372 SEKMONS UPON PSALM XIX. 13. [SeR. IV.
use, God striketh him dead in the place, Acts v. 5. And if we alienate ourselves, who were Christ's before the consecration, of how much sorer vengeance shall we be guilty? God's complaint was just: Ezek. xvi, 20, ' Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast born unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them.' Children born to me ; that is, born during the marriage covenant. And if Satan hath a full interest in you by doing his lusts, as he had in them by that rite of worship, is not the wrong done to God the same ?
[3.] It is a great folly and disadvantage to ourselves. What a poor and sorry exchange is this, of grace for sin, and Christ for Satan, a good master for a bad, which is not only a mischief to us, but an affront to God ? When we will turn back upon him with so much loss to our- selves ? The work and wages are very different. The apostle com- pareth them when he dissuadeth them from the reign of sin : Kom. vi. 20-22, ' But when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from right- eousness. AVhat fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ? for the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.' You had full experience of the fruits of Satan's work ; what fruit then before you had tasted better things, before you had a contrary principle set up in your hearts ? You are ashamed now to think of that course. Now you know better ; but what fruit then ? Satan's work is drudgery, and his reward death. Satan hath one bad property, which no other master, how cruel so ever, hath, to plague and torment them most which have done him the most continual and faithful service. None are punished like those that have most sinned ; for every degree of service hath a proportionable punish- ment. He is an unreasonable tyrant in exacting service, without rest and intermission. The most cruel oppressors, Turks and infidels, give some rest to their captives, but sin is insatiable. Men spend all their means, and all their time, and all their strength in the pursuit of it ; yet all is little enough ; and what is the reward of all but death and destruction ? Now judge you to whom should we yield obedience, and who hath most right to be served ? He certainly who made and re- deemed us, and preserveth us every day. None but he can claim a better title to us. He to whom we are debtors by so many vows, so many obligations ; not Satan, our worst enemy, who is posting us on to our own destruction.
Secondly, The second reason is, because they have so many helps and encouragements to resist sin.
1. The helps. Grace planted in the heart. Seeing Christ hath put in them grace to mortify sin, it is their part not to suffer it to be idle and unfruitful : Eom. vi. 11, 12, ' Likewise reckon ye also yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.' You want no ability to encourage you. You have the Spirit of God to help you in this work : Kom. viii. 13, ' If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' He will be your second. Neither we without the Spirit, nor the Spirit without us. The law was a dead letter ; it gave bare instruction, without helps or power ; but there is a life and power goeth alcng with
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON PSALM XIX. 13, 37S
every gospel truth. Laziness pretendeth want of power , but what is too hard for the Spirit ?
2. For encouragements. In every war there are two notable encour- agements— the goodness of the quarrel, and the hope of victory. As David said, 1 Sam. xvii. 36, ' Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear ; and this uncircuracised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.' We have these in our conflict and combat with sin.
[1.] Our quarrel and our cause is good. It is the quarrel of the Lord of hosts in which thou fightest. Let the goodness of the cause put courage into thee. The honour of Christianity dependeth upon the issue of the conflict. Let the world know that the school of Christ breedeth the excellent men of the earth ; that the divine life is the most powerful principle in the world. We stand with Christ our Eedeemer in this combat, who came to destroy the works of the devil, 1 John iii. 8. He hath begun the battle ; we do but labour to keep under that which Christ hath begun to slay and destroy. Sin is not only an enemy to us, but to him ; it is against his law, and hindereth his glory in the world, and the subjection of his creatures and servants. Were it not for sin, what a glorious potentate would Christ be, even in the judgment of the world !