things in the strength of our own heads and parts, and trust in our own industry, without application to God, for direction, blessing, and success, we affect the privilege of the Deity, and make gods of ourselves. The same language in reality with Ajax in Sophocles: "Others think to overcome with the assistance of the gods, but I hope to gain honour without them." Dependence and trust is an act due from the creature only to God. Hence God aggravates the crime of the Jews in trusting in Egypt, "the Egyptians are men, and not God." Isa. xxxi. 3. Confidence in ourselves is a defection from God. Jer. xvii. 5. And when we depart from and cast off God to depend upon ourselves, which is but an arm of flesh, we choose the arm of flesh for our god; we rob God of that confidence we ought to place in him, and that adoration which is due to him, and build it upon another foundation: not that we are to neglect the reason and parts God hath given us, or spend more time in prayer than in consulting about our own affairs; but to mix our own intentions in business with ejaculations to Heaven, and take God along with us in every motion. But certainly it is an idolizing of self, when we are more diligent in our attendance on our own wit, than fervent in our recourses to God. [6.] The power of sinful self, above the efficacy of the notion of God, is evident in our workings for carnal self against the light of our own consciences. When men of sublime reason and clear natural wisdom, are voluntary slaves to their own lusts, row against the stream of their own consciences, serve carnal self with a disgraceful and disturbing drudgery, making it their god, sacrificing natural self, all sentiments of virtue, and the quiet of their lives, to the pleasure, honour, and satisfaction of carnal self; this is a prostituting God, in his deputy conscience, to carnal affections, when their eyes are shut against the enlightenings of it, and their ears deaf to its voice, but open to the least breath and whisper of self; a debt that the creature owes supremely to God. Much more might be said, but let us see what atheism lurks in this, and how it intrenches upon God. It is a usurping God's prerogative. It is God's prerogative to be his own end, and act for his own glory, because there is nothing superior to him in excellency and goodness to act for: he had not his being from any thing without himself, whereby he should be obliged to act for any thing but himself. To make ourselves then our last end, is to co-rival God in his being the supreme good, and blessedness to himself: as if we were our own principle, the author of our own being, and were not obliged to a higher power than ourselves for what we are and have. To direct the lines of all our motions to ourselves, is to imply that they first issued only from ourselves. When we are rivals to God in his chief end, we own or desire to be rivals to him in the principle of his being: this is to set ourselves in the place of God. All things have something without them, and above them as their end: all inferior creatures act for some superior order in the rank of creation; the lesser animals are designed for the greater, and all for man; man, therefore, for something nobler than himself. To make ourselves therefore |