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what resolution and zeal should we manifest, in our less encumbered state: And yet, amazing inconsistency! we look to share his reward, while we studiously shun the sufferings and decline the labours that prepared him for it. Beware, my brethren, lest your temporal enjoyments for ever render abortive your eternal hopes; and lest, by setting up your rest among earthly advantages, you irrecoverably forfeit a better and more enduring inheritance.

If the Father of mercies hath given you all things richly to enjoy; if he allows you to sit securely under your own vine and your own fig-tree; or if he lays out your path by the soft flowing streams of plenty and peace: let it be your daily care to honour him in his gifts, and thankfully to acknowledge that his fulness is the treasury, out of which your abundant supplies are drawn forth. When Joseph dispatched a train of waggons to his father richly laden with the good things of Egypt, it was not for the purpose of rendering his residence in Canaan more satisfactory and agreeable; but rather with the design of drawing him

thence, without delay, into the goodly land of Goshen. And thus your Heavenly Father deals with you. Every mercy he vouchsafes, every blessing he sends, every comfort he appoints you, bring with them so many pressing invitations to quicken your progress to the fountain whence they flow. These are the golden cords, by which God is minded to draw you upwards: beware, then, how ye mistake the purposes of his love, or resist the leadings of his Spirit. But while he favours you with so many gentle and persuasive calls, look up to him gratefully with the language of filial affection upon your lips-Lord, all I have, and all I am, is thine. Thou hast wisdom; I have Thou hast all power, and I am all weakness. O leave me not under the influence of my own manifold infirmities: but do thou graciously lead and teach, sustain and guard me, through all the dangers of my way; that, whether I sink or rise, whether I suffer or rejoice, all may happily contribute to accomplish upon me the designs of thy grace.

none.

Happy are ye, my brethren, who have arrived at so desirable a point as this, in

which heaven and earth agree to smile upon you. In such circumstances, All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

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SERMON XVI.

LUKE XVI. 19.

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day.

HAVING lately dwelt, at some length, on the character of Lazarus the beggar, I shall now proceed to make a few observations upon that of Dives the opulent. As these two striking representations are contrasted by our Lord in the same parable, it was undoubtedly his intention that we should take a connected view of them.

We are presented in this case, as in that of Lazarus, with nothing more than a strong outline of character. But it is an outline at full length, comprehending the whole condition and circumstances of the man, both in the world that now is, and that which is to come.

The whole scope of the parable requiring us to consider Lazarus as a man of superior

grace, it equally obliges us to look upon Dives as a man altogether destitute of saving grace. The description here given of him, is not, indeed, that of a notorious sinner. He is not accused of dishonesty in his practices: he is not exhibited to us as a man of outrageous passions; nor stigmatized as a cruel oppressor. He is not exposed to our view as a drunkard, a blasphemer, or a scoffer at religion. But he is described as an unfaithful steward, unmindful of the responsibility attached to his station, and lavishingly wasting the valuable goods of his lord. He is represented as a Jew, descended from the stock of Abraham; and, consequently, no stranger to the forms of godliness adopted by the church in that day. The turn of the parable allows us even to suppose, that he was distinguished by such qualities as are in general request among mankind; such as affability and good nature, a courteous deportment, and an extraordinary degree of generosity-but, being what his name imports, he was necessarily placed in the way of many and powerful temptations.

That riches are universally desired and

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