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real magnitude, and importance. The things
that are feen, fays the apoftle (2 Cor. iv. 18),
are temporal, but the things that are unfeen are
eternal. It is, therefore, the more eafy, by a
firm faith, and a steady contemplation, to
give them their juft degree of estimation, and
to feel and act properly with respect to them;
as thousands and millions have actually done,
who have cheerfully abandoned every thing
in life, and life itself, when the retaining of
them was incompatible with their great pro-
fpects beyond the
grave.

6. It is by habituating the mind to contemplate great and diftant objects, that religion enlarges and ennobles the minds of men, advancing them farther beyond the state of chil-' dren, who are only affected by things immediately present to them, and from the great bulk of mankind, who do indeed look before them, but not far. They can fow and plant one year in hope of a return in the next, and they can expend their money in the purchase of goods with a view to fell them to advantage in a future and diftant market. Alfo, when they labour under any diforder, they can take difgufting medicines in the hope of

a cure.

But this is far fhort of looking to
a world

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a world beyond the grave, laying up treafure in heaven, making friends of the mammon of unrighteousness here, in order to be received into everlasting habitations hereafter. This is done by the help of religion, which by this means makes a man a fuperior kind of being to what he was before.

If great thoughts, as Lord Bacon fays, make great minds, how much fuperior must be that man who is habitually employed in the contemplation of God, of a providence, and a future ftate, who fees the hand of God in every thing, and receives all the difpenfations of providence with a contented and thankful heart, whofe faith is not fhaken by all the diftrefs and calamity of which he is a witness, and all that himself, his friends, his country, or the world, may fuffer, and who when he comes to die can look back with fatisfaction, and forward with hope and joy, to the man who is either wholly ignorant of these great principles, or an unbeliever in them, whose views are bounded by what he fees in this life, and who can only fay, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. To fuch persons life is indeed of little value. And it is no wonder that, under any particular preffure of trouble

trouble or disappointment, they throw it up, and put an end to their lives in despair.

7. Though I have reprefented the religious man as acting on plain and intelligible principles, and as overlooking prefent evils for the fake of future good, it by no means follows that he will be an interefted character, and never love virtue for its own fake. It is by a rational felf intereft that the most difinterested characters are formed. This admits of an easy illustration from what we know concerning the love of money. The greatest miser does not begin with the love of money as an ultimate object, or for its own fake, but only for the fake of the advantages it can procure him. And yet we fee that it is poffible, in a courfe of time, for men to come to love money, and to employ all their powers, and all their time, in the acquifition of it, without giving the least attention to the use of it, and indeed without ever making any proper use of it at all; their ideas never going beyond the mere accumulation of it. Let any thing be purfued, though as a means, and in a course of time, it will come to be an end.

In like manner, let a man from any principle, habituate himself to respect the autho

rity of God, to do good to others, and practise virtue in general, though at firft with no other view than to his reward in a future state, and in time he will live virtuously, without giving any attention to his ultimate interest in it; and in this progrefs he will neceffarily become as difinterestedly virtuous as it is poffible, in the nature of things, for a man to be. He may begin with the mere fear of God, or a dread of his displeasure, but at length he will be actuated by the pureft love, and an entire devotedness to his will, as fuch. He may begin with doing kind offices to others from any motive fufficient to produce the external action, but at length he will come with the apoftle, to love with a pure heart fervently, taking the greatest pleasure in doing kind offices, without any idea, or expectation, of a return. He may at first abftain from fenfual indulgence from a perfuafion of what he may ultimately fuffer in confequence of it, but in time he will have greater fatisfaction in moderation than he ever had in excefs, and he will readily and cheerfully do whatever he hends to be right, without afking why. The dictates of confcience will be with him a fupreme rule of action.

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This is that truly great and fublime character to which religion, and religion alone, can raise a man. Without the principles of religion, without the fear of God, which Solomon justly calls the beginning of wisdom, he wants the first neceffary step in this progress. There must be a belief in the being and providence of God, and in a life of retribution to come, to give a man that comprehenfive view of things, which alone can lead him to overlook temporary gratifications, and give him that due command of his paffions which is effential to rational life. He must first look beyond the things that are feen, and temporal, to things unfeen and eternal, or he might ne ver see sufficient reason for the practice of those virtues which do not bring an immediate recompence. He would never refpect the authority of God, unless he had a belief in his being and providence. All his works would be done to be seen of men; and if the only reward of virtue was in another world, which he believed to have no exiftence, he would have no fufficient reafon to exercise it at all. But having this faith, the foundation of right conduct, the fuperftructure is easily raised upon it. Poffeffed of this first prinC 2

ciple,

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