559 SERM 0 N LXXV. The Children of this World wifer than the Children of . Light. LuxE XVI. 8. For the Childrenof this World are in their Generation Children of Light. Preach. ed at White- halt, Ail- wifer than the no /681. H E S R Words are in the Parableof the Rich Man's Steward, who being called upon to give up his Accounts,in order to his being difcharged from his Office, call abotit with himfelf, what courte he had belt to take, to provide for his fubfiftence, when he fhould be turned out of his Employment. At laft he refolves upon this ; That he will go to his Lord's Debtors, and take a favou- rable account of them ; and inhead of a hundredmeafures of Oil, write downfrfty; and intftead of a hundred meafures of wheat write down fourfeore ; that by this means he might oblige them to bekind to him in his Neceflity. The Lord hear- ing of this, commends the unjuft Steward, becaufe he had done wif ly ; That is, he took notice of his Difhonefty ; but praifed his Shrewdnefs and Sagacity, as having done prudently for hinífelf, though he did not deal juftly with him ; and this is ufual among Men:. When we fee a Man ingenioufly bad, to commend his Wit, and to fay it is great pity, he doth not ufe it better, and apply it to good purpofes. Upon the whole, our Saviour makes this Obfervation ; that the Children of this World, are in their generation wifer than the Childrenof Light ; as if he had laid, thus did this worldly Wife-man, thus provident was he for his future fecurity and fubfiflence. He no boner underflands that he is tobe turned out of his Office, but he confiders what Provifion to make for himfelf againft that time. And is it not pity, that good Men do not apply this Wifdom to bet- ter and greater purpofes ? For is not every Man fuch a Steward, intrufled by God with the Bleflings of this Life ; and many opportunities of doing good ? For all which, fince he mutt fhortly give an Account, he ought in all Reafon fo to ufe them, as thereby to provide for the Happinefs of another Life, agatrft this temporal Life have an end. And this is all the Parallel intended in this Parable, as we may fee by our Sa- viour's Application of it. For Parables are not to be ftretched to an exad Paral- lel in all the Parts and Circumffances of them ; but only to be applied to the particular point and purpofe intended. A Parable, and the Moral accommoda- tion of it, being (as one well obferves) not like two Plains, which touch one another in every part ; but like a Globe upon a Plain, which only touched) in one Point. Thus our Saviour feparares the Wifdom of thi; Steward from his Injuftice, and propofeth that to our imitation ; The Children of this World are in their Generation wifer than the Children of Light. The Words are a Comparifon; in which we have tff. The Perlons compared; the Children of this World, and the Children of Light. It is a very ufual Phrafe among the Hebrews, when they would exprets any thing to partake of filar a Nature, or Quality, to call it the Son' or Child of loch a thing. Thus good Men are call'd the Children of God, and bad mere the Children of the Devil ; thole who mind earthly things, and make the things of this world theirgreatelt Aim and Deign, are called the Childrenof this World; and thole who are better enlightned with the Knowledge of their own Immor tality, and the Belief of a future hate after this life, are cad the Children of Light. - silly, Her;
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