SERMON LII. Caufes of the Deficiency in Domeftic Pleafure and GOD, thou haft caufed us all to proceed from one blood; we compofe but one family, whofe father and provider thou art. What obliga tions to mutual esteem and affection arise from this alliance! And what fources of focial pleasure and of focial happinesfs are opened to us by it! May we fulfil thefe duties with ever increasing fidelity and care, and thereby render ourfelves capable of enjoying in continually greater purity and perfection this pleasure and this happiness! Do thou teach us thyself, o compaffionate father, ever better to understand thy defigns upon us, our neceffities and our destination, and to feek our happiness where, according to thy paternal will, we ought to feek, and certainly shall find it. Teach us always more rightly to chufe between the various pleasures that offer themselves to us, and preferve us from the illufions of fenfuality and prejudice. Let our taste for whatever is beautiful and good be continually more purified and refined by the light of truth, fo that we may never quit the fafe path of nature and A A 4 inno. innocence. Let wisdom and virtue and real piety be our infeparable companions and guides on the journey of life; let their precepts, their admonitions, their declarations be ever facred to us, and our approximation to that perfection, to which they are adapted to conduct us, our weightieft concern. Beftow thy gracious heavenly benediction in this refpect alfo on the confiderations we are now entering upon. Let us inwardly digeft their truth, have a powerful fenfe of their importance, and become better and happier by them. For these things we implore thee, the author and difpenfer of every good and perfect gift, with filial confidence as becomes the votaries of Jefus, and conclude our petitions in the form which he prefcribed: Our father, &c. PROV. iii. 21. Let not them depart from thine eyes: keep found wisdom and difcretion. DOMESTIC life is of all the fources of human pleasure and human happinefs the most copious and abundant; and yet it is that fource perhaps, which, at least in the middling and higher claffes is the seldomeft and moft fparingly drawn from. It is constantly open to mankind; the use of it is confined to no particular time; neither toilfome preparatives nor previous expenditure are neceffary to the enjoyment of it. The more pleasure the wife man draws from this fource, the more copious and overflowing it is; the oftener he ufes it, the more agreeable it becomes to his taste. Its enjoyment is not followed either by fatiety or difguft, and though it feldom procures us transporting delights, yet it is never deficient in mild, innocent, and therefore more durable fatisfactions. Adverfe events may doubtless disturb and extenuate this fource of pleafure, but never can it entirely fail unless by our own misconduct. All circumftances, however great or fmall, however important or unimportant, whether they fignify much or little in the eyes of the world, all fupport and nourish it, all contribute to fwell its streams, all enhance and fweeten their flayour. It accompanies and refreshes us in every condition, in every fituation, in every fcene and every period of life. It alone compenfates the want of very many other sources of happiness, and without it the enjoyment of all would foon grow infipid, or at least lose much of its value. Certain however as all this is, my pious hearers, it is no less so, that comparatively but few derive fo much pleasure and happiness from this fource as they might. But too frequently is domeftic life converted into a no lefs fertile fource of trouble and mifery. And though it fhould not proceed to this extremity, yet all real pleasure is banished from it by fatiety, languor, coolnefs and averfion. Accordingly complaints of a deficiency in domeftic pleasure are both common and various. Indeed we conceal and fupprefs as much as poffible thefe complaints, because they al most always imply defects and failings of which we ought to be afhamed. But the disease is not thereby remedied; it only becomes the more inveterate and is at laft incurable. It is unquestionably far better to investigate the grounds and causes of it, and to confider of the proper means to remove it. And this we will now do, my dear friends. We will inquire into the principal caufes which occafion that defect of domestic pleasure and domeftic happinefs whereof fo many complain. The principal caufes of this defect lie in feveral other defects: in the defect of mutual esteem and affection; in the defect of a certain degree of participation; in the defect of a taste for fimple and innocent pleasures; in the defect of refources of entertainment and of enjoyment; laftly in the defect af neceffary quiet and retirement. Five fpecies of defects, which must all more or lefs be attended with a defect in domestic pleasure and domestic happinefs. Defect of mutual esteem and affection is therefore the first and certainly one of the leading caufes of the defect in domeftic pleasure and domestic happinefs. Would I court the fociety and the converfe, could I be brisk and gay in the fociety and converse of one of whom I entertain an ill opinion, to whom I afcribe no good qualities, no honeft fentiments, no merits in regard to myself or others, whom I think incapable of teaching me anything, of helping and affifting me in anything, or of contributing any thing to my happiness? And how frequently is not this the cafe between relatives and members of families! How frequently is it not fordid interest or blind paffion that knits the most facred and indiffoluble of all ties! And when once the charm of the purchased or inveigled prize has loft its novelty, when paffion gives way to calm reflection, how foon must that connection be weakened or diffolved which was only cemented by lucre or paffion! This grofs deception however out of the cafe, how frequently do we build our domestic happiness on expectations that are contrary both to the nature of man and of things! We expect from human beings fuperhuman perfection: capacities without limitation, virtues without a flaw, light without fhade. We expect pleasure without any trouble, joy without any appendage of forrow and care. Is the expectation, as it cannot be otherwife, unfulfilled; we imagine ourselves deceived, defrauded: overlook all the beautiful and good that really exifts in the object of our disappointment; esteem it not according to its intrinsic worth, but according to the extravagant, fantastical image which we had previously formed of it; enumerate all the real and imaginary blemishes of it with the utmost accuracy, and complain of unmerited misfortune. How can mutual esteem and affection be there, and how without it domestic happiness be enjoyed! Confequences not lefs pernicious frequently attend on imprudence. We fhould be led almost to imagine that domeftic life, that |