SERMON XLV.

The Felicity of a virtuous and chriftian Temper and Conduct.

GOD, thou art happy, and the eternal and never

failing fource of all felicity, and haft decreed that we also should be happy, and become happier in continued progreffion. To this end didft thou create us; to this end affign us an abode adorned with innumerable beauties, and instances of thy bounty; to this end haft designed us for focial life, for the delights of affection and beneficence; to this end haft thou made us capable of knowledge, of virtue, of generally useful activity, and by these feveral means of numberless kinds of fatisfaction and pleafure. To this end haft thou manifested thyfelf to us by thy works, informed us by thy fon Jefus of thy will, and given us through him the fairest prospects in a better, an eternal world. And certainly we should all be happy if we only with filial docility followed thy gracious paternal intentions, if we faithfully employed these preparatives and institutions of thy wife benignity, these means and fources of joy and felicity. Yes, the road to happiness is open to us all, is far fmoother and easier to us than to thousands and thousands of other perfons and christians; and if

not

notwithstanding we mifs that road, and continue wretched, we have only ourselves to accufe as the authors of our error and our mifery. Ah God, merciful God, grant us clearly and convincingly to perceive this truth; affift us in feeking our felicity on that way, where alone it is to be found; teach us to confider virtue and godlinefs, and joy and felicity as infeparable objects, as objects which always in equal paces advance and increase. Blefs to this end the leffons of truth, the confideration whereof is now to employ us. Let not their efficacy be weakened in us by any prejudices and lower affections, but grant that they may produce permanent effects on our hearts. Thus much we now afk of thee as thy children, trufting in the promises given to us by Jefus, and fum up all our petitions in that form of words which thy well-beloved fon did frame himself, and has directed all his difciples to ufe when they pray unto thee. Our father, &c.

PROV. xi. 18, 19.

To him that foweth righteoufnefs fhall be a fure reward; as righteoufnefs tendeth to life.

THAT virtue and godlinefs render their votaries happy in the world to come, is doubted of by nobody who believes in a future ftate. But that they do fo likewife in the prefent life, and neceffarily muft, is what comparatively but very few christians think and believe. And yet no fact is more certain than

this, my pious hearers. Though fometimes they who would live godly muft fuffer perfecution; though fometimes the fincere adherents of Jefus muft through many tribulations enter into his kingdom; though at particular times and to certain perfons the gate is ftraight and the way narrow that lead to life! yet thefe are fo many exceptions to the general rule; or exercises and trials, which render mankind outwardly, but not in reality miferable, or deprive them of ferenity of mind; or in fhort obftacles, that novices in virtue cannot without much difficulty furmount, but which do not retard the expert chriftian on his courfe. No, virtue, religion, christianity are calculated to render us happy, and do actually render us happy, as foon as we properly understand and practise them, and fubmit to be governed entirely by their fpirit. Not knowledge, not belief, not amendment, but happiness, prefent, fubftantial happiness is that to which all their doctrines, all their precepts, all their directions and promises tend. We are to acquire knowledge, not merely for the fake of having it; we are to believe, not merely for believing; we are to become better, not merely for the purpose of being better: but all this we are to do, for the fake of becoming happier ourfelves, and for render ing others fo likewife. Yes, even improvement and virtue are not ultimate ends, but means; not the prize, but the way to the prize. He therefore who thinks himfelf always improving and continually advancing in virtue, always becoming more truly chrif

tian in his temper, and yet remains alike wretched, and yet is never the more placid, never the more contented, never the happier, and never renders others more happy, he either deceives himself, by imagining himself better, without really being fo; or must bear about with him a fickly and much difordered body, or is ftill under the dominion of feveral prejudices and errors, which he has imbibed in his infancy and childhood concerning God, concerning duty, concerning virtue, concerning christianity, concerning felicity. Subtracting the inftances of fuch diftempers, fuch prejudices and errors, allowing for. the times of cruel perfecutions and extraordinary trials, my pious hearers, we may fafely affirm, that he who in this world knows and enjoys no ferenity of mind, no fatisfaction, no pleasure, no felicity, is alfo not fufceptible of them in the world to come. Only we must take care not to confound profperity and happiness, adverfity and mifery together. The former, profperity and adverfity, relate folely to outward objects, riches and poverty, elevation and meanness, health and sickness, and the like. The latter, happiness and mifery, relate to the reprefentations of the mind, to the feelings of the heart, to the inward condition of the man, and are not neceffarily affociated with the former, may as well fubfift without them as with them. According to this true import of the terms, that maxim fo commonly adopted, but fo difhonourable to religion: the more miferable here, the more happy hereafter, is in moft cafes ab

folutely

.

folutely falfe. But the converfe of the propofition properly understood is always true: the happier here the happier hereafter; the more innocent, virtuous delight in the prefent, the more capacity for delight in the other world. Yes, my pious hearers, we return to our first propofition, virtue and godlinefs render mankind, fome few exceptions allowed for, already happy in the prefent life. Where virtue is, there is ferenity and joy; where real christianity is, there is felicity. This is a truth which has in its behalf the testimony of the wife and upright of all ages and nations, which is prefuppofed and afferted as undeniable in every page of holy writ, and of which we ourselves, whenever we earnestly defire it, may be affured by our own experience. It was already known to the author of the words of our text, although living long before the world was bleffed by the light and the comforts of chriftianity. To him that foweth righteoufnefs, fays he, fhall be a fure reward, he that pursues a virtuous course of life is an exceeding gainer by it; as righteousness tendeth to life; as virtue leads to happiness.

Oh that I may fucceed at this moment my dear friends, in thoroughly convincing you of it, and thus teach you to understand and to prize religion and christianity on that fide whereon they must appear to us all moft venerable and most amiable! Well then, my pious hearers, let us profecute our reflections on this momentous subject; let us contem. plate the felicity of a virtuous and chriftian temper