have been already ufed, but now fet in a ftronger light.

A believer may be excufed by the most hardened atheist for endeavouring to make him a convert, because he does it with an eye to both their interefts. The Atheift is inexcufeable who tries to gain over a believer, because he does not propofe the doing himfelf or the believer any good by fuch a converfion.

The profpect of a future ftate is the fecret comfort and refreshment of my foul; it is that ' which makes nature look gay about me; it doubles all my pleasures, and fupports me under 1 all my afflictions. I can look at difappointments and misfortunes, pain and fickness, death itself, and, what is worse than death, the lofs of those who are dearest to me, with indifference, fo long as I keep in view the pleasures of eternity, and the ftate of being in which there will be no fears ' nor apprehenfions, pains nor forrows, fickness nor feparation. Why will any man be fo impertinently officious as to tell me all this is only fancy and delufion? Is there any merit in being the meffenger of ill news? If it is a dream, let me enjoy it, fince it makes me both the happier and ( better man.

I must confefs I do not know how to trust a man who believes neither heaven nor hell, or, in other words, a future ftate of rewards and pu, nifhments. Not only natural felf-love, but reafon directs us to promote our own intereft above all things. It can never be for the intereft of a believer to do me a mifchief, because he is fure upon the balance of accounts to find himself a lofer by it. On the contrary, if he confiders his own welfare in his behaviour towards me, it will lead him to do me all the good he can, and at the fame time reftrain him from doing me any injury.

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injury. An unbeliever does not act like á rẻáfonable creature, if he favours me contrary to his prefent intereft, or does not diftrefs me when it turns to his prefent advantage. Honour and good-nature may indeed tie up his hands; but as thefe would be very much ftrengthened by reafon and principle, fo without them they are only inftincts, or wavering unfettled notions, which reft on no foundation.

Infidelity has been attacked with fo good fuccefs of late years, that it is driven out of all its out• works. The atheift has not found his poft tenable, and is therefore retired into Deifm, and a difbelief of revealed religion only. But the truth of it is, the greateft number of this fet of men, are those who, for want of a virtuous education, or examing the grounds of religion, know fo very little of the matter in queftion, that their infidelity is but another term for their ignorance.

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As folly and inconfiderateness are the foundations of infidelity, the great pillars and fupports of it are either a vanity of appearing wifer than the rest of mankind, or an oftentation of courage in defpifing the terrors of another world, which have fo great an influence on what they call 'weaker minds; or an averfion to a belief that must cut them off from many of thofe pleafures they propofe to themfelves, and fill them with remorfe for many of thofe they have already tafted.

• The great received articles of the Chriftian religion have been fo clearly proved, from the authority of that divine revelation in which they are delivered, that it is impoffible for those who have ears to hear, and eyes to fee, not to be convinced of them. But were it poffible for any thing in the Chriftian Faith to be erroneous, I can find no ill confequences in adhering to it. The great points of the incarnation and fufferings

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⚫ of our Saviour produce naturally fuch habits of • virtue in the mind of man, that I fay, fuppofing • it were poffible for us to be mistaken in them, the • infidel himfelf muft at leaft allow that no other fyftem of religion could fo effectually contribute • to the heightening of morality. They give us great ideas of the dignity of human nature, and of the love which the Supreme Being bears to his creatures, and confequently engage us in the higheft acts of duty towards our Creator, our neighbour, and ourselves. How many * noble arguments has Saint Paul raised from the chief articles of our religion, for the advancing * of morality in its three great branches? To give a fingle example in each kind: What can be a ftronger motive to a firm trust and reliance on * the mercies of our Maker, than the giving us his • Son to fuffer for us? What can make us love and * esteem even the most inconfiderable of mankind

more than the thought that Chrift died for him? *Or what difpofe us to fet a ftricter guard upon the purity of our own hearts, than our being members of Chrift, and a part of the fociety of which that ithmaculate perfon is the Head? But thefe are only a fpecimen of thofe admirable in'forcements of morality, which the Apostle has drawn from the hiftory of our bleffed Saviour.

• If our modern infidels confidered thefe matters ⚫ with that candour and ferfoufners which they deferve, we thould not fee them act with fuch a fpirit of bitterness, arrogance, and malice: They 'would not be raising fuch infignificant cavils, doubts, and fcruples, as may be ftarted against every thing that is not capable of mathematical ⚫ demonstration; in order to unfettle the minds of the ignorant, difturb the publick peace, fubvert morality, and throw all things into confufion and diforder. If none of thefe reflections can have any influence on them, there is one that perhaps may,

may, becaufe it is adapted to their vanity, by which they feem to be guided much more than their reafon, I would therefore have them confider, that the wifeft and beft of men, in all ages of the world, have been thofe who lived up to the religion of their country, when they faw nothing in it oppofite to morality, and to the best lights they had of the divine nature. Pythagoras's firft rule directs us to worship the gods as it is ordained by law, for that is the most natural interpretation of the precept. Socrates, who was the most renowned among the Heathens both for wisdom and virtue, in his last moments defires his friends to offer a cock to Efculapius; doubtless out of a fubmiffive deference to the established worship of his country. Xenophon tells us, that his Prince (whom he fets forth as a pattern of perfection) when he found his death approaching, offered facrifices on the mountains to the Perfian Jupiter, and the fun, according to the cuf· tom of the Perfians; for thofe are the words of the hiftorian. Nay, the Epicurians and atomical philofophers fhewed a very remarkable modesty in this particular; for though the Being of a God was intirely repugnant to their schemes of natural philofophy, they contented themselves with the denial of a providence, afferting at the fame time the exiftence of gods in general; becaufe they would not fhock the common belief of mankind, and the religion of their country.

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THURSDAY,

No 187. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4.

Miferi quibus

Intentata nites

HOR. Od. v. l. 1. ver. 12. Ah, wretched thofe who love, yet ne'er did try The smiling treachery of the eye! CREECH. THE intelligence given by this correfpondent is fo important and ufeful, in order to avoid the perfons he fpeaks of, that I fall infert his let ter at length.

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

Do not know that you have ever touched upon a certain species of women, whom we or⚫dinarily call Jilts. You cannot poffibly go upon a more ufeful work, than the confideration of thefe dangerous animals. The coquette is indeed one degree towards the filt; But the heart of the former is bent upon admiring herself, and giving * falfe hopes to her lovers; but the latter is not contented to be extrémely amiable, But the muft add to that advantage a certain delight in being a forment to others. Thus when her lover is in the full expectation of fuccefs, the jilt fhall ☛ meet him with a fudden indifference, and admiration in her face at his being furprifed that he is received like a stranger, and a caft of her head another away with a pleafant fcorn of the fellow's infolence. It is very probable the lover goes home fitterly aftonished and dejected, fits down • to his fcrutoir, fends her word in the most abject ⚫ ternis, that he knows not what he has done; that all which was desirable in this life is fo fuddenly ⚫ vanished from him, that the charmer of his foul fhould withdraw the vital heat from the heart which pants for her. He continues a mournful " ábfence for fome time, piñing in fecret, and out