[2.] The heart can never be sincere when we can dispense with any- thing which God hath commanded ; and you cannot have the testimony of a good conscience approving your sincerity when you allow yourselves in the least failing : Ps. cxix. 6, ' Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all thy commandments.' I confess it is chiefly meant of our final judgment ; but in all conditions in the world, if we would be found faithful with God, and not left to shame, we must respect all his commandments : Luke i. 6, Zachary and Elizabeth ' were both right- eous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless;' and, saith David, Ps. Ixvi. 18, 'If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.' If you would not break your confidence and freedom of heart wben you come to God in prayer, but come with assm-ance of welcome and audience, not one sin must be regarded. When we set up a toleration in our own hearts, and dispense with any one duty, it is either some pleasure or profit or honour that maketh the duty contrary to us ; but this will not stand with sincerity, that any petty interest or affection of ours should be preferred before the will of God ; for these men do not serve Grod, but
446 SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. [SeR. IV.
their own lusts, "when they will only obey God so far as pleasure, honour, or profit, or some lust, will permit them to yield obedience to him.
[3.] God giveth grace to keep all. Wherever he renews and sanctifies, is throughout ; he fills the soul with the seeds of all grace, so as to dispose and incline us to every duty, whether to God or man, the world or our fellow-saints : 2 Peter i. 7, ' Add to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity.' An infantas soon as born into the world, though it hath not the bulk, stature, and strength of a man, yet it hath all the essentials of a man, and is a perfect man. In the new birth the inward man is perfect in parts ; all grace is given that is necessary for all conditions : ' Ye are enriched in all things in Christ ;' there is a suitableness to the whole law of God : Eom. vii. 22, ' I delight in the law of God after the inward man.'
Use. To reprove those that would keep some commandments, but not all. Herod did something at the motion of John the Baptist, but he would not leave his incestuous marriage with his brother's wife. Some persons may be very forward in some good things, but they will not leave this or that sin, their swearing, or lying, or uncleanness, or vain company, or gaming, or idle fashions ; they refrain some sins, but not all ; some duties you shall have them very forward in, but not all ; they are halving it with God, There is such an union betwixt all the parts of the law of God, that one cannot be violated without a breach of all the rest. As one leak in a ship, if let alone, may sink it, so one sin indulged and allowed may prove the bane of the soul ; and therefore take heed of obeying God by halves, and think not to please him, or have any true comfort in thy conscience, by any such obedience. The young man so far spake well, if he had spoke truly, ' All these have I kept.'
Secondly, There is another thing that is good in the reply the young man maketh, that is his early beginning : I have kept all ' from my youth.' It is certainly a good thing to begin with God betimes, and to frame our hearts to the will of God as soon as we come to years of dis- cretion, and that upon a threefold reason —
1. Because it will be a help to us all our lives afterwards, before affections are forestalled and pre-engaged, to begin with God, and to have the inclinations of youth set right by a good education, to be restrained from our own will, and be trained up in a way of abstinence from bodily pleasures. A sober education prevents much sin : Ps. cxix. 9, ' Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.' Mark, it is not wherewith shall a young man guide or direct, but cleanse his way. When men are well prin- cipled and seasoned in youth, it sticketh by them ; nay, the vessel is seasoned already. The word cleansed presupposeth some defilement. A child is not like a vessel which newly comes out of the potter's shop, indifi'erent for good or bad infusions. No ; the vessel is fusty already, and hath a smatch of the old man : we come seasoned into the world, for we were born in sin and in iniquity : Ps. li. 5, ' Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.' Well, then, to begin betimes, what good may we get by it ! Our work is to stop the growth of sin, and that we do not settle in an evil course, and that will