Considerations of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul, with…

To draw to an end; it follows from what has been discoursed, that 'tis the most necessary and highest point of Wisdom, to conduct ⟨p. 282⟩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, Sceptres, Robes of State, splendour of Jewels, Treasures, or whatever ⟨p. 283⟩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 'tis 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 'tis 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 ⟨p. 284⟩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 Romantic Fables.