488 SERMONS UPON MAKK X. 17-27. [SeR, VII.
suffering and subjection, in patience and self-denial. Our rule was perfect at first, but not our pattern.
(2.) It is an engaging pattern. We are engaged by tlie rule of our obedience, but much more by Christ's example. The practice of Christ maketh every duty lovely to us, for the disciple is not above his Lord. Masters many times, to shame their servants, will take the work in hand which they grudge at : John xiii. 14, ' If I then, your Lord and master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet.' Shall we forbear to follow such a leader ?
(3.) It is an encouraging pattern, partly as there is an efficacy in this pattern ; as with the gospel or law of Christ there goeth along the ministration of the Spirit, so also with the consideration of his example. It is not a bare moral inducement, but it is accompanied with a real influence of the Spirit. Christ doth not only bless to us his doctrine, but his example ; he hath purchased grace that we may do as he hath done before us ; he hath divided his S[)irit, and shed it abroad among his disciples. Every duty is sanctified by his subjection to it ; all his paths drop fatness, and the way to heaven is made more easy because he hath walked in it before us. Partly as it assuretli us of his sym- pathising with us in our hard service ; he knoweth the weaknesses of Imman nature, and its reluctancies to the law of God. Christ ' learned obedience by the things that he suffered,' Heb. v. 8 ; and having experienced the hardships of suffering, his heart is entendered towards those that are in the like case ; Heb. ii. 18, ' For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.' Partly because of the perfection of his obedience to cover our infirmities. God hath had full obedience from Christ, and there- fore where a poor soul doth its utmost, it can rely on God for accept- ance, which is a great encouragement in our work : Eom. v. 19, * By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.'
Use. To persuade us to follow Christ.
1. Our general profession of being christians doth oblige us to be like him ; head and members should be all of a piece. If we take the name of Christ upon us, we had need express him to the life ; 1 Peter ii. 9, ' Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.' If a man should put your name to the picture of a swine, you would account it a disgrace. Oh ! what an affront is it to Christ to put his name to the picture and image of the devil ! We do but express him in scorn and contempt. When we are wrathful, unclean, covetous, unchaste, sensual, proud, unholy, and say we are christians, what a dishonour, scorn, and contempt do we put upon Christ ! What did the heathens say here- tofore ? Estimari a cultoynbus potest ipse qiti colitur — You may know what one he is whom they worship by them that worship him. We profess to bear the image of Christ, yet are vain, turbulent, carnal, unthankful, unholy. Oh ! what is this but to carry the name of Christ in disgrace up and down the world ?
2. We shall never be like him in glory unless we be like him in grace also : Eom. viii. 29, ' For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.' Here the
VeR. 21.] SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. 489
foundation is laid. If you would appear before God with confidence, and not be ashamed at the great day, be like to him, then yon shall have boldness : 1 John iv. 17, ' Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in the world.' Otherwise how can we look him in the face ? There- fore let us follow him, assequi nunquam possumus, sequi tamen nun- quam desinamus. Though we cannot follow him as Asahel did Abner, close at the heels, yet let us follow him however, though it be but as Peter followed Christ, afar off, to the high priest's hall. But wherein should we follow Christ ? I answer — [1.] In his self-denial. This is the first lesson in Christianity, and one of the hardest. Christ came from heaven to teach us this lesson ; and his birth, life, and death was a continual lecture of self-denial. His birth, it was a great step from God's bosom to the virgin's lap. None can deny themselves as Christ, who, when ' he was rich,' viz., in all the fulness and glory of the Godhead, ' yet for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich,' 2 Cor. viii. 9. None was so rich as Christ, and therefore none can deny themselves as Christ did. We may talk of flocks and herds, and lands and lordships, and the ornaments of the present life, but he had the possession of a perfect and unbounded happiness and glory, and yet he was born of a woman, he had a poor mother, in a poor place, and was wrapt up in cheap swaddling clothes. He that was God's fellow, the heir of all things, the Lord of angels, was thrust among the beasts of the stable. Certainly Christ came into the world with such a slender provision that we might not stand upon greatness and bravery. His whole life after he was born was exercised with labours and sorrows : Eom. xv. 3, * Even as Christ pleased not himself ; ' that is, he did not study the interest of that life which he assumed. Certainly if any had cause to love life, Christ had ; his soul dwelt with God in a personal union, in such a near fellowship as we are not capable of, and yet he pleased not himself, but gave up himself for our sins. It is ridiculous to profess him to be our master and not to follow his example. We have no reason to stand upon our points as we do, to be delicate and tender of our interests, when Jesus Christ pleased not himself. We murmur if we have but a little bad entertainment in the world for his sake, and yet we cannot be worse used than Christ was : Mat. x. 24, 25, ' The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.' We have no cause to complain if we be reduced to coarse apparel, when we remem- ber the swaddling clothes of Christ ; or to complain of a hard bed and prison when Christ, was laid in a manger. Christ would teach us hereby that an innocent poverty is better than all the pomp of the world. And for his sufferings, from the cratch to the cross, still he was a pattern of self-denial ; therefore they that indulge themselves in all the delights of the flesh seem not to believe in Christ, who was a man of sorrows. We are in a base condition, but two or three degrees distant from dust or nothing, yet how are we for pleasing and satisfying ourselves, even to the dishonour of God, and wrong of conscience !