of falvation in his own power; and therefore, letting others answer for their own folly, each man fhould work out his own falvation. To this pur pofe was our Saviour's anfwer, which ftill leaves it undetermined, whether the majority of mankind are faved or not; and it will be fo, till the final trial: For thus much we are affured, that heaven is not a lottery, and the arithmetic of prizes and blanks has nothing to do with it; but every man is fufficiently inabled to obtain eternal happiness; and if a man fails, it is intirely his own fault. Our Saviour argues very strongly, from worldly, to fpiritual fagacity, in the parable of the unjust steward. The story is well known, and the application of it is directly to our purpose: And the Lord commended the unjust fterward, because he had done wifely; for the children of this world are, in their generation, wifer, than the children of light. "If pious and good men would be any thing near as diligent, and follicitous, to fecure to themselves an eternal happiness in the life to come, as worldly men are "dextrous, and unwearied, in providing for them"felves the things of this fhort and tranfitory life, they could not poffibly fail of their reward."

Almost all the parables and allufions which Chrift makes ufe of, have their force in this kind of analogical reafoning.-Let any one examine the Scripture-Accounts, of the allufion of new cloth put to an old garment;-of computing coft before build. ing, and strength before fighting;-the story of the unjust judge;-of the king who took an account of his fervants, and fhewed extraordinary mercy to one of them ;-of the letting the vineyard to the hufbandmen, who killed the fon and heir;-of the marriage of the king's fon, and the judgment upon the person who wanted a wedding-garment ;-of the mafter watching, to prevent the breaking up of his houfe ;-of the mafter returning from the field, and ordering the fervants, who had been at labour,

to

to attend him ;-of the ten virgins;-of the talents and of the unjuft fteward, already mentioned;-. with other allufions and parables, and it must be allowed, that the use of them all lies, in the Analogy they bear to fpiritual things. If there could be any doubt of this, the fcripture-applications of them might be brought as undeniable teftimonies.

To conclude this difcourfe, one Analogy more fhall be taken notice of, between worldly and fpiritual prudence; not as they may both be found in man, but as one is in GoD, and the other in man remembring the definition given of prudence, that it is the chufing proper means to acquire a defirable end.

WHEN men affociated themselves into focieties,

they not only affigned penalties to the transgreffions of their own pofitive inftitutions, but also to the tranfgreffions of morality, which is a divine law, and has evident rewards and punishments annexed to it, even in this life, in the natural confequences of it: But it is alfo evident, that the natural confequences of virtue and vice are not fufficient, to induce men to practife one, and to deter them, from committing the other: For this reafon, human focieties, in many inftances, corroborate the moral law, by additional fanctions; and, in fome inftances, not only punish vice, as injurious to fociety, but also as a tranfgreffion of that, which is fit and proper to be done: And the punishment for crimes is often capital.

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a Our sense or discernment of actions, as morally good or evil, implies in it, a fenfe or difcernment of them, as of good or ill defert. It may be difficult to explain this perception, fo as to anfwer all the questions, which may be afked concerning it: But every one speaks of fuch and fuch actions, as deferving punishment: And it is not, I fuppofe, pretended, that they have abfolutely no meaning at all to the expreffion. Now the meaning plainly is not, that we conceive it for the good of fociety, that the doer of fuch actions should be made to fuffer: For if, unhappily, it were refolved, that a man, who by fome innocent action was infected with the plague, fhould be left to perish, left by other

peoples

capital. It is likewife obfervable, that all the im portant duties of morality have not civil fanctions in any state, but the most, in the best of states : And thefe civil fanctions are not always proportionable The difference of colour in the fkin, in fome places makes Murder punishable with death, or money and Ingratitude is fcarce any where pu nished. From hence may be inferred, that men acknowledge the obligation of the moral law, as well as the infufficiency of its fanction in the natural courfe of things which infufficiency they endeavour to make up, and yet muft own, that, after all, the government of the world is unequal: For fome crimes are not punishable at all, in proportion to their malignity, either in their natural confequences, or by civil fanctions.

The argument of analogy will therefore ftand thus: If mankind, confidered in a fociable state, have a difpofition to give a full fanction to the moral law; the moral governor of the world must have a greater-If finite creatures are inadequate to this, and moral juftice be imperfectly adminiftered; the infinite BEING is certainly equal to it, and will adminifter it perfectly.-Therefore, fince the conftitution of things cannot allow that perfection of administration in this world, infallibly it will be made up in the next.

And further, if finite creatures, by their own reafoning, are led to think, they may punish, to the extent of their power, that is, with temporal death;

peoples coming near him, the infection should spread; no one would fay, he deserved this treatment. Innocence and ill defert are inconfiftent ideas. But ill defert fuppofes guilt; and if one be not part of the other, yet they are evidently and naturally connected in our mind. Thus in human creatures there is an affociation of the two ideas, natural and moral evil, wickednefs and punishment. If this affociation was merely artificial or accidental, it were nothing; but being moft unquestionably natural, it greatly concerns us to attend to it. Anal. Nat, and Rev. &c. p. 312. Dublin.

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affuredly

affuredly they fhould conclude, that the infinite GOD may punish to the extent of his is, with eternal death.

b

power, that Thus does Analogy lead us, by true fteps of reafoning from the practice of mankind, to the acknowledgment of a future ftate of eternal rewards and punishments; which, as it is the ultimate end of all trial, and moral probation, here; fo is it the foundation, upon which all religious obligations are built.

b Que chacun examine fa pensée, il la trouvera toûjours occupée au paffé & à l'avenir. Nous ne penfons prefque point au préfent; & fi nous y penfons, ce n'eft que pour en prendre la lumiere pour difpofer l'avenir. Le prefent n'eft jamais nôtre but. Le paffé & le present font nos moyens; le feul avenir est nôtre objet. Ainfi nous ne vivons jamais; mais nous efperons. de vivre; & nous difpofons toûjours à être heureux: Il eft indubitable que nous ne le ferons jamais, fi nous n'aspirons à une autre beatitude, qu'à celle dont on peut jouir en cette vie. PenJées de M. Pafchal,

From hence we should argue, analogically, that there will be a future ftate; fince the human mind is fo intirely disposed to think of future pleasures, rather than the present, or the past; unlefs we will suppose that human nature has appetites, which its author never intended fhould be gratified; but every other appetite has a reasonable gratification, so also shall this one have a reasonable gratification in another state of things,