Matt. vii. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye ivould that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and the prophets.
GOD is graciously pleased on some occasions to take those things which are good in men, for the pur- pose of illustratins^ his own ineffable and unbounded
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goodness. There is scarcely to be found a mother so destitute of feeling as to " forget her sucking child, and not to have compassion on the son of her womb." * Such a monster/ says God, ' may be found : " yet will not I forget thee^"' So, in the words before the text, we are told, that, '"evil" as men are, there exists not a father so cruel as to give his child a stone or a serpent, when importuned by him for the food that is necessary for his subsistence : from whence this inference is made ; " How much more shall your heavenly Father give good things unto them that ask him." Such inferences are just and legitimate to a certain extent : but they must not be pressed too far. We must not presume to argue, as many infidels have done, " that because a benevolent mem would not punish his enemy to all eternity, therefore God will not:" for there is no parallel between the cases; nor are God's actions to be measured by such a stan- dard : his written word will be the rule of his pro- cedure ; and all conclusions that contradict that, will prove delusive at the last. But though we cannot always argue from what man would do to what we may expect from God, we may safely, and in all cases, infer, from the superabundant goodness of God to us, the obligation which lies on us to exercise all possible degrees of kindness to our fellow-creatures. To this thought we are led by the connexion in which our text stands with the preceding verses. The words we have just read to you are an exhortation founded on the preceding representation of the Divine goodness : and certainly the argument is exceeding strong : for, if God in any case condescends to make our good actions a rule of conduct to himself, much more should we make the unbiassed convictions of our own minds the rule of our conduct towards all.
The direction that is here given us, is as important as any in the whole sacred volume. We shall en- deavour to point out,
I. Its import —
** Isai. xlix. 15.