neß, the Wife Man tells us, condemn'd by her own Witness is very Timorous, and being prefs d with Confcience is always fore-cafting greivous things. (Wifd. 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 own Confcience punishes 'em with the present apprehenfion of 'em; yet God for wife reafons 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 Judgement, an Fxpectation of a Future Recompence, and Execution of fuch Vengeance, 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

ift, The higheft Probability, from Reason. adly, The moft undoubted Certainty, from Revelation.

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

will

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

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 Atheifts, that have never had these Fears upon em, which is fhrewdly to be fufpected, and rather to be believ'd, that they had ftifled 'em, or even while they felt em difguis'd and disown'd'em; yet fuch few and Rare Examples are to be look'd on, rather as Deviations from Nature than the ftandard or Measure 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 particular. For tho' Common and Universal Confent may not be the best Argument in the World for fuch things as gratify Men in their Eafe and Senfual Appetites; yet in fuch their Opinions as are crofs to their Pleafures or Worldly Interefts, it must argue fuch to be from fome Natural Impreffion

upon

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

2dly, That they are Natural, may be prov'd, because they are the firft Notions of Mankind, the firft 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 dont. They are Antecedent to all Laws, and therefore not, as fome 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 Effential 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 Statesmen 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 Wisdom, can defend themfelves from 'em; but ftand equally at leaft expos'd to 'em, if not more than the meaneft 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, unreafonable Fears be fuper-induc'd; yet this rather proves that there is fuch a Natural Principle, which cunning and defigning Men may manage to their own Advantage, and engraft upon it what they pleafe. For if they had not. found ready to their hands fuch a pronenefs 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 are Natural, may be prov'd by this, that they ftick fo 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 moft obftinately Wicked, who with their utmoft 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 riseing 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, flake off for a while all these Melancholy Reflections; or by a course of Debauchery ftupify his Mind and make it quite infenfible. But alass!

fuch

fuch a Ones Fear is not Dead but Sleepeth; and whatever occafion makes the Man come to himself again, Roufes that too and wakens it a fresh, more outragious and tormenting than before.

The great difficulty of getting rid of this Principle is also 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 Reason and Experience. What then fhould be the caufe, except the congruity in the things themselves, that meer Teaching fhould be able to express these Notions, and not be as fufficient to Deface them again? Efpecially confidering the Advantage on this fide, from the Natural Repugnancy we have againft 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 several 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