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the word of the Lord, "that we should make friends unto ourselves of the mammon of unrighteousness, who when we fail may receive us into everlasting habitations." In the other respects which boasting hath,-as, for example, that the condition of our age of the church is so much better than those which are past,-I can do nothing but lift up my hands at the delusion which the enemy hath brought us under. This will come to be more thoroughly considered under the eighth particular, of the "unholiness" of these times. But I may now entreat you, for the remedy of this evil, to consider your own hearts, and see whether they attain to that region of holiness to which the saints of old attained, to consider your brethren, to consider the ministers of the church, to consider the books which they write, and the many muchtrumpeted works of charity which they do. Every one's right hand knoweth what his left hand doeth. Our charities are written down and published with our names and sirnames: our acts are set forth in public reports and proclaimed at market crosses. And, in short, there wanteth nothing to complete the parallel between us and the ancient Pharisees: yet are we boastful of the age. Oh! my brethren, as you value the truth of Jesus, and would receive his meek and lowly person, I pray you to testify against the evil spirit of boastfulness which hath so transported the church into the region of folly and absurdity. But, granting we were

so highly advanced above all comparison, what have we that we have not received; and who made us to differ? And I warn you, above all, against boasting of the enlightened age, which is nothing short of advancing Satan's glory, as the bright archangel of liberality, above Christ the bright and the morning star. For any one to say that we are more enlightened than our fathers in divine, moral, and political truth, is to say that the age of infidelity is more bright and glorious than the age of religion. And the more be ye upon your guard against all these the forms of boasting, as everywhere it is held out in the Holy Scriptures as a characteristic of the last times. (Psalm x. 3.) "For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth." In which Psalm, the destruction of the last anti-Christ is the subject; and in Psalm xlix. 6, wherein the end of the dispensation immediately preceding the morning of the resurrection is the subject, they are described as "trusting in their wealth, and boasting themselves in the multitude of their riches." And, in the xith chapter of the Romans, where the casting out of the Gentiles is foretold, it is shrewdly signified, that it was to come from boasting. Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee......Thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear." And, in the second chapter of Peter's Second Epistle, already re

ferred to, this vain-boasting is represented as one of Satan's chief snares in the latter times: "For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from those who live in error." On all accounts, therefore, dear brethren, I do greatly discourage you from taking any part in this spirit of boasting, and carnal security which is gone abroad, and rather to exercise yourselves in honesty, and intercession, and supplication; and let this year continue and end, as it was begun amongst us, in lowliness of mind, in sorrow, in affliction, and in fasting, for the forlorn estate of Christ's church. Oh how glad were I that God would yield to us among the churches the distinction of being continually girded with sackcloth and covered with ashes!

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SERMON III.

PROUD, BLASPHEMERS.

2 TIM. iii. 1, 2.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come: for men shall be..........proud, blasphemers.

THIS is another fruit of self-love, consisting in the conceit of those distinctions which God hath bestowed on us, and the use of them to our own and not unto his glory, and whether this, also, be not a character of the times in which we live, I refer to your own observation and honest judgment. Cast your eyes backward, and remember the character of the various ranks and distinctions of life: how much more condescension there was of the higher to the lower; how much more obligation was felt from the rich to the poor; how much more devotedness unto God shewn forth in the charitable foundations, for the advancement of education, for the bringing forward of the gifted youth in humble life, for lectureships in churches, and for the erection of churches themselves! To men who are not acquainted with this field of observation it may seem that

the stateliness of former times betokened more pride than the easy familiarity of the times in which we live. But pride consisteth not in the assertion of our proper place and rank in life: this is the use of our dignity, and not the abuse of it. I know and lament that the outward signs and symbols of rank have been levelled by the spirit of insubordination and irreverence which is poured out on men; while I believe there never was within this land such an abuse of the gifts of understanding, and the advantages of rank and station to the aggrandizement of self, as there is in these times; and this is pride. Likewise, I believe, that there never was such a barrenness of true condescension and generous sacrifice for the well-being of our inferior dependants, as there is at this time; and this is pride. And if we look to those who consider themselves as being more especially the representatives of the spiritual people of God, we shall find how, in the train of their boasting, pride hath introduced itself, saying, Stand off, I am holier than thou: we are the people of God: we are doing the works of God; and all who are not of us are without God, and without hope in the world.' Look how little acknowledgment there is of the church of Christ; how much of independency; how little of subjection; how little discipline; how little deference to authority. The noisy bustling works of a few years which we have wrought eclipse the labours of our fathers. If pride consists in

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