SOME

OBSERVATIONS,

That may be confidered,

As relative to the first and third propofitions, or premises, as laid down in the Reverend Mr. WARBURTON's Divine Legation of MoSES;

WHEREIN

The grounds of affociation, and the bandages by which focieties are held together, are confidered.

In a LETTER to a FRIEND.

F 2

(69)

SOME

OBSERVATIONS, &c.

SIR,

W

*

HEN I had the pleasure of your good company and conversation, some time past, you was pleased to take part with the Reverend Mr. Warburton, according to the first propofition in his divine legation of Mofes, (tho' whether your fentiments and his exactly accord, I cannot fay) in maintaining, that such is the strength and prevalence of the human appetites and paffions, that no principle in nature, exclufive of the belief of the doctrine of futurity, is fufficient to curb or reftrain them; that temporal promises, and temporal threatnings, which are the fanctions to human laws, together with a due

*What, in these papers, I call Mr. Warburton's first and third propofitions, I apprehend are the purport of what he has laid down in his legation; which if it be not, then, as far as it is otherwife, fo far he is out of the question.

execution of thofe fanctions, by amply re warding those who obey, and by punishing, tho' ever so severely, them who tranfgrefs thofe laws, these are altogether infufficient to answer that purpofe; fo that where the belief of the doctrine of futurity is wanting, men will naturally, and, as it it were, unavoidably, commence creatures of prey, by biting and devouring, robbing and plundering, wafting and destroying, one another; and, confequently, where the belief of the doctrine of futurity, does not take place, nor have a commanding and reftraining influence on the appetites and paffions of men; there, according to the natural courfe of things, fociety cannot fubfift, or be held together. This, Sir, I apprehend to be

a

* If the fanctions, annexed to human laws, with á due execution of them, are not proper, as not being sufficient, to command and restrain the appetites and paffions of men, fo far as motives may be confidered as fufficient, by having a tendency to influence, or work upon, free beings; then the judgment and conduct of Governors ftand condemned, in appointing, and in the execution of them, as providing means, improper, by their infufficiciency, to reach the end proposed to be obtained by them. If inflicting temporal punishment, be not a proper expedient to reftrain from evil doing; then, thus punifhing evil doers, is not only unneceffary and vain, with regard to that end, but it is alfo, in that respect, a needlejs introduction of mifery. If the inflicting corporal

punishment,

a fair, and a full, reprefentation of λότερο

fense of this matter.

UPON which, if you remember, I obferved, that human affociation is founded in nature, as man is, by and from his make and conftitution, a fociable animal, whofe affections naturally lead him to fociety; whofe understanding directs him to chuse it, as his greater good, or as that which will contribute much more to his prefent happiness than un fociableness; and whose indigency and dependency, as it were, forces or F 4 compels punishment, be not a proper expedient to restrain from evil-doing, and if the belief of the doctrine of futurity be a proper means to that end, then to endeavour to restrain from defertion, and other offences, committed against the laws of war, by the use of the cat-of-nine-tails, muft needs be a childish attempt, as it is an ineffectual means to that end; and then the Chaplain only fhould be called in, to inftruct the criminal in the doctrine of futurity, becaufe, tho' the former means will not be effectual, the latter may; and then Chaplains may be of much more use in an army, than at prefent they appear to be. Nevertheless, whatever high opinion governors may have had of the doctrine of futurity, and of the efficacy, that the belief of it may have upon human minds, this is plain, they all, whether civil or military, have conftantly had recourfe to temporal punishments, as the grand restraint upon mankind; which fhews, to a demonftration, that the other was what they had no dependance upon, as they did not have recourfe to it, by an immediate application of it to the criminal; and that the belief of the doctrine of futurity, tho' it might be of fome ufe, yet it was not the principal, much less the only bandage, by which focieties are held together.