The grief we su••er from Evil felt, would be light and easy, were it not incensed by Fear; Reason would do much, and Religion more, to demulce and lenify our sorrows, did not Fear betray the succours of both. And it is from things to come that this prospecting Creature raiseth up to himself vast Hopes, and Fears; If he have a fair and encouraging Prospect of Serene and prosperous day, from the Scheme and Position of second causes, Hope immediately fills his heart with cheeriness, and displays the signals of it in his very face, answerable to that fair benign Aspect of things; but if the face of things to come be threatening and inauspicious, Fear gains the Ascendant over the mind, a• unmanly and unchristian faintness pervades it, and among the many other mischiefs it inflicts, this is not the least; that it brings the evil of to morrow upon to day, and so makes the duties of to day wholly unserviceable to the evils of to morrow; which is much as if a man having an intricate and difficult business cut out for the next day, which requires the utmost intention both of his Mind and Body, and (haply might be prosperously managed if both were duly prepared) should lie all the night ⟨image 4⟩restless and disquieted about the event, torturing and spending himself with his own presaging Fears, so that when the day is come, and the business calls for him; his strength is no way equal to the burden of it, but he faints and fails under it.
The grief we su••er from Evil felt, would be light and easie, were it not incensed by Fear; Reason would do much, and Religion more, to demulce and lenifie our sorrows, did not Fear betray the succours of both. And it is from things to come that this prospecting Creature raiseth up to himself vast Hopes, and Fears; If he have a fair and encouraging Prospect of Serene and prosperous day, from the Scheme and Position of second causes, Hope immediately fills his heart with cheariness, and displaies the signals of it in his very face, answerable to that fair benign Aspect of things; but if the face of things to come be threatning and inauspicious, Fear gains the Ascendant over the mind, a• unmanly and unchristian faintness pervades it, and among the many other mischiefs it inflicts, this is not the least; that it brings the evil of to morrow upon to day, and so makes the duties of to day wholly unserviceable to the evils of to morrow; which is much as if a man having an intricate and difficult business cut out for the next day, which requires the utmost intention both of his Mind and Body, and (haply might be prosperously managed if both were duly prepared) should lie all the night ⟨image 4⟩restless and disquieted about the event, torturing and spending himself with his own presaging Fears, so that when the day is come, and the business calls for him; his strength is no way equal to the burden of it, but he faints and fails under it.
