ARGUMENT OF EPISTLE IV.

Of the Nature and State of Man with respect to Happiness.

I. False Notions of Happiness, Philosophical and Popular, answered from

v.19 to 77. II. It is the End of all Men, and attainable by all, v.30.

God intends Happiness to be equal; and to be so, it must be social, since

all particular Happiness depends on general, and since He governs by

general, not particular Laws, v.37. As it is necessary for Order, and

the peace and welfare of Society, that external goods should be unequal,

Happiness is not made to consist in these, v.51. But, notwithstanding

that inequality, the balance of Happiness among Mankind is kept even by

Providence, by the two Passions of Hope and Fear, v.70. III. What the

Happiness of Individuals is, as far as is consistent with the

constitution of this world; and that the good Man has here the advantage,

V.77. The error of imputing to Virtue what are only the calamities of

Nature or of Fortune, v.94. IV. The folly of expecting that God should

alter His general Laws in favour of particulars, v.121. V. That we are

not judges who are good; but that, whoever they are, they must be

happiest, v.133, etc. VI. That external goods are not the proper

rewards, but often inconsistent with, or destructive of Virtue, v.165.

That even these can make no Man happy without Virtue: Instanced in

Riches, v.183. Honours, v.191. Nobility, v.203. Greatness, v.215.

Fame, v.235. Superior Talents, v.257, etc. With pictures of human

Infelicity in Men possessed of them all, v.267, etc. VII. That Virtue

only constitutes a Happiness, whose object is universal, and whose

prospect eternal, v.307, etc. That the perfection of Virtue and

Happiness consists in a conformity to the Order of Providence here, and a

Resignation to it here and hereafter, v.326, etc.

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