SER M. nature. Infomuch that we fhall, with a mighXXIX. ty emphasis, be denominated dead and cruci~fied. Rom. viii. 10. If Chrift bein you, the bo

dy is dead because of fin, fays St. Paul and he fays of himself in another place, Gal. ii. 20. I am crucified with Christ.

And yet as great and difficult a thing as this is, it is the fure mark of distinction between those that are truly Chrift's and those who are none of his. And it is not difficult for a perfon to form a judgment of himself from hence, whether he be a true and fincere Chriftian, or in profeffion only. The Apostle hath put the matter upon a fhort and peremptory iffue, Rom. viii. 13. If ye live after the flefh, ye fhall die; but if ye through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. What then must they think of themselves, who grow old in their fins, and through the whole courfe of their lives never have one ferious thought of crucifying their affections and lufts, nor ever decline the gratifying of any of them in all inftances wherein they may do it without an open violation of the rules of civility, and the laws of the land? Should you point one of these men out, and tell him that he is no Chriftian, or that it is mockery to call himself fo, he would take fire at the affront, and though perhaps he hath an inward contempt for all revealed religion, and not the leaft regard for it left, if he were to be cut off from the body of the church by excommunication, he would oppofe it with all

his worldly fubftance, and to his ability SER M. would ftir up all the powers of Earth and XXIX. Hell to wreck his revenge upon those who fhould attempt it; and all this for the name of Chriftian, which will ferve for no other purpose, but to render his damnation the more infupportable. With fuch monftrous abfurdity and contradiction do men act in religion, who in all the things of this world are very quick and difcerning.

But I am fenfible how little any difcourfe of this nature is like to touch thofe that are paft feeling. I wish I could tell what to say that might leave a deep impreffion upon the minds of fuch, who having a plentiful fortune, and being in eafy circumftances, never think of these feverer duties of religion, and who, though they are guilty of nothing grofs and exorbitant, yet indulge themselves in all tenderness and delicacy; live in wantonnefs and luxury, and who make it the study of their lives to gratify every longing defire, infomuch, that they are scared with the very expreffion of crucifying their lufts and affecti

ons.

It is for this very reafon our Saviour fays, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, because of the infuperable difficulty there is in reftraining and mortifying our vitious inclinations, where there is affluence and abundance of the things of this world to gratify them all. They would do well to confider our Saviour's fimilitude is drawn

SERM. from a natural impoffibility, and that he reXXIX. folves the work of their falvation into the miraculous and extraordinary power of God.

2. The other motive I shall mention, is a very strong one, though drawn from the text by implication only, that is, that unless we crucify them, they will crucify us and be our tormentors both in this world and the next.

How far unmortified appetites and paffions unrestrained conduce to render people miserable in this life, is the obfervation of every day. All the miferies that come upon human nature proceed from this caufe; and you shall rarely hear of any perfon ruined and undone, but it is originally from the gratifying of these : And how many inftances are there of perfons, who, by one fingle act of gratifying a luft or diforderly paffion at their firft fetting out in the world, have entailed upon themselves a feries of miferies for their whole life; and by making but one falfe ftep, have never been able to recover it. In fome this happens all at once; in the cafe of others, the mischief steals upon them more gradually, fooner or later, as they give way to the indulgence of their finful lufts and affections.

But where it never comes to this extremity, there is not fo poor a wretch as he that hath given himself up to the flavery of his fenfual appetites and inordinate affections; and is come to that pafs, that he is ever easy or uneafy in his mind, juft as thefe are gratified or difappointed; then it is in the power of every

body

body and every thing to ruffle and difcompose SE R M. him, to break his reft and deftroy his quiet; XXIX. any one with the breath of his mouth may raise a storm in his breaft, and make it work like the troubled fea; and he is never without perpetual uneafinefs when all things do not fuit his fancy and humour, and exactly hit his guft and relish.

Now this fhews itself much more when men grow into years, when all their bodily appetites decay; when these become languid and feeble, then they are nice and curious; there is perpetual vexation and anxiety in the humouring of them; they are more craving than ever, and yet more difficult to be gratified; and that which compleats the mifery of this condition is, that at the fame time the appetites grow weaker, the paffions grow ftronger, and both of them much more difficult to be rectified and overcome than ever; infomuch that it is an observation well worth laying to heart,namely,that unless men obtain a conqueft and mastery over their lufts and paffions in the ftrength and vigour of their life, when they are in their greatest force and violence, the work is hardly ever to be done to good effect afterwards.

But there are yet worse effects of giving way to the inordinate and irregular paffions and affections of the mind; for by a long and habitual indulgence of any of them, they often gain fuch an afcendency over a man, that he shall be intirely out of his own power, and it shall end in fome degree of frenzy and distraction.

SE RM. I do not fay that this is always the caufe of a XXIX. disturbed imagination and disordered reason;

but it is more commonly fo than is generally believed; and it is often a degree of madness before it goes by that name. The disorder of the head begins in the heart; they set their hearts upon fome worldly enjoyment, upon which their minds dwell fo long, and all their affections are fo intenfely employed upon it, that their thoughts are fixed; and that alone can move them, and every thought or mention of it moves them intemperately. This fame holds true in a great variety of inftances of this fort; infomuch, that nothing is more ordinary than to fee people so far gone in the habitual indulgence of fome finful affection, that they are past all cure, from the reafonings either of themselves or others; and when they are thus poffeft with their own, as with an evil spirit, it hurries them on to many extravagancies, and cafts them fometimes into the fire, and fometimes into the water. Nor will the diforder of their reafon take away the guilt of the fins they are betrayed into by this, it being all wilful in its caufe, and fhould have been prevented by a timely restraint and regulation of those paffions which have brought them to that.

This I take to be much the cafe of melancholy. It is true, fome conftitutions are more disposed for it than others; but in all, when it is indulged to that degree as to impair the reafon, it too often proceeds from the preda

minance