Mark 12

But we must not love God only for his benefits, for then it is not love of God, but self-love. 2. Love to God must be [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], with all the heart (Mark 12:30). You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.

This union of the dove and the serpent is hard to find, but it is possible: Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22) — there was the prudence of the serpent; and he was meek above all the men upon the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3) — there was the innoc…

Proud men and guilty cannot endure to hear of their faults. Proud Herod put John in prison (Mark 12:12). The guilty Jews being told of their crucifying Christ, stoned Stephen (Acts 7:59).

Noah being moved with fear prepared an ark: fear is a watch bell to awaken sleepy Christians; it guards against security; it is a spur to a sluggish heart: he who fears he shall come short of his journey rides the faster; and indeed this exhortation to fear lest we miss of this…

This he did for the show of Grace, which appeared in his answer: much more then will he like of that, which is true grace indeed. So, likewise Christ reasoning with the Scribe, concerning the first and great commandment, and perceiving that he had answered discreetly, he said un…

[in non-Latin alphabet], the resurrection of the dead. It is usually expressed by [in non-Latin alphabet], the resurrection only (Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27, 33; John 11:24; Matthew 22:23, 28). For by this single expression, the whole was sufficiently known and apprehended.

No men are more deeply obliged to the practice of this duty, than they that least perform it, than the maligners and censurers of Religion: because Religion is the only physick and cure for a lost soul, which none need more than such undone and desperate creatures. This is one o…

For 1. a correction of the human will seems to import a jarring and a discord; 2. Christ desired that, the contrary of which, he knew was from eternity decreed of God. 3. The Law of God is so spiritual, strict and holy, that it requires not only a conformity to it, and our will,…

There be some preparatory colors in dying of cloth, as blue, that dispose the cloth for other colors more easily; so is it here: And a fish that has swallowed the bait, and is in the bosom of the net, is nearer being taken, than a fish free and swimming in the ocean; yet a fish…

8. There is no temple, no ordinances in our country of perfection (Revelation 21:2; 1 Corinthians 13:8). 9. There is no angel's life here without marriage, eating, drinking, begetting of children (Luke 22:29, 30; Mark 12:25). Clay cannot live [illegible] earthly, up above the cl…

As Magistrates in the exequution of justice, Deut 1:17. Ministers in teaching, and in the reproouing of sinne, Mark 12:14. and all believers, who are not to have religion in acceptation of persons, Iam. 12. 1. This acceptation is the ruine of societies.

Mark 12:41-44 41. And while Jesus was sitting opposite to the treasury, he perceived how the multitude threw money into the treasury, and many rich persons put in much.

22. And having heard these things, they wondered, and left him, and went away. Mark 12:13-17 13. And they send to him certain Pharisees and Herodians, to entrap him in his words

33. And when the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his doctrine. Mark 12:18-27 18. And the Sadducees come to him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they interrogated him, saying,

40. On these two commandments the whole law and the prophets depend. Mark 12:28-34 28. And when one of the scribes came, and heard them disputing together, and saw that he had answered them well, he put a question to him, Which is the first commandment of all?

nor did any man from that day venture to put any more questions to him. Mark 12:35-37 35. And Jesus answering said, while he was teaching in the temple, How do the scribes say that Christ is the son of David?

12. But he that exalts himself shall be humbled; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. Mark 12:38-39 38. And he said to them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, who love to walk in robes, and love salutations in the marketplaces,

you make him twice as much the child of hell as yourselves. Mark 12:40 40. Who devour widows' houses, and that under the disguise of a long prayer.

And the dominion granted him on these grounds is, 1. Sovereign and absolute: his enemies are his footstool (Psalm 110:2; Matthew 22:44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:24; Acts 2:34; 1 Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews 1:13). They are in his hand, as the Egyptians were in Joseph's, when he had pur…

I. The matter of his sermon was the incomparable excellencie of heauenly doctrine; thus much his enemies the Scribes that came to tempt him did confess, Mar. 12. 14. Master, you are true, and teachest the way of God truly.

We have seen some Ships have had glorious names given them, the Good-speed, the Hope, the Safe-guard, yet cast away at Sea. 2. It is possible to come near to Heaven, yet fall short of it, Mark 12:34. You art not far from the Kingdom of God; yet he was not near enough.

However good and excellent your memory may be, I am sure you have a very bad one, if you forget and do not remember your Creator in the days of your youth. The young man's glory is his strength (whether of memory, etc.) and will you give your strength to sin, which is due to God…

It is better (in this regard) to be a sinner without a profession, than to be a professor without conversion, for the one lies fairer for an inward change, when the other rests in an outward. Our Lord Christ tells the Scribe (Mark 12:34): You are not far from the Kingdom of God,…

It is said of the truly righteous, he shall scarcely be saved; and it is said of the seemingly righteous, he shall be almost saved. You are not far from the Kingdom of God (Mark 12:34). The righteous shall be saved with a scarcely; that is, through much difficulty: he shall go t…

Improve the utmost of our endeavor to keep ourselves, and all ours from scandalous sins. Restraining grace is but common grace, yet is it a great favor of the Lord that he will curb and restrain a man; by this means the work of conversion is more easy, and such persons freed fro…

Moses is alive under the New Testament, as God said in the bush to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, so God is the God of Moses as well as of Abraham, etc. Now God is not the God of the dead but of the living (Matthew 22:32, compared wit…

No wonder then if upon this undertaking, the Lord promised, to make his mouth sharp like a sword, to hide him in the shadow of his hand, to make him a polished shaft, and to hide him in his quiver, to make him his servant in whom he would be glorified (Isaiah 49:2-3), that thoug…

1. All this is perfectly stated in the Suffrage which the Scribe gave unto the declaration of the sense and design of the law, with the nature of the Obed[•]ence which it does require, that was made at his request by our blessed savior, Mark 12:28 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. And one of…

Ill-gotten goods are matter of restitution, rather than of distribution. Second, our surplus goods — we are to give out of our over-plus and abundance, that your abundance may be a supply for their want (2 Corinthians 8:14), that which remains and is to spare after other necessa…

Besides, this would cause persecution for ever to cease, and charge all the martyrs in every age of the world, not only with disobedience, but also with folly; and then also it would follow, whatever religion in any nation, the chief magistrate thereof does set up, must be subje…

The next sort of works of present necessity are those that belong immediately to the preservation of the temporal life of man and beast, or that serve to the good estate of them both. Such are works of mercy: as the watering of cattle (Mark 12:11), the drawing of a beast out of…

(6) From the testimony of the Apostle (1 Corinthians 8:6): to us, says he, there is but one God. (7) From what Christ said to one of the Scribes, namely, the Lord our God is one Lord (Mark 12:29). (8) Because God is a most absolute and most perfect being, and so beyond all other…