, for truly, upon a just reckoning, it will be
found that the anxiety, and grief, and bitterness, that is intermingled
with all earthly delights, swallows up the sweetness of them,) yet it will
but carry you down ere you be aware, into the sea of death and
destruction, as the fish that swim and sport for a while in Jordan, are
carried down into the Dead sea of Sodom, where they are presently
suffocated and extinguished,(210) or, as a malefactor is carried through a
pleasant palace to the gallows, so men walk through the delights of their
flesh, to their own endless torment and destruction.

Seeing then, my beloved, that your sins and lusts which you are inclined
and accustomed to, will certainly kill you, if you entertain them, then
nature itself would teach you the law of self-defence,--to kill, ere you be
killed, to kill sin, ere it kill you,--to mortify the deeds and lusts of
the body, which abound among you, or they will certainly mortify you, that
is, make you die. Now, if self love could teach you this, which the love
of God cannot persuade you to, yet it is well, for being once led unto
God, and moved to change your course, upon the fear and apprehension of
the infinite danger that will ensue. Certainly if you were but a little
acquainted with the sweetness of this life, and goodness of your God, you
would find the power of the former argument _a debito_, from debt and
duty, upon your spirit. Let this once lead you unto God, and you will not
want that which will constrain you to abide, and never to depart from him.

If you mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. As sin decays, you
increase and grow, as sins die, your souls live, and it shall be a sure
pledge to you of that eternal life. And though this be painful and
laborious yet consider, that it is but the cutting off of a rotten member,
that would corrupt the whole body, and the want of it will never maim or
mutilate the body, for you shall live perfectly when sin is perfectly
expired, and out of life, and according as sin is nearer expiring, and
nearer the grave, your souls are nearer that endless life. If this do not
move us, what can be said next? What shall he do more to his vineyard?

Sermon XXXV.

Verses 13, 14.--"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but
if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye
shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God."

The life