offerings thou shalt offer saltf." To that ordinance our Lord refers, when he says, " Every one shall be salted with fire; and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt." But as salt, however good, may possibly " lose its saltness," so as to be- come unfit for the service of God ; so may immortal souls lose the divine savour which is pleasing to God : and, as the salt in that case is " fit for nothing, not even for the land, nor yet for the dunghill ;" so those professors of religion, who lose the spirituality of their minds, must be regarded as the most unprofitable and contemptible of mankind g. Now, the allowed indulgence of such base feelings as the Apostles had lately manifested was incompatible with spiritual-mindedness ; and therefore our Lord warned them, that, if they would be useful as ministers, or be accepted as men, they must mortify all such corrupt affections, and shew themselves to be under the influence of a purer principle. And the same admonition is proper for us also : for we, it is to be feared, are, for the most part, as worldly and as carnal as they. Look at the state of the Christian world : see how ready men are, yea, even good men, to dispute and quarrel about every thing that concerns their interests in the world See, too, how ready Chris- tians are to decry and to discourage those who move not in
their line, and belong not to their party in a word, let
the spirit of Christians, both of individuals and communities, be seen at this day ; and it must be acknowledged, that the admonition in my text has in no degree lost its force, or its applicability to the souls of men.]
In connexion with this solemn admonition, we must consider, II. His suitable advice —
The advice here given evidently refers to the whole context, and, in this respect, confirms the interpre- tation which we have given of the preceding clauses of our text. The Disciples had given way to very evil tempers and dispositions ; and, to counteract such corrupt propensities in future, our Lord says to them, " Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another." The same counsel is proper for us also :
1. Have salt in yourselves —
[We, whether as ministers or as private Christians, are to be " the salt of the earth11 ;" not only richly imbued with grace in our own souls, but operating, all of us in our respective spheres, to keep the world around us from corruption. But
f Lev. ii. 13. b Luke xiv. 31, 35. h Matt. v. 13.