PART Advantages or Pleafures obtained by the AcĮ. tions, of which they are the Punishments or ~ Confequences: That though we may ima

gine a Conflitution of Nature, in which thefe natural Punishments, which are in Fact to follow, would follow, immediately upon fuch Actions being done, or very soon after; we find on the contrary in our World, that they are often delayed a great while, fometimes even till long after the Actions occafioning them are forgot; fo that the Conftitution of Nature is fuch, that Delay of Punishment is no Sort nor Degree of Prefumption of final Impunity: That after fuch Delay, thefe natural Punishments or Miseries often come, not by Degrees, but fuddenly, with Violence, and at once; however, the chief Mifery often does: That as Certainty of fuch diftant Mifery following fuch Actions, is never afforded Perfons; fo perhaps during the Actions, they have feldom a diftinct full Expectation of its following: And many Times the Cafe is only thus, that they fee in general, or may fee, the Credibility, that Intemperance, fuppofe, will bring after it Difcafes; civil Crimes, civil Punishments; when yet the real Probability often is, that they fhall efcape: but things notwithstanding take their deftined Courfe, and the Mifery inevitably follows at its appointed Time, in very

Sce Part II. Ch. vi.

many

many of thefe Cafes. Thus also though CHAP. Youth may be alledged as an Excufe for II. Rashness and Folly, as being naturally thoughtless, and not clearly foreseeing all the Confequences of being untractable and profligate; this does not hinder, but that these Confequences follow, and are grievously felt throughout the whole Courfe of mature Life. Habits contracted even in that Age, are often utter Ruin And Men's Succefs in the World, not only in the common Senfe of worldly Succefs, but their real Happiness and Mifery, depends, in a great Degree, and in various Ways, upon the Manner in which they pass their Youth; which Confequences they for the most part neglect to confider, and perhaps feldom can properly be faid to believe, beforehand. It requires alfo to be mentioned, that in numberless Cases, the natural Course of things affords us Opportunities for procuring Advantages to Ourselves at certain Times, which we cannot procure when we will; nor ever recall the Opportunities, if we have neglected them. Indeed the general Courfe of Nature is an Example of This. If, during the Opportunity of Youth, Perfons are indocile and felfwilled; they inevitably suffer in their future Life, for Want of thofe Acquirements, which they neglected the natural Season of attaining. If the Husbandman lets his Seed-time pafs without fowing, the whole Year is loft to

PART him beyond Recovery. In like Manner I. though after Men have been guilty of Folly and Extravagance up to a certain Degree, it is often in their Power, for inftance, to retrieve their Affairs, to recover their Health and Character; at least in good meafure: yet real Reformation is, in many Cafes, of no Avail at all towards preventing the Miseries, Poverty, Sickness, Infamy, naturally annexed to Folly and Extravagance exceeding that Degree. There is a certain Bound to Imprudence and Misbehaviour, which being tranfgreffed, there remains no Place for Repentance in the natural Course of things. It is further very much to be remarked, that Neglects from Inconfiderateness, Want of Attention", not looking about us to see what we have to do, are often attended with Confequences altogether as dreadful, as any active Misbehaviour, from the most extravagant Paffion. And lastly, civil Government being natural, the Punishments of it are fo too: And fome of these Punishments are capital; as the Effects of a diffolute Course of Pleafure are often mortal. So that many natural Punishments are final to him, who incurs them,

m Part II. Chap. vi.

"The general Confideration of a future State of Punishment, most evidently belongs to the Subject of natural Religion. But if any of these Reflections should be thought to relate more peculiarly to this Doctrine as taught in Scripture;

the

II.

them, if confidered only in his temporal Ca-CHAP. pacity: and feem inflicted by natural Appointment, either to remove the Offender out of the Way of being further miscievous; or as an Example, though frequently a difregarded one, to those who are left behind.

These things are not, what we call accidental, or to be met with only now and then; but they are things of every Day's Experience: They proceed from general Laws, very general ones, by which God governs the World, in the natural Course of his Providence. And they are so analogous, to what Religion teaches us concerning the future Punishment

the Reader is defired to obferve, that Gentile Writers, both Moralifts and Poets, speak of the future Punishment of the wicked, both as to the Duration and Degree of it, in a like manner of Expreffion and of Defcription, as the Scripture does. So that all which can pofitively be afferted to be Matter of mere Revelation, with regard to this Doctrine, seems to be, that the great Distinction between the righteous and the wicked, fhall be made at the End of this World; that each shall Then receive according to his Deferts. Reafon did, as it well might, conclude that it fhould, finally and upon the whole, be well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked: But it could not be determined, upon any Principles of Reafon, whether human Creatures might not have been appointed to pass through other States of Life and Being, before that diftributive Juftice fhould finally and effectually take Place. Revelation teaches us, that the next State of things after the prefent, is appointed for the Execution of this Juftice; that it fhall be no longer delayed: But the Mystery of God, the great Mystery of his fuffering Vice and Confufion to prevail, fhall then be finished; and he will take to him his great Power and will reign, by rendring to every one according to his Works.

of

PART of the wicked, so much of a piece with it I. that Both would naturally be expreffed in the ~ very fame Words, and Manner of Defcription. In the Book of Proverbs, for Instance, Wisdom is introduced, as frequenting the most public Places of Refort, and as rejected when the offers herself as the natural appointed Guide of human Life. How long, fpeaking to those who are paffing through it, how long, ye fimple ones, will ye love folly, and the fcorners delight in their fcorning, and fools bate knowledge? Turn ye at my Reproof. Bebold, I will pour out my Spirit upon you, I will make known my words unto you. But upon being neglected, Because I have called, and ye refufed, I have ftretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have fet at nought all my Counsel, and would none of my Reproof: I alfo will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as defolation, and your deftruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then fhall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall feek me early, but they shall not find me. This Paffage, every one fees, is poetical, and fome Parts of it are highly figurative; but their Meaning is obvious. And the thing intended is expreffed more literally in the following Words; For that they hated knowledge, and did not chufe • Chap. i.

the