SERMON XLIV. The Difference between Profperity and Happiness. GOD, thou haft ordained us to happiness and made us capable of the enjoyment of it. We are conftantly longing and striving after happiness, and thy parental kindness is ever opening to us the most various and abundant fources of it. Might we not so often thoughtlessly and negligently pass them by, but draw from them as much pleasure and delight as they are able to afford! Alas, we are too We are often often deceived by appearances! dazzled and misled by the glittering forms of pleafure and happiness, which are not and yield not, what they pretend to be and to yield! Yes, we frequently spend our strength in vain, and with weari fome, fruitless ardour, feek our happiness where it is not to be found. We frequently fhun and avoid, as mifery and unhappiness, what would prove a real benefit, benefit, a permanent blessing to us. We too often pursue the fhadow with childish impetuofity, and let the fubftance escape. And yet complain of misery and want of happiness as of inevitable evils, as necesfary confequences of the present constitution of things. No, Lord, thou art righteous, thou art benignity and love, but we think and act often foolishly, often confound femblance with reality, and feek not fso much what is really true and good and remains true and good forever, as what glitters and fhines, and promises us tranfient, fugacious joys and advantages. O God, do thou thyfelf draw us back ever more from thefe deviations, Teach us rightly to think and to judge of what may make us happy or unhappy, and to chufe between them with true chrif tian wisdom. Let thy light, the light of truth, enlighten us, and thy fpirit guide and conduct us in all our ways. Blefs, to the furtherance of these designs, the exercise of reflection we are now about to begin on thefe important fubjects. Let thy holy spirit in all things direct and rule our hearts, and hearken to our prayer through Jefus Chrift, our bleffed lord, in whofe name and words we addrefs thee as we ought Our father, &c. PROV. iv. 20, 21, 22. My fon, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings, Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. OULD I call your attention, and make it a COULD matter of confequence to you, my pious hearers, to remark the difference between fome few words and the objects they denote, which in all languages are more or lefs confounded, and ufed as fynonimous, I think I fhould very much contribute to your moral improvement and your happiness. Thefe words are: Profperity and Happiness, Adversity and Unhappiness, Fortunate and Happy, Unfortunate and Unhappy. That the objects thereby fignified are effentially different, may and must be presently difcovered by every reflecting perfon. Reflecting, however, as well as unthinking perfons but too frequently confound words and things in their minds and judgments, in their difcourfes and actions; and thus the former as well as the latter, though in an inferior degree, are led into numberless errors, false and shallow judgments, into tranfgreffions and follies, into anxieties and troubles. Whoever should conftantly avoid this confusion, avoid it in thinking as well as in fpeaking, in common life as well as in fcientific exercises; whoever in this refpect fhould think precifely and speak precisely: fuch an one would certainly, in point of fatisfaction and happiness, of wisdom and virtue, far excell every other who should not do fo. The fubject therefore well deferves that we fhould employ ourselves fomewhat longer upon it. It feems at first to relate merely to words; but they are words that have an extraordinary influence on morals, that do far, far more good or harm among mankind, than is ufually imagined. And therefore the fignification and use of them is not an object of idle curiofity, but muft ftand in the clofeft connection with whatever we are moft concerned in. May these remarks excite you to attention, to continued attention to my prefent discourse and to the careful application of it! My defign is accurately to ftate the manifold and effential difference between profperity and happiness and the words and objects relating to them; and then point out to you, what a beneficial influence this dif tinction must have on your judgments, difpofitions and actions. If, in purfuance of the admonition in our text, in this refpect too, we let not wisdom depart from our eyes; if we hearken to her dictates, and follow her precepts, we fhall be prudent and happy, or intelligent perfons, By profperity we understand all outward goods and advantages, all viciffitudes and events that are conformable with our wifhes and views, that can promote promote our welfare, that promife us the gratification of our wants, or the removal of our troubles and the ceffation of our fufferings, or means of accommodation, of pleasure and joy; and the greater and more covetable these things appear to us, the more we feel the want of them, the lefs reason we have to expect them, and the more unexpectedly they fall to our lot: fo much the greater, in our estimation, is the profperity that we experience. To fuch goods of fortune belong riches, fuperfluity, ftation, rank, eminence, power, honour, authority, health, strength, fuccefs in our bufineffes and undertakings, deliverance from danger and distress, execution of our projects, attainment of our views, and the like. Adverfity is the oppofite to all this. It is lofs of our property and advantages, lofs in health and strength, in influence and power: it confifts in adverse events, unforeseen impediments and difficulties, in pain and fickneffes, enemies and perils, and the like. Happiness or unhappiness, on the contrary, is the state of pleasure or difpleasure, of content or of difcontent, in which the man is; and which is principally determined by the thoughts, fentiments, defires, propenfities, views, appetites, that predominate in him and over him, by the degree of his moral goodness and perfection. Hence, my pious hearers, it already plainly appears, that prosperity and adversity, happinefs and unhappiness, are not neceffarily connected together, that they are not the fame things, that they rather are effentially different from each other. There are |