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do you believe that there is a God of recompenses, and that there will be a day of account, that you dare loiter thus, and waste away your time that should be spent in God's service ?
Secondly, Consider the baseness and the danger of pleasures, in four considerations —
1. The baser a man is the more he affects carnal delights and is addicted this way : Eccles. vii. 4, ' The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth/ That which wise men prefer certainly is better than that which fools make choice of. Now this is the choice of fools. Wise men know there is more to be gained by grave exercises and by spectacles of sorrow than in the places of carnal rejoicing ; they know there is nothing to be seen or heard there but snares or baits ; little wisdom to be gained, and little improvement of grace and reason to be made,
2. All carnal pleasures are mixed with grief, and leave a sting and bitterness in the issue. You never came away from your sports with such a merry heart as you do from the throne of grace. If men would but consider their experiences after duty and after recreation ; there is a calm and serenity in the conscience after the saddest duties when they are ended. Who ever repented of his repentance ? They yield some cheering and reviving to the soul. As it is said of Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 18, that she 'went away, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.' Prayer gives ease, as the opening of a vein in a fever. If all come not away alike cheerful from the throne of grace, and this be not a general rule, yet it is no addition to their grief that they have been with God ; rather it is some lessening of their trouble. As the pouring out of a complaint into a friend's bosom, though it do not help, it is some ease to the mind ; so though God do not come in with a high tide of comfort to the soul, yet it is some ease we have been with God, and presented the case to his pity ; there is some spiritual mirth and delight kindled, at least some lessening of grief. But now, not to speak of wicked men, when they come from their pleasures, even the children of God, to whom all things are pure, yet because of the ten- derness of their hearts there is always some remorse after their plea- sures ; and therefore Solomon propounds it as a general rule, Prov. xiv. 13, ' Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' It is an allusion to outward laughter, which causeth pain by the too much dilation of the spirits and straining the body, which is a figure of that remorse which accompanies all worldly joy. All worldly joy begets a sudden damp upon the spirit in the departure. God will still remember us, that we are in our pilgrimage, and com- plete joy is not to be had here ; that every rose in the world grows with a thorn, would teach us to look after more solid comforts.
3. Pleasures, if they be not watched, will soon make us unfit for communion with God and for any solemn duty : Eccles. ii. 2, ' I have said of laughter. It is mad, and of mirth, What doth it ? ' Solomon in the former verse was resolved to make an experiment, and to let loose his heart to carnal pleasures, that he might see what would come of it ; to loosen the reins, and turn his heart loose to carnal pleasures ; and what was the issue ? ' Oh ! it is mad ! ' It soon transjiorts the mind, and puts reason out of frame ; it makes a wise man to be like a
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madman ; as madmen in tlieir freaks of mirth have little use of rea- SOD. And of laughter it is said, ' What doth it ? ' that is, whither hast thou carried me ? whither art thou now going and carrying my soul ? Satan hath a greater advantage upon you in your sports than in your business ; therefore to affect them is but inlaying with the baits, and as the bird sings in the fowler's snare, so do we in the midst of temptation. If christians would but consult with their experience, how often have we smarted when we fall into it. A poor beast fallen into a hole will not fall into the same hole again. Though we see the inconveniency of it, yet our hearts are addicted.
4. It is a sign men have not received the power of grace when they are immoderately addicted to pleasures. It is a description of the carnal state : Titus iii. 3, ' We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures.' So much grace as you have, so much victory and command over yourselves ; and therefore, when men are wholly led by sense, they are at a great distance from the life of grace. Therefore, as we would not be accounted carnal, we should be more sober in this kind. We may use pleasures, but should not serve pleasures ; but rejoice as if we rejoiced not. If we use a thing, it is for some other end ; we enjoy the end, and use the means. You may use pleasure to quicken the mind and revive the body, that it may be quick in the service of God, and not unfit the heart for duties of religion.