5. Consider how ill Christ will take it, and what just cause you give him to withdraw, when you prize the things of the flesh before him and the comforts of the Spirit. Must not the Lord Jesus take it exceeding unkindly, that after all his love, and the discoveries of his grace, you should study to please his competitor, and your own enemy ? Is his grace and glory worth no more than so ? and hath he deserved no better at your hands ? ' God spared not his own Son, but gave him up to the death for us : ' Eom. viii. 32. ' Christ pleased not himself : ' Rom. XV. 3. There is nothing so answerable as some self-denial on our part. The most genuine and natural influence from this grace is, that we should spare nothing, please not ourselves: Titus ii, 11, ' The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.' Teaching us, etc., how ? By way of precept ? No, by way of argument. It persuadeth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.
6. Consider, the more you indulge the flesh, the more it is an enemy, and the more is your slavery and bondage increased ; and still you grow the more brutish, forgetful of God, and unapt for spiritual use
454 SKRMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. VII.
for make it a wanton once, and it groweth stubborn and contumacious, and secureth its interest, and gaineth upon you. If you allow yourselves too free and full a gust and relish in any outward thing, and let loose the heart to every alluring object, and withhold not your hearts from any joy and sense-pleasing object, which Solomon acknowledgeth as his sin : Eccles, ii. 10 ; vicious and inordinate desires increase upon you ; and the more you gratify them the more they crave. The way to abate their rage is to deny them, and hold a hard hand over them, to ' bring the body into subjection : ' 1 Cor. ix. 27. Liberty allowed in satisfying carnal desires doth marvellously increase and nourish them, and will bring you to carelessness, and hardness of heart, if not some foul scandalous fall. I am sure the heart is corrupted strangely. Solomon saith: Pro v. xxiv. 21, ' He that delicately bringeth up a ser- vant, shall have him become a son at length ; ' he will no more know his condition, but grow bold and troublesome. I am sure the flesh was ordained to be a servant, and not a master. Take it in the mildest sense, it was ordained to be God's servant, and our servant, and must be used as a servant, kept fit for work. We are the worse for licence ; our natural desires, unless they feel fetters and restraints, will grow unruly ; therefore it is good to bridle the flesh, lest it grow masterly. But when the flesh is that which you mind, which you indulge with too free a leave, you deny yourselves nothing, but cocker every appetite ; you bring a snare upon the soul ; and carnal distempers are the more rooted, and will prove troublesome if not destructive to you.
7. Consider the consequence and weight of these things. If it were a small matter we speak to you about, you might refuse to give ear ; but it is in a case of life and death — eternal life, and eternal death. We can tell you of many temporal and present inconveniencies that come by the flesh. Tiie body, the part gratified, sufFereth, as well as the soul by it: Prov. viii. 11, 'Thou shalt mourn at last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed.' It betray eth you to commit such sins as suck your bones, and devour your strength, and give your years to the cruel. It bringeth infamy, and a blot upon the name, sins and scandals. Pleasing the flesh, and minding the flesh, makes one turn drunkard, another a wanton, another a glutton, or a hard-hearted worldling, or an ambitious, vain-glorious fool, or a senseless voluptuary : tiiese are no small things. But rather consider, it will be the eternal ruin of your precious and immortal souls. The more you give up your- selves to please the flesh, the more you add fuel to that fire which shall never be quenched, and provide matter of eternal sorrows and confusion of face to yourselves. There will a day come when God will call you to an account for this : Eccles. xi. 9, 'llejoice, O young man in thy youth, and let thine heart cheer thee, and walk in the way of thine own heart, and in the sight of thine eyes : but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment.' Mark, 0 young man ! We say, Dandum est aliquid liuic cetati — some allowance is to be made to this age, before they have learned by experimenting pleasures to contemn them ; but the young man is admonished : Do what thou pleasest ; let thy wanton and wandering eye inflame the lusts of thine heart, smother thy conscieYice by all manner of sensual and vain delights, but at length thou wilt learn the folly of this to thy bitter cost. These things that