he himself has thus taught us to begin; and will, in a life to come, render to every one according to the works which he has performed in this world. And thus we are led to the belief of a future ftate, not only by the weakneffes, by the hopes and fears of human nature, but by the nobleft and beft principles which belong to it, by the love of virtue, and by the abhorrence of vice and injuftice.

"Does it fuit the greatnefs of God," fays the eloquent and philofophical bishop of Clermont, with that paffionate and exaggerating force of imagination, which feems fometimes to exceed the bounds of decorum 1; "does it fuit the greatness of God, to leave "the world which he has created in fo uni"verfal a diforder? To fee the wicked pre"vail almost always over the juft; the inno"cent dethroned by the ufurper; the father "become the victim of the ambition of an "unnatural fon; the husband expiring under

the ftroke of a barbarous and faithlefs wife? "From the height of his greatness ought "God to behold those melancholy events as "a fantastical amusement, without taking

any share in them? Because he is great, "fhould he be weak, or unjust, or barba"rous? Because men are little, ought they "to be allowed either to be diffolute without "punishment, or virtuous without reward? "O God! if this is the character of

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your Supreme Being; if it is you whom we adore "under fuch dreadful ideas; I can no longer acknowledge you for my father, for my

" protector,

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protector, for the comforter of my forrow, "the fupport of my weakness, the rewarder " of my fidelity. You would then be no "more than an indolent and fantastical ty"rant, who facrifices mankind to his info"lent vanity, and who has brought them out "of nothing, only to make them serve for the fport of his leifure, and of his caprice."

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When the general rules which determine the merit and demerit of actions, come thus to be regarded, as the laws of an All-powerful Being, who watches over our conduct, and who, in a life to come, will reward the obfervance, and punish the breach of them; they neceffarily acquire a new facredness from this confideration. That our regard to the will of the Deity, ought to be the fupreme rule of our conduct, can be doubted of by no body who believes his existence, The very thought of disobedience appears to involve in it the most shocking impropriety. How vain, how abfurd would it be for man, either to oppofe or to neglect the commands that were laid upon him by Infinite Wisdom, and Infinite Power! How unnatural, how impiously ungrateful not to reverence the precepts that were prescribed to him by the infinite goodnefs of his Creator, even though no punishment was to follow their violation. sense of propriety too is here well supported by the strongest motives of felf-intereft. The idea that, however we may escape the observation of man, or be placed above the reach of human punishment, yet we are always

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acting

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acting under the eye, and expofed to the nifhment of God, the great avenger of injuftice, is a motive capable of reftraining the moft headstrong paffions, with thofe at leaft who, by conftant reflection, have rendered it familiar to them.

It is in this manner that religion enforces the natural sense of duty: and hence it is, that mankind are generally difpofed to place great confidence in the probity of those who seem deeply impreffed with religious fentiments. Such perfons, they imagine, act under an additional tye, befides thofe which regulate the conduct of other men. The regard to the propriety of action as well as to reputation, the regard to the applause of his own breast, as well as to that of others, are motives which they suppose have the fame influence over the religious man, as over the man of the world. But the former lies under another reftraint, and never acts deliberately but as in the prefence of that Great Superior who is finally to recompenfe him according to his deeds. A greater truft is repofed, upon this account, in the regularity and exactness of his conduct. And wherever the natural principles of religion are not corrupted by the factious and party zeal of fome worthleís cabal; wherever the first duty which it requires, is to fulfil all the obligations of morality; wherever men are not taught to regard frivolous obfervances, as more immediate duties of religion, than acts of juftice and beneficence; and to imagine, that by facrifices and ceremonies, and vain

fupplications,

fupplications, they can bargain with the Deity for fraud, and perfidy, and violence, the world undoubtedly judges right in this refpect, and juftly places a double confidence in the rectitude of the religious man's behaviour.

CHA P. IV.

In what cafes the fenfe of duty ought to be the fole principle of our conduct; and in what cafes it ought to concur with other motives.

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ELIGION affords fuch ftrong motives to the practice of virtue, and guards us by fuch powerful reftraints from the temptations of vice, that many have been led to fuppofe, that religious principles were the fole laudable motives of action. We ought neither, they faid, to reward from gratitude, nor punish from refentment; we ought neither to protect the helpleffnefs of our children, nor afford fupport to the infirmities of our parents, from natural affection. All affections for particular objects, ought to be extinguished in our breast, and one great affection take the place of all others, the love of the Deity, the defire of rendering ourselves agreeable to him, and of directing our conduct in every respect according to his will. We ought not to be grateful from gratitude, we ought not to be charitable from humanity, we ought not to be public-fpirited from the love of our country, nor generous and just from

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the love of mankind. The fole principle and motive of our conduct in the performance of all those different duties, ought to be a sense that God has commanded us to perform them. I fhall not at prefent take time to examine this opinion particularly; I fhall only observe, that we should not have expected to have found it entertained by any fect, who profeffed themselves of a religion in which, as it is the first precept to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our foul, and with all our ftrength, fo it is the second to love our neighbour as we love ourselves; and we love ourselves furely for our own fakes, and not merely because we are commanded to do so. That the sense of duty should be the fole principle of our conduct, is no where the precept of Christianity; but that it should be the ruling and the governing one, as philosophy, and as, indeed, common fenfe directs. It may be a question, however, in what cafes our actions ought to arise chiefly or entirely from a fense of duty, or from a regard to general rules; and in what cafes fome other fentiment or af fection ought to concur, and have a principal influence.

The decifion of this question, which cannot, perhaps, be given with any very great accuracy, will depend upon two different circumstances; firft, upon the natural agreeablenefs or deformity of the fentiment or affection which would prompt us to any action independent of all regard to general rules; and fecondly, upon the precifion and exactnefs, or

the