whether in Gods Service or the Devils Drudgery and if upon an impartial survey we discover that we have hitherto erred from the right end of our Creation humbly to implore Gods pardon and to beg his grace for the time to come that joyning our own endeavours with it we may redeem the time we have lost by breaking off our sins and speedily applying our selves to the practice of true Religion It is very sad to continue in an unconverted state because we know not how soon it will be ere we be strip'd into naked Spirits and sent into an irreversible state And to be thus surprized and the Work of our Souls left unwrought would be the worst of evils and then what would we give if possible that we might have again such opportunities and advantages of being happy consider therefore in time repent and amend in this life of tryal shake off that impovidence which detaineth you make you a new heart and a new spirit mortifie and subdue your unruly will wean your affections from the pride of life manfully deny all ungodliness and wordly lusts and live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for without wavering the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works May God grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the height breadth length and depth and to know the love of Christ that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God Now unto the only wise God and our Saviour Jesus Christ be given the Kingdom the Power and the Glory now henceforth and for evermore Amen SERMON VIII Luke XVI 27 28 29. Then he said I pray thee therefore Father that thou wouldst send him to my Fathers House For I have five Brethren that he may testifie 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 THe rich man having received a slat denyal of that which he requested that Lazarus might be sent with a drop of water to allay the heat and throbbing of his parched tongue and sadly perceiving himself a pitiless miserable Object is here brought in intreating Abraham to dismiss Lazarus to his Brethren who were yet alive and to give them an account of his deceased Brothers wretched and woful State Let him assume his Body and go and relate what Torments I endure that he saw me in the midst of Flames my Flesh broiling my Tongue swoln with heat and pain That he heard me weeping and sighing and bemoaning my comfortless and irreparable Condition That he saw the damned Fiends imployed in vexing and tormenting me and that I have all the Scenes and Images of Terror always in view Let him tell them how I curse my Folly for living secure and careless without thought of another World or what would become of me after death Let him assert my Resolution That if I was admitted to re-enter the World and live my Days over again that are past I would not be charmed with the flatteries of Lust and Sensuality nor spending my time in eating drinking and soft delights in cloathing my Body with gawdy Raiment nor bend my study to invent Recreations for my Appetite I would limit my Will Desires and Affections and by a prudent management bring my Flesh under that it might be corrective and govern'd by the insinuations of Reason I would set an inestimable value upon the means of Salvation which I foolishly slighted and turned into wantonness That I would live in a constant expectation of Death and Judgment Such a Relation as this Father Abraham would astonish my Brethren scare them from their Sins and caution them against those Imprudences which were my destruction and remediless ruine This would rouse them out of sleep make them unravel all that they have done and put them upon other Methods But is there any Charity in Hell Are there any in the Abyss of Misery who wish the Conviction Conversion and Salvation of Souls on Earth Do they not rather envy the Privileges and Advantages of Happiness they enjoy and desire that they may be as miserable as themselves It is the Opinion of some sage and learned Writers That the rich Man here prayeth not so much for the reformation and final Good of his Brethren as for himself that his Torments might not be the more aggravated with the perpetual sight and company of those who in this World were his near Relations or familiar Acquaintance and who were led and influenced by his base vicious Examples It will greatly add to the Afflictions of lost Souls to see those in Hell who when in the Body were seduced and drawn away from Christianity by their loose Practices But to the Answer which Abraham makes to the rich Man's Petition Thy Brethren have Moses and the Prophets those exact Transcribers of God's Will their Manuscripts are Truths delivered by the Holy Ghost and therein is dictated whatsoever God exacts from Men and Directions how they may please their Creator He will not grant Men needless and extraordinary Revelations to gratifie their vain Curiosity since he has acquainted them with every thing that is fit for them to know and practise Thy Brethren cannot plead Ignorance when they are daily excited and admonished by God's Ambassadors And if they will not be reformed by these Means and mighty Helps they cannot reasonably expect that God should send departed Souls with a special Commission and compel them to accept of the Terms of Happiness against their will His Word is sufficient to prepare them for Heaven if they will but believe its Propositions and live up to the Rule of Life prescribed therein But if this prove not effectual there is no probability of their being saved They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them From which I raise these Doctrines First of all That the Scriptures are the only means appointed by God for the Conviction Conversion and Salvation of Sinners Abraham argues the unreasonableness and impertinence of the Rich Man's request that he would dismiss Lazarus to his Brethren by urging the advantages and fair opportunities they had of making themselves for ever They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them There is no need of extraordinary revelations since they have such an eminent privilege of hearing the Counsels and Instructions of those worthy Men commissioned by and imployed under God Secondly That it is too plain an argument of great Infidelity and hardness of Heart when the Word of God doth not take place convince Men of their sins and
his Love to the Souls of Men. Secondly Another reason of the contempt of Poverty is Men set too high a value upon and over-rate themselves for while carried upon the Wings of Pride and Self-conceit while thus elevated with great swelling Thoughts of themselves there is nothing more contemptible and mean in their Eye than an indigent Man one whom Providence has denied those outward Blessings which make Men of some Figure and Repute in the World Hence it is that such kind of Persons affect much Homage and Obeysance look for humble Addresses frequent Entreaties and all other demonstrations of State and Grandeur as if Nature had framed them in a Mold of a separate make and had distinguished them from their fellow Creatures by visible Characters Poor Lazarus how often didst thou importune beseech and intreat Dives to look upon and commiserate thy languishing condition How often didst thou bow and cringe and all to affect him with a sence of thy Misfortunes But what a disdainful Eye did he cast upon thee thinking it beneath his Grandeur either to speak to thee or relieve thy present Needs Neither thy mournful Gries dejected Looks mean Habit nor angry Sores could work upon his Nature or move him to a pliable and yearning Disposition from whence O Dives didst thou spring Art thou any thing else but Dust And must not thou return to it again This is the end of all thy Pomp that Carkass of thine which is cloathed with Royal Purple garnish'd with soft and rich Linnen pamper'd with choice Provisions eased upon a Velvet Couch and refreshed at Night with a Down-Bed I say that Body of thine which takes up all thy time in Catering for it must Die be rouled in a Winding-Sheet crouded in a Coffin and Interred in a Scanty Grave where the Vermin will make no distinction of Persons but thou becomest their prey as well as the meanest Peasant Wherefore then dost thou thus over-rate thy self and soar so high above thy meaner Brother since he shall have a Chamber in the Earth as well as thou and is made in the same Mold and compounded with the same Matter There is no greater Argument that Men have forgotten from whence they came how insufficient of themselves and whither they must go than when they begin to look big swell in fancy and contemn their Brethren of low degree and this leads me in the second place namely Secondly To shew the unreasonableness of this practice and this I shall do by shewing First That this is adding affliction to affliction when Providence for most wise and holy reasons has ordained that some shall be deprived of these lower Entertainments and walk about the World Empty Mean and Unsightly Destitute of comfortable Habitations and other necessary Accommodations and often for want of considering Things and drawing right Conclusions throws some into despair as if God had marked them out by his severe methods here for his Vengeance hereafter others more Cholerick and less Corrective Vent themselves into wishes for a sudden and speedy exit Poverty being an Insupportable Burden unless alleviated by the happy Interposition of Grace I say while Men are thus bemoaning their hard fate and groaning under an adverse providence What greater aggravation of their Misery can there be than to be ridiculed dispised hissed at and shamefully contemned doubtless it was an heightning addition of Jobs Afflictions when his Friends whom possibly he had obliged when in Prosperity loaded him with reflections Rejected and Scoffed at him while sitting on the Dunghil roaring for very Anguish Naked and Bereaved of outward comforts Pity is the least we can bestow upon Persons in Adversity and though it doth not furnish them with necessaries yet it serves to allay their grief and sweeten their bitter Cup it bears them up under inward disturbances and makes their burden seemingly lighter It will greatly add to the Torments of the Damned for that their lamentable Groans loud Screeches deep-fetched sighs and incessant weepings will not incline the Almighty to compassion to pity their remediless condition were they pitiable Objects it would in some measure allay the anguish of their doleful Lamentations and it is certainly the rendring adversity more uneasie and formidable more Irksome and less bearable when Men instead of pitying contemn and disregard it Again Secondly The unreasonableness of this appeareth yet farther Hereby Men violate that Golden Rule which obligeth to do unto others as we would they should do unto us The which if generously observed would prevent Hatred Revenge Contempt and all other disorderly Practices Suppose therefore That from a vast Estate and height of Honour thou wert lapsed into Poverty and sunk into the depth of disgrace wouldest thou be content to be excluded from former Acquaintances to be slighted and become the Derision of thy Neighbours Wouldst thou not rather think it cruel usage that thy wonted greatness should be so soon buried in oblivion and that thou who wert once the veneration of others shouldest now become an Object of general Scorn and Infamy What can therefore be more unreasonable than for Men to mete out such measure to others which they would not have dealt unto themselves There is not any thing shews more a mind void of all regard to Justice nor a more rude and undecent Spirit Laberius says the Poet Horace dum Vixit Credidit ingens pauperiem Vitium while he lived in Splendor and Pomp and had the world at Command being possessed of a large Estate looked upon nothing so criminal as poverty and therefore treated In digent needy men with great contempt and scorn But when fate had altered his circumstances changed the face of things and turned his wealth into emptiness he was soon of another opinion Then Poverty was a Vertue a state which deserved mens pity and assistance Thus Men are generally apt to be swelled in conceit while the World favours them and to reproach a mean Station but if it chance to be their fortune to fall into it then nothing more unreasonable than to be despised Thus we observe from the Common Judgment of the world that it is both unjust and unequal to condemn Poverty for though this is an usual practice yet not their Opinion when fallen to decay From hence I proceed in the third place namely Thirdly To shew how infinitely we are obliged to respect those who are poor And here First The meanest Peasants lay claim to the same parentage which the most Rich and mighty do God is the common Father of all from whom we receive our Life and Breath and all things Now to despise those of low degree is immediately to reflect upon our Creator and a tacit calling his Justice and Wisdom into question who for most wise and holy Reasons best known to himself has ordained prosperity and adversity and who as Lord of all and Father in Common may dispense his Blessings in number and measure according to his most excellent Wisdom And
it not to me and in denying of them ye deny'd me and their cause I will espouse and therefore go ye carsed into everlasting fire But Thirdly From the death of Lazarus we learn to be content with our Condition tho' never so mean and to keep our selves in the Exercise of Religion tho' we are deprived of this Worlds goods Lazarus tho' he was Hungry and Thirsty his Soul fainted in him tho' he was Naked and full of Sores yet he murmured not but committed himself to God to whom his Soul was carried by the Angels as soon as separated from his Body It is excellent to be Poor and Virtuous for it argues the strongest Faith the best Hope and the best Affections because there are not those outward encouragements to Goodness in Adversity as Prosperity Poverty is look'd upon as a kind of Judgment as if God hates the Person and therefore makes him an Object of Scorn and Infamy so that he is apt to be discouraged and can do nothing else but bewail and lament his unhappy circumstances sit drooping and pausing on his low condition But however the Scripture has well inform'd us that God Almighty means no ill towards his Creatures and that when he changes things and removes Prosperity from the Door it is only to try them how they will manage themselves upon an alteration what kind of nature they will appear to have whether they will make application to him and carry themselves in all Duty and Allegiance towards him And since such is God's Wise design it is but very reasonable that we should be as Good and Vertuous when poor as well as when rich especially considering that we deserve nothing at the Hands of God nothing but Fury and everlasting Damnation Besides the advantage of Piety Is a Man poor and low in the World it doth improve and sweeten even that State It keepeth his Spirits up above dejection desperation and disconsolateness it frees him from all grievous solicitude vnd anxiety shewing him that altho' he seemeth to have little yet he may be assured to want nothing he having a certain Succour and never-failing supply from God's good Providence that notwithstanding the present straightness of his condition or scantiness of outward things he has a title to goods infinitely more precious and more considerable To conclude Let it be our main imploy to improve our Judgments and Understandings in things Spiritual that we may have right notions of God such as become the perfections of his Nature and the excellency of his Goodness that in whatsoever state and condition we are we may glorifie his Name And thus when we have conquer'd our selves and brought our Minds to a settlement in the ways of Holiness we shall resign our Concernments with more freedom to God's wise disposal and be submissive to his Laws whatever our condition be May God assist us by the influences of his Grace and blessed Spirit so to order and govern our Natures that we may love him freely believe in him stedfastly and serve him faithfully to our lives end And this for Jesus Christs sake to whom with the Father and ever blessed Spirit be given all Honour Praise Thanksgiving and Obedience now henceforth and for ever more Amen SERMON IV. Luke XVI part of the 22 Verse And was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom HAving in my last Discourse treated of the Death of Lazarus and particularly considered what were the immediate causes of his death the manner and circumstance of his dying and how his dead body was probably disposed of My Text now leads me to consider the state and condition of his Soul after separation from the Body It was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom Many differ in their sentiments about this Expression and have conceived Witty and Learned Notions of it but yet seem to agree in this that by Abrahams bosom is meant Heaven and the Reason of this phrase is Abraham is stiled The Father of the Faithful and while he lived a very Hospitable person to him was the Soul of Lazarus convey'd as a Sanctuary of Rest and Peace the just reward of his patience during his great want and heavy conflicts Some urge it as a Metaphor from Parents who imbosom and hug their Children when tired by running to and fro or have met with some hurtful mischance and come weeping and lamenting themselves A very adapt Parallel The Soul of poor Lazarus was grieved and wearied with Fastings and Miseries perplexed and overwhelm'd with sorrows for the cruel treatment he met with in the world it was therefore conducted by the Heavenly Courtiers into Abraham's bosom to be succour'd and made amends for past indignities He was carried by the Angels As if they contended who should usher it into Paradise Now Lazarus thou recountest with triumph the difficulties thou hast rubb'd through the afflictions thou hast endured the shame pain and ignominy thou hast undergone for Christs sake Now thou art made acquainted with the Arcana Imperii the secrets of the other happy World and rejoycest with joy unspeakable and full of glory Nothing shall interrupt thy peace nor call thee off from thy enjoyments but there thou shalt swim in rapturous pleasures for evermore This may serve to prevent those who are in sorrow trouble or any other adversity from reflecting upon the Divine Justice as if he unequally distributed his Mercies In this life it matters not whether his Servants be accommodated with sublunary affluences or no since he has prepared a wide and capacious Heaven to receive and replenish them wherein are all the instances of Joy all the ingredients of felicity and nothing else to the contrary all that can caress our powers all that can ravish our hearts all that is good lovely desirable is there to be compendiously enjoyed But to traverse the Text The Soul of Lazarus was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom or Heaven Which words afford us this matter First That the Angels are imploy'd to convey the Souls of true Believers into a fixed state of blessedness And to prove this granting that there are such Beings as Angels because the Scriptures often speak of them I shall First of all Undertake to shew their Offices as relating to God's faithful Children in this life Secondly The great love and kindness they have for mankind First then I am to distinguish their Offices as relating to God's faithful Children in this life They are called in Heb. 1. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation The word Angel signifies an Ambassador which is sent upon another's Errand and in Scripture sense it is restrainedly taken for a select divine sort of Emissaries Spiritual Beings created commissioned and employed by and under God Now first it is part of the Angels Employment upon any urgency to reveal God's mind and will and to bring Embassies from him to us for our instruction and