Use 2. To persuade you to make conscience of your baptismal vow, and to observe and perform it with all good fidelity, and tliat in both jiarts of it.
L L)yitJg to sin ; you are not only dead, but buried. Oh ! do not
180 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. Ill*
neglect the mortifying of your sins. You think it hard to renounce sensual delight and pleasure, but better lose the pleasure of the senses than incur the pains of hell. That is that which our Saviour teacheth us : Mat. v. 29, 30, ' If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee,' &c. Literally that place cannot be taken ; no man ever yet hated his own flesh, nor can he lawfully hate it ; this is contrary to the sixth com- mandment. For a man to hurt his body to prevent his sin is to run from one fire into another, to be guilty of murder to prevent adultery ; the fault is not in the eye, but in the heart : Mat. xv. 19, ' For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies.' If the right eye were plucked out, the left eye might easily transmit the temptation. Metaphorically you may take it for the principal members of the body of sin, beloved lusts. But the meaning is, it is better to be blind than damned, to lose their senses than lose their souls, much more to deny the pleasures of sense. You may say, If you allow yourselves a little liberty, the danger is not great ; you should say rather, The pleasure is not great, therefore mortify your sins.
Motives.
[1.] Till sins be mortified they easily break out again : 2 Peter ii. 20, ' For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome,' &c. Their heart is in secret league with their lust, which is never thoroughly dissolved.
[2.] Your consolations will be but small. Mortification breeds joy and peace, especially the mortification of a master-sin : Ps. xviii. 3, ' I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity.' A man showeth his uprightness in mastering this sin. The dearer any victory over sin costs you, the sweeter will the issue be. Volun- tarily and allowedly to commit a known sin, or omit a known duty, maketh our sincerity questionable : James iv. 17, ' Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.'
[3.] Crosses will be many : Hosea v. 15, 'I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face : in their afiliction they will seek me early ;' Isa. xxvii. 9, ' By this there- fore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin.'
[4.] Doubts will be troublesome.. To obey Christ a little and the flesh more is no true obedience, and such will have no rejoicing of heart : Job xx. 12-14, ' Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue, though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth, yet his meat in his bowels is turned into poison, and becomes the gall of asps within him.' Sin proveth bitter and vexing till we leave it, and sinners still have a secret sting within.
[5.] The heart is benumbed and stupefied : Heb. iii. 13, ' Hardened through the deceitfulness of sin;' that is the sorest judgment, to become stupid.
YeR. 5.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 181
2. To walk in newness of life.
[1.] It is the most noble life the nature of man is capable of; it is called 'the life of God/ Eph. iv, 18. It floweth from the gracious presence of God dwelling in us by the Spirit, which engageth us in the highest designs.
[2.] It is the most delectable life : Pro v. iii. ] 7, ' Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.' We live upon God as represented to us in a mediator, and avoid the filthiness, delusions, vexations of the world and the flesh.
[3.] It is the most profitable life ; it is a preparation for and intro- duction into eternal life : Kom. vi. 22, ' But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.'
SERMON IV.
For if loe have heen planted together in the likeness of his death, lue sJmll he also in the likeness of his resurrection. — Eom. VI. 5.
Here the apostle proveth that continuance in sin cannot be supposed in them that are really and sincerely dedicated to Christ in baptism, from the strict union between Christ and them, and their communion already thereupon with him in his death. They are ' planted into Christ,' and particularly ' into the likeness of his death ; ' therefore the virtue and likeness of his resurrection is communicated to them : ' For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.'