XV.

SER M. to receive from the Throne of Glory continual Emanations of Joy, and to fend up to it continual Incense of Praife; this is what the Gospel promises; and this is the Height of Blifs; if we include the

IIId Thing, in which our Happiness will confift, viz. the Enjoyment of the Godhead.

Defires are infinite.

And this I take for granted, will compleat our Felicity. It is plain, that our For, if they are fixedon any finite Object, how great foever, they may fill grafp at a greater. And, if our Defires are infinite, nothing can fully and adequately fatisfy them, but an infinite Good, and an inexhauftible Source of Delight.

Suppofe a Man in fome Retirement, all fecular Bufinefs difcontinued, all Solicitation of outward Objects fhut out; while Reafon feated, as it were, on the Throne commands a Silence to the Paffions: In this State of folemn Thoughtfulness and undifturbed Contemplation, when the Soul would be the ableft to form a true Estimate of her Condition, would he find himself fufficient for his own Happiness? No; in a State of folemn Thoughtfulness, in the Multitude of Thoughts, which we have within us, the divine Comforts can alone refres the Soul A Perfon, who, not con

tent

X V.

tent with fuperficial Notions, fees with a Serm. piercing Eye Things naked and undisguised, as they are in themselves, according to their intrinsick Worth, and not as they are fet off by the Heightenings and Colourings of the Imagination; thinks too deeply to be pleafed with many Things, too deeply not to see the Littleness of almost every Thing but God, but what procures his Favour. Take away Religion, or the Relation between God and Man; and you leave nothing great, in which Man is interefted. So true it is, that Irreligion can be built upon nothing, but the Ruins of every thing, that is great, noble, and valuable in human Nature.

On the other hand, it is a vulgar Error to imagine, that Men of gay, volatile, and unbalanced Minds are the most happy. No; their Happiness must be very unfteady, because the Soul, which is the Subject of it, is fo unsteady and light. They are carried up to the Heaven, and down again to the Deep. They have fudden Starts of Joy, which are fucceeded by as fudden a Flagging of the Spirits. True, confiftent, unruffled Happiness, confifts in a collected Way of thinking, in an even and compofed Turn of Mind, in a regular Scheme of Action, and in employing our Love and Gratitude, the best of our Affections, upon God, the best of Beings: To which must be added a Freedom from Difafters, Pain and MiA a 3 fery,

X V.

SER M. fery, 'from which the Deity can alone fecure us; together with thofe Rivers of Pleafure which flow at his Right Hand for evermore, and from thence defcend upon his Creatures.

He that is the Source of our Being muft be the Source of our Well-being, of our eternal Well-being. It is the Property of the Deity alone to be bleffed in himself for evermore; and it is his likewife to be able to make his Creatures bleffed by and from himself. God being the fole Fountain-head of Happiness, the Streams of it must be either derived from him, or we must live in a barren or dry Land, where no Water is.

Unenlightened Reafon could never have proved that a Being, of whofe Greatness there is no End, would condescend to make an inferior Creature happy, by filling up each craving Void with fubftantial and unallayed Satisfactions, by making himself his Portion for ever, and beftowing upon him an exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory. But Revelation fteps in to our Aid, and perfuades us, that he who gave his Son for our Ranfom, and his Holy Spirit for our Guide, will with them give us all things, or rather himself, who is all in all, for our confummate Reward. As these Scripture Expreffions, to fee long Life, and to fee good Days, mean to enjoy long Life and good Days; fo when it is faid, without Holiness

XV.

no Man fhall fee the Lord; to fee him figni- SER M. fies to enjoy him, or to receive from him directly and immediately thofe Communications of his Favour, and that Fulnefs of Joy, which will make the Soul cry out, This God fhall be our God for ever and ever.

If the Will and Understanding be the nobleft Faculties of the Soul; if it be the greateft Happiness to have the noblest Faculties exercifed upon the nobleft Objects; then how great muft our Happiness be, when the Will is exercifed in loving him who is the fovereign Good, and the Understanding in contemplating him who is the fovereign Truth?

To conclude this Head, we shall be happy in the Perfections of Soul and Body, happy in the bleffed Society and Place; and lastly, inconceivably happy in the Communication of the divine Favour, and the Light of his Countenance. Our Underftandings will be enlightened with the brightest Truths, our Wills regulated with unfpotted Holinefs, and our Affections fatisfied with the greatest Good.

Having thus defcribed the Happiness of thofe in a future State, who have made a right Use of their Talents; I proceed to my Ild general Head, viz. to draw his Character who certainly did fo.

I fhall begin with his Character as a Writer. No Body was more capable of fhining

A a 4

XV.

SERM. fhining as an original Writer, and striking out new and unbeaten Tracks of Thought, For he had Mr. Locke's Clearness of Reafoning, as well as the extenfive Reading of Bishop Stilling fleet. He had pushed his

Enquiries fo far into Matters of a very high and elevated Nature, that where his Views ftopt short, there was not merely the Boundary of his Understanding; it was the Boun dary of human Understanding; the Point, where Knowledge ceafes, and Ignorance commences. An elaborate Attempt had been made to demonftrate the Existence of God à priori, and that He is the Subftratum of Space. And when the strong Man well armed with Learning and Abilities, kept his new erected metaphysical Building, his intellectual Goods were at Peace just fo long- -till a stronger than he arose, and ftripped him of the Armour in which he trufted *

He had thoroughly ftudied the Doctrine of the Trinity long before he entered into the Controverfy; he fat down to the Subject

*The Subftance of what he wrote upon that Subject in fome Letters to a Gentleman, has been communicated to the Publick by the ingenious Mr. Law of Chrift-College in Cambridge, partly in his excellent Notes on Archbishop King's Origin of Evil, and partly in his Enquiry into the Ideas of Space, etc. To which is added a Differtation on the Argument à priori, by a learned Hand, viz. Dr. Waterland.

without