pleasure he forgot the claims of duty. SERM. No sacrifice of prayer was offered in his XII. courts: no incense of thanksgiving ascended from his dwellings. The blessings of the poor pursued him not in life: the mournings of the needy did not follow him in death. Intent on no other purpose but to indulge his ease and gratify his passions he neither feared God, nor regarded man.-Was this a suitable behaviour for a man who believed in another life, when he should be called to give an account of his works? What works could he have to shew to the Lord in return for all his benefits?--Inconsiderate man! he had provided no return, and therefore he was consigned to torment.

And as the Rich man had misemployed his abundance, so the Poor man we may also understand had improved his want. Confiding in the care of Providence he never charged God foolishly. He complied with his laws, whether the service were pleasing or painful. He submitted to his disposal, whether for comfort or affliction. If comfort came, he was thankful for the favour; and if affliction came, he was resigned to his will. By such a course of conduct he

mitigated

SERM. mitigated the sufferings of the present XII. state of being; and when he was called out of this life, he was prepared and qualified for the comforts of the life to

come.

LET me here make one observation on the peculiar structure and complexion of this parable. It was the general usage of our holy Teacher to draw his allusions and similitudes from familiar scenes of nature and of common life. But here he opens to us the invisible world, and gives us some shadowy picture of the regions beyond the grave. It is not however necessary to suppose, that hẹ gave these images for a literal representation of the world of spirits. For as he condescended to address his discourse to the observation and experience of his hearers, so he also did not -scruple to conform his language to their popular traditions and opinions. Now it is to be understood that he has borrowed the images of this parable from the vulgar notions of the Jews respecting the disposal of departed souls: or rather, if we follow the researches of some learned Examiners, he has adopted

adopted the whole parable from the SERM. legends or traditions of the Rabbis and XII. the Pharisees. Now the notions, which w the Jews entertained of Hell, or as it here signifies, of the Invisible World, were drawn by a natural train of thought from their places of public sepulture, which consisted of large subterraneous caverns hewn in the rock, with cells all around to receive the bodies of the deceased. It was hence that Isaiah drew such an animated image in that triumphal song, which he puts into the mouth of his delivered Countrymen on the fall of their proud oppressor the King of Babylon: Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth: it hath raised from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

The imagery of this parable is of a similar kind. The region of departed souls is described as a vast tract of country, distinguished by a broad and unpassable gulf into the departments of happiness and misery. On the one side is a feast of joy provided for the righteous, wherein the uppermost seats are

‹ Isa. xiv. 9..

assigned

SERM. assigned to the Patriarchs: hence the XII. frequent image in the gospel of sitting down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God. On the other side is a region of extreme anguish and sorrow prepared for the wicked, of which the popular idea was derived from the vale of Hinnom or Gehennah, the place of punishment by fire for such Criminals, as had incurred that heaviest sentence of the Mosaic law.

Now in taking these images of the parable, if not the parable itself, from the traditionary doctrines of the Pharisees, our Saviour seems to design a more especial reference to the Pharisees, to whom he was now addressing his discourse. And what could be a wiser or more equitable method of discoursing to such as professed themselves to be teachers of religious truth, than to improve that lesson, which they gave to others, into an argument of admonition to themselves?

The gospel frequently touches on the character of the Pharisees. Though boasting to themselves that they had Abraham for their Father, they were not anxious to shew themselves the

Children

Children of Abraham by a resemblance SERM. of disposition and character. The sa- XII. crifices, which he had resolutely made, at the call of God and for the sake of righteousness, of country, kindred, and of native home, they might indeed applaud, but they were not solicitous to imitate. Attached to the world and all those good things which the world supplies, they rarely turned their thoughts, they never fixed their hearts on that better country, which God had shewn to Abraham at a distance as the great and final object of every true Believer. And though they professed their belief in Moses and the Prophets, and made their boast of knowing and understanding them, though they admitted for an established truth, what Moses had obscurely signified, and the Prophets had more clearly taught, the retribution of another life, yet they neglected to regard this doctrine in their practice. To them therefore the parable applied as a warning, that they should immediately consider their ways, and repair their errors, while there was place and season for repentance; that so they might avert the fatal consequence, which is here so feelingly described, of living to themselves

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