Are then these things in our power? Can we always acquire and poffefs them in the proportion or the degree we could wifh? Does the poffeffion of them foothe and fatisfy the affections of our heart? Is it liable neither to alteration nor decay? Can it by nothing be ravished from us? Is it equally eftimable and equally fatisfying at all times, in all circumstances, in age as in youth, in days of fickness as in days of health, in folitude as in fociety? Does it accompany us in the grave and in the future world? And if it do not this, if the poffeffion of outward diftinctions do not this; if all these objects are extremely fleeting and evanefcent; if numberlefs accidents may embitter them or fnatch them away; if they leave the heart empty, and will all be buried with us in death: how frail and tottering must be the fabric of happiness that is built upon them! How eafily may it be shaken to its foundations, how foon be entirely deftroyed! No, wouldst thou be happy, o man; learn to know better the worth of these things; learn to treat them as means and not as ends, to confider them as things, that lawfully acquired and wifely employed, may promote thy happiness and that of thy brethren, but never can really compofe it; as things which thou mayst have or not have, poffefs or lofe, without being therefore wifer or more unwife, better or worse, without caufing the leaft detriment to the perfection of thy fpirit, the only basis of all true and lafting happiness; prize these things only in as much, seek and love

them

them only in as much, as they may expand thy intellectual powers, fet thee in ufeful motion, improve and exercise thee, and furnish thee with means and opportunities for beneficence. Learn greatly to prefer the inward to the outward, what is really thy own to what is borrowed, and what remains with thee for ever, and accompanies thee on every stage of thy being, to all that endures but a moment, or vanishes in death. Thinkeft thou thus of the value of earthly things; feekeft and ufeft thou them to fuch noble purpofes: then will they never deceive thee, never deftroy thy content, and thou wilt never fail of thy object, fubftantial happiness, whether thou be poor or rich, live in fplendor or in obscurity, fil this or the other ftation among thy brethren, and whether thy courfe be rugged or plain, fhort or long. He who makes wisdom and virtue the ultimate object of all his defires and aims, and regards and uses all outward goods and advantages only as means thereto, muft and will as certainly be happy, as he is fufceptible of happiness.

SERMON L.

Caufes of the Failure of Happiness among Mankind.

GOD, thou haft formed us, thy creatures, thy

children, for happiness. Of this neither nature nor religion, reafon nor experience will allow us to doubt. Happiness is the ultimate aim of all that thou difpofest and doft, that thou decreeft and permitteft. None of us therefore are wanting in capacities and means for preponderant pleasure, if we do but employ thefe capacities and means with proper care and fidelity. But in this we indeed too often fail. We neglect to do what might make us contented and happy, or we do it not with fufficient continuance and zeal, we foon grow weary of the attention, the prudence, the exertion which it requires, and then complain of the want of fatisfaction and happiness. The prize indeed we would heartily wish to obtain, but the way to it seems too difficult and toilfome. Inftead of hearkening to thy parental call, the dictates of wifdom and virtue, we lend a willing ear to the clamours of inordinate lufts and paffions, blinded by them we roam in various deviations, and recede ever farther and farther from the glorious prize which thou haft fet before us. God,

we

we are fenfible how foolishly, how culpably we often act, and how unjust are our complaints. Yes, we are ourselves to blame, if we be not happy. Oh may we perceive this truth with inward conviction, may we see the mistakes which prevent us in the enjoyment of happiness in their proper light and know them to be fuch, and then in perfect earnestness set about freeing ourselves from them! Blefs to the promotion of thefe ends, the reflections we are now about to begin on these important fubjects. Grant that we may deal with strict impartiality towards ourselves, and direct the whole of our attention to our own situation. We requeft it of thee as chriftians with filial boldnefs, and addrefs thee farther in then ame and in the prayer of our lord. Our father, &c.

PROV. iii. 21.

My fon, let not them depart from thine eyes; keep found wifdom and difcretion.

THE more plainly we fee into the causes of a de

ficiency in anything, the easier it is to be remedied, if in general it admit of a remedy. We often languifh under the preffures of a want, only because we do not rightly perceive whence it arifes, on what it is founded, and from what fources we may and fhould draw the fupply we are in need of. Thus it is in regard to human happiness. We often, but too often complain of the want of it, and yet have

only

only obfcure or confused ideas of what these complaints are founded on, and of the causes why we fuffer this want. To reflect frequently on this fub

ject, and to examine seriously into it, fhould be of as much moment to us as happiness itself; and it is doubtless one inftance, among numberless others, of the shameful inconfiftency of man, that he is apt fo frequently to complain, and yet, from levity and indolence will do little or nothing for coming at the true ground of these complaints, and for applying a remedy to them. To call your attention, my dear friends, to this matter, was the design of my last difcourse, as it is also of the present. We lately difcovered three, no lefs common than fruitful fources of the deficiency of happiness among mankind: falfe notions of the deity; false notions of man and his appointment; falfe notions of the value of extraneous objects. Let us to-day proceed in these refearches, and difcufs fome other, perhaps lefs remarked, but no lefs efficient and pernicious caufes of our deficiency in happiness.

We often require impoffibilities; we overlook a great deal of the beautiful and good in the world; we feek our happiness more without us than within us; we do not fet earneftly enough about it: we neglect the grand art of enjoyment; and think too partially concerning ourselves and all that is without us. Six faults that must be extremely injurious to our pursuits and exertions after happiness. Let us examine them more particularly.

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