correction, and if we are authorised by a just law to inflict, or cause it to be inflicted upon him.

If it be contrary to the affection we ought to have for our neighbour, to put him to bodily pain needlessly, or unjustly, it is much more so to deprive him of life, unless he has forfeited it according to law.

This injury is so much the more atrocious, as it is irreparable. And it seems to me very much to be doubted, whether human authority ought in reason to be extended to the pardon of the murder of the innocent, Scripture is express, "that he who sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed."

There seems to be in this crime somewhat peculiarly offensive to Heaven, in that the Divine Providence does so often, by most striking and wonderful interpositions, bring the authors of it to light in a manner different from what happens in other cases. For, of the numbers who lose their lives by violence, it is remarkable, that there are few instances of the murderer's escaping. That in so great and wicked a city as London, for example, there should not every year be many people missing, being made away with secretly, and the authors of their death never found, is very remarkable. We find that often the sagacity of dogs, and other animals, and even inanimate things, have been the occasion of bringing this foul crime to light. But the most common means of the discovery of bloody deeds has been conscience, which acting the part of a torturer, has forced the tongue, through extremity of anguish, to disclose the secret which no other but itself could bring to light.

It being by pride and passion, that men are incited to break loose upon one another in acts of violence, it is plain that the best method of preventing our falling into them is, by subduing those fatal passions which transport us beyond the power and use of reason. And if nothing tends more to enflame every passion, than the use of strong liquors, how cautious ought we to be of indulging the maddening draught, which may drive us upon extravagances we could not in our cooler hours believe ourselves capable of? Cruelty, even to the brute creation, is altogether unjustifiable, much more to our fellow-creatures.

Nor can any thinking person believe it possible, that a mind disposed to barbarity, or insensible of the miseries of our fellow-beings, can be at all fit for a future state, in which goodness is to prevail.

A wise man will dread the beginning of quarrels: for no one knows where a quarrel, once begun, may end. None of us knows how much of the evil spirit is either in himself or in his adversary. And he who begins, is in conscience answerable for all the consequences. Nor was there ever a falling out without folly, at least on one side, if not on both. Were one sure the worst that was to happen would be the ruffling of his own or his neighbour's temper, or the discomposing of their spirits, even that cannot be without guilt; and is an empire of consequence enough to make any thinking man offend God, and endanger his or his neighbour's soul? Tremble, reader, at the thought of being suddenly snatched away, (as nothing is more common than sudden death,) and sent into the world of spirits, hot from a contest with a fellow-creature, and fellow-christian.

Hurting our neighbour's health by tempting him to be guilty of intemperance, is as really contrary to that affection we ought to have for him, as wounding, or poisoning him. It is no more an alleviation of the guilt of seducing him into debauchery, that it may not cut him off in less than several years, (which is likewise more than can be certainly affirmed,) than it is less murder to poison in the Italian manner, than with a dose of arsenic. But to lead a fellow-creature into a course of debauchery is, as above observed, poisoning both soul and body at once.

To grieve, afflict, or terrify a fellow-creature needlessly, or unjustly, is injuring him as to his soul. And the anguish of the mind being more severely felt than bodily pain, the inflicting the former upon an innocent person, is a greater act of cruelty. It is therefore shocking to think how one half of mankind sport with the anguish of the other. How little they make the case of their fellow-creatures their own, or consider what they must suffer from their wicked aspersions, misrepresentations, and oppressive and injurious treatment; which bring a pain proportioned to the sensibility of the sufferer: and

every one knows, that the delicacy of some minds renders them as different from others, as the temper of the lamb is meeker than that of the tiger.

But the most direct injury against the spiritual part of our fellow-creature is, leading him into vice; whether that be done by means of solicitation; by artfully imposing on his judgment; by powerful compulsion; or by prevailing example.

Some tempers are so impotently ductile, that they can refuse nothing to repeated solicitation. Whoever takes the advantage of such persons, is guilty of the lowest baseness. Yet nothing is more common, than for the debauched part of our sex to show their heroism by a poor triumph over weak, easy, thoughtless, woman! nothing more frequent, than to hear them boast of the ruin of that virtue, of which it ought to be their pride to be the defenders. "Poor fool! she loved me, and therefore could refuse me nothing." Base coward! Dost thou boast thy conquest over one, who, by thy own confession, was disabled for resistance, disabled by her affection for thy worthless self? Does affection deserve such a return? Is superior understanding, or rather deeper craft, to be used against thoughtless simplicity; and its shameful success to be boasted of?. Dost thou pride thyself, that thou hast had art enough to decoy the harmless lamb to thy hand that thou mightest shed its blood.

To call good evil, and evil good, is in Scripture stigmatized with a curse; and to put out the bodily eyes is not so great an injury as to mislead or extinguish the understanding, and impose upon the judgment in matters of right and wrong. Whoever is guilty of this inhuman and diabolical wickedness, may, in reason, expect to have the soul he has been the ruin of, required hereafter at his hands.

I am very suspicious that many persons in eminent stations have very little notion of their being highly criminal in the sight of God, in setting a bad example before the rest of mankind. No person, who thinks at all, can doubt, whether it is justifiable to advise, or force others to be guilty of vice. But if there is a way incomparably more effectual and alluring, by which people are more powerfully drawn into wickedness; surely that is more

mischievous and hurtful, and ought most carefully to be avoided.

Of all tyranny, none is so inhuman, as where men use their power over others to force them into wickedness. The bloody persecutor, who uses threats and punishments, prisons, racks, and fires, to compel the unhappy sufferer to make shipwreck of faith, and give up truth and a good conscience; the corrupt minister, or candidate, who bullies the unhappy dependant into the perjured vote; these, and such like, are in the way toward being qualified for becoming furies and fiends in the lower regions: for who is so fit for the place of a tormentor, to stand among evil spirits, and plunge the emerging souls deeper in hellflames, than he, who, on earth, made it his infernal employment to thrust his fellow-creatures into those ways which lead down to the chambers of destruction?

Reader, if thou hast ever been the cause of a fellowcreature's guilt; if thou hast, by force or art, betrayed a wretched soul into vice, and acted the part of an agent of Satan; I charge thee on thy soul, put not off thy repentance for an hour. Prevent, if possible, the final ruin thy cursed arts tend to bring upon a human creature. Endeavour to open the eyes which thou hast closed; to enlighten the understanding thou hast blinded; and to lead again into the right way, the feet thou hast taught to wander from it. If thou wilt go to destruction, why shouldest thou drag others with thee? If thy ambition prompts thee to ruin thy own soul, spare that of thy poor fellow-creature, who has no concern with thy schemes. Must thy brother have a place in the infernal regions, to get thee a place at court? Take back the damning bribe; prevent the perjured vote: think how thou wilt bear the eternal howlings of a spirit, by thy temptations sunk to irrecoverable perdition.

Besides the general duty of benevolence to all who partake of the same common nature, which is indispensably necessary, in the nature of things, toward the very being of society, in the present state, and for fitting us for entering into a more extensive society hereafter; besides the general benevolence we owe to all our fellow-creatures, it is evident that we owe particular duties to parti

eular persons, according to the relations and connexions we have with them. This propriety is founded in the nature of things,* and is self-evident. It is as plain that reverence to superiors, for example, is proper, as that all the angles of a plain triangle are equal to two right ones. It is as evident that the contempt of one really superior to us, would be wrong, as that it would be wrong to say that twice two are equal to fifty.

The first, and most important of all relative social duties, is that which we owe to our country. That we ought to study the interest of our country, is plain, from considering that the love of our families, and even self-love, cannot be pursued, or established, on any rational footing but what will extend to that of our country, (for it is impossible for all families and individuals to be happy in a ruined country,) and from considering, that if no person loved his country, but every individual was indifferent about its interest, no country could subsist; but the world must quickly come to an end.

The virtue of patriotism is most indispensable in persons in high stations, whose rank gives them an opportunity of being of important service to the public interest. These ought to consider themselves as general protectors and fathers, to whose care the rest of mankind are, by Divine Providence, committed; and ought to tremble at the thought of betraying so awful a trust and the interest of a country consists briefly in its being properly secured against enemies; in its being governed by good laws, duly executed; in its being secured in its liberties, civil and religious, the boundaries of which last cannot be too ample, though the former may easily be extended to licentiousness, as is at present most flagrantly the case in England; in its being kept under such a police, and such regulations, as may tend to promote health, virtue, public and private, and real religion; in a due encouragement of commerce, agriculture, manufactures, learning, and arts. Whatever a nation can be the better for the encouragement of, or the worse if discouraged, is the province of governors to be perfect masters of, and to see effectual means used for carrying into execution every salutary scheme. With respect to the health of a people, for example, the * See the first Section of this third book,