62. From a wrong judgment of what makes a necessary part of their happiness.
Their aptness therefore to
conclude that they can be happy without it, is one great occasion that men often are not raised to the desire of the
greatest absent good. For, whilst such thoughts possess them, the joys of a future state move them not; they have
little concern or uneasiness about them; and the will, free from the determination of such desires, is left to the
pursuit of nearer satisfactions, and to the removal of those uneasinesses which it then feels, in its want of and
longings after them. Change but a man's view of these things; let him see that virtue and religion are necessary to
his happiness; let him look into the future state of bliss or misery, and see there God, the righteous judge, ready to
"render to every man according to his deeds; to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and
honour, and immortality, eternal life; but unto every soul that doth evil, indignation and wrath, tribulation and
anguish." To him, I say, who hath a prospect of the different state of perfect happiness or misery that attends all
men after this life, depending on their behaviour here, the measures of good and evil that govern his choice are
mightily changed. For, since nothing of pleasure and pain in this life can bear any proportion to the endless
happiness or exquisite misery of an immortal soul hereafter, actions in his power will have their preference, not
according to the transient pleasure or pain that accompanies or follows them here, but as they serve to secure that
perfect durable happiness hereafter.
