SERM. Operations as plainly fhew they were de II. figned for fome higher Employment, and longer Duration, than what this Life affords. For, were the Preservation of our Beings, and the Gratifications of our Senfes and Appetites, the only End why our Souls were created, what Need had there been of abstracted Notions, or a Power to reflect? Why was the Will created free to determine its own Motions, when Imagination and Inftinct would have ferved as well for all thofe Purposes; we might have performed all those Actions, and yet have continued in the fame Clafs with the Beasts that perifh. Nay, our Reafon would have been fo far from raising us above them, that it would only have ferved to have made us more miserable, fince our Reflection upon past Misery, and our Fears of those which we apprehend will fall upon us, would render our Lives uncomfortable: Let us confider,

(2.) THE Teftimony of our own Confciences either juftifying or condemning us, according as our Actions have been either good or evil; which doth not proceed from the Fear of Punishments in this Life; for a Man's Confcience accufes him, though he acts his Wickednefs never fo fecretly; and the greatest

Kings and Potentates are as much fub- SERM. ject to the Lashes of a guilty Conscience, II. as the Wretch that plies at the Oar; which is an evident Proof, that it proceeds from the Senfe Man has of an After-reckoning, and the Foreboding of future Punishments, which, though they do not fall upon him in this Life, yet, his Confcience tells him, will fall heavy upon him hereafter.

So that Eccl. viii.

(3.) ADD to this, that Juftice is one of God's effential Attributes, and the Argument will be still more ftrong; for, fince all Things in this World seem to be governed by Chance and Fortune; fince it often happens to the Just after the Lot of the Wicked, and to the Wicked according to the Work of the Righteous; there is no knowing Love or Hatred by 14. all that is before us; all Things come alike to all, there is one Event to the Righteous, and to the Wicked; to the Clean, and to the Unclean; to him that facrificeth, and to him that facrificeth not; as is the Good, fo is the Sinner; and he that fweareth, as he that Ch. ix. 1, feareth an Oath; We may obferve it fre- 2. quently happens, that the most innocent and virtuous Perfons are expofed to the greatest Croffes and Calamities in this Life, that their Virtue and Holiness is fo

SERM. far from shielding them from Affliction, II. that these are the very Caufes why they are perfecuted; the Violence and Wickednefs of Men perverting the best Things to the worst Ends and Purposes. On the other Hand, it may and doth frequently fo fall out, in these Dregs of the World and under the degenerated Manners of Mankind, that wicked Men profper by Violence and Oppreffion, live in much Splendor and Affluence of all outward Things, and at laft go down to their Graves in feeming Peace. All which plainly points out to us, that there will come a Time when all this will be adjusted, when the just Judge of all the Earth will do every Man Right, and the Wisdom of God's Providence will be made out to the World; when the Good shall be rewarded, and the Wicked tormented: So that there is no Man who really believes a good and just God, but he must withal confefs, that there will come a Time when he will judge the World in Righteousness. Add to this,

4thly and Laftly, THE ill Confequences which would follow, if there was no future Account to be given of our Actions; for, (1.) THIS Would deftroy all human Societies. Were it not for the Dread of an After

After-reckoning, every Man would pursue SERM. that which his Fancy renders agreeable II. to him, without any Refpect to Justice and Honefty; there would be no fuch Things as Laws to reftrain the exorbitant Appetites and Defires of Mankind, or elfe only fuch Laws as would have little Force, because only backed with temporal Rewards and Punishments; Men would obey no longer than it was for their temporal Intereft, and break the Law as often as it ftood with their own Advantage, and as they could do it privately and with Impunity: So that the World would foon fall into a State of Confufion; there would be no fuch Thing as Good and Evil, Honeft and Dishonest; and he would be fafeft who had the ftrongest Hand, and the moft over-reaching Wit.

Nor (2.) WOULD it be lefs prejudicial to every Man's particular Happiness; for, fince the Troubles and Calamities of Life make up the greatest Part of it, were there no Rewards for the Righteous, we should lose our chiefeft Stay in a Day of Affliction. A wife Man would hardly think it worth his While to live, to run the Gantlope of a Life incumbered with continual Cares, Difquietments, Pains, and Diseases,

D 4

SERM. Diseases, Loffes and Difappointments, were II. it not that he hopes to arrive at a State

attended with none of thofe Inconveniences; and as for those who enjoy the moft happy Condition in this World, what a cutting Thought it must needs be to confider, that they must speedily leave all their Poffeffions and Enjoyments, their Mirth and Gallantry; they must part with all their curiously contrived Buildings and agreeable Converfation, and when Death lays his cold Hands upon them, and closes their Eyes, they must lie down in the Bed of Oblivion, and be as if they never had been born? This is fo uncomfortable a Reflection, that is has been controverted amongst learned Men, and that with great Warmth too, whether it were not more eligible to be eternally miserable, than to ceafe to be at all. And hence we have Reafon to conclude, that what is so much for our Intereft to be, really is; for, fince God created Man fo noble a Creature, as to be little lower than the Angels, it cannot be imagined, that in this Refpect he fhould be in a worfe Condition than the Beafts that perish; for they have neither Cares nor Difappointments, they neither reflect on their Sorrows paft, nor are they follicitous for the Future; fo

that