2. You should deny them as worldly lusts ; so you must abstain from them, not serve them. As they are stirred up by worldly objects, they keep us from better employment ; and therefore grace teacheth us to deny them, as they tend only to such a vile purpose.
Many arguments there are —
[1.] Whatever is for this world must be left on this side the grave. Pomp, pleasure, and estate must be left behind us : Job i. 21, ' Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked must I return thither/ There is no carnal pomp and pleasure in the next world. Here we
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bustle for greatness, but death ends the quarrel. Like foolish birds, we seek to build strong nests, when to-morrow we must begone. Open the grave, and look upon the relics of man's mortality ; thou canst not discern between the rich and the poor, the king and the peasant ; all are alike obnoxious to stench and rottenness. Those desires that carry you out to the world must be mortified. A mill-wheel runs round all the day, and at night it is in the same place. So whatever we gain and purchase in the world it must be left at night when we go to bed, when death finds us, and in the same place ; at death we are as naked as we came into the world : 1 Tim. vi. 7, ' For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.' A man's wealth doth not follow him, but his sins do ; his iniquity will find him out. Consider, at birth a man is contented with a cradle, and at death with a grave ; yet here we join house to house, and field to field, Isa. V. 8, as if the whole world could not contain us.
[2.] As they are only for this world, so our abode here is but short and uncertain ; and therefore, if it be worldly lust, it should be less prized, for it lasts but for a time. Within a very little while those that are most potent, powerful, and shining in the splendour of the world shall be turned to dust and ashes. God hath made life short, for many wise and merciful reasons, that the time of our labour might not last too long. He hath made us to enjoy himself ; and because he loveth the saints, he would have them the sooner with himself, and would not be long mthout their company ; and that we might love eternal life, therefore this life is short ; and that he might gratify the saints (for he that hath a journey to go would pass it over as soon as he can) God makes their journey as short as is convenient for his glory ; and to shame wicked men, because they delight in that which is but of a short continuance, but their torment is eternal. The pleasure of sin is but for a season, but the torments of sin are for ever and ever ; therefore this should put a check to your desires ; it is only for a world that passeth away. Nay, the lusts of this world pass away: 1 John ii. 17, ' The world passeth away, and the lusts thereof.' The time will come when we shall have no lusts to these things. It begins at sickness, but at the day of judgment we shall have no relish of these things ; and when the whole world is burnt up, it will be our torment that we have prostituted our afl'ections to such low and unbeseeming things ; we shall see the vanity when it is too late ; men will have little love to the world then.
[3.] If they be but worldly lusts, they should not be cherished were they never so durable. Why ? Because this is not our happiness and our rest. Carnal men have more of the world. Christ committed his purse to the worst of his disciples. Of the others he saith, * They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world,' John xvii. 16. In this world God is most liberal to the worst, therefore here we should not set up our rest. Look, as it is said of Abraham, Gen. xxv. 6, that he gave gifts to Ishmael and to the sons of Keturah, but he gave the inheritance to Isaac ; wicked men have their portion, but not the inheritance. God will not be in their debt, therefore they have gifts. Therefore saith a christian, Why should I cherish these worldly lusts ? this is not my portion, but the portion of others : * From men of the
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world, which have their portion ia this life,' Ps. xvii. 14. The world is Satan's circuit, he compasseth the earth. It is the saints' slaughter- house ; they shed the blood of saints and prophets, Rev. xvi. 6. It is the place where God is dishonoured. They are favoured and loved most by the world whom Christ hath rejected and passed by.
[4.] Worldly lusts do hinder us from our work. We were made for another world, and this life is lent us for a while to look after heaven. We cannot drive on those two cares at once, for the world and heaven too ; as a man cannot look with one eye to heaven and with another to the earth ; therefore why should we indulge worldly lusts ? Who would lose a crown to be owner of a dunghill ? And will you for- feit heaven and the joys of God's presence for worldly conveniences ? Lust hinders your care of heaven. It is true a temperate and religious use of the world furthereth it, but worldly lust doth take off your heart from God and heaven, and unfits it for it, so that your heavenly desires ai"e hindered.