SERMON VII.

Vindication of Human Nature.

ROMANS xiv. 7.

For none of us liveth to bimfelf.

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HERE is not a fentence in fcripture, which strikes a narrow foul with greater aftonishmentand one might as easily engage to clear up the darkeft problem in geometry to an ignorant mind, as make a fordid one comprehend the truth and reasonablenefs of this plain propofitión.-No man liveth to himself! Why-Does any man live to any thing elfe?-In the whole com. pafs of human life can a prudent man steer to a safer point? Not live to himself ?To whom then ?Can any interefts or concerns which are foreign to a man's self have fuch a claim over him, that he must ferve

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ferve under them-fufpend his own pur fuits-step out of his right course, till o-thers have paffed by him, and attained the feveral ends and purposes of living before him?

If, with a selfish heart, fuch an enquirer fhould happen to have a fpeculative head 100, he will proceed, and ask you whether this fame principle which the apostle here throws out of the life of man, is not in fact, the grand bias of his nature?That however we may flatter ourselves with fine-fpun notions of difinterestedness and heroism in what we do; that were the moft popular of our actions ftripped naked; and the true motives and intentions of them fearched to the bottom; we should find little reafon for triumph, upon that

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In a word, he will fay, that a man is altogether a bubble to himself in this matter, and that after all that can be faid in his behalf, the trueft definition that can be given of him is this, that he is a felfish animal; and that all his actions have fo ftrong a tincture of that character, as to news fhew

fhew (to whomever else he was intended to live) that in fact, he lives only to himself.

Before I reply directly to this accufation, I cannot help obferving by the way, that there is fcarce any thing which has done more differvice to focial virtue, than the frequent reprefentations of human nature, under this hideous picture of deformity, which by leaving out all that is generous and friendly in the heart of man, has funk him below the level of a brute, as if he was a compofition of all that was mean-fpirited and selfish. Surely, 'tis one step towards acting well, to think worthily of our nature; and as in common life the way to make a man honest, is, to fuppofe him fo, and treat him as fuch;-fo here, to fet fome value upon ourselves, enables us to fupport the character, and even inspires and adds fentiments of generofity and virtue to thofe which we have already preconceived. The fcripture tells, That God made man in his own image,-not furely in the fenfitive and corporeal part of him, that could bear no resemblance with a pure and infinite fpirit,-but what refemblance he bore

was undoubtedly in the moral rectitude, and the kind and benevolent affections of his nature. And tho' the brightness of this image has been fullied greatly by the fall of man, in our firft parents, and the characters of it rendered ftill less legible, by the many fuper-inductions of his own depraved appetites fince-yet 'tis a laudable pride and a true greatness of mind to cherish a belief, that there is fo much. of that glorious image ftill left upon it, as shall reftrain him from base and difgraceful actions; to anfwer which end, what thought can be more conducive than that, of our being made in the likeness of the greatest and beft of beings? This is a plain confequence. And the confideration of it fhould have in fome measure been a protection to human nature, from the rough usage she has met with from the fatirical pens of fo many of the French writers, as well as of our own country, who with more wit that well-meaning have desperately fallen foul upon the whole fpecies, as a fet of creatures incapable either of private friendship or public fpirit, but just as the cafe fuited their own intereft and advantage.

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That there is felfishness, and meanness enough in the fouls of one part of the world, to hurt the credit of the other part of it, is what I fhall not difpute against; but to judge of the whole, from this bad fample, and because one man is plotting and artful in his nature—or, a fecond openly makes his pleasure or his profit the fole centre of all his designsor because a third ftrait-hearted wretch fits confined within himself,-feels no misfortunes, but thofe which touch himfelf; to involve the whole race without mercy under fuch detefted characters, is a conclufion as falfe, as it is pernicious; and was it in general to gain credit, could ferve no end, but the rooting out of our nature all that is generous, and planting in the ftead of it fuch an averfion to each other, as must untie the bands of society, and rob us of one of the greatest pleasures of it, the mutual communications of kind offices: and by poisoning the fountain, rendering every thing suspected that flows through it.