SELF-LOVE AND VIRTUE RECONCILED ONLY BY RELIGION : Or, An Argument to prove, that the only Effectual Obligation ofMankind topractise Virtue, depends on the Existence and Will of God, 8pc. SECT. I.TheGeneral Proposal ofthe Subject. IT has been a great controversy, whether the rules of virtue, and our obligations to practise. them, be eternal and immutable in themselves, antecedent to our conceptions of the being of a God; or, whether they depend on his will and appointment. In things which are merely speculative, it is very evident and cer- tain, that there are many eternal and unchangeable truths ; as, " two and two make four ; a circle is most comprehensive of all figures, and a right angle is larger than an acute." Note, By eternal truths we can mean no more than this; that in whatsoever moment of the eternity, past or to come, these ideal truths were or shall be proposed to an intelligentbeing, they must be assented to, and acknowledged tobe true : But any real, eternal existence of them, cannòt be supposed, without a God, in whose mind alóne they could exist. And when we,call them unchangeable, our meaning is this, , that we cannot conceive it possible, that any circumstances, or situation of things, or even the will of a God, should ever alter the nature of these truths, or make them cease to be true. But the case is not quite so evident to us, and so indisputable with regard to moral or practical subjects, however these may be supposed to be as certain in themselves. It may admit of a doubt, whether all the rules of virtue, and more especially, whether the obligations of mankind tó practisethem, are eternal and unchangeable ; , and that even before the supposition of the.existence of a God, or without any regard to such a supreme Governor. It must be granted, that there are persons of known learn- ing and piety whohave chosen this side of the question : And yet it must be acknowledged too, that it grates a little upon some re- ligious minds, to hear of eternal and unchangeable obligations lying on men, which are independent on thewill or appointment of God ; or even upon a supposition there were no God. I wouldnotchase to see such sort ofsuppositions introduced, if it be possible to secure the rules and practice of virtue without them. I think that these eternal rules of virtue, whatsoever they A2 .
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