SERMON VIII. LUKE XVI. 31. And he faid unto him, if they hear not Mofes and the prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one should rife from the dead. HESE words are the conclufion of the TH parable of the rich man and Lazarus; the defign of which was to fhew us the neceffity of conducting ourselves, by fuch lights as God had been pleased to give us: the sense and meaning of the patriarch's final determination in the text being this, That they who will not be perfuaded to answer the great purposes of their being, upon fuch arguments as are offered to them in fcripture, will never be perfuaded to it by any other means, how extraordi. nary foever; If they hear not Mofes and the prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one fhould rife from the dead. Rife from the dead! To what purpose? What would fuch a messenger propose to urge, which had not been propofed and urged al ready? the novelty or furprise of fuch a vifit might awake the attention of a curious unthinking people, who spent their time in nothing elfe, but to hear and tell fome new thing; but ere the wonder was well over, fome new won. der would start up in its room, and then the man might return to the dead from whence he came, and not a foul make one enquiry about him. This, I fear, would be the conclufion of the affair. But to bring this matter still closer to us, let us imagine, if there is nothing unworthy in it, that God in compliance with a curious world,-or from a better motive,-in compaffion to a finful one, fhould vouchsafe to fend one from the dead, to call home our confcience and make us better chriftians, better citizens, better men, and better fervants to God than we are. Now bear with me, 1 befeech you, in framing such an addrefs, as I imagine, would be most likely to gain our attention, and conciliate the heart to what he had to fay: the great channel to it, is Intereft,-and there he would fet out. He might tell us, (after the most indisputable credentials of whom he ferved) That he was come a meffenger from the great God of Heaven, with reiterated propofals, whereby much was to be granted us on his fide,—and fomething to be parted with on ours: but, that, not to alarm us,-it was neither houses, nor land, nor poffeffions;--it was neither wives, or children, or brethren or fifters, which we had to forfake;no one rational pleasure to be given up; -no natural endearment to be torn from. In a word, he would tell us, We had nothing to part with- -but what was not for our interests to keep,-and that was our vices; which brought death and mifery to our doors. He would go on, and prove it by a thoufand arguments, that to be temperate and chaste, and juft and peaceable, and charitable and kind to one another, was only doing that for Chrift's fake, which was most for our own; and that were we in a capacity of capitulating with God upon what terms we would fubmit to his go - vernment, he would convince us, it would be impoffible for the wit of man, to frame any propofals more for our prefent interefts, than to lead an uncorrupted life-to do the thing which is lawful and right, and lay fuch reftraints upon our appetites as are for the honour of human nature, and the refinement of human happiness. When this point was made out, and the alarms from Interest got over, -the spectre might address himself to the other paffions :-in doing this, he could but give us the most engaging ideas of the perfections of God, or could he do more, than impress the most awful ones, of his majesty and power:--he might remind us, that we are creatures but of a day, haftening to the place from whence we shall not return; that during our stay, we stood accountable to this Being, who though rich in mercies, yet was terrible in his judgments; that he was about our paths, and about our beds, and spied out all our ways; and was fo pure in his nature, that he would punish even the wicked imaginations of the heart, and had |