pentance; that is, he came not to call such persons as think they have righteousness enough of their own to serve their turns, for such persons think they have no need of him, and therefore it would be in vain to call them; but he calls sinuers, that is, such as may perhaps be as righteous as the other, but they do not think themselves to be so, but look upon themselves as undone for ever, unless they have something else to trust to than their own good works and obedience to the moral law. Such persons therefore Christ came to call, and if they come to him, they cannot but find rest and righteousness in him. And if any of us desire to go after Christ so as to be his disciples, we must be sure to look upon ourselves as sinners, as deserving nothing but wrath and vengeance for whatsoever we have done. We must renounce all our own righteousness, and be so far from depending upon it, as to think that we have none to depend upon, for so really we have not. And when we have laid aside all thoughts of our own righteousness, as to the matter of our justification before God, then, and not till then, shall we be rightly qualified to embrace another's, even that righteousness which is by faith in Christ. Thus St. Paul, though he had as much, yea, more reason to trust in the flesh or in himself than others, for himself saith that touching the righteousness which is of the law, he was blameless, yet, saith he, What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ and be found in him ; not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, Phil. iii, 7, 9. Thus therefore it is that all those must do, who desire to be, as St. Paul was, real disciples of Jesus Christ; as we must forsake our sins, so we must renounce our righteousness too. It is true, this is a great and difficult part of self-denial, thus to deny ourselves all that pride, pleasure, and confidence, which we used to take in the thoughts of our own righteousness and obedience to

the law of God; but we must remember, that the first thing which our Saviour enjoins those that come after him, is to deny themselves.

Thus I have shown what it is in ourselves that we must deny, and how it is that we must deny ourselves, if we desire to go after Christ. We must deny ourselves the curiosity of searching too much into the mysteries of the gospel by the light of our own clouded reasons; we must deny our self-conceit, our self-will, our selflove, self-interests, self-confidence, and whatsoever proceeds from and terminates in our sensual and sinful selves, so as to have no delight in nor dependence upon ourselves; yea, we must so deny ourselves, as to be quite taken off of our former selves, and become other creatures than what before we were. Thus St. Ambrose explains these words, saying, "Let a man deny himself to himself, so as to be wholly changed from what he was." But then you will say, what need is there of all this trouble? What reason can be given that a man must deny himself before he can be a true Christian?

To this I answer, it is reason enough that Christ hath commanded us to do it; and surely he best knows whom he will accept of as his disciples, and what is necessary to be done in order to our being so. And he hath said in plain terms, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself; implying, that he that doth not deny himself cannot go after him.

But besides that, there is an impossibility in the thing itself, that any one should be a true Christian or go after Christ, and not deny himself, as may be easily perceived, if we will but consider what true Christianity requires of us, and what it is to be a real Christian. A true Christian, we know, is one that lives by faith and not by sight; that looks not at the things which are seen, but at those things which are not seen; that believes whatsoever Christ hath said, trusteth on whatsoever he hath promised, and obeyeth whatsoever he hath commanded; that receiveth Christ as his only Priest to make atonement for him, as his only Prophet to instruct, and as his only Lord and Master to rule and govern him. In a word, a Christian is one that gives up himself and all he hath to

Christ, who gave himself and all he hath to him; and therefore the very notion of true Christianity implies and supposes the de ial of ourselves, without which it is as impossible for a man to be a Christian, as it is for a subject to be rebellious and loyal to his prince at the same time; and therefore it is absolutely necessary that we go out of ourselves before we can go to him. We must strip ourselves of our very selves before we can put on Christ; for Christ himself hath told us, that no man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. We cannot serve both God and Mammon, Christ and ourselves too; so that we must either deny ourselves to go after Christ, or else deny Christ to go after ourselves, so as to mind our own selfish ends and designs in the world. Wherefore I hope I need not use any other arguments to persuade any to deny themselves in the sense already explained. I dare say there is none amongst us but would willingly be what we profess, even a real Christian, and so go after Christ here as to come to him hereafter.

But we have now seen how Christ himself hath told us, that we must deny ourselves, if we desire to serve and enjoy him. And verily it is a hard case if we cannot deny ourselves for him, who so far denied himself for us, as to lay down his own life to redeem ours. He who was equal to God himself, yea, who himself was the true God, so far denied himself as to become man, yea, a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs, for us; and cannot we deny ourselves so much as a fancy, a conceit, a sin, or lust, for him? How then can we expect that he should own us for his friends, his servants, or disciples? No, he will never do it. Neither can we in reason expect that he should give himself and all the merits of his death and passion unto us, so long as we think much to give ourselves to him, or to deny ourselves for him. And therefore if we desire to be made partakers of all those glorious things that he hath purchased with his own most precious blood for the sons of men, let us begin here-indulge our flesh no longer, but deny ouselves whatsoever God hath been pleased to forbid. And for this end, let us endea

vour each day more and more to live above ourselves, above the temper of our bodies, and above the allurements of the world; live as those who believe and profess that they are none of their own, but Christ's-his by creation; it was he that made us-his by preservation; it is he that maintains us-and his by redemption; it is he that hath purchased and redeemed us with his own blood. And therefore let us deny ourselves for the future to our very selves whose we are not, and devote ourselves to him whose alone we are. By this we shall manifest ourselves to be Christ's disciples indeed, especially if we do not only deny ourselves, but also take up our cross and follow him; which brings me to the second thing which our blessed Saviour here requires of those who would go after him, eveu to take up their cross.

Where, by the cross, we are to understand whatsoever troubles or calamities, inward or outward, we meet with in the performance of our duty to God or man, which they that would go after Christ must take up as they go along, without any more ado; neither repining at them, nor sinking under them; for we must not think that Christ invites us to an earthly paradise of idleness and outward pleasures, as if we had nothing to do or to suffer for him. For even as men, we cannot but find many crosses in the world, but as Christians we must expect more; for Christ himself hath told us, that in the world we shall have tribulation. And therefore whatsoever we meet with is no more than what we are to look for; especially if we walk uprightly in the way that leads to heaven, we cannot but expect to meet with many a rub; for God himself hath told us, that it is through much tribulation that we must enter into the kingdom of God. And therefore we must not think to be carried up to heaven with the breath of popular applause, nor to swim through a deluge of carnal pleasures into the haven of everlasting happiness. No; we must look to be tossed to and fro in this world, as in a raging and tempestuous ocean, and never look for perpetual calmness and tranquillity until we are got above the clouds, yea, even above the sun and stars themselves. This world was always a world of trouble, and ever will be. Its very friends, and they that have their portion here, can find no quiet nor satis

faction in it; but the disciples of Christ they are not of this world, as Christ himself tells us, and therefore no wonder if the world frowns more upon them than on others. The way they walk in is opposite to the world: it is enmity itself to the flesh; and therefore no wonder if they meet with so much enmity and opposition here. The way wherein they go after Christ is a cross-way; it is cross to sin, cross to Satan, cross to the world, cross to our very selves as weare by nature, and, by consequence, cross to all men in the world but Christ's disciples; and therefore it is no wonder they meet with so many crosses in it. But howsoever, if we desire to go after Christ, he hath told us beforehand what we must expect. As he hath borne the cross before us, he expects that we now bear it after him ; yea, we must not only bear it, but take it up too-not that we should run ourselves into danger, but that we should balk no duty to avoid it, so as to be willing and ready to undergo the greatest suffering rather than to commit the least sin, and to run the greatest danger rather than neglect the smallest duty. If whilst we are walking in the narrow path of holiness there happens to lie a cross in the way, we must not go on one side nor on the other side of it out of the path we walk in, neither must we kick and spurn at it, but we must patiently take it up and carry it along with us. If it be a little heavy at first, it will soon grow lighter, and not at all hinder, but rather further our progress towards heaven.

But here we must have a great care to understand our Saviour's meaning, and so our own duty aright; for we must not think that every trouble we meet with in the world is the cross of Christ, for we may suffer for our fancy or humor, or perhaps for our sin and transgression of the laws of God or men, and if so, it is our own cross, not Christ's, which we take upon us. We may thank ourselves for it; I am sure Christ hath no cause to thank us. This is thankworthy, saith the apostle, if a man for conscience towards God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. And therefore the duty which our Saviour here imposeth on us, in few terms, is this, that we be ready not only to do, but to suffer what we can for the glory of God and the furtherance of the gospel, and that we omit no duty, nor commit any sin for fear of suffer