[4.] The debt is increased by every benefit which we receive from God : Luke xii. 48, ' To whom much is given, of him shall much be required ; and to whom men have committed much, of him will they ask more.' As our gifts increase, so doth our debt ; as our debt, so doth our account ; they that have received most, are bound to love him more, and serve him better, because they are more in debt than others.
[5.] How necessary it is for us to be debtors to God. If not debtors , to God, we are debtors to the flesh ; there is no medium ; and if debtors to the flesh, servants to every base lust : Tit. iii. 3, ' Serving divers lusts ; ' quam rnultos Jiahet dominos qui unum liahei-e nevult ! We are slaves to everything, if not debtors to God, and behave ourselves as such. Every fancy and humour captivateth us.
[6.J By paying this debt, we receive more than we pay, in present comfort and peace, but certainly in future glory and blessedness : Eom. vi. 22. ' Ye have your fruit to holiness, and the end everlasting life.' The fruit of holiness for the present is peace ; no greater comfort than in the discharge of our duty : Gal. vi. 16, 'As many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them.
7. If we pay not the debt of obedience, we incur the debt of punish- ment: Mat. vi. 11, 'And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
3G SERMONS UPON ROMANS YUl. [SeR. XVI.
debtors ; ' and Eom. vi. '23, ' Tlie wages of sin is dealli.' A man by- pleasing the tiesb runneth liimself further into debt than all the gain he gets by sin doth amouut unto, be it ever so pleasing and profitable ; he runneth in debt to God's justice, which at length will take him by the throat, and say, Pay what thou owest ; it will cast you into the prison of hell, and you shall not depart thence till you have paid the utmost mite : Luke xii. 59. For the present it bringeth yon trembling of conscience, and hereafter eternal vengeance ; these things .should be minded ; because the devil gets into our hearts by the back-door of sensual affections ; he doth not bring the temptation to our reason. To consider it as a remedy, —
(1.) Own the debt by directing yourselves to God. Every one should liave his own ; give unto Ciesar the things that are Cassar's, and to God the things that are God's : Mat. xxii. 21. Nothing more reasonable than that God should have his own: 2 Cor. viii. 5, 'They first gave themselves to the Lord.'
(2.) Keep a constant reckoning how you lay out yourselves for God : Phil. i. 21. ' To me to live is Christ,' Neh. i. 11 : ' The Lord show me favour in the sight of this man, for I have been the king's cupbearer.'
(3.) Pray God to bless you, and ever keep in remembrance the former debt : 1 Cor. vi. 15, ' Know ye not that your bodies arc the members of ClirLst ? Shall I tlien take the members of Christ; and make them the members of an harlot ? God forbid.'
SERMON XVI. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die. — Rom. VIII. 13.
Here is another reason rendered why christians should not live after the flesh ; before, a dehito ; now a damno ; or if you will take the whole verse, you have the danger of the carnal life, and the benefit of the spiritual ; both propositions are hypothetical or conditional, both include perseverance in either course. The apostle saith not, ' If you have lived after the flesh, ye shall die.' All have lived after the flesh before they lived after the Spirit ; and in the other jjart, if ye go on to mortify in the one branch, the doom is heavy death, not only tem- poral, but eternal ; in the other, the boon or benefit is as much as we can desire, and far more than we can ever deserve or requite ; both have their use, for man is apt to Ije moved by hope or fear ; if honesty and duty will not persuade us, yet danger and benefit may have an influence upon us.
Let us now consider the first clause, where death is propounded as the necessary consequent of carnal living ; we need not only milk, but salt ; as milk to nourish the new creature, so salt to fret out the cor- ruption of the old man. A sore penalty is threatened to them that fulfil the desires and inclinations of the flesh ; we buy carnal delights at too dear a rate, when we must die eternally to enjoy them.
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 37
Doct. That God threatenetli those that live after the flesh, with eternal death and destruction.
I shall speak to this point. —
First. By way of explication.
Second. By way of confirmation.
In the explication I shall show you. — 1. What is meant by flesh. 2. What by living after the flesh. 3. What is the death threatened.