The Sinners Sanctuary, Sermon 34
SERMON XXXIV.
Rom. 8.13.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit, &c.
THough the Lord out of his absolute Soveraignty might deal with man in such a way, as nothing should appear but his supream Will and Almighty Power, he might simply command obedience, and without any more perswasions either leave men to the frowardnesse of their own natures, or else powerfully constrain them to their duty; yet he hath chosen that way that is most suitable to his own wisdom, and most connatural to mans nature, To lay out before him the advantages and disadvantages, and to use these as motives and perswasives of his Spirit: for since He hath by his first creation, implanted in mans soul such a principle as moveth it self upon the presentation of good or evil; that this might not be in vain, he administers all the dispensation, of the Law and Gospel in a way suitable to that, by propounding such powerful motives as may incline and perswade the heart of man. It is true, there is a secret drawing, withall necessary, the pull of the Fathers arm, and power of the Holy Ghost; yet that which is visible or sensible to the soul, is the framing of all things so, as to engage it upon rational terms: it is set between two contraries, death and life, death which it naturally abho…reth, and life which it naturally loveth: an even ballance is holden up before the light of the conscience, in which obedience and sin are weighed, and it is found even to the convincing of the spirit of man, that there are as many disadvantages in the one, as advantages in the other.
This was the way that God used fi…st with man in Paradise, you remember the terms …un to, what day thou eats thou shalt die: he hedged him in on the one side by a promis… of life, on the other by a threatning of death: and these two are very rational restraint…, …uited to …he …oul of man, and in the inward principles of it, which are a kind of instinct to that which is app…ehen…ed good or gainfull.
Now, this vers. …uns even so in the form of words, If ye live after the flesh ye shall die: you see thi… method is not changed under the Gospel; for indeed it is natu…al to the spi…it of man, and he hath now much more need of all such pe…swasions, because there is a great change of mans inclination to the wo…st side; all within is so disordered and perverse, that a thousand hedges of perswasive grounds cannot do that which one might have done at fi…st: then they were added out of superabundance, but now out of necessity: then they were set about man to preserve him in his natural …ame and in…linations, but now they are needfull to change and alter them quite, which is a kind of creation; therefore sayeth David, creat in me a new spirit: and therefore the Gospel abounds in va…ie…y of motives and inducement…, in greater variety o… far mo…e power…ul inducements then the Law. He…e is that gr…a… pe…swasi…n t…k…n f…om the infinit gain or l…sse of …e …ul of man, which is any thing be able to prevail, this must do, seing it is seconded wi…h some natural inclination in the soul of man to seek its own gain. Yet there is a di…erence between the nature of such like promises and threatning…, in the fi…st covenant and in the second: In the fi…st covenant, though life was freely promised; …et it was immediatly annexed to per…ect obedience, as a consequent …eward o… it, it was fi…stly p…omised unto compleat …ighteousnesse of mens persons▪ But in the second covenant, firstly and principally li…e ete…nal, grace and glory is promised to Jesus Christ and his …eed, antecedent to any condition or qualification upon their part: and then again, all the promises that run in way of condition, as he that believeth sh…ll not perish, &c. If ye walk after the Spirit ye shall live, these a…e all the consequent fruits of that absolute gracious disposition and resignation of grace and life to them whom Christ hath chosen; and so their believing, and walking, and obeying, cometh in principally as parts of the grace promised, and as witnesses and evidences and confirmations of that life which is already begun, and will not see an end. Besides that, by vertue of these absolute promises made to the seed of Christ, and Christs compleat performance of all conditions in their name, the promises of life are made to faith principally, which hath this peculiar vertue, To cary forth the soul to anothers righteousnesse and sufficiency, and to bottom it upon another; and in the next place, to holy walking, though mixed with many infirmities, which promise in the first covenant was only annexed to perfect and absolute obedience.
You heard in the preceeding vers. a strong inducement taken from the bond debt and duty we owe to the Spirit, to walk after it, and the want of all obligation to the flesh. Now, if honesty and duty will not suffi…e to perswade you, as you know in other things it would do with any honest man, plain equity is a sufficient bond to him; yet consider what the Apostle subjoynes from the dammage and from the advantage which may of it self be the Topickes of perswasion, and serves to drive in the nail of debt and duty to the head, if ye will not take with this debt ye owe to the Spirit, but still conceive there is some greater obligation lying on you, to care for your bodies and satisfie them, then, I say, behold the end of it, what fruit you must one day reap of the flesh and service of sin: If ye live after the flesh ye shall die: but then consider the fruit you …hall reap of the Spirit and holy walking, ye shall live. It is true, the flesh may flatter you more for the present, but the end of it will be bitter as death, ampl…ctitur ut strangulet, the flesh imbraces you that it may strangle you, and so if you knew all well, you would not think you owed it any thing but enmity and hatred and mortification. If your duty will not move you, let the love of your selves and your souls perswade you, for it is an irrepealable statute, The wages of sin is death. Every way you choose to fulfill the lusts of your flesh, and to make provision for it, neglecting the eternal welfare of your souls, certainly it shall prove to you the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it shall be as the forbidden fruit, which in stead of performing that was promised, will bring forth death, the eternal separation of the soul from God. Adam's sin was an Breviary or Epitome of the multiplied and en…arged sins of mankind: you may see in this tragedy all your fortuns (so to speak) you may behold in it the flattering insinuations, and deceitful promises of sin and Satan, who is a liar and murderer from the beginning, and murdered man at first by lying to him: you find the hook covered over with the varnished b…it of an imaginary life and happinesse; satisfaction promised to the eye, to the taste, and to the mind: and upon these inticements man bewitched and withdrawn from his God, after these vain and empty shadows; which when he catched hold upon, he himself was caught and laid hold upon by the wrath of God, by death and all the miseries before it or alter it. Now, here is the Mapp of the World; for all that is in the world is but a larger volume of that same kind, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life: Albeit they have been known and found to be the notablest and grossest deceivers, and every man after he hath spent his dayes in pursuit and labour for them, he is constrained to acknowledge at length, though too late, that all that is in the world is but an imposture, a delusion, a dream and worse; yet eve…y man hearkens after these same flatteries and lies, that hath cast down so many wounded, and made so many strong ones to fall by them: every man trusts the world and his own flesh, as if they were of good report, and of known integrity; and this is mens misery, that no man will learn wisdom upon others expences, upon the wo…ul and tragical example of so many others, but go on as confidently now, after the discoverie of these deceivers, as if this were the first time they had made such promises, and used such fair words to men. Have they not been these six thousand years almost deluding the world? And have we not as many testimonies of their falshood, as there hath been persons in all ages before us? After Adam hath tasted of this tree of pleasure, and found another fruit growing on it, that is, death; should the posterity be so mad as to be medling still with the forbidden tree, and therefore forbidden, because destructive to our selves.
Know then and consider, beloved in the Lord, that you shall reap no other thing of all your labours and endeavours after the flesh, all your toyling and perplexing cares, all your excessive pains in the making provision for your lusts, and caring for the body only, you shall reap no other harvest of all, but death and corruption. Death, you think, that is a common lot, and you cannot eschew it however; nay, but the death here meant is of another sort, in respect of which, you may call death, life: it is the everlasting destruction of the soul from the presence of God, and the glory of his power… it is the falling of that infinit weight of the wrath of the Lamb upon you, in respect of which, mountains and hills will be thought light, and men would rather wish to be covered with them, Rev. 6.16. Suppose now you could swim in a River of delights and pleasures; (which yet is given to none, for truly upon a j…st reckoning, it will be found that the anxiety and grief and bitte…n…sse that is inte…mingled with all earthly delights, …wallows up the sweetnesse of them) yet it will but carry you down ere you be aware, into the Se… o… de…th and destruction, as the fish that swim and sport for a while in Iordan, are carried down into the dead Sea of Sodom, where they a…e presently suffocated and extinguished; or as a Malefactor is carried through a pleasant Palace to the Gallows; so men walk th…ough the delights of their flesh, to their own endlesse torment and destruction.
Seing then, my beloved, that your sins and lusts which you are inclined and accustomed to, will certainly kill you if you inte…tain them; then nature it self would teach you the Law of self-defence, To kill ere you be killed, to kill sin e…e it kill you, to mortifie the deeds and lusts of the body, which abo…nd among you, or they will certainly mortifie you, that is, make you die. Now, if self love could teach you this, which the love of God cannot perswade you to; yet it is well, for being once led unto God, and moved to change your course, upon the fear and apprehension of the infinit danger that will ensue: ce…tainly if you we…e but a little a…quainted with the sweetnesse of this life, and goodnesse of your God, you would find the power of the former a…gumen… à debito, from debt and duty, upon your spirit: let this once lead you in to God, and you will not want that which will constrain you to abide, and never to depart from Him.
If you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live: as sin decayes, you increase and grow, as sins die, your soul… live an… it shall be a sure pledge to you of that eternal life: and though this be painful and laborious, yet consider, that it is but the cutting off of a rotten member, that would corrupt the whole body, and the want of it will never m…im or m…tilat the body; for you shall live per…ectly when sin is perfectly expired and out of life; and according a… sin is nearer expiring, and nearer the grave, your souls are nea… that endlesse life, If this do not move us, what can be said n…xt? What shall he do more to his Vineyard?