107 SERMON VI, ECCLES. VII. 3. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the fadness of the countenance the heart is made better. SOLOM VI. OLOMON, the fuppofed author of SERM. the Book of Ecclefiaftes, though exalted to the highest rank of human life, and placed on the throne of Ifrael, was no ftranger to forrow and affliction, but had experienced no doubt their advantages, which with the utmost gratitude he doth, in the words of my text, fairly and candidly acknowledge: he had toiled thro' the whole round of pleafure, had indulged himself in the unlimited gratifi VI. SERM. cation of all his wifhes and defires, and given the reins to every paffion: the natural confequence of this indulgence was that which will always arife from fuch a conduct, the melancholy confeffion which he himself makes, that all was vanity and vexation of fpirit. He begins at last to recollect his fcattered reason, to be ftruck with the conviction of his folly, and pierced with the consciousness of his guilt; he quits therefore with eagerness those scenes of mirth and gaiety which grew irksome and difagreeable, and flies for relief to thofe which one would not at first imagine could bestow it, to scenes of mifery and distress, and concludes, from the inward fatisfaction that he felt, and the folid advantages which he had received from them, that It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrowe VI. Sorrow, fays he, is better than laughter, SERM. for by the fadness of the countenance the heart is made better. If, therefore, the fchool of affliction could better the heart of Solomon, it is furely worth our while to enquire whether it may not improve our own. A few ferious reflections on the truth delivered in the text, may turn us afide from that love of pleasure which feems fo univerfally to prevail amongst us, and direct us to that profitable affliction which may fave, and that godly forrow which may relieve us. And first, then, I fhall endeavour to prove to you, in confirmation of Solomon's opinion, that forrow is better than laughter; Because, First, It gives us a more humble, and therefore a better heart: Secondly, It gives us a firmer, steadier, and more noble, and therefore a better heart: And |