Animadversions upon a fatal period, or, A brief discourse concerning the present state of the body, and the future state of the soul by Tho. Collard.

To the READER.

THe Notion of a Destiny, of the Fatal Event of all things, of peremptory and absolute Decrees, being once im∣bibed by the Vulgar, or even by their great Abettors; they soon commence such excellent Sophi∣sters as to argue and cajole them∣selves out of all morality and ho∣nesty: Abold and Hectoring

confidence, an idle and fruitless faith, Yeas and Nays, grave nods, sadtones and accents, wrie Mouths, sullen and lugubrious looks, Hypocrisie and meer For∣malities with the more precious Sort of them; and oaths, cur∣ses, imprecations, and notorious frolicks and debaucheries with the Prophaner: have the like influence (they think) on God, concerning their present and fu∣ture State; as truth, sincerity, temperance, ardent zeal, emient piety, real charity and devotion. For the Almighty, in their judgments, before they had a Be∣ing

design'd their Fate either of bliss or misery, which neither Vice nor Virtue can alter.

Death 'tis confest, is very formidous, of a tragical and au∣stere Aspect, and Life, especi∣ally eternal, is sweet and eligible, desir'd and courted by all; but should they endeavour to use all the Means and Methods ima∣ginable to eschew the One, and to enjoy the Other; yet a previ∣ous and dormant Decree might frustrate their designs, and press them to the infernal Pit, whiles, Ideots like, they were aspiring for Heaven. This supersedes their

care and industry, makes them re∣spect an extravagant Romance, a Dithyrambick, or a hymn of their own making, as good for the Health of their Souls, as the whole Duty of Man, Te Deum, or one of Davids Penitentials; and Chalk Ashes, and Sawdust as efficacious for the Health of their Bodyes, as the richest Ju∣lips and Cordials; and so Both oftentimes perish either by Pre∣sumption or Despair: these be∣ing the direful Effects and sad results, which naturally issue, like insipid rivulets from putrid springs, from such brain-sick and vertiginous Phancies.

There are many (I know) ela∣borate and judicious Discourses, both from the Press and the Pul∣pit, which since the blessed and miraculous Restauration of our exil'd KING and CHURCH, have like so many holy Engines batter'd down those prodigious Opinions concerning Gods most just and sacred Decrees: Yet the Con∣tagion still remaining in these Parts, as was evident from W. C's Pulpit-Prate in Vindicati∣on of a Fatal Period, and the Turks Aphorism, Quod termi∣nus vitae est immutabilis; and even as it now appears from the

Press in its new form, after two years licking: (for there are some things added, as that of Bp. H. and more omitted;) yet the zea∣lous Harangue is still a Bear, able to startle all that have any good thoughts of a Deity, or any real estimate for Truth, Reason, Piety, Religion, and the Sincerity of the Sacred Writ▪ tho 'tis re∣ceiv'd by his infatuated Prose∣lytes with as great veneration, as one of St. Pauls Epistles. And this is no Novelty nor wonder neither: for 'tis storied of a Ge∣neva Innocent (I might say a blasphemous Zealot) that said,

Si veniret Sanctus Paulus qui eadem horâ concionaretur quâ & Calvinus, ego relicto Paulo audirem Calvinum, If St. Paul should come from Heaven, and Preach at the same time that Calvin did; I would desert Paul, and attend and hear precious Mr. John Calvin. Comparisons (I know) are odious; and I must needs confess, that there is as vast a difference between J. C. the Master, and W. C. the Dis∣ciple, as there is between a sub∣tile Politician that can Argue and Rhetoricate, and one of his talkative Bigots.

Our Plebeans and Artizans, and most that formerly frequent∣ed the illegal Meetings, being in∣fected with the sowr Leaven of absolute and irrespective Decrees of Election and Reprobation, which are us'd by them as Catho∣licons to free them from all the diseases both of body and mind, from all faults and Errors: for after the most detestable acts and hainous offences, they usually so∣lace themselves (as I have often known,) That all was decreed, allotted, and appointed for them: that Gods will must be done: and that if God had given them bet∣ter

Grace, (as they usually word it) they had been better men, and less peccant. So that the poor ig∣norant Creatures (tho highly con∣ceited of their own, as well as of their Teachers knowledg) dream, that the Almighty is oblig'd in honour to pardon their most de∣liberate and blackest crimes; they being (according to their own Principles,) necessitated thereto by his own eternal and immuta∣ble Act and Deed. This Con∣tagion, I say, being yet amongst us: This mean Antidote may not, I presume, prove altogether ineffectual, tho not totally to Al∣lay

and expel, yet in some measure to put a stop to the Increase and spreading of it; which has been one of the grand Causes of that vast Empire Sin has got in En∣gland since the publick Preaching of it, in (and a little before) our late intestine Commotions. I shall not apologize, but shall leave the ensuing Lines to thy serious and impartial Consideration.