If then these things are fo, what manner of men ought we to be in all converfation and godliness? Surely the hopes of another, and much better world, fhould teach us to fet a true value on every thing in this. Let us confider how mean, trifling, and infignificant the little low concerns of this life are, when thrown into the balance with the great affairs of eternity: the small and smooth current which glides by us, the gentle motions of its waters, and the beauty of its banks, may afford us a calm and tranquil delight; but when we fit on the feafhore, and behold the vast and boundless ocean before us; when we contemplate the wonders of the great deep, does it not fill our fouls with a nobler pleasure, and far more exalted ideas? Do we not then look back with contempt on the inconfiderable ftream, and are even furprised that the fight of it could give us any plea. fure or fatisfaction? Juft in the fame manner the pious believer when he is departing from this narrow feene of things, looks back upon it with an eye of contempt.

He wishes with the holy apoftle to be dif folved and to be with God, to tafte of thofe pleasures which it hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive, and which God hath prepared for the righteous.

It is a very falfe notion, to fuppofe thofe who are miferable in this life are defirous of another; or that only those who have no hope here, entertain any of hereafter; for furely the happiest may expect to be much happier, the wifeft to be more wife, than in this fate they

can

can poffibly be: they may expect gratifications much more fuitable to their nature, and far more excellent both in value and duration.

Let us not then, when the glorious profpect is opening before us, wilfully fhut our eyes against it, confining all our views within the narrow circle that furrounds us, till by degrees we become like wretches fhipwrecked on a little bank of fand, the fea continues gaining ground upon, and threatening to overwhelm us.

To conclude-If we have hope in Chrift, let us act as if we had it: let not the variety of worldly objects fo diftract our fight, as utterly to turn our eyes away from their nobleft and moft worthy objects; let us weigh and confider the value of that treafure which God hath referved; thank him for that victory over death which he through Chrift hath obtained for us. After fuch ftrong and repeated affurances of eternal life given us by the great author and finifher of our faith; what can we plead in excufe for refufing our affent to a truth fo glaring and felf evident?

After all, moft plain and indifputable it is, that if we are not of all men the most happy, there can be but one reafon why we are not fo, and that is because our fins will not permit us. Bat let us, I befeech you, remember that if we have no hope of another life, we must have the fear of it. How miferable and how dreadful muft our fituation be, when that profpect of a future ftate which was gracioufly defigned to be our chief comfort and fupport, fhall become our moft alarming terror and our bittereft af fliction!

Aiction! What will our fituation be, when at the last and great day, he before whofe judgment feat we are to appear, even the bleffed Jefus, fhall lay afide the meeknefs of a tender Redeemer, and affume all the dreadful majefty of an offended Judge! when he fhall fay to the trembling unbelievers,

of

"Was it for this, ye ungrateful and ungencrous children of difobedience, that I came unto you? Did my Gospel bring immortality to light, that you should walk ftill in darkness? O ye little faith! I came unto you and ye regarded me not; I promised and ye diftrufted; I threa-, tened and ye defied me: but fince neither reafon could perfuade you to hope, nor revelation affure you of your everlafting exiftence, inftead of rejoicing in it as your reward, accept it now as your punishment. Go ye accurfed of my Father into eternal mifery, unto that place where the fire is not quenched, and the worm never dieth."

But let us turn our eyes from this fad and melancholy profpect, and confider how different his reception will be of the good and pious Christian; let us place him before our eyes, thus graciously condescending, in the great and laft day, to welcome his faithful followers to the regious of blifs and immortality: "Come," will he fay unto them, " ye bleffed of my Father, and receive your reward; I promifed and ye believed; I spake and ye attended; I commanded and ye obeyed; like me ye have fuffered the pains of mortality, and like me ye have tafted the bitternefs of death; ye fhall be

revived

revived with the cordial of life; ye did not place your hopes on that vain and tranfitory world, but referved them for, and they fhall be fulfilled in, a better and more durable one.

"Ye have been perfecuted, oppreffed, wearied and fatiated on earth, and now ye thall be welcomed, refreshed, delighted, and rewarded in Heaven."

ON THE UNCERTAINTY OF HUMAN HAPPINESS.

SERMON

PROVERBS XXVII. I.

XL.

Boaft not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

AMONGST all the various fpecies of pride which corrupt the heart of man, and which are all of them, as is declared in holy writ, abominable unto God; there is not perhaps one more abfurd and ridiculous, or attended with more fatal confequences than that which the wife man hath pointed out to ús in the words of the text. Boaft not, fays he, of to-morrow, for thou knoweft not what a day may bring forth.

The folly of this particular kind of pride doth not, we fee, confift merely in the exceffive and partial good opinion of that which

we

we poffefs; but extends itself to an ill-grounded confidence in, and dependance on that which may be referved for us; and carries with it both an infolent fecurity in our own ftate and condition, and withal a pretence to that knowledge of future events, which is by no means the portion of mortality. It is as it were incroaching on the prerogative of God, and affuming to ourselves that peculiar privilege which is referved for the Moft High.

It is indifputable, that pride was not made for man. If we have no reafon (and we moft certainly have none) to be proud of what we have, much less can we pretend to it on account of that which we have not.

One would indeed naturally imagine, that the inftability of human bleffings, the ferious contemplation on the fhortness and vanity of this life, the various viciffitudes of fortune, the uncertainty of every thing which we behold, or are converfant with, might be fufficient prefervatives against an infatuation fo ftrange, a conduct fo unaccountable.

Were a being of fuperior rank and order to our own, and at the fame time unacquainted with our ftate and conditions, to come down amongst us, what ftrange and erroneous notions would he form concerning man, from the firft view of our conduct and behaviour!

Were he to obferve the affuming haughtinefs of power, the pride of health and beauty, the infolence of riches and profperity; were he to fee the kings and mighty ones of the earth laying plans of univerfal empire; the

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