Foundation being once establish'd, the human Soul is strait obliged, by the View of this present State, to prefage a future: For when it obferves in the Government of this lower World, or in this Part of the divine OEconomy, that in the Distribution of Good and Evil the Laws of Juftice and Equity are not preferv'd; it easily from thence concludes, that there is fomething ftill remaining, that all the Parts of this Drama are not compleated, that the grand Catastrophe is ftill to come: Thus the Soul is exalted

the Expectation of things which will come to pafs in a future State, as it were in a Scene that is next to follow.

THE Goods of Fortune and external Happiness do not, in this Life, accompany Wifdom and Virtue. They are neither less, nor lefs frequently enjoy'd by foolish and wicked Men. But if human Happiness were ultimately placed in these, and were to be finally determined here, the fupream Governor of the World, and the fame a moft righteous Judge, would never endure so great Confufion in the Order of Things. That the Good should be happy, and the Wicked miferable, is the Voice of God, the Voice of Man, and the Voice of univerfal Nature: But witness Heaven, and witness Earth, and witnefs ye confcious Stars, that this eternal and most facred Law, among us miferable Mortals, in the Compafs of this Life, is never kept inviolable; there

fore

fore grant me but this, that God is just and holy, and the neceffary Confequence of it muft be, that there will be Rewards and Punishments in another Life, and that human Happiness and human Mifery dɔ not altogether depend upon this present transitory State.

NOR do we here complain of our own Times; as unhapyy Men are often wont to do; nor do we believe the Age which we live in more corrupt or more profligate than several which have preceded it: The World is now what it always was. Run through the Records of all Times, of all Nations, the Grecian, the Roman, whatever Country you pleafe, you will find in them all the Socrates's, the Cato's, Men that were plac'd at the Top of their Species, renown'd for the Excellence of their Ñature, and diftinguish'd by the fingular Endowments of their Minds and Manners; thefe you will find by the Iniquity of Fortune opprefs'd, hated by the impious and noify Vulgar, and perfecuted by Envy, with her blackest Calumnies: Nor can Tyrants, and Men in Power endure the Freedom of a noble Spirit, tenacious of Truth and Virtue. This is the miferable Condition of human Affairs.

BESIDES, as the promifcuous Fortune that attends the Virtuous and Wicked could not be agreeable to divine Justice and Righteousness, if it were to have no Alteration; fo the Meannefs, the Littleness, and, if I may fo. B3 exprefs

exprefs myself, the Vileness of the present Condition of Mortals, if it were folitary, first to none, and second to none, would neither answer to the Dignity of God the Creator, nor to the Dignity of Earth's Inhabitants, that is, of human Souls. If you believe that God has created innumerable Worlds besides this in which you live, the Difficulty under which you labour will not be altogether fo great. But they who, befides this Globe of Earth, (an Atom, with respest to its Littleness, a Dunghil, with regard to its Filthiness,) acknowledge no inhabitable World, own no Inhabitants in any other Part of the Immenfity of the Univerfe; these Perfons are greatly injurious to the divine Majefty, and fancy a God inferior to a magnanimous Man. And then if, befides the Earth itself, you obferve those human Affairs which are tranfacted on it, you will find them fo trifling, or fo confus'd, or fo miferable, you would fufpect they were by fome wicked Deity appointed, and by fome impotent one endur'd: For what is there but Blood and Slaughter among Princes? what among private Men but Contentions, Quarrels, Reproaches, Calumnies, and daily litigious Difputes? and too frequently about the verieft Trifles. A great deal of Folly and Trifle every where! of Wisdom a very little! And, which is more grievous to be endur'd, Pleafures very fhort and rare; many and lafting are our Griefs, and Complaints, proceeding

proceeding from Difeafes, Poverty, Enmity, and fuch like Evils incident to human Nature: So that the Drama of this Life, if you abstract from it all Confequences, and its Connexion with a future State, is neither worthy to have God for its Author, nor even for its Spectator.

BUT I go farther ftill: The little Affairs, and the trifling Business of this Life, if you take from it the Hope and Profpect of a future, are so far from being worthy of God, that they are unworthy of a human Soul. We are deprefs'd in this mortal State beneath the Rank, and the Degree, and the Excellence of our Nature. From whence is that Shame which we difcover in fome of our Actions, and fome of our natural Affections? From whence that Modefty, or that Disturbance in human Nature? and not only when we fin, but when we obey the Defires or the Neceffities of Nature herfelf? Why are we afham'd of ourselves, and our own Nature, if we act nothing beneath our native Dignity? if we are not capable of a more excellent State? if we never had, and are never to have a worthier? Befides, we are deftin'd in this Life to be employ'd about Toys and Trifles, which neither become nor fatisfy a reasonable Soul, capable of Employments infinitely better, and infinitely more exalted. 'That which is moft excellent, most noble, and even divine in us, is ready to fink under the Burden and Care of the Body; and by B 4

mean

mean and little Affairs, which are neceffary for the feeding and clothing the Body, and the Prefervation of Health.* And yet the Soul ftands in need of none of all thefe, but is forc'd into Servitude as a Slave to the Body. She is fubjected to Vanity here, under which the groans, and under her Occupation, about vile and paltry Matters. But to what Purpose is that fublime Understanding, by which fhe contemplates celeftial and eternal Beings, by which the measures Heaven and Earth? To what Purpose is that noble Fire, and that afpiring to Things of the greatest and most exalted Nature? To what Purpose is that Thirst of Immortality, which is never to be fatisfied? To what Purpose that heroick Virtue which appears in fome, which furmounts and undervalues all private Advantage for the publick

Good,

* Can there be any one who believes that Man was born for no other End than to digeft what he eats and drinks, than to watch the Winds, and purfue all his Life-time peribing and fallacious Hopes; and that after this Short Madnefs is over, he must be laid once more in the Earth from which he was taken, and diffolv'd into his original Duft? And yet this, forfooth, is the End of Man, and the Ñeplus ultra of Humanity! "We were not created, fays

Cicero, either rafhly or fortuitoufly, but there was pre"fent a Power divine, which confulted the Advantage "and Happiness of Mankind; nor would he produce "or provide for that, which, after it had endur'd all "Fatigues, borne all the Calamities of Life, and had "been victorious over them all, was at laft to lie down "in Death's eternal Sleep." Cic. Quæft. Tufc. I. in