V.

ordered, to one, the whole world confpiring SER M. into agreeing harmony: Whereas if there were many independent principles, the system of the world must needs have been incoherent and inconfpiring; like an ill agreeing drama, botch'd up of many impertinent interfertions. And he concludes that things are well adminiftred, which they could not be under the government of many, alluding to the verse in Homer, Ουκ αγαθου Πολυκοιρανίη, εις Κοιρανος εσω. 3dly, The condition and order of inferior, derived, and evidently dependent intelligent agents, fhew not only intelligence, but unity of intelligence in the Cause of them. Every man, a fingle active confcious felf, is the image of his Maker. There is in him one undivided animating principle, which in its perceptions and operations runs through the whole fyftem of matter that it inhabits; it perceives for all the most diftant parts of the body; it cares for all, and governs all, leading us, as a resemblance, to form an idea of the one great quickening Spirit which prefides over the whole frame of nature, the spring of motion and all operation in it, understanding and active in all the parts of the universe, not as its foul indeed, but as its Lord, by whose vital directing influence it is, tho' so vaft a bulk, and confifting of so many parts, united

V.

SERM.into one regular fabric. Again, the general apparent likeness which there is among all the individuals of the human kind, is a strong evidence of their being the children of oneFather. I do not mean principally the fimilitude of the exterior form; (tho' even that, in reason, fhould be attributed to the direction of one intelligent Caufe,) but that whereby we are especially God's offspring, our intellectual capacities, which, as far as we can judge, are very nearly alike. A great difference there may be, no doubt there is, in the improvement of them; but the powers themselves, and all the original modes of perception, in the different individuals of mankind, feem to resemble each other, as much as any real diftinct things in nature. Now from a multitude, or a conftant feries of fimilar effects which do not arife from neceffity, we infer unity of design in the Cause. So great a number of rational beings as the whole human race, difpos'd of in the fame manner, endued with like faculties and affections, having many, and thofe principal things in their condition common, provided for out of the fame fund and made for the fame purposes, may reasonably be fuppofed to belong to one family; to be deriv'd from the fame origin, and ftill under the fame paternal care.

V.

Above all, the moral capacity of mankind, SE R M. which is a most important part of their constitution, tending to the highest perfection of their nature, and the principal bond of regular fociety among them, as it proceeds from a wife intending Caufe, fhews unity of wisdom in the Cause; and the government over the moral, as well as the natural world, evidently appears to be a monarchy. Since, as I ob

ferv'd before, a sense of good and evil in characters and actions is indelibly imprinted on every human heart; and there are affections of very great force planted in our minds, whereby we are determined to act according to that sense; and fince this is the effect of an original conftitution, interwoven with the very frame of our nature, and no otherwise to be accounted for than by the defign of its Author; let us fee how this is to be explain'd upon the contrary fuppofitions of one Supreme, or a plurality of independent governing minds. The evident tendency of virtue is not only to the private happiness of fingle perfons, but the good of the whole kind; an univerfal benevolence links us together and interests every one of us in the affairs of another, fo far as to defire and endeavour their fafety and happiness, not inconfiftently with our own. There are other particular determinations of the virtuous kind,

SERM.fuch as compaffion, natural affection, gratitude V. and the love of our country, fo confeffedly

2

natural to men, as by common consent to obtain the name of humanity, but fo prevalent in fome as to put them upon the most selfdenying and hazardous enterprizes, nay, to facrifice their private interefts, even to their very lives, for the good of others; and these determinations of the human mind every one muft fee, do not center in itself, but that the ultimate intention and effect of them is to promote the good of the whole fpecies. Now if we are thus form'd with defign, and if this constitution be the refult of intelligence, is it reasonable to attribute it to different intelligences, having different views, each framing and pursuing a several scheme, when the principal effect, which in a work of wisdom must be the principal intention, is not the feparate good of one or a few, as it must have been upon the hypothesis of various independent causes, each caring for his own workmanship, but the common good of all? Or rather does not this view of the conftitution, which is a very plain and natural one, pointing out its main end, evidently fhew that the whole collective body of mankind, comprehending all the nations of men, which are made of one blood to dwell upon the face of the whole

earth,

V.

earth, is the family of one God, the father ofSERM. all, who is above all, and through all, and in all? It is true, there are found in men difpofitions contrary to virtue, which produce effects hurtful to fociety, and deftructive of the common peace and happiness; yet this does not prove a contrariety in the conftitution, which must be attributed to the influence of oppofite causes in the frame and contrivance of it. Whether these bad difpofitions are an argument against the goodness of the Author, shall be confider'd in its proper place. In the mean time we may observe, that not only we have powerful inftincts, whereby we are prompted to pursue the greatest universal happiness of mankind; but we are under the greatest neceffity that voluntary agents can be under, of acting according to those instincts, because of the connexion our doing so has with our own happiness. For we cannot otherwise be approv'd to our own minds, nor confequently have any true felf-enjoyment; which plainly fhews that the governing defign of the human frame was one, namely the good of the whole; and therefore that the one Father of all men is the Author of it; tho' he has made us in an imperfect state, and not without the poffibility of rebelling against the law of our nature.

VOL. I.

M

From