most thankful to the Giver of all good, for my sublunary blessings, the highest of all for a grateful heart that enjoys them; and I have always accustomed myself to think more on what I have than on what I want. I have seen but little of life, but I have looked minutely into that little; and I assure you, on the faith of a poet and a philosopher, that I have been able to trace the miseries and misfortunes of many of my friends solely to the situation in which they were placed, and which other men envied; and I never knew a man happy with a great fortune, who would not have been much happier without it. Nor did I ever know a vicious person, or one who scoffed at religion, happy. He goes always on from bad to worse; and I was sorry to find in the metropolis so many of a wretched set of politicians not only deists but gross blasphemers. O, my soul! come not thou into their secret; into their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united. Finally,

without virtue there can be no true happiness; and if ever there was a light kindled to direct man to happiness, both here and hereafter, it is the divine revelation. Happy is that people whose God is the Lord.

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SERMON IX.

MARRIAGE.

"It is better to marry than to burn."

THERE are two sides of the question to be examined here; more particularly as one part of Scripture is often at a little variance with another part in this respect. Such as, "He that marrieth doth well; but he that marrieth not doth better." "Marriage is honourable," &c. "Whosoever findeth a wife, findeth a good thing." The apostle ought to have made some exceptions here. But I think, if every marriage were gone about prudently and regularly, with the consent of parents and friends, very few marriages would turn out to be unhappy. It is a curious fact, that throughout the whole Scriptures of truth I have never been able to discover a single

hint that children had a right to marry without the consent of their parents. It was a good law; and, though our dramatists and novelists have set it sore aside by their representations of cruel and unreasonable parents, I find that, in all my experience, and the history of the world from its beginning, that these irregular marriages never have thriven. It was

these which caused the destruction of the old world. They proved a grief of mind unto Isaac and Rebecca. They brought the patriarch Judah into great trouble and iniquity. They proved a grievous curse on David; and rent the kingdom of Israel from his grandson by Solomon's unlawful marriage. But even the simple register of all the evils which have sprung from rash and illegal marriages would fill many volumes.

I shall then set out by stating my own opinion frankly, that if, as in this country, every man have his own wife, and every woman her own husband, that marriage is

the best institution under heaven. I have now tried both ways a long time, and my opinion ought to be of some avail; but I must likewise quote the sentiments of a far greater man, who shall for the present be nameless.

"You tell me in yours, that man and wife are one flesh. I deny it; for how can they be one flesh, and have different souls? which they have with a vengeance. The love which excited the union is soon converted into disgust. Woman is a composition of so much versatility, that she may shew an agreeable outside to the world, and quite the reverse of the picture to the man of her choice. Agreeable to the primeval curse, her desire is, indeed, to her husband; but it is a desire to torment and vex him. She has the power of speech, but not the gift of understanding. Nature has placed her in a state of subordination, and her whole endeavour through life is to attain absolute power and authority. Her charms give the first sway over