Page:A Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty (3rd ed., 1735).djvu/91

 pended on; and will seldom or never fail. Whereas goodness founded on any reasonings whatsoever, is a very precarious thing; as may be seen by the lives of the greatest Declaimers against vice, who tho’ they are constantly acquainting themselves with all the topicks that can be drawn from the excellency of goodness or virtue, and the mischiefs of vice; the rewards that attend the one, and the punishments that attend the other: yet are not better, than those, who are never conversant in such topicks. Lastly, the common proverb, gaudeant bene nati, is a general commendation of men for what plainly in no sense depends on them.

4. Fourthly, it is objected that if all events are necessary, then there is a period fixed to every man’s life: and if there is a period fix’d to every man’s life, then it cannot be shortened by want of care or violence offer’d or diseases; nor can it be prolong’d by care or physick: and if it cannot be shortned or prolong’d by them, then it is useless to avoid or use any of these things.