We confider, we enjoy, we ufe the things of this world not fufficiently in their connection with the whole, in their connection with the will and the views of the creator, in their connection with the nature and deftination of man, in their connection with the all-unfolding and all-completing futurity. We judge of the whole immenfe fabric, by fmall diftinct fragments of the whole of the infinitely extending chain of human events and fortunes, by the first link of it alone. Whereas, did we but accustom ourfelves to fee farther and to contemplate farther; to feparate nothing that belongs to fomething elfe; to force nothing out of its natural combination; and to confider everything, as much as poffible, in its varied connection, according to its different relations and effects and confequences: how many objects would then affume a totally different aspect, how many fad and difmal appearances would then put on a brighter form, how many agreeable circumftances wear a ftill more agreeable complexion! How many difquieting doubts, how much forrow and trouble would then be quite removed! How very much would the amount of our agreeable ideas and fenfations, the fum total of our happinefs be augmented! Ye know now, my pious hearers, the principal caufes that diminish and confume your happiness. Let it be your care to remove them, and to avoid their baleful influence. Improve therefore - that I may comprife all that has been faid in few words - Improve - Improve therefore carefully your capacity for being happy enjoy all the good that ye have, and that befalls you, with more confcioufnefs and confideration require and expect not things impoffible and incompatible: heedlessly pafs by no fource of true fatisfaction and of pure pleafure, but draw from them all feek for happiness more within you than without you: distinguish carefully between adverfity and unhappiness; and judge of particulars in their connection with the whole, the evil in its connection with the good, the prefent in its connection with the future. So will you infallibly not strive in vain after happiness, but perpetually be advancing from one degree of it to another. SERMON XLIX. Caufes of the Failure of Happiness among Mankind. GOD, VOD, thou haft formed all thy creatures for happiness, and leaveft none of them deficient in the neceffary means of attaining the proper end of their being. Sooner or later, in this way or in that, thou wilt conduct them all to their object, and glorify thyself in all as the God of love. To us, whom thou haft favoured, both as men and as chrif tians, with fo many advantages, to us thou haft greatly facilitated and fmoothed the path to happinefs, and rendered us thereby capable of a much fuperior degree of it. The more we understand of thee, our father, and thy gracious difpofitions towards us; the more we are acquainted with our nature and our deftination: the more contented and happy might and ought we to be even in the present life. And if we are not fo, if we complain of a want of happiness, it is certainly our own fault. Inftead of fearching for truth, and following her safe and steady light, we allow ourselves to be deceived by prejudices, dazzled by errors, and pursue a variety of deceitful and fugacious fantoms, glittering before us like the falfe fires which embarrass the benighted travel is not; traveller; still we advance, and still the meteor flies; in vain we double our speed, and reach after what the gay delufion ftill mocks our toil and eludes our grafp; yet we still pursue. At last, having fufficiently fported with our credulity, it vanifhes at once, and leaves us on the brink of a precipice. We form wrong conceptions of thee and of ourfelves, of our present and future deftination: and how then can we fail of being discontented and wretched! Do thou, almighty parent, lead us back from our deviations, by causing the light of truth to illuminate us with a brighter beam, and to lead us on a fafer path. Grant, that we may continually advance in the knowledge of thee and of ourselves, and more and more willingly and faithfully live up to that knowledge. Blefs to this end the confiderations in which we are now to engage. Let them render us thoroughly attentive to the causes of our deficiency in happiness, and continually more careful to avoid and remove them. In filial confidence we ask this of thee as the votaries of thy fon Jefus, and trufting in his promises we farther addrefs thee: Our father, &c. PROV. iii. 21. My fon, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep found wif dom and difcretion. EXPERIENCE but too well informs us, that numbers of people are far lefs happy, than, according to their natural dispositions and capacities, they they might be. How were it otherwise poffible that almost all men fhould be more panting and ftriving after happiness, than rejoicing in the poffeffion of it? Whichever way we turn our eyes we fee hope, expectation, ardent defire; but scarcely anywhere fedate and quiet enjoyment of the beautiful and good. And yet of what diverfified, pure, exalted pleasure, congenial and fatisfactory to the mind and heart, is man fufceptible! What delights are offered him by nature and religion, by the fenfes and the understanding, the vifible and the invifible, the present and the future world! To what height of perfection may he not in his quality both of man and of chriftian, attain! How wife and how virtuous may he not become, and what fources of fatisfaction open to himself thereby! But how feldom does he enjoy that pleasure! How rarely attain to this perfection! What is more common among mankind than difcontent, than bitter complaints of the want of happiness! And how much real mifery is feen among them! How comparatively finall is the number of the happy, to that of those who are not fo, or who account themfelves unhappy! All this is matter of experience, and therefore needs no farther proof. But what now may be the reafon of these melancholy appearances? Let us once for all, my pious hearers, circumftantially investigate the fubject. Let us fearch out the caufes why so many perfons are lefs happy, than, according to their natural difpofitions and capacities, they might be. might be. The detection |