rejects this ground of confolation, yet if things be as he has reprefented them, I do not perceive why he fhould be terrified. He writes as though he ftood on a very refpectable footing with his Crehe is not ator; "" an outcast, a beggar, or a worm;" he needs no mediator: no indeed! He "ftands in the fame relative condition with his Maker he ever did stand fince man exifted."* Very well; of what then is he afraid? "God is good, and will exceed the very best of us in goodnefs." On this ground Lord Shaftesbury affures us, "Deifts can have no dread or fufpicion to render them uneafy: for it is malice only, and not goodness, which can make them afraid."+ Very well, I fay again, of what then is Mr. Paine afraid? If a Being full of goodness will not hurt him, he will not be hurt. Why should he be terrified, at a certain hereafter? Why not meet his Creator with cheerfulness, and confidence? Inftead of this, he knows of no method by which he may be exempted from terror but that of reducing future judgment to a mere poffibility; leaving room for fome faint hope at least that what he profeffes to believe as true, may in the end prove false, Such is the courage of your blustering hero. Unhappy man! Unhappy people! Your principles will not fupport you in death, nor fo much as in the contemplation of a hereafter.

Let Mr. Paine's hypothefis be admitted, and that in its lowest form, that there is only a possibility of a judgment to come, this is fufficient to evince your folly, and if you thought on the fubject, to destroy your peace. This alone has in

*

Age of Reafon, Part L p. 21. + Characteriflicks, Vol. I. § 5.

duced many of

you

in your

laft moments to wifh

that you had lived like Chriftians. If it be poffible that there may be a judgment to come, why fhould it not be equally poffible that Christianity itself may be true? And if it fhould, on what ground do you ftand? If it be otherwife, Chrif tians have nothing to fear. While they are taught to deny ungodlinefs, and worldly lufts, and to live foberly, righteoufly, and godly in this prefent world, whatever may prove true with refpect to another, it is prefumed they are fafe: but if that Saviour whom you have defpifed fhould be indeed the Son of God; if that name which you have blafphemed fhould be the only one given under heaven and among men by which you can be faved; what a fituation muft you be in! You may wish at present not to be told of him; yea, even in death, it may be a vexation, as it was to Voltaire, to hear of him; but hear of him you must, and what is more, you must appear before him.

I cannot conclude this addrefs without expreffing my earnest defire for your falvation; and, whether you will hear, or whether you will for bear, reminding you that our Redeemer is merciful. He can have compaffion on the ignorant, and them who are out of the way. The door of mercy is not yet shut. At present you are invited, and even intreated to enter in. But if you ftill continue hardened against him, you may find to your coft that the abuse of mercy gives an edge to justice; and that to be crushed to atoms by falling rocks, or buried in oblivion at the bottom of mountains, were rather to be chofen than an expofure to the wrath of the Lamb.

HE

Ewhom you have long rejected, looked upon Jerufalem and wept over it. With tears he pronounced upon that famous city a doom, which according to your own writer, Jofephus, was foon afterwards accomplished. In imitation of our Lord and Saviour we also could weep over your prefent fituation. There are thousands in Britain, as well as in other nations, whofe daily prayer is, that you may be faved. Hear me patiently, and candidly. Your present and everlasting good is the object of my defire.

It is not my defign in this brief address to go over the various topics in difpute between us. Many have engaged in this work, and I hope to fome good purpofe. The late addreffes to you, both from the pulpit and the prefs, as they were dictated by pure benevolence, certainly deserve, and I trust have gained in fome degree, your candid attention. All that I fhall fay will be comprifed in a few fuggeftions, which I fuppofe to arife from the fubject of the preceding pages.

You have long fojourned among men who have been called Chriftians. You have feen much evil in them; and they have feen much in you. The history of your own nation, and that of every other, confirms one of the leading doctrines of both your and our Scriptures, the depravity of huX

man nature.

But in your commerce with mankind, you must have had opportunity of diftingulfhing between nominal and serious Chriftians. Great numbers in your nation, even in its beft -days, were wicked men; and great numbers in every nation, at prefent, are the fame. But can you not perceive a people fcattered through various denominations of Chriftians, who fear God, and regard man; who instead of treating you with a haughty contempt, as being ftrangers fcattered among the nations, difcover a tender regard towards you on that very account; who, while they are grieved for the hardness of your hearts, and hurt at your fcornful rejection of Him whom their foul loveth, are nevertheless ardently defirous of your falvation? Are you not acquainted with Chriftians whofe utmost revenge, if they could have their will of you, for all your hard fpeeches, would be to be inftrumental in turning you from what they believe to be the power of Satan, unto God?

Let me farther appeal to you, Whether Chriftians of this defcription be not the true children of Abraham, the true fucceffors of your patriarchs and prophets, rather than thofe of an oppofite fpirit, though literally defcended from their loins. You must be aware that even in the times of David, a genuine Ifraelite was a man of a pure heart: and in the times of the prophets, apoftate Ifraelites were accounted as Ethiopians. Your ancestors were men of whom the world was not worthy: but where will you now look for fuch characters among you as Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob; as Samuel, David, Hezekiah, and Jofiah; as Daniel, Ez

*

* Pfal. lxxiii. 1. Amos ix. 7.

ra, Nehemiah, and many others? While you garnifh their fepulchres, have you not manifeftly loft their fpirit? This is a fact that ought to alarm you, and lead you feriously to examine whether you have not forfaken their faith. There is one thing which has particularly ftruck my mind, and which I would earnestly recommend to your confideration, namely the temper of modern infidels towards your fathers, towards you, and towards us.

You need not be told that deistical writers invariably treat your fathers with fcorn and diflike. Juft as Appion and other Greek writers poured contempt upon your nation; just as the more ancient Moabites reproached, and proudly magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of Hofts;* fo do all our modern infidels. But from the time that your fathers rejected Him in whom we believe as the Lord Meffiah, though you have been expofed to the chaftisements of heaven, and to much injurious treatment from pretended Chriftians; yet deifts, the common enemies of revelation, have been, comparatively speaking, reconciled to you. So however it appears to me. I do not recollect to have met with a fingle reflection upon you in any of their writings. On the contrary, they feem to feel themselves near akin to you. Your enmity to Jefus feems to be the price of their forgivenefs like Herod and Pontius Pilate, you became friends in the day of his crucifixion. Mr. Paine, tho' his writings abound in fneers against your nation, prior to its rejection of Chrift, yet appears to be well reconciled to you, and willing to admit your lame account of the body of Jefus being ftolen away.† Ought you not to be alarmed at these things? + Age of Reafon, Part I. p. 6, 7.

* Zeph. ii. 10.