SERM. wearied and fatiated on earth, and now

V.

بہ

ye fhall be welcomed, refreshed, delight

ed, and rewarded in Heaven."

PROVERBS XXVII. I.

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

A

VI.

MONGST all the various fpe- SERM. cies 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 us in the words of the text. Boaft not, says he, of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

The folly of this particular kind of pride doth not, we fee, confift merely in

SERM. the exceffive and partial good opinion of

VI.

that which we poffefs; but extends itfelf 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 state 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 Most High.

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

One would indeed naturally imagine,

that