![]() ![]() Not are we told that he got his estate by fraud, oppression, or extortion, no, nor that he was drunk, or made others drunk but, Christ would hereby show that a man may have a great deal of the wealth, and pomp, and pleasure of this world, and yet lie and perish for ever under God’s wrath and curse. Well, and what harm was there in all this? It is no sin to be rich, no sin to wear purple and fine linen, nor to keep a plentiful table, if a man’s estate will afford it. His table was furnished with all the varieties and dainties that nature and art could supply his side-table richly adorned with plate his servants, who waited at table, in rich liveries and the guests at his table, no doubt, such as he thought graced it. (2.) He fared deliciously and sumptuously every day. He never appeared abroad but in great magnificence. ![]() He had purple for state, for that was the wear of princes, which has made some conjecture that Christ had an eye to Herod in it. He had fine linen for pleasure, and clean, no doubt, every day night-linen, and day-linen. (1.) That he was clothed in purple and fine linen, and that was his adorning. Now we are told concerning this rich man, But others observe that Christ would not do the rich man so much honour as to name him, though when perhaps he called his lands by his own name he thought it should long survive that of the beggar at his gate, which yet is here preserved, when that of the rich man is buried in oblivion. From the Latin we commonly call him Dives-a rich man but, as Bishop Tillotson observes, he has no name given him, as the poor man has, because it had been invidious to have named any particular rich man in such a description as this, and apt to provoke and gain ill-will. A wicked man, and one that will be for ever miserable, in the height of prosperity ( Luke 16:19): There was a certain rich man. This mistake Christ, upon all occasions, set himself to correct, and here very fully, where we have,ġ. We know that as some of late, so the Jews of old, were ready to make prosperity one of the marks of a true church, of a good man and a favourite of heaven, so that they could hardly have any favourable thoughts of a poor man. The different condition of a wicked rich man, and a godly poor man, in this world. In this description (for so I shall choose to call it) we may observe, Our Saviour came to bring us acquainted with another world, and to show us the reference which this world has to that and here is does it. this a parable? What similitude is there in this? The discourse indeed between Abraham and the rich man is only an illustration of the description, to make it the more affecting, like that between God and Satan in the story of Job. Yet we need not call it a history of a particular occurrence, but it is matter of fact that is true every day, that poor godly people, whom men neglect and trample upon, die away out of their miseries, and go to heavenly bliss and joy, which is made the more pleasant to them by their preceding sorrows and that rich epicures, who live in luxury, and are unmerciful to the poor, die, and go into a state of insupportable torment, which is the more grievous and terrible to them because of the sensual lives they lived: and that there is no gaining any relief from their torments. But here the spiritual things themselves are represented in a narrative or description of the different state of good and bad in this world and the other. This parable is not like Christ’s other parables, in which spiritual things are represented by similitudes borrowed from worldly things, as those of the sower and the seed (except that of the sheep and goats), the prodigal son, and indeed all the rest but this. Now this parable, by drawing the curtain, and letting us see what will be the end of both in the other world, goes very far in prosecuting those two great intentions. The tendency of the gospel of Christ is both to reconcile us to poverty and affliction and to arm us against temptations to worldliness and sensuality. The Pharisees made a jest of Christ’s sermon against worldliness now this parable was intended to make those mockers serious. As the parable of the prodigal son set before us the grace of the gospel, which is encouraging to us all, so this sets before us the wrath to come, and is designed for our awakening and very fast asleep those are in sin that will not be awakened by it.
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