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In another place he mentions the prefumptions of reafon, and owns, that our Lord's refurrection, his affura ces of a FUTURE STATE, and s miracles, ADDED to thefe prefumptions (fuch is his manner of fpeech) are fufficient (for what? why) to fatisfy all that are willing to listen to truth. (L. p. 31) But of what truth they are to be fatif fied; and, if it be the truth of a future ftate, what intereft they are to have in it, and what right they have to it, he cares not exprefly to fay. And, as to thefe prefumptions of reafon, he gives us no account of them, what they are, or whence they arife. On the contrary, he hath all along employed fuch reafonings, as, if true, are strong prefumptions against a future ftate. For he fuppofes virtue to be a fufficient reward to itself in this life: It is the imitation of God, (he fays), and therefore must be the happiness of man; (p. 26.) nay, the practice of virtue is happiness itfef. (p. 23.) And if fo, then it is not neceffary that a future reward fhould be referved for virtue; for it hath a fufficient reward already. A virtuous heathen is, at this rate, as happy as a virtuous Christian: a man without the profpect of another world, is as happy as with it; for if the practice of virtue be happiness itself, he that poffeffes happinefs itself can, by no other confiderations or views, have any addition made to his happiness. If the doctrine of this letter be true, This world may be our home, and not the place of our pilgrimage, as we Chriftians think, and call it: for our prefent ftate is, it seems, a state of fruition and felicity, not a state of preparation and trial; and, fhould there be no other life, yet fuch a supposi,

tion will not reflect on the juftice or goodness of God, which are fufficiently vindicated by his wife distribution of good and evil in this life, and by that pleasure and pain with which virtue and vice are feverally and infeparably attended.

Now thefe principles do, as I conceive, tend to fubvert the belief of a future ftate; and have therefore been generally entertained by all those who doubted of the reality of fuch a state, or exprefly difbelieved it, without shaking off at the fame time the obligations of morality. Such, particularly, were the Stoics, who first brought thefe tenets into repute and fashion: An Atheistical fect of philofophers, that held the world to be God: and having no certain perfuafion, much lefs evidence, of another life, and yet defigning to be thought lovers of virtue, knew not how to defend its caufe, but by affirming that virtue was its own reward; and the practice of it, happiness itself; fuch an happiness, as no afflictions, no torments, which befel a man, could deprive him of, or any ways diminish. I will not argue against fuch wild paradoxes as thefe: The excellent words I have once already cited, (Pref. p. 32.) are a fufficient reply to them--" Thus to cry up virtue, to

the weakning our belief and hope of the immortality of the foul, however at firft blush it may "feem plaufible, is in effect no better than a subtle invention to ruin virtue by itself, fince it can"not poffibly fubfift but by the belief and support "of another life."

Whether the Letter-writer intended, by what he had wrote, to undermine this belief, is left to God, and his own confcience. Sure I am, there

are

are feveral paffages in his piece (befides those I have mentioned) which look that way; and require a great deal of candour to be interpreted in fuch a fenfe, as doth not reflect on the certainty of this great article of all religion. For he is not afraid to fay, that "he much queftions, whether "ever there was, or can be, a perfecution, mere❝ly for the fake of the moral virtue of any per"fon," p. 29. A doubt which fhakes the only moral evidence of a future ftate, which he can any ways be fuppofed to allow of: For if virtue, as virtue, be not perf.cuted here, there is certainly (upon his principles) no reason for rewarding it hereafter. And what could tempt him to entertain fuch a doubt? Were not Socrates and Ariftides (to name no other heathens) plain inftances of this kind? and, when Joseph fuffered under the accufation of Potiphar's wife, was he not per • fecuted merely for the fake of a moral virtue?" And can this be in any degree strange to those who have confidered how wicked men look upon themselves as reproached and affronted by exem plary goodness? And how juftly therefore they are reprefented in the book of wisdom, as fpeaking this language-" The righteous (fay they) is "not for our turn, he is clean contrary to our do66 ings; he was made to reprove our thoughts,. "he is grievous unto us even to behold; for his "life is not like other mens, his ways are of a"nother fafhion- -Therefore let us lie in wait "for the righteous," &c. p. 11, 12. 14, 15. For my part, I can no way account for his doubts, in fo plain a cafe, but upon this foot, that he fore

faw

faw the perfecution of virtue, as virtuë must heLeffarily infer a future reward.

But fhould virtue be perfecuted, yet still he denies that the hopes of a diftant recompence would afford it any immediate relief: for thefe are his words-"That the beft of men are sometimes in "this ftate the most miferable, as far as the evils "of this world can make them fo, may poffibly

be true; but it is equally true, whether you fupr pofe a future ftate, or fuppofe it not;" L. p. 15. that is [for I can make no other fenfe of his words] the virtuous perfons, fo perfecuted, are equall miferable under both fuppofitions, their hopes of a future happiness being no manner of allay to their prefent miferies. And how can the belief of a future ftate be more effectually fupplanted than by fuch an opinion? Can one think him in earnest, when he fays, that "he is fure, the રંડ certainty of a future ftate ftands in need of no * fuch fupports,” as mine? for even without them,

philofophers afferted it-and fo may Chri"ftians," L. p. 31.-He takes away the strongest inducement which the best philofophers had (or indeed which mere reason could have) to believe à future state; and then he leaves us to depend upon the bare affertions of fome other philofophers (on their authority without reafon) for the truth of it. And is not this a very fatisfactory and ample equivalent? What fhould hinder us from exchangining the cleareft evidences of a future ftate, for the groundless affurances of thefe philofophers of his acquaintance concerning it?

Other paffages there are in the Letter, equally fiable to exception: but I delight not to dwell on

thefe

thefe blemishes, or to make the worst and most invidious conftruction of things. My chief bufinefs was to prove, that the doctrine delivered in my Sermon was neither New nor Unfcriptural, nor" in itfelf falfe and pernicious:" and having, I hope, effectually made good what I undertook in thefe refpects, i fhall not be folicitous to enquire into the peculiar articles of this Writer's creed, nor even to dive into the secret springs and motives that fet him at work.

He folemnly difclaims any uneafinefs conceived at the character given of Mr. Bennet, or any defire of leffening mine, (p. 2.) If his profeffions be ,real it will puzzle him to give a good account, why he took occafion from my Sermon to vent his thoughts on this argument. How come I to be fingled out from that crowd of writers, who have all along maintained the fame doctrine ? Why muft he particularly reprefent me, as put"ting pleas into the mouths of licentious perfons," (L. p. 28) for faying That, which hath been fo often already faid by men of learning, and judg ment, and virtue, without incurring the reproach either of their own times or of thofe that followed? But (which is worst of all) why are thefe pofitions charged upon me, as their fole author and inventor; and the reader led into a belief that they

"never before ferioufly maintained by any "perfon of virtue and understanding?" L. p. 19. These are fuch manifest indications of infin cerity and malice, as all his grave pretences of "Concern for the caufe of virtue" will not cover or elude. If, after all, he pleads Ignorance for his excufe; fince I have fhewn him his foul VOL. II. mistakes

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