of matter and spirit, neither of which have uniformly and
successfully defied the extreme subtilty of argumentation. Still a
very great majority of mankind are staunch believers in both. So
well constituted is the present disposition of things, that all the
principles essential to human life and happiness continue, as it is
likely they ever will, to operate, in spite of every sort of clamour
which sophistry or scepticism has raised or can raise against them.

     (4) There is not a single word in all this elaborate and
tedious deduction, which has not been urged and refuted five hundred
times. Our ignorance of the divine perfections, as is usual with
this writer, is here stated as an unanswerable exception to the
conclusion usually drawn from them. But he very artfully overlooks,
that this great ignorance will be equally conclusive as applied to
either side of the argument. When we compare, however, the character
of God, as a wise superintendant, and generous benefactor, with the
state in which things at present appear, where virtue is often
depressed and afflicted, and vice apparently triumphs, it will be
treated with the infamy it merits, and virtue receive that {59}
happiness and honour, which, from its own intrinsic worth, it
deserves, and, from its conformity to the nature of God, it has
reason to expect.

     This subject, perhaps, has been too much exaggerated, and some
pious men have weakly thought, the best way to convince us that
order and happiness prevailed in a future state, was to persuade us
that there was none at all in this. External advantages have been
taken for the only goods of human nature; and, because, in this
view, all things speak the appearance of mal-administration, we have
been taught to expect a government of rectitude and benevolence
hereafter. Let us, on the contrary, candidly own that virtue is
sovereignly and solely good, left, by depreciating her charms, we
obliquely detract from the character of God himself. Let us confess
her undowered excellence superior to all the inconveniences that may
attend her, even in the present situation. But, without allowing
some difference between poverty and riches, sickness and health,
pain and pleasure, &c. we shall have no foundation to preference;
and it will be in vain to talk of selecting where no one choice can
be more agreeable or disagreeable to nature than another. Upon this
difference, therefore, however it be called, let the present
argument proceed. {60}

     If infinite goodness be the spirit and characteristic of this
universal government, then every advantage, however inconsiderable
in kind or degree, must either be supposed immediately bestowed on
virtue; or, at least, that such retributions will, at some time, be
made her, as may not only render her votaries equal, but superior to
those of vice, in proportion to their merit. But how different the
case is in human life, history and observation may easily convince
us; so that one, whose eyes are not intent on the character of God,
and the nature of virtue, would often be tempted to think this world
a theatre merely intended for mournful spectacles and pomps of
horror. How many persons do we see perish by the mere wants of
nature, who, had they been in different circumstances, would have
thanked God with tears of joy for the power of communicating those
advantages they now implore from others in vain? While, at the same
time, they have, perhaps, the additional misery of seeing the most
endeared relations involved in the same deplorable fate! How often
do we see those ties which unite the soul and body, worn out by the
gradual advances of a lingering disease, or burst at once by the
sudden efforts of unutterable agony? While the unhappy sufferers,
had they been continued in life, might have diffused happiness, not
only through the narrow circle of their {61} friends and
neighbourhood, but as extensively as their country, and even the
world at large. How many names do we see buried in obscurity, or
soiled with detraction, which ought to have shone the first in fame?
How many heroes have survived the liberties of their country, or
died in abortive attempts to preserve them; and, by their fall, only
left a larger field for the lawless ravages of tyranny and
oppression?

     But were it possible, how long and insuperable would be the
task to enumerate all the ingredients which compose the present cup
of bitterness? And is this the consummation of things? Will supreme
and essential goodness no way distinguish such as have invariably
pursued his honour, and the interest of his government, from those
who have industriously violated the order he has appointed in
things? who have blotted the face of nature with havock, murder, and
desolation; and shewn a constant intention to counteract all the
benevolent designs of providence? It is confessed that the virtuous,
happy in the possession of virtue alone, make their exit from the
present scene with blessings to the Creator, for having called them
to existence, and given them the glorious opportunity of enjoying
what is in itself supremely eligible. They are conscious that this
felicity can receive no accession from any external lustre or
advantage {62} whatever. Yet it seems highly necessary in the divine
administration, that those who have been dazzled with the false
glare of prosperous wickedness, should at last be undeceived; that
they should at last behold virtue conspicuous, in all her native
splendor and majesty as she shines, the chief delight of God, and
ultimate happiness of all intelligent nature.

     The language of religion, and our own hearts, on this important
argument, is equally comfortable and decisive. It accumulates and
enforces whatever can inspire us with confidence in that God, who is
not the God of the dead, but of the living; who reigns in the
invisible, as well as in the visible world; and whose attention to
our welfare ceases not with our lives, but is commensurate to the
full extent of our being. Indeed the votaries of the soul's
mortality may as well be honest for once, and speak out what so many