Chapter VII
He who would truly know the corruption of his nature must search into the
lusts of his heart How great a curse it is for any man to be given up to his
lusts. We should be very careful that we are not in any degree indulgent to our lusts. Arguments to move us, drawn from the inordinctcy, heinous sin-
fulness, and deceitfulness of all our lusts.
Use 1. That the apostle here, when he would express the corruption of
the old man, says, it consists in lusts ; and when he would exhort to put off
the old conversation, he exhorts to put off the lusts thereof; hence learn, that hp who would know the corruption of the old man and an unregenerate
estate, must above all, and most of all, search into his lusts. It is indeed and will be some heip unto you to take a survey of your actions, but you can never come to see how deeply and how abominably corrupted and
depraved creatures you are, till God open your eyes to see your lusts, for
the old man is corrupt through lusts ; and though the outwards of most men
be exceedingly corrupt, much rottenness in men s speeches, their throats
being open sepulchres, and full of bitterness and cursing, yet their inward parts are most corrupted, their inward parts are very wickedness : Ps. v. 9, For
ihere is no faithfulness in their mouth ; their inward part is very wickedness ;
their throat is an open sepulchre ; they flatter with their tongue. It is in
CHAP. VII.J IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 807
the original, fiYin, very wickednesses ; that is, most wicked of all other. The
ignorance of this sinfulness of inward lusts hath been the original of all
errors and deceits that men have about their estates ; they were ignorant of their lusts, they knew not the inordinacy of them. Paul, who whilst he
looked to his actions, and not to his lusts, thought himself blameless : Philip,
iii. 6, Concerning zeal, persecuting the church ; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But when it was discovered unto him that
lusts were sins, and that all concupiscence had been stirring in him : Rom.
vii. 710, What shall we say then ? Is the law sin ? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin but by the law : for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the com
mandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once ; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. When this was dis covered to him, then he was proved to be the chief of sinners, and his sin to be above measure sinful, as himself confesses ; such an alteration did the
discovery of the corruption of his lusts work in his conceit and opinion of
himself. And the main reason why the papists say lusts are no sins, is to
nurture men up in the opinion of perfection possible to be attained unto, because indeed it is possible to frame a man s actions so (at theleast for some while) as outwardly not to transgress the law in appearance to them
selves and others ; but now if this was granted and discovered, that lusts
are so corrupt and abominable, they would find themselves to be painted
sepulchres, who inwardly are full of dead men s bones, as Christ says of the
pharisees of old for the same reason : Mat. xxiii. 27, 28, Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites
! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men s
bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Could civil men, who are the world s saints, maintain a serious and good opinion of their
estates so long together, if the devil did not keep them from taking any
great notice of the corruption and inordinacy of their lusts ? No ; it is im
possible they should. But men look only to their actions, and compare themselves with others outsides, as the young man in the Gospel did : Mat.
* But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He
xix. 17-20,
saith unto him, Which ? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother ; and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up
: what lack I yet ? I am not as other men, said the
pharisee also, in Luke xviii. 11, 12. He looked no further than his actions, as those words imply, whereas the old man in us is especially corrupt through lusts. To convince men of this, which is indeed necessary for us all to take
notice of, viz. that we must judge of our corruptions and estates by what our
lusts are chiefly, and not only by our actions, though there be enough in them to discover ofttimes to men, that there is no fear of God before their
eyes, Ps. xxxvi. 1. When God would convince the world of the greatness of their wickedness and corruption, Gen. vi. 5, what evidence doth he bring of it ? God saw that the wickedness of the earth was great. One would look now to have murders, idolatries, blasphemies, and such grievous crimes reckoned up to make good this indictment ; but mark what follows : Every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. Their inward lusts and corruptions are brought in, as making up that great heap
808 AN IJNREGENERATE MAN*S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BoOK VIII.
of mischief for which God repented he had made man. And to convince thee
yet more that this is the most certain and only sure way to know the sinfulness of thy person and -estate by, consider,
1. If men look to their outward actions, they can plead they are not
wholly and in all respects evil ; for even the heathen did ra rov vfoov : Rom.
ii. 14, For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto them
selves. The worst of men are in some things agreeable to the law ; nay, some men might plead as the young man did, All these have I kept from my youth ; his actions, he thought, were all entirely good, if he should look no further ; but now turn thy eyes inward, and thou shalt find every thought or imagination, desire or lust, which brought forth these actions, to be evil, and continually so, doing nothing for God, and out of a pure heart, but
merely from self-love, which is the great lust of all other; and this now would have convinced my young man. And if a man come to see once that
all the lusts, stirrings, and agitations of his inwards are only evil, then he
wiJl see, and not till then, that all his actions are so ; for every action is the
child of some lust or other, and Whatsoever lust brings forth is sin. There
fore, if you would know the corruption of the old man, look to your lusts within you.
2. Consider that if a man s actions were sins only, and not his inward
lusts, then the man would not be always evil; for if unregenerate men commit
things directly contrary to the law, yet their actions are not continually such ; for there is mudh cessation of their outward actions when they are asleep, and at other times when alone ; but now the lusts of their hearts are con
tinual ; for, as I said at first, our souls are always active ; and Gen. vi. 5
says, that all their thoughts are only evil, and that continually.
3. If all our actions were only and continually evil, yet there are and
might be many sins which never appear in our actions : one man is no mur
derer ; another is no thief ; but now look into the inward corruption of the
old man, and then thou shalt find, as Paul confessed of himself, Rom.
vii. 8, that all concupiscence hath been stirring in thee. And, as a godly divine said, there was never a day went over his head, but he felt inclina
tions against all the commandments stirring in him ; so haply might all of us say too ; but this would not appear in our actions. Therefore, still I say,
if you would know the corruption of the old man, look to lusts ; for as
there are more blossoms than fruit by ten times, so there are more lusts than actions.
4. Consider that the strength of corruption lies especially in lusts ; so
that suppose the multitude of our sins might as well be discovered in our
actions, yet not the strength of them ; and, therefore, they are called the law of sin in the members : Rom. vii. 23, But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into cap
tivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. These are they which do
maintain the war, and bring into captivity; they are sins, Janizaries, or
Pretorian bands, in which its force lies ; they have the strength of an army ;
yea, they have not tire force of an army, but of a law ; and a king may do more with one law than an army can with all its force ; and the power of a
king lies in his laws, and by them he reacheth to the utmost of his domi
nions. Now he compares sin to a king : Rom. vi. 12, Let not sin therefore
reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof; let it
not reign to obey it. In what ? In the lusts thereof, as the laws of sin their
* Neither give your members, says he, ver. 13, as weapons of
king.
unrighteousness. If we commit a sin in our actions, the outward member
CHAP. VII.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 809
is but a weapon, and the outward action is but the blow ; but the strength whence the blow came, and which wielded the weapon, was the lust within, which fights against the soul : 1 Pet. ii. 11, Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the
soul. It is these lusts which maintain the war.
5. Consider as a man shall not otherwise know the strength, so, nor the heinousness of his sin, but by knowing his lusts. This appears,
(1.) If we draw an argument from the former metaphor, in that it is called a law. Now one bad law in a commonwealth doth more mischief, provokes God more, than an hundred bad examples for outward acts. To frame mischief
by a law, David brings in as the height of impiety, Ps. xciv. 20, Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law ? And so, on the contrary, when good laws are made in a state against
swearing, Sabbath-breaking, &c., they are a great fenee to. a land, though the
people be very wicked ; therefore^ pray that good laws may be made in par liament, and rejoice when they are made. A. lust with a law is ten times more mischievous than many evil actions..
(2.) A sinful action jars directly but against the law given, which saith, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and is therefore said to be done against God, because against his righteous law;, but the lust whence this action
proceeds, directly and primarily, offers an injury to the person of God imme
diately; for the inordinacy of lusts lie in this,, as I have shewn, that a man s
desires turn from God to the creature as the chiefest good, and so contemns the goodness and allsufficiency that is in Gad, and pleasure in the creature comes into competition with God, in our lustsmore immediately than in our
actions ; in them we have usually but the la/w in our eye, but in our lusts we refuse God, and cleave to another ; we choose riches, and forsake God. Now for a man to undervalue the person of a king, provokes him more than
to despise his law, because he is nearer to himself than his law ; and to con temn him as a man, provokes more than to contemn him in the relation of a
king put upon him ; for kings are more sensible of contempts reflecting on
their persons than their power. How provoking,, then, is it to God, that he should be despised in his all-sufficiency and in all his perfections, in his essence ? And in a man s lusts choosing other things for his happiness, God
is thus despised. God being conscious of his excellency, how highly must
this provoke him !
6. Consider that sinful actions are committed by us, but for our lusts
sake, to satisfy them ; and therefore they are called, Eph. ii. 2,
* fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, or
* doing the will of the flesh ; so as the lust is the
master, the action but the servant ; the lust is the whore, the action is but the bawd to bring the object and the lust together : Deut. xxix. 19, it is
called adding drunkenness to thirst. Men drink to satisfy their thirsty lusts : so that if the action be thus, as it were, ordained for the lust, then the
lust is more sinful ; and therefore all corruption in the world is said to be
in lusts, as the efficient and final causes of them : 2 Peter i. 4, Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
7. Consider, a man cannot know the corruption of his person and estate, and his bondage to sin, but by his lusts, because many of the most heinous
lusts that unregenerate men serve, and which keep them under the power of
Satan, have no outward actions to vent themselves ; or if they are vented in
any actions, those actions in themselves are lawful, such as emulation, &c., which vent themselves in men of understanding, and that not in vain
fashions of apparel or speeches, proud and boasting or high looks, but in
seeking outward excellencies, commendable and profitable to the church and
310 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VIII.
commonwealth. And you know that Christ himself was preached out of
envy ; and the pharisees received honour one of another, and therefore be lieved not, John v. 44. Now that which causeth one to honour another is
praiseworthy ; yea, and other lusts, of loving and seeking riches and bodily pleasures, though they vent in unlawful actions, in many men, as in oppres sion, uncleanness, &c., yet most especially now under the times of the gos
pel, the devil is cast out of many, in respect of such gross sins, and the enormous crimes of the Gentiles vanish ; as the hobgoblins which were fami
liar with men in the time of popery, now when the light is come, no longer appear. Therefore now the lusts of men vent themselves in things lawful, by an inordinate affection to them, as in the young man in Mat. xix. 22, who was in bondage to covetousness, and yet he had not got his goods un
justly, they came to him by inheritance, he having them so young ; neither did he, as is likely, put out his money to use, or oppress others, for Christ bade him sell, not restore, his possessions; yet he doated too much on them to obey him. So eating and drinking, and giving in marriage, things na
tural and commendable, were yet, through men s inordinacy in them, the
sins for which God brought judgment on the old world, because of the defile ment of the heart in all these. Use 2. In that he calls them here lusts of deceit or error, and carrying men wrong, and in that they are so inordinate, as I have described ; then see what a curse and judgment it is to be given up to your lusts, to be led
by them, as the phrase is, 2 Tim. iii. 6, and to walk after them, as Jude 18. Miserable and cursed guides, that lead men out of the way, Deut. xxvii. 18, and the more you follow them, the further you are from God and happiness! As a bark at sea without chart or compass, cable or anchor, tossed up and down by the merciless winds and waves, such is a man guided by his lusts, which Jude compares to winds, Jude 12 ; and James compares men to waves tossed hither and thither, James i. 6, and a man is liable to drown
ing and destruction at every gale, by hurtful lusts which drown a man in
perdition and destruction : 1 Tim. vi. 9, But they that will be rich, fall
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. Exposed a man is to temptation, and so to all evil (as we pray against it in the Lord s Prayer), for lust is the
great tempter of all the world, greater than the devil, who yet is called the
tempter. When a man is tempted, he is drawn away by his lust : James i. 14,
4 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and
enticed. Men fall into temptation; how? By hurtful lusts, 1 Tim. vi. 9. Thus exposed a man is to his utter enemies, for lusts fight against the soul, 1 Peter ii. 11. Men think it their happiness to have their desires, as men
in burning fevers desire to have drink when they will, which proves their death and destruction ; and therefore one whom God intend to destroy, he
leaves to his lusts, as Hophni and Phinehas : 1 Sam. ii. 25, If one man
sin against another, the judge shall judge him : but if a man sin against the
Lord, who shall entreat for him ? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them. Ps. Ixxviii.
* So they did eat, and were well filled : for he gave them their own
29, 30,
desire ; they were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat was
yet in their mouths (he gave them their desire, but it was their bane, for the wrath of God came upon them), ver. 31, The wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of
Israel. So Ps. Ixxiii. 7, Their eyes stand out with fatness : they have more than heart could wish. To those God meant to destroy, he gave them more than heart could wish. So Ps. Ixxxi. 12, So I gave them up unto
CHAP. VII.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 311
their own hearts lusts : and they walked in their own counsels. When God offered them happiness in himself, ver. 10, Open thy mouth as largo as thou wilt, and I will fill it, says God, and they hearkened not, what was
their punishment? Ver. 12, I give them up to their hearts lusts, says God. And let all this then warn us : 1 Cor. x. 6,
* Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. But now if God hath a mind to save thee, he will break thee
off from all thy sinful desires, for thou shouldest certainly go to hell else :
Isa. Ivii. 17, For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him : I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his
heart. God was wroth for his covetousness, or indeed concupiscence, and smote him ; and when they yet went on, he meaning to save them, resolved to
heal them : ver. 18, I have seen his ways, and will heal him : I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners/ God there
* Therefore, behold, I
fore often hedges up a man s ways
: Hosea ii. 6, 7,
will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them ; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them : then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband ; for then was it better with me than now. God often denies them the desires of their hearts, keeps them low and bare, to starve their lusts ; and though they ask, they shall not have what they would spend upon their lusts : James iv. 2, 3, Ye lust, and have not : ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain : ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask
amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. Use 3. If the corruption of the old man doth principally consist in lusts, and these lusts be so inordinate and deceitful, then take we heed how we be
indulgent to them, or any one of them; as a man then is, when either he admits conference and parley with the object of his lust, brings it and his
heart often together, is loath to part with the interview of it, but could fix
his eye still upon it, glanceth again and again ; or when he obeys it and
satisfies it, and the importunity of it, or doth venture to try experiments, and to prove what pleasure is to be had in such a sin, as Solomon did in mirth : Eccles. ii. 1, 2, I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure
: and, behold, this also is vanity. I
said of laughter, It is mad : and of mirth, What doeth it ? He gave his
heart leave to play, as it were : Go to now, says he, I will prove thee with
mirth, and therefore enjoy pleasure ; or which is worse, when a man takes
thought to lay up provision for it, as that man in the parable
: Luke xii. 19, And L will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. When a man slips the
collar of the heart, that is, takes off checks of conscience and good motions,
letting his heart pursue a desired lust, with full mouth, as the hound doth
the hare ; the pleasure the man will have, whether in beauty, riches, pre ferment, or any of the pleasures of sin, carnal mirth, good fellowship, chambering, wantonness, unlawful recreations, and spending precious time
away in them ; I say, take heed of them, for they are deceitful lusts, labour
to get thy heart quit and rid of them. Put them off, says the apostle ; though the pleasures of them stick as close to thee as thy skin doth to thy
flesh, yet get thy heart and them loosened, get them flayed off; though they
lie in thy bosom, yet give a bill of divorce to them. If any worldly excel
lency of learning and applause draw out thy heart, and as bird-lime and pitch, when it is touched, makes all within thee roap after it, as that which thou
shouldest esteem thy excellency, get it loosened, get that fuller s soap spoken
312 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VIII.
of, Malachi iii. 2, to wash it off. Job would not let his hands cleave to any thing
* If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands. When thou art to deal with anything in the world, spit on thy fingers that they may not stick to it, that thou mayest use it as if thou usedest it not. Dost thou feel thy soul roaming and stretching itself above its compass, to great
: Job xxxi. 7,
< too high for thee, and projecting ease, and a quiet life, in such and such a condition ? Cease not till thou hast got thy heart into David s temper
things, as David says, Ps. cxxxi. 1, 2,
: Ps. cxxxi. 1, 2, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty
: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother : my soul is even as a weaned
child. Bring thyself to this temper, to be as a weaned child, that hath no
great thoughts, you know, there is no great commotion in their heads ; yea, as a weaned child, that much regards not the dug it once so cried for. A
soul that is quiet and still, cries not discontentedly if it hath not this and
that toy presently ; and such a soul projects no great matters aforehand, as
children do not, but hopes in and depends upon the Lord, as children on
their parents : Ps. cxxxi. 3, Let Israel hope in the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. If beauty entice thee, or pleasure of uncleanness soak into
thy inwards, as oil into the bones, and draws and tolls out thy heart, cease not confessing, cursing, bewailing it, till that base liquorish disposition of
thy heart be worn out, and the inward neighings of it tamed and subdued. Dost thou feel thy heart shooting the sprigs of it into the earth, rooting itself
in riches ? Oh get the earth loosened from it, and thy heart stubbed up ; take heed there be not a root of bitterness, Heb. xii. 15 ; get thy heart new
planted, and shot into Christ, rooted there : Rom. vi. 5, For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the
* Rooted and builded up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with
likeness of his resurrection. Col. ii. 7,
thanksgiving. You that are more profane, and draw cart-loads of sin
after you, of drunkenness, swearing, oppression, and other gross sins, with
cords of vanity, as Isaiah speaks, chap. v. 18, Woe unto them that draw
iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope ; i.e. with
strong affections and long drawn out, fastened and chained to such base
courses, get those cart ropes cut, those affections dissolved from such cursed works of the devil, for thou earnest but loads of fuel for hell to burn thee
with. To conclude ; when I exhort you to put off your lusts, my meaning
is, you should get fatherless, motherless, wifeless, richesless, learningless, honourless, pleasureless hearts, and to keep them so ; to be to all things as
strangers and pilgrims here, as Peter exhorts: 1 Peter ii. 11, Dearly be
loved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. That whereas sinful dispositions and inordi
nate desires would be daily and continually putting themselves forth in us, and moving us inordinately to pleasures of this life, we should abstain, that
is, keep ourselves from the occasions, means of increasing or satisfying of
them; and use all the pleasures and comforts of this life, only as baits in our journey, not so as to detain us any whit in our way. And this I will
enforce at this time on you, from the inordinate sinfulness and deceitfulness
of all these lusts, which is the argument here used by the apostle in my text.
First, Every lust that is thus inordinate in the heart, it is in regard of God flat and plain idolatry ; so as so many lusts as thou nourishest, so many idolaters dost thou give toleration unto in the dominion of thy heart :
Col. iii. 7, Mortify your earthly members, &c.; covetousness, which is
CHAP. VII. J IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT.
idolatry. Now, by the reason that covetousness is idolatry, by the same
reason is every other lust, which is a desiring pleasure in some creature, or
act of sinning, rather than in God, as I defined it. And indeed so that
place of Ezekiel is and may most properly be understood : Ezek. xiv. 4,
* Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God,
Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and
putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to
the prophet, I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the mul
titude of his idols. Setting up idols in the heart, that is, so many lusts.
Yea, and the idols of men s hearts are in many things worse than the idols
of their hands ; for,
1. This idolatry in the heart is a punishment often of the other idolatry, therefore it is worse : Rom. i. 22-24,
* Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness,
through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between
themselves. Because they did worship idols, therefore they were given up
to lusts, ver. 24.
2. Because these idol-lusts in the heart stand surer, and more fastly fixed. Good governors have pulled down other idols ; but these they cannot, nor
never could.
3. Men are more inflamed with these idol-lusts, and mad upon them, which is made an aggravation of idolatry
* Against whom do
: Isa. Ivii. 4, 5,
ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the
tongue ? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, inflaming
yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the
valleys, under the clifts of the rocks ? In Acts xix. 24, and so on, you may observe Demetrius respected his gain, which was the idol of his heart, more than Diana his great goddess. His speech bewrays it : ver. 25, We have had much wealth by her, says he ; and this he spoke to them of the said
occupation, that made shrines for her, as knowing they would be therefore
zealous, and make the loudest noise, in crying, Great is Diana of the
Ephesians. The other is but dead, painted idolatry, this real and lively, and hath men s hearts more. In the other external idolatry, men did usually bend but their outward man ; it had but their caps and knees, and this often
for fashion s sake, and customarily. But lusts have the first-born of men s
thoughts, their morning sacrifices, they are their dearest and darling delights ; and the fruit of their souls, not of their bodies only, is dedicated to their
service. To these men send up, as ejaculations, many a hearty glance day by day all the day long ; to these men vow their happiest opportunities, their most precious times ; and vowing, are strict in performance too.
Secondly, As lusts are thus inordinate in regard of God, and injurious to
him, so they are also wrongful to the creatures they are occupied about, for men s lusts abuse them and subject them to vanity
: Eom. viii. 20-22, For
the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope ; because the creature itself also shall
be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and tra-
vaileth in pain together until now. Now, then, a thing is said to be vain, when it is not used to the right end for which it was ordained ; and the
being used to men s lusts, makes every creature an abomination of desola
tion, setting it up in the place it should not, namely, in the room of God, and so makes it to lose its proper excellency. So that God who looked and
314 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VIII.
saw every creature good, now looking on it again, sees they are all vanity ;
yea, and the better any creature is, so much the more vanity, because it is the more apt to be doated upon and abused, to be made the more common whore to men s lusts, insomuch as the creature is said to groan (as if they were sensible indeed they would), that they should be pressed, not willingly, Rom. viii. 20, by the tyranny of men s lusts, to serve in war against their
Maker, that they should thus by force be made idols. Were they sensible, how heinously would they take it ! as Paul and Barnabas rent their clothes, Acts xiv. 14, when the people would have worshipped them. And men s
lusts commit a rape upon the creature, for it is subjected to vanity unwill
ingly, forced to be the heart s whore, and thereby is defiled: Titus i. 16, They profess that they know God ; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.
Thirdly, If we regard the soul itself which fosters them, these lusts are most injurious towards it. Not only, 1. In defiling of it, for it is spiritual adultery, James iv. 4; and as that sin
is said to be a sin against a man s own body, making it one with a harlot, so
every lust by the same reason is a sin against the soul, by making it one with
the creature it lusteth after, be it never so base.
Nor, 2, only in debasing the soul, by transforming and putting it either
into the condition of a beast or a devil, as all lusts do. Those of the body make us as beasts, delighting but in those things they do ; therefore the pro
digal is said to have served swine, Luke xv. 16 ; and so in the poets, Circe
is said to have transformed men into the shapes of brutes. Or men are turned into devils in the lusts of the mind, as being common to them also, and therefore are called lusts of the devil : John viii. 44,
* Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
Nor, 3, are these lusts injurious to the soul, only in that they rob a man
of his own soul, and give it away to the creature that it lusteth after; there
fore, Hosea iv. 11, wine is said to take away the heart, so as when a man comes to have an ofier of grace made him and of heaven, he hath no heart
to bestow, as Solomon says
: Prov. xvii. 16, Wherefore is there a price in
the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it ? For it is
gone after covetousness, Ezek. xxxiii. 31 ; this creature, or that lust, lays claim to it ; but when a man turns to God, he then gets and recovers his
heart again.
But to let these notions pass, that which I mean principally to insist on is
the deceit and cheat which lust puts upon the heart, which, as the word is
translated, is the motive in the text why we should put them off, because
they are deceitful lusts. The chief and only reason that can be alleged why men are indulgent to lusts, is the pleasure that comes in by them ; that which leads men out of the way in their desires is, that they love pleasures more than God. Now, if men s lusts therefore shall cheat and deceive them
herein, in that wherein they are so much betrusted, and in that which is only hoped and expected from them, then they may be truly called deceitful, for
they say none are deceitful but those that are betrusted, and on whom our
hopes depend. To scan therefore for the present no other inconvenience by them, we will only consider and reason this point a little ; and in the first
place, let us consider,
First, As I told you in the definition of them, they take the heart clean
off from God as their chiefest good*, for whom, and to be filled with whom, the soul was first made, to live with him as the fish in the water ; at whose
right hand and in whose presence is fulness of joy and rivers of pleasure, and this for ever, for the soul to have drunk of: Ps. xvi. 11 and Ps. xxxvi.
CHAP. VII.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 815
8 compared, Thou wilt shew me the path of life : in thy presence is fulness
of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. They shall be
abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house ; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. In God, the soul was to have had
fulness to satisfaction ; they shall be abundantly satisfied. In God, the
soul should have drunk rivers as without satiety, running always fresh and
for ever, as never emptied, no, nor ebbing, but in full flowing tide always. And in these rivers did the soul once swim, till lust hooked the soul out with
a bait of pleasure elsewhere to be had. Lust hath drawn the soul out of its
proper element, as James says, chap. i. 14 ; yea, and it hath so took off the
heart that it cannot live or find comfort in God, but would die if put into God again, unless lust be destroyed. And out of him thy soul must needs
die also, as a fish out of the water, though it lives a while, drinking in ini
quity, as Job speaks, yet that pickle will not keep thee long. Yet,
Secondly, It enticeth a man with great promises, large hopes, as those
seducers, 2 Peter ii. 18, speak great swelling words, whilst they are all
vanity. Lusts swell and blow up a man s fancy and expectation, both to
* Let us take our fill of love. A ful
give full satisfaction, as Prov. vii. 8,
ness is promised, as also continuance, To-morrow shall be as to-day ; yea, and they will increase in the enjoying, much more abundant : Isa. Ivi. 12,
* 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. Now, as you use to say, men have no greater enemies than expectation, so neither than pleasures, for if they prove not as we expected, they vex so much the more. If hope be deferred, it makes the soul sick, Prov. xiii. 12, much more
hope frustrated. Now, lusts do strappado a man s expectations, hoist them
up a huge height, and let them fall on the sudden ; for when a man comes to
enjoy them, they are the poorest, emptiest things, that the soul, as cheated,
begins to think, What, is this all ? and so is vexed. Solomon, who saw men
doat so much upon pleasure here, thought there might be something in it, and surely his expectation was raised high ; he thought he would try con
clusions : Eccles. ii. 3, I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine,
yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom ; and to lay hold on folly, till I
might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. Well, see what was the conclu
* I hated life ; because the work that is wrought under the sun
sion : ver. 17,
is grievous unto me : for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That all should
prove so empty, this vexed him. And which is strange, though every time a man s lust is satisfied he finds he is deceived ; yet (which argues the greatest cheat and collusion in the world) a man s lust varnisheth the same worn, empty delights over again, sets a new gloss on them, that a man s expecta tion is blown up again as high as ever ; and by either the change of the
object, or addition of some new circumstance, a man is fooled to think
that now he shall have something he never had yet, as Balak thought the
change of the place would do such feats. Thus do our lusts gull us, and are
still as empty, and still we are as much vexed that our expectation is frus
trated. But consider further,
Thirdly, The thing which lust pitcheth us upon is but at the best too little
for the soul, a drop to a cistern, that which is not bread : Isa. Iv. 2, Where
fore do ye spend money for that which is not bread ? and your labour for
that which satisfieth not ? And which argues lust still to be a worse cheater, lust makes the creature more empty to us than it would be, for it is that
blasts them all, and the guilt of it. It is that hath made them all vanity to us : Rom. viii. 20,
* For the creature was made subject to vanity, not will-
316 AN UNREGENERATE MAN*S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VIII.
ingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. God
filled the creature with comfort, but he, namely, man, by his sin and abuse of it, hath subjected it to vanity. It is the lust of man which steals God s
blessing, yea, God himself out of it, who otherwise in the use of it would fill the soul with good things, but now they are mere husks, Luke xv. 16 ; the kernel is gone, and that husk too, the sin that covers it about, fills it with bitterness and cursings, adds some cross to it or other, so that all now is but a mere fashion and gaudy show: 1 Cor. vii. 31, And they that use this
world, as not abusing it : for the fashion of this world passeth away. As
if the world was gone, and the case and show of it only left : Hosea iv. 10, Micah vi. 14, Hag. iv. 6. Prov. xxiii. 5, Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not ? for riches certainly make themselves wings ; they flee away as an eagle toward heaven. They are there called things which are not, and therefore wilt thou set thine eyes on them ? They are said not to be, in
respect of that deceitful appearance or gloss which our fancies cast on them. Their goodness lies in conceit, which conceit comes from lusts ; and though lust makes them really less than else they would be, yet in opinion it makes them more, and so all proves deceit. It is common opinion hath raised the
price of gold and silver, and for a while hath turned it up trump, and so it answers all things, as Solomon says, Eccles. x. 19. So look upon the mart of learning, it is common opinion in several ages that raiseth and cries down sometimes one strain, sometimes another ; and, accordingly, men have ap plied their studies even against their natural genius and disposition to that
learning, not which is in itself most useful and excellent, but which bears the bell away in the esteem of men. Therefore, that which in one place is in fashion is not in another ; strong lines in one, quotations in another. Yea, hence there is such variety in the same men, they leave the pursuit of old vanities and start up new. What once they pursued with greediness, now
they regard not, because opinion is the clerk of the market. What is one man s paradise is another man s hell ; what one adores, another tramples upon and scorns, because of variety of opinions ; which argues that opinion and fancy is that which puts the gloss on things
* For all
: 1 Peter i. 24,
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass : the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. Here worldly things are compared to grass ; and two things are said, here is the flower of grass, the
gloss and beauty of it, and the grass itself; so there is the things of the world and the glory of them, that is, the goodness substantial which is in the
things, and the gloss that man s lusts put on them as varnish. Now, as the flower falls away and decays before the grass, so doth this varnish, and fall
off before the things perish. And when we enjoy the things, and thus find them not to answer our esteem of them, then we are vexed. And, Fourthly, This fashion of the world is passing away, 1 Cor. vii. 31, whereas continuance is also by our lusts promised, yet the time is but short, which
will divers ways appear.
For, first, suppose the things and our lusts should continue a like time
together, and be of like life and continuance, yet the time appointed at the utmost is but short, viz., the time of this life. A man can enjoy the objects of his lusts no longer than in his mortal body, which is a motive the apostle useth why they should not therefore be served : Rom. vi. 12, Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
The reign and dominion of sin is limited ; yea, and lusts have made the body thus mortal, hath crazed it and made it moulder : Rom. v. 14,
* Death reigns by reason of sin, and hath no other title to its crown but what sin gives it.
Yea, secondly, this short time is cut often so much the more short, by how
CHAP. VII.] IN EESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 317
much a man follows and obeys his lusts : Eccles. vii. 17, Be not over much
wicked, for why shouldst thou die before thy time ? for wicked men live not out half their days. And lusts shorten our days, not only meritoriously provoking God to do it, to put out the candle before it is half burnt, as Job
says, chap. xxi. 17, How oft is the candle of the wicked put out ? and how
oft cometh their destruction upon them ? God distributeth sorrows in his
anger, but also lusts do this efficiently, the abundance of fuel to feed the flame of lusts choking and putting out the candle. Intemperancy, the very name itself, signifies distempering the body, and dissolving its constitution, and so implies destroying a man s self. And indeed the throat hath killed more than the sword.
Thirdly, The objects are taken away, and do often fail us before we be taken from them, and this also by the treachery of our lusts. And this many ways will appear, for,
1st, God withholdeth many things from men which he would give them, but for their greediness ; therefore James brings in this as a reason why they obtained not, because they were too violent in desiring, James iv. 2, and would consume all on their lusts; so God always deals with his children, and
often with wicked men, whom he crosseth in their desires : Jer. v. 24, 25,
1 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that
giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season ; he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. God thinks much that his good creatures should be so basely employed, should feed such filthy lusts, and that more should be consumed and devoured by them than would serve twenty of his other poor creatures. Compare these two scriptures together
: Haggai i. 6, 9, Ye have sown much, and bring in
little ; ye eat, but ye have not enough ; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink ; ye clothe you, but there is none warm ; and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Ye looked for much, and,
lo, it came to little ; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why ? saith the Lord of hosts: because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Mai. iii. 9, 10, Ye are cursed with a curse : for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the
tithes into the store-house, that there may be meat in mine house ; and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of
heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. You shall find whilst they, out of greediness and sparing, and
fear of want, would not pay their tithes, and build the temple, that therefore
* Ye looked for much, says God, and it came to
God withheld a blessing
little ; as if he had said, Ye were too greedy, and therefore I did blow upon upon it ; their only way, God tells them, is to bring in their tithes, and see, saith he, if I pour not out a blessing.
2dly, If men have good things, yet they sacrificing them to their lusts, God is provoked to take them away ; your lusts make you forfeit your lease, and provokes God to re-enter : Hosea ii. 9, I will take away my corn and my wine, because they were prepared for idols, ver. 8. God thinks much the creatures should be made co-rivals with him, and adored and loved in his stead ; and therefore, as he threateneth idols often, so men s pleasant things too, as being alike images of jealousy, as Ezek. xxiv. 25, which he
* Behold, with a stroke I will take away from thee the desire of thine eye ; and if they ask thee what these things mean, ver. 25, say to them,
represented to them, ver. 16, in taking away Ezekiel s wife :
* I will take away the desire of their eyes, the joy of their glory, and that whereupon they set their
818 AN UNREGENERATE MAN*S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VIII.
niinds ; God dealing therein as Benhadad threatened to do to Ahab : 1 Kings xx. 6,
* Yet I will send my servants unto thee to-morrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants ; and it
shall be, that whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put it in their
hand, and take it away. If thou hast anything better than other, to part with which would even kill thee, take heed ; God loves to take that away with a stroke. If anything bring the adversaries in, lusts will do it : Lam.
* The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things :
i. 10,
for she hath seen the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. Yea, the crea tures themselves, as wronged and abused, will in the end cast you out : Lev.
xviii. 26-28, Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and
shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you (for all these abominations have the men of the land done which were before you, and the land is defiled) ; that the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. They will spue you out with loathing arid
indignation ; that is, provoke God with their groans, mentioned Rom.
viii. 22, to do it to revenge their quarrel ; as subjects when they are wronged cast out the tyrant, and unhorse him, because he rides them too hard.
8dly, They do not only provoke God to do it, but even the very lusts themselves ; and the eager pursuit of them proves the instrumental cause of the loss of the objects they pursue. How many a man ,had come to his
journey s end if he had not ridden too fast, and his lusts had not spurred him, and he laid the reins on their necks ? So in the pursuit of riches : Prov. xxi. 5, He that hasteth to be rich, cometh to want ; and so Prov.
xxviii. 22, for either he entangleth himself in too much, and by labouring to
grasp too much loseth all, or by too much dearness and falseness turns
away his customers, which by moderate gains he might hold and increase,
light gains make the purse heavy or runs into some unjust prohibited course, and so forfeits all to the law ; as Solomon says, Prov. xxviii. 20, He that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent, nor unpunished ; and whilst he flies greedily to his prey as a bird, he gets a bullet that kills him, viz., that same flying roll spoken of, Zech. v. 1-3, God s curse that flies into the
thieves and oppressor s house ; or else he is the rather made a prey to the hunters and Nimrods of the world, as those beasts are the soonest that have the costliest skins and furs on their backs : Prov. xiii. 8, The riches of a man are the ransom of his life ; being taken in a fault, he is condemned the rather to die, that his goods may be begged* or forfeited. That to be the meaning the next words shew, the poor hears not the rebuke ; that is, a meaner man shall escape. So in the pursuit of learning ; if some scholars had been wormed of that greedy humour of vain learning, they might have
proved scholars ; but they, through too much reading of variety of books, have ravelled and fazzled their notions, that they cannot bring out a right end of them, or know not where to begin or end, besides the making their
spirits and bodies more inapt, and to be as tired jades, dulled, and not able
to hold out. So the ambitious pursuit of worldly greatness and glory has been their ruin. Many have fallen in the climbing for venturing higher than
the boughs will bear them, as Absalom did ; or have been pressed to death
by others in crowding, and have lost their ambitious aim in the seeking it :
Prov. xxv. 27, It is not good to eat much honey ; so for men to search
their own glory is not glory. The desire of glory is baseness, and casts a
spoil upon it when discovered. As proffered ware loseth its esteem, so * Qu. bagged ? ED.
CHAP. VII. ] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 319
credit affected, like a shadow, it runs away from those that follow it ; fall down if you will catch it ; he that humbleth himself shall be exalted : Luke
xiv. 11, For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Or else if some men do attain to some
height, yet it proves unseemly for them, and their parts are not able to manage it, and so it proves their shame : as Prov. iii. 35, The wise shall
inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of fools. So also the greedy and eager devouring of pleasures is often the means, in the issue and event, to deprive men of the things they should have pleasure in : Prov. xxi. 17, He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man. Prodigal men having much by them lay all on the fire s back at once, and so come to a morsel of bread.
So idleness also doth, and at last the slothful man is fain to work for his
living, as the prodigal son did, and to be glad of husks. Last of all, God often useth the lust a man hath been most indulgent unto to be his ruin, his hangman and executioner- ; so Absalom s hair was to him, and Delilah was so to Samson.
Fourthly, If the objects and we should remain, yet the lust itself gives us the slip before the thing is gone
* The world passeth away, and the lusts of it. Often when the thing remains, and when the lust or stomach is gone, the sweetness is gone ; for nihil interest num non habeas aut non concupiscas ; for it is all one as if we had not the thing if we do not
: 1 John ii. 17,
desire it ; the stomach is the same to meat, without which the best meat is fulsome.
For (1.) Often a man s mind changeth ; for fancy and opinion being ihe
ground of lust, as a sick man s mind alters, so doth a wicked man s. His
Inst, which is his caterer and his keeper, with much cost, and care, and
pains, hath procured and dressed such a dish, which he longingly called
for, and ere it comes he hath no mind to it, but something else. A man s
lust sends him as a lacquey to purvey such a pleasure, &c., and when that is
obtained, or ere he is at his journey s end, it sends him upon some other
fool s errand as oft ; yea, and the more curious a man is to please his lusts, the more froward, wayward, and delicate do they grow, and the harder to
please; like cockered children, or men in consumption, when they have
spent much time in projecting and building some stately house, or have contrived some dish on which they might feed, before it is half finished, their
delight in it is gone ; as soon as the dish comes on the table their appetite is palled. Solomon s great orchards and buildings, Eccles. ii., were in the end no more to him than woods and cottages are to others, Eccles.
ii. 4, 5, 11.
(2.) A little sickness, or old age, or a cross, make onr lusts to vanish, though the objects remain, health being the salt to all blessings. In old
age, Eccles. xii. 1, men come to say, I have no pleasure in them ; yea, a
little affliction deadeneth a man s lusts, as the toothache vexeth more than the health of all the members doth delight. The affliction of an hour makes a man forget all pleasure, takes a man s heart from all, that all avails him
nothing, as it did Haman, Esther v. 11-13. Nay, if one wayward lust be crossed (as his was), one ounce of sorrow spoils a sea of pleasure ; for, segnius bona quam mala sentimus, we have a slower and duller sense of good than
evil.
Fifthly, In the end, when all objects shall be taken away, then the lust remains to a man s torment, as it will prove so in hell : Rev. xviii. 14, And the fruits that thy soul lusteth after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. All goodly things are departed ; they should seek
320 AN UNREGENERATE MAN*S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VIII.
them, and find them no more at all. Then oh for a drop of water ! what would the wretched man give for it ? But a man shall be kept close prisoner, and starved to death, and a worse death (if hell were no more) could not be invented.
Sixthly, Now, in the sixth place, let us inquire into the pleasure itself which men have in satisfying their lusts, and we shall find that men are
infinitely cheated and deceived in it, which will many ways evidently appear. For, 1 , lust pitcheth us upon taking pleasure in things the soul was never made for, in things which are unnatural to it; not only in unnatural unclean-
ness, spoken of Bom. i. 26, 27, but in revenge, in the hurt of others, in
disgracing, oppressing others, and building ourselves up on other men s ruins ; wherein the pleasure therefore cannot be great, because these are
objects not made for it, and is as if a man should find sweetness in his own
dung, eat man s flesh, or (as in some diseases) eat ashes and clay, &c. For
all pleasure ariseth from suitableness, and suitableness ariseth from God s
fitting things at the first ; those naturally and most fully delight the soul, as
that meat the palate, which naturally was made for it. Now the pleasures of unrighteousness, the soul was not made for, therefore they are against the
original genius of it, they are nothing but a wresting, and a forcing, and
wringing it the wrong way ; and all distorted motions have more pain than
pleasure to accompany them ; and therefore when a man sins his soul is
: Gal. vi. 1, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ; consider
put out of joint
ing thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Karogrftfrv, the word is, set him
right again.
But, 2, suppose it carries us on to take pleasure in those things that were made to perfect the soul, as learning, knowledge, and which refresh the body, as the lawful comforts of this life, yet lust hath made these less pleasant to
us ; for original sin and lust is a disease, a sickness and a distemper in the
soul, as may seem to be the meaning of Solomon, where, giving a reason of
7 and vexation of men in enjoying outward things, says he, Eccles.
that sorrow
v. 17, He eats in darkness all his days, and hath much sorrow with his
sickness. Men are not bodily sick all their days, but their minds are, and
so they have much sorrow in the use of all, by reason of the sickness and
distemper of their affections, for indeed, vivere est agrotare, to live in our
7s sick ; arid therefore Christ must come with heal
sinful state is to be alwa}
ing in his wings, Mai. iv. 2, when grace is renewed, which is the health of
the soul. And that it is a sickness is evident from the burning distemper, and violent aguish-fits of longing we are cast into, as Rachel was, when she
impatiently said, Gen. xxx. 1, Give me children, or else I die. It is
evident from that thirstiness and calling continually for drink, as Deut.
xxix. 19 ; that tossing from one side of the bed to another, that is, changing our stations, and conditions, and objects, and so thinking to ease ourselves, but not to cure ourselves. Now if it be so, then the pleasure is fulsome and
unnatural also, by reason of our vitiated palate, a sick sweetness ; and there
fore we think all beer bitter to us, that is, no creature can long please us ;
whereas, were our souls in health, all comforts would be sweet and comfort
able, and if a man had experience of a month s health, he would find them
so. But being led by lusts, falling into a fever, and also because the disease
is fed, not the man, who consumes more and more, is weakened and effemi
nated, for his restless endeavours to gratify his lusts, mollitiem et debilitatem
inducunt, suck out the vigour of that spirit which should sustain infirmities. So that we are unapt to bear crosses, are more unuseful to others, and weak
to help ourselves.
CHAP. VII. J IN BESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 821
3. If we examine the conception, the birth, and bringing up of all our
pleasures in sinning, we shall find that they are begotten, brought forth, trained up in sorrow; and that this is much more than the pleasure.
(1.) Because, unless there be some difficulty in attaining that we desire, we little care for a thing ; the more we are restrained by blocks in our way, by checks of conscience before (all which are painful to overcome), the more
eager are we ; and therefore stolen meat is sweet, Prov. ix. 17. Quod licet
ingratum est, quod non licet agrim urit : what is allowed us is ingrateful, what is prohibited more violently inflames us ; and the difficulty sets a price upon the sin.
(2.) Sorrow is the womb in, and the matter of, which all our pleasures in
sin are begotten. Pain is the sulphur of this blaze, the sauce to this sweet ; for the very desire, till satisfied, is a restless torture, it is but as the throb
bing of a boil, or the pain of the itch, which all men account a misery ; and
satisfying is but the breaking of the boil, it is rather ease than pleasure. So the Stoics defined it to be indolence, and that that was the utmost happiness man could attain to ; it is only putting the arm out of bed to cool a little. And that this desire is a torture, is evident by Amnon, who was lean from day to
day from the desire he had to Tamar, 2 Sam xiii. 2, 3 ; and by Ahab, who was sick for Naboth s vineyard, 1 Kings xxi. 4. And therefore yielding to a lust, is rather the quitting ourselves of the torment of such a desire which
is importunate, than any sweetness of enjoyment ; as the unjust judge yielded to the widow, to discharge himself of an importunate suitor. And without
strong desire no pleasure is found, for this is in proportion according to the
desire. To whom is meat sweet, but to him that is pained with hunger ?
else it is loathsome ; so as all satisfaction of lust is but a remedy for pain, a
privative pleasure rather than positive. And therefore our lusts put us to a
great deal of pains to please them, not suffering men to sleep unless they have done mischief : Hab. ii. 13, Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary them
selves for very vanity ? Men weary themselves for vanity, and take pains to do wickedly, whether in gathering riches, eating the bread of carefulness,
&c., or in aspiring after glory and a name. Mayans labor magna custodia fama, it is a great labour to preserve a great reputation. Credit is a costly
building, which costs much the rearing, and much the keeping in repair. Or
in pleasures, men tire themselves : the adulterer watcheth for the twilight ; men sit up late at cards and dice. Thus men are set to gather straw, as the Israelites by the Egyptians, with much care, as fuel and provision for
their lusts.
(3.) The pleasure in enjoying them is but the increasing the desire, which you saw before was a torture ; and so as a man satisfying them makes him
self more pain, more work, his going of one errand to please a lust occasioneth his being sent again, and still he is but the more weary. As drinking in a dropsy, though it seem to ease, yet it makes the thirst more ; and so the man s vexation is more by the gratification of his sinful desires : he adds but fuel to the fire, and all his pleasures are baits, not meat, that do not feed the man, but the desires ; and the yielding to them encourageth them to be more boldly importunate.
And yet, 4, these pleasures are but momentary, and die between our teeth, or slip like shadows from between our hands whilst we endeavour to grasp them ; they are but a blaze of straw, crackling of thorns, Eccles. vii. 6 ; none
of them are so long as one fit of an ague. If any of them are quick and lively, yet they perish in the very using
: yea, and so small are they, as that the VOL. x. x
322 AN UNREGENERATE MAN S GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK VIII.
painful desire was more contentment to the man than the fruition, the wooing time more delightful than the enjoying ; for then the heart was fed with
pleasing hopes of possessing some great good.
And, 5, they leave the heart full of sorrows, like sweet-singing birds, which men endeavouring to catch, thrusting in their hands on a sudden, are left in
the midst of thorns, and the bird is flown and gone. Riches have wings, so have pleasures
: Prov. xiv. 13, Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end is heaviness. Extrema gaudii luctus occupat, mourning still suc ceeds joy, and that appears many ways.
1st, Because the soul is left empty by them. The lust is satisfied, and the
soul gets nothing, is not bettered by it, but is consumed and weakened
rather. The disease is fed, and not the man ; as no sick man is nourished by
all the meat he takes; the soul is starved, the lust is only nourished. In
the parable of the prodigal, the swine (that is, his lusts) eat up all the husks, he could not get so much as them. Thus they say the devil eats all the
witches food when he feasts them. In a word, all the satisfaction is but
taking down wind into the body, Hosea xii. 1. Ephraim feeds on the wind, and Israel is a wild ass that snuffs up the wind, the desire of her heart, Jer.
ii. 24. And this emptiness vexeth : Eccles. v. 16, And this also is a sore
: and what profit hath he
evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go
that laboureth for the wind ? This is a sore thing, to labour for the wind; and therefore the soul goes still bleating up and down, lowing for fodder, as
starved as ever, like Pharaoh s lean kine.
2dly, Because the lust itself and the soul find a burthensomeness and a loathsomeness in the end. It is not emptiness only, but fulsomeness ; for
though a man is not nourished by them and so satisfied, yet he is cloyed and dulled with them, and then loathing comes, which is joined with sorrow, Prov. xxvii. 7. A full stomach loathes the honeycomb ; and so Amnon did
: prasentium tcedio Idboravnus, the object when
loathe Tamar when enjoyed
present becomes a burden, and oppresseth nature, for lust carries us to ex
cess, and excess is loathsome. \
3dly, Because a man can never satisfy~one lust, but he must displease another. Prodigality and luxury bring forth shame and poverty with it, at
the same time that it brings forth pleasure, or at least so as to take it by the heel. As in ministering physic to cool the liver, they spoil the stomach,
&c., so a man in laying up for one lust starves another; in heaping up
: Eccles. iv. 8, Yet is there no end
riches, he defrauds his soul of pleasures
of all his labour ; neither is his eye satisfied with riches ; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good ? This is also vanity,
yea, it is a sore travail. This is a sore evil, to go with an empty belly to
fill their chests ; as a man displeaseth one dear friend to pleasure another, and if he sits down he displeaseth both ; for every object a man is con
versant about, every lust comes about it, like so many swine to the trough, and
all put their mouths in, and as some are pleased, so some are displeased ; so as, James iv. 1-3, they are said to war in our members one against another, to interrupt the free enjoying one of another, and all fighting against the soul, that stands in the midst, and receives all the blows, 1 Peter ii. 11, and is pierced through with many sorrows, 1 Tim. vi. 9.
4thly, There is much sorrow mingled with them, because what we affect and desire, and do enjoy, we take care to keep, have perplexing fear of
losing them, and grieve answerably if we do lose them ; so as riches, honours,
pleasures increase, sorrows increase, for all these affections have pain joined to them : Eccles. v. 11, When goods increase, they are increased that eat them : and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding
CHAP. VII.] IN RESPECT OF SIN AND PUNISHMENT. 323
of them with their eyes ? When riches increase, they will not suffer a man
to sleep, as many clothes will not. Nabal s heart died for fear of losing what he so loved ; when the storm of David s anger was over, and the danger past, and when Nabal was got safe over the dangerous bridge, yet the conceit
killed him. When the heart is rooted in anything it delights in, the loss of
it tears out a piece of the heart ; therefore, Job xx. 15, God is said to tear and rake riches out of a covetous man s belly. David would have died
rather than have lost his Absalom, so inordinate was his grief, because
his love was so. Thus in regard of the things we desire and lust for, we
are like children that are fond of a man, and cry if he but seem to stir; and then when that is gone we are most affected with, we are vexed more than
ever we were pleased by the possession of it, and cry, We are undone !
Stultus quod perdidit amat; we are as a fool, who then begins to prize a
thing when he hath lost it.
5thly, Because there is a sting left behind, the sting of conscience ; there
fore the gratification of our lusts hath more pain than pleasure in it, it bites
as a cockatrice: Prov. xxiii. 31, 32, Look not thou upon the wine when
it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright :
at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. It is a dart
that strikes through the liver, that wounds the soul, and though the wound
is not felt in hot blood, whilst the man is in eager pursuit of his lust, yet at
night when he is cooled, then these wounds will ache and throb, and make him subject to the fear of death all his lifetime ; the sin will beat him at
night, notwithstanding all his pains to commit it, as the taskmasters did the
Israelites. Though men kindle blazes of pleasures, which yet are but sparks, and walk in the comfort of them a while, yet they lie down in sorrow, Isa.
1. 11. And in hell, so much torment there will be, in proportion to the
pleasures which men have had in sin: James v. 1, Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Rev. xviii. 7, 8,
1 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her : for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no
widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one
day, death, and mourning, and famine ; and she shall be utterly burnt with
fire : for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. Hear, and seriously consider this, you who have lived in pleasure, and nourished yourselves
deliciously with sinful delights ; yea, and those things which have been the instruments of your lusts shall most be punished ; as Dives his tongue, which was the conduit-pipe of his pleasure, was now the vessel of his pain.
AN UNREGENERATE MAJ s GUILTINESS BEFORE GOD, [BOOK IX.