took care of him, for not one of them relieved him! Well, if man will not pity, God will.

"It came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom."

No doubt, death was welcome to him. He had nothing in this world to set his heart upon that is an advantage which the poor have above the rich. Poor

Lazarus sunk at last under his heavy burthens. Perhaps his wounds mortified; or he might be starved to death. But blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; they cease from their labours and troubles, and are at rest. Angels, who are ministering spirits to the saints, carried his departing soul to glory; where, like an honoured guest at a feast, he was placed next to the father of the faithful, in whose steps, no doubt, he had trodden, having been a partaker of the same precious faith.

"Riches

The rich man also died, and was buried. profit not in the day of wrath." Money will not bribe death. Dives was bound to the world by a thousand silken cords, and golden chains; but death broke them all in a moment, and hurried away his guilty, unprepared soul to the torments of hell. What availed his pompous funeral? The pampered carcass must be the food of worms, while his wretched spirit is confined to the regions of despair.

"And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom ; and he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." Ver. 23, 24.

His eyes, once fixed on earth and earthly things, and which were always turned away from God and his word, are now forced to look upward and the glimmering of light only serves to discover, at a dreadful distance, the happiness he had lost by his

sins, and the bliss of that neglected child of God, who once lay and perished at his gate.

Observe. Now he prays. He should have prayed on earth, then he would have been heard. He prays to a saint, he should have prayed to God. He pleads relation to Abraham, calling him Father. Church privileges, or relation to pious people, will not save wicked professors. He asks for mercy; but he asks too late; the door of mercy is for ever shut. He does not expect deliverance, he asks only a moment's partial ease; but this he asks in vain: and how just it is, that he who refused a crumb should be denied a drop! Observe the answer-ver. 25.

"Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented."

Mark this well, you who place your happiness in eating and drinking, and putting on fine clothes. Are these your "good things?" Poor portion, indeed! No man can have a greater curse than to be rich, and take his pleasure, and enjoy himself continually, if this be his all; if his heart be set on these things, while he lives in sin, neglects his soul, and is alienated from the life of God. The remembrance of such a carnal state will be the hell of hell. Remorse for such cursed folly is "the worm that never dies," and will add fuel to the fire that shall never be quenched. Lazarus had all his evil things on earth. He had borne the cross, as every one must do, who follows Christ. Not that he was saved by his poverty and afflictions. There is no merit in these things. Christ alone can save us from our sins; and there are many who are miserable here, who will be miserable also in hell. But Lazarus was a pardoned sinner, and was born of God. Perhaps his afflictions led him to God: and it is happy for poor people

when their troubles are sanctified to them; when they learn the evil of sin in the evil of suffering; and having no comfort of a worldly kind, seek comfort in the knowledge of Christ and true religion.

"And besides all this, said Abraham; between us and you there is a great gulph fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to

you cannot :

neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence:" ver. 26. Awful separation! Now, saints and sinners meet in the same church: but the distinction will soon be made, and no more intercourse be suffered for ever. The kindest relation, the dearest friend, cannot come to speak one word of comfort to the lost soul; nor can the prisoner of hell ever make his escape, or obtain a release for a single hour. But though the miseries of the damned admit of no relief, they are capable of addition. Should their relations come thither, seduced to sin by their counsel or example, it would add to their torments. This was what Dives dreaded, and therefore he cries to Abraham, ver. 27, 28.-"I pray thee, therefore, Father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house; for I have five brethren: that he may testify unto them, lest they also come unto this place of torment."

Dives felt the hell which he had formerly disbelieved. He had made a jest of hell many a time, and laughed at the fears of religious people, and their pains to avoid it. He had taught his brothers to do the same; and, encouraged by his example to persist in a sinful course, he had reason to expect each of them would follow him to hell, accuse him as their tempter, and charge their ruin to him. This, he knew, would increase his sufferings.

Let this be a warning to those who encourage their acquaintance in drunkenness, whoredom, dishonesty, or other sins. Great is the guilt of enticing

others to sin, and great will be their torment, when a new sufferer arrives to lay his ruin at their door!

Ver. 29. "Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." From this answer it is plain that, in the judgment of Christ, there was enough in the Scriptures of the Old Testament to convince men that there is another life after this; a future state of rewards and punishments, whatever some pretend to the contrary. It was the privilege of the Jews to have this testimony: it was sufficient for their conviction; and it was the sin and ruin of those who disregarded it. We, my friends, have the same advantage, and a much greater added to it. We have Christ, the Evangelists, and the Apostles. Let us hear them.

Dives was not satisfied with this reply, but said, ver. 30.-" Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent." He carries with him to hell the same slight thoughts he had of the Bible when on earth. He presumes to be wiser than God, and to dictate a more effectual means of conversion than God was pleased to appoint. It is as if he had said, "They do not mind the Bible; its doctrines, commands, and threatenings are grown familiar to them; nay, they make a jest of it all. But an apparition would startle them: "If Lazarus, whom they knew to be a good man, were to appear to them, and tell them how happy he is in heaven, and how miserable I am in hell, they would be alarmed, converted, and forsake their sins."

Observe, now, the final answer that Abraham gives-" If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." This answer well suits the present times, when many wicked men, with a boldness unknown in former days, try to rob us of our Bibles, and cheat us of eternal life. There is nothing new,

my friends, under the sun. The devil began his work of destruction by persuading Eve to disbelieve the word of God. He has carried on his murderous designs by the same means ever since; and he is making a bold push by his infamous agents at this day, to keep people in their sins, by denying the truth of Scripture, and so taking away all motives to true religion, arising from the hope of heaven or the fear of hell.

Consider for a moment what the Scriptures testify -Why we should receive their testimony, and that if Their testimony be rejected, no other would be effectual.

The Scriptures certainly testify that the soul of man does not die with the body- that there is a glorious heaven and a dreadful hell. It should seem that Dives laughed at all this; perhaps you do. Certainly he did not believe it, or why should Lazarus be sent to certify it to his brethren? Had he believed it, he would have led a very different life: he would not have lived a life of luxury, but a life of self-denial and holiness; nor could he have been so hard-hearted to the poor. Do we believe there is a hell for sinners? We shall fly from the wrath to come. Do we believe there is a heaven for the people of God? We shall strive to enter in. Let our practice, Sirs, prove whether we are believers or infidels. Where there is faith there must be works. All the rest is hypocrisy.

The Scriptures also testify that all mankind are, by the fall of Adam, in a polluted, apostate state; guilty before God, and exposed to his dreadful anger. But they also testify that God has so loved the world as to send his Son to be a Saviour-to satisfy divine justice by shedding his blood; and that he has sent his Spirit also to renew by his grace the hearts of men, and make them new creatures and