2. They consider it not: Prov. ix. 18, 'He knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell;' it is rendered as a reason why the fool counteth ' stolen waters sweet, and bread eaten in secret pleasant ;' these carnal delights are taken by stealth, neither allowed by God nor approved by sound reason. How come men to be thus infatuated ? They do not consider that these pleasures are salted with a curse, and that after all their free and licentious life, they shall be turned into hell.
To conclude the whole. Since there is no profit to be found in the ways of sin, and they will certainly bring shame and eternal destruction — shame for the present, and confusion of face for evermore — let all the people of Grod seriously think of these things : —
[1.] That they may be more thankful for their deliverance by Christ. Pliny tells us of a wood, though of an unpleasant smell, that recovers the pleasure of the senses again : so, that we may not be gospel- glutted, it is good to review the evil of the carnal estate, that we may the better give thanks for our recovery.
[2.] That we may walk more humbly and watchfully. You should be so far from running into your past sins, that you should never remember them without shame and self-loathing ; and, considering the fruits of sin, we should meddle with this forbidden fruit no more.
SERMON XXII.
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting ^^7e.— RoM. VI. 22.
The apostle having showed how miserable their estate past was, when they served sin, he showeth now the happiness of the opposite state, into which grace had translated them; 'But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.' In which words observe —
1. The change wrought in them.
2. The effect of it.
1. Their change of state, which is set forth —
VeU. 22.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VI. 333
[1.] Partly from the terms, from what to what they were turned — from sin to God. Observe, he had called them before servants of righteousness, now servants of God. To serve God is heartily to obey his will, which is called the service of righteousness, because of the equity of his commands, and the strength of the obligation upon us ; it is right and equal, it is a due debt. So that the service of God and of righteousness is all one.
[2.] Tlie power by which it was accomplished, which is implied in the passive forms of speech, e\ev6ep(ci6evTe<i and 8ovXco6evTe<i. Before, it was BovXoc, and ekevOepoi : ver. 20, ' When ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness ; ' now it is ' made servants,' and ' made free.' We are prone enough to sin of ourselves, and ready enough to that which is evil ; but God, by his effectual working, made us to be that by grace which by nature we could never be ; we were born servants of sin, but made servants of God by his Spirit.
2. The effect of this change, which is either holiness or happiness ; the one in this life, the other in the next.
[1.] Holiness in this life ; ' Ye have your fruit unto holiness.' The apostle's discourse leadeth him to speak of the fruit by holiness ; but he saith, ' Ye have your fruit to holiness,' for he is comparing the service of God and the service of sin. Now, in the service of sin there is nothing to be had but shame and death ; those were his arguments there, ' What fruit had you of those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? for the end of those things is death.' Now he only saith, 'Ye have your fruit to holiness,' in opposition to shame, which was the conse- quent of sin ; and in opposition to death he saith, ' And the end eternal life.' Why doth he thus speak ? I answer, because,
(1.) Holiness is a reward to itself, it is its own fruit. If a man doth attain to purity of soul, it is enough; honour and joy doth accompany it, as shame doth sin.
(2.) It may be meant of holiness increased ; for the more we serve God, the more holy shall we be : every good work increasetli our holi- ness, or our fitness and ability for obedience to God. So that, in effect, this is the argument : this good you reap by your subjection to God, that you are in this world sanctified, and fitted to walk in newness of life.
[2.] Happiness in the life to come, ' and the end everlasting life.' That is the final issue ; for the holy life is a beginning and pledge of that life which is immortal and glorious.
Bocf. That when all things are well considered, the only amiable life is that which is spent in God's service.
I word the doctrine thus — (1.) Because the two lives are compared : the life spent in vanity and sin, and the life spent in holiness and righteousness ; therefore I say, ' when all things are well considered.' (2.) Because those who are before called servants of righteousness, are now called servants of God ; therefore I say, ' the life spent in the service of God.' (3.) I assert, this is the only amiable life, because the life spent in sin is full of shame and horror ; of shame, because of the baseness and turpitude of that life, disagreeable to the reasonable nature ; of horror, because of the dreadful issue — ' The end of these things is death.' On the contrary, this life spent in the service of God is amiable,