THE PHILOSOPHY OF A FUTURE STATE. 



their reputation, and solicitous to secure their 

 names from oblivion, and to perpetuate their 

 fame, after they have descended into the grave ? 

 To accomplish such objects, and to gratify such 

 desires, poets, orators, and historians, have been 

 flattered and rewarded to celebrate their actions ; 

 monuments of marble and of brass have been 

 erected to represent their persons, and inscrip 

 tions engraved in the solid rock, to convey to 

 future generations a record of the exploits they 

 had achieved. Lofty columns, triumphal arches, 

 towering pyramids, magnificent temples, palaces, 

 and mausoleums have been reared, to eternize 

 their fame, and to make them live, as it were, 

 in the eyes of their successors, through all the 

 future ages of time. But, if the soul be destined 

 to destruction at the hour of death, why should 

 man be anxious about what shaU happen, or 

 what shall not happen hereafter, when he is re 

 duced to a mere non-entity, and banished for 

 ever from the universe of God ? He can have no 

 interest in any events that may befall the living 

 world when he is cancelled from the face of crea 

 tion, and when the spark of intelligence he pos 

 sessed is quenched in everlasting night. If any 

 man be fully convinced that the grave puts a 

 final period to his existence, the only consistent 

 action he can perform, when he finds his earthly 

 wishes and expectations frustrated, is to rush 

 into the arms of death, and rid himself at once 

 of all the evils connected with his being. But 

 we find the great majority of mankind, notwith 

 standing the numerous ills to which they are sub 

 jected, still clinging with eagerness to their 

 mortal existence, and looking forward, with a 

 certain degree of hope, to a termination of their 

 Borrows. 



&quot; They rather choose to bear those ills they have 

 Than fly to others that they know not of.&quot; 



There is, I presume, no individual in a sound 

 state of mind, who can entirely throw aside all 

 concern about his posthumous reputation, and 

 about the events that may happen in the world 

 after his decease. And if so, it clearly demon 

 strates, not only that he does not wish, but that 

 ne does not even suppose that his existence will 

 oe for ever extinguished at death. The idea of 

 the shame of being exposed naked after their 

 death, produced such a powerful effect upon the 

 minds of the Milesian virgins, that it deterred 

 them from putting an end to their lives, after all 

 other arguments had been tried in vain.* The 

 desire of existence and of existence, too, which 

 has no termination, appears to be the foundation 



&quot;I beseech men for God s sake, (says Halo,) that 

 If at any time there arise in them a desire or a wish 

 that others should speak well of their death ; then 

 at that time they would seriously consider, whether 

 those motions are not from some spirit to continue 

 ;v spirit, after it leaves its earthly habitation, rather 

 man from an earthly spirit, a vapour which cannot 

 act, or imagine, or desire, or fear things beyond 

 ita continuance.&quot; 



of all our desires, and of all the plans we form 

 in life. Annihilation cannot be an object of 

 desire to any rational being. We desire some 

 thing that is real, something that is connected 

 with happiness or enjoymmt, but non-existence 

 has no object nor concern whatever belonging t&amp;lt;j 

 it. When a wicked man, under a consciousness 

 of guilt, indulges a wish for annihilation after 

 death, it is not because non-existence is in 

 itself an object of desire, but he would choose it 

 as the least of two evils : lie would rather be 

 blotted out of creation, than suffer the punish 

 ment due to his sins in the eternal world. 



It may also be remarked, that the desire of 

 immortality, however vigorous it may be in or 

 dinary minds, becomes still more glowing and 

 ardent in proportion as the intellect is cultivated 

 and expanded, and in proportion as the soul 

 rises to higher and higher degrees of virtue and 

 moral excellence. It forms a powerful stimulus 

 to the performance of actions which are noble, 

 generous, public-spirited, benevolent, and hu 

 mane, and which have a tendency to promote the 

 intellectual improvement, and the happiness of 

 future generations. Hence the most illustrious 

 characters of the heathen world, the poets, the 

 orators, the moralists and philosophers of anti 

 quity, had their minds fired with the idea of im 

 mortality, and many of them were enabled to 

 brave death without dismay, under the conviction 

 that it was the messenger which was to waft their 

 spirits to the realms of endless bliss. When 

 Demosthenes had fled for shelter to an asylum 

 from the resentment of Antipater, who had sent 

 Archias to bring him by force, and when Archias 

 promised upon his honour that he should not lose 

 his life, if he would voluntarily make his personal 

 appearance : &quot; God forbid,&quot; said he, &quot; that after 

 I have heard Xenocrates and Plato discourse so 

 divinely on the immortality of the soul, I should 

 prefer a life of infamy and disgrace to an ho 

 nourable death.&quot; Even those who were not 

 fully convinced of the doctrine of immortality, 

 amidst all their doubts and perplexities on this 

 point, earnestly wished that it might prove true t 

 and few, if any of them, absolutely denied it. 

 Hence, too, the noble and disinterested actions 

 which Christian heroes have performed, under 

 the influence of unseen and everlasting things. 

 They have faced dangers and persecutions in 

 every shape ; they have endured &quot; cruel mock- 

 ings, scourgings, bonds, and imprisonments;&quot; 

 they have triumphed under the torments of the 

 rack, and amidst the raging flames; they have 

 surmounted every obstacle in their benevolent 

 exertions to communicate blessings to their fel 

 low-men; they have braved the fury of the raging 

 elements, traversed sea and lana, and pushed 

 their way to distant barbarous climes, in order to 

 point out to their benighted inhaouants the path 

 that leads to eternal life. Nor ao they think it 

 *oo dear to sacrifice their lives in s&amp;gt;uch service?, 



