37. Because uneasiness alone is present.
Another reason why it is uneasiness alone determines the will, is this:
because that alone is present and, it is against the nature of things, that what is absent should operate where it is
not. It may be said that absent good may, by contemplation, be brought home to the mind and made present. The
idea of it indeed may be in the mind, and viewed as present there; but nothing will be in the mind as a present
good, able to counterbalance the removal of any uneasiness which we are under, till it raises our desire; and the
uneasiness of that has the prevalency in determining the will. Till then, the idea in the mind of whatever is good is
there only, like other ideas, the object of bare unactive speculation; but operates not on the will, nor sets us on
work; the reason whereof I shall show by and by. How many are to be found that have had lively representations
set before their minds of the unspeakable joys of heaven, which they acknowledge both possible and probable too,
who yet would be content to take up with their happiness here? And so the prevailing uneasiness of their desires,
let loose after the enjoyments of this life, take their turns in the determining their wills; and all that while they take
not one step, are not one jot moved, towards the good things of another life, considered as ever so great.
