When our Saviour dwelt upon earth, he found a young man in the coasts of Judea, that preferred the riches of this world to all the treasures of heaven; and yet Jesus cast an eye of love upon him.
In the foregoing discourse upon these words, it has been considered what sort of love Christ could shew to a man, whose soul was so vain and carnal; and what good qualities appeared in this youth, that could engage the love of our Saviour, notwithstanding the guilt of his covetousness; and some remarks were made upon a man so lovely, and so beloved of Christ.
First, The love which our Saviour manifested to this person, was not properly a divine love, for that would have changed his nature, and refined his carnal desires, and conferred grace and salvation upon him: We must understand it therefore only in this sense, that the affections of his human nature were drawn out towards something that was valuable and excellent in this young Israelite: He approved of those accomplishments which he beheld in him, and felt a sort of complacency in his person and character. He had an innocent and human desire of his welfare, he gave him divine instructions for this end, and pitied him heartily that he was so far gone in the love of the world, as to neglect the offer of heaven.
Secondly, The qualities which might attract our Saviour’s love, were such as these: He was young and sprightly, and it was probable that he had something very agreeable in his aspect: His carriage was courteous and obliging for he kneeled before our Lord, and saluted him with much civility: He had a religious education, much outward sobriety and virtue, so that he was ready to think himself a complete saint. All these commands, says he, have I kept from my youth; yet he was willing to receive further instructions, if any thing else were necessary, in order to eternal life. Add to all this, that he was rich and powerful, he was a ruler among the Jews, and had large possessions, which made his humility and other virtues appear the more amiable, because they so seldom are found in persons of an exalted station.
Thirdly, The remarks that were made upon a person that had so many good qualities, and yet missed of heaven, might instruct us not to disclaim any thing that is worthy and excellent, though it is mingled with much iniquity; but to pay respect and love, as our Lord Jesus did, to persons that have any thing valuable in them, though their virtues are imperfect, and fall short of saving grace. We may learn also, that God chuses not as man would chuse, nor saves all those that a wise and good man may well bestow his love upon. We are taught further, that many lovely accomplishments, joined together, are not sufficient to attain eternal life, unless we renounce this world, and follow Christ: and we are divinely warned of the danger of riches, how great a snare they sometimes prove to persons of a hopeful character.
Fourthly, We proceed now to the last thing proposed, and that is, to make an address to three sorts of persons, taking the occasion from the character in my text.
I. Those who have any thing lovely or excellent in them, but through the power of a carnal mind, are kept at a distance from God, and have no title to heaven; such are beloved of men, but not beloved of God.—II. Those who are weaned in some good measure from this world, and have treasures in heaven, but are defective in those qualities that might render them amiable on earth; such are beloved of God, but not of men.—III. Those that are furnished with every good quality, and every grace, that are the objects of the special love of God, and almost every man loves them too.
I. Let me address myself to those who have any thing lovely or excellent in them, but, through the power of a carnal mind, are kept at a distance from God, and have no title to heaven. Such was the young man in the gospel; and according to the several good qualities that he possessed, I shall divide my exhortation to several persons.
1. To such as are endowed with any natural excellencies of body or mind. Youth and beauty, strength and health, wit and reason, judgment, memory, or sweet disposition; all these are the gifts of God in the world of nature, and render persons so far amiable as they are possessed of them. You that flourish in the vigour and glory of youth, and yet have no saving acquaintance with God in Christ, no right to eternal life; while I behold you, I mourn over you with much compassion. What pity it is that the flower of your age should be employed only to sooth your vanity! to adorn your guilty passions, and to dress up the scenes of sin! That flower will wither in old age, and it leaves no perfume behind, but what arises from virtue and goodness: or, perhaps, you will give it up to untimely decay: by indulgence of irregular pleasures, you devote it to be blasted by the breath of Satan, and in the smoke of hell. But is it not a pity, that a strong and healthy constitution should be wasted in slavery to your appetites, and in making provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts of it? Why should not the powers of nature, in their first bloom and glory, adorn the kingdom of grace? Why should not our sprightly days, and the warmest hours of life, be employed in some useful activity for the interest of God! What a decency and honour is added to religion, by its fairest and youngest votaries! With what peculiar praises does the word of God recommend the character of youthful piety? How is the young king Josiah celebrated in the sacred records? that while he was yet young he began to seek after the God of David his Father, &c. 2 Chron. xxiv. 3. How is Timothy commended, who had known the holy scriptures from his very childhood: 2 Tim. iii. 15. And there are some young in years, to whom the apostle John might address himself with the same pleasure as he does to the christian converts, whom he calls young men, strong in grace, who had the love of God abiding in them, and had overcome the wicked one; 1 John ii. 14. And he gives them in the next verse a most needful and friendly caution against the love of the world, and the things of it, lest they shut the love of the Father out of their hearts. What an abuse and waste of life are ye guilty of, when ye lay out the brightest moments of it upon the works of darkness? and treasure up to yourselves everlasting darkness and fire!
I pity the young, the vigorous, the comely figures of human nature, that neglect to seek after divine grace, that are ruined and made wretched to all eternity, by their excessive love of the pleasures, or the pomp, or the riches of this vain world. A thousand such sinners that were once the hope of their families, and the lovely ornaments of the place they lived in, are now cursing the day of their birth, and raging with despair in the midst of the wrath of God.
Let me speak a word to those also that have rich endowments of mind. Where we behold a sprightly genius, solid reason, and deep judgment, we cannot forbear loving the possessors of them: We cannot forbear to say, “It is a pity that so much wit should be abused to ridicule religion, and do honour to foul iniquity; that it should be enslaved to all the arts of lewdness, and dress up the shame of nature in the charms of language.” Or if it be not debased to so exceeding vile purposes, yet at best, it is a pity it should be all employed in jesting and trifling, in mirth and raillery, and vain amusement. Might it not have been laid out infinitely better, to allure sinners to the love of God, to adorn the truths of our holy profession, and give credit to the gospel of Christ, even in the eyes of the witty and profane?
I pity the man of lively imagination without sanctifying grace. What a lovely wilderness of blooming weeds! fair indeed in various colours, but useless and unsavoury, and it must be burnt up with unquenchable fire. You are the persons whose happy talents give a relish to the common comforts of life; you diffuse joy and pleasure through all the company, and enliven the dullest hours; your presence is coveted by all men, and you are beloved of all: But how dismal is your state, if you neglect holiness and are not beloved of God! Can you imagine that your gay fancy will brighten the gloom of hell? or give airs to yourselves or your companions, in those hideous regions of sorrow? It is a most melancholy reflection to consider, that persons of your accomplishments should increase the number of the damned; and there is no sport or amusement admitted there, to divert the anguish of the tortured mind, or to relieve that heavy and everlasting heart-ache.
I pity the man of strong reason and great sagacity of judgment, that hath traced nature in her most secret recesses; that has sounded the depths of the sea, and measured the heavens; but has spent no time in searching the deep things of God, and lets the mysteries of religion lie unregarded as obscure and useless things. He has never sounded the depth of his own misery and guilt, as he is a son of Adam: Nor is he acquainted with the way of climbing to heaven by the cross of the Son of God. Reason is a faculty of supreme excellence among the gifts of nature, and it is dreadful to think that it should ever be engaged in opposition to divine grace. How great and wretched are the men of reason, who strain the nerves of their soul to overturn the doctrine of Christ! who labour with all their intellectual powers to shake the foundations of the gospel, to diminish the authority of the scriptures, and to unsettle the hope of feeble christians!
There are others who employ the best powers of the soul in pursuing the interests of this life; they are wise in contriving to gratify their appetites, to fill their coffers, and to heap up to themselves wealth and honours; and wise to secure all these to their posterity after death: They call their lands by their own names, and perpetuate their memory to the latest generation, but make no provision for their own souls: they are wise to set in order their houses in the day of their health, and all things prepared for their dying hour, besides the concerns of their own eternity; these are delayed from day to day, and left at the utmost hazard; and still they think the next month, or the next year, it is time enough to prepare for heaven, when perhaps a summons is sent suddenly from on high; Thou fool this night is thy soul required of thee; Luke xii. 20. What confusion and fear, what hurry and distress of spirit will seize you in that hour? You that have laid out all your wisdom upon the little businesses of this life, and trifled with affairs of everlasting importance; you must go down to the chambers of death in surprize and anguish; you must leave all the fruits of your wisdom behind you, and be branded for eternal fools.
I pity those who are blest with a large memory, and would plead with you this day for the sake of your souls. The memory, it is a noble repository of the mind, it is made to receive divine truths, to be stored with the ideas of God and his grace, with the glories of Christ and heaven; it is given us to furnish and supply the heart and tongue upon all occasions, for worship, for conference, and for holy joy. What pity it is so wondrous a capacity should be crowded with vile images, with wanton scenes, with profane jests, and idle stories! Or, at best, it is filled with gold and silver, and merchandize; with lands and houses, ships and insurances; it is all inscribed with stocks, annuities, and purchases, and turned into a mere book of accounts, a trading shop, or an everlasting exchange: Night and day, the buyers and sellers are passing through this temple, which should be consecrated to God; and there is no room left for the thoughts of heaven there. Shall these busy swarms of cares and vanities for ever fill up so large a chamber of the soul? Shall impertinencies be for ever thrust into this treasury? such as will stand you in no stead, when you are dismissed from the body, but shall vanish all at once in that hour, and shall leave your spirits poor and naked; or if they follow you to the world of spirits, it will be but as so much fuel gathered for your future burning.
Think a little with yourselves, ye possessors of these rich endowments of the mind when you have been honoured here on earth, can you bear to be doomed to eternal shame and punishment in hell? Shall this wit and this reason be there employed to express your hatred against God, and to forge perpetual blasphemies against the Majesty of heaven? are you willing to be joined to the society of devils, and be engaged in their abominable work? Shall this sprightly fancy, this subtle reason, this large memory, serve for no purpose, but to aggravate your guilt, and your damnation? Shall these fine talents sharpen your misery, and give edge to the keenest reflections of conscience: conscience, that inward sting of the mind; conscience, that immortal tormentor? Yet this must be the certain portion of those who spend their life, and lie down in death, with these talents unsanctified: for the anguish and torture of sinful souls, must rise, and grow for ever, in proportion to the glory of their abused endowments.
Though, perhaps I have been tedious already under this head, yet before I part with it, I must address myself to those who are born with a sweet disposition, that seem to be cast in a softer mould than the rest of men. I love and pity those of my acquaintance who are blessed with so divine a temper; who have tenderness and good-will in their very form and aspect, and I mourn to think that any of these should perish for ever. You are the favourites of all men, and beloved by all who enjoy the pleasure of your acquaintance; do ye not long to be the favourites of God too! You seem to be made for the delight and comfort of mankind: but shall this be all your portion? Good-humour is the composition of your nature, and the law of kindness is on your lips! when the ear hears you, then it blesses you; and when the eye sees you, it gives witness to you. But is this enough to depend upon for eternal life? Perhaps you have borrowed part of the valuable qualities of that good man Job, you have delivered the poor that cry, and the fatherless that had none to help him; you have caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy, and the blessing of him that was ready to perish, has come often upon you; Job xxix. 11, 12, 13. There is so much natural goodness in your constitution, that leads you on, by a sweet instinct, to the practice of many charities: but this is not saving grace. If Jesus Christ himself were upon earth in this humbled state, he would look upon you as man, and love you; but the Holy God looks down from heaven, and beholds you as the object of his just and divine hatred, while you live in a state of vanity and sin, drunken with sensual pleasures, and at enmity with God.
This sweetness of temper, that springs from your blood, and the happy mixture of humours; or, at best, from the mere natural frame of your spirits, will never pass, upon the great tribunal, for holiness and inward religion. With all this charming appearance of virtues, these colours that look like heaven, you will be doomed to hell and perpetual misery, unless there be found in you some nobler qualities, such as love to God, mortification to this world, the knowledge and faith of Jesus Christ. If these be not the springs of your charity and love to men, you will not be secured from the condemning sentence of the Judge, nor from the company of devils in the future world.
But, oh! how will your soft and gentle natures bear the insult and rage of those malicious spirits? How will your temper, that had something so lovely in it, sustain to be banished for ever from the world of love? to be for ever excluded from all the regions of peace and concord? How will your souls endure the madness and contention, the envy and spite of wicked angels? You that delighted on earth in the works of peace, what will ye do when your tender dispositions shall be hourly ruffled by the uproar and confusion of those dark regions? and instead of the society of God and blessed spirits, ye shall be eternally vexed with the perverse tempers of your fellow sinners, the sons of darkness? O that I could speak in melting language, or in the language of effectual terror, that I might by any means awaken your souls to jealousy and timely fear! That so many natural excellencies, as God has distributed amongst you, might not be wasted in sin, abused to dishonour, and aggravate your everlasting misery.
[This sermon may be divided here.]
2. My next exhortation shall be addressed to those youths who have been trained up in all the arts of civility, and have acquired a courteous and becoming carriage. There is something lovely in such an appearance, and it commands the love even of the rude and uncivil. It so nearly resembles the sweetness of natural temper, and imitates good humour so much to the life, that it often passes upon company instead of nature, and attains many valuable ends in human society. But where both these are happily joined, how shining is that character, and universally beloved? We are pleased and charmed with your conversation, whose manners are polished, and whose language is refined from the rude and vulgar ways of speech. You know how to speak civil things, without flattery, upon all occasions; to instruct, without assuming a superior air, and to reprove without a frown, or forbidding countenance. You have learned when to speak and when to be silent, and to perform every act of life with its proper graces; and can ye be content with all this good breeding to be thrust down to hell? Is it not pity that you should be taught to pay all your honours to men, and practise none to the living God? Have you not read those duties in connexion; 1 Pet. ii. 17. Honour all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, and honour the king. And why will you divide what God has joined, and give every one their due, besides God your Maker? how dare you treat the creatures with decency and ceremony, and treat God the Creator with neglect; salute all men with their proper titles of distinction, and not learn how to address God in prayer? pay due visits to all your acquaintance, and yet scarce ever make a visit to the mercy-seat, or bow your knees before the Majesty of Heaven.
I pity those who have all the arts of complaisance in perfection, and practise civility in every form; but are very little acquainted with the forms of godliness, and never yet felt any thing of the life of religion, or the powers of the world to come. How mournful a sight is it to behold a well-accomplished gentleman, yet a vile sinner! A pretty obliging youth among men, but deaf and obstinate to all the calls of God, and the intreaties of a dying Saviour! A person of a free and ingenuous deportment, yet in chains of slavery to corruption and death! and how unspeakably sorrowful will it be at the last day, to see such as these, the gay, the affable, the fair-spoken, and the well-bred sinner, in the utmost agonies of horror and despair, mourning a lost God, a lost soul, and a lost heaven!
Let me speak once more and try to provoke you to jealousy. Shall the rugged and clownish part of mankind press forward into that kingdom which ye despise? Will ye be patient to see some of the unbred and unpolished set at the right hand of the Judge, and yourselves with shame, be divided to the left? How will ye endure to see the honours of heaven put upon those whom you have so often despised in your hearts upon earth? Can you imagine that that tribunal will be bribed with fair speeches? or that any thing will be accepted in that court, besides solid and hearty religion? Suffer this exhortation then, and then receive this advice, you that are not used to deny any thing to your friends, you that love to oblige those who ask any reasonable favour at your hands; nor let me plead this day in vain.
3. To those that have enjoyed the blessing of religious parents, and a pious education; that have been bred up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, in the knowledge and practice of the moral law, and in the outward performance of religion, according to the appointments of the gospel. Children, we love you for your fathers’ sakes: we love to look upon you, for you are the little living images of our dearest friends: we have loved to ask you the younger questions that your parents have taught you, and to see the first-fruits of their instruction and holy care; but we pity you, from our very souls, when we behold you break the bars of your education, and making haste to ruin: or when, at best, ye go on and tread the circle of outward duties; as ye are led by custom and form, with a neglect of inward christianity, and hearty godliness.
Did your parents love God above all earthly things, and will ye prefer the love of this world above all things heavenly and divine? Have ye had such shining examples of holiness brought so near you to no purpose? Do they pray for you daily? Do they daily mourn over you, and hope, and wish, and exhort you to take care of your souls? And are you resolved that their counsels, their prayers, and their tears, shall be laid out upon you in vain? Is this the return you make for all their care and compassion? They tell you daily that they can have no greater joy than to see their children walking in the truth, and will you cruelly disappoint their pleasures, and bring down their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave? Perhaps there are some of you, who already have parted with your parents, and their spirits are at rest; and has neither their life, nor their death, made serious and lasting impressions upon you; have they entreated you in their last dying moments, by all that is dear and sacred, to make sure of heaven? And will you abandon these entreaties, and sell your souls to the world, and to death, for a few perishing temptations? Have they laid a solemn charge upon you at their last farewell, to travel in the paths of piety, and meet them on mount Sion in the great day? and have you wandered already from this high road of holiness, and forgot the solemnity and the charge? Shall your parents dwell for ever with their God, and shall their children for ever dwell in fire prepared for the devil and his angels?
You cannot sin at so easy and so cheap a rate as others. You must break through stronger bonds, and do bolder violence to your consciences, before you can indulge iniquity, and pursue wickedness. Your temptations to sin have been less than others, and your advantages for salvation have been much greater. Our hearts bleed within us, to think of your double guilt, and your aggravated damnation: to think that you should not only be separated from your parents, and their God, for ever, but that your place of torment shall be the hottest also, amongst all your companions in misery.
What anguish and inward vexation will seize you, when ye shall reflect how nigh ye were raised in outward privileges, and how near ye were brought to heaven? and how you quitted your interest, and your hopes there, for the trifles of this life, for a base lust, or a foolish vanity: What will ye say, when ye shall see many coming from the east, and from the west, from families of wickedness, from the ends of the earth, and from the borders of hell, and sit down with your fathers in the kingdom of heaven; while you the children of the kingdom, are cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; Mat. viii. 11, 12. I presume thus far with freedom to address you, if by any methods I might provoke to emulation them which are of the flesh of Israel, of the kindred of the saints, and might save some of them; Rom. xi. 14.
4. To those who have taken some pains in seeking after eternal life, and are still enquiring the way thither. Have a care of resting in the mere practice of moral duties, or in the outward profession of christianity: never content yourselves with the righteousness of the Pharisee. Were your virtues more glorious than they are, and your righteousnesses more perfect, they could never answer for your former guilt, before the throne of a just and holy God. It is only the atonement of Christ, and his all-sufficient sacrifice, which can stand you in stead there; and it is pity that a youth, of so much virtue, should fall short of heaven, and be but almost a christian. It is pity that you should have gained so large a share of knowledge, and so honourable a character of sobriety, and, after all, want the one thing needful, an universal change, and renovation of your hearts, by receiving the gospel. Have you proceeded thus far, and will you not go on to perfection? Take heed that ye lose not the things that ye have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward; 2 John 8.
It is pity you should enquire the way to heaven, and not walk in it, when it is marked out before your feet with so much plainness: It is pity you should indulge the love of this world so far, as to suffer it to forbid you the pursuit of a better; or at best, when ye receive instructions about your souls, you let the affairs of this life overwhelm and bury that good seed, and it never grows up to practice. What would you say to the folly of a man, who has a long and hazardous journey to make, to take possession of a large estate, and once a week he comes to enquire the way, and hears a fair description of all the road, perhaps he mourns his long neglect, and resolves upon the journey; but the next six days are filled up with a thousand impertinences; and when the seventh returns, he has not taken one step forward in the way?
Believe me, sirs, it is not an easy thing to be saved: laziness, and mere enquiries, will never effect your happiness, nor secure your souls from perdition; and all the pains you have already taken will be lost, if you give over the pursuit. Let me call some of you this day to remember your former labours, the prayers and tears that you have poured out in secret before God; remember your days of darkness, and your nights of terror, the groans of conscience, and the inward agonies you felt, when you were first awakened to behold your guilt and danger; remember these hours, and these sorrows; and love and pity your own souls so far, as to pursue the work, and let not your pains be lost: Have ye suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain; Gal. iii. 4. Ye have wrestled with some sins, and have in part got the mastery over them; and shall a darling lust overcome you at last, and slay your souls with eternal death? Ye have resisted the tempter in some of his assaults and put the powers of hell to flight; will you give up yourselves at last to be led in triumph by Satan, and become his everlasting slave? Methinks you look so amiable in those victories ye have already obtained, that I would fain have you press onward through the field of battle, fulfil the warfare, and receive the crown.
The ministers of the gospel look upon you with concern and pity: We love you because you have proceeded thus far in religion; but ye shall not be the beloved of God, if ye stop here, or go back again to sin and folly. We had a hopeful prospect of you once, and said to our Lord in prayer, “Surely these shall be one day the inhabitants, and the supports of thine house; these young plants shall one day be fruitful trees in thy vineyard; they shall be pillars in thy holy temple.” But alas! there is a death upon our hopes, there is a darkness and a lethargy upon your souls: We look upon you in all these your endowments, we mourn over you with compassion, and with zeal we express our grief and our love: “Awake, ye young sinners, who have deserved our love; awake, that ye sleep not to everlasting death.”
5. To those that are rich in this world, and are furnished with the former good qualities too. I am well assured, while I address myself to this assembly, I speak to many persons of this character[22]. Ye are wealthy and condescending, like the young man in my text: ye are often uncovered, and ye pay reverence to the ministers of the gospel, as he did; ye give us honours and civilities beyond our merit or wish; ye come and ask of us the same question, “What shall we do to inherit eternal life?” And we tell you from the word of God, “Love not the world, nor the things of the world; for where the love of the world is, the love of the Father is not. If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. Mortify your affections that are upon the earth, and deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow Christ.” Become his disciples, without reserve, in faith, and love, and universal holiness. While we propose these paths to eternal happiness, shall it be said concerning you, they went away sorrowful, having great possessions?
Your condescending and affable deportment, looks brighter by all the rich lustre of your habits; and the bigger your circumstances are, the more lovely is your humble attention to the ministers of Christ, and your readiness to hear our words is the more commendable: But will ye be hearers only, and never practice? The time is coming, and the hour makes haste upon you, when ye shall stand upon the borders of the grave, and look into that world of spirits, where all the honours and distinctions of this world are known no more. Ye shall be stripped of those vanities which ye loved above God and heaven. Think how mean and despicable a figure your souls will make amongst fallen angels, if the love of this world, and neglect of God should bring you into that dreadful company. What gay and swelling figures soever you have made on earth, you will make but a poor and wretched one in that world, if ye are found destitute of the riches of grace; and it will be a mournful inscription written on your tomb, “This rich man died,——and he lift up his eyes in hell;” Luke xvi. 23. But, beloved, we hope better things of you, though we thus speak, and things that accompany salvation; Heb. vi. 9. Thus I have finished the first general exhortation, to those who have any valuable qualities attending them, but through the love of this world are tempted to neglect heaven.
The second exhortation is addressed to those who are weaned, in some good degree, from this world, and have treasures in heaven, but are defective in those good qualities which might render them amiable upon earth. I confess I have no direct commission from my text to address you here: But I am unwilling and ashamed that a rich young man should go to hell with some more lovely appearances upon him than you have, who are in the way to heaven.
You have chosen God for your eternal portion, and your highest hope; you have chosen his Son Jesus for your only Mediator, and your way to the Father: you have chosen the worship and the ordinances of God as your dearest delight; ye are the chosen objects of the love of God, and his grace has inclined you to love him above all things. Methinks I would not have any blot cast upon so many excellencies. Be ye advised therefore to seek after that agreeable temper and conduct which may make you beloved of men too; that the wisest and best of men may chuse you for an honour to their acquaintance and company. This will render your profession more honourable, and make religion itself look more lovely in the sight of the world.
What a foul blemish it is to our christianity, when we shall hear it said, “Here is a man who professes the gospel of grace, but he does not practise the decencies that the light of nature would teach him! He tells us, that he belongs to heaven; but he has so little of humanity in his deportment, that he is hardly fit company for any upon earth.” Shall it be said of any of you, “Here is a man that pretends to the love of God, but he is morose in his disposition, rude in his behaviour, and makes a very unlovely figure amongst men? Let him fill what station he will in the church, he bears but a disagreeable character in the house, and disgraces the family or the city where he dwells. What his secret virtues or graces are, we know not, for they shine all inward; he keeps all his goodness to himself, and never suffers his light to shine out amongst his neighbours.”
Can I bear that it should be said concerning me, “He seems indeed to have something of the love of God in him, but he is so rough in his natural temper, and so uncorrected in his manners, that scarce any man loves him? He may bend his knees to God in prayer, but he has not common civility towards men. His morality and honesty appear not upon him with honour: His virtue does not seem to sit well about him, and his religion is dressed in a very unpleasing form.” Is this the way to give reputation to the gospel? Is this to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things; Tit. ii. 10. When we become christians, we put away bitterness, and wrath, and clamour, and evil-speaking, and filthiness, and scurrilous jests; Eph. iv. 31. and v. 4. We are commanded to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers; but to be gentle, and shew meekness to all; Tit. iii. 2. to prefer one another in honour; to bless, and curse not; to rejoice with them that rejoice, and to weep with them that weep; to condescend to men of low estate; and, if possible, to live peaceably with all men; Rom. xii. 14, 15, 16-18.
Are there any souls here of this unpleasing character and carriage! Did you ever read these words in your bibles? Do ye think these are the commands of Christ, or no? You profess to love him above all, but what care have you taken to obey these precepts of his? or do you think the sublime practices of faith and adoration will make those lower duties needless? Have ye found the sweetness of being at peace with God, and tasted of the pleasures of his love; and can ye disregard all the practices and pleasures of love and peace among men?
We are not required indeed to sell truth for peace, nor strict godliness for the forms of civility. There is no need that we should conform ourselves to any of the sinful practices of this world, in order to fulfil the law of love. But wheresoever the customs of the place where we dwell are consistent with the strict and holy rules of Christ, we should practise them so far, as to render ourselves agreeable to those with whom we converse, that we may shine in the world as the honours of Christ, and that unbelievers may be won by our conversation, to come and hear our gospel, to learn the same faith, and embrace the same hope: Not only the things that are true, and honest, and just, and pure, but the things that are lovely in the sight of men, and things that are of good report, must be the subjects of our meditation, our learning, and practice; Phil. iv. 8. St. Paul, that great apostle, did not think these things unworthy of his care; he enjoins them upon the primitive christians from his own example, and promises them the presence of the God of peace. These are the things which I have taught you, saith he, these ye have heard and seen in me; conform your manners to these rules, and the God of peace shall be with you; ver. 9.
Believe me, friends, the natural habit of christianity is all decency and loveliness: We put the religion of our Saviour into a disguise, and make it look unlike itself, if our temper be sour and fretful, if our carriage be coarse and rude, and our speech savour of roughness and wrath. A Jew might make a better apology, for a harsh and severe deportment, than a christian could do; he might put on a morose air with better countenance, and plead the dispensation he was under, the bondage of the law, and the terrors of mount Sinai. But we under the gospel, are free-born; Gal. iv. 26-31. and our carriage should be ingenuous in all respects. John the baptist, in his garment of hair, may be indulged in a roughness of speech; he was but a forerunner of the gospel, and can hardly be called a christian: but the followers of the Lamb should have a mild aspect, a pleasing manner, that every one who beholds us may love us too; that the Son of God, if he were here upon earth, might look upon us and love us in both his natures, with a divine and human love.
Thirdly, The last address I would make to those who are furnished with every good quality, and every divine grace, who are beloved by God and men. Such a one was our Lord Jesus Christ in the days of his flesh: He, from his very childhood, grew in wisdom, and in stature, and in favour with God and man; Luke ii. 52. He had further discoveries of divine love made to him daily: and as his acquaintance increased in his younger years, so did his friends too, till his divine commission made it necessary for him to oppose the corruptions of his country, and reform a wicked age, and thus expose himself to the anger of a nation that would not be reformed. There was something lovely in his human nature, beyond the common appearance of mankind; for his body was a temple, in which the godhead dwelt in a peculiar and transcendent manner, and his soul was intimately united to divinity. I cannot but think, that, in a literal sense, he was fairer than the children of men, and that there was grace in his lips, and a natural sweetness in his language: Psal. xlv. 2. If the Jews beheld no comeliness in him, if his visage was marred more than the sons of men, it was because he was a man of uncommon sorrows, and acquainted with grief; which might cast something of heaviness or gloom upon his countenance, or wear out the features of youth too soon. But surely our Lord, in the whole composition of his nature, in the mildness of his deportment, and in all the graces of conversation, was the chiefest of ten thousands, and altogether lovely. How amiable are those who are made like him?
Such was John the beloved disciple; you may read the temper of his soul in his epistles: What a spirit of love breathes in every line? What compassion and tenderness to the babes in Christ? What condescending affection to the young men, and hearty good-will to the fathers, who were then his equals in age? With what obliging language does he treat the beloved Gaius, in his third letter; and with how much civility, and hearty kindness, does he address the elect lady and her children, in the second? In his younger years, indeed, he seems to have something more of fire and vehemence, for which he was surnamed A son of thunder; Mark iii. 17. But our Lord saw so much good temper in him, mixed with that sprightliness and zeal, that he expressed much pleasure in his company, and favoured him with peculiar honours and endearments above the rest. This is the disciple who was taken into the holy mount with James and Peter, and saw our Lord glorified before the time; this is the disciple who leaned on his bosom at the holy supper, and was indulged the utmost freedom of conversation with his Lord; John xiii. 23, 24, 25. This is the man who obtained this glorious title, The disciple whom Jesus loved; that is, with a distinguishing and particular love. As God, and as a Saviour, he loved them all like saints; but as man, he loved St. John like a friend; John xxi. 20. and when hanging upon the cross and just expiring, he committed his mother to his care; a most precious and convincing pledge of special friendship.
O how happy are the persons who most nearly resemble this apostle, who are thus privileged, thus divinely blessed! How infinitely are ye indebted to God your Benefactor, and your Father, who has endowed you with so many valuable accomplishments on earth, and assures you of the happiness of heaven? It is he who has made you fair, or wise; it is he who has given you ingenuity, or riches, or, perhaps, has favoured you with all these; and yet has weaned your hearts from the love of this world, and led you to the pursuit of eternal life: It is he that has cast you in so refined a mould, and given you so sweet a disposition, that has inclined you to sobriety and every virtue, has raised you to honour and esteem, has made you possessors of all that is desirable in this life, and appointed you a nobler inheritance in that which is to come. What thankfulness does every power of your natures owe to your God? that heaven looks down upon you, and loves you, and the world around you fix their eyes upon you, and love you: That God has formed you in so bright a resemblance of his own Son, his first-beloved, and has ordained you joint-heirs of heaven with him; Rom. viii. 17.
Watch hourly against the temptations of pride; remember the fallen angels, and their once exalted station; and have a care lest ye also be puffed up, and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Walk before God with exactest care, and in deepest humility. Let that divine veil be spread over all your honours, that as you are the fairest images of Christ, ye may be dressed like him too; for he who is the highest Son of God, is also the holiest of the sons of men; he who is personally united to the godhead, and is one with his Creator, is the humblest of every creature.