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DISCOURSE XI.

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PART I.

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2 CORINTHIANS iv. 18.

For the Things which are feen are temporal, but the Things which are not Seen are eternal.

T

HE Motives to Obedience in all Religions are thus far the fame, That they depend upon the Belief of another invisible. World, and the different State and Condition of good and bad Men in it: For though it has been maintained, with fome fhew of Reason, that Virtue is its own Reward, and that Man's chief Happiness would confift in the Practice of it, though

there

there were no other Rewards annexed to it, yet this, fuppofing it to be true, is by much too narrow a Foundation to build Religion on; for this could influence only Men of abstracted Thought and Reason, who are in comparison a very inconfiderable Part of Mankind. The Generality of the World live by Senfe, and take their Measures of Happiness not from the remote Conclufions of Reason, but from their present Feeling, from the Impreffions which are made on them by the Things which they deal and converse with every Day; and the Rewards and Punishments of Religion are calculated to this Senfe and Feeling, excepting only that they are diftant, and not capable of being made the present Objects of Sense: For the Punishments denounced in the Gospel against the Unrighteousness of Men, are fuch as Nature recoils at; fuch as, according to the Senfe the World has of Mifery and Pain, are infupportable Evils; and the only Reason why they operate fo weakly upon the Minds and Affections of Men is this, That they are not feen. The fame may be faid of the Rewards of the Gofpel: They contain the very Happiness that Nature thirsts after, which is Life and Pleasure for ever

more:

more: But neither can our Eyes see these Rewards: And therefore they fall short of raifing Men to that Degree of Virtue and Holinefs which in Reason they ought to do..

The Advantage which the Things of this World have in this Respect is not to be diffembled: They play and sport before the Senfes The Man of Thought and Reflection cannot but fee them; and the Man of no Thought fees nothing else. This Advantage the Apostle feems to acknowledge, by styling the Things of this World the Things which are feen, and the Rewards of the Gospel the Things which are not feen. In this lies all the Force and Strength of worldly Temptations and Pleasures; for, were the Enjoyments of this.World and the next equally remote, there could be no Competition be tween them. This moft Men would find to be true, would they but obferve a little what paffes in themselves and others. There are few but would be well content that that Part of their Life which is past and gone had been spent in Virtue and Sobriety: They find no Comfort in recollecting the lewd Frolicks and extravagant Vices of their Youth; yet ftill they cannot refift the fent Temptations of Pleasure, but go on

pre

adding

adding to the Account of their Folly and Sin. And is not this a Decifion of the Queftion? Does not Reafon determine against the World and the Enjoyments of it? And is it not mere Senfe that turns the Scale of the World's fide? If it be true now, that you do wifely in preferring the Pleafures of Life to the Hopes and Expectations of Futurity, it will then be true fifty Years hence, that you did wifely in chufing this World, and renouncing the Pretences to Heaven; for Truth is always the fame: And yet, if you live to fee that Time, it is great Odds but that you judge otherwife, and condemn yourself of Folly and Indifcretion for all your paft Vices and finful Pleasures. This is a Judgment which we fee Men make every Day: They purfue the Things that are prefent; but no fooner are they gone, but they condemn themselves, wishing they could recall the Time, that they might apply it to better Purposes. And whence arifes this Difference, but from hence; that in one Cafe Reafon is excluded by Sense and the prevailing Power of prefent Objects, but in the other Cafe is free and unreftrained, and judges from the Truth and Nature of Things Throw out Senfe and Appetite,

and

and let the Caufe be heard at the Bar of Reafon; and the Question then, between the Things which are Jeen, and the Things which are not feen, will be reduced to thefe two

Points:

First, Whether we can have fuch fufficient Evidence for the Existence of the Things not feen, as may make them capable of being brought into Competition with the Things which are feen, the Exiftence of which, in this Question, is out of Doubt?

Secondly, Whether the Value of the Things that are not feen be fo great, that we ought in Prudence to forego the Enjoyment of the Things which are prefent with us?

There are several Ways by which we fatisfy ourselves of the Existence of Things without us: The chief of these is Senfe. This Evidence extends to this World and the Things of it: And though fome have taken great Pains to doubt of the Existence of Things which they faw and felt, yet it may well be queftioned, whether ever any Man did indeed arrive to that Perfection of

Scepticism? This Evidence may be ftyled the strongest in one Respect, as it most univerfally affects Mankind, who much more readily receive the Reports of Senfe,