[3.] It is contrary to our hopes ; we look for better things. It is a most lamentable thing to see a christian, that professeth the assurance of a better life, to lie digging like a mole in the earth : 1 Peter ii. 11, 'Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, that war against the soul.' Worldly men are fastened to things present, but the children of God do bend and tend to things to come. Worldly men do not look for better things, and therefore they are more to be excused. We have cause to blush every time we think of our condition. What are you ? whence came you ? whither are you going ? You are passengers to heaven ; why do you stick and linger by the way ? Something we may take for our refreshment as men that pass through a field of corn rub the ears as they go ; as the angel roused Elijah : 1 Kings xix. 7, ' Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for thee.' You that affect to tarry in a foreign country, have you a Father in heaven ? Would a traveller hang his room in an inn ? Will he buy such things as he cannot carry with him ? Such things as we can carry with us to heaven should take up our time and thoughts. Piety outlives the grave, but honour and wealth must be left behind us.
[4.] It is contrary to our vows. We renounced them in baptism. In baptism there is iirepoiTqfMa, an answer to God's questions. Believest thou with all thy heart ? renouncest thou with all thy heart ? 1 Peter iii. 21, 'Baptism saves, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, "but the answer of a good conscience towards God.' You break 3'our i^aptismal vows if you do not deny worldly lusts. Christ doth not only call us off from sin, but from the world; for he is to be accepted not only as our Lord and lawgiver, but as our chief est good, as an all- sufficient saviour. You are under a vow, and alienate things once consecrated when you withdraw your affections after you have once given them up to Christ. What have lusts to. do in an heart that is once dedicated to God ?
Use 1. Information. It informeth us — •
1. How little interest in Christ they have who are still under the power of worldly lusts. The apostle giveth us this note, Gal. v. 24, 'They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.' He doth not say that they are Christ's that believe that he was crucified, or that he died for sinners ; but they are Christ's that/eeZ that he was crucified ; that by the virtue of his cross do crucify their own lusts
VeR. 12.] SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. 103
and sinful affections. What! a christian, and j^et worldly; a christian, and yet sensual ; a christian, and yet proud ! You that are given to pleflsureSs do you believe in Christ, that was a man of sorrows ? You that are carried out after the pomp and vanity of the world, do you believe in Christ, whose kingdom was not of this world ? You that are proud and lofty, do you profess an interest in the humble Christ ? It is iii vain for those to talk of his dying for sinners, and boast of the excel- lency of his cross, that never felt the virtue of it: Gal. vi. 14, 'God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.' Your affections to the world are still strong ; how can you glory in his cross ? What experience have you of the goodness of it ? Have you gotten anything by the cross? Are you planted into the efficacy of it? Eom. vi. 5, ' For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.' Do you feel any weakening of lusts and decay of sin ? at least, doth it put you upon endeavours in this kind ? The roots of sin are in all, but do you seek to mortify them ? Do you deny them in the way prescribed ? do you seek to prevent them with diligence, to suppress them with watch- fulness, to resist them with strength and resolution ? When there is not a constant course of mortification set up, but lust is let alone to reign without control, you have no interest in Christ. Mark, it is said, ' They crucify the flesh : ' there is a work on your part ; man is not wholly passive.
2. It informeth us that true mortification is proper to grace. Grace teacheth us to deny worldly lusts; mere reason cannot. Eeason may sometimes convince us of lusts, but it cannot reform them ; in many things it is blind, but iu all weak. The sublimest philosophy that ever was could never teach a man to go out of himself, to deny his lusts, to despise the world. Many of the heathens were to appearance temperate, just, sober, and liberal, but still the lusts remained ; and therefore some in despair have pulled out their eyes, because they could not prevail over a naughty heart. Sapientia eorum abscondit vitia, non ahscindit ; they hid their sins, but did not cut them off. As an oven stopped up is the hotter within, so the excess and execution of lusts being pre- vented, they grew more outrageous. The heart of man will not be kept in order by anything but by the power of grace. We may argue, fast, vow, pray, promise, and watch against sin ; these are good means, but not to be rested in, for they are too weak to . master sin. God hath reserved this honour for his grace in Jesus Christ : Rom. vii. 24, 25, * O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' We can have deliverance nowhere else. Are not counsels of reason able to help me ? No, they cannot. Is not a moral course of mortification able to help me, as fasting, watching, prayer ? No ; these may restrain it somewhat, and lessen the violence of it. Satan may be ousted for a time, but yet he returneth with more violence ; as the jailer hangeth more irons on him that is caught again after an escape. It is only the grace of God that mortifies sin.