ture! You deny that the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. You deny that man as he now comes into the world is otherwise than he was originally created.—But can you deny that we are evil, because God is good? That we are unable to bear gratification uninjured? That what should draw us to God, with the cords of a man and the bands of love, leads us away from him? That the very blessings we receive from him we convert into weapons of rebellion against our Benefactor? Or will you affirm that we thus came from our Maker's hand? "Lo! this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions."

There is one case in which prosperity is peculiarly perilous-when it is not hereditary, but acquired; and when it is acquired, not by degrees, but suddenly. He is most likely to be giddy, who has not been accustomed to elevation. He is most likely to have his health injured who passes all at once from one climate to another; while, by use, nature may be attempered to almost any extremity. But though prosperity is peculiarly dangerous when it is neither natural nor gradual, it will be easy to prove that it is never free from numberless moral hazards.

What says

Let us turn first to the faithful word. David? "Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God." What says Job? "Their

seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.

They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him ?” What is Jeremiah's report concerning Moab ? "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed." But surely it was otherwise with the Jews? Hear Moses: "He made him to ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, and fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness: then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation." Hear Hosea: "According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me." Are we better than they? Let us appeal to reason, to observation, to experience. How many duties are there which prosperity tends to discourage and hinder. which its influence upon to cherish and increase.

How many evils are there depraved beings is adapted What are these? Let us

particularize a few of them-for their name is Legion.

Such is Unmindfulness of God.

Hence the

caution of Moses, "When thou shalt have eaten and art full, then beware lest thou forget the Lord that brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage." Hence the prayer of Agar, "Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, who is the Lord?" The disciples suffered the Saviour to sleep while the vessel was sailing smoothly: but when the wind and the waves threatened, they went to. him, saying, "Master, carest thou not that we perish ?" It is in affliction we seek him early. It is then we think of his moral agency; and fear that he is come to call our sins to remembrance. It is then we feel our dependence upon him-Then other helpers fail: then we have no substitutes; then we have no diversion-We can dispense with him no longer we are forced upon him. "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice ?" said Pharaoh, in all the affluence of his greatness. "Entreat the Lord for me," was the suppliant language of the same haughty monarch, brought down by the judgments of Heaven.

"Pride

Such is Pride. David remarks this. compasseth them like a chain." Nebuchadnezzar is an example of it. The king spake and said, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ?"

'Pigmies are pigmies still, though perch'd on Alps:

"And pyramids are pyramids in vales."

Yet men estimate their height, not by their figure, but by their elevation. A man is as distinguishable from his circumstances as a steed is from his capari

sons; and as the latter would be judged of by his stature, and strength, and gracefulness, and speed, so the former should be valued only by his personal and intrinsic worth. But to make ourselves to be something when we are nothing, we compose ourselves, so to speak, of every thing outward and adventitious; we add horses, and lands, and equipage, and offices, and titles, and attendants; and thus enlarged and magnified, we think ourselves Anakims, while others are but grasshoppers in our sight. Wealth can even give wisdom. It enlarges the understanding of the possessor. It qualifies him to speak and decide; so that his drivellings which were despised before, become oracular. For the world is as blameable as the fool himself. The one no more readily receives, than the other pays this vile homage. The image of gold is sure of worshippers, if it be only a golden calf.

Yea,

-Such is Self-delusion. The prosperous seldom hear the truth. They are never reproved. Their failings are often admired. Their faults are even turned into virtues, and imitated by their dependants. All join to flatter and delude them. God himself is accessory to their flattery and delusion -not by his design, but by their misconstructions of his conduct. For they are induced to think that they are his favourites, because he not only spares, but indulges them; and conclude that he will not treat them worse in another world than he has done. in this.

-Such is Unwillingness to bear the Cross. Why did the young man in the Gospel go away sorrowful? "He was very rich." He had much that was amiable, and much that was promising. He en

gaged our Saviour's affections; and wished to follow him: but he had too much to leave behind. Why did not the Pharisees, who believed on him, confess him? "They feared lest they should have been put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." Eusebius, in speaking of the persecution under Decius, observes, that most of those who apostatised were not from among the poor, but the rich. They who are softened by care, and rendered delicate by indulgence, are little prepared for a rough campaign, and cannot be expected to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. -Such is Earthly-mindedness. Who are so likely to mind earthly things as those who abound with them? Who has so many ties to life? No condition indeed, here, will bear any comparison with the future state of the blessed yet, according to our present views and feelings, the mansion and the pleasant scenery around, have more power to attract and detain than the desolateness of the poorhouse. How little have some to resign! How much have they to urge their departure! How often does the heart's bitterness lead them to sigh, "I loathe it, I would not live alway"-"O! that I had wings like a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest; I would haste me from the stormy wind and tempest." What uneasiness have others to excite them! How much have they to give up! How deep-rooted are they; and what force is necessary to loosen them from their position! "Ah!" said Johnson to Garrick, as he was walking over his bowers— "these are the things that make us unwilling to die."

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