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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 Juft, 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 Testimonies. The wickedeft of Men, are, very often, the greateft in the World; and thofe that oppress such as truly fear God, swim in all manner of Plenty and Ease, and Riches and Honour. And tho' 'tis 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 arraigned, condemned, executed; undergo tortures of cruel mockings, of fcourgings,of bonds, of imprisonments; witnefs the Saints of the three first Centuries; who with all their ftri&tnefs and circumfpect walking with God, got nothing visibly, but Gibbits, and Gallows, and Racks, and Wheels, and Flames, 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 horridnefs of the Crimes they commit.

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How gently do many of these Monsters die upon their Beds, no Lamp expires more leisurely than their Breath; while the other,that meditates in God's Law day and night, dies with difgrace and shame, or is most barbarously murdered, and butchered. Can I look upon all these Paffages and Occurrences, and not conclude another World? I must either conclude, there is no Governor of the World, or if there be one, that Governor will certainly find a time, if not here, yet hereafter, to manifeft his Juftice, to reward the Innocent, and to punish thofe that bid defiance to Heaven. It was therefore rationally faid of Frederick the Emperor, hearing that a Nobleman in one of his Provinces, a Man who had denied himfelf nothing that his fenfual Appetite did crave, lived all his time, fo far as his Nature was able to bear it, in Gluttony, Drunkenness, Fornication, Adultery, Oppreffion, Injustice, and had committed several Murders too, and had never been sick, and died at last, after 95 Years abode in the World, of mere old Age, quietly, foftly, without any pain, or disturbance, That either there must be no God, or there must be another World, where this licentious Wretch must be punished.

Either Man is a nobler Creature than a Beast, or he is not; if he be not, what means his Reafon, his Speech, his Power, to exprefs his Mind, and to examine the Nature, Manner, Ends, Caufes, and Designs of all Things, his Dominion over all the Beaits of the Earth, &c. If he be, we must not affirm that of him, which will certainly declare him more miferable than the Beasts,

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whofe Spirits go downwards. If there be no other World, no Judgment to come, no after-retribution, why is Man poffeffed with the fear of it? This Fear is a thing of that confequence,and hath fo great an influence upon Mens lives, that from. that fear, according as Creatures are either poffeffed with it, or want it, they may justly be called either happy or miferable. Beafts, I fee, are not capable of these fears, and confequently cannot be disturbed with the apprehenfion of some things, and therefore must neceffarily be more happy and nobler Creatures than Men, who are not only capable of such Apprehensions, but, by a natural Instinct, feed and cherish such Thoughts as these.

And can there be any thing more absurd, than to call an Ox, or Lion, or Elephant, a nobler Creature than Man? And yet this muft neceffarily follow, if there be no other World. Man would be the most miserable Creature in the World, being fo apt to be tormented with those fears, if he did die into Annihilation: And he might justly wish himself a Beast, and lament that God had put fuch a Clog to all his Delights and Merriments, and accufe his Maker of Injustice, or Cruelty, for frighting, or poffeffing him with fears of that which never was, nor is, nor will be.

Such Confiderations, and paufing upon the point in cool Blood, would most certainly fatisfie any rational, impartial Man, and deliver him from halting between two Opinions, and convince him, that he doth not ceafe to be when he dies; that there is a juft Judge; that he willina T2

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short time find it by woful Experience, if a ferious return to God prevent it not, and that when the jolly Sinner banishes all Thoughts and Contemplations of this nature from his Mind, he turns Monster, challenging Devils, yea worse than Devils, for the Devils believe a World to come, and tremble; and it's meerly want of Confideration makes him fo.

3. The fame defect makes him wonder at the malapertness and impertinence of Divines, that, in every Sermon almoft, pronounce eternal Flames to be a due and juft Punishment for Temporal Sins.

Let the vain Man but call his Thoughts together, and summon his Understanding, to take a view of fuch Topicks as thefe. Why should I think it incongruous to God's Juftice, to punish Sins committed here, with an Eternity of Pain and Anguish? Hath not he power to do with his own what he pleafeth? May not he affright stubborn Sinners with what Punishment he hath a mind to? It is not every Infirmity, every accidental Error, every Ignorance, every little Fault that this Eternity of Anguish is threatned to, but a wilful Ignorance, cuftomary Sinning, ftubborn Difobedience, habitual Rebellion. Had a Servant to whom I were as kind as to my own Child, whom I had raifed out of the Duft, and heaped innumerable Favours upon, and promised all my Estate to, after fome few Years Service; and fhould that Servant, instead of Honouring of me, defpife me wherever he comes; inftead of Obeying me, Laugh at my reasonable Commands; instead of

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Working, Play his Time away; instead of going to the Place I fend him to, run to Brothel-houses or Taverns; instead of Loving me,Hate me,and Affront me, flight both my actual Kindneffes, and my future Smiles; and notwithstanding my continual Exhortations to another courfe of Life, continue wilfully in the way he hath begun, merely to gratifie his foolish Lufts; and when he is convinced too of the unreasonableness of his Doings, knows it is Ingratitude in the highest degree, and yet will be guilty of it; and when he might do otherwife, only out of malice, and to vindicate his own humour, refolves against it; What Punishment can there be too great for fuch a Wretch?

Were this mine, or my Neighbour's cafe, we fhould certainly doom fuch a Monster to all the Tortures that Severity can invent, or inflict; and why should I have any hard Thoughts of God, for punishing the Sinners ingratitude with Eternal pain or lofs, an ingratitude fo great, all things confidered, that the worst returns one Man can make to another, cannot fufficiently exprefs the horror and vileness of it; and tho' God ought to be looked upon as a Being of infinite Love and Benignity to his Creatures, yet, what a Monster doth he make himself, that throws Dirt upon infinite Beauty and Excellency?

God, for ought I fee, in condemning wilful Sinners to Eternal mifery, gives them but their own choice; and if that old Saying be true, Volenti non fit injuria; To bim that's willing, can be done no injury; God certainly cannot be ac

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