of their Souls; how they are forc'd to drink, and swear, to be rid of it; how they must turn Beasts, to unman themselves, turn day into night, and night into day, carefs all forts of temptations, make themfelves flaves to their lufts, court the vileft of Mankind, feek out jovial Society, run through a perfect difcipline of Vice, are afraid to be alone, are ever in a hurry, dare not make use of their reason, are forc'd to banish all ferious thoughts, are constrained to entertain all that's light and frothy, encourage themselves in nothing but fenfuality, avoid all fober and grave difcourfes, be always in the noife of Drums and Trumpets, I mean in the noise of idle Tales and Divertisements, damp all the checks of their own Confciences, read Plays and Romances, and bufie themselves about nothing but trifles, things that. School-boys would be afhamed of, and all this. to root out this one poor Notion of an AfterJudgment; and yet when they have done all this, debauch'd their virtuous principles, ruin'd nature, dethron'd their reason, made themielves greater flaves to the Devil poffibly, than the Devil would have them to be, they cannot totally banish it, it will come again and fright them; and the Notion sticks so close, is fo riveted in the Soul; that neither the blood of the Grapes, nor all the frolicks and merriments they can think of, nor all the Mistresles and Strumpets in the World, can totally blot and deface it.

Would he but confider all this, an eafie matter would make him conclude, If there be no fuch thing, and nothing but education produces and causes thofe needlefs apprehenfions of an After Judgment; Then why is it fo hard a matter to eradicate this nothing? It's true, Superstition is as hard to get out of the bones, as this Notion, but fince it is for their Notion fake, that Men embrace Superstition, the que ftion may lawfully be ask'd. One would think, if it ftands for a Cypher only, it should be no hard matter to unravel Education; for a Vice, I fee, though it become a fecond Nature, may be unlearnt by degrees; but this Notion of an After-judgment, though the finner may fupprefs, and fmother it for fome time, yet that it should break out again, and when the Wretch thinks he hath conquer'd it, fhould return with greater violence, nay, beat so much ftronger upon the mind, by how much more a Man ftrives to put it out, as if it would not be denied, and would have admittance in defpight of all oppofition, and mock'd all the weapons that Nature and the wit of Man can use against it. This fure makes it more than probable that it is a Plant, which God himself hath planted inthe Soul.

Richard the Third cared for Religion as little as any Man in the World could do, nay, his Murthers, Bloodsheds, Wrongs, Injuries he did, and which were fo familiar to him, fhew, he neither Believ'd another World, nor dreaded

it; yet the night before Bofworth Field, he dream't,that all the Devils in Hell were gnawing and tearing of him,which did not a little difcompose him when he awaked. Indeed, faith the Hiftorian, This was not fo much a Dream, as an Evil Confcience, which foreboded an all revenging Arm, as foon as his Soul fhould enter into the Region of Spirits.

Would the Sinner confider with himself, I believe there is a God, and I cannot but allow that God impartial juftice. To deny him this, is to deny him perfection, and confequently to deny his Being; for the Notion of God, implies abfolute perfection; If this God be just, How fhall I judge of his juftice? I have no other rule to go by, but that juftice, which all Mankind believes to be justice. If God be our Governour, (as certainly none hath greater right to it, because in him we live, and breathe, and have our being) he cannot but be a righteous Governour; and how can he be a righteous Governour, without diftributive juftice. without making a juft difference by rewards. and punishments, between the obedient and difobedient? And when I fee God makes no juft difference in this life, by rewards and punishments; between those that serve him, and those that despise and contemn his Will; What can I conclude, but that he intends to make it in the life to come, or after this life is ended? Which way he intends to do it, though it is not material for me to know, yet finding my

U 3

Soul

capable

capable of joy and mifery here, of peace and anguish, I can easily conceive, that this Soul I carry within me, will be the principal fubject of the joys or miferies hereafter. He is most certainly able to preferve that Soul which he hath made capable of being govern'd by moral Laws and Precepts, and to be wrought upon by Moral perfwasions into obedience to his Laws; he is most certainly able, I fay, to keep our Souls in being, even when they leave the Earthly Tabernacle of their Bodies, and to punish or reward them according to their works; these Souls being the principal Agents in good or evil: And he that was able to create the Body, is certainly able to raise it again, and unite it to the Soul, that fo both may participate of the fame fate. Nay, the neceffity of these after-rewards and punishments, enforce a neceffity, at least, of God's preferving the Soul for thefe rewards and punishments; and what way foever God hath to preferve our intellectual part after death, it's enough to me, or to any rational Man, that according to the notion and apprehenfion we have of Juftice, he cannot be just, without he doth preferve it, either for reward or punishment.

For, that God doth not fufficiently reward and punish men in this life, daily experience. gives me fufficient teftimonies. The wickedeft of men, are, very often, the greatest in the World; and thofe that opprefs fuch as truly fear God, fwim in all manner of plenty, and

ease,

ease, and riches, and honour. And though, it's true, that fuch Men have sickness, and die, yet thofe are things common to good and bad, and can be thought no juft differencing retributions. Those that make it their business to obferve God's Laws,labour to approve themselves his most obedient Subjects, and his most faithful Servants, ordinarily fuffer great injuries, are unjustly ar raign'd,condemn'd,executed,undergo tortures of cruel mockings, of fcourgings, of bonds, of imprifonments, witness the Saints of the three first Centuries, who with all their strictness, and circumfpect walking with God, got nothing visibly, but gibbets, and gallows, and racks and wheels, and Hames, and tortures, and dungeons; And their Accufers, or Judges, may be, have all that heart can with their eyes ftand out with fatness, neither are they plagued like other men, or if they be fometimes afflicted, the affliction is not at all answerable to the horridness of the crimes they commit.

How gently do many of these Monsters die upon their beds, no Lamp expires more leifurely than their breath, while the other, that meditates in God's Law, day and night, dies with difgrace and fhame, or is most barbarously murtherer'd, and butcher'd. Can I look upon all these paffages and occurrences, and not conclude another World? I muft either conclude, there is no Governour of the World; or if there be one, that Governour will certainly find a time, if not here, yet hereafter, to mani