Page images
PDF
EPUB

May what hath been faid, conduce to the Confirmation of your Faith, to the clearing of your Thoughts, to the removing of your Doubts, if any fuch be, and therein to the Glory of the eternal and ever-blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three Perfons and one God. To whom be afcribed all Honour, Might, Majefty, Dominion and Adoration, hence, forth and for evermore.

[ocr errors]

SER

SERMON III.

On the 9th of June, 1689, at Lambeth Chapel.

3

A

ESTHER V. 13.

Tet all this availeth me nothing.

MONG all the Errors and falfe Perfuafions to which Man in this mortal State is fubject, none are more dangerous, and at the fame time more common, than those relating to the Happiness of his Nature. All the rational Parts of the Creation propofe to themfelves, and the irrational Part are directed by their Creator to fome fupreme End. The more ignoble Part fail not to obtain their End, being directed by an infallible Hand; while Man, the most noble Part of the vifible Creation, mifcarrieth in the Acquifition of it. It is a rational Soul, capacious Faculties, and the uncontrouled Use of a Freewill, which bestow on Man a Poffibility of being truly Happy: Yet fuch is the Miffortune

fortune of Mankind, that even these are the Occafion of his Fall and Miscarriage. He fets the Faculties of his Soul on Work to invent new Methods of Happiness; he runs through all the Pleafures, whether of Senfe or Reafon, of which his Nature is capable; he fixeth his Defire upon thofe which most of all strike his Imagination, or gratify his Senses; he applieth himself to obtain them by the Ufe of his Free-will: When he hath discovered the Vanity and Unfatisfactorinefs of one End, he invents another: He grows wanton in his Defires, and the more he indulgeth his roving Thoughts, the farther he is removed from the Poffeffion of his true End.

A miferable Calamity indeed, that Man alone should mifcarry in his fupreme End; yet a Calamity which cannot be denied; a Calamity which hath involved the far greater Part of Mankind, who know no other End than what is terminated in this Life, seek no other Happiness than what arifeth from the Report of their Senfes, and expireth with them. Many have indeed, by the Excellency of their Thoughts, refcued themselves from this common Calamity, and all Christians are by the Benefit of Revelation delivered from it: They know a better and more lafting Happiness; they are not unacquainted with the fupreme End of their Nature; yet by a miserable Corruption of Judgment they are betrayed to neg

lect

lect this End, to ftifle their Knowledge, and over-rule the Convictions of their own Minds.

This arifeth from an unjuft Efteem of Corporeal and Temporal Happiness, which recommending it felf to the Soul of Man by the Impreffion of Senfe, diverteth it from the Confideration of a better and more noble End, taketh Root in his Imagination, raiseth his Paffions, and by their Affiftance continueth its Poffeffion. Nothing therefore will conduce more to the retrieving a juft Conception of real Happinefs, to rectify the Thoughts, and fecure the End of Man, than to obviate the Deceitfulness, to defeat the Delufions of fenfual and temporal Happiness; by manifest ing how unfatisfactory it is in its own Nature, how unable to fill the capacious Faculties of our Souls, how vain and trifling, how unworthy our Study and Defire. This will effectually perfuade us to raise our Thoughts, and apply our utmost Diligence to the Acquifition of a more noble End: When we shall be convinced of the Infufficiency of that End, which withdraws us from the Purfuit of the other, when we fhall perceive that no real Happiness will arife from thence; that however it may flatter the Senfe, and pleafe the Imagination, it will fill no one Faculty of the Soul.

[ocr errors]

To effect this Conviction therefore, the Scripture makes Ufe of various Arguments;

the

the uncertainty of Life, the mutability of Fortune, the lofs of an eternal Reward, forfeited by a blind purfuit of worldly Happinefs; the Vanity of it when obtained; the miferable Confequences of it when expired; but above all, the Examples of worldly Men, who after they had obtained all which they could defire in this Life, rested unfatisfied, or became unhappy; were divested of their Felicity, and reduced to Misery; or amidst all their Enjoyments, by a conviction of Judgment, which they could not refift, declared and confeffed the Emptiness and Vanity of that Felicity, which themfelves had fo much courted, and others fo much admir'd.

An eminent Inftance of this, is that of Haman in my Text, who, amidst all his Honours and Titles, his Wealth, and the Favours of his Prince, amidit all the Pleafures which this Life can receive, convinced by undeniable experience, confefs'd, that all this availed him nothing. That both thefe Confiderations therefore, both the nature of the Thing, and the evidence of Experience confirming it, may be useful to us, I will proceed upon these two

Heads.

4

I. The Example of Haman, confeffing, that all the Satisfaction of this Life availed him nothing.

II. The

« PreviousContinue »