works?or, Is it that we see but a part of them? When the great chain at length is let down, and all that has held the two worlds in harmony is feen; when the dawn of that day approaches, in which all the diftreffful incidents of this Drama fhall be unravel'd;when every man's cafe fhall be reconsidered, thou be fully juftified in all thy ways, and every mouth shall be stopped.

then wilt

After a long day of mercy, miffpent in riot and uncharitablenefs, the rich man died alfo:the parable adds, and was buried; Buried no doubt in triumph, with all the illtimed pride of funerals, and empty decorations, which worldly folly is apt to prostitute upon thofe occafions.

But this was the laft vain fhow; the utter conclufion of all his epicurean grandeur;- the next is a scene of horror, where he is represented by our SAVIOUR, in a ftate of the utmost mifery, from whence he is fuppofed to lift up his eyes towards heaven, and cry to the patriarch Abraham for

mercy.

And Abraham faid, Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedft thy, good things.

That he had received his good things, 'twas from heaven, and could be no reproach: with what feverity foever the scripture fpeaks against riches, it does not appear, that the living or faring fumptuously every day, was the crime objected to the

rich man, or that it is a real part

of a vicious character: the cafe might

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be then, as now: his quality and ftation in the world might be supposed to be fuch, as not only to have juf tified his doing this, but, in general, to have required it without any imputation of doing wrong; for differences of ftations there must be in the world, which must be fupported by fuch marks of diftinction as cuftom im poses. The exceeding great plenty and magnificence, in which Solomon is defcribed to have lived, who had ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and a hundred fheep, befides harts and roebucks," and fal low deer, and fatted fawl, with thirty C

VOL. IV.

measures of fine flower, and three-score measures of meal, for the daily provifion of his table;——all this is not laid to him as a fin, but rather remarked as an inftance of God's bleffing to him;--and whenever thefe things are otherwife, 'tis from a wasteful and dishoneft perversion of them to pernicious ends,-and oft-times, to the very oppofite ones for which they were granted,- -to glad the heart, to open it, and render it more kind.

And this feems to have been the fnare the rich man had fallen intoand poffibly, had he fared lefs fumptuously, he might have had more cool hours for reflection, and been

better difpofed to have conceived an idea of want, and to have felt compaffion for it.

And Abraham Jaid, Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedft thy good things, and likewife Lazarus evil things.--Remember! fad fubject of recollection! that a man has paffed through this world with all the bleffings and advantages of it, on his fide, --favoured by GoD Almighty with riches befriended by his fellowcreatures in the means of acquiring them,affifted every hour by the fociety of which he is a member, in the enjoyment of them-to remember, how much he has received,how little he has bestowed,--that he has been no man's friend,—no