evil, which we are apt to think nothing absent can equal; because, under the present pain, we find not ourselves capable of any the least degree of happiness.  Men’s daily complaints are a loud proof of this:  the pain that any one actually feels is still of all other the worst; and it is with anguish they cry out,—­’Any rather than this:  nothing can be so intolerable as what I now suffer.’  And therefore our whole endeavours and thoughts are intent to get rid of the present evil, before all things, as the first necessary condition to our happiness; let what will follow.  Nothing, as we passionately think, can exceed, or almost equal, the uneasiness that sits so heavy upon us.  And because the abstinence from a present pleasure that offers itself is a pain, nay, oftentimes a very great one, the desire being inflamed by a near and tempting object, it is no wonder that that operates after the same manner pain does, and lessens in our thoughts what is future; and so forces us, as it were blindfold, into its embraces.

67.  Absent good unable to counterbalance present uneasiness.

Add to this, that absent good, or, which is the same thing, future pleasure,—­especially if of a sort we are unacquainted with,—­seldom is able to counterbalance any uneasiness, either of pain or desire, which is present.  For, its greatness being no more than what shall be really tasted when enjoyed, men are apt enough to lessen that; to make it give place to any present desire; and conclude with themselves that, when it comes to trial, it may possibly not answer the report or opinion that generally passes of it:  they having often found that, not only what others have magnified, but even what they themselves have enjoyed with great pleasure and delight at one time, has proved insipid or nauseous at another; and therefore they see nothing in it for which they should forego a present enjoyment.  But that this is a false way of judging, when applied to the happiness of another life, they must confess; unless they will say, God cannot make those happy he designs to be so.  For that being intended for a state of happiness, it must certainly be agreeable to every one’s wish and desire:  could we suppose their relishes as different there as they are here, yet the manna in heaven will suit every one’s palate.  Thus much of the wrong judgment we make of present and future pleasure and pain, when they are compared together, and so the absent considered as future.

68.  Wrong judgment in considering Consequences of Actions.

(II).  As to things good or bad in their consequences, and by the aptness that is in them to procure us good or evil in the future, we judge amiss several ways.

1.  When we judge that so much evil does not really depend on them as in truth there does.

2.  When we judge that, though the consequence be of that moment, yet it is not of that certainty, but that it may otherwise fall out, or else by some means be avoided; as by industry, address, change, repentance, &c.