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The tenth and eleventh are calculated to fhew, that true religion is a reasonable service.-In the latter, the author takes occafion to confider the cafe of Abraham, as reprefented by Chubb. And having exposed the fophiftry of that writer, he concludes with obferving, That any feeming difficulty in the divine commands is no just reafon for withdrawing our obedience; but that the obligation which binds moft in nature, and ftands foremost as most fit and right in all morality, is to walk bumbly with our God.'

In the twelfth difcourfe he fhews, that religion is the best fecurity against the delufions of fin; in the wrirteenth, that fudden profperity is fatal to religion; in the fourteenth, that the finner's hope of impunity is groundless; in the fifteenth, that reflection on paft errors is the ground of future caution; and in the fixteenth, that the Chriftian hope is founded on argument: or, that the expectation of future happiness does not reft upon flight and groundless prefumptions, but is built upon rational and certain principles, deduced from strong and convincing proofs.

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The defign of the feventeenth fermon is to fhew, that Ifaiah's prophefy A virgin fhall conceive and bear a fon,'-was literally accomplished in our Saviour.-In explaining this prophecy, Dr. Ashton obferves, as others have done, that the prophet, ch. vii. 13, turns abruptly to the whole houfe of David; and fays, A virgin fhall conceive, and bear a fon; butter and honey fhall he eat.' That is, Till you see this wonder performed, you may reft affured, that plenty shall remain in your land.'-But does not our interpreter, in this place, forget the Babylonian captivity, or is the devaftation of the whole country by Nebuchadnezzar, within zco years after this occurrence, a matter of no confideration? The author adds, as a paraphrafe on the text, As to the prefent fear which the Lord hath declared fhall not take effect, my infant fhall not be able to diftinguish between good and evil before that fhall be wiped away and be no more' And this account of the • transaction will free us, he thinks, from all the abfurdities which have been fixed upon another account, for which the prophet is no more anfwerable than any man is to another, who either willingly, or otherwife, mistakes his meaning.-The critical reader may, poffibly, find fome obfervations on this prophecy worth his notice, in our Review for May 1757, and November 1768.

In the eighteenth fermon, the author fhews, wherein true liberty confifts, or in what fenfe the knowledge of the truth. may be faid to make a man free. In the nineteenth, he confi ders prayer as an antidote against temptation; and in the

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twentieth, he makes fome obfervations on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

The following extract from this discourse may serve as a specimen of our author's lively imagination and expressive language.

Abraham faid, Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedft thy good things, and likeswife Lazarus evil things. But now be is comforted, and thou art tormented.

This fentence, I need not tell you, is taken out of one of the most striking parables of the gospel. The parable is addreffed by our bleffed Lord to the Pharifees, whofe character in it is, that they loved money, but neglected the proper use of it.

The very end and defign of this parable, therefore is, to teach those who abound in wealth in what manner they ought to apply fome part of it, at leaft, by fhewing them. what will be the dreadful, the unavoidable, and the irreverfible confequence of mifapplying it.

Whoever fuppofes it to be a rude undiftinguishing fatire. upon those who are poffeffed of large eftates, is mistaken, both in the difpofition of the bleffed Author of this inftruction, and in the intent of the inftruction itfelf; which is plainly calculated, not as an infult upon men of great fortunes, but as an admonition to thofe who have great fortunes indeed, but little minds, to enlarge their hearts with their estates.

Let men be as rich as they will, provided their humanity and benevolence bear a juft proportion to their wealth. It is a notion as wild as it is uncharitable, to fancy that it is literally impoffible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. The ich man here condemned, is condemned for his luxury and inhumanity; but if there be others as rich as, but more. humane and charitable than, he was, we may be affured that fuch men are as far from this man's condemnation, as they have been from his character.

I will give you fome account of this man, as it may be collected from this reprefentation of him in the gospel, that, by avoiding his conduct, you may avoid his punishment. He was rich by inheritance is not faid, or by his own acquifition-probably by both, for we find that he had five brethren, who are all reprefented as in the fame cafe with himfelf. But by which foever of thefe ways he became richthere is yet no harm done; if by his own industry, the man was to be commended; if by decent--who can blame him?

But he lived and dreffed with ftate and delicacy; he was cloathed in purple and fine linen, and fared fumptuously—

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and this not occafionally and by accident, but it was his manner and custom of life-he did it every day.

In this perhaps you may think he carried the matter too far; an interval now and then of fafting and fackcloth might have ha interrupted the luxury of his table, and the clegance of bis diefs. However, even this will admit of fome excufe; it contributed to the circulation of money. The trade man probably was the better, and the man himself, if he did it upon that connderation, poffibly, not much worse.

But there was an object of charity who lay at his door; his name was Lazarus, and his condition correfponded with his name. He had no patron but Providence. This man, poor and helpless, and full of ulcers, lay at the rich man's door He could hardly be a ftranger to his mifery and neceffity-we are affured, from the fequel of the ftory, that he was not; for as foon as he faw him, but afar off in another place, where it was more convenient for him to be acquainted with him, he knew him at firft fight-he loft no time in feeking his acquaintance-he cried out, "Father Abraham, fend Lazarus."

• This very Lazarus is now begging to be fed-with what? not with the fumptuous dishes that adorned his board-of thefe, 'tis likely, he hardly knew the names! not with the food which regaled the haughty mafter-nor even with the fragments which furfeited his pampered fervants-but with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table! This was no fturdy beggar; nothing could be more modeft than this request. His modefty, however, had as little effect as his poverty or his wounds; neither the lord nor his retinue fupplied him with any relief, or fo much as recommended him to an infirmary. Nay more the very dogs came and licked his wounds! was this, by an office of tendernefs, to reproach the hard heartednefs of their master, or, in imitation of his inhumanity, to fall upon him as their prey?

Worn out at laft with poverty and pain, he funk into that fure refuge of the miferable, where the wicked ceafe from troubling, where the weary be at reft-he died-and, by the filence of the hiftorian, we may fairly fuppofe, was thrown afide without any other care, than what was convenient for the ease of those who furvived him. So inhuman a difpofition, as this conduct towards Lazarus difcovered in this rich man, would have been inexcufable in a heathen; doubly fo in one who lived under a written law of God. For this man is fuppofed to have been a fon of Abraham, a Jew, fubject confequently to the force and penalty of a ftatute which he acknowledged to be divine, by which it was ex

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prefsly enacted, Deut. v. 7, 8, " If there be among you a poor man, of one of thy brethren, within any of thy gates, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor fhut thine hand against thy poor brother. But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him fufficient for his need in that which he wanteth."

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By this inftitute, you fee, the poor amongst the Jews became an effential part of their retinue to the rich. They came recommended by God, who declared that they should never cease out of the land; that the reciprocal duties of charity and humility, of benevolence, on both fides, might be kept up for ever-therefore I command thee, faying, "Thou halt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor and to thy needy in thy land." The poor, under this œconomy, had as good a right to what the rich could conveniently fpare, as he himself could have to what he could properly enjoy.

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This right the rich man in the parable withheld-he facrificed to his vanity, the health, the eafe, the life of the poor-the curfe of him that was ready to perish came upon him and all his wealth could not retrieve from, perhaps haftened him to, the grave. Thither let us follow him. The fame pomp which gave the colour to his life, attended his exit alfo; for the rich man died, and was buried. In this too he was diftinguished from Lazarus. Here no expence was wanting, to reprefent the inexpreffible concern of the perfon who fucceeded him in his eftates, who was undoubtedly too much affected to attend to any thing but the will of the deceafed. Nor could there be wanting fome friendly priest to drefs out the funeral oration, fome favorite poet to adorn the monumental brafs with a long catalogue of all his virtues, particularly his benevolence and his bounty.

Here was an end of the poor man's patience, and of the rich man's pleasure. God took the poor man first, to remove him from the inconvenience of the prefent life. To the rich man he gave longer time, that he might not want opportunity to shake off his attachment to this, and prepare himself for the account to be given in another life.

You have heard what happened to them here; our bleffed Lord has been pleafed to draw the curtain, and fhew us them in very different circumstances hereafter. After he was

dead, the poor man was carried by angels-the hoft of heaven were stationed to receive him, and to bear him on joyful wings to the place which had been prepared for him-they carried him to Abraham's bofom. The father of the faith

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ful, moved with compaffion at the long forrows of his fon, received him into his bofom. He whom we faw caft out at the rich man's door, is now placed nearest to the king, at the marriage-feaft of his fon. He who had imitated Abraham's faith, was now partaking the reward of Abraham.

With the rich man too, the fcene was changed. Instead of being cloathed with purple, and fine line, he is expofed naked to the flames. Inftead of faring fumptuously, he confumes with drought; if Lazarus begged in vain for crumbs of meat, fo does he now for one drop of water. In hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments. And to increase his torment, at a distance, and in a happier place, the first object he knows is Lazarus. That Lazarus who was not admitted to partake with his dogs, is now feafting with an gels and with Abraham. Unhappy man! Not one of thy purple friends, not one of thy haughty family, not one of thy numerous fervants, to attend thee now. What wretched company haft thou kept on earth, that thou art not able to find out one of them in heaven? Too just judgment of an avenging God, to make thee beg relief of the very wretch to whom thou hadft denied it! to make thee ask in vain as ke did! "Send Lazarus, father Abraham, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame."

To be funk down from plenty to abfolute want, from the highest pomp to the moft abject beggary; to fee thofe who were lately dependent upon you exalted in an inftant above you, and yourself reduced to a ftate of dependance upon them; would raise a hard struggle even in a good mind, and prove an infupportable trial to a bad one.

To be reduced by your mifery to ask for help, to be condemned for your punishment to be refufed it! Yet this hard cafe is the rich man's cafe; he is forced to feek for fuccour of the laft perfon in the world to whom he would chufe to be obliged, and has the mortification not to fucceed in his requeft. For what fays Abraham ? "Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedft thy good things, and likewife Lazarus evil things--but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented."

Is profperity then a crime, and is a man to be punished in the next world, merely becaufe he is profperous in this? or are the sufferings of one man to be placed to the account of another? and am I to be condemned because you are unfortunate? Neither. Profperity is then only culpable, when it is unsocial and felfish; and we are then only accountable

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