r
VeU. 5.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIIL 455
are now so pleasing to the senses will one day gnaw and sting the conscience ; when God, whom thou now forgettest, shall, whether thou wilt or no, drag thee forth to judgment, and thou shalt in vain 'call upon the rocks and mountains to cover thee/
8. Consider how contrary it is to our Christian hopes to mind the flesh, or please the flesh : 1 Peter ii. 11, ' Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.' You are, or you should be, travelling into another country, Tvhere are 'the spirits of just men made perfect;' and this body of thine is to become a spiritual body ; will you please it not in a gioss, but in a more cleanly manner ? Nothing is more unsuitable. Shall we that are going to Canaan hearkeu after the flesh pots of Egypt ? Nothing is so contrary to our profession, and that breedeth such un- readiness to depart out of the world, as these vain delights ; and there- fore if you be strangers and pilgrims, you should not lust after worldly and fleshly things ; stop here, lest you forget and forfeit your great hopes.
9. Consider what a vile unthankfulness, and an abuse it is of that liberty which we have by Christ, and all the blessings of God's provi- dence: Gal. V. 13, 'Ye are called to liberty, only use it not as an occasion to the flesh.' We have a great liberty to use worldly comforts, in order to God's glory, and as encouragements of God's service, and for the sweetening of our pilgrimage; but now, when you use this liberty to please the flesh, you turn it into a bondage, and offer a great abuse to Jesus Christ. Surely he never died to promote the power of sin, he never gave us these comforts richly to enjoy, to hearten our enemy ; he was not a man of sorrows that we might live in pleasures, he did not suffer in the flesh that we might have liberty to indulge and please the flesh ; he bestowed not so large a supply of outward comforts to hinder us from those better and eternal things which he purchased for us — 1 Tim. vi. 17, 18 — or to turn them into occasions of unrighteous- ness, and means whereby to dishonour his name, and destroy our souls.
Now if we would not do so, something must be done : — 1. '2. 3.
them.
As to sinful inclinations.
As to sinful motions.
As to sinful actions.
As to sinful and fleshly inclinations, observe them, weaken
(1.) Observe them. Satan doth, and we should; he observeth which way the tree leaneth, and what kind of diet our soul distempers crave, and suiteth his temptations accordingly, as the angler suitcth his bait as the fishes will take it, for every month a bait : 1 Cor. vii. 5, 'Lest satan tempt you for your incontinency.' He hatii a bait of preferment for Absalom, for he is ambitious ; a bait of pleasure for Samson, for he is voluptuous; a bait of money for .Tudas, for he is covetous ; thus will he furnish them with tem])tations answerable to their inclinations ; a man by temper voluptuous may despise profit, as iin earth-worm doth pleasure, or honour, reputation, and great places, or at least doth not so mucli value these things. It is sad that our enemy should know our temper better than we do ourselves, where ^e are weakest, and how to make his assaults; and therefore observe
456 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. VII,
your inclinations. Flesh-pleasing is the general term by wliich it is expressed. Three objects there are about which this sin of flesh-pleas- ing is exercised : 1 John ii. 16, ' The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life ' — credit or honour, profit or riches, sensual pleasure or carnal delight. Now see which of these things do you favour or mind most — what carnal interest suiteth with your hearts, and groweth there.
(2.) Weaken and subdue them. It is your uprightness and faith- fulness : Ps. xviii. 23, ' I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from mine iniquities.' Let a Christian observe the increase or decay of his master sin, and other things Avill succeed the more easily. ' Fight not against small nor great, but the king of Israel.' When we can deny ourselves in our dearest lusts, Satan is more discouraged. Samson's strength lay in his locks ; so doth the strength of sin, in one part more than another. Every man is sensible of his darling sin, more or less ; but the next thing to be looked after is what we do with it. Herod raged when John the Baptist touched his Herodias ; Felix trembled when Paul touched his bribery and intemperance, but puts it off. The young man Avent away sad and troubled when Christ told him of selling all that he had, for he had great possessions : Mark X. Many are troubled in conscience, not so much for want of assurance, as loathness to part with some bosom lust ; but when we must pluck out right eyes, and cut off right hands, Mat. v. 29, 30, it is hard to them. When you pray and strive against this sin, and grow in the contrary grace, this showeth the truth of a man's self-denial ; as Abra- ham's love appeared in that he did not spare Isaac.