mind! Prove yourselves, then, by this characteristic. Would any prospect of gain tempt you to cheat or dissem ble? Will your consciences allow you to go beyond or defraud your neighbour, providing you can do it in a way so secret as to defy human discovery? Does it seem a light matter to you, to take advantage of the simplicity or ignorance of others in the course of business? If so, your minds are indeed deeply corrupted; and it is not regard to God or his law, but to your own credit and safety, which restrains you from the most flagrant acts of injustice. Such persons may assure themselves, without further examination, that the love of the Father is not in them, and that their hearts are wholly alienated from God: For, as the Apostle to the Romans argues, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." And "no man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other; ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

2dly. We love the world to excess, when in the enjoyment of its good things we are ready to say, with the rich man represented in our Lord's parable, "Soul, take thine ease, thou hast goods laid up for many years, eat, drink, and be merry." Too much complacency, in what we possess, is no less an evidence of a worldly mind than an excessive desire of more. Examine yourselves, then, with regard to the source whence you derive your pleasures-from heaven or from earth-from the abundance of corn and wine, and oil, or from the light of God's reconciled countenance. Can you surrender yourselves to the relish of earthly enjoyments without any acknowledgment of him who bestows them?

When riches increase, do you yield yourselves to the satisfactions arising from them, without considering the true state of your souls, whether they be growing in the favour of God, and in meetness for the heavenly inheri tance? If so, the world has deceived you, and God has little room in your affections.

3dly. The world predominates in your hearts, when it engrosses the principal train of our thoughts; when it is the last idea that possesseth us when we lie down, and the first when we arise; when it distracts us in our attendance on the duties of religion, interrupts our devotion in prayer, diverts our attention in hearing, and fetters our minds in meditation. I mean not to assert, that every degree of influence which it has in these respects betrays its absolute ascendency over the mind; for who then could free himself of this charge? But when these worldly thoughts engross the mind by its own consent, when they make us grudge the time bestowed on religion, and eager to resume our earthly occupations, as soon as we have lulled our consciences with an unmeaning attendance on its ordinances-when, like the Jews of old, we say of the Sabbath, "what weariness! when will it be over, that we may sell corn?"-This is not only a preferring of the world to God, but in reality a solemn mockery of him, not less provoking than open profanity itself. The

4th and last mark of a worldly mind which I shall mention, is unmercifulness to the poor. Those who have a large measure of temporal goods bestowed on them, ought certainly, in proportion to their abundance, contribute to the necessities of their fellow creatures.

This is evidently the design of Providence in permitting, or rather appointing, such extreme diversities of condition in the world. But too many of the opulent

seem to think no such duty required of them. They flatter themselves that they do all that is incumbent on them in this respect, if, by the plenty of their tables, the splendour of their dwellings, the sumptuousness of their equipage, and other articles of their luxury, they find employment for the poor by providing for their consumption. This, indeed, is an eventual benefit to society, but is far from absolving them from the obligation they owe to it, much less does it acquit them of their duty to him who favoured them with such distinguished blessings : For what mark of gratitude to God is it, that we consume his bounty upon our own pleasures, although, in so doing, we cannot avoid distributing a part of it to our fellow creatures?

Such persons, whatever they may think of themselves, how remote soever they may think a worldly character from being applicable to them, are in fact deeply chargeable with it. Perhaps they even do give a part of their superfluity for the relief of their brethren, and estimating that by its proportion to what others give, and not to the extent of their own means, think themselves uncommonly bountiful. But this is a gross deception, and will be found so in the day when every false pretence shall be detected before the judgment-seat of Christ. Then shall they be found among those who loved the world, and in whose hearts the love of the Father had no place.

These symptoms, if properly attended to, may be of considerable use towards discovering the true state of your characters in this respect. But as the heart is deceitful, and as we are extremely prone to flatter ourselves that we are free of this criminal disposition, it may be proper to endeavour, before closing this head of discourse, to detect some of those false apologies upon

which men flatter themselves that they are not chargeable with it.

One concludes thus in his own favour, because he is poor, and necessity obliges him to work for his daily bread. How (says he) should I be suspected of a criminal love to the world, when I possess so little of it, and can, by all my labour, procure so few of its advantages? But this is a very deceitful ground of reasoning. He who lacks riches, may love them as well as he who possesses them: And therefore if you be discontented with your state; if you envy those above you; if, in your habits of thought, you consider wealth and happiness as inseparable; and if your diligence to prepare for another world be not superior to your industry in endeavouring to obtain a share of this: the world is still your idol, “and the love of the Father is not in you."

Another flatters himself that he has no undue attachment to the world, because he does not project for himself any great or extensive acquisitions in it, very small matters would satisfy him, and a moderate competence is all that he desires. But if your hearts are more set on these supposed moderate matters than on the heavenly inheritance, you are still slaves to the world; and the more mean and inexcusable you are that your object is so trifling and inconsiderable.

Besides, this is a very indecisive mode of reasoning. He that engages to seek only a competence, takes on himself a very easy engagement, because he binds himself only to a condition which is to be ascertained by his own opinion. The most covetous man on earth may make the same profession, provided you leave him to be the judge of what that competency amounts to. Look above you to the superior ranks of society, and see whether their extensive possessions extinguish their desires

for more. Is not the reverse the fact? The richest are often in as great necessity as the most indigent-as often, at least (and it is not seldom) as the imaginary wants created by luxury exceed their means of gratifying them. The decisive inquiry is not how much you desire, but for what ends you desire it.

A third conceives a favourable opinion of himself, because he uses no unlawful means to rise in the world. Now this is in so far good, and would to God we could all say as much for ourselves. But even this is not decisive in the point; for a man may love the world inordinately, who would neither steal, nor rob, nor dissemble, in order to enrich himself. The fact is, that those who have a just and steady sense of their interest, find that these are by no means the best ways of advancing it.

A good character is so necessary to carrying on world. ly business of any kind with success, that a wise man in his generation will be fair and honest in his dealings, from mere regard to his own advantage. But with all this prudential regard, coinciding with seeming virtue, his affections may be entirely placed on the world to the exclusion of things spiritual and everlasting; which is the very character described and condemned in the text.

But saith a fourth, it is impossible that I should love the world to excess, for it is the very vice which I principally hate and condemn in others. But, alas! so do many thousands who are themselves abject slaves to the world, to the conviction of every person but themselves. It would indeed be utterly astonishing to observe, how keenly worldly men inveigh against the same dispsitions in others, if this account of the appearance did no offer itself, viz. that the more they are rivals in this love, the more mutual jealousy and resentment must arise in their minds; or, to speak without any figure, the more