Sermons, on the following subjects

THE rich man replies, Nay, father Abraham, but if •he went unto them from the dead, they will repent. Then come in the words of the text, And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. By Moses and the prophets is meant the whole old testament, which was the whole canon of scripture, which they had in those times. The hearing of them implies attending to what they say, believing them, and obeying them▪ They would not be persuaded, that is, they would not be persuaded to take thorough care of their souls, to forsake their sins and turn to GOD, so as to avoid this place of torments. Though one rose from the dead; though one should go from the invisible world, either from heaven, where they see the torments of the damned, or from hell, where they feel them.

DOCTRINE. THE warnings of GOD'S word are more fitted to obtain the ends of awakening sinners, and bringing them to repentance, than the rising of one from the dead to warn them.

IN this passage Moses and the prophets seem not only to be equalized to the warnings of one from the invisible world; but to be preferred before them. They have Moses and the prophets let them hear them: they have already those means, which GOD in his infinite wisdom hath seen to be fittest for them, and more suitable to their nature and circumstances, than the rising of one from the dead.—But whether there can be any more than an equality necessarily inferred, or not; yet if only the warnings of the old testament have an equal tendency to bring men to repentance, as the rising of one from the dead; then surely these together with the much clearer revelation under the gospel dispensation by CHRIST and his apostles, wherein we are abundantly more plainly told of another world, and wherein life and immortality are brought to light; must have a much greater tendency and fitness to obtain these ends.