Deny these lusts of the flesh, do not indulge them, suffer them not to grow wanton.
By way of argument consider —
(1 ) Sensual men have httle of God's Spirit; Jude 19, ' Sensual, having not the Spirit.' The Spirit is a free Spirit, and they are slaves to their lusts ; the Spirit is a pure Spirit, and their desires are unclean and
112 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. VI.
gross ; the Spirit is active, and they are heavy and muddy, and of a nature dull and slow. Sensual men quench the vigour of nature, much more the efficacy and radiancy of the graces of the Spirit. The Spirit works intellectual delights, and they are all for sensual. They love pleasures more than God : 2 Tim. iii. 4, ' Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God ; ' those dreggy delights. Whereas the comforts and con- solations of the Spirit are masculine, and they are got by exercise. Look, as the manly heat gotten by exercise is better than that which is gotten by hovering over the fire, so the comforts of the Spirit, gained by much communion with God, by being instant and earnest in prayer, is better than that delight which is gotten by hovering over the creature. Well, then, which will you choose ? Will you live at large and ease, and wallow in earthly delights and contentments ? or would you be stirred up by the active motion of the Spirit of God ? Would you dissolve your precious hours and spirits in ease and pleasure, or else be employed in the solemn and grave exercises of religion ? Frogs delight in fens, and the worst natures are most sensual ; they are not fit for any worthy action or any great exploit.
(2.) It is the first thing you must do, if you mean to do anything in religion, to renounce pleasure ; and therefore it is put in the first place, ' The lusts of the flesh.' It is below reason to live in pleasure, there- fore much more below grace. Alas ! you will do nothing if this be not done, but will lie open to every temptation. If a carnal motion arise that bids you neglect duty or practise sin, you lie open to it ; therefore it is said, Pro v. xxv. 28, ' He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.' He that bridles not his appetite is like a city whose wall is broken down. When a town is dismantled, it lies open for every comer ; so where the appetite is unruly there is no room for the Spirit, but for every temptation : Ezek. xlvii. 11, ' But the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed ; they shall be given to salt.' The waters of the sanc- tuary could not heal the miry places, which is an emblem of a sensual heart. Pleasure brings a brawn and deadness upon the conscience, a cloud upon the understanding, and a damp upon the affections. Daniel, that had the high visions of God, lived by pulse ; he was a man tem- perate. Those that mortify pleasure are of the clearest understanding ; and John the Baptist, which had most eminent revelations of the mysteries of the gospel (of all the prophets, there was not a greater than John the Baptist), he was fed with locusts and wild honey. Therefore mortify pleasure.
(3.) By custom this sin is rooted, and so hardly left ; because it doth not only pervert the constitution of the soul, but the constitution of the body. Now, when the body is unruly as well as the affections, grace hath more to struggle with. A man that hath habituated himself to carnal pleasure, because his body is distempered and perverted, is not so soon healed. That is the reason that when the apostle speaks of meats and drinks, 1 Cor. vi. 12, he saith, ' He will not be brought un- der the power of any.' So again, when men are given to wine, it is their custom and rooted disposition ; therefore avoid not only the gross act, but the very beginning, that it may not be a settled distemper. Whenever you take pleasures, they should be used with fear. It is
YeR. 12.] SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. H3
the charge of the Spirit of God commenceth against those, Jude 12, ' Feeding themselves without fear.' Mark, it is not enough for your acquitment that you do not drink to drunkenness, or feed to actual excess and distemper, but suffer it not to be a rooted disposition in your hearts, for then it will be hardly left. Austin speaks of his own experience in this kind, Ehrietas longe a me est, crapida auteiii nonnunquam siibrepit servo tuo — Lord, I was never a drunkard, it is far from me ; but gluttony creeps upon me unawares, and so hinders me from the duties of the spiritual life. The throat is a slippery place, and needs to be guarded with much watchfulness and care, lest this distemper be rooted in the heart. Job sacrificed while his sons were feasting : Job i. 5, ' For Job said. It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.' In all these things should we use much caution.