18. On the contrary, would you see how happy they are who live according to their own wills, who cannot submit to the dull and melancholy business of a life devoted to God? Look at the man in the parable, to whom his Lord had given one talent.
He could not bear the thoughts of using his talent according to the will of him from whom he had it, and therefore he chose to make himself happier in another way of his own. Lord, says he, I knew thee, that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hadst not sown, and gathering where thou hadst not strawed. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth. Lo there thou hast that is thine. Matt. xxv. 24.
Here you see how happy this man made himself by not acting wholly according to his Lord’s will. It was, according to his own account, an happiness of murmuring and discontent; I knew thee, says he, that thou wast an hard man: it was an happiness of fears and apprehensions; I was, says he, afraid: it was an happiness of vain labours and fruitless travels: I went, says he, and hid thy talent; and after having been awhile the sport of foolish passion, tormenting fears, and fruitless labours, he is rewarded with darkness, eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth.
19. Now this is the happiness of all those, who look upon strict piety, that is, a right use of their talent, to be a dull and melancholy thing.
They may live awhile free from the restraints and directions of religion; but instead thereof, they must be under the absurd government of their passions: they must, like the man in the parable, live in murmurings and discontents, in fears and apprehensions. They may avoid the labour of doing good, of spending their time devoutly, of laying up treasures in heaven, of cloathing the naked, of visiting the sick; but then they must, like this man, have labours and pains in vain, that tend to no use or advantage, that do no good either to themselves, or others; they must travel, and labour, and work, and dig, to hide their talent in the earth. They must, like him, at their Lord’s coming, be convicted out of their own mouths, be accused by their own hearts, and have every thing that they have said and thought of religion, be made to shew the justice of their condemnation to eternal darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth.
This is the purchase that they make, who avoid the strictness of religion, in order to live happily.
20. On the other hand, would you see a short description of the happiness of a life rightly employed, wholly devoted to God, you must look at the man in the parable, to whom his Lord had given five talents. Lord, says he, thou deliveredst unto five talents: behold, I have gained besides them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, well done thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Here you see a life that is wholly intent upon the improvement of the talents, that is devoted wholly unto God, is a state of happiness, prosperous labours, and glorious success. Here are not, as in the former case, any uneasy passions, murmurings, vain fears and fruitless labours. The man is not toiling, and digging in the earth for no end or advantage; but his labours prosper in his hands, his happiness increases upon him, the blessing of five becomes the blessing of ten talents; and he is received with a Well done good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
21. Now, as the case of these men in the parable left nothing else to their choice, but either to be happy in using their gifts to the glory of their Lord, or miserable by using them according to their own humours and fancies; so the state of Christianity leaves us no other choice.
*All that we have, all that we are, all that we enjoy, are only so many talents from God: if we use them to the end of a pious and holy life, our five talents will become ten, and our labours will carry us into the joy of our Lord; but if we abuse them to the gratification of our own passions, sacrificing the gifts of God to our own pride and vanity, we shall live here in vain labours and foolish anxieties, shunning religion as a melancholy thing, accusing our Lord as a hard master, and then fall into everlasting misery.