1. The number, many lusts. There is none cometh unkindly to a worldly heart : Titus iii. 3, ' Serving divers lusts and pleasures.' Quot habet Dominos, quiunum habere non vult? — He that forsaketh the Lord, and is given up to his own lusts, hath many masters to please ; some- times riot, sometimes pride, sometimes contempt of God, or oppression of tlie poor. It is the opinion of some that there are several devils, that have as it were their several wards and quarters ; as tlie heathens had several gods, which were indeed devils: Bacchus, the god of riot ■' or good-fellowship ; Venus, a patroness of love and wantonness ; Mars,
192 SERMON UPON I TIMOTHY VI. 9.
of revengeful angry spirits ; Mammon, of wealth. The devils have, as it were, several quarters, some to humour the proud, or entice the wanton, or draw men to drunkenness, as agents in taverns and tippling-houses, others lay liegers about the revengeful. In the same heart sins take the throne by turns. No lust cometh unwelcome to a carnal heart, as the posture of their interests and temptations lieth. Yea, one lust giveth way to another, as some weeds and verraih destroy others, and devils go out by compact. But many evils are incident to the worldly ; their heart is a rank soil, capable of any seed but that which is good, which is soon choked there.
2. Their quality,
[1.] Foolish lusts. Every carnal man is a fool.
(1.) He is so in the judgment of God: Ps. xlix. 13, ' This their way is folly.' And he will be so in the judgment of his own heart when he is serious. In two cases a man is serious: when convinced by the Spirit : 1 Cor. iii. 18, ' Let him become a fool that he may be wise.' The first thing the Spirit of God doth is to show us our folly in forsaking the fountain of living waters. A child of God, that recovereth out of a temptation, is sensible of his folly : Ps. Ixxiii. 22, ' So foolish was I, and ignorant ; ' Titus iii. 3, ' We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, dvoTjToi. When he cometh to die : ' Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee,' Luke xii. 20. Then he finds himself a fool, because everything is provided for but that which should be most pro- vided for, his precious soul : Jer. xvii. 11, 'At his end shall be a fool.' Death bloweth away our vain conceits and fancies, for then our carnal projects leave us in the dirt. How will you value the world when it is parting from you and you parting from it ? When no hope of life, O vain deceitful world t then you cry out, Travr iyevofJLTjv, koI ovSeu a)(f>eiXero. What is all this to me, that am presently to leave all things, and to appear before God ? Job xxvii. 8, ' What is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul ? ' Man in innocency was a wise creature, but then he hearkened to the devil, and so became a fool.
(2.) He is so by plain demonstration in respect of his choice. A wise merchant selleth all for the pearl of price, Mat. xiii.. But these part with heaven for trifles, prefer an apple or a rattle before a jewel. Certainly they that prefer a particular good before a general, a temporal before an eternal, that which is superfluous before that which is neces- sary, they are fools ; but so do all worldly and carnal men, therefore their lusts are foolish lusts ; they that are careless in matters of greatest danger, and make no provision for th^-t world wherein we live longest ; they that dig for iron with mattocks of gold, that forfeit their souls for the world, that disquiet themselves for a vain show, Ps. xxxix. 6, that neglect the substance to hunt after the shadow, that toil themselves for they know not who. All these are points of folly.
[2.] Hurtful lusts. The hurt they do for the present concerneth either the peaceable or gracious frame and estate of our souls.
(1.) Hurtful, as they destroy our peace : ' They pierce through themselves with many sorrows,' ver. 10, and so macerate and waste their strength. Who liveth the noble and comfortable life, above all changes, but the heavenly-minded and mortified man ? But others,
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to what biting cares are they exposed ! How do they rack their spirits, vex their brains, and weary their minds, and waste the body ! Ps. cxxvii. 2, ' It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrow ; ' and so but entangle themselves in a life of misery and labours ; who fret at their own disappointments, are eaten up with envy at the advancement of others, afflicted overmuch with losses and wrongs. There is no end of all their labours. Some have died of it, others been distracted and put out of their wits ; so that you are never like to see good days as long as you cherish the love of the world, but will still lie under self-tormenting care and trouble of mind, by which a man grateth on his own flesh.