yourselves to be in the right way? Have you no mifgivings of heart? Is there not fomething within you which occafionally whispers, My parents ' were righteous, and I am wicked: O that my foul were in their fouls ftead!'

Ah young men! If fuch be the occafional revoltings of your mind, what are you doing in labouring to gain others over to your way of thinking? Can you from experience honestly promise them peace of mind? Can you go about to perfuade them that there is no hell, when, if you would speak the truth, you must acknowledge that you have already an earnest of it kindled in your bofoms? If counfels were not loft upon you, I would intreat you to be contented with destroying your own fouls. Have pity on your fellow-creatures, if you have none upon yourselves! Nay, fpare yourfelves fo much, at leaft, as not to incur the everlasting execrations of your most intimate acquaintance. If Christianity should prove, what your confciences in your most serious moments tell you it is, you are doing this every day of your lives.

Secondly, Confider How IT IS THAT ALMOST ALL YOUR WRITERS, AT ONE TIME OR OTHER, BEAR TESTIMONY IN FAVOUR OF

CHRISTIANITY. It were eafy to collect from thofe very writings which were defigned to undermine the Chriftian Religion hundreds of teftimonies in its favour. Voltaire and Rousseau, as we have feen already,* have in their fits gone far towards contradicting all which they have written against it. Bolingbroke has done the fame. Such

* Part II. Ch. III. pp. 149, 150.

fentences as the following may be found in his publications: "Suppofing Chriftianity to have been

a human invention, it has been the most amia"ble invention that was ever impofed on man"kind for their good-Christianity as it came out "of the hand of God, if I may use the expref"fion, was a moft fimple and intelligible rule of "belief, worship, and manners, which is the true "notion of a religion-The gofpel is in all cafes

one continued lesson of the strictest morality, of "juftice, of benevolence, and of univerfal chari<< ty."* Paine perhaps has faid as little in this way as any of your writers, yet he has profeffed a refpect for the character of Jefus Chrift. "He

<6 was, fays he, a virtuous and an amiable man. "The morality that he preached and practised was of the most benevolent kind."+.

In what manner will you go about to account for thefe conceffions? Chriftian writers, thofe at leaft who are fincerely attached to the caufe, are not seized with these fits of inconfiftency. How is it that yours, like the worshippers of Baal, fhould thus be continually cutting themfelves with knives? You must either give up your leaders as a fet of men, who, while they were labouring to perfuade the world of the hypocrify of priests, were themfelves the most infamous of all hypocrites; or, which will be equally fatal to your cause, you must attribute it to occafional convictions, which they felt and expreffed, though contrary to the general ftrain of their writings. Is it not an unfavourable character of your cause, that in this particular it exactly resembles that of vice itself? Vicious men.

* Works, Vol. IV. pp. 394, 395. Vol. V.
Age of Reafon, Part I. p. 5.

pp. 188, 189.

will often bear teftimony in favour of virtue, especially on the near approach of death; but virtuous men never return the compliment by bearing teftimony in favour of vice. We are not afraid of Christians thus betraying their caufe; but neither your writers nor your confciences are to be trusted in a ferious hour.

Thirdly, Confider How IT COMES TO PASS THAT YOUR PRINCIPLES FAIL YOU, AS THEY ARE FREQUENTLY KNOWN TO DO, IN A DYING

HOUR? It is a rule with wife men, fo to live as they fhall wish they had when they come to die. How do you fuppofe you fhall with you had lived in that day? Look at the deaths of your greatest men, and see what their principles have done for them at laft. Mark the end of that apostle and high priest of your profeffion Voltaire; and try if you can find in it either integrity, or hope, or any thing that fhould render it an object of envy.†

The following particulars among many others are recorded of this writer by his Biographer CONDORCET, a man after his own heart. First, That he conceived the defign of overturning the Chriftian Religion, and that by his own hand. "I am wearied, faid he, of hearing it repeated that twelve men were fufficient to establish Christianity; and I wish to prove there needs but one to destroy it." Secondly, That in pursuit of this object he was threatened with a perfecution, to avoid which he received the facrament, and publicly declared his refpect for the church, and his disdain of his detractors, namely, thofe who had called in queftion his Christianity! Thirdly, That in his last illness, in Paris, being defirous of obtaining what is called Christian burial, he fent for a priest to whom he declared that he "died in the Catholic faith, in which he was born." Fourthly, That another priest (Curate of the parish) troubled him with queftions. Among other things he asked, "Do you believe the divinity of Jefus "Chrift ?" "In the name of God, Sir, replied Voltaire, fpeak to me no more of that man, but let me die in peace."

Why is it that fo many of you faint in the day of trial? If your caufe were good, you would defend it with uprightnefs, and die with inward fatisfaction. But is it fo? Mr. Paine flatters himself that his principles will bear him up in the prospect of death ;* and it is poffible that he may brave it out in fome fuch manner as David Hume did.— Such inftances however are rare. For one unbeliever that maintains his courage, many might be produced whose hearts have failed them, and who have trembled for the confequences of their infidelity.

On the other hand, you cannot produce a fingle inftance of a Chriftian, WHO AT THE APPROACH OF DEATH WAS TROUBLED, OR TERRIFIED IN HIS CONSCIENCE FOR HAVING BEEN A CHRIS

TIAN. Many have been afraid in that day left their faith in Chrift fhould not prove genuine ; but who that has put his truft in him was ever known to be apprehenfive left he should at last deceive him? Can you account for this difference? If you have discovered the true religion, and ours be all fable and impofture, how comes it to pass that the iffue of things is what it is? Do gold and filver and precious ftones perifh in the fire? and do wood and hay and ftubble endure it?

I have admitted that Mr. Paine may poffibly brave it out till the laft; but if he does, his courage may be merely affumed. Pride will induce men to disguise the genuine feelings of their hearts, on more occafions than one. We hear much of courage among duellifts; but little credit is due to what they fay, if while the words proceed from their lips, we fee them approach each other with Age of Reafon, Part II. Pref.

**

paleness and trembling.-Yea more, If Mr. Paine's courage in death be not different from what it already is in the profpect of it, it certainly will be merely affumed. He has given full proof of what his courage amounts to in what he has advanced on the certainty of a future ftate. He acknowledg es the poffibility of a future judgment: yea, he admits it to be rational to believe that there will be one. "The power, he fays, that called us "into being, can, if he please, and when he pleaf❝es, call us to account for the manner in which "we have lived here; and therefore, without feek"ing any further motive for the belief, it is ra❝tional to believe that he will, for we know be"forehand that he can."* I fhall not stop to enquire into the justness of Mr. Paine's reafoning from what God can do to what he will do: it is fufficient for me that he admits it to be "rational to believe that God will call men to account for the manner in which they have lived here." And can he admit this truth, and not tremble? Mark his firmness, After acknowledging that a future judgment is the object of rational belief, he retracts what he has faid by reducing it to only a probability, which is to have the influence of belief: Yea, and as if that were too terrible an idea, he brings it down to a mere poffibility. The reafon which he gives for thefe reductions is, that "If we knew it as a fact, we should be the mere flaves of terror." Indeed? But wherefore? Chriftians believe in a judgment to come, and they are not the flaves of terror. They have an advocate as well as a judge, by believing in whom the terror of judgment is removed. And though Mr. Paine * Age of Reafon, Part II. p. 100.