claimed in fo glorious a manner, we find no one Pharifee either named or hinted at by St. Luke, as an oppofer of Chriftianity in thofe earlieft days. What others might do we know not.

But

• we find the Sadducees purfuing St. Paul even to death at his coming to Jerusalem, in the xxist of the Alts. He then, upon all occafions, owned himself to be a Pharifee. In the xxiid Chapter he told the people, that he had been bred up at the feet of Gamaliel after the ftrictest manner, in the Law of his Fa⚫thers. In the xxiiid Chapter he told the • Council that he was a Pharifee, the fon of a Pharifee, and that he was accufed ⚫ for afferting the Hope and Refurrection of the dead, which was their darling doctrine. Hereupon the Pharifees ftood by him, and though they did not ⚫own our Saviour to be the Meffiah, yet they would not deny but fome Angel or Spirit might have fpoken to ⚫ him, and then if they oppofed him they fhould fight against God. This was the very argument Gamaliel had used before. The Refurrection of our Lord, which they faw fo ftrenuously afferted

by

• by the Apostles, whofe miracles they also faw and owned, (Acts iv. 16.) feems to. have ftruck them, and many of them ⚫ were converted (Acts xv. 5.) even without a miracle, and the reft ftood ftill • and made no oppofition.

• We see here what the part was which the Pharifees acted in this important conjuncture. Of the Sadducees, we meet not with one in the whole apoftolic history that was converted. We hear of no miracles wrought to ⚫ convince any of them, tho' there was an • eminent one wrought to reclaim a Pharifee. St. Paul, we fee, after his con< verfion, always gloried in his having • been bred a Pharifee. He did fo to the people of Jerufalem, to the great Council, to King Agrippa, and to the Philippians. So that from hence we may juftly infer, that it was not their inftitution, which was in itfelf laudable, which our bleffed Saviour found fault with, but it was their hypocrify, their covetousness, their oppreffion, their overvaluing themfelves upon their zeal for the ceremonial Law, and their adding to that yoke by their traditions, N 2

' all

all which were not properly effentials of their institution, that our Lord blamed.

But I must not run on. What I • would obferve, Sir, is, that Atheism is more dreadful, and would be more grievous to human fociety, if it were invefted with fufficient power, than Religion under any fhape where its profeffors do at the bottom believe what they profefs. I defpair not of a Papift's converfion, tho' I would not willingly lie at a zealot Papift's mercy, (and no Proteftant would, if he knew what Popery is) tho' he truly believes in our Saviour. But the Free-thinker, who fcarcely believes there is a God, and certainly disbelieves Revelation, is a very terrible Animal. He will talk • of natural rights, and the just. free⚫doms of mankind, no longer than 'till he himself gets into power; and by the inftance before us, we have fmall grounds to hope for his falvation, or that God will ever vouchfafe him fufficient grace to reclaim him from errors, ⚫ which have been fo immediately levelled againft himself.

If

If these notions be true, as I verily believe they are, I thought they might be worth publishing at this time, for ⚫ which reafon they are fent in this manner to you by,

SIR,

Four most bumble Servant,

M. N.

SECT.

N 3

SECT. X.

IMMORTALITY of the Soul, and a FUTURE STATE.

Nefcio quomodo inhæret in mentibus quafi feculorum quoddam augurium futurorum; idque in maximis ingeniis altiffimifque animis exiftit maximè & upparet facillimè. Cic. Tufc. Quæft.

SIR,

I

To the SPECTATOR.

AM fully perfuaded that one of the beft fprings of generous and worthy actions, is the having generous and worthy thoughts of ourselves. Whoever has a mean opinion of the ⚫ dignity of his nature, will act in no higher a rank than he has allotted himfelf in his own eftimation. If he con⚫ fiders his Being as circumfcribed by the ⚫ uncertain term of a few years, his defigns will be contracted into the fame

narrow