he at prefent keeps hid from us. In his 2d Ep. 1. 264. he goes still farther, and fays, this HOPE quits us not even at Death, when every Thing mortal drops from us. Hope travels thro', nor quits us when we die. And, in the 4th Ep. he fhews how the fame HOPE is a certain Proof of a future State, from the Confideration of God's giving Man no Appetite in vain, or what he did not intend fhould be satisfied; (which is Plato's great Argument for a future State.) For, describing the Condition of the good Man, he breaks out into these rapturous Strains. For him alone Hope leads from Gole to Gole, It is only for the good Man, he tells us, that Hope leads from Gole to Gole, &c. It would be ftrange indeed then, if it should be a Delufion. But it hath been objected, that the System of the best, weakens the other natural Arguments for a future State, because if the evils, which good Men fuffer, promote the Benefit of the whole, then every thing is here in order; and nothing amifs that wants wants to be fet right: Nor has the good Man any reason to expect a Reparation, when the Evils he fuffered had fuch a Tendency. To this we reply, that the Syftem of the best is so far from weakening those natural Arguments, that it strengthens and supports them. To confider it a little, if thofe Evils to which good Men are subject be mere Disorders, without any Tendency to the greater Good of the Whole, then, tho' we muft indeed conclude that they will hereafter be fet right, yet this View of Things, reprefenting God as fuffering Disorders for no other Purpose than to set them right, gives us a very low Idea of the divine Wisdom. But if those Evils (according to the System of the best) contribute to the greater Perfection of the Whole, a Reafon may be then given for their Permiffion, and fuch a one as fupports our Idea of Divine Wisdom to the highest religious Purposes. Then, as to the good Man's Hopes of a Retribution, those ftill remain in their original Force. For our Idea of God's Juftice, and how far that Justice is engaged to a Retribution, is exactly and invariably the fame on either Hypothefis. For tho' the Syftem of the beft fuppofes that the Evils themselves will be fully compenfated by the Good they produce to the Whole, yet this is fo far from fuppofing that Particulars fhall fuffer for a general Good, that it is effential to this Syftem, to conclude that, at the Completion of Things, when the whole is arrived to the State of utmoft Perfection, particular and univerfal Good fhall coincide. Such Such is theWORLD's great Harmony, that springs From Union, Order, full Confent of Things; Where Small and great, where weak and mighty, made To ferve not fuffer, strengthen not invade. Ep. iii. 1. 296, & feq. Which Coincidence can never be without a retribution to good Men for the Evils suffered here below. To return then to the Poet's Argument, he, as we faid, bids Man comfort himself with Expectation of future Happiness, and fhews him that this HOPE is an Earnest of it: But first of all puts in one very neceffary Caution, Hope humbly then, with trembling Pinions foar. And provok'd at thofe Mifcreants, whom he afterwards [Ep. 3. 1. 262.] describes as building Hell on Spite, and Heaven on Pride, he upbraids them [from 1. 94 to 109.] with the Example of the poor Indian, to whom alfo Nature hath given this common HOPE of Mankind. But tho' his untutor❜d Mind had betray'd him into many childish Fancies concerning the Nature of that future State, yet he is fo far from excluding any Part of his own Species (a Vice which could proceed only from vain Science, which puffeth up) that he humanely admits even his faithful Dog to bear him Company. And then [from 1. 108 to 119.] fhews them, that Complaints against the established Order of Things, begin in the highest Abfurdity from mifap plied plied Reafon and Power, and end in the highest Impiety, in an Attempt to degrade the God of Heaven, and affume his Place. Go wiser thou, and in thy Scale of Sense Snatch from his Hand the Ballance and the Rod, From these Men, the Poet turns to his Friend, and [from 1. 118 to 137.] remarks that the Ground of all this Extravagance is Pride; which, more or lefs, infects the whole Species:-fhews the ill Effects of it, in the Cafe of the fallen Angels; and obferves, that even wishing to invert the Laws of Order, is a lower Species of their Crime:-then brings an Instance of one of the Effects of Pride, which is the Folly of thinking every thing made folely for the Ufe of Man; without the least regard to any other of God's Creatures. Afk for what End the heavenly Bodies shine, Earth for whofe Ufe? PRIDE anfwers, "Tis for mine. For me, kind Nature wakes her genial Power, Suckles each Herb, and spreads out ev'ryFlower; Annual Annual for me, the Grape, the Rose, renew The Ridicule of imagining the greater Portions of the material Syftem were folely for the Use of Man, Philofophy has fufficiently expofed: And Common Sense, as the Poet fhews, inftructs us to know that our Fellow-Creatures, placed by Providence the joint Inhabitants of this Globe, are defigned by Providence to be joint Sharers with us of its bleffings. Has God, thou Fool! work'd folely for thy Good, Having thus given a general Idea of the Goodness and Wisdom of God, and the Folly and Ingratitude of Man, the great Author comes next (after this neceffary Preparation) to the Confirmation of his Thefis, That partial moral Evil is univerfal Good: |