484 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SeR. XVI.
so great a treasure and trust : ' To him shall be given ;' lie shall increase his stock, and accordingly the comfort, benefit, and reward that belongeth to it. Yea, it follows, ' He shall have abundance,' TrepiaaevdtjcreTcu ; not a single abundance, but a continual increase, even unto perfection ; an increase of gifts, graces, and rewards. The sum is, to him that useth and improvetli God's grace shall by degrees be given so much as that at last he shall have all abundance.
The second branch of this copulate axiom is, ' From him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath.' As he that had one talent, but had it not for his master's use, is counted and reckoned as though he had none. We have not what we have if we use it not well ; as we say of a covetous man, avaro tam deest quod habet, quara quod own habet. It is as if we had it not : idle gifts and habits lie dead and useless. In Luke it is, chap. viii. 18, ' And from whomso- ever hath not, shall be taken that which he seemeth to have.' He maketh no use of his gifts, but lets them lie idle, as if he had not had them. Of grace and righteousness the proposition holdeth most true ; of reprobates their grace and righteousness is but a pretension : of other gifts which they have, they have them not for use, for the Lord's service; and so, in effect, they have them not: therefore, they shall be taken from them ; that is, they lose their reward : Ezek. xxxiii. 13, ' If he trust in his righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his right- eousness shall not be remembered ;' 2 John 8, ' Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward ;' Gal. iii. 4, ' Have you suffered so many things in vain ? If it be yet in vain.' Men may suffer many things for the truth who afterward make foul defection from it ; but all is vain, lost, and to no purpose, as to anything that can be expected from God. The Nazarite was to begin again if he had defiled himself in the days of his separation, Num. vi. 12. Thus for their putative righteousness ; for other common gifts which they really have, they shall be deprived of all the real benefit which otherwise they might have had, if they had laid them out for the glory of God, their own salvation, and the good of their neighbours.
Boot. That all the good gifts which God hath bestowed upon men increase by good use, but wither and are lost by negligence.
For this is the sum of Christ's sentence and reason.
Now, that I may speak distinctly of the point, I must say some- thing as to the increase, and something as to the loss.
First, For the increase, ' To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly, ' I shall deliver my sense of it in these propositions : —
1. That diligence is the means, and God's blessing is the cause, of all increase ; and both must be regarded, or else we profit nothing. We cannot expect God's blessing while we sit idle ; and it is a wrong to grace to trust merely to endeavours, or without looking up to God. It is said in Prov. x. 4, 'He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand ; but the diligent hand maketh rich ;' that is, that is the means ; for ver. 22, it is said, ' The blessing of the Lord maketh rich ;' that is, the blessing of the Lord upon the use of means. God hath ordered it so in his providence, that diligence should be always fruitful and pro-
Vers. 28, 29.] sermons upon matthew xxv. 485
fitable, both in a way of nature and grace ; that the joy of the harvest should recompense the pains and patience of the diligent husbandman, and that the field of the sluggard should be overgrown with thorns. Iron by handling weareth brighter and brighter, but by standing still, or being let alone, it contracteth rust, by which it is darkened and eaten out. Take away use and exercise, and wisdom turneth into folly, and learning into ignorance, health into sickness, riches into poverty. Strength of body and mind are both gotten by use ; he that useth his talent with fidelity and sedulity shall increase in it, but such as are idle and negligent shall grow worse and worse. God doth plentifully recompense the diligence and fidelity of his servants ; he that maketh use of any degree of grace and knowledge shall have more given him ; by exercising what he hath he doth still increase it. Whereas, on the contrary, remiss acts weaken habits, as well as con- trary acts; this is a common truth, evident by daily experience ; but then God's blessing must not be excluded. God would have us labour, rather to keep us doing, than that he needeth our help. He that made the world without us can preserve it without us, as he that planted the garden of Eden could have preserved it without man's dressing, yet we read that when he had furnished the garden of Eden with all de- lights, God took the man and put him into it, ' to dress it and to keep it/ Gen. ii. 15 ; that is, to use husbandry about it, that by sowing, setting, pruning, and watering, he might preserve those fruits where- with God had furnished that pleasant garden, and to bestow his pains upon that whereof he was to receive the benefit, and that by busying himself about the creatures, he might the better observe God in his various works in and by them. And indeed nothing was such a means to convince him of his dependence upon God as this labour of dressing and keeping the garden which God put him into ; for he could produce no new plant, but only manure and cherish those which God had planted there already, and all his keeping and planting was nothing without dews and showers and influence from heaven, and the con- tinual interposing of God's providence. And still in every calling he that is sedulous in it seeth more need of God's concurrence than those that are idle ; for those that have done their utmost by experience find that the success of all their endeavours dependeth upon his power and goodness, or the effect followeth not. I am sure it holdeth good in the work of grace : none are so practically convinced of the necessity of divine assistance as they that do their utmost; for they see plainly all will not do if God withhold his blessing ; and their often disappoint- ments when they lean upon their own strength teacheth them this lesson, that all is of God.