4. To continue your resolution of obeying God, you should oftea consider of two things — what is past and what is to come.
[1.] What is past, the fruit of serving sin and obeying God. The fruit of serving sin. Alas ! we cannot look back without shame and blushing : Rom. vi. 21, ' What fruit have you of these things whereof you are now ashamed ? ' The object of shame is either folly or filthi- ness. Kow your eyes are opened by grace, you see both in that former course of disobedience wherein you wandered from God, But what
316 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [SeR. XVII.
fruit had ye then ? It filled you with the bondage of anguish and fear, that you could not have one comfortable thought of God ; and alas ! what was all the vanishing pleasures of sin to this trouble and anxiousness of mind ? And you who have tasted of these bitter waters, will you try once again ?' ' What an evil and a bitter thing it is to forsake God,' and walk in the way of your own hearts ! Jer. ii. 19. They that have smarted before are wont to be more cautious afterwards ; a child that hath been bitten by a snappish cur will not easily venture his fingers again. They reasoned, Josh. xxii. 17, ' Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day ?' Will you again fly from the face of God, and grow shy of him ? Sin is another thing in the review than it was in the committing ; do not lay open your old wounds, and make conscience bleed afresh. But do not only remember the fruits of your disobedience, but your experi- ences of obedience also in the tastes of God's love, the deliverances and blessings vouchsafed to you ; as David, Ps. cxix. 56, ' This I had, be- cause I kept thy precepts ; ' this comfort, this peace, or serenity of conscience, this protection, this deliverance ; and why should we grow weary of God ? What iniquity have we found in him ? Micah vi. 3, * Wherein have I wearied you ? '
. [2.] For what is to come ; what will be the fruit of sin or obed- ience ? ' Of sin unto death, of obedience unto righteousness.' Sin in itself deserveth damnation, and hell is not a matter to be jested with ; for this many are now in flames, and will you take that path which leadeth down to the chambers of death ? But the other, obedience, hath righteousness. Your title to glory is more unquestionable. God would not have you to obey him to your hurt and ruin. No ; he is leading you to endless joy and bliss.- Holiness directly leadeth to eternal life, and for the present your right is clear. Heaven is the portion of serious believers that love God and live to him.
5. Because the heart is fickle, and the force of an old consent may be spent, you must often renew your dedication, and afresh yield up yourselves to God to obey him ; for our obedience is founded in con- sent ; and the more fixed and firm it is, the more even will your obed- ience be. Therefore we should often solemnly renew the covenant made in baptism, and deliver ourselves up to God as his professed servants and subjects, firmly resolving upon a stricter course of future obed- ience : 2 Chron. xxx, 5, ' So they established a decree to make procla- mation throughout rli Israel from Beersheba even unto Dan, that they should come to k :ep the passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem ; for they had not done it for a long time in such a sort as it was written.'
6. When you have again yielded yourselves to God, make more conscience of obeying him ; partly because the devil loves to tempt those who are newly consecrated to God, as Christ after his baptism, the Israelites at the giving of the law, the disciples quarrelling for greatness after Christ's transfiguration, those that were drunk at the love-feasts ; partly because obeying showeth the truth of your con- sent : 2 Cor. V. 15, ' And that he died for all, that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.'
VeR. 17.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VL 317
SERMON XYIII.
But God he thaiiked, that you were the servants of sin, hut ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine ivhicli luas delivered you.—Ro^. VI. 17.
In the sixteenth verse the apostle had laid down a general maxim, •which he applieth, first to the matter in hand, in the same verse ; now to the persons to whom he w^rote, the believing Eomans, in the text,
* But God be thanked/ &c.
In the words there are three things —
1. Their past estate by natm^e, or what they were before conversion,
* Ye were the servants of sin.'
2. Their present estate by grace, ' But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of sound doctrine which was delivered to you.'
3. The praise of all is given to God's grace, ' But God be thanked.' To open these, I shall begin with —