378 SERMONS UPON LUKE XII. 48.
3. To show his singular love, care, and providence for and towards the church. Such a body as that is needeth distinct oifices, and because there is a diversity of employments and offices, which must not be confounded, therefore doth he enable liis servants with needful gifts and giaces : Eom. xii. 4, ' All members have not the same office ; ' some are designed for this function and use, and some for that. Now, as offices are divers, so are gifts and graces: Isa. liv, 11, 12, ' I will Iny thy foundations with sapphires, I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.' The church is there compared to a beautiful palace and edifice. And mark, there is a diversity of employments, ' foundations, windows, gates, borders ; ' and there is a variety of gifts, expressed by the several kinds of jewels, 'sapphires, agates, carbuncles, and pleasant stones.'
4. God dispenseth his gifts variously, for the beauty, order, and come- liness of the whole universe of mankind. Variety is grateful ; hills and valleys make the world more beautiful, so do the distinct orders and ranks of men ; all eye or all belly is monstrous. Difference with proportion maketh comeliness, therefore one excelleth another, and several gifts and ranks of men there are for the more convenient pro- ])ortion of the whole, as labour, service, counsel, wit, wealth, strength, &c. Without this variety it would be a lump rather than a body.
5. That every one in the sight of his own wants may be kept humble. When we are singular for any or many excellences, we are apt to grow proud and unsociable : ' The eye is apt to say to the hand, I have no need of thee ; or the head to the feet, I have no need of you,' 1 Cor. xii. 21. Therefore, that we may have somewhat to commend us to the respects of others, and something to humble us, God hath scattered his gifts, that one should need another, that every one might have need of that gift of which he hath not the possession : ' As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God,' 1 Peter iv. 10.
6. That there might be no schism in the body, but the members of it may maintain mutual love and amity. Diversity of gifts was not intended to dissolve the bands of union, but to strengthen them rather. Therefore the apostle, when he had reckoned up the bands of union, he presently addeth, ' but to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ,' Eph. iv. 7. First he speaketh of what is one in all, then of what is not one in all, but diverse in every one. Every one hath his distinct excellency, to endear liim to the rest. Diversity of gifts is an ordinary occasion of division and strife, of envy, pride, mutual disparagement, but in itself it is one of the strongest bands of union ; whilst all in their way contribute to the good of thu whole, and have the use of that excellency which they want themselves. Divers countries have divers commodities ; one aboundeth in gold, another in spices, another with wine, wool, corn, flax, &c., to maintain a commerce between mankind ; so here.
Use 1. To quicken us to improve our several talents for God, and be faithful according to that degree and place we sustain in the body.
2. Those that have the greatest gifts should not contenm those who have few or less. There is none but hath need of another. It is a base spirit that would shine alone, or set up one gift to the prejudice
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of another : ' All are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas/ 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22. In veste variefas, sed scissura non sit. Let us mutually help one another, and acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of God in all that we have, and be humble in what we want.
3. Let those that have few be content with the meanest gifts. You have no reason to repine at the giver. How little soever God hath given you, it is more than he owed you. If his distribution had been a matter of justice and debt, you might have said, AVhy has he not given to me as well as to another ? But it is the act of a free Lord, and he may do with his own as it pleaseth him : Mat. xx. 15, ' Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own ? Is thine eye evil because mine is good ? ' And as you cannot repine against the giver, you should not envy the receivers. The accounts are easier, and the greatest dealers are not always the safest men. You that have received little shall account for little.
Dod. 3. That, whether we receive little or much, all is in reference to an account. That is intimated in the words required, asked.
Gifts are variously dispensed. Some have wit, others estate, others strength ; some have offices, honour, authority ; but all must be called to an account, and those that have any gifts must look to reckon for them. This requiring and asking is represented to us in scripture under the notion of certain records, rolls, or books kept between God and the creature, concerning what we have received and returned. Therefore I will prove — (1.) That there are books of account kept between God and the creature ; (2.) That at the day of doom these books shall be opened; (3.) That all without exception shall be called to this reckoning ; none so high as to be exempted from it, none so low as to be neglected in it; (4.) That the judgment shall pass upon all men according to the account then given.