The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption…

2. That it puts a period to all temporal evils. But as this is of no force with those who are prosperous, and never felt those miseries which make Life intolerable, so it cannot rationally relieve any that have not good hopes of felicity after death. The Heathens discovered not the sting of Death, as 'tis the wages of sin, and consigns the guilty to eternal Death; so that they built upon a false foundation, as if it were the cure of all evils.

3. They encouraged themselves from their ignorance of the consequences of death, whether it only ⟨p. 357⟩changed their place, or extinguished their persons.¹ Socrates who dyed with a seeming indifference, gave this account of it; That he did not know whether death was good or evil. But this is not fortitude, but folly: as Aristotle observes, That a readiness to encounter dangers arising from ignorance, is not true valour but a brutish boldness. What madness is it then for one that enters upon an eternal state, not knowing whether it shall be Happy or Miserable, to be unaffected with that dreadful uncertainty?

3. They encouraged themselves from their ignorance of the consequences of death, whether it only ⟨p. 357⟩changed their place, or extinguish'd their persons.¹ Socrates who dyed with a seeming indifference, gave this account of it; That he did not know whether death was good or evil. But this is not fortitude, but folly: as Aristotle observes, That a readiness to encounter dangers arising from ignorance, is not true valour but a brutish boldness. What madness is it then for one that enters upon an eternal state, not knowing whether it shall be Happy or Miserable, to be uneffected with that dreadful uncertainty?