this, as that twice two are four, if there be the fmalleft poffibility that it may be otherwife, it is the very defperation of madness to run the leaft hazard of the deftruction of your foul by living a wicked life.

Death-bed repentance, and death-bed charity, are much of a kind. Men give up their vices and their money when they can keep them no longer.

Can any perfon ferioufly think that he was formed capable of reafon, virtue, and religion, only to eat, drink, divert himself, and die?

Accuftom yourself to the ftrict obfervance of your duty in all respects, and it will in time be as troublefome to omit, or to violate it, as it is to many people to i practise it.

Study to grow every day wifer and better: For every day brings you nearer to death.

It is ftrange to hear unthinking people defeant upon the actions of men of univerfally acknowledged abilities, and to see them take it for granted, that they have acted a part entirely inconfiftent with their known characters; which people very rarely do, and which it is therefore very unreasonable to fuppofe. If you were told of a mifer's having done a generous thing, would you not be apt either to doubt the fact, or to conclude, that it must have appeared to him a likely way of getting fomewhat? If you were told of a very paffionate man's bearing an infult with exemplary patience, would you not be surprised? Why then should you rafhly give into the belief, that a perfon, whose good understanding you are apprized of, has played the fool? or one, whose integrity is known to you, has acted a treacherous part? Hear the accufed before you condemn.

Value learning as much as you please. But remember, a judicious thinker is incomparably fuperior to a great reader.

What can be more monstrous than the common excufes for unfaithfulness to the marriage-bed? People give their vows to one another in the most folemn manner; and then their firft work is to think how to break them. They marry for better for worse; for richer or poorer, younger or older; handfomer Dd 2

or

or plainer. And then, when they come to repent of their rash choice, they pretend to excufe the breach of folemn vows by the pretext of defects they find in one another; of which it is wholly their own fault if they were not fufficiently apprized before their coming together.

To defeat calumny, 1. Despise it. To feem difturbed about it, is the way to make it be believed. And stabbing your defamer will not prove you innocent. 2. Live an exemplary life, and then your general good character will overpower it. 3. Speak tenderly of every body, even of your defamers, and you will make the whole world cry, Shame on them who can find in their hearts to injure one fo inoffenfive.

You fay, your misfortunes are hard to bear. Your vices are likewise hard to be forgiven. Is it terrible to think of your fuffering pain, fickness, poverty, or the lofs of dear friends or relations? It is more terrible to think of your having offended the infinitely great and good Creator, Preferver, and Judge of the world, your kind and bountiful Father and beft Friend. Is pain a great evil? Vice is a greater. It is rebellion against the Supreme Authority of the univerfe. Is the lofs of a beloved wife like tearing limb from limb? So is falsehood, cruelty, or ingratitude, like unhinging the universe, and bringing chaos back again: For they tend to univerfal diforder, and the deftruction of the creation of God. Do you fhudder at the thought of poverty or disease? Think with what eye Infinite Purity muft behold wickedness; with what abhorrence abfolute Perfection must fee the ruin produced in his works by irregularity and vice. Do you defire to escape mifery? Fly from fin. Do you wish to avoid punishment? Above all things avoid wickedness, the cause of it.

THE

THE

DIGNITY

OF

HUMAN NATURE.

BOOK IV.

Of REVEALED RELIGION.

TH

INTRODUCTION.

HAT it is in itself agreeable to rectitude, neceffary to the Dignity of Human Nature, and the requifite concurrence of moral agents with the general scheme of the Governor of the universe, that we ftudy above all things to perform our whole duty, viz. Taking proper care of our bodies and of our minds, loving our fellow-creatures as ourselves, and loving and ferving our Creator; that this is our indifpenfable duty, and that the habitual neglect, or violation of it, upon whatever pretence, will expofe us to the Divine displeasure, as the confcientious obfervance of it is most likely to gain us his favour, and confequently final happiness; all this appears clear to human reafon, feparate from any confideration of the truth of revelation, and deducible from univerfally acknowledged principles. And if it may be fuppofed in the lowest degree probable, that the kind and merciful Parent of his creatures, who would have all men to be faved, and, in a confiftency with eternal and immutable rectitude, to come to that happiness, of which their nature was formed capable; if it may be conceived in the loweft degree probable, that God should from the beginning have ordered things fo, that one method, among others, for promoting univerfal goodness and happiness

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happiness, should be, the appearance of an exprefs meffage, or revelation from himself, with a fet of clearer and more ftriking inftructions, than had been any other way communicated to mankind; if this be conceivable without any direct abfurdity, then is it likewife evident from the principles of natural religion or reafon, that it is the indifpenfable duty of all thofe of our fpecies, to whom any fuch fuppofed Divine meffage, or revelation, may be offered, to beftow the utmoft diligence in examining its pretenfions, and, if found fufficient, to admit them with candor and fincerity of mind, and to receive the revelation itself with that veneration and fubmiffion, which it becomes dependent creatures to exprefs to Him who fent it..

That there is nothing directly abfurd, or contradictory to reason, in the fuppofition of the poflibility of a revelation given from God, for the reformation and improvement of mankind, is evident from its having been the opinion and the hope of the wifeft and best of mankind, in all ages and various nations. Socrates, Plato, Confucius, and others, the bright and burning lights of antiquity, have given their authority to the opinion of the probability of a revelation from God. They have declared, that they thought it an affair of great confequence to re-kindle the light of reafon, almoft extinguished by vice and folly; to recal a bewildered race of beings into the way of virtue, to teach mankind, with certainty and authority, how they ought to behave toward their Creator, fo as to obtain his favour, and the pardon of their offences. They who were the best qualified of all uninspired men of those ancient times for inftructing mankind, were ready to own themselves infufficient for the task of reforming the world. And it is notorious, that their worthy labours were in no respect adequate to the univerfal, or general amendment of manners, even in the countries in which they lived and taught. For that themfelves greatly wanted inftruction, appears plainly from what they have writ upon fome of the most important points of morals, as the immortality of the foul; the nature, degree, and continuance of the rewards and punishments of the fu

ture

ture ftate, and the means of obtaining the pardon of fin. And that their leffons fhould have any confiderable or powerful influence upon the people in general, was not to be expected, as they could at beft but givé them as their opinions; reafonable indeed, and clear in the main, to any understanding, which fhould take the trouble to examine; but backed with no authoritative fanction, or Divine atteftation, to command attention and obedience.

It is evident, that, as there can be, on one hand, no merit in believing what is true, even religious truth, without examination (for nothing is virtuous, or praiseworthy, that is irrational; and it is irrational to receive for truth what one has no folid reafon to think is true); fo on the other, to reject truth, especially religious truth, on any indirect or difingenuous account, or for any reafon, befides fome unfurmountable inconsistency in the doctrine, or deficiency in the evidence, is perverse and wicked. The faith, therefore, that is acceptable to God, who is alike the Author of both reafon and revelation, is that rational reception of religious truth, which arifes from candid and diligent examination, and a due fubmiffion to Divine Authority. And the unbelief, which is condemned in Scripture, is that rejection of the revealed Will of God, which is owing to prejudice, negligence, pride, or a fatal attachment to vice.

The guilt of wilfully rejecting or oppofing Divine Truth must be more or lefs atrocious, according as the advantages for inquiry, and fatisfaction upon the subject, are greater, or lefs. The inhabitants of the dark and barbarous parts of the world, and even of the countries, which are over-run by Popish fuperftition, will therefore be found much more excufable for their deficiencies both in faith and practice, than we of this enlightened age, and nation, who enjoy every imaginable advantage for free inquiry, and labour under no kind of bias either toward credulity or the contrary, but what we choose to fubject ourselves to.

Befides our being indifpenfably obliged, in point of duty, to take the utmost care, that a genuine revelation from God do not meet with neglect, much lefs difin

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genuous