Considerations of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul, with…

Before I finish this Discourse it will be requisite to answer two Objections that Infidels are ready to make. 1. They argue against the reality of future recompenses; That they are invisible, & we have no testimony from others who know the truth of them by experience. As Alexander's Soldiers after his victories in the East, refused to venture over the Ocean with him for the conquest of other Kingdoms beyond it, alleging, facile ista finguntur quia Oceanus navigari non potest. The Seas were so vast and dangerous that no ship could pass through them. Who ever returned that was there? who has given Testimony from his own sight of ⟨p. 234⟩such rich and pleasant Countries? Nothing can be more easily feigned that it is, than that of which there can be no proof that it is not. And such is the Language of Infidelity: Of all that undertook that endless Voyage to another World, who ever came back through the immense ocean of the Air to bring us news of such a happy Paradise as to make us despise this World? do they drink the Waters of forgetfulness, so as to lose the memory of the Earth and its Inhabitants? If there were a place of endless Torments, of the millions of Souls that every day depart from hence, would none return to give advice to his dear friends to prevent their misery? Or when they have taken that last step, is the precipice so steep that they cannot ascend hither? ⟨p. 235⟩Or does the Soul lose its wings that it cannot take so high a flight? These are idle fancies. And from hence they conclude, that none ever return, because they never come there, but finally perish in the dissolution of the Body, and are lost in the Abyss of nothing: when they cease to live with us, they are dead to themselves. And consequently they judg it a foolish bargain to part with what is present and certain for an uncertain futurity. Thus they make use of Reason for this end, to persuade themselves that men are of the same nature with the Beasts, without Reason.

Before I finish this Discourse it will be requisit to answer two Objections that Infidels are ready to make. 1. They argue against the reality of future recompences; That they are invisible, & we have no testimony frō others who know the truth of them by experience. As Alexanders Souldiers after his victories in the East, refused to venture over the Ocean with him for the conquest of other Kingdoms beyond it, alledging, facile ista finguntur quia Oceanus navigari non potest. The Seas were so vast and dangerous that no ship could pass through them. Who ever returned that was there? who has given Testimony from his own sight of