Use 2. Is to exhort us. 1. To come out of the carnal estate into the spiritual life ; for whilst you are in the flesh, you cannot please God. Now what is more unhappy than to do much to no good purpose ; to be acquainted with the toil of duties, and not to be accepted in them ? Men are apt to rest in some superficial good actions, and so neglect the grace of God in Christ. We cannot sufficiently beat men from this false righteousness wherewith they hope to please God. Certainly while you are ruled by the world, the flesh, and the devil, you are unfit to obey God ; therefore you must renounce the flesh, the world and the devil, and give up yourselves to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as Creator, Kedeemer and Sanctifier. All after-duties depend on the seriousness of the first : 2 Cor. viii. 5, ' They first gave themselves to the Lord, then unto us, by the will of God ; ' and Rom. vi. 13, ' Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.' The more heartily you give up yourselves to obey God, and look for his favour upon the account of Christ's righteousness, and wait for the healing grace of his Spirit, in the use of fit means, the more easily, readily, and comfortably will the spiritual life be carried on ; and the more hearty and serious you are in this, the more peace you will have, and such graces will be heaped upon you, as will be the evident tokens of God's approbation and acceptance. Till you renounce God's enemies, and consent to be the Lord's, you are in the state of rebels ; rebels in heart, though subjects in show ; and what you perform, is by constraint, and not by a willing mind. God hath right to our duties, before we consent, and therefore it is a sin in carnal men to omit them, but our consent and self-obligation is necessary to our voluntary obedience and accept- ation with God. Besides, when this resignation, willingness and consent, is deep rooted, it becometh as a nature to us, and carrieth the force and authority of a principle in our hearts, and puts the soul upon such sincere obedience as God will take kindly at our hands ; it habit- uate th the mind to an obediential frame, and then the particular acts will not be very difficult.
2. To exhort us to please God. This must be managed, —
[1.] Negatively : —
(1.) Not to please the flesh ; flesh-pleasing is the fortress of sin, for all sin tendeth to flesh-pleasing. Now christians are to crucify the flesh, not to gratify the flesh ; our Lord Jesus Christ pleased not him- self, Rom. XV. 3 ; he sought not to gratify that life he had assumed ; uot that we should deny the body all delight in the mercies of God ;
VeR. 8.] SEKMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 483
then the soul would soon be clogged, which perfecteth its operations l>y the body. We are to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the 80ul, but not to abstain from worldly comforts, which would produce the same effect, hindering our cheerful service of God. Common mercies must be received as mercies, else there would be no room for humiliation and thanksgiving. Not of humiliation, when God correctetli us for sin by depriving us of those mercies, and so there would be no distinction between mercy and punishment ; nor for thankfulness, for we cannot be thankful for what we do not esteem and relish in some subordinate degree. Is it a mercy, or is it not ? If it be a mercy, we may use it with thanksgiving ; if not, then you cannot bless God for it. But in the use of these things, we must take heed that the soul be not drawn away from God, and the interest of the flesh be not set up against him. It becometh a christian much more to mortify the deeds of the body, than to fulfil his lusts ; and he must be cautious that he do not displease God by pleasing the flesh ; that Satan who is ever laying his baits to catch unwary souls, do not draw him to such an use of bodily pleasures, as are immoderate and sinful.
(2.) Not to please men, who have power, or many advantages over us. That we please not them to the wrong of God : the apostle saith ; Gal. i. 10, 'If I yet pleased men, I were not the servant of Christ.' There is a twofold man-pleasing, which is sinful ; the one respects the matter, the other the scope. First, The matter, when we seek to please them by something that is sinful, or by dispensing with our duty to God. To do this voluntarily and deliberately, is to forsake our vowed duty in the covenant, and to renounce our happiness, and therefore a damnable sin ; we forsake our duty, when man must be pleased by some known sin ; no, our absolute dependance is on God, and therefore his will must be regarded in the first place : Acts v. 29, ' We ought to obey God, rather than man.' And therefore no man must be pleased by sin, it is a renouncing of our happiness, as if their favour were to be pre- ferred before the favour of God : John xii. 42, ' Nevertheless among the chief rulers also, many believed on him : but because of the Phari- sees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue ; ' and chap. v. 44, ' How can you believe that seek honour one of another ? ' No, God is enough to a gracious soul : Ps. Ixiii. 3, ' Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.' His approbation should satisfy us ; the people of God have felt what it is to have displeased God, and what it is to be reconciled to him by the death and intercession of Christ ; that to them it is a small matter whether man be pleased or displeased ; if God be pleased, it is no matter who is displeased.