man, and it is no proof that he fears God, that having every want supplied, he does not steal, and avoids dishonesty. Neither is it any proof of true religion in a poor man that he is not proud, when not even the opinion of the world can point out any thing in which to boast himself. But when the poor man, though pinched with want, and tempted to dishonesty, struggles through his distress, and in the fear of God maintains his integrity; and when the rich man, actuated by the same fear, still remembers with gratitude his dependance upon God, and preserves himself in the exercise of humility both towards God and towards man, though surrounded with every temptation to pride and forgetfulness; then are they both in their several stations, not with their lips but with their lives, setting forth the glory and praise of God; and are giving proofs of that common faith which knits together in one all the members of that body of which Jesus Christ is the head. To Him, in the unity of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, let us ascribe all praise, adoration, and thanksgiving, now and for ever and ever.

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SERMON II.

ON PROPORTIONATE RESPONSIBILITY.

LUKE xii. 48.

"To whomsoever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."

IF arguments were wanted to influence men in the fear and service of God, besides those which the consideration of His and our respective conditions so amply affords, viz. that He is the great and terrible God', which executeth judgment and justice2, the first and the last3, the Omniscient, the Omnipresent, the Omnipotent; and that we are the creatures of His hand, whom He has formed out of the clay as a potter formeth earthen vessels; creatures, whose age is but a span long, and that span uncertain; weak and shortsighted. That every thing we have, value, or hope for, comes from Him; our present life in His hands; our life eternal de

1 Deut. x. 17.

2

Jer. xxiii. 5.

3 Isa. xli. 4.

pending upon His sentence at that day when He shall come to judge mankind. If, I say, besides all these, and a thousand other arguments of the same overwhelming, and one would fain hope, irresistibly convincing character, others were wanted of a different kind to influence us in our service of this Great Being; and, in our obedience to His commands, we should find them to our hearts' content, in the consideration of the nature of what He requires, and of the rules by which He is pleased to guide Himself in His conduct towards us. As concerns His commands, in the consideration that there is not one of these but what is really for our own good, nothing required of us but what is necessary in order to our attainment of that true and perfect happiness which He has designed for us, for which He created us, and to which He longs to bring us; that, in short, as David speaks, "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant 1." And, as concerns the rules by which He is pleased to guide Himself in His conduct toward us, in the consideration that these are not the capricious rules of a tyrant, nor has He chosen them without reference to our condition, but, to stop the tongues of all men from complaining, and to convict us out of our own mouths if we should be dissatisfied, He has in His mercy toward us chosen as rules for His conduct to our

1 Psa. xxv. 10.

66

selves, the rules which we employ in our conduct to others, and has applied those principles to us which we deem to be the fairest and most equitable to apply toward one another; thus, in effect, making us the arbiters of our own fate. To this end He has urged us to be merciful to others, as we hope for mercy ourselves; to be bountiful, as we hope for God's bounty; and to be charitable in our sentences and opinions of others as we hope for a charitable construction of our own conduct; because, " with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again'." And here, in the passage before us, having told men that He expects a return of duty and fulfilment of His will in proportion as they know and understand it, He appeals to themselves for the reasonableness of this proportionate demand, by showing, that it is in strict accordance with the principle of conduct which they put into daily use in common life, toward one another. "To whomsoever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."

Not indeed that He limits Himself to man's ways, nor applies these rules and principles in the same strict and niggardly manner in which men are wont to employ them. Far from it. "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my

1 Matt. vii. 2.

ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts'." And there runs through all God's gracious ways and methods of dealing, a vein of mercy and forbearance, of bounty and of charity to all who are willing, and whose hearts and endeavours are sincere, which will be looked for in vain in men's conduct toward each other. Still the principles are the same, and among them this mentioned in the text, "to whomsoever much is given, of him will much be required."

The immediate application of this principle, in the passage from which the text is taken, is to the gifts of the knowledge of God and of His will; where it is said, that "the servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to that will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes"." But, inasmuch as every other blessing, which men enjoy, is a gift of God, as St. James says, "is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights"; or, as St. Paul, “What hast thou which thou didst not receive 4?" to every other blessing also will this principle be applied: and not only the gifts of the light of the knowledge of God,

1 Isa. lv. 8, 9.

3 James i. 17.

2 Luke xii. 47, 48.

1 Cor. iv. 7.