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At the first appointment of officers in chriftian churches, there was no fettled provifion for their maintenance, but money was colle&ed every Lord's day, out of which a diftribution was made to all who ftood in need of it, officers and others, promifcuoufly. For, at the first promulgation of christianity, no perfon could have been educated for the miniftry. All equally lived by their feveral profeffions, and therefore no perfon was entitled to more confideration in this respect than another. But afterwards, when chriftianity got a firm establishment, many young perfons devoted themselves wholly to the fervice of chriftian churches, and prepared themselves for that work by a diligent study of the fcriptures, and proper exercises; and thus, giving their whole time and labour to the fociety, they were, as was reasonable, wholly maintained out of the funds of it.

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CHAPTER III.

OF THE FUTURE EXPECTATIONS OF

MANKIND DERIVED FROM REVELATION.

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Of a future ftate in general.

FROM the light of nature we were able to

make out a tolerable fyftem of natural religion, as far as it refpects the duty of men in this life, though the particulars were fuch as can only be faid to have been difcoverable by nature, fince they were not actually discovered by it. But nature was a much less fufficient guide with respect to the information, in which we are fo much interested, concerning our expectations after death. It even left us under great uncertainty, whether we should. furvive the grave or not; though, upon the fuppofition of our furviving the grave, we were able, from the confideration of the equity of God's moral government, to infer, that the event would be very defirable to good men, and much to be dreaded by the wicked; the former having fufficient reafon, from prefent appearances, to conclude,

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that the divine being is a friend to virtue, and, therefore, difpofed to reward them for their adherence to it; and the latter having equal reason to dread his difpleasure.

Since, however, no reasons of justice or equity, could lead men to expect more than an adequate punishment, proportioned to their crimes, there was far from being any reafon to imagine that future punishments would be eternal, especially if they were exquifite; becaufe no crimes of a finite nature, committed by frail and finite creatures, could deferve it. An alternative, therefore, remained, either to fuppofe an extinction of the wicked, with or without any other punishment; or that future fufferings would operate like the, fufferings of this prefent life, tending to correct and amend those who are subject to them.

There was fome hope, therefore, that, after an adequate punishment, those who were not reclaimed in this world, might be effectually cured of their vicious propenfities, by the more fevere and durable punishments of another, fo as to enter upon

new ftate of trial with more advantage, though they might still be far behind those who had made the most of their prefent advantages. In this cafe, the punishments of the wicked may properly enough be faid to be eternal, because they would never arrive at that state of perfection and happi

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nefs which was attained to by those who entered earlier on a courfe of virtue.

Such is the fubftance of what we were able to collect from nature concerning a future ftate, provided there were any fuch thing. From revelation we learn the actual certainty of a future state, and have an abfolute affurance of its being a ftate of exact retribution, in which every man shall receive according to his works. But this being all that is neceffary to influence our present conduct, we are still at a loss, and left in a great measure to our conjectures, with respect to the precife nature, and final issue, of the future ftate.

This important revelation of a future life feems to have been made to mankind in a gradual manner. At least but little ftrefs feems to have been laid upon it, in the early ages of the world, fo that it was not fully brought to light, fo as to be-. come the great governing principle of men's conduct, till the dispensation of the gospel of Chrift.

Enoch being faid to have been a preacher of righteousness, and having been taken from the world without dying, perhaps in the view of multitudes, it is not very improbable, but that he might have been commiffioned to announce this great doctrine to mankind. His miraculous affumption might be intended to intimate that God, being the friend of the virtuous, would provide for the continuance of their being; and they might conclude, that he

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who could continue life without dying, could even raise men from the dead.

With the old patriarchs, and mankind in general, in the early ages of the world, the profpect of being the founders of nations, which every perfon had then the chance of being, was fo great an idea, and ftruck them fo forcibly, that it, in a manner, fuperfeded all other motives to virtue. It is on this argument, therefore, and other temporal confiderations, that peculiar ftress is laid in the exhortations to obedience addreffed to them.

As the inftitutions of Mofes refpected the Jews as a nation, and the immediate object of it was temporal profperity, there is the lefs reafon to expect a particular mention of it in his laws; though it cannot but be owned to be a little furprifing, that there fhould be no incidental mention of it in any of his writings.

We find some allufions, though not very plain ones, to the state of mankind after death, in feveral parts of the Old Teftament, especially in the book of Pfalms, as, Pf. xvi. 8. &c. "I have "fet the Lord always before me: because he is "at my right hand, I fhall not be moved. "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory re

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joiceth: my flesh alfo fhall reft in hope. For "thou wilt not leave my foul in hell: neither "wilt thou fuffer thine holy One to fee cor"ruption. Thou wilt fhew me the path of life:

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