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Thou fool, this night fhall the lightning from heaven confume thy large barns, or fomething to this purpose. Farther; Neither upon this is it rightly concluded from the circumftances of the parable, that this rich man was void of charity to the poor : he is represented as fully satisfied in his abundance: there had been much more reason to have thought him uncharitable, had he been reprefented as not contented with his abundance, but ftill fearful of poverty and want; which is often the cafe, and the pretence of the rich uncharitable man. Nor, laftly, is it reasonable to limit and confine the notion of being rich towards God to works of charity only; all good works in proportion make us rich towards God. St. Paul speaks in general of the richness of good works, and St. James of the richness of faith: and in the text, to be rich to God does particularly fignify, to truft and rely upon his providence for our life and fupport, in oppofition to relying on treasures of our own heaping up, or large barns of our own building and filling; as I fhall fhew prefently.

Having thus far examined the common interpretation of the parable, and fhewn how much short it falls of our Saviour's true aim and intent, I shall now endeavour to point out the true meaning of it, which will lead us into the right sense and understanding of the text.

When our Saviour exhorted his hearers to beware of covetousness, he supported his advice with this reason, For a man's life confifteth not in the abundance of the things which he poffeffeth: this reafon he illuftrates and confirms in the following parable. The

aim then of the parable is to fhew, that wealth is no fecurity, that it is folly to pretend to arm ourselves against the accidents or cafualties of life by heaping up treasures, which nothing can protect us against but the good providence and care of our heavenly Father. In this point all the circumstances of the parable meet the rich man is reprefented as flowing in plenty, fo that he was neceffitated to pull down his barns and ftorehoufes in order to enlarge them this plenty made him forget God, and vainly imagine that he had a security in his own hands against all the calamities of life: his riches made him promife hirfelf many happy days and years: in which confidence he thus expreffes himself, Soul, thou haft much goods laid up for many years; take thine eafe, eat, drink, and be merry. This folly God reproves him for, and checks him in his prefumptuous fecurity, Thou fool, this night thy foul fhall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou haft provided? Thou shalt die, and what then must become of thofe mighty pledges of thy fecurity? So little will they avail thee, that they themselves will fall under the power of another, never to return to thee again. So is he, fays our Lord, who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. These words, being the moral of this parable, must be expounded fo as to answer the defign of the parable; and therefore to lay up treafures for ourselves, muft fignify to lay up treasures for our own security, as if we meant to become thereby the carvers of our own fortune; confequently, to be rich towards God, being placed in oppofition to laying up treasures for ourselves, must

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denote our placing our confidence and truft in him, our endeavouring to procure his favour and protection, as knowing that in them only is all our hope and stability.

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From this reprefentation it is eafily collected what is the dangerous circumftance attending riches, which makes them often prove fo fatal to their owners; namely, that they beget an irreligious confidence and prefumption in the heart of man, inclining him to forget God who formed him. A fenfe and feeling of want is a conftant remem→ brance of our dependence, and is ever calling upon us to look up to him, upon whofe mercy and goodnefs we exift. A life spent in thefe difficulties, and supported beyond all the reasonable hopes of narrow circumftances, fuggefts to us every moment how wonderfully God has brought us on our way, when we had neither ftaff nor fhoes nor money in our fcrip: these are the natural thoughts and fuggef+ tions of poverty. But a man who lives in the midft of plenty, and fears no want, is not apt to think often of the need he has to be affifted: he that remembers nothing, but that his large eftate has ever supplied both his neceffities and fuperfluities, will hardly reflect farther, fo as to come to an acknowledgment that God has been his stay ever fince he fell from his mother's womb. This is the common cafe of riches; they fteal the heart from God, and render it infenfible to the duties of religion, by taking away the foundation of all religion, the fense of our dependence on the provi dence and care of Heaven. This made our Lord cry out, How hardly fhall a rich man enter into the

kingdom of heaven! This infolence, this pride of mind, which is the proper growth of the rich man's foil, choaks all the feeds of virtue and holiness, and leaves no room for the plants planted by our heavenly Father to thrive and profper: even charity itself, the choiceft flower of a rich garden, flies the neighbourhood of this poisonous weed, and will not take root by it.

It is this irreligiousness of mind, this difregard to God and every thing that is good, which are the too common companions of a plentiful fortune, that have made riches to be fo hardly fpoken of in Scripture. If you examine particular places, you will find regard is ftill had to this corruption of mind. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus it is not easy to find upon what account the rich man was condemned, as the cafe is generally fupposed to be ftated: the rich man is faid to be clothed in purple and fine linen, and to fare fumptuously every day he was not covetous, it feems; he lived answerably to his fortune: his life is represented as a scene of ease and pleasure, but is not taxed with any notable vice or enormity: he is faid to fare sumptuously, which I take to be a description of his state and grandeur, rather than an imputation of any vice; for he is not accused either of gluttony or drunkenness. But was he not, you will fay, uncharitable? for poor Lazarus lay at his door, defiring the crumbs that fell from his table. This circumftance rather fhews, that the poor used to be fed at his door. Had the intent of the parable been to have represented this rich man as hard to the poor, it would have been faid, that his fervant

drove away the poor from the door; or at leaft, when the poor came, that they were fent empty away: neither of which is faid; but Lazarus is represented as feeding upon the crumbs of the rich man's table. And this is the image given us of their different conditions in this world: the rich man fate down to a fumptuous table; the poor man was glad to feed upon the crumbs and fcraps that fell from it. The end of these men is well known: Lazarus was carried by angels into Abraham's bofom; the rich man was tormented in hellflames. What then does the parable teach us? Why it represents to us the dangerous ftate of great men, who live without the fear or love of God in their hearts; and the much happier condition of the poor, who have their fhare of mifery in this world, which often leads to glory and immortality hereafter. If you look forward, you will fee this is the true aim of the parable: when the rich man applies to Abraham for relief, and finds none, he then petitions for his brethren, that they might be warned against the danger that hung over their heads, against coming into the fame fad ftate with himself. Here you may well imagine that he would defire they should be particularly warned againft those crimes which had proved his ruin. Had he burnt in the flames for intemperance or uncharitableness, he would have begged that his brethren might have been exhorted to fly the fins that were his tormentors. But of this nothing is faid: he only defires that Lazarus might go in quality of a prophet to teftify the truth and reality of a future ftate; which plainly fhews, that his condemnation

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