A SERMON ON LUKE XVII. 32. 377
together to tempt tlie Spirit of God ? ' In secret sins there is miicli premeditation and craft and dissimulation used. Oh ! therefore avoid these sins.
[3.] The next lesson which we learn hence is, that no loss of earthly things should make us repent of our obedience to God, but that we should still go on with what we have well begun, without looking back : Luke ix. 62, ' No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.' A man that hath undertaken the service of Christ must go through with it. In ploughing there is no looking back. The people of Israel, when they found the incon- veniences of the wilderness, were makmg themselves a captain to go back to Egypt. The apostle saith, Phil. iii. 13, ' Forgetting the things which are behind, I reach forth to the things which are before.' We sliould not mind or look at anything behind us that would turn us back and stop us in our way to heaven. The world and the flesh are the things behind us, we turned our backs upon them in conversion, If either of these would call back our thoughts or corrupt our affections, we must renounce them, detest them. The things before us are God and heaven ; and is not God and heaven better than the world and the flesh ? Surely God should be pleased before the flesh, and heaven sought after rather than the world. A crown of endless glory is better than all the vain delights and pomp of this world ; and therefore we should not grow weary of walking with God, and look to the things behind us so as to forfeit and hazard the things which are before us. Thus you see many useful instructions may be drawn, to make us per- severe in the heavenly life, and carry it on with more success.
Use. From the whole —
1. Remember that in getting out of Sodom we must make haste. The least delay or slop in the course of our flight may be pernicious to us. Persons convinced of their danger are always in haste : Mat. iii. 7, ' Who hath forewarned you to flee from the wrath to come ? ' And the heirs of promise are described, Heb. vi. 18, to be such as ' have fled for refuge, to take hold of the hope which is before them.' No other pace is comely here but flight. Alas ! we are apt to linger when God calleth us ; and though there be fire and brimstone in the case, yet we are loath to depart, till God by a sacred rescue pluck us out of that woful estate wherein we are by nature. David lingered not : Ps. cxix. 60, ' I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy com- mandments.'
2. That till our resolutions be firmly set for God and heaven, and there be a thorough bent and bias upon our hearts, and the league be- tween us and our secret lusts broken, after we have seemed to make some escape, we sliall be looking back again ; ' For where our treasure is, there our heart will be,' Mat. vi. 21. As in the instance of Lot's wife ; her heart hankered after what she had left behind And there- fore, till the heart be effectually turned from the creature to God, weaned from the love of its secret lusts to the love of Christ, the back bias of corruption will recover its strength, and we are ready to revert to our misery, whatever profession we have made, and hopeful beginning we have had.
3. That to look back, after we have seemed to escape, doth involve
378 A SERMON ON LUKE XVII. 32.
lis in the greatest sin and misery. The apostle tells us, 2 Peter ii. 20, 21, ' If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled theiein and overcome, the latter end is worse than the be- ginning ; for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,' &c. Their sin and judgment had been less if they had not professed to have yielded to God so far. Partly because a re- volt in theui is treachery and breach of vows ; for we turned our back upon the world and all the allurements thereof when we consented to the covenant, and resolved to follow Christ in all conditions, till he should bring us into a place of rest and safety. And partly because it is a profession of our mistake by experience ; as if upon trial we found the world better, and God worse, than ever we thought them to be : Micah vi. 3, ' 0 my people, what have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee ? ' Partly because they have had some relish and taste of better things, Heb. vi. 4. Now light and taste about the ways of God do much aggravate sin ; partly because the devil is most furious against such : Mat. xii. 45, ' The last state of that man is worse than the first.' Well, then, if men be not really and effectually changed in tlieir hearts, and do only make profession, they may be ensnared, and made slaves to their lusts again.