ceed out of your mouth;" instead of " that which is good to the use of edifying, and meet to minister grace to the hearers !" 4. Yea, if God sees our hearts, as well as our hands, and in all places; if he understandeth our thoughts long before they are clothed with words, how earnestly should we urge that petition, "Search me, O Lord, and prove me; try out my reins and my heart; look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" Yea, how needful is it to work together with him, in "keeping our hearts with all diligence," till he hath "cast down imaginations," evil reasonings, "and every thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and brought into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ!" 5. On the other hand, if you are already listed under the great Captain of your salvation, seeing you are continually under the eye of your Captain, how zealous and active should you be to "fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life;" "to endure hardship, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ;" to use all diligence, to " war a good warfare," and to do whatever is acceptable in his sight! How studious should you be to approve all your ways to his all-seeing eyes; that he may say to your hearts, what he will proclaim aloud in the great assembly of men and angels, "Well done, good and faithful servants!" 6. In order to attain these glorious ends, spare no pains to preserve always a deep, a continual, a lively, and a joyful sense of his gracious presence. Never forget his comprehensive word to the great father of the faithful: "I am the Almighty" (rather, the All-sufficient) "God! walk before me, and be thou perfect!" Cheerfully expect that He, before whom you stand, will ever guide you with his eye, will support you by his guardian hand, will keep you from all evil, and, "when you have suffered awhile, will make you perfect, will stablish, strengthen, and settle you," and then "preserve you unblamable unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!" PORTSMOUTH, August 12, 1788. 250 SERMON CX1. THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be per. suaded, though one rose from the dead."-LUKE xvi. 31. How contrary Who is so con 1. How strange a paradox is this! to the common apprehension of men! firmed in unbelief as not to think, "If one came to me from the dead, I should be effectually persuaded to repent!" But this passage affords us a more strange saying: (verse 13 :) "Ye cannot serve God and mammon. "No! Why not? Why cannot we serve both?" will a true servant of mammon say. Accordingly the Pharisees, who supposed they served God, and did cordially serve mammon, derided him: ežeμvxtŋpišov: a word expressive of the deepest contempt. But he said, (verse 15,) "Ye are they who justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts and that which is highly esteemed among men, is (very commonly) an abomination before God:" a terrible proof of which our Lord subjoins in the remaining part of the chapter. 2. But is the subsequent account merely a parable, or a real history? It has been believed by many, and roundly asserted, to be a mere parable, because of one or two circumstances therein, which are not easy to be accounted for. In particular, it is hard to conceive, how a person in hell could hold conversation with one in paradise. But, admitting we cannot account for this, will it overbalance an express assertion of our Lord? "There w was," says our Lord, " a certain rich man.' Was there not? Did such a man never exist? "And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus."-Was there, or was there not? Is it not bold enough, positively to deny what our blessed Lord positively affirms? Therefore, we cannot reasonably doubt, but the whole narration, with all its circumstances, is exactly true. And Theophylact (one of the ancient commentators on the Scriptures) observes upon the text, that, "according to the tradition of the Jews, Lazarus lived at Jerusalem." I purpose, with God's assistance, first, to explain this history; secondly, to apply it; and, thirdly, to prove the truth of that weighty sentence with which it is concluded, namely, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." I. And, first, I will endeavour, with God's assistance, to explain this history. "There was a certain rich man ;" and, doubtless, on that very account, highly esteemed among men ;-" who was clothed in purple and fine linen;" and, consequently, esteemed the more highly, both as appearing suitably to his fortune, and as an encourager of trade;-"and fared sumptuously every day." Here was another reason for his being highly esteemed, his hospitality and generosity, both by those who frequently sat at his table, and the tradesmen that furnished it. 2. "And there was a certain beggar;" one in the lowest line of human infamy; "named Lazarus," according to the Greek termination; in Hebrew, Eleazer. From his name we may gather, that he was of no mean family, although this branch of it was, at present, so reduced. It is probable, he was well known in the city; and it was no scandal to him to be named. "Who was laid at his gate;" although no pleasing spectacle; so that one might wonder he was suffered to lie there;"full of sores;" of running ulcers;-" and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table." So the complicated affliction of poverty, pain, and want of bread, lay upon him at once! But it does not appear that any creature took the least notice of the despicable wretch! Only "the dogs came and licked his sores:" all the comfort which this world afforded him! 3. But see the change! "The beggar died:" here ended poverty and pain :-" and was carried by angels;" nobler servants than any that attended the rich man ;"into Abraham's bosom :" so the Jews commonly termed what our blessed Lord styles paradise; the place "where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest;" the receptacle of holy souls, from death to the resurrection. It is, indeed, very generally supposed, that the souls of good men, as soon as they are discharged from the body, go directly to heaven; but this opinion has not the least foundation in the oracles of God: on the contrary, our Lord says to Mary, after the resurrection, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father" in heaven. But he had been in paradise, according to his promise to the penitent thief: "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Hence, it is plain, that paradise is not heaven. It is indeed (if we may be allowed the expression) the antechamber of heaven, where the souls of the righteous remain till, after the general judgment, they are received into glory. "The rich man 4. But see the scene change again! also died."What! must rich men also die? Must they fall "like one of the people ?" Is there no help? A rich man in London, some years ago, when the physician told him he must die, gnashed his teeth, and clenched his fist, and cried out vehemently, "God, God, I won't die !" But he died with the very words in his mouth." And was buried;" doubtless, with pomp enough, suitably to his quality; although we do not find that there was then, in all the world, that exquisite instance of human folly, that senseless, cruel mockery of a poor putrefying carcase, what we term lying in state! 5. "And in hell he lifted up his eyes."-O, what a change! How is the mighty fallen! But the word which is here rendered hell does not always mean the place of the damned. It is, literally, the invisible world; and is of very wide extent, including the receptacle of separate spirits, whether good or bad. But here it evidently means, that region of hades where the souls of wicked men reside, as appears from the following words, "Being in torment;"-"in order," say some, "to atone for the sins committed while in the body, as well as to purify the soul from all its inherent sin." Just so, the eminent heathen poet, near two thousand years ago : Necesse est Multa diu concreta modis inolescere miris, -Aliæ panduntur inanes Suspensæ ad ventos: aliis sub gurgite vasto See the near resemblance between the ancient and the modern purgatory! Only in the ancient, the heathen purgatory, both fire, water, and air were employed in expiating sin and purifying the soul; whereas, in the mystic purgatory, fire alone is supposed sufficient both to purge and expiate. Vain hope! No suffering, but that of Christ, has any power to expiate sin; and no fire, but that of love, can purify the soul, either in time or in eternity. *This quotation from Virgil is thus translated by Pitt: "E'en when those bodies are to death resign'd, Some old inherent spots are left behind; A sullying tincture of corporeal stains Deep in the substance of the soul remains. Thus are her splendours dimm'd, and crusted o'er With those dark vices that she knew before. For this the souls a various penance pay, To purge the taint of former crimes away. Some in the sweeping breezes are refined, And hung on high to whiten in the wind: Some cleanse their stains beneath the gushing streams, |