48 SERMONS UPON UOMANS VIII. [SeK. XVII.
enemies agaiast whom we are to figlit, aud a necessity laid upon us of killing them, or being killed by them. It is our great fault that we made con.science of our solemn vow no sooner ; surely we should no longer dispute it now: 1 Pet. iv. 3, 'For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought Ihe will of the Gentiles, when we lived in lasciviousuess, lusts, excess of wine, revelling, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.' But set about the work, and undertake the battle against the devil, the world, and the flesh. Your first enemy is the old man ; and it is the last, for it is not extinguished in us till death ; therefore as soon as we pass out of infancy into youth, we must look upon ourselves under this obligatiou, not to live after the flesh, but after the Spirit ; to weaken the corruption of nature more and more. There was but one man and no more, who was first good and afterwards bad ; and that was the first Adam. Another there is, who was never bad, but always good ; and that was Christ Jesus, the second Adam, our Lord, blessed for ever. Of all the rest, none proved good that was not sometimes bad ; the apostle saith, ' first that which was natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual.' It is true, here first we put off a corrujit nature before we are renewed ; the duty lieth upon us by our baptismal engagement, though Christ supplieth the grace.
[4.] The qualities of a christian, or his condition .in the world, engageth him not to live after the flesh. I shall mention two : as they are strangers and pilgrims, or as they are racers and wrestlers. First, Sometimes it is pressed upon them as they are strangers and pilgrims, who have no continued abode : 1 Pet. ii. 11, ' I beseech you, as pil- grims and strangers, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.' You are, or should be, travelling into another country, where are the spirits of just men made perfect, and where even this body of ours will become a spiritual body ; and for you to please the flesh is contrary to your christian hopes. Nothing so unsuitable for them that are going to Canaan as to hanker after the flesh-pots of Egypt ; nothing is so contrary to our profession, and breedetli such an unreadiness to depart out of the world, as these vain delights ; therefore if you be strangers and pilgrims, you should not lust after worldly thiugs, lest you forget or forfeit your great hopes. Secondly, you are racers or wrestlers : 1 Cor. ix. 24, ' Know you not that they which run iu a race run all, but one receiveth the prize ? so run that you may obtain." They that exercised in the Isthmian games had a prescribed set diet both for quality and quantity, and had their rule chalked out to them ; they knew their work and their reward ; so v. 27, ' But I keep under my body, aud bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away ; ' that is, denied himself those liberties which otherwise he might enjoy, having prescribed to others the way of striving and getting the victoiy. They for an oaken or olive crown dieted themselves, kept themselves from all things which should hurt them, or disable them in the race or combat ; and should we cocker every appetite, that have an eternal crown of glory in view and pursuit ? Our danger is greater if we should miscarry and miss of it ; theirs, the loss of a little vain glory ; ours, of eternal glory; therefore we should strive that we be not found
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VHI. 49
unworthy to receive it. There the victory was uucertaia ; here all that are runners may be sure of the crown.
[5.] Consider the malignant influence of the flesh, and how pernici- ous it is to the soul. If it were a small thing we spake to you about, you might refuse to give ear ; but it is in a case of life and death, and that not temporal but eternal. We can tell you of many present and temporal inconveniences that come by the flesh. The body, the part gratified, is in many oppressed by it : Prov. v. 11, ' Thou shalt mourn at last, when thy flesh and body is consumed.' It betrayeth you to such sins as suck your bones and devour your strength, and give your years to the cruel ; to such enormities and scandalous practices as bring infamy and a blot upon your name. Pleasing the flesh maketh one turn a drunkard, and the very sin carrieth its own punishment with it ; a second, a wanton ; a third, a glutton ; a fourth, a hard-hearted world- ling ; and all these sins waste the conscience, and debase the body, and spend our wit, time, strength, and estates. But we have a more powerful argument to present to you ; it will be the eternal loss and ruin of your souls. Thei'e will a day come when you shall be called to an account for all your vain delights and pleasures : Eccles. xi. 9, ' Rejoice, 0 young man, in thy youth, and let thine heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine own heart, and in the sight of thine own eyes ; but know that for all these things God will bring thee to judgment.' The young man is cited before the tribunal of God, and we think somewhat must be allowed to that age, before men have learned by experience to contemn pleasures, and the young man is spoken to in his own dialect. Let his wanton and wander- ing eye inflame the lusts of his heart, and smother his conscience by all manner of sensual delight ; yet at length he will know the folly of this to his bitter cost. These things which are now so pleasing to the senses shall gnaw and sting his conscience, when God, whom he now forgetteth, shall bring him to the judgment, and he shall have nothing to plead for his brutish folly.