The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University

It is no argument against the pleasantness of religion, that it has no tendency to raise laughter, but rather to remove it.MS: "and rather to remove." JE corrected the wording, as above, when he copied the cause into the application of his sermon on 1 John 5:3 (Works, 10, 642). For that pleasure which raises laughterMS: "which is raised by laughter." JE probably began the correction while copying the word into the sermon (which reads "that raises laughter" [ibid.]) but failed to carry it through by deleting "is." is never great—everyone knows this by his own experience—and besides, it is flashy, external, and not lasting. The greater sort of temporalThe first three letters of this word and the top of the fourth are visible though not very distinct, but their shape and the preceding "not lasting" confirm the correctness of this reading. Dwight's scribe read "sensual," which Dwight changed to "earthly." JE wrote "worldly" in the sermon. pleasures don't raise laughter, as the joy of the sight and enjoyment of most dear friends, but only raises a smile, without any of that shaking laughter, which always arises from a mixture of pleasure and sorrow and never

from pure pleasure, because it always arises from somethingThe words "because... something," now broken from the margin at the bottom of the page except for the first and last letters, are preserved in Dwight's copy. The copy also preserves other words in the entry that are not noted because their correctness is obvious from the context. that is ridiculous. Now a thing that is ridiculous is a mixture of what is painful with what is pleasant; forThe words "mixture of what... for" survive only in Dwight's copy, but the space available and the letters that are wholly or partly visible support the accuracy of this reading. a thing is never ridiculous, except there be something in it that is deformed and contrary to beautiful, and therefore disagreeable to the soul. But that pleasure which is raised from the apprehension of something purely agreeable never causes laughter. The pleasure of religion raises one clear above laughter and rather tends to make the face to shine than screw it into a grimace; though when it is at its height it begets a sweet, inexpressibly joyful smile, as we know only a smile is begotten by the great pleasure of dear friends' society. The reason why the pleasures of religion be not always attended with such a smile, is because we have so many sins and have so much offended God; and almost all our religious thoughts are unavoidably attended with repentance and a sense of our own misery. It is the pleasure of repentance alone that don't tend to a smile.

The reason why religious thoughts will cause one to sigh sometimes, is not from the melancholiness of religion, but because religious thoughts are of such an high, internal and spiritual nature as very much abstracts the soul from the body, and so the operations of the body are deadened; when arises a sigh to renew it, as a sigh will arise from weakness of body, whether by sickness or labor, whether one is melancholy or no. 'Tis this abstraction of the soul, in its height, leaves the body even dead; and then the soul is in a trance.