2. From the pleasure God taketh in his own image. So much of the image of God as his creature hath, so far more amiable in the sight of God : ' The Lord delighteth in the upright,' Prov. xi. 20. If God delighteth in them, he delighteth more in one that is more holy and upright. Thus from God's holiness we may argue he doth not delight in the impure : Ps. v. 4, ' Thou art not a God that hast pleasure in wickedness.' He cannot so fully delight in the less pure : Ps. xviii. 25, 26, ' With the upright man thou wilt show thyself upright, with the pure thou wilt show thyself pure.'
3. From the justice of God, and the quality of that happiness which we expect. Though it be an act of free grace and bounty in God to bestow it on us, yet it is a reward ; and reward is considerable with respect to the work. The reward is not of merit, but grace ; but yet God's merciful justice respecteth the degree of our service: Heb. vi. 10, ' God is not unrighteous, to forget your work of faith and labour of love.' It is an act of remunerative justice, according to the new covenant. The higher service hath an ord inability to the greatest reward.
4. God doth in this world give the greatest blessings to those that do most eminently glorify him; therefore signal faithfulness is eminently rewarded in the world to come ; as God promiseth to make a covenant with Phinehas, because he was zealous for God, to make an atonement for the people, Num. xxv. 13. This the rather holdeth good, because the rewards of the Old Testament were a kind of figure of eternity.
5. In the punishment there are degrees, therefore in the reward God will punish men differently, more or less according to the rate of their sins. We read of dveKrorepov, more tolerable. So he will reward men more or less according to the different degrees of their faithfulness: so Mat. xi. 21, 22, ' It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the
Vers. 24, 25.] sermons upon matthew xxv. 461
day of judgment than for you.' So Luke xii. 47, 48, we read of many stripes and few stripes. It is true the reward is not of debt ; yet there is an equity observed in his bounty.
6. The glorified state of the saints in all probability suiteth with all the rest of the creation. There is a difference and disparity in every- thing else. Among men in the world, in wisdom and rank, and quality and riches ; in the church some have meaner, some larger gifts. There are degrees among the devils. We read of Beelzebub the prince of the devils. Among angels there are archangels, principalities, powers, thrones, dominions. So it is likely among the saints.
7. The profit : it encourageth to godliness : this inequality of rewards giving greater things to those that do more, and be more faithful, than to imagine that they who sow more sparingly shall reap as plentifully as those that sow liberally. It is a great damp to all worthy dealing and signal excellency, that all shall fare alike ; but it quickeneth us to our utmost activity to remember that as our work is our reward will be.
Use. Is to quicken us to be more faithful to God for these consi- derations : —
1. Heaven being the perfection of holiness, if you do not desire more degrees of holiness, you do not desire heaven itself : 1 John iii. 2, 3, ' Behold now ye are the sons of God, and it doth not appear what we shall be : but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him ; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth. himself as he is pure.'
2. It is gross self-love to go as near the brink of hell and destruction without falling into it, and to beat down the price of salvation as low as we can ; and he that will do nothing more than what is simply necessary to salvation will never be faithful with God. To save the stake of their souls they will serve God as little as they can.
SERMON XIV.
Then lie which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sowed, and gathering where thou hast not straived : and I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth : lo, there thou, hast that is thine.— Mat. XXV. 24, 25.
We have seen the account and reception of the faithful servants ; we now come to the master's reckoning with the unfaithful one. The order is observable : first he rewardeth the faithful servants, and then punisheth the careless and negligent. His own nature inclines him to reward ; he doth good and showeth mercy out of his own self-inclina- tion ; but our sins force him to punish. And mark, he that had received one talent is called to an account as well as he that had received more, that no man may think to be excused for the meanness of his gifts and place. It is true he giveth an account for no more than he hath, but for so much as he hath he must give account.