the Pride and Impatience of them to whom it is administered; both which we should carefully labour to avoid.

Now God give us all Grace fo to give and take fpiritual Counsel and Advice, as that we may have our Hearts thoroughly feafoned with good Notions, and found Principles, and may be preserved from the Corruption of all loose, Atheistical, and profane Opinions and Practices; to his Glory, and our own eternal Happiness and Comfort, through Jefus Christ our Lord. To whom, &c.

SERMON

SERMON XXV.

MAT. V. 13.

-But if the Salt have loft his Savour, wherewith fhall it be falted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be caft out, and to be troden under Foot of Men.

The Second Sermon on this Text.

H

AVING at the laft Occafion fhewed you that these Similitudes of the Salt of the Earth, and the Light of the World, belong to all Chriftians; and that by the first of them, in which Chriftians are compar'd to the Salt of the Earth, is meant their being inftrumental in guarding the World against the Corruption of Sin and Vice, and the feafoning them with the Principles of Wisdom and Virtue: I go on now to confider an Inference or Corollary our Saviour draws here from this Doctrine, concerning the Neceffity of preserving ourfelves in a Condition to feafon others with good Principles, by keeping up a lively Senfe of divine Truths upon our own Spirits. For understanding this Inference, there are these two Things we may obferve from the Words:

I. We have here a Suppofition, that the Salt may lofe its Savour; that is, that Chrifiians may become fo infipid and unedifying themselves, that they will not be in a Condition to preferve others from the Corruption of Vice, or to bring them to the Savourinefs of Virtue.

II. We have the fatal Confequence of this Unfavourinefs to Chriftians themselves, as well as to the rest of the World. It is thenceforth good for nothing, &c.

I. To begin with the Suppofition, that the Salt may lose its Savour, or that Chriftians may grow fo infipid and unedifying, as not to be diftinguished from the reft of the World. And here now I think we are not to look upon this as a bare poffible Suppofition; our Saviour did not ufe to spend his Time, and employ his Doctrine, as feveral of the idle Schoolmen and Scholars of the World have done, in confidering bare Poffibilities: He had a Meaning, and, I doubt, a very fad one, in this Suppofal. Interpreters, indeed, have taken little Notice of it, but fuch a folemn, grave, ferious Threatning, obliges us to a more particular Enquiry into the Purport of it, that fo we may the better guard ourselves against this difmal State of becoming good for nothing, but to be defpifed and trod under Foot by Men.

There are two Things feem to me to be here infinuated, if not foretold by our Saviour, which may both of them deferve our more ferious Confideration.

I. That

1. That private Chriftians may, by their Negligence, and Abufe of their Talents, come to lofe all right Senfe of Religion and Virtue.

2. That the Chriftian Church in general should in Time be exceedingly corrupted, that that wonderful Virtue it had to awaken and reform the World, fhould come to be loft, and Chriftianity thereby become very contemptible.

1. First, It is a fad Prediction how private Chriftians, by their Negligence, and Abuse of their Talents, may come to lofe all right Senfe of Religion and Virtue. I know not how it has come to be difputed, whether Men could fall away from Grace; but I doubt there are not many Things that either Experience or Scripture are plainer in, than in this fad Truth. How many are there, who, after all the Care of a religious and pious Education, and after very hopeful Beginnings, have, through the Prevalency of their own Lufts, and the feducing of bad Company, loft all found Senfe of Religion, and by Degrees have gone into the Principles of Atheism and Infidelity; fo that they could neither preferve themfelves nor others from the common Corruption and Pollution of the World? And have we not Inftances of this very Thing in the holy Scriptures, of fome, who, laying afide a good Conjcience, concerning the Faith, have made Shipwrack? 1 Tim. i. 19.

2. I take it to be a fad Prediction, likewise, of the Degeneracy of the Chriftian Church, how that after all that wonderful Virtue and Efficacy it exerted at first in reforming and fanctifying Mankind, it should come at laft to degenerate into the worldly Spirit; to lofe its Force and Efficacy,

Ee 3

[SERM. ficacy, and to be, indeed, like Salt that had loft its Savour. So St. Paul defcribes fome Chriftians of the last Days, that they should have a Form of Godliness, denying the Power thereof, 2 Tim. iii. 5. and, in another Place, that tho' they profess to know God, in Works they deny him, being abominable and difobedient, and to every good Work reprobate, Tit. i. 16. What is render'd there reprobate, is indeed dénin, unexpert, they have no Dexterity or Skill that Way; like bad Salt, which tho' it may have the Colour, has loft the true Tafte and Virtue of Salt.

So much for the Suppofition in my Text.

II. I proceed next to the fatal Confequence of this Unfavourinefs; this is purfued in these two Inftances:

1. That there is no Cure for thofe bad Chriflians; Wherewith fhall it be feafoned?

2. That they are then of no manner of Use, but defervedly expofe themselves to the utmost Contempt. It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be caft out, and troden under Foot of Men.

1. The first Part of the Confequence of the Salt lofing its Savour is, that there is no Cure for this, that is, as I take it, there is no farther Difpenfation of greater Efficacy than Christianity, whereby a corrupt Chriftian can be recovered from his Errors and Follies, and feasoned with the Principles of Religion and Virtue. And therefore those whom Christianity can't reclaim, are left in a defperate, helpless Condition. There is no further Sacrifice for Sin, there is no further Discovery to be expected of a future State, Chrift having brought Life and Immortality to Light by the Gofpel; if neither Mofes and the Prophets,

nor