and unfatisfying joys, to the eternal habitations of the just and the throne of the living God, in whofe prefence is fullness of joy, and at whofe right hand are pleafures for ever more.

AMEN!

[83]

DISCOURSE IV.

THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS.

66

"Twas

LUKE XVI. 19-26.

HERE was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared fumptuously every day-and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus who was laid at his gate full of fores and defiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table-moreover, the dogs come and licked his fores. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bofom. The rich man alfo died and was buried.

And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and feeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bofom. And he cried and faid, father Abraham! have mercy on me, and fend Lazarus that he may dip the tip

But

of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. Abraham faid, Son! remember that thou, in thy life time, receivedft thy good things, and likewife, Lazarus evil things-but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And befides all this, between us and you there is a great gulph fixed, fo that they who would pafs from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us who would come from thence."

This parable contains the moral history of a foft and effeminate voluptuary. His attire, his table, and his equipage difplayed the magnificence, and luxury of a prince. He was clothed in purple, and fine linnen, and fared fumptuously every day. But, in the midft of that fplendor, and felf-enjoyment he feems to have forgotten the great end of living. Rendered unmindful of his Creator and of the sufferings of his fellow creatures, by an abuse of mercies derived only from

*Purple was the colour appropriated, in that age, to princely rank. And, as the manufacture of linnen was then only in its infancy, it was not introduced as an article of ordinary drefs. The wearing of fine linnen therefore was confidered as a proof of the greatest wealth, or the greatest luxury.

the goodness of God, and which ought to have been employed to the purposes of piety and charity; he appears to have been intoxicated with his good fortune, and to have ceafed to reflect on the uncertainty of human things, and the great interests of his immortal exiflence. Thus occupied and diffipated, in the moment when he leaft expected, and was leaft prepared for the dreadful reverfe that followed, he was furprized by death, and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment. The prosperity of his first fortune, and the mifery of his prefent condition are the more ftrongly marked by being opposed to the wretchedness, and the triumphs of Lazarus. It is of little importance to inquire whether this is the hiflory of men who actually lived at Jerusalem; or, whether our Lord hath borrowed only general and probable characters, and worked them into a parable for our instruction. The moral is the fame-That we are not to judge of the happiness and mifery of men by any external circumftances in which they may be placed in the prefent lifeThat piety, though it may seem to be overwhelmed by poverty, by contempt, and fuffering here, is found, at laft, to be infi

nitely the happieft choice-That vice, though furrounded with splendor and affluence, and with all the pleasures that affluence can purchase, will appear, eventually, to be a wretched portion-And that one thing, above all others, is needful. But, as the character of this fon of pleasure is not marked in the parable by any high, and atrocious acts of vice, except the want of charity to Lazarus, and sympathy, with his affliction, it may be intended farther to teach us that a voluptuous luxury, a foft and exceffive felf-indulgence, an ambitious oftentation in the ornaments of the perfon, the fumptuoufnefs of buildings and furniture, and the richness and fplendor of equipage, when they employ our principal cares, are themselves criminal; and, by the neglect which they induce of the highest interests of the foul, are preparing it, in the end, for that fearful destiny so strongly painted by our Lord in this interesting parable.

To represent this destiny, in order, if poffible, to deter the children of guilty pleasure from pursuing their fatal career, fhall be the principal object of the present