Abraham, whofe piety he had probably imitated, and whofe example he had fteadily purfued. He faw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bofom. How greatly must the blifs of the one, and the mifery of the other, be heightened by a reflection on fo aftonishing a change in the circumftances of both! To Abraham, therefore the rich man applies for a momentary relief: he applies to him from whom notwithstanding he could not rationally expect any. But fuch is the weaknefs of human nature; when we are in diftrefs we catch at every reed, and folicit aid and affistance where we have scarce a probability ' of meeting with it. Send Lazarus, fays he, that he may dip his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame! How humble is the prayer of mifery! and how soft is the voice of affliction! He afks but a little comfort, and yet even that little is refufed him. Remember, Son, fays the Patriarch, that thou in thy life-time receiveft thy good things, and likewife Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. This was doubtless the feverest answer which he could poffibly have made: because nothing, we know by daily experience, can fo enhance and embitter prefent mifery, as the grating and cruel remembrance of paft felicity. To foften perhaps in fome measure the severity of this reflection, he adds at the fame time, that even if he had the inclination, he had not the power to ferve him; an answer which blafts all his hopes, and cuts off all means of redrefs: Between me and thee, fays he, there is a great gulph fixed; fo

that

that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

That portion of the parable now under our confideration may fuggeft to us the most useful and important leffon-that leffon which is fo oft inculcated in the word of God; namely, that this world is a fcene of probation, and the other of reward: that when the gates of life are once clofed upon us, none can open but he who made them: that, as the wife man fays, there is no wisdom, nor knowledge, nor device in the grave whither we are going. As the cloud is confumed and vanifheth away, fo he that goeth down to the grave fhall come up no more.

The great business of our lives, therefore, is to prepare for the end of them. It is in this world only that the good and evil have any communication with each other, for in the next, neither the felicity of the bleffed, nor the torments of the miferable, will admit of any interruption. We have as it were, but a day wherein to work out our falvation: an hour of it therefore, a minute, is too much to throw away, left the darkness fteal infenfibly upon us, the night come wherein no man can work, and we be quickly fwallowed up in darkness and the fhadow of death.

Such indeed was the fate of the rich man in the parable: the anfwer which he received from Abraham muft doubtlefs have filled his heart with all the agonies of horror and despair. He begins now to reflect that, to make him ftill more unhappy, those whom he had left behind him,

him, whom he had long loved and affociated with, would moft probably follow his example, and confequently meet with his reward: a thought which aggravated his misfortunes, and inclined him in fpite of the ill fuccefs of his former petition, to make a fecond to Abraham, and to defire him to "fend Lazarus to his " brethren, left they alfo fhould come into "that place of torment." And this is a circumftance we cannot well pafs over without making the following reflection.

How careful ought we to be in all our words and actions, to confider not only their immediate tendency and effect, but also the remoter and lefs vifible confequences of them. Vice. and folly are not confined to the perfon of the offender, but reach much farther, and affect others as well as ourfelves: (for, as in the body, even after the diftempered limb is cut off, the poifon may fpread itself into other parts of the frame, in the fame manner) our principles and practice may not only affect us, but thofe alfo whom we are converfant with, and those who come after us: fo that we may tranfmit our follies to fuch as are yet unborn, and intail our vices on the latest posterity,

It becometh all men therefore, but above all it becometh the rich and powerful, to act with the utmost prudence and circumfpection; they fhould confider the power of their authority, and the influence of their example; that their vices are not only pernicious to themfelves, but that they contribute towards the degeneracy of the age; that they may corrupt not only

the

the prefent, but the rifing generation, and fpread the contagion even unto future ages. How careful therefore fhould they be in their conduct and behaviour in this life, left, when they go down to the grave with the rich man. in the parable, they wifh for fome one, but find none, who will return to their brethren, and keep them alfo from the place of torment.

So ftrange and fo unreafonable was the rich man's requeit, that we need not wonder it was not complied with: have they not Mofes and the prophets, fays Abraham? have they not all that is neceffary for their falvation?

The rich man had no reasonable answer to make, and therefore gives none at all, but refumes his argument, and reinforces it with, Nay, Father, but if one come from the dead, they will repent; that is, I have been acquainted with them; they have imbibed my principles, and therefore will follow my examples: I can judge of their incredulity by my own; I know that Mofes and the prophets are not in the leaft regarded by them; that nothing, in fhort, but fome ftrange and uncommon appearance, ftriking on their outward fenfe, will have any effect, and they will not be convinced, till they are thoroughly affrighted. If one came from the dead, therefore, they will repent: a bold and confident affertion, without the leaft proof to fupport it, and which therefore Abraham as confidently denies, and with much more truth affirms that, if they heard not Mofes and the prophets, neither would they be perfuaded, though one rofe from the dead; or, in other words,

if the knowledge of God and his laws, which had been gracioufly imparted to them in the holy Scriptures, had no effect on their lives and manners, neither would that appearance which he was fo unreasonable as to folicit have any effect upon them; the fame obftinacy and perverfenefs which made them defpife the one, would prevail on them to reject the other: that it was therefore unneceffary to administer a remedy where the disease was incurable, or to hazard an enterprize where there could not be the leaft prospect of fuccefs.

To fix on the minds of the hearers the truth and importance of this conclufive affertion of the patriarch Abraham, feems, as I before obferved to you, the chief end and scope of the parable: I fhall therefore lay before you, in the brief remainder of this difcourfe, a few of the many arguments which may be brought in the fupport and defence of it.

And first, then: When one great and infallible rule of conduct is laid down, and that rule is fufficient to anfwer every end and purpofe propofed by it, to produce others is entirely ufelefs and unneceffary: when one guide is both willing and able to bring us fafely and fpeedily to the end of the journey, why fhould we wish for more. God therefore, in the communication of his divine will to mankind, doth nothing in vain.

There is a certain degree of light which will present an object to our fight in proper colours, and whatever is added to that will render it but the more obfcure; and fo it must be with

our