SECTION IV. 9 Now if personal duties, even thus confirmed, should chance to clash with one another, or with any of the social virtues, how . shall they be reconciled ? I answer ; By religion, by which name I mean a due regard to Godas a commander of virtue, and a rewarder, of it. I shall make this appear first in the case of our singleor personal duties. If therebe a God, he has made us to live for his, use and service ; and we ought not to oppose his will, and destroy ourselves. He who hath made us, hath a right to appoint our situation in what statehe pleases ; and while he con- fines our beings to this world of flesh and blood, though it be with pain and anguish ; yet it is not fit that Miserino should depart hence by destroying his animal life, or his being, against his Ma- ker'swill : But he should trust in that God, who can find ways of reliefwhichwe think impossible ; or who can and will reward us in a future state and life, with supreme felicity for what we endure with patience in this life, by the meremotive ofsubmission to his will ; and this is religion*. Thus our reason, upon the balance, in the most miserable circumstances, will supremely dictate to us, that it is our duty, anti our highest interest, to preserve our lives, and to bear this present life and pain, till almighty God relieve us by healing, or release us to a state of ultimate felicity by death. And thus the obligations to self-preservation and self-felicitation are unitedor reconciled. In like manner Philedon lies under plain obligations to God and to himself, torestrain his appetites and passions, be they ne- ver so strong, within the bounds and rules of virtue ; for this is the will or law ofGod, who made him, and has a right to govern him : And, be his life prolonged never so far, yet constant self- denial, and strict virtue, is his duty all the way ; for he may ex- pect divine rewards and supreme or ultimate felicity in some practice all social virtues in bisown transactions with bis fellow-creatures : And there is God's special providence, or his extraordinary orders or commands, whichhe may make known by some powerful revelation to men or angels, merely considered as his instruments to maintain his own divine rights, and to resume what he has given to any of his creatures, whether it be life or property, and which he mightjustlyresume by lightning orpestilence. Now, according to the . ordinary rules of sod's government, made known to man by reason, every man is bound to practise strict social virtue to his neighbour : This is agreeable to the fitness of things. Butaccording to the extraordinary orders made known by pure revelation, man may be required, as Abraham and the Israelites were in these instances, to become the instruments of God in maintaining his own divine rights, and resuming hisgifts from men. This will go a great way to justify those actions, as being still agreeable to theeternal fitness of things, especially if the rights of a God are considered as superior to the rights of a fellow-creature. But these difficulties have had other particular solutions given them : And since they arenot necessary to the present point of debate, I would not bring them in here into; thisdiipute, to embarrass the present argument with them, though I' throw this hint into themargin. *. See the connection between human virtue and divine reward, manifested and confirmed. Section VI.
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