Heautonaparnumenos

But now, to speak more precisely to our Text, and this action of Self-denial, I hope plainly to make it appear, to any Ingenuous man, and that out of the Text it self, that God affords any man sufficient grace to do it. The words are [Greek or Hebrew]; which [Greek or Hebrew] (to give you the full Grammar of the word) is the third Person of the first Aorist of the Imperative Mood, of [Greek or Hebrew] An Impersonal it is not, nor of the Passive voice, but the middle so, that, although no Person in the Original be expressed yet, of necessity, it must be understood, by that Rule of Qu•• fubintelligitur non deest. Accordingly therefore, our English truly supplies the Person wanting, but understood, rendering it, Let him deny himself.

But now, to speak more pressely to our Text, and this action of Self-denyall, I hope plainly to make it appeare, to any Ingenuous man, and that out of the Text it selfe, that God affords any man sufficient grace to doe it. The words are 〈non-Latin alphabet〉; which 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 (to give you the full Grammar of the word) is the third Person of the first Aorist of the Imperative Mood, of 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 An Impersonall it is not, nor of the Passive voice, but the middle so, that, although no Person in the Originall be exprest yet, of necessity, it must be understood, by that Rule of Qu•• fubintelligitur non deest. Accordingly therefore, our English truly supplyes the Person wanting, but understood, rendring it, Let him deny himselfe.

Now the Question is, what our Saviour meant by this him, which in every man is to Deny himself. That himself is wholly to be Denied for God, I have showed you, nor do the word import any whit less: this Him therefore must be something in Man differing from himself: and so much our Saviour seems to intimate, making him the Subject, and himself the Predicate, as we speak, thereby plainly distinguishing the one from the other. Nor was this any more then needs; for him is here the Agent, himself is the Patient, and these two must necessarily be distinguished; Nothing can be Agent and Patient, Cause and Effect, both in respect of it self, since every Passion is an Alteration, and nothing can alter that which is but like it self, much less its own self; for a General Rule it is, impossible to be contradicted, Idem quà idem, semper facit idem; the same Cause, as it is the same, always produces the same effect: Therefore nothing, continuing the same it was, can produce an Alteration in it self.