p..] As to the unregenerate. When God looked upon his creatures as they passed his hands, he saw all was good, Gen. i. 31 ; but when he looked down from heaven upon men in their natural condition, and as they had made themselves and defiled themselves, so ' they were altogether become filthy and abominable, and there is none that doeth good, no not one,' Ps. xiii. 3 ; and ' there is none righteous, no not one,' Rom. iii. 10 ; that is, pleasing and acceptable with God ; it is true of them, none is good.
[2.] As to the regenerate, none is good, that is, wholly free from sin. Paul complains, ' I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dv.ells no good thing,' Rom. vii. 18. And Christ saith to his own disciples, those who were the children of God. those to whom he makes a promise of the Spirit, Luke xi. 13, 'If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children,' &c. Even the children of God are evil in this sense, that is, not perfectly good. In opiimis non nihil est pessimi — There is gome evil in the best. (1.) There is evil in their natures ; there are the relics and remainders of much sinful corruption, the flesh and spirit ; like Hannah and Peninnah, always vexing and thwarting one another : Gal. v. 17, ' The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.' The mo.st of the sanctifying grace which we have is the least part of that which we want and that we should have. In the best, sin is like a wild fig-tree ; cut off the boughs and branches, yet still there will be some strings that will be sprouting out again ; or like the leprosy in the house that could not be cured by scraping, till it was pulled down to the ground. There is a tincture of the old leaven which remains in the best lieart. (2.) There is evil in their best actions : Isa. Ixiv. 6, ' But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteous- nesses are as filthy rags ; ' not only our sins, but our righteous operations; the productions of the soul cannot exceed the force of our principles, and if there be a double principle, there must be a double operation. (3.) There is new evil which we contract by our actions : John xvii. 10, ' He that is washed needeth not save to w\ash his feet.' He that is purged from sin, and w\ashed, contracts new soil. In bono itinere pul- verem colligis, saith Bernard — In the good we do we contract filth, as we gather new dust in our walking up and down. So that none is perfectly thoroughly good.
3. No man is good in comparison with God. That goodness that W8 have in participation from him will appear no goodness in compari-
426 SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. [SeR. II.
son with him. If the heavens themselves, the purest part of the world, are not clean in his sight, how much more evil is man ? Joh xxv. 5, 6, ' Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not, and the stars are not })ure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm, and the son of man, whicli is a worm ? ' Elsewhere it is said, ' He chargeth his angels with folly,' Job iv. 18. If he charge his angels with foil}'', that is, if he seeth mutability in the angelical nature, take it in itself, and without his confirming grace, there is folly in the angels, then what is man, whose fbimdation is in the dust? When the prophet Isaiah had seen God in a vision, and heard the angels cry, ' Holy, holy, lioly, Lord God of hosts ! ' Isa. vi. 3, what then ? ver. 5, ' Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lij^s,' kc. When he had seen God, then he bewails his own vileness. So Job xlii. 5, 6, ' Now mine eyes have seen thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.' The consideration of God's holiness and dignitj' ob.scureth all the glory and praise of the creature. As when the sun is up, the lustre of the stars is no more to be seen than as if they were not, so when God is thought on, and we are com- pared with him, there are none good, no not one. While we compare ourselves with one another, one may be called bad, another good ; but when we compare ourselves with God, no man is good= Look, as it is in respect of entity or being, none is but God ; wheu other things are compared with God, they are called things that are not ; so it is true of goodness, we are not good when compared with a holy God. ' I am more brutish than any man,' saith Agur, Pro v. xxx. 2. This was a, lesson Christ would teach the pharisee, to bring him to humility and self-annihilation.
Use 1. I might take occasion hence to confute two popish errors. One is touching the state of perfection in this life, that some men en- dowed with special grace may keep the law perfectly ; but if they could do so, they could be without sin, and perfectly good. Now who can say, ' I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin,' Prov, XX. 9. Will they reply, that some are free from sin, but put of humi- lity they forbear to say so, propter periculum inanis glorice, for fear of vainglory? But there is a truth in the tiling, no7i ta.ntum humiliter, sed veraciter dicunt ; where are the saints tliat dare say they are free from sin ? It is not a com|)limental speech : 1 John i. 8, ' If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.' He doth not say, as Austin observes, Nidla est humilitas in nobis — There is no humility in us ; hut, Nidla est Veritas — There is no truth. When Paul said he was ' the chiefest of sinners,' 1 Tim. i. 15, aud ' the least of the apostles,' and ' not meet to be called an apostle,' 1 Cor. xv. 9, it was not a fit of humility, but a pang of conscience that forced him to make that confession. Another error this confuteth is the doctrine of merit ; for if no man be good, no man can merit anything at all at God's hands. The best of God's children have no other claim but the mercies of God and the merits of Christ : Rev. vii. 14, ' These are they which came out of gi-eat tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' It was not their innocency and faithfulness that recommended them to God ; those that are most righteous in active or passive obedience need washing ; it is Christ's