upon their own Principles. To fhew them, that Religion is not a contrivance of State Policy, nor the Effect of Prief-craft. That when we difcourfe of another World after this, and a final Inqueft to pass upon all our Actions; and a Vaft Eternity of Rewards and Punishments, according to what they now do, whether Good or Evil; we do not alarm Mens Minds with falfe Fears, and ungrounded Terrors, but fpeak to them a Truth, which the very Gentiles themselves have univerfally acknowledged; nay, which their own Confciences will not fuffer. them to disbelieve, however they may fometimes endeavour to ftifle their Convictions, and have the Impudence to deny, what at the fame time, with Felix, they tremble to think of. In fhort; that whether we look into the Frame and Conftitution of our own Souls within us, or contemplate the Dif penfations of God's Providence in the Affairs of the World without, they both fpeak to us this great Truth, that God will bring us to Fudgment.

1. If first we look back into the Principles of the Heathen Theology, what point fhall we find more univerfally acknowledged by them, than this of a Judgment to come? This we may fee illuftrated, not only in the Flights of their Poets, in the Harangues of their Orators, in the Dictates of their Philofophers; and all which have been particularly collected by the Holy Fathers of the Church in their Writings against them, and may be seen at large in the Works yet extant of Fuftin Martyr, Eufebius, Theodoret and others: But as Tertullian well obferves, even in their common Conversation, in which Men ufually the most speak according to their Natural Impreffions, they ftill teftified the fame Belief: And by calling God to witness and judge

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of their Ations; by commending themfelves and their Caufe to God, when they could find no remedy or relief from Men, they plainly fhew'd it to be a Principle rooted in their very Natures, That there is a God who fees and obferves what paffes here below, and will one day fet to rights all the prefent feeming irregular difpenfations of his Providence in the Government of the World, and render to every man according to his Works.

I fhall not in this place enter fo far into this Argument, as to fhew you in the particular Expreffions of the Ancient Heathens themselves, how clearly and peremptorily they have deliver'd themfelves as to this Point of a Judgment to come. But thus much, I fuppofe, I may take the liberty to conclude from what I have already in General obferved; That it cannot be denied, but that, Chrifianity fer apart, the belief of a future Fudgment, must be allow'd, even upon the meer Principles of Nature to be very highly probable, which the Gentiles themselves, without the help of any Divine Revelation, have fo firmly and univerfally received.

And indeed fo clear are the Evidences of it, that wherefoever we turn our eyes, whether into the Nature and Conftitution of the little World within, or into the Government and Administration of the greater without us, we cannot but ac knowledge the reasonableness of this belief. For,

2dly, If we confider the Nature of our own Souls within us, we fhall find a Confcience even in the most wicked Men, that will plainly bear witness to this great Truth.

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There is a certain Principle implanted in every one of us, that not only directs and informs us what we ought to do, and what to avoid; but does moreover check, or encourage us, according as what we have done, is either Good or Evil. Now upon this Sentence which our Confciences here pafs upon all our Actions, we find either a pleafure, and confidence, and Satisfaction, if we have done well; or elfé a fear, and terror, and diftruft, if we have done ill: And this not with reference to any Reward we are like to receive, or any Punishment we may be in danger of fuffering in this prefent World: The greatest Monarchs being no lefs fenfible of these Motions within, when their Confciences do either approve or condemn them, than the meaneft of their Subjects; and both the one and the other, though the Action were never fo fecret, no less than if it had been done in the prefence of the whole World.

And what is all this but a plain Evidence planted in our very Nature, to keep us in continual expeEtation of fome Account to be given of our Actions in another World, beyond what is done in this? When the long Series of our prefent Lives fhall be reviewed, and our Confciences, now our Fudges, then become Witnesses, and give Teftimony for or against us, according as we have done either Good or Evil.

But that which will be a yet farther Confirmation of this Argument is, That the nearer we approach to our latter End, ftill the more Powerful and Vigorous are these Impreffions of our own Confciences upon our Souls. How does the Sinner then begin with Horror to reflect upon his Life paft; and to hate and fear the Confequence of his Evil doings, when he is just ready to die, and by confequence is

dież

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paffed

paffed all apprehenfion of any farther Inqueft in this Life, more than he did at the time of his Gommiffion of them? Whilft the Good and Vertuous Man embraces Death with fuch a Quiet and Compofure, and oftentimes with fuch a fenfible Joy and Satisfaction, as if he were about to receive fome great Good by it, to be fure did not fear any Evil from it.

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This certainly can be nothing else but a ftill more fenfible Evidence of the Belief of a Fudgment to come, rooted in our very Natures, and that there is to be a Reftitution of Rewards and Punishments in another Life, befides what is made to our Actions in this.

3. To all which, if we add, 3dly, The farther Strength that will be given to this Principle, from the Confideration of the prefent Irregular Difpenfations of God's Providence, as they feem to us in this World, to oblige us to expect fome Fudgment in the other; I do not fee what the greatest Sceptick can have to oppose against fo firm and clear a De monftration of it.

It is, I prefume, agreed among all forts of Perfons that admit the Being of a God, that as he is the Author of all Perfections in all other things, so he can have nothing Defective or Imperfect in HimSelf. That as this World was not at first made by Chance and Fortune, but by a moft Wife, and Good, and Powerful God; fo neither is it now Govern'd by Chance, but by the Providence of the fame God who first made it.

Now if God be Infinitely Perfect, then he muft be Perfectly Wife, and Fuft, and Good; and we may as well fuppofe him not to be God, as not allow him to be all this. But if he be fo, and if this

World

World be indeed fubject to the Guidance of his Providence, then We must of neceffity acknowledge a Fudgment to come. It being plain, that as the Affairs of Men are order'd in this PrefentWorld, they fhew but very little fign of an exact Fuftice and Goodness in the Adminiftration of them." The best Men now being oftentimes the most Unfortunate; and the moft Profligate Mifcreants, the most happy in the Enjoyments of the Good things of this Life.

Either therefore we must deny that there is a God, altogether; or that the World is Govern'd by Him: Or we must say, that he is not Fuft and Good, and therefore minds not what becomes of thofe that are fo, which is in effect to fay he is not God: Or elfe that he is Impotent and Ignorant ; either does not know how things pafs here below, or tho' he does know, yet is not able to redrefs them; and this again deftroys the very Notion of a God, which includes an Infinite Perfection in Power and Knowledge, no lefs than in Goodness and Fuftice: Or laftly, If there be a God, and that God does take care of the Affairs of Men; and is Good and Fuft; and has fuch a Knowledge and Power as we fay he has; then it must remain, that there fhall be a future Fudgment, in which all thefe uncertain, ir regular Difpenfations of his Providence, as they appear to us, fhall be cleared and fet right, and the Good and Bad receive the juft recompence of what their Actions here have deserved.

Seeing then we cannot with any reafon doubt ether.that there is a God, or that this. God is Fuft, or that his Providence does indeed Superintend over the Affairs of the World; and yet tis plain that things now are not order'd with fo exact a Fuftice as a Divine Providence does require: It must re