SERM.

II. As we are not to boast, fo neiXVIII. ther are we to defpair, of to-morrow. The former admonition was directed to those whom profperity had elated with vain hopes. This is defigned for those whom a more adverse fituation in life has filled with fears and alarms of what is to come. The reafon of both admonitions is the fame; thou knoweft not what a day may bring forth. It may bring forth fome unexpected miffortune; and therefore thou shouldft be humble in profperity. It may bring forth fome unforefeen relief; and therefore thou shouldft hope under distress. -It is too common with mankind, to be totally engroffed, and overcome, by prefent events. Their prefent condition, whatever it is, they are apt to imagine, will never change; and hence by profperity they are lifted up, and by adverfity are dejected and broken; prone, in the one cafe, to forget God, in the other, to repine against him. Whereas, the doctrine, which the changes of the world perpetually in

culcate

culcate is, that no ftate of external SER M.

things fhould appear fo important, or fhould fo affect and agitate our fpirits, as to deprive us of a calm, an equal, and a fteady mind. Man knoweth neither the good, nor the evil which is before him. In your patience, therefore, poffefs your fouls: trusting, in the day of forrow, that God hath not forgotten to be gracious; and that though weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh to the upright in the morning.

Diftrefs not yourselves, then with anxious fears about to-morrow. Let me exhort you to difmifs all folicitude, which goes beyond the bounds of prudent precaution. Anxiety, when it feizes the heart is a dangerous disease, productive both of much fin, and much mifery. It acts as a corrofive of the mind. It eats out our present enjoyments, and fubftitutes, in their place, many an acute pain.-The Wife Man, in the text, has advised us not to boaft of to-morrow; and our Saviour has inftructed us to take no thought for

to-morrow.

XVIII.

SER M. to-morrow *.
XVIII.

Both these directions,

properly understood, are entirely confiftent; and the great rule of conduct, respecting futurity, is compounded of them both; requiring us, neither arrogantly to prefume on to-morrow, nor to be anxiously, and fearfully folicitous about it. The morrow, fays our Saviour, fhall take thought for the things of itself. We fhall be better able to judge of the courfe moft proper for us to hold, when events have begun to come forward in their order, Their prefence often fuggefts wifer counfels, and more fuccefsful expedients, than it is poffible for us to contrive at a diftance. By excefs of folicitude before hand, we frequently introduce that confufion of mind, and that hurry and disorder of fpirits, which bring us into the most unfavourable ftate for judging foundly. Wherefore, never indulge either anxiety, or despair, about futurity. Affright not yourselves with imaginary

* Matth. vi. 33.

imaginary terrors. Anticipate not SER M. evils, which perhaps may never come. XVIII. Make the best which you can of this day, in the fear of God, and in the practice of your duty; and, having done fo, leave to-morrow to itself. Sufficient for the day, when it comes, will be the evil thereof.

III. DELAY not till to-morrow any thing which is fit and proper to be done to-day. Remember, that thou art not the lord of to-morrow. Thou art fo far from having any title to difpofe of it, that thou art ignorant of the moft material circumftances relating to it; not only of what it shall bring forth, but whether thou shalt live to fee it.-Notwithstanding the uncontrovertible evidence of this truth, procraftination has, throughout every age, been the ruin of mankind. Dwelling amidst endless projects of what they are hereafter to do, they cannot fo properly be faid to live, as to be always about to live; and the future has ever been the gulph in which the prefent is swallow

ed

many

of

SERM. ed up and loft.-Hence arife
XVIII. thofe misfortunes which befal, men in
their worldly concerns.
What might

at present be arranged in their circum-
stances with advantage, being delayed,
to another opportunity, cannot be ar-
ranged at all.
To-morrow being load-
ed with the concerns of to-day, in ad-
dition to its own, is clogged and em-
barraffed. Affairs which had been
poftponed, multiply and crowd upon
one another; till, at laft, they prove
fo intricate and perplexed, and the
preffure of bufinefs becomes fo great,
that nothing is left, but to fink under
the burden. Of him, therefore, who
indulges this lingering and delaying
fpirit in worldly matters, it is easy to
prognofticate that the ruin is not far

off.

Evils of the fame kind, arifing from the fame caufe, overtake men, in their moral and spiritual interefts. There are few, but who are fenfible of fome things in their character and behaviour, which ought to be corrected, and which, at one time or other, they intend to correct;

fome