If we seriously consider what religion is, we shall find the saying of
the wise king Solomon to be unexceptionably true: _Her ways are ways
of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace_.[40]
Doth religion require anything of us more than that we live _soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world_? Now what, I pray, can
be more pleasant or peaceable than these? Temperance is always at
leisure, luxury always in a hurry: the latter weakens the body and
pollutes the soul; the former is the sanctity, purity, and sound state
of both. It is one of Epicurus's fixed maxims, "That life can never be
pleasant without virtue."