II. The reason with which it is enforced —
Though God might well require obedience on the sole ground of his own authority, yet he is graciously pleased to assign a reason for this command; a reason, which, whilst it evinces the equity of the command, shews how deeply we are interested in obeying it. There is nothing besides God that can save us,
1. In this world —
[Suppose that all the wealth and honour that ever were possessed by man were centred in one person, would they ward off the incursions of disease, or repel the assaults of death? Would they even secure their own continuance, so that they should not speedily give way to poverty and disgrace? In the event of any great reverse of circumstances, will those perishing vanities assuage the anguish of a broken bone, or calm the tempest of a troubled spirit? Will a guilty con- science be quieted by them, or death be divested of its sting? Disease and death have no respect of persons ; nor will peace of mind be procured by high-sounding titles, or great posses- sions. It is God alone that can avert trouble, or sanctify it to our good. He can keep us unhurt, when thousands are falling on our right hand, and on our left : or, if he see fit to send us tribulation, he can enable us to rejoice and glory in it : and as for death, he has numbered it among the treasures of his people, whom he enables to long for it, that they may be with
Christ, in complete and everlasting felicity If then we
look only to our happiness in this present life, who can bear a comparison with Jehovah, as the source of it to those who trust in him?]
2. In the world to come —
[If the vanities of time and sense can do nothing for us in this present life, how much less can they in the life to come ! There they cannot so much as purchase for us a drop of water to cool our tongue. But O ! what a Saviour will Jehovah be ! yea, what crowns and kingdoms will he bestow on his believing and
obedient people ! Behold the Rich Man stripped of all
his transient joys, and plunged into that abyss of misery which once he despised ! Behold, on the other hand, the once des- titute and neglected Lazarus in the bosom of his God ! Which of the two had chosen the better part ; he who had walked in the ways of this world, and made Mammon his god ; or he who had sought Jehovah as his God and portion? Truly, one glance of the celestial world is quite sufficient to evince the reason- ableness of the injunction given us in our text ]