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THE

WORKS

OF THE

AUTHOR

OF

THE NIGHT - THOUGHTS.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

REVISED AND CORRECTED BY HIMSELF.

VOL. III.

A NEW EDITION.

London:

PRINTED FOR F. AND C. RIVINGTON; OTRIDGE AND SON; J. NICHOLS;
J. SEWELL; LONGMAN AND REES; CADELL AND DAVIES;

G. AND J. ROBINSON; VERNOR AND HOOD; J. WALKER;

J. SCATCHERD; OGILVY AND SON; T. HURST;

J. MAWMAN; J. NUNN; J. CUTHELL;

W. J. AND J. RICHARDSON; AND

J. HOOKHAM.

J. Cundee, Printer, Ivy-Lane, Paternoster-Row.

NIGHT THE SEVENTH.

BEING THE

SECOND PART

OF THE

INFIDEL RECLAIMED.

CONTAINING

THE NATURE, PROOF, AND IMPORTANCE, OF IMMORTALITY.

PREFACE.

As

we are at war with the power, it were well if we were at war with the manners of France. A land of levity, is a land of guilt. A serious mind is the native soil of every virtue; and the single character that does true honour to mankind. The soul's immortality has been the favourite theme with the serious of all ages. Nor is it strange; it is a subject by far the most interesting, and important, that can enter the mind of man. Of highest moment this subject always was, and always will be. Yet this its highest moment seems to admit of increase, at this day; a sort of occasional importance is superadded to the natural weight of it; if that opinion which is advanced in the preface to the preceding Night, be just. It is there supposed, that all our infidels, whatever scheme, for argument's sake, and to keep themselves in countenance, they patronize, are betrayed into their deplorable error, by some doubts of their immortality, at the bottom. And the more I consider this point, the more I am persuaded of the truth of that opinion. Though the distrust of a futurity is a strange error; yet it is an error into which bad men may naturally be distressed. For it is impossible to bid defiance to final ruin, without some refuge in imagination, some presumption of escape. And what presumption is there? There are but two in nature; but two, within the compass of human thought. And these are,That either GOD will not, or can not punish. Considering the divine attributes, the first is too gross to be di