He that understands that manner rightly will never ftick at this Difficulty.

The Reader may obferve, that in this and other Places, I interfperfe fome things which belong to Revealed Religion, contrary to what I intended at firft; which happened because fome Objections feemed to arise from revealed Religion, in oppofition to the Principles and Arguments here laid down. Since therefore I had determined to produce nothing but what was perfectly agreeable to the Articles of Faith, and the Principles of the Christian Religion, I found it neceffary to call in the Scripture to my Affiftance, that the Answer might come from the fame Quarter with the Objections.

One that knows nothing of Revealed Religion cannot bring thefe Objections; one that does not believe it has no right to urge them. For if he be fenfible that the Objections are of any force, he muft of neceffity also admit the Solutions, fince both of them depend upon the fame Authority. (77.)

NOTES.

(77) This general Argument lies against all those who bring Objections from the Scripture Account of the Creation, Fall, &c. viz. either they believe the Truth and Divine Authority of thofe Books, or they do not; if they do, then they must believe them also when they declare that all the Works of God are holy and juft and good; and confequently that the forementioned Difficulties are no real Arguments against the Divine Attributes: if they do not; then the whole falls to the Ground. For to admit one part of an account and reject the other, when both depend upon the fame Authority, is evidently unreasonable.

Objections therefore drawn from the Scripture account of these Matters can but be mere Arguments ad hominem at best : and are of no force either to make or justify an Unbeliever.

SUB

This is the fame

as if it

did not give the Earth to

SUBSECT. V.

Why God does not tranflate Man to fome other Place, where nothing would occur that could tempt him to choose amifs.

I.'TIS plain, that in the present State of things it is impoffible for Man to live without were afk'd natural Evils, or the danger of erring. "Tis a comwhy God mon Question, why does not God change this State, and tranflate Man to fome other, where all Occasions of Error and Incitements to Evil being cut off, he might choose only Good; i. e. in reality, Why bited by he has placed Man upon the Earth? Why did he the Brutes not leave it to be inhabited by the Brutes alone? only. There are some perhaps who expect fuch things as thefe from the Divine Goodnefs, but without any Senfe or Reafon; fince it manifeftly appears to be better that we should contend with the present Evils, than that the Earth fhould be void of all rational Inhabitants. (78.)

NOTES.

Some

(78.) To ask why Man was placed in fuch a World as this, is to ask why he was created at all? Since if he was to be made what he is, i. e. confifting of a Soul and a Body, this World was a proper place for him. To the Question, Why fhould he be made of fuch a Nature as denominates him Man, or placed in this lower Class of Beings? a fufficient Answer is given in Note 24, where, I think, it is rendered probable, that the fame Goodness which excited the Deity to create Beings of the higheft Order, would induce him both to create as many of that Order as could commodiously exift together, or be confiftent with the Good of the whole; and likewise to produce a Series of as many inferior Orders, and as many particular Beings in each of those Orders as could be conceived to exist between himself and nothing: or fo long as Existence in the very lowest Order might be a Benefit either to the Beings of that Order, or to thofe of fome other. The Confequence of which is, that we muft either have been placed in the Clafs we are in at prefent, or no where, fince by the Sup-.

pofition

Some make it a Question, why so great a Part of the Earth is given away to the Brutes; but these Men would have it all left to them; and Mankind itself extinct.

II. We have often declared that Evils are chiefly This is toto be avoided, nay that they are prohibited by God, tally exbecause they are prejudicial to human Nature; but tirpating

how much worfe would it be to take that Nature entirely away? They therefore who require this of the Divine Goodness, defire the greatest Evil of all as a Remedy for Evils. The fame Perfons alfo, that with such Earneftness desire a Change of their Condition are afraid of Death, forgetting that this Change of their Condition is what they dread the moft of all in Death.

Mankind.

III. Mankind believes indeed from the Light of God in Nature, that God will tranflate good Men into a better State, but it is neceffary that they fhould

NOTES.

due time will tranflate good be Men to a

better

pofition every other Clafs is full. And there will appear fuf- fiate: but ficient reafon for our being created in this Order, and placed the prewhere we are, rather than not created at all, provided that sent is as Exiftence be a Bleffing to us, or that we receive in general neceffary more Happiness than Mifery in this prefent State : which point as Seedwill be confidered in the next Subfection.

That these several Claffes may be fuppofed to advance gradually towards perfection, and of confequence that we in time may be removed into fome better State, fee Note 19 and Y.

Thefe Confiderations will fupply us with an Answer to Bayle's Objection against what our Author advances in this Paragraph. "This (fays he) is just like as if a King should ⚫ confine feveral of his Subjects in his Dungeons, till they were 60 Years old, because these Dungeons would otherwife be empty.' But to make any likeness at all in these two Cafes, it must be made appear in the first place, that we really meet with more Evil of all kinds than Good in this World; and confequently, that it were better for us to be out of it than in it: contrary to what our Author has proved in Ch. 2. par. 7. Ch. 4. § 8. par. 7. and in the following Subfection and fecondly, it must be fhewn alfo, that we might have been placed in fome better World, without any Inconvenience to the rest of the Universe, contrary to what may be concluded from the former Part of this Note, and that other to which it refers.

time is to

Harvest.

be prepared here, as Plants in a Nursery, before they be removed into the Garden where they are to bear Fruit. (79.) God has therefore decreed this Life

NOTES.

(79.) Bayle objects, that our Author's comparifon here is not a juft one, fince God cannot be ty'd to the ufe of common means, and a flow Progrefs of fecond Causes. He is not obliged to nurfe us up as a Gardener does his Plants, but might as well have produced us adult and ripe in Perfection, and have made us happy at once. -But perhaps it may appear a little doubtful to a Perfon who attentively confiders Note 19. whether this could be done even in natural Pleasure. However, I think, 'tis abfolutely inconceivable how it fhould be effected in Moral Happiness. If we confider the Nature of Virtue and of Man, it will not be poffible for us to imagine how this could be implanted in him at firft, or infufed into him afterwards, or he be in any wife made morally perfect or good on a fudden. The Idea of Virtue confifts in a repetition of free Acts, and therefore it cannot be received paffively: and though the Difpofition might be thus communicated, yet to compleat its Nature and make it actually productive of true Moral Hap piness, there muft neceffarily be required due time for Exercife, Experience and confirmed Habits, as may be gathered from the Preliminary Differtation; and will farther appear from Notes 81 and 82.

From the Nature of Man alfo, or a Being in his imperfect State, we may fairly infer that he could not have fo great an Idea of the moral Perfections of the Deity, nor fo clear an apprehenfion of the contrary Qualities, nor confequently, a fuitable affection for the one, and an abhorrence of the other, if he had not fome experience of both. [.]

We know not the real Value of a good thing, we cannot be duly fenfible of its Excellence, except we have been in fome measure acquainted with its Oppofite, or at least have perceived the want of it on fome occafion. "Does any one (lays Leib. "nitz) [k.] fufficiently relish the Happiness of good Health who "has never been fick? Is it not moft times necessary that a "little Evil fhould render a good more fenfible, and confequently greater?" See alfo Not. 19. The fame holds ftronger still in Moral Good: which is a confirmation of the Alternative that Lactantius fpeaks of; [1] and which is well defcribed by A. Gellius. [m] It does not therefore feem poffible

46

[i] See Note 66.

[k] Memoirs of Literature, v.3. Art. 25. pag.118. [1] De Ira Dei, § 13. fe&t. sub. fin. and 15.

[m] B.6. Ch.1.

for

Life to be as it were the Paffage to a better. Thus this Earth is replenished with Inhabitants, who be

for us to have a due Knowledge of Virtue if we had never seen Vice. Without this Knowledge of Virtue, we could not ardently defire it, without fuch a defire, and a fedulous profecution of that defire, we could not attain to the proper exercise of it, and without this attainment we could not have any consciousness of defert, any comfortable felf approbation, or true Moral Happiness.

It appears then that Virtue is an Act of our own, that a Series of thefe Acts is requifite to constitute an habit of Virtue, and of confequence that this cannot be infpired into any Being, or however not produced in one of our weak frame on a fudden: and in the last place, that this prefent State is neceffary (as our Author fays) to train us up, and fit us for a better. That this Life is properly a State of Tryal and Probation, and the Virtues of it abfolutely neceffary to the Happiness of the next, fee Rymer's General Reprefentation of Revealed Religion, Part 2. Ch.3. pag.385, &c. and Scott's Chriftian Life, Vol. 2. Ch. 4. 3. p.321, 335, &c. 8vo. and Sherlock on Death, C.1. 3. P.77, &c. 4th Edit. or Rel. of Nat. Delin. p. 213, 214. To the fame purpofe is that excellent Paper in the Spectator: No. 447. "The laft ufe I fhall make of this remarkable Property in human Nature, of being delighted with those "Actions to which it is accustomed, is to fhew how abfolutely neceffary it is for us to gain habits of Virtue in this Life, "if we would enjoy the pleasures of the next. The State of "Blifs we call Heaven will not be capable of affecting those "Minds which are not thus qualified for it; we must in this "World gain a Relifh of Truth and Virtue, if we would be "able to taste that Knowledge and Perfection which are to "make us happy in the next. The feeds of thofe Spiritual Joys and Raptures which are to rife up and flourish in the "Soul to all Eternity must be planted in her during this her "present State of Probation. In fhort, Heaven is not to be "looked upon only as the Reward, but as the natural Effect "of a Religious Life." See alfo Tillotson's Serm. 1ft Vol. Fol. p. 51, 82, 85, &c. and the 78th Serm. 2d Vol. p. 591. Concerning the true End of Man, and the Means of obtaining it, and the Nature both of those Virtues which will conftitute the greatest part of Heaven, and of those Inftrumental Duties by which we are to acquire, improve, and perfect thefe Heavenly Virtues, or make our own Heaven, fee Scott's Chriftian Life, Vol.1. particularly Ch. 3. which Notion is alfo well defended by Dr. Rymer in the Chap. above-mentioned. See also Dr. Laughton's Serm. on Rom.6.23.

66

Cc