C}f the Religiouf. I 17 ·jng it in luxury; or of farisfying -a paffion or plea!ihg a lufl; of obtaining the favour · .of great ones, or the applaufe of t!1e vul– gar. rrhe greatefl: happinefs they ain1 at,. is, to be 1nafier of the country where they live; to dwell in fiately houfes, and to be backed with a tra in of attendants; to lie foftly, and fare delicioufly, and fuch like attainn1cnts; which a wife man would think himielf unhappy if he could not defpife. But the _pious perfon bath his though~-s far above thefe painted vanities; his feli– city is not patched up of fo mean fhrcds.; it is fimple, and con1prifcd in one chief good: his foul advanccth itfelf by rational paffions towards the au' hor of its being, the fountain of goodncfs and pleafurc: lie hath none in heaven but him; and there is none upon earth whom he defires befide him. · The knowle,dge of nature hath been re– puted a good mean to enlarge the foul, and ~ breed in it a conten1pt of earthly cnjoy– ments. He that hath accufl:on1ed hin1felf to confider_ th~ vafinefs of the univerfe, and the fmall proportion which the point we 1 live in bears to the retl: of the world, n1aY' perhaps con1e to think lefs of the poffcffion of fome acres, or of that fame ·which can at mofi fpread itfclf through a f111all corner of ..
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