A sermon preached before the covrt at Christchurch Chappel in Oxford by Robert South ... South, Robert, 1634-1716. 1665 Approx. 46 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 22 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2003-07 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A60950 Wing S4741 ESTC R38265 17245190 ocm 17245190 106296 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A60950) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 106296) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1101:15) A sermon preached before the covrt at Christchurch Chappel in Oxford by Robert South ... South, Robert, 1634-1716. [4], 39 p. Printed by W.H. for William Nott, and are to be sold by Richard Davis, Oxford : 1665. Caption and running title: A sermon preached at court, &c. "Imprimatur Robertus Say, vice-cancellarius Oxon"--T.p. verso. Reproduction of original in the Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Bible. -- O.T. -- Proverbs III, 17 -- Sermons. Pleasure -- Sermons. Sermons, English -- 17th century. 2003-01 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2003-03 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2003-05 Jonathan Blaney Sampled and proofread 2003-05 Jonathan Blaney Text and markup reviewed and edited 2003-06 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE COVRT AT Christchurch Chappel IN OXFORD . BY ROBERT SOUTH , D. D. ●●●lick Orator to the University of Oxford , and Chaplain to the Lord High Chancellor of ENGLAND . OXFORD , Printed by W. H. for William Nott , and are to be sold by Richard Davis , 1665. IMPRIMATUR ROBERTUS SAY , Vice-Cancellarius Oxon. To the Right Honourable EDVVARD Earle of CLARENDON , Lord High Chancellor of England , and Chancellor of the University of Oxon. and one of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Couucil . My Lord , THough to prefix so great a Name to so mean a Piece , seems like enlarging the Entrance of an house , that affords no Reception : yet , since there is nothing can warrant the Publication of it , but what can also Command it ; the Work must think of no other Patronage , then the same that adorns , and protects its Author . Some inde●d vouch great Names , because they think they deserve , but I , because I need such : and had I not more occasion then many others , to see and converse with , your Lordships Candour and proness to pardon , there is none had greater cause to dread your Judgment ; and thereby in some part I venture to commend my own . For all know , who know your Lordship , that in a Nobler respect , than either that of Government , or Patronage , you represent and Head the best of Universities : and have Travelled over too many Nations , and Authors , to encourage any one that understands himself , to appear an Author in your Hands : who seldome read any Books to inform your self , but onely to countenance and credit them . But , my Lord , what is here Published , pretends no Instruction , but only Homage ; while it teaches many of the World , it only describes your Lordship ; Who have made the ways of Labour and Vertue , of doing , and doing Good , your Business and your Recreation , your Meat and your Drink , and , I may add also , your Sleep . My Lord , the Subject here treated of , is of that Nature , that it would seem but a Chimaera , and a bold Paradox , did it not in the very Front carry an Instance to exemplifie it ; & so by the Dedication convince the World , that the Discourse it self was not impracticable . For such ever was , and is , and will be the Temper of the generality of mankind , that , while I send men for Pleasure , to Religion , I cannot but expect , that they will look upon me , as only having a mind to be pleasant with them my self : nor are men to be Worded into new Tempers , or Constitutions : and he that thinks , that any one can perswade , but He that made the World , will find that he does not well understand it . My Lord , I have obeyed your Command , for such must I account your Desire ; and thereby Design , not so much the Publication of my Sermon , as of my Obedience : for , next to the Supream Pleasure described in the ensuing Discourse , I enjoy none greater , then in having any opportunity to declare my self , Your Lordships very Humble Servant , and Obliged Chaplain , Robert South . A SERMON PREACHED AT COURT , &c. PRO-VERBS 3. 17. Her Wayes are Wayes of Pleasantness . THe Text relating to something going before , must carry our Eye back to the 13 verse , where we shall find , that the thing , of which these words are affirmed , is Wisdome : A Name by which the Spirit of God was here pleased to express to us Religion , and thereby to tell the world , what before it was not aware of , and perhaps will not yet believe , that those two great things that so engross the desires and designes of both the Nobler and Ignobler sort of mankind , are to be found in Religion ; namely , Wisdom and Pleasure ; and that the former is the direct way to the latter , as Religion is to Both. That Pleasure is mans chiefest good , ( because indeed it is the perception of Good that is properly pleasure ) is an assertion most certainly true , though under the common acceptance of it , not only false , but odious : for according to this , pleasure and sensuality pass for terms equivalent ; and therefore , he that takes it in this sence , alters the Subject of the discourse . Sensuality is indeed a part , or rather one kind of pleasure , such an one as it is . For Pleasure in general , is the consequent apprehension of a sutable Object , sutably applied to a rightly disposed faculty ; and so must be conversant , both about the faculties of the Body , and of the Soul respectively ; as being the result of the fruitions belonging to Both. Now amongst those many Arguments , used to press upon men the exercise of Religion , I know none that are like to be so successful , as those that answer , and remove the prejudices that generally possess , and barr up the Hearts of men against it : amongst which , there is none so prevalent in Truth , though so little owned in Pretence , as that it is an Enemy to mens pleasures , that it bereaves them of all the sweets of Converse , dooms them to an absurd and perpetual Melancholy , designing to make the world nothing else but a great Monastery . With which notion of Religion , Nature and Reason seems to have great cause to be dissatisfied . For since God never Created any faculty , either in Soul or Body , but withal prepared for it a sutable object , and that in order to its gratification ; can we think that Religion was designed onely for a Contradiction to Nature ? and with the greatest and most irrational Tyranny in the World to tantalize , and tie men up from enjoyment , in the midst of all the opportunities of enjoyment ? to place men with the furious affections of hunger , and thirst in the very bottome of Plenty ; and then to tell them that the envy of Providence has sealed up every thing that is sutable under the Character of Unlawful ? For certainly , first to frame appetites fit to receive pleasure , and then to interdict them with a Touch not , tast not , can be nothing else , then onely to give them occasion to devour , and prey upon themselves ; and so to keep men under the perpetual Torment of an unsatisfied Desire : a thing hugely contrary to the natural felicity of the Creature , and consequently to the wisdom , and goodness of the great Creator . He therefore that would perswade men to Religion , both with Art and efficacy , must found the perswasion of it upon this , that it interferes not with any rational pleasure , that it bids no body quit the enjoiment of any one thing that his Reason can prove to him , ought to be enjoyed . 'T is confessed , when through the cross circumstances of a mans temper or condition , the Enjoyment of a pleasure would certainly expose him to a greater inconvenience , then Religion bids him quit it ; that is , it bids him prefer the endurance of a lesser evil before a greater , and Nature it self does no less . Religion therefore intrenches upon none of our Priviledges , invades none of our Pleasures ; it may indeed sometimes command us to change , but never totally to abjure them . But it is easily foreseen , that this Discourse will in the very beginning of it be encountred by an Argument from Experience , and therefore not more obvious than strong ; namely , that it cannot but be the greatest trouble in the world for a man thus ( as it were ) even to shake off himself , and to defie his Nature , by a perpetual thwarting of his innate Appetites and Desires ; which yet is absolutely necessary to a severe and impartial prosecution of a Course of Piety : nay , and we have this asserted also , by the Verdict of Christ himself , who still makes the Disciplines of self-denial and the Cross , those terrible blows to flesh and blood , the indispensable requisites to the being of his Disciples . All which being so , would not he that should be so hardy as to attempt to perswade men to Piety from the pleasures of it , be lyable to that invective taunt from all mankind , that the Israelites gave to Moses ; Wilt thou put out the eyes of this People ? Wilt thou perswade us out os our first Notions ? Wilt thou demonstrate , that there is any delight in a Cross , any Comfort in Violent abridgments , and which is the greatest Paradox of all , that the highest Pleasure is to abstain from it ? For answer to which , it must be confest , that all Arguments whatsoever against Experience are fallacious ; and therefore in order to the Clearing of the Assertion lay'd down , I shall premise these two Considerations . 1. That Pleasure is in the Nature of it a Relative thing , and so imports a peculiar Relation and Correspondence to the ●tate and condition of the Person to whom it is a Pleasure . For as those who Disco●rse of Atoms affirm that there are Atoms of all forms , some round , some triangular , some square , and the like ; all which are continually in motion , and never settle till they fall into a fit circumscription or place of the same figure : So there are the like great diversities of Minds and Objects ; whence it is , that this Object striking upon a mind thus or thus disposed , flyes off , and rebounds without making any impression ; but ●he same luckily hapning upon another of a Disposition as it were framed for it , is presently catcht at , and greedily clasped into the nearest Unions and Embraces . 2. The other thing to be considered , is this , That the Estate of all men by Nature is more or less different from that estate , into which , the same persons do , or may pass by the exercise of that which the Philosophers called Virtue , and into which men are much more effectually and sublimely translated by that which we call Grace ; that is , by the supernatural overpowring operation of Gods Spirit . The difference of which two estates consists in this ; that in the former the sensitive appetites rule and domineer ; in the latter the Supream faculty of the Soul , called Reason , sways the Scepter , and acts the whole man above the irregular demands of Appetite and Affection . That the distinction between these two is not a meer figment , framed only to serve an Hypothesis in Divinity ; and that there is no man b●t is really under one , before he is under the other , I shall prove , by shewing a Reason why it is so , or rather indeed why it cannot but be so . And it is this : Because every man in the beginning of his life , for several years is capable only of exercising his sensitive faculties and desires , the use of Reason not shewing it self till about the Seventh Year of his Age , and then at length but ( as it were ) dawning in very imperfect Essays and Discoveries . Now it being most undeniably evident that every Faculty and Power grows stronger and stronger by exercise ; is it any wonder at all , when a man for the space of his first six years , and those the years of ductility and impression , has been wholly ruled by the propensions of sence , at that age very eager and impetuous ; that then after all , his Reason begining to exert and put forth it self , finds the man prepossess'd and under another power : so that it has much adoe by many little steps , and gradual conquests , to recover its prerogative from the usurpations of appetite , and so to subject the whole man to its Dictates : the difficulty of which is not conquered by some men all their Dayes . And this is one true ground of the Difference between a state of Nature , and a state of Grace , which some are pleased to scoff at in Divinity , who think that they confute all that they laugh at , not knowing that it may be solidly evinced by meer Reason and Philosophy . These two considerations being premised , namely , That Pleasure implyes a proportion and agreement to the respective States and Conditions of men ; and that the state of men by Nature is vastly different from that estate into which Grace or Vertue transplants them ; all that Objection levelled against the foregoing Assertion is very easily resolveable . For there is no doubt , but a man , while he resignes himself up to the Bruitish guidance of sence and appetite , has no relish at all for the Spiritual , refined delights of a Soul Clarifyed by Grace and Vertue . The pleasures of an Angel can never be the pleasures of a Hogg . But this is the thing that we contend for ; that a man having once advanced himself to a state of Superiority over the Control of his inferior Appetites , finds an infinitely more solid and sublime pleasure in the Delights proper to his Reason , then the same person , had ever conveyed to him by the bare ministry of his Senses . His tast is absolutely changed , and therefore that which pleased him formerly , becomes flat and insipid , to his Appetite now grown more Masculine and severe . For as age and maturity passes a real and a marvellous Change upon the Dyet and recreations of the same person ; so that no man at the Years and Vigour of Thirty , is either fond of Suger-plums or Rattles : In like manner , when Reason , by the assistance of Grace , has prevailed over , and outgrown the encroachments of Sence , the delights of Sensuality are to such an one but as an Hobby-horse would be to a Councellour of State ; or as tastless , as a bundle of Hay to an Hungry Lyon. Every alteration of a mans Condition infallibly inferrs an alteration of his Pleasures . The Athenians laught the Physiognomist to Scorn , who pretending to read mens minds in their foreheads , described Socrates for a crabbed , lustful , proud , ill-natured Person ; they knowing how directly contrary he was to that Dirty Character , But Socrates bid them forbear laughing at the man ; for that he had given them a most exact acconnt of his nature ; but what they saw in him so contrary at the present , was from the conquest that he had got over his Natural disposition by Philosophy . And now let any one consider , whether that Anger , that Revenge , that Wantonness and Ambition , that were the proper pleasures of Socrates , under his Natural temper of crabbed , lustful , and Proud , could have at all affected or enamour'd the mind of the same Socrates , made gentle , chast and humble by Philosophy . Aristotle says , that were it Possible to put a Young mans eye into an Old mans head , he would see as plainly and cleerly as the other ; so could we infuse the inclinations and principles of a Vertuous person into him that prosecutes his debauches with the greatest Keeness of desire , and sence of Delight , he would loath and reject them as heartily , as he now pursues them . Diogenes being asked at a Feast , why he did not continue eating as the rest did , answered him that asked him with another question , Pray why do you eat ? Why saies he , for my pleasure ; why so , saies Diogenes , do I abstain for my Pleasure ; and therefore the vain , the Vitious and Luxurious person argues at an high rate of inconsequence , when he makes his particular desires , the general measure of other mens delights . But the case is so plain , that I shall not upbraid any mans understanding by endeavouring to give it any farther Illustration . But still , after all , I must not deny that the change and passage from a state of Nature , to a state of Vertue , is laborious , and consequently irksome and unpleasant : and to this it is , that all the forementioned expressions of our Saviour do allude . But surely the baseness of one condition , and the generous excellency of the other is a sufficient Argument to induce any one to a change . For as no man would think it a desireable thing , to preserve the Itch upon himself , only for the Pleasure of Scratching , that attends that loathsome distemper ; so neither can any man , that would be faithful to his Reason , yield his Ear to be bored through by his domineering appetites , and so choose to serve them for ever , only for those poor , thin gratifications of sensuality that they are able to reward him with . The ascent up the hill is hard and tedious , but the serenity and fair prospect at the Top , is sufficient to incite the Labourer of undertaking it , and to reward it being undertook . But the difference of these two conditions of men , as the foundation of their different pleasures , being thus made out ; to press men with arguments to pass from one to the other , is not directly in the way , or design of this Discourse . Yet before I come to declare positively the pleasures that are to be found in the wayes of Religion : one of the grand duties of which is stated upon Repentance ; a thing expressed to us by the grim names of Mortification , Crucifixion , and the like : and that I may not proceed onely upon absolute Negations , without some Concessions ; we will see , whether this so harsh , dismal , and affrighting duty of Repentance is so entirely Gall , as to admit of no mixture , no allay of sweetness , to reconcile it to the Apprehensions of Reason and Nature . Now Repentance consists properly of two things , 1. Sorrow for Sin. 2. Change of Life . A word briefly of them both . 1. And first for Sorrow for Sin : Usually , the sting of Sorrow is this , that it neither removes nor alters the thing we sorrow for ; and so is but a kind of reproach to our Reason , which will be sure to accost us with this Dilemma . Either the thing , we sorrow for , is to be remedied , or it is not : If it is , why then do we spend the time in mourning , which should be spent in an active applying of Remedies ? but if it is not ; then is our Sorrow Vain and Superfluous , as tending to no real Effect . For no man can weep his Father or his Friend out of the Grave , or mourn himself out of a Bankrapt condition . But this Spiritual Sorrow is effectual to one of the greatest and highest Purposes , that mankind can be Concerned in . It is a means to avert an impendent wrath ; to disarme an offended Omnipotence ; and even to fetch a Soul out of the very jawes of Hell. So that the End and Consequence of this sorrow , sweetens the sorrow it self : and as Solomon sayes , In the midst of laughter , the heart is sorrowful ; so in the midst of sorrow here , the heart may rejoyce : for while it mourns , it reads , That those that mourn shall be comforted ; and so while the Penitent weeps with one Eye , he views his Deliverance with the other . But then for the External Expressions , and vent of Sorrow ; we know that there is a certain pleasure in weeping ; it is the Discharge of a big and a swelling grief , of a full and a strangling discontent : and therefore he that never had such a burden upon his heart , as to give him opportunity thus to ease it , has one pleasure in this World , yet to Come . 2. As for the other part of Repentance , which is change of life ; this indeed may be troublesome in the Entrance ; but it is but the first bold onset , the first resolute Violence and invasion upon a vitious habit , that is so sharp and afflicting . Every impression of the Lancet Cuts , but it is the first onely that Smarts . Besides , it is an Argument hugely unreasonable , to plead the Paine of passing from a Vitious Estate , unless it were proved , that there was none in the continuance under it : But surely , when we read of the Service , the Bondage , and the Captivity of Sinners , we are not entertain'd only with the Air of Words , and Metaphors ; and instead of Truth , put off with Similitudes . Let him that sayes it is a trouble to refrain from a Debauch , convince us , that it is not a greater to undergoe one : and that the Confessor did not impose a shrewd Pennance upon the Drunken man , by bidding him go and be drunk again : and that lisping , raging , redness of Eyes , and what is not fit to be named in such an Audience , is not more toilsome , then to be clean , and quiet , and discreet , and respect . ed for being so . All the trouble that is in it , is the trouble of being sound , being cured , and being recovered . But if there be great arguments for Health , then certainly , there are the same for the obtaining of it : and so keeping a due proportion between Spirituals and Temporals , we neither have , nor pretend to greater Arguments for Repentance . Having thus now , cleared off all , that by way of Objection c anlie against the Truth asserted , by showing the proper Qualifications of the Subject , to whom only the wayes of Wisdom , can be wayes of Pleasantness ; for the further prosecution of the matter in hand , I shall show what are those properties that so peculiarly set off , and enhance the Excellency of this Pleasure . 1. The first is , That it is the proper pleasure of that part of man , which is the largest and most comprehensive of Pleasure , and that is his mind : a substance of a boundless comprehension . The mind of man is an Image , not only of Gods Spirituality , but of his Infinity . It is not like any of the Sences , limited to this or that kind of object : as the sight intermedles not with that which affects the smell ; but with an universal superintendence , it arbitrates upon , and takes them in , all . It is ( as I may so say ) an Ocean , into which all the little Rivolets of Sensation , both External and Internal , discharge themselves . It is framed by God to receive all and more then Nature can afford it ; and so to be its own motive to seek forsomething above Nature , Now this is that part of man , to which the Pleasures of Religion properly belong : and that in a double respect . 1. In reference to Speculation , as it susteins the name of Understanding . 2. In reference to Practice , as it susteins the name of Conscience . 1. And first for Speculation : the pleasures of which have been sometimes so great , so intense , so ingrossing of all the Powers of the Soul , that there has been no room left for any other Pleasure . It has so called together all the Spirits to that one Work , that there has bin no supply to carry on the Inferior operations of Nature . Contemplation feels no Hunger , nor is sensible of any Thirst , but of that after knowledge . How frequent and exalted a Pleasure did David find from his Meditation in the Divine Law ! all the day long it was the Theam of his Thoughts . The affairs of State , the government of his Kingdom , might indeed employ , but it was this only that refresh'd his mind . How short of this are the delights of the Epicure ! how vastly disproportionate are the Pleasures of the Eating , and of the Thinking man ! indeed as different , as the silence of an Archimedes in the study of a Problem , and the stillness of a Sow at her wash . Nothing is comparable to the pleasure of an Active , and a prevailing thought : a thought prevailing over the difficulty and obscurity of the Object , and refreshing the Soul with new discoveries , and images of things ; and thereby extending the Bounds of Apprehension , and ( as it were ) enlarging the Territories of Reason . Now this pleasure of the Speculation of Divine things , is advanced upon a double Account . 1. The Greatness . 2. The newness of the Object . 1. And first for the greatness of it . It is no less then the great God himself , and that both in his Nature , and his Works . For the Eye of Reason , like that of the Eagle , directs it self chiefly to the Sun , to a glory that neither admits of a Superior , nor an Equal . Religion carries the Soul to the study of every Divi●e Attribute . It poses it with the amazing thoughts of Omnipotence ; of a Power able to fetch up such a Glorious Fabrick , as this of the world , out of the Abyss of Vanity and Nothing , and able to through it back into the same Origiral Nothing again . It drowns us in the speculation of the Divine Omniscience ; that can maintain a steady infallible comprehension of all Events in themselves Contingent and Accidental ; and certainly know that , which does not certainly exist . It confounds the greatest subtilties of Speculation , with the Riddles of Gods Omnipresence ; that can spread a single Individual substance through all spaces ; and yet without any commensuration of parts to any , or circumscription within any , though totally in every one . And then for his Eternity ; which non-plusses the Strongest and the Clearest Conception , to comprehend how one single Act of Duration , should measure all Periods and Portions of time without any of the distinguishing parts of Succession . Likewise for his Justice ; which shall prey upon the sinner for ever , satisfying it self by a perpetual Miracle , rendring the Creature immortal in the midst of the flames ; alwayes consuming , but never consumed . With the like wonders we may entertain our Speculations from his Mercy ; his Beloved , his Triumphant Attribute ; an Attribute , if it were possible , something more then Infinite ; for even his Justice is so , and his Mercy transcends , that , Lastly , we may contemplate upon his supernatural , astonishing wo●ks ; particularly in the Resurrection , and reparation of the same numerical Body , by a reunion of all the scattered Parts , to be at length disposed of into an estate of Eternal woe or Bliss ; as also the greatness & strangeness of the Beatifick Vision ; how a created Eye should be so fortifyed , as to bear all those Gloryes that stream from the fountain of uncreated Light ; the meanest expression of which Light , is , that it is unexpressible . Now what great and high Objects are these for a Rational Contemplation to busy it self upon ! Heights that scorn the reach of our Prospect ; and Depths in which the tallest Reason will never touch the Bottom : yet surely the pleasure arising from thence is Great and Noble ; for as much , as they afford perpetual matter and imployment to the inquisitiveness of Humane Reason ; and so are large enough , for it to take its full scope and range in . Which when it has suck'd and dreined the utmost of any Object , naturally layes it aside , and neglects it as a dry and an Empty thing . 2. As the things belonging to Religion entertain our Speculation with great Objects , so they entertain it also with new . And novelty we know is the great parent of pleasure ; upon which account it is , that men are so much pleased with Variety , and Variety is nothing else but a continued Novelty . The Athenians , who were the profest and most diligent Improvers of their Reason , made it their whole b●siness to hear or to tell some new thing : For the truth is , Newness especially in great matters , was a worthy entertainment for a searching mind ; it was ( as I may so say ) an High Tast fitt for the relish of an Athenian Reason . And thereupon the meer unheard of strangeness of Jesus and the Resurrection , made them desirous to hear it discoursed of to them again , 17. Acts 23. But how would it have employed their searching Faculties , had the Mystery of the Trinity , and the Incarnation of the Sonn of God , and the whole Oeconomy of mans Redemption , been explained to them ! For how could it ever enter into the tho●ghts of Reason , that a satisfaction could be paid to an Infinite Justice ? Or , that two Natures so unconceivably different , as the Humane and Divine , could unite into one person ? The knowledge of these things could derive from nothing else but pure Revelation , and consequently must be purely New to the highest discourses of meer Nature . Now that the Newness of an Object so exceedingly pleases and strikes the mind ; appears from this one consideration ; that every thing pleases more in expectation then fruition : and expectation supposes a thing as yet new , the hoped for discovery of which is the Pl●asure that entertains the expecting , and enquiring mind : Whereas Actual discovery ( as it were ) rifles and deflours the Newness and Freshness of the object , and so for the most part makes it Cheap , Familiar and Contemptible . It is cleer therefore , that , if there be any pleasure to the mind from speculation ; and if this pleasure of speculation be advanced by the greatness and newness of the things contemplated upon ; all this is to be found in the wayes of Religion . 2. In the next place , Religion is a pleasure to the mind , as it respects Practice , and so susteins ●he Name of Conscience . And Conscience undoubtedly is the great Repository and Magazine of all those pleasures that can afford any solid refreshment to the Soul. For when this is calm , and serene , and absolving , then properly a man enjoys all things , and what is more , Himself , for that he must do , before he can enjoy any thing else . But it is only a Pious life , lead exactly by the rules of a severe Religion , that can authorize a mans Conscience to speak comfortably to him : It is this that must word the sentence , before the Conscience can pronounce it ; and then it will do it with Majesty and Authority ; It will not whisper , but proclaim a Jubilee to the mind . It will not drop , but pour in oile upon the wounded heart . And is there any pleasure comparable to that which springs from hence ! The Pleasure of Conscience is not only greater then all other Pleasures , but may also serve instead of them : for they only please and affect the mind in Transitu , in the pittiful narrow compass of actual fruition ; whereas that of Conscience entertains and feeds it a long time after with durable , lasting reflections . And thus much for the first ennobling property of the Pleasure belonging to Religion , namely , that it is the pleasure of the mind , and that both , as it relates to Speculation , and is call'd the Understanding ; and as it relates to Practice , and is called the Conscience . 2. The second ennobling property of it is , that it is such a pleasure as never satiates , or wearies : for it properly affects the Spirit , and a Spirit feels no weariness , as being priviledged from the causes of it . But can the Epicure say so of any of the pleasures that he so much dotes upon ? Do they not expire , while they satisfie ? and after a few minutes refreshment , determine in loathing and unquietness ? How short is the Interval between a pleasure and a Burden ! how undiscernable the Transition from one to the other ! Pleasure dwells no longer upon the Appetite , then the necessities of Nature , which are quickly , and easily provided for ; and then all that follows , is a load and an oppression . Every morsel to a satisfyed Hunger , is onely a new Labour to a tired Digestion . Every draught to him that has quencht his Thirst , is but a further quenching of Nature ; a provision for Rheums and Diseases ; a drowning of the quickness , and activity of the Spirits . He that prolongs his meals , and sacrifices his Time , as well as his other Conveniences , to his Luxury , how quickly does he out-sit his Pleasure ? and then how is all the following time bestowed upon Ceremony and Surfet ! till at length after a long fatigue of Eating , and Drinking , and Babling , he concludes the great work of Dineing Gentilely , and so makes a shift to rise from Table , that he may lye down upon his Bed : Where , after he has slept himself into some ufe of Himself , by much adoe he staggers to his Table again , and there acts over the same Bruitish Scene : so that he passes his whole life in a dozed Condition between sleeping , and waking , with a kind of drowsiness , and confusion upon his Sences ; which , what pleasure it can be , is hard to conceive ; all that is of it , dwels upon the tipp of his Tongue , and within the compass of his Palat ; a worthy prize for a man to purchase with the loss of his Time , his Reason , and Himself . Nor is that man less deceived , that thinks to maintain a constant tenure of Pleasure , by a continual pursuit of Sports and Recreations : For it is most certainly True of all these things , that as they refresh a man when he is weary , so they weary him when he is refresh'd ; Which is an evident Demonstration that God never designed the use of them to be continual ; by putting such an emptiness in them , as should so quickly fail and lurch the expectation . The most Voluptuous , and loose person breathing , were he but tyed to follow his Hawks , and his Hounds , his Dice , and his Courtships every day , would find it the greatest Torment , and Calamity that could befal him ; he would flie to the Mines and the Gallyes for his Recreation , and to the Spade and the Mattock for a Diversion from the misery of a Continuall un-intermitted Pleasure . But on the contrary , the Providence of God has so ordered the Course of things , that there is no Action , whose usefulness has made it the matter of Duty , and of a Profession , but a man may bear the continual pursuit of it , without Loathing or Satiety . The same Shop and Trade , that employes a man in his Youth , employes him also in his Age. Every morning he rises fresh to his Hammer and his Anvil ; he passes the Day singing : Custome has naturalized his Labour to him : His Shop is his Element , and he cannot with any enjoyment of himself live out of it . Whereas , no custome can make the painfulness of a Debauch easy , or pleasing to a man ; since nothing can be pleasant that is Unnatural . But now , if God has interwoven such a pleasure with the works of our ordinary Calling ; how much superior and more refined must that be , that arises from the survey of a Pious and well governed Life ! Surely , as much as Christianity is nobler then a Trade . And then , for the Constant freshness of it ; it is such a pleasure as can never cloy or overwork the mind : for , surely no man was ever weary of thinking , much less of thinking that he had done well or vertuously , that he had conquered such and such a Temptation , or offered Violence to any of his Exorbitant Desires . This is a delight that grows and improves under thought and reflexion : and while it exercises , does also endear it self to the mind ; at the same time imploying and inflaming the Meditations . All pleasures that affect the Body , must needs weary , because they transport , and all Transportation is a Violence ; and no Violence can be lasting , but determines upon the falling of the Spirits , which are not able to keep up that height of motion , that the Pleasure of the Senses raises them to . And therefore how inevitably does an immoderate laughter end in a sigh ? which is only Natures recovering it self after a force done to it . But the Religious Pleasure of a well disposed mind , moves gently , and therefore constantly ; it does not affect by Rapture a●d Extasie ; but is like the pleasure of Health , which is Still and Sober , yet Greater and Stronger , then those that call up the Senses , with grosser and more affecting impressions . God has given no man a Body as strong as his Appetiets ; but has corrected the Boundlessness of his Voluptuous desires , by stinting his strengths , and contracting his Capacities . But to look upon those pleasures also , that have an higher object than the Body ; as those that spring from honour and grandeur of Condition ; yet we shall find , that even these are not so fresh and constant , but the Mind can nauseate them , and quickly feel the thinness of a popular Breath . Those that are so fond of Applause , while they pursue it , how little do they tast it when they have it ! Like lightning , it only flashes upon the face and is gone , and it is well if it does not hurt the man. But for greatness of Place ; though it is fit and necessary , that some persons in the world should be in love with a splendid servitude , yet certainly they must be much beholding to their own fancy , that they can be pleased at it . For he that rises up early , and goes to bed late , only to receive Addresses , to read and answer Petitions , is really as much tied and abridged in his freedom , as he that waits all that time to present one . And what pleasure can it be to be encumbred with Dependances , throng'd and surrounded with Petitioners ? and those perhaps sometimes all Suitors for the same thing : whereupon all but one will be sure to depart grumbling , because they misse of what they think their due : and even that one scarce thankful , because he thinks he has no more than his due . In a word , if it is a pleasure to be envied and shot at , to be maligned standing , and to be despised falling , to endeavour that which is impossible , which is to please all , and to suffer for not doing it ; then is it a pleasure to be great , and to be able to dispose of mens fortunes and preferments . But further to proceed from hence , to yet an higher degree of Pleasure , indeed the highest on this side that of Religion ; which is the pleasure of Friendship and Conversation . Friendship must confessedly be allowed , the Top , the Flower , and Crown of all Temporal enjoyments . Yet has not this also its flaws , and its dark side ? For is not my Friend a man , and is not Friendship subject to the same Mortality and Change that men are ? And in case a man loves , and is not loved again , does he not think that he has cause to hate as heartily , and ten times more eagerly then ever he loved ? and then to be an Enemy , and once to have bin a Friend , does it not embitter the Rupture , and aggravate the Calamitie ? But admitting that my Friend continues so to the end ; yet in the mean time , is he all Perfection , all Vertue , and Discretion ? Has he not humours to be endured , as well as kindnesses to be enjoyed ? And am I sure to smell the Rose , without sometimes feeling the Thorn ? And then lastly for Company ; though it may Reprieve a man from his Melancholy , yet it cannot secure him from his Conscience , nor from sometimes being alone ! And what is all that a man enjoyes , from a weeks , a months , or a years converse , comparable to what he feels for one hour , when his Conscience shall take him aside , and rate him by himself ! In short , run over the whole Circle of all Earthly Pleasures , and I dare affirm , that had not God secured a man a solid pleasure from his own Actions , after he had rolled from one to another , and enjoyed them all , he would be forced to complaine , that either they were not indeed Pleasures , or that Pleasure was not Satisfaction . 3. The third ennobling Property of the Pleasure that accrews to a man from Religion , is , that it is such an one as is in no bodies power , but onely in his that has it ; so that he that has the Propriety , may be also sure of the Perpetuity . And tell me so of any outward enjoyment , that Mortality is capable of . We are generally at the mercy of mens Rapine , Avarice , and Violence , whether we shall be happy or no. For if I build my felicity upon my Estate or Reputation , I am happy as long as the Tyrant , or the Railer will give me leave to be so . But when my concernments take up no more room or compass , then my self ; then so long as I know where to breath , and to exist , I know also where to be happy : for I know I may be so in my own Breast , in the Court of my own Conscience , where , if I can but prevail with my self to be Innocent , I need bribe neither Judge nor Officer to be pronounced so . The pleasure of the Religious man , is an easie and a portable pleasure , such an one as he carries about in his bosome , without alarming either the Eye or Envy of the world . A mans putting all his pleasures into this one , is like a Travellers putting all his goods into one Jewel : the Value is the same , and the Convenience greater . There is nothing that can raise a man to that generous absoluteness of condition , as neither to cringe , to sawn , or to depend meanly ; but that which gives him that happiness within himself , for which men depend upon others . For surely I need salute no great mans Threshold , sneak to none of his Friends or Servants , to speak a good word for me to my Conscience . It is a noble , and a sure Defiance of a great Malice , backt with a great Interest ; which , vet can have no advantage of a man , but from his own Expectations of something that is without himself . But if I can make my Duty my delight ; if I can feast , and please , and caresse my mind with the pleasures of worthy Speculations , or vertuous practices , let Greatness and Malice vex and abridge me if they can : my Pleasures are as free as my Will ; no more to be controlled then my Choice , or the unlimited range of my Thoughts and my Desires . Nor is this kind of Pleasure onely out of the reach of any outward Violence ; b●t even those things also , that make a much closer impression upon us , which are the irresistible decayes of Nature , have yet no influence at all upon this . For when Age it self , which of all things in the world , will not be baffled or defyed , shall begin to Arrest , Seize , and remind us of our Mortality , by Paines , Aches , deadness of Limbs , and dulness of Sences ; yet then the pleasure of the mind , shall be in its full Youth , Vigour , and Freshnesse . A Palsie may as well shake an Oak , or a Feaver dry up a Fountaine , as either of them shake , dry up , or impair the delight of Conscience . For it lies within , it Centers in the heart , it grows into the very substance of the Soul ; so that it accompanies a man to his Grave ; he never out-lives it , and that for this cause onely , because he cannot out-live himself . And thus I have endeavour'd to describe the Excellency of that Pleasure that is to be found in the wayes of a Religious Wisdome , by those excellent properties that do attend it ; which , whether they reach the Description that has been given them , or no , every man may convince himself , by the best of Demonstrations , which is his own tryal . Now , from all this Discourse , this I am sure , is a most natural and direct consequence , that if the wayes of Religion , are wayes of Pleasantness ; then those that are not wayes of Pleasantness , are not truly and properly wayes of Religion . Upon which ground , it is easie to see what judgment is to be passed upon all those affected , uncommanded , absurd Austerities , so much prized , and exercised by some of the Romish Profession . Pilgrimages , going barefoot , Hair-shirts , and Whips , with other such Gospel-Artillery , are their onely helps to Devotion : Things never enjoyned , either by the Prophets under the Jewish , or by the Apostles under the Christian Oeconomy ; who , yet surely , understood the proper , and the most efficacious Instruments of Piety , as well as any Confessor , or Fryar of all the Order of St. Francis , or any Casuist whatsoever . It seems , that with them , a man sometimes cannot be a Penitent , unless he also turnes Vagabond , and foots it to Jerusalem ; or wanders over this or that part of the world to visit the Shrine of such or such a pretended Saint ; though perhaps in his life , ten times more ridiculous then themselves : thus , that which was Cains Curse , is become their Religion . He that thinks to expiate a Sin , by going barefoot , does the Pennance of a Goose ; and onely makes one Folly , the Attonement of another . Paul indeed was Scourged and Beaten by the Jewes , but we never read that he Beat or Scourg'd himself : and if they think that his keeping under of his Body imports so much ; they must first prove , that the Body cannot be kept under by a Vertuous mind , and that the mind cannot be made Vertuous but by a Scourge ; and consequently that Thongs and Whipcord are means of Grace , and things necessary to Salvation . Tne Truth is , if mens Religion lyes no deeper then their Skin , it is possible that they may Scourge themselves into very great Improvements . But they will find that Bodily exercise touches not the Soul ; and that neither Pride , nor Lust , nor Covetousness , nor any other Vice was ever Mortifyed by Corporal Disciplines : 't is not the Back , but the Heart that must Bleed for sin : and consequently , that in this whole Course they are like men out of their way ; let them Slash on never so fast , they are not at all the nearer to their Journyes end : and howsoever they deceive themselves and others , they may as well expect to bring a Cart , as a Soul to Heaven by such means . What Arguments they have to beguile poor Simple , unstable Souls with , I know not ; but surely the Practical Casuistical , that is , the Principal , Vital part of their Religion savours very little of Spirituality . And now upon the result of all , I suppose that to exhort men to be Religious , is only in other words to exhort them to take their Pleasure . A Pleasure High , Rational , and Angelical ; a Pleasure , embased with no appendant sting , no consequent Loathings , no Remorses , or bitter farewels . But such an one , as being Honey in the Mouth , never turns to Gall or Gravel in the Belly . A Pleasure made for the Soul , and the Soul for that ; suitable to its Spirituality , and equal to all its Capacities . Such an one as grows fresher upon Enjoyment , and though continually Fed upon , yet is never Devoured . A Pleasure that a Man may call as properly his own , as his Soul and his Conscience ; neither lyable to Accident , nor exposed to Injury . It is the fore-taste of Heaven , and the Earnest of Eternity . In a word , it is such an one , as being begun in Grace , passes into Glory , Blessedness and Immortality , and those Pleasures that neither Eye has seen , nor Ear heard , nor has it entred into the Heart of Man to Conceive . To which God of his Mercy vouchsafe to bring us all : to whom be rendred and ascribed , as is most due , all Praise , Might , Majesty , and Dominion , both now and for evermore . Amen . FINIS .