SER M. connected us once with our father and XVII.

our father's houfe. Thy father has perhaps, long ago, gone down to the duft. But when you recall the innocent days of childhood and youth; when you think of those family tranfactions which once gladdened your hearts; your father's friend, in the midst of thefe, will rife to your remembrance. There was a time when you accofted him with refpect, or looked up to him with fondnefs, and was made happy by his kindly notice. Does fuch a one now furvive, and fhall he not receive from you fome portion of filial reverence and honour? To difregard and neglect him, is to spurn your father's memory; is to infult the ashes of him who now fleeps in the grave; is to tranfmit yourselves to those who shall fucceed you, as unfeeling and base. Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forfake not.

I HAVE pointed out fome of the chief duties which belong to virtuous friendfhip; and some of the principal means by which this facred bond fhould be preferved unbroken; this holy flame should

be

SERM.

be kept alive in the human breast. The fpirit, and fentiments, which I have studied to infpire, are fuch as virtue breathes, and fuch as true piety fhould increase. It is thus we fulfil that great law of love, which our Divine Mafter taught. It is thus we prepare ourselves for those happy regions, where charity never faileth; where, in the presence of the God of love, eternal and invariable friendships, unite together all the bleffed friendships which, by no human infirmity difturbed, by death never separated, fhall conftitute, throughout endless ages, a great and diftinguished portion of the celeftial felicity.

XVII.

SERMON XVIII.

On the CONDUCT to be held with regard to Future EVENTS.

SERM.

XVIII.

PROVERBS, Xxvii. 1,

Boaft not thyfelf of to-morrow; for thou knoweft not what a day may bring forth.

F

ROM these words I purpose to dif courfe of the proper conduct which we ought to hold, with regard to futurity, amidst the prefent uncertainties of life. Time and life are always going on, and to each of us are preparing changes in our ftate. What these may be, whether for the better or for the worse, we cannot tell; as it hath pleafed the wisdom of Providence, to cover futurity with a veil which

XVIII.

no mortal can lift up. In the mean time SERM. none of us can avoid forming defigns, and laying plans, for the time to come. The present moment is never sufficient to give full employment to the active mind of man, without fome excurfions into futurity; and in these excursions, the present is often wholly fpent. It is therefore of the highest confequence, that a proper direction be given to the mind, in its employments of thought relating to futurity. Otherwise, in the profpects which we take of that unknown region, false hopes, or ill-grounded fears, shall flatter or torment us in vain. We know not, as the Wife Man tells us,

what a day may

bring forth. It may, very probably, produce fomething that we had not looked for; and therefore, inftead of boasting ourfelves of to-morrow, as the multitude are apt to do, it becomes us to be difciplined and prepared, for whatever it may bring.

Ir is needless to spend much time in confirming the truth, which is the foundation of the admonition in the text; in

proving,

XVIII.

SERM. proving, either that change and mutability belong to our prefent ftate, or that the changes of it cannot be foreseen by us. Thefe are truths fo obvious and confeffed, that an attempt to confirm them is like proving that all men are to die. At the fame time, obvious as they are, it were to be wished, that the thoughts of men. dwelt upon them more. For, by a strange but prevailing deception, it would feem, from the general conduct of mankind, that almost every one thinks his own cafe an exception from the general law; and that he may build plans with as much confidence on his prefent fituation, as if fome affurance had been given him that it were never to change. Hence it has been often obferved by ferious perfons, that there is no more general cause to which the vices of men can be afcribed, their forgetfulness of God and their neglect of duty, than to their prefuming upon the continuance of life, of pleasure, and profperity.

Look but a little way, my friends, into your own flate; and you must unavoidably perceive that, from the beginning, it

has