(5.) Kefer all things to your ultimate end ; and consider whether what you do doth hindei- or further you therein ; for all things are to be regarded and valued as they conduce to God's service and your salvation: Eccles. ii. 2, 'What doth it?' 1 Cor. x. 31, 'Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, let all be done to the glory of God.' Be true to your scope.
(6.) Take heed of the servitude and bondage which the flesh is wont to bring upon the soul where it reigneth. It maketh men very slaves ; the heart groweth weak, and lust strong, Ezek. xvi. 30. They are not under the government of the Spirit, but under the tyranny of their fleshly lusts, doing whatever it commandeth, be it never so base, foolish, and hurtful. If anger provoke them to revenge, they must fight, kill, and slay, and hazard their worldly interest for anger's sake, or at least cannot forgive injuries for God's sake ; if filthy lusts send them to the lewd woman, away they go like a fool to the correction of the stocks ; and though they dishonour God, ruin their estates, stain their fame, liazard their lives, yet lust will have it so, and they must obey. If covetousness say they must be rich, however they get it ; they rise early, go to bed late, eat the bread of sorrow, and pierce through themselves with many cares : yea, make no question of right or wrong, trample conscience under foot, cast the fear of God behind their backs, and all because their imperious mistress, ambition, urgeth them to it. If envy and malice bid Cain kill his brother, he will break all bonds of nature to do it ; if ambition bid Absalom rebel against his father, and kill him too, it shall be done, or he shall want his will. If covetousness
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 53
bid Achan take a wedge of gold, he will do it, though he know it to be a cursed thing ; if it bid Judas betray his Lord and Master, though he knew if he should do it, it had been better he had never been borii, yet he will do it. Thus they are not at their own command, to do what reason and conscience inclineth them to do. If, sensible of their bondage, they would think of God and the world to come, and the state of their souls, lust will not permit it ; if to break off this sensual course, they are not able ; they are servants of corruption. Some, God , hangeth up in chains of darkness for a warning to the rest of the world of the power of drunkenness, gluttony, avarice and wretched world- liness ; yea, of every carnal man it is true : (John viii. 34,) ' Whoso- ever committeth sin, is the servant of sin.' Therefore if the slavery and imperious disease begin to grow upon you, the flesh hath prevailed very far, and you need more to look to it, and that betimes.
Third Use. Here is ground of trying your estate before God. It is a question you ought often seriously to put : ' Shall I be saved, shall I be damned ? ' If you have any spark of conscience left you, when you are sick or dying, you will put it with anxiousness and trembling of heart : ' Poor soul, whither art thou now a-going ? ' It is better put it now, while you have opportunity to correct your error, if hitherto you have gone wrong. We see in worldly things, men would fain know their destiny ; the king of Babylon stood upon the head of the ways to make divination ; we would fain know what God hath hidden in the womb of futurity. No destiny deserves to be known so much as this ; not whether I shall be poor or rich, good success in this enter- prise, or bad ; it is not of so great moment ; these distinctions do not outlive time, but cease at the grave's mouth ; but it is a question of greater moment, Whether eternally miserable, or eternally happy? It is foolish curiosity to enquire into other things, when we have a good God to trust to ; but it chiefly importeth us to consider whether we are in the way to salvation or damnation. Nothing will sooner determine this great question, than this text, ' If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' The latter branch we shall examine afterwards ; now for the first clause.
1. Some live in defiance of the Spirit ; cherish the flesh, fulfil the works of the flesh : Gal. v. 19. It is no subtile matter to find them out ; they declare their sin as Sodom, while they are drinking, whoring, sporting, quarrelling, scoffing at godliness.
2. Others please the flesh in a more cleanly manner ; but have no due regard to that spiritual and eternal happiness, which lieth in the enjoyment of God. Though their carriage be blameless and separated from the gross pollutions of the world, they care not whether God be pleased or displeased, honoured or dishonoured, angry or reconciled. And besides, the works of the flesh are not always interpreted in the gross sense, but according to the scale of the sanctuary. When he saitb, adultery, fornication, murder, are works of the flesh ; we must not only think of the gross acts, but the very first seeds of these sins, the secret inclinations and desires of the flesh in this kind, Mat. v. 27, 28. So lasciviousness ; not the sinful attempt only, but every motion of tongue, heart, senses, by which the eyes and ears, the soul and con-