8. I suppose that as thou knowest God is just in his laws and judgments,[13] so that he is so faithful that he will not, and so all-sufficient that he need not, deceive mankind, and govern them by mere deceit: this better beseems the devil, than God: and therefore that as he governeth man on earth by the hopes and fears of another life, he doth not delude them into such hopes or fears; and as he doth not procure obedience by any rewards or punishments in this life, as the principal means, (the wicked prospering, and the best being persecuted and afflicted here,) therefore his rewards or punishments must needs be principally hereafter in the life to come. For if he have no rewards or punishments, he hath no judgment; and if he have no judgment, he hath no laws (or else no justice); and if he have no laws, (or no justice,) he is no governor of man (or not a righteous governor); and if he be not our governor, (and just,) he is not our God; and if he were not our God, we had never been his creatures, nor had being, or been men.
[Sidenote: That man being bound to love and obey God above all, is bound to do nothing in vain, and that we cannot be losers by his service.]
9. I suppose thou knowest that if God had not discovered what he would do with us in the life to come, yet man is highliest bound to obey and love his Maker, because he is our absolute Lord, our highest Ruler, and our chief Benefactor; and all that we are to have is from him. And that if man be bound to spend his life in the service of his God, it is certain that he shall be no loser by him, no, not by the costliest obedience that we can perform; for God cannot appoint us any thing that is vain; nor can he be worse to us than an honest man, that will see that we lose not by his service. Therefore that God for whom we must spend and forsake this life, and all those pleasures which sensualists enjoy, hath certainly some greater thing to give us, in another life.
[Sidenote: That no infidel can say, He is sure there is no life to come.]
10. I may take it for granted at the worst, that neither thyself, nor any infidel in the world, can say that you are sure that there is not another life for man, in which his present obedience shall be rewarded, and disobedience punished. The worst that ever infidel could say was, that he thinketh there is no other life. None of you dare deny the possibility of it, nor can with any reason deny the probability. Well, then, let this be remembered while we proceed a little further with you.
[Sidenote: That you are sure of the brevity and vanity of this life: and that the probability or possibility of an endless joy or misery, should command all the care and diligence of a rational creature, against all that can be set against it.]
11. I suppose or expect that you have so much use of sense and reason, as to know the brevity and vanity of all the glory and pleasures of the flesh; and that they are all so quickly gone, that were they greater than they are, they can be of no considerable value. Alas, what is time! How quickly gone, and then it is nothing! and all things then are nothing which are passed with it! So that the joys or sorrows of so short a life, are no great matter of gain or loss.
I may therefore suppose that thou canst easily conclude, that the bare probability or possibility of an endless happiness, should be infinitely preferred before such transitory vanity, even the greatest matters that can be expected here; and that the probability or possibility of endless misery in hell, should engage us with far greater care and diligence to avoid it, than is due for the avoiding any thing that you can think to escape by sinning; or any of the sufferings of this momentary life. If you see not this, you have lost your reason; that the mere probability or possibility of a heaven and hell, should much more command our care and diligence, than the fading vanities of this dreaming, transitory life.
[Sidenote: Therefore that a holy life is every man's duty, were it but on the account of such a possibility or probability; and therefore that really there is such a joy and misery hereafter; because God doth not make our faculties in vain, nor make us to follow deceits and lies.]