6. They are wanton and sensual, and so must needs be careless of heaven and heavenly things : partly as sensuality brings a brawn and deadness upon the heart, and takes off all sense and feeling and savouriness of spirit: Hosea iv. 11, 'Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart;' that is, infatuate men, and make them of such a base brutish spirit, that they are incapable of sound reasoning, or of entertaining the doctrine of godliness : 1 Tim v. 6, ' She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.' A life of pleasure brings on a strange deadness and infatuation upon the soul, partly as sen- suality engrosseth the time, and causeth us to waste those precious hours in which we should make provision for eternity ; to eat, drink, and be merry, and knit one carnal pleasure to another, and so leaves no room for any serious sober thoughts of God, Christ, and the world to come, and necessity of regeneration and taking the way of holiness : Luke xii. 19, ' I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.' And partly as sensuality doth strengthen our enemy. The greatest enemy we have is the flesh, and the more we please it, the more we set back our salvation. Now when men nourish their heart, and strengthen their corruptions, how can they be overcome by the power of the Lord's grace? James v. 5, 'Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of
VeR. 23.] SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. 33
slaughter.' They add fuel to their lusts, and make corrupt nature more active and stirring than otherwise it would be. Now rich men are very sensual and apt to please the flesh; yea, they can hardly avoid it in the plenty of accommodations they enjoy, as scrij^ture and experi- ence witnesseth. Sodom was a pleasant and fruitful place, and was as the garden of God. What were the sins of that place ? ' Pride, ful- ness of bread, and abundance of idleness,' Ezek. xvi. 49 ; and that fulness did dispumare in libidinem, as Tertullian saith, issue out into monstrous lusts. Alas ! where there is such a glut of worldly things, what hope is there to prevail, and bring men under the power of strict religion and that holiness Christ calls for. Men grow excessive in their pleasure, and they refresh not their labours with some kind of pleasure (for that God hath allowed), but they refresh one pleasure with another, and so set up the flesh in God's stead : ' Their god is their belly,' Phil. iii. 19, and they are 'Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God,' 1 Tim. iii. 4. Men think sensuality no sin in those that are rich. Indeed greedy getting or griping to raise an estate the world will condemn. Oh ! but when a man lives plentifully, and is at heart's ease, without considering whether he nourish a temptation or no, the world takes no notice of that : Ps. xlix. 18, ' While he lived, he blessed his soul ; and men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself ; ' that is, when thou spendest freely upon carnal satisfactions, that is accounted more honourable. Nay, and they themselves do applaud themselves in this course, and think because their estates will bear it, therefore they may indulge their carnal desires. Oh! do not think so. You are to consider things with respect to eternity and the world to come. Plenty will be no excpse. You would be angiy with your cook if he should make your meat too salt because he had store of salt by him ; so may God be angry with you, if you have plenty, such as would refresh the hungry, and supply the needy, and you altogether lay it out upon pomp and pleasure, above what your estates and what your bodies will bear, but chiefly what your souls will bear ; for you should keep up the welfare of your souls, and be ready and free towards Ood. Do you think you were made only for idleness and pleasure, and others must glorify God only by labour and service ? The rich glutton was cast into hell ; here was no oppression, but ' he fared deliciously every day,' and sucked out the sweetness of his wealth, and the indict- ment-that is brought against him is this: Luke xvi. 25, ' Sou, remem- ber that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.' A slavery to pleasures will make the hardship and duties of religion intolerable. You are brought into bondage and under the power of these things, and then you cannot leave them that you may attend upon the good of your souls and upon the things that relate to eternity : 1 Cor. vi. 12, ' All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.'
7. The more rich, the more wedded we are to the world; for cres- centem sequitur cura 2^ecuniam ; usually the more we have, our desires are increased to get more : Eccles. v. 10, ' He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase.' Men when they are low are modest ; food and raiment is enough, and they receive it with great thankfulness ; but if they had a little more