PART I. SERMON XV. '' 221 Christianity does not abridge us of the common comforts of flesh and blood, nor lay an unreasonable restraint upon any na- tural appetite ; but it teaches us to live like men, and not like brutes; to regulate and manage our animalnaturewith its desires and inclinations, so as to enjoy life in the most proper and be-. coming manner ; to eat and drink, and taste the bounties of pro vidente, to the honour of our Creator, and to the best interest of our souls, But, suppose, wewere forbid all the indulgence of our appe- tites, and the delights of sense, by the gospel ; surely, those who knowwhat intellectualpleasures are, who can relish the joy that belóngsto spirits, will not be much terrified with these objections, nor deride the faith ofChrist, because it doés not propose to them thereward ofan earthly paradise, The rewards of the gospel are indeed spiritual till the resurrection, but those spiritual pleasures shall vastly ever-balance all that toil, sorrow and suffering, we have passed throughon earth, and all that self. - denial which we have exercised. But when the body shall be raised again, our refined delights of all kinds shall be infinitely satisfying : We shall not say, that God has dealt our happiness to us with a niggardly hand, but that hehas exceeded all his promises, when we shall come to taste the things God has prepared for üs, which aye bath pot seen, or ear heard of. IV, Another prejudice against the gospel is this; some persons charge it with much of enthusiasm ; and'that thedoc-. trine of the operations of the 'Spirit, and the expectation of his divine assistance to instruct us in truth, to mortify sin in us, and to enable us to perform holy duties, has too much of a visionary and fancifulturnof mind, and does potbecome men that profess reason. But ifsuch objectors were better acquainted with themselves, and knew the weakness of their own reason in the search after truth, and the various and plausible errors that attend their en- quiries on every side ; if they were better acquaintedwith the strength of temptation, the power of their own sinful appetites, and the weakness of their will to resist sin, and to fulfil the rules of righteousness: surely they wodld not think it a ridiculous thing to lift up a prayer to the great God to guide them intotruth, and to assist them to walk steadily in the paths of, religion and virtue. Ifthey liadbut a deep and lively,sense of their own in- sufficiency for every thing that is good, and of the manydangers and enemies that beset them, they would rather see infinite reason to bless their Creator, that has given them any promise, or hope of the aids of his grace. Nor is it at all fantastical or irrational to suppose, that the great and blessed God, who made these spirits of ours, should
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