A39678:327
The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion
The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion; the true methods of making all men happy in this world, and in the world to come Seasonably discoursed, and earnestly pressed upon this licentious age. By J.F. a sincere lover of his native country, and the souls of men.The reasonableness of personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion; the true methods of making all men happy in this world, and in the world to come Seasonably discoursed, and earnestly pressed upon this licentious age. By J.F. a sincere lover of his native countrey, and the souls of men.
London: printed for Thomas Cockerill, 1691
THE REASONABLENESS OF Personal Reformation, › Chapter 5 › Section 3
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
God's choice must needs be far better for us than our own. Ordinate and lawful Pleasures and Enjoyments far better and sweeter than exorbitant and forbidden ones. And the Reason is evident and undeniable. For amongst all the operations of the Mind, its reflex acts are the acts that best relish pleasure. And indeed without self-reflection, a man cannot tell whether he delights or no. All sense of pleasure implies some reflection of the Mind: And those pleasures of a man must needs be the sweetest, which afford the sweetest reflections upon them afterward: And those the ba•est pleasures, which are accompanied and followed ⟨p. 85⟩with present regret, or the stinging and cutting reflections of the Conscience upon them afterwards.
God's choice must needs be far better for us than our own. Ordinate and lawful Pleasures and Enjoyments far better and sweeter than exorbi•ant and forbidden ones. And the Reason is evident and undeniable. For amongst all the operations of the Mind, its reflex acts are the acts that best relish pleasure. And indeed without self-reflexion, a man cannot tell whether he delights or no. All sense of pleasure implies some reflection of the Mind: And those pleasures of a man must needs be the sweetest, which afford the sweetest reflections upon them afterward: And those the ba•est pleasures, which are accompanied and followed ⟨p. 85⟩with present regret, or the stinging and cutting reflections of the Conscience upon them afterwards.
Lawful and ordinate Enjoyments are as Honey without the Sting. Forbidden Pleasures are embittered and extinguished by these regrets and reflections of the Conscience, They are like that pleasant Fruit which the Spaniards found in the Indies, which were sweet to the taste, but so environed and armed on every side with dangerous Briers and Thorns, that they tore not only their Clothes off their Backs, but the Skin off their Flesh to come at them: And therefore they called them Comfits in Hell; and such are all forbidden and unlawful Pleasures.