Mark IX. 49.] the fifth sermon. 229
vii. 23. Corrupt nature is not a tame thing, that works not till it be irritated by the suggestions of Satan or temptations of the world, but is like a living spring, that pours out water of its own accord ; it will not let us alone. The heart of man is evil continually, and so it alwaj's hinders us from that that is good : Rom. vii. 21, ' When I would do good, evil is present with me.' It blunts the edge of our affections, it seeks to weaken our purposes by unbelieving thoughts, or drawing us away from God by the lure of some sensitive delight ; in stealing our hearts from him in the very duties and solemn addresses we make to him ; distracting our minds with thoughts of the world, and the pomp and glory thereof ; and so turns our very duties into sin, and makes us lose the comfort and sweetness of them : it blasts and perverts our most sincere endeavours. Well, then, without this salt of the covenant, if this be so, what shall we do ? Have we not need to keep humble and watchful ? If sin be stirring, we must be stirring against it, and improve the grace of the Holy Spirit upon the account of Christ's death, and use all good means that it may be subdued in us.
3. Consider the sad consequences of letting sin alone, both either as to further sin or punishment.
[1.] As to further sin. For Christ speaks here of scandals. If lust be not mortified, it grows outrageous ; it has foiled us before God, men, and angels, and exposed us to an open shame, or hardens us in a dead, careless course. Lusts let alone end in gross sins, and gross sins in final apostasy. Love of pleasure will end in drunkenness, or adul- tery, or the rage of unclean desires, or else in such a vain, light, frothy spirit, which is no way fit for religion. Envy will end in mischief and violence, if not in murder. Judas, by his covetousness, was brought to betray his master. Gehazi was first surprised with covetousness, then blasted with leprosy, and then became a shame and burthen to himself. The devil trietli by lust to bring us to sin, and by sin to shame, and by shame to horror and despair. But do the children of God run into such notable excesses and disorders ? Yes ; when they let sin alone, discontinue the exercise of mortification ; when they do not remember the sacrifice must be salted with salt. Witness David, who ran into lust and blood. Witness Peter, who ran into denying Christ with oaths and execrations. Witness Solomon, who ran into sensuality and idolatry. And in all of us, old sins, long since laid asleep, may awake again and hurry us into spiritual mischiefs and in- conveniences, if we make not use of this holy salt.
[2.] As to punishment. Sins prove mortal if they be not modified. Either sin must die or the sinner. There is an evil in sin, and there is an evil after sin. The evil in sin is the violation of Gods righteous law ; the evil after sin is the just punishment of it, eternal death and damnation. Now, those that are not sensible, or will not be sensible, of the evil that is in sin, they shall be made sensible of the evil that comes after sin. The unmortified person spares the sin and destroys his own soul ; the sin lives, but he dies. In the prophet's parable to the king of Israel, when he had let go the Syrian, saith he, ' Thy life shall go for his life;' so our lives shall go for the life of our sin. ' The end of these things is death," Eom. vi. 21 ; and ' The wages of sin is death,' ver. 23.
230 THE FIFTH SERMON. [MaHK IX, 49.
But you will sny, What is this to a justified person ? * There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ.'
I answer — You must take in all. Those ' who are in Christ, that walk not after the liesh, but after the spirit,' they have the salt of the covenant. But if you can suppose a justified person to live after the flesh, you may suppose also a justified i)erson shall be condemned. Eternal death may be considered two ways — either as to the merit, or as to the event. As to the merit, as an evil which God hath appointed to be the fruit of sin ; or as to the event, an evil that will certainly befall us. A justified ])erson, one that is really so, may, must fear it in the first sense. There is such a connection between living in sin and eternal punishment, that he ought to represent the danger to his soul of living willingly and allowedly in his sins, that he may eschew it ; for this is nothing but a holy making use of the threatenings, or considering the merit of sin. But as to the actual event, and perplex- ing trouble that ariseth from the apprehension of it ; if his sincerity be clear and unquestionable, he must not fear it.