SERM.he belongs to, whatever miseries may befal XI. his fellow citizens or countrymen, and what

ever outward calamities he may be involv'd in jointly with them, there is real good referved for him, and he fhall be happy in -proportion to the degree of his righteousness, And here, as I have ftated the notion of that happiness which is confequent upon virtue only in general, without descending to those particular bleffings and enjoyments, which chriftians either know by experience, or are taught to hope for by the revealed rule of their religion, so I shall begin the proof of the doctrine, with that evidence ..which is common to mankind, and muft appear to every person who carefully attends to it. Let us then, firft of all, confider the state and conftitution of the human nature as in fact we find it, abftracting from any inquiry concerning the author of it, and his defigns and conduct towards us, Every ones experience makes him fenfible of pleafure and pain, or of happiness and mifery, of both which we all of us partake in fome degree. It is almoft as plain, that both enjoyments and sufferings are of different kinds; and the most general and important diftinction is into mental and bodily. Who doth

not

not know, or cannot compare in his own SERM, reflecting thoughts, the difference between XI, the gratifications and uneafineffes of the external fenfes, and of the mind? But it is too little attended to, and yet very certain, that the latter are of vaftly greater importance to our intereft than the former. Scarcely is there any man not confcious, in fome meafure, of the fatisfaction which arifes from morally good difpofitions, at least some particular kinds of them, fuch as focial and natural affection, benevolence, compaffion, or gratitude; and that this is stronger and more intense than the enjoyments which any fenfible object can yield, appears from this confideration, that the latter are frequently facrificed to the other; nay, the most - grievous bodily tortures are submitted to by men of very imperfect moral characters, rather than they will foregoe the pleasures of their supposed virtue. Besides, it might be eafily fhewn, that not only the enjoyments of fenfe are mixed with fome honourable appearance of virtue, which shews the neceffity the human mind is under of paying refpect to that divine form, but that really fenfual pleasure is heightened to the poffeffor, by that species of morality, which attends

SER M.attends it in his imagination, by the appearXI. ance of generofity, freedom, friendship, or focial communication. Who doth not know, on the other hand, the pains of a felf-accufing and condemning heart? How abject, how mean, and odious, doth an immoral character appear to every one who difcerns it, at least in an extreme degree? How vile, how despicable is the miser, and the luxurious? How much abhorred the cruel, the ungrateful, and perfidious? But how much more hateful to himself is the obftinately vicious, the impious, and the wickedly dishoneft man, when he is forced to review his actions, and look into his own heart? He has no feeling of rational manly felf-enjoyment; on the contrary, galling felf-reflections and inward remorse consume his very vitals, make life a burden, and a deliverance from it earnestly wished and fought for. He is conscious of having deferved ill from all rational and moral agents, and is in a continual dread of a recompence fuitable to the demerit of his crimes. Now let any man judge whether fuch a state be eligible; rather, whether it be not the worst that a rational creature is capable of in this world; whether, therefore, by the very

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very frame of our nature it be not ill with SERM. the wicked, and confequently well with XI. the righteous. It is true in the present condition of being, both the joy of a self-approving, and the torment of a felf-condemning confcience, are in fome degree abated by the cares, the bufinefs, and amufements of life (when animal nature fhall cease, and the union of the mind with flesh and blood shall be diffolved, they will then be felt in a more intense degree than we can now comprehend) but experience doth convince fome, and a careful attention will convince every man, that the one is the greatest felicity, and the other the greatest misery of

our nature.

The truth of what has been afferted, is univerfally acknowledged in those instances, which are the most perfect in their kind: A very eminently good man, is not only the object of the highest veneration and esteem to others, but believed to be the happiest in himself; and a complete immoral state is own'd to be miferable; but in lower degrees, which are the most common among mankind, the advantage or difadvantage is not fo fenfibly felt, and the difference is flightly pass'd over as of little confideration.

SERM.fideration.

"

If, however, the principle be XI. true, that virtue is the good or happiness, and vice the ill or mifery of every man, it muft hold univerfally, and always in proportion. How unreasonable were it to imagine that indeed the man who is perfect in righteoufnefs, is perfect in enjoyment, and the thoroughly wicked is the most unhappy, but that the intermediate characters between these two extremes are indifferent, with respect to enjoyment? That a found entire mind, as to its moral state, is a great happiness, a temper wholly defolute and vicious is neceffarily miferable, and yet that happinefs doth not rise and fall, according to the measure of our oppofite moral qualities? Letus be affured, and always keep it in mind, that whenever in any inftance we depart from our integrity, we are fo far hurting ourselves and acting against our own intereft; and in the degree wherein we amend our temper and our ways, are ceafing to do evil, and learning to do well, increasing in virtue and abounding in the fruits of righteousness, in the fame degree we are promoting our own true happiness, which doth not depend, even in this world, fo much on the circumftances

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