V. fin and disobedience, it cannot be pretended LETTER that this supposition carricth any abfurdity in it. 3 And in such a cafe it might be expected, that he and his affociates would prove enemies to all goodness and virtue, and that having fallen from their own felicity and glory, they would envy the happiness of others, and endeavour to draw them into guilt and mifery. This is what we often fee bad men do, who are arrived to a great degree of corruption and depravity. His Lordship indeed pretendeth, that the fuppofition of an inferior dependent being, who is affumed to be the author of all evil, is more abfurd than the doctrine of two independent principles, the one good, the other evil. But it is evident to the common fenfe of mankind, that there is a vaft difference between the fuppofition of an almighty and independent evil being, a fuppofition full of abfurdity and horror, and that of an inferior dependent being, who was made originally upright, but fell by his own voluntary defection into vice and wickedness, and who, though permitted in many inftances to do mifchief, and to act according to his evil inclinations, as wicked men are often permitted to do in this present state, yet is ftill under the fovereign controul of the moft holy, wife, and powerful Governor of the world. For in this cafe we may be fure from the divine wisdom, juftice, and goodness, that God will in the propereft feason LETTER season inflict a punishment upon that evil be V. ing, and his affociates, proportionable to their crimes, and that in the mean time he fets bounds to their malice and rage, and provideth fufficient afliftances for those whom they endeavour to feduce to evil, whereby they may be enabled to repel their temptations, if it be not their own faults: and that he will in his fuperior wisdom bring good out of their evil, and over-rule even their malice and wickednefs, for promoting the great ends of his government. This is the representation made to us of this matter in the holy fcriptures; and there is nothing in all this that can be proved to be contrary to found reason. And we may justly conclude, that in the final iffue of things, the wisdom as well as righteousness of this part of the divine administrations will moft illuftrioufly appear. In p. 490. after having obferved, line 6, et feq. That the Jews were taught that noble lefon, That in and from God alone, they were to look for happiness, whether relating to the people in general, or to particular perfons: add as follows, without breaking the And they were inftructed to regard him as exercising a constant inspection over them, and taking cognizance both of their outward actions, and of the inward affections and difpofitions of their hearts. line: There V. There are feveral other additional obferva- LETTER tions relating to the fecond volume of the View of the Deiftical Writers, which I shall reserve to be the subject of another Letter. At present these may fuffice. I am, Sir, &c. LETTER LETTER VI. St. Paul vindicated against Lord Bolingbroke's charge of madness. The revelation published by Chrift's apoftles under the direction of his Spirit, truly and properly the revelation of fefus Chrift, as well as that which he delivered himself in the days of his perfonal miniftry. Some manufcripts of the facred writings, particularly the Alexandrian, fo ancient, as to bring us near to the first ages of the Chriftian Church. Some of Christ's precepts in his fermon on the mount, which have been exclaimed against as excessively fevere, own'd by Lord Bolingbroke to be reasonable and juft. The primitive Christians unjustly charged by him with owning themselves to be Gnoftics. The profperity of the Roman ftate, according to him, owing to the belief of Religion and a Providence, and the neglect of Religion the cause of its ruin. IN SIR, N the beginning of p. 529. before the firft line, let there be a new paragraph inserted, as follows: Among other charges Lord Bolingbroke bringeth against St. Paul one is that of madness. He asks, VI. asks," Can he be less than mad, who boafts a LETTER "revelation fuperadded to reason to fupply the defects of it, and who fuperadds reafon "to revelation, to fupply the defects of this ناه too, at the same time? This is madness, or "there is no fuch thing incident to our nature." And he mentions feveral perfons of great name as having been guilty of this madness, and particularly St. Paul *. That reafon and revelation are in their several ways neceffary, and affiftant to each other, is eafily conceivable, and fo far from being an abfurdity, that it is a certain truth. But the stress of his Lordship's obfervation lies wholly in the turn of the expreffion, and in the improper way of putting the cafe. That revelation may be of fignal use to affift and enlighten our reason in the knowlege of things which we could not have known at all, or not fo certainly by our own unaffifted reafon without it, is plainly fignified by St. Paul, and is what the whole Gospel supposes. And on the other hand it is manifeft, that reafon is neceffary to our understanding revelation, and making a proper ufe of it, and that in judging of that revelation, and of its meaning and evidences, we must exercise our reasoning faculties and powers: i. e. revelation supposeth us to be reasonable creatures, and to have the ufe of our reafon, and addreffeth us as fuch. But this doth not imply that revelation is defective, or that 1 * Lord Bolingbroke's works, Vol. IV. p. 172. L 2 reafon |