^48 AXTIKNT METAPHYSICS. Book IH. 



And licro, as I have obfcrvcd '^, the do£lnne of the antlent philofophers, 

 wlio maintained the immortality of the intelledual mind, was defi- 

 cient ; for it did not fay that virtue was there to be rewarded: So that 

 ihofe philofophers did not furnifu to their fcholars that great incite- 

 iuent to virtue, the reward given to it in a future life ; for what we 

 read in antient books of the Elyfian Fields and the Fortunate Iflands, i& 

 nothing but the ficlions of poets, not the do£lrine of antient philofo- 

 phers. But this defedl in that philofophy the Chriftian religion has am- 

 ply fupplied : For our Saviour not only brought life and immortality /c 

 light ^ and fo confirmed what the antient philofophers knew, that there 

 was to be a life after this life, but has revealed to us, that if men live 

 liere as they ought to do, they will be very much happier in a future 

 ftate. For this reafon, as I have faid in the paflage above quoted, the 

 doftrine of a future life, and the happinefs tliere promifed, if we live 

 here as \-it ought to do, fliould be carefully inculcated into the lower 

 fort of people; Vv'ho, though they cannot perceive the beauty of virtue 

 and holinefs, may be prompted, by the hopes of reward in a fu- 

 ture life, to live a virtuous life here ; and may be deterred, by the 

 threatenings of puniihment in a future life, which the gofpel alfo 

 threatens, from living vitioufly and profligately. But I will fay 

 no more here in praife of the ChriRian religion, wliich I have com- 

 mended fo much elfewhere"]"; having fhown it not only to be the moft 

 philofophical religioa that ever exiflcd, as it gives us the bed; fyflem. 

 both of theogony and cofmogony that can be imagined, but the heft 

 fitted for the people, by inculcating what fliould be the- principle of 

 all religion, the love of God and of our fellow creatures. 



That therefore the Chriftian religion is the heft popular religion 

 that ever was, I think cannot be denied : But it will be faid, why 

 fhould it be fo philofophical a religion, as it is intended not for phi- 

 lofophers only, but for the whole human fpecies ? To this I an- 



fwer, 

 * Vol. IV. p. 387. t P. 53 of this Vol. and Vol. V. p. 189. 



