2. On the part of worldly lusts. There let me speak of them in general, then in particular.
First, In general they are lusts, and they are worldly lusts ; both will yield us arguments why we should deny them,
1. They are lusts, and therefore lusts should be checked, because it is lust. That we may see what victory we have over ourselves, it is a fit occasion to express our self-denial, and to show what we can do for God. There can be no considerable self-denial there but where the lust is great, and there we show how we can renounce our bosom desires for God's sake. Mat. vii. 13, it is said, ' Strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life.' If we desire to go to heaven, we must look to cross ourselves in those things we most affect and desire, and pass through a strait gate ; and therefore if you let lust have its scope, you mistake the way. Without self-denial there can be no good done in religion. Again, lust is the disease of the soul. Natural desire is like the color viialis, the vital heat which preserves nature ; Imt lust is like the
106 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. TL.
feverisli heat that oppresseth nature. We should get rid of our immo- derate desire as we would of a disease. Nature's desires are temperate and soon satisfied, but lust's are immoderate and ravenous. Content- tation is the soul's health, as lust is her sickness. If after much eating and drinking a man is unsatisfied, it is a sign he is sick, and hath more need of physic than of meat and drink, and to be purged rather than filled ; so when we are not contented with God's allowance in a moderate supply of nature, we need to be cured rather than satisfied. Drink is sweet to a man in a feverish distemper, but it is better to be without the appetite than to enjoy the pleasure of satisfaction. Who would desire a burning fever to relish his drink ? Better mortify the lust than satisfy it ; in the issue it will be sweeter ; for it is the disease of the soul though it seem sweet. I am sure the pains of mortification will not be half so bitter as the horrors of everlasting darkness. And lust let alone begins our bell ; it is the burning heat that at length breaks out into an everlasting flame. Again, lust is the disorder of nature ; and reason, that should be monarch and king in the soul, is enslaved, and under a base bondage by strength of desires ; and it is the greatest slavery for a man to be a slave to his own desires, and the truest freedom to command them. Consider what an odd sight it were if the feet should be there where the head is, and earth there where heaven should be : there is as great a monstrousness and disorder within when the soul is under the power of a ruling lust. All should be in subjection to the law of the mind, God made reason to have the sovereignty and dominion, and we give it to appetite and lust. A man is drawn away by his lusts : James i. 14, ' Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed.' The affections are like wild horses in a coach that have cast their driver ; they draw away the soul by violence, and reason hath no command. Again, lusts make us not only brutish like beasts, for beasts are led by appetite and man by reason, but worse than beasts ; for beasts can do no more, and ought to do no more ; they have not a higher rule ; appetite is made judge. Yea, and which is more, we exceed them in lusts. Beasts, which are wholly led by appetite, desire things only nigh at hand, and which are easy to be gotten ; but man's lusts rummage throughout the whole course of nature ; sometimes they desire things impossible. The lust of beasts is less inordinate than the lust of men ; for the beasts only desire to satisfy nature, which is contented with a little. You cannot force a beast to take more when nature hath its fill ; but our desires know no bounds ; and we desire not only necessary things, but superfluous, such as are burdensome and cumbersome to the soul ; lust only maketh them necessary. A horse, when he hath taken his mea- sure, will take no more. Every other creature naturally is carried only to that which is helpful to its nature, and shuns that which is hurtful and offensive ; only man is in love with his own bane, and fights for those lusts that fight against the soul. Again, it is lust that makes our abode in the world dangerous ; and it would be a safe place were it not for lust : 2 Peter i. 4, * The corruption that is in the world through lust.' The fault is not in the oliject, in gold, in wine, but in the heart of man ; not in the creature, whom we abuse to this excess, but in our own lusts. God made them to be creatures for our help,