But, supposing this principle operated with sufficient force and sufficient uniformity, yet actions proceeding from fear only, however useful or beneficial they may be, cannot be attended with that self-approbation and consciousness of desert, which is not only the surest mark of goodness, but the strongest support of it.

The distinction between the motives on which men act, is of the utmost consequence. To instance in a few particulars: Vanity may build and endow an hospital, as well as Charity. The action is the same, but how different are the motives! The one directs its views to the flattering prospects of grandeur and fame: the other aims at nothing but the removal or diminution of human misery; the relief of those who seem to be marked out as the martyrs of a cruel and persecuting destiny, or have yielded themselves the victims of yet more cruel and destructive vices. Without the power to relieve one single individual, this person is warmed with the most benevolent affections but cold and spiritless, selfish and unfriendly, would the other be, though a thousand proud and princely monuments should record his munificence. In like manner, we may perform other actions good and commendable in themselves, without deserving the least praise or commendation; as when we are temperate, not because it is befitting our nature and state, or because God has enjoined it, but merely on account of some particular anti

pathies, or in favour of a weak constitution; when we are just for reputation; frugal and diligent for the sake of wealth; and devout to be seen of men. All these acts are totally void of worth, as proceeding from indirect aims and oblique regards, without any reference to religious principle.

Besides the regard to Religion, we must insist on that to Virtue, or moral rectitude; because, what is much to be lamented, piety alone is no security against error; and zeal without knowledge is of all qualities the most dangerous and fatal. To this single cause have been owing some of the most enormous crimes and tragical revolutions recorded in history; those barbarous assassinations, those bloody massacres, which are a disgrace to human nature. The moment men quit the guidance of reason and prudence, they deliver themselves over to the government of fancy and caprice. The inward light which some pretend to, is more inconstant, deceitful, and desultory, than that which is said to mislead the benighted traveller; and it usually rises from the mists of passion, or the fumes of melancholy. Yet every conceit that thoroughly warms them must pass for an inspiration, and serve as a foundation both of opinion and practice. They would exclude all rational enquiries as carnal and presumptuous, though our faculties were plainly given us for those very uses; by so employing them, we arrive at the being of a God, the knowledge of ourselves, the

clear discovery of our duty, and the force of those proofs on which Revelation itself is received and acknowledged as divine. For if reason may not examine the truth of persuasions neither inspirations nor delusions will have any rule or measure by which they may be judged, and consequently it will be impossible to distinguish between them. In all that is of Divine revelation, it is true, no other proof is necessary than that of its coming from God, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. But when any thing absurd or contradictory is urged as matter of belief; or any thing contrary to the clear fundamental principles of morality, as matter of practice; these are infallible marks that it is not of Divine original. So that all interpretations or doctrines which would release us from the obligations to virtue or any moral duty, are false and treacherous, and cannot therefore be admitted on any authority what

soever.

It is necessary, as we see, that our obedience should proceed both from a religious and virtuous principle: nor is this all, it must likewise be entire and permanent.

It must have respect to all God's commands. There is no one so lost to reason and decency as not to observe some of them. His will is signified alike by every one of them; and the contempt of his authority, in any instance whatsoever, argues our impiety, and exposes us to the

consequences of wilful disobedience. And although the comparative wickedness of men is to be estimated by the number and heinousness of their offences; yet one single offence, and that seemingly slight, may consequentially involve us in a settled course of sinning. He who hath once suffered his passions to gain the ascendant, is as one out of his own power, and under the influence of an evil planet: and as one planet put out of its course might endanger the whole system to which that planet belongs; in like manner, one unlawful and irregular act, by disturbing the moral system, may cause the destruction of the whole character.

Our obedience proceeding from a religious and virtuous principle, and extending to all the Divine commands, must also persevere in an even and uniform course. The obligations to virtue and piety are always the same, equally binding under all circumstances: no power can alter them, no authority can dispense with them. However, this duty of perseverance is not to be understood in such a sense as would confine the intentions of God within the rules of rigid and exact justice. For it is as natural to us to be frail and fallible, as to be sickly and mortal. There are some bad propensities which are common to all, and which no man can entirely eradicate : there are others to which many are peculiarly subject from their original temper and constitu

tion. In the lives of the best Christians how many acts and instances are there which betray the instability of their resolutions, and the weakness of their endeavours to combat those propensities? But if in the unguarded moments of surprize and inattention their virtue fails them; the brightness of it is obscured, not extinguished; the force of it is suspended, but not destroyed. They return to the road out of which they had started; they recover the guide they had left and lost. On such occasions more especially, indeed in all cases but that of obstinate habitual wickedness, the efficacy of repentance, rightly understood, is unquestionable. It is one of the clearest, as well as most comfortable of all the evangelical doctrines.

He, therefore, who studies to correct his faults, and strives to be constant and regular in the practice of what is right, may be said to persevere; just as a work is said to go on, though discontinued at intervals, and obstructed by casual interruptions. But here it may not be amiss to observe, that to such as know neither rule nor measure, perseverance is impracticable; nothing violent can be lasting; and it is seen by experience, that devotion which has much of passion mixed with it, either evaporates in the extacies of joy, or subsides in the languors of melancholy. How different is this from the temper of true piety!