advice or affiftance; that he therefore hath pur pofely fo mixed the wheat and the tares in this world, as feemed beft to his divine wifdom; that he fuffereth the tares to remain until the day of harveft; that he will then make a proper diftinction between them; that he will burn up the one, and gather the other into his own garner.

ON THE PARABLE OF DIVES AND LAZARUS.

SERMON

LUKE XVI. 31.

XIX.

If they hear not Mofes and the prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one rofe from

the dead.

WHOEVER ferioufly and impartially

confiders the conduct and behaviour of the Jewish nation under their divine Law-giver, as recorded in Holy Writ, cannot fail of being ftruck with an admiration of his goodnefs and beneficence towards a people fo undeferving of it: he will perceive the Almighty acting like a kind and tender father, and will not behold without indignation the pride, ingratitude, and difobedience of his children. Though his own arm ftrengthened, and his own right hand conquered for them; though he changed, fufpended, and reverfed the laws and powers of nature for their prefervation and fupport, yet both his works and his wonders were forgotten

by

bythem. Inftead of adoring they difputed his and doubted that very omnipotence power, which he had exerted in their favour. Can he give bread alfo, faid they, or provide flesh for his people? He commanded the clouds from above, and opened the door of heaven to rain down manna upon them, and fed them with the food of angels who had not deserved that of men and in return for it, while the flesh was yet in their mouths, they rebelled against him? their wickednefs conftantly increafed in proportion to his indulgence; the greater his goodnefs to them, the ftronger their averfion to him; and the more miracles he performed, the lefs was their inclination to believe them.

Such was the temper and difpofition of that nation, which God, for reafons beft known to his divine wisdom, had thought fit to mark out for his peculiar people; and that their temper and difpofition was the fame at the time of our Saviour's appearance upon earth, is indifputable. The Son of God experienced the fame obftinacy, perverfenefs, and incredulity, which his almighty Father had met with from them; they were perpetually afking him for fresh miracles, which yet ftill as he per. formed had not the leaft effect upon them The Pharifees in particular who excelled their brethren in pride and infolence, were always demanding of him much more than he thought proper to grant. To them therefore, in the parable now before us, he applies himself, rebukes in a tender and artful manner their pride, avarice, and infidelity; foretelling, as it

were,

were, at the fame time, what did afterwards moft exactly come to pafs; namely, that fuch was their averfion to truth and righteousness, that it was not in the power of any miracles to recommend, or indeed of God himself to enforce the practice of them. If they hear not Mofes and the prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one role from the dead.

tacit reproach of their paft conduct, and a vifible allufion to his own approaching fate, feem to be the chief end and scope of this divine parable: but as various leffons of inftruction may also be drawn from the various parts of it, I fhall endeavour briefly to illuftrate and explain the whole, and to draw from it, as we pafs along, fuch obfervations as may be moft useful to us in our future conduct.

The parable opens with a moft beautiful contraft of riches and poverty. On the one hand is the picture drawn in the livelieft colours of a man in all the pride of youth, health, and affluence, a favourite of fortune, even in the bofom of plenty and profperity; clothed with fine linen, and faring fumptuofy every day. On the other, a poor and miferable being, befet with ills, and overwhelmed with misfortunes: reduced to the loweft ftate of penury and forrow: Lazarus was laid at the rich man's gate, full of fores, with a body cruelly diftempered, and a mind, no doubt, fallen, fpiritless, and afflicted.

In this condition, as we may infer from what follows, the rich man leaves him to thift for himself, without affording him that comfort

and

and relief which he might fo cafily have beflowed on him. The crime of the rich man was most probably that which too often dif graces the character of the great, an utter infenfibility of the fufferings of his fellow-creatures. Lazarus defired, we are told, (but as we may fuppofe in vain) to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table.

We have no reason to imagine that the rich man was punished (as we find him to have been) after death, because he was rewarded before, or that because he had good things in this life he met with evil things in the other: that were indeed to doubt the goodnefs and to arraign the juftice of the Moft High. God loveth the chearful giver, and doubtless the chearful receiver alfo. Not to tafte of the feast which he has fet before us, would be ingratitude, and not to enjoy would be to difobey. But then it is our duty to invite others alfo to the banquet: God would not have punished the rich man for faring fumptuously, if he had fed the hungry; nor for wearing purple and fine linen, if he had clothed the naked alfo.

But to proceed: It came to pass, fays the parable, that the beggar died.

The confequence of the rich man's infenfi. bility and neglect was, that Lazarus could no longer fupport his wretched being: death took poffeffion on, freed him from all his pains and afflictions, and conveyed him, as we fhall find, to a world very different from that which he had fo long inhabited.

The

The rich man also, in spite of all his honours, riches, and power, did not long furvive him: though he fared fumptuously every day; and perhaps indeed because he did fo—he perished: all his power and fplendor could not procure a refpite, nor all his riches purchase a moment for him.

And now let us mark, with an eye of concern and aftonifhment, the dreadful viciffitude; and let the melancholy change afford a leffon of inftruction to us.

The beggar is not only relieved from all his wants and calamities, but conveyed to the regions of joy and happinefs; the minifters of God himself are employed to tranfport him thither, and the favourite of the Almighty is commiffioned to receive him-he was carried, fays the parable, by the angels into Abraham's bofom.

The rich man, on the other hand, is hurried away from the poffeffion of all that he held dear and valuable, stripped of his wealth and honours, and tranfported to a scene of mifery and horror; from the gaudy pleasures of plenty and profperity to the gloomy and uncomforta ble regions of pain and forrow. To complete his woes, and aggravate his misfortunes, the first object which his eyes behold is that which he leaft defired to fee; that very Lazarus whom he had treated with fuch contempt, no longer poor and miferable, but abounding in treasures which life could never give, nor death take away from him. He finds him in the fociety of bleffed fpirits, with the great patriarch

Abraham,