nor has he enjoined us any Duty but what, SER. VIII. all Things confidered, will yield us greater Degrees of Pleasure than of Pain. True indeed it is, that the great Duty of Repentance does, in the Nature of it, imply Sorrow. But then this Sorrow is productive of, and fucceeded by, a lasting substantial Joy. Though our Reformation has it's Pangs, yet we shall no more remember the Anguish, for Joy that a new Man is born into the World. If that Variety of Natural Evils which appear in the World, and continually break in upon Men's Enjoyment of fenfual Pleafures, fhould be thought any Objection against what has been advanced in Recommendation of the Duty of Delighting in GOD; let it be remembered, that Natural Evils, fuch as Pain, Sickness, and Calamity, are graciously defigned by GOD as Moral Goods, by making us reflect and think; by teaching us Patience and Refig-. nation; and by weaning our Affections from Things below. Every Branch that beareth not Fruit, He taketh away; and every Branch that beareth Fruit, He purgeth, or pruneth, that it may bring forth more Fruit: That is, by fome painful Operation, which beareth SER. VIII. beareth a Refemblance to pruning, He maketh every Good Man more Good; as the Branch that bore Fruit before, becometh more fruitful, and deriveth new Strength and additional Vigour from the very Steel. So that, in short, those Restraints on Account of which Religion may, at first Sight, appear to be an Enemy to fenfual Gratification, are in Fact Inftances of Her real Friendship to it. Even Self-denial is enjoined by GOD as the best Preservative of Self-enjoyment; fince to enjoy ourselves we must learn to curb our Appetites: And all feeming Severity is really Indulgence upon But farther: the Whole. From the Pleasures of the Senfes let us proceed one Step higher to thofe of the Imagination. And these are chiefly Beauty, Grandeur and Novelty. As for the Firft: If the Beauty of the vifible World affect us, let us confider, Who it is, that has poured out this Beauty upon the Creation, Himfelf infinitely more beautiful, lovely, and glorious; while He ftands unfeen behind the Workmanship of His own Hand. We cannot unravel any one Thing in the Drama of Nature, without bringing a GOD upon GOD the Scene. Every Thing ma- SER. VIII. terial convinceth us, that there is, and must be, fomething immaterial behind the Curtain. When we see the Sun fhine forth in it's Luftre, and Nature appearing in it's most advantageous Drefs, how can we avoid turning our Thoughts upwards toward that Being, whofe Handy-work that Sun fhews, and whofe Glory it declares, in a Language understood by all Mankind; a Language, the Sounds whereof are gone into all Lands, and its Words into the Ends of the World. Every Field, every Flower, contains the most powerful, the most edifying, Rhetorick to excite in Us the Love of that Being, who hath clothed the Lilies of the Field with that elegant Simplicity, which was fuperior to Solomon's Pomp, when arrayed in all his Glory. An unthinking Mind, or a Mind that is immerfed in Senfuality, may, without any Emotions of Gratitude or Piety, furvey the delightful Round of the Seafons, and the rich Furniture of the Earth, together with that numerous Family of living Creatures, for whofe common Benefit the univerfal Parent has defigned it: A Man SER. VIII.A Man of this Turn may, I fay, behold that Variety of Scenes which diversify the Face of the Creation, and prefent the most agreeable Images to the Mind, with a tastelefs Indifference and Coldness to that Being, who has poured out fuch Stores of His Bounty upon it. But He, who will be at any Expence of Thinking, will ponder these Things, till, by repeated Reflections, the Fire is kindled towards HIM, who has enriched the World with fuch a Profufion of Good; has beautified it with fuch Order and Harmony; and has ennobled it with such astonishing Magnificence and Grandeur. Which puts me in Mind of the Second Pleasure of the Imagination, arifing from Greatness. The Soul is naturally formed for the Love of what is great and marvellous. An august and ftupendous Building; a fpacious and unbounded Profpect; the unmeasurable Expanse of the Creation; naturally raise the Soul into an unusual Elevation, and fill it with fublime and vaft Ideas. Now this Defire of furveying what is great, folemn and majestick, was probably ftamped upon our our Nature for This very Purpose, that we might take Delight in contemplating Him,of whofe Greatness there is no End. If we are flung into a pleafing Aftonishment at the View of any Thing grand and magnificent; If our Aftonishment rifes higher in Proportion to the greater Magnificence of the Object; it must be improved into the highest Pitch, when we have a direct and immediate Knowledge of HIM, whofe Effence is higher than Heaven, and deeper O than Hell, the Measure whereof is broader than the Sea, and longer than the Earth. Every Body knows, we hate nothing more than Confinement in a Profpect: The Soul loves to have a free and unlimited Range. And if even here, under all the Incumbrances of the Body, the Soul expreffes fuch a ftrong Defire for Infinitude; how much more will it delight therein, when unembarraffed by any Clogs or Impediments of Matter? The next Pleasure of the Imagination is That which is excited by Novelty. How comes it, that we are generally in Pursuit of fomething New; and yet, when we are poffeffed of it, and the Object beVOL. I. Р comes SER. VIII. |