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rather call it brutal philosophy, which they have revived. We ingenuously acknowledge that the sight of people of this character always excites emulation in us, at least it leads us to deplore the inefficacy of religion in some people's minds. Truth with all its brightness, virtue with its graces, religion with its evidences, eternity with its demonstrations, celestial felicity with its pomp, all these things can hardly hold some trembling Christians steady to their profession, who yet seem to adhere to Jesus Christ: while these men without light, without proofs, without demonstration, without certainty, yea without hope discover a tranquillity, which we should congratulate ourselves for producing, even after we have spent twenty or thirty years in the ministry.

But how fair soever this exterior may seem, how insurmountable soever this difficulty may appear, how strong soever it may seem to prevent the judgments of God, and to dispose of the terrors which they naturally excite in the conscience, it is an effort of wickedness easily defeated; and although this fourth way seems to surpass the three others in wisdom, yet it actually goes beyond them all in absurdity and extravagance.

Do we impose on people of this kind? Let them tell us on what their tranquillity is founded. Allowing the circumstances in which we now are, there can be only two ways of acquiring tranquillity in prospect of death. The first is, to prove that religion is a human contrivance; that all we propose concerning a future state, a heaven and a hell, and concerning the means of escaping the last and enjoying the first, is either exaggerated or imaginary. The second is, to bring full proof that we have performed the duties, to which religion has annexed a promise of freedom from misery, and the possession of eternal felicity. In which class shall I place the man I have been describing?

He would complain of injustice should I put him in the first class. He always professed himself a Christian. He has all his life long been present at public worship, and has partaken of our sacraments. In any case, if he be an infidel, he is a mere idiot. Distracted with the cares of life, he has never made such inquiries as are absolutely necessary to refute the system of religion, even supposing the system could be refuted; and I pledge myelf, let him take which side he will, to silence him, whether he undertake to attack religion, or to defend it, so grossly ignorant is he of every thing that belongs to the subject.

Has he then obtained satisfaction by the second method? A man, who has set his heart entirely at ease, because he can give full proof that he has performed the duties to which the gospel has annexed a promise of exemption from future misery, and a possession of endless felicity; such a man is truly happy; he has arrived at the highest degree of felicity that can possibly be obtained in this valley of tears; for his tranquillity is that "joy unspeakable and full of glory," of which our scripture speaks. It is that " peace of God, which passeth all understanding." It is the "white stone, which no man knoweth saving him that receiveth VOL. II.-8

it" But is this the condition of the man whom I have been describing?

On what conditions does religion promise eternal life to a statesman? On condition that he always sets before his eyes that King, "by whom kings reign, and princes decree justice," Prov. viii. 15; on condition that he does not regard the appearance of persons; on condition that he take no bribes, which God declares "blind the eyes." You have not performed this condition, you are intoxicated with your own grandeur, you are inaccessible to the cries of widows and orphans, you are flexible to presents, though you know they are given you to be returned in actions disguised under the fair names of impartiality and equity. And are you in a state of tranquillity?

On what condition does the gospel promise eternal felicity to a counsellor? On condition that he perform the oath administered to him when he entered on his profession, an oath in which he called God to witness that he would never plead any but just causes. You have not performed this condition, you have been known to take either side of a cause, yea both, when your interest required it; you have been seen exercising your talents in varnishing over such causes as you durst not state in their true point of light, and straining every nerve to mislead the judges. And you are in a state of tranquillity, and will be so the day you die.

On what condition does religion promise eternal happiness to a man in possession of property unjustly acquired? On condition of his making restitution. You are, in this case, I mean in the case of him who holds such property, for "the stone crieth out of the walls of your houses, and the beam out of the timber witnesses against you. The hire of the labourers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries are entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts," Hab. ii. 11; Jam. v. 4. You have not made restitution; you will not even suffer us to utter this frightful word, Restitution; you are going to transmit this accursed patrimony to your children, and you too are tranquil and easy! What! are you also a philosopher? Are you also a stoic? Extravagant stoicism, senseless philosophy, absurd tranquillity! Is it thus you pretend to oppose Almighty God! "There is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord."

Let us conclude. The most reasonable part, that an intelligent creature can take, is to submit to his Creator. Happy, if it were as easy to affect our hearts, as it is to convince our judgments of this article! Happy, if the heart never appealed from the dictates of reason, and if the passions had no distinct and separate system! A system the more dangerous, because reason is present only in a few moments of our attention; whereas the other, on the contrary, always carries us away when we follow the suggestions of our passions, that is in the usual course of our lives.

My brethren, let us act like intelligent creatures, let us form a just idea of sin, let us always have before our eyes this image, which the Wise Man has given us, and which is so

SERMON LX.

IMAGINARY SCHEMES OF HAPPI-
NESS.

ECCLESIASTES i. 9.

The thing that hath been, is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun. THERE are few people in the world, who do not form in their minds agreeable plans of happiness, made up of future, flattering prospects, which have no foundation, except in their own fancies. This disposition of mind, which is so general among mankind, is also one of the principal causes of their immoderate desire to live. Some have questioned, whether any mortal were ever so happy as to choose to live his life over again, on condition of passing through all the events through which he had gone from his birth to his last hour. Without investigating this problem, I venture to affirm that mankind would be much less attached to the world, if they did not flatter themselves with the hope of enjoying more pleasure than they had hitherto experienced. A child fancies, that as soon as he shall arrive at a certain stature, he shall enjoy more pleasure than he has enjoyed in his childhood, and this is pardonable in a child. The youth persuades himself that men, who are what they call settled in the world, are incomparably more happy than young people can be at his age. While we think ourselves condemned to live single, solitude seems intolerable; and when we have associated ourselves with others, we regret the happy days we spent in the tranquillity of solitude. Thus we go on from fancy to fancy, and from one chimera to another, till death arrives, subverts all our

proper to demonstrate to us the extravagance of it. Let us remember, that a sinner is an idiot, who attempts to resist God, who opposes his laws, and who undertakes to counteract him by superior skill or force. Let us seek in a reconciliation to God those succours of which our silly pride offers us only an appearance. But you love grandeur, you are struck with the courage of a man, who opposes God, and who pretends to resist and triumph over him. Well, consider the path we open to you in this point of light. This Almighty God is armed against you, his anger is ready to crush you to atoms, his thunder roars, his lightnings flash in your eyes, his fire is kindled, and his justice requires your destruction: but there is an art of disarming God. This was the skill of Jacob, who wept, and prayed, and said, "I will not let thee go, except thou bless me," Gen. xxxii. 26. This was the wisdom of Moses, who stood in the breach to turn away the wrath of heaven, of that Moses to whom God said, "Let me alone, that I may consume this people," Exod. xxxii. 10; but Moses said, "O forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written," ver. 32. This is the art which Jesus Christ taught us, "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force," Matt. xi. 12. These are powerful weapons, which God will not oppose. These are arms always effectual. This was the method which the Lord formerly taught his people by the ministry of Isaiah, "Who would set briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. O, let him take hold of my strength, he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me," Isa. xxvii. 4, 5. Let us not make a vain parade before God of fanciful greatness, let us rather appear in our own insignificance, let us show ourselves as we are, "poor, miserable, blind, and naked." Let us not pre-imaginary projects of happiness, and makes us tend to surprise him with the wisdom of our counsels; but let us endeavour to move his compassion, by acknowledging our uncertainty, our darkness, our ignorance, our superficial thoughts on the government of the world, and on that of our families. Let us not appear before him intoxicated with pleasure, but morti-racter of disproportion to our hearts; so that by fied, contrite, bowed down under the weight of our sins, prostrate in the dust, and wounded with sincere repentance. Let us not resist him with a brutal security, but let us lay before him our timidity, our doubts, and our fears. Let us conjure him, by the sad objects of our frailty and insignificance to pity our condition. These are invincible arms, these are impenetrable shields, this is the infallible art of prevailing with Almighty God. May he deign to teach us how to exercise it! May he condescend to crown our efforts with success! Amen! To him be honour and glory both now and for ever! Amen.

know by our own experience what the experience of others might have fully taught us long before, that the whole world is vanity; that every state, all ages, and all conditions, have inconveniences peculiar to themselves, and one which is common to them all, I mean a cha

changing our situation we often do no more than change our kind of infelicity.

Of this vanity I would endeavour to-day to convince you, my brethren, and I dedicate this discourse to the destruction of imaginary schemes of happiness. "The thing that hath been, is that which shall be: and that which is done, is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." It is not unjust to reason thus; as I have hitherto found nothing but vanity in all the enjoyinents of the world, which I singled out for myself as most likely to make me happy, this experience of what has been shall guide me in my expectations of what

shall be. I have reason to suppose that the world can offer me no object in future different in its nature from those which I have always hitherto found inadequate to my happiness. All the past has been vanity, and all the future will be vanity to the end of the world. "The thing that hath been is that which shall be: and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun."

In order to enter into the views of the Wise Man, we must observe three things: first, the error which he attacks-next, the arms he employs and, lastly, the end he proposes in attacking it. Suffer me, before I enter on the discussion of these articles, to give you a more exact idea of my meaning, and to lead you more fully into the plan of this discourse.

In the first article I shall try to develope the idea of Solomon, and to engage you to enter into the most intricate labyrinths of your own hearts, and to make you acknowledge that we are all, more or less, prejudiced in favour of this bewitching opinion, that future life will produce something more solid and satisfactory, than we have hitherto found, especially if we obtain some advantages, which we have long had in prospect, but which we have not been able to obtain.

In the second part, we will prove, that even supposing the happiest revolutions in our favour, we should be deceived in our hopes, so that whether they happen or not we shall be brought to acknowledge that there is nothing in this world capable of rendering us perfectly happy.

In the last place, we shall conclude from these two principles with the Wise Man, that though a reasonable creature may be allowed to better his condition, and to obtain a happier state in this world than the past or the present, yet he ought by no means to promise himself much success, and that, in one word, it is in God alone, and in the hope of a future state of happiness in another life, that we ought to place our felicity.

I. Let us first of all determine the sense of the text, and examine what error the Wise Man attacks. We have already explained the idea we affix to his expressions, but as they are vague and indeterminate, they must be, first of all, restrained by the nature of the subjects of which he speaks, and secondly, explained by the place they occupy.

removing these enormous masses, public bodies, and in turning the current of prosperity and victory. But should he penetrate into the spring of events, he would soon find, that a very small and inconsiderable point gave motion to that wheel, on which turned public prosperity, and public adversity, and which gave a whole nation a new and different appearance.

Sometimes all the wise counsels, the cool deliberations, the well-concerted plans, that constitute the prosperity of a nation, proceed from the prudence of one single head. This one head represses the venality of one, and the animosity of another; the ambition of this man, and the avarice of that. Into this head one single vapour ascends; prosperity relaxes it, death strikes it off. Instantly a new world arises, and then that which was is no more, for with that head well-concerted measures, cool deliberations, and wise counsels, all vanished away.

Sometimes the rare qualities of one single general animate a whole army, and assign to each member of it his proper work; to the prudent, a station which requires prudence; to the intrepid, a station which requires courage; and even to an idiot a place where folly and absurdity have their use. From these rare qualities a state derives the glory of rapid marches, bold sieges, desperate attacks, complete victories, and shouts of triumph. This general finishes his life by his own folly, or is supplanted by a party cabal, or sinks into inaction on the soft down of his own panegyrics, or a fatal bullet, shot at random and without design, penetrates the heart of this noble and generous man. Instantly a new world appears, and that which was is no more; for with this general, victory and songs of triumph expired.

Sometimes the ability and virtue of one single favourite enable him to direct the genius of a prince, to dissipate the enchantments of adulation, to become an antidote against the poison of flattery, to teach him to distinguish sober applause from self-interested encomiums, and to render him accessible to the complaints of widows and orphans. This favourite sinks into disfavour, and an artful rival steps into his place. Rehoboam neglected the advice of prudent old counsellors, and followed the suggestions of inconsiderate youth. Any one of these changes produces a thousand consequences.

1. When the Wise Man says, "that which It would be easy to repeat of individuals what hath been is that which shall be," he does not we have affirmed of public bodies, that is, that mean to attribute a character of firmness and the world is a theatre in perpetual motion, and consistency to such events as concern us. No always varying; that every day, and in a manman ever knew better than he the transitoriness ner, every moment, exhibits some new scene, of human affairs: but it is not necessary to our some change of decoration. It is then clear, knowledge of the subject to occupy a post as that the proposition in the text ought to be reeminent as that which he held; for a superficial strained to the nature of the subject spoken of. view of the condition of public bodies, and of that of individuals, will be sufficient to open a wide field to our reflections.

The condition of public bodies is usually founded on materials so brittle, that there is no room to be astonished at sudden and perpetual variations. A spectator, young in his observations, and distant from the central point, is amazed at the rapid changes which he beholds suddenly take place like the creation of new worlds; he supposes whole ages must pass in

2. But these indeterminate words, "that which hath been shall be, and there no new thing under the sun," must be explained by the place they occupy. Our chief guide to determine the meaning of some vague propositions of an author is to examine where he placed them, and what precise idea he had in his mind when he wrote them. By observing this rule, we find, that the same phrases are often taken in different senses. Without quoting other examples, we observe, that the words under con

something to fill the void, that all past and present enjoyments have left in our hearts, this does not change the nature of things; all will be vanity in future, as all has been vanity in former times. "The thing which hath been, is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which hath been done; and there is no new thing under the sun."

Weigh these words, my brethren, "the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." It seems this is precisely the disposition of mind which the Wise Man attacks; a disposition, as I said before, common to mankind, and one of the principal causes of our immoderate attachment to life. Let each of us study his own heart, and let us examine whether we know the portrait that we are now going to try to sketch.

sideration occur twice in this book, once in the text, and again in the fifteenth verse of the third chapter, where we are told, "that which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been." However, it is certain, that these two sentences, so much alike in sound, have a very different meaning. The design of Solomon, in the latter passage, is to inform such persons as tremble at the least temptation, that they were mistaken. We complain, say they, that God exercises our virtue more than he does that of other men, and though he allows these rude attacks, yet he does not afford us strength sufficient to resist them. No, says Solomon, whatever variety there may appear to be in the conduct of God towards men, yet there is always a certain uniformity, that characterizes his conduct. Indeed he gives five talents to one, while he commits only one ta- We often declaim on the vanity of the world; lent to another, and in this respect there is a but our declamations are not unfrequently variety: but he does not require of him, to whom more intended to indemnify pride, than to he has committed one talent, an account of express the genuine feelings of a heart disabusmore than one talent; while he calls him to ac- ed. We love to declaim against advantages count for five talents, to whom he committed out of our reach, and we take vengeance on five, and in this respect there is a perfect uni- them for not coming within our grasp by exformity in his conduct; and so of the rest. "I claiming against them. But such ideas as know that whatsoever God doth (these are the these, how just soever they may appear, are words of Solomon,) I know that whatsoever only superficial. It would be a fatal error God doth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be indeed, to persuade ourselves that we are really put to it, nor any thing taken from it, and God undeceived, and consider the world in a true doth it, that men should fear before him. That point of light on this account. which hath been is now, and that which is to be hath already been, and God requireth that which is past."

A dying man is all taken up with his then present condition. A desire of health occupies all the capacity of his soul; but he does not observe, that, should he recover, he would find the same troubles and pains as before, and on account of which he has felt so much uneasiness, and shed so many tears. A man waiting on the coast, to go abroad, wishes for nothing but a fair wind; and he does not think that he shall find other, and perhaps greater calamities, in another climate than those which compelled him to quit his native soil. This is an image of us all. Our minds are limited, and when an object presents itself to us, we consider it only in one point of view, in other lights we are not competent to the examination of it.

But in our text the same words, "the thing that hath been is that which shall be," have a different meaning. It is evident, by the place in which the Wise Man put them, that he intended to decry the good things of this life, to make the vanity of them appear, and to convince mankind, that no revolutions can change the character of vanity essential to their condition. The connexion of the words establishes the meaning. From what events do mankind expect, says he, to procure to themselves a firm and solid happiness in this life? What efforts can be made greater than have been made? Yet "what profit hath a man of his labour Hence the interest we take in some events, which he taketh under the sun? One genera- in the revolutions of states, the phenomena of tion passeth away, and another generation nature, and the change of seasons: hence that cometh," but the world continues the same; perpetual desire of change; hence sportive "the sun riseth, and the sun goeth down, and phantoms incessantly created by our imaginahasteth to his place where he arose. The wind tions; hence chimerical projects for ever regoeth toward the south, and turneth about volving in our minds; or, as the Wise Man unto the north, and the wind returneth again expresses it, "Eyes never satisfied with seeing, according to his circuits. All rivers run into and ears never filled with hearing." O, says the sea, and whence they come, thither they one, could I get cured of this illness, which return again, ver. 3-7. The moral world renders life a burthen-could I, says another, resembles the world of nature. It is in vain to get free from the company that poison all my expect any vicissitude that will render the pleasures-could I go, says a third, and settle remaining part of life more happy than the in a country where maxims and laws are altoformer. The eye is not satisfied with seeing," gether different from those under which I live ver. 8; or, as may be translated, "with con--could I but obtain that place, which would sidering; nor the ear filled with hearing;" or, as the words may be rendered, "the ear never ceases to listen."** But this contention, which makes us stretch all our faculties in search of

* Visus et auditus synecdochice ponuntur pro omnibus quibus voluptatem percipimus. Horum autem sensuum meminit, tum quia curiosissimi sunt; tum quia et minimo labore et maxima cum delectatione exercentur, Poli Synops. in loc. R.

take me out of the obscurity in which I am buried alive, and render me conspicuous-could I acquire a sufficient fortune to support a certain number of domestics, and to procure me certain accommodations, then, in retirement and silence, I would gratify the desire that alone animates me, of employing my life in a pursuit of wisdom, and virtue, and happiness! Poor mortals! will you always run after phan

OF HAPPINESS.

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toms? No, it is not any of the revolutions you | opens a more ample field of meditation than so earnestly desire can alter the vanity essential to human things: with all the advantages which you so earnestly desire, you would find yourself as void and as discontented as you are now. "The thing which hath been, is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." O that it were as easy to imprint these truths on our hearts, as it is to give evidence that they are truths to the judgment!

II. Let us endeavour to admit these truths, with all their effects (and this shall be the second part of our discourse,) let us attempt the work, though we have so many reasons to fear a want of success. the destination of man-next let us look into Let us first examine the school of the world-then into the experience of Solomon-and, lastly, let us review the history of our own lives. These are four barriers against imaginary projects; four proofs, or rather four sources of demonstrations in evidence of the truth of the text. that hath been, is that which shall be: and that "The thing which is done, is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

I. Let us first observe the appointment of man, and let us not form schemes opposite to that of our Creator. When he placed us in this world, he did not intend to confine us to it; but when he formed us capable of happiness, he intended we should seek in it an economy different from this. man is an inexplicable enigma; his faculties Without this principle and his wishes, his afflictions and his conscience, his life and his death, every thing that concerns man is obscure, and beyond all elucidation.

the former, for the pleasures of mankind are only a point, only an atom in comparison of the miseries which pursue and overtake him. with that of a miserable man, with the doubts Who can reconcile the doctrine of a good God that divide his mind, with the remorse that gnaws his heart, with the uncertainties that torment him, with the catastrophe that envelopes him, with the vicissitudes which are friends who betray him, with pain that conalways altering his situation, with the false sumes him, with indigence that contracts him, with neglect and contempt which mortify him, and with such a number of other inconvenienexistence? ces and calamities as conspire to embitter his

what part are you acting in this world? Who His life is a mystery. What part, poor man, misplaced you thus?

of all enigmas; four days of life, a life of sixty, His death is enigmatical. This is the greatest called man has to expect in this world; he disor a hundred years, is all that this creature appears almost as soons as he makes his apcradle to the coffin, his swaddling bands are pearance, he is gone in an instant from the taken off, and his shroud is put on.

vanced, grant that the great design of the CreLay down the principle which we have adator, by placing man amidst the objects of this present world, was to draw out and extend his clouds vanish, all these veils are drawn aside, desires after another world, and then all these all these enigmas explained, nothing is obscure, nothing is problematical in man.

His faculties are not enigmatical; the faculty as he can acquire in this world. He is not of knowing is not confined to such vain science placed here to acquire knowledge, but virtue; at least he is placed in this world to acquire knowledge only so far as it contributes to the acquisition of virtue. If he acquire virtue, he will be admitted into another world, where his utmost desire of knowledge will be gratified.

His faculties are enigmatical. Tell us what is the end and design of the faculties of man? Why has he the faculty of knowing? What, is it only to arrange a few words in his memory? only to know the sounds or the pictures to which divers nations of the world have associated their ideas? Is it merely to learn Greek and Hebrew, to collect a chaos of ancient history, to go beyond remote ages, and to discover laws of order require him to check and control His desires are not mysterious. with some degree of probability what were the his wishes, let him restrain them. When the When the habits, the customs, and the follies, of the first profession of religion requires it, let him deny inhabitants of this universe? Has man intel- himself agreeable sensations, and let him paligence only for the purpose of racking his tiently suffer the cross, tribulations, and persebrain, and losing himself in a world of abstrac- cutions. Let him subdue his passion for eletions, in order to disentangle a few questions vation and grandeur, and let him humbly rest from metaphysical labyrinths? what is the origin in that mean situation where it has pleased of ideas, what are the properties, and what is Providence to place him. Let him moderate the nature of spirit? Glorious object of know-his love of riches, and let him patiently submit ledge for an intelligent being! An object in general more likely to produce skepticism, than demonstration of a science properly so called. Let us reason in like manner on the other faculties of mankind.

His desires are problematical. What power can eradicate, what power can moderate his desire to extend and perpetuate his duration? The human heart includes in its wish the past, the present, the future, yea eternity itself. Explain to us, what proportion there can be between the desires of man and the wealth which he accumulates, the honours he pursues, the sceptre in his hand, and the crown on his head?

His miseries are enigmatical. This article

to poverty and indigence. After he shall have
thus submitted to the laws of his Creator, he
may expect another period in which his desire
to be great will be satisfied.

exercise his virtue, and will be rewarded with
His miseries are no more enigmatical; they
glory.

of probation, a time of trial, a period given
His life ceases to be mysterious; it is a state
him to make choice of an eternity of happi-
ness, or an eternity of misery.

impossible that either his life or his death
His death is no longer a mystery, and it is
should be enigmas, for the one unfolds the
cause it tends to death, and death verifies,
other: the life of man is not an enigma, be-

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