great the trust is which God has annexed to it. They must each of them consider impartially, what is his own particular share of that trust, which is determined by his situation, character, and fortune together: and then set himself to be as useful as he can, in those particular ways which he finds thus marked out for him. This is exactly the precept of St. Peter; "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God," 1 Pet. iv. 10. And as rich men, by a right direction of their greater capacity, may entitle themselves to a greater reward; so, by a wrong direction of it, or even by great negligence, they may become "partakers of other men's sins," 1 Tim. v. 22, and chargeable with other men's miseries. For if there be at all any measures of proportion, any sort of regularity and order in the administration of things, it is self-evident, that "unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom much is committed, of him shall more be demanded," Luke xii. 48.
But still it is to be remembered, that every man's behaviour is his own concern, for every one must give an account of his own works; and that the lower people are very greatly to blame in yielding to any ill influence, particularly following the ill example of their superiors; though these are more to blame in setting them such an example. For, as our Lord declares, in the words immediately preceding those just mentioned, "That servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes," Luke xii. 47, 48. Vice is itself of ill-desert, and therefore shall be punished in all; though its ill-desert is greater or less, and so shall be its punishment, in proportion to men's knowledge of God and religion, but it is in the most literal sense true, that "he who knew not his Lord's will, and
