thought, when stripped of its poetical ornaments, is no more than this: When the priests had carried the ark to the temple, Solomon ordered the gates to be thrown open to admit the ark. How much this thought is improved, when embellished by the fine imagination of the fweet finger of Ifrael, and clothed in all the graces of poetry, let perfons of the fmalleft critical difcernment judge. In fhort, the paffage is too well known, and too beautiful, to need or admit of any illuftration. Like the meridian fun, it fhines in its own light, and to endeavour to adorn it, were wasteful and ridiculous excess.

As we are affured by an authority that cannot err, that the ceremonies of the Jewish law were a figure of good things to come, and as the ark has been confidered as a type of our Saviour, it is highly probable, that its introduction into the temple prefigured to the faithful among the Jews, that folemn and triumphant period when our Saviour af cended into the heaven of heavens, to take poffeffion of the glory which he had with the Father before the world was.

LECTURE III.

LUKE xvi. 19-31.

19 There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared fumptuously every day.

20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, who was laid at his gate, full of fores,

21 And defiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover, the dogs came and licked his fores.

22 And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom : the rich man also died, and was buried. 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24 And he cried, and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and fend Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedft thy good things, and likewife Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

26 And befides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: fo that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot ; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

27 Then be faid, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldft fend him to my father's houfe:

28 For I have five brethren; that he may teftify unto them, left they also come into this place of torment.

29 Abraham faith unto him, They have Mofes and the prophets; let them hear them.

30 And he faid, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

31 And he faid unto him, If they hear not Mofes and the prophets, neither will they be perfuaded though one rofe from the dead.

THE method of inftruction by para.

bles, was much in ufe among the eastern nations. Both phyfical and moral caufes contributed to introHнh

duce and to support this custom. The people of the east have always been more under the government of the imagination and fancy, than the nations of the north. They ufe the livelieft and the boldest figures of fpeech in their ordinary conversation; and their writings are all in the manner as well as in the spirof poetry. What the influence of the climate made natural, the form of their government rendered neceffary. As the form of their government has always been defpotic and tyrannical, they were afraid to fpeak out their fentiments with opennefs and with freedom. Truth durft not approach the throne, nor appear in public.

Such was the origin of parables. This method of inftruction poffeffes many advantages. It is obvious to all capacities, and has a charm for every hearer. It is well adapted to ftrike the fancy; it interests the paffions, and thus makes a deeper and more lafting impreffion than mere moral inftruction could convey. It likewife poffeffes one advantage peculiar to itself. It makes a man his own inftructor. When the parable is told, we ourselves draw the moral, and make the application. Obfervations and reflections that we make ourselves, are of more avail to us in the conduct of life, than any inftruction we can learn from others.

The parable now before us contains many useful and important leffons. We have here reprefented two characters not uncommon in the world; a rich man, who enjoyed the pleasures and the luxuries of life, and a poor beggar, who lived and who died in poverty, and in diftrefs. This man was a fignal object of pity. He was a beggar, and he was full of

fores. Notwithstanding this double call to fympathy and compaffion, the heart of the rich man was hardened against him. All the advantage he reaped from lying at the great man's gate, was, that his dogs, who had more feeling than their mafter, came and licked his fores. Nevertheless this rich man was not a miser. He was not a niggard of the gifts of Providence. He enjoyed life. He was arrayed in purple, which, in thofe days, was the vestment of kings. Hofpitality prefided in his hall, and luxury reigned at his table. He made fumptuous entertainments for his friends, and he made them every day. He feems to have been one of that clafs of men, and a very numerous clafs they are, and very frequently to be found in life, who are very hofpitable to those who do not want, but very unfriendly to those that do; who prepare rich and fplendid entertainments for those tribes of flatterers and fycophants who always crowd the mansions of the great, and at the fame time have nothing to fpare to a real object of diftrefs. However, he acted very agreeably to the principles of his fect; for, as we learn from the fequel, he was a Sadducee, or what in our days we call an infidel, that is, one who has no religion at all. He did not believe in the immortality of the foul. He did not believe that there was either a heaven or a hell. Accordingly, he endeavoured to make the most of this life, and acted up to the maxims of his fect," Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall "die."

Learn hence the folly and the danger of endeavouring to establish virtue upon any foundation but that of true religion. People may tell us that focial

affection is the law of our being; they may talk of virtue being its own reward; they may fing the praifes of difinterested benevolence; but if you take away the rewards and punishments of the world to come, you set the greatest part of mankind free from every moral obligation, and open a door to univerfal depravity and corruption of manners. If the beauty of virtue is laid in one fcale, and interest in the other, it will not be difficult to determine to which fide the balance will incline.

The accufations of confcience will be little regarded, unless they are confidered as an earnest of the worm that never dies. Take away the doctrine of a world to come, and you make this world a scene of universal depravity and open wickedness.

At first view we would be apt to wonder at the ways of Heaven, and perhaps tempted in our minds to arraign the conduct of Providence, in crowning this worthless and wicked man with wealth and profperity, whilst all that diversified the good man's lot was scene after scene of poverty and pain. But let us fufpend our judgment. We fee but one link in the great chain of Providence. We live but in the infancy of being. The great drama of life is but begun. When the catastrophe is brought about, when the curtain between both worlds is undrawn, the morn will arife that will light the Almighty's footsteps in the deep, and pour full day upon all the paths of his providence.

VERSE 22. And it came to pass that the beggar died. He died, and all his miferies died with him. He whom this rich man would have difdained to have confidered as his fellow-creature, had a company of