kingdom of heaven, and the pleasures that be at God's right hand, Ps. xvi. 11, for those short-lived pleasures that are but like a blaze, or like the lightning, or like a morning cloud, or the early dew which soon passeth away ! i Ah, who would endure an ocean of torture for a drop of sensual pleasure, or for a few bitter sweets ? And therefore doubtless God can't do the soul a greater pleasure than to take it off from such vanishing pleasures. All sensual pleasures defile the soul, they debase the soul, yea, they debauch the soul; they take off the heart from God, and they deaden the heart towards God. The widow whilst she lived in pleasure is reckoned dead, 1 Tim. v. 6. She is dead God- wards, and dead Christ- wards, and dead duty-wards, and dead heaven-wards, and dead hoHness-wards, &c. Aristotle writes of a parcel of ground in Sicily that sends forth such a strong, such a sweet smell of fragrant flowers, that no hounds can hunt there ; 2 so the carnal pleasures of this world do send forth so strong a scent, that unsanctified persons cannot hunt after God, nor Christ, nor holiness, nor the great concernments of another world ; and therefore it is rather man's felicity than his misery to be taken off from such vain pleasures. Sensual pleasures and delights cannot satisfy the soul of man ; they are but frothy and flashy, they only wet the mouth, they never warm the heart. A man may sooner break his neck than satisfy his heart with sensual pleasures. They are Junes in the pursuit, and but clouds in the enjoyment. Xerxes being weary of his sensual pleasures, pro- mised great rewards to them that should invent new pleasures ; and when they had invented new pleasures and delights, yet then he could not be satisfied nor contented ; he would fain have had one pleasure to have taken off the weariness of another, but it could not be. There is nothing in carnal delights but imagination and expectation; for they can neither fill the heart nor satisfy the heart.
O sirs, there is no real pleasure in sin. All the pleasures of sin are counterfeit pleasures ; they are but the shapes and shadows of pleasure ; they are the seeds of future grief ; they are but an earnest laid down for sorrow or ruin. It is observed by the mythologists that pleasure went on occasion to bathe herself, and having stripped off her clothes by the water-side, sorrow having hid herself at hand, steals the clothes away, puts them on, and so departs ; so that carnal pleasures are nothing but sorrow in pleasure's clothes. Certainly if there were the least real delight in sin, hell could never be hell, yea, then it would follow that hell should be the greatest place of pleasure, for doubtless hell is the greatest place of sin. Oh, don't deceive your own souls ! there can be no real joy in sensual pleasures. What real delight or pleasure can there be in tippling and fuddling in an ale-house or tavern, in swaggering and swearing, in dicing and carding, in dancing, masking, and whoring, in slighting of Sabbaths, in scoffing at saints, in despis- ing of ordinances, and in pursuing after lying vanities ? Surely none. And as for those seeming pleasures that attend the ways of sin, ah, how soon do they vanish and leave a sting behind them ! Now all the pleasures that holiness deprives you of are only such that you may better ten thousand times want than enjoy. Look, as all the pleasures
^ Momentancum est quod delectat, aeternum quod cruciat. — Bernard. • Aa before. — G.
256 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
that manhood takes a man off from are babyish and toyish pleasm-es ; as from delighting in a rattle, a pipe, a feather, a hobby-horse, a wooden sword, &c. ; so all the pleasures and delights that holiness takes a man off from, they are babyish and foolish, yea, they are base, dangerous, and devilish ; and therefore it must needs be rather a high felicity than a misery for God to take thee off from such sinful pleasures and delights, by laying principles of holiness into thy heart. Oh ! remember that holiness will be no loss unto thee ; it will be only an exchange of sinful delights for those that are holy, and of carnal for those that are spiritual, and of earthly for those that are heavenly. Isaac was not to be sacrificed, but the ram. All the delights that hoKness will put thee upon to sacrifice are but the rammish and rank delights of sin and the world, which may better be sacrificed than aspared. Holiness will secure thy Isaac — that is, thy spiritual laughter, thy spiritual joy, and thy heavenly delights and pleasure. Well, for a close, remember this, that sensual pleasures are below a man. Witness TuUy, who saith that he is not worthy of the name of a man, qui unum diem velit esse in voluptate, that would entirely spend one whole day in pleasures ; and witness Julian the apostate, who professed that the pleasures of the body were far below a great spirit. He that delights in sensual pleasures shall find at last his greatest pleasures to become iis bitterest pains. All that holiness will do is but to ease thee of thy pains, and therefore thou hast more cause to pursue after it than to turn thy back upon it. But,
7. Seventhly, I answer. That it may be their present case and con- dition, bespeaks rather the exercise and evidence of sorrow and of grief, than of gladness, Joy , and triumph.
[1.] For first. It may be some wound or guilt at present may lie hard upon their consciences, as once it did on David's, Ps. li.i And who then is able to rejoice under a wounded conscience, a guilty con- science ? As long as Adam did fast in paradise, he stood fast ; but having once wounded his conscience by eating the forbidden fruit, though he tarried a while in paradise, yet he could take no dehght nor content in paradise. It is true the sun did shine as bright as ever, and the rivers ran as clear as ever, and the birds sang as sweetly as ever, and the beasts played as pleasantly as ever, and the flowers smelled as fragrantly as ever, and all the trees and fruits of the garden did flourish as bravely as ever, &c. Ah, but now Adam had contracted guilt upon his conscience, and this mars his joy, and spoils his delight, and unparadises paradise to him ; his fall had made so deep a wound in his conscience, that he could take no delight in any of the dehghts of paradise. Guilt as an arrow did stick so fast in his conscience, that instead of sucking sweetness from the fairest fruits, he runs to hide himself under the broadest leaves, Gen. iii. 10. Guilt makes a man a Magor-missabib, Jer. xx. 3, a terror to himself. Put never such stately robes upon a wounded man, he minds them not ; set never such dainty fare before a wounded man, he relisheth it not ; lay him on never so soft a bed, yet it pleaseth him not ; and let him hear never such sweet music, yet it delights him not ; the smart
^ Multi conscientiam habent, non ad remidium, aed ad judicium, saith one. And Tolle conscientiam, tolle omnia, saith another.