SERMON XXL
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those thijigs is death. — Rom. VI. 21.
The apostle pursueth his argument, why they should be as free from sin as formerly they were from righteousness, by comparing the two services together, the service of sin and the service of righteousness. He speaketh in the next verse of the service of righteousness, in the text of the service of sin. As to the service of righteousness, it is matter of joy and pleasure while it is a-doing; of comfort and confi- dence in the remembrance of it ; and for the future, life and eternal salvation. But, on the contrary, if we take a view of sin with respect to the three distinctions of time, past, present, and to come, we shall find it evil and very evil : ' What fruit had you of those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? for the end of those things is death.'
Sin may be considered three ways — either as to the time of commit- ting it, or the time of remembering it, or the time of God's rewarding and punishing of it ; and you find in all so many arguments against it.
1. As to the time of committing it ; so the apostle argueth ah inuiili, * There is no fruit ; ' then, when you lived a carnal life, what fruit had you?
2. As to the present remembrance, ' Ye are now ashamed.' Now, that is —
fl.] Noio, the commission is over. Or rather, [2.] Now, after your conversion to God. Giace breedeth shame in OS because of foregoing sins ; so that here the apostle argueth a turpi
344 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. [Ser. XXL
3. As to future expectation, ' The end of those things is death ; ' there the argument is d damno, from the hurt and damage that cometh to us thereby. As to time past, sin is unprofitable ; as to time present, shameful ; as to time to come, pernicious and deadly. By all these considerations it may be made fearful to us.
First, The apostle's argument ab imitili is propounded by way of question, which is the strongest way either of affirmation or denial ; for it is an appeal to conscience and experience. If the service of sin WHS at any time fruitful, it was, questionless, when it was a-doing, when you were servants of sin, and had nothing to check and allay it, but were altogether blinded by your lusts, feeding the oblectation and pleasure of your fleshly minds with the vanities of the world. ' What fruit had you then?.' that is, you had none at all.
Doct. There is no solid benefit or profit to be gotten by sin.
The scripture representeth it as unfruitful and deceitful.
1. As unfruitful: Eph. iv. 11, ' Have no fellowship with the un- fruitful works of darkness.' A state of sin maketh us unfruitful to God. We cannot gather grapes off thorns and figs off thistles ; so it is unfruitful to the sinner himself, who loseth his time and strength, for that which will only occasion shame and trouble, and hereafter eternal death.
2. As deceitful : Eph. iv. 22, ' That ye put off concerning the for- mer conversation the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceit- ful lusts ;' Heb. iii. 13, 'Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.' It is so called because it promiseth much, and performeth but little.
[1.] It promiseth much. Sin smileth on the soul with enticing blandishments. Satan told our first parents, ' Ye shall be as gods,' Gen. iii. 5 ; and still we promise ourselves something from sin, some con- tentment, some profit ; for no man would be wicked gratis, merely for his mind's sake, or without an aim at some further end. Mere evil, as evil, cannot be the object of choice ; there is some fruit or benefit ex- pected in all that we do.
[2.] It doth not make good its word to us.
(1.) It doth not answer expectation ; the sinner looketh for more contentment and satisfaction than ever he doth enjoy: Eccles. v. 16, ' What profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind ? ' It is fruit- less enterprise ; it may be there is a Avind, a short-lived transitory delight, but it is gone as soon as it cometh ; nothing cometh of it that may be called fruit, nothing that may be solid satisfaction to a man that hath a conscience, and is capable' of an immortal estate, and hath a maker or a judge to whom he must give an account how he hath spent his time and strength, and what hath been the business of his life in the world. Alas ! the fruit of sin dieth with the very act, and when the lust is satisfied, it beginneth to be contemned ; as Amnon hated Tamar more than ever he loved her, 2 Sam. xiii. 15. So short are all unlawful pleasures, enduring no longer than the sinful act; for which, like fools, men hazard and lose pleasures for evermore. Keason taketh the throne when appetite is satisfied, and scourgeth the soul with bitter remorse, because appetite hath been obeyed before it. Sin after the committing appeareth worse than before ; when it is too