The worst Enemy conquered.

A

BRIEF DISCOURSE

ON

THE METHODS AND MOTIVES

TO PURSUE

A VICTORY

OVER THOSE

HABITS OF SIN,

WHICH WAR AGAINST THE SOUL.

DELIVERED, ON JUNE 6, 1698, the day for election of officers, IN THE ARTILLERY-COMPANY, AT BOSTON.

NUNQUAM BELLA BONIS, NUNQUAM CERTAMINA DESUNT; ET QUOCUM CERTET, MENS PIA SEMPER HABET.

BOSTON IN NEW ENGLAND.

PRINTED BY BARTHOLOMEW green, and John Allen.

1698.

PREFACE.

Ir that original sin, which is the original of all our actual sins and plagues, were not the sensible complaint of them that profess the Christian religion, I know no religion commonly received any where in all the world, that would not by its concessions and confessions of that ancient evil, greatly condemn their insensibility. To combat first, and then to conquer, that worst Enemy, of which we daily, and sadly complain, that man is no Christian, who reckons it not a main business of every Christian. Behold then, a brief Discourse, that cannot but be sure of a welcome with every Christian reader, which it had with many a Christian hearer, when it was first uttered by the lively preacher. That a copy of this acceptable and profitable Sermon, with the least alteration possible from the terms in which it was first uttered, is thus come abroad, is not at all owing to the author himself, whose modesty does equal and adorn his other excellent accomplishments, but unto some others, who could not feed on this honey out of the rock, without imparting it. Of this worthy young minister, I would have used some expressions, that Chrysostom once used of young Timothy; if I had not chosen it, as more agreeable unto the language of our own country, rather to say on this occasion, as old Mr. Cotton did, in an assembly of our pastors, when an hopeful young minister had just been preaching before them, Truly, brethren, such young men as this, are, spes gregis, and such a sermon from such a young man, is therefore of much more comfortable account, than it would have been from any of us older men. Let New England thankfully and fruitfully rejoice, in such tokens for good!

Cotton Mather.

SERMON.

1 COR. ix. 26, 27.

"So fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection."

ONE of the most lively similitudes under which the life of a believer is expressed and set forth, is that of a warfare, which is a life not of ease and idleness, but attended with many hazards, and hardships, and which every Christian must endeavor to endure as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. As a soldier converses with many dangers and difficulties, and dwells as it were continually in the very territories of death, and the grave; so the life of a Christian is so full either of visible or invisible difficulties, temptations, and dangerous assaults, with which he must enter the lists, and is exposed to encounter; as that he may be said daily to pass the pikes, and for to carry his soul continually in his hand. The devil the captain-general and commander of the black regiment of hell, is restless in his attempts; like him (who whether conquered or did conquer) was never quiet if so be either by himself or his instruments, he may swallow us up, and utterly destroy us. The world, the men of it; some of these are the militia and auxiliaries of Satan, enemies to the truth, and therefore continually opposing, both it, and its professors and as for the things of the world, the honors, pleasures and profits of it, these have their snares, and stratagems. And as by the flatteries and allurements of these, the devil would fain have overcome our Lord Jesus Christ, the captain himself: so also by the same, would he fain overcome those that are his followers, and who have listed themselves under that captain. But besides the many foreign, a Christian hath many inbred and domestic adversaries; we have enemies of our own house there are not only the temptations of the devil, the oppositions of the world, which we have to conflict with; but there are also the lusts of the flesh. The holiest man that ever trod upon the face of the

earth, (except the Son of man, that man Christ Jesus, who was not a mere man, but the eternal Son of God, and God manifest in the flesh,) except him, that best of men, that ever blest the earth with their residence upon it, have had flesh lusting in them, unto sin; and sometimes leading them into captivity, and making them bond slaves for a season: and this enemy is more frequent and constant in his assaults and bickerings, than a Christian's other enemies. If his foreign or external enemies, do at any time stand still, sin, that treacherous inmate and cursed adversary, will rarely give him any truce or respite at all. If there be a cessation (for a time) of the former, he can scarce pass an hour without many fights and skirmages with the latter. As therefore a good soldier must not spare so much as one enemy, when he hath such a command and commission given him: so a Christian must not spare so much as any one iniquity or lust; his orders from his great Commander and Lawgiver are so but he must endeavor the suppressing, beating down and conquering the same. And how strong and strenuous the apostle Paul was, (who frequently speaks of himself as a soldier, not only as he was a minister of the gospel, but also as he was a Christian : I say how strong and strenuous he was,) as in his spiritual warfare in general, so in particular in beating down his internal enemies; sin and lust: we shall see if we reflect a little upon the latter part of the chapter before us, and particularly the words that have been read unto you. The apostle having in the former part of the chapter, been declaring his liberty in reference to marriage; as also his requiring of maintenance of them among whom he had been laboring in the work of the ministry; and yet how he had abridged himself, and forborne to use the same, that so he might not be overburdensome to them; nor hinder the progress and success of the gospel among them: he doth in the latter part of the chapter, particularly at the 24th verse, endeavor to press his former discourse, by telling them the difficulties of getting to heaven, and also the obligation they lay under to run in that race, and to contend in that warfare, that would bring them thereto. The method chosen by the apostle to do this in, is borrowing an elegant similitude from some of those games the Romans and Corinthians were wont to divert and exercise themselves in. There were several sorts of games celebrated, as the Pythean, the Nemean, the Olympic and the Isthmean games: the latter of which was most proper to Greece. And in which games there were wont to be running and wrestling, and riding, and other feats of activity; by which the apostle doth endeavor to set forth the difficulty that there is in, and the labor that must be exercised by those that would strive and fight in, the way to heaven. And that he might further prevail with them so to run, as to win the prize, so to fight the good fight, as to obtain

the crown; he sets before them the examples not only of other runners and wrestlers, who were wont to be careful and painful, in dieting and ordering themselves before, and straining and putting themselves forth to the utmost in their race and combat (though the crown and garland for which they strove, was mean and inconsiderable, (yea nothing,) compared with that, which the apostle with those to whom he spake, labored and contended for; the former being a corruptible, the latter a crown that is incorruptible) I say, the apostle doth not only set before them the examples of those gamesters, to press them to their duty: But he also proposes to them his own example, telling them what he himself did, and also would do. Like the valiant commander, who doth not say to his soldiers (in an arduous and difficult encounter) Ite illuc, go forth thither, as if they were to go forth upon service, and he tarry behind in his tent; but, Venite huc, come ye hither, follow me, you shall go no further than I will venture my own life. The apostle knew full well, that those that are indisposed and uninclined to duty; if those that dictate duty to them, and exhort them to the performance of it, are slothful and negligent in duty themselves, (I say,) he knew full well, how that those that are uninclined and indisposed to duty, might be ready to allege the old proverb, Physician, heal thyself: Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? To anticipate therefore, and prevent every thing of this nature, and to draw them to be active, industrious and very diligent in their spiritual warfare, he tells them, he ran in the same spiritual race with them, contended in the same spiritual warfare, that he was their fellow-soldier; and gave them no other advice than he himself practised and would only have them follow himself, as Gideon said to his army, Judges vii. 17. "Look on me and do likewise, as I do so shall I do so shall ye do."

In the words of our text, we have the apostle asserting and declaring, how he fought, and behaved himself, in his spiritual warfare; and this the apostle lays down,

1. Negatively. So fight I, as one not beating the air.

2. Positively. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection. Where we have,

1. The object, or enemy that he encountered or combated with: in those words, my body.

2. The act, or manner how he managed himself towards that object, or enemy; and this is expressed by two terms. (1.) I keep under my body. (2.) I bring it into subjection.

So fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body. He fought, but it was not as one that beateth the air. He did not act like a young fencer, making only a flourish, and beating only the air; but he fought in good earnest, and beat his adversaries, (the enemies of his salvation.)