in Jerusalem in a gay, splendid, and agreeable manner. In other respects, he seems to have been a man of probity, of inoffensive morals, and living in the world as the world expects that men of property should live. It may, moreover, be said, that he seems to have been one of those men whom the public voice extols, who is proposed as a model of rational life, and whom piety itself would hardly venture to condemn.

Now, my brethren, according to the description I have given, (and I leave it to any of you to say whether the description is not a just one) does he appear very culpable? Were any man, except our Saviour, to declare that such a life led to perdition, and that such a man was deserving of eternal torments, would you not exclaim against his intemperate zeal? would you not cry out, in the words of the army of Israel, when Jonathan was

condemned by his father Saul, What

has he done? Is he to die because he has

tasted a little honey? -Early impres sions, I acknowledge, have induced us to form no very favourable opinion of the rich man: but what is his crime? The scripture says that he was rich, that he was superbly cloathed, and that he feasted sumptuously every day. Do you discover any thing very enormous or criminal in all this? The man who, in these times, is guilty of no other crime, is applauded as a man of virtue-as a model worthy of the imitation of others. "Such a one," they say, "lives up to his rank, does honour to his fortune, and by his morality and probity gives respectability to religion and virtue." Praises are not sufficient comparisons injurious to the piety of the true servants of Jésus are introduced: "it is thus," they say, "that a Christian ought to live in the world, and to avoid the enthusias

tic folly of those men, who disgrace piety by their austere deportment and indiscreet singularities." This is the language of worldlings: and I tremble, when I reflect that the only victim of the eternal justice of God, designated by our Lord, is a character which would be held up as a model of virtue in the present age.

Perhaps you may say that the rich man was devoid of charity, and that his treatment of Lazarus was cruel and criminal in the highest degree. It is not for the minister of the gospel to gloss over any transgressions of the law of charity and therefore I will not pretend to be his advocate, and excuse his guilt. But let us attend to the parable, and perhaps it will appear that the guilt which you, or at least the greater number of Christians, contract, by the violation of the law of charity, is greater than that which is attributed to the rich man. And there was a

certain beggar named Lazarus, who lay at his gate full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; and no one did give him. There is certainly something shocking to the feelings of humanity in this account. But let us examine into the chief design of the parable, and we shall be convinced that our Lord intended to describe the character, not of an uncharitable and cruel man, but of a man who lived in indolence, and who was too earnestly engaged in pleasure to attend to the wants of the poor: we shall be convinced, that the history of Lazarus is only an incident in the parable, and that its main object is to expose the danger of riches and sensual enjoyments.

In the first place, Lazarus was a common beggar, -a beggar, who looked for subsistence, not to one individual only, but to the public at large:

a beggar, who might have been treat

ed as an impostor, or as an indolent vagrant; and who might have been passed by unnoticed, as an object who had no just claims on his charity, with as much reason as common vagrants of this description are neglected by you on many occasions.

Such

Secondly, I acknowledge that Lazarus lay at his gate full of sores. an object of distress ought undoubtedly to have excited his compassion: but there was some merit in suffering such a disgusting spectacle, as Lazarus was, to remain unmolested at his gate, to make it his usual place of resort, and to exhibit constantly before his eyes the display of his multiplied sores, without so much as rebuking him for his intrusion.. You, perhaps, on similar occasions, hasten to bestow your charity. But what are your motives? To succour a fellow-creature in distress? To relieve the wants of a member of the same body? To show forth