Secondly, What is it to trade with them ? It implieth —
1. A conscionable use of all our gifts.
2. A diligent improvement of them to the ends for which they were intended.
1. That we should use them well and holily ; our graces well, our parts well, our estates well. Our gifts and graces are not for pride and ostentation : ' Open my lips, that my mouth may show forth thy praise,' not my own, saith holy David. The service of hell must not be maintained with the contributions of heaven, neither must we seek God's approbation to the setting up of our own glory : Phil. i. 15, some ' preached the gospel out of strife and envy.' Unmortified cor- ruption will make a man's most excellent gifts subservient to his basest lusts, though exercised in the choicest duties of prayer and preaching. Applause, vainglory, and such like carnal motions and ends may set some men on work, and make them prostitute the service of Christ to their own lusts. This is not to trade as factors for God, but to set up for ourselves. So for estate ; to spend it in pomp and vanity, it is ' sowing to the flesh,' Gal. vi. 8. To spend our wit, time, and strength upon the service of our fleshly lusts, or to make our body a strainer for meat and drink, or a channel for lust to run through ; to be all for present profit, pleasure, and preferment ; this is, instead of trading with talents, to use them to God's dishonour.
2. That we should be laborious according to our gifts and oppor- tunities. As a servant is sent abroad to spy all advantages of gain for his master, so we are sent into the world to take all occasions of doing good : 1 Cor. xv. 58, ' Always abounding in the work of the Lord.7 Ministers are to watch for souls, and magistrates are to watch for good, and private Christians to be careful to maintain good works. To do a little good by the by will not be accepted ; we must be hard at work for God.
Thirdly, To whom the gain and increase redoundeth ? In a moral
438 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SeR. XII.
consideration there are three beings — God, neighbour, and self: accordingly we are appointed to work for three ends — the glory of God, the salvation of our own souls, and the good of others; and as we promote either of these ends, we are said to gain and increase our talents.
1. The glory of God must he regarded in the first place, or, which is always concerned with it, the advancement of the kingdom of Christ, and his interest in the world ; for all the gifts that we have received are for the Master's use. Though God cannot be enriched by anything that we can do, yet he counteth it an increase if we study to bring him into request, or to advance the kingdom of his Son. Therefore this must be our supreme end in all things : 1 Cor. x. 31, ' Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' If in eating and drinking, and the use of our ordinary comforts, much more in the supreme and important actions of our lives, such as we would make a business of : God must be specially eyed there. God only is independent and self-sufficient, of himself and from himself; but self- seeking is monstrous and unnatural in the creature ; .they are of him, and by him, and for him: Rom. xi. 36, 'Of him, and through him, and to him are all things.' The motion of the creatures is circular, they end where they begun, man especially. Other creatures glorify God necessarily, we voluntarily and by choice ; they passively, as they minister matter to the beholders to glorify God ; we actively, as we are to intend and seek his glory in all things. They are made for God ultimately, but mediately for man ; but we are made for his immediate service, and should glorify him in all.
2. The saving of our own souls, that must be regarded next to the glory of God. For next to the love of God, man is to love himself, and in himself first his better part. The great errors of the world come from mistaking self, and misplacing self : they misplace self when they set it above God, and prefer their interests before the conscience of their duty to him ; then they mistake self, thinking themselves more concerned as a body than a soul, and prefer the satisfactions of the carnal life before the happiness of the spiritual. We never truly love ourselves but when we love our souls and seek their good. God ordereth all his providences for his own glory and the good of his people : Rom. viii. 28, ' All things shall work together for good to them that love God.' So should we order all our actions. All things are sanctified to them that are sanctified to God, as helps and means, and something to bring us to him ; so should we use all gifts, ordinances, and provi- dences. We distinguished before of dona sanctificantia, et adminis- trantia; this is the difference between them. The graces of sanctifi- cation, though profitable for others, yet are chiefly intended for the good of him that hath them ; gifts of edification, though profitable for the owner, yet are principally intended for the good of others. A man that hath sanctifying grace, he doth good to others with it, that is but utilitas emergens, not finis proprius; it is not the proper and chief end for which those graces were chiefly given ; but other subservient gifts are for the good of the body, not for the worth of the person that hath them : 1 Cor. xii. 7, ' The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.' That was the main and proper end.