CHAP. I.

Some Mistakes about the Object of Happiness.

HAPPINESS is that which all Men desire, and yet but few obtain: One reason is, because they mistaken their Object, placing it in something wherein it is not to be found; some in Bodily Pleasures, whom Aristotle calls ἀπολαυστικοί others in Riches, whom the same Author calls χρηματιστικοί. Others 2 in Honour and Power, whom he denominates πολιστικοί which things cannot make us happy: Because,

1. They are not in our Power, but may forcibly be taken away from us; and should they continue with us during Life, at Death we must necessarily part with them.

2. They make us not better, being common to good and bad. Now if bad Men may possess them, they cannot render us happy; because, as the Poet truly saith, Nemo malus felix, No wicked Man can be happy.

3. They cannot satisfie the vast desires, or fill the Capacity of the Soul. The Soul of Man is spiritual and immortal, and therefore Bodily Pleasures, or Temporal Enjoyments are no way suitable to it, nor of answerable duration,

My business in the following Discourse, shall be, to prove that a Holy Life is the only Happy Life, even in this World, advancing us to as high a degree of Happiness as we are capable of in this Imperfect State, and the only preparatory to a State of Eternal Felicity in the World to come.

Before I proceed to prove this, it will be requisite to explain the Terms.

1. What is meant by Holiness. 2. What by Happiness.