SERM. tereft; because we find we have as ftrong

I.

a Senfe of the Worth or Bafenefs of those Actions, which affect only the Happiness of others, as we have of the Worth or Bafenefs of those which affect our own: Nay, that we muft frequently approve and admire Actions, which tend to our particular Lofs; and difapprove and deteft. others, which are highly beneficial to us. Our Confcience, or moral Judgment of Good and Evil, is not to be bribed into an Efteem of the Conduct of Men, by any Confiderations of private Gain. It may indeed be deceived by a falfe Shew of Goodnefs; but fincere Piety, Juftice, and Humanity, and a Defire of improving ourselves ftill more in thefe excellent Qualities, are the only Things which it can regard, as morally worthy or virtuous; as the Contrary are uniformly condemned by it, as evil or vicious.

II. I proceed now to inquire, from whence an Attempt to confound the Notions of moral Good and Evil, and to obliterate the Impreflions of Virtue and Vice in the Mind, can proceed? And here it must be observed, that this Inquiry relates, not to the Principles and Motives of the

Perfons

Perfons, who may advance Speculations SERM and Hypotheses, which in their Confe- I quences, deftroy the natural Difference between moral Good and Evil, but who do not fee, nor would ftand by any fuch Confequences of their Doctrine; but to the Springs of thofe Men's Conduct, who profeffedly deny the Diftinction, who avowedly difpute and argue against it, and rejoice in the Thoughts of having made out the Conclufion. And as to the Attempts of fuch, it feems very plain that they can be refolved into nothing, but grofs Prepoffeffion, and obftinate Prejudice. And it is not difficult to fee how Men may come to be fo much prejudiced in this Matter: For our Sense of moral Good and Evil, our natural Judgment of Right and Wrong, being the Origin of all moral Obligations; Men who will not be kept within the Bounds of their Duty, must be fond above all Things, to bear down this Faculty, or to perfuade themselves that its Dictates are mere Chimeras. This, they will fee, is the only Foundation upon which they can hope for any fettled Reft and Peace, while they continue in their evil Courfes. For if it were poffible to them, (which, certainly, may well be doubted) to throw off entirely the

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Prin

I.

SERM. Principles of Religion, and to become the greatest Sceptics, or even confirmed Infidels as to the Existence of a Deity, all that they would gain by bringing themselves into this unnatural and fhocking State of Mind, would only be to release themselves from the strongest additional Ties and Motives to the Exercise of moral Virtue: While their natural Conscience, or the moral Judgment of their Minds, continued to exert itfelf with any Vigour, and pointed out to them the Things that are good or evil, the primary Obligations of Morality would still remain, and they would feel themselves to be under the Power of them; the Consciousness of which would neceffarily gall and fret them, and give them frequent Touches of Remorfe and Uneafinefs. It is therefore the Intereft of Men, refolved upon a profligate and libertine Life, to stifle and fupprefs the Voice of Confcience, and to treat all its Decifions as groundless Fancies and Illufions. And here, whatever Exceptions are, perhaps, to be made as to fome few, who from mere Vanity, and an Affectation of thinking boldly, difpute against the Truth and Diftinction of our Ideas of Virtue and Vice, we certainly have the moft univerfal Source of the Oppofition

I.

which is made to thefe Notions: The SER M. Persons who hate to be reformed, must naturally hate the Principles, which, if admitted to be true, would reftrain and check them in their vicious Pursuits, and be the conftant Reproach and Condemnation of their Conduct. They, therefore, set themfelves to ridicule the Notions of moral Good and Evil, and have recourfe to every Subtilty which they can invent, to fhew that they have no Foundation in Nature; and use every Art in their Power, to suppress or extirpate the Senfe or Faculty which fuggefts them. And though they inuft many times unavoidably feel, that their Efforts of this kind are vain, (moral Perceptions being fo effential to their Constitution, and fo deeply planted in it, that after all that can be done to eradicate them, they are ftill ready to shoot out and grow again) yet as they fancy themselves to be more free and easy, in proportion to the Progress which they make in ftifling and laying waste their Confciences, they renew and continue their Attempts to oppress and deftroy them. Now that ftrong Prejudice, arifing from the Prevalence of fome unmanly, or evil Paffion, and for the most part from a deep Corruption of Heart, is

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the

9

SERM. the true Caufe of Men's Enmity to the

1.

Notions of moral Good and Evil, cannot be doubted, if we confider, that these Notions are really congenial with the human Mind, fpringing up as certainly and uniformly in it as its Faculties open and unfold, as any Senfations and Affections arife in it at the proper Time of their Appearance; and that all those Men, who can leaft be fufpected of having a Biafs on their Minds, have ever the moft fenfible Conviction of the Truth of these Ideas; and that there are but very few who deny the Certainty of them, who are not openly as averfe to the Duties of Morality in Practice, as they are to thefe fundamental Principles of it in Speculation. In this Cafe, therefore, of expunging the Ideas, and exploding the Diftinction of Virtue and Vice, above all others, the Reafon which our Saviour gives for the Infidelity of Men, holds good; that John . they love Darkness rather than Light, becaufe their Deeds are evil; that they bate the Light, neither come to the Light, left their Deeds fhould be reproved.

19, 20.

III. I fhall now briefly reprefent the terrible Effects which this Attempt to confound or extinguish the Notions of moral

Good