B SELF-LOVE AND V1Rt'IIE RECONCILED. Now if there actually be a God, these eternal truthsor fit nesses may be said, in some sense, to lay an obligation on God to act according to them, that is, his perfections are such that he will govern and regulate his own actions constantly and un- changeably by these eternal fitnesses or unfitnesses of things : For since he is self-sufficient for his own preservation and hap- piness and since none of these eternal fitnesses or unfitnesses can possibly stand in opposition to his own eternal being or blessedness, nor can they bring any inconvenience on him, he can have no possible motive, or reason,, or obligation to act contrary to this fitness or unfitness of things; and the rec- titude of his own nature seems unchangeably to require such a conduct. And if this be granted, then there is a sufficient foundation laid for the proof of all God's moral attributes by our ideas of his natural perfections, and our ideas of the eternal rules ofjus- tice, veracity and goodness ; and there is sufficient assurance that he will act according to them. SECT. III. In Human Actions these Fitnesses may contradict each other. But in beings of sr; inferior nature, before we consider whe- ther there be a God or no, the `case is not the same ; for it is possible that some of these rules ofreason, or, -at least, the obli- gations to practise them, may, seemingly, or really clash with each other. As for instance, in what we have called single or personal duties Do we not all agree, that a man is obliged to preserve his own life, and also to make himself happy by such a steady dictate-of his own nature, as seems essential or eternal ? Is not this piece of self-love inwrought into his very constitution and frame of nature ? And do not his reasoning powers con- firm it ? But Miserino lies in extreme anguish of gout or stone, or broken limbs ; and he seems to be encouraged, and even required, by his reasoning powers, to try to divest himself of all life, and of all possible happiness together; for he judges it better not to be, than to be miserable. In this case self-murder; or thedestruction of his being, would be a dictate of reason ; for it would be a sort of self-felicitation, though it stands directly contrary to self-preservation. Again, in another case of single or personal duties. Phi- ledon is a gentleman of good reason and learning, but of such strong and importunate passions and appetites, that everydegree of restraint is a sensible pain to -him. He sat down in a very calm and composed hour to judge whether he should pursue pleasure or virtue. His reason told him much of the eternal fitness of things, and what a noble victory it would be to deny his appetites and govern his passions ; and that he was obliged,
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