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Our Saviour in his parabolical history of Dives and Lazarus, instructs us concerning the right use of riches, which is to capacitate us to do good to others; declaring that in the life to come, the pious poor man shall be eternally happy, while the unmerciful rich man shall be intolerably miserable.
Here observe, 1. The different state and condition of good and bad men in the other world, from what they are in this; here the wicked prosper, grow rich and great, and the good and virtuous are in calamity, suffer poverty and, distress, which has staggered many men, yea, the best of men, in the belief of a divine providence.
Observe, 2. That our Saviour did not consure the rich man for being rich, but for being sensual; not for wearing costly apparel, and keeping a plentiful table, (which if managed according to men's qualities and estates, is a commendable virtue,) but his sensuality and luxury, and forgetting to feed the hungry with the superfluities of his table; these are the things for which he is censured.
From whence we may learn, that pride and luxury, intemperance and sensuality, are such abuses of worldly riches, as worldly men are very prone and incident to. Rich men too often make their back and their belly their god; sacrificing and devoting all they have to the service of those idols.
Observe, 3. That a poor and mean condition is the lot of many good men, nay, perhaps of the most in this world. That a man may be poor and miserable in this world, and yet be very dear to God: the grace of sanctification is sometimes bestowed most eminently, where the gifts of providence have been dispensed most sparingly; consequently from the present state of men in this world, we can make no judgment of their future condition in the world to come.