therefore to reverence, love, and obey him without referve.

2. An entire devotedness to God, faith in his providence, and refignation to his will, is the best antidote against all the evils of life. If we firmly believe that nothing comes to pass, refpecting ourfelves, our friends, and our deareft interefts, but by his appointment or permiffion; and that he appoints or permits nothing but for the best purpofes, we shall not only acquiefce, but rejoice in all the events of life, profperous or adverfe. We shall confider every thing as a means to a great, glorious, and joyful end; the confideration of which will reflect a luftre upon every thing that leads to it, that has any connection with it, or the moft diftant reference to it.

3. Other affections may not always find their proper gratifications, and therefore may be the occafion of pain as well as of pleasure to us. Even the most benevolent purposes are frequently difappointed, and without faith in the providence of God, who has the good of all his offspring at heart, would be a fource of much forrow and difquiet to us. But the man whofe fupreme delight arises from the fenfe of his relation to his maker, from contemplating his perfections, his works, and his providence; and who has no will but his, must be poffeffed of a never failing fource of joy and satisfaction. Every object that occurs to a perfon of

this difpofition will be viewed in the most favourable light; and whether it be immediately, pleafurable or painful, the relation it bears to God, and his moral government, will make it welcome to him.

4. If we confider the foundation of the duty and affection we owe to God upon the natural principles of right and equity, in the fame manner as, from the fame natural dictates, we judge of the duty we owe to mankind, we cannot but readily conclude, that, if a human father, benefactor, governor, and judge, is intitled to our love, reverence, and obedience; he who is in a much higher and a more perfect fenfe, our father, benefactor, governor, and judge, must be intitled to a greater portion of our love, reverence, and obedience; because, in all these relations, he has done, and is continually doing more to deserve them. Confidering what we have received, and what we daily receive from God, even life and all the powers and enjoyments of it; confidering our present privileges, and our future hopes, it is impoffible that our attention, attachment, fubmiffion, and confidence, should exceed what is reasonable and properly due to him.

In the regulation of our devotion, we should carefully avoid both enthusiasm and fuperftition, as they both arife from unworthy notions of God, and his moral government. The former confifts

in a childish fondness, familiarity, and warmth of paffion, and an aptnefs on that account, to imagine that we are the peculiar favourites of the divine being, who is the father, friend, and moral governor of all his creatures. Befides this violent affection cannot, in its own nature, be of long continuance. It will, of courfe, abate of its fervour ; and those who have given way to it will be apt to think of God with the other extreme of coldness and indifference, the confequence of which is often extreme dejection, fear, anxiety, and diftruft; and fometimes it ends in defpair, and impiety.

On the other hand, fuperftition arifes from miftaking the proper object of the divine favour and approbation, for want of having a juft idea of the moral perfections of God, and of the importance of real virtue. Perfons of this character are extremely punctual with respect to the means and circumflantials of religion, or things that have only an imaginary relation to it, and may be quite foreign to its real nature; instead of bringing to God the devotion of the heart, and the proper fruits of it, in the faithful discharge of the duties of life, in the perfonal and focial capacities. The omiffion of fome mere form, or ceremony, fhall give fuch perfons more real uneafiness than the neglect of a moral duty; and when they have complied with all the forms which they think requifite to be ob

ferved,

ferved, their confciences are entirely easy, their former guilt has no pressure, and they are ready to contract new debts to be wiped off in the fame manner. Almost all the religion of the Mahometans and Papifts confifts in this kind of fuperftition, and there is too much of it in all fects and denominations of chriftians. I cannot give a clearer idea of the nature of superftition than by what appeared in the conduct of fome Roman Catholics in Ireland, who, I have been told, broke into a house, where they were guilty of robbery and murder, but, fitting down to regale themfelves, would not tafte flesh meat, because it was Friday.

There is no quality of the heart fo valuable as a juft and manly piety, and nothing fo abject as fuperftition. Superftition and enthusiasm are generally demoninated the two extremes of religion, and in fome fenfes they are fo; but, at the fame time, they have a near connection with one another, and nothing is more common than for perfons to pafs from the one to the other, or to live under the alternate, or even the conftant influence of them both, without entertaining one fentiment of generous and useful devotion. Indeed the ufual ground of the prefumption and rapture of the enthufiaft is fome external obfervance, or internal feeling, that can have no claim to the folid approbation of a reasonable being.

$ 7. Of

§ 7. Of the obligation of conscience.

In order to govern our conduct by a regard to our own true intereft, to the good of mankind, or the will of God, it is neceffary that we use our reafon, that we think and reflect before we act. Another principle, therefore, was necessary, to to dictate to us on fudden emergencies, and to prompt us to right action without reafoning or thinking at all. This principle we call confcience, and being the natural fubftitute of all the three other rules of right conduct, it must have the fame title to our regard. As this principle, however, is a thing of a variable nature, it must be corrected from time to time, by recurring to the principles out of which it was formed. Otherwife, as we fee exemplified in fact, confcience may come to dictate things most injurious to our own good, or that of others, and even moft difhonourable to God. What impurities, what ridiculous penances and mortifications, yea, what villanies and cruelties do we not find to have been acted by mankind, under the notion of rendering themselves acceptable to the object of their fupreme worship.

If, however, a perfon has been well educated in a chriftian and proteftant country, and has lived fome time under the influence of good impreffions, fuch as are favourable to virtue and happiness, the

dictates