Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount Discourse VI · §50 · John Wesley

Ten thousand talents

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Our trespasses. The word properly signifies our debts. Thus our sins are frequently represented in Scripture. Every sin lays us under a fresh debt to God, to whom we already owe, as it were, ten thousand talents (Matthew 18:24). What then can we answer when he shall say, Pay me what you owe (Matthew 18:28)? We are utterly insolvent. We have nothing to pay. We have wasted all our substance. Therefore if he deals with us according to the rigor of his law, if he exacts what he justly may, he must command us to be bound hand and foot and delivered over to the tormentors (Matthew 18:34).

1771 text

Our trespasses. The word properly signifies our debts. Thus our sins are frequently represented in scripture: every sin laying us under a fresh debt to God; to whom we already owe, as it were, ten thousand talents. What then can we answer when he shall say, Pay me that thou owest? We are utterly insolvent: we have nothing to pay: We have wasted all our substance. Therefore if he deal with us according to the rigour of his law, if he exact what he justly may, he must command us to be bound hand and foot, and delivered over to the tormentors.

Report a mistake in this passage

About this text

The sixth sermon on the Sermon on the Mount, on Matthew 6:1-15: giving and praying in secret, the Lord's Prayer, and a pure intention in all we do.

EditionPrinted in Wesley's 1771 Works, which do not say when he preached it

Wesley's own sermon in updated English wording. The 1771 panel is the text of the Works Wesley himself had printed in 1771. It is public domain.

Reference

Sermon 26 in the 1771 Works. Matthew 6:1-15.

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We put this English text into updated wording with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open the 1771 text under any part to compare.

Report a mistake