Page:Characteristicks of men, manners, opinions, times Vol 2.djvu/75

RV 71 (Rh) like. Such an Opinion as this may by degrees imbitter the Temper, and not only make the Love of Virtue to be less felt, but help to impair and ruin the very Principle of Virtue, ''viz. natural and kind Affection''.

the whole; whoever has a firm Belief of a, whom he does not merely call good, but of whom in reality he believes nothing beside real Good, nothing beside what is truly sutable to the exactest Character of Benignity and Goodness; such a Person believing Rewards or Retributions in another Life, must believe them annex'd to real Goodness and Merit, real Villany and Baseness, and not accidental Qualitys or Circumstances; in which respect they cannot properly be styl'd Rewards or Punishments, but capricious Distributions of Happiness or Unhappiness to Creatures. These are the only Terms on which the Belief of a World to come, can happily influence the Believer. And on these Terms, and by Virtue of this Belief, Man perhaps may retain his Virtue and Integrity, even under the hardest Thoughts of human Nature; when either by any ill Circumstance or untoward Doctrine, he is brought to that unfortunate Opinion of Virtue's being naturally an Enemy to Happiness in Life. Rh