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42 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VUf. [SeR. XVI.
If we refuse this Spirit that is offered to change our natures, and lift us up from earth to heaven, and we will not be changed and healed, but wallow in this filth and puddle still, we are doubly culpable for not doing our duty, and refusing our remedy.
But you will say, the punishment is eternal ; how will that stand with the justice of God, to inflict it for temporal offences?
(1.) Answer. Till the carnal life ceaseth, the full punishment doth not begin or take place ; as when men have done their work they receive their wages. It is not inflicted till after death, and in the other world there is no change of state ; our trial is over, our sentence is passed, the gulf is fixed between hell and heaven, that the inhabitants of tlie one cannot come into the otlier place, Luke xvi. 26.
(2.) There was eternal life in the offer. Now if men will part with this for one morsel of meat, this is profaneness indeed : Heb. xii. 1.5, 16. The things propounded to their choice are eternal happiness and eternal misery ; if they refuse the one, they in justice deserve the other.
(3.) If they be christians, they do not pay their great debt, or fulfil their covenant-vow; and so make the forfeiture. The apostle here inferreth the great danger out of the debt : ' Ye are debtors ; ' that if we live after the flesh, we shall die ; they are entered into the bond of the holy oath. So elsewhere : Gal. v. 24, ' They that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof.' How are wp Christ's ? As dedicated to him in baptism, they have renounced the devil, the world, and the flesh ; they are Clirist's not only dejure, they ought to do so ; but de facto, they have crucified the flesh. It is hypocrisy and perjury that the carnal and brutish nature should reign in us. Baptism implieth a vow, we are ' baptized into the likeness of his death,' Kom. vi. 3. Christ bound himself to communicate the virtue of his death ; and we bind ourselves to die unto sin, and to use all Christ's instituted means to that end aud purpose. Now, if after that we are washed, we still wallow in the mire, and affect that life which we have renounced, and gratify what we should crucify ; cherish the flesh, rather than use Christ's healing means to subdue it and purge it out, our very baptism will solicit the more severe vengeance, and be a swift witness against us. It were better scalding oil had been poured upon us, than the water of baptism ; and if there be any place in hell hotter than others, it is for hypocrites and perjured persons that have broken the vow of their God whicli is upon them ;, this should the more sink into us, because every covenant hath a curse included in it, implicite, or explicUe : ttu? opKt] Oelaa Kardpa reXevTO, t?)? i-mopKia';, as Plutarch. A consecration implieth an execration or imprecation of vengeance if we do contrary ; the scripture abhqrreth not this notion ; it is said, Neh. x. 29, they entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law. So it is in the new covenant, for ail christians do con- sent to the threats and punishments of the gospel in case of failing in their duty ; as the Israelites were to give their amen, Dent, x.'cvii. 15, to the cur.ses of the law ; so we profess to submit to the law of grace, and tenor of it : in Marie xvi. 16, ' He that believeth not, shall be damned.' We profess our consent to this law, not to a part only, but to the whole. Now whatever faith and baptism calleth for, that must be done; or if it be wilfully left undone, we approve the penalty as
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 43
just, and that God may rightly inflict it upon us. Thus for the justice of God.
[2.] Now for the wisdom. The punishment is the greater, to check the greatness of the temptation. Much of the fleshly life is pleasant, like the Eden of God, to the besotted soul; therefore God hath guarded it with a flaming sword, that fear may counterbalance our (lelight. It is a hard thing to bring a man to strive against his own flesh ; it is born and bred with us, and is importunate to be pleased, but the end is death. There must be a separation between the soul and sin, or between the soul and God ; milder motives would do us no good against boisterous lusts, and are not powerful en'ough to wean us from accustomed delights ; therefore is the punishment threatened the more dreadful, and the sinful fear is checked by the severity of the iuterminatiou ; though sense-pleasing and flesh-pleasing be sweet to a carnal heart, it will cost him dear. The wisdom of God is seen in three things, —
(1.) In punishing sin, which is a moral evil, with death and misery, which is a natural evil ; in appointing that it should be ill with them that do evil. These are fitly sorted : Deut. xxx. 15, ' See, I have set before thee life and good, death and evil.' The evil of sin is against our duty, and the evil of punishment against our interest and happi- ness ; now if men will willingly do what they should not, it is equal they should sufler what they would not, what is against their wills ; these two are natui-al relatives, sin and misery, good and happiness ; we find some of this in ourselves, we have compassion of a miserable man, whom we esteem not deserving his misery; wo think it is ill placed there ; and we are also moved with indignation against one that is fortunate and successful, but unworthy the happiness he enjoys ; which showeth man hath an apprehension of a natural harmony and order between these things, sin and misery, goodness and felicity.