Hugo Grotius · 40 of 132

SECT. IX. The excellency of the reward proposed.

To begin with the reward, that is, with the end proposed to man; because, as we are used to say, that which is the last in execution is the first in intention.—Moses, in his institution of the Jewish religion, if we regard the express condition of the law, made no promises beyond the good things of this life; such as a fruitful land, abundance of riches, victory over their enemies, long life and health, and hope of their posterities surviving them. And if there be any thing more, it is only obscurely hinted, and must be collected from wise and strong arguing: which is the reason why many, who professed to follow the law of Moses, (as the Sadducees,) cast off all hope of enjoying any good after this life. The Greeks, who derived their learning from the Chaldeans and Egyptians, and who had some hope of another life after this, spoke very doubtfully concerning it, as is evident from the disputes of Socrates, and from the writings of Tully, Seneca, and others. And, though they searched diligently for arguments to prove it, they could offer nothing of certainty. For those which they allege hold generally as strong for beasts as they do for men. Which when some of them considered, it is no wonder that they imagined that souls passed out of men into beasts, and out of beasts into men. Again; because this could not be proved by any testimonies, nor by any certain arguments, and yet it could not be denied but that there must be some end proposed for man; therefore others were led to say, that virtue was its own reward, and that a wise man was very happy, though in Phalaris’s bull. But others disliked this, and not without reason; for they saw very well, that happiness, especially in the highest degree, (unless we regard only the sound of words, without any meaning), could not consist in that which is attended with danger, loss, torment, and death: and therefore they placed the chief good and end of man in sensual pleasure. And this opinion likewise was solidly confuted by very many, as a thing which overthrew all virtue, the seeds of which are planted in the mind; and degraded man, who was made for nobler purposes, to the rank of brute creatures, who look no further than the earth. In so many doubts and uncertainties did mankind at that time wander, till Christ discovered the true knowledge of their end; promising to his disciples and followers another life after this, in which there should be no more death, pain, or sorrow, but accompanied with the highest joy; and this not only to one part of man, that is, his soul, of whose happiness after this life there was some hope, partly front conjecture, and partly from tradition; but also to the body, and that very justly, that the body, which oftentimes ought to endure great losses, torments, and death, for the sake of the divine law, might not go without a recompence. And the joys which are promised are not such mean things as those feasts which the duller Jews hoped for after this life, and the embraces which the Mahometans promise to themselves; for these are only proper remedies for the mortality of this frail life; the former, for the preservation of particular animals, and the latter, for the continuance of their species: but the body will be in a perpetual vigour, and its brightness will exceed the stars. The mind will have a knowledge of God and of Divine Providence, and of whatever is now hidden from it, without any mistake; the will will be calm, employed in wonder and praises, in beholding God; in a word, all things will be much greater and better than can be convinced by comparing them with the greatest and best here.