Domeftic Love and Union recommended and enforced. In two Sermons preached in Twickenham PROVERBS XV. verse 17. Better is a Dinner of Herbs where Love is, than a ftalled Ox, and Hatred therewith. I on this Subject, T is hard to form a true Estimate of SERM. II. any Man's Happiness; because Happi- The firft ness depends most upon thofe Things, Sermon which lie most out of Sight. Those Joys, like those Sorrows, are moft real, deep and ftrong, 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 falle Glare of Greatness, 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 thofe Miferics, which fomes times lurk beneath these pompous Appear 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 bėgin, at home? Whatever Ingredients of Bliss Providence may have poured into his Cup, domeftic Misfortunes will render the whole Compofition diftafteful. Fortune and Hap piness 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 Subfiftence, yet an uninterrupted Interchange of mutual Endearments, among thofe 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 Undress and Deshabille. The World is the great Theatre, on which they act a Part; but behind the Scenes, they may be seen in their proper Perfons without any ftudied Appearances. Our domestic 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 unreserved Openness; and all the Soul stands forth to View, without any Veil thrown over it. There we fee Men in all the little and minute Circumstances of Life, which however they may be overlooked by common Observers, yet give a Man of Difcernment a truer Opening into a Man's real Character; than the more glaring and important Tranfactions of it: Becaufe, as to thefe, they are more upon their Guard: They act with more of D 2 Caution : SERM. II. Caution and of an Art, than of plain fimple Nature. In short our good or ill Breeding is chiefly feen abroad, our good or ill Nature at home. It were to be wifhed, that we had more Family-pieces preferved and transmitted down to us. The good public Magiftrate is an Example of ufe to few only; but the prudent and affectionate Father of a Family is of a more general and extensive Influence. For my Part I more admire Cornelius the Centurion for that short Sketch of his Character in the Acts of the Apostles, viz. that he was a devout Man and one that feared *The Reader will be pleafed with the beautiful Excufe, which, among others, Sir Thomas More makes, why he did not publish his Utopia fooner. The Subftance of which is: That he was obliged to devote the little Time, which he could fpare from his Avocations abroad, to his Family, and spend it in little innocent and endearing Converfations with his Wife and Children': Which, though fome might think them to be trifling Amusements, he placed among the neceffary Duties and Bufinefs of Life; it being incumbent on every one, to make himself as agreeable as poffible to thofe, whom Nature has made, or he himself has fingled out for his Companions in Life. "Dum foris totum ferme diem "aliis impertior, reliquum meis; relinquo mihi, hoc eft, li"teris, nihil. Nempe reverfo domum, cum uxore fabulan"dum eft, garriendum cum liberis, colloquendum cum mini"ftris. Quæ ego omnia inter negotia numero, quando fieri "neceffe eft (neceffe eft autem, nifi velis effe domi tuæ pe"regrinus) et danda omnino opera eft, ut quos vitæ tuæ co"mites, aut natura providit, aut fecit cafus, aut ipfe delegifti, his ut te quam jucundiffimum compares." Mari Utopia Præfat. Pag. 4, 5. ་་ feared God with all his Houfe; than if he SERM. II. had been reprefented as the moft victorious General, that had enlarged the Bounds of the Roman Empire: For we learn from it this useful Leffon; that the Influence of a pious Example, like the precious Ointment from Aaron's Head, defcends downwards from the Head of the Family, diffuses itself over the main Body; 'till it reaches the very Skirts, the lowest members of it. Our bleffed Saviour had indeed no Family to take care of: The whole World was his Family, and all Mankind, that heard and kept his Sayings were his Mother, and Brethren and Sifters. Yet fome of his laft Thoughts were employed upon a Subject, that will be fometimes rifing uppermoft in the Minds of tender-hearted Perfons in their laft Moments, viz. "What will "become of my poor defenceless Relati ons? Who will keep them unspotted "from the Contagion, and preferve them "unhurt from the Injuries of this World, "after I am departed out of it?" At the very inftant, that he expreffed an unexampled Love to Mankind in general by dying for them; yet he exemplified a particular Tenderness D 3 |