They have Mofes and the Prophets, let them hear them. But ftill he infifts, Nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the Dead, they will repent. Then follows the Text, which is the laft Refolution of this Cafe, If they hear not Mofes and the Prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one rofe from the Dead. And indeed where Infidelity is the Effect of fuch profligate Wickedness, it deserves not so much Regard from God, as that he should condefcend to make particular Applications to it by new Lights and Evidences: And fhould he do it, there is Reafon to fufpect it would be ineffectual. We fee, in the ordinary Course of Providence, many Judgments bestowed upon Sinners to reclaim and amend them; but they harden themselves against them; fo that their last State is worse than their firft. I will not anfwer for the Courage of Sinners, how well they would bear the Sight of one from the Dead; nay, I am apt to imagine it would ftrangely terrify and amaze them. But to be frightened and to be perfuaded are two things: Nature would recover the Fright, and Sin would recover Strength, and the great Fright might come to be matter of Ridicule. How eafy would it be, when the Fright was over,

to

to compare this Event with the many ridiculous Stories we have of Apparitions, and to come at length to miftruft our own Senfes, and to conclude that we were milled, like a Man in a dark Night who follows an Ignis fatuus? And, what is worse, when the Infidel had once conquered his own Fears, and got loose again from the Thoughts of Religion, he would then conclude, that all Religion is made up of that Fear which he felt himself, which others cannot get rid of, though he fo manfully and happily subdued it. You You may think it perhaps impoffible, that a Man fhould not be convinced by fuch an Appearance: The fame I believe you would think of the Judgments which befel Pharaoh, that it is hardly poffible any Man fhould withstand them; and yet you fee he did Nay, did not the Guards, who were Eye-witnesses of our Saviour's Refurrection; who faw the Angel that rolled away the Stone from the Mouth of the Sepulchre ; who fhook and trembled with Fear, and became as dead Men; did not they, after all this, receive Money to deny all they saw, and to give falfe Evidence against the Person they beheld coming from the Grave? So, fee, it is in the Nature of Man to with

you

ftand fuch Evidences, where the Power of

Sin is prevalent.

Befides, there are many Sinners, who are not Infidels: They may believe Mofes and the Prophets, though they will not hear them, that is, obey them. Now fhould one come from the Dead to these Men, the most they could do would be to believe him: But that does not imply their obeying him; for they believe Mofes and the Prophets, Chrift and his Apoftles, and yet obey not them; and why fhould Obedience be the Confequence of Belief in one Cafe more than another? There can be no greater Arguments for Obedience than the Gospel affords; and therefore he who believes the Gofpel, and difobeys it, is out of hope to be reformed by any other Evidence. So that, confidering this Cafe with respect to all manner of Infidels or Sinners, there is Reason in our Saviour's Judgment; If they will not hear Mofes and the Prophets, neither will they be perfuaded, though one rofe from the Dead.

And hence perhaps we may learn the Reafon, why this fort of Intercourse between the other World and this is fo very rare and uncommon, because it could ferve no good End and Purpofe; for God having already

given a fufficient Evidence of all Things which we are concerned to know, there is no room to expect or hope for fuch kinds of Admonition. He fent the greatest Person of the other World to us, his own Son, and fent him too from the Dead: He has come himself down to us in Signs and Wonders and mighty Works: And why he should fend a Man from the Dead to tell you, what is legible in the Book of Nature, what He, his Son, his Apostles and Prophets have already told you, you that can give the Reason, give it.

DISCOURSE