out the proper uses of this Doctrine as Gold from the Mines by digging into the bowels of the Earth but the Consequences are clear and sensible to all that will duly consider things If in the next World there are good things and evil things great as the possessing or losing an infinite Felicity and lasting as Eternity and distant from us no farther than Death is from Life that is then a Candle from being blown out that is exposed to all the winds 't is absolutely necessary to regulate our selves in the present state by a continual respect to the future As the Travellers in the Desart of Arabia that is all Sand movable by every blast so that no visible path remains to prevent their wandrings observe the Stars to direct them in their Journy to the place they intend Thus we must look not to the things that are seen but to things that are not seen eternal above to conduct us safely thorow this material mutable World to Felicity More particularly 1. This should regulate our Judgment of all temporal things Worldly happiness is but a Picture that seen by Sence the false light of the present time has an alluring appearance but if look'd on by Faith the true light of Eternity it is discovered to be a disfigur'd and unamiable confusion of spots This unbinds the Charm and discovers the vanity and illusion of what ever is admirable in the eyes of flesh Can any carry the least mark of Honour one farthing of their Treasures any shadow of their Beauty one drop of their Pleasure with them to another World As in the Night all Colours are the same the Crimson cannot be distinguish'd from Black nor Purple from Green when the light is withdrawn that gave them life they cease to be visible and are buried in the same indifferent obscurity So in the state after Death the most remarkable differences of this World are no more And is that worthy of our esteem that attends us for a little time and leaves us for ever Can that be our happiness that when we die and cease to be mortal ceases to be ours If Man did only live to die and there were an absolute end of him present things were more valuable in the quality of an earthly Felicity as being his All but if he dies to live in another World and all that in the language of the Earth full of Improprieties and moral Soloecisms we call ours must be left at the gates of Death the entrance of Eternity they cannot be the materials of our happiness Seneca contemplating the beauty and greatness of those Orbs of Light above cast down his Eyes to find out the Earth hardly visible at that distance and breaks forth in a Philosophical disdain Is it this to which the great designes and vast desires of Men are confin'd Is it for this there is such disturbance of Nations Wars and shedding of Blood O folly O fury of deceived Men to imagine great Kingdoms in the compass of an Atome to raise Armies to divide a point of Earth with their Swords 'T is just as if the Ants should conceive a Field to be several Kingdoms and fiercely contend to inlarge their borders and celebrate a Triumph in gaining a foot of earth as a new Province to their Empire And from hence he excites Men to ascend in their thoughts and take an intellectual possession of the material Heavens as most worthy of their minds But the Soul that raised by Faith looks beyond the Starry Heavens how much more justly is it fill'd with noble wonder at the Divine and truly great things in the Spiritual World and looks down on the lower Scene of things and all that has the name of felicity here as sordid and vile The foresight that within a little while this World shall be dissolv'd and time shall be no more makes it not seem to be in the Eyes of a Believer that great thing as 't is represented to the rest of Men. He looks upon those who shine in Pomp and flow in Pleasure and think themselves happy to be as a Beggar in a Dream that thinks himself rich in treasures for present things are only colour'd with the appearence of felicity and are as vanishing as the fictions of fancy While carnal Men will believe nothing but what they see feel and enjoy by their Senses and embrace meer shadows as solid felicity he considers them with compassion For 't is with them as with one that in the rage of a Fever laughs sings triumphs Tell him that he is not himself he thinks you are mad for saying so Tell him when his fiery spirits shall be wasted and that heat of Blood that makes him so lively and strong shall decline and cool he will be in extreme danger of Death he replies he was never in better health But who envies him that happiness which he seems to enjoy none but one that is a mad-man like him Nay a Father a Brother a Friend look on him with a mourning Eye and Heart For he is only happy in his own conceit and that conceit proceeds from his distraction Thus the power of Truth is victorious in sober men does not suffer them to be cheated with the false shew of good that respects the Body No credit is given to the appearance of Sense when Reason discerns the Deception and judges otherwise And thus the clear infallible light of Faith directs the Judgment of things present with respect to the eternal Interest of the Soul This makes a Believer prefer severe Wisdom before the sweetest Follies unpleasing Truth before all the dear Deceits of sensual Persons In short Faith removes the thick Curtain of sensible things that intercepted the Eye of the Mind and its first Effect is to shew the incomparable disproportion between what is present and what is future and this is as great as between the living of a few years and an incorruptible state between the wretched enjoyment of things that cannot satisfy the Senses and the enjoyment of a universal Good that can fill all the desires of the Soul as between a inch of Time and entire Eternity between Nothing mask'd with a false appearance and infinite Felicity 2. The consideration of the Souls immortality should reconcile our affection to all things that may befal us here so far as they are preparatory for our wel-being in the future state The original Principle from whence are derived all Rules for practice and of main influence upon our Comforts is that Man is created for a supernatural happiness hereafter and that present things are to be chosen or refused with respect to our obtaining of it For the means what-ever they are in their absolute nature yet consider'd as such in order to an end are qualified and become either good or evil as conducive to it or unprofitable and prejudicial A Way that is thorny or dirty or steep or stony is good if it leads me to my Country
Body or Mind or Estate as if we were the Architects of our own felicity is a sacrilegious usurpation Yet vain Man foments a secret pride and high opinion of himself as if by his own prudence and conduct he might acquire an happiness till experience confutes his pleasing but pernicious error The truth is were there no God whose powerful Providence governs all things and has a special care and respect of Man he were of all creatures the most miserable So that besides the wickedness we may clearly discover the folly of Atheism that deprives Man of his chiefest Comfort at all times and his only Comfort in the greatest exigencies For in this mutable state he is liable to so many disasters and wretched accidents that none can have an assurance of prosperity one day How frail and uncertain is Life the foundation of all temporal Enjoyments It depends upon so many things that 't is admirable it subsists for a little time The least vessel in the Body that breaks or is stopt interrupting the course of the Blood and Humours ruines its oeconomy Sometimes in its vigorous consistence when most distant from Sickness 't is nearest to Death A little eruption of Blood in the Brain is sufficient to stop the passages of the Spirits and deprive it of motion and life And the changes of things without us are so various and frequent so great and suddain that 't is an excess of folly a dangerous rest to be secure in the enjoyment of them The same person sometimes affords an example of the greatest Prosperity and of greater Misery in the space of a few hours Henry the fourth of France in the midst of the triumphs of Peace was by a blow from a sacrilegious hand dispatcht in his Coach and his blody Corps forsaken by his Servants expos'd to the veiw of all so that as the Historian observes there was but a moment between the adorations and oblivion of that great Prince All flesh is Grass and the glory of it as the flower of the Grass What ever disguises its imperfections and gives it lustre is but superficial like the colour andornament of a Flower whose matter is only a little dust and Water and is as weak and fading Who then can possess these things without a just jealousie lest they should slip away or be ravisht from him by violence And in this respect Man is most unhappy for besides the affliction of present evils Reason that separates him from other Creatures and exalts him above them is the fatal instrument of his trouble by the prevision of future evils Ignorance of future miseries is a priviledge when Knowledg is ineffectual to prevent them Unseen evils are swallow'd whole but by an apprehensive imagination are tasted in all their bitterness By fore-thoughts we run to meet them before they are come and feel them before they are truly sensible This was the reason of that complaint in the Poet seeing the prognosticks of misery many years before it arrived Sit subitum quodcunque paras sit caeca futuri Mens hominis fati liceat sperare timenti Let the Evils thou preparest surprize us let us not be tormented by an unhappy expectation of them let the success of future things be concealed from our sight let it be permitted to us to hope in the midst of our fears Indeed God has mercifully hid the most of future events from humane curiosity For as on the one side by the view of great Prosperity Man would be tempted to an excess of Pride and Joy so on the other as we are more sensibly touch'd with pain than pleasure if when he begins to use his Reason and apprehensive faculty by a secret of Opticks he should have in one sight presented all the Afflictions that should befal him in the World how languishing would his life be This would keep him on a perpetual Rack and make him suffer together and at all times what shall be endured separately and but once But though the most of future things lie in obscurity yet often we have sad intimations of approaching evils that awaken our fears Nay how many Tempests and Shipwracks do Men suffer in Terra firma from the suspicion of Calamities that shall never be Imaginary Evils operate as if real and produce substantial Griefs Now how can such an infirm jealous creature in the midst of things that are every minute subject to the Laws of Mutability be without inward trouble What can give him repose and tranquillity in his best condition but an assurance that nothing can befall him but according to the wise Counsel and gracious Will of God And in extream Afflictions in the last Agonies when no humane things can afford relief when our dearest Friends are not able to comfort us but are miserable in our miseries what can bear up our fainting hope but the Divine Power a foundation that never fails what can allay our sorrows but the Divine Goodness tenderly inclin'd to succour us Our help is in the Lord who made Heaven and Earth The Creation is a visible Monument of his Perfections The Lord is a Sun and a Sheild He is al-sufficient to supply our wants and satisfie our desires As the Sun gives Life and Joy to all the World and if there were millions of more kinds of beings and of individuals in it his light and heat are sufficient for them all so the Divine Goodness can supply us with all good things and ten thousand Worlds more And his Power can secure to us his Favours and prevent troubles or which is more admirable make them beneficial and subservient to our felicity He is a sure refuge an inviolable Sanctuary to which we may retire in all our streights His Omnipotence is directed by unerring Wisdom and excited by infinite love for the good of those who faithfully obey him An humble confidence in him frees us from anxieties preserves a firm peaceful temper in the midst of Storms This gives a superiority of Spirit a true empire of mind over all outward things Rex est qui posuit metus Occurritque suo libens Fato nec queritur mori What was the vain boast of Philosophers that by the power of Reason they could make all accidents to contribute their happiness is the real priviledge we obtain by a regular trust in God who directs and orders all events that happen for the everlasting good of his Servants In the worst circumstances we may rejoyce in Hope in a certain and quiet expectation of a blessed issue In Death it self we are more than Conquerers O Lord God of Hosts blessed is the Man that trusts in thee CHAP. VIII The Immortality of the Soul depends on the conservative influence of God Natural and Moral Arguments to prove that God will continue it for ever The Soul is incapable of perishing from any corruptible principles or separable parts It s spiritual Nature is evident by the acts of its principal faculties The
unequal clearness Sweet things taste bitter to one in a Feaver but the mind knows that the bitterness is not in the things but in the viciated Palat. Moreover how many things are collected by Reason that transcend the power of fancy to conceive nay are repugnant to its conception What corporeal Image can represent the immensity of the Heavens as the Mind by convincing arguments apprehends it The Antipodes walk erect upon the Earth yet the Fancy cannot conceive them but with their Heads downward Now if the Mind were of the same nature with the corporeal Faculties their judgment would be uniform 5. The Senses suffer to a great degree by the excessive vehemence of their Objects Too bright a light blinds the Eye Too strong a sound deafs the Ear. But the Soul receives vigor and perfection from the excellence and sublimity of its object and when most intent in contemplation and concenter'd in its self becomes as it were all Mind so that the operations of it as sensitive are suspended feels the purest delights far above the perception of the lower faculties Now from whence is the distemper of the Senses in their exercise but from matter as well that of the Object as the Organ And from whence the not suffering of the Mind but from the impressing the forms of Objects separated from all matter and consequently in an immaterial faculty for there is of necessity a convenience and proportion as between a Being and the manner of its operations so between that and the subject wherein it works This strongly argues the Soul to be immaterial in that 't is impassible from matter even when it is most conversant in it For it refines it from corporeal accidents to a kind of spirituality proportioned to its nature And from hence proceeds the unbounded capacity of the Soul in its conceptions partly because the forms of things inconsistent in their natures are so purified by the Mind as they have an objective existence without enmity or contrariety partly because in the workings of the Mind one act does not require a different manner from another but the same reaches to all that is intelligible in the same order 6. The Senses are subject to languishing and decay and begin to die before Death But the Soul many times in the weakness of Age is most lively and vigorously productive The intellectual Off-spring carries no marks of the decays of the Body In the approaches of Death when the corporeal faculties are relaxt and very faintly perform their functions the workings of the Soul are often rais'd above the usual pitch of its activity And this is a pregnant probability that 't is of a spiritual Nature and that when the Body which is here its Prison rather than Mansion falls to the Earth 't is not opprest by its ruines but set free and injoys the truest liberty This made Heraclitus say that the Soul goes out of the Body as Lightning from a Cloud because it 's never more clear in its conceptions than when freed from matter And what Lucretius excellently expresses in his Verses is true in another sense than he intended Cedit item retro de Terra quod fuit ante In Terram sed quod missum est ex Aetheris oris Id rursus Coeli fulgentia Templa receptant What sprung from Earth falls to its native place What Heav'n inspir'd releast from the weak tye Of flesh ascends above the shining Sky Before I proceed I will briefly consider the Objections of some who secretly favour the part of impiety 1. 'T is objected That the Soul in its intellectual operations depends on the Phantasms and those are drawn from the representations of things conveyed through the senses But it will appear this does not enervate the force of the Arguments for its spiritual nature For this dependence is only objective not instrumental of the Souls perception The first images of things are introduc'd by the mediation of the senses and by their presence for nothing else is requisit the mind is excited and draws a Picture resembling or if it please not resembling them and so operates alone and compleats its own work Of this we have a clear experiment in the conceptions which the mind forms of things so different from the first notices of them by the Senses The first apprehensions of the Deity are from the visible effects of his Power but the Idea in which the understanding contemplates him is fram'd by removing all imperfections that are in the Creatures and consequently that he is not corporeal For whatsoever is so is liable to corruption that is absolutely repugnant to the perfection of his nature Now the common Sense and Fancy only powerful to work in Matter cannot truely express an immaterial Being Indeed as Painters by their Colours represent invisible things as Darkness the Winds the Internal affections of the heart so that by the representations the thoughts are awakn'd of such objects so the fancy may with the like Art shadow forth Spiritual Beings by the most resembling forms taken from sensible things Thus it imagins the Angels under the likeness of young Men with Wings to express their vigor and velocity But the Mind by its internal light conceives them in another manner by a Spiritual form that exceeds the utmost efficacy of the corporeal Organs so that 't is evident the Soul as intellectual in its singular and most proper operations is not assisted by the ministry of the Senses 2. 'T is objected that the Soul in its superiour operations depends on the convenient temper of the Body The thoughts are clear and orderly when the Brain is compos'd On the contrary when the predominancy of any humour distempers it the Mind feels its infirmities And from hence it seems to be of a corporeal nature depending on the Body in its being as in its working But this if duly consider'd will raise no just prejudice against its Spiritual Immortal Nature For 1. The sympathy of things is no convincing Argument that they are of the same Nature There may be so strict a union of Beings of different natures that they must necessarily be subject to impressions from one another Can any Reasons demonstrate that a Spiritual substance endowed with the powers of understanding and will cannot be united in a vital composition to a Body as the Vegetative Soul is in Plants and the Sensitive in Beasts There is no implicite repugnance in this that proves it impossible Now if such a complex Being were in Nature how would that spiritual Soul act in that Body that in its first union with it excepting some universal Principles is a rasa tabula as a white Paper without the notices of things written in it Certainly in no other imaginable manner than as Man's Soul does now Indeed if Man as compounded of Soul and Body were a sensitive Animal and only rational as partaking of the Universal Intellect bent to individuals for a time and retiring at Death to
imperfect essays towards it Now if the Soul does not survive the Body and in a separate state obtain its desires it will reflect upon Nature for imprudence or malignity in dealing worse with the most noble order of visible Beings The Beasts excel Man in the quickness and vivacity of the powers of Sense being their perfection and in him subordinate faculties and are more capable of pleasure from sensible things and Reason his eminent Prerogative makes him more liable to misery For Man ardently aspiring to a Spiritual Happiness that here he cannot enjoy much less hereafter if the Soul perish is under a remediless infelicity His Mind is deceived and stain'd with Errors his Will tormented with fruitless longings after an impossible Object But if we unveil the face of Nature God appears who is the Author of our being and of this desire so proper to it and we cannot suspect without the highest Impiety that he would make all Men in vain and deceive them by a false appearance But he gives us in it a faithful presage of things future and indiscernable to sense to be injoyed in immortality This Argument will be the more forcible if we consider that holy Souls who excel in Knowledge and Vertue do most inflamedly long for the enjoyment of this pure felicity And is it possible that the Creatour should not only endow Man with rational powers but with vertues that exalt and inlarge their capacity to render him more miserable to imagine that he cannot or will not fully and eternally satisfie them is equally injurious to his perfections It therefore necessarily follows that the Soul lives after Death and fully enjoys the happiness it earnestly desir'd whiles in the darkness of this earthly Taberâ—â—cle Add further that Man alone of all Creatures in the lower World understands and desires Immortality The conception of it is peculiar to his Mind and the desire of it as intrinsick to his Nature as the desire of Blessedness For that Blessedness that ends is no perfect Blessedness nor that which every one desires Man alone feels and knows that his Nature is capable of excellent perfections and joys Now if he shall cease to be for ever why is this knowledge and desire but to render him more unhappy by grief for the present shortness of life and by despair of a future Immortality In this respect also the condition of the Beasts would be better than of Men. For though they are for ever deprived of Life yet they are uncapable of regret because they cannot by reflection know that they possess it and are without the least imagination or desire of immortality They are alive to the present but dead to the future By a favourable ignorance they pass into a state of not being with as much indifference as from watching to sleep or from labour to repose But to Man that understands and values Life and Immortality how dark and hideous are the thoughts of annihilation let him enjoy all possible delights to sense or desireable to the powers of the Soul How will the sweetness of all be lost in the bitterness of that thought that he shall be deprived of them for ever How frightful is the continual apprehension of an everlasting period to his being and all enjoyments sutable to it After that a prospect of Eternity has been shown to him how tormenting is the thought that he must die as the stupid Ox or the vilest Vermine of the Earth and with him the fallacious instinct of Nature that inclin'd him to the most durable happiness If it were thus O living Image of the Immortal God thy condition is very miserable What the Romans wisht in great anguish for the loss of Augustus that he had not been born or had not died is more reasonable in this case it were better that the desire of eternal Life had not been born in Man or that it should be fulfilled If it be objected that many Men are not only without fear of annihilation but desire it therefore Immortality is not such a priviledg that thereasonable Creature naturally aspires to I answer the inference is very preposterous for the reason of their choice is because they are attentive to an object infinitely more sad and afflictive that is a state of everlasting torments which the guilty conscience presages to be the just recompence of their crimes So that enclosed between two evils an eternal state of not Being and an Eternity of misery 't is reasonable to venture on the least to escape the greater But supposing any hopes of future happiness they would desire immortality as an excellent benefit As one that has lost the pleasure and taste of Life by consuming sickness and sharp pains or some other great calamities may be willing to die but suppossing a freedom from those evils the desire of Life as the most precious and dear enjoyment would strongly return And that the desire of Immortality is natural I shall add one most visible testimony For whereas the lower sort of Creatures that finally perish in Death are without the least knowledg of a future estate and are therefore careless of leaving a memorial after them on the contrary Men are solicitous to secure their names from oblivion as conscious of their souls surviving in another World This ardent passion not directed by higher Principles excites them to use all means to obtain a kind of immortality from Mortals They reward Historians Poets Oratours to celebrate their actions They erect Monuments of durable Brass and Marble to represent the Effigies of their faces They endeavour by triumphal Arches Pyramids and other works of Magnificence to eternize their Fame to live in the eyes and mouths and memories of the living in all succeding times These indeed are vain shadows yet argue the desire of immortality to be natural As 't is evident there is a natural affection in Parents to preserve their Children because when they are depriv'd of their living presence they dearly value and preserve their dead Pictures though but a poor consolation 2. The necessity of a future state wherein a just retribution shall be made of rewards and punishments to Men according to their actions in this life includes the Souls Immortality For the proof of this I shall lay down such things as certainly establish it 1. The first Argument is drawn from the Wisdom of God in governing the reasonable World In the quality of Creator he has a supream title to Man and consequently is his rightful Governor and Man his natural subject Now Man being endowed with free faculties the powers of knowing and choosing is under a Law clearly imprest on his Nature by the Author of it that strictly forbids moral evil and commands moral good And to enforce the Authority of this Law the Wisdom of the Lawgiver and the temper of the Subject requires that willing obedience should be attended with certain rewards and voluntary disobedience with unavoidable punishments For Man
conspicuous marks of Gods Justice Nay by wicked means they are prosperous and happy 3. The best Men are often in the worst condition and merely upon the account of their Goodness They are opprest because they do not make resistance and loaden with sufferings because they endure them with patience They are for Gods sake made the spectacles of extreme misery whilst the insolent defiers of his Majesty and Laws enjoy all visible felicities Now in the judgment of Sense can Holiness be more afflicted if under the displeasure of Heaven or Wickedness more prosperous if favour'd by it But this is such a monstrous incongruity that unless we abolish the natural Notions of the Divine excellencies it cannot in the least degree be admitted If therefore we confine our thoughts to humane affairs in this life without taking a prospect into the next World where a new order of things presents it self what direful consequences will ensue This takes away the Sceptre of Providence from the hands of God and the reverence of God from the hearts of Men as if the present state were a game wherein Chance reigned and not under the inspection and disposure of a wise just and powerful Governour If there be no Life after Death then Natural Religion in some of its greatest Commands as to Self-denial even to the suffering the greatest evils rather than do an unjust unworthy action and to sacrifice Life it self when the Honour of God and the publick Good require it is irreconcilable to that natural Desire and Duty that binds and determines Man to seek his own felicity in conjunction with the Glory of his Maker But it is impossible that the Divine Law should foil it self that contrary obligations should be laid on Man by the wise and holy Lawgiver And what terrible confusion would it be in the minds of the best Men What coldness of affection to God as if they were not in the comfortable relation of his Children but wholly without his care What discouragements in his Service what dispair in suffering for him What danger of their murmuring against Providence and casting off Religion as a sowre unprofitable severity and saying Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency or exclaming with Brutus in a desperate manner when he was overcome in battel and defeated of his design to recover Rome from Tyranny O infoelix Virtus itane cum nihil nisi nomen esses Ego te tanquam rem aliquam exercui And the enemies to Holiness restrain'd by no respects to a superiour Power will obey their brutish Lusts as their supream Law And if such diseases or troubles happen that the pleasant operations of Life cease they may release themselves by a voluntary easy Death and fall into a sleep never to be disturb'd so that they would be esteem'd the only happy persons In short if we onely regard things as they pass in the sensible World we shall be in danger of being over-tempted to Atheism and to rob God of his Glory and Worship and that Faith Fear Love and Obedience that are due to him Of this I will produce only two Examples Diagoras saw a Servant of his stealing from him and upon his denial of the theft brought him before the Statue of Jupiter thundring and constrained him to adjure Jupiter for the honour of his Deity and of Justice and Fidelity to strike him dead at his feet with Thunder if he were guilty of the fact and after three times repeating the dreadful Oath he went away untouch'd without harm Upon the sight of this Diagoras cryed out as in the Poet Audis Jupiter haec nec labra moves cum mittere vocem Debueras vel marmoreus vel ahaeneus Dost hear This Jove not mov'st thy lips when fit it were Thy Brass or Marble spoke And whereas he should have been convinc'd that a Statue could not be a God he impiously concluded that God was nothing but a Statue and from that time was hardned in irreclamable Atheism So that other Atheist reports of some of the Romans that they successfully deceived by false Oaths even in their most sacred Temple in the presence of their supream Deity the reputed Avenger of Perjury And because Vengeance did not immediately over take Guilt he acknowledged no other God but the World and Nature unconcern'd in the governing humane affairs The disbelief of the future state strikes through the vital principles of Religion that there is a God the rewarder of Mens good or evil actions It may be objected That God's Dominion over the reasonable Creature is absolute For Man ows to him intirely his Being and all that his Faculties can produce so that without reflection on Justice God may after a course of obedience annihilate him To this I answer The Sovereign Dominion of God in its exercise towards Men is regulated by his Wisdom and limited by his Will that is Holy Just and Good Hence though the Creature can challenge nothing from God as due to its service yet there is a Justice of condecence that arises from the excellencies of his own Nature and is perfectly consistent with the liberty of his Essence to bestow the eminent Effects of his Favours on his faithful Servants His Holiness inclines him to love the image of it in the Creature and his Goodness to reward it His Government is paternal and sweetned by descending Love in many Favours and Rewards to his obedient Children There is a resemblance of our duty to God and his rewards to us in the order of Nature among Men. Parents may require of their Children entire obedience as being the second Causes of their natural Life And Children may expect from their Parents what is requisite for their welfare Now God who is the Father of Men will be true to his own Rules and deal with them accordingly but in a manner worthy of his infinite Greatness There is not the least obligation on him but his unchangeable Perfections are the strongest Assurances that none of his shall obey him to their final prejudice 'T is a direct contrariety to his Nature that Men for Conscience of their Duty should part with temporal Happiness in hopes of eternal and lose both 2. It may be objected That such is the essential beauty of Holiness that it should ravish our Affections without Ornament or Dowry that 't is its own Reward and produces such a sweet Agreement in the Rational Faculties as fully compensates the loss of all lower delights and sweetens the troubles that befal a vertuous man in the sincere practice of it And on the contrary that such is the native foul deformity of Sin as renders it most odious for it self that 't is its own punishment being attended with inward disquiets and perplexities much exceeding all its seeming pleasures Therefore we cannot certainly infer there will be future recompences But this receives a clearer Answer 1. 'T is true that Holiness is most amiable in it self
and in true comparison infinitely excells all the allurements of Sin 2. 'T is true that as natural actions that are necessary to preserve the Species or the Individuals are mixt with sensible pleasures as an attractive to the performance of them so there is joyn'd to actions of Vertue that are more excellent a present complacency of a superiour Order to all carnal pleasures But 't is a frigid conceit that this is the entire reward For first besides the inward satisfaction that naturally results from the practice of Vertue there is an excellent Good that is properly the reward of the supream Governor of the World We have an Example of this in humane Justice which is an image of the divine For those who have been eminently serviceable to the State besides the joyful sense arising from the performance of Heroick Actions for the Good of their Country are rewarded by the Prince with great Honours and Benefits 2. This inward Joy is not here felt by all Holy Persons In this militant state after vigorous resistance of carnal Lusts they may change their Enemies and be assaulted with violent Fears and instead of a sweet calm and serenity fall into darkness and confusion The Soul and Body in the present conjunction mutually sympathize As two things that are unisons if one be touch't and moves the other untouch't yet moves and trembles The ‖ cause is from the Vibrations the sound makes in the Air and impresses on solid Bodies moving them according to the harmonious proportion between them Thus the Soul and the Body are two strings temper'd to such a correspondence that if one be moved the other resents by an impression from it If the Body be Sanguin or Cholerick or Melancholy the Soul by a strange consent feels the motion of the humors and is altered with their alterations Now some of excellent vertue are opprest with Melancholy Others are under strong pains that disturb the free operations of the mind that it cannot without Supernatural strengih delightfully contemplate what is a just matter of content The Stoical Doctrine that a wise Man rejoyces as well in torments as in the midst of pleasures that 't is not in the power of any external evil to draw a sigh or tear from him that he is sufficient in himself for happiness is a Philosophical Romance of that severe sect an excess unpracticable without Cordials of a higher nature than are compounded by the faint thoughts of having done what is agreable to Reason All their Maxims are weak supports of such triumphant Language 'T is true in a Body disorder'd and broken with Diseases and Pains the mind may be erect and compos'd but 't is by vertue of Divine Comforts from the present sense of Gods favour and the joyful hopes of eternal felicity in his presence hereafter 3. Those who suffer the loss of all that is precious and dear in the World and with a chearful confidence submit to death that singly consider'd is very terrible to nature but attended with torments is doubly terrible and all to advance the Glory of God cannot enjoy the satisfaction of mind that proceeds from the review of worthy actions if their being is determined with their life Now that love to God exprest in the hardest and noblest service should finally destroy a Man is not conceivable To render this Argument more sensible let us consider the vast multitude of the Martyrs in the first times of Christianity more easie to be admir'd than numbred It would be a History to describe the instruments of their cruel sufferings invented by the fierce wit of their persecutors the various torturs to destroy Life with a slow death such as were never before inflicted on the guiltiest Malefactours All which they willingly endured with an invariable serenity of countenance the sign and effect of their inward peace Nay with triumphant expressions of Joy Now to what original shall we attribute this fortitude of Spirit were such numbers of all conditions ages sects induc'd by rash counsel by frenzy of passion by a desire of vain-glory or any like cause to part with all that is precious and amiable in the World for Swords and Fire and Crosses and Wheels and Racks to torment and destroy their Bodies No humane Reasons neither the Vertue nor Vice of Nature Generosity nor Obstinacy could possibly give such strength under such Torments This was so evident that many Heathen Spectators were convinc'd of the Divine Power miraculously supporting them and became Proselytes of Christianity and with admirable chearfulness offered themselves to the same punishments Now this is an extrinsick testimony incomparably more weighty than from a bare affirmation in words or a meer consent of judgment that there is an unseen state infinitely better and more durable than what is present the hopes of which made them esteem the parting with all sensible things measur'd by time not to have the shadow of a loss And this was not a meer naked view of a future blessedness but joyned with an impression of that sweetness and strength that consolation and force of Spirit that it was manifest Heaven descended to them before they ascended to Heaven From hence they were fearless of those who could only kill the Body but not touch the Soul As the breaking a Christal in pieces cannot injure the light that penetrated and filled it but releases it from that confinement So the most violent Death was in their esteem not hurtful to the Soul but the means to give it entrance into a happy immortality Now is it in any degree credible that when no other principle was sufficient to produce such courage in thousands so tender and fearful by nature that the Divine hand did not support them invisible in operation but most clearly discovered in the effects And can it be imagined that God would encourage them to lose the most valuable of all natural things life it self and to their great cost of pains and misery if there were not an estate wherein he would reward their heroick love of himself with a good that unspeakably transcends what ever is desirable here below 2. Though Vice in respect of its turpitude be the truest dishonour of Man and be attended with regret as contrary to his Reason yet there is a further punishment naturally due to it Malefactors besides the infamy that cleaves to their crimes and the secret twinges of Conscience feel the rigour of civil Justice And if no Physical evil be inflicted as the just consequent of Vice the viciously inclin'd would despise the moral evil that is essential to it as an imaginary punishment And when the remembrance of Sin disturbs their rest they would presently by pleasant diversions call off their thoughts from sad objects 2. Supposing no other punishment but what is the immediate effect of Sin the most vicious and guilty would many times suffer the least punishment For the secret Worm of Conscience is most sensible when vice is
first springing up and has tender roots But when vicious habits are confirm'd the Conscience is past feeling the first resentments There are many instances of those who have made the foulest crimes so familiar as to lose the horror that naturally attends them And many that have been prosperous in their villanys dye without tormenting reflections on their guilt So that if there be no further punishments we must deny the Divine Providence of which Justice is an eminent part CHAP. XII Two Arguments more to prove future recompenses T is not possible for civil Justice to dispence rewards aud punishments according to the good and evil actions of Men. All Nations agree in the acknowledgment of a future state The innocent Conscience is supported under an unjust Sentence by looking to the superiour Tribunal The courage of Socrates in dying with the cause of it The guilty Conscience terrifies with the apprehension of judgment to come Tiberius his complaint to the Senate of his inward tortures An answer to the objection that we have not sensible evidence of what is enjoyed and what is sufferd in the next life Why sin a transient act is punished with eternal death 3. 'T Is not possible for humane Justice to distribute recompence exactly according to the moral qualities of actions therefore we may rationally infer there will be a future Judgment This appears by consideriug 1. That many times those crimes are equally punisht here that are not of equal guilt because they proceed from different sources that lye so low as the strictest inquisition cannot discover And many specious actions done for corrupt ends and therefore without moral value are equally rewarded with those wherein is the deepest tincture of virtue The accounts of civil Justice are made by the most visible cause not by the secret and most operative and influential Therefore a superior Tribunal is necessary to which not only sensible actions but their most inward principles are open that will exactly judge of moral evils according to their aggravations and allays and of moral good according to the various degrees that are truly rewardable 2. No temporal benefits are the proper and compleat reward of obedience to God Not the proper for they are common to bad and good but the reward of Holiness must be peculiar to it that an eminent distinction be made between the obedient and rebellious to the Divine Laws otherwise it will not answer the ends of Government And they are not the compleat rewards of obedience For God rewards his Servants according to the infinite treasures of his Goodness The sensible World a Kingdom so vast so rich so delightful is enjoyed by his enemies We may therefore certainly infer he has reserved for his faithful Servants a more excellent felicity as becomes his glorious goodness 3. The extreamest temporal evils that can be inflicted here are not correspondent to the guilt of Sin Men can only torment and kill the Body the instrument and less guilty part but cannot immediately touch the Soul the principal cause by whose influence humane actions are vicious and justly punishable From hence it follows that supposing the Wicked should feel the utmost severity of Civil Laws yet there remains in another World a dreadful arrear of misery to be endured as their just and full recompence 4. In testimony of this Truth that the Souls of Men are immortal to Rewards and Punishments not only the wisest Men but all Nations have subscrib'd The darkest Pagans have acknowledged a Deity and a Providence and consequently a future Judgment Indeed this spark was almost drown'd in an Abyss of Fables for in explicating the process and Recompences of the last Judgment they mixt many absurd fictions with truth but in different manners they acknowledged the same thing that there remains another life and two contrary states according to our actions here Of this we have a perfect conviction from the immortal hopes in good Men and the endless fears in the wicked The directive understanding that tells Man his duty has a reflexive power and approves or condemns with respect to the Supreme Court where it shall give a full testimony Hence it is that Conscience so far as innocent makes an Apology against unjust Charges and sustains a Man under the most cruel Sentence being perswaded of a superiour Tribunal that will rectify the errors of Man's Judgement But when guilty terrifies the Offender with the flashes of Judgment to come though he may escape present sufferings Of this double power of Conscience I shall add some lively Examples Plato represents his admirable Socrates after an unjust Condemnation to Death in the Prison at Athens encompast with a noble circle of Philosophers discoursing of the Souls Immortality and that having finisht his Arguments for it he drank the Cup of Poison with an undisturbed Courage as one that did not lose but exchange this short and wretched life for a blessed and eternal For thus he argued That there are two ways of departing Souls leading to two contrary states of felicity and of misery Those who had defiled themselves with sensual Vices and given full scope to boundless lusts in their private conversation or who by frauds and violence had been injurious to the Common-wealth are drag'd to a place of torment and for ever excluded from the joyful presence of the blessed Society above But those who had preserv'd themselves upright and chaste and at the greatest distance possible from the contagion of the flesh and had during their union with humane bodies imitated the Divine Life by an easie and open way returned to God from whom they came And this was not the sense only of the more vertuous Heathens but even some of those who had done greatest force to the humane Nature yet could not so darken their Minds and corrupt their Wills but there remain'd in them stinging apprehensions of punishment hereafter Histories inform us of many Tyrants that encompast with the strongest Guards have been afrighted with the alarms of an accusing Conscience and seized on by inward terrors the forerunners of Hell and in the midst of their luxurious stupifying pleasures have been haunted with an evil Spirit that all the Musick in the World could not charm The persons executed by their commands were always in their view shewing their wounds reproaching their cruelty and citing them before the High and Everlasting Judg the righteous Avenger of innocent Blood How fain would they have kill'd them once more and deprived them of that life they had in their memories but that was beyond their power Of this we have an eminent instance in Tiberius who in a Letter to the Senate open'd the inward wounds of his Breast with such words of despair as might have moved pity in those who were under the continual fear of his Tyranny No punishment is so cruel as when the Offender and Executioner are the same Person Now that such Peace and Joy are the
less than Death that for ever deprives of all that is valuable and pleasant in this natural life is an equal punishment to it What temporal Sufferings can expiate sin against God For besides the transcendent excellence of his Nature infinitely rais'd above all other beings there are united in him in an incomparable degree all the Rights that are inherent in our Parents Princes or Country for benefits received from them And may he not then justly deprive ungracious Rebels for ever of the comforts of his reviving Presence 3. The necessity of Eternal Recompences to excite a constant fear in Men of offending God makes the Justice of them visible For as it has been proved before whiles they are cloathed with flesh and blood the disposition inclining from within and the temptation urging from without if the punishment of sin were not far more terrible than the pleasures of it are alluring there would be no effectual restraint upon the riots of the carnal appetite Now if civil Justice for the preservation of society wisely decrees such penalties for offences as are requisite to maintain the honour of Laws that are founded in equity either by preventing or by repairing the the injury done to them Is it not most righteous that the Supreme Lord of the World should secure obedience to his most holy Laws by annexing such penalties as are necessary to induce a reverence of them in his Subjects and to execute the sentence in full severity upon presumptuous Transgressors without this the Divine Government would be dissolved 4. Eternal Life and Eternal Death are set before Men to encourage them to obedience and deter them from Sin so that none dies but for wilful impenitence And can there be the least aspersion of unjust rigour cast on God's proceedings in Judgment If it be said 't is so contrary to the most inviolable inclinations of Nature that no Man can choose his own destruction to that a full answer may be given 'T is true Man cannot devest Reason and Sense so as to choose directly and intentionally Eternal Misery but vertually and by consequence he does For the deliberate choice of Sin as pleasant or profitable though damnable in the issue is by just interpretation a choosing of the punishment that attends it And to make it clear that sinners are in love with perishing let us consider 1. The inestimable reward of Obedience they refuse 'T is a felicity worth as much as the enjoyment of God himself and as durable as Eternity Now what is put in the Ballance against Heaven Only this World that passes away with the lusts thereof And it argues a violent propension in the will to carnal things when the little fleeting pleasures of Sense how empty how vanishing outweigh in the competition the substantial everlasting Blessedness of the Spirit And what a vile contempt is it of the Perfections of God that such base things such trifling Temptations should be chosen before him Were it not visibly true Reason would deny the possibility of it 'T is as if the Wife of a Prince should prefer in her affections before him a diseased deformed Slave Or as if one should choose the food of Beasts Hay Acorns or Carrion before the provisions of a Royal Table This is no Hyperbole no Exaggregation but the reality infinitely exceeds all Figures And is it not perfectly reasonable that sinners should inherit their own option 2. This rejecting of Eternal Life by sinners is peremptory against the best and often renewed means to induce them to accept of it They are allured by the sweetest Mercies urged by the strongest terrours to forsake their beloved lusts and be happy And till the riches of goodness and forbearance are dispised they are not past hopes For though the sentence of the Law be decisive upon the first act of sin yet 't is not irrevocable but upon impenitence in it But when sin has such an absolute Empire in the Will that no obligations no invitations can prevail with it 't is manifest that obstinacy is an ingredient in the refusal of Heaven And is it not most just that an obstinate aversation from God should be punish'd with an everlasting exclusion from his Glory This will clearly vindicate Divine Justice and render sinners excuseless in the day of accounts God will overcome when he judges and every mouth be stopt This will be a fiery addition to their misery and feed the never dying Worm For by reflecting upon what they have irrecoverably lost and what they must for ever suffer and that by their own wretched choice the awakened Conscience turns the most cruel fiend against it self In Hell there is weeping and gnashing of Teeth Extreme Misery and extreme Fury Despair and Rage are the true Characters of Damnation CHAP. XIII What influence the Doctrine of the future state should have upon our practice It must regulate our esteem of present things And reconcile our affections to any condition here so far as it may be an advantage to prepare us for the better World The chiefest care is due to the immortal part The just value of Time and how it should be improved 'T is the best Wisdom to govern our whole course of life here with regard to Eternity that expects us I Will now briefly shew what influence this principle of Natural Religion should have on our practice T is not a matter of pure speculation but infinitely concerns all For whatever inequality there is between Men with respect to temporal Accidents in the present state yet there is no difference with regard to things future Their Souls are equally immortal and capable of the same blessedness and liable to the same misery It is most necessary therefore to reflect upon what so nearly touches us If the eternal state hereafter were not an infallible Truth but only a probable opinion and the Arguments for and against it were so equal that the Understanding remained in suspence yet the importance is so vast either to enjoy for ever the clear vision of God or to be cast into an everlasting Hell that Prudence requires all possible diligence in what-ever is necessary to obtain the one and escape the other But this Doctrine is not meerly within the terms of Probability but is clear by irrefutable evidence And if those prophane Miscreants who endeavour by frigid Railleries to expose the serious care of Salvation to scorn and by trifling Arguments would fain weaken their assent to this great Truth had not lost the humane property of blushing they would be covered with Confusion whilst they contradict not only what the wisest and best Men have unanswerably proved but what their very opposition confirms For the doubting of the Soul's Immortality is a strong Argument that 't is immortal Because only a spiritual being and therefore not liable to dissolution and death is capable of reflecting whether it shall continue for ever It does not require subtilty of wit or strength of Reason to draw
Popilius by order of the Roman Senate required Antiochus to withdraw his Army from the King of Egypt and he desired time to deliberate upon it the Roman drew a Circle with his Wand about him and said In hoc stans delibera give a present Answer before you move out Thus Eternity whose proper Emblem is a Circle a Figure without end presents to us Life and Death that after a short time expects all men and here we must make our choice And shall a mortal coldness possess us in an affair of such importance We cannot so fast repair the ruines of the Body but that every day Death makes nearer approaches and takes away some spoils that cannot be recovered and will shortly force the Soul to leave its habitation and shall we not secure a retreat for it in the Sanctuary of Life and Immortality Can any make a Covenant with Death Is it to be overcome by the strength of the young or appeased by the tears and supplications of the old 'T is equally invincible and inexorable The greenest Age is ripe for dying the Fruit that does not fall is pluck'd and gathered Every one is under the same sentence and so far equally disposed to dye None can assure himself the continuance of a day and shall we be desperately careless of our main Concernment shall we waste this unvaluable Treasure in idleness or actions worse than idleness shall we spend it to purchase transient vanities The gaining the whole World is not worth the expence of this light of Life 'T was given us for more excellent ends to work out our own Salvation to secure our everlasting Interest How should we redeem every hour and live for Heaven This is our chief and indispensible affair and the neglect of it for a day is of infinite hazard Our season is short our omission irreparable If we could clip the wings of Time and stop its flight there might be some pretence for delay but the Sun drives on apace we cannot bid it stand still one hour Our diligence in improving Time should be equal to its swift motion We should speedily draw from it what 's necessary as from a rapid Torrent that will quickly be dryed up 'T was a wise Answer to one that ask'd why the Lacedemonians were so slow in passing Capital Judgments why so many Examinations taken so many Defences permitted to the Accused and after Conviction Sentence such a space of time before Execution The reason of it is because an errour in that case is incorrigible They might kill the Living but could not revive the Dead Now since after Death is inflicted on the guilty Soul 't is lost for ever how should it stop Men in the voluntary and precipitate Condemnation of themselves by the wilful rejecting of the Grace that is offered to them upon their present acceptance To draw to an end it follows from what has been discours'd that 't is the most necessary and highest point of Wisdom to conduct our Lives with a respect to the Tribunal above that will pass a righteous and unchangeable Sentence upon Men for all the good and evil done here The Consequence is so manifest and palpable that nothing but perfect Madness can deny If there be a spark of Reason a grain of Faith the Mind must assent to it For if Prudence consist in the choice and use of means to procure the Good we want and in preventing the Evil we justly fear certainly according as the Good is more noble and difficult or the Evil more dangerous and destructive the more eminent is the Wisdom in obtaining our end Now what is the chief Good to which all our desires should turn and our endeavours aspire What are Crowns Scepters Robes of State splendor of Jewels Treasures or whatever the Earth has in any kind or degrees of good They are only the little entertainments of the Body the viler part of Man But the perfect and perpetual Fruition of God is the Blessedness of the Soul and infinitely excels the other And proportionably 't is not the loss of temporal things that is the greatest Evil but the losing Heaven and the immortal Soul is above all degrees of valuation Now 't is strange to amazement that those who profess to believe these things should live in a constant opposition to their belief How vigorously do they prosecute their secular designs they build Estates and make Provisions tanquam semper victuri as if they were eternal Inhabitants here But how remiss and cold are they in order to Heaven and to escape the Wrath to come Libertines are uniform and regular according to their Principles they are Infidels and live as Infidels there 's no contradiction between their thoughts and actions The remembrance of Death rather inflames than checks their Appetites to sinful pleasures as the sprinkling Water does not quench the Fire but makes it more fierce They know they shall continue here but a short time and resolve to make the best of it for carnal purposes But infinite numbers of those who in title are Citizens of another World and declare their belief of a future state yet are as careless to prepare for it as if the great Judgment and the dreadful Eternity that follows were Romantick Fables They are Believers in their minds and Infidels in their lives From whence comes this monstrous Composition of two Extreams so contrary and difficult to be united as the Sun and Darkness or Fire and Water in their actual forms For Men to believe there is a Heaven and to be in love with the Earth to believe an everlasting Hell shall be the reward of Sin and yet to go on in Sin O the sottish Folly of Men What enticing Sorcery perverts them 'T is because that temporal things are sensible and present and eternal things are spiritual and future But how graceless and irrational is this Has not the Soul perceptive faculties as well as the Body are not its objects transcendently more excellent Is not its union with them more intimate and ravishing Must the sensual Appetites be heard before Reason and the Soul be unnaturally set below the respects of the Body If the most splendid temptations of the flesh are but dross to the happiness of the Spirit is it not true Wisdom to distinguish and despise them in the comparison For this end God has plac'd us in the World that with equal Judgement we may ballance things and preferring the great and solid Good before a vain appearance our choice may be unconstrain'd and his mercy take its rise to reward us And how foolish is it to neglect eternal things because they are future Is it not a common complaint that Life is short that it flies away in a breath and if Death be so near can Eternity be so distant Besides do Men want an understanding to foresee things to come In their Projects for this World how quick-sighted and provident are they to discover all probable
inconveniencies afar off and lay the Scene to avoid them And is Reason only useful in the affairs of the Body and must Sense that cannot see an hands-breadth beyond the present be the guide of the Soul Well though the most powerful Reasons the most ardent Exhortations and stinging Reprehensions cannot prevail with the Sons of the Earth now to be apprehensive of the Evils that threaten them but they live in a blind manner regardless of the Soul yet in a little while Extremities will compel them to open their eyes When they are departing hence with one foot upon the brink of Time and the other lift up to enter Eternity how will they be astonish'd to see the distance between this World and the next which seem'd to them so wide to be but one step The present Life that in their imaginations would never end and the future that would never begin so intent were they for the provisions of the one and neglectful of the other behold the one is gone and the other come Time is at their back with all its vanities and Eternity before their faces with its great realities How are their thoughts and discourses changed in that terrible hour that will decide their states for ever they did foolishly for themselves but then speak wisely for the instruction of others How piercing and quick are their apprehensions then of Heaven and Hell which before were neglected as unworthy of regard or onely toucht the surface of their Souls what amazement what dejection of Spirit to find themselves in a sad unpreparedness for their great Account the remembrance that for the poor advantages of time they forfeited Eternal Glory and ventur'd on Eternal Misery cuts more sorely than the pangs of Death But suppose they harden their hearts to the last minute of life and are more stupid than the Beasts that tremble upon a precipice at the sight of extream danger yet a minute after Death O the heavy change when they shall feel themselves undone infinitely and irrecoverably What fierce and violent workings will be in the mind what a storm of passions rais'd But then Repentance will be with perfect sorrow without the least profit There are no returns to the possibility of mercy I will conclude this Discourse with a passage from the most humble and excellent St. Austin He bewails in his Confession his long bondage under Sin His carnal lusts adher'd as closely to him as the Ivy twines about the Oak that there can be no separation without eradicating it and plucking the Bark off the Tree He felt an inward continual Combat between the Flesh and Spirit He often shook the Chain wherewith he had voluntarily bound himself but had not the resolution to break it And thus for a time his Judgment abhor'd what his Affections were enclin'd to and he was neither victorious nor vanquish'd But when God was pleas'd by his omnipotent Grace to set him at liberty the last and most violent Assault of the Flesh and that which made his Conversion most difficult was this His Youthful Lusts presented themselves to his Imagination and as that impure Mistress did with chast Joseph shook the Garment of his Flesh and whisper'd Will you renounce us shall there be a divorce between you and your ancient Loves for ever shall not this or that desire of the Senses be contented for ever And what was that for ever it only signified the short remainder of his time after thirty three years which was then his Age. And this is the most effectual hinderance of the reclaiming of Sinners still They will not be induc'd to make an irrevokable unreserv'd dedication of themselves to God and firmly to resolve never to taste forbidden sweets more but always abhor the relish of them But if it be so hard and intolerable always to abstain from unlawful pleasures and much more to suffer pain in the short space the moments of this Life that it seems an Eternity to corrupt Nature what will it be in the true Eternity to be depriv'd of all Good and tormented with all Evils despairing of release or quenching one spark of that terrible Fire O that Men were wise to consider their latter end and the consequences of it their Mortality and Immortality FINIS THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS Chap. 1. pag. 1. ATheism is fearfull of publick discovery Three heads of Arguments to prove the Being of a God 1. The visible frame of the World and the numerous Natures in it exactly modelled for the good of the whole prove it to be the work of a most wise Agent The World considered in its several parts The Sun in its scituation motion and effects declare the Providence of the Creator The diurnal motion of the Sun from East to West is very beneficial to Nature The Annual course brings admirable advantage to it The gradual passing of the sensible World from the excess of Heat to the extremity of Cold an effect of Providence The constant Revolutions of the Day and Night and of the Seasons of the Year discovers that a wise Cause order them Chap. 2. pag. 19. The Air a fit medium to convey the Light and Influences of the Heavens of the lower World 'T is the repository of Vapours that are drawn up by the Sun and descend in fruitful showers The Winds of great benefit The separation of the Sea from the Land the effect of great Wisdom and Power That the Earth is not an equal Globe is both pleasant and useful The League of the Elements considered Excellent Wisdom visible in Plants and Fruits The shapes of Animals are answerable to their properties They regularly act to preserve themselves The Bees Swallows Ants directed by an excellent mind Chap. 3. pag. 34. The Body of Man form'd with perfect design for Beauty and Usefulness A short description of its parts The fabrick of the Eye and Hand admirably discovers the Wisdom of the Maker The erect stature of the Body fitted for the rational Soul Man by speech is fitted for Society How the Affections are discovered in the Countenance The distinction of Persons by the face how necessary The reasonable Soul the image of a wise and voluntary Agent Chap. 4. pag. 51. The vanity of Epicurus's Opinion of the Worlds original discovered from the visible order in all the parts of it Chance produces no regular effects The constant natural course of things in the World proves that 't is not framed nor conducted by uncertain Chance The World was not caused by the necessity of Nature In the search of Causes the mind cannot rest till it comes to the first Second Causes are sustain'd and directed in all their workings by the first The Creator though invisible in his Essence is visible in his effects Chap. 5. pag. 71. The beginning of the World proved from the uninterrupted Tradition of it through all Ages The Invention of Arts and bringing them to perfection an Argument of the Worlds beginning The weakness