SLAM. VII. ,PALLING SHORT OF HEAVEN. IT$ 5. Add to all this, that he had many civil advantages by reason of his riches, his authority, and his. power. He was wealthy, and he was a ruler among the people: which things, though they cannot in themselves make any person amiable, yet when they are added to the former good qualities, they render them all more lovely and more valuable; and that because theyare so seldom joined together. Dr. Goodman remarks very ingenu- ously here, "that his concern about his soul, was dot a sick-bed meditation, for he was in health ; noramelan- choly qualm of old age, for he was young; nor was it the effect of his being discontented and out of humour with the world, for he was rich and prosperous," It is seldom that we see a man in the prime of his days, possessing large treasures and dominions in this world, that will seek after the things of another ; or that will shew due respect to his fellow -creatures, or practise so much as the form of godliness : that when all these meet to- gether, as they did in this young man, they conspire to make him lovely in the eyes of everybeholder. But alas ! this unhappy youth, furnished, as he was, with all these virtues, and these advantages, which our Lord beheld in him, and for which he loved him, yet he lost heaven for the love of this world. He refused to ac- cept the proposals of Christ; he went away sorrowful, for he had large possessions. And this naturally leads me to the third head. [Ifthis sermon be too long, it maybe divided here.] III. Some remarks upon this mixed character; upon the folly, the guilt, and misery of a man so lovely, and so beloved of Christ. Ist Remark. How much good and evil maybe min= gled in the same person ? What lovely qualities were found in this young man ! and yet there was found in- him a carnal mind in love with this world, and in a state of secret enmity to God. Our nature at first was a glo- rious composition of all that was good. How has sin ruined human nature from its primitive glory, and min- gled a large measure of evil in its very frame ! and yet how has restraining grace kept our nature from losing every thing that is good and valuable, and from becom- ing universallymonstrous and loathsome ! Let us take a survey of the world, and see what a mix- I 4
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