FORNICATION

FORTUNE

cation sinks, into a mere brutal commerce, a gratification which was designed to be the cement of a sacred, generous, and tender friendship. 4. It leaves the maintenance and education of children, as to the father at least, utterly unsecured. 5. It strongly tempts the guilty mother to guard herself from infamy by methods of procuring abortion, which not only destroy the child, but often the mother. 6. It disqualifies the deluded creatures to be either good wives, or mothers, in any future marriage, ruining that modesty which is the guardian of nuptial happiness. 7. It absolutely disqualifies a man for the best satisfactions; those of truth, virtue, innocent gratifications, tender and generous friendship. 8. It often perpetuates a disease which may be accounted one of the sorest maladies of human nature, and the effects of which are said to visit the constitution of even distant generations.

erper? For according to the different determiations of the wills of men, of king, or people, the The will make peace, or declare war; religion the banished or admitted; the tyrant or the wul king will occupy the throne: for if God ut foresce how the volitions of men will be rained, he cannot foresee any of those events. Put is this but to degrade God from his Deity, to make the most perfect of all intelligences a 11 involved in darkness and uncertainty like selves?" See OMNISCIENCE. FORGIVENESS, the pardon of any offence citted against us. This is a virtue which our elexpressly inculcates, not as extending to our ads only, but to our enemies. "Ye have heard," he, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and ste thine enemy; but I say unto you, love your mes," &c. This," says an ingenious writer, was a lesson so new, and utterly unknown, till ght by his doctrine, and enforced by his example, FORTITUDE is a virtue or quality of the at the wisest moralists of the wisest nations and mind generally considered the same with courage; represented the desire of revenge as a mark though, in a more accurate sense, they seem to fa noble mind; but how much more magnani- be distinguishable. Courage resists danger, foros, how much more beneficial to mankind, is for- titude supports pain. Courage may be a virtue neness! It is more magnanimous, because every or vice, according to the circumstances; fortitude trous and exalted disposition of the human is always a virtue: we speak of desperate courage, ad is requisite to the practice of it; and it is but not of desperate fortitude. A contempt or most beneficial, because it puts an end to an neglect of dangers may be called courage; but al succession of injuries and retaliations." fortitude is the virtue of a rational and consideas, therefore, learn to cherish this noble dis-rate mind, and is founded in a sense of honour, don; let the bitterest enemy we have be and a regard to duty. ned by its effects; let us consider also how lly it is to our own happiness, and how hit prevents the unhappiness of others. I feuds and animosities, in families, and been neighbours, which disturb the intercourse of human hie, and collectively compose half the ry of it, have their foundation in the want * forgiving temper, and can never cease but by exercise of this virtue on one side, or on both." Puva Mor. Phil, vol. i. p. 271; Soame Jenyns's 1. Erid. p. 67, 68; Clarke's Ser. ser. 2. vol. x.; ton's Ser, vol. viii. p. 254. FORGIVENESS OF SINS. See PARDON, M ?' Y.

FORMALIST, one who places too much ndence on outward ceremonies of religion, or 62% more tenacious of the form of religion than wer of it.

Christian fortitude may be defined, that state of mind which arises from truth and confidence in God; enables us to stand collected and undisturbed in the time of difficulty and danger; and is at an equal distance from rashness on the one hand, and pusillanimity on the other. Fortitude takes different names, according as it acts in opposition to different evils: but some of those names are applied with considerable latitude. With respect to danger in general, fortitude has been called intrepidity; with respect to the dangers of war, ralour; with respect to pain of body, or distress of mind, patience; with respect to labour, activity; with respect to injury, forbearance; with respect to our condition in general, magnanimity.

Christian fortitude is necessary to vigilance, patience, self-denial, and perseverance; and is requisite under affliction, temptation, persecution, desertion, and death. The noble cause in which the Christian is engaged; the glorious Master whom he serves; the provision that is made for his security; the illustrious examples set before him; the approbation of a good conscience; and the grand prospect he has in view, are all powerful motives to the exercise of this grace. Watts's Ser. ser. 31; Erans's Ser. ser. 19. vol. i.; Steele's Christian Hero; Mason's Ser. vol. i. ser. v.

FORMS OF PRAYER. See PRAYER. FORNICATION, whoredom, or the act of tinency between single persons; for if either e parties be married, it is adultery. While r Scriptures give no sanction to those austeriwhich trave been imposed on men under the tia of religion, sa, on the other hand, they give erty for the indulgence of any propensity would either militate against our own inteor that of others. It is in vain to argue the ency of fornication from the natural pas• vis implanted in us, since "marriage is honour- FORTUNE, a name which, among the anall," and wisely appointed for the prevencients, seemed to have denoted a principle of forof the evils which would otherwise ensue; tuity, whereby things came to pass without being besides, the existence of any natural pro- necessitated thereto; but what and whence that y in us, is no proof that it is to be gratified principle is, they do not seem to have ever preor any restriction. That fornication is both cisely thought. It does not appear that the anwful and unreasonable, may be easily in- tiquity of the word is very high. It is acknow d if we consider, 1. That our Saviour ex- ledged, on all hands, that Tex, from whence the y declares this to be a crime, Mark vii. 21- Romans took their fortuna, was a term invented That the Scriptures declare that fornica- long after the times of Hesiod and Homer, in cannot inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. whose writings it no where occurs. The philo = 9; Heb. xii. 16; Gal. v. 19–22. 3. Forni-sophical sense of the word coincides with what is

FRANCISCANS

vulgarly called chance. It is difficult to ascertain what it denotes in the minds of those who now use the word. It has been justly observed, that they who would substitute the name of providence in lieu of that of fortune, cannot give any tolerable sense to half the phrases wherein the word occurs.

FRAME. This word is used to denote any state of mind a man may be in; and, in a religious sense, is often connected with the word feeling, or used synonymously with it. See FEELING.

"If our frames are comfortable," says one, "we may make them the matter of our praise, but not of our pride; we may make them our pleasure, but not our portion; we may make them the matter of our encouragement, but not the ground of our security. Are our frames dark and uncomfortable? they should humble us, but not discourage us; they should quicken us, but not obstruct us in our application for necessary and suitable grace; they should make us see our own emptiness, but not make us suspect the fulness of Christ; they should make us see our own unworthiness, but not make us suspect the willingness of Christ; they should make us see our own weakness, but not cause us to suspect the strength of Christ; they should make us suspect our own hearts, but not the firmness and freeness of the promises.

FRATERNITY

which was further confirmed by Innocent IV. in 1245, and by Alexander IV. in 1247. These milder operations were zealously opposed by a branch of the Franciscans, called the spiritual and their complaints were regarded by Nichols III. who, in 1279, published a famous constituti confirming the rule of St. Francis, and contam ing an elaborate explication of the maxims be recommended, and the duties he prescribed. In 1287, Matthew, of Aqua Sparta, being elected general of the order, discouraged the ancient discipline of the Franciscans, and indulged his monks in abandoning even the appearance of poverty; and this conduct inflamed the indignation of the spiritual or austere Franciscans; 20 that, from the year 1290, seditions and schisma arose in an order that had been so famous for s pretended disinterestedness and humility. Such was the enthusiastic frenzy of the Franciscans, that they impiously maintained that the founder of their order was a second Christ, in all respects similar to the first, and that their institution and discipline were the true Gospel of Jesus. Accordingly Albizi, a Franciscan, of Pisa, published a book in 1383, with the applause of his order, entitled the Book of the Conformities of St. Francis with Jesus Christ. In the beginning of this century the whole Franciscan order was divided into two parties; the one, embracing the severe discipline and absolute poverty of St. Francis, FRANCISCANS, a religious order founded were called spirituals; and the other, who inby St. Francis in the year 1209. Francis was the sisted on mitigating the austere injunctions of son of a merchant of Assisi, in the province of their founder, were denominated brethren of the Umbria, who, having led a dissolute life, was re- community. These wore long, loose, and good claimed by a fit of sickness, and afterwards fell habits, with large hoods; the former were clad ca into an extravagant devotion that looked less like a strait, coarse, and short dress, pretending that religion than alienation of mind. Soon after this, this dress was enjoined by St. Francis, and that viz. in the year 1208, hearing the passage repeated no power on earth had a right to alter it. Neither in which Christ addresses his apostles, Provide the moderation of Clement V. nor the violence of neither gold, nor silver, &c., Matt. x. 9, 10, he John XXII. could appease the tumult occasioned was led to consider a voluntary and absolute by these two parties; however, their rage subpoverty as the essence of the Gospel, and to pre-sided from the year 1329. In 1368 these two scribe this poverty as a sacred rule both to him- parties were formed into two large bodies, com self and to the few that followed him. This new prehending the whole Franciscan order, viz. the society, which appeared to Innocent III. extreme- conventual brethren, and the brethren of the ot ly adapted to the present state of the church, and servance, or observation, from whom sprang the proper to restore its declining credit, was solemnly Capuchins and Recollets. The general opinion approved and confirmed by Honorius III. in is, that the Franciscans came into England in the 1223, and had made a considerable progress be-year 1224, and had their first house at Canterfore the death of its founder in 1226. Francis, through an excessive humility, would not suffer the monks of his order to be called fratres, i. e. brethren or friars; but fraterculi, i. e. little brethren, or friars minor, by which denomination they have been generally since distinguished. The Franciscans and Dominicans were zealous and active friends to the papal hierarchy, and in return were distinguished by peculiar privileges and honourable employments. The Franciscans, in particular, were invested with the treasure of ample and extensive indulgencies, the distribution of which was committed to them by the popes as a mean of subsistence, and a rich indemnification for their voluntary poverty. In consequence of this grant, the rule of the founder, which absolutely prohibited both personal and collective property, so that neither the individual nor the community were to possess either fund, revenue, or any worldly goods, was considered as too strict and severe, and dispensed with soon after his death. In 1231, Gregory IX. published an interpretation of this rule, mitigating its rigour;

148

bury, and their second at London; but there is no certain account of their being here, till king Henry VII. built two or three houses for them. At the dissolution of the monasteries, the conventual Franciscans had about fifty-five houses which were under seven custodies or wardenships, viz. those of London, Worcester, York, Cam bridge, Bristol, Newcastle, and Oxford.

FRATERNITY, in the Roman Catholic countries, signifies a society for the improvement of devotion. Of these there are several sorts, as, 1. The Fraternity of the Rosary, founded by St. Dominic. It is divided into two branches, called the common rosary, and the perpetual rosary; the former of whom are obliged to confess and communicate every first Sunday in the month, and the latter to repeat the rosary continually.-2 The Fraternity of the Scapulary, whom it is pretended, according to the Sabbatine bull of pepe John XXII. the Blessed Virgin has promised to deliver out of hell the first Sunday after their death.-3. The Fraternity of St. Francis's girde are clothed with a sack of grey colour, which they

FRATRICELLI

FRENCH

tie with a cord; and in processions walk bare- | whose cruelty they regarded him as the true antifooted, carrying in their hands a wooden cross.-4. christ; but several of them, returning into GerThat of St. Austin's leathern girdle, comprehends many, were sheltered by Lewis, duke of Bavaria, a great many devotees. Italy, Spain, and Portu- the emperor. gal, are the countries where are seen the greatest number of these fraternities, some of which assume the name of arch-fraternity. Pope Clement VII. instituted the arch-fraternity of charity, which distributes bread every Sunday among the poor, and gives portions to forty poor girls on the feast of St. Jerome, their patron. The Fraternity of Death buries such dead as are abandoned by their relations, and causes masses to be celebrated for them.

FRATRICELLI, an enthusiastic sect of Franciscans, which rose in Italy, and particularly in the marquisate of Ancona, about the year 1294. The word is an Italian diminutive, signifying festerul, or "little brothers," and was here used as a term of derision, as they were most of them apostate monks, whom the Italians call fratelli, or fratricelli. For this reason, the term fratricelli, as a nick-name, was given to many other sects, as the Catharists, the Waldenses, &c. however different in their opinions and their condact. But this denomination, applied to the austere part of the Franciscans, was considered as honourable. See FRANCISCANS.

There are authentic records, from which it appears that no less than 2000 persons were burnt by the Inquisition, from the year 1318 to the time of Innocent VI. for their inflexible attachment to the order of St. Francis. The severities against them were again revived, towards the close of the fifteenth century, by pope Nicholas V. and his successors. However, all the persecutions which this sect endured were not sufficient to extinguish it; for it subsisted until the times of the Reformation in Germany, when its remaining votaries adopted the cause and embraced the doctrine and discipline of Luther.

FRAUDS, PIOUS. See PIOUS FRAUDS. FREE AGENCY is the power of following one's inclination; or whatever the soul does with full bent of preference and desire. Many and long have been the disputes on this subject; not that man has been denied to be a free agent, but the dispute has been in what it consists. See articles LIBERTY and WILL. A distinction is made by writers between free agency, and what is called the Arminian notion of free will. The one consists merely in the power of following our prevailing inclination; the other in a supposed power of acting contrary to it, or at least of changing it. The one predicates freedom of the man; the other of a faculty in man; which Mr. Locke, though an anti-necessarian, explodes as an absurdity. The one goes merely to render us accountable beings; the other arrogantly claims a part, yea, the very turning point of salvation. According to the latter, we need only certain helps or assistances, granted to men in common, to enable us to choose the path of life; but, according to the former, our hearts being by nature wholly depraved, we need an almighty and invincible Power to renew them. See NECESSITY.

The founders of this sect were P. Maurato and P. de Fossombroni, who having obtained of pope Celestin V. a permission to live in solitude after the manner of hermits, and to observe the rule of St. Francis in all its rigour, several idle vagabond monks joined them, who, living after their own fancies, and making all perfection to consist in poverty, were soon condemned by pope Boniface VIII. and his successor, and the inquisitors or dered to proceed against them as heretics, which Commission they executed with their usual barharity. Upon this, retiring into Sicily, Peter John Oliva de Serignan had no sooner published his comment on the Apocalypse, than they adopted his tenets. They held the Romish church to be FREE-THINKER, an appellation given to Babylon, and proposed to establish another far those persons who deny revelation or the Chrismore perfect one: they maintained that the rule tian religion. One of the most admirable and of St. Francis was the evangelical rule observed pointed addresses to free-thinkers any where to by Jesus Christ and his apostles. They foretold be met with, may be found in the dedication to the reformation of the church, and the restoration Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses. See of the true Gospel of Christ by the genuine fol- also an admirable paper in the Guardian, No. lowers of St. Francis; and declared their assent 70; and article DEISTS.

to almost all the doctrines which were published

FRENCH CHURCH. See CHURCH GAL

under the name of the abbot Joachim, in the "In-LICAN

duction to the Everlasting Gospel," a book pub- FRENCH PROPHETS. They first apished in 1250, and explained by one of the spi-peared in Dauphiny and Vivarais. In the year ritual friars, whose name was Gerhard. Among 1688, five or six hundred Protestants of both other errors inculcated in this book, it is pretended sexes gave themselves out to be prophets, and inthat St. Francis was the angel mentioned in Rev.spired of the Holy Ghost. They soon became XIV. 6, and had promulgated to the world the true so numerous, that there were many thousands of and everlasting Gospel; that the Gospel of Christ them inspired. They were people of all ages and Was to be abrogated in 1260, and to give place to sexes without distinction, though the greatest part as new and everlasting Gospel, which was to be of them were boys and girls from six or seven to substituted in its room; and that the ministers of twenty-five years of age. They had strange fits, this great reformation were to be humble and which came upon them with tremblings and faintbarefooted friars, destitute of all worldly employ-ings as in a swoon, which made them stretch out ments. Some say, they even elected a pope of their arms and legs, and stagger several times betheir church; at least they appointed a general fore they dropped down. They struck themselves with superiors, and built monasteries, &c. Be- with their hands, they fell on their backs, shut ses the opinions of Oliva, they held that the sa- their eyes, and heaved with their breasts. They craments of the church were invalid, because remained a while in trances, and, coming out of those who administered them had no longer any them with twitchings, uttered all which came in power or jurisdiction. They were condemned their mouths. They said they saw the heavens agun by pope John XXII., in consequence of lopen, the angels, paradise, and hell. Those who

FRIENDSHIP, a mutual attachment sub

were just on the point of receiving the spirit of prophecy, dropped down not only in the assem-sisting between two persons, and arising not

blies, crying out mercy, but in the fields, and in their own houses. The least of their assemblies made up four or five hundred, and some of them amounted to even three or four thousand persons. When the prophets had for a while been under agitations of body, they began to prophesy. The burben of their prophecies was-Amend your lives; repent ye: the end of all things draws nigh! The hills resounded with their loud cries for mercy, and imprecations against the priests, the church, the pope, and against the anti-christian dominion, with predictions of the approaching fall of popery. All they said at these times was heard and received with reverence and awe. In the year 1706, three or four of these prophets came over into England, and brought their prophetic spirit along with them, which discovered itself in the same ways and manners, by ecstacies, and agitations, and inspirations under them, as it had done in France; and they propa-getic, as at once shows it to be our duty to culti gated the like spirit to others, so that before the year was out, there were two or three hundred of these prophets in and about London, of both sexes, of all ages, men, women, and children; and they had delivered, under inspiration, four or five hundred prophetic warnings.

The great things they pretended by their spirit was, to give warning of the near approach of the kingdom of God, the happy times of the church, the millennium state. Their message was, (and they were to proclaim it as heralds to the Jews, and every nation under heaven, beginning at England,) that the grand jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord, the accomplishment of those numerous Scriptures concerning the new hearen, and the new earth, the kingdom of the Messiah, the marriage of the Lamb, the first resurrection, or the new Jerusalem descending from above, were now even at the door; that this great operation was to be wrought on the part of man by spiritual arms only, proceeding from the mouths of those who should, by inspiration, or the mighty gift of the Spirit, be sent forth in great numbers to labour in the vineyard; that this mission of his servants should be witnessed to by signs and wonders from heaven, by a deluge of judgments on the wicked universally throughout the world, as famine, pestilence, earthquakes, &c.; that the exterminating angels shall root out the tares, and there shall remain upon the earth only good corn; and the works of men being thrown down, there shall be but one Lord, one faith, one heart, one voice among mankind. They declared that all the great things they spoke of would be manifest over the whole earth within the term of three years.

These prophets also pretended to the gift of languages, of discerning the secrets of the heart,| the gift of ministration of the same spirit to others by the laying on of the hands, and the gift of healing. To prove they were really inspired by the Holy Ghost, they alleged the complete joy and satisfaction they experienced, the spirit of prayer, which was poured forth upon them, and the answer of their prayer to God.

FRIAR (Brother,) a term common to the monks of all orders. In a more peculiar sense, it is restrained to such monks as are not priests; for those in orders are usually dignified with the appellation of father.

merely from the general principle of benevolence, from emotions of gratitude for favours received, from views of interest, nor from instinctive affection or animal passion; but from an opinion entertained by each of them that the other is adorned with some able or respectable qualities. Various have been the opinions respecting friendship. Some have asserted that there is no such thing in the world; others have excluded it from the list of Christian virtues; while others, believing the possibility of its existence, suppose that it is very rare. To the two former remarks we may reply, that there is every reason to believe that there has been, and is such a thing as friendship. The Scriptures present us both with examples of, and precepts concerning it. David and Jonathan, Paul and Timothy, our Lord and Lazarus, as well as John, are striking instances of friendship. Solomon exhorts us, in language so enervate it. "Thine own friend and thy fathers friend forsake not;" "Make sure of thy friend, for faithful are the wounds of a friend," &c. The genius and injunctions of the Christian religion seem also to inculcate this virtue; for it not only commands universal benevolence to men, but promotes the strongest love and friendship be tween those whose minds are enlightened by divine grace, and who behold in each other the image of their Divine Master. As friendship, however, is not enjoyed by every one, and as the want of it arises often from ourselves, we shall here subjoin, from an eminent writer, a few remarks by way of advice respecting it.-1. We must not expect perfection in any with whom we contract fellowship.-2. We must not be hurt by differences of opinion arising in intercourse with our friends.-3. It is material to the preservation of friendship, that openness of temper and obliging manners on both hands be cultivated.—4. We must not listen rashly to evil reports agains our friends.-5. We riust not desert our friends in danger or distress. Blair's Serm, ser. 17, vol iv.; Bp. Porteus's Serm. vol. i. ser. 15.; W. Melmoth's Translation of Cicero's Lalius, in a Note.

FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF. See QUAKEPS FRUGALITY, is the keeping due bounds in expences; it is the happy mean between parsimony on the one hand, and prodigality on the other. The example of Christ, John vi. 12; the injunctions of God's word, Luke xv. 1. Prov. xviii. 9; the evil effects of inattention to it, Luke xi. 1, 13; the peace and comfort which arise from it, together with the good which it enables us to do others, should operate as motives to excite us to the practice of it. Wood's Serm. on Frugality, 1795; Robinson's Mor. Er. ex. 3; Ridgley's Body of Dir. 546, 3d edition.

FUNERAL RITES, ceremonies accompa nying the interment or burial of any person.

The first people who seemed to have paid any attention to their dead were the Egyptians. They took great care in embalming their bodies, and building proper repositories for them. This gave birth to those wonders of the world, the Egyptian pyramids. On the death of any person among them, the parents and friends put on mournful habits, and abstained from all banquets and entertainments. This mourning lasted from forty

to seventy days, balmed the body.

FUNERAL

during which time they emBefore the dead were allowed to be deposited in the tomb, they underwent a solemn judgment. If any one stepped forth, acensed them, and proved that the deceased had led an evil life, the judges pronounced sentence, and the body was precluded from burial. Even their Sovereigns underwent this judicature; and Diodorus Siculus asserts, that many kings had been deprived of the honours of burial, and that the terrors of such a fate had a salutary influence on the virtue of their kings.

The funeral rites among the Hebrews were solemn and magnificent. The relations and friends rent their clothes; and it was usual to bend the dead person's thumb into the hand, and to fasten it in that posture with a string, becase the thumb then having the figure of the name of God, they thought the devil would not approach it. They made a funeral oration at the grave, after which they prayed; then, turning the face of the deceased towards heaven, they said, "Go in peace."

The Greeks used to put a piece of money in the mouth of the deceased, which was thought to be the fare over the infernal river: they abined from banquets; tore, cut, or shaved their hair; sometimes throwing themselves on the ground, and rolling in the dust; beating their breasts, and even tearing their flesh with their tai}.

The funeral rites among the Romans were very numerous.-They kept the deceased seven days, and washed him every day with hot water, and sometimes with oil, if possibly he might be revived, in case he were only in a slumber; and every now and then his friends, meeting, made a horrible shout with the same view; but if they found he did not revive, he was dressed and emhamed, with a performance of a variety of singular ceremonies, and at last brought to the funeral pale, and burnt; after which his ashes were gathered, inclosed in an urn, and deposited in the sepulchre or tomb.

The ancient Christians testified their abhorrence of the pagan custom of burning their dead, and always deposited the body entire in the ground; and it was usual to bestow the honour of embalming upon the martyrs, at least, if not on others. They prepared the body for burial by washing it with water, and dressing it in a fineral attire. This was performed by near relations, or persons of such dignity as the circumstances of the deceased required. Psalmody, or singing of psalms, was the great ceremony used in all funeral processions among the ancient Christians.

In the Romish church, when a person is dead, they wash the body, and put a crucifix in his band. At the feet stands a vessel of holy water, and a sprinkler, that they who come in may sprinkle both themselves and the deceased. In the mean time some priest stands by the corpse, and prays for the deceased till it is laid in the earth. In the funeral procession the exorcist walks first, carrying the holy water: next the cross bearer; afterwards the rest of the clergy: and, last of all, the officiating priest. They all sing the miserere, and some other psalms; and at the end of each alma requiem. It is said, that the faces of deceased laymen must be turned towards the altar when they are placed in the church, and those of

FUTURE

the clergy towards the people. The corpse is placed in the church, surrounded with lighted tapers. After the office for the dead, mass is said; then the officiating priest sprinkles the corpse thrice with holy water, and as often throws incense on it. The body being laid in the grave, the friends and the relations of the deceased sprinkle the grave with holy water.

The funeral ceremonies of the Greek church are much the same with those of the Latin. It needs only to be observed, that, after the funeral service, they kiss the crucifix, and salute the mouth and forehead of the deceased; after which, each of the company eats a bit of bread, and drinks a glass of wine in the church, wishing the soul a good repose, and the afflicted family all consolation. Bingham's Antiq. b. 2; Enc. Brit.; Buxtorf's Synag. p. 502.

FUTURE STATE, a term made use of in relation to the existence of the soul after death. That there is such a state of existence, we have every reason to believe; "for if we suppose," says a good writer, "the events of this life to have no reference to another, the whole state of man becomes not only inexplicable, but contradictory and inconsistent. The powers of the inferior animals are perfectly suited to their station. They know nothing higher than their present condition. In gratifying their appetites, they fulfil their destiny, and pass away.-Man, alone, comes forth to act a part which carries no meaning, and tends to no end. Endowed with capacities which extend far beyond his present sphere, fitted by his rational nature for running the race of immortality, he is stopped short in the very entrance of his course. He squanders his activity on pursuits which he discerns to be vain. He languishes for knowledge which is placed beyond his reach. He thirsts after a happiness which he is doomed never to enjoy. He sees and laments the disasters of his state, and yet, upon this supposition, can find nothing to remedy them. Has the eternal God any pleasure in sporting himself with such a scene of misery and folly, as this life (if it had no connexion with another,) must exhibit to his eye? Did he call into existence this magnificent universe, adorn it with so much beauty and splendour, and surround it with those glorious luminaries which we behold in the heavens, only that some generations of mortal men might arise to behold these wonders, and then disappear for ever? How unsuitable in this case were the habitation to the wretched inhabitant! How inconsistent the commencement of his being, and the mighty preparation of his powers and faculties, with his despicable end! How contradictory, in fine, were every thing which concerns the state of man, to the wisdom and perfection of his Maker!"

But that there is such a state is clear from many passages of the New Testament, John v. 24; Acts vii. 9; Rom. viii. 10, 11; 2 Cor. v. 1, 2; Phil. i. 21; 1 Thess. iv. 14. v. 10; Luke xvi. 22, &c. But though these texts prove the point, yet some have doubted whether there be any where in the Old Testament any reference to a future state at all. The case, it is said, appears to be this: the Mosaic covenant contained no promises directly relating to a future state: probably, as Dr. Warburton asserts, and argues at large, because Moses was secure of an equal providence, and therefore needed not subsidiary sanc