£2> 53 £23 £^ *£^ O^ ^2* OF THK \T PRINCETON, N. J. SAMUEL AGNEW, OF PHILADELPHIA, PA. BL 185 .S56 1829 Short collections; or, Excerpta from antient and SHORT COLLECTIONS; OR, EXCERPTA, FROM mxtimt auU Jfto&em autJ)ot% . FOR THE USE OF SCEPTICS, IN TUB GREAT TRUTHS OF NATURAL RELIGION ; OR SOCIAL AND MORAL DUTIES. Est quoddam prodire tenus." BY A LAYMAN. ?tontiun : CALKIN AND BUDD, BOOKSELLERS TO HIS MAJESTY PALL-MALL. 1829. LONDON : i'RINTED BY W. C. STRATFORD, 27, MIDDLETON-STi'.EET, STA-FIELDS. NOTICE. Whoever has mixed much with the World, must have often met with many, who disap- proving perhaps of some speculative Tenets, or certain practices in the systems of Faith and Religion, in which they may have been educated, have fallen by degrees, first into a general scepticism as to religious truths, and then from engaging deeply in the business or pleasures of life, have either lost the opportunity, or the relish for serious inquiries ; and thus float down the stream of life, and advance towards the end of their career, plunged into all the mental dis- comfort which attends uncertainty and doubt, on those points which most concern and con- duce to their relative or ultimate happiness. Whatever may be the inarch of intellect, and whether forward or retrograde, it seems but too obvious, that few willingly sit down in the pre- sent day to a long book of close and continued reasoning on serious topics, even from the pen of the most popular or able Writer. It has therefore occurred to the Author of the following Collections, that such a selection from Writers of the highest authority, both antient or mo- dern, and of various countries and ages, might be of some utility to the Sceptic and Indolent, since the perusal would require no long con- tinued reading, or plan of study, and would obviate the too common objection of priestcraft or private interest thrown out by the Infidel, against all Systems and Treatises on Religious and Moral Subjects. If the Work thus submitted to the Public, should awaken in the Thoughtless a turn for deeper Inquiry, or confirm the Wavering in a settled Belief of those Opinions, which must in truth form the basis of all Religion, whether natural or revealed, the Compiler's labour would be amply compensated; and it might lead to results of still higher importance to the individual. ZtjTio yap rrjv a\?;0aav, v(f >/£ uCeig e€\a€?;. Marc. Anton. CONTENTS. tfage Introduction <>-# i DliITY - • 5 Personality „ Q ^ Providence and Attributes 35 SouL 42 Certainty and Doubts 59 Moral Certainty g. Scepticism ,-><, Probability ,. f . Superiority of Man over the rest of the Animal Creation CA o4 Speech ~ Good and Evil— Foundation and Distinction between jn Law of Nature 82 Society ..., „_ 0/ Sovereignty— Allegiance 93 Laws, Jurisprudence, Law of Nations 94 Food, Arts, Arms, Money, &c q 6 Wars, Defensive and Offensive 93 Commerce q () Government j 00 Religious Establishments ] o Equalization of Property j oy Distinct Property j q j CONTENTS. Page Free Will 107 Habit — Instinct Ill Reason 112 Imputability 116 Right 118 Repentance and Pardon 119 Death 122 Future State 125 Prayer and Moral Duties 145 Misfortunes 151 General Result , 157 Postscript 160 Extracts from various parts of the Bible rela- tive to the Attributes of the Deity — His Providence — The Distinction between Virtue and Vice — and a Future State — Of Rewards and Punishments 161 INTRODUCTION. Dgo optima, Maximo, Unico, Return Universitatis conditori Conservatorique. Among the opinions which it most highly concerns all men to settle and embrace, the chief are those which relate to Almighty God!! as the great Creator and Governor of the Universe. That there is really existing a Supreme Being from whom all other things derive their original, and the principal of their motion, not as from a dull and senseless power as the weight, for ex- ample, in a clock; but as from a cause endued with understanding and with freedom of choice. That this Eternal Being exercises a sovereignty not only over the whole world, or over mankind in general, but over every individual; whose knowledge nothing can escape ; who, by virtue of his imperial right, hath enjoined men such cer- tain duties by natural law, the observance of which will meet with his approbation, the breach B 2 INTRODUCTION. or the neglect with his displeasure : and that he will for this purpose require an exact account from every man of his proceedings, without cor- ruption and without partiality. — Puffend. 155. To him whose heart the true maxims have pierced, the shortest and most common hint is a sufficient memorial to keep him free of sorrow and fear. — Anton. 394. (Glasc. Ed.) A man may at any hour he pleases retire into himself, and no where will he find a place of more quiet and leisure than in his own soul ; especially if he has that furniture within, the view of which immediately gives him the fullest tranquillity. Allow yourself continually this tranquillity, and refresh and renew yourself. Have also at hand some short elementary maxims, which may readily occur, and suffice to wash away all trouble, &c. — Anton. (Glasc.) 140. In the accounts remaining of the earliest times, the attention every where paid to religion, the deep interest taken in it by individuals and by communities, by people polished equally and unpolished, is peculiarly striking. A sense of dependency on some superior Being seems, in- deed, inseparable from man ; it is in a manner in- stinct in him. TIclvth £e Qeoov yuurbovtr ccvvpcoTroi, — Homers Odys, 1. 3. c. 48. His own helpless- ness, compared with the stupendous powers of INTRODUCTION. 8 nature, which he sees constantly exerted around him, makes the savage ever anxiously look for some Being of a higher order on whom to rely; and the man educated to exercise the faculties of his mind, has only to reflect on himself, on his own abilities, his own weakness, his own knowledge, his own ignorance, his own happi- ness, his own misery, his own beginning, and his end, to be directed, not only to belief in some superior Being, but also to expectation of some future state, through mere conviction that na- ture hath given him both a great deal more and a great deal less than were necessary to fit him for this alone. Religion, therefore, can never be lost among mankind ; but through the imper- fection of our nature, it is so prone to degenerate, that superstition in one state of society, and scepticism in another, may, perhaps not impro- perly, be called Nature's Works. The variety, indeed, and the grossness of the corruptions of religion, from which few pages in the annals of the world are pure, may well, on first view, excite our wonder ; but if we proceed to inquire after their origin, we find immediately such sources in the nature and condition of man, that evidently nothing under a constant miracle could prevent those effects to which the history of all countries, in all ages, bears testimony. The fears of ignorance, the interest of cunning, b2 4 INTRODUCTION. the pride of science, have been the main- springs: every human passion has contributed its addition. A firm belief, however, both in the existence of a Deity, and in the duty of communication with him, appears to have prevailed universally in the early ages. — MitforcTs Greece, vol. I. p. 96. DEITY. Quid potest esse tarn apertum, tarn que per- spicuum cum coelum suspeximus, coalestiaque contemplati sum us, quam esse aliquod mimen prgestantissimse mentis, quo heec regantur. Quod qui dubitet, haud sane iutelligo, cur non idem, sol sit, an nullus sit, dubitare possit. Quid enhn est hoc illo evidentius ? Quod nisi cognitum comprehensumque animis haberemus, non tarn stabilis opinio pennaneret, nee con- firmareter Diuturnitate Temporis, nee una cum Seculis yEtatibusque Hominum inveterare po- tuisset. Etenim videmus,c8eteras opinionesfictas atque vanas diuturnitate extabuisse, opinionum enim commenta delet dies ; naturae judicia con- firmat. — Itatjue, 8$c. Clc. Every plant, every animal, every object of nature which we cast our eyes upon, contains the proof of Deity. We need go no further than ourselves; the mechanism which we carry about in our bodies, and which is constantly at work. The feelings of which we are conscious, the powers which we exercise, and the intellect we possess, carry us irresistibly back to a source of all these wonders, and fastens down our faith to an in tell i ge n t C rea tor. — Bp . Su m n er . 6 DEITY. Let the constant recurrence to our observation of contrivance, design, and wisdom (and good- ness), in the works of nature, fix upon our minds the belief of a God ; and after that all is easy. There cannot be contrivance without a contriver, design without a designer. — Paley. By considering the works, acknowledge the workmaster. — Bible. Nam siquis nulli sectse addictus, sed libera sententia, rerum considerationem inierit, con- spicatus in tanta. carnium ac succornm colluvie, tantam meniem habitare, conspicatus item et cujusvis ani mails const r actionem (omnia enim declarat opificis sapientiam), mentis, quse homini inest excellentiam intelliget, turn opus de par- tium utilitate* quod prius exiguum esse sibi videbatur, perfectissimce theologice verum prin- cipium constituet. — Galen. Ejs J^g cov, ttoXumvoixos earn. — Arist. God is a Spirit. — John. Clouds and dark- ness are round about him. — Psalms. Nee vero Deus ipse, qui intelligitur a nobis, alio modo intelligi potest, nisi mens soluta quredam et libera, segragata ab omni concre- tione mortali, omnia sentiens et movens, ipsaque prsedita motu sempiterna. — Cic. 'Pascal. riaAAooV ovofJLa.TCt)V [JLoptpw fxict. JSLsclitjl. Prometh. v. 208. * As shewing contrivance. DEITY. 7 Ev fJLSV OCpcC KCtt AoyCt), XCLl CLpiUfJLCO, to irpcoTov xivvv ccx.ivy\TQV ov. — Aristotle. TIpooTov fMj&rat&cLftKov* Something that first causes any alteration to be made in a thing. — Plato. "Apxn xivweas cLirdtrm* The principle of all motion. — Idem. TlpwTov kivvv. The first mover. — Arhtot. "Otws ov. The Being that truly exists. — Plutarch. Tlpes£t,TOLT0V TWV IvTCdV GgOS CtyivVYITQV yctg. Thales in Diog. Laert. lib. i. sec. 35. p. 23. Tito Qeiov ; to fjunre dp%r\v e%oi>, jxjjts TeAevTvv. — ib. p. 24. Providit ilia Maxiinus Mundi Parens — Seneca. Hippolu. 4()b\ c O gig. The one. — Plato. c O wpcoTos nod [xeyisTos exeivos 0eo5. — Dion. Cass ius. lib. ii. It is of very little consequence (says Seneca de Beneficiis) by what name you call the first nature and the divine reason that presides over the universe and fills all the parts of it. lie is still the same God. You may give him as many names as you please provided you allow but one sole principle every where present. — Seneca. God is one in nature, though many in name. But we, such is our ignorance, assign different titles according to the different helps and favors, 8 DEITY. which are afforded to mankind. — Semb: Maxim. Ti/r. Diss. 23. Nee obstat appellationum diversitas, cum ipsa significatione ad unum omnia revolvantur. — Lactant. p. 19. Two Omnipotent Beings are altogether in- consistent, because there is no one who com- mands in the last resort; because we must necessarily suppose, that the one must always will what the other does ; and, in this case, he whose will is necessarily determined by the other, has not consequently that perfection, since it is better to be free than to be subject to the determination of another's will; but if they are not both reduced to the necessity of willing the same thing always, then the one may desire to have that done which the other would not, in which case the will of the one must prevail over the will of the other, and so he of the two whose power cannot bring about what he would can- not be omnipotent, because he cannot do so much as the other. So that there cannot be two Omnipotent Beings, and consequently not too Gods. — Locke's Letters. Cited also by Barber ; in note, p. 65, to Puff end. Sovereignty can admit of no share or partition. There is no sovereign at all when there are many, because there is no one who commands in the last resort; and none of them being obliged DEITY. to give way to the other, their competition must necessarily throw every thing- into disorder and confusion. — Burlemac. 2. v. 32. The fancy of two Omnipotent Beings is an impossihle supposition. — Puff- 65. Deus, si perfectus est, ut esse debet, non potest esse nisi units, ut in eo sint omnia. " God, if he is a perfect Being, as he must be, can be but one, that all things may be in him." If there could be more Gods than one, tantum singulis deerit, quantum in caeteris fuerit. Every one would want what the other had. — Lactant. Mundum, hunc a Deo regi, quibusque in hoc rationibus accedam, breviter exponam. Mundus hie ex tarn diversis contrariisque par- tibus in imam formam minime convenisset, nisi unus esset, qui tarn di versa conjungeret, con- juncta vero naturarum ipsa diversitas invicem discors, dissociaret atque divellaret, nisi unus esset, qui quod nexuit, contineret. Non tarn certus naturae ordo procederet nee tain dispositos motus, locis temporibus efficientia spatiis qualitatibus explicaret, nisi unus esset, qui has mutationum varietates, manens ipsa dis- poneret. Hoc quidem est, quo condita manent, atque agitantur, usitato cunetis vocabulo, Deum nomino.— Bcetius, 1(57. i. e. The divine reason, and the first nature, that presides over the universe, and fills all the parts of it. The 10 DEITY. one sole principle every where present, — Seneca de Bene/. Nullo existimaverim modo, ut fortuita teme- ritate, tani certa moveantur, verum operi suo conditorem prsesidere Deum. — Boethius. Quid enim tarn furiosum est, quam ut aliquis, cum Deum creator em rerum omnium non negat, Gubernatorem negat, et cum facto rem esse fateatur, dicat negligere quae fecit. — ib. Conservation, according to the judgment of philosophers, is a continued creation — Ray. (i. e.) not the mere result of the laws of nature, for it is a perversion of language to assign any law as the efficient operative cause of any thing. A law supposes an agent * for it is only the mode according to which an agent proceeds : it implies a power, for it is the order, according to which that power acts ; without this agent, without this power, which are both distinct from itself, the law does nothing; is nothing — Paley. The expressions, the law of vegetable, the law of animal nature, or the law of nature in general, mean nothing, when assigned as the cause of phenomena in exclusion of agency and power, or when substituted into the place of these. — Paley. God is the resemblance of nothing upon earth, * A law always supposes some superior, wlio is to make it. — 1 Blackstone, 45. DEITY. 11 so that no conception can be derived from any effigy or likeness of the Author of the universe. — Antiphanes. A Being ! who controuls and governs all things must needs be great and powerful ; but, being by his nature invisible, no man can dis- cern what form or shape he is of. — Zenophon. Non enim sentitis quam multa vobis susci- pienda sunt, si impetraveritis, ut concedamus eandem esse hominum et Deovum figuram; omnis cultus et curatio, corporis erit eadem adhibenda Deo, quae adhibetur homini,ingressus, cursns, accubatio, inclinatio, sessio, cornpre- hensio, ad extremam etiam sermo et oratio. — Cic. Let not mortal corruption mix with your idea of God, nor think of Him as of a corporeal being, such as thyself. He is inscrutable to man. — Fragments of an Ant. Greek Poet, cited in Observr. /Eternus est et infinitus, omnipotens et om- nisciens ; id est, durat ab seterno in yeternum, et adest ab infinite in infinitum. Non est seternitas et infinitas, sed eeternus et infinitus ; non est du ratio et spatium, sed durat et adest. Durat semper et adest ubique, et existendo semper et ubique durationem et spatium constituit. — Newton, in the Scholium to his Priricipia. 1713. Camb. 12 DEITY. Thus translated by Dr. Clarke, in his Reply- to Leibnitz : — God is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient ; that is, he endures from everlasting to everlasting, and is present from infinity to infinity. He is not eternity or infinity, but eternal and infinite. He is not duration and space, but he endures and is present. He en- dures always and is present every where ; and by existing always and every where constitutes duration and space. There is nothing we meet with more frequently and constantly in nature than the traces of an all -governing Deity ! and the philosopher who overlooks these, contenting himself with the appearances of the material universe only and the mechanical laws of motion, neglects what is most excellent, and prefers what is imperfect to what is supremely perfect — finitude to infinity ; what is narrow and what is weak, to what is almighty and unlimited ; what is perishing to what endures for ever. Such who attend not to such manifest indications of supreme ivisdom and goodness perpetually appearing before them, wherever they turn their views or inquiries, too much resemble those antient philosophers who made Night, Matter, and Chaos, the original of all things. The plain argument for the existence of the Deity, obvious to all and carrying irre- DEITY. 13 sistible conviction with it, is from the evident contrivance and fitness of things for one another which we meet with through all parts of the universe. There is no need of nice and subtle reasonings in this matter. A manifest con- trivance immediately suggests a contriver. It strikes like a sensation, and artful reasonings against it may puzzle us ; but it is without shaking our belief. No person, for example, who knows the principles of optics and the structure of the eye, can believe that it was formed without skill in that science ; or that the ear was formed without the knowledge of sound; or that the male and female of animals were not formed for each other and for con- tinuing the species, All our accounts of nature are full of instances* of this kind. The ad- * The revolutions of the heavenly bodies, their certainty, regularity, and swiftness ; the regular vicissitudes of day and night, and of the seasons ; moon's increase and wane ; tides. The perfect adaptation of every animal to the end of its creation, the climate, and element in which it lives. Ex. gr. (inter, a thousand others). The clothing of animals in the torrid zone, is hair ; in the temperate, wool; in the frigid, fur ; wool and fur being bad conductors of heat, and fur worse than wool. — Walker, 1st vol. 27. Ph. Lee. The cells of the camel for preserving water in the deserts. The under part of the rein deer's hoof, covered with hair to tread die ice firmly without sliding. The bee forming her cells in the form of a hexagon, the most capacious of all figures without interstices. 14 DEITY. mirable and beautiful structure of things for final causes exalts our idea of the contriver.* Birds building their nests of the same materials and forms, and at the same times. Salmon returning to the same rivers to spawn, &c. &c. The leaves of plants are vascular and of woody skeleton, with a tubular and cellular structure; they allow of evapora- tion and absorption ; they exhale moisture, frequently absorb carbon from the carbonic acid in the atmosphere, and evolve oxygen whilst the plants are exposed to the solar rays, and appear one of the most efficient causes hitherto suggested of the purification and renovation of the air. * Qui est ce qui a donne a toute la nature des loix, tout ensemble si constantes, et si salutaires ; des loix si simples, qu'on est tente de croire qu'elles s'etablissent d'elles-memes, et si fecondes en efFets utiles, qu'on ne peut s'empecher d'y reconnoitre un art merveilleux. A qui attribuerons nous l'assemblage de tant de ressorts si profonds and bien concertes ; et de tant de corps, grands et petits, visibles —invisibles, qui conspirent egalement pour nous servir. — Fcnelon. (Euvres Philos. p. 31. Les ailes des oiseaux, et les nageoires des poissons sont comme des rames qui fendent la vague de fair ou de I'eau, et qui conduisent le corps flottant de l'oiseau, ou du poisson, dont la structure est semblable a celle d'un navire. Mais les ailes des oiseaux avec un duvet, qui s'enfle a l'air, et qui s'apesan- tiroit dans les eaux. Au contraire les nageoires des poissons ont des pointes dures et seches, qui fendent l'eau sans en etre imbibees ; et qui ne s'apesantissent point, quand on les mouille. — ib. p. 32. Les oiseaux, qui ont les jambes longues, ont aussi le cou long a proportion, pour pcuvoir abbaisser leur bee jusqu' a terre, et y prendre leurs aliments, &c. — ib. p. 35. DEITY. 15 The unity of the design shews him to be one. The great motions of the universe performed with the same facility as the least suggests his Almighty power, which gave motion to the earth and the celestial bodies with equal ease as to the minutest particles. The subtilty of the motions and actions in the internal parts of bodies shews that his influence penetrates the Trouver dans un ciron, comme dans un elephant, ou dans un baleine, des membres parfaitement organises, y trouver une tete, un corps, des jambes, des pieds formes comme ceux des plus grands animaux. II y a dans chaque partie de ces at6mes vivans, des muscles, des nerfs, des veines, des arteres, du sang ; dans ce sang des esprits, des parties — ramcuses, et des humeurs ; dans ces humeurs des gouttes composees elles- memes de diverses parties, sans qu'on puisse jamais, s'arreter dans cette composition infinie d'un tout si infini. — ib. p. 40. L' instinct est une sagacite, et une dext6rite admirable, non dans les betes, qui ne raisonnent ni ne peuvent avoir alors le loisir de raisonner: mais dans la sagesse superieure qui les conduit. Cet instinct, ou cette sagesse qui pense, et qui veille pour la bete, dans les choses indeliberees, ou elle ne pourroit ni veiller, ni penser, ne peut etre que la sagesse de l'ouvrier, qui a fait cette machine. — ib. p. 43. II y a dans ce qu'ils apellent nature et instinct, un art et une Industrie superieure, dont Finvention humaine n'est que l'ombre. Ce qui est indubitable c'est qu'il y a dans les betes unnombre prodigieux demouvements cntierement indi'lilu'n's, qui sont excutes selon les plus fines regies de la mcchanique. C'est la machine seule qui suit ces regies. Voila le fait independant de toute philosophic : et le fait seul decide. — ib. p. 44. 16 DEITY. inmost recesses of things, and that He is equally active and present every where. The simplicity of the laws that prevail in the world, the excel- lent disposition of things in order to obtain the best ends, and the beauty which adorns the works of nature, suggests his consummate wisdom. The usefulness of the whole scheme, so well contrived for the intelligent beings that enjoy it, with the moral structure of those beings, shew his unbounded goodness. — Newton per M. Claurin. No other motive but that of doing good could ever have induced a being who is self-existent and supremely happy to form creatures endowed with understanding and sense ; and it must have been in consequence of this same goodness that he first vouchsafed to direct them by laws, &c. — 1 Burl. 183. If he had wished our misery he might have made sure of his purpose by forming our senses to be as many sores and pains to us as they are now instruments of gratification and enjoyment; or, by placing us amidst objects so ill suited to our perceptions as to have continually offended us instead of ministering to our refreshment and delight. He might have made, for example, every thing we taste, bitter; every thing we saw, loathsome ; every thing we touched, a sting ; every smell, a stench; and every sound, a discord. If he had been indifferent even about our happi- DEITY'. 17 ness or misery, we must impute it to our good fortune (as all design by this supposition is excluded), both the capacity of our senses to receive pleasure, and the supply of external objects fitted to produce it. But either of these, and still more both of them, being too much to be attributed to accident, nothing remains but the first supposition, viz. — That God, when he created the human species, wished their happi- ness, and made for them the provision which he has made with that view and for that purpose. —Paley, Mor. Phil. 66. Deo, qui units est, non aliud nomen est, quam Deus — Deo quidem nullum nomen esse, omnibus fere veteris sapientiee professoribus visum est. Ipsum divini numinis, Oraculum id per Moysin praescripsit Eyoo eiyu o w, ego sum qui sum. Neque aliunde, Hebrseis Doctoribus nomen illud Dei sanctum, tremendum atque ineffabile. Ac Hermeti Mgypto dicitur Deus ArNiiZTO " to the unknown God;" and which is said to have been erected by Epimedides to free the city from the great plague, mentioned by Thucydides and Hippocrates. — See Due. Hist.-p 318.— 325. DEITY. 19 concipere, ncque verbis enarrare quisquam possit ob nimiam et insestimabilem potestatem. Dubitet ergo aliquis, an quicquam difficile, aut impossibile sit Deo: qui tanta, tamque mirifica opera providentia excogitavit, virtuteconstituit, ratione perfecit ; nunc autem spit itu sustentet, potestate moderetur, inexcogitabilis, ineffabilis, et nulli alii satis notus quam sibi. — Lactant. 32. Polytheism, with Plato, signified the existence of divine natures springing from and subordi- nate to one supreme Deity (Praepotenti Deo Cic.)— 1 Plato, 522. Quis enim nunc hominem dixerit, qui cum tarn certos coeli motus, tarn ratos astrorum or- dines, tamque omnia inter se connexa et apta viderit, neget in his uflam inesse rationem, eaqae casu fieri dicat, quae quanto consilio assequi possumus. An cum machinatione quadam mo- veri aliquid videmus, ut sphoeram, ut horas, ut alia permulta ; non dubitamus, qnin ilia opera sint rationis : cum autem impetum cceli (astro- rum) admirabili cum celeritate moveri vertique videamus, constantissime conficientem vicissi- tudines anniversarias, cum sum ma salute et conservatione rerum omnium, dubitamus quin ea non solum ratione fiant, sed etiam excellenti quadam divinaque ratione? Licet enim jam, remota subtilitate disputandi, oculis quodam- modo contemplari pulchritudinem rerum carum c 2 20 DEITY. quas divina providentia dicimus constitutas. — Cic. de Nat. Deor. Great are thy works, Jehovah ! Infinite thy power ! What thought can measure, or tongue relate thee ? Milton, 7th hook. Cum videmus speciem primum candoremque cceli, deinde conversionis (astrorum terrceque) celeritatem tantam, qtiantam cogitare non possnmus ; turn vicissitudines, Dierum atque noctium, commutationesque temporum quadri- partitas, ad maturitatem frngum, et ad tempara- tionem corporum aptas, eorumque omnium moderatorem, et ducem solem, lunamque accre- tione et diminutione luminis quasi fastorum notantem et significantem Dies, turn in eodem orbe in duodecim partes, clistributo, quinque* Stellas ferri, eosdem cursus constantissime ser- vantes, disparibus inter se motibns, nocturnam coeli formam undique ornatam, turn globum terree, &c. , . . hie autem Ccelum nitescere, arbores frondescere, Vites loetificse pampinis pubescere Rami baccarum ubertate incurvescere ; Segetes largiri fruges, florere omnia Fontes scatere, herbis prata convestirier. Turn multitudinem pecudum, partim ad vescen- dum, partim ad cultus agrorum, partim ad corpora vestienda, hominemque ipsum quasi * Eleven. DEITY. 21 contemplatorein coeli ac Deorum ipsorumque cultorem, atque hominis utilitate agros omnes et Maria parentia. Hsec igitur et alia innu- merabilia cum cernimus, possumusne dub i tare, quin his praesit aliquis, vel effector, si hsec nata sunt (ut Platoni videtur), vel si semper fuerint (ut Aristoteli placet), moderator tanti operis et muneris. — Cic. 1 Tuscul. 28, 29. Hie ego non mirer esse quemquam, qui sibi persuadeat, corpora qusedam solida atque indi- vidua vi et gravitate ferri, mundumque effici ornatissimum, et pulcherrimum ex eorum cor- porum concursione fortuita. Hoc qui existimat fieri potuisse, non intelligo cur non idem putet, si innumerabiles unius et viginti formse literarum aliquo conjiciantur, posse ex his in terram excussis, annales Ennii, ut deinceps legi possint, effici ; quod nescio anne in uno quidem versu possit tantum valere for- tuna. Isti autem quemadmodum asseverant ex corpusculis non colore, non qualitate aliqua, non sensu prseditis, sed concurrentibus temere atque casu, mundum esse perfectum ? vel in- numerabiles potius in omni puncto temporis alios nasci, alios interire? Quod si mundum efficere potest concursus atomorum, cur por- ticum, cur templuin, cur urbem non potest ? quae sunt minus operosa, et multo quidem faciliora. — Cic. l)e Nat. Deor. lib ii. c. 37. 22 DEITY. Nullam dicere maximarum rerum artem esse, cum minimarum sine arte nulla sit, hominum est parum considerate loquentium, atque in maximis rebus errantium. — Cic. Off", lib. ii. Deum esse credamus, quod nulla gens tarn fera, nemo omnium tarn sit immanis, cujus mentem non imbuerit Dei opinio. Multa de Deo prava sentiunt : id enim vitioso more effici solet : omnes tamen esse vim et naturam divi- nam arbitrantur ; nee vero id collocutio homi- num, aut consensus efficit : non institutis opinio est confirmata, non legibus. Omni autem in re, consentio omnium gentium, lex naturee putanda est. — Tusc. lib, 13. Sit igitur jam hoc a principio persuasum civibus, dominurn esse omnium rerum ac mo- deratorem Deum, eaque quce gerantur ejus geri ditione ac numine ; eumque optime de genere hominum mereri: et qualis quisque sit, quid agat, quid in se admittat,qua mente, qua pietate, colat religiones, intueri: pionanque, et impiorum habere rationem. — Cic. De Leg. 2. 7. Unde homines operum primes vitseque labores instituant. — Hor. The true religion that hath been universally profest in all ages, and in almost all places, stands erect on these four columns: — First, The acknowledgment that there is a God, and that he is but one. Secondly, That nothing DEITY. 23 of all these things we see is God, but that he is something that is yet more sublime and excel- lent. Thirdly, That God takes care of human affairs, and that he doth judge the world righteously. And, Fourthly, That he is the Creator of all things without himself. — Grotlus, book ii. ch. 20. To demonstrate the truth of these contem- plative notions of God we may draw arguments from the nature of the things created, amongst which the most forcible is this — that some things are made is manifest to our sense ; but these things that are made, if we will trace them up in their direct series, will certainly at length bring us to some thing that w as not made, which must needs be eternal, and that is God. — Grotlus, lb. They that deny a God destroy man's nobility ; for, certainly, man is of kin to the beasts by his body ; and if he is not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. — Bit coifs Essays. 291. Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the Most High, whom although to know be life, and joy to make mention of his name, yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know him not as indeed he is, neither can know him ; and out- safest eloquence concerning him is our silence, 24 DEITY. when we confess, without confession, that his glory is inexplicable, his greatness above our ca- pacity and reach. — Hooker, Eccl. Pol. p. iii. fol. It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such an opinion as is unworthy of him ; for the one is unbelief, the other is contumely ; and, certainly, superstition is the reproach of the Deity. — Bacon's Essays, 292. PERSONALITY. Contrivance proves the personality of the Deity, as distinguished from what is sometimes called Nature* sometimes a Principle ; which terms seem to be intended to admit and to ex- press an efficacy, but to exclude and to deny a personal agent. Now that which can contrive, which can design, must be a person. These capacities constitute 'personality, for they imply consciousness and thought. They require that which can perceive an end, or purpose, as well as the power of providing means and of directing them to their end. They require a centre in which perceptions unite and from which voli- tions flow, which is mind. The acts of a mind prove the existence of mind, and in whatever a mind resides is a person. We have no autho- rity to limit the properties of mind to any par- * See page 29. DEITY. 25 ticular corporeal form, or to any particular circumscription of space. — Paley. The Deity is the object of none of our senses ; but, reflect what limited capacities animal senses are. Many animals seem to have but one sense, or, perhaps, two at most ; touch and taste. Ought such an animal to conclude against the existence of odours, sounds, and colours ? Let the senses of smelling, hearing, and seeing be added, yet this last animal has no more ground for believing that its senses comprehend all things, and all properties of things, which exist, than might have been claimed by the tribes of animals beneath it. The five senses* make up the human animal ; but, to infer that possibility stops here, and that these five comprehend all existence, is as unwarrantable a conclusion as that which might have been made by any of the different species which possessed fewer. There may be more and other senses than those which we have. There may be senses suited to the perception of the powers, properties, and sub- stances of spirits. These may belong to higher orders of rational agents ; for there is not the smallest reason for supposing that we are the highest, or that the scale of creation stops with us. — Paley, vol. i. p. 410, &c. Sparslm. * Query. Without the addition of reason and speech. — See p. 26 DEITY. That there should be more species of intelli- gent creatures above us than there are of sen- sible and material below us, is probable to me from hence : — that we see in all the visible cor- poreal world no chasms or gaps. All quite down from us the descent is by easy steps and a continued series of things that in each remove differ very little one from the other ; and when we consider the infinite power and wisdom of the Maker, we have reason to think that it is suitable to the magnificent harmony of the universe, and the great design and infinite good- ness of the architect, that the species of crea- tures should also, by gentle degrees ascend upwards towards his infinite perfection as they gradually descend downwards.* — Locke, vol. ii. p. 4. The great energies of nature are known to us only by their effects ; viz. — gravitation, magne- tism, electricity, 5 the other, therefore a speaking- animal is a ra- tional animal: and Aoyos signifies both speech and reason, as going together. For smiles from reason flow ; To brute denied. Milton. Mollissima Corda, Humano generi dare se Datura fatetur, Quae lachrymas dedit, haec nostri pars optima sensus, Separat hoc nos a grege mutorum. Juvenal. Sensum a coelesti demissum traximus arce Cujus egent prona, et terram spectantia; mundi Prineipio indulsit communis conditor, illis Tantum animas, nobis animum quoque. Juvenal, sat. 15. v. 144. Compassion does not appear in brutes, for brutes have no concern or uneasiness at their companions being in pain. — Heb. S. Hhas. St. Pierre observes, that of the element of fire he alone is master. And again ; man alone of all animals can enjoy equally the day and night ; he alone can bear to live in the torrid zone and upon the ice of the frigid. If certain animals are partakers with him in these advan- tages, it is only by means of his instructions and under his protection. For all this he is indebted to the element of fire, of which he alone is the sovereign. God has intrusted the first agent in nature to that being alone, who, by his reason, v 66 SUPERIORITY OF MAN is qualified to make a right use of it. — St. Pierre* s Studies, &c. Man, of all animals, is the only one who has any idea of right, and of the Deity from whence it proceeds. — Plato Menexen. p. 237. Vultus, nullo in animante est prseter hominem. —Cic. Pronaque cum spectant animalia csetera terram Os homini sublime dedit, ccelumque tueri Jussit. Ovid. Met. i. 85. Brutes do not appear to take any notice of the form and beauty of the body. — Ray's Wisdom, &c. 379. No animal but man is acquainted with the benefits resulting- from the mutual exchange of the fruits of the earth and labour; and the economy resulting from appropriate tasks pecu- liar to the human race.* — Arlstot.Pol. p. 84. Animal hoc providum, sagax,acutum ? memor, plenum rationis et consilii, quern vocamus hominem, prseclara quadam conditione genera- turn esse a supremo Deo. Solum est enim ex tot animantium generibus atque naturis, par- ticeps rationis et cogitationis, cum csetera sint omnia expertia. — Cic. 4 vol. qto. 1197. * Writing of Aristotle's politics, Taylor observes : — That it is one of the most sterling productions of antiquity, and a most inexhaustible treasure for the statesman, the lawyer, and the philosopher. OVER OTHER ANIMALS. 67 Ex tot generibus, nullum est animal prseter hominem, quod habeat notitiam aliquam Dei. — Cic. ib. 1198. Is, qui appellatur vultus, qui nullo in ani- mante esse prseter hominem potest, indicat mores, &c. — ib. Nam cum cameras animantes abjecisset ad pastum, solum hominem erexit, ad coelique quasi cognationis domicilisque pristini conspectum excitavit. — ib. Another remarkable difference between man and quadrupeds, or between rational and irra- tional creatures, is found in certain nerves between the head and heart more than what are in the latter, by which means the heart and brain of man have a mutual and very intimate correspondence and concern, more than is to be found in other creatures. — See, particularly, 2 Derham, 241. Another difference exists in the position of the cerebrum and cerebellum. — ib. 223. The sufferings of brutes are not like the suf- ferings of men ; they perceive by moments, without reflection upon past or future, upon causes, circumstances, &c. — Wooll. 57. Old age can only be supported in comfort by that aid and tenderness from others, arising from the consciousness of those ties of nature which it has not pleased the divine providence to dis- f2 68 SUPERIORITY OF MAN pense to the lower world, but which, as one of the greatest of all blessings, it has commu- nicated to man. When the brutes have fulfilled their duties to their young, for their nurture and protection, they know them no more, and die of old age, or cold, or hunger, in view of one ano- ther, without sympathy, or mutual assistance, or comfort. — Erskine, Sp. p. 9. In no other animal is there discoverable any sense of religion,* or any fear of the Deity. — PufFend. 144, citing Plato. The fear of death seems inseparable from rational natures. Brutes are in great measure delivered from all anxiety on this account, by the inferiority of their faculties. — Paleifs Theol. 536. So sorrow is, probably, in some measure con- nected with the qualities of our rational or moral nature. — ib. p. 537. Cum tria sint haec, — esse — vivere — intelligere. Et lapis est, et pecus vivit, nee tamen lapidem puto vivere, aut pecus intelligere; qui autem intelligit, eum et esse et vivere certissimum est. Quare non dubito id excellentius judicarc, cui omnia tria insunt, quam id cui duo vel unuin desit. — S. Aug. Thus reason sets man above the other visible orders of beings. * Qui se ipse norit, aliquid sentiet se habere divinum, &c. —Cic. OVER OTHER ANIMALS. 69 Quid est autem ratione diviaius ? Est igitur, quoniam nihil est ratione melius, eaque et in homine et in Deo, prima homini cum Deo rationis societas. Presto est domina omnium et regina ratio. Haec ut imperet illi parti animi, qua? obedire debet, id videndum est viro. — Cic. Nee vero ilia parva vis naturae est rationisque, quod unum hoc animal sentit, quid sit ordo, quid sit quod deceat in factis, dictisque qui modus. Itaque eorum ipsorum, quae aspectu sentiuntur, nullum aliud animal pulchritudinem, venusta- tem, convenientiam partium sentit. Quam simi- litudinem Datura ratioque ab oculis ad animum transferens, multo etiam magis pulchritudinem, constantiam, ordinem in conciliis, factisque conservandam pntat, &c. — Cic. Off. lib, i. Sed inter hominem et beiluam, hoc maxime interest, quod haac tantiim, quantum sensu movetur, ad id solum quod addest, quodque preseusest se accommodat, panlulum admodum sentiens prgeteritum ant futurum. Homo autem, qui. rationis est particeps, per quam conse- (juentia cernit, causasque rerum videt, carumque progressus et quasi antecessiones non ignorat, similitudines comparat, et rebus praesentibus adjungit, atque adnectit futures, facile totius vita? cursum videt, ad eamque degendam pra> parat res necessarias. — Cic. Off. lib, i. c. 1. 70 SUPERIORITY OF MAN Nos et venture torquemur et prcetcrito. Ti- moris enim tormentum memoria red licit, pro- videntia anticipat. — Seneca. We cannot but observe, that as the principle of vegetation is something above the inertia of mere matter, and seme something above that again ; so reason must be something above all these, or that his uppermost faculty is reason. — WoolL 169. qto. Hujus enim scientise (i. e. humanitatis vel eruditionis) cura et disciplina ex universis ani- mantibus, uni homini data est. — Aldus Gellius. SPEECH. Jam vero domina rerum, eloquendi vis, quam est prseclara, quamque divina quae primum afficit, ut ea quae ignoramus discere, et ea quae scimus alios docere possimus. Deinde hac co- hortamur, hac persuademus, hac consolamur afflictos, hac deducimus perterritos a timore, hac gestientes comprimimus, hac cupiditates, ira- cundiasque restinguimus, hagc nos juris, legum, urbium societate devinxit, haec a vita immani et /era segragavit. — Cic. de Nat.Deor, lib. ii. The dignity of man, and his excellency above all the other parts of the animal world, made it requisite that his actions should be squared by some rule, without which no order, no decorum, OVER OTHER ANIMALS. 7i no beauty can be conceived. Hence it is his greatest honor that he has obtained an immortal soul, endowed with the light of understanding, with the faculties of judging and of choosing things, and with an admirable capacity for all arts and knowledge ; on which account he is justly termed, " Sanctius animal mentisque capacius altse, et quod dominari in csetera pos- set ;" or as Solinus, cap, 3, calls him — a being whom nature has preferred to all others in excel- lency of sense and in capacity of reason. Fur- ther, that the soul was designed by the all- wise Creator for a much nobler purpose than to serve only as salt to keep the body fresh, may be gathered from this consideration, that the greatest and most shining parts of its faculties are such as contribute either little or nothing to the preservation of the body, which might be secured without any such mighty parade, with- out so great and pompous a provision. It is plain that the power and activity of the rational soul is chiefly exercised about such things as belong to the worship of God* and to a life of * It has been observed that man is more distinguished from the animal world by devotion than by reason ; as several brute creatures discover in their actions something like a faint glimmoring of reason, though they betray in no single cir- cumstance of their behaviour, any thing that bears the least affinity to devotion. — Addison's Spec. 201. 72 SUPERIORITY OF MAN society and civility. Cicero observed this when he reckoned up the advantages of men above beasts in these matters, in these words : " Eadem natura vi rationis, hominem conciliat homini, adorationis et ad vitse societatem. Nee vero ilia parva vis, &c. — ante, p. 50 ; and it is principally for the service and furtherance of these great ends that it can, from known things, infer and explain those which are less known ; that it can discern and judge what is agreeable and what is disagreeable to it ; that it can form universal notions by abstraction from singulars ; that it can by proper signs communicate its notions to others ; can form inventions ; can apprehend the nature of numbers, weights, and measures, and compare them with one another ; that it can perceive the beauty and the force of order and method ; that it can either raise or repress or moderate affections; that it can hold in memory an endless compass of things, and call out, as it were at its beck, any part of the stock which it has occasion to use ; that it can turn its sight inward on itself; recollect its own dictates, and by them judge of its actions, whence arises the force and the authority of conscience. Of all these powers and abilities there would be very little use, or rather none at all, in a lawless, brutal, and unsociable life. Now the more gifts God has bestowed on man, and the greater OVER OTHER ANIMALS. 73 enlargements he has granted to his wit and mind, the more base and unseemly would it be that all these noble endowments should rust from want of culture and regulation ; should be vainly spent and squandered away without use, without order, and without grace : nor was it altogether in vain that God indued man with a mind apprehensive of accuracy and decency ; but it was, without doubt, intended that he should so employ the powers he had received as to manifest the glory of his Creator, and to pro- mote his own true interest and happiness. There are some things common to man not only with sensitive animals and vegetables, but also with inanimate matter ; as, that his body is subject to the general law of gravitation ; that its parts are capable of being separated, &c. There are other things common to him with vegetables and sensitive animals; as, that he comes from a seed, grows, and is preserved by proper matter taken in and distributed through a set of vessels ; ripens, flourishes, withers, de- cays, dies ; is subject to diseases ; may be hurt or killed; and therefore wants, as they do, nourishment, a proper habitation, protection from injuries, and the like. lie has other properties common only to him and the sentitive tribe; as, that he receives by his senses the notice of many external objects 74 SUPERIORITY OF MAN and things ; perceives many affections of his body ; finds pleasure from some, and pain from others ; and has certain powers of moving him- self and acting, &c. Beside these, he has other faculties which he doth not apprehend to be either in the inert mass of matter or in vegetables or even in the sentitive kind, at least in any considerable degree, by the help of which he investigates truth or probability, and judges whether things are agreeable to them or not ; or, in a word, that he is animal rationale. He is conscious of a liberty to act or not to act, &c. — Wooll. p. 314, and Sparsim. Quis dubitet, hominem conjungere ccelo ! Eximium natura dedit linguamque : capaxque Ingenium volucremque animum, quern denique in unum Descendit Deus atque habitat, seque ipse requirit. Omne hominum genus in terris Simili surgit ab ortu Unus enim rerum pater est, Unus cuncta ministrat I lie dedit Phcebo radios, Dedit et cornua Luna?. Ille homines etiam terris Dedit, et sidera coelo Hie dausit membris amnios Celsa sede petitos. Mortales igitur cunctos Edit nobile Gcrmen. OVER OTHER ANIMALS. 75 Q.iid genus, et proavos strepitis ? Si primordia vestra, Auctoremque Dcum spcctes Nullus degener extat, Ni vitiis pejora fovens Proprium dcserat ortum Boetius, lib. iii. pr. 6. Man, who, besides his excellent form and most accurate contexture of body, fitting him for the noblest and the quickest offices of life and motion, is endued with a singular light of understanding; by the help of which he is able most exactly to comprehend and to compare things, to gather the knowledge of obscurities from points already settled, and to judge of the agreements which matters bear to each other ; and hath also the liberty of exerting, suspend- ing, or moderating his actions, without being confined to any necessary course or method ; and is farther invested with the privilege of invent- ing and applying new helps to each faculty for the more easy regulation of its proceedings. — Puffend. FOUNDATION AND DISTINCTION OF GOOD AND EVIL. If we cannot account for the existence of that evil which we find by experience to be in the world, it is but one instance out of many of our ignorance ; as to moral good and evil they seem to depend upon ourselves. Evil, introduced by our negiect or abuse of our own liberty and powers, is not to be charged upon any other being. And, as to physical evil, without it much physical good would be lost; the one neces- sarily inferring the other. Thus, thirst makes the pleasure of drinking, and so on. — Wooll. Sparsim. 126. Those dispositions of the mind are virtues by which a man is inclined to actions making for the preservation of himself and of human society; and those, on the contrary, are vices which addict us to actions destructive of ourselves and of the community to which we belong. — Puffend. book i. ch. 4. The rule of human actions, or the true founda- tion of morality, is, properly, the will of the Supreme Being manifested and interpreted either by moral sense or by reason. GOOD AND EVIL. 77 Reason is the foundation of every superstruc ture, whether in morality or religion. Farther institutions may improve, but cannot supersede, what the Almighty has revealed in his works, and in the suggestions of reason to man. — Ferguson's Lectures. That which right reason makes plainly to appear, ought to be considered as established by as convincing a proof as if God himself had declared it to mankind by a positive revelation. —2 Burl 39. Non est philosophia (recta ratio) populare ar- tificium, nee ostentationi paratum, non in verbis sed in rebus est, nee in hoc adhibetur, ut aliqua oblectatione et consumatur Dies, ut dematur otio nausea; animum format et fabricat, vitam disponit, actiones regit, agenda et omittenda demonstrat, sedet ad gubernaculum, et per ancipitia fluctuantium dirigit cursum ; sine hac nemo securus est. Innumerabilia accidunt singulis horis, quae concilium exigunt, quod ab hac petendum est. Hsec adhortabitur, ut Deo libentur pareamus, ut fortunae contumaciter resistamus : hsec docebit ut Deum sequaris, feras casum, &c. — Seneca, let. 16. To prove the existence of God, and our de- pendence in respect to him, is establishing the right he has of prescribing laws to man. Has 78 GOOD AND EVIL. he thought proper to exercise this right, is the question ? Answer — On the one side, we find a superior, who, by his nature, is possessed in the very highest degree of all the conditions* requisite to establish a legitimate authority; and on the other, we behold man, who is God's creature, endowed with liberty and understanding, capable of act- ing with knowledge and choice, sensible of pleasure and pain, susceptible of good and evil, of rewards and punishments. Such an aptitude of giving and receiving laws cannot be useless. This concurrence of relations and circumstances undoubtedly denotes an end, and must have effect, just as the particular organization of the eye shews we are destined to see light, &c. When we consider the beautiful order which the supreme wisdom has established in the phy- sical world, it is impossible to persuade our- selves, that he has abandoned the spiritual or moral world to chance or disorder. Reason, on the contrary, tells us that an allvvise Being must propose to himself a reasonable end in all he does, and that he uses all the necessary means to attain it. The end which God has in view with regard to his creatures, and particularly * i. e. Wisdom, goodness, porver. GOOD AND EVIL. 79 with respect to man, cannot be any other, on'the one side, than his glory ; and on the other, the ■perfection and happiness of his creatures, as far as their nature and constitution will admit. These two views, so worthy of the Creator/are perfectly combined : For the glory of God con- sists in manifesting his perfections, his power, his goodness, wisdom and justice ; and these vir- tues are nothing else, but a love of order and the good of the whole. Thus, a being absolutely perfect and supremely happy, willing to conduct man to that state of order and happiness which suits his nature, cannot but be willing, at the same time, to employ whatever is necessary for such an end, and consequently he must approve of those means that are proper, and disapprove of such as are improper, for attaining it. Had the constitution of man been merely physical or mechanic, God would have done whatever is expedient for his work ; but man, being- a free and intelligent creature, capable of discernment and choice, the means which God uses to con- duct him to his end ought to be proportioned to his nature ; that is, such as man may engage in and concur with by his own actions. Now, as all means are not equally fit to conduct us to a certain end, all human actions therefore cannot be indifferent. Plain it is, that every action contrary to the ends which God has proposed 80 GOOD AND EVIL. cannot be agreeable to God ; and that he approves, on the contrary, those which of them- selves are proper to promote his ends ; since, then, there is a choice to be made, and one road rather than another to be followed, who can question seriously, but that our Creator is wil- ling we should take the right road ; and that instead of acting fortuitously and rashly, we should behave like rational creatures by exer- cising our liberty, and the other faculties he has given us, in the manner most agreeable to our state and destination, in order to promote his views, and to advance our own happiness toge- ther with that of our fellow creatures — 1 Burlemac. 137. Now we are under an obligation to follow the dictates of reason (ib. 143); which is that of God himself (p. 144). l.Then there is a rule; 2. This rule is just and useful ; 3. It comes from a superior on whom we entirely depend ; 4. In fine, it is sufficiently made known to us by our own reason (p. 144); and to deduce the princi- ples of the law of nature, we have only to attend to the nature of man, and to his states and relations, (p. 153). These states are three- fold. In the first place, we may consider him as God's creature, from whom he has received his life, reason, and all the advantages he enjoys. 2. Man may be considered in himself as a GOOD AND EVIL. 81 being- composed of body and soul, and endowed with many faculties. Lastly, as forming; a part of mankind, as placed on the earth with several other beings of a similar nature, and with whom he is by his natural condition obliged to live in society, (p. 158, note.) The consequences of this principle are — 1. Piety towards God! 2. Self- love ; that is, an enlightened, regulated, and rational love of ourselves, as directed by right reason ; (/. e.) the care of our preservation, the care of the soul being preferred to that of the body; the improvement of our reason, &c. ; and, lastly, ,3. Those duties which have society for their object, and the several relations in which we stand, (p. 162, 3.) We have then, religion, self-love, and sociability or benevolence to our fellow creatures (p. 173); or, in the words of the Scripture, " Our duty towards God, and to love our neighbours as ourselves." — 1 Burlem. Sparsim. In fact, there are natural and necessary dif- ferences in human actions and in the effects by them produced. Some agree of themselves with the nature and state of man, whilst others dis- agree and are quite opposite thereto. Some contribute to the production and maintenance of order, others tend to subvert it ; some pro- cure the perfection and happiness of man, others are attended with their disgrace and misery G 82 GOOD AND EVIL. (p. 184). Let us not, therefore, seek any where else but in the very nature of human actions, in their essential differences and consequences, for the true foundation of the laws of nature, and why God forbids some things whilst he com- mands others. — 1 Burlem. 185. LAW OF NATURE. Est quidem vera lex, recta ratio, naturae con- gruens, diffusa in omnes, constans, sempiterna, quae vocat ad officium jubendo, vetando a fraude deterreat, quae tatnen neque probos frustra jubet, aut vetat; nee improbos jubendo aut vetando mo vet. Huic legi nee obrogari fas est, neque derogari ex hac aliquid licet; neque tota abrogari potest. Nee vero aut per senatum, aut per populum solvi hac lege possumus. Neque est quaerendus explanator aut interpres ejus alius. Nee erit alia lex Romae, alia Athenis, alia nunc, alia post hac; sed omnes gentes, et omni tempore, una lex et sempiterna et immu- tabilis continebit. Unusque erit communis quasi magister et imperator Deus. Hie legis hujus inventor, disceptator, lator, eui non pare- bit ipse se fugiet, ae naturam aspernabitur ; atqne hoc ipso luet maximas paenas, etiamsi caetera supplicia, quae putantur effugerit. — Cic. GOOD .AND EVIL. 83 tie Repub* lib. iii. quoted by Lactant. Institut. Divin. lib. vi. c. 8. Moral good and evil consist in a conformity or disagreement to truth, and those things that are coincident with it; reason and happiness. — WoolL p. 11.3. 8vo. Things are so ordered and disposed by the Author of Nature, that the rectitude of out- actions and way to happiness are coincident; and that such acts as are disagreeable to truth and wrong in themselves tend to make men ultimately unhappy. — WoolL 265. Nee si regnante Tarquinio, nulla erat Romse scripta lex de stupris, idcirco non contralegem sempiternam Sextus Tarquinio vim Lucretiee attulit. Erat enim ratio recta, profecta arerum natura, et ad rectc faciendum impellents, et a delicto avocans : quce non turn denique incipit lex esse, ciim scripta est, sed turn ciun orta est. Orta autem simul est cum mente divina. — Cic. To live virtuously is to practise reason, and act and speak conformably to truth.— JVooll. 341. Ipsa virtus brevissime recta ratio dici potest. —Cic. Quae non aliud est quam recta ratio. — Seneca. It occurs also in the Consolatio, and goes to prove that work to be really his. G 2 84 GOOD AND EVIL. Vitam ad certain rationis normain dirigere et diligentissime momenta perpendere officiorum omnium memento. — Cic. in Murcen. Nulla enim vitse pars, neque publicis neque privatis, neque forensibus, neque domesticis, in rebus, neque si tecum agas quid, neque si cum altero contrahas vacare officio potest, in eoque colendo, sita vitee est bonestas omnis, et in neg- ligendo turpi tu do. — Cic. de Off. It is the duty of every being capable of dis- cerning truth, and of acting conformably to it, to endeavour to practise reason; not to contra- dict any truth by word or deed, but to treat every thing as being what it is. — Wooll. 111. All municipal laws act in subordination to the primary law of nature, and, where they annex a punishment to natural crimes, are only declara- tory of and auxiliary to that law. — 1 Black. Comment. 254. Natural law is the rule and dictate of right reason, shewing the moral deformity or moral necessity there is in any act, according to its suitableness or unsuitableness to a reasonable nature. — Grotius. A general and lasting utility, in opposition to a partial or particular advantage, is the true characteristic to distinguish what is truly just or honest from what is so only in the erroneous GOOD AND EVIL. 85 opinion of men. — 1 Burlemac.22\. S.P. 1 Paley. Mar. Phil. Whatever is inherent in the nature of man — whatever is a consequence of his original con- stitution and state — acquaints us clearly and distinctly with the will of the Creator, with the use he expects we should make of our faculties, and the obligations to which he has thought proper to subject us. — 1 Burlemac. 308. When it is said, that the precepts of natural law are of eternal verity ; the saying is so fat- to be restrained and limited that this eternity ought to be considered as reaching no farther than the imposition and institution of God Almighty, and the origin of the human kind. Though, to say the truth, the eternity which we improperly attribute to the laws of nature is only to be rated in proportion to the opposition they bear to positive laws ; these being fre- quently subject to alteration, whilst those remain fixt and unchangeable. — Puffend. Nat. §■ Nat. p. 20. fol. It is positive law alone that can be dispensed with, and not the law of nature. Malum in se, our common lawyers maintain, admits of no dispensation. — Taylor, 141. Non enim natural is ratio auctoritate senatus commutari potuit. — Digest. 86 GOOD AND EVIL. In quo lapsa consuetudo cleflexit de via, sen- simque eo deducta est, ut honestatem ab utili- tate secernens, et constituent honestum esse aliquod quod utile non esset, et utile quod non houestum ; qua nulla pernicies major hominum vitse potuit ad ferri. — Cic. de Off. lib. ii. c. 3. Recte execrari eum qui primus utilitatem a natura sejunxisset. Caput exitiorum omnium turn illud effici, quod quibus incredibile videatur, sit autem necessarium, ut nihilo sese plus quam alterim diligat. — Cic. de Leg. To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. — Dr. Johnson, 3 Bos. 200. Note. — For the Heaten opinions relative to a future state — See Nemesis, fyc. in Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xiv. cap. 11. SOCIETY. Quid est homo ? imbecillum corpus, et fragile, nudum, suapte natura inerme, alienee opis in- digens, ad omnem fortunre contumeliam projec- tnm quum bene lacertos exercnit cujuslibet ferae pabulum, cujuslibet victima, ex infirmis fluidis- qne contextnm, et lineamentis exterioribus niti- d u m ; frigoris, oestus, laboris impatiens : ipso rursus situ, et otio iteium in tabern, alimenta metuens sua, quorum modo inopia, modo copia rumpitur ; anxiee solicitoeque tutelaa, precarii spiritus, et male hoerentis, quern pavor repent- inus, adjectusque ex improviso sonus auribus gravis excutit : soli semper sibi nutrimentum vitiosum et inutile. — Seneca de Consolatione ad Marciam. c. 9. It was inexpedient for man to live without law, on account of his excessive weakness. A few days will set a brute creature in a condition to provide for himself, nor is he in any great need of the company of others for his assistance and support ; but man, from his first coming into the world, undergoes a long and tedious course of helpless infirmity. What a length of SS SOCIETY. years is required, and what diligence of infor- mation, to enable him by his own strength to accommodate himself with food and clothing. Let us suppose a man bred up by another just so far as to be able to walk, and, without hearing a word spoken, insomuch that he shall be desti- tute of all instruction and discipline but such as springs naturally from the soil of his mind without the benefit of cultivation ; let us sup- pose the same man to be left in a wilderness or desert, and entirely deprived of the company and of the assistance of others. What a wretched creature should we at last behold! a mute and ignoble animal, master of no powers or capaci- ties any further than to pluck up the herbs and roots that grow about him ; to gather the fruits which he did not plant ; to quench his thirst at the first river or fountain or ditch that he finds in his way ; to creep into a cave for shelter from the injuries of weather, or to cover over his body with moss and grass and leaves. Thus would he pass his time, a most heavy life, in tedious idleness ; would tremble at every noise, and be scared at the approach of any of his fellow-creatures, till at last his miserable days were concluded by the extremity of hunger or of thirst, or by the fury of a ravenous beast. — Pvffend. book ii. c. 1. sec. 8. Quo alio tuti sumus, quam quod mutuis SOCIETV. 89 juvamur ofticiis? Hoc uno instructior vita con- traque incursiones subitas munitior est, bene- ficiorum commercio. Fac nos singulos, quid sum us? Prseda aninialium et victimse, ac bel- lissimus et facillimus sanguis. Quoniam cseteris animalibus in tutelam sui satis virium est: qucecunque vaga nascuntur, et actura vitam segregem, armata sunt. Hominem imbecillitas cingit; non unguium vis, non dentium terribilem coeteris fecit nudum et infirmum societas munit. Duas res Datura dedit, quse ilium, obnoxium cseteris, validissimum facerent, rationem et societatem. Itaque, qui par esse nulli poterat si seduceretur, reruin potitur. Societas illi dominium omnium aninialium dedit. Societas terris genitum, in alienee naturae transmittit imperium, et dominari etiam in Mari jussit. Heec morbot'iim impetus arcnit, senectuti admi- nicula prospexit, solatia contra dolores dedit. Hoec fortes nos facit, quod banc licet contra fortunam advocare. Ilanc societatem tolle, et unitatem generis humani, qua vita sustinetur, scindes. — Seneca de Bencjiciis, lib. iv. c. 18. Out of society we are defended only by our single strength ; in society, by the strength of all. Out of society, no man is sure to keep pos- session of what his industry has gained ; in society, every body is secure from that danger. To conclude ; out of society we have the tyranny 90 SOCIETY. of the passions, war, fear, poverty, filthiness, barbarity, ignorance, and wildness; in society we have the sway of reason, peace, security, riches, decency of ornament, company, elegancy, knowledge, and benevolence. — Hobbes de Che. ch. 10. sec. 1. Yet we must not imagine that the civil state properly subverts all natural society, or that it destroys the essential relations, which men have among themselves, or those between God and man. — 1 Burlemac. 194. Sed quoniam (ut praeclare sctiptum est a Platone) non nobis solum nati sumus, ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat, partem amici atque (ut placet stoicis) queein terrisgignuntur, ad usum hominum omnia creaii, homines autem hominum causa esse generatos, ut ipsi inter se alii prodesse possent : in hoc naturam debemus ducem sequi, et communes utilitates in medium afFerre, mutatione officiorum, dando, accipiendo: turn artibus, turn opera, turn facultatibus de- vincire hominum inter homines societatem. — Cicero de Officiis, lib. i. c. 7. Societies are considered as bodies, and receive the appellation of moral persons, and acquire a kind of personal properties. Their establish- ment introduces a kind of society similar to what exists between men. There must, there- fore, be some law to regulate their intercourse, SOCIETY 91 which can be — the law of nature alone, then distinguished by the name of the Law of Nations. " Natural law," says Hobbes, " is divided into the natural law of man, and the natural law of states, which we call the law of nations." There is certainly an universal, necessary, and self- obligatory law of nations, which differs in no- thing- from the law of nature, and is conse- quently immutable. There is besides a secon- dary law of nations, which may be called arbi- trary and free, as founded only on an express or tacit convention — 1 Burlemac. 199. See also Vattel. S. P. and Cic. sup. Thus: Natural Law. 1. Of Man. 2. Of States. 1 Natural and universal 2 Positive, or conventual, and or immutable. arbitrary and changeable on notice. Awig yet% a.i>S>p distinct, not Accent. ) provincial. Action, i Noble, dignified, decorous, grace- ful ; not theatri- cal, enforcing by emphasis, not by gesticulations, — without oddity or peculiarity, affec- tation, or flutter of spirits. Volubility and command of expression, without rapi- dity. Choice of a model, and imi- tation of his excellencies. Attention to the usual practice of the senate and forum, and attendance there. Daily reading, writing, hear- ing, and seeing. Daily practice in declamation. Discretion. Ill habits attended to, and corrected. To note what is suitable and becoming in others, and by what means they succeed or fail. Though the task difficult, not to despair Cic. and Quint- Sparsim. FREE WILL. The sentiment of moral liberty is one of the strongest in human nature. — Beattie. 289. The contrary doctrine (I. e. that of necessity) is in direct contradiction to the general belief of all men in all ages. — lb. The reasoning by which the doctrine of neces- sity is supported did never produce a serious and steady conviction : common sense still declared it to be false. — lb. Quare si nulla est humanis conciliis, actioni- b usque libertas, quantus occasus humanarum rerum consequatur, liquet. Frustra enim bonis ? m absque prsemia, paenceve proponuntur, quae nullus meruit liber ac voluntarius motus animo- rum. Idque omnium videbitur iniquissimum, quod nunc yequissimum judicatur, vel puniri improboSj vel remunerari piKibos : quos ad alte- rutrum non propria mittit voluntas, sed futuri cogit certa necessitas. Nee vitia igitur, nee virtutes quidquam fucrint, sed omnium meri- tornm potius mista atque indiscreta confusio; (iuocpie nihil sceleratius excogitari potest, cum ex providentia rerum, omnis ordo ducatur, nihil- 108 FREE WILL. que conciliis liceat humanis, fit, ut vitia quoque nostra ad bonorutn omnium referantiir autorem, Igitur no sprandi aliquid nee deprecaudi ulla ratio est, quid enim vel speret quisquam vel etiam deprecetur quando optanda omnia, series inflexa connectit ? Auferetur i°itur unicum illud inter homines deumque commercium, ope- randi scilicet ac deprecaudi, siquidem justae humilitatis pretio, inaestimabilem vicem divinae. Gratiae promeremur, qui solus modus est, quo cum Deo colloqui homines posse videantur, illi- que inaccessae lucis prius quoque quam im- petrent, ipsa supplicandi ratione conjungi : quae si recepta futurorum necessitate, nihil virium habere credantur, quid erit, quo summo illi rerum principi connecti atque adhaerere pos- simus.- — Bcetius p. 244. Sed in hie cohaerentium sihi serie causarum, estne ulla nostri arbitrii libertas, an ipsos quoque humanorum motus animorum fatalis catena* constringit? Est, neque enim fuerit ulla ra- tionalis natura, quin eidem libertas adsit arbitrii. Nam quod ratione uti naturaliter potest, id * By fate, the stoics seem to have understood a series of events appointed by the immutable counsel of God ; or, that law of his providence by which he governs the world. It is evident, by their writings, that they meant it in no sense which interferes with the liberty of human actions. — Carter's Intro. sec. 17, to Epictel us. Boetius, >S. P. FREE WILL. 109 habet judicium, quo quod que discerat per se igitur fugienda, optaudave dignoscit. Quod vero quis optandum esse judicat, petit; refugit vero, quod existimat esse fugiendum. Quare quibus inest ratio, ipsis etiam inest volendi 110- lendique libertas. — Boctius. lib. v. prosa. 2. p. 239, 8vo. Quae cum ita sint, manet intemerata morta- librts arbitrii Iibertas. Nee iniquee leges, solutis omni necessitate voluntatibus, prsemia paenas- que proponunt. Manet etiam spectator desuper cunctorum Deus, bonis prseinia, malis supplicia dispensans. Ncc frustra sunt in Deo positse spes precesque, quae cum rectal sunt, inefficaces esse non possunt. Aversamini igitur vitia, colite virtutes, ad rectas spes aniinum sublevate, humiles preces in excelsa porrigite. Magna vobis est, si dissimulare non vultis, necessitas indicta probitatis, cum ante oculos agitis judicis cuncta cernantis. — ib. lib. v. pr. (5. Intelligence and reason can pursue the course it is naturally fitted for, and wills through every obstacle. You have this liberty every where. Now, to the cylinder it is not given to move every where in its proper motion, nor to the water, nor to the fire, nor to any of those other things which are governed by a nature, or a soul irrational. — - Mar. Anton, book x. p. 393. (Glasc.) 110 FRRB WILL. La maggior don, che Dio per sua largliezza Fosse creando, e alia sua bontade Piu confirmato, e quel qu'ei piu approzza Fu, della volunta la libertade Di che, la creature intelligent! E tutte e sole furo et son dotate. Dante, del Paradiso, canto v. Se tutto Movesse di necessitate Se cosi fosse, in voi fora distrutto Libero arbitrio, et non fera ginstizia Per ben letizia, et per male aver lutto. Dante, Pur gat. canto xvi. The liberty of the human will is enforced by Voltaire, with all his philosophical and practical powers against fatalism. Vois de la liberte cet ennemi mutin, Aveugle partisan d'un aveugle destin ; Entends corarae il consulte, approuve, ou deli here, Entends de quel reproche il couvre un adversaire, Vois comment d'un rival il chcrche a se vender, Comme il punit son fits, et le veut corriger. II le croyoit done libre ? Oui sans doute, et lui-meme Dement a chaque pas son funeste systeme. II mentoit a son cceur, en voulant expliquer Ce dogme absurde a croire, absurde a pratiquer, II reconnoit en lui le sentiment qu'il brave II agit comme libre, et parle comme esclave. EAguOgpys cc(pme 7tccvtccs 6gos. — AUidimas in Aristot. 26. FREE WILL. HI The will is that part of the soul by which it is determined of itself, and, by virtue of an active principle inherent in its nature, to seek for what is agreeable to it, to act after a certain manner, and to do or to omit an action with a view to happiness. It is accompanied generally with liberty. Liberty is that force or power of the soul whereby it modifies and regulates its operations as it pleases, so as to be able to suspend, con- tinue, or alter its deliberations and actions ; in a word, so as to be capable to determine and act with choice according as he thinks proper. Habit. — We begin to do a thing with pain, and by an effort of reason ; afterwards we fami- liarise ourselves to it by degrees ; then, a fre- quency of acts renders it easier to us: the repug- nance ceases ; we view the thing in a different light from what we did before, and use, at length, makes us love a thing that before was the object of our aversion. Instinct. — Moral instinct is that natural bent or inclination which prompts us to approve of certain things as good and commendable, and to condemn others as bad and blameable, inde- pendent of reflection ; or if, instead of instinct, it is called moral sense, then it is a faculty of the mind which instantly discerns, in certain cases, moral good and evil by a kind of sensa- 112 FREE WILL. tion and taste independent of reason and re- flection. Reason. — The faculty of comparing ideas, of investigating the mutual relations of things, and from thence inferring just consequences; serving to illustrate, to prove, extend, and apply what our natural sense already gives us to under- stand. Certain things, not from any outward impe- diment, but from his own intention or design and self-limitation, appear impossible even to God himself. As, to make that never to have been done which has really been done ; to recall that which is past, or to contradict his own laws or nature ; as not to be wise, beneficent, merciful ; to be untrue ; to die. " But past, who can recall ; or done, undo? •' Not God omnipotent." Milton. May it not, therefore, without offence or im- piety, be presumed that God may have limited his own prescience, so far as not to extend it to the knowledge of the manner in which man will use his free will, or liberty of action. If so, The soul is an agent, where activity displays itself by a series of different operations, which having been distinguished by different names, are likewise attributed to different faculties : FREE WILL. 113 the chief of these faculties are — the understand- ing, will, and liberty. The soul is, indeed, a simple being" ; but this does not hinder us, when we attend to its different ways of operating-, from considering it as a subject in which dif- ferent powers of acting' reside, and from giving different denominations to these powers. If we consider the thing in this manner, we shall find it will give a greater exactness and perspicuity to our ideas. Let us remember, therefore, that these faculties are nothing else but the different powers of acting inherent in the mind, by which it performs all its operations. — 1 Burl. 5. Thus, the senses taken for the sensitive faculty, the imagination also, and the memory, must be all reduced to the understanding. In fact, the senses, considered in this manner, are nothing else but the understanding itself, as it makes use of the senses and organs of the body to perceive corporeal objects ; the imagination, likewise, is nothing but the understanding, as it perceives absent objects not in themselves but by their images formed in the brain. The memory, in fine, is no more than the understand- ing, considered as possessed of the faculty of retaining the ideas it forms of things, and capable of representing them to itself whenever there is occasion. — 1 Burl. 9. i ] 14- FREE WILL. Instincts, inclinations, and passions, are re- ducible to the will; though instincts are neces- sarily the same in all men, being sentiments excited by the wants of the body. — 1 Burl. 14. Liberty, like the will, has goodness and truth for its object (ib. 16) ; though the exercise of it is restrained to non-evident truths and particular goods (p. 21) ; since, in respect to good and evil, truth and falsehood, considered in general and as such, we cannot, properly speaking, exercise our liberty, by reason that we feel ourselves drawn towards the one by an invincible pro- pensity, and estranged from the other by a natural and insuperable aversion (p. 19) ; the end of the Deity in creating man being to render him happy, and happiness* not being to be obtained any other way than by the knowledge of truth and by the possession of real good (p. 21). On this principle of human liberty is built the whole system of humanity, reflections, deliberations, researches, actions, gratitude, anger, complaints, * Happiness is well defined to be that internal satisfaction arising from the possession of good, which is whatever is suitable or agreeable to man for his preservation, perfection, conveniency, entertainment, or pleasure. — 1 Burl. ; or, ac- cording to Harris — that which is agreeable to our nature, conducive to well-being, accommodated to all places and times; durable, self-derived, and indeprivable : (i. e.) rectitude of conduct. FREE WILL. 11.5 blame, friendship, benevolence, judgments, good and evil, virtue and vice, imputation (p. 25). In restraining the exercise of liberty to par- ticular goods and non-evident truths, without extending itself to good in general, or to such truths as are perfectly clear, God has furnished us with another subject to admire his wisdom and goodness in the constitution of man ; since, if it is admitted that his end in creating man was to render him happy, it will be soon agreed that man cannot attain to happiness any other way than by the knowledge of truth and by the possession of real good. — Burl. Sparsim. Perhaps it may be said that the belief of moral liberty is attended with equal difficulties with the doctrine of necessity; for that to reconcile the contingency of human actions with the prescience of God is as impossible as to reconcile necessity with his goodness and wis- dom. 1. It implies not any reflection on the divine power to say that it cannot perform impossibilities ; so, neither does it imply any reflection on his knowledge to say that he cannot foresee as certain that which he himself has determined to be not certain, but contingent. No man will take upon himself to say that he distinctly understands the manner in which the Deity acts, perceives and knows : shall I then i2 116 FREE WILL. conclude, because 1 cannot fully comprehend the manner in which the Divine prescience operates, that, therefore, the Deity is not in- finitely perfect ? or that, therefore, I cannot be certain of the truth of a sentiment which is warranted by my constant experience and by that of all mankind ? That I am a free agent I know and believe ; that God foresees whatever can be foreseen, as he can do whatever can be done, I also know and believe ; nor have the fatalists ever proved, nor can they ever prove, that the one belief is inconsistent with the other. — Seattle, on Truth, Spar sim, 315. IMPJJT ABILITY. Every action, or omission even, subject to the direction of man, can be charged to the account of the person in whose power it was to do or let it alone ; and, on the contrary, every action whose existence or non-existence does not de- pend upon our will cannot be imputed to us. Omissions are ranked, by all civilians and moralists, amongst the number of actions, as the effect of a voluntary suspension of the exercise of our faculties.— \ Burl. 35. But God, as a governor, cannot possibly act FREE WILL. 117 according to mere arbitrary will, but according to the invariable rules only of justice and mercy. He will punish no man for doing any thing he could not avoid, neither for omitting what he could not possibly do. — Westley. And it may reasonably, by the same rule, be inferred, that no man will be punished for a particular belief, however erroneous, where his reason is not, after due examination and pains taken, convinced by the evidence or the argu- ment deduced from it ; " For no man's faith depends upon his will." D ryden . So Chillingworth says, " If I be desirous to know the truth and diligent in seeking it, and yet, through human infirmity, fall into error, that error cannot be damnable." Qui nonfacit quod facere debet, videtur/acere adversus ea quae non facit. — Digest. Moral necessity consists in the impression made on us by some particular motives, which determine us to act after a certain manner and do not permit us to act rationally the opposite way. — 1 Burl. 61. Obligation is a restriction of natural liberty produced by reason. — ib. 62. 118 FRKK WILL. RIGHT. A power of doing any thing, and right to do it, are quite different ideas ; nor does one infer the other: a doctrine suited to tyrants or ban- ditti, but directly opposite to the peace and general good of mankind. — Wooll. 241. Neque opinione, sed natura constitutum esse jus. — Cic. Right is a power that a man hath to make use of his liberty and natural strength in a particular manner, either in regard to himself or in respect to other men, so far as this exercise of his strength or liberty is approved by reason. — 1 Burl. 68. We must not, therefore, confound a simple power with right. A simple power is a mere physical quality : it is a power of acting in the full extent of our natural strength and liberty. But the idea of right is move confined. This includes a relation of agreeableness to a rule which modifies the physical power, and directs its operations in a manner proper to conduct man to a certain end (ib. 69.) Right is, therefore, a moral quality. No rights can be renounced which of themselves have a natural connection with our duties, or which are given to man only as a means to perform them. — ib. 74. FREE WILL. 119 The different helps which men receive from one another ought to be equally ranked, among natural means, with those which every one finds within himself and draws from his own fund. — 1 Burl. 182. REPENTANCE AND PARDON. It is an article of natural religion that for- giveness does certainly follow repentance. If God be a merciful and benign Being (and to doubt it were impiety) he will accept the pay- ment we are able to make, and not insist on impossible demands with his frail bankrupt creatures. No generous man even but will for- give his enemy, much more his child, if he dis- approves the wrong he has done, is really grieved for it, is desirous to make amends even by suf- fering for the honour of the person injured; how much more shall God forgive all persons thus disposed and reformed, since there is no generosity in man but what is with his nature infused into him by God? Not only mercy but wisdom will effectually dispose God to forgive the penitent, because the creature reformed by penitence is such as it ought to be and such as God willeth it which, being so, it can be no wisdom in God to afflict it unnecessarily. It is not justice, but rage, to 120 FREE WILL. punish where the person is already mended. When we argue thus, from any of the known and certain attributes of God, we are as sure of the conclusion as if the thing was to be discerned by sense, since no sensible thing is more certain than the attributes of God. — Nye, of Natural and Revealed Religion, p. 85, 86. So, Locke has the same sentiments, and says, " God has, by the light of reason, revealed to all mankind who would make use of that light, that he was good and merciful. The same spark of the divine nature and knowledge in man, which, making him a man, shewed him the law he was under as man, shewed him also the way of atoning the merciful, kind, compas- sionate Author and Father of him and his being when he had transgressed that law. He that made use of this candle of the Lord, so far as to find what was his duty, could not miss to find also the way to reconciliation and forgive- ness when he had failed of his duty." The law is the eternal, immutable, standard of right; and a part of that law is, that a man should forgive not only his children but his enemies, upon their repentance, asking pardon, and amendment ; and, therefore, he could not doubt that the author of this law, and the God of patience and consolation, who is rich in FltKE WILL. 121 mercy, would forgive his frail offspring if they acknowledged their faults, disapproved the iniquity of their transgressions, begged his pardon, and resolved in earnest for the future to conform their actions to this rule, which they owned to be just and right — this way of recon- ciliation — this hope of atonement — the light of nature revealed to them. — Locke's Reasonable- ness of Charity, 8$c. p. 255. 562. DEATH. He that is our God, is the God of salvation, the God of the spirits of all flesh, and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. — Bible. And why art thou against the pleasure of the Most High ? Fear not the sentence of death. Remember them that have been before thee, and that come after, for this is the sentence of the Lord over all flesh. — ib. So man lieth down, and riseth not, till his change come. Yet out of our Jlesh shall we see God. — Bible ; Job. No man at death parts with, or is deprived of, what is either past or future ; for, how can one take from a man what he hath not ? the present moment is all which he is deprived of, since that is all he has : a man cannot be deprived, or part with what he has not. — M. Anton, vol. i. p. 112. The duration of human life is a point ; its sub- stance perpetually flowing ; the senses obscure, and the body tending to putrefaction ; the soul is restless ; fortune, uncertain ; and fame, inju- dicious. To sum up all, the body and all DEATH. 123 things related to it are like a river ; what belongs to the animal life is a dream and smoke, like a warfare and a journey in a strange land ; sur- viving fame is but oblivion. What is it, then, which can conduct us honourably out of life, and accompany us in our future progress ? — Phi- losophy alone ; and this consists in preserving the divinity within us free from all affronts and injuries, superior to pleasure and pain, doing nothing either inconsiderately or insincerely and hypocritically ; independent of what others may do or not do ; embracing cheerfully whatever befals or is appointed as coming from him from whom itself was derived ; and, above all, expecting death, with calm satisfaction, as con- ceiving it to be only a dissolution of those elements of which every animal is compounded. —ib. 114. He who to all things prefers the soul, the divinity within him, and the sacred mysteries of its virtues, makes no tragical exclamations, complaints, or groans. He needs neither solitude nor a crowd ; and, what is greatest of all, he lives without desires or fears of death. And whether the sonl shall use this surrounding body for a longer or shorter space gives him no solicitude. Were he to depart this moment, he is as ready for it as for any other work which can 124 DEATH. be gracefully and with honour accomplished ; guarding in the whole of life against this alone, — that his soul should ever decline or be averse to any thing which becomes the rational and social nature. — Mar. Anton* 1. 128. Safe in the hand of one Almighty power, As in the natal, so the mortal hour. Pope. FUTURE STATE. Let the constant recurrence to our observa- tion of contrivance,* design, and wisdom in the works of nature once fix upon our minds the belief of a God, and, after that, all is easy. In the councils of a Being, possessed of the power and disposition which the Creator of the uni- verse must possess, it is not improbable that there should be a future state or that we should be acquainted with it, but the contrary. A future state rectifies every thing, because, if moral agents be made in the last event happy or miserable, according to their conduct in the station and under all the circumstances in which they are placed, it seems not very material by the operation of what causes or according to what rules, or even, if you please to call it so, by what chance or caprice these stations are as- signed or those circumstances determined. * Ex. gr. The heavenly bodies, titles, &c. — See a few in- stances collected, p. 13. In truth, every man who will but open his eyes may easily collect instances without end for himself. 126 FUTURE STATE. This hypothesis, therefore, solves all that objec- tion to the Divine care and goodness which the promiscuous distribution of good and evil (I do not mean in the doubtful advantages of riches and grandeur, but in the unquestionably im- portant distinctions of health and sickness, strength and infirmity, bodily ease and pain, mental alacrity and depression,) is apt, on so many occasions, to create. This one truth changes the nature of things, gives order to confusion, and makes the moral world of a piece with the natural. — 2 Paley's Evidences, 409. The obstruction which arises from the shock which the imagination and the senses receive from the effects and the appearances of death, to the expectation of either a continued or a future existence, although of a nature to act very forcibly, will be found upon reflection to reside more in our habits of apprehension than in the subject ; and that the giving way to it, when we have reasonable grounds for the con- trary, is rather an indulging the imagination than any thing else. Abstractedly considered, that is, considered without relation to the difference which habit, and merely habit, produces in our faculties and modes of apprehension, I do not perceive any thing more in the resurrection of a dead man, FUTURE STATE. 127 than in the conception of a child,* except it be this, that the one comes into his world with a system of prior consciousness about him-}- which the other does not, and no person will say that he knows enough of either subject, to perceive that this circumstance makes such a difference in the two cases, that the one should be easy and the other impossible ; the one natural and the other not so. To the first man the succes- sion of the species would be as incomprehensible as the resurrection of the dead is to us. But whether these or any other attempts to satisfy the imagination bear any resemblance to the truth, or whether the imagination, which, as I have said before, is the mere slave of habit, can be satisfied or not, when a future state is not only perfectly consistent with the attributes of the Being who governs the universe ; but when it is more — when it alone removes the appear- ances of contrariety, which attends the operation of his will towards creatures of comparative merit and demerit ; of reward and punishment — we ought to set our minds at rest, with the * La resurrection est la chose du monde la plus simple. 77 nest pas jjlus sxrprena?it de native deux fo'is, qiCune. Tout est resurrection dans ce monde. Les chenilles ressuscitent en papillons. Un noyau mis en terre ressuscitc en arbre.— Voltaire. t Cicero insists, that the child does so. — Sec 128 FUTURE STATE. assurance that, in the resources of creative wisdom, expedients cannot be wanted to carry into effect what the Deity hath purposed : that either a new and mighty influence will descend upon the human world to resuscitate extin- guished consciousness, or that amidst the other wonderful contrivances with which the universe abounds, and by some of which we see animal life* in many instances, assuming improved forms of existence, acquiring new organs, new perceptions, and new sources of enjoyment ; provision is also made, though by means, in secret to us, as all the great processes of * Butterflies and moths lay eggs which produce cater- pillars, and these caterpillars, after feeding upon vegetable food, spin themselves frame-houses or beds — cocoons — in which they are transformed into aurelias, and from which they burst forth as perfect winged insects. The three states of the caterpillar, larva, and butterfly, have been applied to typify the human being : its terrestrial form, apparent death, and ultimate celestial destination. And it seems much more extraordinary that a sordid and crawling worm should be- come a beautiful and active fly — that an inhabitant of the dark and foetid dunghill should, in an instant, entirely change its form, rise into the blue air, and enjoy the sunbeams — than that a being whose pursuits here have been after truth, and an undying name, and whose purest happiness has been derived from the acquisition of intellectual power and finite know- ledge, should rise hereafter into a state of being where im- mortality is no longer a name, and ascend to the source of unbounded power and infinite wisdom. — Salmon. 217 FUTURE STATE. 129 nature* are, for conducting- the objects of God's moral government, through the necessary changes of their frame, to those final distinctions of happiness and misery which he hath declared to be reserved for obedience and transgression, for virtue and vice, for the use and the neglect, the right and the wrong employment of the faculties and opportunities with which he hath been pleased severally to entrust and to try us. — 2 Paleys Evidences, 411. In every thing which respects this awful and glorious change we have a wise and powerful Being, the Author in nature of infinitely vari- ous expedients, for infinitely various ends, to rely on for the choice and appointment of means adequate to the execution of any plan which his goodness or his justice may have formed for the moral and accountable part of his terrestrial creation. That great office rests with him. Be it ours to hope and to prepare, under a firm and settled persuasion, that living and dying we are his — that life is passed in his constant presence — that death resigns us to his merciful disposal. — Paley's Theology. Verily, there is a reward for the righteous ; doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth. — Psalm. * Ex. gr. Gravitation or attraction, electricity, magnetism. K 130 FUTURE STATE. Besides the principles of which we consist, and the actions which flow from us, the consi- deration of the things without us, and the na- tural variation in the creature, will render a resurrection highly probable. Every space of twenty-four hours teacheth thus much, in which there is always a revolution amounting to a resurrection. The day dies into a night, and is buried in silence and in darkness ; in the next morning it appeareth again and reviveth, open- ing the grave of darkness, rising from the dead of night: this a diurnal resurrection. As the day dies into night, so doth the summer into winter: the sap is said to descend into the roots, and there it lies buried in the ground ; the earth is covered with the snow, or crusted with frost, and becomes a general sepulchre ; when the spring appeareth all begin to rise, the plants and flowers peep out of their graves, revive, and grow, and flourish : this is the annual resurrec- tion. The corn by which we live, and for want of which we perish with famine, is, notwith- standing, cast upon the earth and buried in the ground with a design that it may corrupt, and being corrupted, may revive and multiply : our bodies are fed by this constant experiment, and we continue the present life by succession of resurrections. Thus all things are prepared by corrupting, are preserved by perishing, and FUTURE STATE. 131 revive by dying ; and can we think that man, the Lord of all these things which thus die and revive for him, should be detained in death as never to live again ? Is it imaginable that God should thus restore all things to man and not restore man to himself? If there were no other consideration but of the principles of human nature, of the liberty and remunerability of human actions, and of the natural revolutions and resurrections of other creatures, it were abundantly sufficient to render the resurrection of our bodies highly probable — Bishop Pearson, Expos, art. 11.—" The very dust of whose writ- ings'' Bentley pronounced " to be gold." We may conclude the souls of men to be immortal from the nature of God ; for, if he is (which surely no man doubts) a perfect Being, he, as such, can do nothing inconsistent with perfect or right reason ; and then, no Being, nor circumstance of any Being, can come from him as its cause, which it is not agreeable to such reason should be; or, which is the same, he cannot but deal reasonably with all his depen- dents. And then again, if we are in the number of these, and the mortality of the human soul does not consist with reason, we may be sure it is immortal; as sure as we can be of any thing by the use of our faculties, and that is as sure as we can be of any thing. Whether, k 2 132 FUTURE STATE. therefore, that doth consist with reason is to be inquired. To produce a being into a state of clear happiness, in any degree, can be no injury to it ; or into a state of mixt happiness, provided the happiness certainly overbalances the con- trary, and the unhappy or suffering part be not greater than what that being would choose in order to obtain that happiness, or, rather than lose it. Nor, again, can any wrong be done by producing a being subject to more misery than happiness, if that being hath it in his own power to avoid the misery, or so much of it as may leave the remainder of misery not greater than what he would rather sustain than miss the proportion of happiness : the only case, then, by which wrong can be done in the production of any being is, when it is necessarily and irre- mediably to be miserable without any recom- pense or balance of that misery ; and this is a case so grievous, so utterly irreconcileable to all reason, that the heart of a reasoning and consi- dering man can scarce bear the thought of it. So much every one must understand of the nature of reason and justice as to allow these things for truths incontestible. Now, then, he who says the soul of man is mortal must say one of these two things : either that God is an unreasonable, unjust, cruel Being (which it is horrible almost for a moment to think or to FUTURE STATE. 133 express); or that no man, in respect of this life, which according to him is all, has a greater share of misery unavoidable than of happiness. To say the former, is to contradict that which has been proved beyond contradiction ; to which I may add, that this is to avow such an un- worthy, impious, notion of the Supreme Being as one would not entertain without caution of the worst of men ; such a one as even the person himself as says this must know to be false. For he cannot but see, and must own, many in- stances of the reasonableness and beneficence of the Deity ; not one of which could be if cruelty and unreasonableness were his inclination, since He has the power to execute his own inclina- tions thoroughly, and is a Being uniform in his nature. Then to say the latter, is to contradict the whole story of mankind and even one's own senses. Consider well the dreadful effects of many wars, and all those barbarous desolations which we read of; what cruel tyrants there are and have been in the world, who Cat least in their fits) divert themselves with the pangs and convulsions of their fellow-creatures; what slavery is, and how many men have been brought into that lamentable state ; how many have been ruined by accidents unforeseen ; how many have suffered or been undone by unjust laws, judges, witnesses. &c. ; how many have 134 FUTURE STATE. brought incurable diseases, or the causes of them, and of great torments, into the world with them; how many more, such bodily infirmities and disadvantages as have rendered their whole lives uneasy ; how many are born in such circumstances as make their only in- heritance to be invincible poverty and trouble. Instances are endless in history. Consider the many massacres, persecutions, and miseries consequent upon them, which false religion has caused, authorised, sanctified ! Hardships and sufferings present themselves daily Now, among all those millions who have suffered eminently, can it be imagined that there have not been multitudes whose griefs and pangs have far outweighed all their enjoyments, and yet who have not been able, either by their in- nocence, their prudence, or any power in them, to escape that bitter draught which they have drunk ? And then, how can we acquit the justice and reasonableness of that Being upon whom these unhappy creatures depend, and who leaves them such great losers by their existence, //* there be no future state where the proper amends may be made? So that the argument is brought to this undeniable issue: if the soul of man is not immortal ,* either there is no God * Or, if there be not a future state of rewards and punishments. FUTURE STATE. 135 upon whom we depend, or he is an unreasonable Being ; or there never lias been any man whose sufferings in this world have exceeded his enjoy- ments, without his being the cause of it himself. But surely not one of these things can be truly said. That which aggravates the hard case of these sufferers, if there be no future state in which their past sufferings may be brought into the account and recompensed, is, that many times their persecutors and tormentors pass their lives in plenty and grandeur; that is, the innocent have not only the portion that properly belongs to the criminal and unreasonable part of man- kind, but the guilty have that which belongs rather to the innocent. Such a transposition of rewards and punishments, ending in itself with- out any respect to something which is to follow hereafter, can never consist with the nature of a governor who is not very much below rational : a thought which God forbid any one should entertain of Him. To suppose the virtuous and wise left ultimately, but in the same state, with the unjust and profligate, is to suppose such a constitution of nature as never can flow from a principle of reason, a God of truth and equity ; and, therefore, such a constitution as leaves the former in a worse condition than the other can much less be supposed. If virtue tends to make men happy even here, it does not follow that 136 FUTURE STATE. there are no cases in which the usual effect of virtue may not be overpowered by disease, vio- lence, and disasters. It does not render men invulnerable, nor prevent many calamities under which virtue and vice must fall undistinguished. If there were even only some yew, nay, but one instance of each kind in the world ; viz. of un- fortunate virtue and prosperous ivickedness, it would be to me a sufficient argument for a future state, because God cannot be unjust or unreasonable in any one instance. And must he end here ? Is this the period of his being ? Is this all? Did he come into the world only to make his way through the press amidst many justlings and hard struggles, with at best only a few deceitful little fugacious pleasures inter- spersed, and so go out of it again ? Can this be an end worthy a First Cause perfectly reasonable P Would any one send a man upon such a journey as this — only that the man might faint and expire at the end of it, and all his thoughts perish ; that is, for no end at all, or for the punish- ment of one whom I suppose never to have hurt him nor ever to have been capable of hurting him ? And can we impute that to God! — Wooll. 200, 8$c. Sparsim. This thought is illustrated and extended by Hooker in his Ecclesiast. Polity, book i. p. 27. If the soul of man did serve only to give him FUTURE STATE. 137 being in this life, then things appertaining unto this life would content him, as we see they do other creatures ; which creatures, enjoying what they live by, seek no further, but in this conten- tation do shew a kind of acknowledgment that there is no higher good, which doth any way belong unto them : with us, it is otherwise ; for, although the beauties, riches, honours, sciences, virtues, and perfections of all men living were in the present possession of one, yet somewhat beyond and above all this would still be thought and earnestly thirsted for. So that nature, even in this life, doth plainly claim and call for a more divine perfection. Fancy a man walking in some retired field, far from noise and free from prejudice, to debate this matter with himself, and then judge whe- ther such meditations as these would not be just: — " I think I may be sure, that neither life- less matter nor the vegetative tribe, that stone, that flower, that tree, have any reflex thoughts ; nor do the sensitive animals, that sheep, that ox, seem to have any such thing, or but in the lowest degree ; and in respect of present objects only. They do not reason nor discourse. I may, therefore, certainly pretend to be something much above all these things. I apprehend and consider not only these external objects acting at present on my nerves, but have ideas raised 138 FUTURE STATE. within myself of a higher order, and many. I cannot only represent to myself things that are or have been, but deduce many things from them ; make excursions into futurity, and fore- see much of what will be, or at least may be ; by strict thinking, I had almost said, get into another world beforehand : and, whether I shall live in some other state after death or not, I am certainly a being capable of such expectation, and cannot but be solicitous about it. None of which things can be said of those clods or those brutes! Can I, then, be designed for nothing further than just to eat, drink, sleep, walk about, and act upon this earth ; that is, to have no further being than what these brutes have so far beneath me ? Can I be made capable of such great expectations which those animals know nothing of — happier by far, in this regard, than I am — if we must die alike, only to be dis- appointed at last? Thus placed, just on the confines of another and a better world, and fed with hopes of penetrating into it, and enjoying it, only to make a short appearance here, and then to be shut out and totally sunk ? Must I, then, when I bid my last farewell to these walks ; when I close these lids, and yonder blue regions and all this scene darken upon me and go out . must I, then, only serve to furnish dust, to be mingled with the ashes of these herds and plants, FUTURE STATE. 139 or with this dirt under my feet ? Have I been set so far above them in life, only to be levelled with them at death ? — Wooll. 209. 8vo. Addison, in the 111th Spectator, has finely illustrated this thought:—" How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that the soul which is capable of such immense perfections, and of re- ceiving new improvements to all eternity, shall fall away into nothing almost as soon as it is created. Are such abilities made to no purpose? A brute arrives at a point of perfection that he can never pass : in a few years he has all the endowments he is capable of; and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the same thing he is at present. Were a human soul thus at a stand in her accomplishments, were her faculties to be fullblown and incapable of further enlarge- ments, I could imagine it might fall away in- sensibly, and drop at once into a state of anni- hilation. But, can we believe, a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progress of improvements, and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of its Creator, and made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, wisdom and power, must perish at her first setting out, and in the very beginning of her inquiries ?'' Permanere animos aibitramur conscensu na- tion urn omnium. — Cic. 140 FUTURE STATE. The soul, when it parts from this g?*oss body, will pass by some law into some new seat or state, agreeable to the state of it. — JVooll. 212. Ex humili atque depresso in eum emicabit locum, quisquis ille est, qui solutos vinculis animos beato recipit sinu. — Seneca. In this new state or place of abode, there may be different stations befitting the difference of particular souls among themselves, as they are more or less perfect in their kind. The great difference of human souls, with respect to perfection and imperfection, lies in their different degrees and habits of reasonable- ness and unreasonableness, and according to these differences, it is reasonable to think the souls of men will find their stations in the future world. Hence it follows, that the practice of reason, in its just extent, is the great preparative for death, and the means of advancing our happi- ness through all our subsequent duration. — JVooll, adfinem. The last and highest estate of perfection whereof we speak, is received of men in the nature of a reward. Rewards do always pre- suppose such duties performed as are re- wardable. Our natural means, therefore, unto blessedness, are our works; nor is it possible that nature should ever find any other way to FUTURE STATE. 141 salvation than only this. — Hooker, book i. p. 27. It is absolutely necessary for us to gain habits of virtue in this life, if we would enjoy the plea- sures of the next ; the state of bliss we call heaven will not be capable of affecting those minds which are not thus qualified for it ; we must, in this world, gain a relish of truth and virtue if we would be able to taste that know- ledge and perfection which are to make us happy in the next. The seeds of those spiritual joys and raptures which are to rise up and flourish in the soul to all eternity, must be planted in her during this her present state of probation. In short, heaven is not to be looked upon only as the reward, but as the natural effect of a religious life. On the other hand, those evil spirits who, by long custom, have contracted in the body, habits of lust and sensuality, malice and revenge, and aversion to every thing that is good, just or laudable, are naturally seasoned and prepared for pain and misery;* their torments have already taken root in them, they will naturally become their own tormentors, and cherish in themselves those painful habits of mind which have been * Seraque fata Quae mancnt culpas etiam sub orco. Hor. lib. iii. ode 11, 142 FUTURE STATE. truly described as " the worm which never dies." — Addison, Spec. No. 447. Spar. Every particular custom and habit of virtue will, in its own nature, produce the heaven or a state of happiness in him who shall practise it; as, on the contrary, every custom and habit of vice will be the natural hell of him in whom it subsists. — Dr. Scott's Christian Life, book i. The end and aim of all human actions is some good, and there is a sovereign good, a good by way of excellence, which every soul pants after. This sovereign good must needs be per- fect, sole sufficient by itself; and such that whoever comes to know it cannot but most ardently seek the possession of that alone, with- out the least concern for any other things but such as are made perfect by those goods which have some relation thereto. But this can only be found in that infinite Being, who is the parent and cause of all other beings ; who not only gives to things knowable whatever they contain of truth, and to intelligent beings the faculty of knowing them, but is the author of their existence and essence, being himself above all essence both in respect to time and power. Without the knowledge and possession of this good all other things are unprofitable, for which reason there are but few men who arrive at happiness in this world, and none who can FUTURE STATE. 143 attain it in perfection. This good is knowledge and truth, which produce holiness and justice, by which we are, as far as it is possible, united and made like to God {ex.eivco), and also the love of that superlatively excellent Being, from whence results a pleasure that is virtuous, pure, and without remorse. If the soul retires pure and unsullied, by truly philosophising and effectually learning how to die (for philosophy is a pre- paration for death), it goes to a being like itself, to a Being, divine immortal and replete with wisdom, where it lives in the enjoyment of mar- vellous felicity, exempt from all its errors, ignorance and fears ; from all those passions and affections which once tyrannised over it ; and from all the other evils attending human life, and leads a truly celestial life to all eternity : so that, besides the most glorious and most cer- tain rewards that good men receive in this world both from God and man, and the good things which probity naturally procures for those, who, with constancy adhere thereto, they receive after their deaths too, rewards both im- mense and innumerable ; whereas the ivicked are punished in another life proportionally to the crimes they have committed in this. — Extracts from Plato. See the Greek passages, and the references in notes to Barbei/racs Preface to Pnjend. Law of N. 8$ Nat. fo. 53. 144 FUTURE STATE. The Last Judgment, (a hymn composed in uncouth Latin and barbarous Leonine rhyme, yet sublime,) from M. Matthias. Dies irse, dies ilia Solvet saeclum in favilla Quantus tremor est futurus, Quando judex est venturus, Cuncta strict^ discussurus ! Tuba mirum spargens sonum Per sepulcra regionum Coget omnes ante thronum Mors stupebit et natura Cum resurget creatura Judicanti responsura Quid sum miser, turn dicturus Quern patronum rogaturus Cum vix Justus sit securus ? Rex tremendae majestatis Salva nos, fons pietatis Juste judex ultionis Donum fac remissionis ; Oro supplex, et acclinis Cor contritum quasi cinis Gere curam mei finis ! Lachrymosa dies ilia Cum resurget ex favilla Judicandus homo reus Supplicanti parce Deus. PRAYER AND MORAL DUTIES. Plato also teaches that we ought never to undertake any thing without prayer to God; but, at the same time, declares that God rejects the prayers and sacrifices of those whose souls are impure, and that he suffers not himself to be bribed with gifts ; that a blind and immoderate self-love is the source of all the evils of life; and, that the conquest a man gains over himself is the greatest and most glorious of victories. He says, " that we should be always learning to die, and yet should bear with life in obedience to God, whose will it is we should not quit it till we have obtained his express discharge; that we were not born for ourselves only, but also for our country, for our relations, and for the rest of our friends ; that we ought not to injure any man ; that we ought not to return evil for evil; and, that it is much better to receive than to do an injury. He acknowledges that there is no law in common to man and beasts, and that man is the only one of all the animals that has any idea of right, and of the Deity from ivhence it pro- ceeds. — Barbeyr. L 146 PRAYER The stoics (inter al.) delivered the following as the precepts of their morality. See the Greek passages. — Barbeyr. 72. That we ought above all things to honor and serve God — to call upon him in all our actions ; to have our thoughts always fixed on hirn ; to raise up our hearts to him ; to like his conduct in every thing, and to praise and give thanks to him for all things ; to obey him alone, abso- lutely and without reserve ; to receive with a ready submission, and with complacency, all that he is pleased to send us — to rest assured, that there is nothing more fit, nothing better, nothing more advantageous, nothing more sea- sonable, than that which he ordains to come to pass, whatever it be ; to follow him, without murmuring or hesitating, wherever he is pleased to lead us ; courageously to defend, and with constancy to guard, the post he hath assigned us, whatever it be, and to suffer a thousand deaths rather than abandon it. As to the duties of men towards one another, the stoics taught, that each man in particular ought to love the rest of mankind with all his heart, and to take care of and to interest him- self in every thing that concerns them ; to bear with and to do them no wrong, and to believe that all injury and injustice is a sort of impiety ; to exercise his bounty towards them ; to live in AND MORAL DUTIES. 147 such a manner as will convince the world of his being thoroughly persuaded that we were not born for ourselves alone, but for the common good of human society, and to do good to all men according to our strength and abilities ; to be satisfied with the having done a good action, and with the favorable testimony of a good con- science thereupon ; and even in some measure to forget it instead of seeking for witnesses, or proposing to himself any recompense, or acting with a view to his own particular interest ; to go on from one good action to another, never grow- ing weary of doing good, but continuing through the whole course of his life to accumulate good actions upon good actions without suffering the least interval or vacuity to be between them, as if in that alone consisted all the advantage and pleasure of life; to think the opportunity of doing a good office to another a sufficient reward for the doing it, and to esteem himself obliged to those who shall have furnished him there- with; looking upon it as a thing that redounds to his own profit and advantage, and conse- quently not to seek beyond himself for either profit or the praise of men. As to ourselves, we ought (say the stoics) to make the soul our first and principal care ; to honor it as the most excellent part of us ; to l2 148 PRAYER have nothing so much at heart, or in so great esteem, as virtue and honesty; never to suffer ourselves to swerve from our duty, as far as we can attain to the knowledge of it, either through the desire of life, much less of any other thing; or through the fear or dread of torments or death, much less of any damage or loss whatso- ever. — See the passage in Greek, and reference, Barbeyr. ib. When one man desires to obtain any thing of another he betakes himself to entreaty, and this in all ages and countries. Now, what is universal may be called natural ; and it is pro- bable God should expect that towards himself which, by natural impulse, he prompts us to pay to every other being on whom we depend. Prayer is necessary to keep up a sense of God's agency and of our dependence. But it is objected, if what we request be fit for us we shall have it without prayer ; if not, we cannot obtain it by praying. But it may be agreeable to perfect Wisdom to grant that to our prayers, which it would not be to have given without praying for. For, 1st. A favor granted to prayer may be more apt, on that very account, to pro- duce good effects on the persons obliged. 2dly. It may be consistent with God's wisdom to withhold his favors till asked for, to encourage AND MORAL DUTIES. 149 devotion in his rational creation. 3dly. Prayer has a natural tendency to amend the petitioner himself. The objection to prayer supposes that a per- fectly wise Being must necessarily be inexor- able ; but where is the proof that inexorability is any part of perfect wisdom, which is explained to consist in bringing- about the most beneficial ends by the wisest means. As to the constant efficacy of prayer, it may be remarked, that if prayer were suffered to disturb the order of second causes too much, or to produce its effects with the same regularity, it would introduce a change in human affairs for the worse. Who would labour if his necessities could, with cer- tainty, be supplied with prayer? How few would moderate their passions if prayer would infallibly restore health ? It is possible in the nature of things that our prayers may in many instances be efficacious, and yet that our ex- perience of their efficacy may be obscure, since this very ambiguity is necessary to the happiness and safety of human life. — Paley, Mor. Phil. vol. ii. Sparsim. Prayer maintains that spiritual intercourse between man and his Creator, which is the highest privilege of rational beings. — Kett. Deum et venerari, et colere debemus ; cultns autem Dei, est optimus, idemque castissimus, 150 PRAYER atque sanctissimus, plcnissimusque pietatis, ut eum semper pura, Integra, incorrupta, et mente et voce veneremur. Non enim philosophi solum, verum etiam majores nostri superstitionem a religione separaverunt. — Cic. de Nat. D. 2. 28. Rora bonam mentem, bonam valetudinem animi, deinde corporis tunc scito esse te omnibus cupiditatibus solutum, cum eo perveneris ut nihil Deum roges, nisi quod palam rogare possis. Sic vive cum hominibus, tanquam Dens videat, sic loquere cum Deo, tanqoain homines audiant. — Seneca, letter 10. I envy no quality of the mind or intellect in others — not genius, power, wit or fancy ; but if I could choose what would be most delightful and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a Jirm religious belief to every other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of goodness ; creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish ; and throws over the decay, the destruc- tion of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity ; makes an instrument of torture and of shame the ladder of assent to paradise ; and, far above all com- binations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions of palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blest, the security of everlasting- joys, where the sensualist and the sceptic view AND MORAL DUTIES. 151 only gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair. — Sir H. Davy's Salmonia, p. 136. Primus est Deorum cultus, Deos credere, deinde reddere illis majestatem suam, reddere bonitatem, sine qua. nulla majesta est. Scire illos esse, qui prsesident mundo, qui universa vi sua temperant, qui humani generis tutelam gerunt, interdum curiosi singulorum. Hi nec dant malum, nec habent, ceterum castigant quosdam, et coerceant, et irrogant psenas, et aliquando specie boni puniunt. Vis Deos pro- pitiare? Bonus esto satis illos coluit, quisquis immitatus est. — Seneca, epist. 95. V Adoration d'un Dieu, auteur de tous les etres, Dieu unique, Dieu incommunicable, Dieu juste, Dieu remunerateur et vengeur. Dieu, qui a imprime dans nos coeurs, la loi naturelle et sainte. — Voltaire. Misfortunes. — I am thoroughly convinced, that every dispensation of Providence is wise and good ; and that, by making a proper im- provement of the evils even of this life, we may convert them all into blessings. It becomes us, therefore, to adore the Supreme Benefactor when he takes away as well as when he gives — for he is wise and beneficent in both. — Dr. Beattie, vol. i. let. 321. 152 PRAYER MORNING. Lucis largitor splendide Cujus sereno lumine Port lapsa noctis tempora Dies refusus panditur Tu verus mundi Lucifer Non is qui parvi sideris Venturas lucis nuntius Angusto fulget lumine Sed toto sole clarior Lux ipse totus, et Dies Interna nostri pectoris Illuminans praecordia Adesto rerum conditor, &c. Part of Morning Hymn of St. Hilary. JVOOJV. Jam solis excelsum jubar Toto corruscat lumine Sinusque pandens aureos Ignita vibrat spicula Fac nostra plenum charitas Crescendo surgat ad diem. EVENING. Labente jam solis rota Inclinat in noctem dies ; Sic vita supremam cito Festinat ad metam gradu Deus Creator omnium Polique rector, vestiens Diem decoro lumine Noctem soporis gratia Artus solutos et quies Reddat laboris usui Mentesque fessas allevet, Luctusque solvat anxios, &c. Evening Hymn of St. Ambrose. AND MORAL DUTIES. 153 Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Utter'd or unexpressed ; The motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast. Prayer is the burthen of a sigh, The falling of a tear, The upward glancing of an eye When none but God is near. Prayer is the simplest form of speech That infant lips can try ; Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach The majesty on high. Prayer is the contrite sinner's voice, Returning from his ways ; While angels, in their songs, rejoice And say — Behold he prays Montgomery. Holy, holy, holy ! Lord God Almighty ! Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee ; Holy, holy, holy ! merciful as mighty ; Which wert, and art, and ever more shall be. Holy, holy, holy ! tho' thick darkness hide thee, Tho' the eye of sinful men thy glory may not see, Only thou art holy ; there is none beside thee Perfect in power, in love, and purity. Holy, holy, holy ! Lord God Almighty ! All thy works shall praise thy name In earth, and sky, and sea. lip. Heber, 154 PRAYER O qui perpetua mundum ratione gubernas ! Terrarum coelique sator ! qui tempus ab aevo Ire jubes, stabilisque manens das cuncta moveri Quem non externa? pepulerunt fingere causae Materiae fluitantis opus, verum insita summi Forma boni, livore carens ! Tu cuncta superno Ducis ab exemplo ; pulcrum pulcerrimus ipse Mundum mente gerens, similique in imagine formans Perfectasque jubens perfectum absolvere partes. Tu numeris elementa ligas, tit frigora flammis, Arida conveniant liquidis : ne purior ignis Evolet, aut mersas ded;;cant pondera terras Da, pater, augustam menti conscendere sedem Da fontem lustrare boni, da luce reperta Inte conspicuos animi defigere visus. Disjice terrenae nebulas, et pondera molis Atque tuo splendore mica. Tu namque serenum, Tu requies tranquilla piis ; te cernere finis, Principium, vector, dex, semita, terminus idem. Bcetius, lib. iii. O Thou, whose power o'er moving worlds presides, Whose voice created, and whose wisdom guides, On darkling man in pure effulgence shine, And cheer the clouded mind with light divine ; Tis thine alone to calm the pious breast With silent confidence and holy rest : From thee, great God ! we spring, to thee we tend ; Path, motive, guide, original, and end. Johnson s Trans. Ramb. No. AND MORAL DUTIES. 155 Before thy mystic altar, Heavenly Truth ! I kneel in manhood as I knelt in youth ; Thus let me kneel till this dull form decay, And life's last shade be brighten' d by thy ray ; Then shall my soul, now lost in clouds below, Soar without bound — without consuming — glow. Sir W.Jones, vol. i. 169. Father of Light and Life ! thou Good Supreme ! O teach me what is good ! teach me Thyself ! Save me from folly, vanity, and vice, From every low pursuit ! and feed my soul With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue ; Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss ! Thomson. Virtue sole survives, Tmmortal never-failing friend of man. His guide to happiness on high. And see ! 'Tis come — the glorious morn ! the second birth Of heaven and earth! awakening Nature hears The new-creating word, and starts to life, In every heightened form, from pain and death For ever free : the great eternal scheme Involving all, and in a perfect whole Uniting, as the prospect wider spreads, To Reason's eye refined, clears up apace. Ye vainly wise ! ye blind presumptious ! now, Confounded in the dust, adore that Power, And Wisdom oft arraigned : see now the cause Why unassuming Worth in secret lived, And dy'd neglected ; why the good man's share In life was gall and bitterness of soul ; 156 PRAYER, &c. Why the lone widow and her orphans pined In starving solitude ; while Luxury, In palaces, lay straining her low thought To form unreal wants : why heaven-born Truth, And Moderation fair, wore the red marks Of Superstitions scourge ; why licens'd Pain, That cruel spoiler, that embosom'd foe, Imbittered all our bliss. Ye good distrest ! Ye noble few ! who here unbending stand Beneath life's pressure, yet bear up awhile, And what your bounded view, which only saw A little part, deemed evil, is no more The storms of wintry Time will quickly pass, And one unbounded Spring encircle all. Thomsons Winter, v. 1038. GENERAL RESULT. The unchangeable obligation of natural reli- gion even exacts from us, then, the fixt belief that there is one eternal, infinite, intelligent, all powerful, and wise Being; the creator, preserver, and governor of all things ; that this supreme Cause is a being of infinite justice, goodness, and truth, and all other moral as well as natural perfections; that he made the world for the manifestation of his power and wisdom, and to communicate his goodness and happiness to his creatures ; that he preserves it by his continual all-wise providence, and governs it according to the eternal rules of infinite justice, equity, good- ness, mercy, and truth ; that all created rational beings, depending continually upon him, are bound to adore, worship, and obey him ; to praise him for all things they enjoy, and to pray to him for every thing they want ; that they are all obliged to promote in their proportion, and according to the extent of their several powers and abilities, the general good and welfare of those parts of the world wherein they are placed : in like manner as the divine Goodness is con- 158 GENERAL RESULT. tinually promoting- the universal benefit of the whole, that men in particular are every where obliged to make it their business, by an universal benevolence, to promote the happiness of all others ; that, in order to this, every man is bound always to behave himself so towards others as in reason he would desire they should, in the like circumstances, deal with him ; wherefore he is obliged to obey and submit to his superiors in all just and right things for the preservation of society and the peace and benefit of the public; to be just and honest, equitable and sincere, in all his dealings with his equals, for the keeping inviolable the everlasting rule of righteousness, and maintaining an universal trust and confidence — friendship and affection amongst men ; and towards his inferiors to be gentle and kind, easy and affable, charitable, and willing to assist as many as stand in need of his help, for the preservation of universal love and benevolence amongst mankind, and in imitation of the goodness of God, who preserves and does good to all his creatures, which depend entirely upon him for their very being and all that they enjoy : that in respect of himself, every man is bound to preserve, as much as in him lies, his own being and the right use of all his faculties, so long as it shall please God, who appointed him his station in this world, to continue him GENERAL RESULT. 159 therein ; that, therefore, he is bound to have an exact government of his passions, and carefully to abstain from all debaucheries and abuses of himself, which tend either to the destruction of his own being or to the disorder of his faculties, and disabling from the performance of his duty, or hurrying him into practice of unreasonable and unjust things. Lastly, that according as men regard or neglect these obligations, so they are proportionably acceptable or displeasing unto God, who, being Supreme Governor of the world, cannot but testify his favor or displea- sure at some time or other ; and consequently, since this is not done in the present state, there- fore there must be a future state of rewards and punishments. — Dr. Clarke. Now, therefore, unto the king eternal, im- mortal, invisible, the only wise, omnipotent and merciful God, be honor and glory for ever and ever ! ! ! — Paul. POSTSCRIPT. The various passages given in the foregoing- pages, do, it is hoped, establish incontrovertibly the several positions for which they have been cited and adduced. It would not have been difficult to have increased their number, or to have woven them into one continued argument; but enough have been cited to meet many floating doubts and mistakes, and the weight of authority and beauty of expression must have been lost, though every sentiment had been preserved, if the passages themselves had not been given. It may however, perhaps, both amuse and instruct the reader to shew, by the following extracts from a book of still higher antiquity and authority, how forcibly the same propositions had been previously announced and asserted. The several passages are faithfully given, though the exact references have been unfor- tunately not retained, as, when made, no idea was entertained of publication; the arrange- ment, indeed, is arbitrary, with a view to per- spicuity and to make the quotations throw light on each other. POSTSCRIPT, EXTRACTS, &c. 161. The very few words introduced, merely as connectives, or alterations in number or person, are carefully printed with inverted commas, to guard against the imputation of making garbled extracts. EXTRACTS FROM VARTOUS PARTS OF THE BIBLE. Relative to the Being and Attributes of the Deity — His Pro- vidence — The Distinction between Virtue and Vice — and a Future State — Of Rewards and Punishments. INTRODUCTION (From the Wisdom, of Solomon* ch. 13). Surely vain are all men by nature, who are ignorant of God, and could not, out of the good things that are seen, know him that is! — Neither by considering the works, acknowledge the JForhnaster, but deemed either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the violent water, or the lights of heaven, to be the Gods which govern the world ; with whose beauty, if they being delighted, took them to be gods, let them know how much * Mem — The Book of Wisdom is said to have been ori- ginally written in Greek, and not in Hebrew, and therefore not included in the Canon of Protestants ; but it may be re- marked that, by one of the three first Decrees of the Council of Trent, the books, commonly designated as apocryphal, are of equal authority with the other Jewish and Christian canonical Scriptures. M 162 EXTRACTS better the Lord of them is ; for the first Author of beauty hath created them, and by the great- ness and beauty of the creatures, proportionally the maker of them is seen. Even He, which a little before was made of earth himself, and within a little while after returneth to the same, out of the which he was taken, when his life which was lent him shall be demanded ; his heart is ashes, his hope is more vile than earth, and his life of less value than clay, if lie knew not his Maker, and him that inspired into him an active soul, and breathed in a living spirit.* I.— THE DEITY!!! The heavens declare the glory of God! and the firmament sheweth his handy work. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art! If Behold the heaven, and the heaven of hea- vens cannot contain thee. * The Stoics spoke of the rational soul, as a part of the divinity, and many antient philosophers conceived in man two principles distinct from the body. One, the animal soul or life, (i. e. the living spirit) ; the other, the rational (i. e. the active) soul, like that in their lower divinities, or our angels. The coincidence is singular. — So Juvenal, sat. 15 v. 144. Principio indulsit communis conditor, Mis Tantum animas, nobis animum quoque, &c. FROM THE BIBLE. 163 For the heavens are thine, the earth also is thine. The day is thine — the night also is thine, thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast made summer and winter, and by thy spirit hath garnished the heavens. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind, and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He stretcheth out. the north over the empty space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing! He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, and seeth under the whole heaven. To make the weight for the winds, and he weigheth the waters by measure. He made a decree for the rain, and a way for the LIGHTNING of the THUNDER.* He said ; let there be light, and there was light.-}- He forms the light, and creates darkness — lo! these are parts of his ways, but ham little portion is heard ? There are yet hid great things, that there be, for we have seen but ajeiv of his works — " But " * Note the philosophical correctness of expression. t Query shorter — let light he, and light was. — Vide Lonsinus. M 2 164 EXTRACTS He that liveth for ever, created all things in general. He commanded — and all things were created, and he hath made nothing imperfect. The works of the Lord are done in judgment from the beginning, and from the time he made them, he disposed the parts thereof- — for all wisdom* cometh from the Lord, and is with him for ever, having been created before all things from everlasting. No heart can think upon these things worthily, and who is able to conceive his ways ? It is a tempest which no man can see, for the most parts of his works are hid Such knowledge is too wonderful for " us" [me]. It is too high, " we" (I original) cannot attain unto it. Canst thou by searching^M out GodiP Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst thou know P The thunder of his power, who can under- stand? Clouds and darhiess are round about him, and his greatness is unsearehable ! ! ! We may speak much, and yet come short, wherefore in sum, He is all. * EvapKrj y\v o Xoyog, &c. t " To the unknown God!" — Altar, Athens. FROM THB BIBLE. 165 II.— MANKIND— Good and Evil, $c. The Lord created man of the earth. F »»« Operations. Tiiey received the use of the ^e operations seeing, of the Lord, and in the sixth place, he imparted smeiifng, them understanding, and in the seventh, speech Feeling, the interpreter of the cogitations thereof. stand?n"or Withal he filled them with the knowledge of Reason. 7. Speech. understanding, and shewed them good and evil. He made an everlasting covenant with them, and shewed them his judgments. Their eyes saw the majesty of his glory, and their ears heard wisdom his glorious voice. Thine Almighty word leapt down from heaven out of thy royal throne, and brought thine un- feigned commandment; standing up it touched the heaven, but it stood upon the earth ! * And He said unto them, Beware of all un- righteousness. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly — and to love mercy — and to walk humbly with thy God — to fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart. Who unto man hath said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with " Sublime imago. Ingredtturque solo, et caputinter nubila condit. Virgil. 166 EXTRACTS all thy soul, and with all thy might — and thy neighbour thou shall love as thyself* Behold! the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding'. Who looketh from heaven, and beholdeth all the sons of men, and considereth all their works. Who loveth righteousness, and hateth wicked- ness, and rendereth to every man according to his work. None of their unrighteous deeds are hid from him, but all their sins are before the Lord. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, be- holding the evil and the good, the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. Their ways are ever before him, and shall not be hid from his eyes. " There are, who ask* u Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? " Therefore they say unto God! — "Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways, — What is the Almighty, that we should serve him, and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? one dieth in his very per- fection, and another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure, they shall * Not, therefore, the peculiar doctrine of the Christian religion. So also Zoroaster •' see Barbeyrac's Introduction to Puffendoff, p 39. FROM THE BIBLE. 1 67 lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them." And because sentence against an evil work is Answer- not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil ; but know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right ? He that planted the ear, shall He not hear ? He that formed the eye, shall He not see ? The eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, beholding all the ways of men, and considering the most secret parts. No thought escapeth him, neither any word is hidden from him. Say not thou — " I will hide myself from the Lord, shall any remember me from above, I shall not be remembered among so many people, for what is my soul among such an infinite number of creatures?" For whither shall " we" f I original'] go from his spirit? or whither shall "we" flee from his presence ! As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, souUmma- the Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness. The wicked is reserved to the day of destruc- tion — they shall be brought forth to the day of wraths. " But " 168 EXTRACTS Know thou, the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind ; for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts— if thou seek him, he will be found of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. The Lord God of heaven ! the great and terri- ble God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him, and observe his command- ments. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent ; hath he said, and shall he not do it, or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold God! will not cast away a perfect man, neither will He take the ungodly by the hand. Remember I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cutoff! Thus saith the Lord ! Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that He understandeth and knoweth me — that I am the Lord, who exercise loving-kindness, judg- ment and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. FROM THE BIBLK. 169 III.— A FUTURE STATE OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS. Thus saith the high and lofty one ! that inha- a future ° ^ u state ot Re- biteth eternitv — whose name is holv !! ! I am He. wards and J " Punish- I am the first — I also am the last. Yea before meuts. the day was, I am He. I am the Lord, your holy one, the Creator — I am the Lord, and there is none else — there is no God besides me. My salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. I even / am the Lord, and beside me, there is no Saviour.* See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. I call heaven and earth to record against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing — Thou shall do, that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord that it may be well with thee. That which is altogether just, shalt thou follow. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, which if a man do, he shall live in them, I am the Lord — * Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer. — Psalm. 170 EXTRACTS To me belongeth vengeance and recompence, I live for ever. Seek not death " then" in the error of your life, and pull not on yourselves destruction with the work of your hands. For God made not Death! neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living, being gracious, and knowing his workmanship. He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. Whose anger endureth, but for a moment, and in whose favor is life. Who so feareth the Lord, it shall go well with him at the last, and he shall find favor in the day of his death. The righteous hath hope in his death. The wicked worketh a deceitful work, but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward. Wickedness, condemned by her oxen witness is very timorous, and being pressed with con- sciousness, always forecast eth grievous things, " But" Ye that fear the Lord, hope for good, and for everlasting joy and mercy — " For" Righteousness is immortal. God shall judge the righteous, and the wicked, for there is a time for every purpose, and for every work. Wlto knoweth the spirit of the sons of man, FROM THE BIBLE. 171 that goeth upwards (or is ascending), and the TheExis- , . tence of the spirit of the beast, that goeth downwards to the soui. 1 (N.B. The earth. distinction God will redeem the soul, from the power of ManS , Brute.) the grave. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge his people. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God, who gave it. He that is our God ! is the God of salva- tion — the God of the spirits of all flesh — seeAnte. and unto God the Lord, belong the issues FROM DEATH. And why art thou against the pleasure of the Most High ? Fear not the sentence of death, remember Death, them that have been before thee, and that come after, for this is the sentence of the Lord over all flesh. 80 man lieth down, and riseth not, till the heavens be no more — till his change come, but Our flesh shall rest in hope ; (or dwell confi- dently). [For know] That our redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after the skin, worms destroy this body, and after that, we awake ; though the 172 EXTRACTS body be destroyed, yet out of our flesh,* shall we see God — Behold the heaven, and the heaven of heavens — the deep and the earth, and all that therein is, shall be moved, when he shall visit. The mountains also, and foundations of the earth shall be shaken with trembling, when the Lord looketh upon them. The spirit of those who fear the Lord, shall live, for their hope is in him that saveth them. Blessed is the soul of him, that feareth the Lord, to whom doth he look ? and who is his strength? The eyes of the Lord are upon them that love him — He is their mighty protector, and strong- stay — a preservation from stumbling, and a help from falling — the Lord killeth and maketh alive — maketh poor and maketh rich — He bringeth low and lifteth up — He raiseth up the soul, and lighteneth the eyes — He giveth health— and life — and blessing. He will swallow up death, in victory! ! IV — EXHORTATION TO PRAYER, %c. Set " then" your heart, and your soul to seek the Lord your God — give the Lord the honour due unto his name. Worship the Lord, with holy worship. * In the Margin instead of the Text.— Old Oxford Bible. FROM THE BIBLE. 173 Turn to the Most High, and turn away from iniquity. Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments. — Seek ye after God, and your soul shall live. Return unto the Lord, and forsake thy sins, make thy prayer before his face, and offend less, bringing the shield of his proper ministry, even prayer. That He may incline our hearts unto him — to walk in all his ways, and to keep his com- mandments, and his statutes, and his judg- ments. For he will lead thee out of darkness into the light of health — (or illumination.) What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, who shall know, every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands, then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling- place and forgive, — and do, and give to every man, according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest. If they sin against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and thou be angry with them; Yet if they shall bethink themselves, and repent, and make supplication unto thee, saying we have sinned, and have done perversely, we have 174 EXTRACTS committed wickedness, and so return unto thee, with all their heart, and with all their soul. Then hear thou their prayer, and their sup- plication in heaven, thy dwelling place, and forgive thy people, who have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions, wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion. The prayer of the humble pierceth the clouds. He, that serveth the Lord, shall be accepted with favor, and his prayer shall reach unto the clouds. If thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, when thou art in tribulation, for the Lord thy God is a merciful God. O that " Men" they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. O earth ! earth ! ! earth ! ! ! hear the word of the Lord. V.— A TE DEUM, $c. O come " then" let us worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. FROM THE BIBLE. 175 " Let us" Offer unto God thanksgiving-, and pay our vows unto the Most High. " Let us" Give unto the Lord, the glory due unto his name. Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth, — O sing praises unto the Lord. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness — fear before him all the earth. " Kneel" To Him ! that by wisdom made the JJJjjg heavens. Power - To Him ! ! that rideth upon the heaven of heavens, and on the wings of the winds. To Him ! !! who alone doeth great wonders. By the breath of whose mouth, the heavens were made, and all the host of them. Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, and sealed up the stars. Who by his strength setteth fast the moun- tains, being girded with power, or overturneth them in his anger. Who removeth the mountains, and they know not. Who hath made a way in the sea, and a safe path in the waves. Who stilleth the raging of the seas, and the noise of their waves. Who shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. Who visits the earth and waters it, and 176 EXTRACTS crowns the year with his goodness, and daily loads us with benefits. Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth water upon his fields. Who causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man. Who, preserveth man and beast. The pastures are cloathed with flocks, the valleys are also covered over with corn. The eyes of all look unto thee — and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. [His, original^ " Thy" mercy is manifest to every creature, For thy providence,0 Father, govern eth it — The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. With whom is power aud ivisdom, and unto whom belongeth mercy — " but" Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? who can declare the works of his justice? or who can endure them ? If thou Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, — O Lord, who shall stand ? But thou, O God, art a true God, full of compassion, and gracious — in mercy ordering all things — long suffering, and slow to anger, FROM THE BIBLE. 177 and plenteous in mercy and truth — there fa for- giveness with thee, that thou mayest be " loved and" feared. He shall not deal with us after our sins, nor reward us according- to our iniquities. Who is a God like unto thee ? that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by transgressions. It is thou, that art the Saviour of all ; it is thou who delivereth from all evil. To know thee is perfect righteousness; yea to Aaafter know thee is the root of immortality. Justice and judgment are the establishment of thy throne — thy law is perfect — thy statutes right — thy commandments pure — thy judg- ments true, and righteous altogether. Thou Most Upright, doth weig-h the path of the just. Unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy to deliver oar souls from death. Thou wilt not leave " our souls" [soul, ori- ginal] in hell, neither wilt thou suffer " thine holy" to see corruption. Thou wilt shew " us" the path ofMfc — in thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Thou, even thou, art God alone ; thou hast made heaven — the heaven of heavens with all their host — the earth, and all things that are N 178 EXTRACTS therein, and thou preserveth them all, and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. WL—HE COMETH TO JUDGE THE EARTH. He cometb Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be Stii? 6 e glad, let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof — for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the EARTH. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth. Awake and sing ye, that dwell in the dust, and the earth shall cast out the dead, O Lord God ! be with us — let him not leave us, nor forsake us. His Mercy. Whose mercy is great unto the heavens, and truth unto the clouds. Who is our refuge and strength, a very pre- sent help in trouble. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For He knowcth our frame — He remembereth that we are dust — being gracious and knowing US1011. FROM THE BIBLE. 179 his workmanship— -forgiving iniquity and trans- gression — and sin. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting- strength, (or the rock of ages.) VII.— CONCLUSION.— BLESSING, AND PRAISE. Let us bless then the Lord our God for ever conci and ever, and blessed be his glorious name, ^iSLe. which is exalted above all blessing and praise. The Lord is the God of truth. He is the living God — and the King of Eternity. He is the rock ; a God of truth ; and without iniquity, just and right is He. With Him is strength and wisdom. His name alone, is excellent or exalted. His glory is above the earth and heaven. There is none beside thee. In thine hand is might and power. Thine, O Lord ! is the greatness and the power — and the glory — and the victory — and the majesty, for all that is in the heaven and gJjjJjjKty in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. They shall perish and vanish away like smoke, but thou shalt endure. n2 180 EXTRACTS Now, therefore, O God ! we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. O Lord ; thou art the God* — even the living God — the Lord our God is one Lord — the Holy One — the eternal, and everlasting God — the high and lofty one, that inhabiteth eternity — the first and the last — the Almighty God — the Most Mighty— the Holy Lord God !— the Great God — the Most High — the Creator — the Redeemer — the Saviour — the God of Salvation — the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and in truth — with whom is might, and power, and wisdom. Thou O Lord ! remainest for ever ; thy throne is from generation to generation. Let then the heavens and the earth praise thee — the seas — and every thing that moveth therein. Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord— and blessed be his glorious name for ever. And all the peopled answered — Amen ! Amen ! with lifting up their hands — and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. " And now" Search the Scriptures. Made. Valeqne. C. S. * Etc It tov, TroXvm'ofioc earn, &c. — Aristotle dc Mundo, 7. FROM THE BIBLE. 181 Note. — In the 2 book of Kings, ch. v. vers. 17, 18, 19, where Naaman, a subject of Syria and a Pagan, is converted to the Jewish religion by Elisha, there is a curious instance of Elisha's permission of outward conformity in Naaman to the religion of his country, though idolatrous even. " And Naaman said, shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules burthen of earth (i.e. of Israel), for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt- offering nor sacrifice unto other Gods, but unto the Lord ; in this thing, the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth unto the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and / bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing, — and he said untp him — Go IN PEACE." FINIS. LONDON : PRINTED BY W. G. STHATFOnD, 27, MIDDI-ETON-STREET, srA-FIEI.DS, ERRATA. Page 5 line 10, for firmareter read Jlrmaretur ( > 14 ; for declarat read declarant 19, for toXvuvo/aoq read voXvuyjfJjOg 24, for segragata read segregata 20, for avsxaXrjros read avsxKu}.-/jToc 23, for voftciGOQ read vo'iadTOQ 26, l^ag/zoV?/!/ read s