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which he avers that, but for the grace of God with whoin all things are poffible, they would prove themselves infuperable obftacles in the path of falvation, I have already had occafion to refer. At another time he defcribes riches by the names of the Mammon of unrighteousness, the unrighteous Mammon; because they are fo continually abused to purposes of unrighteousness, to covetousness, to pride, to diffipation, to fenfuality, to corrup tion. Yet on this dangerous acquifition what multitudes fet their hearts! The hope of obtaining wealth, or of indulging in the enjoy ment of it, enfnares men into forgetfulness of God, into difregard of falvation, into guilty enterprifes and purfuits, into deliberate fraud and open violence and is one of the principal caufes of that daring felf dependence, that proud fecurity, which encourage them prefumptuoufly to form fchemes of diftant exe cution, to utter great fwelling words of vanity, and to triumph long beforehand in the fuppofed accomplishment of their extravagant expectations, as though they were themfelves entrusted with the management of earth and its concerns, and exalted beyond the reach of oppofition from their fellow-creatures and of control from above.

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II. The next obfervation furnished by the text proves the extreme folly of fuch prefumption. Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanifheth away. Take thine eafe; faid the rich man to his foul. Thou haft much goods Eat, drink, and be

laid up for many years. merry. But what faid God? Thou fool's This night fhall the foul be required of thee (d). Suppofe your plans free from thofe caufes of failure, which the world, willing as it were to exclude God from the government of his own works, denominates accidental events. Suppofe every precaution which prudence can devife to have been adopted for the furtherance of your defigns. Suppofe fortune, as the phrafe is, to fmile upon you. Suppofe every thing, to speak after the manner of men, to turn out well. Have you any certainty of the fulfilment of your wishes? Have you the flighteft affurance that you have in reality advanced one ftep towards the attainment of your object?" I look not forward," you reply," to diftant years. The com "fuccefs of my undertaking is clofe at hand, "To-morrow it will be within my grafp.' Boaft not thyfelf of to-morrow: for thou knowest (d) Luke, xii. 19, 20.

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not what a day may bring forth (e). Death comes and in a moment fweeps away thee and thy plans for ever. As for man, his days are as grafs: as a flower of the field, fo he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more (f). Can riches bribe death, or make a bargain with the tomb? As the flower of the grafs fhall the rich man pass away. For the fun is no fooner rifen with a burning heat but it withereth the grafs, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perifbeth: fo alfo shall the rich man fade away (g). During the period which has elapsed fince I firft undertook the office of inftructing you, however imperfectly yet according to the extent of my knowledge, in the word of God and the gofpel of his Son; how many fchemes and projects formed by your neighbours and by your relations have been difconcerted by death! How many perfons, whom in fucceffive years I have beheld and addressed from this place, have vanished from among the children of men, and have left their ftations to be filled by you! Where are now the plans to which many of them had given up their hearts; the confident expectations (e) Prov. xxvii. 1. (ƒ) Pfalm ciii. 15, 16. (g) James, i,

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of worldly acquifitions which occupied their bofoms; the health and length of days which they had promised themfelves that they d fhould enjoy! All are utterly at an end. The plans, the expectations, the promise are no more. And they who formed and cherished them, for ever removed into another state of being, are awaiting a refurrection of life, or a refurrection of damnation. If other warnings are ineffectual; receive inftruction from your departed parents and near kindred. Think what would be the advice which they would now convey to your ears, were it poffible that from their prefent abode they could hold communication with you. For what is your life? Is it not a vapour that paffeth away Who is there among us that can affure himself that he shall fee the clofe of the year, which is now begun? Who is there among us, my brethren, that can promise to himself that he shall be found to-morrow in the land of the living? We may all be alive to-morrow, But that we who are now affembled together fhall not all be alive when twelve months fhall have performed their courfe, is as nearly certain as any thing is upon earth. If but one of us fhall before that time be numbered with the ༢༠༠ dead who is that perfou? Every one of us

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may look up to heaven in aweful fufpenfe and fay, Lord! is it I? Learn then through the grace of God fo to number your days, that you may apply your hearts unto wisdom (b).. Form no plans in your own ftrength. Form no diftant plans. Form one plan, and one plan only, with folicitude: and let that plan be to be religious. On earth you are fojourners and pilgrims. Of the world to come you will be inhabitants for ever. The things that are feen are temporal; the things that are not feen are eternal (i). If you are not yet a true fervant of Christ Jesus; if you have not yet that genuine faith which worketh by love; if it be not yet your meat and drink, your fupport and your comfort, ftedfaftly to live unto God and unto Christ, habitually to ftrive in every particular to perform at all hazards as an obedient and affectionate fon the will of your heavenly Father: feek the grace of God while yet it. may be found. The prefent year may look upon your grave.

III. The apostle, in the next place, teaches us what is the frame of mind, with which all our purposes should be formed. Ye ought to fay: If the Lord will, we shall do this or that. In all our undertakings, in all our in(i) 2 Cor. iv, 18.

(b) Pfalm, xc. 12.

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