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righteous, and the other as a place of torment for the wicked, which supposes the immortality of the foul. This doctrine is not only taught in the KORAN of the TURKS, ARABIANS and PERSIANS, but even firmly believed by the barbarous CANIBALS; is no invention of artful philofophers to amufe their difciples, and received by tradition only; but is obvious to reason without any additional light, and as easy to be believed, as that we have faces, when we behold them in a glass.

Here we shall conclude our quotations; and much I fear, you have thought me too tedious on this topic; but as the proof of the immortality of the foul is the foundation of all religion, we fhall think our labour well-bestowed, if we have but confirmed onewavering perfon, or caufed any one, unthoughtful before, to reflect properly on this momentous fubject. Though we are fully convinced, that in this enlightened age there are very few cultivated minds who totally difbelieve this doctrine; none that can bring arguments worthy of notice, or indeed of any weight against it; yet, at the fame time fo prevailing is the fpirit of diffipation that there are multitudes, who never admit the least thought about fuch ferious matters, and too many likewife that endeavour to fifle the evidences of it in their own minds, and flatter themselves that it may poffibly be otherwife. But as we have produced. arguments fufficient, as we imagine, to convince any attentive hearer, that there is no poffibility of the foul's dying. I fhall conclude with accounting, in fome measure, for the obstinate beha-viour, and perverfe opinions of wicked men, and lay before you the reafons, if they may deferve that name, why there have been, in all ages, and even still are, fome perfons fo wilfully blind as readily to join with the Sadducees, and affert fo abhorrent a doctrine as that there is no refurrection, neither angel nor spirit."

Firft then, as the belief of a future ftate is no fmall check, to wicked men in the pursuit of their lawless pleasures, they industri

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ously feek arguments to fkreen them from the wrath to come.The most fubtile and determined FREE THINKER cannot but fuppofe that, if there fhould be a life after this, it will, doubtlefs, be a state of everlasting happiness, or endless mifery: this they must be convinced of, who believe there is a power above us; and as that is a truth too evident to be difputed by any rational being, they must fuppofe likewife that power to be endowed with every perfection; and fince man is, beyond all contradiction, a free agent, and knows both what is good, and what is evil, he is by nature accountable for his behaviour; and it is inconfiftent with common reason to fuppofe that the murderer, adulterer, blafphemer, and the like notorious offenders, who wilfully break through all laws, both human and divine, fhould efcape punishment, feeing that a JUST GOD governs the univerfe and beholds thofe actions in all their odious colours. Now fince it is plain, beyond all difpute, that adequate punishment does not always attend enormous crimes in this life, and fince no man in his fenfes can ever be prevailed on firmly to believe, that he fhall enter into the next, without meeting with wrath and avengement for his paft vicious deportment; the wicked have no refource left, but to deny there is a fupreme Being, and to affirm, that a future ftate is a mere chimera ;-nothing more than the artifice of fome defigning men to keep the world in awe:-As these truths, however, have been confidered at large, and every objection we could think of has, I hope, been fatisfactorily refolved, I prefume we may now, without any danger, offer a fuppofition, though abfolutely falfe, in order to fet the folly of those in a still more glaring light, who oppofe themselves to the voice of nature; who take pains to deceive their own fouls, and vainly hope that there is no life after this.

Let us fuppofe then for once, a future ftate to be doubtful; this I think is the utmost the most hardened infidel can poffibly contend for, because to affert abfolutely, that there will be no life

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after this, is a prefumption that no human being ever yet arrived at.-Let us fuppofe then, I fay, that it be a question whether we shall live hereafter or not, and even upon that footing, let us fee, in regard to this particular, whether he who believes, or he who believes not, be the wiser man.

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He that doubts of a future ftate can have no pleafing profpect, no idea of future happiness. All his felicity, therefore, must center in temporal enjoyments: Is it in his power, however, to prevent forrow and affliction, pain or fickness?-Is he not liable to be made the sport of fortune, or will his difbelief fecure him from those ills to which all mankind are equally expofed? Should he lead a fober, regular life, what benefit and advantage will accrue from his infidelity?-Why, none at all. He is fober to purpose:-he has excluded himself from every hope of an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven; thrown away, not fold his birthright, and fet his foul with all her noble endowments upon a level with the brutes that perish. Should he be overwhelmed with forrows, should his worldly affairs prove ruinous, his children disobedient, his friends unkind and unjust, what confolation can he find within his own breast ?-Why, no more than this, that he shall shortly be upon a level with his fellow-brutes, be reduced to dust and ashes, and all his thoughts be buried with him in the grave. A poor comfort indeed; a most abject confolation!

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But let us view him, when he draws near to what he calls the period of his forrows; when he is arrived within view of the end of his miferies; when he lies on his bed of ficknefs; when the wheels of life grow out of order, and when all artful prescriptions of medicine prove ineffectual to his cure: what comfort will his foolish and abfurd opinion then furnish him with ?-Nay, what defpair will it not raife in his bewildered mind? He cannot be fure that there will be no hereafter; and if there fhould, to what a deplorable condition must he be then reduced?-He cannot be

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fure that there is no heaven; but he is fure that if there be, he has refigned up all his pretenfions to the joys of it, and must never expect to be an inhabitant of that happy place. He cannot be fure that there is no hell; but if there fhould, what a condition must he then be in?-He has justly entitled himself to all the pains of it; he has procured himself a place "where is weeping "and wailing, and gnashing of teeth; where the worm never dies: "where the fire is never quenched."-He cannot be sure, that there is no God; that there are no glorious angels; but if there fhould, he is fure that he is not qualified for fuch bleffed company; he has no claim to join in their triumphant hallelujahs; he cannot be sure there are no demons, but should there be such spirits, what company has he provided for himself? What dreadful difcord, what infernal conversation must he partake in ?-What ghaftly phantoms, what tremendous apparitions, has he provided to shock his affrighted foul upon her landing on the dreadful abyss of a never-ending eternity?

But let us turn our eyes from fo gloomy a scene; God grant that we may never behold it !—and turn them to one more delightful. Let us fee what trivial hazards the believer runs, and what the glorious profpects are which he has in view. He who believes, that is, who believes to purpose, will take all poffible care to order his behaviour in fuch a manner as to entitle him to a happy hereafter. Now fuppofing the worst, fuppofe there be: no fuch thing, he has notwithstanding enjoyed a most agreeable. delufion, and is, even in that cafe, upon a level with his oppofite.

He has had moreover a fovereign antidote against all worldly forrows; whenever he was oppreffed with the load of any affliction, he could cafe his burden, by reflecting, that the life of man: was but of fhort duration;-that the time would foon come, when his forrows would have a happy period. He could fay with comfort, that he could be miferable but for a fhort space of time;

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that he fhould foon arrive at the goal of death; and though his race had been hard and rugged, though he met with many cruel, nay, thocking difappointments, yet the glorious reward was at hand; the grave could not fright him with its horrors, fince his. foul could not be mingled with the duft;-that would return to its almighty Creator, and reft with him in never-ending joys.Are not these reflections of a very amiable nature?Is not this fituation of the mind moft devoutly to be cherished?—And are not fuch thoughts as thefe in every ones power to enjoy? When the believer fees death at hand, he looks on it as the approach of his new birth; he waits with impatience for his glorious change, when he fhall quit this vile earth, when he fhall drop this load of flesh, and with glorious and immortal angels forever live in blissful regions, adoring his almighty benefactor, his ever-glorious God, his triumphant Redeemer.

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Another reason why this great truth is fo little reflected on, as we find it generally is, may be the pride of one fet of men, and the weakness of another: the pride of wit, or what is too often called fo. The poets and other writers of romance have contrived many representations of the behaviour and condition of departed fouls, that their weak brethren have been apt to think the whole only a poetical fiction.-The first view of a future ftate must fill the mind with awful thoughts of what may be our portion there: but we have been diverted from what ought to infpire our dread or hope. By the buffoonery of fuch vain fcribblers, we have been induced to view this truth in fo many lights, that the diffipated and unthoughtful are confounded, and utterly at a lofs to determine what they ought to believe. They have made the ideas of death, heaven and hell fo familiar to their readers, that it will require a great deal of time, and much force of argument to recover the minds of men to that folemnity of thought which a proper view of these things muft of neceffity occafion. It is upon this account that

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