THE PHILOSOPHY OF A FUTURE STATE. 



splendours of absolute royalty, entering into so- 

 ,emn treaties, and breaking them when he plea 

 sed, and arrogating to himself divine honours ; 

 ana his historians, instead of branding his me 

 mory with infamy, have procured for him the 

 appellation of Louis THE GREAT. 



A thousand examples of this description might 

 be collected from the records even of modern 

 history, were it necessary for the illustration of 

 this topic. The horrible cruelties which were 

 committed on the Protestant inhabitants in the 

 Netherlands by the agents of Charles V. and 

 Philip II. of Spain, where more than a hundred 

 thousand persons of respectable characters were 

 butchered without mercy by the Dukes of Alva 

 and Parma, for their adherence to the religion 

 of the Reformers, the dreadful massacres which 

 took place, on St. Bartholomew s day, in Paris 

 and throughout every province of France the 

 persecutions of the Protestants in England, du 

 ring the reign of Q,ueen Mary, when the fires 

 of Smithfield were kindled to consume the bodies 

 of the most pious and venerable men the Irish 

 massacre in the reign of Charles I. when more 

 than 40,000 inoffensive individuals were slaugh 

 tered without distinction of age, sex, or condi 

 tion, and with every circumstance of ferocious 

 cruelty the persecutions endured by the Scot 

 tish Presbyterians, when they were driven from 

 their dwellings, and hunted like wild beasts by 

 the blood-thirsty Claverhouse and his savage 

 dragoons the many thousands of worthy men 

 who have fallen victims to the flames, and the 

 cruel tortures inflicted by the Inquisitors of 

 Spain, while their haughty persecutors were per 

 mitted to riot on the spoils of nations the fiend- 

 like cruelties of the Mogul emperors in their 

 bloody wars the devastations and atrocities com 

 mitted by the Persian despots the massacre of 

 the Gardiotes by Ali Pacha, and of the inhabi 

 tants of Scio by the ferocious Turks are only 

 a few instances out of many thousands, which 

 the annals of history record of human beings suf 

 fering the most unjust and cruel treatment, while 

 their tyrannical persecutors were permitted to 

 prosecute their diabolical career without suffer 

 ing the punishment due to their crimes. When 

 the mind takes a deliberate review of all the re 

 volting details connected with such facts, it is 

 naturally led to exclaim, &quot; Wherefore do the 

 wicked live, become old, yea are mighty in-power? 

 Is there no reward for the righteous ? Is there no 

 punishment for the workers of iniquity? Is there 

 no God that judgeth in the earth?&quot; And, in 

 deed, were there no retributions beyond the limits 

 of the present life, we should be necessarily 

 obliged to admit one or other of the following con 

 clusions, either that no Moral Governor of the 

 worid exists, or, that justice and judgment are 

 not the foundation of his throne. 



When we take a survey of the moral world 

 wound us, aa it exists in the present dayj the 



same conclusion forces itself upon the mind. 

 When we behold, on the one hand, the virtuous 

 and upright votary of religion struggling with 

 poverty and misery, treated with scorn and con 

 tempt, persecuted on account of his integrity and 

 piety, despoiled of his earthly enjoyments, or 

 condemned to an ignominious death ; and on th 

 other, the profligate and oppressor, the insolent 

 despiser of God and religion, passing his days 

 in affluence and luxurious ease, prosecuting with 

 impunity his unhallowed courses, and robbing the 

 widow and the fatherless of their dearest com 

 forts when we behold hypocrisy successful in 

 all its schemes, and honesty and rectitude over 

 looked and neglected the destroyers of our spe 

 cies loaded with wealth and honours, while the 

 benefactors of mankind are pining in obscurity 

 and indigence knaves and fools exalted to posts 

 of dignity and honour, and men of uprightness 

 and intelligence treated with scorn, and doomed 

 to an inglorious obscurity criminals of the deep 

 est dye escaping with impunity, and generous 

 actions meeting with a base reward when we 

 see young men of virtue and intelligence cut off 

 in early life, when they were just beginning to 

 bless mankind with their philanthropic labours, 

 and tyrants and oppressors continuing the pests 

 of society, and prolonging their lives to old age 

 in the midst of their folly and wickedness hu 

 man beings torn from their friends and their na 

 tive home, consigned to perpetual slavery, and 

 reduced below the level of the beasts, while their 

 oppressors set at defiance the laws of God and 

 man, revel in luxurious abundance, and prosper 

 in their crimes ; when we behold one nation 

 and tribe irradiated with intellectual light, ano 

 ther immersed in thick darkness ; one enjoying 

 the blessings of civilization and liberty, another 

 groaning under the lash of despotism, and doomed 

 to slavery and bondage, when we contemplate 

 such facts throughout every department of the 

 moral world, can we suppose, for a moment, that 

 the Divine administration is bounded by the visi 

 ble scene of things, that the real characters of 

 men shall never be brought to light, that vice is 

 to remain in eternal concealment and impunity, 

 and that the noblest virtues are never to receive 

 their just &quot; recompence of reward ?&quot; To admit 

 such conclusions would be in effect to deny the 

 wisdom, goodness, and rectitude of flie Ruler of 

 the world, or to suppose, that his ail-wise and 

 benevolent designs may be defeated by the folly 

 and wickedness of human beings. But such con 

 clusions are so palpably and extravagantly ab 

 surd, that the only other alternative, the reality 

 of a future state of existence, maybe pronounced 

 to have the force of a moral demonstration. So 

 that, had we no other argument to produce in 

 support of the doctrine of a future state of retri 

 bution, this alone would be sufficient to carry 

 conviction to every mind that recognises the ex 

 istence of a Supreme Intelligence, and entertains 



