46

PART

I.

CHA P. II.

Of the Government of God by Re wards and Punishments; and par ticularly of the latter.

HAT which makes the Queftion concerning a future Life to be of fo great Importance to us, is our Capacity of Happiness and Mifery. And that which makes the Confideration of it to be of so great Importance to us, is the Suppofition of our Happiness and Mifery Hereafter, depending upon our Actions Here. Without this indeed, Curiofity could not but sometimes bring a Subject, in which we may be fo highly interested, to our Thoughts; especially upon the Mortality of Others, or the near Profpect of our own. But reasonable Men would not take any farther Thought about Hereafter, than what fhould happen thus occafionally to rise in their Minds, if it were certain that our future. Intereft no way depended upon our present Behaviour: Whereas on the contrary, if there be Ground, either from Analogy or any thing else, to think it does; then there is Reason alfo for the most active Thought and Sollicitude, to secure that Intereft; to behave fo as

that

that we may escape That Misery, and obtain CHAP. that Happiness in another Life, which we II. not only fuppofe ourselves capable of, but which we apprehend alfo is put in our own Power. And whether there be Ground for this last Apprehenfion, certainly would deserve to be moft feriously confidered, were there no other Proof of a future Life and Intereft, than That prefumptive one, which the foregoing Obfervations amount to.

Now in the present State, all which we enjoy, and a great Part of what we fuffer, is put in our own Power. For Pleasure and Pain are the Confequences of our Actions; and we are endued by the Author of our Nature with Capacities of forefeeing these Confequences. We find by Experience He does not so much as preferve our Lives, exclufively of our own Care and Attention, to provide ourselves with, and to make use of, that Suftenance, by which he has appointed our Lives fhall be preserved; and without which, he has appointed, they shall not be preferved at all. And in general we forefee, that the external things, which are the Objects of our various Paffions, can neither be obtained nor enjoyed, without exerting ourselves in fuch and fuch Manners: But by thus exerting Ourselves, we obtain and enjoy thefe Objects, in which our natural Good confifts; or by this

Means

PART Means God gives us the Poffeffion and EnI. joyment of them. I know not, that we have any one Kind or Degree of Enjoyment, but by the Means of our own Actions. And by Prudence and Care, we may, for the most part, pass our Days in tolerable Eafe and Quiet Or on the contrary, we may by Rashness, ungoverned Paffion, Willfulness, or even by Negligence, make Ourselves as miferable as ever we please. And many do please to make themselves extremely miserable, i. e. to do what they know beforehand will render them fo. They follow those ways, the Fruit of which they know, by Inftruction, Example, Experience, will be Difgrace and Poverty and Sickness and untimely Death. This every one obferves to be the general Course of things; though it is to be allowed, we cannot find by Experience, that all our Sufferings are owing to our own Follies.

Why the Author of Nature does not give his Creatures promifcuously such and fuch Perceptions, without Regard to their Behaviour; why he does not make them happy without the Inftrumentality of their own Actions, and prevent their bringing any Suf-` ferings upon themselves; is another Matter. Perhaps there may be fome Impoffibilities in the Nature of things, which we are unac

quainted

may CHAP.

;

quainted with. Or lefs Happiness, it be, would upon the whole be produced by II. fuch a Method of Conduct, than is by the r present. Or perhaps divine Goodness, with which, if I mistake not, we make very free in our Speculations, may not be a bare fingle Difpofition to produce Happiness; but a Difpofition to make the good, the faithful, the honeft Man happy. Perhaps an infinitely perfect Mind may be pleafed, with feeing his Creatures behave fuitably to the Nature which he has given them; to the Relations which he has placed them in to each other and to That, which they ftand in to Himfelf: That Relation to himself, which, during their Existence, is even neceffary, and which is the most important one of all. Perhaps, I fay, an infinitely perfect Mind may be pleased with this moral Piety of moral Agents, in and for itself; as well as upon Account of its being effentially conducive to the Happiness of his Creation. Or the whole End, for which God made, and thus governs the World, may be utterly beyond the Reach of our Faculties: There may be somewhat in it as impoffible for us to have any Conception of, as for a blind Man to have a Conception of Colours. But however this be, it is certain Matter of universal Experience, that the general Method of divine Ad1 Ch. vii. p. 185, &c.

E

miniftra

i

PART ministration, is, forewarning us, or giving us I. Capacities to forefee, with more or less Clearnefs, that if we act fo and fo, we shall have fuch Enjoyments, if fo and fo, fuch Sufferings; and giving us thofe Enjoyments, and making us feel thofe Sufferings, in Confequence of our Actions.

ge

"But all this is to be afcribed to the "neral Course of Nature." True. This is the very thing which I am obferving. It is to be afcribed to the general Course of Nature: i. e. not surely to the Words or Ideas, Courfe of Nature; but to him who appointed it, and put things into it: Or to a Course of Operation, from its Uniformity or Conftancy, called natural; and which neceffarily implies an operating Agent. For when Men find themselves neceffitated to confefs an Author of Nature, or that God is the natural Governor of the World; they must not deny this again, because his Government is uniform: They must not deny that he does all things at all, because he does them conftantly; because the Effects of his acting are permanent, whether his acting be fo or not; though there is no Reason to think it is not. In short, every Man, in every thing he does, naturally acts upon the Forethought and Apprehenfion of avoiding evil or obtain

P. 43, 44.