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SERM.IX. afide all Hatred, Malice and Defire of Re

venge; that We may with one Heart and one Mouth glorify GOD for His Mercies, and implore His Protection for ourselves, our King and our Country; that He would give us the Bleffings of Peace, and that We may never want a Proteftant Prince, who has the Interefts of Reformed Christianity and the Good of His Country at Heart, to rule over us.

SERMON

Religious Pleasures productive of the greatest Happiness.

PRO V. III. 17.

Her Ways are Ways of Pleasantness.

T

HE turbulent Paffions, fuch as SERM. X. Anger and Revenge, are disagreeable to our Nature, because they are open and declared Enemies to our Repose: they alarm the Soul at their first Infurrection, and afterwards command it with an overbearing Tyranny. But Pleasure steals upon Us by infenfible Degrees, fmooths it's Paffage to the Heart by a gentle and infinuating Addrefs, and foftens and difarms the Soul of all it's Strength. It is more therefore to be guarded againft, as being more dangerous, and what we have a greater Inclination to. To arm Us then against the Deceitfulness of unlawful fenfual Delights, I have chosen the Words of Solomon, which

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SERM. X. fet before Us the genuine and fincere Pleafure which Religion affords. Her Ways are Ways of Pleafantnefs. In difcourfing on which Words I fhall endeavour to shew,

I. First, That the Pleasures of Religion and Virtue are fuperior to the Pleasures of the Animal Life; and,

II. Secondly, How neceffarily those must be difappointed, who place their Happiness in any Thing exclufive of Religion and Virtue.

Firft then I am to fhew, that the Pleafures of Religion and Virtue are fuperior to the Pleasures of the Animal Life.

And here we expect to be told by the Men of Pleasure, that fpiritual Satisfactions are nothing but the Product of an over-heated Fancy, and mere Enthusiasm. But we except against them as very incompetent Judges. A good Man by tasting the Pleafures of Senfe, as far as they are confiftent with Reason, is very well qualified to form a true Estimate of them. But the fenfual Man, by being an utter Stranger to Religion, is no more able to make a Judg

ment

ment of the Satisfaction it yields, than a SERM. X. Man of no Taste is to pass a decifive Verdict upon the Elegancies of Poetry, or an Idiot upon a Point of Philosophy.

Difmiffing him therefore as an improper Judge, we appeal to the Virtuous for the Superiority of rational Delights;—whether others are not for the most Part either idle Diversions to lull our unquiet Thoughts to fleep, to footh the Mind into a Forgetfulness of itself, and to make Life pass away unperceived; or rather, whether they are not tumultuous Joys, that put Us in a Ferment, and give the Soul too fudden and violent Emotions. Whereas virtuous Pleasures produce a ferene and lasting Composure of Mind; they fatisfy, but never fatiate. They flow not, like a Torrent, with a short-lived Noife and Impetuofity; but like a peaceful River in its own Channel, strong without Violence, and gentle without Dulness.

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But what am I going to provehe who strives to refemble God in Holiness and Purity, must have fuperior Gratifications to him, who makes himself like the Beafts that perifh? A Man that is funk into Brutality may indeed deny, that those

SERM. X. Delights must be the highest, which are feated in the highest and noblest Part of Us, the Soul: but all the World befides will own, that the Joys which fpring from a distempered Appetite, and are accompanied with a Feverishness of Defire, are infinitely inferior to those of a well-regulated Mind, and a Confcience void of Offence towards God and towards Man.

We fee in several Inftances, that Men prefer their Reputation before the Gratification of a brutal Appetite, when put in Competition with each other; and though free from Confcience, they are yet Slaves to Fame. Now the Pleasure of a good Name is feated in the Mind; it comes not from Senfation but Reflection. They own then, that an intellectual Good is preferable to the grofs Indulgencies of the Animal Life. But if Reputation, which is but the Shadow of Virtue, claims the Ascendant and Superiority over fenfual Enjoyments; certainly Virtue, which is the Substance itfelf, ought to take Place of them in the true and impartial Estimate of Things.

I would gladly perfuade the Voluptuary to try an Experiment, and then tell me, when he has cherished the Worthy, and relieved

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