5. They despise the salvation itself, rightly understood, partly be-
VER. 155.] SERMONS UPON RSALM CXIX. 153
cause they only value it under a fleshly notion, as a state of happiness and ease, not as a state of immaculate and sinless purity ; for so it is wholly unsuitable to them. What should a carnal sensual heart do with heaven ? or how should they desire it that hate the company of God, the communion of saints, the image of God ? God maketh meet : Col. i. 12, ' Giving thanks to the Father, who hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.' There is jus hccreditarium, et jus aptitudinale ; though they do not desire to be saved for it, they would love holiness more. Partly because those conceits that they have of the adjuncts of salvation, and that happi- ness and personal contentment which results to them, they do not practically esteem it as to value it above the delights of the flesh and the vanities of the world, and they do not think it worthy the pursuit, but for the interests of the bodily life, cast off all care of it : Heb. xii. 16, 'As Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright ;' Mark xxii. 5, ' They made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise.'
Use 1. It informeth us of two things : —
1. That wicked men are the authors of their own ruin. Salvation doth not fly from them, but they fly from it ; they are far from the law, and therefore is salvation far from them. They will not take the course to be saved, for they care not for God and his statutes ; it is but just, ut qui male vivit, male pereat, that they which despise salvation should never see it.
2. That the wicked buy the pleasures of sin at a dear rate, since they defraud their own souls of salvation thereby. Their loss you have in the text, ' Salvation is far from them ;' and their gain is nothing but a little temporal satisfaction ; and are these things worthy to be com- pared ? What is it maketh you wicked, but the ease and sloth of the flesh, and the love of some carnal delight ? And are you contented to perish for this whoredom from God ?
Use 2. Let it exhort us to believe and improve this truth ; for if men did surely believe it, there would not be so many wicked men as there are, neither would they dare to lie in sin as long as they do. Oh ! consider, if the wicked have no part nor portion in the salvation offered, nor any jot of God's favour belonging to them, the wicked should not flatter themselves with presumptuous hopes, but break off their sins by repentance.
1. God's mercy will not help you ; though he be a God of salvation, yet he will not save the impenitent and such as go on still in their trespasses : Ps. lxviii. 19-21, ' Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. He that is our God is the God of salvation, and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. But God shall wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses.' You must not fancy a God all honey and sweetness, and that his mercy should be exercised to the wrong of his justice ; the Lord will not spare the abusers of grace whoever he spareth : Deut. xxix. 19, 20, 1 And it shall come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse, that if he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall- have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst ;
154 sermons upon psalm cxix. [Ser. CLXXIII.
the Lord will not spare him, but then the auger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.'
2. No doctrine preached in the church will bear you out ; not law, for that discovereth both sin and the curse. Oonvinceth of sin : Eom. iii. 20, ' By the law is the knowledge of sin,' what is sin, and who is the sinner ; that bindeth you over to the curse : Gal. iii. 10, ' For as many as are of the law are under the curse ; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' The gospel, that showeth a remedy against sin, but upon God's terms, that first with broken hearts we sue out our pardon : 1 John i. 9, ' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' Sin must be condemned, confessed, before pardoned. And then, that in the way of holiness we should seek salvation and eternal life. The way and end must not be separated : Horn. vi. 22, ' We must have our fruit into holiness, if we would have our end to be eternal life.' The pure and undefiled have only part in this salvation, but it is far from the wicked. Christ disclaims the unholy and unsanctified : Mat. vii. 23, ' Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.' You may as well expect the way to the west should bring you eastward, as to walk in the ways of sin and hope to come to heaven at last ; to think God will save us, and suffer us to walk in our own ways ; or that this undefiled inheritance shall be bestowed on dirty sinners. This had been pleas- ing to flesh and blood, but it is the devil's covenant, not God's. That article, you shall be saved, and yet live in your sins, is foisted in by Satan, that false deceiver, to flatter men with vain conceits.