SERMON VII. Vindication of Human Nature. ROMANS XIV. 7. For none of us liveth to himself. THERE is not a sentence in scripture, which ftrikes a narrow foul with greater astonishment;-and one might as easily engage to clear up the darkest problem in geometry to an ignorant mind, as make a fordid one comprehend. the truth and reasonablenefs of this plain. propofition-No man liveth to himfelf! Why? Does any man live to any thing elfe?In the whole compafs of human life, can a prudent man fleer to a fa fer point?-Not live to himfelf!-To whom then?-Can any interefts or concerns which are foreign to a man's felf have fuch a claim over him, that he muft ferve under them,-fufpend his own 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-spirited 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 honeft, 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 infpires and adds. fentiments of generofity and virtue to those 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 refemblance with a pure and infi fet of creatures incapable either of private friendship or public fpirit, but just as the cafe fuited their own intereft and advantage. That there is felfishness and meannefs 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 dispute againft; 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 whole center of all his defigns; --or because a third ftrait-hearted wretch fits confined within himfelf,-feels no misfortunes, but those 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 muft untie the bands of fociety, and rob us of one of the greatest pleafures of it, the mutual |