favourite topic, the Freedom of the Will, both pro and con. They might, however, in compaffion to their readers, and in mercy to themselves, have faved much useless labour, only by changing the question, and disputing (for they are ready to difpute every thing) the Existence of the Will at once; for, That the Will is free, is an identical and convertible propofition. Where there is Will, there is Freedom; and where there is Freedom, there is Will: and, however dearly the old philofophers loved difputation, they had more regard for the honour of their logic, than to waste their fyllogifms on fo abfurd a question.

And it is the fame conscious and internal feeling, which, on the voluntary commiffion of evil, wounds the breaft with a pungent involuntary pain; and which, on the voluntary performance of good, expands the heart with a pure and involuntary pleaJure: From thefe native fentiments springing out of our very frame, another truth refults, by immediate implication, That all Good will be fucceeded by REWARD, and all Evil

by PUNISHMENT: for "wickedness,” in the elegant and pointed language of Solomon, condemneth by her " own witness, and, be"ing preffed by confcioufnefs, forecasteth "grievous things.""

upon

These great and univerfal truths operating the mind of man, that fuperior and diviner part of his existence, by a necessary and inceffant impulfe, imply, with the help of a little reason, the existence of a fuperior LAW to which we are neceffarily obliged, and, of course, the existence of a MORAL GoVERNOUR, the author of that Law; who is the Rewarder of all voluntary Good, as confiftent with his Nature, and conformable to his Will, the unchangeable standards of all Moral Truth; and who is the Punisher of Evil, as contrary to both. Thus we arrive at the ultimate foundation of all Moral Government and Obligation, immoveably fixed in the ATTRIBUTES AND WILL OF GOD,' erected in his Goodness, established in his Justice, and fanctioned by his Power.

Wisdom, xvi. 10, II.

As it is of the nature of the independent first Cause of

all

From this foundation all Religion fprings. Hence we fee that of Nature taking its origin, as a part of the Law uncreated and eternal, and, as a glympfe of the divine and immaculate light, fhining in the breasts of men. Hence we fee that every man has the law of God written in his heart, and is made amenable to a tribunal which is fpiritual and invifible. And hence the Apostle argues, that they, who, deprived of the advantage of a fuller and clearer light, by the dictates of Confcience and the guide of Reafon, conform their actions to the Will of God," are. "a law unto themselves."

all things to be obliged by his own Wisdom; fo it feems to be of the nature of all dependent intelligent beings to be obliged only by the Will of the first cause.

'All things therefore' (fays Hooker, the great master of reason, Eccl. Pol. B. 1. §. 2.) do work, after a fort, 'according to a LAW, whereof fome SUPERIOR, to whom 'they are subject, is Author; only the works and opera'tions of God have him both for the worker, and for the 'Law, whereby they are wrought. The Being of God is 'a kind of Law to his workings; for that perfection 'which God is, giveth perfection to what he doth.' Warb. Div. Leg. B. 1. §. 4.

8

Rom. ii. 14, 15.

ALL Truth is therefore born of God : that which is Natural springing every where from his Works: and that which is Moral refulting every where from his Will, reflected upon us by the medium of CoNSCIENCE OF INTERNAL SENSÈ, which is God within us, that clear and invincible evidence of his Being shining in the human mind, as a ray of the divine, and discovering to men in part his Will, and by the performance of that Will, through the merits of ANOTHER, their way to Happinefs: fo that, upon the authority of this Natural Religion, they may exclaim, in the words of the royal preacher, "Verily there "is a reward for the righteous; doubtless "there is a God that judgeth the earth.'”

As the External Senfes are the ultimate criteria of all material objects, this Internal Senfe is the ultimate criterion of all moral actions: and, though, in its acts and

opera

Pfal. lviii. 10.

tions as a guide to truth, it may be subsequent to them, it is prior both in use and dignity. In the analogy, which fubfifts between these two great inlets of all human knowledge in their exercise and effects, we cannot but observe with admiration that uniformity of defign, which marks all the works of HIM who is unchangeable and the fame, and that confiftency of operation which pervades his univerfe: And, as we know, from too frequent obfervation, that the one is liable, through ill-habit or diftemper, to be vitiated and even loft; fo the other, from fimilar causes, is subject to fimilar effects. But, though this fublimer PRINCIPLE of morality, which is the fubject of our present confideration, may fometimes have been so far weakened in its evidence, or perverted in its use, as even to perfwade a great philofopher of its non-existence;" it is an ingredient

"See Mr. Locke's first book on Innate Practical Principles, Chap. iii. §. 8. If Confcience be a proof of Innate Principles, Contraries may be Innate,' &c.

The Principles, however, both speculative and practical, which Mr. Locke is in this book proving not to be innate, are Maxims and General Propofitions; not Evidences, but

Axioms;