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THE

COMPLAINT:

OR,

Right Thoughts

ON

LIFE, DEATH,

AND

IMMORTALITY.

To which is added,

A Paraphrase on Part of the Book of JOB.

A NEW EDITION, Corrected by the Author.

Sunt lacrymæ rerum, & mentem mortalia tangunt. VIRG.

LONDON:

Printed for A. MILLAR, in the Strand; and R. and
J. DODSLEY, in Pall-Mall.

M.DCC.LVI.

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CONTENTS of the Seventh Night.

IN

the Sixth Night Arguments were drawn, from NA-
TURE, in Proof of Immortality: Here, others are
drawn from MAN: From his Difcontent, p. 187; from his
Paffions and Powers, 188; from the gradual Growth of
Reason, 189; from his Fear of Death, ibid. from the
Nature of Hope, 190; and of Virtue, 191, &c. from
Knowlege, and Love, as being the most effential Properties of
the Soul, 196; from the Order of Creation, ibid.; from the
Nature of Ambition, 199, &c. Avarice, 203, 204; Plea-
fure, 204. A Digreffion on the Grandeur of the Paffions,
206, 207. Immortality alone renders our prefent State in-
telligible, 207. An Objection from the Stoics Disbelief of
Immortality, anfwered, 208, 209. Endless Questions unre-
folvable, but on Suppofition of our Immortality, 209. The
natural, moft melancholy, and pathetic Complaint of a Worthy
Man under the Perfuafion of no Futurity, 211, &c. The grofs
Abfurdities and Horrors of Annihilation urg'd home on Lo-
RENZO, 216, &c. The Soul's vaft Importance, 224, &c.
from whence it arifes, 227, 228. The Difficulty of being an
Infidel, 230. The Infamy, ibid. the Cause, 232. and the
Character, 232, 233, of an Infidel-State. What True
Free-thinking is, 233, 234. The neceffary Punishment of
the Falfe, 235. Man's Ruin is from Himself, 236. An In-
fidel accufes himself of Guilt, and Hypocrify; and that of
the worst Sort, 237. His Obligation to Chriftians, ibid.
What Danger be incurs by Virtue, 238. Vice recommended
to Him, 239. His high Pretences to Virtue, and Benevo-
lence, exploded, ibid. The Conclufion, on the Nature of
Faith, 241. Reafon, 242; and Hope, 242, 243; with
an Apology for this Attempt, 243.

I

HEAV'N

EAV'N gives the needful, but neglected, Call.

HEA

What Day, what Hour, but knocks at human To wake the Soul to Senfe of future Scenes? [Hearts, Deaths ftand, like Mercurys, in ev'ry Way;

And kindly point us to our Journey's End.

PORE, who couldst make Immortals! art Thou dead?
I give thee Joy: Nor will I take my Leave;
So foon to follow: Man but dives in Death;
Dives from the Sun, in fairer Day to rife;
The Grave, his fubterranean Road to Bliss.
Yes, infinite Indulgence plann'd it fo;

Thro' various. Parts our glorious Story runs ;
Time gives the Preface, endless Age unrolls
The Volume (ne'er unroll'd!) of human Fate.

*

This, Earth and Skies already have proclaim'd.
The World's a Prophecy of Worlds to come;
And who, what God foretels (who fpeaks in Things,
Still louder than in Words) fhall dare deny?
If Nature's Arguments appear too weak,
Turn a new Leaf, and ftronger read in Man.
If Man fleeps on, untaught by what he fees,

*Night the Sixth.

Can

PREFACE.

'S the Occafion of this Poem was real,

AS

not fictitious; fo the Method pursued in it, was rather imposed, by what spontaneously arofe in the author's mind, on that occafion, than meditated, or defigned. Which will appear very probable from the nature of it. For it differs from the common mode of Poetry, which is from long narrations to draw fhort morals. Here, on the contrary, the narrative is fhort, and the morality arifing from it, makes the bulk of the Poem. The reafon of it is, That the facts mentioned did naturally pour thefe moral re-flections on the thought of the writer.

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