454 MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. Enough ; I claim no more. My toils are paid, My midnight -lamp, and my o'er - labour'd head, My early sighs for thy propitious pow'r, And my wing'd zeal to seize the lyric. hour : Thy words reward them all. And when I die, May the great Ruler of the rolling sky Give thy predictions birth, with blessings from -his eye. I lay my flesh to rest, with heart resign' And smiling hope. Arise, my deathless mind, Ascend, where all the blissful passions flow In sweeter numbers ; and let mortals know, Urania leaves these odes to shear their toils below. LXXV. A moral Argument to prove the natural Immortality of the Soul. THE great God has manifested astonishing wisdom in the, works of his creation, contriving, forming, and endowing every creature with powers and properties suitable to the various pur- poses of its designed existence, and of his own government. God has given to his creature man an understanding and will, and various powers whereby he is capable of knowing, loving, and serving his Maker ; by these same powers he also becomes capable of dishonouring, affronting and blaspheming him. Man is formed also with a power or capacity of receiving recompences according to his works, that is, pleasure and hap- piness answerable to his obedience, or punishment and misery if he disobey : And the great God, as a righteous Governor of the world, has thought fit to assign happiness to virtue, and misery to vice, as a reward or recompence of good or evil actions. Man is also created with a power to destroy his own animal life, as well as the animal life of his fellow - creatures. Now if a man be never so pious, and has no surviving spi- rit, no conscious power remaining after this animal life be de- stroyed, God cannot certainly reward him according to the course of nature ; because a wicked man may put a speedy end to the animal life of the righteous, by sword or club, and thus he may insolently forbid or prevent all God's rewarding goodness and justice, with regard to that righteous man. Or if a man be never so vicious ; if he blaspheme and in- sult his Maker with never so much indignity, and commit all outrages possible against his neighbours ; yet God cannot punish him for such aggravated guilt, according to the course of nature, if he has no surviving spirit, no conscious power remaining be- yond this animal life : for by the sword, halter, or poison, he may put a speedy end to his own animal life, and to all his con- sciousness of being, and to all power'of suffering punishment. But surely the, all -wise God would never form creatures of such a stature, and with such powers, as that they might inso-
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