Volume are: A Upon Ecclef. XII. 1. Remember thy N Inquiry touching Happiness, Page 295 Creator, &c. P. 319 Upon Pfalm L. 10. Cor mundum crea, &c. p. 326 A Poem, p. 336 The Folly and Mischief of Sin, P: 337 Of Self-Denial (not finished) Motives to Watchfulness, in reference to the Good p. 341 and Evil Angels, p. 350 Of Moderation of the Affections, P. 352 Of Worldly Hope and Expectation, p.361 Upon Heb. XIII. 14. We have here no continu ing City, P.366 Of Contentedness and Patience, P. 372 Of Moderation of Anger, A Preparative against Afflictions, Of Prayer, and Thanksgiving, on Pfalm 12. Meditations upon the Lord's Prayer. P.425 P. 429 P. 54 P. 374 P. 377 ĊXVI. AŃ A N NQUIRY touching HAPPINESS. A NY Man that compares the Perfection of the Human Nature with that of the Animal Nature, will easily find a far greater Excellence in the former than in the latter: For, 1. The faculties of the former are more Sublime and Noble. 2. The very External Fabrick of the former much more Beautiful and fuller of Majefty than the latter. 3. The latter feems to be in a very great measure ordained in Subferviency to the former: Some for his food, fome for Clothing, some for Use and Service, fome for Delight. 4. All the inferiour Animals feem to be plac'd under the Discipline, Regiment, and Order of Mankind: fo that he brings them all, or the most of them, under his Order and Subjection. 2. It is therefore Juft and Reasonable for us to think, that if the inferiour Animals have a kind of Felicity or Happiness attending their being, and fuitable to it, that much moreMan, the nobler being, should not be deftitute of any Happiness attending his being, and fuitable to it. 3. But rather confequently, that Man, being the nobler Creature, fhould not only have an Happiness as well as Inferiour Animals, but he fhould have it placed in fome more Noble and Excellent rank and kind than that wherein the Brutes have their Happiness placed. 4. It is plain that the Inferiour Animals have a Happiness or Felicity proportionate to their Nature and Fabrick; which as they exceedingly defire, fo they do in a great measure Enjoy: namely, a fenfible Good, answering their fenfible Appetite. Every thing hath Organs and Inftruments answering to the Ufe and Convenience of their Facul ties; Organs for their Senfe and Local motion, and for U their their Feeding, for their generation of their kind; Every thing hath its peculiar Instincts and Connatural Artifices and Energies for the Exercises of their Organs and Faculties, for their Preservation and Nourishment: Every thing hath a fupply of External Objects answering thofe Faculties, Defires and Inftincts; Meats proper for their Noutifhment; Places proper for their Repofe: Difference of Sexes in their several kinds answering their Procreative Appetite: and most commonly fuch a proportion of Health and Integrity of Nature, as goes along to that period of time allotted for their duration; and in default thereof they are for the moft part furnished with Medicines naturally provided for them, which they naturally know and use, fo that they feem to want nothing that is neceffary to the Complement of a Senfible Felicity. V. Lactant. de. It is true, they are in a great measure Subjected to the Dominion of Mankind, which is fometimes over feverely exercised; but then they have the Benefit of Supplies from them, Protection under them, and, if they meet not with Masters more unreasonable than themfelves, they find Moderation from Them. They are alfo expofed to the Rapine one from another, the weaker Beafts, Birds and Fishes, being commonly the prey of the greater: but yet they are commonly endued with Opific. Dei. c. 3. Nimblenefs, Artifices or Shifts to avoid their Adverfaries. But be thefe what Abatements of their Senfible Happiness may be, yet they have certain Nega tive Advantages that conduce very much to their Happinefs, or at least remove very much of what might abate it, and thereby render their fruition more free and perfect and uninterrupted; for inftance, they feem to have no Anticipations or Fear of Death as a common Evil incident to their nature: They have no Anticipations of Dangers till they immediately prefent themfelves unto them: They have no great fenfe or apprehenfions of any thing better than what at prefent they enjoy: They are not under the Obligation of any Law, or under the Sense of any fuch thing, and confequently the Sincerenefs of what they enjoy, not interrupted by the ftrokes ftrokes of Confcience under a fenfe of Deviation from Duty, or Guilt. 5. It is therefore plain, that if the Humane Body have no greater or better Happiness than what is accommodated only to a Senfible Nature, they have no greater Happiness than the Beafts have, which is not reasonably to be fuppofed for a Nature fo far exceeding them. 6. Farther yet; if Humane Nature were not under a capacity of a greater Happiness than what is terminated in Senfe, mankind were much more Unhappy than the bafeft Animal; And the more Excellent the Humane Nature is above the Beafts, nay, the more excellent any one individual of the Humane kind were above another; the more miserable he were, and the more uncapable of being in any measure happy: for the more Wife and Sagacious any man were, the more he muft needs be senfible of Death, which fenfe would fowre all the Happinefs of a fenfible Good; the more fenfible he must needs be, not only of the fhortnefs and uncertainty of fensible Enjoyments, but alfo of their Poornefs, Emptiness, Infufficiency, Diffatisfactorinefs. It is evident, that a Fool fets a greater rate upon a Senfible Good, than a Man truly Wife, and confequently the Fool could be the only man capable of Happiness: for it is most certain, that according to the measure of the efteem that any man hath of any good he enjoys, fuch is the measure of his Happinefs in that enjoyment, fince the happiness is fomewhat that is intrinfecal to the Senfe or Mind that enjoys it A thing really Good can never make that Man Happy, who is under a Senfe of Evil or Inconvenience by that enjoyment, fo long as he is under that fenfe. Since therefore it is prepofterous and unreasonable to fuppofe that Man, the best of Terreftrial Creatures, and Wife men, the best of men, should be Excluded from at least an equal degree of Happiness with the Beafts that perish; and fince it muft needs be, that a bare Senfible Good can never communicate to a man an Equal degree of Happihefs with a Beast, not to a Wife man an Equal degree of Happiness with a Fool; it remains, there muft needs in U 2 common common reafon be fome other fubject wherein the Happiness of a Man, of a Wife man, muft confift, that it is not barely Senfible Good. 7. All the good things of this Life, they are but Senfible Goods, and therefore they cannot be the true matter of that Happiness which we may reasonably think belongs to the Reasonable Nature as fuch; the former will appear by an induction of particulars, which I fhall pursue in order, with the particular inftances of their Infufficiencies to make up a true Happiness to the Reasonable Nature, as well as that general, that they are but Senfible Goods, and meerly accommodated to a Senfible Life and Nature. tituent 1. Life it felf is not fuch a fufficient conftituent of Happinefs: and the inftance is evident, because it is poffible that Life it felf may be Miferable: there may be Life where there is Sicknefs, Pain, Difgrace, Poverty, and all those External Occurrences that may render life Grievous and Burthenfome. Life may indeed be the Subject of Happiness, when it hath all thofe contributions that concur to make it fuch; but Life alone, and as fuch, cannot be happiness, because there may be a Miferable Life. 2. Those Bona Corporis or Compofiti, the Goods of the Body, are not fufficient to make up a fuitable Happiness to the Reasonable Nature; as Health, Strength; for the Beasts themselves enjoy this, and for the moft part, the Brutes enjoy a greater measure of these than Mankind; and befides ftill, there is that which is like the Worm at the root of the Gourd, that spoils the Happiness that must arife from it; viz. Mortality and Death which will certainly pull down this Tabernacle; and Man hath an unintermitted Pre-apprehenfion of it, which fowres the very injoyment it felf. And in this as hath been faid, the Beafts that perifh have a Pre-heminence over Mankind; for though both are Mortal, yet the Beaft is not under that Pre-apprehenfion of it that Man inceffantly hath, whereby this Fruition of that Happiness of Health is the more fincere, and this confideration muft run through all thofe |