to have great circumspection in regard to their most trivial actions. Titles make a greater distinction than is almost tolerable to a British spirit. They almost vary the species; yet, as they are oftentimes conferred, seem not so much the reward, as the substitutes of merit. People of superior birth, fortune, or education, ought to maintain their superiority by their intellectual acquirements, in which they are not likely to be surpassed, or even equalled, by those in lower stations, who have had none of their opportunities to improve themselves. OBLIGATIONS. HAVE AVE I obliged any body, or done the world any service? If so, the action has rewarded me; this answer will encourage good nature, therefore let it always be at hand. Great minds, like Heaven, are pleas'd with doing good, Tho' th' ungrateful subjects of their favors Above the worthless trophies man can raise, She seeks not honor, wealth, or any praise, But with herself, herself the goddess pays. A man cannot be bound by one benefit to suffer all sorts of injuries; for there are some cases wherein we lie under no obligation for a benefit, because a greater injury absolves it. As for example, a man helps me out of a law suit, and afterwards commits a rape upon my daughter; here, the following impiety cancels the antecedent obligation. A man lends me a little money, then sets my house on fire; the debtor is here turned creditor, because the injury outweights the benefit; nay, if he does but so much as repent the good office done, and grow sour and insolent upon it, and upbraid me with it; if he did it only for his own sake, or for any other reason than for mine, I am in some degree, more or less, acquitted of the obligation. You have yourself your kindness overpaid, He ceases to oblige who can upbraid. A certain person once had done me a singular piece of service, but had afterwards behaved himself very unworthily towards me. An occasion soon occured which put it into my power to requite his ill offices; and I was urged to take advantage of it, by a friend of mine- or rather, an enemy of his. I object ed, that this man had formerly obliged and served me. True, he replied, but surely his ill behavior since that time, has sufficiently cancelled both the service and the obligation, By no means; merchants' accounts are never to be admitted into the higher and more liberal commerce of friendship. A person who has once obliged, has put it out of his power ever after to disoblige us. The scripture has inculcated a precept, to forgive our enemies ; how much stronger then must the text imply, the forgiveness of our friends? The disobligation, therefore, being thus cancelled by religion, leaves the obligation without abatement in morality. A kindness can never be cancel led-not even by repaying it. OATHS. THE lawful use and end of swearing, is, to put and end to all strife, and to maintain both equity and charity among men; the two bonds and ligaments of society. Now, since it is the sovereign right and property of God alone, infallibly to search and try the hearts of men, he therefore becomes the infallible witness of the truth or falsehood of what they speak; so that in every such lawful oath, there is not only a solemn appeal, and in that ppeal an inscription of glory to his sovereign omniscience, but therein they put themselves under his wrath and curse, in case they swear falsely, which makes this action most sacred and solemn. But to break in rudely and blasphemously upon the sacred and tremendous name of God, with bold and full-mouthed oaths, striking through his sacred name with direct and contumelious blasphemies, this argues a heart from which all fear of God is utterly expelled and banished. Yet some there are, grown up to that prodigious height of impiety, that they dare assault the very heavens, and discharge whole vollies of blasphemies against that glorious Majesty which dwells there. They are not afraid to bid defiance to him, and challenge the God that made them to do his worst. They deck (as they account it) their common discourses with oaths, and horrid imprecations, not esteeming them genteel and modish without. It consists not with the greatness of their spirits to be wicked at the common rate. They are willing to demonstrate to the world, that they are none of those puny, silly fellows, that are afraid of Invisible powers, or so much of a coward as to clip a full-mouthed oath, by suppressing, or whispering the emphatical sounding syllable, but think a horrid blasphemy makes the most sweet and graceful cadence in the hellish rhetoric. If there be a God, which they scarce believe, they are resolved audaciously to provoke him, to give them a convincing evidence of his being. And if he be, as they are told he is, rich in patience and forbearance, they are resolved to try how far his patience will extend, and what load of wickedness it is capable to bear. If, therefore, de struction be not sure enough, they will do their utmost to make it so, by treading down the only bridge whereby they can escape it, that is, by trampling under their feet the precious blood and wounds of the Son of God, and imprecating the damnation of hell upon their souls, as if it slumbered too long, and was too slow paced in its motion towards them. It is common for some men to swear, only to fill up the vacuities of their empty dis course. Common swearing argues in a man, a perpetual distrust of his own reputation, and is an acknowledgment that he thinks his bare word not worthy of credit. The man of the world-the all accomplished earl of Chesterfield-says, "I was even absurd enough, for a little while to swear, by way of adorning and completing the shining character of the man of fashion, or pleasure, which I affected; but this folly I soon laid aside, upon finding both the guilt and the indecency of it." Listen ye Stanhopean pretenders, ye pretenders to politesse. The great Dr. Desagulier being invited to |