VeR. 25.] SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. 51
Men think themselves to be lords of their own fortune, and therefore slight God, break through the restraint of his laws, cannot deny them- selves anything that their corrupt hearts affect. Those that are in a low condition, kept bare, and in a daily need of providence, are more humble and submissive to God ; but when they grow great, they turn the back upon him, and cannot endure his strict government. So Jer. xxii. 21, * I spake to thee in thy prosperity, but thou saidst, I will not hear.' Those that are rich and well at ease are loath to be controlled in their will, even by God himself : Exod. v. 2, ' Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go ? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go,' Who so self-willed, proud, and scornful of God as they ? who so apt to please themselves, and to use their riches to feed their lusts, and to provide accommodations for their flesh and corrupt nature ? Self-denial and a flesh-pleasing course are inconsistent ; and therefore, because of the lawless liberty which they take to please themselves and to make provision for the flesh, they cannot comply with this precept of Christ, ' Let him deny himself.'
[2.] To take up the cross, that is another of Christ's precepts, and to be willing to suffer affliction, either from the hands of God or from the hands of men for God's sake. This is one thing that we must reckon upon : if we would be christians and Christ's disciples, first or last we shall be called to this exercise. Ignatius, when he was led bound before the tribunal, Now, saith he, I begin to be a disciple of Christ. Many think it is factious to talk of the cross in days of peace and liberty, but Christ puts it into our indentures. If we should never suffer for Christ, yet we must be sure that we have a heart that would suffer if God calls us to it. It is possible a man may go to heaven without suffering, but he cannot go to heaven without a resolution to suffer when God will. Now the cross makes it hard to all: Heb. xii. 11, ' Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous.' It is not pleasing to the flesh to endure blows, suffer smart, and to account all that we have as ' dung and dross in comparison of Christ ; ' to be joyful in tribulation, and so wholly swallowed up with the hopes and interests and concernments of the world to come, and to be dead to present things. Oh ! how irksome is the remembrance of this to those that are high in place and office, and sail with a full tide and current of worldly felicity ! To be averse to suffering is natural to man, and is in itself no sin, for nature is to seek its own welfare and preser- vation, but when it goes to excess, it argues a tenderness of the flesh, and that we have consulted with Satan : Mat. xvi. 22, said Peter, ' Be it far from thee, Lord ; this shall not be unto thee ; ' but Christ said, ver. 23, ' Get thee behind me, Satan. ' Now the more men have to lose, the more tender they are of losing it ; a little is sooner quitted. This young man went away sad, for he had great possessions. Great men, when once they come to be noted for the profession of the truth, they shrink and fall off presently ; they have not learned to leave all for Christ's sake. Judas, that had the bag, turns aposta'te and traitor to Christ, John xii, 6 ; when he saw nothing but opposition increasing, the supposed kingdom not to go forward, and heard Christ speaking of nothing but the cross and suffering, he thinks of betraying his master ; heaven is no pennyworth for him if it cost so dear.
52 SERMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27 [SeR. XII.
[3.] Let ' him follow me.' He that will be Christ's disciple must follow him, his doctrine, and his example.
(1.) His doctrine ; that is, the directions he hath given us in his word. Now what is the drift of Christ's doctrine ? The doctrine Christ brought out of the bosom of God is to draw us off from the world to heaven, from the pleasures of the flesh and the baits of this life, to seek things to come and things eternal. This is one great excellency of the christian faith, that it reveals the doctrine of eternal life and a blessed estate to come, which all other professions in the world could only guess at. Christ hath made it manifest, and brought it to light, that there is such a thing : 2 Tim. i. 10, ' He hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.' And the gospel re- veals the way that leads to it ; it makes a free offer of it upon the con- dition of faith in Christ: John iii. 16, 17, ' God so loved the woild, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in liim should not perish, but have everlasting life : for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.' And walking in all holiness of life : Heb. xii. 14, ' Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.' And the gospel lays before us the highest motives to quicken us to walk therein, and take off our affections from the world : Col. iii. 1. 2, ' If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God: set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth.' This must be our great scope and business, that we may get home to God with a neglect of present advantages. The gospel tells us that we should not be troubled though our outward man decay, whilst ' this light affliction, that is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,' 2 Cor. iv, 17. Well, then, seeing this is the great design of the doctrine of Christ, that here we should ply our work, tliat hereafter we may receive our wages ; that here we should study holiness, that hereafter we may be blessed with him. Now what doc- trine can be more contrary than this to those ' that have their portion here,' Ps. xvii. 14, ' That have received their consolation here,' Luke xvi. 32, ' That have received their good things in their lifetime,' Luke xvi. 25 ? To tell them of a dislodging and removal, and of foregoing the things they love and see for a God they never saw, oh ! how tedious is this to a carnal heart ! They are already happy and blessed, and cannot endure to think of a change, and therefore are incapable of following this doctrine, that drives us off from carnal vanities to look after the interests and concernments of the world to come.