SERMON XXIII

THE PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN AND
LAZARUS CONSIDERED

And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one should rise from the dead. LUKE xvi. 31.

HESE words are the conclusion of the

THI

parable of the rich man and Lazarus ; the design of which was to show us the necessity of conducting ourselves, by such lights as GOD had been pleased to give us the sense and meaning of the patriarch's final determination in the text being this, That they who will not be persuaded to answer the great purposes of their being, upon such arguments as are offered to them in Scripture, will never be persuaded to it by any other means, how extraordinary soever;— -If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one should rise from the dead.

Rise from the dead! To what purpose? What could such a messenger propose

or urge, which had not been proposed and urged already? the novelty or surprise of such a visit might awaken the attention of a curious unthinking people, who spent their time in nothing else, but to hear and tell some new thing; but ere the wonder was well over, some new wonder would start up in its room, and then the man might return to the dead from whence he came, and not a soul make one inquiry about him.

This, I fear, would be the conclusion of the affair. But to bring this matter still closer to us, let us imagine, if there is nothing unworthy in it, that GOD, in compliance with a curious world, or from a better motive,

in compassion to a sinful one, should vouchsafe to send one from the dead, to call home our conscience and make us better Christians, better citizens, better men, and better servants to GOD than we are.

Now bear with me, I beseech you, in framing such an address, as I imagine, would be most likely to gain our attention, and conciliate the heart to what he had to say: the great channel to it is Interest, and there he would set out.

He might tell us (after the most indisputable

credentials of whom he served), That he was come a messenger from the great GOD of Heaven, with reiterated proposals, whereby much was to be granted us on his side,

and something to be parted with on ours: but that, not to alarm us, 'twas neither houses, nor land, nor possessions ; — 'twas neither wives, or children, or brethren, or sisters, which we had to forsake;

rational pleasure to be given up; natural endearment to be torn from

no one

no

In a word, he would tell us, We had

nothing to part with

for our interests to keep

but what was not

and that was

our Vices; which brought death and misery to our doors.

He would go on, and prove it by a thousand arguments, that to be temperate and chaste, and just and peaceable, and charitable and kind to one another was only doing that for CHRIST's sake, which was most for our own; and that, were we in a capacity of capitulating with GOD, upon what terms we would submit to his government, he would convince us, 'twould be impossible for the wit of man to frame any proposals more for our present interests, than to lead an uncorrupted

life to do the thing which is lawful and right, and lay such restraints upon our appetites as are for the honour of human nature, and the refinement of human happiness.

When this point was made out, and the alarms from interest got over, the spectre might address himself to the other passions In doing this, he could but give us the most engaging ideas of the perfections of God,

nor could he do more, than impress the most awful ones of his majesty and power: he might remind us, that we are creatures but of a day, hastening to the place from whence we shall not return; during our stay, we stood accountable to this Being, who, though rich in mercies,

was terrible in his judgments;

took notice of all our actions;

that

yet that he

that he

was about our paths, and about our beds, and spied out all our ways; and was so pure in his nature, that he would punish even the wicked imaginations of the heart, and had appointed a day, wherein he would enter into this inquiry.

He might add

But what?

with all the eloquence

of an inspired tongue, What could he add or

nature

say to us, which has not been said before? The experiment has been tried a thousand times upon the hopes and fears, the reasons and passions of men, by all the powers of the applications of which have been so great, and the variety of addresses so unanswerable, that there is not a greater paradox in the world, than that so great a religion should be no better recommended by its professors.

The fact is, mankind are not always in a humour to be convinced, and so long as the pre-engagement with our passion subsists, it is not argumentation which can do the business; - we may amuse ourselves with the ceremony of the operation, but we reason not with the proper faculty, when we see everything in the shape and colouring, in which the treachery of the senses paints it: and indeed, were we only to look into the world, and observe how inclinable men are to defend evil, as well as to commit it, one would think, at first sight, they believed, that all discourses of religion and virtue were mere matters of speculation, for men to entertain some idle hours with; and conclude very naturally, that we seemed to be agreed in no one thing, but