Cenfure begins at home, it will find fo much SERM. I. Employment, that it will end at home too, which your Charity ought not. As the best Writers are the most candid Judges of the Writings of others; so the beft Livers are the most charitable in the Judgments they form of their Neighbours Actions. Let us therefore put on as the Elect of God, holy and beloved, Bowels of Mercy, Kindness, Meekness, Long-fuffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another, if any Man has a Quarrel against any. Even as Chrift forgave you: fo alfo do ye. SERMON Domestic Love and Union recommended and enforced. In two Sermons preached in Twickenham PROVERBS XV. verse 17. Better is a Dinner of Herbs where Love iss than a ftalled Ox, and Hatred therewith. T is hard to form a true Eftimate of SERM. II. I any Man's Happiness; because Happi this Sub nefs depends most upon thofe Things, Sermon on which lye most out of Sight. Those Joys, jea. like those Sorrows, are most real, deep and strong, which run on in a filent Stream without making any Noife: Such are the Joys, which arife from eafy Reflections, moderate Defires, and calm Content. We fee the falfe Glare of Greatnefs, which furrounds fome Men, and are apt to gaze at it with a foolish Face of Wonder; VOL. I. D But SERM. II. But we fee not those Miseries, which sometimes lurk beneath these pompous Appear ➡times ances. What avails all the Pomp and Parade of Life, which appears abroad; if, when we fhift the gaudy flattering Scene, the Man is unhappy, where Happiness must begin, at home? Whatever Ingredients of Bliss Providence may have poured into his Cup, domeftic Misfortunes will render the whole Compofition distasteful. Fortune and Happiness are two very diftinct Ideas; however fome, who have, a falfe Idea of Life and a Wrongness of Thinking, may confound them. For Better is a Dinner of Herbs where Love is, than a ftalled Ox, and Hatred therewith. That is, it is better to have Peace without Plenty, than Plenty without Peace: That, where there is but a flender Subfistence, yet an uninterrupted Interchange of mutual Endearments, among those of the fame Family, imparts a more folid Satisfaction; than to fare fumptuously every Day, or to live in great and pompous Buildings, great and noble Apartments, every thing great, but perhaps the Owners themselves. Thofe, Thofe, that are curious Obfervers of SERM. II. Mankind, love to confider them in the most familiar Lights. When Men are abroad, they chufe to appear (whatever they really are) to the best Advantage: But at home, their Minds as well as their Perfons are in a perfect Undrefs and Deshabille. The World is the great Theatre, on which they act a Part; but behind the Scenes, they may be feen in their proper Perfons without any ftudied Appearances. Our domeftic Behaviour is therefore the main Teft of our Virtue and good Nature. In Public we may carry a fair Outfide; our Love may be not without Diffimulation, nor our Hatred without Disguise: But at home Nature left to itself fhews it's true and genuine Face, with an unreferved Opennefs; and all the Soul ftands forth to View, without any Veil thrown over it. There we fee Men in all the little and minute Circumftances of Life, which, however they may be overlooked by common Obfervers, yet give a Man of Difcernment a truer Opening into a Man's real Character; than the more glaring and important Tranfactions of it: Because, as to these, they are more upon their Guard: They act with more of Caution D 2. |