End,) yet one of the Scales may and will receive fome moments of Advantage more than the other, from fome Accidental and Collateral Circumftances, which may more fenfibly indear one of thefe Ends, and give it a more Commanding Influence over the Soul that proposes it; Which indeed is the prefent Cafe.

FOR 1ft, The good things of this World are Prefent, thofe of the other Remote and Ditant: How far diftant, we don't know, and are therefore apt to fancy the fartheft remove; like Travellers, that think the Way always longeft, where they are the greatest Strangers. Now we know a prefent Good has a great Advantage above a far diftant and late Reverfion. A Candle that is near, affects us more than the Sun a great way off, and by its Neighbourhood, out-does the other's Bignefs. And as 'tis in distance of Place, fo it is in diftance of Time; a present Good though it be less, is more affecting and inviting, than one of a more Sizable Dimension, if it be Future; and there is more Force and Virtue in one fingle Now, than in many Hereafters. 'Tis not in the Moral as in Phyfical Statics; there indeed that Weight weighs heavieft, which is fartheft removed from the Center of Motion; but here the nearer the Weight, the stronger is its Power: And there is this convincing Reafon for it, the Good that is Prefent, opens its felf all at once to the Soul, and acts upon it with its full and intire Force; there is not fo much as a Ray of its Light but what ftrikes us. But now that which

is future, is seen by Parts and in Succeffion, and a great deal of it is not feen at all; like the Rays of a too diftant Object which are too much difperfed before they come at us, and fo most of them mifs the Eye. This makes the least present Intereft, out-weigh a very confiderable Reverfion, fince the former ftrikes upon us with the ftrong Influence and Warmth of the Neighbouring Sun, the latter with the Faint and Cold Glimmerings of a Twinkling Star. And accordingly the Holy Ghoft takes notice of it, as an extraordinary thing in Mofes, and that argued him to be a Perfon of great Prefence and Difcernment of Mind, that he could fo rightly Calculate his Intereft, as to prefer the Future Rewards of Heaven, before the Prefent Glories of Egypt.

THEN 2dly, The Good Things of this World are not only Present and at hand, but Sure and Certain; I mean as to us, for the other are no lefs fo in themselves. We are fure (as Job fays) that there is a Vein for the Silver, and a Place for Gold where they fine it, Job 28. Our Senfes inform us of this, and that's a Teftimony we seldom reject. As for the Place of Happiness, we have heard the Fame thereof indeed with our Ears, but have neither feen it our felves, nor difcourfed with thofe that have; and although 'tis affured to us with as much Evidence as is confiftent with the Nature and Virtue of Faith, nay, with almost as much as a thing Future is capable of; yet Darkness and Fear commonly go to gether, and Men are generally very jealous and diftruftful

distrustful about things whereof they are Ignorant, or half Inform'd, as Imperfect Eyes are apt to ftart. And though the Principles of Faith are in themselves as Firm and Firmer than thofe of Science, yet to us 'tis not fo Evident; nor do we ever affent so strongly to what we Believe (be the Testimony never fo Authentick,) as we do to what we know.

THEN 3dly, The Good Things of this World, as they are prefent and fure,fo do they strike upon the moft Tender and Impreffible part about us, our Senfes. They attempt us, as the Devil did Adam,in our Weaker part, thro' the Eve of our Natures. A Senfible Representation is the strongest of all Representations; a Senfible Representation, even of theVanity of the World,would work more with us than the Discourse of an Angel about it; and I queftion not,but that AlexandertheGreat was more inwardly affected when he faw the Ruins of the Grave of Cyrus, when he faw fo great Power reduced to fuch narrow Limits, fuch Majefty feated on fuch a Throne; the Monarch of Afia Hid, or rather Loft in an Obscure Cave, a Stone for his Bed, Cobwebs for his Tapestry, and all his Pomp and Glory turned into Night and Darknefs; I fay, he was more convinced of the Vanity of Greatness by this lively Appeal to his Senfes, than he ever was or could be by all the grave Lectures of his Mafter Ariftotle. And if the Vanity of the World when reprefented to the Senfes, has fuch vigorous Effects upon them, what fhall we think of the Glory of it when fo Repre

fented?

fented? How would that Affect and Subdue us!

AND this the Devil very well knew and confidered, when he was to Tempt the Son of God; his Defign was to decoy him into Covetousness and Ambition, and in order to this, he might have entertained him with fine Discourses about the Wealth and Glories of the Terreftrial Globe, and have read him a Geographical Lecture upon the Kingdoms and Empires of it; but he knew his Advantage better than fo, and chose rather to draw a Vifionary Landskip before him, and prefent him with a Senfible Idea of all this, knowing by Old Experience how much more apt the Senfes are to take Impreffion, than any other Faculty of Man.

Now this is the great advantage that the Good Things of this World have, they are obvious to our Senfes, we See them, we Hear them, we Smell them, we Taft them, we Feel and Handle them, and have the most intimate and indearing Converfation with them; The things that are Temporal are feen, 2 Cor. 4. 18. fays the Apostle: 'Tis their distinguishing Character. But the things that are Eternal are not feen, but only through a Glafs darkly, so seen as not to be difcerned; and in reference to the other World, as the fame Apoftle fays, We walk by Faith and not by Sight. 2. Cor. 5. 7.

FROM thefe and other fuch Collateral Advantages which the things of this World have above thofe of the next, it may in the First place be prefumed, that thofe who have erred

fo

fo far as to make this their End, are in all probability like to Love it more Intenfely, and value it more highly than the Children of Light do their End, which wants thefe Senfible Indear, ments and Recommendations. Well, and if fo, then it farther follows, that of neceffity they must be more heartily concerned for its Attainment, and confequently more Wary in the Choice, and more Diligent in the Ufe of fuch Means as ferve to that purpose. For the Love of the Means always receives its Measure from that of the End.

AND thus we see what grounds of probability there are, that it fhould be fo. I come now in the Second place, briefly to compare the Proceedings of each of thefe Men, whereby it will appear, that de facto it is fo.

ver;

AND here Firft, we find by Experience, that the Men of this World do prefer their Secular Intereft above all other things whatsoe and that not only in Notion and Theory, Habitually and in General, (for that's fuppofed in its being made their End,) but also in every inftant of Action, in all Junctures and Circumftances. Though their End be Falfe, yet they are not fo, but keep true to it, and always prefer it, retaining in every point of Action the very fame Sense and Judgment they had of it when they first made it their Choice. And to fatis fie that they are in good earnest, they will adhere to it at any rate, they will forfeit any Good, and undergo any Evil to fecure this their grand