one's protector,no one's benefac tor, bleffed God !e an Sibal. Thus begging in vain for himself, he is represented at last as interceding for his brethren, that Lazarus might be fent to them to give them warning, and fave them from the ruin which he had fallen into; They have Mofes and the prophets, was the canfwer of the patriarch, let them bear them, but the unhappy man is reprefented, as difcontented with it, and ftill perfifting in his request, and urging Nay, father Abraham, but if one went from the dead, they would repents He thought fo but Abra ham knew otherwife:And the grounds of the determination, I have explained already, fo fhall proceed 3 to draw fome other conclufions and leffons from the parable 1. And first, our SAVIOUR might further intend to difcover to us by it, the dangers to which great riches naturally expofe mankind, agreeably to what is elsewhere declared, how hardly fshall they who have them, enter into the kingdom of Heaven, gordar. The truth is, they are often too dangerous 'a bleffing for God to truft us with, or we to manage: they furround us at all times with eafe, with nonfenfe,with flattery, and falfe friends, with which thoufands and ten thousands have perished: they are apt to multiply our faults, and treach erously to conceal them from us ; ———— theyohourly adminifter to our tempta tions; and neither allow us time to examine our faults, or humility to repent of them:-nay, what is ftrange, do they not often tempt men even to covetoufnefs? and tho' amidst all the ill offices which riches do us, one would last fufpect this vice, but rather think the one a cure for the other; yet fo it is, that many a man contracts his fpirits upon the enlargement of his fortune, and is the more empty for being full. But there is lefs need to preach against this: we feem all to be haftening to the oppofite extreme of luxury and expence: we generally content ourfelves with the folution of it; and fay, 'Tis a natural confequence of trade and riches-and there it ends. By the way, I affirm, there is a miftake in the, account; and that it is not riches which are the caufe of luxury, but the corrupt calculation of the world, in making riches the balance for honour, for virtue, and for every thing that is great and good, which goads fo many thousands on with an affectation of poffeffing more than they have, and confequently of engaging in a fyftem of expences they cannot fupport. In one word, 'tis the neceffity of appearing to be fomebody, in order to be fo which ruins the world. This leads us to another leffon in the parable, concerning the true use and application of riches; we may be fure from the treatment of the rich man, that he did not employ those...: How God did intend them,-may as well be known from an appeal to your own hearts, and the infcription you fhall read there, as from anyrig chapter and verse I might cite upon or the fubjects Let us then for a mozil ment, my dear auditors turn our eyes that way, and confider the traces which m even the most infenfibles man mayor have proof of, from what he may pers ceive fpringing up within him fromsit fome cafual act of generosity; anderis tho' this is a pleasure which properly belongs to the good, yet let him trybai the experiment-let him comforts the captive, or cover the naked with d garment, and he will feel what is |