circumstances and the regard we draw; and that no man is utterly fecluded from the poffeffion and enjoyment of it, be his station in life what it may. Learn therefore to difmifs thy complaints, and no longer accufe the Creator and Father of the world; accuse thyself and thy froward tafte, and thy irregu lar defires, and thy fervile propensity to imitation, and thy falfe, perverted judgment on the worth of things, and the weakness by which thou sufferest thyfelf to be deceived by appearance and fhow, or fwayed by the senseless fashion of the times, and the waste or abuse of thy more extenfive knowledge of these things thou mayst complain; but, from complaints proceed to alteration and amendment, if thou art not happy, or only happy in a flight degree; fince thou mayft drink at every fource of happiness which nature, art, fociety, and religion, open to thee. And when thou haft learned this, thou haft learned the science which is the most important of all, the science of being chearful, pleafed, and happy, and of ever becoming more fo. So inftructive, my pious hearers, may the time we pass in the country be to us, and so instructive it actually is to reflecting perfons. To fuch an one what appears to be no more than recreation and pleasure, will prove a copious fpring of wisdom. Thus will he at once invigorate both his mind and his body, the health of the one, and at the fame time the health of the other. Thus does he draw nigh unto his Creator, his Father, his God; learns to behold and feel him in all his works; and rectifies his judgment on the worth and deftination of man, and on his real felicity. May we all reap thefe experiences from our excurfions into the country; and on every fresh occafion in more abund ant measure! SERMON XXXIII. The Value of Domeftic Happiness. GOD, the eternal, inexhauftible fountain of all comfort and happiness, how various, how abundant are the fources of fatisfaction and pleasure which thou haft opened to us thy children, and to the enjoyment whereof thou inviteft us by thy good providence! If thou have befet our path of life with numerous impediments and difficulties for our discipline and correction, yet haft thou embellished it with numberlefs beauties and fatisfactions which impart to us courage and energy to overcome those difficulties. If thou lay upon us fometimes heavy duties, toilfome bufineffes, fevere afflictions; thou fofteneft and alleviatest them to us by still more various and greater recreations and comforts. Yes, we may, we should be even here on earth contented and happy; and if we are not fo, it is by our own fault. K4 fault. In capacities, in means, in opportunities, in encouragements to it, thou letteft none of us be wanting. But too frequently we let ourfelves be wanting in the wife and faithful ufe of that which can and should make us happy according to thy will! But too often we allow ourselves to be cheated by the femblance of things; flight truth and wisdom and virtue, the only fure guides to happiness; and let ourselves be misled by error, by folly and vice on the road of trouble and mifery. And then we doubt of thy goodness, murmur at thy decrees and difpenfations, and complain of the lamentable lot of humanity! O God, how unjust åre we frequently against thee, and how inimical to ourselves! Ah, forgive us our tranfgrefficns, most merciful father, and lead us back from our deviations. Let the light of truth diffipate the errors and prejudices that fo often mifguide us. Teach us ever better to know and more worthily to use the wife and kind difpofitions thou haft made for our happiness. Grant that we may all feek and find it there where thou wilt that we fhould feek and find it, and let us all become constantly more intelligent and good, and thereby more capable of its enjoyment. Blefs to this purpose the meditations that are ñow to employ our thoughts. Let us perceive the happiness of domestic life, to which we are called by thee, in its real form, and derive from it all the bleffedness that it is capable of procuring us. Grant our our requests, thou father of mercies, which we implore of thee in the name of our faviour Jefus, and, entirely relying on his promifes and refigned to thy will, we farther address thee as: Our father, &c. MATTH. xxi. 17. And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany, and he lodged there. IT not unfrequently happens, that a man is looking at a distance for what lies by him, for what is inviting him at home to immediate enjoyment; and this is commonly the cause that he either does not find what he feeks for at all, or not fo complete as he could wish. Thus all mankind are in quest of fatisfaction and happiness. But probably they least search for it where it would be the most eafily, the most certainly, and the most completely found. They overlook or defpife the fources of it which lie nearest to them, and are already in their poffeffion; which no man can fhut up from them, no man can render tasteless or contestable; which flow indeed without noife, but in a copious and uninterrupted stream and rove about in anxious per 4t : plexity |