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SERMON II.

LOVERS OF SELF, COVETOUS, BOASTERS.

2 TIM. iii. 1.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come: for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters.

THOSE passages which we have examined in

our former discourse are sufficient for establishing the general position, that the last times of the church are evil, and not good; apostate, and not faithful; and now for the more particular description of the evil times, we have to request your attention to the text (2 Tim. iii. 1): "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come: for men shall be lovers of their own selves."

But, before applying these characteristics of the last and perilous times of the Gentile dispensation, to the times in which we live, for your warning and instruction, it is necessary that I should explain a little in what body of men it is that I would identify them as being present. The body in which I would identify them as being present, is the Christian church; by which I mean all that have been baptized into Christ, and

have not afterwards been excommunicated from the body in which body I include the apostate Papacy, the Anti-Christian Protestantism, which denies the Divinity of Christ, and the Church which still standeth on the true foundation; and of this last I allow no arbitrary divisions into the religious world and the professing world, but include the whole community of the baptized in one word, the whole of Christendom, all the believers in Christ as the last revealer of God's will, all the baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, whether they believe these persons of the blessed Trinity to be equal or not; whether, indeed, they believe them to be persons or not. The Lord, and his Apostles, looking forward, prophesied into what state this community of believing Gentiles would come in the last days. And here is the description of their state before us in the text. And I now assert that this very state hath been realized, or is fast realizing. Which I undertake to exhibit to your conviction, chiefly with the view of warning you and instructing you against the evils with which we are surrounded; not the less to be avoided because they are disguised, and concealed, and the very reverse is generally believed. I must therefore look into the Christian church widely and largely; and if there be any province of it which claims, and hath in a manner established for itself an exemption from these characteristics of the whole, it will be the more necessary to shew their application there, in order that

you may see that these characteristics of the last times are all before us, that we are living in the midst of their wickedness, and that their perils are all around us ;-to shew, I mean, that the religious world hath no such exemption as they put in for, but are themselves under the evil influence, less observable perhaps, by being more disguised, but truly the same in principle and in working.

This first feature of character, commonly known by the name of selfishness, we consider as the general characteristic of the times, out of which the others come, as it were, by natural generation. For as the love of God produceth all pious dispositions and the love of our neighbours, all noble and generous dispositions of the soul, so doth the love of self engender all narrow, contracted, malicious, envious, and cruel dispositions of the natural man. Now that this selfishness, which is to be the mother affection of the perilous times which are to come in the last days, appertaineth to the church, and not to the heathen world, is manifest from the last trait which is given; "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof;" as also from the whole of the chapter which describes an apostasy from the faith, and not an ignorance or disbelief of Christ. It is further to be remarked, that this is not the apostasy described in the iv th chapter of the First Epistle, which consisteth chiefly in hypocrisy, falsehood, and delusion, voluntary abstinences and impositions of the will of man; whereas the perilous condition

here described, is the breaking up of the ordinances of religion and the restraints of social life. Now, whether such an age of selfishness hath been introduced into the world, I ask you not to take my judgment, or the judgment of any other man, but do refer you to the writings of all moralists and politicians, who have touched upon the spirit of the times since the French Revolution; but this will come out more clearly, as we proceed with the details.

As our chief object is to be practical, and to guard you against these the characteristics of the last time, in which we believe that we are now living, we would put you on your guard against this evil root of an evil tree, described in the words, "Men shall be lovers of their own selves," by recalling to you what an entire abjuration it is of the Gospel of Christ, which teacheth us to deny ourselves, and to love God only, because he only is good and worthy of our love,--yea, not only to deny ourselves, but to abhor ourselves in dust and ashes, as those who have rebelled against God, and crucified the Lord of glory, vexed the Holy Spirit from the day of our baptism, and gone well nigh to quench him utterly. There is not such a diabolical principle as the love of self: the love of the world hath something that appeareth generous, however much it may degenerate into vanity; it carrieth us out of ourselves, and may sometimes, yea doth oft, exalt us above ourselves, to the love of others, and to the desire of their well-being, to the neglect and even in

But to be taken up with

defiance of our own. ourselves, however noble we may be in our faculties and powers, is so utterly to abuse the gifts of the Creator for his service, and to deny our fallen and wretched condition by nature, which calleth for tears and grief, rather than for delight and enjoyment; it is also to betray such ignorance of the immortal crown and glory to which we are to be advanced from the dust and ashes of the present life; and withal it is so foreign from the self-denial, self-resignation, and self-humiliation of Christ, and so much akin to the self-adoration and vain-glory of Satan, who would exalt his seat above God, that I know not in what way any man can offend against so many great principles of the truth, and confederate himself with so many great principles of falsehood, as by giving himself up to this passion of self-love. Yet, all base and heinous as it is, that it is possible for the church of Christ to come under its dominion, is manifest from the express declaration of Paul, made to the Philippians, with respect to the Church at Rome, "For I have no man likeminded who will naturally care for your state: for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." And that the saints of every church are to be cautioned against it, is manifest from these other words of Paul, addressed to the Roman church, "We then that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves let

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