his soul delight itself in fatness s." Let us bless God then, who has put it into the hearts of so many to provide for us such ample supplies of this invaluable treasure : and let us all, according to our ability, labour to promote the designs of a Society, which is the most honourable to God, and most useful to man, that ever existed upon the face of the earth.]
s Isai. lv. 2.
Jer. xvii. 5 — 8. Thus saith the Lord ; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh ; but shall in- habit the parched places in the xoilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river ; and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green : and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
EVERY created being derives its existence and support from God: yet man is prone to depend on the creature rather than on him. Though constantly disappointed, he still leans on an arm of flesh ; but such conduct is justly reprobated in the strongest terms.
We shall consider, I. The characters that are contrasted —
Every man by nature "■ trusts in man, makes flesh his arm, and his heart departs from the Lord." We need not go to heathens or infidels to find per- sons of this description. We need only search the records of our own conscience.
[In temporal things, we never think of looking above the creature : if they be prosperous, we trust in uncertain riches, and take the glory to ourselves ; if adverse, we lean to our own understanding and exertions, or rely for succour on our friends. In spiritual things, we seek to establish a righteousness of our own ; we expect to repent and serve God by our own strength.]