which, Sancius making no other Aufwer fpeedily rofe up, and redoubled his Complaints with a lamentable Voice, faying, I intreat you once again to remember me, and that my Mifiress perform the Request I made you. Thus Heathenifm (fays this Author) brought in Superftition, and Superftition is now become neceffary to be fupported and continued, by reafon of the great and many Advant ges accruing to the See of Rome by it.

It must be allow'd indeed the Proteftants are not chargeable with these Corruptions of the Church of Rome, nor do they give us Encouragement to neglect our Duty, in hopes of any futureExpiations; but yet furely aDoctrine productive of Tenets of thisKind, or that gives us Room for any fuch Expectations, ought not to be pleaded for as of much Utility, or as tending to answer any one moral Purpofe, which the oppofite Scheme does not anfwer as well, or better which inftead of allowing us Time to prepare our Accounts after Death, erects as it were the next Inftant the great Tribunal, and reprefents the Day of future Retribution, tho' in the Eye of the Living indeed at further Distance, yet with regard to the Dead as following Death so closely, that the Interiin after it appears as nothing;

they

they fleep, and instantly the Trump of God proclaims the Coming of the Lord to Judgment. If this is weakening moral Obligations it must be very hard to find out what can ftrengthen them, or what can urge us to improve Time prefent with greater Energy than Thoughts like these. As for the Effect this Doctrine has on the Refurrection, you may expect it difcufs'd in the next, and in the mean while be affured, that I am,

Α

S

LETTER IV.

THEOPHILUS to CRITO.

other Objections made to the

A Sleep of Death it is alledged by fome,

that it embarraffes the Refurrection, by making it harder I fuppofe to conceive, how the very fame Perfon can be rais'd to Life again, after a long Ceffation of Life for many Ages. and fuch a Change perhaps of the material System, as feems to render its Reftoration almoft impoffible; tho' it may fuffice upon this Head only to afk the Queftion, Why it should be thought incredible God fhould raise the Dead, it may be of Use notwithstanding

withstanding to confider it more diftinctly, nor was I without fome Thoughts of propofing it in our former Queries. But as I then look'd on it as an Objection arifing only from human Ignorance, or the prefent Impotence of our Understandings, and to which the Power of God was a fufficient Answer, I did not chufe to trouble Philander with it. And indeed he that believes in the prior Part of the Christian Creed, and duly confiders what those Words imply, God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, will find no Reason to with-hold his Affent from what is contain'd in the pofterior Part of it, the Refurrection of the Body, and the Life everlasting.

But before I proceed more immediately to confider this, let me a little enlarge on what was obferv'd before of what great Importance the Refurrection is on this Scheme, to what, it is according to any Other. For if the Soul be immortal, according to common Conception, this great and darling Doctrine of the Gofpel must appear as a Doctrine but of little Moment, and the Redemption of the Body seem an Affair fo trifling, that I must confefs I have often been puzzl'd to see the Use of it, and wondred the Scripture should lay fuch a Stress as it does on it. I have been often furpriz'd, as has been doubtlefs the Cafe of fe

veral, that a Return to Corporeal Life should be fo much valued, as to be purchas'd for us at fo dear a Rate, as that of the Death and Sufferings of our great Redeemer. For -what are the Benefits, upon this Supposal, that are fuppos'd to arife) from all this mighty Labour, this great Purchase, and Labour of Love? Some perhaps will reply, that it was not fo much the End of Christ's coming, to redeem us from Death as it was to redeem us from Hell. But fuppofing this, the Question will still remain, of what great Service is the Refurrection? Or how is Death a Punishment for Sin, if we reap, as is commonly thought, fuch Advantages from it? Why fo much Triumph over this laft Enemy, if it is in Reality as great a Friend, as the common Hypothefts in this Cafe makes it? Thefe are Queries, I own, which I never could thoroughly anfwer; nor do I remember any one that ever did, fo as to give me a full Satisfaction.

In the common Scheme, inftead of the Sleep of Death, we meet with Life, and the utmoft Activity.The Soul is wide awake, and full of Vigour, and no longer confin'd by any material Fetters, mounts with amazing Speed the diftant Skies, and fhines a -Demi-God. But who, that looks at Death

in

in fuch a Light, can really look on it as any Enemy? Or as a Curfe entail'd on Man for his Difobedience? Why should the Saints on this Scheme, groan within themselves, waiting for the Adoption, the Redemption of their Bodies? If a material Frame is really an Inconvenience, how shall we reconcile this with the moft perfect Blifs, of which the human Nature is allow'd to be capable? Why did either our Lord himself refume his own, or give his Followers any fuch Expectations? If our Souls are immortal it concerns us little, whether thefe our Bodies rife again, or no, or whether we have others in Lieu of them, or none at all. A Soul that can live, perceive, and act without them, and that fo much better too, if fome think rightly, can have but little Need or Ufe of them, or any very Reason that I can fee, to want or wish for them. The Heathen Philofophers were fo far right, that the Belief of this was of itself fufficient without believing in a Refurrection, which if this were true, could answer but little Purpose, and would be rather a needlefs Encumbrance than any Thing else. And therefore if the Sleep of the Soul perplexes the Refurrection, by making it fomething harder to conceive of; yet as it greatly tends to fhew the Need or Use of it, it so far