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• How deteftible foever, fays he, the doctrine of two principles may have appeared to all Chriftian communions, nevertheless Chriftians have acknowleged a fubaltern principle of moral evil. Divines tell us, that a great number of angels having finned, formed a party against God, in the universe. The head of this party is diftinguished by the name of Devil, or Demon, and is acknowleged to be the cause of the fall of the first man, and to be the perpetual tempter and feducer of the human race. This party having declared war againít God, the inftant of its fall, has always continued its rebellion, without the leaft truce, or peace. The Devil has been per petually endeavouring to ufurp the rights of his Creator, and to debauch his subjects from him, in order to make rebels of them, who might ferve under the ftandards of their common mafter. He fucceeded in his firft hoftilities on mankind; he attacked, in the garden of Eden, the mother of all men, and triumphed over her; upon which he inftantly fell upon the first man, and conquered him. Thus he rendered nimfelf mafter of the whole human race. God, however, did not abandon this prey to the Devil, but freed man from that flavery, by virtue of the fatisfaction which the fecond perion of the Trinity was to make to his juftice. This fecond perfon bound himself to become man, to perform the office of mediator between God and mankind, and to redeem Adam and his pofterity. He fet himself at the head of God's party, and undertook to fight that of the Devil.

The interefts of thefe two parties were directly oppofite: the design of the Mediator, Jefus Chrift, the Son of God, was to recover the conquered country; that of the Devil, to maintain himself in it. The Mediator's victory confifted in making mankind walk in the paths of truth and virtue; and that of the Devil, to lead them through the paths of error and vice: and therefore, to know whether moral good equals moral evil among mankind, we need but compare the Devil's victories with those of Chrift. Now fuch is the fate of mankind, and fo impenetrable are the judgments of God, that in confulting the hiftory of the world, we find that Chrift has gained but few triumphs, and we every where meet with the trophies of the Devil. The war of these two parties is a perpetual, or almost a perpetual, feries of profperity on the Devil's fide; and was the rebellious party to write the annals of it, exploits, there would fcarce be a fingle day that would not be diftinguifhed by fuccefles; that would not be crowned with bonhres, fongs of triumph, and all other indications of victory. The annalift would be under no neceffity of employing hyper

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boles, and flattery, to fhew the fuperiority of this faction. The facred writings mention but one good man in Adam's family; they reduce to one worthy man, the family of this worthy man, and fo on in other generations, till Noah, with whom were three fons, whom God faved from the flood, with their father, their mother, and their wives. Thus we find, at the end of fixteen hundred and fifty-fix years, all mankind, excepting one family, confifting of eight perfons, fo deeply engaged in the Devil's intereft, that it was neceffary to extirpate them, because of the enormity of their crimes. This flood, this formidable monument of God's justice, is a splendid monument of the Devil's victories; and the more fo, as this univerfallyinflicted punishment did not deprive him of his prey: for the fouls of those who perished in the flood, were fent to Hell: this was his aim and intention, and confequently his triumph.

This terrible punishment did not render mankind wifer. Error and vice foon fprouted up in the family of Noah. His defcendants plunged into idolatry, and all kinds of debaucheries. An handful of people, indeed, confined in Judea, preferved their orthodoxy; but notwithstanding this, it must be confeffed, that the fuccefs of the good party in that country was often various, fince that people fuffered themfelves fometimes to be deluded into idolatry; fo that their conduct was a viciffitude of true and falfe wo fhip. But as to the article of vice, there never was a real interregnum among the Jews, any more than in other countries; and, confequently, the Devil always kept a footing in the petty conquefts recovered by the good party. A happy revolution was feen at Chrift's birth; his miracles, his gofpel, and his apoftles, gained noble conquefts. The Devil's empire then received a very fevere blow; he was difpoffeffed of a confiderable part of the earth: however, he was not driven fo entirely from it, but that he continued to have a great number of correfpondents and creatures. He maintained himself in it by the abominable herefies he spread up and down. Vice was never driven entirely from it; and it foon returned as in triumph. Errors, fchifms, difputes, and cabals, infinuated themfelves, with the fatal train of fhameful paffions, which usually attend upon them. The herefies, fuperftitions, violent attempts, frauds, extortions, and impurities, that appeared in the whole Chriftian world, during feveral centuries, are things which can be but imperfectly defcribed. What Virgil faid is literally true

Non mihi fi linguæ centum, fint oraque centum,
Ferrea vox, omnes fcelerum comprendere formas

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Thus, whilft the Devil reigned fingly out of the bounds of the Chriftian world, he difputed the ground fo firmly in Chriftendom, that the progrefs of his arms was greatly fuperior to the progrefs of thofe of truth and virtue. A ftop was put to them, and he was even drove back, in the fixteenth century; but what he loft on one fide, he gained on the other; what he cannnot effect by lies, he does by the corruption of manners. There is no afylum, no fortrefs, in which he does not fhew his power in that refpect. If we leave fociety, and shut ourselves up in monafteries, he will follow us thither; he will introduce intrigues, envy, factions; or, if he can do no worfe, lewdnefs: this last refource is almost infallible. A modern Author afferts, that it is notorious, and publicly acknowleged, that all the convents in Spain and Portugal are places of prostitution, and when chance happens to draw up the curtain, to give us a fight of what is doing in the convents in France, we perceive that they behave a little better outwardly, but that they are as impure, within, as elfewhere. He fpares the Proteftants a little more, but he nevertheless, fays, that there is an extreme corruption among them; and that it is fo general, that the diforder prevails not only among the Proteftants in France, but alfo among thofe of England, in the kingdoms of the North, and the German provinces; that the Princes and Sovereigns of thofe countries study nothing but their political interests; that the people have no piety, and that the paftors are remifs. That a prodigious indifference, in general, with respect to religion, is seen in those countries; that the Princes pay no regard to truth; that the English women are debauched to the laft degree; and that the Proteftant provinces in Germany are immerfed in fuch a riotous excels, as quite debafes and brutalizes them. Though fome may think, that the Author (Jurieu, Efprit de M. Arnaud) has exaggerated in these descriptions, it, nevertheless, must be owned, that the corruption of manners among Chriftians is deplorable. Obferve the two following circumstances. There is as great a proportion, at leaft, of war, among Chriftians, as peace. In fpeaking thus I confine myself to Chriftianity; for with respect to the infidel nations, I need not mention them, they being always in the Devil's fervice, and under his empire, and the ufurper reigns over them undisturbed. It cannot be denied, but that war is the Devil's time, and, as it were, his turn for reigning: peaceful times do not seem so favourable to his empire, and yet they are fo, greatly: for nations, in proportion as they enrich themfelves, become more voluptuous, and immerse themselves ftill more and more in luxury and effeminacy.

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• My other remark is more decifive. Both the Roman Catholics and Proteftants agree, that there are but very few perfons who escape damnation. They fave only the orthodox, who lead good lives, and repent of their crimes, in their last moments. They do not deny but habitual finners may faved, in cafe they repent fincerely on their death-beds ; but then they affert, that nothing is lefs common than such a repentance. According to this it is plain, that for one man that is faved, there are, perhaps, a million damned. Now the war which is waged between God and the Devil, is for the conqueft of fouls. It is therefore certain, that the Devil is victorious; he wins all the damned, and lofes only the few fouls who are predeftinated to Paradife. He therefore is victor prælio, et victor bello. Chrift Jefus docs not fight to force away the dead from him. We therefore must say, that this war ends to the advantage of the Devil; what he claimed is yielded and given up to him. I am fenfible, that he himself will be eternally punished for his victories; but this circumftance, fo far from weakening my hypothefis, viz. that moral evil surpasses the good, only makes it more indifputable. For the Devils, in the midst of the flames, will curfe the name of God, and make the damned curse it eternally; confequently more creatures will hate God than love him: befides, in the present hypothefis, the question is only about the ftate of things in this life.

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I have an Italian book, entitled, Monarchia del noftro Signor Giefu Chrifto, that is, The Monarchy of our Lord felus Chrift, printed at Venice in 1573. The Author of it gives the hiftory of the battles fought by Lucifer againft Chrift, from the beginning of the world, till the Mahomedan times. He makes but a tranfient mention of the attempts in which Lucifer was triumphant, but fets forth amply, and without omitting so much as one, those which have failed; fuch as the designs of destroying Abraham's defcendants in Egypt; the attempts against David, against the Maccabees, the perfon of Chrift, &c. This is juft as if a man, in looking over perfons playing, fhould take an account only of what is loft; it would appear from fuch a calculation, that the greatest winner had loft all his money. This is an emblem of the conduct of feveral hiftorians; their nation appears always victorious, because they exhibit none but the fortunate events.

I muft obferve, that all the particulars I have juft now been mentioning, are delivered daily from the pulpit, and that without any defign of derogating from the Almighty power of the Word made Flesh. No more is meant by it, which alfo is my

opinion, than that man is, by his nature, fo ftrongly inclined to evil, that if we except only the few that are elected, all the reft of mankind live and die in the service of the wicked fpirit; fo that the paternal care of God to fave them, cannot eradicate their wickedness, nor bring them to repentance.'

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This is what Bayle has advanced under his first head of enquiry, and I cannot help making a few obfervations on what he has faid. The firft is, that which fide foever of a difficult question an ingenious writer takes, indeed almoft of any question that does not admit of demonftration, he may advance many fpecious and plaufible things upon it. If the queftion is of fo general a nature, as that concerning the proportion of virtue to vice, which, in order to a proper difcuffion of it, requires an extenfive knowlege of mankind in all ages and nations, and a clofe attention to an almoft infinite variety of circumstances, many of which are placed beyond the reach of human knowlege,—all that is neceflary to be done, is only to collect thofe circumftances which feem to favour his fide of the question, and place them in a striking point of view. Had Bayle taken it into his head to give us the bright, inftead of the gloomy fide of human nature, we fhould then have had fuch a picture of man exhibited to our view, as, instead of making us deteft him as a Devil, would have been apt to make us admire him as an Angel. But whoever would give a juft delineation of his character, would neither make him the one nor the other.

I would obferve, in the fecond place, that fuppofing the cafe to be as Bayle has reprefented it, tho' I am far from thinking that it is fo, fuch reprefentations can answer no valuable purpofe; nay, they are extremely injurious to the interefts of virtue. They have a natural tendency to damp every generous and noble effort of the mind, and cool the ardor of virtuous refolutions. The man who looks upon himself as ftrongly inclined to evil, by the very frame and conftitution of his nature, and is made to think that there are infurmountable obstacles to his reaching any confiderable attainments in virtue, can scarce be fuppofed capable of rifing to anything truly great and honourable. Befides, what an idea muft fuch a perfon entertain of the Author of Nature, who has, indeed, endowed him with power and faculties, to diftinguish between good and evil, to difcern the beauty and excellency of virtue, and its importance to his happiness; but has placed him, at the fame time, in fuch circumstances as chain him down to vice and mifery. It is, indeed, impoffible to furvey the circumftances of the world, and the character of mankind, if they are fuch as

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