As there is no fighting with a mighty fire, so there is no bearing up when God sets home sin upon the conscience ; a man will then choose strangling or hanging, rather than living under such wounds and lashes of conscience. Histories abound with instances of this nature ; but I must hasten to a close.
[2.] Secondly, Fire is most dangerous and pernicious when it breaks forth of the chimne}^, or of the house ; so it is with sin. Sin is bad in the eye, worse in the tongue, worser in the heart, but worst of all in the life. Fire, when out of its proper place, may do much hurt in the house, but when it flames abroad, then it doth most mischief to others, 2 Sam. xii. 9-15.
Sin in the heart may undo a man, but sin in the life may undo others as well as a man's self. Set a guard upon the eye, a greater upon thy heart, but the greatest of all upon thy life, Job xxxi. 1, Prov. iv. 23, Eph. v. 15.
Salvian relates how the heathen did reproach some Christians, who by their lewd lives made the gospel of Christ to be a reproach. ' Where/ said they, 'is that good law which they do believe? Where are those rules of godliness which they do learn? They read the holy Gospel, and yet are unclean ; they hear the apostles' writings, and yet are drunk ; they follow Christ, and yet disobey Christ ; they jirofess a holy law, and j^et do lead impure lives.3
But the lives of other Christians have been so holy, that the very heathens observing them, have said, Surely this is a good God, whose servants are so good.
It is brave4 when the life of a Christian is a commentary upon Christ's lii'e.
One speaking of the Scripture, saith [Augustine], verba vivenda, uon legenda, they are words to be lived, and practised, not read only.
A heathen [Plutarch] adviseth us to demean ourselves so circum- spectly, as if our enemies did always behold us. And said another [EpictetusJ, For shame, either live as Stoics, or leave off the name of Stoics ; sirs, live as Christians, or lay down the name of Christians.
1 Dr Denison's 'Threefold Resolution,1 par, ii. sect. 2. 8 Salvianus, de G. D. 1. 4.
2 MenlirU, Cain, Thou lieat, Cain, saith one on Iho text. * Koble, good. — G.
1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 257
[3.] Thirdly, Fire hardens, it makes the weak and limber clay to become stiff and strong for the potter's use. So sin hardens : it hardens the heart against the commands of God, the calls of Christ, and the wrestlings of the Spirit. And as you see in Pharaoh, the Jews, and most that are under the sound of the gospel, Jer. v. 3, xix. 15 ; Isa. ix. 13.
Ah I how many hath this fire — sin — hardened in these days, by work- ing them to slight soul-softening means, and by drawing them to entertain hardening thoughts of God, and to fall in with soul-hardening company, and soul-hardening principles, and soul-hardening examples of hardened and unsensible sinners, Jer. ii. 25, xviii. 12. One long since thus complained, that they did, patientius ferre Ghristi jacturam, quam suam, more calmly pass by the injuries done to Christ, than those which are done unto themselves. This age is full of such hardened unsensible souls.
[4.] Fourthly, Fire is a lively active element, so is sin.
Ah ! how lively and active was this fire in Abraham, David, Job, Peter, Paul, and other saints ! Though Christ by his death hath given it its mortal wound, yet it lives, and is and will be active in the dearest saints. Though sin and grace were not born together, neither shall they die together ;. yet while believers live in this world, they must live together. There is a history that speaks of a fig-tree that grew in a stone-wall, and all means was used to kill it. They cut off the branches and it grew again, they cut down the body and it grew again, they cut it up by the root and still it lived and grew, until they pulled down the stone-wall ; till death shall pull down our stone-walls, sin will live, this fire will burn,1
We may say of sin as some say of cats, that they have many lives ; kill them and they will live again, kill them again and they will live again ; so kill sin once and it will live again, kill it again and it will live again, &c. Sin oftentimes is like that monster Hydra, cut off one head and many will rise up in its room.2
[5.] Fifthly, Fire is of a penetrating nature, it pierceth and wiDdeth itself into every corner and chink, and so doth sin wind itself into our thoughts, words, and works. It will wind itself into our understand- ings to darken them, and into our judgments to pervert them, and into our wills to poison them, and into our affections to disorder themr and into our consciences to corrupt them, and into our carriages3 to debase them Sin will wind itself into every duty and every mercy, it will wind itself into every one of our enjoyments and concernments.
Hannibal having overcome the Romans, put on their armour on his soldiers, and so by that policy, they being taken for Romans, won a city ; \mt what are Hannibal's wiles to sin's wiles or Satan's wiles ? If you have a mind to be acquainted with their wiles, look over my treatise, called, ' Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices.'
[6.]. Sixth and lastly, Fire is a devouring, a consuming element,
1 Isidore the monk was very much out, who vaunted that he had folt in himself no motion to sin forty years together..
2 Isa. i. 5, 6, Horn. vii. 13, 17. Sin is malum catholicum, a catholic evil. Quodcunqnc mpeccato, peccaium est, whatsoever is in sin is sin.
3 ' W alk and conversation' = conduct or actions. — G.
258 . APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNGS XIV. 13.
Ps. xxi. 9. It turns all fuel into ashes. It is a wolf that eats up all So sin is a fire that devours and consumes all ; it turned Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes ; it hath destroyed the Chaldean, Persian, and Grecian kingdoms, and will at last destroy the Roman kingdom also. This wolf ate up Samson's strength, Absalom's beauty, Ahithophel's policy, and Herod's glory, &c. It hath drowned one world already, ami will at last burn another, even this.1 Oh the hopes, the hearts, the happiness, the joys, the comforts, the souls that this fire, sin, hath "consumed and destroyed ! &c.
Peter Camois, a bishop of Berry in France, in his Draught of Eternity, tells us, that some devout personages caused those words of the prophet Isaiah to be written in letters of gold upon their chimney-pieces : ' Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings T Isa. xxxiii. 14.
Ah ! young men, young men, I desire that you may always look upon sin under the notion of fire, yea, as such fire as lays the founda- tion for everlasting fire, for everlasting burnings ; and this may work when other things will riot.