any thing is different from remembering it.-Now this I take to be a very PLAIN ACCOUNT of the Matter, which plainly destroys at once all the puzzling Confequences arifing from the vulgar Superftition about it, which was certainly calculated for nothing elfe but to serve certain political Purposes, for the Support of Orthodoxy, Uniformity, and Prieftcraft. As it has long been used as a Teft for Admittance into civil as well as facred Offices, and a neceffary Qualification for obtaining the highest Posts of Honour and Profit both in Church and State, none could confiftently be admitted into them but staunch Orthodox Believers of the Mystery, or abfolute Atheifts. So long as à Man could be perfuaded to believe that an unbelieving Impenitent was an unworthy Receiver, and, as fuch, was eating and drinking his own Damnation (or Condemnation) he might naturally be under fome Terrors in performing an Action abfolutely necessary to his Advancement in the World: But when he is told by those who may reasonably be supposed to understand it, that there is nothing more in it than a grateful Remembrance of a great and good Benefactor, who made it his dying Request to all his Friends and Difciples, any Man of common Senfe, Gratitude, and Honour, may fafely and confiftently join in performing it, whatever his private Sentiments and Notions of Religion may be on other Accounts.-Now this is directly pulling down thofe unreafonable Fences, Enclofures, and Partition-walls, which were intended to engross the Bleffings of Wealth and Power in particular Hands, to confine them to certain Opinions, Ways of Thinking, and Manner of Living, which are not in every body's Power. People muft and will

believe

believe and practise as they please, in fpite of all your Creeds and Commandments; and, fo long as they are willing and able to ferve themselves and the Public, they ought to meet with no Difficulties or Difcouragements to deter them from it. So much for this useful and important Discovery, which is intirely our own.

Thefe, we may venture to pronounce, were great and useful Improvements for the Peace and Benefit of Mankind, and the Comforts of civil Society; but we had greater and more extenfive Defigns for the public Good, had the World been worthy of them, and given the Authors proper Encouragement. There was a great and excellent Person of our Family, one Mr. Afgill, well known to the World by his political Writings. O my Lord he was a fine Man, and an excellent Scholar; he had, it feems, by much Labour and Study, found out an infallible Remedy against Death. He himfelf was verily perfuaded and convinced that though, for fo many Ages, People had got a Trick of dying from Generation to Generation, yet they might help it if they would. That it was intirely owing to a vicious Imitation, a ridiculous Compliance with a prevailing Fashion, a falfe Modefty, or a Want of Faith and Courage, that even People of Sense. would fuffer themselves to be teazed and perfecuted by Phyficians, Apothecaries, Parfons, and old Women, and at laft, to be delivered to Undertakers, to be fhoved out of the World with their Heels foremost. He at first proposed to keep the Secret to himself, or at least preserve it as a Family Noftrum, dreading, no doubt, the Contempt and Jokes of the deluded Multitude, and the vigorous Oppofition of the Doctor and the Parfon, who would not fail to oppose a Project,

by

3

by which they must both expect to be Sufferers, as the one would no longer be paid for killing, nor the other for burying; not to mention the Worshipful Company of Upholders, Parish-Clerks, Sextons, Grave-diggers, and all the other numerous Retainers to those whimfical Solemnities; but as he had the Honour to be a Member of the English House of Commons (for Bramber in Sussex, I think) an Affembly famous all the World over for unbiaffed Integrity, unblemished Honour, and public Spirit, he fcorned to be influenced by any Confiderations of perfonal Intereft or Credit, but boldly determined to facrifice both to the Welfare of Mankind, and the Good of his Country. In Pursuance of this laudable and generous Refolution, in the Year 1700, he published his Scheme for the Satisfaction of the Curious with this Title of

AN

ARGUMENT,

PROVING

That, according to the Covenant of eternal Life revealed in the Scripture, Men may be tranflated from hence into that eternal Life, without paffing through Death, &c.

He was fo fully convinced of the Truth and Utility of his Scheme, that he difdained the popular Arts of engaging the Attention, and captivating the Affections of his Readers, by an artful Address to their Paffions,

or

or to decoy them by a plaufible Train of Reasoning into an unexpected Conclufion. No.-He opened his Packet, and let them into the whole Secret at once, that his Readers might know what they had to truft to; that if a Man found in himself no Inclination to die, he might be furnished with fufficient Directions how to avoid it; but if any were fo cowardly, or fo modeft, as to choose rather to die, than break an old Custom, or be out of the Fashion, they might take it for their Pains, and have no body to blame but themfelves. Thus he begins:

Ante obitum felix nemo fupremaque fata, is a Fiction of the Poets, and that old Motto worn upon Tombstones, Death is the Gate of Life, is a Lye, by which Men decoy one another into Death, taking it to be a Thoroughfare into eternal Life, whereas it is just so far out of the Way. (p. 10.) I am not unaware that the Custom of the World to die has gained fuch a Prevalency over our Minds, by prepossessing us of the Neceffity of Death, that it ftands ready to swallow my Argument whole without digefting it; therefore (p. 11.) I'll offer an AnJwer to the Custom of the World against me: Custom itself, without a Reafon for it, is only an Argument to Fools. Nor can the Life or Death of one Man be affigned as the Caufe of the Life and Death of another Man, unless the fame Thing happen to them both.

Abraham is dead, and the Prophets are dead.What then? Why Abraham died of Age (as the Folk call it) and the Prophets were many of them knocked on the Head.

Muft it therefore follow that either of thefe Deaths must happen to me, or, because they died of one Death, I muft die of another?-Suppofe my Mother died in Child-bed, muft I therefore do fo too? or because my Father was

banged,

hanged, muft I therefore be drowned ?—Abraham is dead, and the Prophets are dead; What then?-Why Abraham had a Son of his own begetting at one hundred Years old upon a Woman of ninety, had an Army of Men born in his Houfe, Flocks and Herds without Number, and a whole Country to feed them in. And the Prophets were Favourites of Heaven, could raife the Dead, and kill the Living. Muft, therefore, any of thefe Gifts happen to me? Why then, if I must not partake with Abraham and the Prophets in their Bleffings, why must I partake with them in their Deaths? Nor did Abraham die, because the Prophets died; nor did the Prophets die, because Abraham died. Then if their Deaths had no Effect upon each other, why should they have any Effect upon me? Therefore the Cuftom of the World to die, is no Argument one way or other.What a glorious Scheme is this! how clearly ftated! how demonstratively proved! What Reward could be too great for fuch an inquifitive Genius, fuch a generous Heart !-But fee the Event.-No fooner did this curious, elaborate, ufeful Work appear, but People of all Profeffions took the Alarm; the Clergy were angry, the Phyficians were merry, and the rest of the World fided with them; infomuch that, in a fhort Time, he and his Scheme became the Jeft and Abhorrence of all Converfation. The Houfe of Commons, of which (as I faid before) he had the Honour to be a Member, and who had, upon all proper Occafions, diftinguished themselves by their Attention to every useful Project, and Indulgence to the Projector, quickly convinced him of their Diflike, and that he had no more Favour to expect within-doors than he had found without; fo that, instead of receiving the Thanks of the Ho

nourable