5. The sottish despairing carnal person. As there is a raging despair, so a sottish despair : Jer. xviii. 12, ' And they said. There is no hope, but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart ; ' and Jer. ii. 25, * Thou saidst there is no hope ; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.' Give over all endeavours. If I be saved, I shall be saved; if damned, who can help it ? I will bear it as well as I can. Bear it !
294 SERMON UPON 2 CORINTHIANS IV, 18.
What wilt thou bear ? What ! endure the loss of heaven ? endure the wrath of almighty God ? Poor wretch ! thou knowest not what eternity meaneth. For the loss, thou wilt apprehend it to be another thing when thy soul cometh to see but a glimpse of what heaven is, and shall see others sitting down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and thyself shut out. They are admitted, and thou art excluded ; this will cause weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for evermore, Mat. viii. 12. If Kachel could not endure the loss of her children, nor Jacob the supposed loss of Joseph, when all his sons and daughters rose up to comfort him, ' I will go to the grave to my son mourning,' Gen. xxxvii. 35 ; if Achitophel could not endure the rejectment of his counsel, and Haman could not endure to be slighted by Mordecai, and many cannot endure the loss of a beloved child ; how wilt thou endure the loss of eternity ? The disciples wept bitterly when Paul said, ' Ye shall see my face no more,' Acts xxviii. 38. What will you do when God shall say, See my face no more ? Thou carest not for the fruition of God now, because thou believest not the reality of this blessedness, hast other comforts and affairs to divert thee ; but when thou shalt be set apart from all thy comforts, and hast nothing to divert thee, thou shalt know what eternal life is.
For the other : how canst thou endure the wrath of God, thou that canst not endure to be scorched a day or two in feverish flames, thou that canst not endure the acute pains of stone or gout, when God armeth the humours of thine own body against thee ? that canst not endure the scalding of a little gunpowder casually blown up, the pain of a broken arm or leg ; how wilt thou endure when God himself shall fall upon thee ? God himself puts the question, Ezek. xxii. 14. Iii the other world, God is all in all.
SERMON UPON LTJKE XYI. 25.
I
Son, remember that iliou in iliy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarubs evil things ; hut now he is comforted, and tliou art tormented. — Luke xvi. 25.
These words are part of a parable, the contrivance of which is so exactly framed according to the reality and truth which is represented, that it hath been disputed whether it be a parable or an history. The two persons chiefly concerned in this parable are the rich glutton and Lazarus the beggar. The rich man is not represented under any proper name, as the beggar is ; partly to avoid offence, and partly to show that the wicked are of no name, account, or reckoning with God : 2 Tim. ii. 19, ' The Lord knoweth them that are his ; ' John x. 3, ' He calleth his own sheep by name.' A rich man of this world you cannot miss of his name in the subsidy book, but in the book of life the beggar hath a name when the rich hath not. The rich glutton is described by the course of his life, which was pleasant and luxurious ; he was clad with the best, and fared of the best ; he was ' clothed with purple and fine linen ; ' there is his winter and summer garment ; and ' fared sumptuously every day,' ver. 19. With him every day was a festival. On the other side, the beggar is described by his piety, intimated by his name, Lazarus, the Lord was his help ; by his afflic- tions ; of want, for he was a beggar, lying at the rich man's door ; of sickness, full of sores ; by his modesty, he desired only the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, Luke xvi, 21. In time both died, for rich and poor must both die: Job iii. 19, * The small and the great are there,' It is said of the poor man that he ' died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom ; ' but of the rich, he ' died and was buried,' ver. 22. Nothing is said of the burial of the poor man ; the other had a pompous funeral, according to the custom of the world ; but the carcase of the poor man was little regarded, it may be cast to the dunghill. However in the state of their, souls there was great difference. Though the body of the one was conducted to the grave in state, yet his soul was in woful plight ; for ' he died and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments,' ver. 23, But for the other, his body was neglected, but his soul was of precious account with God, for it was 'carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom,' ver. 22. The rich man is too late sensible of his misery and the happiness of the despised beggar : ' And in liell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom,' ver.