254 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book III. 



lilni as an intelligent creature. As to his mifery in this life, it can 

 endure no longer than this life lafts ; and even while it lafts, if he 

 bear it as he fhould do, and fcek for confolation in the goodnefs 

 and mercy of God, it will improve his mind and add to his religion : 

 And as to his mifery in a future life, I hope I have proved, to the 

 fatisfadion of the reader, that, though it may be very great in that 

 life, it cannot be everlafting. 



And here I conclude this long differtation on the goodnefs of 

 God and the grand queftion about the origin of evil ; a queftion 

 about which Plato was fo much perplexed. And it was no wonder, 

 as he maintained that the Deity was the ro a.ycK.h'jy or goodnefs itfclf: 

 And as that was the cafe, he could not conceive how there fhould 

 be fo much evil in the world which he had created here on earth, 

 and governed. But Plato does not appear to have known the fall of 

 rnan, though it was known to the Egyptians, and was, as I have 

 elfcwhere obferved, part of the Eleufynian myfleries *. Now it is 

 from man that all evil (properly fo called on this earth), that is mo- 

 ral evil, proceeds f . And indeed if man liad proceeded from his 

 maker an animal fuch as we fee him, I think it would have been im- 

 pofliblc to have folved the difficulty concerning the origin of evil, 

 or to have reconciled it with the goodnefs of God : For then he 

 muft have been anfwerable for all the evil produced by an animal of 

 his own creation. The fall of man, therefore, I hold to be a fun- 

 damental dodtrine of theology, as well as of the hiftory and philofo- 

 phy of man. And we are now to inquire whether or not all the 

 evil here on earth is not the neceflary confequence of that fall. 



That the fall of man was an event which mufi: have happened in 

 the courfe of nature, I think I have proved :j: ; For I have fliown, 

 that of a -great number of beings of imperfed intelleds, fuch as 

 maii^ fome muft have fallen into great errors, and in that way loft 



the 



^ Vol. IV. p. 379. ' f Pp. 192 and 193 of this Vol. \ Ibid. p. 142. 



