affured that the gteat art " of life refides in
this rehgion ? That man in every ftation
wherein he can be placed, cannot fail of
finding here, whatever he can defire of direc-
tion in the arduous and the intricate ; with
comfort in the painful and laborious feafons
of life ? In fhort that this religion can affure
him of peace of mind at all times ?

But even in this cafe, fome defiderata may
be regretted in the form and nature of this
religion, fuch as may occafionally defeat
thefe beneficial purpofes of it. In the firft
place, this law is^ not fo fixed and precife as
written laws are by their conftrudlion : and
fecondly, the ftate of even rational hope of
future reward, without affurance, does not
amount to perfedt fatisfaftion.
With refped: to the firft, though this may
not feem a very material objection, fince rnan
has within him a certain criterion of duty,
a law, as Cicero ' afferts of felf prefervation,
" to which we are not trained, but formed :"
yet a very different opinion is not unfounded.
In the contemplation of national charadter,
a confiderable fluftuation appears in the no-
tions and manners of men from time to



■= Nullum Numen abeft, fi fit Prudentia. Juvenal.
1 Pro Milo.
