390

Of the Dissolution

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i. Now because these Objectors do repre-sent Religion to themselves and others as amelanchoiick and disconsolate thing : andthink and (ay, that those that enter into thisstate, must bid adieu to all the Pleasures otSence, and tast no sweetness in any worldlyObject. I shall endeavour to remove thi^prejudice. I fay therefore, That our graci-ous God doth not envy us any real Goodthat the Creatures can afford us, and there-fore hath not denied us a moderate use andfruition of any os them, And feeing he hathannexed Pleasure to those Actions that arenecessary for the support of life, and continu-ation os kind, as a bait to invite us to theperformance of them, it seems to me highlyabsurd and contradictious to affirm, that h chath forbidden us to partake or taste thoseEnjoyments which himself has appointed a seffectual means for the security of those greihEnds; and which are so necessary Conse-quents of those Actions, that we cannot b^partake them. Where the Appetite is cages,God hath indulged, I might fay, commandeda moderate and regular satisfaction. And w’Pknow, nay, the blindness of Atheism cann otdeny, that the greatest pleasure results fro>Aa moderate and weft circumstantiated use 0(Pleasures. Foluptates commendat rarior i{f ltS '

1 Notf

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