THE PLEASURE OF MEDITATION

Has been sometimes so great, so intense, so ingrossing all the powers of the soul, that there has been no room left for any other pleasure. 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 theme of his thoughts. The affairs of state, the government of his kingdom, might indeed employ, but it was this only that refreshed 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.

PLEASURE OF RELIGION.

Irs object is no less than the great God himself, and that both in his nature and his works. For

the eye of reason, like that of the eagle, directs itself 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 divine attribute. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.*

* Serm. i. vol. 1.

It was now the middle of May, and the morning was

HUMAN PERFECTION:

OR ADAM IN PARADISE.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.

ANALYSIS OF THE SERMON.

1. The mind.

The Understanding.

The Will.

The Passions.

2. The Body.

PERFECTION IN GENERAL.

THE image of God in man is That universal rectitude of all the faculties of the soul, by which they stand apt and disposed to their respective offices and operations.

PERFECTION OF UNDERSTANDING.

AND first for its noblest faculty, the understanding it was then sublime, clear, and aspiring, and,

remarkably serene, when Mr. Allworthy walked forth on the terrace, where the dawn opened every minute that lovely prospect we have before described to his eye. And now, having sent forth streams of light, which ascended the blue firmament before him as harbingers preceding his pomp, in the full blaze of his majesty, up rose the sun than which one object alone in this lower creation could be more glorious, and that Mr. Allworthy himself presented—a human being replete with benevolence, meditating in what manner he might render himself most acceptable to his Creator, by doing most good to his creatures.Fielding.

as it were, the soul's upper region, lofty and serene, free from the vapours and disturbances of the inferior affections. It was the leading, controlling faculty; all the passions wore the colours of reason; it did not so much persuade, as command; it was not consul but dictator. Discourse was then almost as quick as intuition; it was nimble in proposing, firm in concluding; it could sooner determine than now it can dispute. Like the sun it had both light and agility; it knew no rest but in motion; no quiet but in activity. It did not so properly apprehend as irradiate the object; not so much find, as make things intelligible. It did arbitrate upon the several reports of sense, and all the varieties of imagination; not like a drowsy judge, only hearing, but also directing their verdict. In sum, it was vegete, quick, and lively; open as the day, untainted as the morning, full of the innocence and sprightliness of youth; it gave the soul a bright and a full view into all things.

SPECULATIVE UNDERSTANDING.*

For the understanding speculative, there are some general maxims and notions in the mind of man, which are the rules of discourse, and the basis of all philosophy. Now it was Adam's hap

That understanding is in a perfect state for the acquisition of knowledge, which is capable, at any time, to acquire any sort of knowledge. The defects therefore are either, 1st. An inability at particular times to acquire knowledge: or, 2ndly. An inability to acquire particular sorts of knowledge.

piness in the state of innocence to have these clear and unsullied. He came into the world a philosopher. He could see consequents yet dormant in their principles, and effects yet unborn and in the womb of their causes: his understanding could almost pierce into future contingents; his conjectures improving even to prophecy, or the certainties of prediction; till his fall it was ignorant of nothing but of sin; or at least it rested in the notion without the smart of the experiment. Could any difficulty have been proposed, the resolution would have been as early as the proposal; it could not have had time to settle into doubt. Like a better Archimedes, the issue of all his enquiries was an ἕνρηκα an ἕυρηκα, the offspring of his brain without the sweat of his brow. There was then no poring, no struggling with memory, no straining for invention. His faculties were quick and expedite; they answered without knocking, they were ready upon the first summons, there was freedom and firmness in all their operations. I confess 'tis as difficult for us who date our ignorance from our first being, and were still bred up with the same infirmities about us with which we were born, to raise our thoughts and imagination to those intellectual perfections that attended our nature in the time of innocence, as it is for a peasant bred up in the obscurities of a cottage, to fancy in his mind the unseen splendours of a court. But by rating positives by their privatives, and other arts of reason, by which discourse supplies the want of the reports of sense, we may

collect the excellency of the understanding then, by the glorious remainders of it now, and guess at the stateliness of the building by the magnificence of its ruins. And certainly that must needs have been very glorious, the decays of which are so admirable. He that is comely, when old and decrepit, surely was very beautiful, when he was young. An Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam, and Athens but the rudiments of paradise.

PRACTICAL UNDERSTANDING.

THE image of God was no less resplendent in that which we call man's practical understanding; namely, that storehouse of the soul, in which are treasured up the rules of action, and the seeds of morality. Now of this sort are these maxims, "That God is to be worshipped." "That parents are to be honoured." "That a man's word is to be kept." It was the privilege of Adam innocent to have these notions also firm and untainted, to carry his monitor in his bosom, his law in his heart. His own mind taught him a due dependence upon God, and chalked out to him the just proportions, and measures of behaviour to his fellow-creatures. Reason was his tutor, and first principles his magna moralia. The decalogue of Moses was but a transcript, not an original. All the laws of nations and wise decrees of state, the statutes of Solon, and the twelve tables, were but a paraphrase upon this standing rectitude of nature, this fruitful principle of Justice, that was

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