reafon, the fuffrages of the good-humour'd and grateful part of mankind, or the confeffion, of the voluptuous and atheistical, 'tis evident the good does out-weigh evil in the defign of God or nature. But have I not my felf, in the beginning of this treatife, acknowledg'd the weight and number of evils great? Yes, but evils not of God's creation, but our own: for the truth of the whole is, τα ρείπτει τις άνθρωπος κ το πράγ μετα Ελλά περί της πραγμάτων δόγματα. Not things themselves, but the fhades and fantasms, wanton, fuperftitious, effeminate or froward minds do raise about 'em, difturb the quiet and repofe of man. So then, if we our selves do not multiply the number of our evils, our share of good in life may be much greater than our Thare of evil; and if we be not acceffary to our own mifery, we may be happy, unless, 2. The efficacy of evil not greater than that of good. Natural cvils contemptible to the virtuous. Moral ones avoidable. Secondly, Evil hathi fo much venom and malignity in it, that a little evil contributes more to our misery than a great deal of good can to our happiness. We may judge of the force and energy of good and evil, either by that influence they generally have, or they ought to have the state of mankind. If we confider what impreffion they ought to make upon men, the question will come to a speedy and a happy iffue; for then we muft either reckon nothing an evil but a moral one, that is, fin and vice; or at least we must acknowledge that the venom of other evils is not comparable to that of moral ones. This latter opinion is an unquestionable upon > D 4 truth: truth: for who will not make a wide difference between a misfortune and a crime, between an affliction and a punishment, between thofe inconveniencies, trouble, and pain which we fuffer as guilty 'criminals, and those we fuffer as unfortunate innocents, or afflicted heroes or faints? For notwithstanding the evils or pains fhould be, in the matter of 'em, the fame, yet there is a vast difference in the fuffering; the one makes man much more miferable than the other; for our misfortunes only reach the body, not the mind: but when we fuffer for our crimes, the whole man fuffers, the foul as well as the body. Misfortunes, when the ftorm is o'erpafs'd, leave no deform'd ruins, no wounds, no fcars behind 'em; but our crimes, leave ftains and guilt behind, which haunt the mind with perpetual horror. From this diftinction of the natúre and effect of evils, we may infer this comfortable conclufion, that nothing can make man wholly, truly miferable, but himfelf; nothing can opprefs him by the weight of moral evils but his own choice; for nothing can compel or neceffitate him to be wicked: the ftroaks, the wounds of natural evils (fo I will call all the reit distinct from moral, and owing their being to the revolutions of time, and chance, and nature) are faint and flight; the mind of man ought not to fuffer it felf to be too deeply and fenfibly affected by them. It is the work of reafon and religion to fortify the mind againft the impreffions of these evils: and truly that mind that is furnish'd with true notions of things, with a rational and folid faith, with fteady and well grounded grounded hopes, may bear the impetuous shock of all thefe waves and ftorms calm and unmov'd: nay, I may boldly affirm, not only that virtue checks and controuls thefe evils, blunts their edge, and abates their force; but, what is more, that their natural strength, their own proper force is weak and contemptible, unless our own vice be combin'd and confederated with them against us. Our pride must aid our enemy to render his affront provoking; our covetoufnefs and ambition must assist fortune, to render its contempt or hatred of us deftructive to the tranquillity of our ftate. Falfhood, under a difguife of friendship, could never have abus'd our confidence, by betraying our infirmities, or forfaking us in affliction, had not our own folly and felf-conceit firft betray'd us, expofing us a naked prey to flattery and treachery. The coldness or neglect of great men could never wound us; the hollow deceitful profeffions of thofe above us, could never fool or fret us, did not the fondness of our own defires betray us first into vain prefumption, and a flattering credulity. The ftorm that fnatcheth away a relation or a friend, could never overthrow me, if I ftood upon my own bottom, if I were not guilty of one of the greatest weakneffes, of placing my happiness in any thing out of my own power, and fo making my felf dependant upon another man's fancy or fortune. Finally, Death it felf muft derive its terrors from the mournful folemnities we dress it in, from the darkness and horrors of our deluded imaginations; or elfe, it would prove but a con temptible temptible bugbear, a very inconfiderable evil, or none at all. Thus 'tis evident, that if we distinguish evils into natural and moral, we shall have little reason to think the influence of evil fo malignant and deadly, fince 'tis in our own power to avoid moral evils; and natural ones strike but half way; they wound not the foul that is armed and guarded with reafon and religion. But now, if, with the Stoicks, we should admit of no other fort of evil, but what is moral; if we fhould allow the name of good to nothing but virtue, or of evil to nothing but vice; then we must look upon temporal and external misfortunes as inconveniences and disadvantages only; they may make us lefs happy, but they cannot make us miferable. And truly if w efhould here fuppofe, or take for granted, that there were another life, or that the pleasure of virtue triumphing over calamities and afflictions, were confiderably great; this opinion cannot imply fo great an abfurdity as fome would faften upon it, or be a mere aguaia, or idle contention of words, fince I cannot tell with what confonancy to truth, or propriety of fpeech, we can call those troubles or hardships evils, which directly tend to procure for us an infinite good, or a pleasure which doth abundantly out-weigh our fufferings. What impreffions I think, 'tis now fufficiently evident, that natural evils are not of that mighty efficacy and deadly venomous quality, that it fhould be thought that a little evil doth evils do in fact make upon men. more effectually contribute to mifery, than a great great deal of good can to our happiness: 'tis apparent how flight the impreffions are, which they ought to make upon us. It will now be time to confider, what impreffions they do generally make upon us, what their real effect commonly is, how men generally are moved and affected by them. 'Tis true, there are some who mix heaven and earth upon every flight occafion; that will receive good, but no evil at the hand of God; moft infenfible of bleffing, but extreamly tender and fenfible of any evil: but this fpeaks not the nature of evil, but of man; it speaks him ingrateful, but not the evil intolerable. Nor is human nature to be measur'd by this whining querulous humour of a few, but by the fenfe and temper of the generality; amongst whom 'tis eafy to obferve, how instinct teaches ùs to elude the stroke and force of evil: nature opens its arms, and enlarges it felf to receive good, and all the powers of the mind greedily trive to fhare in it; but it contracts and fhrinks, retires and stands upon its defence at the approach of evil: 'tis apt to flatter it felf, and apt to hope, apt to leffen evil and magnify good, apt to put off the thoughts of approaching trouble and to anticipate its pleatures: 'tis full of great defigns and gaudy projects, and cafily prone to delight and content it felf with thin, airy and imaginary fchemes of good: this, and much more is evident in a thousand daily inftances of human life; by which 'tis plain, nature in the contrivance of man kindly defign'd to fit and difpofe him for happiness, by giving him fuch inclinations as might ferve to leffen the evil, to en 2 crease |