Fixt was the nuptial hour.

Rofe on the founding beach.

Her stately dome
The glittering fpires 1040
Float in the wave, and break against the shore :
So break thofe glittering shadows, human joys.
The faithlefs morning fmil'd: he takes his leave,
To re-embrace, in ecftafies, at eve.

The rifing ftorm forbids. The news arrives :
Untold, the faw it in her fervant's eye.
She felt it feen (her heart was apt to feel);
And, drown'd, without the furious ocean's aid,
In fuffocating forrows, fhares his tomb.

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1050

Now, round the fumptuous, bridal monument,
The guilty billows innocently roar;

And the rough failor paffing, drops a tear.
A tear? Can tears fuffice?-But not for me.
How vain our efforts! and our arts how vain!
The diftant train of thought I took to shun,
Has thrown me on my fate-Thefe died together;
Happy in ruin! undivorc'd by death!

1055

Or ne'er to meet, or ne'er to part, is peace-
Narciffa! Pity bleeds at thought of thee.
Yet thou waft only near me; not myself.
Survive myself?-That cures all other woe.
Narciffa lives; Philander is forgot.

O the foft commerce! O the tender tyes,
Clofe-twifted with the fibres of the heart!

1060

Which, broken, break them; and drain off the soul 1065 Of human joy; and make it pain to live

And is it then to live? When fuch friends part, 'Tis the furvivor dies--My heart, no more.

NIGHT THE SIXTH.

THE INFIDEL RECLAIMED.

IN TWO PARTS,

Containing the NATURE, PROOF, and IMPORTANCE, of IMMORTALITY.

PART THE FIRST.

Where, among other Things, GLORY and RICHES are particularly confidered.

то

THE RIGHT HON. HENRY PELHAM,

FIRST LORD COMMISSIONER OF THE TREASURY, AND CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER.

F

EW

PREFACE.

ages have been deeper in difpute about religion than this. The difpute about religion, and the practice of it, feldom go together. The fhorter, therefore, the difpute the better. I think it may be reduced to this fingle queftion, Is man immortal, or is be not? If he is not, all our disputes are mere amusements, or trials of fkill. In this cafe, truth, reafon, religion, which give our difcourfes fuch pomp and folemnity,

folemnity, are (as will be fhewn) mere empty found, without any meaning in them. But if man is immortal, it will behove him to be very ferious about eternal confequences; or, in other words, to be truly religious. And this great fundamental truth, unestablished, or unawakened in the minds of men, is, I conceive, the real fource and fupport of all our infidelity; how remote foever the particular objections advanced may feem to be from it.

Senfible appearances affect moft men mych more than abstract reafonings; and we daily fee bodies drop around us, but the foul is invifible. The power which inclination has over the judgment, is greater than can be well conceived by those that have not had an experience of it; and of what numbers is it the fad intereft that fouls fhould not furvive! The heathen world confeffed, that they rather hoped, than firmly believed immortality! And how many heathens have we ftill amongst us! The facred page affures us, that life and immortality is brought to light by the Gofpel: but by how many is the Gospel rejected, or overlooked! From thefe confiderations, and from my being, accidentally, privy to the fentiments of fome particular perfons, I have been long perfuaded that moft, if not all, our infidels (whatever name they take, and whatever scheme, for argument's fake, and to keep themfelves in countenance, they patronize) are supported in their deplorable error, by fome doubt of their immortality, at the bottom. And I am fatisfied, that men once thoroughly convinced of their immortality, are not far from being Chriftians,

5

Chriftians. For it is hard to conceive, that a man fully conscious eternal pain or happiness will certainly be his lot, fhould not earnestly, and impartially, en quire after the fureft means of escaping one, and securing the other. And of fuch an earnest and impartial inquiry, I well know the confequence.

· Here, therefore, in proof of this moft fundamental truth, fome plain arguments are offered; arguments derived from principles which Infidels admit in common with Believers; arguments, which appear to me altogether irresistible; and fuch as, I am satisfied, will have great weight with all, who give themfelves the finall trouble of looking seriously into their own bofoms, and of obferving, with any tolerable degree of attention, what daily paffes round about them in the world. If fome arguments fhall, bere, occur, which others have declined, they are fubmitted, with all deference, to better judgments in this, of all points the moft important. For, as to the Being of a God, that is no longer difputed; but it is undisputed for this reafon only; viz. becaufe, where the leaft pretence to reason is admitted; it must for ever be indisputable. And of confequence no man can be betrayed into a dispute of that nature by vanity; which has a principal fhare in animating our modern combatants against other articles of our Belief.

VOL. II.

K

NIGHT

VI.

SH

NIGHT

HE* (for I know not yet her name in heaven)
Not early, like Narcifla, left the scene;
Nor fudden, like Philander. What avail?
This feeming mitigation but inflames;
This fancy'd medicine heightens the disease.
The longer known, the closer still she grew;
And gradual parting is a gradual death.
'Tis the grim tyrant's engine, which extorts,
By tardy preffure's ftill encreafing weight,
From hardeft hearts, confeffion of diftrefs.

O the long, dark approach through years of pain,
Death's gallery! (might I dare to call it fo)
With difmal doubt, and fable terror, hung;
Sick hope's pale lamp its only glimmering ray :
There, fate my melancholy walk ordain'd,
Forbid felf-love itself to flatter, there.
How oft I gaz'd, prophetically fad!

How oft I faw her dead, while yet in smiles!
In fmiles the funk her grief to leffen mine.
She spoke me comfort, and increas'd my pain.
Like powerful armies trenching at a town,
By flow, and filent, but refiftlefs fap,
In his pale progrefs gently gaining ground,
Death urg'd his deadly fiege; in spite of art,
Of all the balmy bleffings nature lends
To fuccour frail humanity. Ye stars!
(Not now firft made familiar to my fight)

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And

Referring to Night V.