SERM.

VI.

And thirdly, It gives us a more devout and pious, and therefore a better heart.

And Firft, then, Sorrow is better than laughter, because it gives us a more humble, and therefore a better heart.

A very little knowledge of the world will fuffice to convince us, that man, whilft in prosperity, is a most proud and infolent being, a ftranger to the wants of his fellowcreatures, and infenfible of their miseries; whilst he is in the actual enjoyment of the good things of this life, ungratefully forgetting the hand that gave them, and always flattering himself that to-morrow will be like to-day, and more abundant. As the wife man fays, In the day of profperity there is no more remembrance of affliction, and in the day of affliction, there is no more remembrance of profperity; that is, there is in man neither wisdom or gratitude; for we often weep when we ought to rejoice,

and complain, when we ought to be SERM. thankful.

In the warmth of fummer, when the fun enlivens and invigorates all things around us, we can hardly bring ourselves to imagine that there is fuch a time as winter approaching, or that fo pleafing a fcene can be quickly deformed by storms and tempeft, and rendered an image of barrenness and horror.-And so it is with regard to the temporal and tranfitory things of this life: when the body glows with health and vigour, and the mind is elated with joy and fuccefs, penury and misfortune are at fuch a distance, that we cannot readily form any conception of them; self-love is ever ready to flatter and deceive us; and because we wish our pleasures should be lafting, we haftily and

rafhly conclude that they must be fo.

Happy

VI.

SERM.

VI.

Happy is it for us then, that the great phyfician of mankind hath prepared a medicine, however unpalatable, for this worst of distempers, the pride and haughtinefs of the human heart; happy is it for us, that when we are thus on the brink of evil and destruction, affliction may step in to fave our eyes from tears and our feet from falling, that she may come, like the Cherub from the gate of Eden, to drive us from our visionary Paradife, and fhew us that world which we are doomed to inhabit, as it really exists.

But another advantage arifing to us from forrow, is, that it enhances the value of its oppofite. Sorrow is to joy, what vice is to virtue, the best foil to its beauties; the comelinefs of the one is recommended by the deformity of the other. The heart which hath never groaned under affliction, will not truly enjoy

3

enjoy the transport of felicity; the man SERM, who has never been a flave, is a stranger

to half the joys of freedom; and the warriour who has once been vanquished, if the fortune of the day fhould turn again in his favour, enjoys a double victory.

Another advantage alfo, and that no inconfiderable one, is, that as it faves us from pride and infolence, fo doth it fecure us alfo from ridicule and contempt. Human nature has fubjected us to many diftreffes, and the ingenuity of man hath created as many more: where the conftitution is not subject to disorders, fancy, in weak minds, is ever ready to fupply them; where fortune hath provided against natural wants, humour and caprice can find out artificial ones, infomuch that the whimsical and abfurd fuffer perhaps more from the absence of what they do not ftand

VOL. I.

I

VI.

SERM. ftand in need of, than of what they really

VI.

want. Here then we again fee the advantage of forrow; for thofe who have felt real misfortunes, will not make to themfelves imaginary ones; the lofs of. trifles will not afflict him who hath at any time been deprived of a fubftantial good; and the man who knows what it is to want the neceffaries of life, will not be over anxious for the fuperfluities

of it.

But Secondly, Sorrow not only gives us a more meek and humble, but it gives us alfo a firmer, fteadier, nobler, and therefore a better heart.

Fortitude is one of the higheft virtues which we can acquire; it gives a dignity to human nature, and exalts it almost to divine. There cannot be a nobler fpectacle, fays the philofopher, nor worthier