the enjoyment of a good confcience and the affurance of the divine approbation render us; how cheerful and rational our devotion is; how refpectable, how amiable, muft virtue and piety appear to them! what an impreffion must these observations, this view, make on the good and the bad, on the ftrong and the weak, on the wavering and the refolute? What a falutary compunction must it excite in one, what a generous emulation in another, what firmness and perfeverance in a third!

Social life in fhort, my pious hearers, when properly used, is productive of very many innocent and real pleasures to us. The various advantages it procures us, is already the richest and the pureft fource of them. This greater knowledge of mankind, this extenfion of our perceptions and range of observation, this approximation of our heart and mind to each other, this inward fense of our mutual alliance, this difcipline in the most honourable difpofi tions and virtues, this opportunity for doing good and promoting happiness: what pleasure must it procure to the friend of truth, the friend of virtue, the friend of man! And how many other fources of pleasure are open to us by the reciprocal confidence, the greater freedom, the natural endeavour to please, and to prefent ourselves on the most advantageous fide, the various exertions and proofs of the benevolence of our brethren, the gaiety of converfation, the charms of mirth, the many agreeable occupations and amusements of our fenfes and our mind,

D3

mind, which are the property of focial life and give it all its worth! And how refreshing and reviving is the fober enjoyment of these pleasures, when combined with confcioufnefs and felf-confideration! It recruits our fpirits after finishing fome laborious tafk; it rewards us for our industry and fidelity in the functions of an arduous calling; it furnishes relaxation to the mind after intenfe application, by giving a freer and easier scope to activity. It is repofe, and yet not an inactive, an irkfome reft; it is employment, and yet not compulfory, not wearifome business. We there enjoy our existence in common, our diftinctions, our goods, our profpects and connections; we there enjoy in common and with gladness of heart, the various gifts and recreations which providence has granted us to enjoy ; we there feel the value of the mutual esteem and affection and friendship, that connects us together; we there find ourfelves encouraged and recompenfed by the applause that is given to our projects, our sentiments and our actions; we there calm and delight ourfelves in the idea of the manifold affiftances and fervices we may expect from each other, and the number of things we may accomplish by united efforts; we there find a variety of food for our taste, for our mind; we there walk a fmooth and pleasant path, beftrewed with flowers, and thus acquire fresh cheerfulness and vigour for purfuing the rougher and thorny parts of our journey. And muft not this be an agreeable mode of existence, a defirable enjoy

ment

ment of diversified and fubftantial pleasure? Muft not the focial life be of great value which procures us all these advantages?

Judge then for yourselves, my pious hearers, what focial life might be and procure to us, what a school of wisdom and virtue, what a fource of happiness it is capable of being rendered, if we conftantly turned it to the best account; and thence conclude, that it is commonly our own fault, when it is comparatively of fmall advantage to us. In the mean time, you are not to require of it all these benefits, all these pleasures, in an uninterrupted fucceffion, and always in an equally high degree. In that cafe your expectations would feldom be fatisfied, and focial life would foon become irkfome to you. It is fufficient, that it is adapted to procure us these advantages and pleasures, and actually does, in a greater or lefs proportion. Nothing more is requifite for demonstrating its excellent worth.

Recognize and feel then this value of focial life. Rejoice in the natural capacities and difpofitions the creator has granted you for it. Beware of flighting or rejecting what is fo deeply feated in the nature of man, and is so well calculated to promote his perfection and happiness. Much rather follow this im

pulse of your nature. Addict yourselves to the use and enjoyment of focial life; but use and enjoy it fo as becomes the wife man, the chriftian. Never let either the affairs of your vocation, or your domeftic duties, or your chriftian profeffion, or the prudent practice

D 4

practice of filent contemplation and rational devotion be injured by it. Call yourself frequently to account concerning the temper of mind you carry with you into focial life and in which you partake of it, touching the advantages and pleasures you procure from it. Be not indolently and coldly contented with every flight advantage, with every trif ling pleasure you may there cafually obtain. Endeavour to extract from it all the benefit, all the pleafures it is able to yield. Provide therein not only for your fenfes, but likewise for your heart, for your understanding, for your reflections and feelings; and reap from focial life fuch fruits as may be ferviceable to you in your bufinefs, and folace you

in retirement.

Beware of confidering focial life as a matter to the use and enjoyment whereof neither attention nor confideration, neither wisdom nor virtue are required, to which every one is equally adapted and prepared, and from which every one may promise himself equal advantage. No, only the attentive and thoughtful, only the good, the sensible, the virtuous man, can enjoy all the benefits and pleasures of focial life which we have been confidering, or even in a fuperior degree. The fatisfactions and pleasures which the thoughtless, the giddy, the wicked man enjoys therein, are commonly very deceit ful, or of no great value. Connections that are founded on felf-intereft, on caprice, or difhonest projects, are of no long duration; they are as fud

denly

denly relaxed or diffolved as they were formed. Pleasures that proceed not from a good, humane and tender heart, which depend merely on chance, tend folely to pass away time, and to ftun the intellect; pleasures wherein virtue and friendship are unconcerned, may poffibly be innocent, but can never be defirable in any important degree, never wholly - employ the foul in any worthy and honourable

manner.

No, ufe focial life to the end to which it is adapted and ordained. Strive by it to increafe and to rectify your knowledge of mankind, to enlarge the circle of your obfervation, to enrich your flock of ufeful notions, and to confirm you in every worthy fentiment, to discipline yourself in every virtue. There learn to rejoice in your fellow-creatures; learn to love them, fhew them your affection by numberless fervices and tender affiduities; communicate freely and abundantly and honourably to others of what you poffefs, if you would partake in what they have to bestow. There enjoy the pleasure of inftructive, entertaining discourse, the pleasure of friendship and confidence, the pleasure of focial gladness in the bounties of God; enhance and fanctify these pleasures, by the cheerful recollection of God, the donor of them; and then let the benefits and pleasures you obtain from mutual converfe with your brethren, give you fresh incitement and vigour to the discharge of every duty of busy, of domestic, of folitary life. So will your turn for fociety be not

only