Page images
PDF
EPUB

though there are several of your unbelieving brethren, who are men of confiderable natural abilities, of fome learning, and of decent morals, yet there are not a few among you, as among us, who are profane and debauched in no fmall degree; and who, therefore, are not capable of being reafoned with upon any religious topic whatever. Thefe are a difgrace to any caufe. And the more zealously they avow their party the lefs honourable it is to that party. Such men are little raised above the brutes that perish, being earthly, fenfual, devilish. Let them but eat, drink, fleep, and, indulge the bafer paffions of the human frame, they afk no more, they look no higher.-To intellectual and refined enjoyments they are ftrangers. Of literary gratifications they know little. For moral and religious pleasures they have no tafte. Immortal expectations, which exalt and enoble the mind of man, they are willing to forego. The language of their fenfual fouls, which are brutalized with indulgence, is no other than that of the ancient Epicureans :—Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die. And did they die to-morrow, the public would have no great lofs of them could they make good their hopes, that death is an eternal ceffation from fenfibility, they themselves would sustain no material inconvenience. The best they can expect, is, to ceafe to be: a confummation, for fuch characters, devoutly to be wifhed!

These are the men, however, who make the greatest noise, and most violently oppose the Religion of the Son of GOD and the Sacred Writings* !

It is an honour to that Religion, and thofe Writings, that fuch men are infidels, and avow their Unbelief in the face of the world! May every unreasonable and immoral man do the fame!

It is calculated, that, when trade goes pretty well, there are, upon an average, 200,000 manufacturers in this country, who conftantly fpend their working hours in idlenfs, drinking, gambling and debauchery. This large body of men may too be confidered as infidels in principle, atheifts in practice, and ripe for any wicked and defperate enterprize which may arife. They are the curfe and fcum of the country; and yet they are ufually exceffively wife in their own eyes, and prudent in their own conceit. All the world are fools befides themfelves. They are great politicians, great philofophers, great divines-over their cups!-and wisdom shall die with them!

After

After all, MY COUNTRYMEN, if every thing befides in thefe papers fhall be defpifed by you, let the feveral examples herein recorded have their due weight upon your minds. If there is importance in any thing, it is usually to be found in the fentiments and behaviour of men, when they draw near the close of their earthly existence.

"Men may live fools; but fools they cannot die."

We may, indeed, be hardened in our fins, when that event draws nigh. We may brave it out against death. We may fet at defiance all the threats of heaven. But, ufually, we difcover certain symptoms, even here, of what our future deftiny is like to be. Fear, horror, indifference, hope, trust, faith, reliance, joy, will all more or less prevail, according as the ftate of our minds fhall be, in those folemn moments, when death is making his approach*.

So

• There is a very affecting narrative juft published by a JOHN COOKE, of Maidenhead, in Berks, entitled Reafon paying homage to Revelation, in the Confeffion of a Deift at the gates of death. The gentleman in question was a very refpectable perfon of the medical profeffion in that town, and died at the age of thirty-three, He was a man of pleasure, as far as bufinefs would permit; but his favourite amusement was the card-table, at which he spent much time, and would frequently fay to Mr. Cook E, who feems to be a diffenting minifter, "I am prodigioufly fond of cards." While he was vifiting one of his patients, he was fuddenly taken ill. His confcience was alarmed. His deiftical principles, of which he had long made his boast while in health, gave way. He lamented his fad condition in moft affecting and pitiable accents. Among other things, he acknowledged, with unutterable diftrefs, his neglect of the LORD's day, and the public worship of GOD.. When he was well, he could fay, " he was eafy

without the Bible, he had no fears for his foul-he believed it would "die with his body-and he was never difturbed about these things"he could read profane hiftory with as much pleasure as another reads "his Bible." But, when he was ill, and apprehended himself to be on the brink of the grave, he was thrown into fuch unutterable agony, as to be bereft, at times, of his reafon. In the most bitter terms he bewailed his paft folly-mourned over his loft opportunities-declared his full purpofe, if restored, of attending to the great concerns of his foul-and folemnly warned his companions not to follow his example-and cried unto God for mercy. At length, after having lain for fome time in a fenfeless state, he breathed out his foul with a difmal groan.

If THOMAS PAINE was as eafy and confident in his deiftical principles under the views of approaching diffolution, as he pretends, and, as I fuppose, he really was, this is by no means a fure criterion of those prin

ciples

So it was in the feveral cafes we have recorded in these pages. And the time is not at any great distance when we too, must bear our final teftimony; when the scene of life fhall clofe; and our eternal ftate commence. If fo,

"Nothing is worth a thought beneath,
"But how we may efcape the death,
"That never, never dies!

"How make our own election fure,
"And, when we fail on earth, fecure
"A manfion in the skies."

If you are hardy enough to reject the Scriptural represen-
tations of future mifery, give credit, at leaft, to your own
Bible, the writings of the moft refpectable of the Heathens.
They

ciples being the only true ones. No man's private perfuafion, or conviction, can be a fure test of truth. For we find men fully perfuaded of the truth of their fentiments under the most various, and even contradictory opinions. The moft, therefore, that can be inferred from a decla ration of this nature, is, that THOMAS PAINE thought his opinions were according to truth, not that they really were fo. BOLINGBROKE was an immoral man, and yet he too died a deift. ROUSSEAU had been a wretch, and yet he died avowing his innocency even to the ALMIGHTY himself. THOMAS PAINE is by no means an excellent moral character, and yet he rejects every idea of a SAVIOUR. What then? Shall their felf-righteouconvictions be the ftandard of truth? If THOMAS PAINE had well read and confidered STERNE's Sermon on the Abufes of Confcience in Triftram Shandy, he never would have produced his being eafy in the views of apparent diffolution, as a proof that his deiftical principles are founded in truth. Confcience may be lulled to reft by a vaft multitude of foporifics. And there is fuch a thing too as having it feared as with an

hot-iron!

One of the moft remarkable inftances of the power of confcience, I recollect to have read, is related by Mr. FORDYCE, in his Dialogues on Education, vol. 2. p. 401; and inferted in the Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 5. p. 1; and in the Evan. Mag. vol. 6. p. 327.

to be true.

If dying with eafe, and a conviction that our own religious principles are the only true ones, were a certain proof of truth, and that we are right, then would the most abfurd and contradictory opinions be proved How many Chriftians of the most oppofite fentiments depart this life, under the firmest perfuafion of the truth of their principles, and the most confident affurance that they are going to eternal reft? Would THOMAS PAINE allow this to be a juft proof, that their opinions are founded in truth? Befides, SPINOZA, the Atheift, was both a much greater, and a much more moral man than THOMAS PAINE, and he died T

avowing

In

They had their Elyfium and Tartarus as we our Heaven and Hell. Nor was there ever any religious inftitution, which held not out promifes of reward to the obedient,. and threatnings of punishment to the difabedient. deed, every government, whether human or divine,- must naturally and neceffarily do it, or there is an end to all order. Every law must have its fanction. Accordingly, we find HOMER, PLATO, VIRGIL*, and others, have faid every thing that is horrible concerning the future mifery of loft fouls. Our great English Dramatist, who has copied from their writings, fhail fpeak their opinions:

"Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obftruction, and to rot;

avowing his Atheistic principles. Is this a proof thofe principles are true? Shall we conclude there is no Gon, becaufe a poor misguided man is mad enough to die in that perfuafion? Because BRUNO is fuch a foal to burn at a flake in defence of the fame Atheistic principles, fhall the whole asiftic fcheme be thereby fubverted, and Atheism confidered as the only true doctrine? If this is conclufive reafoning, what becomes of Mr. PAINE's boafted principles?

How different are mens convictions under the afflicting hand of Gor? THOMAS PAINE continues hardened, and refolves to die in his Infidelity. CASPER BARTHOLIN, the celebrated Danish Phyfician, when affliction was heavy upon him, made a vow and promife to Heaven, if he was reftored to health, that he would give up his medical pursuits, and apply himfelf wholly to his religious concerns. He was restored, and kept the vow he had fo folemnly made unto God. THOMAS PAINE is reftored and rages more than ever against the LORD and his CHRIST!

k

Priefs, of every denomination, are objects of the higheft poffible con. tempt to all our deifical gentlemen. One of that fraternity who has fince been taught the error of his ways, in a manner very much out of the common way, was known to declare," He hoped to lee the day, "when there would not be a prieft-and that he would not believe the Chriftian religion while he had his fenfes.”—Though then in a good tate of health, within a couple of hours he went deranged, and foon after made various efforts to deftroy himfelf, wifhing to be in hell as loon as poffible, that he might feel the worft of his cafe. Three phyficians attended him for fome time; and the rich promifes of the Gospel being held out to him, he was at length reftored to a found mind, and is now a happy witnefs of the power of redecming grace.

Vide Evang. Mag. for Sep. 1798. *The reader will find an account of the rewards of the righteous, and the punishments of the wicked, in HOMER's fourth and eleventh books of his Odyfey; in PLATO's Phedron, or Dialogue on the Immortality of the Soul; and in the fixth book of VIRGIL'S Æneis.

"This

"This fenfible warm motion to become
"A kneaded clod; and the delighted fpirit
"To bathe in fiery floods, or to refide
"In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;
"To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
"And blown with reftlefs violence round about
The pendant world; or to be worse than worst
"Of thofe, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling: 'Tis too horrible!

[ocr errors]

"The wearieft and moft loathed worldly life,
"That age, ache, penury, imprisonment,
"Can lay on nature, is a paradife

"To what we fear of death."

If this, or any thing like this, is to be the future deftiny of a certain clafs of our fellow-creatures, we shall gain little by rejecting the Gospel reprefentations. We fhall be extremely unwife to fuffer our probationary period to pafs away unimproved. If our race be indeed in a state of moral ruin; if the ALMIGHTY hath devifed means for our recovery; if, among other meffengers, he hath fent a perfon higher than the heavens to be our REDEEMER*; we fhall be ftrangely wanting to ourselves, if we treat this glorious perfon, and the doctrines of falvation he hath taught, with neglect or contempt. At all events, therefore, let us examine well the ground upon which we stand. Negligence, in fuch a caufe, is nearly as culpable as contempt. And be it never forgotten, that on every fyftem, a ftrictly moral, and religious conduct, is the duty, the interet, the felicity of all reafonable Beings. What an idiot muft that man be, who rejects his SAVIOUR, his Bible, and

* For a very clear and fatisfactory defence of the doctrine of redemption by JESUS CHRIST fee the first vol. of Bishop PORTEUS's Sermons, difcourfe the tenth, and vol. z. difcourfes the fecond and third; and that he is the real and proper Son of GOD fee the 14th difcourfe of the fame volume. The reader who remains unconvinced after confidering the various arguments advanced by the above learned and amiable Prelate will probably refift every thing that can be faid by any other writer. If, however, he is defirous of feeing the matter fairly argued between Christianity and Deifm, let him have recourfe to a volume of Sermons preached at the Temple Church by Bishop SHERLOCK. I myself remember this book to have convinced a determined Deift, who is now an eminent inftrument in the hands of Providence for the converfion of others. I would, therefore, to all fuch ufe the words of AUGUSTINE-Tolle et lege; tolle et lege.

T 2

-all.

« EelmineJätka »