that there is only one life, and only one term of felicity. Providence does not regard human misdemeanors, says another, with an eye of anger. Infinite power, united with infinite wisdom, in the same Being, does not punish. It either raises to perfection, or annihilates. or annihilates. The idea of a great and of a good God, absolutely excludes the idea of an avenging God.* But, if punishment be ascribed to God, vengeance must be permitted to man, who is created after his image. In the language of the same school, the soul without the body is not man; as the body without the soul is not man. Man, therefore, though the soul exists, does not exist after death. God, consequently, cannot exercise his justice and his vengeance on what does not exist. Rewards and punishments are, of course, mere tales of prejudice and imposition.

But, with submission, I think we have shewn, that reason and philosophy, tradition and revelation, have one and all furnished conclusions of a contrary, and of a more comfortable complexion. If I am, indeed, entirely formed of a material substance, the intellectual principle I possess, must decay, must perish, with my body; there is nothing for me beyond the precincts of

the

* Diderot, + Toussaint.

De L'Ame.

the tomb; and my true line of wisdom is to laugh at an hereafter. But, if it should be true, that my soul is of a different nature from my body, that principle may survive the mansion it inhabits; it may be immortal, and, consequently, the neglect of it may be the most fatal and lamentable inattention I can be guilty of. The doctrine is also, I must conceive, of too much consequence even to present happiness, to be an error. Were there no other argument, this, to a reflecting mind, would be of some consequence. There is a God, and that God must be perfect; and if he be perfect, there must be a difference in the fates of the honest man and the villain.

Without the hope of immortality, what a wretched lot would be assigned to man! He comes into the world without any participation of his own, and shall hereafter be, as if he had never been: he is certain of little in life, and of nothing after it, but that he shall perish everlastingly. In the mean time, he is confined to a world, where neither goodness nor justice are allowed to rule; a world, which was not made for him, but which seems in many respects the bedlam of every other system of intelligent creatures; and with this unlucky circumstance, that

they

they who are most mad, govern, in things of the greatest importance, those who are least so; a world, wherein men of the greatest genius have been often transported into metaphysical delirium and religious extravagance; in short, a world, abounding with little else than fools and knaves; the one of which must provoke his contempt, and the other his indignation. Can any thing be more dreadful, than thus to admit, and to expose, the weakness of human reason; to acknowledge the blindness, impotence, and irregularity of human passions; and to take away what alone can restrain them, the hope of an advancement or retribution, in a state future and immortal? It is not enough, that death delivers us from our pains, unless we are also taught that it deprives us of our pleasures. And as for our advantages in life, and our boasted prerogatives of reason, the brute, according to these doctrines, should seem to enjoy the happier por-: tion. We are deprived of reason and of revelation, of grace and of glory, of God's present providence, and of his future favour. The sense of a life so base and wretched in its nature, and in its existence so short and uncertain; of faculties impertinent in their use; of a reason unreasonable in its operations; of irregularities never to be rectified; and of misery never to be reme

I

died,

died; of a God that has no relation to us, nor we to him; and of an eternity which we must never inherit is not this to mock our weakness, and to embitter our limited and transitory duration ?*

The man who attempts to kill my body is kind, compared to him who would kill my soul. I can bear to be miserable here; but, I am filled with horror at the idea of being undone for ever. But, the most profane atheists have been willing to allow, that the belief of another life is a good political invention, and a useful ingredient in the well-governing of the world. Whereby, they grant at least, it is fit these things should be true, if they are not; or, in any event, that the generality of men should hold them to be true. Others, indeed, have wished to root out all troublesome notions of a future state, endeavouring to persuade themselves and others of their absurdity. Yet, it may reasonably be doubted, whether ever there was one, even of the most hardy, who had brought himself to be absolutely free from fears. They, too generally, are the most assaulted by them. "Hi sunt qui trepidant, & omnia fulgura pallent."

Sketch of Character of Bolingbroke.

It,

It is, and has been by the majority of the world, at all times acknowledged, that the hypothesis of the immortality of the soul is conformable to our desires, and that man is naturally flattered by it. Why then tear from humanity its sweetest hope? Why destroy the spring of our best actions? Why ravish from the unfortunate the sole consolation, which can fortify or inspire them with comfort, in the midst of their afflictions? Why abandon the virtuous to despair? Barbarous philosophy! Leave to us the illusion, if it be so, which cherishes and makes us happy. From what motive, O atheists! do you present your disas terous system? Would you wish to cure men of all apprehensions of a life to come. The prospect of a future state gives the good man no uneasiness. There are none but the ini quitous who tremble at an hereafter. Is it to harden them in their crimes; is it to stifle their remorse; is it to deliver into their hands the pure and amiable, that you labour? Melancholy occupation! Do the wicked alone merit the succours of philosophy? Would you have a religion, where the good man, and the notorious sinner, should be equally held dear by Providence; which should comfort the wicked with the notion that they have nothing to fear; which should

VOL. IV.

E