Page:Antidote to superstition, or, A cure for those weak minds which are troubled with the fear of, ghosts and witches (NLS104184264).pdf/24

24 Whatever be its cauſe, its effects are but too plain and obvious: for it naturally tends to unſettle and unhinge the mind, and to draw us off from the improvement of prefent advantages, and the enjoyment of preſent pleaſures, by the fear of future evil that never may happen, and the hope of diſtant good that never may arrive. Were ſome men to foreſee all the misfortunes that are to befal them, their ſpirits would ſink under the terrible proſpect; and were others to be previouſly informed of all the happinſs they are to enjoy, they would be in danger, like ſpend-thrift heirs, of mortgaging their eſtates before they come to the real poſſeſſion. It is to prevent theſe, and the like fatal conſequences, that the wiſe Governor of the universe hath wrapt up the knowledge of future events in thick and pitchy darkneſs, impenetrable to human eyes: theſe are the ſecret things of the Almighty, into which no mortal ſhould dare to pry: yeſterday is irrecoverably gone; the morrow is yet unborn, and, perhaps, to us, may never be born; the preſent day, therefore, and that only is our's, and upon our right improvement of it depends our happineſs, as well in this life as in that which is to come.

Printed by G Miller, Dunbar.