each other. And if in these things we be found when death and judgment come upon us, then will our Lord Jesus Christ embrace us with the arms of His everlasting love, and lift us up into the kingdom of love, where with Him and His holy angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, we shall go on increasing in love, and in the likeness of God from everlasting to everlasting. To Him therefore, with the Father who created and the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth us, three Persons in one God, and that the God of love, be ascribed, as is most due, all honour, praise, might, majesty, and dominion, now, henceforth, and for ever. Amen. BURTHORPE, [First Sunday after Trinity, Epistle.] SERMON III. ST. LUKE xvi. 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." THE parable of the rich man and Lazarus, whence these words are taken, is very interesting to us on several accounts. First, it shews that when we depart out of this life, we do by no means fall asleep, and become as though we had never been, but that the righteous go to rest in a place of joy and felicity, here called the bosom of Abraham; while the wicked, on the contrary, begin immediately to receive their just punishment, and to be tormented in flames. We are taught, however, by other Scriptures, that neither the reward of the righteous, nor the punishment of the wicked, is complete and final until the great day of judgment. These things should teach us not to be sorry without hope for them that die in the Lord, but to give Him thanks for having received them into His rest, and to pray to the Lord Jesus that He would hasten His kingdom, that they may in His good time receive that final and endless blessing which He hath prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Secondly, there are many rules very useful and necessary for well-doing, which this parable ought to teach us. I shall now endeavour, by God's blessing, to assist you in understanding these rules; and perhaps you will comprehend more readily if such of you as are able will take up your Prayer-books and follow me as I read over the parable verse by verse: There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. Here is no direct condemnation of this rich man, or of his way of life; yet I think no one can read the verse without feeling some dislike of him. Not because he was rich; God forbid that any of you, my brethren, should so respect persons as to judge uncharitably either of rich or poor, merely from his having, or wanting, this world's good. Not, I say, because he was rich, but because his character is given and his person marked out, not from his good deeds, but his good living; not from his charities, but from his pleasures; not from his feeding the hungry, but from his faring sumptuously himself. You must all have observed, that in describing the disposition of another, men naturally begin with that which is most remarkable and best known concerning him, just as in painting a face you would begin by tracing the strongest features. So when the Scripture speaks of Judas Iscariot, these words are added, Who also betrayed Him; when of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, it follows, Who made Israel to sin. Sad and fearful, my brethren, was the end of that man of whom, when he was dead, nothing better could be told by Him. who knew all the truth, than that he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fured sumptuously every day. As I said before, these words are not a direct condemnation, but they imply, if I mistake not, a blameable selfishness and a carelessness about God and his neighbour, most inexcusable in one so highly favoured with means to do good: and, taken along with what follows, they convey an awful warning to all, poor as well as rich, against neglecting God and good ness for the pleasures of this world; against eating and drinking, and forgetting that they may die tomorrow, and then where shall these things be which they have enjoyed? The parable next introduces us to a new character. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table; moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. These words are few and simple, yet they are enough to give us a full notion of complete poverty and destitution as far as this world's good is concerned. For this poor beggar does not seem even to have obtained the crumbs for which he asked, but to have lain neglected at the rich man's gate, the very dogs dealing more kindly with him than his proud and luxurious neighbours. And now I would ask my poor, and sick, and helpless brethren, with which of these two they would wish to be? Would they rather choose to fare sumptuously with the rich man, or to lie at his gate with the beggar Lazarus? I know what their answer would be. They would tell me that they wish for this world's good, not that they may abuse it as the rich man did, but that they may make a proper use of it. But how know they whether they should be able, if they were rich, to resist the devil any more than he in the parable? They that would be rich, saith the Apostle, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many grievous and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. It may be that God, who knoweth the hearts, sees that such would be thy case if He had allowed thee to lay up treasures upon earth. Wherefore repine not at His dealings with thee, though thou be in the body D wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; but be assured that if thou love Him and keep His commandments, He will in very deed make all thy distresses work together for thy good. Judging by outward appearances, who more forlorn and miserable, in the time of His abiding on earth, than our Blessed Saviour? He was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. In His best days He was poor, and dwelt in a despised city, and in the whole of His ministry He had not where to lay His head. Like everything else which our God did in His human nature, these things were written for our example, to the end we might have patience in tribulation, and be content to be poor and helpless on earth if the will of God be so, and suffer as Christ did without envyings or complainings, that when He shall be revealed in His glory we may also reign with Him. Thus did Lazarus. For the next verse tells us, It came to pass after these things, that the beggar died, and was carried of the angels into Abraham's bosom. Now we may be sure that neither the holy angels would bear up in their hands, nor the father of the faithful receive into his bosom, any blasphemer or despiser of the law of God, or any one who complained against Providence, and died in discontent with his Maker. We may be sure that this poor man was true and just in all his dealings, that he never robbed his rich neighbours under pretence of himself wanting much and they little; that he bore no malice nor hatred in his heart, never envying the rich man at whose gate he lay, nor grudging him the enjoyment of those good things which he saw passing in unto him every day; above all, we may be sure that he had |