3. Suppose these worldly rich men should take to the serious pro- fession of religion, as some of them do, and so mask and varnish over a heart wholly wedded to the world and worldly things with some kind of form and garb of religion, and it may be the strictest too, yet they can never walk worthy of it, nor hold and maintain it with any power and vigour : ' They are enemies to the cross of Christ ; ' and why ? 'They mind earthly things,' Phil. iii. 18, 19. Christ speaks of selling and forsaking all, and they are for getting and taking all into their own hands. Now it is more difficult for them that have anything in the world to comply with Christ's commands. Surely they that live in a lower condition have less temptations. The young man here went away sad, ' For he had great possessions.' I shall mention a story of a soldier of Antigonus, which is well known, because it helps to set forth what we have now in hand. This person had a very loathsome disease U})on him, which made his soul desire to be divorced from his body, and then none so ready and forward to venture himself in all battles as he, and when the general, admiring his valour, got him to be cured, then he, that had been so prodigal of his life before, was as shy, tender, and wary of it as others ; when he had a life worth the keeping, he was loath to venture and expose it to danger. I apply it to this purpose. It may be when the world disappoints thee thou art ready to venture thy little all for Christianity, but if anything may make the world sweet to thee, none so sparing, so afraid and asliamed to own Christ as they. Certainly it conduceth much to the safety of grace to have the temptation removed, as well as to have the lust abated : Bebus in angustis facile est co7itemnere vitam — He that hath little can soon part with it, whereas riches expose to apostasy : 2 Tim. iv. 10, ' Demas hath forsaken us, having loved this present world.'
4. It maketh men apt to take up their rest here, and to sit down satisfied with the world as their chiefest good, without any earnest longing for or looking after a better estate : Ps. xvii. 14, ' From men of the world, which have their portion in this life ; ' small hope or desire of the pleasures of another world ; they will have their heaven here, and therefore ' How hardly shall they enter into the kingdom of heaven.' The Lord will not remove us a deliciis ad delicias, from Delilah's lap to Abraham's bosom, from carnal to spiritual delights ; and the truth is they have no mind to be removed : James v. 5, ' Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton.' Here we are in a place of exile, banishment, separation from God, where God doth not exhibit himself in that latitude which he doth in the other world, and yet here they seek their felicity : Luke vi. 24, ' Woe unto you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.' God requires of us
32 SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. [SeR. X.
contentation, and allows us a temperate use, and holy delight in t"he blessings of his providence, but we are not to take our whole comfort here (for that is meant by our consolation), and sit down drunk with temporal happiness, that will make us mindless of those other things offered to us in the gospel, and kept for us in the world to come.
5. They are apt to wax proud and scornful, and impatient of reproof, and so grow licentious, and lose the benefit of the remedies that might reclaim them from their errors : 1 Tim. vi. 17, ' Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded.' I interpret it of this sort of pride, when men grow scornful of admonition, licentious in sin, and hate reproof. All pride is incident to riches, but especially this pride ; for as soon as a man hath anything about him, he begins to speak higher, and look higher, and fare higher, and to display the ensigns of his vanity in his apparel ; but chiefly his heart is higher, and so grows impatient of check, and so cannot bear the means God hath appointed to warn him of his danger and duty. They think we are too bold thus to deal with them and speak to them. It is observed of beasts, that they never grow fierce but when they are in good plight ; so usually men when they are full, grow scornful and fierce, and cannot endure to hear the mind of God powerfully and plainly set forth. Great men have great spirits, and they will not stoop to such base and mean persons as the messengers of Christ : Jer. v. 5, 'I will get me to the great men, and will speak unto them, &c., but they have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds ; ' Jer. xiii. 15, ' Hear ye, and give ear, be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken.' Men are high and scornful, and if they have anything to bear them out in contempt of the Lord's message, they set themselves to oppose Christ and his interest, and dash against the corner-stone, though they are broken in pieces. They are the great and yokeless men of the world that will come under no rule, and no awe of Christianity.