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SELF
-LOVE
AND
VIRTUE RECONCILED
ONLY
BY
RELIGION
:
Or, An Argument
to
prove,
that
the only
Effectual Obligation
of
Mankind
to
practise
Virtue,
depends on the
Existence
and
Will
of
God,
8pc.
SECT.
I.
The
General Proposal
of
the 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 to
be
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 practise
them,
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
the
will
or appointment
of
God
;
or
even upon a supposition
there
were
no
God.
I
would
not
chase
to see such
sort
of
suppositions
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
.