INTRODUCTION.

solid happiness.

F we duly consider MAN, we shall find

him a social being; and in effect, such is his nature, that he cannot well subsist alone. For out of society he could neither preserve life, display or perfect his faculties and talents, nor retain any real or

Had not the GOD of nature intended him for society, he would never have formed him subject to such a variety of wants and infirmities. This would have been highly inconsistent with divine wisdom, or the regularity of omniscience; on the contrary, the very necessities of human nature unite men together, and fix them in a state of mutual dependence on one another. For select the most perfect and accomplished of the human race, a HERCULES or a SAMSON, & BACON or a BOYLE, a LOCKE or a NEWTON; nay, we need not except SOLOMON himself, and suppose him fixed alone, even in this happy country, where nature, from her bounteous stores, seems to have formed another Eden, and we should soon find him deplorably wretched; and by being destitute of a social intercourse, deprived of every shadow of happiness.

Therefore, for the establishment of our felicity, providence in its general system with regard to the government of this world, has ordained a reciprocal connexion between all the various parts of it, which cannot subsist without a mutual dependence; and from the human spe

cies, down to the lowest parts of the creation, one chain unites all nature. This is excellently observed, and beautifully described, by a late celebrated poet, in the following lines.

God in the nature of each being sounds

Its proper bliss, and sets its proper bounds;
But as he form'd a whole, the whole to bless,
On mutual wants built mutual happiness.

So from the first eternal order ran,

And creature link'd to creature, man to man.

POPE.

Under these circumstances, men must of necessity form associations for their comfort and defence, as well as for their very existence.

Had revelation been altogether silent on this point, yet we might by the mere light of nature have easily discovered it to be our duty to be kindly affectionate one to another. No system can be more agreeable to the common sentiments of mankind, nothing built upon surer terms of equity and reason, than that I should treat my fellowcreature with the same candour and benevolence, with the same affection and sincerity I should expect myself. It is true this was not delivered in express words till the time of Moses, nor so fully explained and understood as at the coming of the prophets. Yet we have great reason to believe that it was the first law revealed to Adam, immediately upon his fall, and was a genuine precept of uncorrupted human nature. That every one is naturally an enemy to his neighbour, was the malevolent assertion of a late philosopher [HOBBS ;] one who vainly thinking himself deeper versed in the principles of man than any before him, and having miserably corrupted his own mind by many wild extravagancies, concluded, from such acquired corruption, that all men were naturally the same. How to reconcile a tenet

of this kind with the justice and goodness of a supreme Being, seems a task too difficult for the most knowing person to execute; and what the author himself was contented barely to lay down, without the least shew of argument in its defence. That God should be a being of infinite justice, creating us in a necessary state of dependence on, and at the same time bring us into the world with inclinations of enmity and cruelty towards each other, is a contradiction so palpable, as no man can assert consistently with a reverential notion of his Maker. And were there no sufficient proofs against it, even from our imperfect ideas of the Creator, the very laws of nature would confute it.

By the law of nature, I would be understood to mean, that will of God which is discoverable to us by the light of reason without the assistance of revelation. Now nothing is more evident than this grand maxim, That whatever principles and actions have an inseparable connexion with the public happiness, and are necessary to the wellbeing of society; are fundamental laws of nature, and bear the stamp of divine authority.

This will more evidently appear from the following consideration: When the GRAND ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE had, with the greatest wisdom and most exact proportion, formed this globe, and replenished it with every thing necessary for life and ornament, he last of all created man, after his own image, enduing him with rational and immortal powers, adequate to the present and future happiness for which he was designed.

But though he found himself in paradise where every thing abounded for his sustenance and delight, yet for want of a creature of the same rational nature with himself, his felicity was incompleat; so much did the innate ideas of society possess and influence the human mind from its first existence, that the highest enjoyments with

L

out participation, were tasteless and unaffecting ;* a strong proof that even in the original state of human nature, selfish and narrow principles had no share; and that to communicate blessings was to increase them. To gratify his wishes, enlarge his mind, and establish his (before imperfect) happiness, God created an help meet for him, "Woman, his last best gift;" thereby enabling him to exchange the solitary for the social life; an imperfect for a perfect bliss! Now the human mind began to expand; a new train of ideas and affections succeeded; its joys were increased, and its wishes accomplished. These dispositions were continued with the species, and man has ever since had recourse to society as an essential means to humanize his heart and meliorate the enjoyments of life.

But, alas! he being created free in the exertion of the faculties, both of body and mind, and these faculties being vitiated by sin in our first parents, the taint became hereditary, and soon broke out in symptoms which foreboded destruction to the peace and happiness of the world. Cain furnished an early and terrible instance of the truth of this assertion, when of the first two brothers that ever were on earth, one fell a victim to the envious fury of the other, and demonstrated that a train of new passions had taken possession of the human heart. Envy, hatred, and revenge now made their appearance, and bloodshed and discord followed. Ties of consanguinity first cemented mankind; but after the sons of Noah had rendered the earth more populous. and the confusion of

* Our grandsire Adam, ere of Eve possest,
Alone, and e'en in Paradise unblest,
With mournful look the blissful scene survey'd
And wander'd in the solitary shade;

The Maker saw, took pity, and bestow'd
Woman, the last, the best reserve of GOD!