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the pursuit of his own good is his first and strongest principle. Now the light of nature does not always point out his real good to him, nay, hath never been able to direct him to his chief good. Hence it comes, that the good of one man is often set in opposition to the good of another, to the hinderance and damage of both; and in opposition to that of the public, to the destruction of society. It is in vain to say, that while men regard no higher will than their own, and look no farther forward than the present life, they will have any other good in view, than such as is found in this life, or that they will ever consider the good of society as their own, farther than as it actually and visibly, and, I may say, immediately promotes their own. I entered into society, says man, for my own sake, and not for the sake of others; and if the society is against me, as it thwarts my ends, I will be against it. So Phalaris, Syloson, Cæsar, Cromwell, reasoned; so all men reason, who break or evade the laws. What does nature say all the while? Why it pushes them violently towards their own good, and mere reason does not shew them any greater good than the enjoyment of much power, and the possession of much wealth. It is likewise in vain to say, that nature proves her dictates to be the voice of God: they are often wicked and contradictory, and she is ignorant of God, and consequently of the chief good. Yet whatever the nature and reason of man take to be his chief good, towards that they eagerly hurry him over all public regards: hence lawsuits, fraud, violence, oppression, rapine, wars.

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Dech. Yes, among Christians as well as Heathens.

Shep. I imagined I had already sufficiently demonstrated, that such persons as are guilty of the most enormous crimes, cannot be Christians. It is the misfortune of this sort of debates, that a point already proved must be proved over again, and yet still be questioned. Was Cromwell a Christian, who prostituted only the mere enthusiastic pretence of religion to tyranny and usurpation? A Christian, truly such, believes his chief good to consist in pleasing God, and enjoying him for ever; and with this infinite good in view he cannot, as a Christian, do injustice for the sake of any thing in this world, nor indeed be much affected with mere worldly considerations and attachments, although ever so equitable

in their tendency. When faith is as strong as the evidence of Christianity ought to make it, and the interest of the man, or of men in general, require it should be, it carries the views and attachments of him whom it possesses to matters of infinite consequence. But where it is weak, in proportion to that weakness the natural man prevails over the Christian, and so it comes to pass, that those vices and crimes that are really owing to the depraved nature of the man, and the weakness of his faith, are often, but ignorantly and maliciously, ascribed to the weakness of our religion; whereas nothing can be more plain, than that if Christianity were duly attended to, duly believed and obeyed, such enormities would never happen. The societies of this world are considered by Christianity only as probationary and preparative to the universal society above; so that none are to be admitted there, but such as have proved themselves amenable, and just, and beneficent here; who have postponed their own fleshly wills to that of God, their own pleasures to his commands, their temporal and private interests to the general interest of mankind, and to a much nobler and higher interest of their own, in a life of infinitely greater importance. Upon the whole, that the enjoyment of God is the chief happiness of man, may appear evident from these considerations: First, that man is by nature made capable of knowing God: and he who knows God, must be sensible he is infinitely more, excellent and amiable, than all other beings; and that it is the greatest happiness to enjoy him. Secondly, as nothing can give him an enjoyment of God, but the refinement and perfection of his own nature; so nothing but the knowledge of God, and the most ardent love for him, can prompt and enable him to labour effectually in the adorning and perfecting his own nature. If he knows God, he hath the noblest example to copy after, and the fairest original to transcribe from, that the whole system of being can afford; and, as he knows it is impossible to enjoy God without being pure as he is pure, and perfect as he is perfect, he hath the most powerful inducement to watch over himself, to cleanse his corrupted nature, and fit his soul for those all-seeing eyes, that cannot behold iniquity; and that piercing light, which shines through all things, and lays open every secret. Lastly, he considers with himself,

that, if he can but obtain the favour of God, and be admitted' to the blessed vision of this glorious Being, he shall have infinite wisdom to direct him, infinite power to defend him from all evil, and infinite goodness to bestow on him new occasions, and eternal accessions of happiness. All other considerations that can be offered to self-love, shrink into nothing, when compared to this. The opportunities of indulging his other good dispositions will be equally great and happy. He will have infinite excellence to admire and love. He will have power, commensurate with his love and gratitude, to serve his great Benefactor, and the delightful satisfaction of being always sure his services will be well accepted by his gracious and indulgent Master. He will receive infinite favours, and have it also in his power to shew he is grateful, which, to a generous soul, is the most exalted perfection human happiness can arrive at. He will be present when new worlds are made; and, looking into the causes of things, will see more in one moment than Newton, in his whole life, was able to guess at; he will feast his transported soul with the wonders of creating wisdom and power. Yet great as this happiness will be, if speaking by comparison I should say it will make but a small part of his enjoyments, I should say the truth; for he shall see God. All that is great, or delightful, or glorious, is summed up in this. The hopes of it are sufficient to turn this otherwise unhappy life into a paradise, and change the martyr's fiery furnace into a bed of roses; and the thing itself is what the language of mortals is unable to utter, or the heart of man to conceive. Is it from this glorious prospect that libertinism would turn our eyes downward upon a wretched world, and fix our affections on things below? And shall libertinism call itself philosophy and wisdom? Yes; but God calls it the wisdom of this world,' and tells us it is foolishness. It is the child of vain curiosity, and false appetite; and continues, as it began, to feed on forbidden fruit, and teach its admirers the knowledge of sin.

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It surprises me not a little, that the ancient philosophers, who inquired with so much anxiety and debate after the chief good, should have given themselves little or no trouble about the greatest evil; for self-love is as much concerned

to know, and self-preservation to avoid, the one, as it is to pursue the other. Besides, as a prudent man will voluntarily forego a smaller good to obtain a greater, and give up all occasions of limited pleasure or satisfaction to obtain an infinite good, so will he also undergo a small evil to avoid a greater; and encounter all the limited evils incident to human nature, that he may escape an infinite evil. Now if such an evil there is, it infinitely concerns us to know it.

Dech. There may be, there certainly is, a chief good and evil; but whether they are infinitely great, is a question. As the nature of man is only finite, to me it should seem, that his happiness and misery must be also finite and limited. But be that as it will, our greatest evil must be the reverse of our greatest good; and, consequently, he who knows the one cannot be ignorant of the other. Now, as our greatest good consists in the perfection, so our greatest evil must consist in the depravity, of our nature.

Shep. We have already seen, that the perfection of our nature is not our greatest good, but only the immediate means of it. It will follow therefore, if your rule of opposites is admitted, as I think indeed it ought to be, that the utmost depravity of our nature is not our greatest evil, but only the immediate means of it. The same arguments that led us to the former conclusion, must lead us to the latter also; and, therefore, I shall not repeat, but refer you to them. As the greatest happiness of man consists in the eternal enjoyment of God, and his favour; so the greatest evil, by the rules of opposites, must consist in the displeasure of Almighty God, and its effects, namely, an eternal exclusion from him, to which the extreme depravity of our nature must infallibly subject us. But by what effects, and to what degree, the displeasure of God will manifest itself to a creature thoroughly depraved, revelation only can inform us; nay, revelation only can tell us, that certain actions, to which nature prompts us with the greatest importunity, if committed, especially if often repeated, tend to the utter depravation of our nature, and, in consequence of that, to our greatest misery. This we have already proved; and it follows, that revelation only can point out to us this grand and interesting sanction of the divine law.

Dech. Your revelation tells you, that the greatest misery

of man consists in the eternal displeasure of God, and its effects, namely, confinement to a lake of fire and brimstone for ever. This sort of punishment, to be inflicted on a mere spirit, is impossible and absurd; for mere corporal inflictions cannot affect an unbodied spirit.

Shep. Although we should understand the Scriptures literally in these and such like expressions, yet no absurdity will arise from thence, if, as the same Scriptures inform us, the soul is to be reunited to the body at the resurrection. Such a union will make corporal pains and torments as possible to us then, as they are now. But, however, as among the expressions, by which the miseries of the damned are set forth to us in Scripture, there are some that cannot well be taken literally, such as concerning the worm that dieth not, by which are to be understood the everlasting reproaches of a guilty conscience; so the rest are probably, in a great measure, figurative, and used to convey the strongest and most affecting idea possible, to minds accustomed to sensible notions, of the future miseries to be suffered by the reprobate.

Dech. It may be so; but, surely, that revelation could never have come from God, which represents him as unjust and cruel, as punishing to all eternity, with the most frightful tortures, the transgressions of his poor frail creatures. And if the justice of God, which cannot punish finite offences with infinite and endless misery, makes the belief of such a punishment absurd and blasphemous; his mercy, which is also infinite, must make it still more so. If there were nothing else to prove a revelation false, that pretends to come from God, but its recommending to our belief such notions of his severity, as represent him unjust and cruel, that alone would do it effectually. David, it seems, had other notions of God; for he asks, Shall thy jealousy burn like fire for ever?' We may be sure, the true and natural answer is, No. When God shall have punished his disobedient creatures in proportion to their offences, justice being then satisfied, mercy will at length take place; and surely a temporal punishment, especially if it is long and great, may be equal to the most enormous offences of men.

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Shep. That which happens in respect to the punishments annexed to God's law, happens also in respect to

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