per. Silver and gold are useful; but there are durable riches with righteoufnefs. It is pleafing to die in our neft; but it is much more defirable to die even in a prifon or upon a dung-hill, if we can fay with Simeon, "Lord, now letteft thou thy fervant depart "in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have "feen thy falvation."

III. In these words we find something very com MON. It is affluence and ease cherishing confidence and prefumption. It is a fuppofition that we shall have no changes because we feel none. The confequence is natural, and it is eafily explained. Present things most powerfully imprefs the mind. Take a man in trouble, and with what difficulty will you perfuade him to expect better days. The gloom of his fituation darkens his very foul, and the burden of his affliction preffes and keeps down every cheerful fentiment. Take a man in agreeable circumstances, and his feelings will give a colour to future scenes; every thing will appear favourable because every thing is eafy; the mind, foftened down by indulgence, fhrinks even from the contemplation of difficulties; and when experience has not furnished him with any instances of the precarioufnefs of worldly things, he leans on thefe fupports too firmly, and does not fuspect that they will give way. Hence Agur prefers mediocrity to wealth; "Left I be full and deny thee, "and fay, Who is the Lord ?" Hence we are to charge the rich, "not to truft in uncertain riches." The admonition implies the tendency there is in the affluent to indulge fuch a dependence. Having friends

and powerful alliances, and encouraged by the fuccefs of their former plans and exertions, the conclufion follows; "To-morrow fhall be as this day, and "much more abundant." Their inward thought "is, that their houfes fhall continue forever, and their "dwelling-places to all generations: they call their

land after their own name.” "He faith in his "heart, I fhall never be moved: for I fhall never be "in adverfity." Hear the man whose ground brought forth plentifully; "Soul, thou haft much goods laid 46 up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and "be merry." "When did not profperity promote carnal fecurity and prefumptuous confidence? Of Moab God complains, "Thou haft trufted in thy works "and in thy treafures." "Jefhurun waxed fat, and kicked. Then he forfook God which made him, "and lightly esteemed the rock of his falvation."

For this is not the cafe with the people of the world only; even the godly are in danger of the fame evil. David is an example. Though he had paffed through very trying scenes, the ease which fucceeded feems to have abolished the memory of them, and by continued indulgence his hopes became earthly and rafh; "In my profperity I faid, I fhall never be moved." Good Hezekiah furnishes another instance. He had been recovered from fickness, delivered from invafion, and enriched by prefents; "But Hezekiah rendered “not again according to the benefit done unto him ; "for his heart was lifted up ;" his greatnefs elated him. He gloried in his abundance, and vainly exposed the treasures of his palace; to the ambaffadors of Babylon he shewed his neft, and they told Nebu

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chadnezzar their mafter, who returned and took it. It is the very image under which this plunderer speaks of his pillage; "By the ftrength of my hand "I have done it, and by my wifdom; for I am pru"dent and I have removed the bounds of the peo

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ple, and have robbed their treasures; and my hand "hath found as a neft the riches of the people and "as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered "all the earth; and there was none that moved the "wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped." And this brings us,

IV. To obferve in these words fomething very FALSE and VAIN; "Then I faid, I fhall die in my "neft!" Ah, Job!" Boaft not thyself of to-morrow, "for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." "While you speak, the ftorm is rifing which will "shake down your neft, and lodge its contents upon "the dung-hill." In a few hours, you will be deprived of all; one meffenger fhall announce the lofs of your cattle; another the deftruction of your fervants; a third the death of your children. You will feel your health converted into loathfomenefs and disease; and you will fit amongft the afhes, and take a potfherd to scrape yourself withal. And while And while your head is bare to the pelting of the pitiless storm, your friends will come around you, and read you lectures upon hypocrify, and infinuate that the fins in which you have privately indulged have at last found you out. Miferable comforters! And you, alas! how changed your voice! You will fay in the bitternefs of your foul,

"I was not in fafety, neither had I reft, neither was I quiet, yet trouble came."

So ignorant are we of futurity; fo erroneous are we in our calculations; fo liable are we to mortifying viciffitudes!" The inhabitants of Maroth waited carefully for good, but evil came down from the Lord "unto the gate of Jerufalem." "Behold," fays Hezekiah, "for peace I had great bitterness." "We "looked for peace," fays the Church, "but no good. "came; and for a time of health, and behold trou"ble." Indeed whatever engages our affection may become a fource of forrow; whatever excites our hope may prove the means of disappointment. Such is the hard condition upon which we take all our earthly comforts.

Are we fecure from difappointment with regard to LIFE? This is the tenure by which we hold all our poffeffions, and nothing can be more uncertain. "For 66 man also knoweth not his time; as the fifhes that "are taken in an evil net, and the birds that are 66 caught in the fnare; fo are the fons of men fnared “in an evil time, when it falleth fuddenly upon "them." "Go to now, ye that fay, To-day or to"morrow we will go into fuch a city, and contin❝ue there a year, and buy and fell, and get gain: "whereas ye know not what fhall be on the morrow. "For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that "appeareth for a little time, and then vanifheth away."

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Are we secure from difappointment in our HEALTH? This bleffing is neceffary to our relishing every other enjoyment; but how precarious is the

continuance of it! Upon how many delicate and combined caufes does it depend! How eafily may fome of them be deranged! Are we ever fafe from thofe accidents which may ftrike, or thofe difeafes which may invade us? How many have been compelled by pain and indifpofition to drop an enterprife which they had undertaken, a journey which they had begun!

Are we fecure from difappointment with regard to CHILDREN? The forebodings of the parental mind are fond and flattering; but, Oh how unanfwerable to eager expectation have events often proved! "This "fame fhall comfort us" has been faid of many a child who has been difmembered or fickly in body, be-clouded in understanding, vitious and diforderly inlife, embarraffed and miferable in circumstances. The father had looked forward, and promifed himself an entertaining companion; and behold the care and the expenfe of fourteen years carried down to the grave See Rachel; fhe has been laying afide the little garments her bufy hands had wrought, and putting out of fight the toys which lately charmed the defire of her eyes; and "weeping for her children, refufes to be "comforted because they are not.”

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Are we fecure from difappointment with regard to FRIENDSHIP? How many of our connections have dropped us already, and by their painful defections have called upon us to ceafe from man. How fmall is the number of true fterling friends, who will abide the day of trial! Some of those who are now fawning would not, if a change of circumftances occurred, even know us. They leave the garden in winter, there is nothing to gather. The flower which they