Use 1. Believe the promises, for they are most sure and certain. God's testimony of the good things he will bestow upon us cannot deceive us, or beget a vain and uncertain hope. His promise is a testimony of his will, and against his power nothing can stand. ' There sliall be a performance of those things spoken of by the Lord,' Luke i. 4.5.
2. Esteem them : Heb. xi. 13, ' These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were per- suaded of them, and embraced them.' We can never embrace them till we are persuaded of their truth. But then consider their worth. Great is the stupidity of those who are nothing taken with these things. If a great man engages himself any way, we make great reckoning of his word ; and shall we not make great matter of the word of God, and esteem his promises ? Esteem them so as to get them at any price, Mat. xiii. 46. Sell all for the pearl of price. Esteem them so as to be contented with a mean condition in the world. Though God keeps us low, it is enough to be ' made partakers of his holiness : ' Heb. xii. 10, ' For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure ; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.' Esteem them so as to perform the duties required, Ps. cxix. 14 ; esteem them so as to keep up your rejoicing in Christ : Phil, iii. 8-10, ' I count all things but loss for the excellency of the know- ledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ; ' and ver. 3, ' We are the circum- cision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.'
3. Labour to improve the belief of every promise for the increase of holiness, that we may be like God, pure and holy as he is : 2 Cor. vii. 1, ' Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.'
THE FIFTH SEHMON. [jIaRK IX. 40.
SERMON V.
For every one slmll he salted icithjirc, and every sacrifice shall be salted icith salt. — Mark IX. 49.
In tlio context you have a caution which our Lord g^ives against scandals and offences given to others, either by defection from tlie truth, or by a sinful conversation. And —
1. He intimates the cause of these scandals, which is some beloved lust ; and tiiat is better mortified than satisfied. There is something precious, profitable, and pleasant in our opinion, estimation, and afiec- tion, that calls us from God, and the duties we owe to him, and apprehended by us as so necessary for us, that we can no more spare it than a right eye, a right hand, or a right foot.
2. Our Lord compares the loss of satisfaction in such lusts with the danger of perishing for ever ; and shows that (all things considered) it were better to be deprived of this profit, pleasure, or honour, than to lose eternal life, and run the hazard of eternal death. Either that I)leasure or lust must be denied, or we perish for ever. The right hand must be cut off, or else we shall be cast into hell-fire.
3. Our Lord shows the danger of perishing for ever, amplified by a notable description, ' Their worm never dies, and their fire shall never be quenched.' The scripture lisps to us in our own dialect, and speaks in such notions we can best understand, and therefore repre- sents the state of the danmed by what is terrible to sense. By the worm is meant the anguish of conscience, by fire the wrath of God. Memoria j)rceleritorum, sensus presentium, metus futurorum. The torment of the wicked arises partly from their own consciences. There is a vexing remembrance of what is past, their folly in the neglect of grace ; and there is a bitter sense of that doleful state into which they have now plunged themselves, and a fear of what is yet to come. Now, beside this remorse for their folly, there is also a ' fire that shall never be quenched,' or the sharp torments that are prepared for the wicked.
4. Here is a collation or comparison of opposites — the pains of hell, with the trouble of mortification. First or last we nuist endure tioubles and difficulties. Now it is much more eligible to take pains in the mortifying of sin, than to bear eternal [)ains in the punishment of it. This is that which is expressed in the text, ' For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.' In the words —
1. Observe, a double salting, either idth fire or loith salt ; the one referring to one sort of people, and the other to the other. They agree in the common nature : for salt is of a fiery nature, and apt to consume ; but they differ in the matter to be consumed, i^alt con- sumes the supeifluous moisture, which is apt to cause putrefaction ; but the fire consumes the substance itself ; so that to be salted with fire is to be given up to everlasting destruction. Fire consumeth all things; and God is called ' a consuming fire' to the wicked, Heb. xii. 29.