XII. SERM. entire difregard of earthly concerns. While we are men, we muft feel and act as fuch. But they afford a good reafon why they who believe the Lord to be at hand, fhould let their moderation appear and be known unto all men. SERMON XIII. On the Joy, and the BITTERNESS of the PROVERBS, xiv. 10. The heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a IT XIII. T is well known, that men have always SER M. been much inclined to place their happiness in the advantages of fortune, and the diftinctions of rank. Hence thefe have been pursued by the multitude with fuch avidity, that every principle of honour, probity, and virtue, have been facrificed to the attainment of them. At the fame time, many circumftances might have convinced men, that fuppofing them to be fuccessful in the purfuit, it by no means followed, that happinefs was to be the reR 3 ward. XIII. SERM. ward. For if happpiness be, in truth, effentially connected with fplendid fortnne, or exalted rank, how comes it to pass, that many, in the inferior stations of life, visibly spend their days with more comfort, than they who occupy the higher departments of the world? Why does the beggar fing, while the king is fad? A fmall measure of reflection on our nature might satisfy us, that there are other principles of happiness or mifery, too often overlooked by the world, which immediately affect the heart, and operate there with greater force and power than any circumftances of rank or fortune. This is the obfervation of the wife man in the text; and what I now purpose to illuftrate. I fhall take a view of the chief fources of that bitterness which the heart knoweth, and of that joy with which a ftranger doth not intermeddle; and then fhall point out the proper improvements to be made of the subject. If we inquire carefully into the fources of the joy or bitterness of the heart, we fhall find that they are chiefly two: that they arife either from a man's own mind and and temper; or, from the connection in SERM. which he stands with fome of his fellow creatures. In other words, the circumftances which moft effentially affect every man's happiness are, his perfonal character and his focial feelings. I. EVERY man's own mind and temper is neceffarily to himself a fource of much inward joy or bitterness. For every man, if we may be allowed the expreffion, is more connected with himself, than with any external object. He is constantly a companion to himself in his own thoughts: and what he meets with there, must, of all things, contribute moft to his happiness or his difquiet. Whatever his condition in the world be, whether high or low, if he find no cause to upbraid himself for his behaviour; if he be fatisfied that his conduct proceeds upon a rational plan; if, amidst the failings incident to humanity, his confcience be, in the main, free from reproach, and his mind undisturbed by any dismal presages of futurity; the foundation is laid for a placid and agreeable tenor of life. If to this you add a calm R 4 and XIII. XIII SERM, and cheerful temper, not easily fretted or disturbed, not fubject to envy, nor prone to violent paffion, much of that joy will be produced, which, it is faid in the text, à Aranger intermeddleth not with. For this is an intrinfic joy, independent of all foreign caufes. The upright man, as it is written, is fatisfied from himself. Undisturbed. by the vexations of folly, or the remorfe of guilt, his nights will be peaceful, and his days ferenę. His mind is a kingdom to itfelf. A good confcience, and good temper, prepare, even in the midst of poverty, e continual feat. A But how fadly will the foene be reversed, if the first thoughts which occur to, a man concerning hinfelf, fhall be of a gloomy and threatening kind; if his temper, instead of calmness and felf-enjoyment, fhall -yield him nothing but difquiet and painful agitation? In any fituation of fortune, is it poffible for him to be happy, whofe mind is in this troubled ftate? The fpirit of a man will fuftain bis infirmities'; but a wounded fpirit who can bear? Vigour of mind may enable a man to fuftain many fhocks of adverfity. In his fpirit, as long as |