That that God will so often act those measures of Providence as the reasons of those two mention'd Conditions will admit it That is when it may be done First without bringing any common destruction to those communions by which the World ordinarily subsists and Secondly when such a present execution of his Justice shall on any account tend most to the concern'd person's present or future Good and Interest But in all other cases where the reasons of these two Conditions are superseded the executions of the Divine Love and Justice to the Good and Evil are so often reserv'd and respited for his impartial retributions in another World. Now as this Observation may inable us to think that there be no small number of Cases that are so reserved and respited so it will easily and very naturally solve those mens doubts and enquiries Why either all those Executions are not universally done in this Life or why there should be any part of them certainly effected that is why there should be alwaies so many and sometimes such remarkable Examples and Instances of God's justifying the Persons and Causes of Good men and of his baffling the unjust Interests and Dealings of the Evil in this World. Of which as there will be alwaies so many as may be enough to controul the pretensions of the Epicureans and our present Atheists That God takes no care of the World at all so there may be also few enough to suppress silence the murmurs of those mens too-forward minds and hasty desires who upon a bare possibility and some rare Examples of God's executing his Justice visibly in this Life have been apt to raise their expectations even to a criminal discontent and impatience of their own present recompences and justifications When they ought to have considered the reasons of the former conditions as also what other reasons God may give himself which we perhaps can't understand upon which they are so often omitted and should rather have endeavoured to wait with patience till the season approacheth in which there shall be an impartial execution of Justice to the whole World of Good and Evil. And this finisheth the second Section or Reason that may be given why God is pleased so observedly to deferr the Executions of his impartial Justice to the Good and Evil to a future World with respect to Mankind in general as they are ordinarily to subsist in Social Communions But besides this Social Concern of Mankind there was somewhat offer'd as to God's care of them in other respects Therefore Section III. IN these two remaining Sections I am concerned to represent the case more particularly as Mankind may be divided into the two sorts of Evil and Good and as God's just and gracious care of them both as so distinctly and apart consider'd may be sufficiently acquitted by reasonable and religious Thoughts Now this Third Section first offers the case of the Evil part of Mankind That is of such as have wilfully and temerariously permitted themselves to be betray'd into any state of Vice and Immorality I say if GOD Almighty should in this Life be presently confounding every such Evil person as soon as he begins to persist in his unjust and immoral ways it would prove such a disparagement of the Divine Care Equity and Goodness as could hardly in any case be imagined or represented upon several accounts First Because he could not then have allow'd them such sufficient possibilities of Recovery as were consistent with the Mercy of a Gracious GOD to Creatures that were made so defectible by their own original Nature That is Who can't consider that such men have generally faln into that irreligious state sometimes by the importunities of their own natural Passions and sensual Appetities within them which they could not unmake though it were in their power with some difficulty to have over-rul'd them and that sometimes they fell into that state of Sin by the Temptations of the World 's variously-enchanting Objects without them which they could not remove though it was in their own power with the same difficulty to have controul'd and resisted them I say when these occasions of their falling into a state of Sin are throughly considered and then how much those occasions do referr to God as Creator and Supreme Governour of all things What mind can reasonably entertain a suspicion but that an infinitely good God should allow them the most equitable possibilities of Recovery which an adjournment of his Administration of Justice to a future World can only admit And hence appears the reasonableness as well as the mercy of some Metaphorical Expressions in the Scripture design'd to represent this case There we find that the field was not presently thrown off to Bryars and Thorns it were against Reason and common Custom so to do till the respite for Rain and Dressing had given a further Experiment of its unfruitfulness Nor was the Fig-Tree sentenc'd to be presently cut down for the first or second and at last not for the third years barrenness but it was still respited and husbanded till the ordinary term was past that by a wise Husbandman's reasonable observation it might be judged hopelesly unfruitful And as by this respiting and adjourning the Divine Justice every impenitent Sinner is made altogether inexcusable so is God's love and equity universally acquitted as having most reasonably allow'd him all advantages for his recovery which the case and nature of the thing would bear So that I doubt not but that Almighty GOD may as justly say to every unfortunate impenitent person as he did to his unfruitful Vineyard What could I have done more that I have not done That is not limiting God's Power in himself but supposing him to act according to the measures and nature of men as reasonable Creatures This is the first reason Secondly To evidence that it is reasonable that God should suspend his compleatly universal Justice to the evil part of Mankind to a future World is not only that he might allow them a fair and equitable possibility of recovery as to their own interest but because such a present execution of his Justice upon them would be highly detrimental to the common Good of the World in its several Societies That is if Fire should come down from Heaven to consume every Oppressor as oft as zealous Innocence might possibly cry for it or that God should throw away every unjust person from his protection and as oft cut him down in his vengeance as the justifying of every Good man's Cause might be effected by it What great advantages might the World's Societies be deprived of by the loss of so many Evil men to whom God had allow'd and accepted an after-attempt for their Repentance and Recovery If there had not been such suspensions of God's Justice to such men then had St. Matthew never been called a Saint nor had he become so useful an instrument for the first establishment of the
50. l. 16. add Scholastick P. 51. l. 2. r. a Rheiorick 〈◊〉 P. 59. l. 3. r. disposed P. 63. l. 12. r. thus P. 65. l. penult dele that P. 99. l. 1. add is Ibid. l. 20. r. Constitutives P. 102. l. 10. dele are P. 141. l. 18. add if P. 144. l. 5. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 184. leave out all from Notion l. 19. to maketh l. 21. P. 189. l. 16. add a. P. 262. l. 28. r. Ingenuous P. 275. l. 3. r. to signifie their P. 278. l. 25. dele sense and. P. 378. l. r. dele and. P. 381. l. 7. for as r. at P. 382. l. 19. r. a Being P. 383. l. 14. for put P. 386. l. antepen add It 's certain P. 390. l. 4. for stout r. afflicted P. 401. l. 28. for Honour r. Fame P. 403. l. 27. r. Excesses P. 404. l. 19. for disease r. disgrace P. 413. l. 5. dele Happiness and. Ibid. Blot out from satisfaction l. 5. to concerning l. 8. inclusively Ibid. l. 8. dele Kind of Happiness P. 426. l. 12. r. were they First Argument The Summ of the FIRST ARGUMENT THE First Argument design'd to demonstrate the necessary Existence of a Future State is founded upon an obviously acknowledg'd Observation That there is not Universal Justice Judgment and Equity done to Mankind in this present World according to the different Qualifications of their Lives and Actions But that Good Men and their Righteous Causes are very frequently oppress'd and defeated and that Evil Men and their Unjust Undertakings and Practices as commonly prosper and succeed All which cannot but reflect upon the essential Goodness and Wisdom of Almighty GOD because those unequal Proceedings and Events could not be acted and brought to pass without His Divine Permission and also because it was always in His Power to have prevented them when he pleas'd Now if nothing else can solve that Reflection upon those Divine Attributes but only the belief and acknowledgment of a Future World to which God's impartial and compleat Administrations of Justice Judgment and Equity should be respited and adjourn'd That is if it shall appear that that Adjournment of it to that State can only secure the Universe in its naturally stated Order and then that no other season of its Administration can so sufficiently acquit GOD's gracious care of and love to Mankind according to the Nature he gave them Then it must needs follow That he hath ordain'd and constituted such a Future World and State. Now that this Argument may more fully attain its designed End and that I may take away all possible Exceptions against the Premises or what relates to them I shall divide the general Concern of it into Three Chapters or Heads of Discourse in order to the clearer Inference of the Conclusion at last In the first Chapter I shall offer to proof That what is just and equitable will by a Good and Just GOD be impartially administred to all sorts of Mankind according to the different Qualifications of their Lives and Actions at one time or another that is either here or here after In the Second Chapter it will be made evident That Almighty GOD doth not execute such an universal administration of Justice to Mankind in this present Life and then I shall take into consideration what an Influence that Omission had upon the Minds of the Heathen World. In the Third Chapter it will appear That GOD's respiting and adjourning the compleatly impartial Administration of His Divine Justice to a Future World can only solve the apprehensions we have That GOD intended to preserve the present Universe in the same Order that his Power and Wisdom had at first Created it especially as to his Divine Care of Mankind whether as socially or individually consider'd And if all these Three Premises shall upon sufficient Proof be found to be certainly true there will be no Cause at all to question the Conclusion for the undoubted Existence of another World. A FUTURE WORLD'S EXISTENCE Demonstrated by Rational Evidence CHAP. I. THE First Chapter is design'd to represent and prove That GOD Almighty will without doubt administer an impartial distribution of Rewards and Punishments to the Good and Evil according to the different Qualifications of their Lives and Actions at one time or another And the truth of this necessary presupposition is founded upon these Five Grounds or Reasons which make up so many Sections Section I. THe first Reason that I shall offer for the necessary belief of such an impartial distribution of Justice ar one time or another is alledg'd from the believed Existence of a God with a particular respect to his Natural and Essential Goodness which by a necessary consequence from his being acknowledg'd the World's Original Maker must be believed to be as infinitely Operative as any other of those Divine Perfections which the Creation of the World must necessarily suggest to belong to such an infinite First Cause and Independant Being And for the reasonableness of this deduction I appeal to the Philosopher Simplicius who upon the account of considering God as the Cause of Causes Begining of all Beginings presently as a necessary concomitant with such a conception of him concludes him to be Goodness of Goodnesses that is Good to all Perfection Now whatsoever Being is in any degree or sense a real Goodness in it self must be supposed to afford a reason of that denomination from a Good that is done according to its capacity where there be Objects that need it or Causes that require it And if the Goodness of God be such which no man can suspect without Blaspheming the Divine Nature and contradicting his own Reason the mind of man cannot possibly suggest a doubt but that it should express it self in the Case in hand That is that a God of infinite Goodness and Equity when it is always in his Power as to understand so to do all that is good and right should at some time or other vindicate and justify the innocent Causes of Good Men that is should recompense and reward their undeserved Sufferings especially when for their adherences to vertue they have been harassed and perplex'd by the malicious usages of unjust and unreasonable men I say if the verification of his infinite Goodness be not to be thus expressed What Cases are there by which the reason of man can be otherwise satisfied that that glorious Attribute hath a title to the same perfection which the rest are presumed to have or how otherwise in any kind of practical Notion can any reasonable Being understand for what end or purpose he is commanded or obliged to be good at all or how can a created moral Agent be so accounted either by God or Man upon such an omission To refuse to do Right Good when it is always in his capacity to do it would make but an untoward Character of such a Person by an indifferent Judge of what Goodness is And therefore to suppose God
with Epicurus to be so wholly unconcern'd in the Government of the World and especially at what happens amiss to good men in it so as to take no care at all of their vindications when they are unjustly used and oppressed would be reason enough not only to reproach God's infinite Goodness but upon a very reasonable consequence to tempt men to question his whole Existence This is the first Reason Section II. THE Second Reason is alledg'd from the Nature of Man as God was pleased to make him a free and voluntary Agent design'd to be left to the conduct and in the hand of his own Counsel that is because God gave him by his nature in distinction from all other visible Creatures who act necessarily by a soveraign Impulse from which they cannot depart a Power in himself to think deliberate and act Good or Evil at his own choise and as he should judge fit to determine his own Mind and Actions And the reason of this deduction is because either the same Wise God that form'd him into such an arbitrary Nature must have certainly provided and constituted for him some superiour Judge and common Arbiter by the dread of whose soveraign Authority and Justice he might ingage his mind and conscience to do what 's just and good and to whom he might be accountable for his actions whether good or evil or it must be presum'd that God made him possibly to be the most I may say the only lawless unsociable and ungovernable part of the whole Creation That is that he should live as it is manifestly seen men do where such a Judge is neither regarded nor sufficiently considered both to be his own folly and ruin and the world's trouble and misfortune Hence Athenagoras ingeniously observes That as it 's necessary to mans nature that having an appetite he should have meat to preserve his life and that as he is a mortal he should have posterity to preserve his species so as he is a rational Creature that he should have a common Judge of all his actions and from whom he might expect a reward and dread a punishment Now if such an Universal Judge and Arbiter must for that reason be thus necessarily supposed then it 's certain that there can none be believed to be so universally qualified for it as the same God that Originally gave man his being and who by the Title of Creator was invested with a natural Soveraignty over all his Creatures which he made and especially over Man to whom he had given such a figure of mind and being as naturally to need his Governing Dominion more than any other Creature besides if not only For none can be such a competent Judge but a Being that is Omniscient and so is capable of understanding all Causes Minds and Actions that is of an infinite goodness and so can love approve and bless all that is done well justly and worthily And lastly of an infinite power so as to be able to execute all his own judiciary purposes and determinations how and when he pleases No Being that wants any of these qualifications can possibly be a Competent Judge of Men and their Actions so that Universal right and equity may be compleatly and impartially done to the whole world of such Rational and Voluntary Agents And because God Almighty can only be qualified for such a Judge what can make a Suspicion that he should not execute that just necessary and soveraign Office at one time or another As for what concerns the committing his Judiciary Authority to soveraign human Powers it will be accounted for in the third Argument chap. 2. sect 3. that is how far thereby the Divine Care of administring universal Justice to the world is attain'd and discharg'd Section III. THe Third Reason that secures a Belief that God will at one time or other undertake the vindication of all righteous persons and causes and bring them all to a true balance of impartial Right is from a plea a just appeal and that upon most Rational Consequences which all that are unjustly oppressed may make to the holy and soveraign God in their own behalf First By alledging that the promiscuous world of Mankind in which good men are unavoidably subjected and exposed for reasons which a Future World can only solve to the hazard of such miscarriages and disadvantages was naturally so disposed by God's own Original pleasure and ordination as possibly to admit and produce such unequitable effects And therefore the evil usages of vertuous and good men in such a world must needs in that respect be the consequences of such causes and occasions which God might have prevented if he had pleased but which themselves could not controul when they would Secondly And more particularly good men that are so oppressed may further alledge that those very faculties and capacities by which unjust men as men are naturally empower'd to choose and act their evil designs against the innocenter part of Man-kind were not only the Issues of Gods own Workmanship when he was first pleased to Create Man but they must be still kept up in their natural Use and Operations by his Wife and Ordinative Permission And from hence it is that the Scriptures to whom an Atheist will permit an Appeal to illustrate such a natural truth do all along attribute to God and interest him in with expressions which bear a very near alliance to Causality the worst Actions which wicked men have most voluntarily and of their own evil minds contrived and acted against Himself his Church and choisest Servants Now the summ of these thoughts is That if there be any such thing as a righteous Cause or if any case may be reputed a causeless oppression if there were ever any such men as were good and vertuous and that in Abraham's sence might be adjudged in God's esteem righteous persons or if there were ever any such besides Zacharias and Elizabeth that walked in all the Commandments of God blameless that is acceptably so And yet if nevertheless such good and righteous Persons have been oftentimes unjustly oppressed and sometimes have passed away their whole mortal lives rack'd and worryed by the undeserved malice of evil men And then lastly if it be considered how much God himself was concern'd so far as I have represented the Case who can resist a belief or what good man can silence his complaint and expectation but that Almighty God who is so much more or less interested will at one time or other order a thorough justification of his innocency and redress his wrongs by some gracious method and in the most proper season which his own great wisdom and impartial equity shall think fit to choose in this Life or another This is the third Reason Section IV. THis fourth Reason that supports a belief that God will undertake at one time or other such an Administration of his Divine Justice is alledged
and Fruition This the Second Answer And now having thus solv'd this grand Objection I hope there is nothing more to be alledged to put any further stop in our way but that we may fairly proceed to shew how far the respiting and adjourning of universal Justice to a future World will administer new Reasons for a stronger demonstration of a future states Existence on that Account But that 's the business of the next Chapters adventure Therefore CHAP. III. IN this Chapter that the Argument may be found to be of sufficient validity to attain its End I shall endeavour to demonstrate That GOD's respiting and adjourning the Completion of his judicial administrations to a future World is so naturally reasonable that nothing else can solve the apprehensions we may have of GOD's Design to preserve the present universe in that natural order in which by Creation it was at first fitted to subsist Neither can any other expedient secure a belief that GOD intended a regard to the Good and Happiness of Mankind whether as socially or individually considered But here be several things which must be distinctly and apart considered in so many Sections by themselves In the first Section it must be examined how that part of the universe which consists of necessary Agents can otherwise be preserv'd in its natural Order In the second we shall examine the case by that part of the universe that acts in it as rational Agents and first as they are to enjoy their Well-being in social Communions Thirdly and Fourthly we shall offer to examination how otherwise GOD's care of Mankind may be acquitted as they are individually to be considered And that particularly as they may be distinguished into the two sorts of Evil and Good. In all which respects there will appear cogent Reasons Why Almighty GOD should adjourn the completion of his judicial administrations of Justice and Judgment to another World. Section I. IN this Section I am concern'd to represent That if Almighty GOD should not respit the completion of his judiciary purposes for the Good and Evil to another Life but should in this world be universally and actually justifiing and abetting every righteous Person and Cause and should also as universally be constantly correcting and confounding every Evil Mans unjust adventures it would certainly discontinue the natural order of those Agents that act by necessary impulse as often as they should be made use of for those judicial executions And that because they cannot subserve an extraordinary proceedure of the Divine Justice unless they should be continually interrupted in the order of their natural Causations and Operations And to make this Observation the more convincingly conspicuous we may take measures by some few famous Cases in which GOD was sometimes pleas'd to exercise his absolute Dominion and extraordinary Authority over those necessary Agents for the present executions of his Justice That is suppose that all the Seas and Rivers of the Universe should be forced from their natural Courses of which there be some instances to fourd over all those good Persons in their flight from an Attachment as oft as there were no other means for their escape and that the Sun should as oft stand still as it were necessary it should to crown a good Cause with a compleat Conquest or suppose that as often as any man were ready to perish with Thirst every hard Rock or natural mound to Waters should be forc'd open for a River to run in dry places to supply their present want or that the Clouds should suspend their kind showers to refresh the growth of Plants or that the Sun's enlivening warmth should be turn'd into a Flame to burn up the surface of the Earth so oft as the Inhabitants thereof should deserve those instances of the Divine Judgment upon them I say if these and a thousand such like cases as these should so often become necessary for the completion of GOD's Favour to the Vertuous and Innocent and for the just execution of His Displeasure to wicked Men in this world the necessary Agents which were naturally disposed to serve the necessities conveniencies of Mankind would be found to act contradictions to their own Natures and their orderly Causations would be so daily and hourly chang'd into miraculous Events that the Universe it self would appear to be nothing else but a scene of Prodigies to amuse and affright Mankind Now though such wonderful executions of the Divine Justice and especial Favour may well enough consist with the world 's present created order when they are so unfrequently done and upon some extraordinary occasions yet if they were constantly and fully acted for the completion of every single Persons reward or punishment which must be supposed if the Arguments in my first Chapter that GOD will certainly do it at one time or other be true the necessary Beings which should be subservient to those ends and executions must be so often interrupted in their natural motions and causations that nothing would follow but the World 's universal Disorder if not its total Discomposure But perhaps things may go better among the Rational Agents But that is next to be inquir'd into Therefore Section II. IN this Second Section we are engaged to examine the next grand inconvenience and disorder to the universe as God by his own Sovereign Wisdom stated it with respect to that part of it which are call'd Rational and Voluntary Agents as they are naturally and necessarily to subsist together in Social Communions one with another for their common welfare And then I say that if God Almighty should in this life universally execute those administrations of Rewards and Punishments to the Good and Evil it would destroy the ordinary good subsistence of all humane Societies For if while the dispensations of Gods providence are so promiscuously dispenced to the Good and Evil whereby they do so constantly share in one anothers blessings and misfortunes Mankind do attain the good ends of their Social Subsistence with so much difficulty and hazard as that in a thousand Cases it had been better in that very respect for innumerable single persons never to have known what a world had meant what disorders and cross accidents what perpetual dissolutions of a Governments and frustrations of the most material contracts and agreed proceedings in Common Affairs what calamitous interruptions in all manner of Societies from an Empire to a Family must necessarily succeed in so much that the World of Rational Beings would presently become the only confused rout of Creatures that ever God made and the Existence of the meanest Animal were rather to be chosen than to enjoy a Being amongst them All which inconveniencies nothing but a respiting the Completion of God's Justice to a Future World can possibly prevent And now I appeal to any Theistical mind to tell me Whence can all this be or how should the understanding of man upon such a prospect of things conjecture that God should
at first make a world of Rational Beings naturally subject to so many oppressions and unjust usages one from another and that yet when they happen as they daily do in all places of the world they should not possibly be universally redress'd without a greater inconvenience to if not with a certain ruin of all their present Societies in which it is naturally necessary they should subsist but from a design of making an universal after-view of all the Actions of Men at a time when all such mix'd societies shall have their irrevocable periods and that the good and evil shall be separated to their several distinct communions and apartments by themselves And by this observation will our Saviour's parabolical representations of the present State of Mankind appear highly reasonable That is That the Wheat and Tares by which is meant the Good and Evil should grow together till the Harvest least a present plucking up of the one should endanger the Success if not the very being of the other and that the good and bad Fish should both of them be promiscuously comprehended not only in the same Sea of the World but in the same net of the Church together Now let the Hectorers down of the beleif of another world assign me a conjecture for any other reasonable expedient how to solve this doubt and I shall then renounce the use that may be made of this observation for the necessary Existence of another world But to all this if an exception should be interpos'd from the sense of them that are true believers who saith our Caviller will be apt say that if God Almighty doth for the most part respit the the executions of Justice and Judgment to a Future World the apprehension of such a suspension would take away a great deal of the reason and incouragement why good men should so constantly pray as 't is done in publick Litanies and private Devotions for their own Justifications and the common deliverances of the Church from its implacable Enemies And therefore were it not better and more reasonable for such good men to sit down in a patient acquiescence than to be so solicitous in their prayers for that which as the Second Chapter hath assur'd us doth so uncommonly and uncertainly come to pass My answer to this exception is that all prayers of that nature as for all other temporal blessings are suppos'd to be always made interpretatively if not in direct words upon some conditions and terms of limitation And of those conditions there be two especially to be consider'd First Good men so often as they supplicate to be delivered and justify'd or any other way blessed in this World do alwaies desire those Mercies at the Hand of God upon a condition that they may consist with the common Good and Safety of those publick Societies in whose communions they enjoy their present Subsistence That is they desire not that their private Satisfactions and Vindications should be purchased at the rate of common Ruin or upon the terms of any destructive alterations of the communions in which they live And that might be the reason why David desired that the Punishment of God might rather fall upon himself and Family than upon the People in general And as Good men would not enjoy their particular Exemptions from Oppressions in exchange for a common Disturbance or Mischief so nor would they desire their Personal Justifications as to their private Enemies if they must be had upon terms which must inferr either their present or their future Ruin Lest a Thought of Revenge should tempt their innocent minds to a complacency in their Enemies misfortunes And therefore that Saying fiat justitia ruat mundus Let Justice be done though the whole World should perish cannot be true Divinity unless the meaning of it be Let the World perish rather than any man should do what is unjust but it is false to desire it should perish rather than suffer what is most unjust And that you have the first condition upon which a Good mans Prayers are suppos'd to be made when he implores the present vindication of his Right and Cause Secondly I answer That when Good men pray to God for the present deliverances and justifications of their Persons and Causes they have alwaies another condition in reserve that is That God would grant their Petitions for their deliverances unless a continuance in their Sufferings should tend more to their present and future Good otherwise they can interpret and believe that it is a mercy of God to have their Prayers in such cases deny'd And therefore when they perceive that their Petitions are in such instances rejected they are ready with all submission and contentment of mind to think and say that Had they not some way or other needed their implacable Enemies success their Prayers had certainly prevented it And that there was something defective in themselves which God thought fit in that manner to correct in order to their own final Good and Happiness or such an event had never faln out so contrary to their Supplications And thus by such wise and pious reserves they can reasonably satisfie themselves when they meet a disappointment in their expectations of Temporal Blessings after they had prayed for them and were deny'd These and such as these are the conditions upon which Good men pray for Temporal Deliverances and their present Justifications And as such Prayers are sufficiently consistent with a Belief of God's respiting and adjourning the compleat executions of his justice to another World so it 's encouragement enough and sure it 's all that need be given that when those conditions will bear it Good men may assure themselves that God will not nor did ever fail to answer their Petitions and grant their requests And this perfectly solves the Sence of our Saviour's indefinite Promise with respect to Temporal Mercies that Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name he will give it you And further it 's to be consider'd in that case That when the reason of those Conditions hath interven'd between God and his Petitioners though they have been denied their Supplications in kind yet for their encouragement still to pray they might and ought to believe that God would grant them in some other equivalent matter and manner for a compensation of all they ask'd and were denied Howsoever in the mean time they can satisfie themselves that they have been doing their Duties and paying the daily Homage they owed to God and may live comfortably under the expectation that God will do them right in another World. And let it now be also especially remark'd that what I have here said concerning the Conditions upon which Good men pray for their Temporal Deliverances and Vindications and upon the reason of which they are so often denied their Petitions may hold good also in the case of God's executing his Justice as to the Rewards and Punishments of this Life That is
instances of Gods mercy to numerous others that shall at that present time or afterward exist rather than to think that God should be any otherwise pleased with such sudden and severe executions of his Justice upon such single Persons And thus this Objection being answered it doth upon the consideration of the former Reasons appear most accountable that God should respite and adjourn his universal Justice and Judgment for the sake of the Evil Part of Mankind But Gods regard to that Part of Mankind concludes not His care of the rest Therefore Section IV. IN this last Section I am concern'd to demonstrate That an adjournment of so great a part of GOD's universal Justice to another World doth not only acquit but highly advance his most gracious care of the good and vertuous part of Mankind And this I shall do upon several Accounts First that the belief of such a Respite might keep their minds in a constant satisfaction That GOD intended to make better provisions for their Recompences than can be had in this present world In which the best advantages that can possibly be attain'd are hardly considerable enough to bear them up above the ordinary discouragements which they may daily meet with for nothing else but because they are good And therefore it 's there happiness to know that when their duty calls for a submission to more afflictive portions of Trouble an expectation of present recompences would be almost a contradiction in the thing and that because the bearing of the Cross doth in it self import a destitution of what might make them conveniently happy in this Life And then that such a consideration might put them upon a kind of benign necessity to keep themselves intire and close to the desire and expectation of those adjourn'd Recompences that can only be such as may make them truly Blessed insomuch that should the vertuous but too commonly and ordinarily meet their justifications in this Life and too generally be crown'd with present successes as oft as they pray'd for it or expected it according to the justice of their Causes they might suspect that GOD designed to give them their Portions in this world only and that in some displeasure he had turn'd them off to be content with such an unfortunate exchange Secondly it 's highly reasonable that God should respite and deferr the rewards and recompences of Good and Vertuous Men to a future State because it very often falls out that it 's their best interest that they should not be so happy as alwaies to succeed in their justest Enterprizes nor be alwaies gratify'd with present though desired Advantages in their secular Undertakings and that because some tempers are not at all capable of bearing a successful interest and the best and strongest Piety hath been stagger'd and endanger'd by it What a prodigy of miscarriage and of a lost vertue was David once in his great prosperity and how did the following unsuccessful passages of his life restore him to a vertuous temper hardly to be parallell'd How much less than a man was he in the one and how much more than an ordinary Saint in the other And this is the reason Why some Men of eminent Piety being sensible of the danger of too great and too successful an affluence have voluntarily chosen to abridge themselves of their own just enjoyments and have been cheerfully thankful when Providence hath offer'd them some cross overtures in their affairs thereby to abate and lessen in them too great a complacency in their present fruitions But upon this subject I shall enlarge my self afterwards The third Reason why God might please to order an adjournment of his recompensing Mercies to the Vertuous and Good to another World is that he might the more equitably admit them in his mercy to the compleater degrees of them in that state For who can't consider that all good men of which none are more sensible than themselves have their Failings and some unavoidable Miscarriages even when they are endeavouring to pursue their integrity as well and as far as they can And that there be many of them who tho' they may now be as good as their infirm mortal nature and circumstances will at present admit had past some considerable Portion of their Lives before they return'd to Vertue in an universal neglect of God and Goodness And therefore in both respects GOD in his Wisdom and Justice might please to leave them unjustify'd in many cases that concern this Life that being at present chastiz'd and as it were punished for their many follies before they return'd to Vertue and Goodness and for their manifold Infirmities after they had been so recovered they might not be laid to their charge afterward so as to occasion any abatements of their happiness in another World. In these three Reasons is contain'd what I had to say concerning God's care of the Vertuous Part of Mankind for the adjourning the compleat administrations of his Divine Justice to another world And so I have finished the design of my Third Chapter and then all the premises are Ripe for the assumption The Conclusion AND now having stood my ground against all the Suggestions that could be offer'd to invalidate the Three Constituent Parts of the Argument That is having in my first Chapter demonstrated that the Just and Holy God at one time or other will certainly act the part of an Impartial Judge of all the World in Justifying the Just Causes of the Vertuous and Punishing Evil men for their unjust undertakings and all their Immoral Actions and Proceedings In the Second Chapter having sufficiently evinc'd by all manner of Authorities and by every mans own common Observation that that Work is not done in this life to any such degree as may acquit the Vniversal Justice of a good and just God to his Rational World And lastly having Demonstrated the Reasonableness of his respiting and adjourning the executions of his Rewards and Punishments to another State and how it evidently tends most to the Order of the whole Creation and particularly and especially for the good of Mankind in all Capacities I say having shewn that all these Premises are certainly True I cannot conjecture what exception can possibly be alledged against the just inference of the Conclusion that is That on this account there must needs be a Future State in real Existence Second Argument The Summ of the SECOND ARGUMENT THE Second Argument that demonstrates the Existence of a Future State is founded upon Mans being created with those Rational Powers or Faculties of his Soul by which he hath a mind essentially advanc'd above the State of all other visible Animals and may be presum'd to come up to a near Resemblance or Image of his Soveraign Creatour viz. his Understanding and his Will. By the one he is made capable first discursively to learn and know and then judicially to determine what is most fit to be undertaken and done for the attainment of such
it may be said that a mans hand can take up Gold when it 's laid before him or embrace his prosperity when it 's provided for him as an effect of some propitiously concurrent causes and accidents which gave Solomon the Reason to say That the Race was not to the Swift nor the Battle to the Strong neither Bread to men of Vnderstanding nor yet Favour to men of Skill but Time and Chance happens to all That is that those happy events did not certainly come to pass according to those mens excellent qualifications but that they proceeded from some over-ruling cause of that Time and Chance of which expect some account at the period of this Section And this solves the observation why it doth so often come to pass that the best outward materials of a pretended happiness in this world do become the Portions of men but indifferently qualify'd in the regions of their minds and very frequently of such as are hardly so much as are sensible of the value of their own plenteous circumstances or else of such as are sensually dispos'd and then they either abuse Them by their pride and intemperance or else disimprove them through their own indiscretions and carelesness to their own discontent rather than the lots of such as have the largest share of intellectual endowments or that are the greatest Friends to Worth and Vertue And for that reason it hath been observ'd even to a Proverb that men of the finest and most ingenious parts have seldom acquitted themselves from the severe streights of Fortune nor from very undecent dependencies And that to have been said to be as indigent as a Poet or a Philosopher was thought as severe an exprobation of being poor as could well be given It 's true to invalidate my thus reasoning that it is commonly affirm'd That an exact frugality will make a man Rich That a close retirement will procure him Quietness of Life and That Temperance will secure his Health and long Life And then they 'll say that all these expedients for those considerable events towards a mans easier and happier Being in this life are all of them in the power of the rational faculties to judge chuse and undertake at pleasure My answer to this Allegation is That those expedients do so uncertainly and contingently attain their ends that all cases considered it will hardly allow a mans thoughts a probability that they ever should succeed according to the undertakers Expectations And to evince this I shall admit those three cases to a more minute examination As to the first of them a strict and cunning Frugality Let me demand of my Objecter whether he thinks that the most anxious care can prevent unfaithfulness in all them upon whom the industrious Frugals must be presumed more or loss to rely on one occasion or other for trust or imployment or can their nicest observation secure them from common Cheats or secret frauds or can a Box of writings or a Chest defend their Wealth from the harassings of War and all other the common accidents of humane Life And if so what kind of certainty can such men presume upon to encourage them in this undertaking for their own sufficient happiness in this World Then as to the second viz. Retirement in order to a quiet Life Can it secure a man from all the effects of contempt the certain attendant of a design'd privacy Can it prevent the inconveniencies of being friendless as oft as his relation to the Publick calls for the favour of men in power to help him to what is right or kind Or can it secure him from being seized upon as a prey by those who mark out the private and the solitary for the execution of their mischievous and sometimes bloody purposes And then I say with what a strange kind of improbability must such an expedient attain its end to their satisfactions As to the last expedient Temperance in order to the securing a mans health and long life Is it yet determin'd upon any general ground of reason or experience what should be the certain measures of such a Temperance Or did ever any skilful Person pretend to give any such infallible rules of it as might be universally accommodable Or if the methods of a temperate life could be stated by a common measure would they secure a mans health and long life from hereditary evil constitutions or from common contagions or from the sudden surprizes of Epidemick diseases Or lastly from such distempers as may be occasion'd by diabolicals impressions which may at any time through the Divine permission be as commonly acted as instances have been given of such cases by most credible and unsuspected relations and as they stand upon Authentick records For which the Learned Bodinus may be consulted I say all those Cases being duly considered who can presume to think that God hath plac'd any mans health or long life with any assurance in his own power by the best use he can make of his intellectual Faculties And now because I have thus undertaken in favour of my Argument to remark this last temporal Blessing and Enjoyment Health which in most respects ought to be accounted the principal and necessary Attendant and Concomitant of all present humane Well-being Let me a little further engage my Observation of the defect and insufficiency of Man's rational faculties for the attainment and preservation of it And that not only because a mans own Understanding may be so easily defeated in finding out the expedients of its safety but because the Reason and Skill of those Men who have made it the study business and employment of their whole Lives to administer to it do so much fall short of any certain attainment of that Happiness to Mankind And for this observation I shall only remark what that admirable Patron of Learning S r. Francis Bacon discourseth concerning it and that only in the Margin and without interpretation to avoid offence for I have said all this upon no other design but to improve the notion I have here undertaken upon my Reasoning for the certain Existence of a Future State. And now having thus concluded my second Reason let me superadd one observation upon that account that is Suppose it should be inquir'd that since Man hath naturally so little power over the circumstances of his own Well-being in this World by what other cause or causes are Mens present conditions conducted or whether by none at all My answer is that the acknowledgment of a Future World and GOD's design that Mens principal Happiness should be placed and expected in that State doth most plainly and naturally answer that Enquiry and that without flying to stubborn Fate or blind Fortune as some even great Philosophers have done it doth perfectly solve the doubt That is that GOD was pleas'd to take upon himself the care of disposing every Mans portion of outward things in this Life and in that manner as he saw might best
Divine Revelation Thus did the Jews most grosly prevaricate with God by their intolerable omissions of living vertuously that is by the Rules of Universal Justice and Goodness as His holy Prophets so often complain And for this did our Saviour in his time so severely reprove those strict Religionists the Scribes and Pharisees And it 's observ'd That the Wise men of almost every Age of the Church have engaged themselves in making such complaints of the Times they lived in And I wish heartily that I had not too just a cause which gave me the chief occasion of this Section to complain of a Religion of a later date in which Justice and Goodness have been so wonderfully laid aside as if they bore no part at all of the Profession of it And the better to solve that intolerable contradiction to the very design of Christianity they have taught themselves a most scandalous distinction between Grace and Vertue between Godliness and Justice between Saintship and all Moral Honesty in their notion and as we have seen practice of Religion to the great disparagement and dishonour of whatsoever bears that Sacred Name This the First Section II. THis Section will represent another very dangerous prejudice as to the manner of our stating the Argument And it 's to be done by making and answering an Enquiry whether or no Almighty GOD will be at all concern'd as to Rewards and Punishments how men live and act whether morally or immorally in this World. For if he be pleased to be so indifferent and unconcern'd the Argument is void and that because a Proposal of any such things as Rewards or Punishments to encourage and deterr would then be the most impertinent Concern of Mind that it is ordinarily capable of Now though it may be thought that there should be but a very few or none that acknowledge a Deity so desperately inconsiderate of His Divine Honour as to own and publish such a contradiction to His Essential Holiness and to that soveraign and wise Authority which he must be presum'd to have and exercise naturally over that Rational World which he created and made at his own choice For it were the same thing as to believe That he intended to licentiate men in all those horrid practices and confusions which should ever be acted and fall out to the World's end yet it 's certain that there have been and are opinions entertain'd which must imply such an indifferency and unconcernment in God howsoever men live and act And I doubt not but that they have been made use of by many thereby to encourage their continuance in their most immoral practices and vitious ways of Living Now the opinions which have brought forth that wretched effect in mens minds are three to be especially considered and rebuked The first which I shall take notice of is that which doth directly and professedly make God to be own'd as Author and Cause of Sin And then How can He be concern'd at all at that sinful action of which He himself should be really causal Of which horrid and blasphemous opinion Eusebius accounts one Florinus to be the first Promoter though Vincentius Lerinensis makes one more ancient and averrs Simon Magus as its first Patron And the Fathers did charge that Heresie afterward upon Cerdon Marcion and others as concurrent with their several Heterodoxies But the most remarkable Restores in this later Age of that abominable Principle were the late Libertines as the Historians and Divines of those Times call'd them in Germany that thereby they might go on with their intolerable Profanations and desperate Immoralities for their thorough-work as they call'd it of a more perfect Reformation with greater Liberty and Encouragement By whose Example and upon their Principles we have too great a reason to suspect that out late rebellious Reformers transcrib'd too resembling a Copy both in their minds and practices and for whose sakes I have taken occasion to offer at this representation The Second Opinion that must consequentially inferr an indifferency and unconcernment in God how Men act and live as to the Rewards and Punishments of another Life is that of an eternal and irrespective decree of some men to Salvation with the inevitable preterition of all the rest of Mankind And that because that Doctrine must in consequence suppose not that Man but that GOD Himself should be the efficient Cause and principal Agent in all the Good and Evil Actions that are done in the World and then How could the one be reasonably rewardable and the other punishable And first as to the Good and Vertuous Actions of them that are so absolutely elected to Salvation they cannot be suppos'd to be properly their own but God's because they are wrought in them as they commonly affirm by such an impulse of His Grace as which they have not a Liberty in themselves to resist or defeat And then as to the sinful actions of them that are under that fatal preterition How can they be morally their own but God's as Causa deficiens in necessariis est efficiens because they become unavoidable for want of that Grace by which it was only possible for those unhappy men to have escaped and prevented them And though our Opinionists dare impudently pretend That those men have all of them a sufficient Grace given them yet nevertheless they most senselesly mean That it is sufficient in it Self only but not as unto them so as possibly to effect upon their best endeavour any advantage to themselves And now How can God be reasonably concern'd to Reward the actions of the one or to Punish those of the other when neither of those actions were properly and voluntarily their own that is when neither of those sorts of men were ever allow'd to act by a Mind that had any truly-balanc'd Liberty of choice in its self And therefore in such a case the proposal of Rewards and Punishments upon which the Reason of the Argument is founded to encourage the Good or deterr the Evil were as impertinent as if a man were counsel'd to act an Adventure for an Estate when he is confirm'd in his opinion that either he hath had a fore-decree for an undefeizible Title to it or else of which he were assur'd to be depriv'd by an insuperable Bar long before put in against him I say If he were sure that one of those two unalterable causes were upon him though he did not know which it was What manner of encouragement is it that should reasonably induce him to do any thing for the securing or obtaining such an Estate And where lays the difference of that Case from this in debate I can make no conjecture The Third Opinion that necessarily implies That God should be indifferent and unconcern'd how men live and act as to Rewards and Punishments is from Mr. Hobs his Necessitation of all humane actions from a Chain of Causes link'd together at one anothers end to the
very immediate Last that necessarily determin'd the Understanding so to judge and the Will so to chuse The unaccountable Sence of which his shiftless distinction can never solve as when he averrs That though a Man can Do what he will yet that he cannot Will what he will For if the binding up the last and immediate Causes of the Action that is the judgment and will of Man to a necessity of judging and choice if it be not Non-sence to call it a judgment or a choice at all can give any rational Man leave to think that that Action can be an effect of true Liberty then may the natural motion of an Inanimate and the operations of a sensitive Being which do spontaneously yet nevertheless necessarily as necessity stands in opposition to rational Liberty follow that impulse which the Creator had put upon their several Natures be properly call'd an act of a free and voluntary Agent Now whosoever hath entertain'd such an opinion of the necessitation of all humane actions must suppose that the first Link of that Chain of Causes that moves or knocks the next to it and so every next successively his next till the last Cause drives the Will into a necessity of Choice I say that first Link of Causation must be soveraignly held in the hand of God as he is the first cause of all Motion as well as of all Being And then it must also be suppos'd that none of those intermedial or secondary Causes can break from the natural order of that train of Causations without an extraordinary intervention of the First Causes Will and Power till the Action be it good or evil be chosen and effected So that if there be any cause of the Action that is truly voluntary and by which it may be really denominated morally Good or Evil it must be the first only for all the other Causes are under a natural or fatal necessity of acting what they do and the Judgment and Will of Man which should make the moral distinction are under an impossibility of judging or chusing otherwise as Mr. Hobs asserts and therefore there being no other Will at liberty by which such an Action is to be freely chosen if there be any morality in the Action it must have it from the first Cause or no where and then what a piece of Blasphemy are we fallen upon For it makes God not only a cause but the only cause of all evil and immoral Actions as such which a bare spontaneity in the Will of Man can no more solve than it can make a necessary Agent when it 's any way instrumental to a mischievous Event really a Criminal so that I may be angry with the Stone that hits me and like a Dog in rage bite it as well as with the person that threw it if in both of them there were as much necessity of the Action as is consistent with a natural spontaneity And then how can GOD be concern'd in such Actions as to Rewards and Punishments any more than that they should be capable of Praise or Blame as Clemens Alexandrinus argues against such a necessity of acting in moral Agents These be the three Opinions that support the second Prejudice or mistaken Notion of GOD's being unconcern'd how Men live and act whether morally or immorally as to Rewards and Punishments But the very explaining of them with a consideration had of their intolerable consequences makes them sufficiently their own abhorrence and confutation There is one erroneous Notion more that concerns a lesser sort of People and now my hand is in it shall not pass unrebuk'd Section III. THis Section is design'd to over-rule the last prejudice which would also make void the sence of the Argument as it is stated And that must be done by making another enquiry Whether or no Almighty GOD if it be granted That He will be pleased to concern Himself as to Rewards and Punishments how Men live and act intended that men should think themselves oblig'd to live vertuously upon the account only of His own Sovereign Authority and absolute Command and that they should charge themselves with no other motive or reason but only that Or whether GOD design'd not also in that case as in all others to deal with Mankind as rational and voluntary Agents that is that they might propound to their own Minds some considerable Interest or Happiness upon the encouragement of which they should oblige themselves so to live and act And then on the other hand whether they might not also as reasonably propound to their own Thoughts a Consideration of the many Inconveniences at present and their certain Ruine in the event to disswade and deterr themselves from living immorally and vitiously Now the Reason Why I offer this case to enquiry before I further engage in the pursuit of my Argument is because it 's known that there be some Men even enough to make a party who being resolv'd not to be otherwise perswaded but that a proposal of Rewards to encourage Men to be Religious and to do good is a most dangerous approach to Popery the ordinary expedient us'd by such men to affright Minds where Reasons are wanting and that it can import nothing less than the Romish Merit and I know not what And then on the other side say they for men to suggest to themselves the dread of Future Punishments though for that reason they are propos'd as objects of the Christian Faith is nothing else but slavish Fear by which they falsely represent that religious Act of mind and that to avoid sinning on that account can no way be acceptable but rather distastful to Almighty GOD. But these mens prejudices in this point have yet further ends and little notions to serve For say they such a proposal of Rewards and Punishments do tempt men to give too much to the Creature it hinders the Advancement of free Grace and takes men off from bottoming themselves upon Christ as they phrase it and from rowling themselves by Faith inconditionately upon his Merits with many more such like humouring Notions Now such unhappy imposures as these have vulgar minds admitted to the vast prejudice of Vertue and an active Religion and all this because they would fain go to Heaven without any incumbring moralities such as are the Vertues and Graces of strict Justice Restitution and Satisfaction upon the Breach of it intire Loyalty to their Princes and Obedience to their Superiours of every kind Charity to their Enemies and doing Good to all Men as much as in them lay and the like And that instead of them they may go to Christ they think for Salvation by a shorter 〈◊〉 as by the force of an imaginary Faith or a delusive Reliance and the like which will not put them upon so much trouble and charge And now if such prejudic'd men would but consider how much such triflings with God and their own Souls are inconsistent with all solid
and finding that those who had plac'd it upon any present Enjoyments for a prosperous and sensual way of living could not possibly stand their ground against those pregnant Reasons that every man's Experience could dictate to the contrary So those Wise men were at last necessitated to pitch upon this Expedient of making Vertue her own Reward as being subject to the least Exception Though in the sence and manner how it should effect that Reward the Philosophers were no more likely to agree than those men who design'd to place mens Chiefest Happiness in any other thing whose enjoyment was determinable in this present World. Of which the Reader will find a full account in the last Argument Chap. 2. And this Philosophical Principle hath since been kept up by the Predestinarian Divines as better consistent with their notion of irrespective Election of which I have given some account in the First Chapter Sect. 2. And from that kind of Divinity I verily believe that notion hath been inconsiderately and unwarily entertain'd even to this day by Divines and others of a better Mind and soberer Judgment 2. Secondly I answer That as that Opinion or Saying had those unhappy Interests to serve in its First Rise and Process so upon a more strict Examination it cannot in it self be True. And first as to the nature and proper notion of a Reward which cannot but be of something that is kindly as well as equitably bestow'd by any Person concern'd to give or allow it to another For no man can be properly said to reward himself he cannot in any tolerable Sence be the Giver Receiver and Judge of the Equity of the same thing which must be True in a strict Propriety of Speaking if Vertue may be said to be properly her that is the vertuous man's own Reward Then Secondly If it be alledg'd That Reward in that Saying ought to be taken in a Metaphorical Sence but neither then can the notion hold good in that acceptation to the purpose for which that Saying was to be made use of For to be metaphorically accepted is as much as to say That Vertue is her own Reward because it becomes something that is like or resembles a Reward but then it must be such a something that must be suppos'd if they will allow the Mind to be the proper Seat of a Rational Beings happiness to depend upon the vertuous man's opinion and imagination that is That he is sufficiently rewarded and happy if he can think himself so and so long as his Mind is in temper to imagine himself to be so But then if a man would consider how insecure any such vertuous person must needs be of keeping his mind in that good humour upon several accounts he would soon find cause to blush at the pretence of believing Vertue to be her own Reward upon his Thinking act of its self-sufficiency For Who knows not but that sometimes his Minds kind temper without any reason to be given for it may alter by his imaginative Faculties natural disposition to change and variation sometimes according to the present temper of the Body as in Hypocondriack Persons especially sometimes by the Minds inability at all times to subdue the clamours of its unruly Affections and lower Appetites and very often by a vertuous man's observation of his own many defects and imperfections in his best intendments and performances I say when these various cases happen What 's then become of that Reward or that which is Tropically like it Can it give the Mind a Beatitude without its own allowance or consent Or Can the Mind have satisfaction and be unsatisfy'd at the same time In short Can that be a man's sufficient Happiness of whose enjoyment he cannot be one hour secure Thirdly That the weakness of the pretence of making Vertue her own sufficient Reward without any other expectation may yet be further discovered It 's observed that the greatest Contenders for that saying do sufficiently demonstrate its defect by supposing a concurrence of almost all parts of humane prosperity as necessary to support that which they call Vertues Reward And to make this good I shall here only offer the Opinion of Aristotle who as industriously as possible had endeavour'd to have Mans self-sufficient Beatitude plac'd in Vertues being her own Reward and he tells us that there be unfortunate cases that concern Honour Children Beauty and the like which by no means can allow the vertuous Man to be a happy Person And then saith he in the same place how can he be happy that 's deform'd ignorant or that lives unsocially and without Posterity c. Now if such a concession and supposal of the necessary confluence of so many conveniences of living well and easily in the world do not shew the unsufficiency of such a pretended self-Reward we must disclaim every consequence that 's most rationally inferr'd Hence it is That the Ingenious Poet had so slender an Opinion of Vertues being her own Reward that he even derides the Humour of that presence and tells us that it would but teach Men to repent that ever they had been Vertuous at all if they got no more by it Fourthly and lastly I answer and grant to save our Pretenders Credit That it is with that saying of Vertues being her own Reward as it is with many other general Axioms and common Proverbial Speeches that are grounded upon some certain Truth which yet in other respects may admit several Restrictions and Exceptions and with which those very Axioms may be so over-balanc'd that there may be sometimes as good ones taken from some of their very limitations And there may be some Axioms so equally balanc'd between true and false that it were indifferent if they were given either negatively or affirmatively Upon this consideration I do allow some Truth in the common saying That Vertue is her own Reward that is the mind may sometimes by living vertuously receive some general satisfaction to its self and that some Vertues may sometimes convenience a Mans credit health peace and the like but then on the other side when it 's considered that there is no such absolute certainty in attaining those conveniences as to make up an entire and self-sufficient Happiness without any reference at all to the grand Rewards of another Life I say when all those Restrictions are put into the balance I dare as positively affirm that Vertue is not her own Reward as to say it is Nay I must say it's impossible it should be so affirm'd if any man as the Philosophers did shall go about to confront the Beatitude of another World by giving it Appellatives that can only be proper to the blessedness of the Beatifick Vision or an enjoyment of the nearest Communion with GOD Himself For so Aristotle calls it the greatest the most excellent the best and divine Good Elsewhere he calls it the highest most perfect and self-sufficient Good. And now after all this that
as sufficient to prevent it To this it's first Answer'd That upon the carefullest survey of Cicero's Arguments who I believe hath said as much and as wisely as can well be suggested in that Case I find nothing that he offers that so much as pretends to any exemption from those natural Miseries much less that tenders any thing in compensation for them only he hath given some certain Rules which as it 's presum'd may direct men how better to submit to and the more patiently to bear up against their present misfortunes that is to be more wisely miserable But nevertheless the afflicted man endures them still that is notwithstanding all those Rules he is still an unhappy man. Secondly I Answer that all those directive Rules they give are a relief and cure by far narrower than the largeness of the distemper that is they are too Philosophical for the hundredth part of the afflicteds capacities to learn or understand them And they generally purport just so much help to the miserable as if all men that want Money were sent to the Philosophers Stone to cure the disease of their Purses Thirdly My Answer to that pretence is That I observe our Philosopher makes the succesfulness of those his Rules to depend upon such severe qualifications of Mind and Life and upon so many strict acts of self-denial such as throwing off all natural Fear and the force of all sensual Appetites and the like that the afflicted Persons may be order'd to go about almost to unman themselves as well as pretend an Obedience to all his numerous and difficult prescriptions which nothing but the Encouragements of a Future World can possibly inable them to undertake as my Third Argument hath evinced Fourthly I Answer That those Philosophers did so far believe their own notional Schemes of Patience to be unpracticable and as a full confutation of all other their pretentions for the relief of the unfortunate that at last they were driven to fly to the Rock of Fatal Necessity to give any tolerable quiet to mens uneasy Minds This Seneca pleads as the last refuge and the only remaining comfort for a Sick Mind and without which all other attempts for its relief were altogether unsufficient Now if ever any manner of carriage could intimate a defective cause This certainly must do it as to our present concern if there be no other or no better shifts to avert the cogency of our thus arguing for a Future World on the account of mens natural subjection to such miseries and calamities of humane Life the Controversie is at an end What! Is there no other way to solve the Reflection upon the Divine Attributes and to keep a Man from offering Violence to his own miserable Life but by engaging him to think that he must of necessity be Unhappy and that an immoveable Fate hath chain'd him down to it What can be added more to compleat his misery The least hopes of Deliverance hath some Relief but where there is none at all to be admitted an Invitation to Patience is an additional oppression and looks more like a revengeful Exprobration than a rational Support But Fifthly and Lastly To shew how those men are necessitated to trifle in finding out a Relief for the Afflicted's Patience where the Concerns of another World are designedly to be laid aside it may be observ'd That the great Philosophers were so diffident of their own stated Rules especially of their beloved Principle of Fate that they themselves have dispoil'd the Credit of them and proclaim'd them all to be insufficient by allowing a speedier Remedy for all humane Miseries and that is by acquiting themselves of their Misfortunes and Beings all at once Concerning this I have already given some instances and could have added many more great Examples of that desperate Expedient which those Philosophers mention with so much approbation that Seneca taking occasion to speak of Cato and Scipio of the later he hath this expression that It was a great thing that it could be said of him that he conquered Carthage but much greater that he had overcome himself that is ended his Life with his own Sword. And then Do not the reason of the sad mention'd intolerable consequence recurr Doth not what I have here said sufficiently shew that what I before affirm'd was true that is that it must necessarily follow that if there be no Future State consider'd it 's reasonable for a man to put an end to his own Life and Misery together Or Why should such men in whom this last Objection had its Concern so often chuse to make use of that Expedient and in a Thousand Cases think it more reasonable to put an end to their wearied Lives than to endure their present Miseries This solves my Last Objection And thus all my Opponents are disappointed of their Design to baffle the reasonableness of all my intolerable consequences Which must hold immutably true till the acknowledged Existence of a future State shall release them of their horrour and allow them a sufficient Solution which is the business of the Third and Last Chapter of this Argument Therefore CHAP. III. THis Third Chapter is design'd to demonstrate That the Acknowledgment and Supposal of a Future State can only naturally and without all Exception solve all those mention'd intolerable Consequences to the immortal Honour of the Great CREATOR who was pleased to creat Mankind in such circumstances And to the full satisfaction of every Good man that considers himself to be so created And this I shall endeavour to do in two distinct Sections Section I. IN this First Section I shall represent That the Belief of a Future state will most evidently solve all those consequences that reflect upon the Honour of the Divine Attributes And that whatsoever hath been suggested to disparage GOD's Goodness and Equity on the former account will now be found to be falsly concluding and that ought to be renounc'd as unreasonable and impious when the Gracious Intention and Wise Designs why GOD made Man naturally subject to all those temporary Infelicities be but once throughly examined and seriously considered For then it will appear That GOD made Man subject to such severe circumstances of a present mortal Unhappiness for no less end than to serve His own most Gracious Purposes of making him perfectly and eternally Happy in another World. Had not GOD made him a Rational Creature he had not been capable of understanding his Duty and of the proposal of an End to oblige him to it and had also wanted a faculty of being receptive of any Blessing upon the performance of it Had not Man been made a voluntary Agent he had been unconcern'd in all moral actions and so uncapable of Rewards and Punishments And had he not been born subject to those natural Evils he had wanted the best reasons of a Probationary state that is he had wanted occasions for the choice and exercise of most of those
rare Examples of such a Happy way of Living with all its mention'd adjuncts and circumstances which not one of Ten Thousand ever enjoyed yet it is certain that even then that successful State in whatsoever degree it is allowed them could never be designed of GOD as their sufficient Happiness which must be supposed if no future World because it could never be found to give their Minds any constant and settled satisfaction when they were so possessed of it but that the more and the longer those men enjoyed it though no interruption had ever intervened which were a monstrous Vanity of Mind to have presum'd the more they could not but discover its insufficiency to terminate their Desires And to what degree soever they had raised their expectations of it before they attained it yet they alwaies experimentally sound the Enjoyment of it to have come so far beneath a tolerable satisfaction that it hath often proved little better than a baffle and real disappointment of Mind And further it 's observed that in the pursuit of such a present Felicity the accession of every new Acquist does alwaies but inflame mens Appetites and heighten their expectations of some more newer and other Attainments So that in that respect such mens Thoughts must necessarily be supposed to be alwaies wandring up and down and unweariedly fluctuating in an infinite Circle and endless Maze and Reciprocation of Desires and Unsatisfactions Expectations and Disappointments And the main Reason of all this as Seneca well observes is Because there is not any thing in the World that is enough and that the highest Enjoyments are too strait and disproportion'd For though perhaps they are not so for mens present ordinary use yet they will alwaies be found to be so for the satisfaction of the natural desires of their Minds And this is the very Reason Why many Persons that enjoy the fullest Plenty and in appearance to others all they could wish for yet may be unaccountably uneasie in their own Minds and oftentimes very unbecomingly froward in their demeanour to others and even to them whose fidelity kindness and diligence they have cause to applaud and love I say all this is because their Desires were originally and naturally fitted for a bigger and indeed for another kind of Happiness than what this World could afford them And upon this account it is that Sir Francis Bacon takes notice which he borrowed from Seneca that The Fastidious that is such as are tyr'd with any considerable continuance in their Enjoyments are as willing to die and leave them as the stout and the miserable that wants them and that because saith he they have created a weariness of doing the same thing so often over and over It 's certain therefore by a most necessary and reasonable consequence that mens Appetites are to be satiated with some thing that is not here to be found and therefore that must be future and in reversion or no where at all which would be a Reproach to the CREATOUR's Honour in giving him such a nature and yet depriving him of a suitable satisfaction But this hath been more fully manag'd Ar. 2. Chap. 1. Sect. 1. The Third and Last Reason to shew the insufficiency of all the Enjoyments with which a Man can possibly be possessed of as his present Happiness in his mortal State must fall so much short of answering his natural importunate Desires of being Happy is because they will alwaies be and he cannot but know it if he considers a possession of what 's most unconstant and uncertain Words that have from thence received their native Sence and Meaning and which are never so properly expressed as when they are used as Epithites and Adjuncts of every Temporal Enjoyment and therefore for which nothing that 's call'd a Rational Judgment can have any kind of true satisfaction in them There is nothing here saith Seneca that is not vanishing and deceitful or not unconstant as Seasons all things are tossed up and down in their interchanges and pass into their contraries and that in such unsteady revolutions as that a Man can call nothing Certain but his Death Or as he expresseth it in another place The unconstancy of things is such as that there is nothing Certain but what is past Who is it that is certain of the contrary but that Flames to morrow may throw him out of his stately House or Palace into a despicable Tent or Cottage or that a Tempest may prevent the safe arrival of his importing Treasure or that War Rapine and a sudden change of Seasons may defeat his Expectations in his fruitful Fields that a malignant Distemper may empty his House of his numerous Posterity and a Thousand Accidents may invade him in all the circumstances of his well-being And then also he cannot but know that in despight of all his most powerful defence he lays every day one way or other at the mercy of the malicious and the spightful What privilege can I claim against the devouring Tyranny of the Covetous and the Envious saith Neirembergius What may happen to any may happen to all what to all to me And if that man may think himself Happy or can be cheerful that knows a Serjeant or an armed Party stands at his Door upon design to arrest him or when he understands that his House stands amidst an infected Neighbourhood ready every moment to seize upon him then may a man be reasonably pleas'd and happy that considers That all his Enjoyments are possessed with a perpetual danger of Change and Uncertainty I say Where things are thus insecure What considering Mind can suggest a Reason of being Happy by any the greatest Enjoyments And surely where right Reason can give no Judgment for it that Mind cannot be truly satisfied in it There is nothing in Nature truly Blessed but what is exempt from fear No man lives but miserably where all things are suspected saith Seneca And so are all things else but the present Favour of GOD and the Hopes of being Blessed in a better World to him that lives a Vertuous and Religious Life These are the Three general Reasons which I have offer'd against the possibility of mans being truly happy by any thing that bears the name of an outward Well-being in it's best Circumstances and therefore not likely to be design'd of GOD for Man's choice as sufficient to answer and determine the created natural Desires of his Mind after his own Happiness But the Sensual hath something to say against all this which must be considered Section II. THerefore this Second Section tells us That the earnest Pretenders to a present possible Prosperity and the mighty Admirers of it will notwithstanding all this think and say That they are not to be turned off from their own sence of being happy with such a dry Philosophical Lecture as this and that instead of being convinced by these Reasons they will with Indignation and
never see more but in a little Scrole or which his next Generation may abuse to maintain the Charges of some vain and silly way of living Or if the mighty Man be sensually disposed that is if he expends his redundant surplusage in debaucheries how much will his house differ from a common Inn and Hostage unless it be that it 's so much a greater one And if he hath a parcel of loose People of both Sexes in it his abused Plenties may perhaps procure his House a more famous but a worser Name Moved with the sence of these Vanities and Inconveniences thus discover'd the Romans call'd Riches Impedimenta real Incumbrances like the Cumbersome Baggage to a moving Army And for which Reason many great Philosophers have rejected the Enjoyment of that which is called Wealth and renounc'd the name of Rich And many Great Potentates have unladed themselves of their worldly Greatness and Splendor to enjoy the ease and freedom of a poor Monastick And last of all How can that be called an Expedient of a Mans proper Happiness such as GOD should design to answer and satisfy his natural Desires of being happy that cannot in the truest sence make the possessor really either the more Vertuous or the Wiser as the Philosopher argues And thus we have examined the first material a Mortal's present reputed Felicity 2. Secondly As to the Man of Honour What signifies that which he calls Greatness or Splendor or an ambitiously design'd popular reputation in the World when the nature of it is closely examined For it will be found to depend chiefly upon incompetent Judges of worth and it seldom falls out to be the Portion of them that truly deserve it Insomuch that many Wise and Vertuous Persons have been so far from being ambitiously struggling for such an Honour that they have shunn'd and avoided it as much as they could And have been more really ashamed of a popular Courtship and Applause than other vain men have been concerned to be disappointed of them But then when it hath happened that the vulgar Vogue hath not been mistaken which is very seldom yet that acquir'd Honour must lay at the Feet of unconstant Mortals and upon the hazard of every trivial Miscarriage and misconstruction of Actions for which solicitous Envy it's certain Attendant will never want a contrivement and an opportunity Besides we see that Worldly Honour very seldom follows either Vertue or any other worthy qualification of Mind but that it purely depends upon Wealth by what indirect Acts and Arts soever attain'd and how unworthily soever used and managed For he that hath Money shall certainly be flattered as Valiant Just Wise a Prince and whatsoever he pleaseth to be saith the Poet. And without it no man must expect to have a greater proportion of Honour than a Vertuous Virgin without a Dowry a Learned Priesthood without the Churches Patrimony a Valiant Souldier in Age and Raggs or a Man nobly Born without a Fortune And this is the sorry Nature of the Second reputed Constitutive of a Man's present Prosperity 3. Then as to the Man of Pleasure if the nature of it be balanc'd by a considerate mind it will be found at best but immediately to affect the brutish part of Man that is his inferiour Appetites And about which his superiour Faculties shall be concern'd in nothing more than in discovering it's Folly and Vanity or controuling its Successes And if you measure the duration of sensual Pleasure it 's gone as soon as known and its fruition is its end and extinction And if it hath any repeated Periods the most desirable instances of it will in time nauseate like meat to a full Stomack and become as tiresome as Labour and as unapprovable as what is old worn and out of fashion And which is more there are no Pleasures which Religion and Vertue and the sence of another World can't account for but are generally purchased at the choice of so much unworthiness as to make others miserable or at least uneasy by them Therefore the great Philosopher though he would fain have found out a sufficient attainable Happiness in man's mortal Life yet found Cause of all men to call the Voluptuaries the Burden of the World and the Disease of Mankind And Epictetus adviseth all Wise Men to abstain from them if they design any after Joy or satisfaction to their own Lives This is the Third and Last integral part of Man's supposed present Prosperity And thus I have strictly examined the several Natures and particular Qualities of the three pretended Constitutives of all humane Prosperity in their proper kinds and seriously weighed the Concomitant Defects and Imperfections of every one of them in particular where the Concerns of a Future State are laid aside And now What Understanding can be so ridiculously credulous as once to believe That any true Happiness can result from the Concurrence of such defective Causes or that is built up of such incompetent materials that the possessor should applaud the Enjoyment of it as his summary and sufficient Felicity And then let aâ— considering man further seriously consult the Reason of his Soul whether it be possible for him to have such unworthy Thoughts of a most Good GOD as that he should create a Being with Faculties capable to judge and balance the terms and nature of all the Happiness with which he must enjoy his whole Existence and for the obtaining of which he is by a natural instinct to be incumber'd with the perpetual toil and sollicitations of his own Desires and Appetites and then should afford him the Enjoyment of no other or no better Happiness than what is offered to him in this World as I have truly described the nature of it But further to evince how improbable it is that the Happiness which can only answer those desires and appetites which GOD implanted in all mens natures should be lodg'd in any present enjoyment of humane Life I shall remark how ridiculously the wisest men have behaved themselves in their Adventures to find out a way how to fix it in this World. But that 's the business of the next Section Section III. THis last Section discovers the disorder'd and disagreeing apprehensions of all those Philosophers and Wise men who endeavour'd to promote a possibility for the attainment of a real Happiness in this present State. And it 's observ'd that even the Learned'st sort of them like men at a loss where to fix and determine such a chiefest Good and sufficient Happiness ventured at every thing to which their humour inclinations and their resolved compliance with a Sect guided their Sentiments and Apprehensions Dealing in their Opinions of Man's summary and chiefest Happiness as the old Egyptians did with the Supreme Deity which because they found it not among the Objects of a present sensible perception they plac'd it in every contemptible part of the Creation and unmanly ador'd it where they
Truth of it by Divine Attestation That it will add much to the Credit of the Testimonial Authority which exacted the Obedience of such a Faith. And therefore since it hath pleased God Almighty to allow Men the Advantage of both ways to evince the Truth of this Fundamental Principle of all Religion surely it was not his design that they should disparage or amaze one another but that they should be Auxiliaries and subservient one to another Secondly I answer That it was a method which the Church frequently undertook to convince the Heathen World especially when Miracles became unfrequent Therefore Clemens Alexandrinus owns both those Advantages from God First that of Revelation as principally to be attended to and then also of Philosophical Demonstration to be made use of in the behalf of the Gentile World. And the Primitive Apologists transcribed me such a Copy of what I have here attempted tho' they manag'd it by measures agreeable to their then Opponents that either my Exceptioners must question the proceedures of those Ancient Defenders of Christian Faith or they must think themselves unjustifiable in condemning me Especially when they may consider that it is very probable that I may have a sort of men to deal withal who may maintain as stubborn an Opposition to the Scriptural Revelation and all other the Churches Testimonial Proofs of a Future States Existence as those ancient Heathens may be presum'd ever to have entertain'd And by the Sense of the Encrease of such an Obstinate Modern Atheism was Curterius Govern'd when he gave his Reasons for the Edition and Interpretation of the Famous Philosopher Hierocles As when he saith That it was not without a Divine Providence that such a Book should come to publick View which by Philosophical Reasonings should extort those Truths from them unless they would unman themselves which the Divine Revelation could not prevail with them to admit Thirdly I answer in Justification of those Ancients Practice and my own Undertaking That there is no Attempt or Method so proper and in its self so reasonable to bring such Atheistical Minds to embrace the Christian Religion as that which I have endeavour'd by this present Discourse For if once such mens Understandings can be convinc'd by any means to entertain an assur'd Acknowledgment of A Future World's Existence and then shall be sensible of those events which are reasonably consequent to such an Acknowledgment it will of course engage them if they have any minds at all in the study of finding out the best way how they might most securely provide for their own Safety in such a Following World. And when for that purpose they shall have consider'd of and survey'd the several Modes of Religion in the World they cannot but find Christianity more accommodable to the serious Conceptions of an Intellectual Mind than any Institution that was ever tender'd to the Thoughts of Man especially when he shall understand that it is a Principle that hath in all Ages endured the Test and Tryal of the acutest Literature and hath hitherto born down all Oppositions with the greatest Success That hath been innobled with the highest instances of Generous Resolution even to Death it self in the declar'd defence of it A Religion that hath made the most absolute Provision for the Welfare of all Societies That is that it keeps up Soveraign Power with the Intirest Loyalty and the Rights of Men with the exactest Justice and provides for the Needs of Mankind with the Tenderest Mercy And that where its Institutions are truly observed it makes men civil and obliging placable and condescending and will engage them to do nothing but what is seemly and prudent faithful and honourable But then when upon these considerate Thoughts our Convert by such a Rational Conviction shall be once brought to the Door of Christ's Kingdom the main intention of my Design he is not to expect nor will the Christian Institution admit it that the Heavenly Contrivance and mysterious Doctrines of it should depend upon or necessarily be accounted for by the same Rational and Demonstrative Way of Proof which at first induced him to entertain the Thoughts of Embracing the Profession of that most Holy Religion He will then find Reasons to think That to Believe will be made his Duty and that he must Walk by Faith and not by Sight as St. Paul declares positively And that then also he must not give leave to his Captious mind to be alwaies enquiring for Demonstrating Reasons for every thing that is tendered to his Belief It 's true That Rational Evidence did first bring him to Christianity but it must be his Faith that will make him a true Professor of it And the Conformity of his Life and Actions to that Holy Faith will at lust bring him to the Happiness of that Future World of the Existence of which he was so convinced And thus I hope I am sufficiently acquitted of that suspicious Objection as if when I endeavour'd by Rational Evidence to bring an Atheist to the Belief of such a World to come that I design'd to turn all Religion into Scepticism and the Christian Faith to Philosophy This solves the Second Exception 3. The Third Exception is made by them who will be ready to say That since I have undertaken against the Modern Atheists to Demonstrate a Future World by Rational Evidence how comes it to pass that I have not also endeavour'd to Offer at the same Way of arguing to evince the Being of One Supream GOD And Is there not say they the same Necessity for the one as for the other against the Atheist's Pretentions To this Exception my answer is That in the management of this my Demonstrative Way of arguing for A Future World's Existence I have not been precariously Presumptive of any one other Principle either Philosophical or Divine but only of that One viz. the pre-supposed believ'd Existence of a Supream and Infinite GOD as the Creator and consequently the Soveraign Governour of that His Created World. And I presum'd that such a Concession no man that consults his Reason would ever deny me because no man can disbelieve His Divine Existence without a Violence offer'd to his Reasoning Understanding In which if that Notion be not naturally implanted as many Learned men believe yet it will so uncontroulably Command any Considering Minds assent as that no Nation how barbarous soever nor any man so rude but he must submit to the acknowledgment of a Deity as Cicero positively discourseth But if my Exceptioner shall in prejudice to me still proceed to lay that Omission as a stumbling-Block in my way I desire that he would but seriously consider Whether the Opinion of the World's Eternity or its coming into that Figure in which it now exists by the casual Confluence of little Atomes the only two Refuges to support the Denial of such a First creative Cause can be manag'd in any man's Thoughts so accommodably and naturally
as may the acknowledg'd Being of an Eternal GOD to be the Original Creator of such a World whose Greatness must proclaim His Power whose Orderly Figure His Infinite Reason and whose regular and constant Continuance in that Order when so many Beings are naturally subjected to such numerous intercurrent Motions and Contingencies must evince His Providential Wisdom and Government This the Third Solution The Last Exception with which I am most likely to be attack'd is offer'd by them that will say that my Discourse is upon a Subject which hath been already handled by a great many considerable Authors and that I shall but still add to the so much complain'd of redundancy of Books with which the World is already too much incumber'd My Answer to this Exception is That as I had never enquir'd after nor ever read any Treatise that Concerned the Defence of another World's Existence before I had exactly finished my own Arguments so since though I have made as strict an enquiry as I could to find out such Discourses I could not meet with any but such as generally manag'd this important Case either but as in some digressive Passages or as occasionally inter woven in Discourses otherwise design'd And where any Treatises may have given any likelihood of being purposely published for the purpose in hand yet their Arguments were too concise and summary to solve a nice and Sceptical Doubt much less to over-rule an Obstinate Opposition For though the Substance of the Truth might be couch'd in such short Mediums of Proof yet I conceive that they were too like the contracting a considerable Controversial Cases into an Article of Aquinas which must be presumed to be by far otherwise better manag'd when the controverted point shall be agitated by industrious Opposition And which then may occasion whole Volumes to discharge the Debate when a few Lines at another time would have serv'd the turn I say the Arguments were too Compendious and Epitomiz'd and therefore 〈◊〉 many cases for want of fuller explanations they would seem to be built upon Principles and Premises too precariously presum'd And then for that Reason also they could not possibly provide against those numerous Exceptions which Scrupulous and Steptick Minds would be apt to interpose and of which there must have been more particular and exact Solutions or such men would never have admitted the Conclusion To avoid all those Inconveniencies I have endeavour'd in the whole Progress of my Arguings to understand before-hand what could possibly be suggested in such Cases wheresoever I could either hear read or think of them And if thereby I may seem to have made too Copious Enlargements either in the Explanations of the Premises or solving the Exceptions I must crave such Readers Patience and Ingenuity to think that I have done it for their sakes who I thought did specially need them or that would exact them from me And thus my Fourth Exception is solv'd But I confess I might have most justly subjoined one more and perhaps the Greatest and with which I am sure to be sufficiently assaulted and that is the Unsufficiency of my Performance But of that I need not be advertis'd I have Reasons enough in my own mind to humble me and no Man can speak meaner of it than I think I know it were silly in me to say I was too inadvertently surpriz'd into an Allowance of the Publication of this Treatise or that when it was once in a Learned Friends hand I did not only give him leave but desir'd him that a flame might make it never to be thought on more yet this I am sure I may inoffensively say that I shall be so much the less concern'd at whatsoever kind of Reception the nice Age shall please to allow it as that I have but a short step to make before I shall enter into that other World where to be sure I shall not be affected with the little Notices of a For or Against But if I were so Unfortunate as to be concern'd yet I could not but consider that there is but a Die cast for my Lot And that a Book 's Entertainment in the World is even as Hazardous as a Juries Verdict where Dissatisfaction Prejudice or Ignorance may cast the issue on the wrong side It may be my case tho' this whole Preface was design'd to prevent such a Consequence and to provide a necessary defence of the Subject's Usefulness and my own Credit against such Exceptions as are manag'd against both And I hope this will justly plead my Excuse for the length of such an Introduction A short Account of the Heads of the Five ARGUMENTS with the numbers of those Pages where they all begin THE First Argument is founded upon the Promiscuous usage of Good and Evil in this World and begins Page 2. The Second from the Rational Faculties not given for this World only and begins Pag. 85. The Third upon the Encouragements to Vertue from another World only and begins Pag. 187. The Fourth from the Miseries of Mankind in this World and begins Pag. 281. The Fifth from mens Innate Desires of Happiness not satisfied in this Life and begins Pag. 367. INDEX A. APpeals to God's Tribunal 20 Adam's Sin 331 Age describ'd 301 B. Belief of a Deity 213 C. Conscience of Evils 16 Contemplation 143 Chiefest Good 406 Covetousness 115 D. Dead-Mens Future State conceal'd and why 50 Death describ'd 301 309 Discontents 92 297 Drunkenness 119 E. Exemplification 259 F. Fools by sensual living 109 Fools Charactered 115 Friendship 295 G. Government 137 Its End 221 Gospels easiness examin'd 267 H. Heathens opinion of the other World 3◠Hobbs his Necessitation examin'd 204 Happiness naturally desired 373 Differences about it 406 Happiness by Memorials left behind examin'd 409 Honour 247 395 I. Jews Temporal Promises 237 Justice at one time or other 7 Justice not done in this World 26 Justice respited to another World why 52 L. Learning 125 M. Miseries of Mankind represented 288 From God why 323 Murtherers of Mens-selves examin'd 337 Miseries beneficial 353 Surplusage of them examin'd 357 P. Predestinarian Principles 201 Philosophical Rules to prevent Self-Murther examined 345 Parents Case to their Children 337 Pleasures 396 403 R. Rational Faculties not given for this Life only 87 Rewards may be propos'd 207 S. Spiritual things satisfie 152 In Mens power 160 T. Temporal things not satisfie 92 Not in Mens power 99 Time how to be spent 181 V. Vertue describ'd 195 Vertue her own Reward examin'd 229 Vertues difficult how 243 Reasons for it why 269 W. Wisdom by Religion 167 Wise and good man's Character 171 Wealth examined 398 Useful 417 These following ERRATA being most material the Reader is desired to Correct with his Pen and pardon the rest as I hope of less moment PAge 4. l. 12. for That is r. And. P. 6. l. 4. for God r. His. P. 18. l. 22. r. Menalaus P. 42. l. 6. add Poets P. 48. l. 12. r. Sensibly P.