Doct. That to take occasion to live in sin from free grace, or God's mercy to sinners in Christ, is an inference most unjust, absurd, and blasphemous, and that which all christians' hearts should abominate. Here in the text such an inference is mentioned with a denial joined with a detestation of the thing denied ; the very thought and first mention of it ought to be entertained with abhorrency.
1. I will prove that the corrupt heart of man is apt to draw such a consequence.
2. I will prove the three charges —
[1.] That it is very unjust and ill grounded.
[2.] Absurd and contradictory to Christianity.
[3.] Wicked and blasphemous.
First, That the corrupt heart of man is apt to draw such inferences
Vers. 1, 2.] sermons upon Romans vi. 155
from the doctrine of grace. In the general, carnal men are ill skilled at reasoning about spiritual matters. Solomon telleth us, Prov. xxvi. 9, ' That a parable in a fool's mouth is like a thorn in the hand of a drunkard.' As a drunkard with a sharp thorn grievously hurts him- self and others, neither his mind nor hand can do their office when the man is distempered with drink ; so it is with men intoxicated by sin ; witness those contrary and different conclusions, which the carnal and spiritual will draw from the same principles. From the stated course of nature the scoffer said, 2 Peter iii. 4, ' Where is the promise of his coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.' David reasoneth the quite contrary way : Ps. cxix. 89-91, ' For ever, 0 Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations : thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. They continue this day according to thine ordinances : for all are thy servants.' So 1 Cor. xv, 32, ' If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise not ? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die ; ' with 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30, ' But this I say, brethren, the time is short : it remains that both they that have wives be as though they had none ; and they that weep, as though they wept not ; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not ; and they that buy, as though they possessed not.' So 2 Sam. vii. 2, ' The king said unto Nathan the prophet. See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains ; ' with Haggai i. 2, ' This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.' So 2 Kings vi. 33, ' Behold this evil is of the Lord, what should I wait for the Lord any longer ?' with 1 Sam. iii. 18, ' It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.' So Mary Magdalene, upon Christ's pardoning her sin, was more abundant in duty and mourning for sin : Luke vii. 47, ' Her sins, which were many, are forgiven ; for she loved much ; ' and in the text, the directly contrary conclusion is drawn ; ' sin, because grace doth abound ;' make work for pardoning mercy. But particularly, it is very natural to us to abuse the gospel, and plead God's grace to quiet and strengthen ourselves in security and sin ; the thoughts of men do easily incline them to such con- clusions. That which hath been may be ; that this hath been appear- eth by the writings of the apostles, who everywhere seek to obviate this abuse ; and also by evident reason,
1. We all affect liberty to a degree of licentiousness. This is natural to us, as appeareth by our distaste of Christ's strict laws : Ps. ii. 3, * Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us ; ' and our ready hearkening to seducers, ' who promise liberty, though they bring us into bondage to sin,' 2 Peter ii. 19, and we be the more enslaved to baseness and filthiness.
2. The liesh taketh all occasions to indulge itself, and that it may be done in a plausible cleanly manner, and with less remorse from conscience, it catcheth at every pretence to countenance it. Some- times it makes use of bodily austerities as a compensation for their sins ; and so hypocrisy, superstition, and profaneness grow on the same root. The sensual nature of men is such that it is loath to bo crossed, which produceth profaneness ; for therefore do men indulge
156 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. I.
themselves in all manner of sensuality, because they are loath to deny their natural appetites and desires, and row against the stream of flesh and blood ; but if nature must be crossed, or else they cannot palliate their carnal indulgences, then they will not mortify the lust, but afflict the body for a while, and in some slight manner, which produceth hypocrisy, and we excuse the partiality of our obedience by some outward shows of strictness ; as Isa. Iviii. 5, ' They afflict the soul for a day, or bow down the head like a bulrush ; ' and so in the external actions of other duties. That this deceit may be more strong, they exceed in outward observances, and that produceth superstition, or some byelaws of our own, by which we hope to expiate our sins ; as to whip and gash ourselves : Micah vi. 6, 7, ' Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God ? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old ? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thou- sands of rivers of oil ? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? ' On the other side, if men's temper, education, and strain of religion carry them to another way, and they are all for the grace of the gospel, without the rudi- ments of men, the devil knows how to charm and lull souls asleep in sin by that way of profession also ; and so many take liberty to sin under the pretence that God may have more occasion to exercise his mercy ; and our proneness to please the flesh is countenanced by pre- sumptions of grace, and the supposition of unreasonable indulgences of God to the faulty creature : Ps. 1. 21 , ' These things hast thou done, and I kept silent ; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself.' God will not be so severe as is commonly imagined ; and so lessening God's holiness, tliey abate their reverence of him : Ps. Ixviii. 19-21, ' Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation, Selah. He that is our God is the God of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.' He seeketh to obviate their conceit, how great soever the riches of his bounty and grace offered in Christ be, yet he is irreconcileable to those that cease not to follow a course of sin.