[2.] As there is abundance of sin, so it is active and stirring even after some progress in mortification. It is enticing, vexing the new nature, urging to evil, opposing that which is good ; it is warring, working, always present with us, that the best christians grow weary of themselves: Kom. vii. 24. ' Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death ? ' Was Paul an underling in grace ? Is not sin the same in all hearts ? Have not we as much need to keep humble and watchful, and make use of Christ's mercy and power,
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON KOMANS VIII. 67
as he bad ? Is sin grown more tame and quiet ? Or are we more fool-hardy and secure ? Surely we need to mortify corruption as much as others ; and whatever degree of grace we liave attained unto, this must be our daily taslc and exercise. If sin be stirring, we must be stirring against it ; and when the enemy is active and warring against the soul, it is a folly for us to hold our hands. Especially since corruption is ever ready to renew the assault there, to return after it hath been foiled, and by several ways and kinds venteth itself ; when one branch of it is cut off, and one way of it stopped up, it breaketh out in another.
One sin hath several ways of manifesting itself. Worldliness, take it off from greedy getting, showeth itself in sparing, or withholding more than is meet ; the folly of that sin is seen in its delight and carnal complacency : ' Soul, take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years.' He had enough, now takes his fill of pleasure. So pride, if kept from vain conceit of ourselves, bewrays itself by detracting from others ; so envy, or vain ostentation, as some venomous humour in the body ; heal up one sore, and it breaketli out in another place ; there is 'all malice, all guile,' etc. All sorts of it.
[3.] The pestilent and mischievous influence of sin, if it be let alone. Sins prove mortal, if they be not mortified. Either sin must die, or the sinner. There is an evil in sin, and the evil after sin ; the evil in sin is the avnfila, or the violation of God's righteous law ; the evil after sin is the just punishment of it ; eternal death and damnation. Now those that are not sensible of the evil in sin, shall feel the evil that Cometh after sin ; all God's dispensations towards his people are to save the person, and destroy the sin : 1 Cor. xi. 32, ' But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be con- demned with the world.' God took vengeance on the sin, to spare the sinner ; but the unmortified spareth the sin, and his life goeth for it ; the sin liveth, and he dieth ; as the apostle Paul speaketh of himself, when the power of the word came first upon him : Kom. vii. 9, ' Sin revived, and I died.' Sin exasperated, and he felt nothing but sin and condemnation. 0 ! consider with yourselves, it is better sin should be condemned, than that you should be condemned ; sin should die, than that you should die ; his life shall go for its life, in the prophet's parable, 1 Kings xs. 39.
Ay, but what is this to the justified person? 'There is no con- demnation to them that are in Christ.'
I answer, — you must take in all ; because they are supposed to live not after the flesh but after the Spirit. But if it can be supposed that ye can live after the flesh, then ye die, as in the text ; that is, ye justified persons. Poena potest duplicifer timeri, ut est in constitutione Dei, vel ut malum nostrum, as Bernard. Eternal death may be con- sidered as an evil which God hath appointed to be the fruit of sin, or as an evil that will certainly befal us. A justified person, one that is not so putatively only, but really so ; not in his own conceit only, but in deed and in truth, may fear it in the first sense. There is such a connection between continuance in sin, and eternal destruction, that he ought to reflect upon it, so as to represent to his soul the danger of yielding tamely to his sins ; and to fear it, so as to eschew it. For
GS SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XVIII.
this is nothing but to make an holy use of threatenings, and to see the merit of our doing.s ; but as to the event, so not to allow j)erplexing doubts, but to quicken us to break off our sins, and to look up to God in Christ for pardon. Now to direct you, —
1. Strike at the root of all sin : ' they that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof,' Gal. v. 24. The })rophet, to cure the brackishness of the waters, did cast salt into the spring, 2 King.s ii. 21. We must begin with the heart, and then go on unto the life ; if the root of bitterness be not deadened, it will easily spiout forth and trouble us ; as inbred corruption is weakened, so actual sins flowing tlience are weakened also. Tlie root of corruption is carnal self-love, for it is at the bottom of other sins ; because men love themselves, and their flesh as themselves, more tlian God. Now this is weakened by the prevalency of the opposite principle, the love of God ; and the moi-e we strengthen the love of God, the more is original sin weakened, and we get again into a good constitution and state of soul. Carnal men are seU-lovers, and self-pleasers ; but spirit- ual men love God, and please God, and seek to honour God. Love is the great principle that draweth us off from self to God ; such as a man's love, nature, and inclination is, such will the drift of his life be. Now men will not be frigliteued from self-love ; it must be another more powerful love whicli draweth them from it, as one nail driveth out another. Now what can be more powerful than the love of God, which is as strong as death, and will never be quenched or bribed ? Cant. viii. 7. Tliis overcometh our self-love ; and then time, strength, care, and all is devoted to God ; yea, life itself : Eev. xii. 11, 'They loved not their lives to the death.' Self-love is deeply rooted in us, especiall}' love of life, so that it must be something very strong and powerful, which must overcome it ; for what is nearer and dearer to ns than ourselves ? Now the great means to overcome it, is Christ's love ; when the soul is possessed with tliis, that nothing deserveth its love so much as Christ, the natural inclination is altered. This is done by sound belief and deep consideration, as the means : 1 John iv. 19, 'We love him because he loved us first;' 2 Cor. v. 14, 15, 'For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead ; and that he died for all, tliat they whicli live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.' By the Spirit as the author of grace : Eom. V. 5, ' Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us.' Tlien the soul knoweth no happiness but toenjoy his love and f'avour,and so it prevaileth over their natural inclination, they live not to themselves but to God ; not according to the wills of the fle.sh, but the will of God.