forrow or remorse.

It is real enjoyment; and the

fincerity of it conftantly maintains its worth. It is innocent enjoyment; and innocence fears no reproach. It is focial, affectionate enjoyment, which excites no jealoufy, attracts no envy; by which no one is injured, with which none are unfatisfied, from which none are fent empty away, and all are contented with each other. It is an enjoyment that is grateful to our Father in heaven, which is not difturbed but exalted by the apprehenfion of his prefence, and which often confifts in a godly and joyful fense of his bounty, in the heart-felt worship and praise of that exalted being. After this pure enjoyment, these lofty pleasures, you have nothing to fear in calling yourself to account; you need not be afhamed of what you have spoken or done; you will have no caufe to think of appeafing thofe you have affronted, or of repairing the injury you have done to your brother; will cheerfully think on God, on your immortality, on the world to come. Reft and fleep will not fhun your embraces; but you will the more completely relifh the comforts of them both, and delightful vifions of the innocent pleafures you have enjoyed will frequently even there be floating in mind. And can you boaft of this,

your you that feek

your

folace and happiness principally in great and fhining companies, in loud tumultuous pleasures, in places of thronged refort? Have ye never lamented the preparatives, the expenfe, the time, the pains you have beftowed upon them?

Are

Are ye not frequently far more languid and dull on returning from them than when you went to them? Have not often perturbation and concern about the confequences of what has paffed, or reproaches for your indifcretions, accompanied you to your dwel ling? Have they not often, for a longer or a fhorter time, destroyed your peace? Have they not often incapacitated you for prayer, or rendered it irksome to you? And if you have experienced this, and do fo ftill, then confefs the advantages which the quiet, innocent fatisfactions of domeftic life poffefs over yours.

Laftly, the happiness of domestic life is reftricted. to no class of men. It is attached neither to ftation, nor to opulence, nor to elevation and power; confined neither to the palace nor to the cottage. It may be enjoyed by all mankind, by perfons of every rank, of every age, in every place. The fources of it stand open to all; to the poor no less than to the rich, to the low as well as to the high, to youth and age alike; everyone may draw from thefe wells, and everyone draw pleasure to his heart's content. And which is that external boon that in this refpect may be compared to the happinefs of domeftic life? How few perfons are able to acquire an afcendency over others! How few to fhine in the fplendours of exalted station! How few to obtain wealth and opulence! How few to raise themselves above others by personal distinctions, or by arts and erudition, or by great and heroic exploits, and folace themfelves

VOL. II.

1

with

with the applaufe and admiration of their contemporaries! But all intelligent and good perfons, the fervant as well as his mafter, the countryman as well as the citizen, the unlearned as well as the fcholar, all may enjoy the happiness of domestic life, and may enjoy it in its full perfection. It is human fentiment, it is human happiness, which every creature that is human has an equal right to enjoy, and the fame means to obtain. And what a great, what an eminently great value muft this confer upon it!

Now lay all this together, my pious hearers. Confider, what an agreeable relaxation from labour, and requital for it, what a calm and ferene felf-enjoyment, what a free delightful communication of our inmost thoughts and feelings, the enjoyment of domestic happiness is; confider that it is as diverfified as inexhauftible; that it makes up for the want of every other happinefs, but can never be itself fupplied by any; that while it is fo pleasant, it is alfo instructive and ufeful; that to the enjoyment of it neither great preparations nor peculiar dexterity and addrefs are required; that it draws after it neither difguft nor remorfe; and that in fine it is peculiar to no condition of men, but is capable of be ing enjoyed by everyone: and fay, after all, whether you know of any other external that has a greater worth than this, or even a worth fo great?

No, my dear friends, if you would enjoy plea- ' fure, inno ent, pure, daily-renewing, never difgracin, never cloying; delights worthy of the man and

the

the christian seek them not at a distance from you, fince they lie at home; feek them not in things which are not in your power, but in what is more your own; seek them in the happiness of domeftic life. If you may venture to expect them anywhere, it is certainly there they must be found!

SERMON XXXIV.

The Value of Friendship.

GOD, eternal, inexhaustible source of affection and happiness, what joys, what felicities haft thou prepared for us, by forming us capable of affection towards each other, and of elevating that affection to pure and generous friendship! What a counterbalance to all the troubles and burdens of life hast thou given us therein! Affording us a genial light through the rougheft and gloomiest paths of it! Yes, all the difpofitions, all the energies, all the propenfities and inftincts which thou haft planted in our nature, are good; they all testify that thou loveft us with parental tenderncfs, that thou haft not ordained us to grief, but to joy; not to mifery, but to happinefs! Might only all these difpofitions be unfolded, thefe energies be fo exerted, these propenfities acquire fuch a direction, and thefe inftincts be fo ennobled as is conformable to thy gracious and paternal intentions towards us! Might wifdom and virtue, might the light of religion