SERMON H

OF THE HAPPINESS OF A VIRTUOUS COURSE.

T

PROVERBS iii. 17.

HER WAYS ARE WAYS OF PLEASANTNESS, AND ALL HER PATHS ARE PEACE. SHE IS A TREE OF LIFE TO THEM THAT LAY HOLD

OF HER; AND HAPPY IS EVERY ONE THAT RETAINETH HER..

IN my laft difcourfe, I reprefented to you the fecurity of a virtuous courfe.. In doing this, I was led to touch upon its tendency to make us most. happy, as well as most secure, under God's government. I fhall now infilt more particularly on this fubject; and endeavour to give you a distinct account of the principal arguments and facts which prove the happiness of virtue; meaning, on this occafion, chiefly its prefent happiness.

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The ways of wisdom (my text fays) are ways of pleafantnefs, and happy is every one that retaineth ber. Previously to any examination of the actual state. of mankind, we may perceive a high probability. that this affertion must be true. Virtue is the image of God in the foul, and the nobleft thing in

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the creation; and, therefore, it must be the principal ground of true happiness. It is the rule by which God meant that we should act; and, therefore, muft be the way to the blifs for which he intended us. That Being who gave us our fense of moral obligations, must have defigned that we fhould conform to them; and he could not defign this, and at the fame time defign that we fhould find it most for our advantage not to conform to them. This would have been to establish an inconfiftency in the frame of natnre; and acting in a manner which cannot be fuppofed of that fupreme power, which, in every other part of nature, has discovered higher wisdom than we are able to comprehend..

But waving fuch reafonings, let us apply ourfelves to the confideration of the actual state of mankind in this refpect. And,

First, Let us confider, that by practising virtue we gratify the highest powers in our natures. Our higheft powers are, undoubtedly, our fenfe of moral excellence, the principle of reafon and reflexion, benevolence to our fellow-creatures, and the love of the Deity. To practifé virtue is to act in conformity to these powers, and to furnish them with their proper gratifications.. Our other powers [ being inferior to thefe and of lefs dignity, the happinefs grounded upon them is alfo of an inferior nature, and of lefs value. Reafon is the nature of a

reasonable

reasonable being; and to affert that his chief happinefs confifts in deviating from reason, would be the fame as to fay that his chief happinefs confifts in violating his nature, and contradi&ting himself.

Secondly, In connexion with this we ought to remember, that virtue, in the very idea of it, implies health and order of mind. The human foul is a compofition of various affections standing in différent relations to one another; and all placed under the direction of confcience, our fupreme' faculty. When we are truly virtuous, none of thefe affections are suffered to err either by excefs or de-` fect. They are kept in their proper fubordinations to one another. The faculty that was made to govern preferves its authority; and a due balance is maintained among our inward powers. To be virtuous, therefore, is to be in our natural and found ftate. It is to be freed from all inward tumult, anarchy, and tyranny. It is to enjoy health, and order, and vigour, and peace, and liberty; and, therefore, the greatest happiness. Vice, on the contrary, is flavery, diforder, and ficknefs. It diftorts our inward frame, and unfettles the adjust-' ments of our minds. It unduly raifes fome of our powers, and depreffes others. It dethrones conscience, and fübjects it to the despotism of blind and lawless appetites. In fhort; there is the fame difference, in refpect of happiness, between a virtuous and a vicious foul, as there is between a diftempered

tempered body and a body that is well; or between a civil ftate where confusion, faction, and licentioufnefs reign, and a ftate where order prevails, and all keep their proper places, and unite in fubmiffion to a wife and good legislature.

Again, thirdly; It is worth our confideration, that, by practifing virtue, we gain more of the united pleasures, arifing from the gratification of all our powers, than we can in any other way. That is, in other words, our moral powers, when prevalent, encroach lefs on the inferior enjoyments of our natures than any of our other powers when they are prevalent. In order to explain this, I would defire you to confider, that the course most favourable to happiness must be that which takes from us the least that is poffible of any of the gratifications and enjoyments we are capable of. We can take no course that will give us an equal and full fhare of all the gratifications of our appetites. If we will gain the ends of fome of our affections, we muft facrifice others. If, for inftance, we will rife to fame and power, we must give up ease and pleafure. We muft cringe and truckle, and do violence to fome of our ftrongest inclinations. In like manner, if we make money our principal pursuit, and would acquire wealth, we must often contradict our defires of fame and honour. We must keep down generofity and benevolence, and the love of fenfual indulgences, We must pinch, and toil,

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and watch, and eat the bread of carefulnefs. An ambitious man muft facrifice the gratifications of the covetous man. A covetous man likewise, must facrifice the indulgences of a man of pleasure: and a man of pleasure thofe of the ambitious and worldlyminded. Since, then, in every course of life, there is fuch an interference between the feveral objects of our affections, that courfe in which there is the least of it, must be likely to make us most happy. And it is certain, that there is lefs of it in a virtuous course than any other. Virtue brings with it many exquifite pleasures of its own (as I fhall prefently observe more particularly), and, at the fame time, does not neceffarily encroach on other fources of pleasure. It is the very best means of obtaining the ends of most of our lower powers and affections. It is, for inftance, the beft means of gaining honour and diftinction among our fellow-creatures; for the virtuous man is always' the man who is most honoured and loved. It is, likewife, one of the beft means of becoming profperous in our affairs, and gaining a competent fhare of worldly bleffings; for, agreeably to a maxim which we hear often repeated, honefty is the beft policy." A virtuous man is the man who is most induftrious, and likely to be most encouraged and trusted in every trade and profeffion. In fhort; it is a part of virtue to make use cheerfully of all the materials of happiness with which divine bounty has fupplied us.

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