VOL. XVII. E
66 SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17- 27. [SeR. XIIL
comes bis afFections to be like tinder, to take fire at the spark of every temptation ; the affections are awakened and stirred presently ; but in holy things they are like fire in wet wood, that needs much blowing and much excitation. Hence it is that in the course of our lives we take up with the interests of the present world, and make no provision for a better life ; we are ' lovers of pleasure more than lovers of Grod,' 2 Tim. iii. 4, and forsake God for the present world : 1 Tim. iv. 10, * Demas hath forsaken us, having loved the present world.' Well, then, by a natural constitution we are utterly at a loss, the soul being desti- tute of a principle that should carry it to look after spiritual things as its great scope and interest ; it wholly purveys and caters for bodily pleasures, and the honours and profits of the present life. Here lieth the great difficulty in the way of salvation.
2. This addictedness to present things is increased by our converse in the world ; so that besides natural inclination there is inveterate custom, whereby this inclination to carnal satisfactions, such as riches, pleasures, ease, safety, and sensual delights, is strengthened and deeply engraved in us. The first years of a man's life are merely governed by sense, and the pleasures of the flesh are born and bred up with us, by which means we come to be stiff, and settled in a carnal frame. Custom is another nature, and therefore the more we are accustomed to delight in any course of life, we are weaned from it with the greater difficulty : Jer. xiii. 23, * Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.' Every act disposeth the soul to the habit, and after the habit or custom is produced, every new deliberate act adds a stiffness of bent, or sway unto the faculty, wherein the custom is seated ; so that by degrees we grow into an obstinacy and strength of will in a carnal course, which is called ' hardness of heart,' or ' a heart of stone,' in scripture. A man is ensnared by his customs, whatever they be ; for an addicted- ness in the general to carnal satisfactions brings a slavery upon us. So if men be addicted to this or that carnal satisfaction, it brings slavery upon them ; as a man that is given to wine : Titus ii. 3, ' Not given to much wine.' The word in the original is SeSov\a)/jievo<i, ensnared by wine ; or a man that is given to women : 2 Peter ii. 14, ' Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin.' Men by the tyranny of custom become so impotent to resist their lusts, that the satisfaction thereof becomes their very element, out of which they cannot live ; it is their Eden and their heaven, their very paradise, though at length indeed they find it to be their hell. And of all evil customs, covetous- ness or worldliness is most dangerous, because it is of more credit and of less infamy in the world ; and besides, it doth multiply its acts most, and works incessantly ; and therefore we read of ' hearts exercised with covet- ous practices,' 2 Peter ii. 14. Their hearts are always running on the unworthy things of this present world. Now, while worldly men's hearts are so deeply dyed with such desires as carrieth them out to such things, they are hardly saved. Well, then, here is another reason of the diffi- culty that our lusts are born and bred with us from our infancy, and can plead prescription, and religion cometh afterwards, and findeth us biassed and prepossessed with other inclinations, which by reason of long use cannot easily be broken and shaken off.
VeR. 26.] SEEMOXS UPON MARK X. 17-27. 67
3. Let us now consider the great efficacy and power which this incli- nation to temporal things hath upon us, and then you will see it is very difficult for us to enter into heaven.
[1.] This inclination and addictedness to present things weakens our sense of the world to come, and then our reward hath no influence upon us to move us and encourage us to serve God. "Whilst the world bears bulk in our eye, heavenly things are of small or of no value with us. Satan blinds us as ' the god of this world,' 2 Cor. iv. 4 ; that is, by the love of the world. Christ cured the blind man by anointing his eyes with clay, but the devil puts out the eyes of our souls with this thick clay, for gold is so called : Hab. ii. 6, ' That ladeth himself with thick clay.' He blinds us so as we cannot have a true sight and persuasion of the truth and worth of things to come. We cannot look afar off into the other world : 2 Peter i. 9, ' He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off.' Mountains seem molehills only at so great a distance ; heaven is as a matter of nothing in comparison of present things ; as in a prospective glass, look at one end of it, it greatens the object, at the other end it lessens the object. Thus when we look upon things to come through the glass of our own passions and carnal affec- tions, they are nothing, they have no force nor power to move us. Saith Austin, Men do not look after heavenly things ; Quia in terrena proi'i dorsum eorum semper incurvum est, their backs and necks are bowed down, that they cannot look upward and have any true sight of heavenly things ; the world and the profits of it are real and substantial, but heavenly things are shadows, dreams, matters of conceit and mere imagination. And therefore, since this addictedness to temporal things hath such force upon us, to hinder the sight of the world to come, it must needs be difficult to us to be saved.