Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

The Manner of fuch Relations does indeed pleafe and entertain, which is one good Reafon for the Ufe of them; but the great End and Defign of them is to improve and amend. -And in this Senfe, and to thefe Purposes, our bleffed Lord adopted the Ufe of them in preaching his Gofpel; by often conveying those Inftructions and Reproofs to his Hearers in Parables, which they were either too much prepoffeffed to have heard, or too corrupt and negligent to have attended to, if they had been delivered in plain and proper Terms.

And concerning the Parables in the Gospels, there is this farther to be obferved, that they have all one great Point of Doctrine or Practice in View, to which all the Parts of them do more or less relate, and with an Eye to which they are to be explained; but that the feveral Branches of the Narration do at the fame time allude to and confirm many other weighty and important Truths, which are not to be overlooked and neglected. And though these Allufions do not amount to plain and clear Proofs of fuch Doctrines as they may be only thought to imply; yet do they much strengthen and confirm, as well as illuftrate, fuch Doctrines and Precepts as are made plain and clear in other Places of Scripture.-—For there is nothing recorded in vain in the whole Book of God; and whatever we can in any juft manner learn from thence for the Improvement of our Minds, or the Direction of our Practice,

Practice, is to be applied to thofe excellent Purposes with all the Force it will justly bear. -And if it be allowed, that Parables are not formal Differtations on any Subject, and confequently many things are omitted in them, which in fuch Differtations might be thought effential and neceffary; it must likewife be granted, that they convey Inftructions both to the Mind and Heart in a very lively and engaging Manner.-And as thofe Omiffions are owing to the narrative Form into which Parables are thrown; it were therefore as abfurd as it is wicked, to neglect the Inftructions they give, on account of thofe Omiffions; because this were in effect to reject useful and neceffary Knowledge, merely because reprefented to us in a beautiful Drefs, and conveyed in a Manner which is agreeable and affecting.

Thus in the Parable, of which the Text is a Part, the great Point in View to be proved by it is the Obftinacy and Folly of Infidelity and Impiety under the Jewish, and much more under the Chriftian, Difpenfation; and the general Design of it is to teach us, that the Proofs of thofe Revelations are fo fatisfactory and convincing in themselves, that they who will not attend to them, and be reformed by them, are paft Conviction and Amendment by any other Way; or in other Words, that if they will not believe Mofes and the Prophets, and Apoftles, so neither would they be perjuaded,

P 3

perfuaded, tho' one rofe from the Dead for their Sakes.—But then, as this is done in a most plain and fimple, but a most pathetick and affecting Representation of the future State of two Men, whofe Condition is as different in another World, as their Circumstances and Behaviour had been in this; and of the Dif courses which one of them, who was in Mifery, held with the Father of the Faithful; it is very evident, that the feveral Parts of this Representation have likewise their several Uses and Applications, and allude to, and imply, many other Truths, which are of the utmost Importance to us.-And of these there is perhaps none fuller of Inftruction and useful Knowledge, than the Words which I have now read, and which contain Abraham's Refufal of the rich Man's Petition for Relief from him, and the Reasons of it.-The rich Man in Hell, fays the Parable, lifted 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 of his Finger in Water, and cool my Tongue, for I am tormented in this Flame. -To which Abraham replies in the Words of the Text, 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.

Which Answer plainly implies and points out to us the following great and important Truths:

I. That there awaits us hereafter another World of Mifery or Happiness, in which every one, who paffes through this, will have his Portion.

IIdly, That these Portions will be allotted us according to our Situation and Behaviour here.

IIIdly, That therefore the Difpenfations of God here will in the End be fully juftified, and cannot without Impiety be arraigned as unequal or unjust, on account of any Differences of Mifery or Happinefs, Suffering or Enjoyment, which in this Life only can be allotted us. And, IVthly and laftly, That it is therefore every wife Man's Bufinefs to take in at one View his whole Existence, and all the Parts of it; and not to confider and provide for one Part only, and neglect the reft but fo to demean himself as will best fuit his general Wants and Neceffities, and fo as will turn moft to his Advantage and Happiness on the whole Account.

;

I. The first Obfervation from the Text is, that there awaits us hereafter another World of Mifery or Happiness, in which every one

who paffes through this will have his Portion.

This is here expreffed, as on the one Hand by being in Hell and in Torments, fo on the other by being in Abraham's Bofom, who being the Father of the Faithful, the common and received Opinion of the Jews was, that whatever Happiness he fhould enjoy, they fhould enjoy alfo.-But it is to be observed, that our bleffed Lord does not, even in Parable, indulge them in their Prejudices and Mifconceptions of this future State, by confining the Happiness of it to the Jews, and the Mifery to the Gentiles; but reprefents each Condition as more extenfive and univerfal.-The Representation here is not of a Jew's being in Abraham's Bofom, and of a Gentile's being in Hell, which might have been interpreted by them in favour of their Uncharitableness; but only of a rich Man and a poor one, which is a Diftinction fo very general, as to comprehend under it the whole Race of Mankind.— And indeed, Revelation is now fo very express and clear with refpect to the Univerfality of this future State, as well as the different Allotments of the Believer and the Unbeliever, the Righteous and the Wicked in it, that he must wilfully and obftinately fhut his Eyes against the Light, who does not fee that every one, who acts his Part in this Life, will have his Portion in another; fince it is expreffly declared, that the Wicked and the Unbelievers, not of one Nation, but of all, fhall have

« VorigeDoorgaan »