Imatges de pàgina
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pronounce to be right; if we confider what are the actions that we moft efteem and admire in others, and that we reflect upon with the most satisfaction in ourselves, they will appear to be the. fame with thofe which tend to make ourselves and others the most truly happy.

Following these four guides, we shall find that temperance, or the due government of our paffions, with respect to ourselves; justice, `benevolence, and veracity with respect to others; together with gratitude, obedience, and refignation to God, ought to be most affiduously cultivated by us; as what are, at the same time, the most pleasing to our maker, the most conducive to our own happinefs, and that of others, and the most agreeable to the natural and unperverted dictates of confcience.

That we are capable of governing ourselves by thefe rules, and, from a proper regard to motives, can voluntarily chufe and purfue that courfe of life which the will of God, a regard to our own happiness, to the good of fociety, and the dictates of our confciences, uniformly recommend to us, is fometimes expreffed by faying that we are the proper fubjects of moral government. Unless we fuppose that men have this voluntary power over their actions, whereby they can, at pleasure, either obey or difobey the proper rule of life; that is, unless they be fo conftituted, that the proper mo

tives to right conduct can have a fufficient influence upon their minds, all religion is in vain. To what purpofe can it be to give men a law, which it is not in their power to obferve; or what propriety can there be either in rewarding them for actions to which they could not contribute, or in punishing them for offences which they could not help.

We may, therefore, take it for granted, as the firft, and most fundamental principle of all religion, as neceffary to our being the proper fubjects of moral government, that we are equally capable of intending and doing both good and evil; and therefore that it is not in vain that laws are proposed to us, and motives are laid before us, both to persuade us to what is right, and to diffuade us from what is wrong, fince it depends upon ourfelves, whether we will be influenced by them or

not.

If we obferve the proper rules of conduct, or the laws of our natures, we shall fecure to ourfelves many folid advantages; and if we do not obferve them, we entail upon ourselves many evils. These are, therefore, called the punishments of vice, and the former the rewards of virtue; and fince they are dispensed by the providence of God, and take place according to his appointment, in the conftitution of the courfe of nature; he is properly confidered as our moral governor, and judge, D 2

and

and we are faid to be accountable to him for our

conduct.

From a regard to the four rules of right and wrong, explained above, I fhall now endeavour to analize the sentiments, the paffions, and affections of mankind, and lay down particular rules for our conduct in life.

SECTION II.

Of the different objects of pursuit, and the different paffions and affections of men corresponding to

them.

N order to form a proper judgment concerning

IN

the conduct of man, as an individual, and a member of society, according to the rules above laid down, it will be neceffary to have a juft idea of, and to keep in view, the different objects of our purfuit, and the different paffions and affections of our nature correfponding to them.

We find ourselves placed in a world, in which we are furrounded by a variety of objects, which are capable of giving us pleasure and pain; and finding by our own experience, and the information of others, in what manner each of them is adapted to affect us, we learn to defire fome of them, and feel an averfion to others. To these

defires

defires and averfions we give the name of paffions or affections, and we generally clafs them according to the objects to which they correfpond. These paffions and affections are the fprings of all our actions, and by their means we are engaged in a variety of interefting pursuits through the whole course of our lives. When we fucceed in our pursuits, or are in hopes of fucceeding, we are happy; and when we are difappointed in our fchemes, or in fear of being fo, we are unhappy.

1. The first and lowest clafs of our defires is that by which we are prompted to feek after corporeal or fenfual pleasure, and confequently to avoid bodily pain. These appetites, as they are ufually called, to distinguish them from paffions of a more refined nature, are common with us and the brutes; and to all appearance they are pofsessed of them in as high a degree as we-are, and are capable of receiving as much pleafure from them as we are. Indeed, the final caufe, or the object of thefe appetites is the very fame with respect to both, namely, the continuance of life, and the propagation of the fpecies. It was neceffary, therefore, that all animals, which have equally their own fubfiftence, and the continuance of their fpecies to provide for, fhould be equally furnished with them.

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and we are faid to be accountable to him for our

conduct.

From a regard to the four rules of right and wrong, explained above, I fhall now endeavour to analize the sentiments, the paffions, and affections of mankind, and lay down particular rules for our conduct in life.

SECTION II.

Of the different objects of purfuit, and the different paffions and affections of men corresponding to them.

IN order to form a proper judgment concerning

the conduct of man, as an individual, and a member of society, according to the rules above daid down, it will be neceffary to have a just idea of, and to keep in view, the different objects of our purfuit, and the different paffions and affections of our nature correfponding to them.

We find ourselves placed in a world, in which we are surrounded by a variety of objects, which are capable of giving us pleasure and pain; and finding by our own experience, and the information of others, in what manner each of them is adapted to affect us, we learn to defire fome of them, and feel an averfion others. To the

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