4. You will have many factious zealots to please, who being strangers to the love of holiness, christianity, and unity, are ruled by the interest of an opinion or a sect; and these will never be pleased by you, unless you will be one of their side or party, and conform yourself to their opinions. If you be not against them, but set yourselves to reconcile and end the differences in the church, they will hate you as not promoting their opinions, but weakening them by some abhorred syncretisms. As in civil, so in ecclesiastical wars, the firebrands cannot endure the peaceable: if you will be neuters, you shall be used as enemies. If you be never so much for Christ, and holiness, and common truth, all is nothing, unless you be also for them, and their conceits.
5. Most of the world are haters of holiness, and have a serpentine enmity to the image of God, being not renewed by the Holy Ghost; and will not be pleased with you, unless you will sin against your Lord, and do as they do. 1 Pet. iv. 3-5, "Walking in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you; who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." You must be counted as Lot among the Sodomites, a busy fellow that comes among them to make himself their judge, and to control them, if you tell them of their sin. You shall be called a precise, hypocritical coxcomb, (or somewhat much worse,) if you will not be as bad as they, and if by your abstinence (though you say nothing) you seem to reprehend their sensuality and contempt of God. Among bedlams you must play the bedlam, if you will escape the fangs of their revilings. And can you hope to please such men as these?
6. You shall have satanical God-haters, and men of seared and desperate consciences to please, that are malicious and cruel, and will be pleased with nothing but some horrid iniquity, and the damning of your own souls, and drawing others to damnation. Like that monster of Milan, that when he had got down his enemy, made him blaspheme God in hope to save his life, and then stabbed him, calling it a noble revenge, that killed the body and damned the soul at once. There are such in the world, that will so visibly act the devil's part, that they would debauch your consciences with the most horrid perjuries, perfidiousness, and impiety, that they may triumph over your miserable souls.[179]And if you think it worth the wilful damning of your souls, it is possible they may be pleased. If you tell them, we cannot please you, unless we will be dishonest, and displease God, and sin against our knowledge and consciences, and hazard our salvation, they will make but a jest of such arguments as these, and expect you should venture your souls and all upon their opinions, and care as little for God and your souls as they do. Desperate sinners are loth to go to hell alone; it is a torment to them to see others better than themselves. They that are cruel and unmerciful to themselves, and have no pity on their own souls, but will sell them for a whore, or for preferment, and honour, or sensual delights, will scarce have mercy on the souls of others: Matt. xxvii. 25, "His blood be on us, and on our children."
7. You will have rigorous, captious, uncharitable, and unrighteous men to please, who will "make a man offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought, and watch for iniquity," Isa. xxix. 20, 21. That have none of that charity which covereth faults, and interpreteth words and actionsfavourably; nor none of that justice which causeth men to do as they would be done by, and judge as they would be judged; but judging without mercy, are like to have judgment without mercy. And are glad when they can find any matter to reproach you: and if once they meet with it (true or false) they will never forget it, but dwell as the fly on the ulcerated place.[180]
8. You will have passionate persons to please, whose judgments are blinded, and are not capable of being pleased. Like the sick and sore that are hurt with every touch; and at last, saith Seneca, with the very conceit that you touched them. How can you please them, when displeasedness is their disease, that abideth within them, at the very heart?
9. You will find that censoriousness is a common vice, and though few are competent judges of your actions, as not being acquainted with all the case, yet every one almost will be venturing to cast in his censure. A proud, presumptuous understanding is a very common vice; which thinks itself presently capable of judging, as soon as it heareth but a piece of the case, and is not conscious of its own fallibility, though it have daily experience of it. Few are at your elbow, and none in your heart, and therefore know not the circumstances and reasons of all that you do, nor hear what you have to say for yourselves; and yet they will presume to censure you, who would have absolved you, if they had but heard you speak. It is rare to meet even with professors of greatest sincerity, that are very tender and fearful of sinning, in this point of rash, ungrounded judging, without capacity or call.
10. You live among unpeaceable tattlers and tale-carriers, that would please others by accusing you. Who is it that hath ears that hath not such vermin as these earwigs busy at them? except here and there an upright man, whose angry countenance hath still driven away such backbiting tongues. And all shall be said behind your backs, when you are uncapable of answering for yourselves. And if it be a man that the hearers think well of, that accuseth or backbiteth you, they think it lawful then to believe them: and most that are their friends, and of their party, and for their interest, shall be sure to be thought so honest as to be credible. And it is not strange, for a learned, ingenious, yea, a godly person to be too forward in uttering, from the mouth of others, an evil report; and then the hearer thinks he is fully justified for believing it, and reporting it again to others. David himself by the temptation of a Ziba, is drawn to wrong Mephibosheth, the son of his great deserving friend, 2 Sam. xvi. 3, 4. No wonder then if Saul do hearken to a Doeg, to the wrong of David, and murder of the priests. Prov. xviii. 8, "The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds." Prov. xxvi. 20, "Where no wood is, the fire goeth out: so where there is no tale-bearer the strife ceaseth." And when these are still near men, and you far off, it is easy for them to continue the most odious representation of the most laudable person's actions in the world.
11. The imperfection of all men's understandings and godliness is so great, that the differences of judgment that are among the best, will tend to the injury and undervaluing of their brethren. One is confident that his way is right, and another is confident of the contrary: and to how great contendings and injuries such differences may proceed, he that knoweth not in this age, shall not know for me.[181]We need not go to Paul and Barnabas for an instance (that was a far lighter case); nor to Epiphanius, Hierom, and Chrysostom; nor to those ages and tragedies of contending bishops, that in the eastern and western churches have been before us: every one thinking his cause so plain, as to justify himself, in all that he saith and doth against those that presume to differ from him. And surely you may well expect some displeasure, even from good and learned men, when the church have felt such dreadful concussions, and bleedeth to this day, by so horrid divisions, through the remnants of that pride and ignorance which her reverend guides have still been guilty of.[182]
12. You have men of great mutability to please; that one hour may be ready to worship you as gods, and the next to stone you, or account you as devils, as they did by Paul, and Christ himself. What a weathercock is the mind of man! especially of the vulgar and the temporizers! When you have spent all your days in building your reputation on this sand, one blast of wind or storm at last, doth tumble it down, and all your cost and labour are lost. Serve men as submissively and carefully as you can; and after all, some accident or failing of their unrighteous expectations, may make all that ever you did forgotten, and turn you out of the world with Wolsey's groans, "If I had served God as faithfully as man, I had been better rewarded, and not forsaken in my distress." How many have fallen by the hands or frowns of those whose favour they had dearly purchased, perhaps at the price of their salvation! If ever you put such confidence in a friend, as not to consider that it is possible he may one day prove your enemy, you know not man; and may perhaps be better taught to know him, to your cost.
13. Every man living shall unavoidably be engaged by God himself, in some duties which are very liable to misconstruction, and will have an outside and appearance of evil, to the offence of those that know not all the inside and circumstances. And hence it comes to pass, that a great part of history is little worthy of regard; because the actions of public persons are discerned but by the halves by most that write of them. They write most by hearsay; or know but the outside and seemings of things, and not the spirit, and life, and reality of the case. Men have not the choosing of their own duties, but God maketh them by his law and providence: and it pleaseth him oft to try his servants in this kind: many of the circumstances of their actions shall remain unknown to men, that would justify them if they knew them, and account them as notorious, scandalous persons, because they know themnot. How like to evil was the Israelites' taking the goods of the Egyptians! and how likely to lay them open to their censure! So was Abraham's attempt to sacrifice his son: and so was David's eating the shew-bread, and dancing almost naked before the ark; Christ's eating and drinking with publicans and sinners; Paul's circumcising Timothy, and purifying in the temple; with abundance such like, which fall out in the life of every christian. No wonder if Joseph thought once of putting Mary away, till he knew the evidence of her miraculous conception; and how liable was she to censure, by those that knew it not! Oh, therefore, how vain is the judgment of man! And how contrary is it frequently to the truth! And with what caution must history be read! And oh how desirable is the great day of God, when all human censure shall be justly censured!
14. The perverseness of many is so great, that they require contradictions and impossibilities of you, to tell you that they are resolved never to be pleased by you. If John use fasting, they say, "he hath a devil:" if Christ come "eating and drinking," they say, "Behold a gluttonous person, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners," Matt. xi. 18, 19. If your judgment and practice be conformable to superiors, especially if they have admitted of a change, you shall be judged mere knaves and temporizers: if they are not, you shall be judged disobedient, refractory, and seditious. If you speak fair and pleasingly, they will call you flatterers and dissemblers: if you speak more freely, though in a necessary case, they will say you rail. If I accept of preferment, they will say, I am ambitious, proud, and worldly: if I refuse it, (how modestly soever,) they will say, I am discontented, and have seditious designs. If I preach not when I am forbidden, I shall be accused as forsaking the calling I undertook, and obeying man against God: if I do preach, I shall be accounted disobedient and seditious. If a friend or kinsman desire me to help him to some place or preferment which he is not fit for, or which would tend to another's wrong; if I should grant his desire, I shall be taken for dishonest, that by partiality wrong another; if I deny it him, I shall be called unnatural or unfriendly, and worse than an infidel. If I give to the poor as long as I have it, I shall be censured for ceasing when I have no more: they that know not whether you have it to give or not, will be displeased if you do not; and if many years you should maintain them freely, it is all as nothing as soon as you cease, either because your stock is spent, or because some other is made the necessary object of your charity. If you be wronged in your estate, if you go to law, they will say, you are contentious; if you let go your estate to avoid contention, they will say, you are silly fools or idiots. If you do any good works of charity to the knowledge of men, they will say, you are hypocrites, and do it for applause; if you do it secretly, that no one know of it, they will say, you are covetous, and have no good works, and though you make a greater profession of religion, you do no good; and others shall be censured so also for your sakes. If you be pleasant and merry, they will censure you as light and vain: if you be more grave and sad, they will say, you are melancholy or discontent. In a word, whatever you do, be sure by some it will be condemned; and do or not do, speak or be silent, you shall certainly displease, and never escape the censures of the world.
15. There is among men so great a contrariety of judgments, and dispositions, and interests, that they will never agree among themselves; and if you please one, the rest will be thereby displeased.[183]He that you please is an enemy to another; and therefore you displease his enemy by pleasing him. Sometimes, state differences divide kingdoms into parties, and one party will be displeased with you if you be of the other, and both if you are neuters, or dislike them both; and each party think their cause will justify any accusations they can charge you with, or odious titles they can give you, if not any sufferings they can bring upon you. Church differences and sects have been found in all ages, and you cannot be of the opinion of every party; when the world aboundeth with such variety of conceits, you cannot be of all at once. And if you be of one party, you must displease the rest; if you are of one side in controverted opinions, the other side accounteth you erroneous: and how far will the supposed interest of their cause and party carry them! One half of the christian world, at this day, condemneth the other half as schismatical at least, the other half doing the like for them. And can you be papists, and protestants, and Greeks, and every thing? If not, you must displease as many as you please. Yea, more; if mutable men shall change never so oft, they will expect that you change as fast as they, and whatever their contrary interests require, you must follow them in; one year you must swear, and another you must unswear all again: whatever cause or action they engage in, be it never so devilish, you must approve of it and countenance it, and all that they do you must say is well done. In a word, you must teach your tongue to say or swear any thing, and you must sell your innocency, and hire out your consciences wholly to their service, or you cannot please them. Micaiah must say with the rest of the prophets, "Go, and prosper," or else he will be hated, as not prophesying good of Ahab, but evil, 1 Kings xxii. 8. And how can you serve all interests at once? It seems the providence of God hath, as of purpose, wheeled about the affairs of the world, to try and shame man-pleasers and temporizers in the sight of the sun. It is evident then, that if you will please all you must at once both speak and be silent, and verify contradictions, and be in many places at once, and be of all men's minds, and for all men's way. For my part, I mean to see the world a little better agreed among themselves, before I will make it my ambition to please them. If you can reconcile all their opinions, and interests, and complexions, and dispositions, and make them all of one mind and will, then hope to please them.
16. If you excel in any one virtue or duty, even that shall not excuse you from the contrary defamation, so unreasonable are malicious men. Nothing in the world can secure you from censorious, slanderous tongues.[184]The perfect holiness of Jesus Christ could not secure him from being called a gluttonous person and a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners. His wonderful contempt of worldly dignities and honours, and his subjection to Cæsar, could not secure him from being slandered and crucified as Cæsar's enemy. The great piety of the ancient christians excused them not from the vulgar calumny, that they met together for filthiness in thedark; nor from the cry of the rabble,Tollite impios, Away with the ungodly, because they were against the worshipping of idols. I have known those that have given all that ever they had to the poor except their food and necessaries, and yet (though it was to a considerable value) have been reproached as unmerciful, by those that have not had what they expected. Many a one hath been defamed with scandalous rumours of uncleanness, that have lived in untainted chastity all their lives. The most eminent saints have been defamed as guilty of the most horrid crimes, which never entered into their thoughts. The principal thing that ever I bent my studies and care about, hath been the reconciling, unity, and peace of christians, and against unpeaceableness, uncharitableness, turbulency, and division; and yet some have been found, whose interest and malice have commanded them to charge me with that very sin, which I have spent my days, my zeal, and study against. How oft have contrary factions charged me with perfectly contrary accusations! I can scarce remember the thing that I can do in all the world, that some will not be offended at; nor the duty so great and clear, that some will not call my sin; nor the self-denial so great, (to the hazard of my life,) which hath not been called self-seeking, or something clean contrary to what it was indeed. Instead therefore of serving and pleasing this malicious, unrighteous world, I contemn their blind and unjust censures, and appeal to the most righteous God.[185]
17. If you have a design for a name of honour when you are dead, consider what power a prevailing faction may have to corrupt the history of your life, and represent you to posterity perfectly contrary to what you are; and how impossible it is for posterity to know whose history is the product of malicious, shameless lies, and whose is the narrative of impartial truth. What contrary histories are there of particular persons and actions written by men of the same religion: as of Pope Gregory VII. and the emperors that contended with him; and about Pope Joan, and many the like cases, where you may read scores of historians on one side and on the other.[186]
18. Remember that the holiest saints or apostles could never please the world, nor escape their censures, slanders, and cruelties; no, nor Jesus Christ himself. And can you think by honest means to please them better than Christ and all his saints have done? You have not the wisdom that Christ had to please men, and to avoid offence. You have not the perfect innocency and unblamableness that Christ had; you cannot heal their sicknesses and infirmities, and do that good to them to please and win them, as Jesus Christ did; you cannot convince them, and constrain them to reverence you by manifold miracles, as Jesus Christ did. Can you imitate such an excellent pattern as is set you by the holy, patient, charitable, unwearied apostle Paul? Acts xx.; 1 Cor. iv. ix.; 2 Cor. iv. v. vi. x. xi. xii. If you cannot, how can you please them that would not be pleased by such unimitable works of love and power? The more Paul "loved" some of his hearers, "the less he was beloved," 2 Cor. xii. 15. They used him "as an enemy for telling them the truth," Gal. iv. 16. Though he "became all things to all men," he could "save but some," nor "please but some," 1 Cor. ix. 22. And what are you that you should better please them?
19. Godliness, virtue, and honesty itself will not please the world, and therefore you cannot hope to please them by that which is not pleasing to them. Will men be pleased by that which they hate? and by the actions which they think accuse them and condemn them? And if you will be ungodly and vicious to please them, you sell your souls, your conscience, and your God, to please them. God and they are not pleased with the same ways. And which do you think should first be pleased? If you displease him for their favour, you will buy it dear.[187]
20. They are not pleased with God himself; yea, no man doth displease so many and so much as he. And can you do more than God to please them? or can you deserve their favour more than he? They are daily displeased with his works of providence: one would have rain, when another would have none; one would have the winds to serve his voyage, and another would have them in a contrary end; one party is displeased, because another is pleased and exalted; every enemy would have his cause succeed, and the victory to be his; every contender would have all go on his side. God must be ruled by them, and fit himself to the interest of the most unjust, and to the will of the most vicious, and do as they would have him, and be a servant to their lusts, or they will not be pleased with him. And his holy nature, and his holy word, and holy ways, displease them more than his ordinary providence. They are displeased that his word is so precise and strict, and that he commandeth them so holy and so strict a life, and that he threateneth all the ungodly with damnation: he must alter his laws, and make them more loose, and fit them to their fleshly interest and lusts, and speak as they would have him, without any difficulties, before they will be pleased with them (unless he alter their minds and hearts). And how do you think they will be pleased with him at last, when he fulfils his threatenings? when he killeth them, and turneth their bodies to dust, and their guilty souls to torment and despair?
21. How can you please men that cannot please themselves? Their own desire and choice will please them but a little while. Like children, they are soon weary of that which they cried for: they must needs have it, and when they have it, it is naught, and cast away; they are neither pleased with it, nor without it. They are like sick persons that long for every meat or drink they think of, and when they have it, they cannot get it down; for the sickness is still within them that causeth their displeasure. How many do trouble and torment themselves by their passions and folly from day to day! and can you please such self-displeasers?
How can you please all others, when you cannot please yourselves? If you are persons fearing God, and feel the burden of your sins, and have life enough to be sensible of your diseases, I dare say there are none in the world so displeasing to you, as you areto yourselves. You carry that about you, and feel that within you, which displeaseth you more than all the enemies you have in the world. Your passions and corruptions, your want of love to God, and your strangeness to him and the life to come, the daily faultiness of your duties and your lives, are your daily burden, and displease you most. And if you be not able, and wise, and good enough to please yourselves, can you be able, and wise, and good enough to please the world? As your sins are nearest to yourselves, so are your graces; and as you know more evil by yourselves than others know, so you know more good by yourselves. That little fire will not warm all the room, which will not warm the hearth it lieth on.
Direct.X. Remember what a life of unquietness and continual vexation you choose, if you place your peace or happiness in the good will or word of man.[188]For having showed you how impossible a task you undertake, it must needs follow that the pursuit of it must be a life of torment. To engage yourselves in so great cares, and be sure to be disappointed; to make that your end, which you cannot attain; to find that you labour in vain, and daily meet with displeasure instead of the favour you expected; must needs be a very grievous life. You are like one that dwelleth on the top of a mountain, and yet cannot endure the wind to blow upon him; or like him that dwelleth in a wood, and yet is afraid of the shaking of a leaf. You dwell among a world of ulcerated, selfish, contradictory, mutable, unpleasable minds, and yet you cannot endure their displeasure. Are you magistrates? The people will murmur at you; and those that are most incompetent and uncapable will be the forwardest to censure you, and think that they could govern much better than you. Those that bear the necessary burdens of the common safety and defence, will say that you oppress them; and the malefactors that are punished, will say you deal unmercifully by them; and those that have a cause never so unjust, will say you wrong them, if it go not on their side.[189]Are you pastors and teachers? You will seem too rough to one, and too smooth to another; yea, too rough to the same man when by reproof or censure you correct his faults, who censureth you as too smooth and a friend to sinners, when you are to deal in the cause of others. No sermon that you preach is like to be pleasing to all your hearers; nor any of your ministerial works.[190]Are you lawyers? The clients that lost their cause, behind your backs will call you unconscionable, and say you betrayed them; and those that prevailed, will call you covetous, and tell how much money you took of them, and how little you did for it: so that it is no wonder that among the vulgar your profession is the matter of their reproach. Are you physicians? You will be accused as guilty of the death of many that die; and as covetous takers of their money whether the patient die or live; for this is the common talk of the vulgar, except with some few with whom your care has much succeeded. Are you tradesmen? Most men that buy of you are so selfish, that except you will beggar yourselves, they will say you deceive them, and deal unconscionably and sell too dear: little do they mind the necessary maintenance of your families, nor care whether you live or gain by your trading; but if you will wrong yourselves to sell them a good penny-worth, they will say you are very honest men: and yet when you are broken, they will accuse you of imprudence, and defrauding your creditors. You must buy dear and sell cheap, and live by the loss, or else displease.[191]
Direct.XI. Remember still that the pleasing of God is your business in the world, and that in pleasing him your souls may have safety, rest, and full content, though all the world should be displeased with you.[192]God is enough for you; and his approbation and favour is your portion and reward. How sweet and safe is the life of the sincere and upright ones, that study more to be good than to seem good, and think if God accept them that they have enough! O what a mercy is an upright heart! which renounceth the world, and all therein that stands in competition with his God; and taketh God for his God indeed, even for his Lord, his Judge, his Portion, and his All: who in temptation remembereth the eye of God, and in all his duty is provoked and ruled by the will and pleasure of his Judge; and regardeth the eye and thoughts of man, but as he would do the presence of a bird or beast, unless as piety, justice, or charity, require him to have respect to man, in due subordination to God: who when men applaud him as a person of excellent holiness and goodness, is fearful and solicitous lest the all-knowing God should think otherwise of him than his applauders: and under all the censures, reproaches, and slanders of man, yea, (though through temptation good men should thus use him,) can live in peace upon the approbation of his God alone; and can rejoice in his justification by his righteous Judge and gracious Redeemer, though the inconsiderable censures of men condemn him.[193]Verily I cannot apprehend, how any other man but this can live a life of true and solid peace and joy. If God's approbation and favour quiet you not, nothing can rationally quiet you. If the pleasing of him do not satisfy you, though men, though good men, though all men should be displeased with you, I know not how or when you will be satisfied. Yea, if you be above the censures and displeasure of the profane, and not also of the godly, (when God will permit them, as Job's wife and friends, to be your trial,) it will not suffice to an even, contented, quiet life. And here consider,
1. If you seek first to please God and are satisfied therein, you have but one to please instead of multitudes; and a multitude of masters are hardlier pleased than one.[194]2. And it is one that putteth you upon nothing that is unreasonable, for quantity or quality. 3. And one that is perfectly wise and good, not liable to misunderstand your case and actions. 4. And one that is most holy, and is not pleased in iniquity or dishonesty. 5. And he is one that is impartial and most just, and is no respecter of persons, Acts x. 34. 6. And he is one that is a competent judge, that hath fitness and authority, and is acquainted with your hearts, and every circumstance and reason of your actions. 7. And he is one that perfectly agreeth with himself, and putteth you notupon contradictions or impossibilities. 8. And he is one that is constant and unchangeable; and is not pleased with one thing to-day, and another contrary to-morrow; nor with one person this year, whom he will be weary of the next. 9. And he is one that is merciful, and requireth you not to hurt yourselves to please him: nay, he is pleased with nothing of thine but that which tendeth to thy happiness, and displeased with nothing but that which hurts thyself or others; as a father that is displeased with his children when they defile or hurt themselves. 10. He is gentle, though just, in his censures of thee; judging truly, but not with unjust rigour, nor making your actions worse than they are. 11. He is one that is not subject to the passions of men, which blind their minds, and carry them to injustice. 12. He is one that will not be moved by tale-bearers, whisperers, or false accusers, nor can be perverted by any misinformation.
Consider also the benefits of taking up with the pleasing of God. 1. The pleasing of him is your happiness itself; the matter of pure, and full, and constant comfort, which you may have continually at hand, and no man can take from you. Get this, and you have the end of man; nothing can be added to it, but the perfection of the same, which is heaven itself.
2. What abundance of disappointments and vexations will you escape, which tear the very hearts of man-pleasers, and fill their lives with unprofitable sorrows!
3. It will guide and order your cares, and desires, and thoughts, and labours to their right and proper end; and prevent the perverting of them, and spending them in sin and vanity on the creature.
4. It will make your lives not only to be divine, but this divine life to be sweet and easy, while you set light by human censures which would create you prejudice and difficulties. When others glory in wit, and wealth, and strength, you would glory in this, that you know the Lord, Jer. ix. 23, 24.
5. As God is above man, thy heart and life is highly ennobled by having so much respect to God, and rejecting inordinate respect to man: this is indeed to walk with God.
6. The sum of all graces is contained in this sincere desire to please thy God, and contentedness in this so far as thou findest it attained. Here is faith, and humility, and love, and holy desire, and trust, and the fear of God concentred. You "sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, and make him your fear, and dread, and sanctuary," Isa. viii. 13, 14.
7. If human approbation be good for you and worth your having, this is the best way to it; for God hath the disposal of it. "If a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him," Prov. xvi. 7. Appeasing their wrath, or restraining them from intended evil, or doing us good by that which they intend for hurt.
Signs.
See therefore that you live upon God's approbation as that which you chiefly seek, and will suffice you: which you may discover by these signs. 1. You will be most careful to understand the Scripture, to know what doth please and displease God. 2. You will be more careful in the doing of every duty, to fit it to the pleasing of God than men. 3. You will look to your hearts, and not only to your actions; to your ends, and thoughts, and the inward manner and degree. 4. You will look to secret duties as well as public, and to that which men see not, as well as unto that which they see. 5. You will reverence your consciences, and have much to do with them, and will not slight them: when they tell you of God's displeasure, it will disquiet you; when they tell you of his approbation, it will comfort you. 6. Your pleasing men will be charitable for their good, and pious in order to the pleasing of God, and not proud and ambitious for your honour with them, nor impious against the pleasing of God. 7. Whether men be pleased or displeased, or how they judge of you, or what they call you, will seem a small matter to you, as their own interest, in comparison of God's judgment. You live not on them. You can bear their displeasure, censures, and reproaches, if God be but pleased. These will be your evidences.[195]
Pride, being reputed the great sin of the devil, by which he fell, is, in the name and general notion of it, infamous and odious with almost all; but the nature of it is so much unknown, and the sin so undiscerned by the most, that it is commonly cherished while it is commonly spoke against. Therefore the chief directions for the conquering of it, are those that are for the full discovery of it; for when it is seen it is shamed, and to shame it is to destroy it.
Direct.I. Understand aright the nature of pride, that you may neither ignorantly retain it, nor oppose your duty as supposed to be pride. Here I shall tell you, 1. What pride is, and what commandment it is against; and what humility is, which is its contrary. 2. Some seemings or appearances like pride, which may make men censured as proud for that which is not pride. 3. The counterfeits of humility, which may make a proud man seem to himself or others to be humble.
Pride what.
I. Pride is an inordinate self-exalting, or a lifting up ourselves above the state or degree appointed us. It is called ὑπερηφανια, because it is an appearing to ourselves, and a desire to appear to others, above what we are, or above others of our quality. It is a branch of selfishness, and containeth man-pleasing as before described, and produceth hypocrisy, and is its original and life. It containeth in it these following acts or parts: 1. A will to be higher or greater than God would have us be. 2. An overvaluing of ourselves, or esteeming ourselves to be greater, wiser, or better than indeed we are. 3. A desire that others should think of us, and speak of us, and use us, as greater, or wiser, or better than we are. 4. An endeavour or seeking to rise above our appointed place, or to be overvalued by others. 5. An ostentation of our inordinate self-esteem in outward signs of speech or action. Every one of these is an act of pride. The three first are the inward acts of it in the mind and will, and the two last are its external acts.
Against what commandment.
As the love of God and man are the comprehensive duties of the decalogue, expressed most in the first and last commandment, but yet extending themselves to all the rest; so selfishness and pride (which is a principal part of it) are the opposite sins, forbidden principally in the first and last commandment, as contrary to the love of God and man, but so as it is contrary to the rest. They are sins against the very relation itself, that God and man do stand in to us, and not only against a particular law: they are against the very constitution of the kingdom of God,and not only against the administration: it is treason or idolatry against God, and a setting up ourselves in some part of his prerogative: and it is a monstrous exuberancy in the body, and a rising of one member above and so against the rest, either superiors (and so against the fifth command) or equals (against the rest).
Humility what.
Humility is contrary to pride; and therefore consisteth, 1. In a contentedness with that degree and state which God hath assigned us. 2. In mean thoughts of ourselves, esteeming ourselves no greater, wiser, or better than we are. 3. In a willingness and desire that others should not think of us, or speak of us, or use us, as greater, or wiser, or better than we are; that they should give us no more honour, praise, or love than is our due; the redundancy being but a deceit or lie, and an abuse of us and them. 4. In the avoiding of all inordinate aspiring endeavours, and a contented exercise of our assigned offices, and doing the meanest works of our own places. 5. In the avoiding of all ostentation or appearance of that greatness, wisdom, or goodness which we have not; and fitting our speeches, apparel, provisions, furniture, and all our deportment and behaviour to the meanness of our parts, and place, and worth. This is the very nature of humility. The more particular signs I shall open afterwards.
The inward seemings of pride that are not it.
II. Pride, lying in the heart, is oft misjudged of by others, that see but the outward appearances, and sometimes by the person himself, that understandeth not the nature of it. The inward appearances that are mistaken for pride, and are not it, are such as these: 1. When a man in power and government hath a spirit suitable to his place and work: this is not pride, but virtue. 2. When natural strength and vigour of spirits expelleth pusillanimity; especially when faith, beholding God, expelleth all inordinate respect to men, and fear of all that they can do, this is not pride, but christian magnanimity and fortitude; and the contrary is not humility, but weakness, and pusillanimity, and cowardice. 3. When a wise man knoweth in what measure he is wise, and in what measure other men are ignorant, or erroneous; and when he is conscious of his knowledge, and delighted and pleased in it through the love of truth, and thankful to God for revealing it to him, and blessing so far his studies and endeavours; all this is mercy and duty, and not pride. For truth is amiable and delectable in itself. And he that knoweth must needs know that he knoweth; as he that seeth doth perceive by seeing that he seeth. And if it be a fault to know that I know, it must be a fault to know at all. But some knowledge is necessary and unresistible, and we cannot avoid it: and that which is good must be valued, and we must be thankful for it. Humility doth no more require that a wise man think his knowledge equal with a fool's, or ignorant man's, than that a sound man take himself to be sick. 4. When a wise man valueth the useful knowledge which God hath given him, above all the glory and vanities of the world, which are indeed of lower worth, this is not pride, but a due estimation of things.[197]5. When a wise man desireth that others were of his mind, for their own good, and the propagating of the truth, this is not pride, but charity and love of truth: else preachers were the proudest men, and Paul had done ill in labouring so much for men's conversion, and saying to Agrippa, Acts xxvi. 29, "I would to God that not only thou, but also all they that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds." 6. When an innocent man is conscious of his innocency, and a holy person is conscious of his holiness, and assured of his state in grace, and rejoiceth in it, and is thankful for it, this is not pride, but an excellent privilege and duty. If angels rejoice at the conversion of a sinner, (Luke xv.) the sinner hath reason to rejoice himself: and if it be a sin to be unthankful for our daily bread, much more for grace and the hope of glory. 7. When we value our good name, and the honour that is indeed our due, as we do other outward common mercies, not for themselves, but so far as they honour God, or tend to the good of others, or the promoting of truth or piety among men, desiring no more than is indeed our due, nor overvaluing it as that which we cannot spare, but submitting it to the will of God, as that which we can be without; this is not pride, but a right estimation of the thing.
The outward appearances of pride that are not it.
The outward seemings which are oft mistaken for the signs and fruits of pride by others, are such as these: 1. When a magistrate or other governor doth maintain the honour of his place, which is necessary to his successful government, and liveth according to his degree. When princes, and rulers, and masters, and parents, do keep that distance from their subjects, and servants, and scholars, and children, which is meet and needful to their good, it is usually misjudged to be their pride.
2. When a sinner is convinced of the necessity of holiness in a time and place where it is rare, and infidelity or profaneness and ungodliness is the common road, the necessary singularity of such a one in giving up himself to the will of God, is commonly charged on him as his pride; as if he were proud that cannot be contented to be damned in hell for company with the most; or to despise salvation if most despise it, and to forsake his God when most forsake him, and to serve the devil when most men serve him. If you will not swear, and be drunk, and game, and spend your time, even the Lord's day, in vanity and sensuality, as if you were afraid of being saved, and as if it were your business to work out your damnation, the world will call you proud and singular, and "think it strange that you run not with them to excess of riot, speaking evil of you," 1 Pet. iv. 4.[198]You shall quickly hear them say, What! will you be wiser than all the town? What a saint, what a holy precisian is this! When Lot was grieved for the filthiness of Sodom, they scorn him as a proud controller: Gen. xix. 9, "This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge." And what thought they of Noah that walked with God in so great singularity, when all the world was drowned in (and for) their wickedness? When David "humbled his soul with fasting," they turned it to his "reproach," Psal lxix. 10; xxxv. 13. Especially when any of the servants of Christ do press towards the highest degree of holiness, they shall be sure to be accounted proud and hypocrites. And yet they accuse not that child or servant of pride who excelleth all the rest in pleasing them, and doing their work; nor do they take a sick manto be proud, if he be carefuller than others to recover his health. But he that will do most for heaven, and most carefully avoideth sin and hell, and is most serious in his religion, and most industrious to please his God, this man shall be accounted proud.
3. He that will not forsake his God and betray the truth, and wound his conscience by wilful sin, but will do as Daniel and the three confessors did, Dan. vi. 3, and answer as they answered, will be accounted proud. But it is no pride to prefer God before men, and to fear damnation more than imprisonment or death. The army of martyrs did not in pride prefer their own judgments before their superiors that condemned them; but they did it in obedience to God and truth, when that was revealed to babes, which was hid from the wise, and prudent, and great, and noble of the world.
4. When those that are faithful to the honour of Christ's sovereignty, dare not approve of papal usurpations, against his laws, and over his church, and the consciences of his subjects, they shall by the popish usurpers be called proud and despisers of government; as if a usurper of the kingly power should call us proud, because we dare not consent to his pride; or call us traitors, for not being traitors as he is himself.
5. When a man that hath the sense of the matters of God and men's salvation upon his heart, is zealous and diligent to teach them to others, and if he be a minister, be fervent and laborious in his ministry, he is called proud, as one that must needs have all men of his mind: though compassion to souls, and aptness to teach, and preaching instantly in season and out of season, be his necessary duty required of God. And what is the ministry for, but to change men's minds, and bring them to the full obedience of the truth?
6. If a man understand the truth, in any point of divinity better than most others, and holdeth any truth which is there in credit, or commonly received, he shall be accounted proud, for presuming to be so singular, and seeming wiser than those that think they are wiser than he. But humility teacheth us not to err for company, nor to grow no wiser when once we arrive at the common stature; nor to forsake the truth which others understand not, nor to forbear to teach it because it is not known already. If some of the pastors in Abassia, Syria, Armenia, Russia, Greece, or Italy, or Spain, were as wise as the ministers in England are, it were no evidence of their pride.
7. If a man that understandeth any thing contrary to the judgment of another, cannot forsake it, and think or say as another would have him; especially if you contradict him in disputation; he will take it to be your pride, and overvaluing your own understanding, and being too tenacious of your own conceits.[199]Erroneous men that in their pride are over eager to have others of their mind, will call you proud because you yield not to their pride. They think that the evidence is so clear on their side, that if you were not proud you could not choose but think as they do.
8. Some humble men are naturally of a warm and earnest manner of discourse; and their natural heat and eagerness of speech is frequently misjudged to come from pride, till fuller acquaintance with their humble lives do rectify the mistake.[200]It is written of Bishop Hooper the martyr, that "those that visited him once, condemned him of over-austerity; they that repaired to him twice, only suspected him of the same; those that conversed with him constantly, not only acquitted him of all morosity, but commended him for sweetness of manners: so that his ill nature consisted in other men's little acquaintance with him." Tho. Fuller's Church Hist. lib. 7, p. 402, and Godwin in Glocest. Bishops. The same is true of very many worthy men.[201]
9. If we zealously contend for the faith or the peace of the church against heretical or dividing persons, and their dangerous ways, they will call us proud, though God command it us; Jude 3, especially if we "avoid them, and bid them not God speed," Tit. iii. 10; 2 John 10.
10. When a man of understanding openeth the ignorance of another, and speaketh words of pity concerning him, though it be no more than truth and charity command, they will be taken to be the words of supercilious pride.
11. That plain dealing in reproof which God commandeth, especially to his ministers, towards high and low, great and small, and which the prophets and servants of God have used, will be misjudged as arrogancy and pride, Amos vii. 12, 13; 2 Chron. xxv. 16; Acts xxiii. 4. As if it were pride to be true to God, and to pity souls, and seek to save them, and tell them in time of that which conscience will more closely and terribly tell them of, when it is too late.
12. Self-idolizing papists accuse their inferiors for pride, if they do but modestly exercise a judgment of discretion about the matters that their salvation is concerned in, and do not implicitly believe as they believe, and forbear to prove or try their sayings, and swallow not all without any chewing, and offer to object the commands of God against any unlawful commands of men.[202]As if God were contented to suspend his laws, whenever man's commands do contradict them; or humility required us to please and obey men at the price of the loss of our salvation.[203]They think that we should not busy ourselves to inquire into such matters, but trust them with our souls, and that the Scriptures are not for the laity to read, but they must wholly rely upon the clergy: and if a layman inquire into their doctrines or commands, they say as David's brother to him, 1 Sam. xvii. 28, "With whom hast thou left the sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thy heart."
13. If a zealous, humble preacher of the gospel, that preacheth not himself but Christ, be highly esteemed and honoured for his work's sake, 1 Thess. v. 12, 13, and crowded after, and greatly followed by those that are edified by him, it is ordinary for the envious, and the enemies of godliness, to say that he is proud, and preacheth to draw disciples after him, and to be admired by men; for they judge of the hearts of others by their own: as if they knew not that Christ and his most excellent servants have been crowded after without being thereby lifted up, or chargeable with pride. As the sun is not accusable for being beheld and admired by all the world; nor fire and water, earth and air, food and rest, for being valued by all. Little do they know how deep a sense of their own unworthiness is renewed in the hearts of the most applauded preachers, by the occasionof men's estimation and applause, and how much they desire that none may overvalue them, and turn their eye from the doctrine upon the person: and how oft they cry out with the laborious apostle, "Who is sufficient for these things?" And how oft they are tempted to cast off all through fear and sense of their unfitness, when the envious dullards fearlessly utter a dry discourse, and think that they are wronged because they are not commended and followed as much as others. They think the common sense of all the faithful, and the love of truth, and care of their salvation, must be called pride, because it carrieth men to prefer the means which is fitted best to their edification and salvation.
14. If an humble christian have, after much temptation and a holy life, attained to well-grounded persuasions of his salvation, and be thankful to God for sanctifying him, and numbering him with his little flock, when the world lieth in wickedness, he will be taken for proud by ungodly men, that cannot endure to hear beforehand of the difference which the judgment of God will declare between the righteous and the wicked: as if it were pride to be happy or to be thankful.
15. If a man that is falsely accused or slandered, shall modestly deny the charge, and use that lawful means which he oweth to his own vindication, he will be accused of pride because he contradicteth proud accusers, and consenteth not to belie himself; yea, though the dishonour of religion, and the hinderance of men's salvation, be the consequent of his dishonour.
16. Many of the poor do mistake their superiors to be proud, if their apparel be not in fashion and value almost like their own, though it be sober and agreeable to their rank.
17. Some are of a more rustic or careless disposition, unfit for compliment; and some are taken up with serious studies and employments, so contrary to compliment, that they have neither time nor mind for the observance of the humours of complimental persons, who, because they expect it, and think they are neglected, do usually accuse such men of pride.[204]
18. Some are of a silent temper, and are accused for pride, because they speak not to others as oft as they expect it.
19. Some are naturally unapt to be familiar till they have much acquaintance, and are so far from impudent that they are not bold enough to speak much to strangers and take acquaintance with them, no, though it be with their inferiors; and therefore are ordinarily misjudged to be proud.
20. Some have contracted some unhandsome customs in their speech or gestures, which, to rash censurers, seem to come from pride, though it be not so. By all these seemings the humble are judged by many to be proud.[205]
III. There are also many counterfeits of humility, by which the proud are taken to be humble: as, 1. An accusing of themselves and bewailing their vileness, through mere terror of conscience, as Judas, or the constraint of affliction, as Pharaoh, or of the face of death. 2. A customary confessing of such sins in prayer, or in speech with others, which the best are used to confess, and the confessing of them is taken rather to be an honour than a disgrace. 3. A religious observance of those commandments and doctrines of men, which the apostle speaketh of, Col. ii. 18-23, which have a "show of wisdom in will-worship and humility, and neglecting of the body, not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh." 4. A holding of those tenets, which doctrinally are most to man's abasement; but yet never humbled themselves at the heart. 5. A discreet restraint of boasting, and such a discommending of themselves, as tendeth to procure them the reputation of modesty and humility. 6. An affected condescension and familiarity with others, even of the lower sort, which may seem humility, when the poorest have their smiles and courtesy; and yet may be but the humility of Absalom, 2 Sam. xv. 3-6, the fruit of pride, designed to procure the commendations of the world. 7. A choosing to converse with their inferiors, because they would bear sway, and be always the greatest themselves in the company: like Dionysius the tyrant, that when he was dethroned, turned schoolmaster, that he might domineer among the boys. 8. A constrained meanness of apparel, provisions, and deportment; when poverty forceth men to speak and live as if they were humble; whereas if they had but wealth and honours, they would live as high as the proudest of them all. How quiet is the bear when he is chained up! and how little doth serve a dog or a fox when he can get no more! 9. An affected meanness and plainness in apparel, while pride runs out some other way. He that is odiously proud of his supposed wisdom, or learning, or holiness, or birth, or great reputation, may in his very pride be above the womanish and childish way of pride, in apparel, and such other little toys. 10. A loathing and speaking against the pride of others, while he overlooks his own, perhaps because the pride of others cloudeth him; as the covetous hate others that are covetous, because they are the greatest hinderers of their gain; as dogs fight for the bone which both would have. Many more counterfeits of humility may be gathered, from what is said before of the seemings of pride, whereto it is contrary.
Direct.II. Observe the motions and discoveries of pride, towards God and man, that it may not, like the devil, prevail by keeping out of sight. Because this is the chief part of my work, I shall here distinctly show you the signs and motions of it, in its several ways against God and man.
SignI. Self-idolizing pride doth cause men to glory in their supposed greatness, when the greatness of God should show them their contemptible vileness; and to magnify themselves, when they should magnify their Maker. It makes the strong man glory in his strength, and the rich man in his wealth, and the conqueror in his victories;[206]and princes, and rulers, and lords of the earth, in their dominions, and dignities, and power to do hurt or good to others; and say as Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iv. 30, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built, for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, for the honour of my majesty?" How hard is it to be great and truly humble, and not to swell, and be lifted up in heart, as they rise in power! This God abhorreth as unsuitable to worms, and dust, and injurious to his honour, and will make them know that "power, and riches, and strength are his, and that the Most High doth rule in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whom he will," Dan. iv. 32.
SignII. Pride causeth men to set up their supposedworth and goodness above or against the Lord: so that they make themselves their principal end, and practise that which some of late presume to teach, that it is not God that can or ought to be man's end, but himself alone: as if we were made only for ourselves, and not for our Creator. Pride makes men so considerable in their own esteem, that they live wholly to themselves, as if the world were to stand or fall with them: if they be well, all is well with them; if they are to die, they take it as if the world were at an end. They value God, but as they do their food, or health, or pleasure, even as a means to their own felicity; not as preferring him before themselves, nor making him the chiefest in their end.[207]They love themselves much better than God: and so far is man fallen from God to himself, that he feeleth himself disposed to this as strongly, as that he taketh it to be his primitive nature, and therefore warrantable, and that it is impossible to go higher.