64 SERMONS UPON 1\TAKK X. 17-27. [SeR. XIII.
get to heaven. This is enough to intimate the general truth, that there is difficulty to get to heaven.
II, Wherein lies the difficulty of salvation ? The I'eason of doubt- ing is this, because God's terms upon which heaven is offered are gentle and sweet : Mat. xi. 30, ' My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' The law which God hath given us is holy, just, and good, becoming a God to give and a creature to receive : Rom. vii. 17, ' The law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and just, and good ; ' a law such as a man would choose if he were at liberty, and at his own option and choice. Therefore liow is it so difficult, especially since there is so much strength given. Habitual strength : Eph. ii. 10, ' We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.' We are fitted by his grace ; and there is so much actual strength : ' I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me,' Phil. iv. 13. God is no Pharaoh, to require brick where he gives no straw. And therefore, since the way is so good, his yoke so easy, and there is so much strength given, and since the encouragements are so many, both from the woi'k and from the wages. From the work itself : ' Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace,' Prov. iii. 7. There is a great deal of peace, comfort, and sweetness in walking with God, as those that travelled to Sion, 'Passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well, the rain also filleth the pools,' Ps.- Ixxxiv. 6 ; so they meet with many comfortable refreshings in a course of godliness. And then for the wages, ' God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,' Heb. xi. 6. Well, then, to sum up all, these things concur, since the way is plain, the helps many, the promises full and sure, why is it so difficult to go to heaven ? I answer — The fault is not in God, but in our own selves, in our own hearts, in our addictedness to temporal satisfactions ; and therefore when God calls us off from the interests and concernments of the present world, wholly to look after the interests and concernments of the world to come, the disposition of our flesh or carnal nature and the cour.?e of God's institutions will not suit. And this must needs be a very great difficulty, not easily removed, because — (1.) It is natural to us ; (2.) It is increased by custom ; (3.) It hath a powerful efficacy upon us to hinder us from walking in the ways of God, that are so sweet and pleasant.
1. This is natural to us, to be led by sense, or to be addicted to pre- sent things. There are three sorts of beings in the world — angels, that are pure spirits without flesh, these were made for heaven, and not earth ; there are brute creatures, that are flesh without immortal souls, these were made for earth, and not heaven ; and there is man, a middle nature between both these, that hath a fleshly substance and an immortal soul, made partly for heaven and partly for earth, as partak- ing of both ; he hath a body that was made out of the dust, and so fitted to live in this world, and he hath a soul that came down from the superior world, and must return thither again. Now these two things must be regarded according to the dignity of the parts of which man consisteth, his earthly part and his heavenly part. The soul being the better part, the perfection and happiness of it should chiefly be looked after. The good of the soul is the enjoyment of the ever-blessed God, this should be our main work and business ; and the good of the
VeR. 26.] SEEMONS UPON MARK X. 17-27. 65
body sbonid be looked after in an inferior and subordinate manner. The good of tbe body is meat, drink, wealth, honour ; these things are to be looked after in our passage to heaven. The good of the soul is the chief good, and so should be looked after as our great end and scope, and the good of the body minded only as a means. Man was made for earth in his passage and way to heaven, but his home and happiness is in heaven, where he is to enjoy the blessed God among his holy angels, and those blessed creatures that dwell above in the region of spirits. This was the end for which man was created, and while man continued innocent he had a heart inclined and disposed towards God as his chiefest good ; he sought the good of his soiil, and was to love him, and fear him, and serve him, and depend upon him as the fountain of his happiness. But by the fall man was drawn off from God to the creature to seek his happiness there : ' They have for- saken the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water,' Jer. ii. 13. Not only Adam in his own person, but all his posterity are turned from God to the creature. Now man in his pure naturals is inclined to the creature, which con- duceth to the satisfaction of the earthly part, and not to God, wherein the happiness of his soul lies. This will be evident to you if you con- sider that though the soul be created by God, yet it is created destitute of grace or original righteousness ; and being destitute of the image of God or original righteousness, it doth only accommodate itself to the interests of the body, and seek the happiness of the body ; for where there is not a principle to carry us higher, it can only close with thins^'s present and known, such as are the pleasures of the body and the interests of the bodily life, and so forgets God and what concerns the enjoyment of him. And so it is said, Eom. viii. 5, ' They that are after the flesh do mind (or savour) the things of the flesh, and they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spii'it.' Therefore take man in in his pure naturals, as destitute of grace, his soul forgets its divine original, and so conforms itself to the body, and only seeks its welfare and happiness ; and thence proceeds all our mindlessuess of God and averseness to him, our unruly and inordinate appetites of temporal things, and the confusion, weakness, and disorder that is seen in the life of man and all his operations and faculties. Hence comes that clulness and slowness that is in his understanding to conceive of spiritual things, his acuteness in back and belly concernments : ' He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off,' 2 Peter i. 9. He is sharp- sighted in all things that concern the present world, but cannot see things to come ; and until the Lord make a gracious change upon him, he sees nothing of the worth of salvation, or of a need of Christ, and making any serious preparation for eternity. Hence comes that averse- ness of will to what is truly good, that he cannot endure to hear of it : Eom. viii. 7, ' The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' And while the soul is so, it hath such a bent and proneness to that which is evil, or what concerns our interest in the world. Hence it is that our memories are so frail and slippery as to that which is good, and so tenacious of that which is evil. Good things easily slip from us, as clear water through a grate ; but evil things, as slime and mud, stick with us. Hence