What treafon to the majefty of man! "If fo decreed, th' Almighty Will be done. 750 "Well pleas'd to learn from thunder's impotence, "Death's pointlefs darts, and hell's defeated ftorms." But these chimeras touch not thee, Lorenzo ! The glories of the world thy sevenfold shield. Other ambition than of crowns in air, And fuperlunary felicities,. Thy bofom warm. I'll cool it, if I can ;. And turn thofe glories that inchant, against thee. If wife, the cause that wounds thee is thy cure. Come, my ambitious! let us mount together. (To mount, Lorenzo never can refuse); 755 760 And from the clouds, where pride deiights to dwell, Look down on earth.-What feeft thou? Wondrous things! Terrestrial wonders, that eclipfe the skies. 765 What lengths of labour'd lands! what loaded feas! 770 What 775 What level'd mountains! and what lifted vales! 780 785 790 Here, plains turn oceans; there, vast oceans join 795 Her Her fecrets are extorted! art prevails! 800 And now, Lorenzo! raptur'd at this scene, Whofe glories render heaven fuperfluous! fay, Whose footsteps these?-Immortals have been here. Could less than fouls immortal this have done ? 805 Earth's cover'd o'er with proofs of fouls immortal; And proofs of immortality forgot. To flatter thy grand foible, I confefs, These are ambition's works: and these are great: 810 Tranfcend them all-But what can thefe tranfcend? 'Tis moral grandeur makes the mighty man : How little they, who think ought great below! All our ambitions death defeats, but one; And that it crowns. 815 Here ceafe we: but, ere long, More powerful proof fhall take the field against thee, Stronger than death, and smiling at the tomb. NIGHT NIGHT THE SEVENTH. BEING THE SECOND PART O F THE INFIDEL RECLAIMED. CONTAINING THE NATURE, PROOF, AND IMPORTANCE, OF IMMORTALITY. PRE FAC E. 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 ferious mind is the native foil of every virtue; and the fingle character that does true honour to mankind. The four's immortality has been the favourite theme with the serious of all ages. Nor is it ftrange; it is a fubject by far the most interefting, and important, that can enter the mind of man. Of highest moment this fubject always was and always will be. Yet this its highest moment seems to admit of increase, at this day; a fort of occafional importance is fuperadded to the natural weight of it; if that that opinion which is advanced in the preface to the preceding Night, be juft. It is there fuppofed, that all our infidels, whatever scheme, for argument's fake, and to keep themselves in countenance, they patronize, are betrayed into their deplorable error, by fome doubts of their immortality, at the bottom. And the more I confider this point, the more I am persuaded of the truth of that opinion. Though the distrust of a futurity is a ftrange error; yet it is an error into which bad men may naturally be distressed. For it is impoffible to bid defiance to final ruin, without fome refuge in imagination, fome prefumption 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. Confidering the divine attributes, the firft is too grofs to be digested by our strongest wishes. And fince omnipotence is as much a divine attribute as holiness, that God cannot punish, is as abfurd a fuppofition, as the former. God certainly can punish as long as wicked men exist. In non-existence, therefore, is their only refuge; and, confequently, non-existence is their strongest wish. And ftrong wishes have a ftrange influence on our opinions; they bias the judgment in a manner, almoft, incredible. And fince on this mem ber of their alternative, there are some very fmall appearances in their favour, and none at all on the other, they catch at this reed, they lay hold on this chimæra, to fave themselves from the shock and horror of an immediate and abfolute despair. On |