A few more fummers and winters, and you must be numbered with the dead; muft ". go to 66 your own place *." Perhaps, not one. Perhaps, not a day. And, oh! how awful is this thought! "Where the tree falleth, there it fhall "lie." "There is no work, nor device, nor "knowledge, nor wifdom, in the grave, whither "thou goeft t:" But, as he that is righteous "will be righteous ftill, and he that is holy will be "holy ftill;" fo" he that is unjuft will be unjust "ftill;" and "he which is filthy will be filthy ftill t.

Acts i. 25: Eccl. xi. 3. xi-10. + Rev, xxii. 11.

PRAYER

PRAYER BEFORE OR AFTER THE SERMON,

The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity,

LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and, with pure hearts and minds, to follow thee, the only God, through Jefus Chrift, our Lord!

SERMON V.

ON

1 JOHN V. 4.

Whatfoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

IT is

Tis

is univerfally acknowledged to be a peculiarly difficult and hazardous state of warfare, which is carried on in the midst of an enemy's country. It requires fuch continual watchfulness and circumfpection, with fuch a constant state of preparation. The attacks to which we are fubject are not only frequent, but all made with peculiar advantage. Our external refources are comparatively few. Such was the cafe with Ifrael, in preffing forward to a fettlement in the land of Canaan. Such is the cafe with every Chriftian warrior, in fighting his way, through this earthly

wilder

wilderness, to his promifed inheritance in the

heavenly Jerufalem. Divine Power alone.

text.

He can overcome by a

So we are affured, in our "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that over"cometh the world, even our faith." Let us proceed then to confider,

1. "The world," which is to be overcome. 2. The Divine principle that is to overcome it. By which we may fee,

3. How far we are poffeffed of it.

1. What is meant by "the world," which is to be overcome?

If we were to fearch the writings of all the men of the greatest learning and talents, both ancient and modern, for their definitions of the most important fubjects, we could not perhaps find one fo fimple, and at the fame time fo fully defcriptive and comprehenfive, as that which has been given by the apoftle John of what is here meant by" the world." Let infidelity blush, when it confiders, that fuch mafter-pieces of compofition have been produced by the fishermen of Galilee. The apoftle,having commanded us to "love not the "world, neither the things that are in the world;" declaring that " If any man love the world, the

"For ALL that is

love of the Father is not in him;" proceeds. briefly to represent what he means by that world. against which he cautions us. ❝in the world, the luft of the flesh, the luft of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." If it were my defign to

enter into long difcuffions of this nature, it might be easily fhewn, that thefe three principles comprehend within them every corruption which prevails in this lower world; every thing which does not proceed from the Father of lights, the Author, of every gift that is good and perfect. By "the "luft of the flesh," we may underftand thofe evil defires, which maintain their influence through the groffer fenfes, and lead to fuch as are therefore termed fenfual gratifications. By "the luft of the eyes" appears to be defigned thofe earthly defires, which gain an inlet through the organs of fight, and relate principally to thofe poffeffions, or attainments, by which these are exercised and gratified. By "the pride of life," is clearly meant that principle of corrupt nature, which hurries. on the mind, to thirft after vain diftinctions, and fuperiority over our fellow-mortals. To reprefent the three principles in a manner more level with the comprehenfion of mankind in general;; they fhew themselves in the inordinate defire of worldly pleasures, worldly riches, and worldly honours; or, to fpeak ftill more briefly, in fenfuality, avarice, and ambition. But, after all, we may, perhaps, more easily conceive, than defcribe, all which the apoftle intended to convey under "the luft of the flefh, the luft of the

66

eyes, and the pride of life." In fhort, they convey all the principles of that "wifdom, which "defcendeth not from above, and is earthly fen"fual, devilifh *." Satan is reprefented, as cftablifhing his worship and dominion in them; and:

* James iii. 15.

is

is therefore denominated "the God and Prince "of this world." And all mankind, except the "few faithful called "the children of light," are termed "the children of this world," because they are under the influence of one or other of thefe corrupt principles, and thus under the power of Satan. He, who beft" knew what was in man,” pofitively declared, that they are of their father, "the devil, and the lufts of their father they will "dot." He afferted, on the contrary, of his true difciples, that they are not of the world, as he "was not of the world." And he made it his laft prayer, on earth, to his Father, "not that he "fhould take them out of the world (for he himfelf was no reclufe) but that he fhould "keep them from the evil one §;" i. e. from Satan, and these his corrupt principles that we are confidering, by which he has eftablished and maintains fuch extenfive empire among the children of men. The representation given by St. John, which we briefly noticed in a former difcourfe, is exactly fimilar. Allow me to remind you of it. Addreffing believers, he fays, "Ye are of God, little children, ❝and have overcome them: because greater is he "that is in you, than he that is in the world." And, he thus fhews the diftinction between them. and unbelievers. "They are of the world; there"fore fpeak they of the world, and the world "heareth them." We fon the contrary) are of God. He that "knoweth God heareth us: he that

*John xiv. 30. John xvii. 16. tou pooneerou."

2 Cor. iv. 4. See ver. 14.

+ John viii. 24. § John xvii. 15.

"is

"ek