reft? muft we banifh focial mirth, renounce agreeable company, and relinquish every innocent diverfion? Where, my brethren, the neceffity for this? Shall men be fo foolish as to fuppofe things to be incompatible, which, from their very nature, can never be well relished but when conjoined? For my part, I believe that no man ever exifted whofe mind was folely and for ever occupied with the concerns of virtue and religion, important as they are. Such a temper is incompatible with humanity. But is the perfon worthy the name of a man, whofe life is wholly taken. up with mirth, company and diverfion? If the things of this world and of the next were properly tempered together, do ye really think we should be lofers as to our pleasures or our dignity? Do ye really think that a virtuous and religious man will receive less pleasure in company, or at a feaft, in any public or private amusement, because he is virtuous and religious? I know the grounds upon which fuch an opinion ftands; mere mifapprehenfion, weak reafoning, and partial obfervation. I will only at prefent appeal to fact. Do ye not know fome of the very best and moft pious of your acquaintance, that enter with proper relish into all the genuine and untainted pleasures that result from the various incidents of human life? They do not, indeed, spend all their time in these. But in this are they not true followers of pleasure? How irksome does perpetual purfuit and reiterated enjoyment render these things! how foon do they pall upon the fenfe, and wear out the appetite! how fhamefully do they degrade the foul, and fink the character! Give them their juft room, and I acknowledge them, I feel them agreeable: Exalt them to a place they do not merit, and their littleness becomes confpicuous. Let us, therefore, hold faft our integrity", and the profeffion of our faith without wavering"; perfuaded that by fo doing, we adhere to our best interefts. In the fecond place: We may difcern the impropriety of confidering religion as severe, gloomy, and unfriendly to human delight. Representations of this kind are frequent; but they are unjuft and pernicious. That they are unjust appears from the tenor of the preceding difcourfe: and that they are pernicious nicious can scarcely be difputed. Truth and utility are generally fuppofed to be coincident and in the prefent cafe, experience fufficiently confirms the maxim. A more effectual method could not be devised to prevent the spread and influence of religion. A very elegant writer, who, though no profeffed divine, has done effential service to religion, illustrates this obfervation very agreeably by a fimilitude drawn from scripture hif"Thofe," fays he, "who reprefent 66 religion in an unamiable light, are like the fpies fent by Moses to make a discovery of "the land of promife, when, by their reports, tory. 66 66 66 66 they difcouraged the people from entering upon it. Those who shew us the joy, the "cheerfulness, the good humour that naturally fpring up in this happy state, are like "the fpies bringing along with them the "clusters of grapes and delicious fruits that 66 might invite their companions into the 66 country that produced them." If we would wish to recommend religion, it is but justice to it to exhibit it in the form that is most apt to win and to engage. If we consider the character of our Saviour, it is full of the most amiable, gentle, and engaging virtues. The strong B 4 ftrong and perpetually prefent impreffion of divine things which was upon his mind, made it natural that he fhould not enter warmly into those scenes that are calculated for giving innocent pleasure and enjoyment to ordinary mortals. But he was fometimesprefent at them; he expreffed no difapprobation of them; and the whole complexion of his life fhews a moft exalted purity, without any mixture of forbidding aufterity. Bleffed be God, we live in an age when the fincerity of our religion will not be estimated by the demureness of our look, or the fullennefs of our demeanour. Let us fhew it by more fubstantial and less equivocal marks; by an uniform integrity and that general good temper which is not merely conftitutional, but derived from a clear confcience and a fervent .faith. Thirdly: Let the confideration of the joys which true religion permits, determine us more ftrongly against all unlawful pleasures. Our duty and our intereft are strongly con'nected together. If we view things foberly, we have the greatest reafon to be thankful that God has allowed us fo many caufes of joy and rejoicing. To defire more discovers the We are, in fome the highest ingratitude. |