Jump to content

Page:The Vicar of Wakefield (Volume 2) - Goldsmith (1766, 1st edition).djvu/158

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
156
The Vicar of Wakefield.

new breach that death opens in the con­stitution, nature kindly covers with insensi­bility.

Thus providence has given the wretched two advantages over the happy in this life, greater felicity in dying, and in heaven all that superiority of pleasure which arises from contrasted enjoyment. And this superiority, my friends, is no small advantage, and seems to be one of the pleasures of the poor man in the parable; for though he was already in heaven, and felt all the rap­tures it could give, yet it was mentioned as an addition to his happiness, that he had once been wretched and now was comfort­ed, that he had known what it was to be miserable, and now felt what it was to be happy.

Thus, my friends, you see religion does what philsophy could never do: it shews the equal dealings of heaven to the happyand