and therefore we cannot justly impute any to him. His elegant clothing and costly fare were not in themselves sinful, provided they were such as were suited to his station in life. That which constituted his guilt in the sight of God was, that his heart was set upon them ; that he sought his happiness in them rather than in God ; and that he lived solely for him- self, to the neglect of those, whose necessities he should have delighted to relieve. And behold, what fearful punishment this iniquity brought upon him ! His career of sin was soon terminated ; and nothing of all his happiness remained to him but the guilt which he had contracted by it. He was buried indeed in a sumptuous manner ; but what pleasure could he receive from funeral processions, sepulchral monuments, or nattering inscriptions? Alas! his body was insensible of the honours paid to it, and his soul was enduring unutterable anguish in the flames of hell. He prayed indeed, but his prayer was now too late. Had he called upon God when he was on earth, he might have obtained all the glory of heaven : but now he was refused, though he asked no more than a momentary mitigation of his pain. He begged that a mes- senger might be sent to warn and to convince his five surviving brethren, who were walking securely in his delusive steps : but neither could this be granted him; nor indeed would it have been of any use to those who disregarded the testimony of the sacred records. Instead of finding any relief, he was upbraided with his having sought an earthly portion, while he neglected those things which were to endure for ever ; the remembrance of which folly could not but greatly aggravate his misery. Ah ! how altered now his state, from honour to ignominy, from pleasure to pain, from affluence to extremest want!]
The Poor Man, on the contrary, was raised to a state of unspeakable felicity —
[As death put a speedy period to the enjoyments of the one, so it soon also terminated the sorrows of the other. Nothing is spoken of the burial of the Poor Man ; he was car- ried unnoticed, unregretted, to the silent grave ; or rather, his fellow-creatures probably rejoiced that they were rid of a public nuisance. Not but that he was honoured in his death ; for though disregarded by men, he was attended by angels, who gladly received his departing spirit, and bore it on their wings to the regions of light and glory. Let our eyes now follow him to his blest abode : behold, he, who once had scarcely enough to satisfy the cravings of nature, is now sitting next to Abraham himself at the heavenly banquet d ; while the man
d At feasts they lay on couches ; so that one seemed, as it were, to be in the bosom of the person next to him. In this view, the cir- cumstance of his being in Abraham's bosom is well worthy of notice.