5. That herein the enemies of our salvation agree, that they all make us rebels to God. The devil, world and flesh, are equal in this. The devil's servants and subjects are opposite to Christ's king- dom : Eph. vi. 12, ' Rulers of the darkness of this world ; ' and Col. i. 13, ' Who hath translated us out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of his dear Son/ While we remain in the one kingdom we are enemies to the other : Luke xix. 27, ' But for those, mine enemies, that would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me. The world : James iv. 4, ' Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ? whosoever therefore will be a friend to the world, is an enemy to God.' They whose hearts are set upon the pleasures, profits, and honours of the world, they are withdrawn from God, as their proper Lord, and chief hap- piness, and will neither be ruled by his will, nor seek his love and favour. First, They will not be ruled by His will ; for God and the world command contrary things. The world saitli, slack no oppor- tunity of gain; to stand nicely upon conscience is to draw trouble upon ourselves ; that to give is wasteful profuseness ; and to forgive, folly and weakness. God, on the contrary, biddeth us deny ourselves — take up our cross ; telleth us, that giving is receiving, and the glory of a man is to pass by an offence, or to forgive the wrongs done to him. So the flesh : as the world tempts us to rebellion against God, so the flesh swalloweth the temptation ; it carrieth us to do what we list, and disposeth us to a flat rebellion against God, and a contempt of his authority : 2 Sam. xii. 9, ' Wherefore hast thou sinned, and despised the commandments of God ? ' The flesh will have it so : Ps. ii. 3, ' Let us break his bands, and cast away his cords from us.' Affectation of carnal liberty is the very effect of sense-pleasing and flesh-pleasing ; 80 that the carnal mind implieth a downright opposition to the law of God : all our ways are enmity to it, and a direct repugnancy against it. Secondly, Nor do we seek his love and favour as our happiness. The world propoundeth objects that are pleasant to our senses, neces- sary in part for our uses, in subordination to other things ; and so enticeth us from God. But it could not entice us, were it not for the flesh, which greedily swalloweth the bait : 2 Tim. iv. 10, ' Demas hath forsaken us, and embraced the present world ; ' and 2 Tim. iii. 4, • Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God ; ' and John v. 44, ' How can you believe that receive honour one of another ? ' And so we are detained from God by the creature, which should be a step and stair that should lead us up to him. The world is full of allurements to the flesh ; and those mercies which would raise the mind to God are made
474 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. IX.
the fuel of sensuality, and the greatest means to keep it from him. None neglect him so much as those that have most of the world : Jer. ii. 31, '0 generation ! see ye the word of the Lord; have I been a wilderness to Israel — a land of darkness ? wherefore say my people we are lords, we will come no more at thee ? ' So Mark x. 24, ' How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God : ' they are most apt to live an ungodly sensual life, as having less occa- sion than others to drive them to God.
6. This enmity arising from the flesh, is the more strengthened and increased the more it gaineth the mind and corrupts the mind ; for two reasons : [1.] Then the leading part of the soul, which should guide and command the rest, is corrupted also. There is in the upper part of the soul a directive and imperial power to fit him to obey God. Now it is blinded as to the directive power, and weakened as to its imperial and commanding power ; all must needs fall into disorder, and man will live a rebel to thelaw of his creation, and so be an enemy to God.
(1.) As to the leading and directing part of the soul, that is the understanding, there is a great blindness come upon us by the lust of the flesh, so that we have neither a due sense of our happiness, nor our duty. Not of our happiness, for till the eyes of our minds are opened by the Spirit, we have no real persuasion of the world to come : Eph. i. 18, ' The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints in light : ' and 2 Pet. i. 9, ' He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar ofi*.' Nor of our duty ; for though some moralities be evident to corrupt nature : Kom. ii. 14, yet for a full resignation, obedience, and love to God, nature owneth little of it, and depraved reason is blind, or sleepy, so that we may have no clear, deep sense of our duty impressed upon our hearts, so as that conscience (whidi is applicative reason) should warn us of sin, or mind us of our duty upon all necessary occasions.