fubject to that mode of diffolution which affects material fubftances, you conclude it to be eternal. This is going too fast. There may be, and probably are, many natural caufes, (unknown, indeed, to us.) whereby immaterial Beings come to an end. But if the nature of things cannot, yet certainly God can, put a period to fuch a Being, when it hath served the purpose of its Creation. Doth ANNIHILATION impeach that Wisdom and Goodness which was difplayed when God brought it OUT OF NOTHING?

Other immaterial Beings there are (as hath been obferved) who have the fame natural fecurity with man for their exiftence, of whofe eternity we never dream ; I mean, the Souls of Brutes. But PRIDE, as the Poet obferves, calls God unjust :

"If MAN alone ingrofs not Heaven's

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high care;

"Alone made perfect here, IMMORTAL

"there."

Fanatics, indeed, both New and Old, have well provided for the proper eternity of

the human Soul, by making it a part or portion of the fubftance of God himself*. But fo blafphemous a fancy, all fober Chrif tians, from the moft early times to the prefent, have looked upon with horror.

However, let us (for argument's fake) allow the human Soul to be unperishable by nature, and fecured in its existence by the unchangeable will of God: and fee what will follow from thence-An infinite Reward for Virtue, during one moment of its exiftence, becaufe Reafon discovers that, by the Law of Nature, fome Reward is due? By no means-When God hath amply repaid us for the performance of our duty, will he be at a lofs how to difpofe of us for the long remainder of ETERNITY? May he not find new and endless employment for reafonable Creatures, to which, when properly discharged, new rewards, and in endlefs fucceffion, will be affigned? Modeft Reafon feems to dictate this to the Followers of the Law of Nature. The flattering expedient of ETERNAL

See note [B], at the end of this Book.

REWARDS,

REWARDS, for Virtue here, was invented in the fimplicity of early fpeculation, after it had fairly brought men to conclude that the foul was immaterial.

2. A fecond Argument, from the con viction it carries with it, I would recommend to the care and protection of its Dis coverers, the Platonifts and Poets; namely, Men's LONGINGS AFTER IMMORTALITY, even in the state of Nature. These, fay our Poetical Metaphyficians, and Metaphyfical Poets, are a proof that we fhall obtain what we long for; fince natural appetites were not given in vain. The foundation, on which this argument ftands, is not, it must be confeffed, quite void of all plaufibility. The general appetite for Good was indeed given by Nature, to aid us in the eafier and speedier attainment of it. But in this confifts the fophiftry of the reafoning -Because the appetite for Good is effential in the conftitution of every fenfitive Being, it is concluded, that we fhall obtain the GREATEST GOOD which the Imagination can form, for the object of its wishes. And, to call this vifionary Operator, Nature, and

not Fancy, will scarce mend the matter, if the noble Philofopher* did not vilify his fpecies, when he said, that She did not know how to keep a mean or measure. The Phænomenon is easily explained. The PASSIONS were given to excite our Activity in the pursuit of Good: and the violence of fuch of them, as drive moft impetuously to their end, will be apt to tranfgrefs the mean. But there is another part as effential to our frame, which is REASON; and her office it is to keep the Paffions within due bounds; then most apt to fly out, when pursued by that frightful Phantom, ANNIHILATION. And as the beft fecurity against this terror is the pledge of immortality, we are too much in hafte to inquire of Reason, Whether, indeed, NATURAL RELIGION hath given us this fecurity.

From all that hath been faid, I would infer, that our appetites, or LONGINGS after good, were given us, not to lead the conclufions of Reafon, but to be led by them, left these LONGINGS fhould become extravagant.

Moral.

3. But the palmary argument is still behind. It is partly Phyfical, and partly "The merit of fervice (say these Men) increases in proportion to the excellence of that Being to whom, our fervice is directed and becomes acceptable. An infinite Being, therefore, can dispense no rewards but what are infinite. And thus the Virtuous Man becomes intitled to immortality.

The misfortune is, that this reasoning holds equally on the fide of the UNMERCIFUL DOCTORS, as they are called, who doom the Wicked to EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT. Indeed, were this the only difcredit under which it labours, the mercilefs Doctors would hold themselves little concerned. But the truth is, the Argument from infinity proves just nothing. To make it of any force, both the Parties fhould be infinite. This inferior emanation of God's Image, MAN, fhould either be fupremely good or fupremely bad, a kind of Deity or Devil. But thefe Reafoners, in their attention to the Divinity, overlook the Humanity, which makes the

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