deemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though worms deftroy this body, yet in my flesh fhall Ifee God; whom I fhall fee for my self, and my eyes fhall behold, and not another. How have I been raised above this world and all its regards, and how well prepared to receive the next fentence which the holy man has fpoken,, We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, bleed be the name of the Lord!

There are I know men of heavy temper without genius, who can read these expreffions of Scripture with as much indifference as they do the rest of these loofe papers: However I will not defpair but to bring men of wit into a love and admiration of Sacred Writings; and, as old as I am, I promise my self to see the day when it fhall be as much the fashion amongst men of politeness to admire a rapture of St. Paul, as any fine expreffion in Virgil or Horace; and to fee a welldreffed young man produce an Evangelift out of his pocket, and be no more out of countenance than if it were a Claffick printed by Elzever..

It is a gratitude that ought to be paid to Providence by men of diftinguished faculties, to praise and adore the Author of their Being with a fpirit fuitable to thofe faculties, and roufe flower men by their words, actions, and writings, to a participation of their tranfports and thanksgivings.

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LS

SECT

SECT. VIII..

Against ATHEISM and INFIDELITY..

A

FTER having treated of false Zealots in Religion, I cannot forbear mentioning a monftrous fpe-cies of men, who one would not think. had any exiftence in nature, were they not to be met with in ordinary converfa-tion,. I mean the Zealots in Atheism.. One would fancy that these men, tho' they fall fhort, in every other respect, of those who make a profeffion of religion, would at leaft out-fhine them in this particular, and be exempt from that single fault which feems to grow out of the imprudent fervours of religion: But so it is, that Infidelity is propagated with as much fiercenefs and contention, wrath and indignation, as if the safety of man

kind depended upon it. There is fomething fo ridiculous and perverfe in this kind of Zealots, that one does not know, how to set them out in their proper colours. They are a fort of gamefters who are eternally upon the fret, tho' they play for nothing. They are perpetually teiz-ing their friends to come over to them, though at the fame time they allow that neither of them fhall get any thing by the bargain. In short, the zeal of fpreading Atheism is, if poffible, more abfurd than Atheism it felf.

Since I have mentioned this unac countable Zeal which appears in Atheists and Infidels, I must further observe that they are likewife in a moft particular manner possessed with the fpirit of bigotry. They are wedded to Opinions full of contradiction and impoffibility, and at the fame time look upon the smalleft. difficulty in an article of faith as a fufficient reafon for rejecting it. Notions that fall in with the common reason of mankind, that are conformable to the fenfe of all ages and all nations, not to mention their tendency for promoting the happiness of focieties, or of particular perfons, are ex- ploded as errors and prejudices; and

schemes

fchemes erected in their ftead that are altogether monftrous and irrational, and require the most extravagant credulity to embrace them. I would fain ask one of these bigotted Infidels, fuppofing all the great points of Atheifm, as the cafual or eternal formation of the world, the materiality of a thinking fubftance, the mortality of the Soul, the fortuitous organization of the Body, the motions and gravitation of matter, with the like particuFars, were laid together and formed into a kind of Creed, according to the opinions of the most celebrated Atheists; I fay, fuppofing fuch a Creed as this were formed, and impofed upon any one people in the world, whether it would not require an infinitely greater measure of faith, than any fet of articles which they fo violently oppofe. Let me therefore advife this generation of Wranglers, for their own and for the publick good, to act at leaft fo confiftently with themfelves, as not to burn with Zeal for Irreligion, and with Bigotry for Nonfenfe.

C

Cœlum