come? Whence can all this be, but from the stamp and impreffion the great Creator hath made on the Hearts of Men, when firft he gave them a Being in the World? nor can we think fo mean of this firft Caufe, as to fuppofe that he made this Notion fo fuitable to the rational Soul of Man, or endued the Souls of Men with a proneness to entertain it, without there had been really fuch a thing as a future retribution; elfe it would follow, that this Supreme Being had given us a proneness to believe a Lye, or a thing which is not, and confequently impofed and put a cheat upon his Creatures, which is equally absurd and blafphe

mous.

Nor could melancholy Men be the firft broachers of it, as is pretended by fome; for we do not find that melancholy Fancies do ordinarily fpread fo much. Should a melancholick Man fancy a Country where Men go upon their Heads, and write a very large Book concerning the Situation, Nature, Temperature, Manners, Cuftoms of it, who would give credit to his defcription? He that fancies he fees fuch and fuch things in the Air, or in his House, or entertains Notions that are out of the common road, gets but very few to imitate or to follow him, or to think as he doth. But this belief of an After-retribution takes poffeffion of the greatest and learned'ft Men, nay, the most airy Conftitutions embrace it, Men of all Complexions and Tempers imbibe and cherish it, and they cannot stand out against the Notion, it appears fo reafonable; fo that still we muft

have recourse to him that first made Man, and made this Notion fo agreeable to his Reafon; and this he would not, could not have done, if fuch a thing had never been intended; and tho' Apparitions, Ghofts, and Spectres, are laugh'd at by fome as Dreams and Gulleries, yet that doth not controul the Experience of judicious and unbiaffed Men in all Ages, who have both feen and spoken with those Inhabitants of the other World, and received from thence very dreadful accounts of its Retributions.

Would the fenfual Wretch but ruminate upon thefe Circumstances, the Confideration would confound his foolish Principles, and childish Conclufions; would he but take time to confider how hard a matter it is to eradicate this Notion out of the Mind after it has once taken root there, what Pains fome daring Men are forced to use to lift or eject this Principle out of their Souls; how they are forced to drink and fwear to be rid of it; how they must turn Beasts to unman themselves; turn Day into Night, and Night into Day; carefs all forts of Temptations; make themselves Slaves to their Lufts; court the vileft of Mankind; feek out jovial Society; run thro' a perfect Difcipline of Vice; are afraid to be alone; are ever in a hurry; dare not make use of their Reason; are forced to banish all ferious Thoughts; are constrained to entertain all that's light and frothy; encourage themfelves in nothing but Senfuality; avoid all fober and grave Difcourfes; be always in the noife of Drums and Trumpets, I mean in the noife of idle Tales and Divertisements; damp

all

all the checks of their own Consciences; read Plays and Romances; and bufie themselves about nothing but trifles, things that School-boys would be ashamed of, and all this to root out this one poor Notion of an After judgment; and yet when they have done all this,debauched their virtuous Principles, ruined Nature, dethroned their Reason, made themselves greater Slaves to the Devil, poffibly, than the Devil would have them to be; they cannot totally banish it, it will come again and fright them; and the Notion flicks fo clofe, is fo rivetted into the Soul, that neither the Blood of the Grapes, nor all the Frolicks and Merriments they can think of, nor all the Mistresses and Strumpets in the World can totally blot out and deface it.

the

Would he but confider all this, an éafie matter would make him conclude, if there be no fuch thing, and nothing but Education produces and causes those needlefs apprehenfions of an After-Judgment, then why is it so hard a matter to eradicate this Nothing? It's true; Superftition is as hard to get out of the Bones as this Notion; but fince it is for this Notionfake that Men embrace Superstition, Question may lawfully be asked. One would think, if it stands for a Cypher only, it fhould be no hard matter to unravel Education; for a Vice, I fee, tho' it become a fecond Nature, may be unlearnt by degrees; but this Notion of an After-Judgment, tho' the Sinner may fupprefs and fmother it for fome time, yet that it should break out again, and when the Wretch thinks he hath conquered it, fhould

fhould return with greater violence, nay, beat fo much stronger upon the Mind, by how much more a Man strives to put it out, as if it would not be denied, and would have admittance in defpight of all oppofition, and mocked all the Weapons that Nature, and the Wit of Man, can use against it: This fure makes it more than probable, that it is a Plant which God himself hath planted in the Soul.

Richard the Third cared for Religion as little as any Man in the World could do; nay, his Murders, Bloodsheds, Wrongs, Injuries he did, and which were fo familiar to him, fhew he neither believed another World, nor dreaded it yet the night before Bofworth Field Fight, he dream'd that all the Devils in Hell were gnawing and tearing of him; which did not a little difcompofe him when he awaked. Indeed, faith the Hiftorian, this was not fo much a Dream, as an evil Confcience, which foreboded an all-revenging Arm, as foon as his Soul should enter into the Region of Spirits.

Would the Sinner confider with himself, I believe there is a God, and I cannot but allow that God impartial Juftice: To deny him this, is to deny him Perfection, and confequently to deny his Being; for the Notion of God implies abfolute Perfection: If this God be Juft, how fhall I judge of his Juftice? I have no other Rule, to goby, but that Juftice, which all Mankind believes to be Juftice. If God be our Governor, (as certainly none hath a greater right to it, because in him we live, and breath, and have our Being)

he

he cannot but be a righteous Governor; and how can he be a righteous Governor, without diftributive Justice, without making a just difference by Rewards and Punishments between the Obedient and Difobedient? And when I fee God makes no juft difference in this Life by Rewards and Punifhments, between those that serve him, and thofe that defpife and contemn his Will; what can I conclude, but that he intends to make it in the Life to come, or after this Life is ended? Which way he intends to do it, though it is not material for me to know, yet finding my Soul capable of Joy and Mifery here, of Peace and Anguish, I can eafily conceive that this Soul I carry with me, will be the principal Subject of the Joys or Miferies hereafter. He is moft certainly able to preferve that Soul, which he hath made capable of being governed by Moral Laws and Precepts, and to be wrought upon by Moral Perfuafions into Obedience to his Laws: he is most certainly able, I fay, to keep our Souls in being, even when they leave the Earthly Tabernacle of their Bodies, and to punish or reward them according to their Works; thefe Souls being the principal Agents in Good er Evil. And he that was able to create the Body, is certainly able to raise it again and unite it to the Soul, that fo both may participate of the fame Fate. Nay, the neceffity of thefe After-rewards and Punishments enforce a neceffity, at least, of God's preferving the Soul for thefe Rewards and Punishments; and what way foever God hath to preferve our Intellectual Part_after Death,