(2.) The commanding power is weakened. For our senses are so masterly, inordinate, and eagerly set upon the objects, that we yield ourselves to the conduct of them, how unreasonable soever the acts are : Tit. iii. 3, ' For we ourselves were sometimes foolish and disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.' We give way to that which is evil, and oppose that which is good, even against the urgings of conscience: ' The law of our members warreth against the law of our minds : ' Kom. vi. 22 ; and it is a trouble to the flesh to be restrained from what it desireth, as an headstrong horse is loath to be curbed.
[2,] Because, as the leading part of the soul cannot hinder sin, so it doth promote it. And the more wit and wisdom we have, if it be carnal, the more is our enmity against God, as appeareth by those men in a carnal estate who have most of natural acquisitions; the devil's cause is varnished by them, and they prostitute all their suffici- encies to the interest of the flesh, and to cast off the government of God. How many wit themselves into hell ? But it is common to all, as appeareth by the two principal effects of the carnal minding, arguing and contriving, by these two the malignity of the flesh doth most betray itself.
VeR. 7.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIIL 475
(1.) By tbe arguings of the flesh. What carnal reasons have men for every sin, and against every duty ? Which showeth the corruption of nature hath not only taken hold of the appetite and senses, but hath over-spread the mind and reason. Let any temptation come to inor- dinate pleasure, they will palliate it and honest it with some excuse, that the bait is soon swallowed ; or to unlawful gain, by it they pretend they shall be enabled to do good to the church of God ; if to honour and applause, they will say religion shall have the advantage of it ; so if the temptation be against duty, they will say that they will recompense it another time.
(2.) By contriving : Kom. xiii. 14, and 'make no more provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.' Yv'herein do men usually spend their time, but in studying to please the flesh, or to fulfil their fleshly desires ? All their wit is wholly employed to this end.
Use 1 is Caution, not to stroke the carnal minding with a gentle censure, as if it were no great matter ; it is enmity to God ; and if you indulge it, you live in a state of rebellion against him. It is an evil ; first, as a wrong done to God, whose we are, and whom we should serve ; because it is an usurping of the government of ourselves against God's right, as if we were at our own disposal, as if we might do with ourselves and faculties as we list, without giving an account to an higher Lord. Now to rob God of his authority over his creature, is no small evil : Ps. xii. 4, ' Who have said, with our tongue we will prevail, our lips are our own, who is Lord over us ? ' To challenge anything as our own, is to affect to be as God. Secondly, It is a wrong to our- selves, for so we set up our senses and appetite above our reason, and make the beast ride the man ; for the lower faculties rule, when the mind is debauched to serve the flesh, and to cater for it, and contrive about it, when it should govern our senses in order to our true happiness and felicity : JudelO,' In what they know naturally, in those things as brute beasts, they corrupt themselves ; ' that is, against the light of nature they engulph themselves in all manner of sensuality. Thirdly, It is a contempt of that glorious happiness which God hath provided for us, Heb. iii. 2. When soul, and heaven, and God, and all things are despised for our carnal ends, how can we look upon it as a light sin ? Is it nothing to cast off" God and Christ, and despise our own souls, and all the happiness of the world to come, which God hath encouraged us to expect, as if a little worldly transitory pleasure of sin were much better. Fourthly, It is the worse because it is natural. Your very natures being destitute of original righteousness, incline you to please the flesh before God ; so that this opposition against God being natural, it is first, the more lasting, for natural antipathies are not easily broken and cured, as that between the wolf and the lamb, the raven and the dove ; and the spirit that dwelleth in us, lusteth to envy : Jam. iv. 5 : and, Gen. vi. 5, ' Every imagination of the thought of his heart is only evil continually.' We find it early, we find it to be con- stant ; after grace received, the understanding is not so clear and watchful as it should be, but a dark, imperfect guide to us, our will not so powerful as it ought to be ; the wisdom of the flesh is kneaded into our natures that we cannot get rid of it, and there is too great a rebellion in the appetite and senses, and in the best a great averseness