1

Spinoza alfo fpeaks of repentance as a mean, unreasonable, and defpicable thing. Agreeably to these maxims, Mr. Hume fpeaks of a certain degree of pride and felf valuation, the want of which is a vice, and the oppofite to which is meannefs. It is poffible, indeed, to explain thefe terms fo as to vindicate Mr. Hume's affertions; but if we collect his meaning from all that he has faid upon the subject, it is impoffible not to conceive that he intends to ftigmatize as a vice, that which is recommended in the gofpel as an amiable virtue, as peculiarly pleafing in the fight of God, and what even right reafon approves.

Mr. Chubb confines the whole bufinefs of criminality to acts which affect the community. He fpeaks of it as unworthy of God to refent any blafphemies against himself, and he treats with nearly the fame indifference all injuries to private perfons only. Bolingbroke alfo fays, that all the fanctions of the law of nature affect men collectively confidered, and not as individuals. So low an opinion had Mr. Chubb of the excellent

and

and truly rational morals of our Saviour, that he fcruples not to affert, that all the alteration he made in Judaifm was for the worfe, that thofe precepts by which chriftianity is peculiarly diftinguished, are lefs perfect than thofe which prevailed before, and that they are inconfiftent with the welfare and happinefs of mankind.

The obligation of fincerity and integrity seems to have been very weak in the minds of feveral unbelievers. Hobbes advanced that that idolatry to which a man is compelled by the terrors of death, is not idolatry. Others have adopted the fame maxim, and have even ridiculed chriftians for dying martyrs to the truth.

The apologies that were made for vice by the Stoics, have likewife been adopted by unbelievers of modern times. Lord Herbert says, that thofe perfons are not lightly to be condemned who are carried to fin by their bodily conftitution; and he particularly inftances in luft and anger. Such perfons he reprefents as no more to be blamed than a dropfical

P 4

a dropfical perfon for his immoderate thirst, or a lethargical perfon for his lazinefs and inactivity. He alfo apologizes for many vices, as not being committed out of enmity to God, but with a view to men's own particular advantage or pleasure, being chosen by them under the appearance of fome good. He might not attend to it, but certainly there is no crime, for which this maxim will not furnish an apology.

The most obvious of all virtues, and thofe of the most acknowledged obligation, are the focial ones. When any of the social duties are neglected, fome of our fellowcreatures are injured, and cannot forbear complaining, or feeking fome method of redrefs. Indeed, without a tolerable observance of social duties, fociety could not fubfift. Public wrongs are always things of great notoriety, fo that mankind cannot but attend to them, and be convinced of their malignant and deftructive nature. Among all nations, therefore, we find a pretty juft notion of the diftinction between right and wrong; and the duties of fociety have

always

always been the most generally practised. But even this branch of the fyftem of morals was exceedingly imperfect among the Greeks and Romans, and was by no means. favourable to the fentiments of a refined, generous, and extenfive humanity, which confiders all mankind as brethren, the common offspring of one great and good parent, and admonishes us to do to others as we would that they fhould do to us.

The Greeks, in general, do not appear to have had any higher object than the good of their respective states, or at most that of the community of Greeks. Even Socrates, when he directs his hearers to confider all Greeks as brethren, fpeaks of the Barbarians (by whom were meant all other nations) as their natural enemies; and he preferibes fuch rules of conduct with refpect to them, as are not reconcileable to the common rules of humanity. It is well known to have been a maxim at Sparta, that probity and every thing else is to be facrificed to the good of the state. Thefe Spartans, having conquered a neighbouring nation, the

Helots,

Helots, kept them for feveral hundred years in a ftate of the most abject flavery; and lett they fhould grow too numerous, they frequently butchered them in cold blood; and their youths were not only connived at, but applauded when they killed them by furprize, to enure them to the bloody and deceitful business of war. For with them a victory gained by artifice was reckoned to be of double value.

In most of the heathen ftates we find cuftoms utterly irreconcileable with humanity and virtue, particularly that of expofing fickly children to be devoured by wild beafts. In Sparta every child was examined by public infpectors, who determined whether it fhould be brought up or expofed, and for this they are commended by Plutarch. Plato, in his book of laws, orders, that when perfons are past the age of having ftrong children, they should ufe means to prevent their being born alive, or kill them after they were born. Ariftotle alfo fays, that there fhould be laws to prevent the education of weak children. In fe

veral