Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity en- vieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seek- eth not her own; is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in SERMONS XVI. XVII. SERMON I. THE ADVANTAGES OF RELIGIOUS MEDITATION. GEN. xxiv. 63. · Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide. IN the days of early innocence and patriarchal simplicity, nature had a kind of dominion in the heart of man, which she seems now, in a great measure, to have lost. While he was attentive only to the gratification of real wants, and found them supplied by her common bounty, he could not fail to love so kind a benefactress. But through the refining arts of society this simple attachment to nature has been destroyed. When artificial wants were discovered, which she alone was no longer able to gratify, man withdrew his affection from her, and art and avarice took place of love and simplicity. B |