success; for his present advantage drowns for a time the thoughts of what shall come to pass hereafter.

But men should always remember, that the time now present, was some years ago far distant, and yet is now come, and our feelings of pain and anguish are as lively as ever, and the time to come will one day be present, and bring its sensations of happiness and misery along with it. He is rather a brute than a rational creature, who would rather be happy for a day, and miserable for the rest of his life, than deny himself the present pleasures which are sure to bring lasting misery in their train. Such are the gains of dishonesty; they are like pleasant bread in the mouth of the covetous man, but his teeth are afterwards tormented with vel, and his belly is racked with pains more grievous than those of the fiercest diseases that ever preyed on the human constitution. Providence usually crosses and disappoints unrighteous men, and makes them to vomit up the riches which they have swallowed down, and they produce a worm in the conscience, that gnaws the soul with teeth more poisonous than those of the viper.

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Zophar uses every terrible image to illustrate the miseries of the unjust man, and yet all are insufficient to describe the terrors of that vengeance, which the wrath of God inflicts on those who have the presumption to think, that any advantage can be gained by sinning against God, and wronging their fellow creatures, Ver. 18. Every purpose is established by counsel, and with good advice make war.

Wisdom lies, in the first place, in forming right purposes, and secondly, in devising, and executing proper plans for bringing these good purposes to pass. However good our designs are, yet rashness and inconsideration will be sure to render them abortive; and, besides our own wisdom, it is necessary for us, in all matters of im

portance, to take the advice of the wise and upright. If we have such a high opinion of our own wisdom, that we think we have no need of counsel from other men, we prove ourselves fools of the worst kind, for there is more hope of any other kind of fools, than of those that are wise in their own conceit. Do we restrain wisdom to ourselves? are we wiser than Solomon, who had too much sense to think himself above the need of a privy council of the wisest men in the nation* ?

Above all things, war is to be made with good advice, for the want of which, many nations have been brought to desolation. It is one of the greatest judg ments to a land, when the wise counsellors of it are removed, or infatuated, or when the sovereigns of it are so unwise as not to make use of their counsels. Rehoboam, foolish as he was, had the sense to make use of his father's instruction in this point, although he had neglected it a little before, in another affair of no less consequence. By his neglect of it, he lost ten tribes, but his observing it afterwards, was the mean of preserving his authority in the other two.

We have need of good advice in our spiritual warfare, for our enemies are incomparably superior to us in strength and skill. We may receive great benefit from the counsels of some of our fellow soldiers, but the word and Spirit of God are infinitely the best counsellors in this, and in every other point. They only shall overcome, who are strong in the Lord, and use those divine weapons that God has prepared for our defence, and cry for God's help against the enemy. These are the counsels given us by the Spirit of God, and as our success entirely depends upon his help, we must comply with his instruc

tions.

* 1 Kings xii.

Ver. 19. He that goeth about as a tale-bearer revealeth secrets, therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

Flatterers are generally tale-bearers. They sooth and caress a man to fish his secrets out of him, and they tell the secrets which they have got by these base means, to the next companion they meet, and perhaps make very considerable additions to them, for they take the liberty to add conjectures of their own to what they have heard. By spreading their stories, they sow the seeds of contention among neighbours, and their words are as wounds which go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

Beware, then, of those flatterers, that cajole you with good words, and fair speeches. Self love makes us flatterers of ourselves, and disposes us to be well pleased with those that comply with all our humours, assent to all our opinions, and approve of all our actions. But those who speak us fair are not our friends, but for the most part the most dangerous enemies we have. If we give them our company, we are very likely to hear stories about ourselves that will vex us; if we tell them any of our secrets, we may be sure of having them divulged, and represented to.our disadvantage. When they tell us stories about other people, we may judge how they will behave to us, for when they were in the company of these persons, they flattered them as much as they now flatter us, and by their pretences of friendship, they made a shift to pick up these tales with which we are now entertained.

It is an excess of self love, that makes the company of a flatterer tolerable. It is the want of love to our neighbours that makes us bear with tale bearers, but if we will not discountenance them for the sake of our neighbours, let us do it for our own, for they will mete out

the same measure to us, that they have already meted out to other men *.

Ver. 20. Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

For a man not to honour his father and his mother, is a violation of one of the ten commandments in the letter of it. A curse was pronounced from mount Ebal upon him that setteth light by his father or his mother: The miserable condition of the Africans, and the negroes in America, is a monument to this day of God's judgments upon a man, who lived 4000 years ago, for discovering his father's shame. But is it possible

that any man can rise to such a pitch of impiety, as to curse his father or his mother? It seems it is. But wo to them who are chargeable with it. Had they lived under the Mosaic law, they must have died without mercy t. But if they live in our times, their sin is not the less, and although they should escape punishment from men, they shall not escape the vengeance of the Father and King of the universe.

When those crimes that deserve death are unpunish ed by men, the perpetrators of them are not always so safe as they expect; God often permits them to fall into other crimes, that bring them to the gallows, as we may learn from the confessions and last speeches of many malefactors who have lamented their disobedience to their parents, as the first step to their ruin, or acknowledged other crimes worthy of death, besides these for which they suffer. But if those who treat the instruments of their being with insult and outrage, should escape every visible testimony of vengeance in this life, their lamp shall be extinguished in the blackness of darkness. The punishment prepared for all impenitent sinners, is described in Scripture by this gloomy

Prov. xiii. 11. + Lev. xx. 9.

image; but surely there are regions of thicker darkness than the rest in hell itself, for those who are guilty of crimes that would shock the ordinary run of sinners.

Ver. 21. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed.

We have been often told, that no profit can be made by the wages of unrighteousness; but experience seems to contradict this truth, for we have seen or heard of several that have amassed great treasures by fraud and extortion.

This does not, however, militate against any thing which the inspired moralist has said, for he never meant to deny that treasures may be obtained by wickedness. They that will be rich may get riches by cheating and lying, by fraud and oppression, by grinding the faces of the poor, and by toiling their poor servants till they groan under their hard bondage. These and a thousand other ways of getting, and saving unjustly, may put money in their pockets, but the fact is that it is of no use to them, when they have got it.

Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, for a very plain reason, because they are not attended with the blessing of God, and it is only this blessing that preserves riches and makes them a comfort to men. It is far better to have nothing, than to have the riches of kingdoms without the blessing of God, for those that want it, will find every thing they have a curse.

But you will say, how do they succeed in getting an estate without the blessing of God? wait a little, and it will be seen that there is no blessing in what they have got. If they have been heaping up mountains of gold, they will be found only mountains of snow, which the curse of God will soon melt. He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth; what he gets unjustly shall not only be blasted, but it