SERMON VI. 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, 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 see, consist 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 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 reason (and we most 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 VI. that the instability of all human bleffings, SER M. the serious contemplation on the shortness 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 preserv. atives against an infatuation so strange, 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 first view of our conduct and behaviour! Were he to obferve the affuming haughtiness of power, the pride of health and beauty, the infolence of riches and profperity; were he to see the kings and mighty ones of the earth laying plans of |