(1.) In general. This advice the apostle gives, Colossians 3. His advice
it; circumstances shall hide it; extenuation of sin shall hide it; balancing works against it shall hide it; considering earthly things shall hide it; desperate resolutions to risk everything to enjoy lust in its pleasures shall hide it. A thousand wiles it has, which cannot be numbered.
(4.) Having prevailed thus far, magnifying the pleasures of sin, hiding its end, it engenders a train of thought fixed on the sin, to conceive it and bring it forth, the affections being already taken over.
Here we may give some directions for correcting this woeful work. Would we not be enticed? would we not tend to conceive sin? would we avoid the road which goes down to death? - let us take heed of our affections; which are so important in the course of our obedience, that they are commonly in the Scripture called the heart, as the principal thing which God requires in our walking before him. And this is not a slight thing. Proverbs 4:23, says the wise man, "Keep your heart with all diligence;" or, as in the original, "above" or "before all keepings;" - "Before every watch, keep your heart. You have many keepings that you watch to: you watch to keep your lives, your estates, your reputations, your families; but," says he, "above all these keepings, attend to that of the heart, of your affections, that they may not be entangled with sin." There is no safety without it. Save all other things and lose the heart, and all is lost, - lost to all eternity. You will say, then, "How shall we do this duty?"
1. Keep your affections on the right object.
(1.) In general. This advice the apostle gives, Colossians 3. His advice in the beginning of that chapter is to direct us to put sin to death: Verse 5, "Put to death what is earthly in you;" - "Prevent the working and deceit of sin which wars in your members." To enable us to do this, he gives us that great direction: Verse 2, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Fix your affections on heavenly things; this will enable you to put sin to death; fill them with the things that are above, let them be exercised with them, and so
enjoy the chief place in them. They are above, blessed objects, answering to our affections; - God himself, in his beauty and glory; the Lord Jesus Christ, who is "altogether lovely, the chiefest of ten thousand;" grace and glory; the mysteries revealed in the gospel; the blessedness promised thereby. Were our affections taken up with these things, as they should be, - it is our happiness when they are, - what access could sin, with its painted pleasures, with its sugared poisons, have to our souls? how should we loathe all its proposals, and say to them, "Get you hence as an abominable thing!" For what are the pleasures of sin, compared with the reward which is presented to us? Which argument the apostle presses, 2 Corinthians 4:17, 18.
(2.) Let the object of your affections, in an especial manner, be the cross of Christ, which has great power to frustrate the work of indwelling sin: Galatians 6:14,
"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified to me, and I to the world."
The cross of Christ he gloried and rejoiced in; this his heart was set on; and these were the effects of it, - it crucified the world to him, made it a dead and undesirable thing. The baits and pleasures of sin are taken out of the world, and the things that are in the world, - "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." These are the things that are in the world; from these sin takes all its baits. If the heart be filled with the cross of Christ, it casts loathing on them all; it leaves no beauty, no pleasure in them. Again, says he, "It crucifies me to the world; makes my heart, my affections, dead to any of these things." It roots up corrupt affections, leaves no principle to go and make provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts. So labour to fill your hearts with the cross of Christ. Consider the sorrows he underwent, the curse he bore, the blood he shed, the cries he put forth, the love that was in all this to your souls, and the mystery of the grace of God in it. Meditate on the vileness and punishment of sin as represented in the cross, the blood, the death of Christ. Is Christ crucified for sin, and shall not our hearts be crucified with him to sin? Shall we receive, or