all eternity any offence committed against them, so neither ought God to punish sin in that way ; and, as they would reward men according to their merits, so ought God to do. In short, they think " God to be altogether such an one as them- selves : but God will reprove them, and, with righteous seve- rity, will set before them the things which they have done1:" for, however just a comparison between God and man may be in some respects, in other respects it can serve no other pur- pose than to lead us into the most fatal errors.]
Let me, then, mark distinctly, when, and in what cases, this argument is valid —
[There is a broad line of distinction to be drawn, and such a line as will suffice to keep us from any material error on the subject. When the comparison relates only to ivhat is good and gracious, the argument founded on it is not only valid, but may be carried to an extent that would be utterly inadmissible on any other subject under heaven. For instance, we may not only say, if an earthly parent will be kind to his child, how much more will your heavenly Parent be so ? But we may put the argument thus : " If a man will shew the smallest kind- ness imaginable to his beloved child, how much more will God exercise the greatest possible kindness towards a stranger, provided that stranger call upon him in humility and faith ? " This is, in fact, the very statement which our Lord himself gives in the verses following my text: for it is worthy of notice, that, in the latter part of the comparison, he drops the relation of a child, and says, " How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit unto them that ask himk?" But, ivhen the comparison supposes or implies any claim on God, then is it not only vain, but impious in the extreme : for man has no claim whatever upon God. The very devils have as much claim upon him as we, unless we come to him in the name of Christ. On our fellow-creatures we have a claim ; but on God we have none : and if we presume to say, I would not act so or so towards a fellow-creature ; therefore God will not act so or so towards me ; we reduce him to a level with ourselves ; we bind him by laws to which he is not subject ; and we prescribe rules to him which he will never follow. Of our duties to man we may form some judgment: but " we
1 Ps. 1. 21.
k A similar statement we have in the Epistle to the Hebrews (ix. 13, 14.) : " If the blood of bulls &c. will do the smallest thing, i. e. will cleanse the body from a mere ceremonial defilement, how much more will the blood of Christ, &c. do the greatest, i. e. cleanse the soid from all manner of moral defilement, and sanctify it whollv unto the Lord ?"