Use 2. To prevent acts of sin for the time to come. It is good often to put this question, Cui hono f ' What doth it ? ' Eccles. ii. 2. What shall I gain by those vain delights and sinful practices ? To take pains to no purpose is folly, to an ill purpose is unnatural and self-destruction. Ask what doth it ? To my body ? A modest temperance will keep it in better plight, and freer from diseases than a gluttonous pampering of it. To my estate ? A little with the fear of God is better than great revenues with sin. To my soul ? Shall I be more cheerful to serve God, or my mind in a better posture for the high uses of religion ? To my eternal estate ? Am I in the way to hell, or to heaven ? If men would but commune with themselves oftener, What am I now a-doing ? what will come of it ? It may be I shall get a little worldly pelf, but what is this to the loss of God's favourj or to the loss of my soul ? We are often quarrelling with God : What profit is it that 1 serve the Almighty, and pray unto him ? Mai. iii. 14, ' Ye have said, It is vain to serve God ; and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts ? ' So Job xxi. 15, * What is the Almighty, that we should serve him ? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him ? ' Surely we should do as much on the other side. What will sin come to ? What profit by this sensual careless life, this hunting after the world, and neglecting God and my precious immortal soul ?
VeR. 21.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 347
Secondly, The second dissuasion or argument which the apostle useth is a turpi ; it is a base thing, implied in that clause, ' Whereof ye are now ashamed.' You had no solid benefit then, and you caa- not review your past sinful life without shame.
The words may be considered under a twofold reference —
1. As it is an act of repentance in the godly.
2. As it sets forth the evil and odiousness of sin.
First, As it is an act of repentance in the godly. After ye came to better knowledge, ye were ashamed of those things ye took pleasure in before, therefore now meddle no more with them.
Doct. That God's people are, and ought to be, ashamed of their past sins.
There are two things in sin — (1.) The guilt of it ; (2.) The folly and filthiness of it.
The guilt causeth fears and terrors with respect to the wrath of God which is to ensue ; but the folly and filthiness of sin causeth shame. Man is a rational creature, and therefore is ashamed of what is foolish, and was at first made a holy creature, and to enjoy com- munion with a holy God, and therefore turpitude and filthiness is a cause of shame. Now it requireth a quick and more tender sense to be sensible of the folly and filthiness of sin, than to be sensible of the wrath due to sin ; but all those who are brought home to God are sensible of both. A man covered with noisome boils and sores is not only affected with the pain, but abhorreth the sight and smell of them ; but first he feeleth the pain. So the first work is terror ; men are * pricked at heart, ' Acts ii, 37, before they have a sight of their folly and filthiness. The soul beginneth to come on finely when it is brought to that, it is gradus in re. To be sensible of this folly is the first degree of spiritual wisdom : 1 Cor. iii. 18, ' If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise ; ' he cometh to himself again, and when sensible oMiis filthiness and loathsomeness, it is a sign he hath some love and liking to the pure and holy ways of God. As there is more light and love infused into the heart, so do men more loathe themselves for their filthiness : Ezek. xxxvi. 31, ' Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and abominations.' To be truly and really ashamed of sin is the effect of saving grace : Ezra ix. 6, ' I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God.'
There are two sorts of shame : the shame of a guilty, stormy con- science, and the shame of a tender conscience ; there is a confounding shame, and a penitential shame. The one breedeth trouble of spirit, and is the fruit of sin ; the other a holy self-loathing, and is the fruit of grace ; the first may be in carnal men, the other is only in God's children. The differences between these two sorts of nliame may be these : —