3. Salt makes things savoury, so grace makes us savoury ; which may be interpreted with respect either to God or man.
[1.] Acceptable to God when seasoned with this salt, for God would aecept of no sacrifice without it. Not that he tasted of their meat- offerings, or did eat the fat or flesh of bulls and goats, and drink their blood, and so would have it seasoned for his palate and appetite ; it is not so to be understood ; but in types as well as in similitudes there is a condescension to our sense and apprehension of things. That that is salted is savoury, therefore God would note his acceptation of our persons and services this way. By nature we are all odious, unsavoury, and distasteful to God by reason of sin : Ps. xiv. 3, ' They are all become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no not one : ' in the Hebrew, it is putrified, stinking like corrupt and rotten flesh. We must be salted and seasoned by the grace of Christ, and so we become amiable and acceptable in the sight of God, The more upright we are, the more he delighteth in us.
[2.] To men : the more we are thus salted and mortified, the more shall we do good to others. Our Lord tells his disciples, Mat. v. 13, ' Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.' This is spoken to the disciples as disciples, not as apostles and public persons. It is a mistake to think that only ministers are the light of the world and the salt of the world. No ; all Christians must shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation ; all Christians must be as the salt of the earth. Christ's whole sermon contains general duties, and the disciples were not yet sent abroad as apostles, nor ever heard of such a commission, or that their master would send them abroad for the pro- selyting the world to the kingdom of God : that was done afterwards, chap. X., and therefore here he speaks to Christians as Christians. Now, they are said to be salt, even as they season all those among whom
OOg THE FIFTH SERMON. [MaRK IX. 49.
they live. A Christian is never savoury in his conversation witli others till he hath salt in himself ; then all his actions are seasoned with f^ace, and heget a rememhrance of God ; then his words are seasoned with grace, and do good to others. The apostle saith, Eph. iv. 29, ' Lot no corrupt communication come out of your mouth ;' that rotten and corrupt communication which vents itself in slandering, railing, ribaldry, foolish jesting at holy things, lies, cursing, and the like : all these come from a corrupt heart, as a stinking breath argues rotten lungs. These want the grace of mortification : so are all saji- less spirits, that cannot speak anything of God seriously, but in their most serious discourse are as fresh as water. But go among the mor- tified, and you receive the savour of good things from them ; you have not only savoury prayers and savoury sermons, but savoury confer- ences and discourses: Col. iv. 6, ' Let your speech be alway powdered with salt ;' that is, do not speak idly, much less profanely, but in an edifying manner. Now, Christians ought to take heed they do not lose their savouriness, for then they do not please God nor profit man, and are fit for nothing but the dunghill. Thus I have proved the second thing, that the grace of mortification is the true salt that sea- sons Christians.
III. There is a necessity of this salt in all those that have entered into covenant with God, and have dedicated and devoted themselves to him.
1. By our covenant vow we are bound to the strictest duties, and that upon the highest penalties. The duty to which we are bound is very strict. We have answered God in all the demands of his cove- nant: 1 Peter iii. 21, 'For baptism saveth as the answer of a good conscience towards God.' The Lord demands and puts in effect this question, Will you die unto sin and live unto righteousness ? This is the tenor of the baptismal covenant that is so often, so solemnly, re- newed at the Lord's Supper ; and you are to ' reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin and alive unto righteousness, through Christ Jesus our Lord,' Rom. vi. 11 ; reckon yourselves, that is, in vow and obligation. And the penalty is very high if we sin wilfully, Heb. x. 26 ; so that oui admission into Christ's family will be in vain, yea, to our further ruin if you do not stand to the covenant, if you keep sin still alive, and add fuel to the flames.
2. The abundance of sin that yet remains in us, and the marvellous activity of it in our souls. We cannot get rid of this cursed inmate till our tiibernacle be dissolved, and this house of clay tumbled into the dust. Paul groaned sorely under it : ' 0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? ' Ptom. vii. 24. And it is called ' sin that doth easily beset us,' Heb. xii. 1. Well, then, since sin is not nullified, it must be mortified. It works, it wars, there is a marvellous activity in it, it is very active and restless : Rom. vii. 8, ' yin wrought in me all manner of concupiscence ;' he means sinful nature. And the apostle James tells us, chap. iv. 5, 'The .spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy.' There is not a sleepy, but a stir- ring principle always inclining us to evil, and hindering that which is good. Sin doth not only make us a little flexible and yielding to temj)tations, but doth hurry us and impel us thereunto. It is ' a law warring in our members, that brings us into captivity to sin,' Rom.