a tendency to create unhallowed desires ; splendour, to call forth envy and ambition ; and plenty, to pro- mote intemperance.
But our Lord sets before us an alternative, either to turn ayvciy from those things which are occasions of evil, or to suffer the displeasure of an angry God in hell.
Now this is,
1. An only alternative —
[Nothing less will suffice on our part ; nor will any dimi- nution of punishment be admitted on God's part. It is to no purpose to urge, that the evil disposition which we harbour is but small, or that it is in a manner necessary to our happiness: if it is as dear as a right eye, or as necessary as a right hand, it must be sacrificed. Nor is there any intermediate state, like that of purgatory, to which small offenders can be consigned. As there is no medium between the renunciation of sin and the allowance of it, so there is no middle state between heaven and hell. The alternative is clear, definite, irreversible \ You cannot be " Christ's, unless you crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts'*."
It is worthy of observation, that our Lord does not affirm that the retaining of a right hand or eye will ensure eternal punishment ; but he takes it for granted ; he considers it as an acknowledged truth : yea, even before the resurrection of the body had been fully revealed, he considers that also as acknow- ledged ; he takes for granted that the body, as well as the soul, shall be a subject of happiness or misery in the eternal world ; and he assumes this truth as the ground of his argument. There can be no doubt therefore but that " the whole body will be cast into hell," if any one member of it be made an instrument or occasion of sin.]
2. A desirable alternative —
[It may seem strange to represent such an alternative as desirable : but it is really so : for a permission to harbour one unmortified lust would be like a permission to drink so nuich poison, or to retain one disorder preying upon our vitals. But this is not all. Sin, if allowed any part in our affections, will strive for mastery, and never cease, till it has attained an un- disputed dominion. It is a leprosy which will overspread the whole man ; " a canker which will eat," till it has consumed us utterly. Is it not desirable then to have it altogether eradi- cated, and to be compelled to wage incessant war against it ?
a Rom. viii. 13. ^' Gal. v. 24.