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SERMONS

SERMONS

SERMON I

INQUIRY AFTER HAPPINESS

There be many that say, Who will show us any good?. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.

THE

PSALM iv. 6.

HE great pursuit of man is after happiness: it is the first and strongest desire of his nature;-in every stage of his life, he searches for it as for hid treasure ; courts it under a thousand different shapes, and though perpetually disappointed, persists-runs after and inquires for it afresh

still

asks every passenger who comes in his way, Who will show him any good? — who will assist him in the attainment of it, or direct him to the discovery of this great end of all his wishes?

He is told by one to search for it among the more gay and useful pleasures of life, in scenes of mirth and sprightliness where Happiness ever presides, and is ever to be known by the

joy and laughter which he will at once see painted in her looks.

A second, with a graver aspect, points out to the costly dwellings which pride and extravagance have erected: tells the inquirer that the object he is in search of inhabits there;

that Happiness lives only in company with the great, in the midst of much pomp and outward state-that he will easily find her out by the coat of many colours she has on, and the great luxury and expense of equipage and furniture with which she always sits surrounded.

The miser blesses God!-wonders how any one would mislead, and wilfully put him upon so wrong a scent-convinces him that happiness and extravagance never inhabited under the same roof;-that if he would not be disappointed in his search, he must look into the plain and thrifty dwelling of the prudent man, who knows and understands the worth of money, and cautiously lays it up against an evil hour that it is not the prostitution of wealth upon the passions, or the parting with it at all, that constitutes happiness—but that it is the keeping it together, and the having and holding it fast to him and his heirs for ever, which are the chief attributes that form

this great idol of human worship, to which so much incense is offered up every day.

The epicure, though he easily rectifies so gross a mistake, yet at the same time he plunges him, if possible, into a greater; for hearing the objects of his pursuit to be happiness, and knowing of no other happiness than what is seated immediately in his senses-he sends the inquirer there; tells him 'tis in vain to search elsewhere for it, than where Nature herself has placed it—in the indulgence and gratification of the appetites, which are given us for that end: and in a word-if he will not take his opinion in the matter-he may trust the word of a much wiser man, who has assured us That there is nothing better in this world, than that a man should eat and drink and rejoice in his works, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour for that is

his portion.

To rescue him from this brutal experiment Ambition takes him by the hand and carries him into the world, shows him all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them, -points out the many ways of advancing his fortune and raising himself to honour, lays before his eyes all the charms and be

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