require to be confidered, if we were to Serm. Oftate particularly and at length, what is XII. Virtue other immediate Ends appointed us to purfue, befides that one of doing Good, or producing Happiness. Though the Good of the Creation be the only End of the Author of it, yet he may have laid us under particular Obligations, which we may discern and feel ourselves under, quite diftinct from a Perception, that the Obfervance or Violation of them is for the Happiness or Mifery of our Fellow-creatures. And this is in Fact the Cafe. For there are certain Difpofitions of Mind, and certain Actions, which are in themselves approved or difapproved by Mankind, abftracted from the Confideration of their Tendency to the Happiness or Mifery of the World; approved or disapproved by Reflection, by that Principle within which is the Guide of Life, the Judge of Right and Wrong. Numberlefs Inftances of this Kind might be mentioned. There are Pieces of Treachery, which in themselves appear bafe and deteftable to every one, There are Actions, which perhaps can scarce have any other general Name given them than Indecencies, which yet are odious and fhocking to Humane Nature. There is fuch a thing as Meannefs, a little Mind; which, as it is quite diftinct from Incapacity, fo it raises a Diflike and Disapprobation quite different from that Contempt, which Men are too apt to have, of meer Folly. On the other Hand; what we call Greatness of Mind, is the Object of another Sort of Approbation, than fuperiour Understanding. Fidelity, Honour, ftrict Juftice, are alfo themselves approved, abstracted from Confideration of their Tendency. Now, whether it be thought that each of these contributes to the Good or Mifery of the World, and fo would be produced or prevented by Benevolence; or that they are connected with fit in our Nature; or whether fome of them be confidered as an inferiour Kind of Virtues and Vices, fomewhat like natural Beauties and Deformities; or laftly, as plain Exceptions to the gene ral Serm. Virtue and right Behaviour in Mankind. XII. But, W Secondly, It might be added, that in a higher and more general Way of Confideration, leaving out the particular Nature of Creatures, and the particular Circumstances in which they are placed, Benevolence in the ftricteft Senfe includes in it all that is Good and Worthy; all that is Good, which we have any Notion of. We have no Conception of any moral Attribute in the fupream Being, but what may be refolved up into Goodness. And if we confider a reasonable Creature or moral Agent, without Regard to the particular Relations and Circumstances in which he is placed; we cannot conceive any thing else to come in, towards determining whether he is to be ranked in an higher or lower Class of virtuous Beings, but the higher or lower Degree in which that Principle, and what is manifeftly connected with it, prevail in him. That which we more ftrictly call Piety, or the Love of God, and which is an essential Part ral Rule; thus much however is certain, that the things now inftanced in, and numberlefs others, are approved or difapproved by Mankind in general, in quite another View than as conducive to the Happiness or Mifery of the World. Part of a right Temper, fome may perhaps Serm. O Almighty God, infpire us with this Thou Serm. XII. Thou hast placed us in various Kindreds, Friendships, and Relations, as the School of Difcipline for our Affections: Help us, by the due Exercise of them, to improve to Perfection; till all partial Affection be loft in that intire univerfal one, and Thou, O God, fhalt be all in all. SERMON SERMON XIII. Upon the Love of God. MATTH. Xxii. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart, and with all thy Soul, and with all thy Mind. E VERY Body knows, you therefore Serm. need only just be put in Mind, that XIII. there is fuch a Thing, as having fo great Horror of one Extream, as to run infenfibly and of Course into the contrary; and that a Doctrine's having been a Shelter for Enthusiasm, or made to ferve the Purpofes of Superftition, is no Proof of the Falfity of it: Truth or Right being fomewhat real in itself, and so not to be judged of by its Liablenefs |