28 A Vievy of ibe DEisrreAL. Writers. Let. 26.

** every conceivable duty that we owe to God as our Creator, „crand to man as our fellow-creature: That this ſyſtem of duty

is fully proportioned by infinite wiſdom to the human ſtate, and to the end of it human happineſs.— Natural religion ee therefore is relatively perfect: It is immutable: As long as God and man continue to be what they are, and to ſtand in „* the ſame relations to one another.“ He adds,“ if it does not “ follow neceſſarily from this, ſure I am that it follows proba- bly, that God has made no other revelation of himſelf and of his will to mankind t.“ This is evidently the main point our author had in view in extolling ſo mightily as he has done the abſolute perfection, certainty, and clearneſs of the law of nature.

From the ſeveral paſſages which have been produced, it

appears, that by the law of nature he underſtands what we

may collect by our reaſon concerning the will of God, and our

duty, from the conſideration of his works, but eſpecially from the conſtitution of the human ſyſtem, or as he expreſſeth it, from the fund of our nature, phyſical and moral. Let us there- fore enquire what account he gives of the human ſyſtem. He obſerves, that man has two principles of determination, af- “ fections, and paſſions, excited by apparent good, and reaſon, „ which is a fluggard, and cannot be ſo excited. Reaſon muſt be willed into action; and as this can rarely happen, when

* ſions cannot govern abſolutely, they obtain more indulgence

e from reaſon than they deſerve; or than fhe would fhew „them if ſhe were entirely free from their force, and free ¹˙ from their conduct ².“ He expreſly declares, that“the appe-

* tites, paſfions, and the immediate objects of pleaſure will be 1 ays of greater force to determine us than xeaſon*.“ And 1 contingencies that muſt ariſe from the conſti-

he needs not go about to prove

12, alwWa

that de of appetite; from . 2. « which affect ariſe, as w up afterwards into

¹* paſſions, which reaſon cannot alway due in the ſtrongeſt „ minds, and by Which ſhe is perpetually ſubdued in the *¹ weakeſt y.“ At the ſame fime that he ſpeaks in ſuch ſtrong erms of the great power and prevalency of the appetites and

p. 150. See alſo Ibid. p. 116. y Ibid. p. 479.