-- CHAPTER V: An inquiry into the grounds and causes of this heinous inordinacy in our lusts
and therefore stolen bread and waters are sweeter than others, Prov.
9:17, because we gain it in opposition to the command.
Fifthly, The last aggravation of the inordinacy of our lusts is unsatisfiedness, which I make a further degree than greediness. For the lions and eagles, though greedy after their prey, Job 9:25, 1 Peter
5:8, 9, where the devil is compared to a roaring lion drinking up all at a draught, yet they are soon satisfied, and lay not up what they leave,
Mat 6:26. But we, as we are strong of appetite, which notes our greediness, so we can never have enough, know not to be satisfied:
Isa. 56:11, 12, 'Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain from his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.'
That whereas the desires of grace are content with little, 1 Tim. 6:8, with meat and clothes, with but convenient food, or a stinted portion, as the word signifies, Prov. 30:8, so it is in the margin, an allowance such as soldiers have, or birds by them that feed them, and they crave no more, Mat. 6:26; the birds lay not up, only we enlarge our desires, as hell that cannot be satisfied, Hab. 2:5. The ambitious man heaps up in vast fancies and desires, all nations; and at ver. 6, the covetous man loads himself with thick clay, takes not only what he needs, but loads himself.
CHAPTER V:
An inquiry into the grounds and causes of this heinous inordinacy in our lusts Having thus largely shewn wherein the inordinacy or irrectitude of man's lusts does lie, both for parts and aggravations, now it remains that, as in the rest I have done, I should shew what are the true adequate grounds of all these several parts and degrees of their
inordinacy or sinfulness specified, which I will manifest to you in their several order, by a few propositions linked together, as links in a chain, that so you may see how one thing follows upon another.
Prop. 1. That all men have sinned, and are in their own consciences guilty of a wrong done unto God, and thereby obnoxious to his wrath and judgment. This now all the world yields to, and I have before proved it from Rom. 3:19, every mouth is stopped at it, and becomes subject to judgment, as the word is; and this all consciences apprehend, and look at God as an enemy, till reconciliation is apprehended by Christ; if they know but God, they must needs do so, and then they can never make him their chiefest good, for what they make their chiefest good they must delight in above all. Now him whom they apprehend as an enemy, and are guilty of an injury done to him, they can never truly delight in; so as the guilt of sin will, if there was no more, take them off from God as their chiefest good, and if so, then also as their chiefest end; for finis et bonum, the end and the good, can never be severed. And besides, if they apprehend
God an enemy, whilst they do so, they cannot make him their utmost end, for none can make one that loves him not, the utmost end of all his actions. This is enough, if no more, to prove it; but we will add,
Prop. 2. As by the guilt of sin, man's nature is deprived of ability to make God the chiefest good; so also of holiness, to make him the chiefest end. Rom. 3:23, 'All have sinned, and so are fallen short of the glory of God;' ὑστερουνται, they come lag, reach not so high, as men that come short of a goal for want of strength. Of the glory of God, either fall short of seeking or attaining glory or happiness in him as the chiefest good, or desiring to bring glory to him as their chiefest end. Now, nihil agit ultra suam sphœram, nothing acts beyond the sphere of its activity. Therefore being deprived of that power, they fall short, yea, even their judgments want a power to discern and know him aright to be the chiefest good; as 1 Cor. 2:14, they cannot know the things of God, they think them foolishness, they have thoughts that fall short in the judging of their chief good, and then, suppose no other defect, yet their inclinations cannot be
carried unto him; for ignoti nulla cupido, there is no desire of what is unknown. Eph. 4:18, 'Being estranged from God through ignorance.'
Or if they could truly discern him to be the chiefest good, yet the guilt and consciousness which they have of his being an enemy, hinders him from being so to them, or yet they want a suitable principle; but last of all they want a power to judge him so.
Prop. 3. Though the soul is thus deprived of the glory of God, and so of ability to make God its chiefest good and utmost end; yet (as you may remember I told you before) the soul is an active thing, and so remains still for all this. It is as full of quicksilver as ever, for still it desires happiness and good: Ps. 4:6, 'Who will shew us any good?'
Omnia bonum appetunt, says the philosopher. It is as full of active inclinations as the sea is of waves which cannot rest, as you have the comparison in Isa. 57:20, but must roll to some shore or other. And this now discovers the ground why it is carried on to other things as its chiefest good, so continually and so incessantly; for seeing these inclinations cannot find delight in God, it must needs go seek satisfaction somewhere else. So in the fore-alleged place, Eph. 4:8,
'Being estranged from the life of God through ignorance,' so as not to see this eternal good in him, what follows from it? They give themselves over to sin with greediness; every man would have his belly full, and of pleasure they must have a πλεονεξια. And estranged from God they are, and therefore they cannot have it in him; and so they go out to any unclean practice that will afford it, and therefore also ignorance is made the ground of lusts: 1 Peter 1:14, 'As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance.' The reason they lusted after vain things so was their ignorance of God, and inability to make him their delight; as children that make counters and rattles their chiefest delight, being ignorant of better things; and the soul too must have something to play with as well as they.
Prop. 4. As the soul, being deprived of ability to make God its chiefest good, still retains inclinations to some other by reason of its activeness and the inclinations that are in it, so also being deprived
of ability to make God its chiefest end, the soul must still have some general end in the guiding of all these its inclinations, because it still remains a reasonable creature, which worketh always to and for an end. Now, what other can that prove to be but self-love, seeing it was the next subordinate end to God in man by nature, and is not extinguished by sin and the deprivation of grace; but, on the contrary, when that former end, who is God, is took away and put down from its sovereignty, this must of necessity succeed, inherit, and possess all its rights, privileges, and prerogatives; even as in a kingdom, when the first heir or elder is removed, the next brother or so succeedeth, who before was but a subject, though the next and first, unto the king. And therefore all that a man doth or can do now, the utmost end which guideth all, and to which all was directed before, when he was in his upright state, must needs be for the sake of self-love or pleasure, which is all one.
Prop. 5. Self-love having got into our hearts, into that throne, and seat, and regality that God's glory once there had, which is now deposed; and so having the same absolute prerogative, and enjoying all the privileges that were annexed to God's crown and sovereignty over man's soul; it also comes to exercise the same jurisdiction in us which God's glory once likewise did and should, as being now the lord-paramount end of all the rest, and so plays all these sinful pranks in us that appear in our hearts and lives, and so comes to be the sole, true, adequate ground of any sins which can be instanced in.
For, as before, we making God our utmost end, as God makes himself his end, and so as he admires himself, his thoughts and actions, brings his will to pass, and his counsel must stand; so we also should have done, our wills being in tune to his; so now by the same reason we come to admire and doat upon ourselves, seek to advance our own wills, and to make all stoop to us; and so here you may see the ground of all the pride that is in us. Again, as then we should have been zealous and tender of his glory, lest any creature should in the least measure derogate from him, or enjoy any good to itself which God's glory had not custom out of (for thus zealous is
God of his glory), so now self is looking to have the same privilege,
grieves that any should have any excellency we have not, or which may not add lustre to ours, or which may in the least measure cast a shadow on ours. Hence all the envy that is in us at the good of others, all grudgings, repinings, distractions, rejoicing at the hurt of others, whereby that is removed that should stand in our light. As God making himself his utmost end destroys all his enemies out of the infinite love of himself, brings them into subjection, that he may be all in all, 1 Cor. 15:24–28, so we likewise desire and endeavour to do to all our enemies, and to get the victory, and to keep ourselves uppermost; and hence all the revenge that is in us. And all these you see proceed from self thus advanced, as the adequate ground of them; and so it may be said of all sin else contrary to the law, only I instance in these, because in lusts we seek pleasure out of good things created, and it is more apparent we do so from these instances. And in 1 Cor. 13:4, true love is made the ground of longsuffering, kindness to others, &c.; therefore the opposite sins to all these come from self-love, which is opposite to the love of God. And so you see that other ground of that branch of our lusts, inordinacy, that they are not carried only to other things besides God as the chiefest good, but also to things contrary to God and the good of others.
Prop. 6. Now self-love having got into the saddle, and having usurped all the power into its own hands, and establishing its own prerogative, and seeking its chiefest happiness in the creatures, and not being able to delight in God, it comes also to hate and lust against anything that would rob it of its happiness, and that labours to make it subject again, and to dethrone and depose it; it hates it as an enemy to its prerogative and sovereignty, which is its utmost end.
And therefore as a man by reason of this self-love loves all things that advance it, be they never so contrary to the law, so it hates what would any way hinder it; and hence is its enmity against God, his law, his children, because all these would bring it down: 2 Cor. 10:4,
5, 'For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of
God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.' They would bring all into subjection again, and into captivity to Jesus Christ. As tyrants use to hate the lawful heirs to the throne, so we do God, and cannot endure to hear of him, as Saul could not of David; therefore, Rom. 8:7, the flesh is said to be enmity against God. And therefore if grace in our own bowels seek to set God up again, we fight against it, and set ourselves against it, as Saul did hate his son Jonathan for taking part with David. And hence is the lusting of the flesh against the spirit, Gal. 5:17; and the motions of the flesh are as so many spears thrown to kill all motions of the Spirit in us. And if the law of God comes as a herald to proclaim God lord and king, and to threaten us if we will not be subject to him; yet selflove, which is thus highly exalted, is of so great a spirit as it will never yield. The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against the law, and cannot be subject, Rom. 8:7. And the same ground of quarrel is there in wicked men against godly men's lives, who being of God's party, the light wherewith they shine, condemns them for traitors and usurpers, and tells them their works are evil; and therefore they hate the light, for their deeds are evil: John 3:19, 'And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.' Yea, when conscience comes to apprehend God to be an invincible enemy, who will certainly destroy us,—as it doth in those that sin against the Holy
Ghost, who, Heb. 10:27, are said to receive and expect judgment,— then self-love thus advanced desires to be revenged on God all it can, and as an utter enemy, delights in what angers and provokes him, for the sin against the Holy Ghost is but revenge against God and his saints; as the devil, when he was cast out of heaven, made war with the woman and her seed, Rev. 12:13.
Hence you may see grounds for all the several aggravations of this inordinacy of our lusts.
1. That readiness to sin, for the soul remains still in itself active and nimble.