[2.] Both these services are entered into by consent, /zrjSe irapLardvere, aXka Trapaarijaare. (1.) Some men pronely yield up themselves to do what sin would have to be done ; therefore they are said ' to give themselves to work wickedness ; ' and where sin is vehement and obstinate, they are said ' to sell themselves to work wickedness ;' and in other phrases : Eccles. viii. 11, ' The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil ;' Eph. iv. 19, ' They have given them- selves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.' When they have cast off all remorse t)f conscience and fear of God's judgments, with full consent they abandon themselves to their brutish: lusts and filthy desires, there is no check nor restraint can hold them. But this is .when sin is grown to a height, i^Gx^driaav. Jude 11, 'They have ran greedily,' &c., as water is poured out of a bucket. But generally in all sin there is a voluntariness, if not a wilfulness in- it, as a stone runneth down hill because it is its own proper motion. (2.) To God we consecrate ourselves with a thorough consent of will : Kom. xii. 1, ' I beseech you by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service ;' and 2 Cor. viii. 5, ' And this they did, not as we-
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 249
hoped, but first gave their ownselves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.' Hapacrr-qaaTe, the word either alludeth to servants, who stand before or in the presence of their lord and master, to show their readiness to be commanded or employed by him ; so present yourselves to show your readiness to obey all the commands of God ; or in allusion to the sacrifice, which was presented before the altar, in token that the party did design it, and with it himself, to God ; so do we yield up ourselves to God ; bodies and souls, all that we are and have, we resign it to him. There is this difference in both these resig- nations— the devil's servants do not what they do in love to him, but to their own flesh ; but Christ's servants do what they do in love to him as well as to themselves ; they know him, and love him ; he is not a master to be ashamed of. The giving up ourselves to sin is a concealed act ; we would not be seen in it ; for there is somewhat in their own liearts to check it and condemn it, some conscience of good and evil, as also a fear of blame from God and the world ; and so men do it covertly ; but do we give up ourselves solemnly and professedly.
[3.] The service of sin should not be allowed by us. (1.) Partly ])ecause sin is a usurper, whereas God hath a full and clear right both to our bodies and our souls, for he made them both. Sinners, so far as they own a God and their obligations to him, cannot but look upon sin as a disorder, for it alienateth our subjection from him to whom it is due. All sinners are not atheists, and therefore can never get off this conviction that God is their owner, for he is their maker, and framed them for such a use and end, namely, to keep his laws ; there- fore, to lend or give their bodies to sin is disloyalty and rebellion against the great and just sovereign of the world : 1 John iii. 4, ' Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.' Men do not only say, but notionally know, that God is their owner ; but if they did practically improve it, the reformation of the world would not be so desperate a cure as it is ; but alas ! ' professing to know God, in their works they deny him,' Titus i. 16. Their lives are quite contrary to their notional acknowledgment of God. What could they do more or worse if there were no God ? Reason will tell us that it is impossible for us to be our own, for we neither made ourselves, nor can we subsist of ourselves for one moment. All wicked men are God's, whether they will or no ; yea, the devils themselves not excepted ; they are his against their wills, and therefore do not live as his. (2.) Sin is God's enemy, and ours too ; it destroyeth us while it seemeth to gratify us : ' The end of these things is death,' liom. vi, 21. Now he is a traitor to his country that supplieth the enemy with arms : you wrong God, and wrong your own bodies and souls ; therefore, ' yield not your members as weapons of unright- eousness unto sin.' It is a miserable thing to be traitors to God and ourselves : ' Thy destruction is of thyself, Hosea xiii. 9 ; our miserv 18 of our own procuring. God is not to be blamed, but our own perverse choice ; we cherish a serpent in our bosoms, that will sting us to death.