in all Circurn ances illzi/Irazed 273 fïgn'd hereby that the courfe of our actions S a R M fhould be fo directed, as we might pro- XI. mote our own happinefs and avoid mifery. ` "r' Now this is as evidently true, with refpect to moral actions, and the confequences of them, as any other ; we know their differ- ence as clearly, and are as free in our choice, we are as certain, too, of the event of the connection between virtue and happinefs, between wickednefs and mifery ; from whence it plainly follows, that God de- fign'd by this conflitution and fate of things wherein we are placed, that we fhould choofe what is morally good, and refufe the evil ; in other words, that we are under a moral law, and God is our moral governor, or that he has declared his will concerning our conduct, and given us a rule of action, enforced by a fantion, or by rewards and puniíhments, annexed to the obfervance of it, and our difobedience to it, which fhould determine our behaviour as rational crea- tures. Hence arifes a confideration of great weight ; not only we find by experience, in the ordinary courfe of things, that it is well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked ; or, that there is in fact a connection between VoL. I. T virtue
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