I pity the men, whofe natural pleafures are burdens, and who fly from joy (as thefe fplenetic and morofe fouls do) as if it was really an evil in itself.

If there is an evil in this world, 'tis forrow and heaviness of heart.-The lofs of goods,of health, -of coronets and mitres, are only evil, as they occafion forrow;-take that out-the rest is fancy, and dwelleth only in the head of man.

Poor unfortunate creature that he is as if the causes of anguish in the heart were not enow— but he must fill up the measure with those of caprice; and not only walk in a vain fhadow,but difquiet himself in vain too.

We are a restless set of beings; and as we are likely to continue fo to the end of the world,-the best we can do in it, is to make the fame use of this part of our character, which wife men do of other bad propenfities; when they find they cannot conquer them, they endeavour, at leaft, to divert them into good channels.

If therefore we must be a folicitous race of felftormentors, let us drop the common objects which make us fo, and for Gon's fake be folicitous only to live well.

SERMON XXIII.

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus confidered.

LUKE XVI. 3T.

And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one should rife from the dead.

THESE

HESE words are the conclufion of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus; the defign of which was to show us the neceffity of conducting ourselves by fuch lights as GOD had been pleafed to give us the fense and meaning of the patriarch's final determination in the text being this, That they who will not be perfuaded to anfwer the great purposes of their being, upon fuch arguments as are offered to them in Scripture, will never be perfuaded to it by any other means, how extraordinary foever;-If they bear not Mofes and the prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one should rife from the dead

-Rife from the dead! To what purpose? What could fuch a meffenger propofe or urge, which had not been propofed and urged already? The novelty or furprife of fuch a vifit might awaken the atten

tion of a curious unthinking people, who spent their time in nothing elfe but to hear and tell fome new thing; but, ere the wonder was well over, fome new wonder would start up in its room, and then the man might return to the dead from whence he came, and not a foul make one inquiry about him.

This, I fear, would be the conclufion of the affair. But, to bring this matter ftill closer to us, let us imagine, if there is nothing unworthy in it, that GOD, in compliance with a curious world,or, from a better motive-in compaffion to a finful one, fhould vouchfafe to fend one from the dead, to call home our confciences, and make us better Chriftians, better citizens, better men, and better fervants to GOD than we are.

Now bear with me, I beseech you, in framing fuch an addrefs as, I imagine, would be moft likely to gain our attention, and conciliate the heart to what he had to say the great channel to it is Intereft-and there he would fet out.

He might tell us (after the most indifputable credentials of whom he ferved), That he was come a meffenger from the great GoD of Heaven, with reiterated propofals, whereby much was to be granted us on his fide,and fomething to be parted with on ours; but that, not to alarm us, 'twas neither houses, nor land, nor poffeffions :-'twas neither wives, or children, or brethren, or fifters, which we had to forfake;no one rational pleasure to be given up ;- -no natural endearment to be torn from-

In a word, he would tell us, We had nothing to part with but what was not for our interes

to keep and that was our Vices; which brought death and mifery to our doors.

He would go on, and prove it by a thousand arguments, that to be temperate and chafte, and just and peaceable, and charitable and kind to one another was only doing that for CHRIST's fake, which was most for our own; and that were we in a capacity of capitulating with GoD upon what terms we would submit to his government, he would convince us, 'twould be impoffible for the wit of man to frame any propofals more for our present interefts, than to lead an uncorrupted life-to do the thing which is lawful and right, and lay fuch reftraints upon our appetites as are for the honour of human nature, and the refinement of human happiness.

When this point was made out and the alarms from interest got over, the spectre might address himself to the other paffions-In doing this, he could but give us the most engaging ideas of the perfections of GOD,or could he do more than imprefs, the most awful ones of his majesty and power :

he might remind us, that we are creatures but of a day,-hastening to the place from whence we fhall not return; -that during our stay, we ftood accountable to this Being, who, though rich in mercies, -yet was terrible in his judgments;that he took notice of all our actions ; -that he was about our paths, and about our beds, and fpied out all our ways; and was fo pure in his nature, that he would punish even the wicked imaginations of the heart, and had appointed a day, wherein he would enter into this inquiry.

He might add.

But what?-with all the eloquence of an infpired tongue, What could he add or fay to us, which has not been faid before? The experiment has been tried a thousand times upon the hopes and fears, the reafons and paffions of men, by all the powers of nature the applications of which have been fo great, and the variety of addreffes fo unanfwerable, that there is not a greater paradox in the world, than that fo good a religion fhould be no better recommended by its profeffors.

The fact is, mankind are not always in a humour to be convinced,-and fo long as the pre-engagement with our paffions fubfifts, it is not argumentation which can do the bufinefs; we may amuse ourfelves with the ceremony of the operation, but we reafon not with the proper faculty, when we fee every thing in the fhape aud colouring in which the treachery of the fenfes paints it: and indeed, were we only to look into the world, and observe how inclinable men are to defend evil, as well as to commit it,one would think at firft fight, they believed that all difcourfes of religion and virtue were mere matters of fpeculation, for men to entertain fome idle hours with; and conclude very naturally, that we feemed to be agreed in no one thing, but speaking well,—and acting ill. But the truest comment is in the text, if they hear not Mofes and the prophets, &c.

If they are not brought over to the interefts of religion, upon fuch discoveries as Gop has made-or has enabled them to make, they will stand out against