16 A View of ibe DEisTIcAL Writers. Let. 25.

„ject to many evils phyſical and moral, we can ſhew much ¹«more good of both kinds, which God hath beſtowed upon «* us, or put it into our power to procure to ourſelves.“— T hat the means to ſoften or prevent evils, the chief of which he reckons to be hope, are“ ſo many inſtances of the poſitive **goodneſs of God:“ That“ neither the goodneſs nor juſ- « tice of God require that we ſhould be better, nor happier ¹ethan wearem:“ That man“ enjoys numberleſs benefits by the fitneſs of his nature to the conſtitution of the world, un- ¹maſked, unmerited, freely beſtowedn.“ He aſſerts in oppoſi- ¹c tion to Atheiſts and Divines, that“ the general ſtate of man- * kiad in the preſent ſcheme of providence is not only tole- ¹e rable, but happy:— And that there is in this world ſo much more good than evil, and the general ſtate of mankind is ſo «c happy in it, that there is no room for the exaggerated de- ¹* ſcriptions that have been made of human miſery:“ That ¹c God has made us happy, and has pur into our power to make ourſelves happier by a due uſe of our reaſon, which ¹c leads us to the practice of moral virtue, and to all the du- ¹ ties of ſociety P:“ That““ good men are often unhappy, and bad men happy, has, he ſays, been a ſubject of in- «c vective rather than argument, to Ehbicurus, Cotta, and others „„wamong the antients, and to eminent divines among the mo- «derns d.“ And he paricularly examines the inſtances pro- duced by Cotta in Cicero, againſt the providence of God, and ſhews what Balbas might have anſweredr. He finds great fault with Dr. Clarke for ſaying, that“ it is certain from the «« moral attributes of God, that there muſt be ſuch a future ««ſtate of exiſtence, as that by an exact diſtribution of re- «¹* wards and puniſhments, all the preſent diſorders and inequa- «« lities may be ſet to right, and that the whole ſcheme of pro- ¹vidence may appear at its conſummation to be a deſign worthy « of infinite wiſdom, juſtice, and goodneſs.“ See Clarke's Evidences œf natural and revealed Religion, Prop. IV. For this he calls him audacious and vain ſophiſt: And that““ ac- „cording to theſe men, it appears actually unworthy of them ¹at preſents.“ And in oppoſition, as he pretends, to di- vines, he fhews the general tendency of virtue to promote hap- pineſs, and of vice to produce miſeryt.

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1 Vol. v. p. 336. n Ibid. p. 512. n Ibid. p. 339. 2Ibid. p. 392. P Ibid. p. 384. ¹ Ibid. p. 394 1 Ibid. p. 404,& ſeq. 2 Ibid. p. 399. t Ibid. p. 399,& e.