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nefs, the Wife Man tells us, condemn'd by her own Witness is very Timorous,and being prefs'd with Confcience is always fore cafting grievous things. (Wild. 17. 11.) And it is one great plague of the Wicked, To be in great Fear there where no Fear is. Neither indeed is it neceffary, that any of the Temporal Evils that They fear fhould come upon them, for tho' their ownConfcience punishes'em with the prefent Apprehenfion of 'em; yet God for wife Reasons may think fit not to inflict 'em here, referving his Entire Wrath to the day of Wrath. But that Fear, which is properly the Fear of the Wicked, and which fhall furely come upon him, is the Fear of Judgment, an Expectation of a future Recompence,and Execution of fuchVengeance as fhall to the full answer or exceed all that ever he could Fear, containing in itself eminently and virtually all kinds of Evil to all Eternity. And that this Fear fhall come upon him, 'There is

1ft, The higheft Probability, from Reafon. 2dly, The moft undoubted Certainty, from Revelation.

And Firft, for this very Reason, namely, that there are Naturally imprinted upon the Mind of Man thefe Apprehenfions of Future Reward and Punishment, it is highly probable that there fhall be fuch. Now becaufe the whole ftrefs of this Argument

will lye upon thefe Apprehenfions being Natural, it will be neceffary not only to fay they are fo, as has already been said, but to prove that they must be fo. And I think they may be made out fo to be,

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ift, By their being Univerfal. No Age nor Country fo Remote or Barbarous but has had fome Senfe or Feeling of them and tho' it should be granted that there have fince the beginning of the World been fome few Atheists, that have never had thefe C Fears upon 'em, which is fhrewdly to be fufpected, and rather to be beliey'd, that they had ftifled 'em, or even while they felt 'em difguis'd and difown'd 'em; yet fuch few and rare Examples are to be look'd on, rather as Deviations from Nature, than the Standard or Meafure of it: and That concluded to be Natural, which, bating Monfters which among all the works of Nature fometimes happen, is elfe Universal and Common to the whole Kind. This is a general Rule to prove any thing Natural; But this Fear has in it befides fomething par ticular. For tho' Common and Univerfal Confent may not be the beft Argument in the World for fuch things as gratify Men in their Eafe and Senfual Appetites; yet in fuch their Opinions as are cross to their Pleasure or Worldly Interefts, it must argue fuch to be from fome Natural Impreffion

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upon their Mind, which they must believe and cannot otherwise chufe.

2dly, That they are Natural, may be prov'd, because they are the first Notions of Mankind, the first Principles all Men affent to without difficulty or difpute; the first Principles that Atheists themselves did Naturally Believe, and if they do not still, 'tis the Effect of great Industry and Violence that they don't. They are Antecedent to all Laws, and therefore not, as some would have it, the Contrivance of Princes or Politicians to keep the People in awe. And that they were before all Laws is Evident, because they are grounded upon that which is before all Laws, Namely, the Eternal Ef fential difference between Good and Evil,, which difference all the Lawgivers in the World can no more make, than they can a Man. Befides, were thefe Fears the Contrivances of Wife Kings or Crafty Statemen to cheat the Vulgar into Subjection; then they, who were in the Plot, would be free from them themselves; but this is fo far from being true, that neither the greatest Princes, nor the wifeft Politicians, by their Power or their Wifdom, can defend themfelves from 'em; but ftand equally at least expos'd to 'em, if not more than the meanest of the common Herd. Neither are they the Inventions of Prieft-craft (as fome are pleas'd

to

to call it) for the fame reafon; and for this farther, That tho' it be granted that the Credulity of Mankind may be impos'd upon; and fuperftitious, unreasonable Fears be fuper-induc'd; yet this rather proves that there is fuch a Natural Principle, which cunning and designing Men may manage to their own Advantage, and engraft upon it what they please. For if they had not found ready to their hands fuch a Prone. nefs in all Mankind to Believe a Future State, they could never have fo abus'd it as fome of them have done.

3dly, That they areNatural, may be prov'd by this, that they stick so close to our very Nature and the Frame of our Being, that they cannot without extreme Violence (if at all) be rooted out of it. For hardly will it be found that the most obftinately Wicked, who with their utmost Study and Endeavour have apply'd themselves to the fuppreffing and disbelieving these troublesome Notions, could ever fo wholly ftifle 'em, but that they would be continually rifing up in their Minds and pursuing them. A Man may by various Bufinefs and Diverfions, or by a continual flying for Refuge from himself into Company, Thake off for a while all these Melancholy Reflections; or by a courfe of Debauchery ftupify his Mind and make it quite infenfible. But alas!

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fuch a One's Fear is not Dead but Sleepeth; and whatever occafion makes the Man come to himself again,Roufes that too and wakens it afresh, more outrageous and tormenting than before.

The great difficulty of getting rid of this Principle is alfo an Argument, that it did not come only by Education, as fome would have us Believe: For if we had thefe Notions only by being taught, Inftitution might as eafily root out as plant 'em; which we find it cannot, tho' all other Errors of Education may be and are frequently corrected by Reafon and Experience. What then fhould be the caufe, except the congruity in the things themselves, that meer Teaching fhould be able to exprefs thefe Notions, and not be as fufficient toDeface them again? Efpecially confidering the Advantage on this fide, from the Natural Repugnancy we have against any thing that brings difquiet to our Minds. And furely nothing can bring more, than the Fear which follows upon Guilt. But tho' there have been feveral witty Men and fhrew'd Philofophers in all Ages, who have bent all their Parts this way, to Banish from among Mankind this Fear; yet with all their Wit and Skill, and all the Lufts and Interefts of a wicked World on their fide, they could never effect it. Nay, it is to be doubted, whether ever yet there has been

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