If he compares this fhort Account of my Doctrine, with the larger Explication given of its feveral Branches in the Sermon itself, he will find, That (whatever the Letter Writer boldly affirms to the contrary) it must be understood, and is by me actually propos'd, under the Reftrictions following;

1. When I prefer Beafts to Men, and Bad Men to Good, in point of Happiness, it is upon a Suppofition, not only that there is no other Life than this, but that Mankind are perfuaded that there is none. The Men

I fpeak of are fuch, as thofe Corinthians were against whom S. Paul argu'd; Men, who in this Life only have hope in Chrift; fuch as expect no Benefits from the Chriftian Inftitution, but what are confind within the Bounds of this prefent Life, and have no hopes of a better State after this, of a p. great and lafting Reward in a Life to come t. This is the Account which I exprefly give of them, when I enter on the Argument, and which I repeat feveral *P. times in the Courfe of it; and which must be under375, stood all along, even where it is not mention'd. And 377. fuch a fort of Chriftians I may be allow'd to fuppofe

366.

3719

*

now, fince fuch there manifeftly were in the Days of the Apofties. Ner doth it any ways interfere with this Suppofition, to reprefent thefe very Men, as baving now and then the uneafie Prefages of a Future Reckoning, and as Scaring themselves fometimes with the Fears of another Life, even while they do not entertain the Hopes of it. This, I doubt not, is the Cafe of all fuch who profefs to disbelieve a Future State; they are not always equally fatisfy'd with their own Reafonings about it, but tremble fometimes at the thoughts of it. My Reprover, therefore, deals very unfairly, when be reckons This among the Advantages

реси

*

peculiar to Men, that they have the prefent Support of the Belief of a Future State, and the firm. Expectation of Rewards in a Life to come; and L. affures bis Readers, with equal Modefty and Truth, P. 25. that this is agreeable to what I fuppofe t: whereas See I suppose the quite contrary; and, on that Suppofi- 25,39, tion, all my Reasonings and Reflections turn. Nor is 21. there a Word, throughout the whole Argument, that can be conftru'd to a different Meaning.

L. p.

*

373,

2. Proceeding on this Suppofition, I affirm,not that the Best Men would be always, but often the most miserable. And that I might be fure of not being mifapprehended, I repeat This (or fome other Equivalent) Expreffion at least fix times, * in the Compass of a few Pages. Nor doth the Argument which I am explain- 363, збр. ing, require a more extenfive Suppofition; it being 371, equally neceffary that there should be a Future State, to vindicate the Justice of God, and falve the prefent Ir- 377, regularities of Providence, whether the best Men be oftentimes only, or always the most miferable. The Letter-Writer diffembles his Knowledge of this Remarkable Restriction; and having taken Advantage from thence to argue and object as be pleas'd, contents himfelf flightly to mention it towards the clofe of his Pamphlet ; which was difcreetly done, fince an earlier Acknowledgment of it would have difcover'd at first fight, even to the meanest of his Readers, the Impertinence of feveral of thofe Objections and Arguments. He would excufe this Procedure, by faying, at last, That though I profefs only to fhew that the beft Men are OEten the moft miferable, yet I argue, as if they were always fo*, viz. from that Obligation to fome Particular Practices, from which they are never 41. exempt in any Condition of this Life*: Which

*L. P.

† p.

374.

*

375.

376.

374.

is as great and groundless a Mifreprefentation as any of the former, Since ;

3dly, My chief Proof of this Point, is drawn from. that State of Perfecution, to which Good Men, above all others, are fubject: because their Principles expofe s. them moft to the Troubles and Dangers of Life* P371 because fore Evils and great Temporal Inconveniences attend the Discharge of their Duty t; 373 they become a Reproach and a Bye-word *, are injur'd and outrag'd †, fuffer unjuft and illegal P. Encroachments *; the greatest Saints being fometimes made the moft remarkable Inftances tp. of Suffering t: for they are Inflexible in their Uprightness-No Profpect of Intereft can allure them, p. no Fear of Danger can difmay them *. Would one imagine, after all thefe Expreffions, and feveral others of the fame kind that I have made use of, any Man fo loft to all Senfe of Justice and Truth, as to fay, That I 11. P. fuppofe no Cafe of Perfecution ? that I do not once fuppofe fuch a State of Perfecution as the Apoftle pointed at? but maintain my Pofitions with reference to the most Quiet and Profperous State of this Life? Certainly the Letter-Writer doth not mean this as one Inftance of his Concern for the Caufe of Virtue, and the Intereft of Practical +L. p. Religion †! I do not indeed build my Reasoning wholly on the Cafe of Perfecution; neither doth the Apostle himself, as will afterwards appear: However, I do not exclude it. On the contrary, I refer to it frequently, and should have dwelt more largely upon it, but that the other Confiderations I fuggeft, were more applicable to the Character of the Perfon deceas'd; which was (as I have already faid) the Point from whence I chiefly took my Views in this Argument.

29.

*L.P.

21.

3.

*

;

372,

Fourthly, Even when I fuppofe good Men not to be under a state of Perfecution, yet still I fuppofe them to live in a state of Mortification and Self denial to be under a perpetual Conflict with their Bodily Apetites and Inclinations, and strugling to get the mastery over them. 1 fuppofe them oblig'd, by their Principles, not to tafte fo freely of the Pleasures of Life (the Innocent Pleasures of Life; for fuch I manifeftly mean) as other Men do*; but to fit as loofe from them, and be as Moderate in the use of them as 373. they can ; not only to forbear those Gratifications which are forbidden by the Rules of Religion; but even to reftrain themselves in unforbidden Inftances *. And, whenever they taste even the allowable Pleasures of Senfe, I fuppofe them to be under fuch Checks from Reason and Reflection, as, by reprefenting perpetually to their Minds the meannefs of all these Senfual Gratifications, do, in great measure, blunt the Edge of their keenest Defires, and pall all their Enjoyments t. And have I not reafon therefore to say, tp. that good and pious Perfons, by the Nature and Tendency of their Principles, (as they are moft expos'd to the Troubles and ill Accidents of Life.. fo) are the greateft Strangers to the Plea-·. See fures and Advantages of it ? And would not thefe pregreat and needlefs Abatements of their Happiness, ched if it were confin'd within the Compafs of this Life on- p. 11 ? But, furely, it doth not from hence follow, nor 375. bave I once fuggefted, much less affirm'd, That the Practice of Vice doth in its own Nature tend to make Men more happy, in all ftates of this Life, than the Practice of Virtue . This is an Affertion L. P. by which the great Author of our Nature, and E

nacter

379

the

S.

32.

nailer of the Law of Good and Evil, is highly difha nour'd and blafphem'd; and which cannot by any one, who hath the leaft fenfe of Religion, be repeated without being abborr'd.

That Virtue and Vice do in their own Natures tend to make thefe Men Happy, or Miferable, who Severally practise them, is a Propofition of undoubted (and, I am fure, by me undisputed) Truth; as far as it relates to Moral Virtue, or Vice, properly fo call d; that is, to thofe Measures of Duty, which Natural Reafon, unenlightned by Revelation, preferibes: For as to thofe Rules of Evangelical Perfection, in which we Chriftians are obliged to excel they are fome of them) of fo exalted a Nature, fo contrary to Flish and Blood, and fo far above our ordinary Capacities and Powers, that, if there were no otker Life than this, I fee not how our Happiness could generally be faid to confift in the Practice of them. And, therefore, when God made them Matter of frict Duty to us; he at the fame time animated us to Obedience (not only by affuring us of the extraordinary Alfiftances of his good Spirit, but) by a clear Difcovery of a Future State of Rewards and Punishments; whereas the Jews, who had the Promifes of this Life only, had alfo, in proportion to thofe Promifes, a lower and less excellent Scheme of Duty propos'd to them.

And here alfo this Author is altogether Silent for be takes no notice of thefe Improvements made by the Gospel in the Meafures our Duy; but fuppofes every where the Chriftian, and Heathen Morality to be in all refpects the fame; and that the innocent Plcafures of Life (which must be allow'd to have fome fhare in perfecting humane Happiness) are no more affected and retrench'd by the one than the other. He fuppofes

all