252 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Eook III. 



krent fi-om that I have now mentioned, in which he is to be 

 punillied for his wickednefs and vices in this ftate, and in that "way 

 prepared to receive inflrudtion in another : For, that he is to 

 he eternally damned, I cannot believe ; as I do not think it rccon- 

 cileable with the goodnefs of God, that he fliould have produced 

 any being that vv'as deftined, even through his own fault, to be eter- 

 nally miferable : Nor do I think it reconcilcable with the juftice of 

 God that any man, for all the offences he could commit in this fhort 

 life on earth, fhould be condemned to eternal pain and mifery. I 

 therefore cannot believe in the duration of tins punifliment of man 

 after death, any more than I can believe in the manner of it, by 

 lire and brimftone, which I think cannot be conceived as the punifli- 

 ment of an unembodied mind.. At the fame time, I think it was- 

 not improper to terrify the vulgar (that is by far the greateft part of 

 men) by threatening them with fuch a punifhment, to frighten 

 them from vice and wickednefs. I hold it therefore, that after man 

 is brought to a due fenfe of his tranfgreflions in this life, he is to 

 go to another, in order to prepare himfelf for a better life : And if 

 he does not there prepare himfelf fufEciently, he mufl: go on ftill to 

 another ftate, till at laft he be prepared to enjoy as much happinefs 

 as his nature is capable of. Now in pafling through thefe feveral 

 ftates, and undergoing pains in each of them, man, being an intelli- 

 gent animal with confcioufnefs and refledlion, muft at laft be con- 

 vinced of his folly and repent, and fo be delivered from his mifery, 

 and made as happy as his nature will admit. For there is a great 

 difference of natures in different individuals ; and it would not he 

 confiftent with the order of things, and that variety, which we ob- 

 fcrve in nature, if all the individuals of the fame fpecies were equally 

 capable of the fam.e degree of happinefs : But the wifdom and good- 

 nefs of God have fo ordered things, that every individual of the hu- 

 man fpecies enjoys, fooncr or later, all the happinefs that his nature 

 is capable of. And even in this life we may obferve, that every 



man 



