SERMON LXXXVI. THE HAPPINESS OF A GODLY LIFE. PSALM CXxviii. 5, 6. The Lord fhall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt fee the good of Jerufalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt fee thy childrens children, and peace upon Ifrael. THE fubject of this pfalm is declared in the first verse. Bleed is every one, that feareth the Lord, that walketh is bis ways. For godliness is profitable unto all things, having promife of the life that now is, and of that which is to come The prefent happiness attending it was indeed fomewhat more visible, while there was more need it fhould, in those earlier times, when the future rewards of it were lefs clearly discovered. But in every fucceeding age alfo, the practice of religion and virtue hath appeared to all prudent inquirers, the likelieft and fureft way to avoid the miseries of life, and fecure the enjoyments of it. The firft advantage, which the pfalmift promifes to the pious, comprehends in general health and fuccefs in their affairs. For thou felt eat the labour of thine band: happy halt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. The next is a particular blefling of the nearest concern; the poffeffion of domeftic and conjugal felicity, in the midst of a large and well ordered family. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the fides of thine boufe: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. For fuch plants would foon afford both an agreeable fhelter to those who feaft under them in the open air, as the eastern manner was, and a confiderable profit to the owners of them. Delight, fecurity, and plenty at home, being ufually the • 1 Tim. iv. 8. the principal objects of defire, the pfalmift lays an emphatical ftrefs on them, by adding, Behold, thus fball the man be bleffed, that feareth the Lord. But ftill, as good perfons can never thoroughly relish their own private welfare, if the community fuffers at the fame time, or calamities are likely to befall it foon, an affurance is given them in the last place, that their exemplary obedience to the laws of God will, through his mercy, contribute to their being witneffes of the profperity, both of their country and their defcendants during a long courfe of years: The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt fee the good of Jerufalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt fee thy childrens children, and peace upon Ifrael: in which concluding part of this most pleafing view even of the prefent condition of religious and virtuous perfons, we have it fignified to us, I. That a large portion of their happiness consists in the flourishing state of their country. II. That his happiness is greatly increased by a profpect, that their own pofterity will continue to flourish with it. III. That both these things depend on, and are to be expected from, the divine benediction. I. That a large portion of their happiness consists in the flourishing ftate of their country. Every thing hath an influence on our enjoyments, in proportion to the share which it hath in our affections. And affec tion to the public never fails to be remarkably ftrong in worthy breafts. The complete character indeed of focial virtue, if confidered in theory, is good will towards all men. And no concern for a part deserves praise, if it be inconfiftent with benevolence to the whole. But the whole, even of this earth, is an object so vast, that few, if any, can preferve in their mind's a fixed regard to it, or entertain the fmallest hope of doing it fervice. Therefore mankind is advantageously divided into many particular focieties. And a zeal in the members of each for the benefit of their own deferves, not only to be encourag ed as a most useful quality, but honoured, as a moft laudable one. It fhews a rightness and greatnefs of mind, capable of being affected by a common intereft: it fhews the most amiable of virtues, love, towards a large part of our fellow-creatures, and implies nothing contrary towards the reft. For the real good of every people in the world is compatible with the real Uuu 2 good good of every, other. To rule and to opprefs is no good to any and peace and liberty and friendly intercourse for mu tual convenience all the nations of the earth may enjoy at once. This virtue indeed, as well as others, hath been frequently mifunderflood: and faife appearances of it unhappily purfaed. Yet even then fo much rightness of intention towards their own community was mixed in the minds of men with wrong beha viour towards the nations round them, that their injuflice,. though monftrous, hath been always confidered with indulgence, nay often admired as hercifm. And the only people, too feverely cenfured on this head, hath been the Jewith; whofe very law fome have charged with teaching ill will to the reit of the world, though it hath more precepts of compaffion and tenderne towards them, than perhaps any other. They were indeed commanded to fet out with extirpating the Canaanites, and planting themfelves in their land. But well might heaven decree, after a forbearance of several ages, the deftruction of thefe wretches, abandoned at once to the moft unnatural lufts, and the most hocking barbarities: and (which made their recovery hopeless) both of them practifed, as acts of their religion. Nor could the Jews be more ftrongly warned against committing fuch enormities, than by being appointed to punish them; as God may certainly punish, either by his own hand, or by whom he will. But with all mankind ever after, they were to live in peace: only avoiding intimacies likely to corrupt them, and extinguish that profeflion of faith in the one true God, which they were defigned to preserve for the general benefit. Accordingly they were, when free, as good neighbours, and when conquered, as good fubjects, as other men; till heathen perfecution provoked them to hate even thofe hea thens, who were no perfecutors and then it was time for our Saviour to teach them, not the love of their country (for of that, fuch as it was, they had too much) but the univerfal love of all men a doctrine equally needful, though a different accounts, for the Romans alio. Yet he, and his great apoftie St. Paul, were fhining examples of most affectionate concern for their brethren of the house of Ifrael, even while they received the crueleit treatment from them. And, though the first difciples were chiefly private perfons, under one abfolute dominion, and that, of unbelieving magiftrates, and confquent ly ly no other political injunctions, than thofe of dutiful obedience and uniformly moral behaviour, could with propriety be laid upon them; yet thefe are inculcated with such diligence, and grounded on fuch principles in the New Teftament, that as ample a provifion is made by them for the public welfare as then was feasible: and whoever will feriously confider the gofpel rules, will be far from affeiting, with a late author *, that the love of his country is a virtue purely voluntary in a christian. But, though every pious perfon will always confider the happiness of his country, as a very interefting part of his own, yet the degree in which he will confider it fo, must greatly depend on the relation to it, in which he ftands. And therefore they who are diftinguished by the more important relations, whofe office and bufinefs confifts in being the minifters of God for good, to numbers, to nations of their fellow-creatures at once, they must have exalted fatisfaction in feeing the pleasure of the Lord profper in their hands . Every inftance of national felicity muft warm their breafts with fingular confolation above all, when they are conscious of its arising from their own rightnefs of mind, and vigilance of conduct: when they know they have deferved from the people under them that excellent character of David: he fed them with a faithful and true heart, and ruled them prudently with all his power §. II. The next thing to be learnt from the text is, that the happiness, accruing to good men from the flourishing flate of their country, is greatly encreafed by the profpect, that their own pofterity will continue to flourish with it. • The defire of exerting our tendereft affe&tions, which are the conjugal and parental, and leaving reprefentatives of ourselves behind us, to preserve our name, inherit our fubflance, and carry on the designs of providence on earth, is deeply rooted in our frame: it hath always influenced the conduct of men, in proportion as they have lived agreeably to the implicity of nature and they who have thought the abfolute restraint of this inclination the way to higher degrees of purity and fpiritual perfection, have entertained a notion as evidently wrong, as the divine conftitution of things is right. But though fuch imagi Lord Shaftesbury. t Rom. xiii. 4. If. liii. 10. imaginations are groundless, preclude the exercife of many virtues, and weaken human fociety: yet the indulgence of irregular liberties, however favourably their own or common practice may induce perfons to think of them, produces effects far more hurtful: overturns all good order, destroys the peace of families, introduces endless confufions and diftreffes, caufes moft afflicting breaches of faith, tempts to most execrable barbarities, effaces gradually all moral principles, and begets more crimes and forrows, than almost any one fin befides. The facred inftitution of marriage therefore is of the utmost importance to the innocence and the happiness of mankind. They who avoid it, as engaging them in cares and troubles, diftruft the goodness of God, who hath made every article of proper behaviour, on the whole, our present intereft; and they who difcourage it, as many do grievously, though not profeffedly, by running into needlefs expences and refinements, pervert, for the fake of vanities and follies, the plain way, which heaven hath marked out for public ftrength and private comfort. Now if a likelihood, merely that their offspring hall partake in the general felicity, is able to fill the minds of mea with great emotions; what transporting reflections muft they have, whofe defcendants appear deftined by the stations of their parents to be authors of that felicity in their turn and degree! How strongly muft fuch a hope induce them to fecure by good example and inftruction this highest honour and bleffedness to fuch as are to inherit their dignities! And how warm a return of most affectionate gratitude will they merit and receive from mankind, if virtue and liberty fhall not only be fupported by them in the prefent age, but transmitted to fucceeding ones, by their pious care of forming their progeny to the knowledge and the love of public good! The profpec only of childrens children would have little joy in it, without that of peace upon Ifrael: without a reasonable expectation of their contributing to the true glory of the family, from which they spring, and the true happiness of the nation, over which they are to prefide. But when due provifion is made for this, both fovereign and people may take up the words of the Pfalmift: Like as the arrows in the band of the giant, even fo are the young children. Happy is the man that bath bis quiver full |