the paffing Day: They are fo taken up with CHAP. prefent Gratifications, as to have, in a man- IV. ner, no Feeling of Confequences, no Regard to their future Eafe or Fortune in this Life; any more than to their Happiness in another. Some appear to be blinded and deceived by inordinate Paffion, in their worldly Concerns, as much as in Religion. Others are, not deceived, but, as it were, forcibly carried away by the like Paffions, against their better Judgment, and feeble Refolutions too of acting better. And there are Men, and truly they are not a few, who fhameleffly avow, not their Intereft, but their mere Will and Pleafure, to be their Law of Life: and who, in

open Defiance of every thing that is reafonable, will go on in a Course of vitious Extravagance, forefecing, with no Remorfe and little Fear, that it will be their temporal Ruin; and fome of them, under the Apprehenfion of the Confequences of Wickedness in another State. And to fpeak in the most moderate Way, human Creatures are not only continually liable to go wrong voluntarily, but we fee likewise that they often actually do fo, with respect to their temporal Interests, as well as with respect to Religion.

Thus our Difficulties and Dangers, or our Trials, in our temporal and our religious Capacity, as they proceed from the fame Caufes,

and

PARTand have the fame Effect upon
Men's Beha
I. viour, are evidently analogous, and of the
fame Kind.

It may be added, that as the Difficulties and Dangers of Mifcarrying in our religious. State of Trial, are greatly increased, and one is ready to think, in a manner wholly made, by the ill Behaviour of Others; by a Wrong Education, wrong in a moral Senfe, fometimes pofitively vitious; by general bad Example; by the dishonest Artifices, which are got into Bufinefs of all Kinds; and, in very many Parts of the World, by Religion's being corrupted into Superftitions, which indulge Men in their Vices: So in like manner, the Difficulties of conducting ourselves prudently in refpect to our present Intereft, and our Danger of being led afide from pursuing it, are greatly increased, by a foolish Education; and, after we come to mature Age, by the Extravagance and Careleffness of Others, whom we have Intercourfe with; and by miftaken Notions, very generally prevalent, and taken up for common Opinion, concerning temporal Happiness, and wherein it confifts. And Perfons, by their own Negligence and Folly in their temporal Affairs, no less than by a Course of Vice, bring themselves into new Difficulties; and, by Habits of Indulgence, become lefs qualified to go through

them:

ར

them: And one Irregularity after another, CHA P.
embarraffes things to fuch a Degree, that IV.
they know not where about they are; and w
often makes the Path of Conduct fo intricate
and perplexed, that it is difficult to trace it
out; difficult even to determine what is the
prudent or the moral Part. Thus, for In-
stance, wrong Behaviour in one Stage of Life,
Youth; wrong, I mean, confidering our-
selves only in our temporal Capacity, without
taking in Religion; this, in feveral Ways, in-
creases the Difficulties of right Behaviour in
mature Age; i. e. puts us into a more dif-
advantageous State of Trial in our temporal
Capacity.

We are an inferior Part of the Creation of
God. There are natural Appearances of our
being in a State of Degradation. And we,
certainly are in a Condition, which does not
feem, by any means, the moft advantageous
we could imagine or defire, either in our
natural or moral Capacity, for fecuring either
our present or future Intereft. However, this
Condition, low and careful and uncertain as
it is, does not afford any juft Ground of Com-
plaint. For, as Men may manage their tem-
poral Affairs with Prudence, and fo pass their
Days here on Earth in tolerable-Eafe and Sa-
tisfaction, by a moderate Degree of Care: fo
Part II. Chap. v. p. 298.
I

likewife

PART

I.

likewise with regard to Religion, there is no more required than what they are well able to do, and what they must be greatly wanting to themselves, if they neglect. And for Perfons to have That put upon them, which they are well able to go through, and no more, we naturally confider as an equitable thing; fuppofing it done by proper Authority. Nor have we any more Reason to complain of it, with regard to the Author of Nature, than of his not having given us other Advantages, belonging to other Orders of Creatures.

But the thing here infifted upon is, that the State of Trial which Religion teaches us we are in, is rendered credible, by its being throughout uniform and of a piece with the general Conduct of Providence towards us, in all other Refpects within the Compass of our Knowledge. Indeed if Mankind confidered in their natural Capacity, as Inhabitants of this World only, found themselves, from their Birth to their Death, in a fettled State of Security and Happiness, without any Sollicitude or Thought of their own or if they were in no Danger of being brought into Inconveniencies and Diftrefs, by Carelessness, or the Folly of Paffion, through bad Example, the Treachery of others, or the deceitful Appearances of things: Were This our natural Condition; then it might seem

ftrange,

strange, and be fome Prefumption against the CHAP. Truth of Religion, that it represents our fu- IV. ture and more general Intereft, as not secure of course, but as depending upon our Beha→ viour, and requiring Recollection and Selfgovernment to obtain it. For it might be alledged, "What you say is our Condition in one Refpect, is not in any wife of a Sort "with what we find, by Experience, our "Condition is in another. Our whole pre"fent Intereft is fecured to our hands, with

out any Sollicitude of ours; and why "fhould not our future Intereft, if we have

any fuch, be fo too?" But fince, on the contrary, Thought and Confideration, the voluntary denying ourselves many Things which we defire, and a Courfe of Behaviour, far from being always agreeable to us; are abfolutely neceffary to our acting even a common decent, and common prudent Part, fo as to pass with any Satisfaction through the prefent World, and be received upon any tolerable good Terms in it: fince this is the Cafe, all Prefumption against Self-denyal and Attention being neceffary to fecure our higher Interest, is removed. Had we not Experience, it might, perhaps fpecioufly, be urged, that it is improbable any thing of Hazard and Danger should be put upon us by an infinite Being; when every thing which is Hazard and Danger in our manner of Conception,