CHAP." be play'd upon, as the Paffions of Cowardice "and Avarice."

XVI.

Is this his Ridicule of Chriftian Virtue? The Ridicule recoils and fixes only upon himself; according to his own Maxim, the Ridicule, if ill placed at first, will certainly fall at last where it deferves. And that is true enough, according to the old Maxim, Rifu inepto nihil ineptius. Seeing then he ridicules the Inftincts and Operations. of Nature and common Senfe, and the Influencé of all Laws human and divine, in order to ridicule Christianity; I afk his Admirers, where does the Ridicule fall? I would not have it fall, if it could be help'd, upon them, or their adored Author; because in Truth, the Matter is too ferious for fuch Levity.

How in Fact is that common Honefty, which fuperfedes the Fear of the Gallows, firft educated in Subjects, but from the religious Principle of the fuperior Fear of God, to whom they muft give an Account of their Actions? If that had its due Effect upon all Perfons, there would be no need of Civil Laws with fuch Sanctions: For the Law is not made for the Righteous, who maintain their Character upon that Principle; but for the Unrighteous, and Difobedient, who degenerate from it; as Indictments for the Breach of the Law fuppofes, and arraigns the Criminal first and foremost for not having the Fear of God before his Eyes. If all the Laws Divine and Human fuppofe the Degeneracy of human Nature, and are grounded on it; and the heavenly Legislature, and likewife the earthly, fhew

* Chara&. Vol. I. pag. 10.

XVI.

their Wisdom in providing Remedies and Helps CHAP. againft it, and annexing Sanctions to their refpective Laws, which give them all their Efficacy; is the Degeneracy of human Nature, to be ridiculed as a Phantom, a Thing confefs'd and felt by all the wife Men in the World? And are the Laws of God and Man to be banter'd and laugh'd at? For to ridicule the Sanctions, without which the Laws are but Cobwebs, is a direct unavoidable Ridicule upon the Laws of both. A decent Laugh indeed!

Ir is true, Epicurus of old, and Hobbs of late, maintain'd the Principle of Self-Affection and private Good; but it was in the depraved Senfe, and vicious Extreme; Self was all in all with them. They excluded Benevolence, Providence, and all Confcience towards Ged or Man out of their Scheme: And fo the Paffion for Self having no inward Senfe of God, nor of the Publick to regulate it in the Heart, whence it fprings, becomes Atheism and the worst of Evils in Society. But with that Regulation and Reference conftantly guiding and directing it, it moves in Sphere, and does all Duty to God, and Man. Accordingly Socrates, and Epictetus, the most eminent upon Heathen Record, as well for the Practice, as the Knowledge of moral Virtue, both efpoufed this Principle under the fame Regulation; and conducted their Actions by the Expectation of the Favour of God, and his Rewards for well-doing. But this Vifionary in Virtue and Reformation having made a great Discovery of the Poet's Meaning of Senfus Communis, that it fignifies Publick Sense, or Affec

CHAPtion, makes that his first and only Principle of XVI. Virtue; and, at once, expels Regard to Self, to

God, to any of his Rewards or Punishments, out of his System at leaft from having any rightful Share in his Virtue; fave only by the by at a dead Pinch future Rewards and Punishments are allow'd to fhow their Heads. For he profeffedly ridicules the having Refpect to God's Rewards and Punishments as Avarice, and Cowardice, as above obferved.

Skin for Skin and all that a Man bath will be give for his Life; tho' it came from a wifer and more virtuous Deift, and a far better Philofopher than his Difciples can pretend our Author to have been, he rallies it nevertheless as Heterodox Sophiftry, as if it was unnatural. What is natural in the Confultations of every Agent is too filthy to mix with his pure Virtue; that being a Compofition of an Ideal, Tranfcendental Notion oppofed to Self. Yet the Truth forces the Confeffion from him, that it is the Height of Wisdom, no doubt, to be rightly Selfish +.

WHY is Truth fo ftrong and prevailing but because it is Nature? And why is Self-Prefervation the ftrongeft Principle within us, but because it is the fame Nature? As long as that Principle fubfifts, and is influenced by a due Regard to him who is our Preferver, the Juggle and Fafcination of his pretended Virtue muft vanish. before it; as being in Reality nothing better than the Nature, and the Self-moving Principle of Man inverted.Is that beautiful, or is it deform'd, which delineates réal Life, and Nature

*Chara&. Vol. II. pag. 123.

Ibid. pag. 21.

in an inverted Order? It may carry a great CHA P. Sound with it, as many other Cheats do, which XVI. pretend the Good of the Publick and nothing elfe; but it is the Sound of Words and nothing more that captivates the Admirers; becaufe in fact and fober Senfe, it is impracticable by the Generality; and I wish that was not the Author's real Policy, to fet up Virtue upon a Principle plaufible (in falfe Theory) but in good Truth equivalent to being impracticable; which, under the Name, effectually banishes the Thing Virtue out of the World.

IF fuch a School of Virtue, fet up in Contradiction to real practising Nature, is a moral Deformity, then according to our Author's own Diftinction, that fuch is the true Object of Ridiculė, how can his System efcape it? If it is neither bandfome nor just to establish an impracticable Foundation of Virtue, how can it be Proof against that Raillery he would fet on Foot? especially when the Laughing Faculty is generally moft lavish against your Impoftors and Pretenders to Things against the real Powers, and known Movements of Nature. The Paramount of all Ridicule upon Record is, Parturiunt montes, nascitur ridiculus mus.- But if he digs a Pit for others, and falls into it himself, who will pity him, or help laughing? For a Bull in Senfe is certainly to all Men of Senfe an aukward ridiculous Beau in fine Words!

WHENCE that Expreffion, I would not be guilty of fuch a Thing for the whole World? Not from his fpeculative Publick-Sense, but common Senfe, in the obvious Meaning, habitually taught * Charact. Vol. I. pag. 133.

H 4

and

!

CHA P. and inculcated in Christendom from that Maxim XVI. of Profit and Lofs, whofe Author was Chrift, If a Man fhould gain the whole World, and lofe his own Soul. If the Followers of this great Lover of Paradox, more than of Virtue, will vouchfafe to fhew common Sense in practising upon that divine Maxim, we are agreed.

EPICURUS, Hobbs, Spinofa, and almost all the eminent Atheists and Fatalifts, are recorded as paffionate Admirers and Extollers of Virtue for its own Sake, not for the Hope of any Reward after Death, but for the Excellence of Virtue itfelf, and the Advantage the Followers of it receive in this Life; which evinces, that it has been a general Combination to attack and fubvert Religion, under thefe falfe Colours; that the Pretences to this aerial Love of Virtue commonly run the highest where the Life of real Morality and Religion is made a Victim, and lies bleeding and dying at their Feet: And that the owning or difowning the Being of a God amounts to one and the fame Irreligion, whereever a future Judgment, the Influences of those Rewards and Punishments (the Sinews of his Laws, and Inftruments of his Government) are denied or derided, and Duty and Obligation thrown off the Hinges: the Confequences, which naturally follow, are very plain; The Worship of God is Enthufiafm; Chriftianity an Imposture; and Heaven and Hell a Sweetmeat, or Rod for Children to take their Phyfick t. They ought to have no Influence upon Virtue according to him, for he fays a Man can be Good and Virtuous in no Degree till he likes and affects Good

+An Expreffion of the Author of Charact. Vol. II. p. 247.

nefs