(3.) Loss of peace and strength all a man's days. To have peace with God, to have strength to walk before God, is the sum of the great promises of the covenant of grace. In these things is the life of our souls. Without them in some comfortable measure, to live is to die. What good will our lives do us if we see not the face of God sometimes in peace? if we have not some strength to walk with him? Now, both these will an unmortified lust certainly deprive the souls of men of This case is so evident iu David, as that nothing can be moi'e clear. How often doth he complain that his bones were broken, his soul disquieted, his wounds grievous, on this account! Take other instances : Isa. Ivii. 17, " For the iniquity of his covetous- ness I was wroth, and hid myself." What peace, I pray, is there to a soul while God hides himself, or strength whilst he smites ? Hos. v. 15, "I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face;" — " I will leave them, hide my face, and what will become of their peace and strength?" If ever, then, thou hast enjoyed peace with God, if ever his terrors have made thee afraid, if ever thou hast had strength to walk with him, or ever hast mourned in thy prayer, and been troubled because of thy weakness, think of this danger that hangs over thy head. It is perhaps but a little while and thou shalt see the face of God in peace no more. Perhaps by to-morrow thou shalt not be able to pray, read, hear, or perform any duties with the least cheerfulness, life, or vigour; and possibly thou mayst never see a quiet hour whilst thou livest, — that thou mayst carry about thee broken bones, full of pain and terror, all the days of thy life. Yea, perhaps God will shoot his arrows at thee, and fill thee with anguish and disquietness, with fears and perplexi- ties; make thee a terror and an astonishment to thyself and others; show thee hell and wrath every moment; frighten and scare thee with sad apprehensions of his hatred; so that thy sore shall run in the night season, and thy soul shall refuse comfort; so that thou shalt wish death rather than life, yea, thy soul may choose strangling. Consider this a little, — though God should not utterly destroy thee,
O't MORTIFICATION OF SIN IN BELIEVERS.
yet he iniglit cast thee into this condition, wherein tlion shalt have quick and hving apprehensions of thy destruction. Wont thy heart to thoughts hereof; let it know what is hke to be the issue of its state. Leave not this consideration until thou hast made thy soul to tremble within thee.
(4.) There is the danger of eternal destruction.
For the due management of this consideration, observe, —
[1.] That there is such a connection between a continuance in sin and eternal destruction, that though God does resolve to deliver some from a continuance in sin that they may not be destroyed, yet he will deliver none from destruction that continue in sin; so that whilst any one lies under an abiding power of sin, the threats of de- struction and everlasting separation from God are to be held out to him. So Heb. iii. 12; to which add chap. x. 38. This is the rule of God's proceeding: If any man " depart" from him, " draw back" through unbelief, "God's soul hath no pleasure in him;" — tliat is, his indignation shall pursue him to destruction: so evidently. Gal. vi. 8.
[2.] That he who is so entangled, as above described, under the power of any corruption, can have at that present no clear prevailing evidence of his interest in the covenant, by the efficacy whereof he may be dehvcred from fear of destruction ; so that destruction from the Lord may justly be a terror to him, and he may, he ought to look upon it, as tliat which will be the end of his course and ivays. " There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," E,om. viii. 1. True; but who shall have the comfort of this assertion? who may assume it to himself ? " They that walk after the Spirit, and not after the flesh." But you will say, "■ Is not this to persuade men to unbelief?" I answer, No. There is a twofold judgment that a man may make of himself, — first, of his person; and, secondly, of his ways. It is the judgment of his ways, not his person, that I speak of. Let a man get the best evidence for his person that he can, yet to judge that an evil way will end in destruction is his duty; not to do it is atheism. I do not say, that in such a condition a man ought to throw away the evidences of his personal interest in Christ ; but I say, he cannot keep them. There is a twofold condemnation of a man's self : — First, In respect of desert, when the soul concludes that it deserves to be cast out of the presence of God ; and this is so far from a business of unbelief that it is an effect of faith. Secondl}^, With respect to the issue and event, when the soul concludes it .shall be damned. I do not say this is the duty of any one, nor do I call thetn to it; but this I say, that the end of the way wherein a man is ought by him to be concluded to be death, that he may be provoked to fly from it. An.d this is another consideration that ought to dwell