finefs of their Lives, to be as beneficial SERM. and useful to thofe amongst whom they II. live, as poffibly they can be; to reft fatisfied and contented with their Condition in the World, and quietly and chearfully enjoy thofe good Things God has bleffed them with: Good God! What a happy Age fhould we live in? What a small Number would there be of the Miferable and Unfortunate? How comfortable might Men live, if they would live innocently; and at laft go down to their Graves in Peace, and in the joyful Hope of a bleffed Refurrection! For our good God and bountiful Benefactor has furnished this World, like a plentiful Store-house, with all the good Things our Natures are capable of enjoying; he has given us Objects proportionable to all our Senfes and Appetites, and permitted, nay, commanded us, to taste of them and enjoy them. He created us on Purpose to do us Good, and to communicate Happiness unto us; and is never better pleafed than when Men live fo as to answer this great End, to lead fuch comfortable Lives here, as not to exclude them from Happiness hereafter; fo that the chief Caufe of most of those Calamities, which afflict Mankind, must be the Perverseness of Men's Wills, the Want

of

SERM. of that due Government and Management II. of themselves which right Reason dictates to them.

Do not the greatest Part of thofe Dif eases which afflict our Bodies proceed from Intemperance, either in ourselves, or Anceftors, or from extravagant Affections, or the disorderly Management of ourselves, either by too much Care and Pains in the Acquifition of worldly Wealth, or too much Indulging ourselves in Sloth and Laziness, and Neglect of our lawful Callings? Do not most of our Differences and Animofities proceed either from our Pasfion or Peevishness, or Pride, and an overweening Conceipt of our own Worthiness and Abilities, and a Contempt and mean Opinion of other Men? What is the Caufe of thofe Blemishes which befall us in our Reputation, but the Allowing ourfelves too much finful Liberty, or at least the Neglect of observing that Divine Command of abstaining from all Appearance of Evil? How comes it that we take fo little Comfort in all thofe good Things God has given us, but from a covetous and too follicitous Care for the Things of this World? And, on the other Hand, whence comes Poverty, Contempt, and all the Miferies which attend on it, but from

the

the Want of Frugality and good Huf- SERM. bandry; from the genteel and expensive II. Vices of Gaming and Lascivioufnefs; from Pride or Luxury; or else from those more vulgar Crimes of Sloth and Laziness, which, as the Wife Man tells us, will cover a Man with Rags, and bring him to à Morfel of Bread? In fhort, do but confider whence proceed most of those Miseries which Mankind groan under, and are the Subjects of our daily Complaints; and you will find fome Sin or other, fome untamed Paffion or disorderly Affection, to be the Source and Original of them. It is from hence that there is fo much Mourning in our Streets, that our Prisons and Hospitals are fo full, and that there is not only Contention and Divifion in private Families, but fuch Slaughters and Devastation, fuch unnatural Feuds and Animofities, between neighbouring People and Nations, and that Mankind takes fo much Delight in torturing and deftroying one another.

Now, could we but be perfuaded, to become reasonable Creatures; that is, to live up to the Dignity of our Natures, to walk by that Light which God has placed within us, and to live by thofe Principles he has furnished us withal, we should D

foon

SERM, foon find a new Face upon Things, Mercy II. and Truth would rejoyce together, Righteouf

nefs and Peace would kiss each other; the World would be foon reduced into one great Family, and one Part of it supply what is wanting in another; neighbouring Nations would affift and fupport one another, ftrengthen and encourage one another in all good Arts and useful Inventions; Trade and Commerce would flourish; Men would forget and unlearn the Arts of War, they would turn their Swords into Plow-fhares, and their Spears into Pruning-hooks; the whole World would put on an unusual Gayety, and Nature wear an univerfal Smile. Thefe would be the bleffed Effects of Men's Living according to the Rules of Virtue and Religion; and we fhould foon find by Experience, that Godliness has the Promifes of the Life that now is, and of that Life which is to come.

BUT yet it must be acknowledged, that, were the World never so good and virtuous, yet fometimes it would fo fall out, that Affliction and Trouble would be the Lot of the Righteous; Mankind is naturally fubject to fome Calamities, and even Paradise itself, a State of the pureft Innocence and Integrity, was liable to them. No Man doubts, but

that

4

that he then might have loft a Limb, SERM. or have been bruised by the Fall of a II. Tree, or have been deftroyed by a wild Beaft; and, fince the Fall, he lies exposed to many other Calamities, and therefore it concerns us to fhew,

2. THAT if we have not our Reward in this Life, yet God will reward us hereafter. One Time or other, he is the Rewarder of fuch as diligently feek him. But because this is not fo generally acknowledged, and the Rewards of another Life do not make fo deep an Impreffion upon our Minds as they ought to do, by Reason of the great Distance there is between them and us: I fhall prove, this Propofition from rational Principles, and fhew that, both from the Confideration of our own Frame, and the Contemplation of thofe effential Attributes which conftitute the Divine Nature, God will certainly recompenfe the Sufferings of good Men in another Life; and that there will come a Time when all Tears shall be wiped away from their Eyes, and the Righteous fhall receive the promised Reward. For,

(1.) LET us confider the Nature and Condition of our own Souls, which are Beings wholly abstracted from Matter, and perform within themselves fuch noble

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