The vanity of this mortal life, or, Of man, considered only in his present…

Wherefore l•t us thus bethink our selves, and consider: Surely he that m•••e this great Universe, and disposed all the sorts, stations, and motions o• Creatures in it, in so exquisite order and method, cannot but be a most perfectly wise and intellectual Agent, and therefore cannot be supposed to have done any thing to no purpose; much less when all the inferior Creatures have Ends visibly answering the exigency of their natures, to have made so excellent a Creature as Man (the nobler part of his lower Creation) in vain; that He only should be without his proportionable end, and after a short continuance in being, return to nothing, without leaving it conjecturable what he was made for. This were so intolerable an incongruity, and so unlike the footsteps that every where else appear of the Divine ⟨p. 80⟩wisdom and goodness, that we cannot but enquire further into this matter, and conclude at last, That he was made for some higher purposes than are within the reach of our sight; and hath his principal •••t yet to act upon another stage, within the veil, that shall never be taken down.

Wherefore l•t us thus bethink our selves, and consider: Surely he that m•••e this great Universe, and dispos'd all the sorts, stations, and motions o• Creatures in it, in so exquisite order and method, cannot but be a most perfectly wise and intellectual Ag•nt, and therefore cannot be supposed to have done any thing to no purpose; much less when all the inferior Creatures have Ends visibly answering the exigency of their natures, to have made so excellent a Creature as Man (the nobler part of his lower Creation) in vain; that He only should be without his proportionable end, and after a short continuance in being, return to nothing, without leaving it conjecturable what he was made for. This were so intolerable an incongruity, and so unlike the footsteps that every where else appear of the Divine ⟨p. 80⟩