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Harmony, and thereby to promote the Happiness of SERM our Country. How far it is the Duty of Men in publick Characters, to rejoyce, and to blefs God, for thofe Powers and Opportunities which he has given them to do good to others, it is not, here, neceffary to obferve. Be it fufficient, that we practise, in our feveral Stations, our Duty both to them and him: Nor fuffer ourselves to be led afide by Cuftom, and by the peftilent Example, which fome Men have given us, to repine and murmur, inftead of praifing and giving Thanks for the publick Happiness and Profperity of our Country. Nor let the little Pleasure, if any Pleasure it can be to us, of cenfuring those, whom God bids us honour, deprive us of the more exquifite, and more generous Satisfaction of being pleased with what is meant to please us. To return Good for Evil, is what the Gospel hath exacted: But to return Good for Good, is what Nature teaches, and what, in the common Notions and Apprehenfions of Mankind, it is a Mark of great Basenefs to refuse. Obedience to froward Governors our Religion preffes on us: But to pay our Obedience to the Good and Gentle, methinks, we fhould want no Inviting. To be patient and fubmiffive is, at all Times, our Duty: But to be pleased and happy, when there is nothing to make us otherwife, one would think our own Hearts fhould lead us..

I am not ignorant, that the Times we live in, have: been often represented in a very different Light. But if Eafe and Affluence, if Liberty and Religion, if the Security of our Perfons, of our Properties and Estates, may be allowed as Evidence against fuch Suggestions, there is no need to be particular on this Subject. This is a Kind of Evidence, which we see and feel, and

SERM. we muft utterly defpair of all other Arguments, where I. these can work no Conviction.

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And confidering from whofe Influence these Bleffings are derived to us, and in whose Royal Presence I am fpeaking, I am not unmindful of a Decency to be obferved, which must check me here, and restrain that Zeal, with which the Heart of a good Man must naturally overflow, while it dwells on these pleasing Subjects. I haften therefore to the other Sense of my Text, in which it may be understood as an Exhortation to us to exert our Joy at those Seasons in particular, when any publick or private Bleffing has been conveyed to us. As to private Bleffings, I obferved before, that we naturally take Pleasure in them. And I observed withal, that as to publick Bleffings, we are lefs apt to be attentive to them. But how neceffary it is, at some certain Seasons, to raise up in our Minds the Remembrance of those Bleffings, which are of a more general and publick Nature, the Nation, I have juft mentioned, fhews. The Backwardness and Averfion, Men are apt to have to the devout Remembrance of God's Favours to them, has occafioned in the Church the Appointment of certain Days, to be constantly obferved, as the Year goes round, in Remembrance of feveral publick Bleffings. And furely, if such distant and remote Events, as fome of those, which we ftill commemorate, deserve to be diftinguished with fuch Marks of Honour, as are paid by good Christians to them, much more do thofe Days, to which we are obliged for the present and more immediate Bleffings we enjoy, deferve to be marked out with the highest Tokens of Respect, that the most grateful Heart can pay. Now of all thofe Days,which do naturally remind us of the publick Happiness and Profperity of our Country,

Country, there is but one Appointed for the Exercise SERMof that Joy, which it is my Business at this Time to I. recommend. And furely the Loyalty of good and faithful Subjects, the Piety of good Chriftians, the Gratitude which good Proteftants must naturally conceive for the Establishment of their civil and religious Rights, cannot fail to dispose us to take all Occasions, and to observe with Pleasure all Times and Seasons, that may revive the Memory of fuch fignal Bleffings. And of all the Times that may be fo employed, what can be more proper, than that aufpicious Day, when the Crown was placed on that facred Head, on which may it ever flourish! How infenfible must we be to our own greateft Happiness, how unworthy of the many Bleffings we enjoy, if we do not take Occafion, at fuch a Time as this, to return Thanks to the great Being, who bestows them! Joy and Gladness, and Gratitude to God, are the proper Return, and the only one we can make, for the Continuance of thefe his Bleffings to us. May this return be made by all, and particularly by those whose Eyes are not open to see their own, and their Country's Happiness! And may thofe, who do fee it, and are joyful in it, rejoyce with fuch a fober and religious Joy, as may leave no Stings behind it! There is a certain Wildness and Extravagance of Mirth, too apt to be indulged at fuch happy Seafons, which, inftead of raifing and elevating the Soul, does but fink it into Shame and Sorrow. For even in Laughter the Heart is forrowful, and the End of that Mirth is Heaviness. For this we may take the Royal Preacher's Word, who has also faid elsewhere of Laugh ter, it is Madness, and of Mirth, what doth it? What doth it, but to deceive and feduce the Heart, and betray us into Sin and Folly? It is not therefore that tumultuous

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SERM. multuous Joy, which is apt to oppress and overwhelm

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the Soul, and to drown all the Faculties of Reason ; but it is that fedate and fober Pleasure, that rational Delight which a good Man feels, from the Senfe of God's Favour to him, which the Royal Preacher in my Text prescribes. Joy is, at best, but a diffolute and wanton, an unnatural and unbecoming Quality, when it has not Virtue for its Foundation and Support. And even when it has, it is apt to betray that Virtue, by rendering us inattentive to our Duty. For indeed, we are never so much off our Guard, never fo much expofed to the Power of Temptation, as when we are gratifying that giddyPaffion. To arm us therefore againft the ill Effects of it, and to fill our Hearts with a wellgrounded Joy, by rendering us proper Objects of those publick Bleffings, which as on this Day were conferred upon us, let us, first, resolve, (if it is not yet done) to feafon our Hearts with a true Gratitude to God for these, and all his other Benefits: And let us declare the inward Gratitude of our Hearts, by the outward Teftimony of Praise and Thanksgiving. Let us animate and inflame each others Souls with a true Zeal for the Honour of our King, and for the Peace and Profperity of our Country; But, laftly, let us not in the mean time forget to fortify and prepare against those Temptations to whtch the Tranfport of our Joy may lead us. Thus guarded and fecured, thus fanctified and improved, the Joy we now feel, may be a good Prefage of a long Series of Bleffings here, and, what is much more, may confirm our Hope of that Joy, which we expect hereafter.

Which God of his infinite Mercy grant, &c.

Self

KING at Hampton-Court,

October 21, 1733.

PSALM Xix. II.

•And in keeping them there is great Reward.

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II.

HERE are no Sorts of Argument SERM. more likely to affect us, than thofe which concern our Intereft; this being a Point which, fo far as we understand it, we feldom fail, with great Attention, to purfue. The Misfortune is, that we very frequently mistake it, and are apt to embrace That as our greatest Intereft, which in Truth is very far from being fo: And this want of Judgment is in nothing more remarkable, than in preferring things fenfual and of a fhort Existence, to those things which are both fpiritual and eternal,

The