Thus, it is fufficient to the Happiness and good Government of this World, that Men do no Injury to each other, and that they express mutual Civilities and Respects; that they take Care of those whom Nature has endeared to them; and that they be juft, and in ordinary Cafes helpful to others; and therefore this is all that the State of this World requires. But that divine and universal Charity, which teaches us to love all Men as ourselves, even our Enemies, and those who hate and perfecute us; to forgive the Injuries we fuffer, and not to revenge and retaliate them, not to render Evil for Evil, nor Railing for Railing, but contrariwife Blefling: I fay, this wonderful Virtue does not only lie extremely cross to Self-love, but it is hardly reconcileable with the State of this World. For the Practice of it is, very dangerous, when we live among bad Men; who will take Advantage of fuch a bearing and forgiving Virtue, to give great Occafions for the conftant Exercise of it; and nothing but a particular Providence, which watches over fuch good Men, can fecure them from being an eafy Prey to the Wicked and Unjuft. Nay, we fee, this is not practicable in the Government of the World: Civil Magiftrates are forced to punish Evil-doers, or the World would be a Bedlam; and therefore those who have thought fuch publick Executions of Justice to be inconfiftent with this Law of forgiving Injuries, and not revenging ourselves, have made it unlawful for Chriftians to be Magiftrates, because hanging or whipping, or pillorying Malefactors, is not forgiving them, as certainly it is not. A very abfurd Doctrine, which makes it neceffary that there fhould always be Heathens in every Nation, to govern even a Christian Kingdom, or that the Chriftian World fhould have no Government at all,

though nominal and profeffed Chriftians have as much Need of Government, as ever any Heathens had. But this forgiving Enemies is only a private Virtue, not the Rule of publick Government; which fhews, that the State of this World is fo far from requiring this Virtue, that it will admit only the private Exercife of it, and that too under the Protection of a particular Providence to defend those good Men who must not avenge themselves. Now fuch Virtues as the State of this World does not require, we muft conclude, are only in order to the next; and that though we do not fo well difcern the Reafon and Ufe of this divine Charity here, yet this Temper of Mind is abfolutely neceffary to the Happiness of the other World; and for that Reafon it is, that Chrift requires the Exercife of it now! For we cannot imagine any other Reason why our Saviour should make any Acts of Virtue, which the State of this World does not require the prefent Exercise of, the neceffary Terms and Conditions of our future Happiness, but only that fuch Difpofitions of Mind are as neceffary to qualify us to relifh thofe divine Pleafures, as our Bodily Senfes are to perceive the Delights and Pleafures of this World. This is a mighty Obligation on us to obey the Laws of our Saviour, as the Methods of our Advancement to eternal Glory; not to difpute his Commands, how uneafy or unreasonable foever they may now appear; for the Reafons of them are not to be fetched from this World, but from the next; and therefore are fuch, as we cannot fo well understand now, because we know fo little of the next World; but we may fafely conclude, that Chrift knows a Reafon for it, and that we fhall quickly understand the Reafon of it, when we come into the other World: And therefore we should endeavour

endeavour to exercise all thofe Heights of Virtue, which the Gospel recommends to us; for as much as we fall fhort of thefe, fo will our Glory and Happiness abate in the other World.

3dly, Though the State we enter on at Death be in a great Measure unknown to us; yet this is no reasonable Difcouragement to good Men, nor Encouragement to the Bad. 1. It is no reasonable Difcouragement to good Men; for though we do not know what it is, yet we know it is a great Happinefs: So it is reprefented to us in Scripture, as a Kingdom, and a Crown, an eternal Kingdom, and a never fading Crown. Now would any Man be unwilling to leave a mean and homely Cottage, to go and take Poffeffion of a Kingdom, because he had never yet feen it, though he had heard very glorious Things of it from very faithful and credible Witneffes? For let us a little confider, in what Senfe the Happiness of the other World is unknown.

1. That it is not fuch a kind of Happiness as is in this World, that it is like nothing which we have seen or tasted yet: But a wife and good Man cannot think this any Difparagement to the other World, though it would have been a real Difparagement to it, had it been like this World: For here is nothing but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit, nothing but an empty Scene, which makes a fine Show, but has no real and folid Joys. Good Men have enough of this World, and are fufficiently fatisfied that none of thefe Things can make them happy, and therefore cannot think it any Difadvantage to change the Scene, and try fome unknown and unexperienced Joys: For if there be fuch a Thing as Happiness to be found, it must be fome

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thing

Thing which they have not known yet, fomething

that this World does not afford.

2. When we fay that the State of the other World is unknown, the only Meaning of it is, That it is a State of fuch Happiness, fo far beyond any Thing we ever experienced yet, that we can. not form any Notion or Idea of it: We know that there is fuch a Happiness; we know in fome Meafure wherein this Happinefs confifts; viz. in feeing God, and the bleffed Jefus, who loved us, and gave himself for us; in praifing our great Creator and Redeemer, in converfing with Saints and Angels. But how great, how ravishing and tranfporting a Pleafure this is, we cannot tell, because we never yet felt it: Our dull Devotions, our imperfect Conceptions of God in this World, cannot help us to guess what the Joys of Heaven are; we know not how the Sight of God, how the Thoughts of him, will pierce our Souls; with what Extafies and Raptures we fhall fing the Song of the Lamb; with what melting Affections perfect Souls fhall embrace; what Glories and Wonders we shall there fee and know; Such Things as neither Eye bath feen, nor Ear beard, neither bath it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive. Now methinks this should not make the Thoughts of Death uneafy to us, fhould not make us unwilling to go to Heaven, that the Happiness of Heaven is too great for us to know, or to conceive in this World. For,

3. Men are naturally fond of unknown and untried Pleafures: which is fo far from being a Difparagement to them, that it raifes our Expectations of them, that they are unknown. In the Things of this World, Enjoyment ufually leffens our Efteem and Value for them, and we always value that moft which we have never tried; and methinks

the

the Happiness of the other World fhould not be the only Thing we despise, before we try it. All present Things are mean, and appear to be fo when they are enjoyed But whatever Expectations we have of the unknown Happiness of the other World, the Enjoyment of it will as much exceed our biggest Expectations as other Things ufually fall below them; that we fhall be forced to confefs with the Queen of Sheba, when she saw Solomon's Glory, that not the Half of it was told her. It is fome Encouragement to us, that the Happiness of Heaven is too big to be known in this World; for did we perfectly know it now, it could not be very great and therefore we fhould entertain ourselves with the Hopes of this unknown Happiness, of thofe Joys which we now have fuch imperfect Conceptions of 2. Nor is it, on the other Hand, any Encouragement to bad Men, that the Miferies of the other World are unknown: For it is known that God has threatned very terrible Punishments against bad Men; and that what thefe Punishments are, is unknown, makes them a great deal more formidable. For who knows the Power of God's Wrath? Who knows how miferable God can make bad Men? This makes it a fenfless Thing for Men to harden themselves against the Fears of the other World, because they know not what it is: and how then can they tell, though they could bear up under all known Miferies, but that there may be fuch Punishments as they cannot bear? That they are nuknown, argues that they are fomething more terrible than they are acquainted with in this World. They are reprefented indeed by the moft dreadful and terrible Things; by Lakes of Fire and Brimftone, Blackness of Darknefs, the Worm that never dieth, and the Fire that never goeth out. But

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