[5.] It invites us to go so far, for Jesus loved this young man; est idiquid pi'odire tenus. What was in this young man ? Here is his care to seek after eternal life, his reverent esteem of Christ's person, his outward conformity to the laws of God, his abstaining from all gross sins from his youth. Oh ! these are amiable properties and qualities, and those that are endowed with them, Christ loveth them.
Ohjed. But here is an objection. How is this a motive ? Christ was courteous and respectful to this young man ; but now he is in heaven, what love doth Christ show now upon earth to those that are moral ?
(1.) Moral virtues will at least procure a temporal reward. Christ loves virtue so that he rewardeth the show of it ; it keeps off many temporal judgments, and procures many temporal benefits; as the Ninevites' repentance, though not real, kept off the judgment, Jonah iii. 10, and Ahab's humiliation kept off the judgment in his days : 1 Kings xxi. 29, ' Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me ? Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.' It encourageth us to seek him, since he rewardeth a temporal repent- ance with temporal favours. Oh ! what will the hearty humiliation of a true penitent do, when a counterfeit one is thus far accepted with God ? And so that kind of zeal that was in Jehu was not without its reward : 2 Kings x. 30, ' Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to dl that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth
468 SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. [SeR. VI.
o-eneration shall sit on the throne of Israel,' though he did it with an imperfect heart. The Egyptian midwives, when they saved the chil- dren of the Israelites, though it were by a lie, the Lord multiplied them and blessed them : Exod. i. 20, ' Therefore God dealt well with the midwives ; ' and ver. 21, 'It came to pass, that because the mid- wives feared God, that he made them houses.' So Austin observes that the Eomans, as long as they did excel in justice and temperance, were rewarded by God with victory and prosperity ; as long as that empire kept honest in civil virtues, it had eminent success, and their commonwealth prevailed and overtopped the nations ; but when they degenerated into beasts for impiety, all went to ruin.
(2.) There will be some serenity of mind resulting from the recti- tude of your actions. Look, as the heathens, when ' they did by nature the things contained in the law,' they had the approbation of their con- sciences, ' Thoughts excusing,' Kom. ii. 15.
(3.) It is some advantage to grace ; it is like the priming the post, that maketh it receptive of better colours. At least they do not aggra- vate their condemnation, nor increase their weakness, nor draw upon themselves penal blindness and hardness of heart and utter despair. However, it is like the embalming a carcase ; though it do not restore life, yet it keeps the body from stinking. As long as they are at work, they are not given over to a reprobate sense : ' They are not far from the kingdom of God,' Mark xii. 34. An humble man, that hath some thoughts of God and of eternal life, certainly is sooner converted than an outrageous wretch that doth swagger and out-brave the ordinances of God ; whereas men that are strangers to all goodness, and of an inveterate wickedness and falsehood, 'that are estranged from the womb, and go astray so soon as they be born, speaking lies,' as the prophet expresseth it, Ps. Iviii. 3, are more hardly cured.
(4.) As to their eternal state, it will be more tolerable for such than for others. Though they fall short of heaven, yet mitius imnientui\ at least they have a cooler hell ; their account is more easy ; as the scrip- ture speaks of irepicraoTepov Kplfia, of ' a greater damnation ; ' Mat. xi. 22, ' It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.' Cato suffers less than Catiline, Socrates than Nero; and certainly it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for those that despised the gospel ; therefore a heathen could say, No such feast as to do our duty which God requires.
SEEMON VI.
One thing tJiou lackest ; go tliy way, sell whatsoever ihoii hast, and give to the poor, and thou shall have treasure in heaven. — Mark x. 21.
Now we come to Christ's answer, and there take notice —
First, Of the admonition of his defect, ' Jesus said unto him. One thing thou lackest.' By the evangelist Matthew it appears that this
VeR. 21.] SERMONS UPON ilARK X. 17-27. 469
2)art of the answer was given to a question proposed: Mat. xix. 20, ' All these things have I kept from my youth up ; what lack I yet ? ' He saith confidently, ' All these things have I kept ; ' and Christ saith, ' One thing thou lackest.' Indeed, take the commandments in their full latitude and breadth of interpretation, he wanted all things; how is it then that our Saviour saith only, ' One thing thou lackest ? '