44 BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. He knoweth that man's soul is immortal, or, at least, that it is far more probable that it isso ; and therefore that it must accordingly be well or ill forever, and that thisshould be most cared for. 2. And why shouldGod give him all thisknowledge more thanto the brutes, if he were made for no more enjoyment than thebrùtes, of what he knoweth? Every wise man makethhis work fit for the use that he intendeth it to; and will not God ? So thatthe consequence also is proved from thedivine perfection; and ifLod were not perfect, he were not God. The denial Of a God; therefore, is the result of the denial of man's future hopes. And, indeed, though it be but an analogical reason That brutes have, those men seem to be in the right who place the difference between man and brutes more in the objects, tendency, and work of our reason, than in our reason itself as such, and so make animal religiosum to be more of his description than animal ratio- nale. About their own low concerns, a fox, a dog, yea, an ass, and a goose, have such actions as we know not well how to ascribe to any thing below some kind of reasoning,or aperception of thesame importance. But they think not of God, and his government, and laws, nor of obeying, trusting, or loving him, nor of the hopes or fears of another life, nor of the joyful prospect of it. These are . that work that man wasmade for, which is the chief difference from the brutes; and shall we unman 'ourselves ? V. The justice of God, as governor of the world, inferretl different rewards hereafter, as I have largely elsewhere proved. 1. God is not only a mover of all that moveth, but a moral lifter of man by laws, and judgment, and executions, else there were no proper law of nature; which few are so unnatural as to deny ; and man should have no proper duty, but only motion as he is moved. And, then, how cometh a government by laws to be set up under God by men ? And then. there were no sin or fault in any ; for if there were no law and duty, but' only necessitated motion, all would be moved as the mover pleased, and there couldbe no sin; and then there would be no moral good, but forced or necessary motion. But all this is 'most absurd; and experience telleth us that God doth, de facto, morally govern the world ; and his right is unquestionable. And if God were not the ruler of the world, by law and judg- ment, the world would have no universal laws; for there is'no man that is the universal ruler : and then kings and other supreme pow- ers would be utterly lawlessand ungoverned, as having none above them to give them laws, and so they would' be capable of no sin or fault, and of no punishment ; which yet neither their subjects' interest, nor their own'consciences, will grant, or allow them thor- oughly to believe.
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