.

PART I.

WHERE, AMONG OTHER THINGS, GLORY AND RICHES
ARE PARTICULARLY CONSIDERED.

TO THE
RIGHT HON. HENRY PELHAM,
FIRST LORD COMMISSIONER OF THE TREASURY, AND CHANCELLOR OF THE
EXCHEQUER.

PREFACE.

Few ages have been deeper in dispute about religion than this. The
dispute about religion, and the practice of it, seldom go together. The
shorter, therefore, the dispute, the better. I think it may be reduced to
this single question, _Is man immortal, or is he not?_ If he is not, all
our disputes are mere amusements, or trials of skill. In this case,
truth, reason, religion, which give our discourses such pomp and
solemnity, are (as will be shown) mere empty sound, without any meaning
in them. But if man is immortal, it will behove him to be very serious
about eternal consequences; 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 source and support of all our
infidelity; how remote soever the particular objections advanced may seem
to be from it.

Sensible appearances affect most men much more than abstract reasonings;
and we daily see bodies drop around us, but the soul is invisible. 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 sad interest that souls should not survive! The
heathen world confessed, that they rather hoped, than firmly believed,
immortality; and how many heathens have we still amongst us! The sacred
page assures us, that life and immortality are brought to light by the
Gospel: but by how many is the Gospel rejected or overlooked? From these
considerations, and from my being accidentally privy to the sentiments of
some particular persons, I have been long persuaded that most, if not
all, our infidels (whatever name they take, and whatever scheme, for
argument's sake, and to keep themselves in countenance, they patronise),
are supported in their deplorable error, by some doubt of their
immortality, at the bottom. And I am satisfied, that men once thoroughly
convinced of their immortality, are not far from being Christians. For it
is hard to conceive, that a man fully conscio