Guide to inftru&t us, an Overseer to obferve us, and a Judge to whom we are accountable; but we have alfo a great Redeemer, who fhed his blood for the ranfom of our fouls, and who gave himself for us, not to purchase our release from duty, but to " purify unto himself a peculiar "people, zealous of good works." Chrift spoiled principalities and powers, "that we being

"delivered out of the hands of our enemies,

might ferve him without fear, in holiness and " righteoufnefs before him all the days of our "lives." Let us hear and reverence the language of the gospel. "Ye are not your own: ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in

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your body and in your fpirit, which are God's. "Work out your own falvation with fear and "trembling: for it is God that worketh in you "both to will and to do of his good pleasure. "And befide this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and "to knowledge temperance, and to temperance "patience, and to patience godlinefs, and to godlinefs brotherly kindness, and to brotherly "kindness charity. For fo an entrance fhall "be miniftered unto you abundantly into the "everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour "Jefus Chrift."

Let us then be no longer "flothful in bufi"nefs, but fervent in fpirit, ferving the Lord."

Amen.

SERMON

SERMON

JAMES iv. 13, 14, 15.

XVI.

Go to now ye that say, to-day or to-morrow we will go into fuch a city, and continue there a year, and buy and fell, and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? it is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanifheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will we fhall live, and do this or that.

THE obvious defign of this paffage, is to detect the folly and prefumption of those who lay schemes for futurity, without a proper acknowledgment of their dependence on the providence of God. The particular scheme, which the Apoftle reprefents and condemn, is one of the moft plaufible that can well be imagined. A merchant refolves on a journey to fome city, in which he can carry on his trade to advantage. That he may lofe no time, he faith,

To-day," or at fartheft, "to-morrow, I will go into fuch a city, and continue there a year, "and buy and fell, 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 fuppofed to have been the profits of a fair and honourable commerce: the honest reward of his attention and diligence.

VOL. II.

S

I apprehend

I appréhend that none of us would be greatly ftartled, though we should hear fome of our friends talking in the manner which is here represented. There are few of us, perhaps, who have not on fome occafions held fuch a language, without fufpecting that it was either prefumptuous or wrong. In order, therefore, to difcover what is faulty in it, and to enter into the fpirit of this text, let us examine with attention,

ift, The form of expreffion which the Apostle condemns. And,

2dly, The amendment which he suggests.And if it shall please God to afford us the affiftance of his Spirit, I am perfuaded that feveral remarks will occur to us in the courfe of this inquiry, which may be "profitable for doctrine, "for reproof, for correction, and for inftruction "in righteoufnefs."-Let us then attend,

Firft, To the form of expreffion which the Apoftle condemns. "Go to now, ye that fay, "to-day or to-morrow we will go into fuch a city, and continue there a year, and buy and "fell, and get gain."

In general, we may obferve that this language. relates altogether to a worldly project. The principal object is gain: " not the true riches;" or "that good part" which shall never be taken from those who choose it; but the gain of this world, the gain which is acquired by buying and felling. They fay nothing of the measure of gain that would fatisfy them, and nothing of the ufe to which they meant to apply their wealth. For any thing that their expreffions imply, their

defires

defires might be without bounds, and their fole aim might be to "heap up filver as the duft, "and fine gold as the mire of the streets;" or, in the language of Ifaiah," to join houfe to houfe, and field to field, till they were placed "alone in the midft of the earth."

If this remark is juft, we have already difcovered one capital error in the expreffions before us. To feek gain by honeft industry, either for the fupply of our own wants, or to enable us to relieve the neceffities of others, is not only lawful but honourable: But to feek wealth for its own fake, and merely for the fordid pleafure of poffeffing it, betrays a mean and selfish spirit unworthy of a man, and much more unworthy of a Chriftian.

Suppofing this then to be the end in view, there can be no doubt that it is in a high degree culpable. But as the Apoftle is filent on this head, we fhall admit, that the perfons who hold the language before us, might intend to make a proper ufe of their riches, and proceed to examine the means by which they propofe to obtain them. "To-day," fay they, "or to-morrow, we will

go into fuch a city."-These words may pafs in common converfation: but when we seriously weigh the import of them, as at prefent we are called to do, we fhall find that they are chargeable both with folly and prefumption.

The great Lord of all has no part in this fcheme. Thefe little arrogant words, WE WILL, truft him out at once, and occupy his place. And for what do the perfons here defcribed undertake? They undertake without hesitation, to infure their lives against death, their bodies S 2

against

against sickness, and their effects against every cafualty or hazard. They speak of the morrow, as if they had the abfolute property of it. They promise themselves, that to-morrow they fhall not only be alive, but in health, to fet out on their journey; that they fhall meet with no crofs accidents by the way; that the goods which they carry along with them, fhall be protected against thieves and robbers; and that in due time they fhall arrive at the city where their plan of bufinefs is to be carried into execution. But what follows is ftill more extravagant. They promife upon life for a full year; "We will continue "there a year:" and not upon life only, but on health of body, and foundness of mind, during all that time. No allowance is made for change of climate, or the fatigues of bufinefs: they are always to be in a condition to buy and fell, and to manage their affairs with activity and prudence. Nay, more, they affure themselves of fuccefs. "We will buy and fell, and get gain." They undertake not for themselves alone, but for all whom they fhall employ, or with whom they fhall have commerce-that they fhall have diligent and faithful servants; that they shall have large profits from thofe to whom they fell, and cheap bargains from thofe of whom they buy. In a word, they fpeak as if every thing relating to themselves and others, were fo dependent on their will, that they might command the events which they defired, and difpofe of all things according to their own pleasure.

Well might the Apoftle give this the name of boafting, as he doth at the 16th verfe of this chapter;