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"could mufter: But of this hour I have "alas! no forefight; it may be this mo"ment, or the next, or years may intervene "before it comes to pass: It behoves me "then to be upon my guard : He may approach in terrors, that agonife me to think of; he may feize my foul in the commif"fion of fome dreadful act, and transport it "to a place whofe horrors have no termi"nation: I will not then commit that dread"ful act, becaufe I will not expofe myself to "that dreadful punishment: It is in my own "choice to refrain from it, and I am not fuch "a defperate fool to make choice of mifery: If I act with this precaution, will he "still appear in this shape of terror? Cer

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tainly he will not, nor can he in justice "transport me to a place of punishment, "when I have committed nothing to deferve "it: Whither then will he convey me? To "the manfions of everlafting happiness: "Where are my fears? What is now be"come of his terrors? He is my paffport,

my conductor, my friend: I will welcome "him with embraces; I will fmile upon him "with gratitude, and accompany him with "exultation."

I

No. LX.

WOULD with no man to deceive himself with opinions, which he has not thoroughly reflected upon in his folitary hours:

Till he has communed with his own heart in his chamber, it will be dangerous to commit himself to its impulfes amidft the distractions of fociety: In folitude he will hear another voice than he has been used to hear in the colloquial fcenes of life; for confcience, though mute as the antient chorus in the buftle of the drama, will be found a powerful fpeaker in foliloquy. If I could believe that any man in thefe times had seriously and deliberately reafoned himself into an abfolute contempt of things facred, I should expect that fuch a being should uniformly act up to his principles in all fituations, and, having thrown afide all the restraints of religion, fhould discharge from his mind all those fears, apprehenfions, and folicitudes, that have any connection with the dread of futurity. But, without knowing what paffes in the private thoughts of men, who profefs thefe daring notions, I cannot help

obferving, that, if noify clamour be a mark of cowardice, they also have the fymptoms ftrongly upon them of belying their own confcience: They are bold in the crowd, and loudeft in the revels of the feast; there they can echo the infult, dash the ridicule in the very face of Heaven, and ftun their confciences in the roar of the caroufal.

Let me picture to myself a man of this description furprized into unexpected folitude after the revels of an evening, where he has been the wit of the company, at the expence of decency and religion; here his triumphs are over; the plaudits of his comrades no longer encourage him; the lights of the feast are extinguished, and he is furrendered to darkness and reflection: Place him in the midst of a desart heath, a lonefome traveller in fome dark tempeftuous night, and let the elements fubscribe their terrors to encounter this redoubted champion

Who durft defy th' Omnipotens.

If confiftency be the teft of a man's fincerity, he ought now to hold the fame language of defiance, and with undaunted spirit

cry out to the elements-" Do your worst, ye blind tools of chance! Since there can "be neither intelligence nor direction in

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your rage, I fet you at nought. You may "indeed fubject me to fome bodily incon"venience, but you can raise no terrors in

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my mind, for I have faid you have no "master: There is no hand to point the lightning, and the stroke of its flash is di"rected to no aim: If it fmites the oak, it perishes; if it penetrates my breast, it an"nihilates my existence, and there is no "foul within me to refume it. What have "I to fear? The worst you threaten is a momentary extinction without pain or strug

gle; and as I only wait on earth till I am

weary of life, the most you can do is to "foreftall me in the natural rights of fui"cide. I have lived in this world as the

The

only world I have to live in, and have "done all things therein as a man, who acts "without account to an Hereafter. "moral offices, as they are called, I have "fometimes regarded as a fyftem of worldly

wisdom, and where they have not crossed "my purposes, or thwarted my pleasures, I "have occafionally thought fit to comply "with

B 6

"with them: My proper pride in fome in"ftances, and felf-intereft in others, have

diffuaded me from the open violation of a truft, for it is inconvenient to be detected; "and though I acknowledge no remon"ftrances from within upon the fcore of in

famy, I do not like the clamours of the "crowd. As for those mercenary induce"ments, which a pretended revelation holds "forth as lures for patience under wrongs " and tame refignation to misfortune, I re"gard them as derogatory to my nature; they fink the very character of virtue by

meanly tendering a reverfionary happi"piness as the bribe for practifing it; the "doctrine therefore of a future life, in which "the obedient are to expect rewards, and "the difobedient are threatened with pu"nishments, confutes itself by its own in"ternal weakness, and is a fyftem fo fordid "in ifs principle, that it can only be cal"culated to dupe us into mental flavery, "and frighten us out of that generous pri

vilege, which is our universal birthright, "the privilege of difmiffing ourselves out "of existence, when we are tired with its "conditions."

Had