SERM. grims on Earth, we are able to reconcile XVIII. thofe different Reasonings about bu

man Happiness. Now we know that it is, and that it is by us all attainable; and pro pofe it as the End of our Actions, and fee it to be forcible enough to influence them throughout our whole Life. There appears no more any Inconvenience in embracing that natural and popular Doctrine, which made Pleasure our ultimate Defign and final Happinefs. There remain in it no Confequences of Bafe or Unjust, nothing difhonourable to ourselves, or mifchievous to others. For our everlasting Hopes regulate our short temporal Enjoyments; and every Self-denial requir❜d of us, is but the securing an infinitely greater Self-fatisfaction. Though we moderate our fenfual Pleafures, and abstain from thofe fleshly Lufts that war against the Soul; we purfue ftill the fame Principle, and are seeking and embracing the Pleafure that lafts for evermore. And whereas the feveral Enjoyments of Virtue and Peace of Mind, or of the Things defireable for the Body, could not be attained by many; and when attained are inconftant,

fhort,

fhort, and imperfect; and therefore had SER M. not fufficient Weight to determine the XVIII. Course of a Man's Life againft all Oppofition: The Chriftian Happiness is of a Nature abfolutely complete, and certainly poffible to be gained by all, and impoffible ever to be loft again. For which Rea-. fons it rightly forms the fovereign Object. of the Defire of Mankind; and is fully capable of controlling all other Defires, and making them move only in Subordination to that End, without repining or Discomfort. This is that Treasure, that Pearl of great Price, which he that finds, can gladly, if Need be, fell all that he bath, that he may buy it. And when flefoly Lufts war against our Souls, here is the Victory, even in this Faith, that overcomes them and all the World.

'Tis true nevertheless, that altho' Life. and Immortality were not brought to Light as they are through the Gospel; yet a Man duly weighing his temporal Interefts, would be obliged in Prudence to chufe Temperance and Industry, against Excess and Unprofitableness, as the Ways of leaft Mifery and moft Satisfactions; though they can

not

SERM. not promife a perfect Felicity; which in XVIII. deed is not the Portion of this mortal Life.

And the Arguments for fuch a Choice I handled in a former Difcourfe. But now I come to offer the Reafon which our Re ligion furnishes; a Reafon of much greater Force, and fully proportioned to mafter all the Difficulties of any Duty which the fame Religion enjoins. This Reason the Text gives us, couch'd in thefe Words, as Strangers and Pilgrims. Dearly belo ved, I befeech you, as Strangers and Pilgrims, abstain from fleshly Lufts, which war against the Soul.

This Exhortation is directed by the Apoftle to thofe, that were well acquainted with the Phrafe, and its Signification; to Jews that had embraced Christianity. By the Teaching of the latter Profeffion, they must apprehend and know, that if our earthly House of this tabernacle were dif folved, we have a Building of God, an Houfe not made with Hands, eternal in the Heavens: And fo there is no likelihood they fhould look upon the Terms of Strangers and Pilgrims to be applied to them in the Text, with any Relation to their be

ing Strangers themselves in divers Provin- SERM. ces, (as at the Beginning of the Epistle) XVIII. but on the general Account of their fojourning here on Earth, mentioned at the 17th Verse of the First Chapter. But, as Jews alfo, they had the Example of their Forefathers familiar to them; how they travelled many Years through the Wildernefs towards their fettled Habitation in the Holy Land; and how dearly they paid for indulging flefly Lufts in that State, as the many Thousands fhewed that fell short of the Promife, in the Murmuring which brought the Quails, and in the Matter of Cozbi and the Daughters of Moab. Nor could they fail in so natural an Application; That thefe Things happened unto them for Enfamples, or Types, to fhew their Pofterity the Consequence of lufting after evil Things as they also lufted. Further; befides this, they had many of them, and all might have had, a direct Conclufion, That an everlasting Settlement is to fucceed the short Stage of human Life on Earth, from the Use of these Words, Strangers and Sojourners, and fuch like, in their Scriptures, concerning the VOL. I.

Ff

Pa

SERM. Patriarchs first, and then the whole Body XVIII. of their Nation, even after the Establish

.

ment in Canaan. That the old Fathers look'd only for tranfitory Promifes, is an Error justly condemn'd. Jacob, in Gen. xlvii. calls the Time of his whole Life, and of the Life of his Fathers, the Days of their Pilgrimage: And it may appear, that the Expreffion does not relate only to their Travels, and their dwelling as Strangers in the Land of Promife; because we find, long after Poffeffion given of that Land, David calling himfelf, in the xxxixth Pfalm, a Stranger and a Sojourner as All bis Fathers were; and in the cxixth again, a Stranger in the Earth; and I Chron. xxix. faying of himself and all his People, we are Strangers before thee and Sojourners, as were all our Fathers: our Days on the Earth are as a Shadow, and there is no abiding. And this language was taught them of God; who declares, Levit. xxv. 23. the Land is mine; for ye are Strangers and Sojourners with me. Hereupon we muft infer, with the Apofle to the Hebrews, that thefe good. Men defired a better Country, that is, un hea