Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

SERMON XXXIII.

FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST.

THE MUTABILITY OF EARTHLY THINGS.

Master, we have laboured all the night, and have taken nothing; but at thy word I will let down the net.-Luke v. 5.

We have in this gospel an instance of confidence in the power and goodness of Jesus; and of a confidence, which the event abundantly justified and rewarded. Though all our labour, says St. Peter, during a long tedious night, has proved unproductive, nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net. He did so, and found his reliance crowned with success beyond the most sanguine expectations. A similar confidence, my brethren, should ever be our main support, amidst the vicissitudes, fluctuations, uncertainties, disappointments, vexations, pains and troubles, which so much abound in the present state of our existence.

[ocr errors]

Placed amidst the revolutions of this world, in which every thing around us is continually varying its form, and nothing abides in the same state; too short-sighted to penetrate into the darkness of futurity; too feeble to repel the attacks of adverse fortune, and to struggle with the storms that so oft assail us; we must seek for light to guide us, for strength to support us, and kindness to encourage and comfort us, from that supreme power that rules the world, and touches all the springs which give it motion; from the Providence that clothes the lilies of the field, feeds the birds of the air, takes care of the meanest insect, without whose permission not a hair of our head can fall to the ground and from that eternal mind, which is alike attentive to an elephant and a worm, to a world and a grain of sand, to the highest of the celestial intelligences and the lowest creature in the scale of existence.

That we may thus be prompted to cast all our care on the Lord, from a firm conviction that he hath a care of us, we will this day, in the first place, turn our attention to the uncertainties of buman life, and our inability to give ourselves security and comfort: and then we will consider, what line of conduct these uncertainties direct us to pursue, according to the difference of circumstances, in which it may

please the divine Providence to place us for our present probation and improvement.

[ocr errors]

First, let us consider the uncertainty of all that relates to human life. To employ much of your time, my brethren, in proving that every thing in and about us, and every thing in and about this world, is liable to perpetual change, would be as superfluous, as to use arguments to evince the existence of the sun in the firmament, or to convince you that all men are subject to death. The truth is too obvious to escape the occasional attention of the most thoughtless; nor is it less evident, that the changes which take place, however adverse to our wishes, can by us be neither foreseen nor prevented. Still is it much to be lamented, that these truths, clear and incontrovertible as they are, should so seldom be suffered to dwell on men's minds, and should produce on them, in general, so faint an impression. To observe the complacence, with which men form and view their plans of worldly fortune and establishment; the eagerness, with which they execute them; the triumph that follows their partial successes; the pride that their prosperity swells up, and the arrrogance it displays; we must naturally conclude, that each enterprising and each fortunate individual thinks himself an exception from the general laws of earthly mutability, and

[ocr errors]

leans on his own efforts and possessions, as on a strong support that never can fail him. In effect, my beloved friends, so prevalent and so fatal is this kind of self-deception, that men's forgetfulness of God, their neglect of moral and religious duty, and all the train of vices that disturb society, corrupt the rising generation, spread through the earth the contagion of iniquity, and involve so many souls in everlast ing ruin, may be principally attributed to their losing sight of the precarious tenure, on which they hold their present advantages and com→ forts, and to their foolishly presuming on the continuance of health, life, prosperities and plea

[ocr errors]

sures.

Therefore, my beloved friends, I come this day not to inform you, but to admonish you ever to remember, that how industriously so+ ever you may labour, however wise your schemes, and prudent your precautions, likė St. Peter, you will certainly take nothing, and having takenit, you will be able to hold nothing but by the special pleasure of that eternal Be ing, who extends from one limit of creation to the other, disposing all with strength and sweetness. Survey attentively your own nature and all surrounding circumstances, and you must clearly perceive, that from the beginning, the divine Providence hath so ordained, that no man

on earth shall be able to give, or secure to himself, a perfect stability, and that he whose con dition, is now the best fortified, and the most happy and flourishing, may ere long totter and sink in ruins. The seeds of alteration are sown in our frame and constitution, and in that of all created existences. Causes of decay, though it may be impreceptibly, are surely working in our health, our possessions, our connexions, and in the objects of our fondest attachments. What appears the most strongly founded is secretly undermining. Present things are successively gliding away, and giving place to others, which, in their turn, shall be equally transient. The world is in a perpetual motion; and nothing that is in it, either is or can be stationary. It is a stream continually flowing: a wheel that is ever turning round.

In the bloom of youth, in the bosom of opulence, in the circle of fashionable amusements, and amidst the incense of flattery, all is gay and smiling. Fancy heightens the charms of every present scene, and points to succeeding scenes, in which new beauties shall meet the eye. But in the silent, and almost unnoticed lapse of a few years, the enchanting vision gradually disappears; the splendid fabric which imagination raised is vanished into air; and then disappointed hopes, declining health, and

« ZurückWeiter »