G To His GRACE, CHRISTOPHER, Lord Duke of Albemarle, &c. Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of Devon and Effex, Gentleman of His Majefty's Bed-Chamber, one of His Majefty's most Honourable Privy-Council, and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter, &c. My LORD, may it please your Grace, I Dare not call this Addrefs, Prefumption, the ufual Compliment Men give to Perfons of Honour in Dedications of Books, but Duty, and the greatest Service I can pay It's the Caufe of God, and the Caufe of Mens immortal Souls, Lam defending in this Treatife; a Subject which claims Attention from all Degrees of Men, and wherein the most puiffant Prince is as much concerned as the meanest Vaffal. It is a future Eftate; and you. A 2 what what becomes of Men, when their Bodies do drop from them, and what they must do to inherit that Eternal Glory, which a merciful God hath been pleased to promise them, that I intend to speak to; and if there be such a thing as a Retribution after Death, and our Souls when they leave their Earthly Tabernacles muft come to an After-reckoning, and appear before the dreadful Tribunal of a just and infinite Majefty, certainly that Man is unjust to himself, and an Enemy to his own Preservation, that dares neglect his Preparation for that great and tremendous Audit, and prefers not Meditation on that laft Account, before all the Senfual Enjoyments of this World. My Lord, We are fallen into an Age, wherein fome few daring Men (indeed their Number is inconfiderable, compared with the more Sober Part of Mankind) have prefumed to mock at a Punishment after Death, and termed that a Bugbear, derived from the Tales of Priests, and the Melancholy of Contemplative Men, which the wifer World heretofore was afraid to entertain, but with moft ferious Reflexions. When the ripest and most subact Judgments, for almost Six thousand Years together, by the Inftin&t of Nature and Confcience, have believed a future Retribution; it's pretty to see a few raw Youths, who have drown'd their Reason in Senfuality, and fcarcely ever perused any Books, but Romances, and the lafcivious Rhapfodies of Poets, affume to themselves a Power to controul the Universal Sense and Confent of of Mankind; think themselves wifer than all the grave Sages that have lived before them; and break Jelts in their Riots and Debaucheries, upon that, which not only Chriftians, but Jews, Mahometans, and Heathens, the fubti left and most knowing of them, have, ever fince we have any Record or Hiftory of their Actions and Belief, profeffed, and embraced with all imaginable Reverence. And, are not things come to a fine pass, my Lord, when Chriftianity, the clearest Revelation that was ever vouchfafed to Men, hath been received, confirmed, and approved of in the World above Sixteen hundred Years; and the greatest Philofophers, in many of those Countries where it hath taken Root, have not dared to doubt of the truth of it, the convincing Power that came along with it proclaiming its Divinity and Majefty; that these bold Attentates fhould now begin to arraign its Authority, and put us upon proving the first Principles of it, as if the World were returned to its former Barbarifm, and we had once more to do with Infidels; as if Men had divested themselves of Humanity, and put on the Nature of Beafts, and were fent into the World to understand no more, but the Matter and Motion of the Malmsbury PhiloSophy. I confefs, I have fometimes blamed my felf for accuting thefe Libertines of Atheism, when I have understood what mortal Enemies they were to Lying and Nonfenfe: For how should not they believe a God, that cannot speak a Sentence but muft Swear by Him; or the Truth of the Chriftian Religion, that put so remarkable an Emphasis upon his Wounds and Blood; or another World, that do fo often imprecate Damnation to themselves; or the being of a Devil, who do not seldom wish, he may confound them? Would not any Man conclude, That Perfons who do fo exclaim against every mistaken and misplaced Word, and are fuch perfect Masters of Sense, and value themselves fo much upon their Veracity, muft needs believe the Existence of thofe Things they make use of in their ingenious Oaths and Curfes, the Pompous Ornaments, which, in this Licentious Age, fet off the Glory, Wit, and Gallantry of fuch accomplished Pretenders? But though we must not be fo unmannerly, as to accufe thefe Wits of Contradictions in their Difcourfes; yet any Man that doth not love Darkness better than Light, may foon perceive how faulty this way thefe Scepticks are, there being nothing more common with them, than to fmile at the Nction of that God, by whom they fwore juft before; and to rail at that Day of Judgment, which they feemed to acknowledge in their abfurd Wishes and Imprecations. Some have I known, who, in a ferious Fit, have been pleased to tell me, that if they could be fure there was another World, and a Retribution for Good and Evil, none should exceed them |