Designs of Refentment, Intereft, or any other vicious Motive? Or rather, Is not the general Welfare of the Publick, and therein Every Private Man's Happiness concerned, that Religious Principles fhould prevail, and that We fhould be influenced by Confcience in our Intercourse with Each Other? One would think, This must be acknowledged defireable, and even That very Supposition, that Religion was the Contrivance of crafty Priests and Politicians, according to the Language of our Times, is fufficient at least to prove this Point. To confider Him therefore no longer as a Member of Society, Let Us view Him in his Perfonal and Private Capacity, and obferve on the Disbelief of the Chriftian Doctrine of another Life, what Foundation would be left for any Relish in the Enjoyments of this, or for any Remedy against the Afflictions of it.

As Man is compounded of two Parts, a Body and a Soul, All the Satisfaction that He is capable of, must arife either from, the Pleasures of Sense or Reason. And as our present Conftitution ftands, Each of These require in fome Degree the Gratification of Each Other, to make Either truly comfortable. Whilft our Souls are united to this Mafs of Flesh and Blood, We cannot live comfortably merely up

on

on fhining Speculations, but are deeply interefted in the Welfare of this inferior Part of Us, and tho' a thinking Man upon rational and religious Reflections may bear refignedly the Sufferings and Afflictions of it, yet Afflictions however They must be allowed to be at the prefent. Much less can the Pleasures of Sense only compleat the Felicity of a Creature diftinguished by the fuperior Principle of Reason. Yet even This lowest View of Enjoyment is contradicted and defeated by the very Scheme, which is purposely calculated to promote it. For What is This unbounded Liberty of Practice gained by this Discovery, but in Effect a Licence to make Ourselves Miferable? Those Vices, which are forbidden by the Chriftian Law, are fuch as a Wife Man would fhun for his own Sake, fuch as are as deftructive of his present Happiness in this World, as They are of his Welfare in the Other according to the Doctrine of Christianity. What deplorable Objects are there in the World, reduced to the miferable Condition They are in, by the free Ufe of that uncontrouled Liberty, which They claim over Themselves and their Actions? How ruinous are the natural Effects of Debauchery, which is the very End and Aim of this Licentious Scheme? And would not Eve

ry

ry Wife Man then even on the Motive of Intereft only be defirous of being tied by the. ftrictest Obligations from Practices, which are fo fatally pernicious and deftructive? Is it defireable, that We should lie under no Restraint from those strong and alluring Temptations, which if followed would unavoidably lead to Ruin and Misery?

Yet These Mischiefs confequent upon thefe pernicious Principles are still inconfiderable in Refpect of Thofe, which It derives upon the Superior Part of our Compofition. The Pains and Miseries, which It brings upon the Body, are fmall in Comparison of those more pungent Afflictions, which It neceffarily creates to the Mind. For there is a Natural Defire of Immortality in Us, which all the Arts of Oblivion cannot blot out. And the very Importance of the Subject, if It was not natural, would awaken Every Thinking Man's Reflections. Whether We are to continue for ever in a future State, or must lay down our Beings with our Lives, is an Enquiry of fo much Confequence, that Indifference concerning it is unnatural and astonishing. And here the Infidel embraces the dark Side of the Question, and profeffedly fets Himfelf on a Level with the Beasts that perish. The Prospect of Hereafter

He

He freely disclaims, and concludes, that his Diffolution will prove the Extinction of his Being. And Is not even This a very terrifying Reflection, fufficient to render infipid and comfortless the beft, the moft fortunate Situation in this Life? Would not the Prospect of our own Annihilation annihilate even all our prefent Satisfactions? For What Relifh could there be in the best Worldly Enjoyments to One, who knew not, but that the Next Mo ment might put an End to his Delights and to Himfelf? Would It not then be a Melancholy Confideration, that We fhould have Reafon juft to make Us capable of Superior Mifery, and to distinguish Us from the Brute Part of the Creation by more afflictive Sufferings? Yet This is really the Cafe, if there be no future State of Retribution. For the Beafts are troubled with the Pains of Senfe only, and confequently with those only, which are present. Having not the Power of any diftant Reflection, They disturb not Themselves with past Sufferings, nor anticipate future ones by uneafy Prefages. But Man, to make Him more compleatly wretched, is endued with the Power of Thought to aggravate the Sufferings, which now opprefs Him, to renew the Smart of thofe which are paft, by Memory and Reflection,

flection, and to foreftall those which are to come, or which in Poffibility only may happen hereafter. 'Tis true, the first Mention of the Christian Doctrine clears up every Difficulty of this Kind, and under the Prospect, which That affords Us, We can even rejoyce with Joy unfpeakable and full of Glory. But according to the Infidels boafted Scheme, This is the Univerfal State of Mankind, to begin by Chance, live in Misery and end in Nothing. A moft. comfortable Opinion truly of our Creation, and a most encouraging Motive to give in to fuch inviting Scheme! Or seriously, Can there be a greater Principle of Horror and Uneafinefs, more fhocking to Nature and difquieting to Reason, than to believe, that our earnest Defire of Immortality will be defeated, and that We shall be hereafter, as tho' We had never been? Why as melancholy a Confideration as This is, there is ftill a more aggravative Circumftance of Affliction in this pretended Scheme of Satisfaction. For however It may in common Difcourfe be termed Infidelity, It can never amount to more than Scepticism. The Prejudices of Education, as Himself will call it, or as We with better Foundation, the Prefages of Nature, will not fuffer Him to go farther than Doubt on this Important Que

ftion.