VeR. 12.] SERMONS UPOX TITUS II. 11-14. 107
and lust turns tliem into snares for our ruin. As when a vessel is filled with filthy liquor, and it runs dreggy, the fault is not in the piercer that broacheth it and giveth it vent, but in the liquor itself. Lust is the cause of all the hurt that is done us in the world : the creature doth only broach the barrel, gives vent to our desires, and we run dreggy and filthy. Were it not for lust, nothing in the world could harm us. All other things are conquered with ease if a man could subdue his own affections ; and all temptations are so far under us as we are above ourselves. Again, it is lust that doth hinder our peace. How quietly and happily would men live if they were more mortified 1 Men desire more than they have, and so are made poor, not by want, but by desire. He that expects little is soon satisfied ; and certainly he will never storm at injuries that have overcome his own passion ; whereas a froward man is at the command of others, because he hath not the command of himself ; he doth not storm at disgrace that hath not set too high a price upon himself. If a man be vile and little in his own eyes, when others contemn and slight him they do but ratify his private opinion of himself ; and who is angry with another because he is of the same judgment with himself ? But usually this is the cause of discontent and trouble ; we set too high a price upon ourselves ; and when others will not come up to it, we are troubled. Take away the lust, and trouble ceaseth. No man is hurt but by himself It is a man's own affection and feeling that makes the misery ; always the fuller of lust, the fuller of discontent. What need Haman be troubled that Mordecai would not bow the knee, but that he looked for it, and set a value and esteem upon it. The inordinateness of affection causeth the greatness of the affliction ; and because lust is not mortified, the life is full of trouble. We would have more than God allows us, and so our trouble doth increase. Again, as lusts deny them, for lusts will end in gross sins, and gross sins in public shame ; and therefore, as Elisha cast salt into the spring to cure the brackishness of the water, so look to lusts ; they are the spring and rise of evil actions. Let any lust alone, either pride, or envy, or worldliness, if you do not destroy it, it will prove a bitter root to some gross sin, and it may be of final apos- tasy and desperation. A man tliat is given to worldly lust, one time or other is put upon the trial; if we find the sin, providence will find the occasion, and then he comes off with visible shame and dishonour. There is the root within ; and to what an excess doth sin grow in those that deny themselves nothing, and will not be denied in anything ! Lusts grow licentious and unruly ; and because they usurp God's place in the heart, therefore God suffers it ; always it ends ill, in shame and judgment. Judas at first was but a little worldly ; he allowed his covet- ousness, and it brought him to betray his master, and that brought him to the halter. Gehazi was first blasted with covetousness and then with leprosy. Ananias and Sapphira were taken off with sudden judgment. Nay, God sometimes arms their own hands and thoughts against themselves. Covetousness begins with inordinate desii-e, and ends in injustice ; and then that injustice must be professed and veiled with hypocrisy, as in Judas ; and that hypocrisy breeds hardness of heart, and then God bringeth them to shame, and that shame leads on to despair and ruin. And so I may instance in other lusts. Sensuality
108 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. VL
begins with daintiness, and ends in adultery or some shameful act, or else with beggary or some shameful punishment, and both end with despair ; as Sodom began with fulness of bread, then went on to foul- ness of lust, and that brought hell out of heaven. The lust of the flesh can also boast of its trophies and spoils ; it drowned the old world, burned Sodom, slew three thousand of God's own people in one day. Num. xxiii. compared with 1 Cor. x. Pride is not behindhand , proud men have their falls, and usually they are the more shameful, because God's honour is most sensibly usurped by pride. The great work of providence for these six thousand years hath been to pour shame and contempt upon pride. The first act of God's judicial providences was the casting the angels out of heaven, then Adam out of paradise. What ! shall I tell you of Nebuchadnezzar turned a-grazing, and Herod eaten up with lice ? Thus you see we had need to beware. Sin is an ill guest, that always sets its lodging on fire. Once more, why we are to deny these lusts. It is lust that blasts all your duties and services ; it either hinders or poisons them ; it either draws away the heart from duty or in duty ; Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ; and these two are contrary one to the other ; so that you cannot do the things that you would ; ' and Eom. vii. 19, • For the good that I would, I do not ; and the evil that I would not, that I do' Lust will not suffer God to have his due. The love of pleasures cannot brook constant exercise in religion, and the world is a great encroacher ; and pride is all for the public where it may be seen ; in private duties it is slight or nothing. As a mill stands still Avhen the wind blows not, so, when the wind of popular applause ceaseth, a proud man cannot spread his sails, or do anything for God and con- science. Thus it draweth away the heart from duty. Then it draws away the heart in duty. Observe it, and you will find it by constant experience. The main lust will surely be discovered by the working of the thoughts. When you come to pray, or in your solemn duties, that which your thought is most taken up with discovers the main lust : Ezek. xxxiii. 31, ' They come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people ; and they hear thy words, but they will not do them ; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.' The devil loveth to affront Christ to his face, and therefore takes advantage of the chief lust which occu- pies and possesses the heart to cast up mire and dirt even in God's presence ; therefore lust hinders, poisons or perverts duty. All that men do in religion, if lusts remain in force, is either to promote lusts or to conceal a lust ; to hide other sins, or to feed a lust ; and therefore we had need to deny it as it is lust.