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PART IV.

CHAPTER I.

The fourth thing to be shewed, is, the several Ways and Devices that Satan hath to destroy and ensnare all sorts and ranks of men in the world.

I SHALL begin with the honourable and great, and shew you the devices that Satan hath to destroy them. I will only instance in those that are most considerable.

The first Device to destroy the great and honourable of the earth, is,

BY inducing them to make it their business to seek themselves, how to exalt and raise themselves, to enrich and secure themselves, &c. as you may see in Pharaoh, Ahab, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Absalom, Joab, Haman, &c. But were the scriptures silent, our own experiences abundantly evidence this way and method of

Self-seeking, like the deluge, overthrows the whole

world.

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Satan to destroy the great and honourable, and bury their names in the dust, and their souls in hell, by employing them wholly, only, and in all things to mind themselves; and by keeping their minds perpetually in the pursuit of something to please and gratify themselves. All, (saith the apostle,) mind themselves,' Phil. ii. 21. All comparatively, in respect of the fewness of others, who let fall their private interests, and self-respect for the glory of God, and the public good, &c.-Now the remedies against this device are these:

Remedy 1. Against this device of Satan, solemnly consider, that self-seeking is a sin that will lead men into many sins, and not only as are against the law of God and the rules of the gospel, but which are also against the very laws of nature, so much darkened by the fall of man.* It led the Pharisees to oppose Christ in his doctrine; Judas to betray his Master for reward; and Pilate to condemn the blessed Jesus, though he found him innocent, to keep favour with his wicked adversaries. It put Gehazi upon lying, and Balaam upon cursing, and Saul and Absalom upon plotting David's ruin. It led Pharaoh to pursue Israel, and set Haman upon contriving ways to destroy those Jews, that God purposed

Self-love is the root of the hatred of others, 2 Tim. iii. 2. First, lovers of themselves, and then fierce, &c.

to save by his own mighty arm. It induces men to use wicked balances, and the bag of deceitful weights ;* and leads them into ways of oppression and cruelty, such as selling the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes,' &c. Amos ii. 6. I know not any sin in the world, but what this sin of self-seeking will set men upon, though it be to their eternal loss.

Rem. 2. Seriously consider, that self-seeking doth exceedingly abase a man; it strips him of all his royalty and glory: of a lord, it makes him become a servant to the creature, and often to the worst of creatures; yea, a slave to slaves, as you may see in Judas, Demas, Balaam, and the Scribes and Pharisees. Self-seekers bow down to creatures, as Gideon's many thousands bowed down to the waters: self-seeking will lead a man to say any thing, to do any thing, and be any thing, to please the lusts of others, and to take advantages upon them. Self-seeking transforms a man into all shapes and forms; now it makes a man appear as an angel of light, anon as an angel of darkness; now self-seekers are

* The naturalists observe, that those beasts which are most cruel to the young of others, are most loving to their

own.

† A self-seeker is a Cato without, but a Nero within. Domitian would seem to love them best, whom he willed least should live, and that is the very temper of selfseekers.

It was death in Moses's rites to counterfeit that ceremonial and figurative ointment, Ex. xxx. what shall it then be to counterfeit the spirit of life and holiness?

seemingly for God, anon they are openly against him: now shall you have them crying,' Hosannah in the highest,' and presently,' Crucify him, crucify him; now you shall have them build with the saints, and when opportunity serves best, plotting their overthrow, as those self-seekers did in Ezra and Nehemiah's time. Selfseekers are the meanest of all persons; there is no service so base, so poor, so low, but they will stoop to it. They can look neither above, nor beyond their own lusts, and the enjoyment of the creature; these are the prime and ultimate objects of their intentions, Rom. i. 25.

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It is said of Tiberius, That whilst Augustus ruled, he was no way tainted in his reputation; and that while Drusus and Germanicus were alive, he feigned those virtues which he had not, to maintain a good opinion of himself in the hearts of the people; but after he had got himself beyond the reach of controul, there was no fact in which he was not faulty, no crime to which he was not accessary.' My prayer shall be, that the spirit of Tiberius may not be found in any of our rulers, lest it prove their ruin, as it did his; and that wherever it is, it may be detected, loathed, and ejected, that so neither the state, nor souls may be ruined by it, &c.

Rem. 3. Solemnly dwell upon those dreadful curses and woes that are denounced from heaven against self-seekers. 'Woe! unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field,

till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth,' Is. v. 9. So Habakkuk, Woe! to him that increaseth that which is not his, and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay.* Woe! to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil-For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. Woe! to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity,' Hab. vi. 9-12. The materials of the house built up by oppression, shall come as joint witnesses. The stones of the wall shall cry,' Lord, we were built up by blood and violence,' and the beam shall answer, True, Lord, even so it is;? the stones shall cry, Vengeance, Lord, upon these self-seekers,' and the beam shall answer, Woe! to him because he built his house with blood. Woe! unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed. To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right of the

Crassus, a very rich Roman, and a very great selfseeker, for greedy desire of gold managed war against the Parthians, by whom both he and 30,000 Romans were slain and because the barbarians conjectured that he mace this assault upon them for their gold, therefore they meled gold, and poured it into his dead body, saying, Satisfy thyself with gold."

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Tacitus the Roman emperor's word was, " He that is so much for himself, fails to be good to others."

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