and, with a deep groan, his unwilling spirit takes her leave. Immediately putrefaction and worms begin their loathfome office; and in a little time, this pampered, idolized flesh, returns to the duft of which it was formed.

WHO can contemplate this picture, and not bewail with tears of blood, the madness of those who expect their only happiness from fuch a vile body! O how infinitely fuperior to these miferable delufions is the Heaven defcended philofophy of Jefus Chrift! In that divine religion, the body, instead of being exalted as the feat of our happiness, is depreciated as the principal cause of our misery, being, as the poet expreffes it, not only a neft of pain and bag of corruption, but the most fruitful fource of our fins and forrows. Chrift feldom mentions the body, except to expose its comparative worthleffnefs, and to caution us against its defiling lufts. In

every part of the facred volume, you hear his voice exclaiming with all the earnestness of parental affection: “Woe be to him who trufteth in the body, and maketh flesh his hope, for wherein is it to be relied on? Its origin is but duft, its beauty but a flower, its life but a vapour, and its duration but a moment. Pain and weariness accompany it while living, corruption and worms feize on it when dead. O let not thine heart decline to its lufts, and yeild not to its enticements, for they have caft down many wounded; yea, many Strong men have been flain by them; their way is the

is the way to hell, going down by the chambers of death. But though in the body thou canst find no true content, yet think of thy foul and rejoice, for he is more precious than filver, yea much fine gold is not to be compared unto her. Her beginning is from the breath of the Almighty, and her duration is as the days of eternity. She was made but a little lower than the

angels,

angels, and heaven was prepared of old for the place of her habitation. Wouldft thou be happy, deck her with the jewels of piety, and cloath her with virtue as with a garment; then shall the lamp of the Almighty fine into thy heart, and joy fhall be thy conftant companion. When thou walkeft by the way, thy foot shall not ftumble; and when thou lieft down, thy fleep fhall be fweet. In the day of fickness thou shalt not be afraid, and when death cometh upon thee, thou shalt laugh him to fcorn; for the Lord of hosts is thy friend, and underneath thee are the everlafting arms. He fhall fay unto thee, fear not, thou worm Jacob, for I am with thee; be not difmayed for I am thy God. Then fball he ftrip off thee the vile rags of mortality, and cloath thee with the garments of falvation. He fhall wipe from thine eyes the tear of forrow, and anoint thy face with the oil of gladness. He fhall conduct thee into his own city, the city of

the

the living God, and unto the general affembly of angels, and spirits of just men made perfect. He fhall give thee to drink with them of his rivers of pleasure, and to feaft on joys at his right hand forever more.”

THUS fplendid are the honours and felicities of which the foul of man is capable. These are the eternal goods to which Chrift intreats us to aspire, and for the fake of which, he bids us defpife the low unfatisfactory pleasures of a dying body.

WHAT divine goodness, what perfect wisdom, are blended in that philofophy, which enjoins us to feek our happinefs in the mind and not in the body. In that part of our nature which exalts us to God, and not in that which depreffes us to the brute. In that part of us which will live forever, and not in that which is daily in danger of dropping into the grave. In that part of us which can enjoy the noble pleafures

fures of the glorious ones in Heaven, and not in that whofe few pleasures are in common with the creatures of the stalls and styes.

BUT our divine Philofopher places the fupreme happiness of man, not only in the mind, as we have juft feen, but II. IN the affections of the mind.

THIS alfo will appear to many as a ftrange faying. It muft expect to combat, not only the prejudices of coarse Epicures, but the more ferious doubts of many who feem to be more refined and rational in their schemes of happinefs. Many, even of thofe, who difdaining a vile body, funk their happinefs in the immortal mind, have never yet dreamed that it confifts in the affections, but have fought it rather in the improvements of the understanding. Obferving the great refpect that is paid to men of learning, and remembering the high entertainment which

they