testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Most evidently may we learn from this parable, that it is impossible to know either love or hatred by any thing that is before us under the sun. (Eccles. ix. 1.) Who that had seen the pomp and plenty of this rich sinner, and compared it with the indigence and misery of Lazarus, would have imagined that the latter had been the child, and the former the enemy of God? But let us judge nothing before the time. (1 Cor. iv. 5.) Our Lord Jesus Christ shews us the period of all the prosperity of the wicked, and of all the calamities with which good men may be exercised. And what availed the luxuries of life, or the magnificence of burial, to a wretch tormented in flames? Surely the fierceness of those flames would be proportionable to the luxury in which he had formerly lived, and the sense of his torment be heightened by the delicacy he had once indulged. May God awaken those unhappy persons, whatever their rank in the present life may be, who place their happiness and glory in being clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day! May they lift up their enchanted deluded eyes, and see that pointed sword of the Divine vengeance which is suspended over them by so weak a thread; and may they take this warning from one greater than Moses and the prophets, from one that came from the dead to enforce it, that they pass not into that place of torment !

The

Let poor afflicted saints take comfort in what has now been read, though they may be despised and slighted by men. time will shortly come, when those angels who now descend in an invisible form to minister to them, will appear as their guard to convoy them to the regions of glory. Abraham's bosom will be opened to them, and the dainties of heaven be set before multitudes, who, perhaps, while on this side the grave, hardly knew how to procure even the necessaries of life.

May we never view those seats of glory, as this wretched sensualist did, at an unapproachable distance! Let us think seriously of his deplorable circumstances, when he asked a drop of water from the tip of Lazarus' finger, and yet was denied. Dreadful representation! yet made by Christ himself,

who surely knew how to describe the case with the utmost propriety. Behald, O our souls, this son of Abraham, in that flaming prison, in all the restless agonies of torment and despair and we may judge what dependance to place on a descent from pious ancestors, or a participation of external privileges.

We inquire not curiously into the motives which engaged him to request that so extraordinary a warning might be sent to his brethren; whether it might proceed from a remainder of natural affection, from a fear of meeting them in the same misery, or from a mixture of both. It is enough to observe how and upon what principles it was denied, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. Let none vainly excuse themselves from believing the evidence of the revelation God has given, on a pretence that if they saw signs and wonders they would believe. The heart of man may be hardened against the most sensible and immediate miracle; but if that evidence were irresistible, it would ill become us to dictate to God when and to whom it should be given. Let us examine and acquiesce in such as he has seen fit to afford; and pass through our various scenes of life as those that have eternity in view, and are persuaded we must each of us, in a few years at farthest, be with Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, or with the rich man in that tormenting flame.

SECTION LIII.

LUKE XVII. 1-10.

THEN said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith, as a grain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto this sycaminetree, Be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Let us renew our guard against every thing in our conduct, which might give offence to the meanest and weakest; and against every thing, which might by a bad example mislead others, or furnish the enemies of religion with matter of reproach and accusation against it. Let us imbibe the forgiving Spirit of the gospel, and bearing in mind the numberless instances in which God has forgiven us, though we have sinned against him not only seven times, but seventy times seven; let us arm ourselves in some degree with the same mind, and endeavour to forbear, and forgive one another, even as God for Christ's sake has freely forgiven us. (Eph. iv. 32, and Col. iii. 13.)

In a sense of the weakness of our faith, let us pray to Christ to increase it; and then those duties will be discharged with ease and delight, which appeared most difficult in a distant prospect. Yet when faith and patience have had their most perfect work, when our Master's will has been borne with the most entire submission, and done with the most zealous dispatch, let us not pretend to place any merit in our own actions or sufferings; but let us think of ourselves as the servants of God, yea, as unprofitable servants, whose goodness extendeth not to our Great Master: and to the riches of his grace let us ascribe it, that our feeble powers are strengthened to the performance of our duty; and that our worthless services are accepted, and the numberless deficiences of them mercifully excused.

SECTION LIV.

LUKE XVII. 11—19.

AND it came to pass as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: and they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

From the story of the ten lepers let us learn importunately to seek the influences of Christ, to purge us from that far more odious and fatal disease which sin has spread over our whole nature; and, after the example of the Samaritan, let us own the mercy we have received. Have we not reason to fear that, of the multitudes who are indebted to the Divine goodness, there is not one in ten who has a becoming sense of it? Let us labour to impress our hearts deeply with such a sense. Let us remember what it is that God expects of us; and let us farther consider that, as the exercise of gratitude towards such a Benefactor is most reasonable, so also in proportion it is most delightful to the soul; it is indeed (as one well expresses it) like the incense of the Jewish priest, which, while it did an honour to God, did likewise regale with its own fragrancy the person by whom it was offered.

SECTION LV.

MATT. XIX. 1, 2. MARK X. 1.

AND it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he arose from thence, and departed from. Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan: And great multitudes followed him; and the people resorted unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again, and he healed them there.

LUKE XVII. 20-37.

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven ; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noe, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded, but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is