Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/26

 Wee'l come nearer then if you please, and look nicely into the Merits of the Cause : And this I shall do the rather because this Sect, as Tully observes, by counterfeiting the Air of Virtue, and dropping a few shining Sentences, had drawn off a great many Proselytes.

And now in good earnest, can that Man set up for Religion who disclaims the Belief of Providence? ''Who teaches that God is unconcern'd with the World, and neither gives himself, nor any body else any manner of Trouble? That the Business of Rewards and Punishments are foreign to his Nature, and that he can neither be angry nor pleas'd with poor Mortals? He must needs be a pious Philosopher, who as his Disciples are pleas'd to brag, was the first bold Man who durst attempt the scaling of the Skyes, and make an open Attack upon the Deity?'' And as for Honest Principles, how can we expect them from those People who declare they value neither Friendship, Good Faith, Justice, nor any other Virtue any farther than their Interest or their Fancy are serv'd by them : With these Philosophers Virtue has no Intrinsick Goodness, no Native Beauty, nothing that's charming in the bare Practice : No, Honesty and Truth do but glister in the Name, and make a  Rh