The mischiefs of a worldly mind.
Direct.XIII. Think often on the dreadful importance and effects of the love of riches, or a worldly mind.[269]1. It is a most certain sign of a state of death and misery, where it hath the upper hand. It is the departing of the heart from God to creatures. See the malignity of it before. Good men have been overtaken with heinous sins; but it is hard to find where Scripture calleth any of them covetous. A heart secretly cleaving most to this present world and its prosperity, is the very killing sin of every hypocrite, yea, and of all ungodly men. 2. Worldliness makes the word unprofitable; and keepeth men from believing and repenting, and coming home to God, and minding seriously the everlasting world. What so much hindereth the conversion of sinners, as the love and cares of earthly things? They cannot serve God and mammon: their treasure and hearts cannot chiefly be both in heaven and earth! They will not yield to the terms of Christ that love this world: they will not forsake all for a treasure in heaven. In a word, as you heard, the love of money is the root of all evil, and the love of the Father is not in the lovers of the world.[270]3. It destroyeth holy meditation and conference, and turneth the thoughts to worldly things: and it corrupteth prayer, and maketh it but a means to serve the flesh, and therefore maketh it odious to God. 4. It is the great hinderance of men's necessary preparation for death and judgment, and stealeth away their hearts and time till it is too late. 5. It is the great cause of contentions even among the nearest relations; and the cause of the wars and calamities of nations; and of the woeful divisions and persecutions of the church; when a worldly generation think that their worldly interest doth engage them, against self-denying and spiritual principles, practices, and persons. 6. It is the great cause of all the injustice, and oppression, and cruelty that rageth in the world. They would do as they would be done by, were it not for the love of money. It maketh men perfidious and false to all their friends and engagements: no vows to God, nor obligations to men, will hold a lover of the world.[271]The world is his god, and his worldly interest is his rule and law. 7. It is the great destroyer of charity and good works. No more is done for God and the poor, because the love of the world forbids it. 8. It disordereth and profaneth families; and betrayeth the souls of children and servants to the devil. It turneth out prayer, and reading the Scripture, and good books, and all serious speeches of the life to come, because their hearts are taken up with the world, and they have no relish of any thing but the provisions of their flesh. Even the Lord's own day cannot be reserved for holy works, nor a duty performed, but the world is interposing, or diverting the mind. 9. It tempteth men to sin against their knowledge, and to forsake the truth, and fit themselves to the rising side, and save their bodies and estates, whatever become of their souls. It is the very price that the devil gives for souls! With this he bought the soul of Judas, who went to the Pharisees, with a "What will you give me, and I will deliver him to you." With this he attempted Christ himself, Matt. iv. 9, "All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." It is the cause of apostasy and unfaithfulness to God.[272]And it is the price that sinners sell their God, their conscience, and their salvation for. 10. It depriveth the soul of holy communion with God, and comfort from him, and of all foretaste of the life to come, and finally of heaven itself.[273]For as the love of the world keepeth out the love of God and heaven, it must needs keep out the hopes and comforts which should arise from holy love. It would do much to cure the love of money, and of the world, if you knew how pernicious a sin it is.[274]
Direct.XIV. Remember how base a sin it is, and how dishonourable and debasing to the mind of man. If earth be baser than heaven, and money than God, then an earthly mind is baser than a heavenly mind. As the serpent's feeding on the dust is a baser life than that of angels, that are employed in admiring, and obeying, and praising the Most Holy God.
Direct.XV. Call yourselves to a daily reckoning, how you lay out all that God committeth to your trust; and try whether it be so as you would hear of it at judgment. If you did but use to sit in judgment daily upon yourselves, as those that believe the judgment of God, it would make you more careful to use well what you have, than to get more; and it would quench your thirst after plenty and prosperity, when you perceived you must give so strict an account of it. The flesh itself will less desire it, when it finds it may not have the use of it.[275]
Direct.XVI. When you find your covetousness most eager and dangerous, resolve most to cross it, and give more to pious or charitable uses than at another time. For a man hath reason to fly furthest from that sin, which he is most in danger of. And the acts tend to the increase of the habit. Obeying your covetousness doth increase it: and so the contrary acts, and the disobeying and displeasing it, do destroy it. This course will bring your covetousness into a despair of attaining its desire; and so will make it sit down and give over the pursuit. It is an open protesting against every covetous desire; and an effectual kind of repenting; and a wise and honest disarming sin, and turning its motions against itself, to its own destruction. Use it thus oft, and covetousness will think it wisdom to be quiet.
Direct.XVII. Above all take heed that you think not of reconciling God and mammon, and mixing heaven and earth to be your felicity, and of dreaming that you may keep heaven for a reserve at last, when the world hath been loved as your best, so long as you could keep it. Nothing so much defendeth worldliness, as a cheating hope, that you have it but in a subdued, pardoned degree; and that you are not worldlings when you are. And nothing so much supports this hope, as because you confess that heaven only must be your last refuge, and full felicity, and therefore you do something for it on the bye. But is not the world more loved, more sought, more delighted in, and faster held? Hath it not more of your hearts, your delight, desire, and industry? If you cannot let go all for heaven, and forsake all this world for a treasure above, you cannot be Christ's true disciples, Luke xiv. 26, 27, 30, 33.
Direct.XVIII. If ever you would overcome the love of the world, your great care must be to mortify the flesh; for the world is desired but as its provision. A mortified man hath no need of that which is a sensualist's felicity. Quench your hydropical, feverish thirst, and then you will not make such a stir for drink. Cure the disease which enrageth your appetite; and that is the safest and cheapest way of satisfying it. Then you will be thankful to God, when you look on other men's wealth and gallantry, that you need not these things.[276]And you will think what a trouble and burden, and interruption of your better work and comfort it would be to you, to have so much land, and so many servants, and goods, and business, and persons to mind, as rich men have. And how much better you can enjoy God and yourself in a more retired, quiet state of life. But of this more in the next part.
Did men but know how much of an ungodly, damnable state doth consist in the love of the world; and how much it is the enemy of souls; and how much of our religion consisteth in the contempt and conquest of it; and what is the meaning of their renouncing the world in their baptismal covenant; and how many millions the love of the world will damn for ever; they would not make such a stir for nothing, and spend all their days in providing for their perishing flesh; nor think them happiest that are richest; nor "boast themselves of their heart's desire, and bless the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth," Psal. x. 3. They would not think that so small a sin which christians should not so much as "name," but in detestation, Eph. v. 3; when God hath resolved that the "covetous shall not inherit the kingdom of God," 1 Cor. vi. 10; Eph. v. 5; and a christian must not so much as eat with them, 1 Cor. v. 11. Did Christ say in vain, "Take heed and beware of covetousness," Luke xii. 15. "Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil," Hab. ii. 9. Oh what deserving servants hath the world, that will serve it so diligently, so constantly, and at so dear a rate, when they beforehand know, that besides a little transitory, deluding pleasure, it will pay them with nothing but everlasting shame! Oh wonderful deceiving power, of such an empty shadow, or rather wonderful folly of mankind! that when so many ages have been deceived before us, and almost every one at death confesseth it did but deceive them, so many still should be deceived, and take no warning by such a world of examples! I conclude with Heb. xiii. 5, "Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."
I shall be the shorter on this also, because I have spoken so much already in my "Treatise of Self-denial." Before we come to more particular directions, it is needful that we discern the nature and evil of the sin which we speak against. I shall therefore, 1. Tell you what is meant by "flesh" here. And 2. What flesh-pleasing it is that is unlawful, and what sensuality is. 3. Wherein the malignity of this sin consisteth. 4. I shall answer some objections. 5. I shall show you the signs of it. 6. The counterfeits of the contrary. 7. And the false signs, which make some accused wrongfully, by themselves or others.
What is meant by flesh.
I. Because you may find in writings between the protestants and papists, that it is become a controversy, whether by "flesh," in Scripture, (where this sin is mentioned,) be meant the body itself, or the soul so far as it is unregenerate, I shall briefly first resolve this question. When we speak of the unregenerate part, we mean not that the soul hath two parts, whereof one is regenerate, and the other unregenerate: but as the purblind eye hath both light and darkness on the same subject, so is it with the soul which is regenerate but in part, that is, in an imperfect degree: and by the unregenerate part is meant, the whole soul, so far as it is unregenerate. The word "flesh," in its primary signification, is taken for that part of the body, as such, without respect to sin; and next for the whole body, as distinct from the soul. But in respect to sin and duty, it is taken, 1. Sometimes for the sensitive appetite, not as sinful in itself, but as desiring that which God hath obliged reason to deny. 2. More frequently, for this sensitive appetite, as inordinate, and so sinful in its own desires. 3. Most frequently, for both the inordinate sensitive appetite itself, and the rational powers, so far as they are corrupted by it, and sinfully disposed to obey it, or to follow, inordinately, sensual things. But then the name is primarily taken for the sensual appetite itself, (as diseased,)and but by participation for the rational powers. For the understanding of which, you must consider, 1. That the appetite itself might innocently (even in innocency) desire a forbidden object; when it was not the appetite that was forbidden, but the desire of the will, or the actual taking it. That a man in a fever doth thirst for more than he may lawfully drink, is not of itself a sin; but to desire it by practical volition, or to drink it, is a sin; for it is these that God forbids, and not the thirst, which is not in our power to extinguish. That Adam had an appetite to the forbidden fruit was not his sin; but that his will obeyed his appetite, and his mouth did eat. For the appetite and sensitive nature are of God, and are in nature antecedent to the law. God made us men before he gave us laws; and the law commandeth us not to alter ourselves from what he made us, or any thing else which is naturally out of our power. But it is the sin of the will and executive powers, to do that evil which consisteth in obeying an innocent appetite. The appetite is necessary, and not free; and therefore God doth not direct his commands or prohibitions to it directly, but to the reason and free-will. 2. But since man's fall, the appetite itself is corrupted and become inordinate, that is, more impetuous, violent, and unruly than it was in the state of innocency, by the unhappy distempers that have befallen the body itself. For we find now by experience, that a man that useth himself to sweet and wholesome temperance, hath no such impetuous strivings of his appetite against his reason (if he be healthful) as those have that are either diseased, or used to obey their appetites. And if use and health make so great alteration, we have cause to think that the depravation of nature by the fall did more. 3. This inordinate appetite is sin, by participation; so far as the appetite may be said to be free by participation, though not in itself; because it is the appetite of a rational, free agent: for though sin be first in the will in its true form, yet it is not the will only that is the subject of it, (though primarily it be,) but the whole man, so far as his acts are voluntary: for the will hath the command of the other faculties; and they are voluntary acts which the will either commands, or doth not forbid when it can and ought. To lie is a voluntary sin of the man, and the tongue partaketh of the guilt. The will might have kept out that sin, which caused a disorder in the appetite. If a drunkard or a glutton provoke a venereous, inordinate appetite in himself, that lust is his sin, because it is voluntarily provoked. 4. Yet such additions of inordinacy, as men stir up in any appetite, by their own actual sins and customs, are more aggravated and dangerous to the soul, than that measure of distemper which is merely the fruit of original sin. 5. This inordinateness of the sensitive appetite, with the mere privation of rectitude in the mind and will, is enough to cause man's actual sin. For if the horses be headstrong, the mere weakness, sleepiness, negligence, or absence of the coachman is enough to concur to the overthrow of the coach: so if the reason and will had no positive inclinations to evil or sensual objects, yet if they have not so much light and love to higher things as will restrain the sensual appetite, it hath positive inclination enough in itself to forbidden things to ruin the soul by actual sin. 6. Yet, though it be a great controversy among divines, I conceive that in the rational powers themselves, there are positive, habitual, inordinate inclinations to sensual, forbidden things. For as actually it is certain the reason of the proud and covetous do contrive, and oft approve the sin, and the will embrace it; so these are done so constantly in a continued stream of action by the whole man, that it seems apparent that the same faculties which run out in such strong and constant action, are themselves the subjects of much of the inclining, positive habits: and if it be so in additional, acquired sin, it is like it was so in original sin. 7. Though sin be formally subjected first in the will, yet materially it is first in the sensitive appetite (at least this sin of flesh-pleasing or sensuality is). The flesh or sensitive part is the first desirer, though it be sin no further than it is voluntary. 8. All this set together telleth you further, that the word "flesh" signifieth the sensual inclinations of the whole man; but first and principally, the corrupted sensual appetite; and the mind and will's (whether privative or positive) concurrence, but secondarily, and as falling in with sense. The appetite, 1. Preventeth reason. 2. And resisteth reason. 3. And at last corrupteth and enticeth reason and will, to be its servants and purveyors.
And that the name "flesh" doth primarily signify the sensitive appetite itself, is evident in the very notation of the name. Why else should the habits or vices of the rational powers be called "flesh" any more than "spirit," or anything else? If it were only in respect of their object, they should be called "the world" also, because that is their object. It is a certain rule, that That faculty is most predominant in man, whose object is made his chiefest end. Sensitive delights being made the felicity and end of the unsanctified, it followeth that the sensitive faculties are predominant; which being called "flesh," (by a nearer trope,) the mind from it receives the denomination. The Scriptures also show this plainly: I remember not any one place in the Old Testament where there is any probability that the word "flesh" should signify only the rational soul as unrenewed. Matt. xvi. 17, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee;" that is, mortal man hath not revealed it. Matt. xxvi. 41, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak;" that is, your bodies are weak, and resist the willingness of your souls: for sinful habits are not here called weak. John iii. 6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh;" that is, man by natural generation can beget but natural man, called "flesh" from the visible part; and not the spiritual life, which nature is now destitute of. Rom. vii. 25, "With my flesh I serve the law of sin;" that is, with my sensitive powers, and my mind so far is captivated thereto. Rom. viii. 1, 5, flesh and spirit are oft opposed: "They that are of the flesh, mind the things of the flesh," &c.; that is, they in whom the sensitive interest and appetite are predominant: for it is called "the body" here, as well as "the flesh," ver. 10, 11, 13. The mind is here included; but it is as serving the flesh and its interest. Gal. v. 16, 17, 19, flesh and spirit are in the same manner opposed. And 2 Pet. ii. 18, the lusts of the flesh are in this sense mentioned. And Eph. ii. 3; Rom. vii. 18; xiii. 14; 1 Cor. v. 5; 1 Pet. ii. 11; in which there is mention of "fleshly lusts, which fight against the spirit," and "fleshly wisdom, making provision for the flesh," &c. And Col. ii. 18, there is indeed the name of a fleshly mind, which is but a mind deceived and subservient to the flesh; so that the flesh itself, or sensitive interest and appetite, are first signified in all or most places, and in some the mind, as subservient thereto.
It is of the greater consequence that this be rightly understood, lest you be tempted to imitate the libertines, who think the flesh or sensitive part is capable of no moral good or evil, and therefore, all its actions being indifferent, we may be indifferent about them, and look only to the superior powers: and others, that think that the Scripture by "flesh" meaneth onlythe rational soul as unrenewed, do thereupon cherish the flesh itself, and pamper it, and feed its unruly lusts, and never do any thing to tame the body; but pray daily that God would destroy the flesh within them, that is, their sinful habits of reason and will, while they cherish the cause, or neglect a chief part of the cure. And on the contrary, some papists that look only at the body as their enemy, are much in fastings, and bodily exercises, while they neglect the mortifying of their carnal minds.
What flesh-pleasing is a sin.
II. How far flesh-pleasing is a sin, I shall distinctly open to you in these propositions: 1. The pleasing or displeasing of the sensitive appetite in itself considered, is neither sin nor duty, good nor evil; but as commanded or forbidden by some law of God; which is not absolutely done.
2. To please the flesh by things forbidden is undoubtedly a sin, and so it is to displease it too. Therefore this is not all that is here meant, that the matter that pleaseth it must not be things forbidden.
3. To overvalue the pleasing of the flesh is a sin; and to prefer it before the pleasing of God, and the holy preparations for heaven, is the state of carnality and ungodliness, and the common cause of the damnation of souls. The delight of the flesh or senses is a natural good; and the natural desire of it in itself (as is said) is neither vice nor virtue: but when this little natural good is preferred before the greater spiritual, moral, or eternal good, this is the sin of carnal minds, which is threatened with death, Rom. viii. 1, 5-8, 13.
4. To buy the pleasing of the flesh at too dear a rate, as the loss of time, or with care and trouble, above its worth, and to be too much set on making provisions to please it, doth show that it is overvalued, and is the sin forbidden, Rom. xiii. 14.
5. When any desire of the flesh is inordinate, immoderate, or irregular for matter, or manner, quantity, quality, or season, it is a sin to please that inordinate desire.
6. When pleasing the flesh doth too much pamper it, and cherish filthy lusts, or any other sin, and is not necessary on some other account, as doing greater good, it is a sin. But if life require it, lust must be subdued by other means.[277]
7. When pleasing the flesh doth hurt it, by impairing health, and so making the body less fit for duty, it is a sin. And so almost all intemperance tendeth to breed diseases; and God commandeth temperance even for the body's good.
8. When unnecessary flesh-pleasing hindereth any duty of piety, justice, charity, or self-preservation, in thought, affection, word, or deed, it is sinful.
9. If any pleasing of the flesh can be imagined to have no tendency directly or indirectly to any moral good or evil, it is not the object of a moral choosing or refusing; but like the winking of the eye, which falls not under deliberation, it is not within the compass of morality.
10. Every pleasing of the flesh, which is capable of being referred to a higher end, and is not so referred and used, is a sin. And there is scarce any thing, which is eligible, which a vacant, waking man should deliberate on, but should be referred to a higher end; even to the glory of God, and our salvation; by cheering us up to love and thankfulness, and strengthening or fitting us some way for some duty.[278]This is apparently a sin, (1.) Because else flesh-pleasing is made our ultimate end, and the flesh an idol, if ever we desire it only for itself (when it may be referred to a higher end). For though the sensitive appetite of itself hath no intended end, yet whatsoever the will desireth is either as an end, or as a means. That which is not desired as a means to some higher end, is desired as our ultimate end itself (in that act). But God only is man's lawful, ultimate end. (2.) Because it is against an express command, 1 Cor. x. 31, "Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God." (3.) Because else we shall take God's creatures in vain, and cast them away in waste. (4.) And we shall lose our own benefit to which the creature or pleasure should be improved. (5.) And we shall silence reason, when it should direct; and we shall suspend the government of the will, and give the government (so long) to the flesh or brutish appetite: for that faculty ruleth, whose object is our end. These reasons clearly prove it a sin to terminate our desires in any act of flesh-pleasing as our end, and look no higher, when it is a matter of moral choice and deliberation.
11. But the sin here is not simply that the flesh is pleased, but that the duty of referring it to a higher end is omitted: so that it is a sin of omission (unless we proceed to refer better things as a means to it).
12. The intending of God's glory or our spiritual good, cannot be distinctly and sensibly re-acted in every particular pleasure we take, or bit we eat, or thing we use; but a sincere, habitual intention well laid at first in the heart, will serve to the right use of many particular means. As a man purposeth at his first setting out to what place he meaneth to go, and afterward goeth on, though at every step he think not sensibly of his end; so he that devoteth himself unto God, and in general designeth all to his glory, and the furtherance of his duty and salvation, will carry on small particulars to that end, by a secret, unobserved action of the soul, performed at the same time with other actions, which only are observed. He that intendeth but his health in eating and drinking, is not remembering his health at every bit and cup; and yet hath such a habit of care and caution, as will unobservedly keep him in his way, and help him to fit the means unto the end. As the accustomed hand of a musician can play a lesson on his lute, while he thinks of something else; so can a resolved christian faithfully do such accustomed things as eating, and drinking, and clothing him, and labouring in his calling, to the good ends which he (first actually, and still habitually) resolved on, without a distinct remembrance and observable intention of that end.
13. The body must be kept in that condition (as far as we can) that is fittest for the service of thesoul: as you keep your horse, neither so pampered as to be unruly, nor yet so low as to disable him for travel; but all that health and strength which makes it not unruly, maketh it the more serviceable. It is not the life of the body, but the health and the cheerfulness, which maketh it fit for duty. And so much pleasing of the flesh as tendeth but to its health and cheerfulness, is a duty, where it can be done without greater hurt the other way. A heavy body is but a dull and heavy servant to the mind; yea, a great impediment to the soul in duty, and a great temptation to many sins; as sickly and melancholy persons, and many dull and phlegmatic people, know by sad experience. It is as great a duty to help the body to its due alacrity and fitness for service, as it is to tame it, and bring it under by fasting and sackcloth, when it is proud or lustful.[279]And they that think fasting on certain days, in a formal manner, is acceptable to God, when the state of the body is not helped, but rather hurt and hindered by it, as if it were a thing required for itself, do mistakingly offer a sacrifice to God, which he requireth not; and take him to be an enemy to man, that desireth his pain and grief, when it tendeth not to his good. A mower that hath a good scythe will do more in a day, than another that hath a bad one can do in two: every workman knoweth the benefit of having his tools in order; and every traveller knows the difference between a cheerful and a tired horse; and they that have tried health and sickness, know what a help it is in every work of God, to have a healthful body, and cheerful spirits, and an alacrity and promptitude to obey the mind. When the sights of prospects, and beauteous buildings, and fields, and countries, or the use of walks, or gardens, do tend to raise the soul to holy contemplation, to admire the Creator, and to think of the glory of the life to come (as Bernard used his pleasant walks); this delight is lawful, if not a duty, where it may be had. So when music doth cheer the mind, and fit it for thanks and praise to God: and when the rest of the body, and the use of your best apparel, and moderate feasting, on the Lord's day, and other days of thanksgiving, do promote the spiritual service of the day, they are good and profitable; but to those that are more hindered by fulness, even abstinence on such days is best. So that the use of the body must be judged of as it is a means or an expression of the good or evil of the mind.
14. Sometimes the present time must be most regarded herein, and sometimes the future. For when some great sin, or judgment, or other reason calls us to a fast, when it becomes needful to the ends of that present day, we must do it, though the body were so weak that it would be somewhat the worse afterward; so be it that the good which we may expect by it that day, be greater than the good which it is like to deprive us of afterward: otherwise the after-loss, if greater, is more to be avoided.
15. Many things do remotely fit us for our main end, which, nearly and directly, seem to have no tendency to it; as those that are only to furnish us with natural strength, and vigour, and alacrity, or to prevent impediments. As a traveller's hood and cloak, and other carriage, seem rather to be hinderances to his speed; but yet are necessary for preventing the cold and wet, which else might hinder him more. Yea, a possible, uncertain danger or impediment, if great, may be prevented with a certain small impediment. So it is meet that our bodies be kept in that health and alacrity, which is ordinarily necessary to our duty; and in eating and drinking, and lawful recreations, it is not only the next or present duty, which we prepare for, but for the duty which may be very distant.
16. Ordinarily it is safest to be more fearful of excess of fleshly pleasure, than of defect. For ordinarily we are all very prone to an excess, and also the excess is usually more dangerous. When excess is the damnation of all, or most that ever perish, and defect is but the trouble and hinderance, but never, or rarely, the damnation of any, it is easy then to see on which side we should be most fearful, cautelous, and vigilant.
17. Yet excessive scrupulousness may be a greater sin, and a greater hinderance in the work of God, than some small excesses of flesh-pleasing, which are committed through ignorance or inadvertency. When an honest heart which preferreth God before the flesh, and is willing to please him though it displease the flesh, shall yet mistake in some small particulars, or commit some daily errors of infirmity or heedlessness, it is a far less hinderance to the main work of religion, than if that man should daily perplex his mind with scruples about every bit he eats, whether it be not too pleasing or too much; and about every word he speaks, and every step he goes, as many poor, tempted, melancholy persons do; thereby disabling themselves, not only to love, and praise, and thankfulness, but even all considerable service.
In sum, All pleasing of the senses or flesh, which is lawful, must have these qualifications: 1. God's glory must be the ultimate end. 2. The matter must be lawful, and not forbidden. 3. Therefore it must not be to the hinderance of duty. 4. Nor to the drawing of us to sin. 5. Nor to the hurt of our health. 6. Nor too highly valued, nor too dearly bought. 7. The measure must be moderate. Where any of these are wanting, it is sin: and where flesh-pleasing is habitually in the bent of heart and life preferred before the pleasing of God, it proves the soul in captivity to the flesh, and in a damnable condition.
The greatness of the sin.
III. I am next to show you the evil or malignity of predominant flesh-pleasing: for if the greatness of the sin were known, it would contribute much to the cure. And, 1. Understand that it is the sin of sins; the end of all sin, and therefore the very sum and life of all. All the evil wicked men commit, is ultimately to please the flesh: the love of flesh-pleasing is the cause of all. Pride, and covetousness, and whoredom, and wantonness, and gluttony, and drunkenness, and all the rest, are but either the immediate works of sensuality and flesh-pleasing, or the distant service of it, by laying in provision for it. And all the malicious enmity and opposition to God and godliness is from hence, because they cross the interest and desires of the flesh: the final cause is it for which men invent and use all the means that tend to it. Therefore all other sin being nothing but the means for the pleasing of our fleshly appetites and fancies, it is evident that flesh-pleasing is the common cause of them all; and is to all other sin as the spring is to the watch, or the poise to the clock; the weight which giveth them all their motion. Cure this sin and you have taken off the poise, and cured all the positive sins of the soul: though the privative sins would be still uncured, ifthere were no more done; because that which makes the clock stand still, is not enough to make it go right. But, indeed, nothing but the love of pleasing God, can truly cure the love of flesh-pleasing: and such a cure is the cure of every sin, both positive and privative, active and defective.
2. Flesh-pleasing is the grand idolatry of the world; and the flesh the greatest idol that ever was set up against God. Therefore Paul saith of sensual worldlings, that "their belly is their god," and thence it is that they "mind earthly things," and "glory in their shame, and are enemies to the cross of Christ," that is, to sufferings for Christ, and the doctrine and duties which would cause their sufferings. That is a man's god which he taketh for his chief good, and loveth best, and trusteth in most, and is most desirous to please: and this is the flesh to every sensualist. He "loveth pleasure more than God," 2 Tim. iii. 2, 4. He "savoureth" or "mindeth" the "things of the flesh," and "liveth" to it, and "walketh after it," Rom. viii. 1, 5-8, 13. He "maketh provision for it to satisfy its appetite or lusts," Rom. xiii. 14. He "soweth to the flesh," Gal. vi. 8; and fulfilleth his lust, when it "lusteth against the Spirit," Gal. v. 16, 17. And thus, while concupiscence or sensuality hath dominion, sin is said to have dominion over them, and they are servants to it, Rom. vi. 14, 20. For "to whom men yield themselves servants to obey, his servants they are whom they serve or obey," Rom. vi. 16. It is not bowing the knee and praying to another, that is the chief idolatry. As loving, and pleasing, and obeying, and trusting, and seeking, and delighting in him, are the chiefest parts of the service of God, which he preferreth before a thousand sacrifices or compliments; so loving the flesh, and pleasing it, and obeying it, and trusting in it, and seeking and delighting in its pleasures, are the chief service of the flesh; and more than if you offered sacrifice to it, and therefore is the grand idolatry. And so the flesh is the chief enemy of God, which hath the chiefest love and service which are due to him, and robs him of the hearts of all mankind that are carnal and unsanctified. All the Baals, and Jupiters, and Apollos, and other idols of the world set together, have not so much of the love and service due to God, as the flesh alone hath. If other things be idolized by the sensualist, it is but as they subserve his flesh, and therefore they are made but inferior idols. He may idolize his wealth, and idolize men in power and worldly greatness; but it is but as they can help or hurt his flesh: this hath his heart. By the interest of the flesh, he judgeth of his condition; by this he judgeth of his friends; by this he chooseth his actions or refuseth them; and by this he measureth the words and actions of all others. He takes all for good which pleaseth his flesh, and all for bad that is against his pleasure.
3. The flesh is not only the common idol, but the most devouring idol in all the world. It hath not, as subservient, flattered idols have, only a knee and compliment, or now and then a sacrifice or ceremony, but it hath the heart, the tongue, the body to serve it; the whole estate, the service of friends, the use of wit and utmost diligence; in a word, it hath all. It is loved and served by the sensualist, as God should be loved and served by his own, even "with all the heart, and soul, and might:" they "honour it with their substance, and the firstfruits of their increase." It is as faithfully served as Christ requireth to be of his disciples: men will part with father, and mother, and brother, and sister, and nearest friends, and all that is against it, for the pleasing of their flesh. Nay, Christ required men to part with no greater matter for him than transitory, earthly things, which they must shortly part with whether they will or no; but they do for the flesh ten thousand thousandfold more than ever they were required to do for Christ. They forsake God for it. They forsake Christ, and heaven, and their salvation for it. They forsake all the solid comforts of this life, and all the joys of the life to come for it. They sell all that they have, and lay down the price at its feet; yea, more than all they have, even all their hopes of what they might have to all eternity. They suffer a martyrdom in the flames of hell for ever, for their flesh. All the pains they take is for it. All the wrong they do to others, and all the stirs and ruins they make in the world, is for it. And all the time they spend is for it: and had they a thousand years more to live, they would spend it accordingly. If any thing seem excepted for God, it is but the bones, or crumbs, or leavings of the flesh; or rather, it is nothing: for God hath not indeed the hours which he seems to have; he hath but a few fair words and compliments, when the flesh hath their hearts in the midst of their hypocritical worship, and on his holy day; and they serve him but as the Indians serve the devil, that he may serve their turns, and do them no hurt.
4. How base an idol is the flesh! If all the derision used by Elijah and the prophets against the heathenish idolatry be due, is not as much due against the idolatry of all the sensual? Is it so great a madness to serve an idol of silver, or gold, or stone, or wood? what better is it to serve an idol of flesh and blood; a paunch of guts; that is full of filth and excrements within, and the skin itself, the cleanest part, is ashamed to be uncovered? We may say to the carnal worldling, as Elijah to the Baalists, and more; "Call upon your God in the hour of your distress: cry aloud; perhaps he is asleep, or he is blowing his nose, or vomiting, or purging: certainly he will be shortly rotting in the grave, more loathsome than the dirt or dung upon the earth." And is this a god to sacrifice all that we can get to? and to give all our time, and care, and labour, and our souls and all to? O judge of this idolatry, as God will make you judge at last!
5. And here next consider how impious and horrid an abasement it is of the eternal God, to prefer so vile a thing before him! And whether every ungodly, sensual man, be not a constant, practical blasphemer? What dost thou but say continually by thy practice, This dunghill, nasty flesh, is to be preferred before God; to be more loved, and obeyed, and served? It deserveth more of my time than he: it is more worthy of my delight and love. God will be judge, (and judge in righteousness ere long,) whether this be not the daily language of thy life, though thy tongue be taught some better manners. And whether this be blasphemy, judge thyself. Whether thou judge God or the flesh more worthy to be pleased, and which thou thinkest it better to please, ask thy own heart, when cards, and dice, and eating, and drinking, and gallantry, and idleness, and greatness, and abundance, do all seem so sweet unto thee, in comparison of thy thoughts of God, and his holy word and service! and when morning and night, and whenever thou art alone, those thoughts can run out with unweariedness or pleasure, upon these provisions for thy flesh, which thou canst hardly force to look up unto God, a quarter of an hour, though with unwillingness.
6. Think also what a contempt of heaven it is, to prefer the pleasing of the flesh before it. There are but two ends which all men aim at; the pleasing of the flesh on earth, or the enjoying of God in heaven(unless any be deluded to think that he shall have a sensual life hereafter too, as well as here). And these two stand one against the other. And he that sets up one, doth renounce (or as good as renounce) the other. "If ye sow to the flesh, of the flesh ye shall reap corruption; but if ye sow to the Spirit, of the Spirit ye shall reap everlasting life," Gal. vi. 8. Your wealth, and honour, and sports, and pleasures, and appetites are put in the scales against heaven, and all the joys and hopes hereafter; (to say you hope to have them both, is the cheat of infidelity, that believes not God; and is not heaven most basely esteemed of by those that prefer so base a thing before it?
7. Remember that flesh-pleasing is a great contempt and treachery against the soul. It is a great contempt of an immortal soul, to prefer its corruptible flesh before it, and to make its servant to become its master, and to ride on horseback, while it goes, as it were, on foot. Is the flesh worthy of so much time, and cost, and care, and so much ado as is made for it in the world, and is not a never-dying soul worth more? Nay, it is a betraying of the soul: you set up its enemy before it; and put its safety into an enemy's hands; and you cast away all its joys and hopes for the gratifying of the flesh. Might it not complain of your cruelty, and say, Must my endless happiness be sold to purchase so short a pleasure for your flesh? Must I be undone for ever, and lie in hell, that it may be satisfied for a little time? But why talk I of the soul's complaint? Alas! it is itself that it must complain of! for it is its own doing! It hath its choice: the flesh can but tempt it, and not constrain it: God hath put the chief power and government into its hands; if it will sell its own eternal hopes, to pamper worm's meat, it must speed accordingly. You would not think very honourably of that man's wit or honesty, who would sell the patrimony of all his children, and all his friends that trusted him therewith, and after sell their persons into slavery, and all this to purchase him a delicious feast, with sports and gallantry for a day! And is he wiser or better that selleth (in effect) the inheritance of his soul, and betrayeth it to hell and devils for ever, and all this to purchase the fleshly pleasure of so short a life?
8. Remember what a beastly life it is to be a sensualist. It is an unmanning of yourselves. Sensual pleasures are brutish pleasures; beasts have them as well as men. We have the higher faculty of reason, to subdue and rule the beastly part. And reason is the man; and hath a higher kind of felicity to delight in. Do you think that man is made for no higher matters than a beast? and that you have not a more noble object for your delight than your swine or dog hath, who have the pleasure of meat, and lust, and play, and ease, and fancy, as well as you? Certainly where sensual pleasures are preferred before the higher pleasures of the soul, that man becomes a beast, or worse, subjecting his reason to his brutish part.
9. Think what an inconsiderable, pitiful felicity it is that fleshly persons choose; how small and short, as well as sordid. Oh how quickly will the game be ended! and the delights of boiling lust be gone! How quickly will the drink be past their throats, and their delicate dishes be turned into filth! How short is the sport and laughter of the fool! And how quickly will that face be the index of a pained body, or a grieved, self-tormenting mind! It is but a few days till all their stately greatness will be levelled; and the most adorned, pampered flesh will have no more to show of all the pleasure which was so dearly bought, than a Lazarus, or the most mortified saint. A few days will turn their pleasure into anguish, and their jollity into groans, and their ostentation into lamentation, and all their glory into shame. As every moment puts an end to all the pleasures of their lives that are past, and they are now to them as if they had never been; so the last moment is at hand, which will end the little that remains. And then the sinner will with groans confess, that he hath made a miserable choice, and that he might have had a more durable pleasure if he had been wise. When the skull is cast up with the spade, to make room for a successor, you may see the hole where all the meat and drink went in, and the hideous seat of that face, which sometime was the discovery of wantonness, pride, and scorn; but you will see no signs of mirth or pleasure.
10. Lastly, consider that there is scarce a sin in the world more unexcusable than this. The flesh-pleaser seeth the end of all his sensual delights, in the faces of the sick, and in the corpses that are daily carried to the earth, and in the graves, and bones, and dust of those that sometime had as merry a life as he. His reason can say, All this is gone with them, and is as if it had never been; and so it will shortly be with me. He knoweth that all the pleasure of his life past is now of no value to himself. His warnings are constant, close, and sensible; and therefore he hath the greater sin.
The plea of flesh-pleasers.
IV.Object.I. What hurt is it to God, or any one else, that I please my flesh? I will not believe that a thing so harmless will displease him.Answ.Merely as it is pleasure, it hath no hurt in it: but as it is inordinate or immoderate pleasure; or as it is over-loved, and preferred before God and your salvation; or as it is greater than your delight in God; or as it wants its proper end, and is loved merely for itself, and not used as a means to higher things; and as it is made a hinderance to the soul, and to spiritual pleasure, and the service of God; and as it is the brutish delight of an ungoverned, rebellious appetite, that mastereth reason, and is not under obedience to God. Though sin can do God no hurt, it can do you hurt, and it can do him wrong. I think I have showed you what hurt and poison is in it already. It is the very rebellion of corrupted nature; the turning of all things upside down; the taking down God, and heaven, and reason, and destroying the use of all the creatures, and setting up flesh-pleasing instead of all, and making a brute your god and governor. And do you ask what harm there is in this? So will your child do, when he desireth any play, or pleasure; and the sick, when they desire to please their appetite. But your father, and physician, and reason, and not brutish appetite, must be judge.
Object.II. But I feel it is natural to me, and therefore can be no sin.Answ.1. The inordinate, violent, unruly appetite is no otherwise natural to you, than as a leprosy is to a leprous generation. And will you love your disease, because it is natural? It is no otherwise natural, than it is to be malicious, and revengeful, and to disobey your governors, and abuse your neighbours; and yet I think they will not judge you innocent, for rebellion or abuse, because it is natural to you. 2. Though the appetite be natural, is not reason to rule it as natural to you? And is not the subjection of the appetite to reason natural? If it be not, you have lost the nature of man, and are metamorphosed into the nature of a beast. God gave you a higher nature to govern your appetite and lower nature: and though reason cannot take away your appetite, it can rule it, andkeep you from fulfilling it, in any thing or measure that is unmeet.
Object.III. But it appeareth by the case of Eve, that the appetite was the same in innocency; therefore it is no sin.Answ.You must not forget the difference between, 1. The appetite itself. 2. The violence and unruly disposition of the appetite. 3. And the actual obeying and pleasing of the appetite. The first (the appetite itself) was in innocency, and is yet no sin. But the other two (the violence of it, and the obeying it) were not in innocency, and are both sinful.
Object.IV. But why would God give innocent man an appetite that must be crossed by reason? and that desired that which reason must forbid?Answ.The sensitive nature is in order of generation before the rational: and reason and God's laws do not make sense to be no sense. You may as well ask, why God would make beasts, which must be restrained and ruled by men; and therefore have a desire to that which man must restrain them from? You do but ask, Why God made us men and not angels? Why he placed our souls in flesh? He oweth you no account of his creation. But you may see it is meet that obedience should have some trial by difficulties and opposition, before it have its commendation and reward. He gave you a body that was subject to the soul, as the horse unto the rider; and you should admire his wisdom, and thank him for the governing power of reason; and not murmur at him, because the horse will not go as well without the guidance of the rider, or because he maketh you not able to go as fast and as well on foot. So much for the sensualist's objections.