SERMON XLV.

View of the Sources of Human Happiness.

GOD, moft gracious and affectionate parent, how happy might we all be even here on earth, did we but fo prize and employ the fources of fatisfaction and pleasure which thou openeft to us, as men and as chriftians, in a manner fuitable to their deftination and to thy gracious will! How manifold, how exuberant, how inexhauftible are these fources! How great is the preponderance of the agreeable and good over the difagreeable and evil, that fubfifts in the natural and in the moral world, within us and without us! Yes, on all fides we are furrounded by the most diversified, the most glorious demonstrations of thy paternal providence and love. On all fides we behold thee, the All-bountiful, diffufing life and energy and joy of numberlefs kinds, over all thy creatures. On all fides we find the commodious, the agreeable, the delightful, intimately connected with the neceffary and indispensaple. Heaven and earth, mankind and brutes, na

ture and religion, reflection and experience, all exclaim in accents diftinct and clear, that perfection and happiness is the ultimate, the only` aim of all that thou difpofeft and doft, that thou decreeft and permitteft, that thou commandeft and forbiddeft, that thou givest and takeft away. Yes, it is thy fovereign purpose that we fhould all be happy, that we should be already so even here on earth, and if we are not it is folely by our own guilty conduct. Alas, how often do the pureft, the richest fources of fatisfaction and pleafure, invite us to enjoyment in vain, how often do they flow by us unused and unobferved, or are rendered turbid and tastelefs to us by follies and fins! - Oh might we better underftand our riches, and more worthily use them! Might we more plainly perceive, more fenfibly apprehend the multitude and the value of the benefits with which thou art daily and hourly bleffing us, and honour thee by a cheerful and grateful enjoyment of them! Blefs then, dear fource of all our joys, blefs the confiderations which we are proceed, ing to enter upon concerning thefe objects. Lot them call forth our utmost attention to the manifold and abundant fources of happiness which thou haft prepared for us, and quicken us to a diligent and faithful ufe of them. We afk it of thee in filial confidence, as the votaries of Jefus, and addrefs thee further in the form he gave us: Our father, &c.

PSALM, Xxxiv. 8.

Oh tafte and fee how gracious the Lord is!

BUT too often, my pious hearers, a man reckons himself poor, because he is ignorant of his wealth, or has not learnt to calculate and to value it properly. But too often he accounts himself not happy, or unhappy, merely because he does not obferve, or does not attend to the various, ever flowing fources of fatisfaction and pleasure that stand open to him on all fides, and feeks with great trouble at a distance what lies close beside him, offering itself to his enjoyment. But too often he reckons only particularly fortunate incidents, particularly defirable and fatisfactory events, only exceedingly agreeable ideas, or rapturous, extatic fenfations, as forming what he terms his happiness, without taking into the account a hundred other things, which just as well, though in a subordinate degree, procure him fatisfaction and pleasure. If he have furmounted obftacles, or conquered difficulties, which he had held to be infuperable and unconquerable; if he be freed from certain troubles and afflictions that preffed him long and pained him forely; if he obtain fome particular advantage for which he had been hitherto longing to no purpose; if fome of his peculiar hopes be fulfilled, the accomplishment whereof he could not think very probable;

if certain events happen, which he wifhed indeed, but could hardly expect; if he enjoy pleasures and delights that captivate his whole foul, and in the moment of enjoyment leave him nothing to wish for more: yes, then, but only then, he thinks himfelf happy. All these things however cannot fre quently happen, can but feldom occur. Not every day, not even every year of our life on earth, can be marked by fuch fortunate events, by fuch wished for occurrences, by fuch ravishing joys, by fuch fignal alterations in our conditions and fortunes. Therefore the man in whofe eyes this alone is happiness, perhaps accounts himself, during the greater part of his life, not happy, or unhappy. Although

all this while there ftand open before him and befide him, constantly, to-day as yesterday, and to-morrow as to-day, fources of fatisfaction and pleafure, no lefs pure than copious, courting him to enjoyment. But he esteems them not, overlooks them, paffes by them, or draws from them without clear confcioufnefs, without confideration. As we are defirous to be happy, my dear friends, let us avoid thefe but too common errors and mistakes. Let us to this end take a flight view of the principal fources of our happiness, and calculate the amount of our actual riches: omitting all the unufual, the extraor dinary and rare, from the account, and only fetting down what is constantly in our poffeffion, what is always in our power, what may daily procure us fatisfaction and pleasure. So fhall we certainly, according

cording to the expreffion of our text, taste and fee how gracious the Lord is, how bountiful and kind our maker is, and how liberally he has provided for the happiness of his intelligent creatures.

The confcioufnefs of our proper felf; the actual ufe of our faculties; the en:oyment of nature; the pleasure of reflection; the pleasure of virtue and beneficence; the agreeableneffes of focial, the comforts of domestic life; and the joys of piety: thefe, my pious hearers, are the chief fources of our happinefs; fources that stand open to us all, and from whence we may draw fatisfaction and pleasure from day to day.

First then felf-confcioufnefs, or the fentiment of what we are, and what we may and should become; the apprehenfion of the natural and moral endowments that we have, the faculties and capacities that we poffefs, the relations and habitudes. we ftand in to God and to the world: what an abundant, never failing fource of agreeable ideas and fenfations, of happiness, must it be to the reflecting mind! As the rich man is gratified in counting his riches, in meafuring his acres, in reckoning up his means of pleafure: fo much and greatly more muft it rejoice the reflecting man, when he feels the dignity of his nature, and holds himself to be that which he really is. But would we draw pleasure and delight from this fource, my pious hearers; we fhould frequently reflect upon ourfelves; we should not in the multitude of out

ward