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"he hath neither child nor brother; yet is there no "end of all his labour; neither is his eye fatisfied with "riches: neither faith he, for whom do I labour, and "bereave my foul of good? This is also vanity." "Surely every man walketh in a vain fhew: furely they are difquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, "and knoweth not who fhall gather them." "In "the fullness of his fufficiency he shall be in straits : 66 every hand of the wicked fhall come upon him. "When he is about to fill his belly, God fhall cast "the fury of his wrath upon him, and fhall rain it up"on him while he is eating."

Have you read this in the Bible only? Is it there alone that human life is reduced to a fpan, a tale, a dream, a nothing? Whom have you followed down to the grave? Who are perpetually falling around you? The aged and the infirm? Who has promised you length of days? Who has engaged to fecure you from difafters and disease, till you have reached your aim? And what is the tenure of your poffeffion, when the envied prize is acquired? Does the honour wither as we gather it? Do we come to an estate only to bequeath it? Do we lay out fo much for a manfion which hangs on one dying life, and when we know the Lord of the manor will not allow us to renew? Shall we purchase at a great price articles which death has appraised and pronounced to be injured and nearly unferviceable? As ftrangers and pilgrims, fhall we take a world of pains to beautify and enrich an inn which accommodates us only for a night, when in the morning we are to go on our way, a way by which we shall never return? "Lord, teach us to number

"our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wif "dom."

IV. IT IS NOT THE REFUSAL, BUT THE GRATIFICATION OF OUR DESIRES THAT OFTEN PROVES RUINOUS. God was provoked; and how does he fhew his anger and punish the offenders? By indulgence. Ah! well had it been for Ifrael, if God had turned away his ear from their clamour, and they had never feen a quail. Poor harmless birds! you unknowingly carry along the curfe of Heaven. Deluded fuppliants! you hail their approach; but you are filling your laps with poison, and plague, and death! Rachel faid, "Give "me children, or elfe I die." She had children and died. The Jews were impatient for a king; and fays God, "I gave them a king in mine anger, and took "him away in my wrath." "Who knoweth what "is good for man in this life; all the days of his vain "life which he spendeth as a fhadow?" Connections paffionately fought may prove "fcourges in your fides,

and thorns in your eyes." A well-fpread table may be "made a fnare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, "and a recompenfe." Your profperity may destroy you. They that will be rich fall into temptation, “and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lufts, "which drown men in deftruction and perdition.".

When men are intemperate in their defires afterworldly things, and fucceed in obtaining what Divine. Providence from a knowledge of its confequences was willing to withhold, the displeasure of God comes along with their unhallowed fucceffes; and it matters not in what way the curfe is inflicted; whether more.

vifibly or fecretly; whether by miracle or by the natural influence of events on their depravity.

Sometimes the things fo eagerly lufted after, prove injurious to HEAlth. Thus a man is enabled to refign business; but he becomes gloomy and melancholy. He lives more fumptuously and deliciously; but diseases, to which he was once a ftranger, fpring from repletion and indulgence and becloud his future days.

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Sometimes SATISFACTION IS TAKEN OUT OF THESE THINGS, and the man is far lefs happy than he was before he had gained them. His wishes multiply more than his means; his fucceffes pamper eve ry principle unfavourable to internal repose. "that loveth filver fhall not be fatisfied with filver; "nor he that loveth abundance with increase." "There is an evil which I have feen under the fun, "and it is common among men: a man, to whom "God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, fo that "he wanteth nothing for his foul of all that he defir"eth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof."

Things fo coveted have often proved MORALLY INJURIOUS. They have been oil to feed the flame of thofe evil paffions which ought to be extinguifhed. They have proved rain and fun-fhine, to call forth and ripen a thousand feeds of temptation, which were buried under ground. By these the character has not only been developed, but formed.. The man has changed with his condition; and has become the monfter he once abhorred. "He gave them their hearts'

defire, but fent leannefs into their fouls." And is this a matter of congratulation? Can that be a bless

ing which injures your chief welfare, and destroys the profperity of the SOUL? Are you ftrangers to that fpirituality of frame which you once discovered? Are you chilled in your holy affections? Are you become only formal worshippers? Are you deprived of the joy of God's falvation? Is your converfation lefs in heaven? Do you mind earthly things? Are you more unwilling to leave this world, and enter a better? And are you gainers; because with the facrifice of all these religious advantages you have rifen in life, and increafed in affluence?

Many profeffors of religion, not fatisfied with the ftate in which God has placed them, greedily defire more, and upon what principle? Not their neceffities; but their lufts. It is not a houfe they want; this they have already, but a manfion. It is not food and raiment they want; these are provided, but fuperfluities. It is not an ability to travel they want; they have strength and feet already, but it is a carriage. They wish to be idle, luxurious, fplendid, fuperior to others. He enlarges their refources; he indulges them, indulges their indolence, their pride, their arrogance, their carnality, their forgetfulness of God; and what is fuch an indulgence? what is it for Providence to feed our' fin? to give us permiffion to go aftray? and instead of hedging up our way with thorns, to render it alluring and feducing, by scattering it all along with flowers?

Men and brethren, the reflection is no less edifying than awful.

It fhews us, First, How impoffible it is to determine the love or anger of God from external circumstances.

Behold the rich man clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring fumptuously every day. See Lazarus laid at his gate full of fores, and defiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from his table. But the former is the enemy, and the latter the friend of God; long ago the one has been comforted, and the other tormented; and there were the fame difpofitions in God towards them when they were upon earth. There is nothing concerning which we are more liable to err, than worldly fuccefs. It depends fo entirely upon God, and it is fo flattering to our feelings, that we can fcarcely perfuade ourselves that it is ever an unfavourable omen. But this is not unfrequently the cafe. It is fometimes fent in anger; and we fhould labour to ascertain the principle from which it is given. A natural man regards only the effect, but the Christian looks to the Source. A ftranger would prefer the flower of a plant to the root, but the gardener who owns it values the root more than the flower. O! it is well to be able to say "thou haft in "love to my foul" delivered me from the pit of corruption, formed for me fuch a union, profpered the labour of my hands, bleffed my bread and my water.

"How fweet our daily comforts prove,
"When they are feafon'd with his love."

"Be not

Secondly. This principle crushes envy. "thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory "of his house is increased." "Fret not thyfelf be"cause of him who profpereth in his way;" you are not certain that his condition is really defirable. Would you envy a man the wine he is going to drink, if you