50 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF A FUTURE STATE. 



principles of reasoning which he uniformly 

 admits in his physical and mathematical inves 

 tigations, and as determined to resist the force 

 of every evidence which can be adduced in proof 

 of his immortal destination. 



Thus I have endeavored, in the preceding 

 pages, to prove and illustrate the immortality of 

 man, from a consideration of the universal be 

 lief which this doctrine has obtained among all 

 nations the desire of immortality implanted in 

 the human breast the strong desire of know 

 ledge, and the capacious intellectual powers with 

 which man is furnished the capacity of making 

 perpetual progress towards intellectual and moral 

 perfection the unlimited range of view which is 

 opened to the human mind throughout the im 

 mensity of space and duration the moral powers 

 of action with which man is endued the fore 

 bodings and apprehensions of the mind when 

 ander the influence of remorse the disordered 

 state of the moral world when contrasted with 

 the systematical order of the material the une 

 qual distribution of rewards and punishments, 

 viewed in connection with the justice of God 

 the absurdity of admitting that the thinking prin 

 ciple in man will be annihilated and the blas 

 phemous and absurd consequences which would 

 follow if the idea of a future state of retribution 

 were rejected. 



Perhaps there are some of these arguments, 

 taken singly, that would be insufficient fully to 

 establish the truth of man s eternal destiny ; but 

 when taken in combination with each other, 

 they carry irresistible evidence to the mind of 

 every unbiassed inquirer. They all reflect a 

 mutual lustre on each other ; they hang together 

 in perfect harmony ; they are fully consistent 

 with the most amiable and sublime conceptions 

 we can form of the Deity ; they are congenial 

 to the sentiments entertained by the wisest and 

 best of men in every age ; they are connected 

 with all the improvements and discoveries in the 

 moral and physical worlds ; and, like the radii 

 of a circle, they *\\ converge to the same point, 

 and lead directly tc the same conclusion. It 

 appears next to impossible, that such a mutual 

 harmony, consistency, wid dependence, could 

 exist among a series of propositions that had no 

 foundation in truth; and, thtrefore, they ought 

 to be considered, when taken conjunctly, as 

 having all the force of a moral demonstration. 

 They rest on the same principles arid process of 

 reasoning from which we deduce the V;ng of a 

 God ; and I see no way of eluding their force, 

 but by erasing from the mind every idea of a 

 Supreme Intelligence. Hence, it has generally, 

 I might say, uniformly been found, that all na 

 tions that have acknowledged the existence of a 

 Divine Being, have likewise recognised the idea 



of a future state of retribution. These two 

 fundamental propositions are so intimately con 

 nected, and the latter is so essentially dependent 

 on the former, that they must stand or fall 

 together. And, consequently, we find, that the 

 man who obstinately rejects the doctrine of & 

 future state, either avows himself a down-right 

 atheist, or acts precisely in ths same way as a 

 person would do, who believes that a Supreme 

 Moral Governor has no existence. 



But even the principles of atheism itself, 

 though frequently embraced by vicious charac 

 ters to allay their fears, are not sufficient to re 

 move all apprehensions in regard to a future ex 

 istence. For, if the universe be the production 

 merely of an eternal succession of causes and 

 effects, produced by blind necessity impelling the 

 atoms of matter through the voids of immensity 

 what should hinder, that amidst the infinite 

 combinations arising from perpetual mjotion, men 

 should be created, destroyed, and again ushered 

 into existence, with the same faculties, remi 

 niscences, perceptions and relations as in their 

 former state of existence? And, although thou 

 sands or millions of years should intervene be 

 tween such transformations, yet such periods 

 might appear as short and imperceptible as the 

 duration which passes while our faculties are 

 absorbed in a sound repose. The idea of infi 

 nity, immensity, and an endless succession of 

 changes, renders such a supposition not alto 

 gether impossible. But what a dreadful futurity 

 might not the mind be left to picture to itself in 

 such a case ? If the movements of the universe 

 were the productions of chance, directed by no 

 intelligent agency, we should incessantly be 

 haunted with the most dreadful anticipations. 

 We should see the images of death, annihilation, 

 and reproduction advancing before us in the 

 most terrific forms, and should find it impossible 

 to determine on what foundation the hopes and 

 the destiny of intelligences reposed. We should 

 be uncertain whether mankind were doomed to 

 perish irrecoverably, or, by the operation of some 

 unknown cause, or accident, to be reproduced, al 

 some future period in duration, and devoted to 

 endless torments. The comparative order and 

 tranquillity which now subsist, or have subsisted 

 for ages past, could afford us no ground of hope 

 that such consequences would not take place : 

 for all the revolutions of time to which we can 

 look back, are but as a moment in the midst of 

 infinite duration, and the whole earth but a point 

 in the immensity of space. So that, during the 

 lapse of infinite ages, changes, revolutions and 

 transformations might be effected, which mighf 

 overwhelm all the intelligent being s that eve. 

 existed, in eternal misery. Hence it ap^ars, 

 that even atheism itself, with all its mass of con 

 tradictions and absurdities, cannot entirely shel 

 ter its abettors from the terrors of an unknown 

 futurity. 



