ed, is to be patiently miferable, and that is Stupidity and Folly: But to have our Converfation in Heaven, to live upon the Hopes of unfeen Things, is Madness and Distraction, if there be no Heaven, no unfeen Things for us The Reafons of most of the Evangelical Commands, must be fetch'd wholly from the other World, and a Future Judgment.

Bp. Wilkins Princ. of Nat. Rel. p. 67. If there be no fuch thing to be expected as Happiness or Mifery hereafter, why then the onely business that Men are to take care of, is their prefent well-being in this World: There being nothing to be counted either good, or bad, but in order to that: thofe things which we conceive to be conducible to it, being the onely Duties; and all other things, which are cross to it, the onely Sins. And therefore, whatever a Man's Appetite shall incline bim to, he ought not to deny himself in it (be the thing what it will) fo he can have it, or do it, without probable Danger. Suppofe it be Matter of Gain or Profit, he is difpos'd to; if he can cheat or steal fecurely, this will be fo far from being a fault, that it is plainly his Duty, that is, reasonable for him to do; because it is a proper means to promote his chief End. And fo for other Cafes of Anger, Hatred, Revenge, G According to this Principle, a Man must take the firft Opportunity of fatisfying thefe Paffions, by doing any kind of Mifchief to the Perfon be is offended with, whether by falfe Accufation, or Perjury, or (if need be) by poisoning or stabbing him; provided, he can • do these things fo as to escape the Sufpicion of others, and Human Penalties.

Dr. Lucas, Enquiry after Happiness, part 3. p. 245. The Epicureans confind the Happiness of Man to this fhort Life; and by a probable Confequence, refolu'd

refolv'd it ultimately into the Enjoyments of the Body. Ibid. p. 145. Without another Life, all other Motives to Perfection will be infufficient. For tho', generally Speaking, fuch is the contrivance of Human Nature, &c.-Yet 'tis certain, that not only in many extraordinary Cafes, there would be no reward at all for Virtue, if there were not one referv'd for it in another World, but also, in most Cafes, if there were not a future Pleasure that did infinitely outweigh the Enjoyments of this Life, Men would fee no Obligation to Perfection. For what should raise them above the Love of this World, if there were no other? or above the Love of the Body, if, when they dy'd, they fhould be no more for ever?

[Pract. Chriftianity part 11. Chap. 1.] For the Law of our Nature being, I humbly conceive, nothing else but the Law and Dictates of Reason: and the Business of Reason being, in this Respect at least, only to diftinguish between Good and Evil, our Reafon would talk to us at another Rate, because it would proceed by different Principles: Good and Evil mould then peradventure be different things [from what they are at prefent] for whatever would make for the Pleafure and Intereft of this prefent World, would be good; and even Pleafure and Intereft would not peradventure be the fame thing Then, as Now: For the Soul would not challenge fo distinct a Confideration and Provifion then, as now: For it would not only be Lawful, but wife for it to become Senfual and Worldly; and fo the fame Pleasure and Intereft would minifter to the Happiness of both Body ond Soul, &c. [Ibid. Chap. 4.] it would behove every • make the most of This.

Were there no Life to come,
Man to be content with, and
Nor do I at all doubt, but

that

• that Men may manage their Lufts fo, as that they may not be able to infer Reafon enough to relinquish them, from any Influence they have upon their Worldly Intereft. Or if any one should think it necessary to purchafe a Pleasure by fhortning of his Life, leffening bis Eftate, I cannot fee why he may not have Reafon on his Side: For, A fhort Life and a merry one, and, my Mind to me a Kingdom is, would, upon the former Suppofition, be wife Proverbs: For, upon this Suppofition, the Pleafures of the Mind would be narrow and faint, and the Checks of Confcience none, [and][or] infignificant.

Bp. Pearfon, on the Creed, pp. 304. 305. • Such is the sweetness of our Sins, fuch the unnaturalnefs of our Corruptions, fo great our Confidence of Impurity here, that, except we looked for an Account hereafter, it were unreasonable to expect that any • Man fhould for fake his Delights, renounce his Complacencies by a fevere Repentance, create a Bitterness C to his own Soul We are naturally inclin'd to follow the Bent of our own Wills, and the Inclination of our own Hearts. All external Rules and Prescriptions are burthenfome to us; and did not we look to give an Acount, we had no reason to fatisfy any other Defires than our own, &c. C

Mr. Glanviles's Sermons, p. 278. If this be all the Life of Man, [i. e. the only Life he is to lead] bis End and Happiness would then be to provide for the Body, and the Gratification of its Senfes.

Mr. Pembles Sermon, p. 479. Poor is the • Contentment that can be found in Virtue, and Religion, if it ftretch no farther than to the end of this Life -Cut froma Man his Hope in Chrift for hereafter, and then the Epicure's Counsel will feem Good,

Let

6

Let us Eat and Drink, for to morrow we die. Let us take our Pleafure while we may. If we die as Beafts, and come to nothing, then let us live as Beafts too, &c. What avails it to Joy in Virtue and Religion? to follow an empty Name of Goodnefs? when nothing is got by it after Death, and, for the prefent, nothing worth the defiring? Let us reftrain our Eyes and our Hearts from no Pleasures that may be procured; Let Virtue be only our Stale to win Honour, where Men, out of Error, efteem bighly of it: Among others, love we Vice, where Virtue is banish'd, &c. Good wholesome Counsel, if the Day of our Death were the utmost Period of our Time, beyond which no Happiness were to be enjoy'd.

Dr. Stradling's Sermons p. 476. The Immortality of the Soul once deny'd, the Concern for it could not be much; it being not probable that fuch Men fhould please themselves with a • Pretence of Virtue, who deny'd the Future Re'wards of it. And from fuch Premises that Conclufion mention'd by St. Paul could not but follow, Let us Eat and Drink, for to morrow we Die. It is but reasonable to imagin that they, who 'thought they should dye like Beafts, fhould live 'like them; Husband that Life the beft they could, which fhould never return when once gone, and make it as pleasant as they faw it was 'hort. Which, if there were no other Life to come, was no doubt, a Rational Course, and [the highest Wisdom, &c.

P. 479. But here fome may Object, that if there were no God, no Life to come, yet there is so much fatisfaction in living according to the

Rules

Rules of Right Reason and Virtue, that ever that Confideration fhould oblige Men to do so, and make Men moft happy.

In answer to this Objection be confefles (p. 480.) That, to live according to the Rules of right 'Reafon is moft agreeable to Human Nature, and 'conducing to Happiness in this Life, But adds It may be queftionable, whether a dry Platonical Idea of Virtue, perishing with our felves,or a bare Moral Complacency in it, might, in the balance of Reafon weigh down thofe o⚫ther more fenfual Delights, which gratify our 'Lower Faculties; or a Severe and Morofe Virtue, have Charms in it Equal to all those various Pleasures which footh and flatter our Ap"petites. And he foon after fubjoyns thefe Admirable Words, which I do in a very particular manner, recommend to the Confideration of the Writer of the Letter; "Far be it from me to decry Moral Virtue, which C even Heathens have granted to be a Reward to 'it felf; but furely, in the cafe of Annihilation, very fhort of a full Compleat one. And to cry it up, as fome do, to the weakning of our Belief and Hope of the Immortality of the Soul, however at firft blufh it may feem plaufible, is, in effect, no better than a Subtile Invention to ruin Virtue by it felf; fince it cannot poffibly 'fubfift but by the Belief and Support of another Life, &c. p. 481, 482, 483.

The Letter-Writer(Unknown ashe is, and refolves to be) cannot, I perfwade my felf, even in his privacy read, thefe Citations, without blushing, after the confident Charge he bath advanced against me, of Preaching New Doctrine. If be had not any of thefe Paffages in bis Eye (as one would

be