III.

SERMON you on every side; ; you accelerate the speed with which the changes of the world advance to your destruction. The Almighty touches with his rod that edifice of dust, on which you stand, and boast of your strength; and, at that instant, it crumbles to nothing.

As men, then, bethink yourselves of human instability. As Christians, reverence the awful government of God. Insure your prosperity, by consecrating it to religion and virtue. Be humble in your elevation; be moderate in your views; be submissive to Him who hath raised and distinguished you. Forget not, that on his providence you are as dependent, and to the obedience of his laws as much bound, as the meanest of your fellow-creatures. Disgrace not your station, by that grossness of sensuality, that levity of dissipation, or that insolence of rank, which bespeak a little mind. Let the affability of your behaviour show that you remember the natural equality of men. moderation in pleasure, your your command of passion, and your steady regard to the great duties of life, show that you possess a mind worthy of your fortune.

Let

Establish

Establish your character on the basis of SERMON esteem; not on the flattery of dependents, or the praise of sycophants, but on the respect of the wise and the good. Let innocence preside over your enjoyments. Let usefulness and beneficence, not ostentation and vanity, direct the train of your pursuits. Let your alms, together with your prayers, come up in memorial before God. So shall your prosperity, under the blessing of Heaven, be as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

So shall it resemble those celestial fires which glow above, with beneficent, with regular, and permanent lustre.; and not prove that mirth of fools, which by Solomon 'is compared to the crackling of thorns under a pot, a glittering and fervent blaze, but speedily extinct.

On the whole, let this be our conclusion, that, both in prosperity and in adversity, religion is the safest guide of human life. Conducted by its light, we reap the pleasures, and at the same time escape the dangers, of a prosperous state. Sheltered under its protection, we stand the shock of adversity with most intrepidity, and suffer least

from

SERMON from the violence of the storm.

III.

He that

desireth life, and loveth many days that he may see good, let him keep his

tongue from Let him de

Let him seek

Then, in him in his

evil, and his lips from guile.
part from evil, and do good.
peace with God, and pursue it.
his adversity, God shall hide
pavilion. In his prosperity, he shall flourish
like a tree planted by the rivers of water.
The ungodly are not so; but are like the
chaff, light and vile, which the wind driveth

away.

SERMON IV.

On our Imperfect KNOWLEDGE of a
FUTURE STATE.

I COR. xiii. 12.

For now we see through a glass, darkly.—

IV.

THE HE Apostle here describes the imper- SERMON fection of our knowledge with relafion to spiritual and eternal objects. He employs two metaphors to represent more strongly the disadvantages under which we lie: One, that we see those objects through a glass, that is, through the intervention of a medium which obscures their glory; the other, that we see them in a riddle or enigma, which our translators have rendered by seeing them darkly; that is, the truth in part discovered, in part concealed, and placed beyond our comprehension.

This

SERMON

IV.

This description, however just and true, cannot fail to occasion some perplexity to an inquiring mind. For it may seem strange, that so much darkness should be left upon those celestial objects, towards which we are at the same time commanded to aspire. We are strangers in the universe of God. Confined to that spot on which we dwell, we are permitted to know nothing of what is transacting in the regions above us and around us. By much labour, we acquire a superficial acquaintance with a few sensible objects which we find in our present habitation; but we enter, and we depart, under a total ignorance of the nature and laws of the spiritual world. One subject in particular, when our thoughts proceed in this train, must often recur upon the mind with peculiar anxiety; that is, the immortality of the soul, and the future state of man. Exposed as we are at present to such variety of afflictions, and subjected to so much disappointment in all our pursuits of happiness, Why, it may be said, has our gracious Creator denied us the consolation of a full discovery of our fu