noble sentiment of his inherent dignity, of his virtue, his progrefs in goodness, his faithfully discharged duty, his finished day's work! How much fatisfaction and pleasure may not here be given and received! And how much light, how much comfort, how much encouragement and confolation does he not find in the enjoyment of friendship! What troubles does it not alleviate, what pain not mitigate, what cares and difquietudes does it not affuage! And how much does it not heighten and multiply all his advantages and joys! How often do not the comforts of domestic life and thofe of friendship compenfate fuperabundantly the want of all the outward goods of fortune, and render the poor and humble man an object of envy to the rich and great, who know not thofe comforts! And is it not generally our own fault if we know them not, poffefs them not, enjoy them not, and are not happy in the en joyment? Can it ever be entirely the cafe with the wife man, the virtuous man, the chriftian, who is in deed and in truth a chriftian? Does he not always bear about with him the faireft difpofitions, the greatest fenfibility, the richest materials, and can it be very difficult for him to furmount by degrees the obstacles he meets with, and by a mild, affectionate temper, by generous fentiments and actions to conquer every thing that may be at variance with the enjoyment of these delights!

In this furvey of the fources of human happiness, how can we pafs by one of the pureft and moft ábundant

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abundant of them all, I mean the joys of piety, and the prospect of everlasting continuance and everlasting happiness? What abfence of outward goods and advantages, what lofs of them cannot this fupply! What enjoyment of good do they not sweeten and elevate, what fentiment of evil, what load of affliction, do they not weaken and alleviate! Yes, when I foar in spirit to the realms above; when I behold every thing in its dependence on God, in its connection with him; when I contemplate all as the work, as the arrangement, as the difpenfation of his hand, as means to the greatest possible perfection; when I meditate on the intimate, the blessed relation in which I ftand to the Almighty, the All-wife, the All-bountiful; when I think and feel that I am his creature, his fubject, his child, that I am related to angels, and of divine defcent; when I pour out my heart before him, as to my father, who is pure love and benignity itself, commend all my fortunes and thofe of all my brethren to his fupreme difpofal, and resign myself to his providence and to his promises; when I rejoice before him in my immortality, when I rejoice in the hope of drawing ever nearer to him, the Infinite, the fupremely perfect, and of eternally increafing, in knowledge, in virtue, in happiness how great, how blissful muft I not then feel myself! What pure, what fublime delight then overflows my heart! What preponderance then do not my agreeable ideas and fenfations acquire over the difagreeable ones! How inconfiderable must

the

the latter be in comparison of the former! And who hinders you, men, christians, who hinders you from drawing daily to the full out of this fource of fatisfaction and pleasure?

No, in fources of happiness you are not wanting, my dear brethren; the brief furvey we have now been making is a proof of it. They stand open to you all. No human power can fhut them against -you without your confent. They invite you all to enjoyment. They offer you all refreshment, comfort, fatisfaction, pleasure, to the poor as well as to the rich, to the low as well as to the high, to the unlearned as well as to the learned. They are no lefs beneficial than innoxious, as pure as they are copious. Every one may draw from them in full measure, without the least detriment to another; none can drain them dry; none can find them tastelefs but by his own fault. No, nought but our own inattention and perverseness, nought but follies and fins can fhut them against us, or disturb and weaken them and deprive them of their efficacy. Surely, my dear brethren, he that, furrounded by all these fources of fatisfaction and pleasure, pants for fatiffaction and pleasure in vain; he that, with all these means of happiness, is yet unhappy: he is fo by his own fault; let him not accufe nature, not the author of nature, not any dire neceffity, but only himself. Profperity and adverfity rarely depend on us: but happiness and unhappiness, are always in our power; they entirely depend on our temper and

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mode of thinking, on the judgment we país on ourfelves and on outward things, and on the ufe we make of them all. Attention and reflection, wisdom and virtue and piety fo certainly render us happy, as certainly as we refign ourselves to their influence and their direction. Conducted then by these guides, make use, my dear brethren, of the fources of happiness which your bountiful Father in heaven opens to you, and points out to you in his fcriptures; use them with caution and perfeverance; taste and fee, in the enjoyment of them, how gracious the Lord is; and glorify him, your fovereign benefactor, by a grateful, contented, and chearful enjoyment of his bounties, which are not lefs various than they are great.

SERMON XLVI.

The Chriftian Doctrine concerning Happiness.

GOD, thou haft ordained us all to happiness, and furnished us with all the capacities and means for becoming actually happy. But how few of us reach this glorious object! How flowly we approach it! How frequently, fafcinated by error and fin, do we mistake the way to it! In what by ways and mazes do we not often pass the greater part of our lives! And then we complain of a deficiency of happiness; proceed to cenfure thy wife arrangements and ordinances, murmur at thy dif penfations, and bewail the melancholy lot of human nature. And yet it is we who load ourselves with the heavieft burdens of life, and the mifery under which we so often figh, is misery of our own seeking, most of the forrows that oppress us are the fruits of our own folly. O merciful God, o compaffionate