the highest parts to which no other Waters arise would be unfruitful Now the Winds are assigned to all the quarters of the World and as the Reigns are slack or hard they guide the Clouds for the advantage of the lower World The separation of the Sea from the Land and containing it within just bounds is the effect of Almighty Wisdom and Goodness For being the lighter Element its natural situation is above it And till separated 't was absolutely useless as to habitation or fruitfulness 'T is now the convenient seat of terrestrial Animals and supplies their Provisions And the Sea is fit for Navigation whereby the most distant Regions maintain Commerce for their mutual help and comfort The Rivers dispers'd through the veins of the Earth preserve its beauty and make it fruitful They are always in motion to prevent corrupting and to visit several parts that the labour of cultivating may not be in vain And that these Waters may not fail the innumerable branches spred through the Earth at last unite in the main body of the Sea What they pour into it through secret chanels they derive from it by a natural perpetual circulation not to be imitated by Art In this we have a clear proof of the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator That the Earth is not an equal Globe but some parts are rais'd into Hills and Mountains others sunk into deep Valleys some are immense Plains affects with various delight and is useful for excelent ends not onely for the production of Minerals of Marble and Stones requisite for Buildings but for the thriving of several kinds of Grain and Plants that are necessary for Food or Medicine for some love the Shade others the Sun some flourish best on Rocks and Precipices others in low moist places some delight in Hills others in Plains Thus by the unequal surface of the Earth is caused a convenient temperature of Air and Soil for its productions Add further The Wisdom of the Creatour is discovered by observing the league of the Elements from whence all mixt bodies arise Of how different qualities are Earth Water Air Fire yet all combine together without the destruction of their enmity that is as necessary to preserve nature as their friendship Can there be imagin'd a greater discord in the parts of the Elementary World and a greater concord in the whole To reduce them to such an aequilibrium that all their operations promote the same end proves that there is a Mind of the highest Wisdom that has an absolute Dominion over all things and tempers them accordingly If we come to Plants and Flowers Who divided their kinds and form'd them in that beautiful order who painted and perfum'd them how doth the same Water dye them with various Colours the Scarlet the Purple the Carnation what causes the sweet Odors that breath from them with an insensible subtilty and diffuse in the Air for our delight from whence proceed their different vertues These admirable works of Nature exceed the imitation and comprehension of Man 'T is clear therefore they proceed from a Cause that excels him in Wisdom and Power That some Plants of excellent vertue are full of prickles in their stock and leaves to protect them from Beasts that would root them up or trample on them an Atheist acknowledg'd to be the effect of Providence The same Wisdom preserves the Seed in the Root under the flower and prepares the numerous Leaves of Trees not only for a shadow to refresh living creatures but to secure their Fruits from the injuries of the weather Therefore in the Spring they shoot forth always before the fruits are form'd And tender delicate fruits are cover'd with broader and thicker leaves than others of a firmer substance In Winter they cast their leaves are naked and dry the vital sap retiring to the root as if careless of dying in the members to preserve life in the heart that in the returning Spring diffuses new heat and spirits the cause of their flourishing and fruitfulness The season of Fruits is another indication of Providence In Summer we have the cool and moist to refresh our heats in Autumn the durable to be preserved when the Earth produces none If we observe the lower rank of Animals their kinds shapes properties 't is evident that all are the Copies of a designing Mind the effects of a skilful Hand Some of them are fierce others familiar some are servile others free some crafty others simple and all fram'd conveniently to their Natures How incongruous were it for the Soul of a Lion to dwell in the body of a Sheep or that of a Hare to animate the body of a Cow It would require a volume to describe their different shapes and fitness to their particular natures Besides creatures meerly sensitive are acted so regularly to preserve themselves their kind that the reason of a superiour Agent shines in all their actions They no sooner come into the World but know their enemies and either by Strength or Art secure themselves They are instructed to swim to fly to run to leap They understand their fit nourishment and remedies proper for their Diseases Who infused into the Birds the art to build their nests the love to cherish their young How are the Bees instructed to frame their Hony-combs without hands and in the dark and of such a figure that among all other of equal compass and filling up the same space is most capacious The consideration of their Art and Industry their political Government and Providence and other miraculous qualities so astonish'd some great Wits that they attributed something divine to them Esse Apibus partem divinae mentis haustus Aetherios dixere some there are maintain That Bees deriv'd from a Coelestial strain And Heavenly race What moves the Swallows upon the approach of Winter to fly to a more temperate Clime as if they understood the Celestial Signs the Influences of the Stars and the Changes of the Seasons From whence comes the fore-sight of the Ants to provide in Summer for Winter their oeconomy fervour their discretion in assisting one another as if knowing that every one labour'd for all and where the benefit is common the labour must be common their care to fortifie their receptacles with a banck of Earth that in great rains it may not be overflowed have made them the fit emblems of prudent diligence This is excellently described by Virgil. Ac veluti ingentem formicae farris acervum Cum populant Hyenis memores tectoque reponunt It nigrum campis agmen praedamque per herbas Convectant calle angusto pars grandia trudunt Obnixa frumenta humeris pars agmima cogunt Castigantque moras Opere omnis semita fervet So when the Winter-fearing Ants invade Some heaps of Corn the Husbandman had made The sable Army marches and with Prey Laden return pressing the Leafy-way Some help the weaker and their shoulders lend Others the
in Surgery But he desirous first to cure his Brain and then his Shoulder told him that his Art was needless in that case for according to your own opinion this Bone in the dislocation either was where it was or where it was not and to assert either makes the displacing of it equally impossible Therefore 't was in vain to reduce it to the place from whence it was never parted And thus he kept him roaring out with pain and rage till he declar'd himself convinc'd of the vanity of his irrefutable Argument Now if according to the vanity of Atheists there is no God why do they invoke him in their adversities If there be why do they deny him in their prosperity there can no other Reason be assign'd but this that in the state of health their minds are disperst and clouded with blind folly in sickness they are serious and recover the judgment of Nature As 't is ordinary with distracted persons that in the approaches of Death their Reason returns because the Brain distemper'd by an excess of heat when the Spirits are wasted at the last is reduced to a convenient temper CHAP. VI. The Belief of the Deity no Politick Invention The asserting that 't is necessary to preserve States in order is a strong proof of its truth No History intimates when this belief was introduc'd into the World The continuance of it argues that its rise was not from a Civil Decree Princes themselves are under the fears of the Deity The multitude of false Gods does not prejudice the natural notion of one true God Idolatry was not universal The Worship of the only true God is preserved where Idolatry is abolish'd II. 'T Is objected that the belief of the Deity was at first introduc'd by the special invention of some in power to preserve the civil Sate and that Religion is onely a politick curb to restrain the wild exorbitance and disorders of the multitude This admits of an easie refutation 1. Those corrupted minds that from pride or sensuality presum'd to exempt Men from the Tribunal of Heaven yet affirm'd that a City might rather be preserved without Fire and Water the most necessary Elements than without the religious belief of a God Egregious lovers of mankind and therefore worthy of esteem and credit since they divulge that Doctrine that if believed the World must fall into dreadful confusion by their own acknowledgment But such is the Divine force of Truth that its enemies are constrain'd to give Testimony to it For is it conceiveable that an error not in a light question but in the Supreme Object of the Mind should be the root of all the Vertues that support the Civil State and Truth if discovered should have a fatal consequence on Government subvert all Societies and expose them to the greatest dangers How can they reconcile this with their declared principle that the natural end of Man is the knowledge of Truth It were less strange that the constant feeding on deadly Poyson should be requisit to preserve the natural life in health and vigour and that the most proper food should be pernicious to it So that the objection if rightly consider'd will confirm the Religious belief of a Deity Indeed 't is evident that all Civil Powers suppose the notion of a God to be an inseparable property of humane nature and thereby make their authority sacred in the esteem of the People as derived from the Universal Monarch 2. They can give no account of what they so boldly assert What Historian ever recorded that in such an age such a Prince introduc'd the belief of a Deity to make obedience to his Law 's to be a point of Religion 'T is true Politicians have sometimes used artifice and deceit to accomplish their ends Lycurgus pretended the direction of Apollo and Numa of the Nymph Egeria to recommend their Laws to the People Scipio and Sertorious made some other God to be of their Council of Warr to encourage their Souldiers in dangerous interprises But this mask only deceived the ignorant The more intelligent discern'd the finess of their politick contrivance 3. Is it conceiveable that the belief of the Deity if its original were from a civil decree should remain in force so long in the World False opinions in Philosophy adorn'd with great eloquence by the inventors and zealously defended for a time by their followers though opposit to no Mans profit or pleasure yet have lost their credit by further inquiries And if the notion of a God were sophisticate Gold though authorized with the Royal stamp could it have endured the Touchstone and the Fire for so many ages without discovery could it have past the test of so many searching Wits that never had a share in Government can we rationally suppose that in such a succession of time no discontented person when the yoke of Government was uneasie should disclose the arts of affrightment and release the People from imaginary terrours that with courage they might resume their liberty 'T is a true observation no single person can deceive all nor be deceived by all Now if there be no God one person has deceived all by introducing the general belief of a God into the World and every one is deceived by all believing so from the Universal Authority of Mankind 4. The greatest Princes are under the awful impressions of the Deity Those rais'd to the highest Thrones are not free from inward anxieties when the guilty Conscience cites them before his dreadful Tribunal Of this we have their unfeigned Declarations in the times of their distress Now 't is unconceivable they would voluntarily preplex themselves with a fancy of their own creating and dread that as a real Being which they know to be feigned This pretence therefore cannot without an open defiance of Reason be alledged 3. 'T is objected that the consent of mankind in the acknowledgment of a God is no full conviction of his existence because then we must believe the false Gods that were adored in the World 1. The multitude of Idols created by superstitious fancies is a strong presumption that there is a true God For all Falshood is supported by some Truth Deceit is made credible by resemblance The Heathen Worship though directed amiss yet proves that a religious inclination is sound in its original and has a real object to which it tends otherwise Idolatry the corruption of it had not found such a facility and disposition in Men to receive it 2. Idolatry hath not been universal in all Ages and Nations The first causes of it and motives that preserved it are evident The Nation of the Jews was freed from this general Contagion for we may as rationally argue from their own Histories concerning their belief and practice as from the Histories of other Nations And when a veil of darkness was cast over the Heathen World some were inlight'ned by true Reason to see the folly of the superstitious vulgar that
Considerations OF THE Existence of GOD AND OF THE Immortality of the Soul With the Recompences of the future state For the Cure of INFIDELITY the Hectick Evil of the Times By William Bates D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. in Phileb LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1676. THE PREFACE THE usual Method whereby the Enemy of Mankind trains so many into his bloody snares is by enticing the lower Faculties the Senses the Fancy the Passions to prevail upon the Will and Mind and accordingly his motives are pleasure or pain that affect us from sensible things But on the contrary the great Lover of Souls first inlightens the Understanding to discover what is the most excellent Good what the most pernicious Evil and by that discovery moves the Will to pursue the one and fly from the other and so descends to work upon the Affections and Senses that with readiness they follow the direction and command of the Superior Powers in Man These Objects being Spiritual and future and therefore rais'd above the highest Regions of Sense are only apprehended and become effectual by the evidence of Faith As the Spartan in Plutarch after trying many ways to set a Carcass upright in a living posture and finding that all his Endeavours were vain it was so suddenly discompos'd the head sinking into the bosom the hands falling and all the parts in disorder concluded something was wanting within that is the living Soul without which the Body has no strength to support it self Thus the most convincing Reasons prest with the greatest vehemence of Affection all the Powers of the World to come are of no Efficacy upon those who have not Faith the vital Principle of all Heavenly Operations We live in an Infidel Age wherein wickedness reigns with Reputation The thoughts of the Mind are discovered by the current of the Actions Were there a serious belief of the great Judgment and the terrible Eternity that follows it were not possible for Men to sin so freely and go on in a War so desperate against God himself Sensuality and Infidelity are Elements of a Symbolical quality and by an easie alteration are chang'd into one another Fleshly Lusts darken the Mind and render it unfit to take a distinct view of things Sublime and Spiritual They hinder serious consideration especially of what may trouble the Conscience by their impetuous Disorders And which is the worst effect the corrupt Will bribes the Mind to argue for what it desires 'T is the interest of Carnalists to put out the eye of Reason the prevision of things Eternal that they may blindly follow the sensual appetite Thus Epicurus with his herd as one of them stiles that Fraternity denied the Immortality of the Soul consonantly to his declared principle that the Supreme Happiness of Man consisted in the delights of Sense And 't is as natural that the disbelief of another state hereafter should strongly incline Men to follow their Licentious Pleasures If the Soul according to the impious fancy of those Infidels described in the Book of Wisdom be a spark of Fire that preserves the vital heat for a little time and gives motion to the Members Vigor to the Senses and Spirits for the Thoughts but is quench'd in Death and nothing remains but a wretched heap of Ashes What preeminence has Man above a Beast It follows therfore in the progress of their Reason 't is equal to indulge their Appetites as the Beasts do If what is immortal puts on mortality the consequence is natural Let us eat and drink for to morrow we must die Now though supernatural Revelation confirm'd by Miracles and the continual accomplishment of Prophecies has brought Life and Immortality into that open light that the meanest Christian has a fuller and more certain evidence of it than the clearest spirits of the Heathens ever had yet because the weight of Authority is of no force with Libertines 't is necessary to argue from common Principles which they cannot disavow Indeed the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit are our best Defence in the Holy War but with the use of equal Arms Reasons against Reasons the cause of Religion will be victorious 'T is the design of the ensuing Treatise to discover by the light of Nature invisible objects viz. that a Sovereign Spirit made and governs the sensible World that there is an Immortal Soul in Man and an Eternal state expects him hereafter There is such a necessary Connexion between these Supreme Truths The Being of God and future Recompences to Men that the denial of the one includes the denial of the other 'T is uncertain which of the two is the first step whether Men descend from the disbelief of the future state to Atheism or from Atheism to Infidelity in that point Some excellent Persons have imployed their Talents on this Subject from whom I have received advantage in compiling the present Work I have been careful not to build upon false Arches but on substantial Proofs and to perswade Truth with Truth as becoms a sincere Counsellor and well-willer to Souls And if the secure Person will but attentively and impartially consider he must be convinc'd that 't is the only true Wisdom to believe and prevent and not venture on the tryal of things in that state where there is no other mending of the error but an everlasting sorrow for it Those whose Hearts are so irrecoverably depraved that no motives can perswade to examine what so nearly touches them with calmness and sobriety and their minds so fatally stupified that no Arguments can awaken must miserably feel what they wilfully doubt of whom the Light does not convince the Fire shall OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD. CHAP. I. Atheism is fearful of publick discovery Three heads of Arguments to prove the Being of 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 consider'd in its several parts The Sun in its situation 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 Day and Night and of the Seasons of the Year discovers that a wise Cause orders them IN the managing the present subject I shall first propound such things as clearly discover that a Soveraign Spirit rich in Goodness most wise in Counsel and powerful in Operation gave being to the World and Man in it This part of my work may seem needless because there are very few if any declared Atheists As Monsters remain where they are born in the desert sands of Africa not
acknowledg the Deity I Shall now come to the second head of Arguments for the existence of the Deity drawn from the proofs of the Worlds beginning from whence it follows that an Eternal intellectual Cause gave it being according to his pleasure For it implys an exquisit contradiction that any thing should begin to exist by its own power What ever is temporal was made by a Superior Eternal Power that drew it from pure nothing And the other consequence is as strong that the Cause is an intellectual Being that produc'd it according to his Will For supposing a Cause to be intirely the same and not to produce an effect that afterwards it produces without any preceding change 't is evident that it operates not by necessity of Nature but voluntarily and therefore with understanding As a Man who speaks that before was silent according to the liberty of his will Now of the Worlds beginning there is a general tradition derived down through the uninterrupted course of so many Ages to us 'T is true the Philosophers renewed the confusion of Tongues that disunited the Builders of Babel in their account of the Architecture of the World Yet they generally agreed 't was made by a most wise Agent And this Doctrine is so agreeable to Reason that you may as soon bridle the current of Nilus and make it return to its Fountain as suspend the perswasion of it in the minds of Men or make it turn back as false Now what account can be given of this uncontroulable Opinion 'T is most rational to conceive that it came from the first Man instructed by his Creator when the Tradition was easy the World not being numerous Add to this the rudeness of former Ages and the simplicity of living becoming the new-made World This account the most antient Histories give of the rise of Common-wealths that the first Nations were a confused chaos till the soul of society was infused to regulate them But that which I shall particularly insist on as a convincing proof is this The invention of many Arts beneficial to Men and the bringing them to perfection by degrees If the World were without begining it would have had no age of childhood and ignorance but being always old and instructed by infinite study and experience it would have always known what it successively learnt in the School of the last three thousand years since the memorials of profane Histories are transmitted to us Some that asserted the Eternity of the World were sensible of the force of this Argument and made a pittiful shift to evade it They fancied that though the World had no beginning yet as Animals proceed by different ages till they arrive at extream and impotent old age in like manner it happen'd to the Earth not in all its parts at once for then in that vast succession of Ages the World and race of Men had been spent but sometimes in one part and after in another But with this difference that whereas Man after decrepit age never renews his youth a Country once wasted with age returns by vertue of the celestial influences to its former vigor and is in a perpetual circulation to new infancy new youth and so to old age And from hence it is that it learns again those things that were well known in former ages the remembrance of which was intirely lost But the vanity of this fiction is easily discover'd 1. Is it possible that in such a number of years of which Memorials remain before and since this Fiction that in no part of the World should be seen or heard of this decrepit age and new childhood which according to this opinion hath innumerable times hapned in the circle of Eternity sometimes in one sometimes in another Province If we fancy Nature were so changeable according to the revolution of the Heavens we may with equal Reason believe that by various conjunctions of the Stars it hath and may fall out that Water should burn and Fire cool that Serpents should be innocent and Lambs pernicious that Flys should live an age and Eagles but a day 2. Since 't is affirmed that the whole World doth not sink into this Oblivion at once it must follow that in some vigorous parts the knowledg of Arts still remain'd and from thence should be derived two other parts that were ascending from their ignorance as 't is usual in the commerce of distant Regions So that it will never fall out that Arts and Sciences once invented should be totally lost 'T is true some particular Nation not by change of Nature but humane accidents may lose the Arts wherein it formerly flourish'd as is eminently visible in the Greek that is now far more ignorant and unpolisht then in former ages But this cannot with any pretence of Reason be said of the whole World 'T is evident therefore if the World were Eternal it had always been most wise and civil and that its gradual attaining the knowledg of things of publick advantage is a sufficient conviction of its beginning in time by the Counsel and Will of an Intellectual Agent 3. To the still voice of Reason the loud voice of all Nations accords in confirming this Truth The Civil the Barbarous those who by their distance are without the least commerce and are contrary in a thousand fashions and customs that depend on the liberty of Men that is mutable yet all consent in the acknowledgment of a God being instructed by Nature that is always the same and immutable 'T is as natural to the humane understanding by considering the frame of the World to believe there is a God as 't is the property of the Eye to see the light The assent to this truth is unforc'd but without offering extream violence to the rational faculties none can contradict it Indeed in their conceptions of him few have the glass of the mind so clear and even as to represent him aright Some divide what is indivisible and of one make many Gods Some attribute corporeal parts to a pure spirit some figure him in Statues to make the invisible seen and in other manner deform him Yet no errour no ignorance has absolutely defac't the notion of him And that no societies of Men are without the belief of a first Being superiour to all things in the World and of absolute power over them and consequently worthy of supream Honour from all reasonable Creatures their Prayers Vows Sacrifices Solemnities Oaths are a visible Testimony The force and weight of the Argument is great for that which is common to the whole species and perpetual from its first being through all its duration is the Impression of Nature which in its universal Principles either of the Understanding or the Will is never deceived Thus the inclination to that good that is convenient to our faculties the approving as most just to do to another what we desire in the same circumstances should be done to us are natural
effects of conscious integrity that such disquiets and fears arise from guilt is a convincing Argument that the Divine Providence is concern'd in the Good and Evil done here and consequently that the comforts of Holy Souls are the first fruits of eternal Happiness and the terrors of the Wicked are the gradual beginnings of sorrows that shall never end Before I finish this Discourse it will be requisit to answer two Objections that Infidels are ready to make 1. They argue against the reality of future recompences That they are invisible we have no testimony frō others who know the truth of them by experience As Alexanders Souldiers after his victories in the East refused to venture over the Ocean with him for the conquest of other Kingdoms beyond it alledging facile ista finguntur quia Oceanus navigari non potest The Seas were so vast and dangerous that no ship could pass through them Who ever returned that was there who has given Testimony from his own sight of such rich and pleasant Countries Nothing can be more easily feigned that it is than that of which there can be no proof that it is not And such is the Language of Infidelity Of all that undertook that endless Voyage to another World who ever came back through the immense ocean of the Air to bring us news of such a happy Paradise as to make us despise this World do they drink the Waters of forgetfulness so as to lose the memory of the Earth and its Inhabitants If there were a place of endless Torments of the millions of Souls that every day depart from hence would none return to give advice to his dear friends to prevent their misery Or when they have taken that last step is the precipice so steep that they cannot ascend hither Or does the Soul lose its wings that it cannot take so high a flight These are idle fancies And from hence they conclude that none ever return because they never come there but finally perish in the dissolution of the Body and are lost in the Abyss of nothing when they cease to live with us they are dead to themselves And consequently they judg it a foolish bargain to part with what is present and certain for an uncertain futurity Thus they make use of Reason for this end to perswade themselves that men are of the same nature with the Beasts without Reason To this I answer First though the evidence of the future state be not equal to that of sense as to clearness yet 't is so convincing even by natural light that upon far less Men form their Judgments and conduct their weightiest affairs in the World To recapitulate briefly what has been amplified before Is there not a God the Maker of the World is there no Counsel of Providence to govern it no Law of Righteousness for the distinction of Rewards Are there not moral Good and Evil Are Reason Vertue Grace names without truth like Chimaeras of no real kind the fancies of Nature deceived and deceiving it self Are they only wise among Men the only happy discoverers of that which is proper and best and the All of Man who most degenerate to brutishness shall we judg of the truth of Nature in any kind of beings by the Monsters in it What generation of Animals has any show of veneration of a Deity or a value for Justice either peace or remorse of Conscience or a natural desire of an intellectual happiness in life and an eternal after death Is there not even in the present state some experimental sense some impressions in the hearts of Men of the Powers of the World to come These things are discernable to all unprejudiced minds And can it be pretended that there is not a sufficient conviction that Men and Beasts do not equally perish 2. There is a vail drawn over the Eternal World for most wise Reasons If the Glory of Heaven were clear to Sense if the mouth of the bottomless-Pit were open before Mens eyes there would be no place for Faith and Obedience would not be the effect of choice but necessity and consequently there would be no visible descrimination made between the Holy and the Wicked The violent inclinations to sin would be stopt as to the act without an inward real change of the Heart If the Blasphemer or false Swearer were presently struck dumb if the Drunkard should never recover his understanding if the unclean wretch should immediatly be consumed by a hidden Fire or his sinning flesh putrifie and rot away if for every vice of the mind some disease that resembles it in the Body were speedily inflicted as a just punishment the World indeed would not be so full of all kinds of wickedness so contagious and of such incureable malignity But though in appearance it would be less vicious yet in truth and reality not more vertuous For such a kind of goodness or rather not guiltiness of the outward sinful act would proceed not from a Divine Principle a free Spirit of love to God and Holiness but from a low affection mere servile fear of Vengeance And love to Sin is consistent with such an abstinence from it As a Merchant that in a Tempest is forc'd to cast his Goods into the Sea not because he hates them for he throws his Heart after but to escape drowning Now that the real difference between the Godly and the Impious the Just and Unjust the sober and intemperate may appear God affords to men such evidence of future things that may satisfie an impartial considering person and be a sure defence against temptations that infect and inchant the careless mind and pervert the will to make a foolish choice of things next the senses for happiness Yet this evidence is not so clear but a corrupt heart may by a secret but effectual influence darken the understanding and make it averse from the belief of unseen things and strongly turn it from serious pondering those terrible truths that controul the carnal desires 3. How preposterous is this inference Departed Souls never return therefore they have no existence therefore we are but a breath of wind that only so long remains in being as it blows a shadow that is onely whiles it appears let our hours then that are but few be fill'd with pleasures let us enjoy the present regardless of hereafter that does not expect us Philosophy worthy of Brutes But prudence will conclude if the condition of Souls that go hence be immutable and in that place where they arrive they must be for ever it should be our cheifest care to direct them well if upon our entrance into the next World Eternity shuts the door upon us and the happiness and misery of it is not measur'd by time but the one excludes all fear the other all hope of Change 't is necessary to govern all our actions with a final respect to that state This is to discourse as a Man according to the Principles of
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