1. Sometimes God taketh from them opportunities and liberty of doing good. Nothing is so soon lost as this : Gal. vi. 10, ' As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good to all men.' There are some fit opportunities offered us by the providence of God for doing our duty in this kind, as are soon gone ; and being past and gone, it is hard to say whether ever we may enjoy the like. As when we are specially fitted, and there is a concurring harmony of all circumstances. There- fore, Ave should take hold of them without delay or fore-slowing. Oppor- tunities are not always as long as life: Eccles. xi. 1, 2, 'Cast thy bread upon the waters, and give a portion to seven and to eight ; for thou knowest not what evil there may be upon earth.' Embrace the present opportunity ; thou canst not foresee how soon thou mayest be deprived of it. Thou mayest die, and leave thy wealth to those that will shut up their bowels. Thou mayest be in want ; God may dis- able thee : therefore, make use of the season for liberality, for doing good, while you have it. So office, authority, respect in the church, is an opportunity. God may cast us out of the vineyard by the malice of men, or as unsavoury salt, Mat. xiii. : Mai. ii. 9, 'Therefore, I have made you contemptible and base before the people ; ' though all that are cast out are not so. Mat. xxi. 35, the husbandmen took ' his servants, and beat one and killed another.' However, it will be a discomfort if we have been negligent.
2. Ordinances ; means of improvement may be lost : Gen. vi. 3, ' My Spirit shall not always strive with man ;' that is, by the ministry of Noah. And God threateneth to take away the hedge of his vine- yard when all his cost is lost : Isa. v. 5, 6, ' What could I have done more for my vineyard ?' So Luke xiii. 7, ' And he said to the dresser of the vineyard, Lo, these three years came I seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and I find none ; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground ? '
3. Common gifts ; God justly taketh them away from those that abuse, or make no good use of them. Many that excelled in gifts, that seemed to have great parts, are pitifully blasted afterwards. It is no hard matter to discern a maim and decay of gifts in them that use them not, as if the Spirit were departed from them: Zech. xi. 17, ' The idol-shepherd's arm shall be dried up. and his eye darkened ;'
Vers. 28, 29.] sermons upon matthew xxv. 491
that is, his gifts shall be taken away, at least, the power and life of them. Many lose the freshness of their gifts of prayer, the liveliness of their knowledge.
4. Initial grace, Heb. vi. Saving gifts and graces are a/j,€Taui\7)Ta, without repentance, Rom. xi. 29. Where there is life begun, it is not quenched ; but where there are some hopeful inclinations, they begin to draw off their hearts from the world to God ; though they had ' escaped the pollutions of the world, their latter end may be worse than their beginning,' 2 Peter ii. 20.
5. Bona sanctificantia ought still to be improved, that the grace of God be not ' received in vain,' 1 Cor. xv. 10. Grace in some mea- sure may suffer loss by our negligence : 1 Thes. v. 19, 'Quench not the Spirit ; despise not prophesyiDg.' Fire is quenched by pouring on water or withdrawing fuel ; so the Spirit is quenched by living in sin, which is like pouring on water ; or not improving our gifts and grace, which is like withdrawing the fuel. Gradus remittitur, actus inter- mittitur, habitus non amittitur. Though the habit be secured by God's covenant, yet such portions and degrees of grace may be lost as may not easily be recovered again.
Use is to commend to us diligence and industry, especially in the work of our heavenly calling. A man's life is divided between waking and sleeping, so is his waking time divided between labour and rest ; for human nature cannot endure continual exercise without inter- mission. Therefore a spiritual wise man should so govern his life that his labour may answer his great work and trust, and his rest may not infringe his labour, but help it. Our first care should be of labour ; for man in this world is born to labour. Here is not the place of his rest and recompense, but of his exercise and trial. Rest is but for labour ; therefore doth he rest that he may be refreshed for his labour. Six days are given in the law to labour, but one to rest ; and that rest is not carnal, but holy, and to be improved for our main duties. Adam in innocency was not made for idleness. Moses telleth us that God put him into the garden to dress it. That happiness we partook of then was consistent enough with our work. He that looketh upon the beauty of the sun may easily collect that God lighted not such a bright torch for man to sleep by, or to pass over his days in ease and idleness. The law that was given man to labour remained after sin ; yea, sin brought grievousness and burden to it : so what was a law before, is turned into a punishment now ; for God told Adam that ' in the sweat of his brow he should eat his bread/ In the whole course of nature nothing is idle ; the sun and stars do perpetually move and roll up and down ; the earth bringeth forth fruit ; the seas have their ebbings and Sowings, and the rivers their courses ; the angels are described with wings, as ready to fulfil God's commandment, and run to do his pleasure. It were an unworthy thing, among so many examples and patterns of diligence, for man alone to be idle. In the least creatures God hath taught us ; as by the ant or pismire : Prov. vi. 6, ' Go to the ant, thou sluggard.' Now. as all men must labour, so chiefly a Christian. The scripture compareth our life to a journey, which is a constant motion till it be accomplished ; to threshing, which is the painfullest part of husbandry ; yea, to a warfare, when the enemy