II. The peculiar reasons for that injunction —
Our blessed Lord, in his reply to the young man, designed,
1. To discover to him the depravity of his own heart —
[Because the youth had never been guilty of any noto- rious breach of the commandments, he was ready to imagine that he had no ground for humiliation and contrition. Our Lord, if he had pleased, might have opened to him the spirituality of the law ; and have shewn him that he was mistaken in sup- posing that he had " kept all the commandments from his youth up :" but he took a shorter and more convincing method : he gave him a specific charge, to obey which was his indis- pensable duty : by his reluctance to obey that, our Lord shewed him, that his heart was not so much in unison with the law of God as he imagined; yea, that if duty and interest should stand in competition with each other, he would prove as great a rebel as more flagrant transgressors.
Thus our Lord sought to counteract his pride and self- complacency, by leading him to manifest the worldliness and carnality of his heart.]
2. To wean him from self-confidence and self- dependence —
[By that question which the young man so confidently asked, " What lack I yet?" we are led to suspect, that, as he saw no defects in his obedience, so he saw no ground to doubt his acceptance with God on account of his obedience. The drift of his original question, " What shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life?" seems to have been to this effect: 'Mas- ter, I perceive that thou art a teacher sent from God, and that thou requirest of us something different from what I have been accustomed to hear or practise : be so kind therefore as to inform me what it is; for I would not willingly omit any thing, whereby I may secure the salvation of my soul.' In this view of his question, he wanted to substantiate more fully, and esta- blish more firmly, his claim to eternal life on the footing of his own obedience. Against this fatal error our Lord's injunction was strongly directed : it was an axe laid to the root of his self-righteousness : and it had a most powerful tendency to convince the youth, that all his hopes were built on a founda- tion of sand.]
3. To lead him to the salvation provided for him
in the Gospel — ■
[Our Lord might have preached the Gospel to him more fully, and informed him, that salvation was to be obtained only