[2.] Another sort think such discourses may be well spared among a company of believers, and they need not this watchfulness and holy care, especially against grievous sins ; that they have such good com- mand of themselves that they can keep within compass well enough. It is well if you be come to this height of Christian perfection, that temptations make none, or no considerable impression upon you. But we must warn you, and that of the most gross sins. Christ thought fit to warn his disciples : Luke xxi. 34, ' Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life.' And the apostle everywhere warns Clu'istians of malice,
^ Qu. ' the Spirit' ?— Ed.
232 THE FIFTH SERMON. [Mark IX. 49.
of hypocrisy, of envy, of lyini:^, of evil speaking: 1 Thes. iv. 6, 'Take heed that you do not overreach and defraud one anotlier, for God is the avenger of all such,' But these men would be fed with refined strains of contemi-lative divinity, and have no sins reproved, but sucli kind of sins as would seem a credit rather tlian a disgrace ; like those diseases that are incident only to tlie best complexions and constitu- tions. If you speak against something that may rather argue their excellency than shame them of their sin, you shall be welcome. This over-spiritual preaching ends in an airy religion. Is sin grown less dangerous, or men more skilful to avoid it than heretofore ? Cer- tainly, he tliat considers how many scandalous professors there are, that would be accounted the people of God, hath no cause to think so. If Paul saw need of mortification, 1 Cor. ix. 27, we ore not more strong, but more foolhardy.
[3.] A third sort are such as think believers are not to be scared with threatenings, but only oiled with grace. But then consider, the words of Christ were to his disciples. And to whom did the apostle Paul write ? To believers questionless : ' If you live after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,' Rom. viii. 13. No part of the Spirit's discipline must be omitted. If one end of Christ's coming was to verify God's threatenings, and that the curse of the law should not fall to the ground, surely there is use of threatenings still.
3. It may arise from another cause, that is, the passionateness of carnal affections. Men are so wedded to their lusts, they cannot leave them, and so strangely besotted, they are even ready to sit down and say they will venture their souls rather than live a strict life. Is the pleasing of the flesh so sweet to you ? or hell so slight a matter ? And will the day of judgment be so slubbered over ? There is a raging despair, and there is a sottish despair. The raging despair of a Cain, Gen. iv. 13, 'My evil is greater than can be borne !' — when we are ready to sink under the burden of our sins ; and a sottish despair, when we are not sound with God, and loth to improve the grace of the Ptcdeemer, but say. There is no hope ; we will go on in the imagina- tions of our own heart, Jer, ii. 25. There is no hope ; it is an evil, and I must bear it. If I be danmed, I cannot help it, I mu.st bear it as well as I can. What ! will you bear the loss of heaven, the wrath of the almighty and eternal God? Surely you know not Avhat eternity means, what hell and heaven moans. You will know, when the eyes that are now blind(.'d by the delusions of the flesh shall be opened, when you shall see others ' sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God, and you shall be shut out.' Canst thou bear this ? If Rachel could not endure the want of children, and Jacob the supposed loss of Joseph, when all his sons and daughters rose uj) to conuort him ; if Ahitophel could not endure the loss of his credit in counsel, how wilt thou endure the loss of thy soivl and the glory of the blessed to all eternity ? When thou hast nothing to be- guile thy mind, and thou art divested of all other comforts, and thou must feed upon this for ever. So for the pains of hell. Thou that canst not endure to be scorched a day or two in feverish flames, or the jiain of the stone or gout, when God arms the humours of thine own body
Mark IX. 49.] the fifth sermon. 233
against thee, and canst not endure the torment of an aching tooth, how canst thou endure the wrath of an eternal God ? * Can your hearts endure, or your hands be made strong in the day that I will deal with you ? saitli the Lord.'
Use 2. Is to persuade you not to neglect the salt of the covenant. It may be fretting, but it is healthful; as the most salutary medicines are usually most troublesome. To help you to improve this kind of argument, which our Lord here useth —