Superiority of rational Delights;

whe- SERM. X.

ther others are not for the moft Part either idle Diversions to lull our unquiet Thoughts to fleep, to footh the Mind into a Forgetfulness of itself, and to make Life pafs 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 lafting Composure of Mind; they fatisfy, but never fatiate. They flow not, like a Torrent, with a fhort-lived Noife and Impetuofity; but like a peaceful River in its own Channel, ftrong without Violence, and gentle without Dulnefs.

-that

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 Beasts that perish? A Man that is funk into Brutality may indeed deny, that those Delights must be the higheft, which are feated in the highest and nobleft Part of Us, the Soul but all the World befides will own, that the Joys which spring from a diftempered Appetite, and are accompanied with a Feverifhnefs of Defire, are infinitely inferior to thofe of a well-regulated Mind, and a Confcience void of Offence towards God and towards Man,

We

SERM. X. We fee in feveral 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 Afcendant and Superiority over fenfual Enjoyments; certainly Virtue, which is the Substance itself, 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 the Diftreffed by fome well-placed Act of Charity; whether the Consciousness of having made an human Heart to fing for Fay, and the Bleffing of him that was ready to perijh come upon him, did not impart a more liberal, manly, and unallayed Complacency, than all the cheating Blandishments and Allurements of Senfe. The latter are the Pleasures of the Brute; whereas the former are the Pleasures of the Man, fhall I fay? rather of good Angels, nay even of God, who, wanting nothing himself, fupplies

fupplies the Wants of every other Being. SERM. X. And what can more transport, what can more ennoble the Soul, than to be fo temperate, as to have as few Wants as poffible in ourselves; and yet fo charitable as to do as much Good as poffible to others? A remarkable Inftance of this difinterested Virtue, and the fuperior Satisfaction that attends great and worthy Actions, we have in the generous Scipio, who, in the Bloom of Youth, returned his fair Captive, a Mafter-piece of Beauty, to her future Husband and Parents, whom Conqueft gave him an abfolute Right to, in the Opinion of the Heathen World. When he refufed a confiderable Sum of Gold, which was offered by the Parents; and when at laft confenting to accept of it, at their repeated Inftances, he delivered it as a Part of her Dowry to her Spoufe; I defire to know, whether the Commendations, which his own Heart gave him, feconded with the Praises of an Husband and Parents delivered from their jealous Apprehenfions, did not inspire him with a greater Exultation of Delight, than the Poffeffion of an injured Woman could have afforded. Their Praises were the fincere Tribute of grateful Hearts, and flowed from the Fulness of their Souls; and Nothing could be more acceptable to Scipio's ingenuous Mind,

SERM. X. except the Consciousness of the Beauty of his own Action; whereas the Thoughts of wounding the Honour of a noble Family, and the Peace of aged Parents, must have dashed his Enjoyments, and rendered them diftafteful. This delicate Sentiment of

Scipio was attended with much truer and more folid Satisfaction, than any fenfual Gratification could have been; it was the Pleasure of Reafon, which will bear repeating in the Mind, and improves upon Reflection.

On the contrary, where the grofs Affections take Place, they leave little Room for Virtue; they tarnish the Luftre of the best Actions, and make a Man uneafy and diffatisfied with himself. For he that is good by Halves, labours under a perpetual Difcord of Life; he is agitated alternately by Sentiments of unlawful Pleasure and Piety, and paffeth his Life in a perpetual Round of following and condemning the fame "Things. On the one Hand, the Remainders of Virtue and Confcience embitter the Sweets of Vice; and, on the other Hand, the Practice of Vice palls the Relifh of Virtue and fpiritual Delights. He is neither Brute enough to indulge his Appetites without Remorfe, nor Man enough to govern them. Hence he is at perpetual Variance with himself, having juft Religion enough to

make

make him uneafy, but not enough to make SERM. X. him happy.

A Man that is divided between Piety and Sin, is like One that lives on the Confines of two mighty contending States; his Breast is a conftant Seat of War; and he is fometimes under the Dominion of Virtue, and fometimes under the Tyranny of Vice: whereas a Perfon of advanced Piety, like One that lives in the inmoft Part of the Country, enjoys a fecure and unmolefted Situation of Soul.

Thus does Uneafinefs haunt the Man, that, like a Perfon ftruck with the dead Pally, is Part dead and Part alive; and thus it will difquiet him, 'till his Confcience becomes feared as it were with a hot Iron, and he thinks there is no Difference between Good and Evil; and to be perfuaded of this, is as difficult as to believe there is no God.

But to take a right Eftimate of a Man of Pleafure, we should view him in the laft Stage of Life. Good God! how contemptible does he appear to the World, and I dare fay, even to himself, when he has no more that Sprightlinefs and outward Form, which raised the Admiration of the Unthinking; nor that Virtue and Knowledge, which is neceffary to gain the Efteem of the Wife. When young (however inconfiderate