I might add, a larger income does not necessarily imply a capacity of doing more _spiritual good_. And this is the highest kind of good. It is good to feed the hungry, to cloath the naked: But it is a far nobler good, to _save souls from death_, to _pluck_ poor _brands out of the burning_. And it is that to which you are peculiarly called, and to which you have solemnly promised to “bend all your studies and endeavours.” But you are by no means sure, that by adding a second living to your first, you shall be more capable of doing good in this kind, than you would have been, had you laid out all your time, and all your strength, on your first flock. “However I shall be able to do more _temporal good_.” You are not sure even of this. _If riches encrease, they are increased that eat them._ Perhaps your expences may rise proportionably with your income. But if not, if you have a greater ability, shall you have a greater willingness to do good? You have no reason in the world to believe this. There are a thousand instances of the contrary. How many have less will, when they have more power? Now they _have_ more money, they _love_ it more. When they had little, they _did_ their _diligence gladly to give of that little_: but since they have _had much_, they are so far from _giving plenteously_, that they can hardly _afford_ to give at all. “But by my having another living, I maintain a valuable man, who might otherwise want the necessaries of life.” I answer, 1. Was this your _whole_ and _sole_ motive, in seeking that other living? If not, this plea will not clear you from the charge: your _eye_ was _not single_. 2. If it was you may put it beyond dispute. You may prove at once the purity of your _intention_. Make that valuable man rector of one of your parishes, and you are clear before God and man. But what can be pleaded for those who have two or more flocks, and take care of none of them? Who just look at them now and then for a few days, and then remove to a convenient distance, and say, _soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry_? *Some years ago I was asking a plain man, “Ought not _he who feeds the flock, to eat of the milk of the flock_?” He answered, “Friend, I have no objection to that. But what is that to him who _does not feed the flock_? He stands on the far side of the hedge, and feeds himself. It is another who feeds the flock. And ought _he_ to have the milk of the flock? What canst thou say for him? Truly, nothing at all. And he will have nothing to say for himself, when the great Shepherd shall pronounce that just sentence, _bind_ the unprofitable servant _hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness_.”