the interest of his Lord: he was, in short, the sluggard here addressed by the wise man; and his doom was just. For it is only "to those who, by a patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honor, and immortality, that God will render eternal life, in the day when he shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ."

tion of him, "whose eyes are as a flame of fire." "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. -Can any man hide himself in secret "places that I shall not see him? do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?" Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, O Lord, but the night shineth as the day." Besides, God hath placed an overseer in our own breasts, which Thus, then, the ant, which, without a acts within us as his deputy; for the guide, overseer, or judge, labors with such voice of conscience is the voice of God. diligence, sagacity, and foresight, for the This bosom-witness marks our steps, re- preservation of a life which must soon minds us of our duty, condemns us when come to a final period; instructs, reproves, we do wrong, and never fails to render and condemns those who, having all the those unhappy whom it fails to keep faith- advantages which are denied to her, are ful to their duty. For conscience at first yet remiss and negligent in the great buspeaks forcibly to every human being; siness assigned them: on which depend and many a hard struggle doth it cost even the worst of men, before this awful monitor can be silenced. Thus we have not only a guide to point out the way to us, but an overseer to attend us in every step; and therefore, if we either loiter or turn aside, we must be without excuse: our own hearts condemn us, and God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things."

Once more, the ant "hath no ruler" or judge to call her to account for her conduct; but every one of us must give an account to God. "God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that Man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he raised him from the dead.” "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." And it deserves our notice, that the sluggard is particularly pointed out in Scripture as one of those who shall certainly be condemned in that decisive day. This is clearly intimated to us in the parable of the talents. The unprofitable servant, who is condemned to utter darkness, is not accused of having squandered his talent, or of having applied it to wicked purposes on the contrary, he had preserved it entire, and returned it unimpaired to his master his crime was, that he had not improved it. He was a wicked servant, because he had not been active for

not their present interests only, but the interests and the life of their immortal spirits-of their spirits, which shall survive the dissolution of their bodies, and shall last through eternal ages.

These observations may be sufficient both to illustrate the meaning, and to show the propriety of Solomon's advice. Let me now, as the improvement of the subject, press you to reduce to practice the lessons which I have been considering. And for this end, I would represent to you,

1st. THAT the sluggard sins against the very nature which God hath given him. For what are all the high powers and faculties with which we are endowed, but so many tokens that we were formed for active service? The nature of things has evidently in this respect the force of a law; since it is impossible to conceive, that powers and capacities were given us, which were not meant to be exerted and improved. Even in the state of innocence, man had his task assigned him, whilst the inferior animals were left to roam at large, without being accountable for their conduct. And as our natures are formed for action, so our inclination evidently prompts us to it. This is plain from the various methods by which those who will not labor endeavor to relieve themselves from the oppressive load of idleness. Their time itself is a misery: and there is nothing so impertinent to which they will not fly, that they may be free from it. The burdens of the most laborious slaves are

light, when compared with the burden | great Redeemer, who shed his blood for which the sluggard carries about with him the ransom of our souls, and who gave in an enfeebled body, and a vacant, dis- himself for us, not to purchase our release contented mind.

3d place, The sluggard sins against the great design of the Gospel. For we have not only a Guide to instruct us, an Overseer to observe us, and a Judge to whom we are accountable; but we have also a

advantage. That he may lose no time, he
saith, "To-day," or, at farthest, "to mor-
row, I will go into such a city, and con-
tinue there a year, and buy and sell, and
get gain."
There is no intimation that
he meant to enrich himself by fraud or
extortion. The gain he had in view may
be supposed to have been the profits of a
fair and honorable commerce; the honest
reward of his attention and diligence.

I apprehend that none of us would be greatly startled, though we should hear some of our friends talking in the manner which is here represented. There are few of us, perhaps, who have not on some occasions held such a language, without suspecting that it was either presumptuous or wrong. In order, therefore, to discover what is faulty in it, and to enter into the spirit of this text, let us examine with attention,

1st. The form of expression which the apostle condemns. And,

2dly. The amendment which he suggests. And if it shall please God to afford us the assistance of his Spirit, I am persuaded that several remarks will occur to us in the course of this inquiry, which may be "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness." Let us then attend,

First. To the form of expression which the apostle condemns. 'Go to now, ye that say, to-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain."

If this remark is just, we have already discovered one capital error in the expressions before us.-To seek gain by honest industry, either for the supply of our own wants, or to enable us to relieve the necessities of others, is not only lawful but honorable: But to seek wealth for its own sake, and merely for the sordid pleasure. of possessing it, betrays a mean and selfish spirit, unworthy of a man, and much more unworthy of a Christian.

Supposing this then to be the end in view, there can be no doubt that it is in a high degree culpable. But as the apostle is silent on this head, we shall admit, that the persons who hold the language before us, might intend to make a proper use of their riches, and proceed to examine the means by which they propose to obtain them. To-day," say they, or to-morrow, we will go into such a city." These words may pass in common conversation; but when we seriously weigh the import of them, as at present we are called to do, we shall find that they are chargeable both with folly and presumption.

The great Lord of all has no part in this scheme. These little arrogant words, WE WILL, thrust him out at once, and occupy his place. And for what do the persons here described undertake? They undertake, without hesitation, to insure their lives against death, their bodies against sickness, and their effects against every casualty or hazard. They speak of the morrow as if they had the absolute In general, we may observe, that this property of it. They promise themselves, language relates altogether to a worldly that to-morrow they shall not only be project. The principal object is gain: alive, but in health, to set out on their "not the true riches;" or "that good journey; that they shall meet with no part" which shall never be taken from cross accidents by the way; that the goods those who choose it; but the gain of this which they carry along with them shall be world, the gain which is acquired by buy-protected against thieves and robbers; ing and selling. They say nothing of the and that in due time they shall arrive at measure of gain that would satisfy them, the city where their plan of business is to and nothing of the use to which they be carried into execution. But what fol meant to apply their wealth. For any lows is still more extravagant. They thing that their expressions imply, their promise upon life for a full year: "We desires might be without bounds, and their will continue there a year:" and not upon sole aim might be to "heap up silver as life only, but on health of body, and the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the soundness of mind, during all that time. streets;" or, in the language of Isaiah, No allowance is made for the change of to join house to house, and field to field, climate, or the fatigues of business: they till they were placed alone in the midst of are always to be in a condition to buy and the earth.' sell, and to manage their affairs with ac

tivity and prudence. Nay,
assure themselves of success.
buy and sell, and get gain." They under-
take, not for themselves alone, but for all
whom they shall employ, or with whom
they shall have commerce-that they shall
have diligent and faithful servants; that
they shall have large profits from those to
whom they sell, and cheap bargains from
those of whom they buy. In a word,
they speak as if every thing relating to
themselves and others were so dependent
on their will, that they might command
the events which they desired, and dis-
pose of all things according to their own
pleasure.

set.

your own.

more, they need only to stretch forth our hand to "We will take hold of them. God knows, that we have much work to do, and little time to do it in: and therefore, that we may lose no part of it, the most useful and necessary things are scattered around us with the greatest profusion. Were it otherwise, the opportunity of acting might frequently pass away before the means of action were ready. Yet such, alas! is our folly and perverseness, that overlooking what is near, we roam abroad, and always grasp most eagerly at those things which are farthest from us. Thwarting the merciful designs of God, we despise common truths, merely because they are common; and wander in pursuit of abstruse and intricate speculations, which puzzle the understanding, and amuse the fancy, but leave the heart cold and insensible. How much better was the course which the apostle took with those who held the language of the text, in order to bring them to a sense of their folly? He doth not go about in quest of remote objects, nor seek to surprise them with new and uncommon discoveries; but he surprised them most effectually, by pointing to an object just at hand, one view of which was sufficient to check their presumption,-an object which stood always before their eyes, though overlooked through the pride, or inattention, or perverseness of their minds.

Well might the apostle give this the name of boasting, as he doth at the 16th verse of this chapter; and had it suited the gravity of an inspired writer; he might have examined the different parts of the scheme, computed the risks which were plainly against them in every step, and thus turned the whole design into matter of contempt and ridicule. But instead of this, he arrests them at the very first outYou talk of "going to such a city, of continuing there a year, of buying, of selling, and getting gain: "whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow." The present moment is all that ye can call This night your souls may be required of you: to-day you are; but tomorrow ye may be numbered with those who have been. He would not trifle with It hath already been observed, that the miserable men, who might die whilst he matter of the project, here represented was speaking to them. He therefore by the apostle, is in itself plausible; and seizeth one important truth, the force of that his reproof is chiefly aimed at the which could not be denied, and instantly form or manner of expressing it. And if placeth it full in their view. "What is he treated this with so much severity, your life?" saith he, "it is even a vapor." what would he have said, had the end At present it appears; but while I yet speak to you it may vanish vanish away. then, vain boasters, to talk of a year hence, until ye can say something with certainty of the succeeding day. Thus the visionary Babel falls to the ground. This plain proposition, "Life is a vapor," undermines it at once, and overwhelms the proud builders with shame.

proposed been criminal in its own nature, Cease or the means of obtaining it base and dishonorable? What would he have said to those who puzzle themselves with schemes to get rid of their money, or to throw it away upon the most ridiculous trifles? who have no higher objects than the superfluities of dress, the luxury of entertainments, the multiplicity of diversions, and all the expensive arts of dissipation and sensuality? What would he have said to those who, in the same presumptuous style, lay deliberate schemes for low vice and debauchery, for drunkenness

It hath often given me pleasure to observe, that the truths which are best fit ted to touch the heart, and to influence the life, are universally the most simple and obvious, and lie so near us, that we

and whoredom, and other works of the flesh? What would he have said to those who devise methods of making gain by secret fraud or open violence? to those who practise deceit in buying and selling, or who, without either buy ing or selling, support a useless and pernicious life by the base and infamous occupation of gaming? Compared with these, the scheme which the apostle condemns is wisdom, and honor, and virtue.

But the apostle doth not rest in censuring what was wrong. He goes on at the 15th verse to correct what was faulty, and to supply what was defective. "For that ye ought to say," adds he, "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that."-This amendment, suggested by the apostle, was the

Second thing which I proposed to consider. And,

it had brought forth sin. And I am persuaded, that if men were faithfully to practise this one easy and reasonable precaution, they would at least avoid many of those presumptuous offences which lay waste the conscience, and destroy the peace of the soul.

2dly. This amendment, which the apostle suggests, teacheth us to consider the shortness, and particularly the uncertainty, of life. "Ye know not," saith he, "what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? it is even a vapor which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Thus David describes the life of man by those things which are most frail and fugitive in nature. "As for man, his days are as grass." Nay, as if the grass, which endures for a season, were too permanent an object of comparison, he immediately corrects the similitude, "As the flower 1st. It furnisheth us with a rule by of the field, so he flourisheth:" As the which all our undertakings ought to be flower of the field, which is exposed to. examined. Whatever scheme we have in the foot of every passenger, to the tooth view, to which we cannot prefix this pre- of every wild beast, to the wanton hand face, "If the Lord will," we may be of every destroyer. It is not by rare and assured is essentially wrong, and ought to striking events only that the thread of be abandoned without delay. There is life may be broken. There is no need nothing truly good or profitable to us, for that the thunder should break on you, or which we may not address God by prayer. that the fire should devour you, or that Let us then convert the views which we the earth should open and swallow you up. have in any undertaking into the form of Things far more common and familiar are a petition, and try whether we can, with sufficient for so easy a purpose, as that decency or propriety, offer up such a pe- of cutting off your days. There is not an tition to God. Let us consider, whether element so friendly, nor a circumstance so the means by which we propose to com- trifling, that it may not become the minpass these views are of such a nature, ister of death. Ought not this manifest that we may ask or expect the divine uncertainty of life, then, to cool our purblessing to accompany them. Happy suit of earthly projects? We are apt to were it for us, that all our schemes and meditate great and complicated schemes projects were brought to this test. We to attain wealth, or power, or honor in the should then be seasonably delivered from world. But could we penetrate a little that fatal enchantment which first enga- into futurity, we might perhaps see our geth us in unlawful pursuits, and then stimulates us to persist in them against the remonstrances of our own consciences. We should then escape from those fatal snares into which our rash unadvised plans betray us. For who would dare to say, "If the Lord will, I shall live," and rob and steal, game and defraud, oppress and overreach my neighbor? Such a connection of thought would startle the mind at the first conception of lust, before

grave opened far on this side of half way to the objects of our keenest pursuit. "For what is our life? it is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that we ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this or that."

3dly. This amendment, suggested by the apostle, teacheth us to live in an habitual dependence on God, not only for life, but also for activity and prudence to