fo long as it continues the inftrument of paffion, will ferve only to make us more miferable, in proportion as we are more excellent than other Beings.

It is the privilege of a Thinking Being to withdraw from the objects that folicit his fenfes, and turn his thoughts inward on himself. For my own part, I often mitigate the pain arifing from the little misfortunes and difappointments that chequer human life by this introverfion of my faculties, wherein I regard my own Soul as the image of her Creator, and receive great confolation from beholding thofe perfections which teftify her Divine Original, and lead me into fome knowledge of her everlafting Archetype.

But there is not any property or cir cumftance of my Being that I contemplate with mcre joy than my Immortality. I can eafily overlook any prefent momentary forrow, when I reflect that it is in my power to be happy a thoufand years hence. If it were not for this thought, I had rather be an Oifter than a Man, the moft ftupid and fenfelefs of animals than a reafonable mind tortured

with an extreme innate defire of that perfection which it defpairs to ob

tain.

It is with great pleasure that I behold Instinct, Reafon and Faith concurring to atteft this comfortable truth. It is revealed from Heaven, it is difcovered by Philofophers, and the ignorant, unenlightened part of mankind have a natural propensity to believe it. It is an agreeable entertainment to reflect on the various shapes under which this doctrine has appeared in the world. The Pythagorean tranfmigration, the fenfual habitations of the Mahometan, and the fhady realms of Pluto, do all agree in the main points, the continuation of our Existence, and the diftribution of rewards and punishments, proportioned to the merits or demerits of men in this life.

But in all these schemes there is fomething grofs and improbable, that shocks a reasonable and fpeculative mind. Whereas nothing can be more rational and fublime than the Chriftian idea of a future State. Eye hath not feen, nor ear beard, neither bath it entered into the heart of

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man to conceive the things which God bath prepared for thofe that love him. The abovementioned schemes are narrow transcripts of our prefent ftate: But in this indefinite defcription there is fomething ineffably great and noble. The mind of man must be raised to a higher pitch, not only to partake the enjoyments of the Chriftian Paradife, but even to be able to frame any notion of them.

Nevertheless, in order to gratify our imagination, and by way of condefcenfion to our low way of thinking, the Ideas of Light, Glory, a Crown, &c. are made ufe of to adumbrate that which we cannot directly understand. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne fhall feed them, and shall lead them into living fountains of waters; and God fball wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there fhall be no more death, neither forrow, nor crying, neither hall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away, and behold all things are new. There shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the fun: for the Lord God Liveth them light, and shall make them

drink of the river of his pleafures and they shall reign for ever and ever. They fhall receive a crown of glory which fadeth not away.

These are chearing reflections: And I have often wondered that men could be found fo dull and phlegmatick, as to prefer the thought of annihilation before them; or fo ill-natur'd, as to endeavour to perfuade mankind to the disbelief of what is fo pleafing and profitable even in the profpect; or fo blind, as not to fee that there is a Deity, and if there be, that this fcheme of things flows from his attributes, and evidently corre fponds with the other parts of his cre ation.

I know not how to account for this abfurd turn of thought, except it proceed from a want of other employment joined with an affectation of fingularity. I fhall, therefore, inform our modern Free-thinkers of two points, whereof they feem to be ignorant. The firft is, that it is not the being fingular, but being fingular for fomething that argues either extraordinary endowments of nafure, or benevolent intentions to man

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kind, which draws the admiration and efteem of the world. A mistake in this point naturally arifes from that confufion of thought which I do not remember to have seen so great instances of in any Writers, as in certain modern Freethinkers.

The other point is, that there are innumerable objects within the reach of a human mind, and each of these objects may be viewed in innumerable lights and pofitions, and the relations arifing between them are innumerable. There is, therefore, an infinity of things whereon to employ their thoughts, if not with advantage to the world, at leaft with amufement to themselves, and without offence or prejudice to other people. If they proceed to exert their talent of Free-thinking in this way; they may be innocently dull, and no one take any notice of it. But to fee men without either Wit or Argument pretend to run down Divine and Human Laws, and treat their fellow-fubjects with contempt for profeffing a belief of thofe points on which the prefent as well as future intereft of Mankind depends, is

not

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