And by this means you will be preparing and training your souls for a happier communion with the Saviour in another world; where all the dealings of His providence, and all the wonders of His grace, will be more fully and gloriously manifested. And if the heart of the Christian now burn within him, at the contemplation of heavenly truth and redeeming love; now, in his frail tenement of clay; how unspeakable will be his delight, when these things are revealed to his pure spirit, in the realms of perfection and bliss. Then will he know more of “the love of Christ which passeth knowledge;” then will he see more of “the length and breadth and depth and height” { 113b} of the mystery of mercy; he will see God “face to face” and “know even as he is known.”
SERMON VII. IF THEY HEAR NOT MOSES AND THE PROPHETS.
_If they hear not Moses and the Prophets_, _neither will they be persuaded_, _though one rose from the dead_.
LET us advert to the occasion on which these words were delivered, to the parable of which they form a part. The case there presented to us by the description of the rich man is unhappily of frequent occurrence in every age. Surrounded by all the luxuries that wealth could furnish, he looked for nothing beyond them: how many fellow mortals there were near his dwelling, deprived of the necessities, while he was revelling in the superfluities of life, was no care, no consideration of his; the selfish enjoyment of this world entirely absorbed his affections, and threw a veil over all expectation of a world to come: satisfied, that he had “goods laid by for many years,” he imagined that he had nothing to do, but to “eat, drink, and be merry.”
But such ignorance and insensibility did not prevent him from being called to account; such forgetfulness of his latter end did not retard the evil day. He died—and was buried, we may conclude, with costly preparation answerable to the splendour in which he had lived. This however, was the last service which his riches were able to render him; and melancholy it was, when contrasted with the state, in which his soul was existing, while his treasures were employed in doing honour to the lifeless body. He found in that state, what he might have discovered before, that riches, if selfishly employed in purposes of vanity and pleasure, are a deadly snare; that earthly indulgences, if pursued with excess, to the neglect of duty towards God and man, instead of being a blessing, are paving the way to misery; he found, “what an evil and bitter thing it is,” to squander the favours of heaven without remembering “the author and giver of every good gift.”