SERM. that so striking a miracle would alarm XII. them into reflexion: Nay, Father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. To which the Patriarch finally replies, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

IF such is the condition of the spiritual world, if the gates of acceptance are thus freely expanded to the Poor, if it be so difficult for a Rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, who among us would be so solicitous to obtain or increase his wealth, as to rise up early and late take rest and eat the bread of carefulness and toil, as to compass sea and land in search of this imaginary good, when the object of his persevering diligence is of so dangerous a tenure? Who would not rather chuse the rags and the sores, the squalid misery and want of the poor man, than the sumptuous fare and splendid vesture of the rich? Who would not willingly surrender every good in life, if in another state it must be exchanged for torment? Who would not cheerfully submit to every evil, if

the

the recompence in another state is eter- sERM. nal happiness?

But let us be cautious of inferring from these words any doctrine, which is repugnant to our ideas of the divine justice and benevolence. The impartial goodness of God is abundantly displayed both in the work of nature and in the word of grace. Though his providence in the visible world may seem to be more favourable to the rich, yet his sun enlivens and his rain refreshes all: and though in the spiritual world he may shew a superior indulgence to the poor, yet he does not grant them an exclusive title to his favour; for the scripture speaks of many rich men, as favourites of God and heirs of his inheritance; while it further states their riches in the light of blessings, because they sanctified their use by pious and charitable applications.

I need only bring the example of Abraham himself, the very chief among the blessed. The sacred history informs us that he was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold. But then he shewed his his gratitude to the Giver by the use of

Gen, xiii. 2.

XII.

XII.

SERM. his abundance. Wherever he went he built an altar to the Lord who had favoured him so much, and offered thereupon the choice of his flocks and herds. Wherever he sojourned, he was always ready to redress the wrongs of the injured, and to relieve the wants of the poor. The door of his tent was always open to the stranger and the way faring man, and he sought occasions of exercising the rites of hospitality. In such acts of piety and benevolence his riches were indeed a blessing. They procured him the reverence of men: they made him worthy to be called the Friend of God. He was blest in his abundance here. And in the world of Spirits, according to the picture of this parable, he took the highest place in the regions of happiness.

It may therefore be readily assumed, that the final destinies of the Rich and the Poor man were not determined in another state by the qualities of those different portions which they had received upon earth, but by the improvement or abuse which they had severally made of their respective portions. For

James ii, 23

though

though the parable does not expressly SERM, state the characters of the Rich and the XII. Poor man, yet their conduct in life must be understood from the nature of their recompence after death. When therefore we find the Rich man tormented, it is to be inferred that he had viciously enjoyed his good things in life; and when we find the Poor man comforted, it is also to be inferred that he had virtuously sustained his evil things.

We are not however to suppose, that the Rich man had been flagrantly criminal, that he had perverted his means of doing good into instruments of tyranny and oppression, or that he had spared no measures however violent or lawless to gratify his passions, whether of lust, ambition, or revenge. For if our Lord had intended such a character, he most probably would have expressed it in the narrative. Without suspecting him to have been positively criminal, it is enough to suppose that he had been unprofitable. And so much is implied in the short account that is given of him in life, that he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day; as if his whole attention was confined to the de

coration

SERM. coration of his person and the gratificaXII. tion of his appetite. Something also may be inferred from his treatment of the Beggar that lay at his gate. We have no ground for supposing that he had purposely withholden his benevolence from him, much less that he had treated him with cruelty and insult. He did not spurn him from his gate; he did not forbid him the fragments of his plenteous board: but he was utterly indifferent to his griefs; and though a word from him would have been a solace to his sorrows and a relief to his want, yet he would not exercise his charity to so very slight a degree in behalf of a distressed fellow-creature.

It seems he acknowledged Abraham for his Father; and probably might boast of his descent from so illustrious a Patriarch. But he had not copied those virtues of piety to God and benevolence to man, which had given his great Ancestor such pre-eminence of character both in heaven and in earth. It seems he believed in Moses and the Prophets but he was not persuaded by them. If he heard them with his ears, he did not regard them in his practice. Seduced by the voice of pleasure

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