* tion of his disciples, not the method by which he made them, if it was fraudulent. Or if that is commended, it is commended only as wise in relation to the plan he had laid down, there being nothing more common among men than to commend the ingenuity shewed in a fraud, while they condemn the fraud itself. The calumnies therefore which Julian and Porphyry have thrown out against our Lord, on account of this parable, are altogether groundless; its true scope being to teach those who have their views extended to eternity, to be as active and prudent in their schemes for the life to come, as the children of this world are for the present; and particularly to do all the good offices to others in their power, a duty highly incumbent on those whose business it is to reclaim sinners, not only because sinners are in themselves fit objects of charity as well as saints, but because charitable offices done them may have a happy tendency to promote their conversion. That this was the lesson Jesus designed to inculcate by the parable of the crafty steward, is evident from the application of it. Luke xvi. 9. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. Our Lord's advice is worthy of the most serious attention; the best use we can make of our riches being to employ them in promoting the salvation of others. For if we use our abilities and interest in bringing sinners to God, if we spend our money in this excellent service, we shall conciliate the good will of all heavenly beings, who greatly rejoice at the conversion of sinners, as was represented in the preceding parables; so that with open arms they will receive us into the mansions of felicity. And therefore while self-seekers shall have their possessions, and honours, and estates, torn from them with the utmost reluctancy at death, they who have devoted themselves, and all that they had, to the service of God, shall find their consumed estates to be greatly increased, and their neglected honours abundantly repaired, in the love and friendship of the inhabitants of heaven, and in the happiness of the world to come, and shall rejoice in having disposed of their wealth to such an advantage. Our Lord proceeded in the application of the parable: If, said he, you make that use of your riches which I have been recommending, you shall be received into those everlasting habitations where all the friends of goodness dwell, because by your fidelity in managing the small trust of temporal advantages committed to your care, you do shew that you are worthy and capable of the much greater trust Ver. 9. Mammon of unrighteousness.] By the mammon of unrighteousness (parava rus adixias) he does not mean uhrighteous or ill-gotten riches, but false and uncertain riches, as is plain from verse 11. where μαμμωνα αδικον, as the critics observe, is not opposed to δίκαιον, but to εκλήθινον. trust of heavenly employments, and enjoyments. 10. He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much: Whereas, if you do not use your riches for the glory of God, and the good of men, you shall be banished for ever from the abodes of the blessed, because by behaving unfaithfully in the small trust committed to you now, you render yourselves both unworthy and in capable of a share in the everlasting inheritance; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. 11. If therefore ye have not been faithful in * the unrighteous mammon, † who will, commit to your trust the true riches? If ye have not been faithful in the use of your riches and power, very properly called the false mammon, because they always deceive those who confide in them as the sovereign good, who will commit to your trust the true mammon? the joys of heaven, called mammon far more properly than the pleasures of the world, because they may be securely confided in as a never-failing source of happiness. Luke xvi. 12. And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? Here, as in many of our Lord's discourses, the expression is so simple, and the sense so profound, that we need not wonder at its being overlooked. The translation has the word man supplied without reason; for it is not man, but God who is intended, to whom the riches and other advantages in our possession do properly belong, who has committed them to us only as stewards, to be laid out for the good of his family, and who may every moment call us. to give an account of our management. The words that which is your own do not signify that which is already our own, as Dr Clarke observes, but that which is to be so; that which, when it is conferred upon us, shall be wholly in our power, and perpetually in our possession; shall be so fully our own, that we shall never be called to an account for the management of it. Our Lord's meaning therefore was, Since you have dared to be un faithful in that which was only a trust committed to you by God for a short time, and of which you knew you were to give him an account, it is evident that you are not fit to be intrusted by him with the riches of heaven; these being treasures which, if he bestowed them on you, would be so fully your own, that you should • Ver. 11. The unrighteous mammon.] So the clause runs in our translation, but the words in this construction signify the false, the deceitful mam mon. 1 + Ibid. Who will commit to your trust the true riches?] The word riebes is substituted by our translators, instead of mamman, which was the word Christ intended, and which for that reason should find its place in the translation of this verse Mammon coming from the Hebrew 8, signifies cubatever one is apt to confide in; and because men put their trust generally in external advantages, such as riches, authority, honour, power, know. kdge, the word mammon is used to denote every thing of that kind, and particularly riches by way of eminence. should have them perpetually in your possession, and never be called to an account for your management of them. 13. No servant can serve tubo masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Te cannot serve God and mammon. Beware of indulg ing even the least degree of covetousness, for it is absolutely inconsistent with piety, insomuch that a man may as well undertake, at one and the same time, to serve two masters of contrary dispositions and opposite interests, as pretend to please God whilst he is anxiously pursuing the world for its own sake. See on Mart. vi. 24. § 26. v 1 101! In this manner did Jesus recommend the true use of riches, power, knowledge, and the other advantages of the present life, from the consideration that they are not our own, but God's; that they are only committed to us as stewards, to be employed for the honour of God and the good of men; that we are accountable to the proprietor for the use we make of them, who will reward or punish us accordingly; and that every degree of covetousness is such a serving of mammon as is really idolatry, and altogether inconsistent with the duty we owe to God. § XCVI. The Pharisees are rebuked. The parable of the rich Nose roman and the beggar. Luke xvi. 14,-31. * LUKE xvi. 14. And the Pharisees also who were covetous, heard all these things, viz. concerning the true use of riches, and the impossibility of mens serving God and mammon at the same time and they derided him, as a visionary who' despised the pleasures of life for no other reason but because he could not procure them. These men therefore having shewed à complication of the very worst dispositions, deserved a sharp rebuke, such as our Lord gave them in the parable of the rich mai and thè beggar, after having exposed those parts of their character which were most odious in the sight of God, and the roots from whence their other wickedness sprang, their hypocrisy, and their volupa tuousness. In speaking of their hypocrisy, he told them that they made specious pretensions indeed to extraordinary sanctity, by shunting the company of sinners before the world, while in private they neither scrupled to have society with them, nor to join with them in their wickedness. Luke xvi. 15. And he said unto them, Te are they which justify yourselves before men: by. your care of external appearances, you seldom fail to acquire a great reputation for sanctity, but God knoweth your hearts; 'you cannot justify yourselves before God, who knows you to be very wicked Ver. 14. They derided him.] The original word is very emphatical thiμvæτngilor, they mocked him, by a scornful motion of the mouth and nose, as well as by what they spake to hún VOL. II. wicked persons. Wherefore, though ye may have covered the foulness of your crimes with the painted cloke of hypocrisy, and by going about thus adorned, have cheated those who look no farther than the outside, into an high admiration of you; and it may be, are inwardly blessing yourselves for having the address to make gross sensuality and a reputation for sanctity, compatible: this is the height of folly. Ye cannot screen yourselves from the detection of God, whose eye penetrates through eve ry covering, and who judges of things, not by their appearances, but according to truth; by which means it comes to pass, that he often abhors both men and things that are held in the highest estimation; for that which is highly esteemed amongst men, is abomination in the sight of God. And with respect to his conduct, which they blamed so much, he observed to them, that the law and the prophets, the dispensation which made a distinction be tween men, accounting some clean and others unclean, continued till John came; and that from the commencement of his ministry, the kingdom of heaven, or gospel-dispensation, was preached, which admitted all persons upon repentance without distinction. 16. The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it: as the gospel-dispensation is begun, you cannot justly find fault with me for going into the company of tax-gatherers and sinners, seeing I do it purely to bring about their conversion. Yet lest they might have imagined, that in speaking thus he lessened the authority of the law, by which the distinction between things clean and unclean had been established, he added, 17. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle of the law to fail: till the law is abrogated, the least of its precepts cannot be neglected. He spake next concerning their love of pleasure. These hypocrites, while they feigned an high veneration for the law by their exact observation of lesser duties, violated on many occasions its greatest and most sacred precepts; for example, they defiled themselves with the pollutions of lust, though they were so scrupulous of touching things unclean, that they would not go into the company of publicans, lest they might have been polluted by them. Nor was this an accusation with out foundation, for their lust discovered itself by their frequent divorces; they put away their wives as often as they took any disgust at them or liked other women better. This, I suppose, was Christ's meaning, when, in vindication of his keeping company with publicans, he said to the Pharisees, Luke xvi. 18. Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery; and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband, committeth adultery: alluding to their known and frequent practice of divorce, which plainly shewed the impurity of their minds. These These reasonings were clear and unanswerable; but the Pharisees, stupified with the intoxication of sensual pleasures, were deaf to every argument, how cogent soever, if it was levelled against their lusts. As an illustration therefore, and confirmation of his assertion, ver. 15. and that he might rouse them out of their lethargy, he made the thunder of the divine judgments to sound in their ears, by the parable of the rich man and the beggar. Luke xvi. 19. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. This rich man lived in the greatest abundance of all things necessary to pleasure; for he took care to have his vanity gratified in the finery and delicacy of his dress, and his palate delighted with the most exquisite meats, which nature assisted by art could furnish; he made a feast every day, both to cheer himself and to entertain his friends. In the mean time, at this man's gate there was laid daily a certain beggar, named Lazarus, so diseased and decrepit, that he was not able to walk, stand, or sit; so poor, that he was glad of the crumbs that fell from his table; and so naked, that the ulcers of which his body was full, lay uncovered and exposed to the weather, for the dogs came and licked them. 20. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, 21. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table; moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. In this manner did Lazarus drag out an afflicted life, pining away with hunger, and cold, and painful disease; while the great man within spent every day in the highest luxury of dress and table; so that, according to the opinion of the world, Lazarus was as remarkable an instance of the greatest misery, as the other was of the most consummate felicity. 22. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was car ried by the angels into Abraham's bosom; the rich man also died and was buried. It happened that this rich man and beggar died much about the same time, but with this difference, that the approach of death was very terrible to the one, whereas the other, weary of life, descried the goal with inexpressible joy. The rich man indeed was honoured with a pompous funeral, while the beggar was thrown into the dust in a manner suitable to the obscurity of his life. But behold, from that time forth things were utterly reversed; the beggar, being a good man, was wafted by guardian angels through the unknown regions, and laid in Abraham's bosom; whereas the man that was in high life, having always pleased himself with the thought that there would be no future state, was amazed beyond what can be told, when he found himself plunged in the torments of hell. 23. And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and * seeth Abraham afar of Ver. 23. Seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.] Because the opinions as well as the language of the Greeks had by this time made their way |