On the CONDUCT to be held with regard to FUTURE EVENTS. SERMON XVIII. PROVERBS, XXvii. 1. Boast not thyself of to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. FROM ROM these words I purpose to discourse of the proper conduct which we ought to hold, with regard to futurity, amidst the present uncertainties of life. Time and life are always going on, and to each of us are preparing changes in our state. What these may be, whether for the better or for the worse, we cannot tell; as it hath pleased the wisdom of Providence, to cover futurity with a veil which no XVIII. no mortal can lift up. In the mean time, SERMON none of us can avoid forming designs, and laying plans, for the time to come. The present moment is never sufficient to give full employment to the active mind of man, without some excursions into futurity; and in these excursions, the present is often wholly spent. It is therefore of the highest consequence, that a proper direction be given to the mind, in its employments of thought relating to futurity. Otherwise, in the prospects which we take of that unknown region, false hopes, or ill-grounded fears, shall flatter or torment us in vain. We know not, as the Wise Man tells us, what a day may bring forth. It may, very probably, produce something that we had not looked for; and therefore, instead of boasting ourselves of to-morrow, as the multitude are apt to do, it becomes us to be disciplined and prepared, for whatever it may bring. . Ir is needless to spend much time in confirming the truth, which is the foundation of the admonition in the text; in SERMON proving, either that change and mutability XVIII. belong to our present state, or that the changes of it cannot be foreseen by us. These are truths so obvious and confessed, that an attempt to confirm them is like proving that all men are to die. At the same time, obvious as they are, it were to be wished, that the thoughts of men dwelt upon them more. For by a strange but prevailing deception, it would seem, from the general conduct of mankind, that almost every one thinks his own case an exception from the general law; and that he may build plans with as much confidence on his present situation, as if some assurance had been given him that it were never to change. Hence it has been often observed by serious persons, that there is no more general cause to which the vices of men can be ascribed, their forgetfulness of God and their neglect of duty, than to their presuming upon the continuance of life, of pleasure, and prosperity. Look but a little way, my friends, into your own state; and you must unavoidably perceive that, from the beginning, it has has been so contrived by Providence, that SERMON XVIII. I XVIII. SERMON affect the fortunes of men, throughout their whole lives. How soon is evil, done! There needs no great bustle or stir, no long preparation of events, to overturn what seems most secure, and to blast what appears most flourishing. A gale of wind rises on the ocean; and the vessel which carried our friends, or our fortunes, is overwhelmed in the deep. A spark of a candle falls by night in some neglected corner; and the whole substance of families is consumed in flames before the morning. A casual blow, or á sudden fall, deranges some of our internal parts; and the rest of life is distress and misery. It is awful to think, at the mercy of how many seeming contingencies we perpetually lie, for what we call happiness in this world. In the midst, however, of all these apparent contingencies, plans and designs for the future are every day formed; pursuits are undertaken; and life proceeds in its usual train. Fit and proper it is, that life should thus proceed. For the uncertainty of to-morrow was never designed by Providenge, to deter us from acting or planning |