Saints Compared to Salt

    SAINTS COMPARED TO SALT

    "Ye are the Salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men" Mt 5:13.

    BELIEVERS, as well as ministers, are called by our Saviour the Salt of the earth; for Christ preached this sermon not only to his apostles, but to all the disciples; it is not appropriated to ministers alone, but to all believers.

    Why the godly are and may be compared to Salt, is briefly opened in the following parallel.

    METAPHOR

    I. Salt is very profitable, it keeps and preserves meat from putrifying, which would soon stink, corrupt, and perish, was it not for it. "Salt, as one saith, "is the blossom of nature, it is mingled with all mixed bodies, and preserves them from corruption."

    PARALLEL

    I. So the godly are most profitable in all the earth. (1.) They keep the world from being totally corrupted by evil and pestilent errors and heresy. (2.) From being spoiled by profaneness and hellish debauchery. They, by their holy lives, doctrine, and gracious deportment, put a check to the overspreading wickedness of those places where they live. The world would soon grow much worse than it is, were it not for the saints and people of God; it would stink, and be so abominable in God's sight, that he would not endure it any longer. And besides, God many times spares a people, family, and nation, for the sake of the righteous who dwell among them. The godly are the interest of people and nations, as it is elsewhere shown. Had there been but a little more of this spiritual Salt in Sodom, viz., but ten righteous ones, it might have continued to this day. "And he said, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once, peradventure there shall be ten found there," &c. "And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake," Ge 18:32. Nay, though there was scarce ever a godly soul in it, but righteous Lot; yet what said the angel? "Haste thee, escape thither, for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither," Ge 19:22. As Zoar was saved for Lot's sake, so Sodom could not be set on fire, till he was out of it. And was not Joseph the interest of Potiphar's house? Was not his master blessed for his sake? And was not Laban, and what he had, blessed for Jacob's sake? And was not the whole house of Israel and Judah preserved and saved from utter ruin, for the sake of a holy remnant that was among them? "Except the Lord of Hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and been like unto Gomorrah," Isa 1:9.

    METAPHOR

    II. Salt draws putrifying humours out of meat; it is of a purging and cleansing quality.

    PARALLEL

    II. So gracious Christians, by their doctrine and holy example, and in particular, preachers, draw out rottenness and filth from the hearts and tongues of men.

    METAPHOR

    III. Salt seasons meat, and makes it savoury.

    PARALLEL

    III. The godly Christian by his wisdom seasons the minds of good men. Hence sapientia is derived a sapore, from savour. The Latins express wise and witty speeches, pleasant discourse, a good grace in speaking, and Salt, by the same word. This agrees with that of the apostle: "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with Salt, that ye may know how to answer every man," Col 4:6.

    METAPHOR

    IV. Salt is of a hot and fiery nature; being cast into the fire, it sparkles, and burns furiously.

    PARALLEL

    IV. So Christ's disciples are by the Spirit made hot, fervent, and zealous for God, and his truth; yet this heat should be mingled with discretion, lest they fly out, as those did who called for fire from heaven, Lu 9:54.

    METAPHOR

    V. Salt stirs up thirst.

    PARALLEL

    V. So the good example of Christians stirs up others to thirst after Christ, and heavenly things. We should not so much look for examples from others, as give examples ourselves.

    METAPHOR

    VI. Salt makes meat fit for Food, and meet to be received by such as want it.

    PARALLEL

    VI. So by the Salt of a holy conversation, or a good life, in them that preach and profess the Gospel, the word becomes fit to be received. This makes it relish, and this way a preacher or professor may be said to season his own doctrine. And on the other hand, how unsavoury doth that good doctrine seem to be, and what little relish is there in it, that is preached by an unholy and unsanctified person? Ro 2:21-24.

    METAPHOR

    VII. Salt may lose its savour, and become good for nothing, but to be trodden under feet of men. It is not fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out. Naturalists tell us, that Salt having lost its savour, being laid upon land, it causeth barrenness.

    PARALLEL

    VII. So professors, if they lose their savour, if they become vain, vicious, and carnal in their conversations, what are they good for? A Christian to turn an apostate; he that seemed once savoury and serious in his words and behaviour, to become filthy, unclean, proud, ambitious, covetous, &c., is one of the worst of men; such are fit for nothing but to be cast into hell. Of these the apostle speaks, "It is impossible to renew them again by repentance," &c. Heb 6:4-6. Unsavoury professors, and wicked apostates, tend to make the Church barren; they hinder the increase thereof.

    INFERENCES.

    I. How unsavoury is the world! Sinners by nature are loathsome and stinking in God's sight: "Their throats are like open sepulchres," Ro 3:13.

    II. It shows Saints their duty, which is to season others. They should season the place, town, family where they live: (1.) By good doctrine. (2.) By a good conversation. (3.) By good counsel. Jacob told his sons, Simeon and Levi, by their slaying the Sichemites, "They made him to stink among the inhabitants of the land," Ge 34:30. The speech, as well as the practice of Christians, should be a seasoning and savoury pattern, that it may administer grace to the hearers, and observers thereof.

    III. O let it stir up every Christian, as well preachers as others, to be savoury! How can we season others, if the Salt have lost its savour? Take heed of scandalous sins. (1.) By these the name of the Lord is blasphemed, Eze 36:20; Ro 2:24. (2.) Religion brought to contempt and reproach. (3.) The hearts of all sincere ones greatly grieved. (4.) The conversion of sinners hindered. (5.) Men's damnation furthered. Hence saith Christ, "Woe be to the world because of offences."

    But on the other hand, (1.) A holy and savoury life makes a man lift up his head with much boldness, though reproached: "Whose ox have I taken, or whose ass? Or of whose hands have I received a bribe." 1Sa 12:3. (2.) It tends to stop the mouths of the wicked, 1Pe 3:16. (3.) It is many times not only a means of conviction s but conversion of others; nay, and of such as will not be won by the word, 1Pe 3:1.

    IV. If Saints are the Salt of the earth, and interest of nations, it shows the folly of those wicked men, that strive to root them up, and turn them out of the world.

    V. Lastly; It may caution all that profess the Gospel, against apostacy. "Remember Lot's wife," Lu 17:23. She for not being savoury, or for looking back, was turned into a pillar of Salt, nay, and into a standing pillar, &c., Ge 19:26. May not one reason of it be this, viz., to show, that that very example of God's severity upon her, might serve, or be sufficient to season all Christians, to the end of the world against apostacy, or looking back?