SERMON sake of one man, he sought to execute on a whole nation, incensed the Queen; and " An extensive contemplation of human affairs will lead us to this conclusion, That, among the different conditions and ranks of men, the balance of happiness is pre-served in a great measure equal; and that the high and the low, the rich and the poor, approach, in point of real enjoyment, much nearer to each other, than is commonly imagined. imagined. In the lot of man, mutual compensations, both of pleasure and of pain, universally take place. Providence never intended, that any state here should be either completely happy or en tirely miserable, VII. If the feelings of plea- SERMON sure are more numerous, and more lively, in the higher departments of life, such also are those of pain. If greatness flatters our vanity, it multiplies our dangers. If opulence increases our gratifications, it increases, in the same proportion, our desires and demands. If the poor are confined to a more narrow circle, yet within that circle lie most of those natural satisfactions, which, after all the refinements of art, are found to be the most genuine and true. In a state, therefore, where there is neither so much to be coveted on the one hand, nor to be dreaded on the other, as at first appears, how submissive ought we to be to the disposal of Providence! How temperate in our desires and pursuits! How much more attentive to preserve our virtue, and to improve our minds, than to gain the doubtful and equivocal advantages of worldly prosperity! -But now, laying aside the consideration of Haman's great crimes; laying aside his high prosperity; viewing him simply as a man; let us observe, from his history, 1 SERMON VII. III. How weak human nature is, which in the absence of real, is thus prone to create to itself imaginary woes. All this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the few sitting at the King's gate, What was it, O Haman! to thee, though Mordecai had continued to sit there and neglected to do thee homage? Would the banquet have been on that account the less magnificent, thy palace less splendid, or thy retinue less numerous? Could the disrespect of an obscure stranger dishonour the favourite of a mighty King? In the midst of a thousand submissive courtiers, was one sullen countenance an object worthy of drawing thy notice, or of troubling thy repose?-Alas! in Haman we behold too just a picture of what often passes within ourselves. We never know what it is to be long at ease. Let the world cease from changing around us: let external things keep that situation in which we most wish them to remain; yet somewhat from within shall soon arise, to disturb our happiness. A Mordecai appears, or seems to appear, sitting at the gate, Some vexation, which our fancy has either entirely VII. entirely created, or at least has unreason- SERMON ably aggravated, corrodes us in secret; and until that be removed, all that we enjoy availeth us nothing. Thus, while we are incessantly complaining of the vanity and the evils of human life, we make that vanity, and we increase those evils. Unskilled in the art of extracting happiness from the objects around us, our ingenuity solely appears in converting them into misery. Let it not be thought, that troubles of this kind are incident only to the great and the mighty. Though they perhaps, from the intemperance of their passions, are peculiarly exposed to them; yet the disease itself belongs to human nature, and spreads through all ranks. In the humble and seemingly quiet shade of private life, discontent broods over its imaginary sorrows; preys upon the citizen, no less than upon the courtier; and often nourishes passions equally malignant in the cottage and in the palace. Having once seized the mind, it spreads its own gloom over every surrounding object; it every-where searches out materials for itself; and in no direction more frequently employs its unhappy activity, VOL. I: N VII. SERMON tivity, than in creating divisions amongst mankind, and in magnifying slight provocations into mortal injuries. Those selfcreated miseries, imaginary in the cause, but real in the suffering, will be found to form a proportion of human evils, not inferiour, either in severity or in number, to all that we endure from the unavoidable calamities of life. In situations where much comfort might be enjoyed, this man's superiority, and that man's neglect, our jealousy of a friend, our hatred of a rival, an imagined affront, or a mistaken point of honour, allow us no repose. Hence, discords in families, animosities among friends, and wars among nations. Hence, Haman miserable in the midst of all that greatness could bestow. Hence, multitudes in the most obscure stations, for whom Providence seemed to have prepared a quiet life, no less eager in their petty broils, nor less tormented by their passions, than if princely honours were the prize for which they contended. FROM this train of observation, which the Text has suggested, can we avoid reflecting |