DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3689#0100
98
*A Serious Call to
adds much to the happiness of life; but that such heights of
piety as the perfection of religion requireth, have a contrary
effect.
It supposes therefore, that it is happy to be kept from the
excesses of envy, but unhappy to be kept from other degrees of
envy. That it is happy to be delivered from a boundless ambi-
tion, but unhappy to be without a more moderate ambition. It
supposes also, that the happiness of life consists in a mixture of
virtue and vice, a mixture of ambition and humility, charity and
envy, heavenly affection and covetousness. All which is as
absurd, as to suppose that it is happy to be free from excessive
pains, but unhappy to be without more moderate pains ; or that
the happiness of health consisted, in being partly sick, and
partly well.
For if humility be the peace and rest of the soul, then no one
has so much happiness from humility, as he who is the most
humble. If excessive envy is a torment of the soul, he most
perfectly delivers himself from torment, who most perfectly
extinguishes every spark of envy. If there is any peace and
joy, in doing any action according to the will of God, he who
brings the most of his actions to this rule, does most of all
increase the peace and joy of his life.
And thus it is in every virtue; if you act up to every degree
of it, the more happiness you have from it. And so of every
vice; if you only abate its excesses, you do but little for your-
self; but if you reject it in all degrees, then you feel the true
ease and joy of a reformed mind.
As for example : If religion only restrains the excesses of
revenge, but lets the spirit still live within you, in lesser in-
stances, your religion may have made your life a little more
outwardly decent, but not made you at all happier, or easier in
yourself. But if you have once sacrificed all thoughts of revenge,
in obedience to God, and are resolved to return good for evil at
all times, that you may render yourself more like to God, and
fitter for his mercy in the kingdom of love and glory ; this is a
height of virtue, that will make you feel its happiness.
Secondly, As to those satisfactions and enjoyments, which an
exalted piety requireth us to deny ourselves, this deprives us of
no real comfort of life.
For, \st, Piety requires us to renounce no ways of life, where
we can act reasonably, and offer what we do to the glory of God.
All ways of life, all satisfactions and enjoyments, that are within
these bounds, are no way denied us by the strictest rules of
piety. Whatever you can do, or enjoy, as in the presence of
*A Serious Call to
adds much to the happiness of life; but that such heights of
piety as the perfection of religion requireth, have a contrary
effect.
It supposes therefore, that it is happy to be kept from the
excesses of envy, but unhappy to be kept from other degrees of
envy. That it is happy to be delivered from a boundless ambi-
tion, but unhappy to be without a more moderate ambition. It
supposes also, that the happiness of life consists in a mixture of
virtue and vice, a mixture of ambition and humility, charity and
envy, heavenly affection and covetousness. All which is as
absurd, as to suppose that it is happy to be free from excessive
pains, but unhappy to be without more moderate pains ; or that
the happiness of health consisted, in being partly sick, and
partly well.
For if humility be the peace and rest of the soul, then no one
has so much happiness from humility, as he who is the most
humble. If excessive envy is a torment of the soul, he most
perfectly delivers himself from torment, who most perfectly
extinguishes every spark of envy. If there is any peace and
joy, in doing any action according to the will of God, he who
brings the most of his actions to this rule, does most of all
increase the peace and joy of his life.
And thus it is in every virtue; if you act up to every degree
of it, the more happiness you have from it. And so of every
vice; if you only abate its excesses, you do but little for your-
self; but if you reject it in all degrees, then you feel the true
ease and joy of a reformed mind.
As for example : If religion only restrains the excesses of
revenge, but lets the spirit still live within you, in lesser in-
stances, your religion may have made your life a little more
outwardly decent, but not made you at all happier, or easier in
yourself. But if you have once sacrificed all thoughts of revenge,
in obedience to God, and are resolved to return good for evil at
all times, that you may render yourself more like to God, and
fitter for his mercy in the kingdom of love and glory ; this is a
height of virtue, that will make you feel its happiness.
Secondly, As to those satisfactions and enjoyments, which an
exalted piety requireth us to deny ourselves, this deprives us of
no real comfort of life.
For, \st, Piety requires us to renounce no ways of life, where
we can act reasonably, and offer what we do to the glory of God.
All ways of life, all satisfactions and enjoyments, that are within
these bounds, are no way denied us by the strictest rules of
piety. Whatever you can do, or enjoy, as in the presence of