ments we make of them, they will not profit us, nor be admitted as any proof of our fidelity in the day of reckoning we may cultivate our understanding by learning and study, and extend our knowledge through all the subjects of human inquiry: but if our end be only to gratify our curiosity or our vanity, we are not serving God, but ourselves; we may increase our portion of God's outward gifts, but if we only apply them to enlarge our own conveniences, we are not making the improvements our master expects: we may take pleasure in our own knowledge and fortune, rejoice in them as our portion and instruments in our present possession; but we must still remember, that in our reckoning with God, all these improvements of our capacities and abilities, will be added to our account: and the only use God will admit us to set in balance of our debt to him, is to employ them as means of increasing and multiplying our virtues, or as instruments of exercising them in the works of religion and piety.

From this parable we may learn, that the divine justice, in this scrutiny, will estimate and reward every one's fidelity in proportion to the improvements and returns they have made. An account will be demanded of every talent; nor will it be sufficient, that we have made some improvement, it must be proportioned to the number and value of our gifts. Let us therefore, live and act under serious habitual regard to that day, when our great Master shall come and reckon with us; remembering that such as have been idle, and made no use of the talent given them by the Almighty, will be cast into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. A prospect surely sufficient to awaken such from their slumber, quicken them to an immediate and vigorous application to duty; that by a double improvement of the time yet remaining, they may redeem what their indolence has lost. But far worse, and more difficult to be retrieved is his case, who has squandered away the stock itself, suffered his

gifts to perish for want of use; or, by abusing them to the service of sin, has provoked the Almighty to take them from him.

How shall the prodigal recal the fortune he has spent and appease the anger of hie Judge? The terrors of the Lord may justly terrify him; but it should not extinguish his endeavours in despair: he has lost many excellent talents, but he who gave can restore. Indeed, the most circumspect person will, in the great day of account, want much to be forgiven: and must expect his reward from the mercy of his Judge, not from the merit of his service. Let us then do all in our power to bring forth fruits, meet for repentance; for though the awful day of the Lord may be at a great distance, yet the time allotted us to prepare for it, is limited by the short space of human life: the night of death cometh, when no man can work: to-day, therefore, while it is called to-day, let us be diligent in the work of the Lord, correct our errors, and finish what is imperfect that we may obtain his approbation, and make our calling and election sure, before we go hence, and are seen of men no more.

We have endeavoured to explain the parable of the talents after this manner, and shall now return to the third parable delivered at the same time by the blessed JESUS, namely, that of the last judgment: When the Son of man, said he, shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Matt. xxv. 31, 32, 33.

It is common in the Old Testament, to compare good men to sheep, on account of their innocence and usefulness; and wicked men to goats, for their exorpitant lusts. Our blessed Saviour, however, does not

pursue the allegory further, but describes the remaining, and indeed the greatest part of this awful scene, in terms perfectly simple; so that though the sense be profound, it is obvious. Here the judgment of all nations, Gentiles as well as Christians is exhibited; and the particulars on which these awful trials are to proceed, displayed by the great Judge himself. Here we learn, that we shall be condemned or acquitted, accordingly as we have neglected or performed works of charity; works which flow from the great principles of faith and piety, and which the very Heathens are, by the light of nature, invited to perform. But we must not understand that such works merited this favour from the Judge; for all who are acquitted at that day, shall be acquitted solely on account of the righteousness of CHRIST, the true, the only meritorious cause, as well Heathens as Christians.

Who can read the following sentence passed upon the rightcous, without feeling the warmest love and gratitude to the great Author of all good; and what a noble motive to perseverance in well-doing does it afford: Come, ye blessed children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Good men, can at best, but consider their present state as a banishment from their native country. A state in which they are often exposed to innumerable temptations, to persecutions, to poverty, to reproach, to contempt. But the consideration that they are travelling towards the heavenly Jerusalem, a city prepared for them, when the foundations of the world were laid, will be abundantly sufficient to support their spirits, and render them more than conquerors. The glory laid up for them in the mansions of eternity, and which the great Judge will, at the awful day of account, confer upon them, will animate them to bear the violence of their oppressors, and even defy the malice of men and devils. Nay, they will behold with contempt the flourishing prosperity of the wicked, and look forward to that glorious and immortal crown which will be given

them by their great Redeemer. Then shall the King say unto them on the right hand, Come, ye blessed children of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Matt. xxv. 34, 35, 36.

Being astonished to hear the great Judge declare, that all the good offices they have ever done to their brethren in affliction, was done to him, they ask with great reverence and humility, when they performed these services? as they never saw him in want, and therefore could never assist him: Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink! When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. This is truly astonishing! The united wisdom of men and angels could never have discovered a more proper method to convey an idea of the warmth and force of the divine benevolence to the sons of men, or offer a more forcible motive to charity, than that the Son of God himself, should from his seat of judgment, in the presence of the whole race of mankind, and all the hosts of blessed spirits from the courts of heaven, declare that all good offices done to the afflicted, are done to himself. During the time of his dwelling with human nature in this vale of tears, he suffered unspeakable injuries and afflictions; and therefore he considers all the distressed virtuous, as members of his body, loves them with the utmost tenderness, and is so greatly interested in their welfare, that he grieves when they are distressed, and rejoices when they are happy.

Perhaps in this representation of the last judgment, it may seem strange that the inquiry should solely turn on the performance of duties, without any regard to the commission of crimes. Perhaps the true reason is, that men, generally speaking, consider the neglect of duties as a matter of no great consequence, but dread the commission of crimes. And hence it happens, that while they keep themselves free from the latter, they casily find excuses for the former. And as there is not a more pernicious error with regard to religion and morality than this, the blessed JESUS thought proper to give such an account of the judgment, as should prove the most solemn caution against it. But as the inquiry turns wholly on the performance of duties, it has been asked why the offices of charity only are mentioned, and no notice taken of the duties of piety, though the Judge himself, upon another occasion, declared these to be of more importance than the duties of charity, so highly applauded in this parable? But those who ask this question would do well to remember, that charity cannot subsist separately: piety and its origin, faith, always producing charity; and charity wherever it subsists, necessarily presupposing piety.

There is such a connection between piety and charity, as it will evidently appear, if it be rightly considered, that no man can be truly benevolent and merciful without loving those dispositions: consequently, he must love benevolence in God, that is, he must love God; for piety, or the love of God, is nothing else but the regard we cherish towards God, on account of his perfections. Piety and charity being thus essentially connected together, it was abundantly sufficient to examine the conduct of men with regard to either of those graces. In the parable, the inquiry is represented as turning upon the duties of charity, perhaps, because in this branch of goodness, there is less room for selfdeceit than in the other. It is common for hypocrites, by a pretended zeal in the externals of religion to make specious pretences to extraordinary piety, and at the