Page:Characteristicks of men, manners, opinions, times Vol 2.djvu/71

RV 67 (Rh) are the Advantages or Disadvantages which accrue to Virtue from Reflection upon private Good or Interest. For tho the Habit of Selfishness, and the Multiplicity of interested Views, are of little Improvement to real Merit or Virtue; yet there is a necessity for the Preservation of Virtue, that it shou'd be thought to have no quarrel with true Interest, and Self-enjoyment.

therefore, by any strong Persuasion or settled Judgment, thinks in the main, That Virtue causes Happiness, and Vice Misery, carrys with him that Security and Assistance to Virtue which is requir'd. Or tho he has no such Thought, nor can believe Virtue has real Interest, either with respect to his own Nature and Constitution, or the Circumstances of human Life; yet if he believes any supreme Powers concern'd in the present Affairs of Mankind, and immediately interposing in behalf of the Honest and Virtuous, against the Impious and Unjust; this will serve to preserve to him, however, that just Esteem of Virtue, which might otherwise considerably diminish. Or shou'd he still believe little of the immediate Interposition of Providence in the Affairs of this present Life; yet if he believes a God dispensing Rewards and Punishments to Vice and Rh