O. So it seems when Andrew Johnstoun inclines to ride, you must serve him for an Horse, as he now does you.
C. You are mistaken.
O. I thought all Distinction between Mistresses and Maids, Lairds & Tennants had been done away at Death.
C. True ’tis so, yet still you don’t take up the matter.
O. Is then, Sir, this one of the Questions you will not answer?
C. You are still mistaken; for that Question I can answer, and after this you may readily understand.
O. Tell me then, Coul, have you never yet appeared before God, nor received any Sentence from him as a Judge.
C. Never yet.
O. I know you was a Scholar, Coul; and ’tis generally believed there is a private Judgment, besides the general at the great Day. The former is immediately after Death. Upon this he interrupted me, crying, No such Thing, no such Thing, no Tryal till the last Day: The Heaven which good Men enjoy immediately after Death, consists only in the Serenity of their Thoughts, the Satisfaction of a good Conscience, and the certain Hope they have of an Eternity of Joy when that Day shall come. The Punishment or Hell of the wicked immediately after Death, consists in the dreadful Things of their awakened Conscience, and the Terror of facing the great Judge, and the sensible Apprehensions of eternal Torments ensuing; and this bears still a due Proportion to the Evils they have done, when they were living. So indeed the State of some good Folks differs but little in Happiness from what they enjoyed upon Earth, save only they are freed from the Body and the Sins and Sorrows that attend it. And, on the other Hand, there are some, who may be said rather not to have been good than that they have been wicked while living: their Condition is not easily distinguished from that of the former, and under that Class comes a great Herd of Souls, a vast Number of your ignorant People, who have not much minded the Concerns of Eternity, but, at the same Time, have lived in much Indolence, Ignorance, and Innocence.
O. I always thought that their rejecting the Terms of Salvation offered, was sufficient Ground for God to punish them with his eternal Displeasure. And as to their Ignorance, that could never excuse them, since they lived in a Place of the World, where the Knowledge of these Things might easily have been attained.