4. Some things more immediately tend to the pleasing of the flesh, as bodily pleasures ; and therefore the inclinations to them are called the 'lusts of the flesh:' 1 John ii. 16. Other things more remotely, as they lay in provisions for that end, as the honours and profits of the world. Now, though a man be not voluptuous, he may be guilty of the carnal minding, because he is wholly sunk and lost in the world, and is thereby taken off from a care of and delight in better things. Envyings, emulations, strife, and divisions make us carnal : 1 Cor. iii, 3, ' For ye are yet carnal : whereas there is among you envyings, strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men ? ' They have little of the spirit in them that bustle for greatness and esteem in the world, though they be not wholly given to brutish pleasures ; and those that will be rich are said to ' fall into foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown the soul in perdition and destruction : ' 1 Tim. vi. 9. These are taken off from God and Christ and the world to come, and therefore the fleshly minding must be applied to any thing that will make us less spiritual and heavenly : Luke xii. 21, ' So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.' They seek outward things in good earnest, but spiritual things in an overly, careless, or perfunc- tory manner.
5. Some please the flesh in a more cleanly manner, others in a more gross : Gal .v. 19, ' The works of the flesh are manifest epya aapKo^ (jjavepa adultery, fornicatio^n, uncleanness,, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft.' These are the grosser out-breakings of the flesh ; now, though we fall not into these, yet there is a more secret carnal minding, when we have too free a relish in any outward thing, and set loose the heart to such alluring vanities as draw us off from God and Christ and heaven ; and these obstruct the heavenly life, as well as the other ; therefore, still all must be subordinated to our great interest ; some are disengaged from baser lusts, but are full of self-love and self- seeking. I proceed to the second thing —
Secondly. What is that death which is the consequence of it? Death signifieth three things in Scripture — death temporal, spiritual,
VeR. 6.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 465
and eternal. The first consisteth in the separation of the soul from the body ; the second in the separation of the soul from God ; the third in an eternal separation of both body and soul from God, in a state of endless misery.
1. Death is a separation of the soul from the body, with all its ante- cedent preparations ; as diseases, pains, miseries, dangers, these are death begun : ' in deaths often, ' 2 Cor. xi. 13, that is, in dangers ; that he may take from me this death, Exod. x. 7, meaning the plague of the locusts ; and death is consummated at our dissolution, 1 Cor. xv. 55. Now all this is the fruit of sin, and they forfeit their lives that only use them for the flesh ; they are unserviceable to God, and there- fore why should they live in the world ?
2. Spiritual death, or an estrangement from God, as the author of the life of grace ; so we are said to be ' dead in trespasses and sins, ' Eph. ii. 1 ; and so it may hold good here : 1 Tim. v. 6, ' She that liveth in pleasure, is dead while she liveth.' That is, hath no feeling of the life of grace. But
3. Eternal death, which consisteth in an everlasting separation from the presence of the Lord, called the second death : Kev. xx. 6, ' On such the second death hath no power ; * and v. 14, ' death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death.' This is most horrible and dreadful, and is the portion of all those that are slaves to the flesh. Now this is called death, because, in all creatures that have sense, their dissolution is accompanied with pain. Trees and vegetables die without pain, and so doth not man and beast ; and death to men is more bitter, because they are more sensible of the sweetness of life than beasts are, and have some forethought of what may follow after ; and because it is a misery from which there is no release ; as from the first death, there is no recovery into the present life. This second death is set forth by two solemn notions : ' The worm that never dieth, and the fire that shall never be quenched : ' Mat. ix. 44 ; by which is meant the sting of conscience, and the wrath of God. Both these make the sinner for ever miserable ; the sting of conscience, or the fretting remembrance of their past folly, when they reflect upon their madness in following the pleasures of sin, and neglecting the offers of grace ; and besides this, there are pains inflicted upon them by the wrath of God. There is no member or faculty of the soul free but feeleth the misery of the second death.