2. The possible equality of all men as to condition, and as to state of life : they are equal by nature, and it is possible they may be in the same state of life. You stand to-day, another is fallen ; you are liable to the same corruption and the same calamities. To the same cor- ruption: Gal. vi. 1. ' If any one be fallen, 5-e that are spiritual restore such an one with a spirit of meekness ; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.' Rigid censurers may fall into like sins or worse them- selves. Alas ! the devil is very assiduous in tempting, and the Lord permits him to surprise those that are severe to others. Therefore you should show pity and compassion to the fallen. And then as to i)0ssil>ility of calamities: Heb. xiii. 3, ' Pii-'member them that are in bonds, as bound with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being
Mat. VII. 12.] the eighteenth sermon. 379
yourselves ulso in the body.' There is a twofokl interpretation of that jilace. Some understand it of tlie mystical body of Christ ; but I think rather it is meant of the body of flesli, while we are here in the present life. Strange changes may come before we go out of the body; they that are highest may be lowest. In 2 Kings iv. 13, we read of the Shunaramite that had given harbour and entertainment to the prophet, and the prophet said, ' Wiiat is to be done for thee ? wouldst thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? and she answered, I dwell among mine own people.' She was well, and needed nothing ; she was able to dwell at home, and to maintain her- self well enough, and needed not the prophet to speak to the king for her ; but afterwards there comes a great famine, and her inheritance was invaded, and she that would not be beholden to the prophet was beliolden to Gehazi, the prophet's man. Compare 2 Kings iv. 13, Avith 2 Kings viii. 3.
There may be great changes here in the earth, great calamities may befall us ; therefore, since we are in the body, and since those that are high to-day may be low to-morrow, and you may need the like help from others, we must have a fellow-feeling with them. God, who is the great arbiter of human affairs, can pull down and set up at his pleasure. We have opened the rule, the first part of the text.
II. The second part is the commendation of this rule : ' For this is the law and the prophets ;' that is, this is the sum of the doctrine of God. The law and the prophets were the scriptures only then in force, and therefore the phrase is used proverbially in many places; Mat. xi. 13, ' For all the prophets and the law prophesied till John; Luke xvi. 31, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them ;' Acts xxiv. 14, ' I believe all the law and the prophets have spoken.' The law and the prophets were all the Bible they had for that time. Now, saith Christ, the law was as the text, and the prophets as the comment upon the text, to expound and confirm the law by a larger explication.
But you will say, Is this the whole sum of the law and the prophets ? Are there not doctrines delivered there insisted upon concerning our respects to God and all the institutions of his worship ; are they not contained in the law and prophets ?
I answer — The proposition must be understood according to the matter in hand. This is the law and the prophets as to all they say concerning our converse with men. You may have many rules in the law and the prophets, where they are more copiously delivered, but they all issue themselves into this general rule. The worship of God " and duties to him are also established by the law and the prophets ; for when our Lord had spoken of what we owe to God as well as to man, he saith, Mat. xxii. 40, ' On these two hang all the law and the prophets.' These are the two things that all the law and the prophets seek to establish — viz., love to God and man. But our Saviour here speaks only concerning the second table ; what concerns that is com- prised in this sentence. All that part of religion which is inferioris liemispherii, of the lower hemisphere of duty, is distilled into this quin- tessential extract. As in the spirits of things the virtue is contracted, which othersvise is largely diftused while it is mingled with grosser
380 THE EIGHTEENTH SERMON. [MaT. VII. 12.
matter, so here the spirits, the extract of law and prophets, are all distilled as to moral matters into this one saying, 'Whatsoever you wuuld,' etc.
III. The third thing to he considered is the illative particle, ' therefore.' From what is this inferred ? In the foregoing verses our ISaviour speaks of audience in prayer: 'If ye, being evil, know how to give good things unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father know how to give good things to them that ask him ? Therefore, whatsoever ye would,' &c. Christ makes many notable arguments, and shows that God is ready to give good things to us : ' Ask, and ye shall have,' &c. He proves it from the kindness of earthly parents to their children. And, now, therefore, to intimate this, that if men have their prayers granted, they must observe this rule ; they must perform all duties of civil righteousness, as well as be earnest in acts of piety. Upon this limiting it to the audience of prayer, it plainly implies three things : —