Ohs. 2. The next point, that though grace itself be not pliable to such conclusions, yet wicked men are very apt to abuse it to the countenancing and cherishing of their sins and lusts. You see here the abuse of the doctrine of the gospel was very ancient ; this spirit of error wrought betimes ; the former days were no better than these, Eccles. vii. 10. In the apostles' days, vile hearts did abuse good doc- trine ; men were the same then which they are now, when such kind of errors have a second spring and revolution. Indeed, of all errors these seem to be very natural ; we greedily drink in the poison of carnal liberty. But let me give you the reasons why ungodly men take liberty and occasion from the grace of God to serve their sinful lusts and pleasures.
1. Because carnal hearts do assimilate all that they meet with, and turn it into the nourishment of their carnal lusts: as the salt sea turneth the fresh rivers and the sweet showers of heaven into salt waters, so do carnal men pervert the holy principles of the gospel ; or as sweet liquors are soon soured in an unclean vessel, so do truths lose their use and efficacy when laid up in a carnal heart, and are quite turned to another purpose.
2. Because they would fain sin securely, et cum privilegio, with a free dispensation from God, and therefore seek by all means to entitle God to the sin, and the sin to God. They would find a great deal of ease from gripes of conscience if they could make God the author, or at least the countenancer, of their evil practices ; and therefore when they can rub their guilt upon the gospel, and pretend a liberty by Christ, the design is accomplished. Augustine often taketh notice that the heathens took the most liberty to sin, because their gods were represented as approvers and countenancers of such kind of actions. If men could once make God an approver of sin, and giving leave to satisfy our desires, the design of carnal nature were at an end, and they would be freed of that awe of a divine power which is only left in nature as the check and restraint of sin ; and therefore because God
^ Adamus Contzenius, in Mat. cap. 24.
VeR. 4.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 149
hath revealed so much of his indulgence to the fallen creature in the gospel, they strive to draw all the passages of it that way, as if God had given leave to sin freely.
3. Because man is obedient naturally no longer than when under impressions of awe and fear ; ' the cords of a man,' Hosea xi. 4, work little with us; like beasts, we only put forward when we feel the goad. Violent means do more than gentle persuasions and the sweet strains of grace. Usually where we are dealt with in that kind, we ' wax wanton and kick with the heels,' Dent, xxxii, 15, as an ass-colt, being suckled and full, kicks her dam in the forehead.
4. Because we all naturally desire liberty, carnal liberty, to be left to our own sway and bent, and therefore we catch at anything that tendeth that way. We would be as gods, lords of our own actions, and so are very apt to dream of an exemption from all kind of law but our own lusts : the seducer's bait was a ' promise of liberty,' 2 Peter ii. 19. We would all be above check and control, and have scope and room for our lusts : Ps. xii. 4, ' Our lips are our own, who is lord over us ? ' We would fain bring it to that, to be at our own dispose, to be answerable to none that should call us to an account. The tumult of the nations against Christ was about bonds and yokes, Ps. ii. 3. The pale or the yoke is grievous to us, see Job xi. 12 ; Jer. xxxi. 18. Now being so resolved to be free, we are willing to hear of liberty, and apt to abuse whatever sounds to that purpose.
But now let us see how many ways the grace of God may be turned into wantonness ; a right knowledge of the evil may be a means to prevent it.
There is a grace dispensed in the way of God's providence, which may be called the grace of God, and is very liable to abuse : a word of that before I come to the main thing here intended. Thus we find the patience of God often abused ; when the Lord keepeth silence in heaven, and doth not presently thunder down vengeance on the heads of sinners, Ps. xxxvi. 2 ; Zeph. i. 12, we wallow in ease and fleshly delights, and dream of a perpetual happiness, and think we shall do as well as the precisest of them all : Eccles. viii. 11, ' Because ven- geance is not executed speedily, therefore the heart is set in them to do evil.' Thus doth man's venomous nature suck poison out of so sweet an attribute as God's patience. And as God's patience is abused, so is also his goodness and bounty. When we are full and enjoy plenty we grow wanton, and either despise our mercies, Mai. i. 2, ' Wherein hast thou loved us ? ' or, which is worse, despise God himself, turn back upon the mercy-seat, grow very negligent, cold, and careless in the worship of God ; nay, many times the mind is efferated, and grown brutish and insolent both towards God and man: Hosea xiii. 6, ' According to their pasture so were they filled ; they were filled and their heart was exalted, they have forgotten me.' Men have large pastures and strong lusts, and then God is forgotten ; there is not that care of God, that sense of duty, that meekness of spirit ; this is growing wanton with God's goodness. Once more, there is another grace of providence which is apt to be abused, and that is the vouchsafement of ordinances, or the means of grace, in great plenty ; a mercy prized when it first cometh among a people,