DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3689#0118
n6 e/f Serious Call to
wise, though not by the sight of what piety is, yet by seeing
what misery and folly reigns, where piety is not.
If you would turn your mind to such reflections as these, your
own observation would carry this instruction much further, and
all your conversation and acquaintance with the world, would be
a daily conviction to you of the necessity of seeking some
greater happiness, than all the poor enjoyments of this world
can give.
To meditate upon the perfection of the divine attributes, to
contemplate the glories of Heaven, to consider the joys of Saints
and Angels, living for ever in the brightness and glory of the
divine presence; these are the meditations of souls advanced in
piety, and not so suited to every capacity.
But to see and consider the emptiness and error of all worldly
happiness; to see the grossness of sensuality, the poorness of
pride, the stupidity of covetousness, the vanity of dress, the
delusion of honour, the blindness of our passions, the uncertainty
of our lives, and the shortness of all worldly projects ; these are
meditations that are suited to all capacities, fitted to strike all
minds ; they require no depth of thought, or sublime speculation,
but are forced upon us by all our senses, and taught us by
almost everything that we see and hear.
This is that 'wisdom that crieth, and putteth forth her voice'*
in the streets, that standeth at all our doors, that appealeth to all
our senses, teaching us in everything, and everywhere, by all
that we see, and all that we hear, by births and burials, by sick-
ness and health, by life and death, by pains and poverty, by
misery and vanity, and by all the changes and chances of life,
that there is nothing else fpr man to look after, no other end in
nature for him to drive at, but a happiness which is only to be
found in the hopes and expectations of Religion.
* Prov. viii. I.
wise, though not by the sight of what piety is, yet by seeing
what misery and folly reigns, where piety is not.
If you would turn your mind to such reflections as these, your
own observation would carry this instruction much further, and
all your conversation and acquaintance with the world, would be
a daily conviction to you of the necessity of seeking some
greater happiness, than all the poor enjoyments of this world
can give.
To meditate upon the perfection of the divine attributes, to
contemplate the glories of Heaven, to consider the joys of Saints
and Angels, living for ever in the brightness and glory of the
divine presence; these are the meditations of souls advanced in
piety, and not so suited to every capacity.
But to see and consider the emptiness and error of all worldly
happiness; to see the grossness of sensuality, the poorness of
pride, the stupidity of covetousness, the vanity of dress, the
delusion of honour, the blindness of our passions, the uncertainty
of our lives, and the shortness of all worldly projects ; these are
meditations that are suited to all capacities, fitted to strike all
minds ; they require no depth of thought, or sublime speculation,
but are forced upon us by all our senses, and taught us by
almost everything that we see and hear.
This is that 'wisdom that crieth, and putteth forth her voice'*
in the streets, that standeth at all our doors, that appealeth to all
our senses, teaching us in everything, and everywhere, by all
that we see, and all that we hear, by births and burials, by sick-
ness and health, by life and death, by pains and poverty, by
misery and vanity, and by all the changes and chances of life,
that there is nothing else fpr man to look after, no other end in
nature for him to drive at, but a happiness which is only to be
found in the hopes and expectations of Religion.
* Prov. viii. I.