means might be necessary, to produce that end, even in this world of ours, supposing it were detached from the Universe. So far from it, we cannot judge of the best means of raising a single individual to perfection; and we are not even competent judges of each other's motives and actions.

Our whole nature leads us to ascribe all moral perfection to God, and to deny all imperfection of Him. This is a practical proof of His moral character, because it is the voice of God speaking in us. And hence we conclude, that virtue must be the happiness, and vice the misery of every creature: and that regularity, and order, and right, must finally prevail, in an universe under His government. But we are not at all competent judges as to the necessary means for accomplishing this end.

Leaving, then, these vain speculations, let us reflect upon what, by experience, we know to be the conduct of nature, with respect to intelligent creatures. This is resolvable into general laws; just as the laws of nature respecting inanimate matter may be collected from experience. Let us compare the known constitution and course of things, with what is said to be the moral system of nature; let us compare the acknowledged dispensations of Providence (or that government under which we find ourselves to be) with what religion teaches us to believe and expect. They

will be found to be very analogous, and of a piece; both may be traced up to the same general laws, and resolved into the same principles of Divine conduct.

This Analogy is both extensive and varied; in some few cases, amounting to a practical proof; in others not so; but still corroborative of what is proved in other ways. It will undeniably show that the system both of natural and revealed religion (considered merely as a system, and without adverting to the proof of it), is not a subject of ridicule; unless the system of Nature be so too. It will afford an answer to almost all objections against the system of natural and revealed religion; and also an answer, in a great degree, to the objections against the evidence of it. For objections against a system, and objections against the evidence in support of it, are very different things.

The Divine Government of the world (implied in the notion of Religion and Christianity) contains in it,-1st. That mankind will live in a future state, to be there rewarded or punished for their virtuous or vicious conduct here. 2ndly, That our present life is a state of probation for that future one. 3rdly, That this world being in a state of apostacy and ruin, Providence afforded an additional Dispensation, of great importance, and proved by miracles, but yet containing many strange and unexpected things. And 4thly, That it is a Dispensation carried on by a divine

person, or Messiah, for the recovery of the world; yet not revealed to all men, nor yet proved with the strongest possible evidence to those to whom it is revealed; but made known only to such part of mankind, and with such particular evidence, as God thought fit.

The design of the following Treatise will be to show, that in this Dispensation, the parts which are principally objected to (including its scheme, its publication, and the proof given of its truth), are analogous to the known constitution and course of nature, or Providence. That the chief objections against the former, may as justly be urged against the latter, where they will be found inconclusive ;—and that this argument from analogy is generally unanswerable, and always of weight on the side of religion. We will begin with the foundation of all our hopes and fears, -a Future Life.

BOOK I.-CHAPTER I.

OF A FUTURE LIFE.

ARGUMENT.-The Analogy of Nature proves that there is nothing improbable in the belief of a future state of existence; it even furnishes a strong presumption in favour of it, leading us to infer that we shall not be destroyed by death, but shall continue to exist in life and perception after that event. It shows,— from a consideration of the surprising changes that take place in the animal world, and even from the different circumstances and condition of our own life and constitution at different periods, from the womb to mature age, —that a Future Life, (as different from the present, as the state wherein we are, is from those we have passed through) is highly probable, even on natural grounds, independently of what revealed religion teaches us respecting it.

THE Analogy of Nature, and the several changes we have undergone, and those we may undergo, without

being destroyed, make it probable that we may survive the change produced by death, and exist in a future state of life and perception.

I. Man's birth in helpless and imperfect infancy, contrasted with his state of maturity, makes it evident that the same individual can exist, with capacities of action, enjoyment, and suffering at one period, greatly differing from those of another.

This general law of nature in our own species, holds good in other creatures; the change of worms into flies, the bursting of birds and insects from the shell, and indeed all the transformations of animals, are instances of it.

Man's existence in the womb, and in infancy, contrasted with that of his mature age, is as different as any two states can possibly be imagined to be.

Hence, a future state, of existence, as different (probably) from our present one, as our maturity is from our infant or embryo state, is only according to the analogy of Nature.

II. We know we are endued with capacities of action and passion; for we can act, and can feel pleasure or pain. The possession of these capacities before death, affords a presumption, and even a probability that we shall retain them after death; unless it can be shown that death will destroy them: because, as a general rule, there is a probability that every thing will