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to arm the little reafon we have against us, which is perpetually placing fears and terrors before us, which yet have, can have, no relation to us?

In order to clear this matter, there are two things proper to be confidered:

First, To what inftances this rule of the text is extended by our bleffed Saviour and his Apoftles. Secondly, How far we may extend and apply this rule by parity of reafon to other cafes.

That we may bring this inquiry within proper bounds, it is fit to obferve, in the first place, that the rule of the text is never applied in Scripture to extenuate or excufe immoral actions upon account of the violence of the temptation from whence they proceed. So far from it, that even indulging the paffion is imputed as fin, though the immoral wicked action does not enfue: He that hateth his brother, fays an Apostle, is a murderer; and he that looketh upon a woman to luft after her, says our bleffed Saviour, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. If the cafe be fo, if hatred has in it the guilt of murder, and luft has the guilt of adultery; how fhall murder be excufed because it proceeds from violent hatred, or adultery because it proceeds from violent luft? St. James has plainly condemned the profaneness of justifying our iniquities by accufing our conftitutions, and consequently by accufing him who made us : Let no man fay when he is tempted I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own luft, and enticed. Then when luft hath conceived, it bringeth forth fin: and fin, when it is finish

ed, bringeth forth death, James i. 13, 14, 15. All fin is here defcribed to be the effect of violent and inordinate luft and paffion: but this is so far from being confidered as an excuse for fin, that it immediately follows, that fin fo produced bringeth forth death. The Scripture has recorded to us the immoral actions of many perfons; but is there any inftance where fuch immoralities are pitied or excused because of the luft and paffions from whence they proceeded? Nay, however apt men are to make fuch excufes for themselves, they are not apt to make them for others. When you read that Ahab flew Naboth, are you apt to say, Poor man, how could he help it, for he longed extremely for his vineyard? When you read that David flew Uriah. and corrupted his wife, do you excufe his iniquity, because his paffion was ftrong? If you do, it is more than he did for himself; for when he came to himself, he cried, I have finned against the Lord: which one forrowful confeffion of his iniquity was worth a thousand of the excufes which men ufually make in like cafes. In the verfes before the text, our Saviour puts the cafe of those who have received much, and of those who have received lefs: of those who received leaft he says, They shall be beaten for doing things worthy of ftripes: by which it appears, that all who have sense to diftinguish between good and evil are fubject to judgment; and no hope is given them of being faved by the ftrength of their paffion, when they act against the light of their reafon, But there will be occafion to confider this particular again, in ftating the cafe or cafes to which the rule of the text is applied in Scripture,

Now the rule, as applied in Scripture, does chiefly concern those who enjoy the light of God's word, and have the advantages of the Gofpel to enable them to work out their falvation: these are they who are faid in the text to have received much: and the comparison lies between them, and the rest of the world who have the light of reason only to direct them; and these last mentioned, compared with the others, are they who have received little.

The case of these two forts of people is very accurately stated in the verses before the text, which muft therefore be confidered. That fervant, fays our bleffed Saviour, which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, fhall be beaten with many ftripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of ftripes, fhall be beaten with few firipes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him fhall much be required.

The case, you fee, is put with respect to finners under the different circumftances of knowing, and not knowing, the will of their Lord. What we are to understand by the will of their Lord will appear, if we confider, that they who knew not the will of their Lord are yet fuppofed here to do things worthy of ftripes; which fupposes them to have the light of reason, and a knowledge of the difference between good and evil: for no man can in a moral fense be faid to do things worthy of stripes, unless he has reason to diftinguish between the things which are, and which are not, worthy of ftripes. Since therefore they who have this light of reafon are yet fupposed not to know their Lord's will, it is evident that to know the will of our Lord implies fomething more

than having the light of reafon to direct us; and confequently muft mean our having the light of God's word for our direction.

Secondly, You fee that finners under all circumftances are condemned to punishment. They who knew their Lord's will are condemned for not doing according to his will: they who knew not his will are not condemned for not doing according to the rule of which they had no knowledge, but they are fentenced for committing things worthy of ftripes, that is, fuch things as they, according to the light they had, knew to be finful. And this agrees exactly with what St. Paul to the Romans has declared: As many as have finned without law, fhall alfo perish without law: and as many as have finned in the law, fhall be judged by the law.

But then, as the knowledge of God's will is a great advantage to those who know it, fo will their punishment be in proportion greater, if they offend against this knowledge: they therefore shall be beaten with many ftripes. Others, though their iniquities and offences against the light of reafon, which God gave them, fhall not go unpunished; yet fhall their punishment be mitigated in respect to what others muft endure, and they shall be beaten but with few Aripes.

This general determination agrees with a more particular one to be found in the chapter before the text; Wo unto thee, Chorazin! wo unto thee, Bethfaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented in fackcloth and afhes. But it fhall

be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you, Luke x. 13, 14.

Tyre and Sidon were cities diftinguished in the Jewish prophets for their great abominations and iniquities; and the Jews, it is likely, thought that it would fare worfe with none at the day of judgment than with those cities. But our Saviour tells them it should fare worse with the cities which had feen his mighty wonders, and yet refused to repent at his call. Which judgment of his was far from juftifying or excufing the iniquities of Tyre and Sidon, or giving any promise of impunity to their fins it supposes them to be reserved to great judgments, and threatens ftill feverer punishment to thofe, who under greater advantages were equal finners.

Confider now the world as divided into two parts; one whereof has had the oracles of God committed to them, and enjoyed the light and direction of his word; and the other has been left to the guidance of mere reafon and nature, and that knowledge of good and evil to which no rational creature can be an utter stranger; and you may, from the maxim of the text, learn these general truths with respect to each fort and condition of men:

First, That no man shall be judged by a law of which he had no knowledge, but every man shall ftand or fall by the light that was given him: it being true of every moral action, what St. Paul has affirmed of almfgiving, It fhall be accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath

not.

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