The Subordinate Rules of human action are enforced and sanctioned by the belief of success or failure, in the pursuit of some corresponding object. Thus, the Rule, that the Appetites must be controlled by the Reason, is enforced by our expectation of obtaining health and comfort, if we obey the Rule, and of forfeiting these benefits if we disregard the Rule. In like manner, the Rule that we must respect the Rights of all men, is enforced by the hope of Security and Tranquillity, which the general observance of such a Rule produces; by the prospect of the Turbulence and Insecurity which exist in rude states of Society; and by the fear of the condemnation and punishment which, in more settled Society, the violation of Rights produces to the offender.

In like manner, the Supreme Rule of Human Action is enforced and sanctioned by a belief that it leads to the Supreme Object of Human Action. As the Rule of Temperance points to Health and Comfort; as the Rule of Respect for Rights points to Security and Tranquillity; so the Supreme Rule of Rightness points to Happiness, which includes all other objects; and which is an internal Comfort and Tranquillity requiring nothing beyond itself.

574. The Subordinate Rules are enforced and sanctioned by the belief that they lead to their respective objects; and this belief is confirmed and verified by the result. Temperance does, as a general Rule, lead to Health and Comfort. Respect for legal Obligation does maintain social Tranquillity and individual Security. By the analogy of these Cases, we are confirmed in our belief that Moral Rightness leads to Happiness.

The Rules of Human Action, approved by the Reason, may be considered as Laws given to man by God; and the Objects of Human Action, which are foreseen and obtained by conforming to such Rules, may be considered as Promises to man made

and fulfilled by God. The general declarations of God to men, made through his Reason, may be considered as conditional Promises. "If you are temperate, you shall be healthy.' "If you conform to the laws of Society, you shall enjoy the benefits of Society." In like manner, there is a conditional Promise made to man through his Reason, that conformity to the Supreme Rule will be attended with the Supreme Good of his Nature. "If you are virtuous, you shall be happy." And as the Promises, thus made in the other cases, are verified by the re- / sult, we are led to believe, by analogy, that the Promise, in the last case, will also be verified by the result.

Hence the results of obeying and violating Moral Rules of Action, made known to us by our Reason, may be considered as Rewards and Punishments appointed by God. And thus we are led to look upon Happiness as the appointed Reward of Virtue, and Unhappiness as the appointed Punishment of Vice.

575. We conceive not only Will and Purpose, as residing in God, but also Affections. His creation abounds in Contrivances, which have, for their objects, the health, comfort, and enjoyment, of his creatures; and nowhere exhibits Contrivances which have, for their object, pain or disease. Hence, we conceive God as benevolent towards his creatures. Moreover, being led, as we have just said, to believe him to exercise a Moral Government, in which he rewards Virtue and punishes Vice, we conceive him as loving virtuous men, and hating vicious men ; and as loving Virtue and hating Vice, in the abstract. We conceive Benevolence, Justice, Truth, Purity and Order, as the objects of his Love. And we are thus led to conceive these Ideas, as elements in our Idea of God. We conceive him as, in the most

perfect degree, Benevolent, Just, True, Pure, and Wise. This Moral Perfection is Holiness.

576. Benevolence, Justice, Truth, Purity, and Order, are the proper objects of our Love (233); and therefore God, in whom these Ideas are all com prehended, is the proper object of Love. With the Idea of God in our minds, the Love of God becomes a part of our Moral Progress. Our belief in the Holi.

ness of God, and our Love of Him, confirm and uphold our expectation and belief that Happiness is the appointed Reward of Virtue, and Unhappiness the appointed Punishment of Vice.

577. The expectation and belief which are sup ported by these reasonings and analogies, become constantly stronger, as our moral and intellectual culture proceed. But though men have such a general and settled expectation and belief, that Happiness is the appointed Reward of Virtue; it is a matter of great doubt and obscurity, to the eye of Reason, in what manner this is to be brought to pass. Some have taught that the virtuous man is always happy, by that condition of his mind which Virtue produces. Some have inferred that, since happiness is not always the Reward of Virtue in the life of men; this life must be succeeded by another life, in which the Promise is fulfilled, and the Reward bestowed. They have taught that man has a Soul, which is not destroyed by the accidents which happen to the body; and that the Soul, surviving the death of the mortal Body, is the subject of God's Rewards and Punishments in another world.

578. The doctrine that man has a Soul, of which Consciousness, Will, Reason, Affections, Memory, Imagination, are Faculties, as Motion, Sensation, Nutrition, are Faculties of the Body, has been generally believed on other grounds also. I am conscious of remaining the same person; while my body is constantly changing by the process of nutrition. I

will certain acts; in which the body is only the instrument of the will. I reason; and in doing so, refer to Ideas, or principles of Reasoning, common to me along with all mankind; these Ideas or principles cannot be conceived as residing in the body. I love my parents, my brothers, and sisters, my chil-. dren; these affections do not belong to the body. By acts of duty, habits of duty and virtue are formed; which are not habits of mere bodily action. And by all these processes,-Will, Reason, Affection, Acts of Duty,-permanent effects are produced upon our being, which can be understood most simply as effects produced on the Soul. It is the Soul, which is permanently affected by the intellectual and moral culture of which we have spoken (293); as the body is permanently affected by bodily exercises. It is the Soul, which is tainted and distempered by transgression (349); and it is the Soul which is to be restored by Repentance and Amendment, if restoration be possible (357). It is the Soul, in which must take place the constant and unlimited moral progress, of which we have spoken (300): which, as we have said, must go forwards to the very end of life. And it is very natural to suppose that by this Progress, the Soul is fitted for Another Life, in which its condition will correspond with the nature of its Moral Progress in this life. If the Soul have reached a high point of Moral Progress on this side of death, we may suppose that it will, on the other side of death, if not on this, find a corresponding state of Happiness. If, on the contrary, habits of virtue have been neglected, transgressions committed, and habits of vice formed here, the Soul must be unfitted for enjoying, hereafter, any Happiness, such as we can suppose God to give to men's Souls.

579. Thus we are led to believe in a Future State of being, in which God's Moral Government will be carried on to its completion. But even in this present

state of being, we must conceive ourselves and the world to be under the Government of God. God must be the Governor, as he is the Creator, of the world; for as the Creator, he formed, and placed in it, those Springs of Progress by which its course is carried on and regulated. We cannot help believing that, like all other parts of the Creation, the course of the world of human doing and suffering must have a Purpose; and this Purpose must be in harmony with the Moral Government of God, to the belief of which we have already been led (574). The Course of this world, we cannot but believe, is directed by God's Providence. It is a Divine Dispensation.

580. The doctrines of Natural Religion, as we have stated them, thus present to us these Ideas; the Moral Government of God and his Providence. So far as we borrow our Light from Natural Religion, we assume these Ideas, of Moral Government and Providence, to be realized in the World to Come and we regard this world as the Prelude and Preparation to that. But we cannot reasonably be satisfied with a mere Idea of the Course of this World. We must attend to the Fact also, that is, to the History of the World: and thus we are led to Revealed Religion.

CHAPTER II.

CHRISTIAN REVELATION.

581. THE Idea of the Course of the World, according to Natural Religion, is, that it is directed by God's Providence so as to be in harmony with his Moral Government. The Fact which corresponds to this Idea is supplied to us by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament.