as many of His hearers might have drawn improper inferences from it. Our Lord, there

fore, is unusually large in explaining the uses of this parable, and in guarding it from misconstruction'. He would not leave it in the same obscurity in which it pleased Him to leave other parables, which He delivered to the people, but immediately pointed out Himself the uses and observations which were to be made from it. He tells us, that if we do not employ the transitory and fading riches of this world to those purposes for which God committed them to our charge, we can never expect that God would bestow upon us a greater and more lasting treasure; for, he that is an unjust steward in the management of a thing so vile as earthly wealth, is not fit to be entrusted with true riches*. That we shall never obtain the true riches, which are to be expected in the next world, unless we make a right use of the advantages with which we are entrusted in this; and that it is our behaviour here that will ensure to us the commendation of our Lord, that we have "done wisely." This steward, in the parable, employed the trust committed to his care to obtain friends and protectors. Use, then, your possessions in such a manner, as to make a Friend in heaven; promote the honour and the service of God here below; do good Archbishop Newcome.

2

Dr. Jortin.

Dr. S. Clarke.

to your fellow-creatures: so that, when ye fail, when this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, ye may be received into heavenly habitations 5.

The word "Mammon," so often employed in this passage, is Syriack, and generally interpreted to mean riches only; but the original rather directs us to use it in a more general sense, as comprehending every thing which is capable of being an object of trust, or a ground of confidence to men of worldly minds,—such as wealth, power, honour, business, sensual pleasures, gay amusements, and all the various pursuits of the present scene". These, then, being the objects of this world, no one can serve them in strict obedience to the commands of God. The one calls to us to mind religion, and the care of the soul; the other impresses on us the cares of the world, the importunities of business, and the eager appetite of being rich: the one calls upon us to be charitable to those who are in want, to be willing to contribute, and glad to communicate; the other checks these merciful and charitable dispositions by the sin of covetousness: the one calls us to self-denial and suffering, for the sake of heaven, and commends the keeping of faith, and a good conscience, to all worldly considerations whatever; but the world whispers to us other thoughts, that it is safer to put our imBishop Porteus.

Dr. Jortin.

6

mortal souls to hazard, than our bodies and estates to jeopardy'. The Pharisees heard these solemn admonitions with scorn, because they were covetous, and devoted to Mammon in every sense: but they are plainly told that God knew their hearts; that a new order of things was at hand. "The Law and the Prophets were until John;" but the Baptist had preached the kingdom of God," which was not to destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them. By this new Law their sensual habits should be corrected, and their most revolting and capricious cruelties in regard to divorce would not henceforth be permitted, except alone in the case of unfaithfulness.

66

SECT. XCVII.-Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.Luke xvi. 19–31.

JESUS, having rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, carnal-mindedness, and covetousness, returns to His discourse concerning the use and abuse of riches, and the evils of a worldly and voluptuous life; to which purpose He adds the parable of Dives and Lazarus'. This leads Him to unveil the scene, and open the prospect beyond the present world. If there were no such prospect, then "let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die;" but, if all, as He taught, must stand before the judgment-seat of

'Abp. Tillotson.

8

Abp. Sumner.

Dr. S. Clarke.

God, to receive according to the things done in the body, then it behoves us to take heed'. It has been surmised that, in this parable, as in the former, there is also contained a hint as to the calling of the Gentiles into the faith of Abraham2. Dives is described in the most concise terms as a great and luxurious lord; but we may observe, that he is not censured by our Saviour for enjoying what he had, for wearing rich apparel, and keeping a great table his fault was, that he made every thing subservient to his sensuality and luxury, regardless of the necessities of others. Lazarus, a most miserable object for his charity, is represented as laying at his very gate, enough to move any one's pity;-a fellow-creature reduced to extreme misery and want, and no relief is extended to him '. To the pride and confidence in their own privileged state, which distinguished the haughty Pharisees, is here strongly and beautifully opposed the helpless outcast state of the Gentile world, who had no merits of their own to plead; no spiritual food; no Holy Scripture; no prophets to teach or comfort them: and who "desired to be fed, even with the crumbs that might fall from the rich man's table." He was "laid at the gate;" for the Gentiles were not allowed 2 Dr. Lightfoot. 3 Abp. Tillotson.

1

Abp. Sumner.

to go into the Temple; he was "full of sores, that is, with the corruptions of unreclaimed nature, and with those hideous sins which ignorance of God's Law increased, and rendered almost incurable *.

Both Dives and Lazarus die; and their relative positions are at once diametrically opposed in the parable: the former is " tormented in the flame," desiring the veriest drop of water to "cool his tongue;" the latter is in "Abraham's bosom," meaning, by a common expression, sufficiently intelligible to his Jewish hearers, the place where holy souls, when they left the body, went into happiness with their father Abraham 3. The invisible state after death is here described by images borrowed from the present life, and from the objects of our senses, and should not be taken according to the letter. We are to infer from it, in general, as from every part of Scripture, the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments; but we must not draw any certain consequences from particular circumstances mentioned in it, which, perhaps, are entirely ornamental. The discourse between the ghost of the rich man and Abraham, which is, in itself, evidently an allegory, may be best explained, in that the Jewish Doctors taught in their Talmud, or commentary on the Law, that Dr. Lightfoot.

4

+ Bishop Heber.

6 Dr. Jortin.