VeR. 14.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 293
constant government over your senses and appetites, how shamefully will you miscarry ! Therefore, as you love your souls, you must 'abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,' 1 Peter ii. 11. For whilst you keep gratifying and pleasing the flesh by the excess of lawful delights, you do but strengthen your enemy, increase corruption in heart and life, provide fuel for Satan's temptations, and jostle God out of the throne, and finally hasten your own eternal ruin. If you would keep sin under, you must cut off the provisions of the flesh, not cater for them : Rom. xiii. 14, ' Make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.' If you would resist Satan, you must be ' sober and watchful/ 1 Peter v. 8 ; that is, sparing in the use of worldly delights. If you would preserve God's interest, and reserve the throne of your hearts for him, you must take heed that the pleasures of the animal life be not too much indulged, for these will soon secure their interest in our affections : 2 Tim. iii. 4, ' Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.' If you would not have your consciences benumbed, and grow forgetful of spiritual danger, you must set a guard upon these outward delights : Luke xxi. 34, ' Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares ; ' 1 Thes. v. 6, ' Let us watch and be sober.' There is a strange infatuation and senselessness groweth upon you, and though we keep up a show of religion, yet we feel little of the life and power of it. They indispose us for our christian warfare, quench all our sense of heavenly things : 1 Peter i. 13, ' Be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.' These delights that offer themselves in our pilgrimage make us forget our journey, as lewd servants sent to a market or fair spend all their time and money at the next inn. We are strangers and pilgrims, that is the apostle's argument : 1 Peter ii. 11, 'Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.' We may bait here, as in a house of entertainment, but so as to set onward still on our journey, that it may be a refreshment, not an hindrance. Certainly they that would make progress in their journey to their heavenly home should meddle sparingly with sensible delights, though lawful in themselves. Certainly they who make their corrupt inclinations their ordinary guide and rule, and the satisfying thereof their ordinary trade, miscarry shamefully, and shipwreck all their hopes of glory.
[2.] More particularly, the object of our watching are these things — (1.) Our thoughts, which are sin's spokesmen, and make the match between the soul and the object : Prov. iv, 23, ' Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.' If we do not take care what thoughts we have, and whereunto they tend, the heart is entangled before we are aware ; our lusts stir up thoughts, and these thoughts entice the heart ; and whilst we muse and sit abrood upon them, these cockatrice eggs are hatched. It is musing maketh the fii'e to burn ; and when the fire is kindled, then the sparks begin to fly abroad ; men execute what the heart contriveth, and finish it without stopping : James i. 14, 15, ' Every man is tempted wlien he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringetli forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.' There we
294 .SERMONS I3P0N ROMANS VI. [SeR. XV.
read of the manner of the birth, or bringing forth of sin. Some ])leasurable lure, represented by sense, awakeneth the lust; that draweth off the heart from God and heavenly things : then lust con- ceiveth by thoughts, as the eggs are hatched by incubation ; then it is a full-grown sin, and so they go on to the very last, till they drop into hell. Oh ! then, suppress the musings, the vain and sinful thoughts ; for whilst you dandle sin in your minds with a secret consent, liking, or a pleasing musing, the mischief increaseth, the stranger becometh your master.
(2.) You must watch against occasions. It is ill sporting with occasions, or playing about the cockatrice's hole, or standing in harm's way. Many say their infirmities make them run into such or such sins ; but if they were minded to leave their sin, they would leave off evil company, and all occasions that lead to it. We are often warned of this : Prov. iv. 14, 15, ' Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away ;' Prov. v. 8, ' Kemove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house.' The wisdom of God thought fit to give us these directions ; they that think they have so good a command of themselves that they shall keep within compass well enough, though they venture upon the occasions of sin, converse with vain company, frequent the haunts of the wicked, go to plays, and entertain themselves with dalliances, refuse none of the blandishments of sense, surely they are not acquainted with the slipperiness and infirmity of human nature, know not what the new creature meaneth, nor what a tender thing it is to preserve it in strength and vigour. Is sin grown less dangerous ? or have men gotten a greater command of themselves than they were wont to have when the Scriptures were first written ? Surely man is as weak as ever, and sin as dangerous. Why then should we venture upon evil company, and the places where they resort, and go too near the pit's brink, and freely please ourselves with the allectives of sin, and apostasy from God, such as are wanton plays, idle sports ? Is there no infection that secretly tainteth our hearts ?