Our private Will is loft in that of the Almighty, and our Security against any real Ill refts on the fame Bottom as the Throne of him who lives and reigns for ever. He, therefore, who is provided with fuch Armour, taken, if we may fay fo, from the Armory of Heaven, may be proof against the sharpeft Arrows of Fortune, and defy the Impotence of human Malice; and' though he cannot be fecure against those Ills which are the ordinary Appendages of Man's Lot, yet may poffefs that quiet contented Mind which takes off their Pungency, and is next to an Exemption from them. But we can only touch on these Things; a fuller Detail of our Obligations to cultivate and pursue these Moral Goods of the Mind, and the best Method of doing it, muft be reserved to another and more proper Place.

Chief Good Objective and Formal.

Before we finish this Section, it may be fit to obferve,

that as the Deity is the fupreme and inexhaufted Source of Good, on whom the Happiness of the whole Creation depends; as he is the Object in Nature, and the only Object who is fully proportioned to the Intellectual and Moral Powers of the

Mind,

Mind, in whom they ultimately rest and find their most perfect Exercife and Completion, he is therefore termed the CHIEF GOOD of Man, OBJECTIVELY Confidered. And Virtue, or the proportioned and vigorous Exercife of the feveral Powers and Affections on their refpective Objects, as above described, is, in the Schools, termed the CHIEF GOOD, FORMALLY Confidered, or its FORMAL Idea, being the inward Temper and native Conflitution of Human Happiness.

From the Detail we have gone thro', the following Corollaries may be deduced. First, It is evident that the Corollaries. Happiness of fuch a Progreffive Creature as Man can never be at a stand, or continue a fixed invariable Thing. His finite Nature, let it rise ever so high, admits ftill higher Degrees of Improvement and Perfection. And his Progreffion in Improvement, or Virtue, always makes way for a Progreffion in Happiness. So that no poffible Point can be affigned in in any Period of his Exiftence in which he is perfectly happy, that is, fo happy as to exclude higher Degrees of Happiness. All his Perfection is only comparative. G

2. It

2. It appears that many Things muft confpire to complete the Happiness of fo various a Creature as Man, fubject to fo many Wants, and fufceptible of fuch different Pleasures. 3. As his Capacities of Pleasure cannot be all gratified at the fame time, and muft often interfere with each other in fuch a precarious and fleeting State as Human Life, or be frequently difappointed, perfect Happinefs, i. e. the undisturbed Enjoyment of the several Pleafures of which we are capable, is un-. attainable in our prefent State. 4. That State is moft to be fought after, in which the fewest Competitions and Difappointments can happen, which leaft of all impairs any Senfe of Pleasure, and opens an inexhaufted Source of the most refined and lafting Enjoyments. 5. That State which is attended with all thofe Advantages, is a State or Course of Virtue. 6. THEREFORE, a State of Virtue, in which the Moral Goods of the Mind are attained, is the HAPPIEST STATE.

SECT.

SECT. III.

Duties to SoCIETY.

CHAP. I.

Filial and Fraternal Duty.

S we have followed the Order of Nature in tracing the Hiftory of Man, and thofe Duties which he owes to himself, it seems reasonable to take the fame Method with thofe he owes to SoCIETY, which conftitute the fecond Clafs of his Obligations.

Connection

His Parents are among the earliest Objects of his Atten- of Parents. tion, he becomes fooneft ac

quainted with them, repofes a peculiar Confidence in them, and feems to regard them with a fond Affection, the early Prognostics of his future Piety and Gratitude. Thus does Nature dictate the first Lines of filial Duty, even before a just Senfe of the Connection is formed. when the Child is grown up, and has attained to fuch a Degree of Understanding, as to comprehend the Moral Tye, and be fenfible of the Obligations he is under to G 2 his

But

his Parents; when he looks back on their tender and difinterested Affection, their inceffant Cares and Labours in nurfing, educating, and providing for him, during that State in which he had neither Prudence nor Strength to care and provide for himself, he must be conscious that he owes to them thefe peculiar Duties. To reverence and honour them as the Inftruments of

Duties to

Parents. Nature in introducing him to

Life, and to that State of Comfort and Happiness which he enjoys; and therefore to esteem and imitate their good Qualities, to alleviate and bear with, and spread, as much as poffible, a decent Veil over their Faults and Weakneffes.

2. To be highly grateful to them for those Favours which it can hardly ever be in his Power fully to repay; to fhew this Gratitude by a ftrict Attention to their Wants, and a folicitous Care to fupply them; by a fubmiffive Deference to their Authority and Advice, efpecially by paying great Regard to it in the Choice of a Wife, and of an Occupation; by yielding to, rather than peevishly contending with their Humours, as remembering