may ruin an Eftate; Fraud,Injuftice,and Oppref fion may get one; and as hurtful as fome Vices are to our Health, a Cautious Sinner ( and such there are in the world ) may be very wicked without injuring his Health, or fhortning his Life: And as infamous as Sin is, this may be fo concealed and palliated by external Honours, that the finner fhall not feel it, nor bad men fee it, nor good men dare take notice of it.

So that these natural Rewards and Punishments which God has entailed on Virtue and Vice, may either wholly, or in a great meafure, be defeated by the great external Calamities of good men,and by the great profperity of the wicked; and therefore if it be God's will, that Good men fhall be happy, and the Wicked miferable, as these natural Rewards and Punishments prove that it is, unless he will fuffer himfelf to be defeated in the very end for which he made man, (which we can never fuppofe of fo infinitely wife and powerful a Being) he must at least in all fuch cafes interpofe by his Providence for the protection of good men, and the punishment of the wicked in this world, and referve their final Rewards and Punishments for the world to

come.

Had Man preferved his Innocence, and kept his original ftate in Paradife, Virtue would then have been a reward unto it felf, and have furnished us with all the internal Principles of Happiness, as Paradife did with all the external Provifions and Delights of Nature: But fince we are thruft into this world, where good men live among the bad, expefed to all the accidents of Mortality,

and

and injuries of men, tho these natural Rewards and Punishments are a great Inftrument of Pro-, vidence ftill, yet it is neceffary God fhould take good men into his more particular care in this world, and tranflate them to fome more perfect ftate of Happiness; fince as the world now is, it is impoffible a Divine Virtue fhould receive its compleat Reward and Recompence here: So that it feems as demonftrable to me, that God governs this world at prefent, and will judge us in the next, as that he has made an effential difference between Virtue and Vice, and entailed natural Rewards and Punishments on them, which are of no ufe but for the Government of the world, and as things now are, cannot in many inftances attain that end, without a Providence in this world, and a Judgment in the next.

6. These natural Rewards and Punishments of Virtue and Vice,are a natural Proof and Evidence of the future Rewards and Punishments of good and bad men, or of a Future Judgment; and the reafon of it is plain, because Piety and Virtue is a happy Nature, and Sin and Vice a miferable Nature; and therefore at one time or other Virtue muft make men happy, and Vice miferable: Nature will act like it felf, and produce its proper Effects, unless it be hindered by fome external Force, and whenever that Force is removed, it will return to it felf again.

Tho the nature of Piety and Virtue be fuch as to make a Reasonable Creature happy, yet we know what it is that either abates or in a great meafure deftroys the happiness of good men in this ftate; they live here in Earthly Bodies, which have ftrong fenfual Appetites and Paffions;

Paffions, and they feel all the pains and pleafures of the Body, which makes many acts of Virtue difficult and uneafy, in refifting the impreffions of Senfe, and denying the gratification of the flesh This World is the Empire of Senfe, every thing in it courts and flatters our Senfes, and draws off our Minds from the Spiritual Delights of Virtue and Religion, which are the proper and natural Delights of a reafonable Spirit, and at beft extremely dull the Spiritual Senfation and Relifh of the Soul, and make the Delights of Religion faint and languid, which must proportionably abate ouf fpiritual Pleafures.

These mortal Bodies want a great many neceffaries and conveniences of Life, the care of which employs moft of our Thoughts and Time; and tho our Secular Affairs will furnish us with frequent opportunities of exercising great and excellent Virtues, yet the world is apt to gain too much upon us by our conftant Conversation with it; and as Flefh and Senfe prevails, fo the Spirit lofes; and if this does not defile the Soul with worldly Lufts, yet it takes us off very much from the frequent and vigorous acts of a Divine Life, which is the true happiness of a reasonable Soul.

But then thefe mortal Bodies are expofed to great Wants and Sufferings; bad men are injurious; and Meekness, and Patience, and fuch tame and gentle Virtues encourage their Injuries; hay, true Piety and Religion it felf may be the caufe and reafon of our Sufferings; and when the Body fuffers, the Soul fuffers with it, and this tifles the prefent pleasures and fatisfaction of

Virtue; and nothing can fupport the Spirits of good men under fuch Sufferings, but the future expectations of great Rewards. So that in this ftate Virtue alone is not a fufficient Reward to it felf; for either its Pleafures are but faint and languid, or its Sufferings over-balance its Pleafures.

But yet if we will but fuppofe a good man removed into fuch a ftate, where Virtue and Piety will have its free, unreftrained, undisturbed exercife, and can produce its natural effects, without any hindrance and interruption,then it is demonftrable that Piety and Virtue must make men hapPy; and this fecures the Happiness of good men, whenever they remove out of these Bodies, and out of this World.

When these Bodies and this World canno longer tempt or disturb us with its Pains or Pleasures; when the Care and Business of this World can no longer divert and employ our Thoughts; when bad men can no longer injure us; when our Souls are fet at liberty to exercise all their Rational Powers, when we remove into a worldof Spirits, and converfe only with Spiritual Objects, which will as ftrongly affect our Minds, as the things of this world do our Senfes, then Virtue will and must be a Reward unto it felf; then the Pleasures of Wisdom and Knowledge, and Divine Paffions, will be ravishing and tranfporting.

Thus on the other hand, the nature of Vice is fuch, as to make a reafonable Creature miferable; but yet a great Profperity in this world, and a confluence of all fenfual Enjoyments, may at present palliate and diffemble, or fufpend thefe D 4

malig

malignant Influences of a Vicious Nature, may make men unfenfible of the want of true Rational and Divine Pleafures, or of the pain and difturbance of finful Paffions; may bind up our Reafon and Confcience, and give fuch an empire and predominancy to Senfe, that we can neither understand nor relish any other Pleasures but those of the Body, and think our felves compleatly happy while we have thefe But if we will fuppofe fuch men ftript of Flesh and Senfe, thruft out of thefe Bodies, and out of this World, and there is an end of their fenfual Happiness,and a fenfualized Scul is capable of no other; and when all other Objects are removed, and fuch finful and diftempered Minds are brought acquainted with themfelves, when the Virtue of thefe Opiates is spent, and the Soul recovers its fenfe again, then every vicious Paffion proves a Fury; then Guilt, and Shame, and Fear, and Defpair, and raging Remorfe, act their feveral Tragedies in fuch a miferable Soul. This is the true nature of finful and difordered Paffions; and thus they must do when they act like themfelves; and thus they will do, when they are let loofe upon us in the other world. Mor

1.

So that the natural Rewards and Punishments of Virtue and Vice, that Virtue in its own nature is the Life, the Happiness, Vice the Death and Mifery of a reasonable Soul, do neceffarily prove that if good and bad men remove out of this world of Senfe into a world of Spirits, Piety. and Virtue must make me happy, and Vice miferable and we may take for granted, that God will reward a happy, and punish a mifèrable Nature.

7. Thefe