ceed a Circumference of four or five Inches Diameter, but can have no poffible Perception or Idea of the Proportion, the Beauty, the Magnificence, or Ufes of the whole Fabric. Now if one of those despicable Animals fhould fall to reasoning with a Club of his own Species, upon the Defign, the Symmetry, and Uses of that noble Structure, we might expect to hear the fame ridiculous Jargon, of Aptneffes, Fitneffes, moral Congruity, and I know not what, as are usually heard among our Free-Thinkers, when they pretend to talk of the ftupendous Works of the Creation, the Order and Methods of Providence, and the Nature and Ufe of religious Wòrfhip.

A Great Mind, which, from a thorough Survey of the Works of God, can penetrate through them to their First Caufe and Omnipotent Creator, naturally falls into the Confideration of the Relation he bears, the Obligations he is under, and the Duty he owes him as his Creator and Preferver. He confiders him as the Author of his Being, the boun‐ tiful Giver of all the Bleffings he injoys, that every Article of his Injoyments, whether Health of Body, Soundness of Mind, Riches, or Friends, are all the Gifts of God, which call for the moft grateful Returns of Love, Honour, and Obedience.- A Little Mind regards nothing but itself, the prefent Moment, the present Injoyment, without confidering the Hand that bestows it, the Fountain from whence it flows, and therefore thinks himfelf intirely his own Mafter, owing Suit and Service to no body, whofe fole Business is to pleafe himself, and gratify every Appetite and Call of Nature in what Way

and

and Manner he fhall think fit. Now that there can be no Honour where there is neither Gratitude nor Justice, I believe will be easily granted. Nihil eft honeftum qnod juftitiâ vacat, is a Saying of Tully's, and a Maxim of common Senfe. To fuppofe Hamour without Justice, would be to fuppofe a Houfe without a Foundation, Fruit without a Tree, or a Tree without a Root; there is not only an actual Connection, but a natural Relation and Dependence between them, Honour being really the Luftre the Flower, the Crown, and Perfection of Justice. An unjuft Man therefore cannot be a Man of Honour.

That Ingratitude is inconfiftent with Honour, is equally plain and undeniable, as it is a Complication of every Thing that is vile, sneaking, base, treacherous, and deteftable in human Nature. Si ingratum dixeris, omnia dixeris. An ungrateful Man therefore can never be a Man of Honour. And that every irreligious Man is Unjuft and Ungrateful, I fhall endeavour to make appear, and leave the honest Reader to draw the Conclufion.

The Lawyers define Juftice to be a conftant and inviolable Refolution to give to every one his Due, Tribute to whom Tribute, Fear to whom Fear, Honour to whom Honour is due: And particularly a juft and faithful Difcharge of every Trust and Office committed to us. Now, that every Bleffing and Comfort we injoy in Life are committed to us as a Truft, that every Truft must be limited to certain Ufes and Purposes, that the Nature of a Truft renders him that receives it accountable for the Ufes or Abuses of that Truft, that the greater the Truft, the greater is the Obligation, and the greater will

be

be the Account, are fuch plain Truths as Ignorance itself cannot doubt of, or deny. So then every Man has fome Talents committed to his Truft, for which he must be accountable. But the Great, the Noble, and the Rich, who are furrounded with Bleffings, who wallow in Plenty, who want no Opportunities of knowing and difcharging the Duties of their refpective Truft and Station, are under the higheft Obligation to make fuch a Ufe of their Wealth, their Intereft, and Power, as is most agreeable to the Nature of the Truft, and the Will of the Donor; according to that certain Maxim of common Senfe, that where much is given, much will be required, and where either God or Man hath given much, of him they will afk the more. If these therefore are fo far from anfwering the Truft committed to them, that they deny their having received any fuch Truft, if they renounce their Allegiance to their Supreme Lord, and convert the several Trufts committed to them to their own Ufe; if, not content with this, they imploy their Wealth and Intereft to quite oppofite Purposes than were intended by the Grant, and encourage others to do the fame, they are unjuft and ungrateful to the Best of Beings, the Supreme Lord of Heaven and Earth; and whether he that acts unjustly in the Exercise of the highest Trust, and ungratefully to his best Benefactor, can have any Title to true Greatness of Mind, or true Honour, which is the fame, let the fillieft Reader. judge.

To

To fet this Matter in the ftrongeft Light, let us fuppofe a Number of Tenants holding Eftates of different Value from the fame Lord, that those who held the greatest Farm had the eafieft Rent, perhaps nothing more than a fmall Acknowledgment, but each of them having a fair Copy of Rules to direct them how to manage their Farms, in order to fecure the Favour of the chief Lord, the Continuance of their Poffeffion, and the Juftification of their Accounts, could you think it poffible for any reasonable Creature to live in direct Contempt and Defiance of fo bountiful a Landlord, fo generous a Benefactor? Could you think it poffible that any of thofe great Tenants fhould make it their Bufinefs to perfuade the reft of the little ones, that though they had been told, that they were accountable to fome great Landlord, who lived in a remote Country, yet there was really no fuch Perfon; that their pretended Set of Directions was all a Forgery, contrived by two or three crafty Knaves, who pretended to act under the Character and Commiffion of Stewards, in order to cheat the People out of their Liberty and Money; that all the while they werę Freemen, owing neither uit nor Service to any Lord, having no Account to give, nor Rent to pay, to any body, nor any body to please but themselves.-Does not fuch a Suppofition feen quite monftrous and impoffible? Yet fuch, if they could be found, would be fenfible, grateful, honourable Creatures, when compared with Thoufands, in this wicked, adulterous, free-thinking Generation. God Almighty is the Supreme Lord of the Univerfe, to whom the greatest Prince upon Earth is but a Tenant at Will. Our Bibles are a Body of Rules and Directions, by which

we

we are to regulate our Conduct, and be justified in our Accounts. The Church is his Court, where the Tenants are obliged to appear at ftated Times; the Clergy are his Stewards, whofe Duty it is to be daily putting the Tenants in mind of the Nature and Uncertainty of their Tenure, advifing them to keep fair and clear Accounts, because their Lord will certainly come at an Hour when they do not expect him; that he will judge them according to their Works, and appoint them their Portion of Happiness or Mifery for ever. In direct Oppofition to this plain, inconteftible Truth, the Blockheads of this Generation take upon them to affure the Public, that there is no God; that the Scriptures, which few of them are able to read, are all a Cheat and a Forgery; that the Clergy, who pretend to be the Stewards of his Mysteries, are a Pack of Knaves; and this, though a Matter of the laft Confequence, that deferves the moft ferious Examination, is treated as a Matter of Jeft and Ridicule, which is as great an Argument of a little, ignorant, trifling Mind, as of an impious, difingenuous, ungrateful Heart. The Man that could think, or talk, or act at this rate, about the Health of his Body, the Intereft of his Family, the Improvement of his Fortune, the Exercise of his Profeffion, and the ordinary Affairs of common Life, would be despised by Men of Senfe and Honour, as a trifling contemptible Blockhead. Now if a poor Wretch, who trifles and plays the Fool in an Affair of the laft Confequence, who difregards his own trueft Intereft, who violates the moft facred Obligations, is ungrateful to his beft Benefactor, and impious to the best of Beings, can have

any