Proverbs 3:17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. This is not only the excellence, but the peculiar excellence, of religion. The ways of folly and vice, all things considered, are not ways of pleasantness. Goodness is proposed as the duty, and pleasure as the reward — a reward which the world and Satan are not able to give. I. THE WAYS OF RELIGION ARE WAYS OF PLEASANTNESS. 1. There is a pleasure in the duties immediately relating to God; such as love, faith, reliance, resignation, hope, prayer, and thanksgiving. These are all apparently cheerful duties, and when duly performed, must be attended with the highest satisfaction. 2. There is a pleasure in those occupations in which a virtuous and religious man will be frequently employed. 3. There is a pleasure in that behaviour towards others, and that manner of prosecuting our worldly affairs, which ever accompany a religious disposition. 4. There is a pleasure in performing our duty to ourselves, as it relates to the body and to the passions. II. THE WAYS OF SIN ARE NOT WAYS OF PLEASANTNESS. 1. No man can be happy who acts against his conscience. 2. Those who feel no remorse of conscience may have shaken off some fears, but then they have lost the greatest comfort of life, which is hope. 3. Every action contrary to reason and religion is, if not always, yet certainly for the most part, hurtful even in this life. III. THE OBJECTIONS WHICH WICKED MEN MAKE TO THESE PROPOSITIONS. 1. They say they do find pleasantness in their self-gratifications. 2. Sinners object that good men, who affirm from their own experience that there is pleasure in righteousness, are grave dissemblers, who conceal the real state of their minds: that really they sacrifice their present ease and satisfaction. 3. Sinners say that the pleasures of a pious mind, if there be such, arise from a strong fancy, from fanaticism and enthusiasm. 4. Sinners say experience shows these boasted pleasures of religion not to be very common amongst Christians. 5. Sinners may object that some duties of Christianity are harsh and disagreeable, as repentance, self-denial, and mortifications, and that therefore the ways of religion cannot be ways of pleasantness. (J. Jortin, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.WEB: Her ways are ways of pleasantness. All her paths are peace. |
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