Dying to Pleasure, Living to God
In dying, to pleasure, even the most innocent, we shall live to God.
Types of Pleasure
There are four different types of pleasure:
Sensual pleasures — of the eyes, ears, taste, smell, ease, indulgence, etc.
Pleasures of the heart — attachments, entanglements, creaturely love, unmortified friendships.
Pleasures of the mind — curious books, deep studies, vain speculations after knowledge, curiosity in daily news, wit and humour, fine speech.
Pleasures of the imagination — plans, delights, daydreamings.
Why We Deny Ourselves
God requires that we should deny ourselves in all these respects, because:
1. God will have the heart, which he cannot have if pleasure has it: and God is a jealous God.
2. There is no solid union with God until, in a Christian sense, we are dead to creature comforts.
3. God is purity — seeking after pleasure is the cause of almost all our sins — the bait of temptation.
4. God calls us to show our faith and love by a spirit of sacrifice. Pleasure is Isaac.
5. Denying ourselves, counting our life as nothing, dying daily, crucifying the flesh, putting off the old man, are Gospel precepts: so is cutting off the right hand, plucking out the right eye, and forsaking all to follow Christ.
6. God makes no exceptions. All the offending members must be cut off, every leak must be stopped; otherwise the corrupting pleasure spared gets more entrenched in the person.
7. Pleasures render the soul less capable of the operations of the Spirit, and obstruct Divine consolations.
Human Nature Loves Pleasure
Now, human nature is loves seeking for pleasure, and lives upon sensuality. The senses, heart, mind, and imagination, always pursue objects that will gratify them.
We love pleasure so as to deprive ourselves of every thing to enjoy it in some kind or other; and we undergo hardships to achieve it. Our nature is disappointed if it fails in this pursuit; and yet, if our nature is indulged and pleasure is sought after, grace must be starved.
Earthly pleasures corrupt us. For example, that of taste, if indulged, spreads through, corrupts, and dissipates all the powers of the soul and body. This is dangerous, as it hides under a mask of necessity, and pretends to lawful. It does all the mischief of a concealed traitor. It betrays with -a kiss, poisons with honey, wounds in its smiles, and kills while it promises happiness.
Indulgence renders us incapable of suffering anything; and stands continually in the way of our doing, as well as suffering the will of God. It is much easier, therefore, to flee from pleasure than to remain within its enjoyments.
The greatest saints find nothing is so difficult, nothing makes them tremble so much as the use of pleasure; for it requires the strictest watchfulness and the most vigorous attention. We must walk steadily so we can walk safely, on the brink of a precipice.
There is an absolute necessity of dying to pleasure: The earthly senses must be spiritualized; the sensual heart purified; the wandering mind fixed; the foolish imagination made sober.
Worldly pleasures are all little, low, and transitory, and a hindrance to our own good. Much moderation, however, is to be used in the choice and degree of our mortifications. Through pride, nature often prompts us to great extremes, which hurt the body, and sometimes lead the mind into harm and stubbornness.
But to know, and walk in the right path of self denial is difficult and we are in need of much encouragement to follow this path.
(Dying to Pleasure by John Fletcher Revised Edited 2024)
