Now, if this cannot be said, then there is no happiness lost, by being strictly pious; nor has the devout man any thing to envy in any other state of life. For all the art and contrivances in the world, without religion, cannot make more of human life, or carry its happiness to any greater height, than _Flatus_ or _Feliciana_ has done. The finest _wit_, the greatest _genius_ upon earth, if not governed by religion, must be as _foolish_, and _low_, and _vain_, in his method of happiness, as the _poor Succus_. 16. *If you was to see a man dully endeavouring all his life to satisfy his thirst, by holding up one and the same _empty cup_ to his mouth, you would certainly despise his ignorance. *But, if you should see others, of _brighter parts_, and _finer understandings_, ridiculing the dull satisfaction of _one cup_, and thinking to satisfy their own thirst by variety of gilt and _golden empty cups_; would you think that these were ever the _wiser_, or _happier_, or _better_ employed, for their _finer parts_? *Now, this is all the difference that you can see in the happiness of this life. The _dull_ and _heavy_ soul may be content with one _empty appearance_ of happiness, and be continually trying to hold the _same empty cup_ to his mouth all his life. But let the _wit_, the _deep scholar_, the _fine genius_, the great _statesman_, the polite _gentleman_, lay all their heads together, and they can only shew you _more_ and _various_, _empty appearances_ of happiness; give them all the world into their hands, let them cut and carve as they please, they can only make a greater variety of _empty cups_. *So that if you don’t think it hard to be deprived of the pleasures of _gluttony_, for the sake of religion, you have no reason to think it hard to be restrained from any worldly pleasure. For search as deep, and look as far as you will, there is nothing here to be found, that is _nobler_, or _greater_, than _high eating_ and _drinking_, unless you look for it in the wisdom of religion. And if all that is in the world, are only so many _empty cups_, what does it signify which you take, or how many? 17. If you would but use yourself to such meditations as these, to reflect upon the vanity of _all orders_ of life without piety, to consider how all the ways of the world, are only so many different ways of error, blindness, and mistake; these meditations would awaken your soul into a zealous desire of that solid happiness which is only to be found in recourse to God. 18. To meditate upon the perfection of the divine attributes, to contemplate the glories of heaven, to consider the joys of saints and angels living for ever in the brightness and glory of the divine presence; these are the meditations of souls advanced in piety, and not suited to every capacity.