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303 cafes evidently arbitrary. Different fpecies, therefore, choose different forts of food, which, without that arbitary fitness, would be alike grateful or disagreeable to all taftes; fo that grafs and hay would be as acceptable to the lion and the vulture, as to the horse and the ox; and the flesh as agreeable to the horfe and the ox, as to the lion and vulture. On the contrary, in other cafes, this fitness is by no means arbitrary or factitious, but unalterable and neceffary. A mind, to which apparent truth was no object; an understanding, which faw no beauty or defirableness in undoubted virtue and rectitude, must be perverted from its natural ftate, and debauched out of itself.

Our love to earthly objects may eafily be carried to excess. For it is evident, that a very moderate attachment is fufficient, where the connection is intended to hold only for the prefent fhort life. As on the other hand, those objects which are intended to be the final happiness of our being, ought to be purfued with the utmoft ardency of affection. To purfue, with an unbounded defire, an object, whofe nature and perfections are bounded within very narrow limits, is a gross abfurdity; as to be cold and indifferent to that which is of ineftimable worth, is contrary to found reason. But to observe the general conduct of mankind, one would think they confidered God and virtue, and eternal happinefs, as objects of little or no confequence; and good eating and drinking, pleasure and wealth, as alone worth the attention of reafonable beings. One would imagine they believed that the latter were to be the everlafting enjoyment of the rational mind, and the former the tranfitory amusement of a few years at moft. What do mankind purfue with the greatest eagerness? What are their hearts most set upon? What does their converfation most run upon? What is their laft thought at night, and their firft in the morning? and what employs their minds through the whole day? I am afraid the objects, which engage their fupreme attention, are of no higher a nature than how to get money; to raise themselves, as they very improperly call it, in the world; to concert a party of pleafure; or fome other fcheme

fcheme of as little confequence. Now, if the pretent were to be the final ftate, this turn of mind might be proper enough. But that a being formed for immortality fhould fet his whole affections upon this mortal life, is as if a traveller, going to a diftant country, should make abundant provifion for his voyage, and spend his whole fortune by the way, leaving nothing for his comfortable fettlement when he arrives, where he is to pafs his days.

Suppofe an unbodied fpirit, of the character of moft human minds, entered upon the future ftate, left to itfelf, and neither raifed to pofitive happiness, nor condemned to pofitive punishment; I afk, what must be the condition of fuch a being? What can be more deplorable than the fituation of a mind, which has loft all the objects of its delight, and can enjoy nothing of what makes the happiness of the ftate in which it is placed? For, alas, there is no eating and drinking, no ftock-jobbing or trafficking, no enjoyment of wine and women, no parliamenteering in the world of fpirits; and in this world of fpirits we fhall all find ourselves before many years be gone. What then is our wifdom? Not, furely, to fet our whole affections upon this prefent fleeting ftate; but to habituate ourselves to think of the eternal exiftence hereafter as the principal end of our being, and what ought therefore to fill up the greatest part of our attention, and to engage our warmeft affections and moft eager pursuit.

That any being in the univerfe fhould ever bring it felf to hate itself, or defire its own mifery, as milery, is impoffible. Though a reasonable felf-love, rightly directed, is highly commendable, nothing is more ealy or common, than to err egregioufly with refpect to felflove. Moft people love themfelves fo very much, and in a way so abfurd, that they love nothing else, except what is closely connected with themselves; and that they love more for their own fakes than any thing else. That mind must be wonderfully narrow that is wholly wrapt up in itself. But this is too vifibly the character of most human minds. The true ftandard of rectitude as to felf-love, is, That every one love himfelf as God

305 may be fuppofed to love him; that is, as an individual among many. To the Divine Mind every object appears as it really is. We ought therefore to endeavour to fee things in the light in which they appear to that Eye which comprehends the univerfal fyftem. If we thus enlarged our conceptions, we fhould never fuffer our whole regards to be poffeffed by any one finite object whatever, not even by felf. Nor fhould we ever think of preferring ourfelves unjustly to others, or raifing ourselves upon their ruin. For that is to act as if a man did not confider himself as a part, and a very fmall part of an immenfe whole, but as the only being in the univerfe; than which nothing can be more monftrous. If we loved ourfelves as our Maker loves us, we fhould not think of being partial to our faults; but fhould view them with the fame eye as we do thofe of others. It is a great unhappiness that we cannot root out of our foolish hearts this fhameful weaknefs. Does it at all alter the real evil of a bad action, that it was I who did it? Will a lie become a truth in my mouth? Is not every man's felf as much felf, and as dear to him as I am to myself? And is the immutable and eternal nature of right and wrong to be changed by every man's fancy? If I fee injuftice, falfehood, or impiety in another in the most odious light, does not a third perfon fee them in me in the fame manner? And does not the all-piercing Eye of Heaven fee them alike in all? If I am thocked at the vices of another perfon, have I not a thousand times more reafon to be startled at my own? Thofe of another can never do me the prejudice which my own can do me. The plague at Conftantinople can never affect me, as if it attacked me in my own perfon.

The love of praife, or defire of diftinction, is a paffion as neceffary to a thinking being, as that which prompts it to preferve its exiftence. But as this tendency, like all the others which enter into the human make, ought to be fubject to the government of reafon, it is plain, that no approbation, but that of the wife and good, is of any real value, or deferves the leaft regard. The advantage gained by the exertion of this univerfal propenfity, is, that men may be thereby exX

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cited to fuch a course of action, as will deferve the approbation of the wife and good. But the love of undiftinguishing applaufe will never produce this effect. For the unthinking multitude generally give their praise where it is leaft due, and overlook real merit. One Charles of Sweden, or Lewis of France, the common furies of the world, fhall receive more huzzas from the madding crowd, than ten Alfreds, the fathers of their country. So that the defire of promiscous praife, as it defeats the moral defign of the paffion, is altogether improper and mifchievous, inftead of being useful. The rule for the conduct of this paffion, is, .To act fuch a part as fhall deferve praife; but in our conduct to have as little regard as poffible to praise. A good man will dare to be meanly, or ill thought of in doing well; but he will not venture to do ill in ordered to be comi mended.

The paffion, or emotion, which we call anger, ferves the fame purpose as the natural weapons with which the animal creation is furnished, as teeth, horns, hoofs, and claws; I mean for our defence against attacks and infults. Cool reafon alone would not have fufficiently animated us in our own defence, to fecure us in the quiet poffeffion of our natural rights, any more than it would alone have fuggefted to us the due care and nourifhment of our bodies. To fupply, therefore, the deficiences of reafon in our prefent imperfect ftate, paffion and appetite come in, and are neceffary to the human compofition. And it would have been as much to the purpose, that the ancient Stoics fhould have directed their difciples to eradicate hunger and thirst, as anger, grief, love, and the other natural paffions. It is indeed too true, that in our prefent imperfect flate we are in much greater danger of yielding too much to our paffions, than of fubduing them too thoroughly; and therefore we find all wife teachers, and particularly the best of teachers, who came from heaven to inftruct us, labouring to inculcate upon mankind the conqueft of paffion and appetite, without fetting any bounds to the length they would have the conqueft carried; as knowing, that there is no need to caution men against an ex

cefs

cefs on this fafeft fide. And, with refpect to the pas fion we are now treating of, if a perfon does not fhew himself wholly incapable of being moved, if he does not directly invite injuries and affaults, by bearing without all measure; if he does but from time to time fhew that he has in him too much fpirit to fuffer himfelf to be trampled upon; I am clearly of opinion, that he cannot exert this paffion too feldom, or too moderately.

If we take the fame method for coming at the true ftate of things in this, as in other cafes, viz. endeavouring, as before directed, to get that view of them which appears before the all-comprehenfive eye of God, we fhall then fee how abfurd the exceffive indulgence of this lawless paffion is. To the Supreme Mind we appear a fet of infirm, fhort-fighted, helplefs beings, engaged to one another by nature, and the neceflity of our affairs; incapable of greatly prejudicing one another; all very nearly upon a footing; all guilty before him; all alike under his government, and all to ftand hereafter before the fame judgment-feat. How ridiculous must then our fatal quarrels, our important points of honour, our high indignation, and our mighty refentments appear before him? Infinitely more contemptible than the contentions between the frogs and mice do to us in the ludicrous ancient poem afcribed to Homer.

But this is not all. Let it be confidered alfo how the impiety of our hatred and refentment, muft appear before that Eye, which fees all things as they arc. That the Supreme Governor of the world fhould choofe to vindicate to himself the privilege of fearching the hearts, and of knowing the real characters of all his creatures, is no more than might be expected. Whoever therefore prefumes to pronounce upon the character or state of any of his fellow-creatures before God, affumes the incommunicable privilege of Divinity. Now, every man who hates his fellow-creature, muft first conclude him to be wicked and hateful in the fight of God, or he muft hate him whom God loves; which is fuch a piece of audacious oppofition to the Divine Mind, as hardly X 2

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