cautious; he that is severe, professes to be strictly just. And so with many other truly anti-christian dispositions, the self-deceived sinner deludes himself by denominating them those virtues to which they bear a resemblance, and attempts to justify them under pretence of certain duties, which seem to require them. Some cases in which this is liable to happen to the middle aged man, I shall now consider. 1. For instance, he becomes perhaps the parent of a family, and knows that both natural affection, reason, and Scripture, require that he should provide for his family: so far all is well. But in his anxiety for this, he too often runs into a fatal extreme; his whole soul becomes bound down to this pursuit, and to those temporal objects, which are the means of accomplishing it. He forgets that reliance upon God, that sense of Christian duty, and of the secondary nature of all the things of the world', which alone can sanctify and prosper his efforts. He forgets those mightier interests, which are pre-eminently to be the objects of his care and labour, and which constitute the one thing needful. He forgets the peril into which the inordinate pursuit of the things of this world will bring his immortal soul, and his whole heart is intent upon the acquirement of riches, and daily becoming more enslaved to them 2. At the same time he, in fatal 1 Comp. Matt. vi. 30. 33. with 1 Pet. v. 6, 7. delusion, silences the voice of conscience, and fondly believes he is fulfilling that law of nature, and obeying that command of God, which calls upon him to provide things needful for those of his own household'. He receives the "seed among thorns;" he "heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful." His very prayers often become an abomination; he offers up to God petitions for what he ought not to ask, and what he cannot ask without sin; he prays for the fulfilment of desires, which are sinful and dangerous. This is one channel of temptation, which the middle-aged man ought to be particularly vigilant to stop. If he shall not attend to it, it will be, as is said of the beginning of strife, "as when one letteth out water:" the aperture will be trifling at first; but where the damage will end, no man can tell. How then is he to prevent, or remedy it? By carefully observing the directions of his only safe counsellor-the Word of God; by taking it wholly, and not partially; by considering not merely that part which may appear to favour his present views and inclinations, but also those which may thwart his eager desires, and will direct him to eternal happiness. What will he find in those sacred pages, if he faithfully consults them? He will indeed find, that 1 See Sermon V. it is his duty to provide for those of his own household, and that he who neglects this duty "is worse than an infidel." But he will also find, that he is to do this in a full reliance on God's providence, in subservience to the still greater duty of seeking his salvation, and also in such a manner, as may not render the riches, which he seeks, hard and destructive masters, instead of valuable and useful servants. Thus the same Word of God, which teaches him that he is to use all the means, which prudence may suggest, and diligence promote, for providing for himself, and those dependent on him, teaches also, that he must not be over-anxious about those things, must not suffer them to occupy his whole soul; reminds him of the fowls of the air, which neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet God feedeth them; of the lilies of the field, which neither toil nor spin, yet God clotheth them in more beauteous vesture, than the robes of Solomon in all his glory. It bids him, therefore, proceed with a due reliance on that gracious God, which feedeth the fowls of the air, and clothes the lilies of the field, to take no thought, not to be over-anxious, about what he shall eat, or what he shall drink, or wherewithal he shall be clothed. It teaches him to cast all his care upon God, for he careth for us. It teaches him to set his affections on things above, and not on things on the earth; that where his treasure is, there his heart may be also. It teaches him to hold all earthly things as secondary and inferior, and to enter upon all his undertakings, and regulate all his desires, with that reliance upon God's providence, and that submission to His will, which alone can cause them to be free from sin, or to turn to his lasting profit. And with respect to that pursuit, which ought to be the grand object of his care, the same Scriptures teach him to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, to make the promises of the Gospel, the hope that is in Christ Jesus, the prime motives of his conduct. And the same Scriptures, both by precept and example, warn him of the peril in which he places this hope, by suffering the riches and cares of the world to occupy the first place in his thoughts and affections; they declare, that these things overrun and choke the good seed, and gain entire possession of the heart, and lull it into a fatal slumber and oblivion of its most important interests. "Take heed," saith Jesus, "take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares." He represents also, in the parable of the guests invited to the supper, the manner in which these cares keep men away; He represents their agency in the frivolous and offensive excuses, that they have bought land, and must go and see it; or oxen, and must go and prove them; must let their traffic and their gain stand in the way of their Lord's invitation. St. Paul complains that Demas has forsaken him, being seduced by the love of the world: and the Evangelists have left on record the awful example of Judas selling himself to Satan for lucre, and betraying even his own Master and Saviour. These, and many other instructive cautions and examples, will be found in Holy Writ; and it behoves the middle aged man, beset with the cares of the world, and with a tendency to fancy it his duty to yield himself to the pursuit of gain, it behoves him frequently to study these Scriptures, and apply them to his profit. The same self-delusions which led him to justify himself in the inordinate desire of riches, would also incline him to apply the same false reasoning with respect to the honours of the state. Ambition is generally a powerful passion in the middle aged. It may be contended, that these honours will enable a man to provide for himself, or for his friends and family, and that they are in themselves distinctions which may be lawfully desired. So they certainly may be, but not suffered to engross the whole soul; their real character must not be forgotten. They must be viewed, according to the scriptural account of them, as vain and fleeting, and connected only with a transitory state of things. They must neither be violently coveted, nor when possessed must they engender pride and self-sufficiency. The Gospel will not, in any situation, dispense with that Christian humility, which calls upon " him |