Others of an inferior Or

der.

thofe Difpofitions, and the Actions flowing from them, are approved, and those of the latter kind difapproved by us, even abstracted from the View of their Tendency, or Conduciveness to the Happiness or Mifery of others, or of ourselves. In one we difcern a Beauty, a fuperior Excellency, a Congruity to the Dignity of Man; in the other a Deformity, a Littleness, a Debafement of Human Nature. There are other Principles alfo, connected with the Good of Society, or the Happiness and Perfection of the Individual, though that Connection is not immediately apparent, which we behold with real Complacency and Approbation, though perhaps inferior in Degree, if not in Kind, fuch as Gravity, Modefty, Simplicity of Deportment, Temperance, prudent Oeconomy; and we feel fome degree of Contempt and Dislike where they are wanting, or where the oppofite Qualities prevail. These and the like Perceptions or Feelings are either different Modifications of the Moral Senfe, or fubordinate to it, and plainly ferve the fame important Purpose, being expeditious Monitors in the feveral Emergencies

of

of a various and distracted Life, of what. is right, what is wrong, what is to be purfued, and what avoided; and, by the pleafant, or painful Consciousness which attends them, exerting their Influence, as powerful Prompters to a fuitable Conduct.

Their gene

cies.

From a flight Inspection of ral Tenden- the above-named Principles, it is evident they all carry a friendly Afpect to Society, and the Individual, and have a more immediate, or a more remote Tendency to promote the Perfection or Good of both. This Tendency cannot be always foreseen, and would be often mistaken, or seldom attended, by a weak, busy, short-fighted Creature, like Man, both rafh and variable in his Opinions, a Dupe to his own Paffions, or to the Defigns of others, liable to Sickness, to Want, and to Error. Principles therefore which are so nearly linked with private Security and public Good, by directing him, without operofe Reasoning, where to find one, and how to promote the other, and by prompting him to a Conduct conducive to both, are admirably adapted to the Exigencies of

his present State, and wifely calculated to obtain the Ends of univerfal Benevo lence.

Paffions fitted to a State of Trial.

It were easy, by confidering the Subject in another Light, to fhew, in a curious Detail of Particulars, how wonderfully the Infide of Man, or that aftonishing Train of Moral Powers and Affections with which he is endued, is fitted to the several Stages of that progreffive and probationary State, through which he is destined to pass. As our Faculties are narrow and limited, and rife from very small and imperfect Beginnings, they must be improved by Exercife, by Attention, and repeated Trials. And this holds true, not only of our Intellectual, but of our Moral, and Active Powers. The former are liable to Errors in Speculation, the latter to Blunders in Practice, and both often terminate in Misfortunes and Pains. And thofe Errors and Blunders are generally owing to our Paffions, or to our too forward and warm Admiration of thofe partial Goods they naturally purfue, or to our Fear of thofe partial Ills they naturally repel. Thofe Misfortunes therefore lead us back

to

to confider where our Misconduct lay, and whence our Errors flowed, and confequently are falutary Pieces of Trial, which tend to enlarge our Views, to correct and refine our Paffions, and consequently improve both our Intellectual and Moral Powers. Our Paffions then

are the rude Materials of our Virtue, which Heaven has given us to work up, to refine and polish into an harmonious and divine Piece of Workmanship. They furnish out the whole Machinery, the Calms and Storms, the Lights and Shades of Human Life. They fhew Mankind in every Attitude and Variety of Character, and give Virtue both its Struggles and its Triumphs. To conduct them well in every State, is Merit; to abuse or mifapply them, is Demerit. By them we prove what we are, and by the Habits to which they give Birth, we take our Form and Character for the fucceffive Stages of our Life, or any future Period of our Existence.

To a Pro

greffive

State.

The different Sets of Senfes, Powers, and Paffions, which unfold themselves in thofe fuc

ceffive Stages, are both neceffary and

adapted

adapted to that rifing and progreffive State. Enlarging Views and growing Connections require new Paflions and new Habits; and thus the Mind, by thefe continually expanding and finding a progreffive Exercife, rifes to higher Improvements, and pushes forward to Maturity and Perfection. But on this we cannot infift.

our Structure and State.

In this beautiful Oeconomy Harmony of and Harmony of our Structure, both outward and inward, with that State, we may at once difcern the great Lines of our Duty traced out in the fairest and brighteft Characters, and contemplate with Admiration a more auguft and marvellous Scene of Divine Wisdom and Goodness laid in the Human Breaft, than we shall perhaps find in the whole Compass of Nature. "What a Piece of "Work is Man! How noble " in Reafon! How infinite in Faculties! "In Form and Moving how express and "admirable! In Action how like an

66

Refult.

Angel! In Apprehenfion how like a "God! The Beauty of the World! The "Paragon of Animals!"

From