Seren. LXXIII. Rich Man, and Lazarus. r. For the Tryal of Men's Virtue. For this End principally God ordains the Sufferings of Good Men, and permits the bell of his Servants many times to be involved in the greaten Calamities, to try their Faith,in him, and Love to him ; to improve their Virtue, and to prevent thofe Sins into which the mighty Temptations of a perpetual Profperity are apt to draw even the belt of Men ; to take off their Affeaions from the love of this vain World, and toengage and fix them there, where they mall never repent that theyhave placed them ; to prove their Sincerity towards God, and to exercife their Patience and Submilfion to his Will ; to prepare them for'the Glory of 'the next Life, and to make the Happi- nets of Heaven more welcome to them, when they (hall come to ir. idly, In order to theRecompencing of Men : that they who will take up with the Pleafures and Enjoyments of this prefent world,. and take no care for their fu- ture State, that they who will gratify their Senfes, and negleél their immortal Souls, may inherit the proper Confequences of their wretched Choice. And on the other hand, that they who love God above all things, and had rather endure the greaten Evils, than clothe leaft, that they who look beyond the prefent Scene of things, and believe the reality and Eternity of the other State, and live ac- cordingly, may not be difäppointed in their Hopes, and ferve God and fuffer fat him for nothing. From this confideration of the Difference between the Condi- tion of Men in this World and the other, we may infer, I. That no Man fhould meafure his Felicity or Unhappinefs by his Lot in this World. If thou receiver thy good things, art rich and honourable, and haft as much of the things of this World as thineHeart can with, art fplendidiy attired, and fareflfumptuoufly every day ;. art in ao,trouble like otherMen, neither artplagued like other folk ; do not upon this biefs thy felf as the happy Man. On the other hand, art thou poor and miferable, defs;itute of all theConveniences and Accom- modations of this Life ? Do not repine at thy Lot, and murmur at God for ha- ving dealt hardlywith thee. No Man can be pronounced happy ormifèrable for what befals him in this Life ; no Man knows'Love or Hatred by thefe thingi this Life is buta (fort and inconfiderable duration, and it matters not much what Entertainment we meet withal, as we are palling through this world : The flare of Eternity is that wherein the Hàppinefs. or Mifery of Men fhall be determined. He is the happy Man who is fo iti.that Life which Ilia!! never have an end and he is miferable that (hall be fo for ever. 2. We thould not let too great a value upon the bleffings, of this Life. We may receive our goodthings here, and be tormented hereafter ; nay this very thing will be no inconfiderable part of our Torment, none of the leaft Aggravations of our Mifery, that we didreceive our good things. Nothing afl?ie`ts a Man more, and toucheth him more fenfibly when he is in Mifery, than the Remembrance of his former Profperity ; had he never been happy, his Mifery would be the leis. Therefore we fhould be fo far from applauding our {elves in the Profperity of this World, that we fhould rather be afraid of receiving oùr good things here ; left God fhould put us off with thofe things, and this fhould be all our Port:6n, and left our Mifery in the next World fhould be the greater for our having been -happy. The Felicities of this World are Tranfient, and tho' our Happinefs were rever fo compleat, yet it is going off, and palling away ; and when it is gone and päfl, if Mifery fueceed it, it had better never have been. Remember, rhos in thy=life time receivedll thy good things ; thefe things are only for our life time acrd how fhort is that l Did Men ferioufly confider this, they would not let lucei a price upon any of the tranlent Enjoyments of this Life, as for the fake of them to negle& the great Concernments of another world. We are apt to be dazled with the prefent glitteringof worldlyGlory and Profperity : But if we would lookup - on thefe things as they will be fhortiy gone from us, how little would they f.g- nify ! The Rich Man here in the Parable did, no doubt; think himfelf a much happier Man than poor Lazarus that lay at his Door ; and yet after a little while how glad would he have been to have changed Condoors with this poor Man l s'' hen he was in Torments, then no doubt he willa'd' that he had fuffered all the mi- fern 4-/-;
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