INDEX TO PART I.
REFERENCES TO THE EDITOR’S NOTES ARE IN BRACKETS.
- Abstract reasonings may mislead, 162
- fitness of things, note 166
- Actions
- distinguished from their qualities, 111
- manifest character, 156
- rewarded and punished, 98
- this world a theater of, 156
- what sort exercise virtue, 152
- Active and passive impressions, 140
- Advantages of virtue, 113
- may never recur, 101
- Affections, excited by objects, 145
- need control, 166
- part of our constitution, 147
- Affliction, a discipline, 150
- chiefly of our own making, 100
- Agent, the living, not compounded, 81
- Alienation of parts of our body, 84
- All things made double, 137
- Allurements, use of, 151
- Analogy
- answers objections as to a present state of trial, 135
- as to modes of existence, 78
- carrying the force of positive argument, [105
- deals only with facts, 171
- indicates future punishment, 101
- may amount to proof, 168
- objections which it cannot answer, 171
- the only proof of some things, 79
- Antiquity of religion, 167
- Atheists not argued with, in this treatise, 181
- Beginnings of a righteous government seen on earth, 107
- Bible, teaches the existence of general laws, [99
- Bodies
- not necessary to us, 82
- not ourselves, 83
- only instruments, 85, 86
- their solid elements, 88
- Bodily and mental habits, 134
- Brain, does not think, [89
- Brahminical notion of death, 92
- Brutes,
- are they immortal?, [88
- may have greater strength than man, 119
- under man’s control, 119
- Capacities,
- state of in infancy, 88
- not destroyed by death, 89
- not dependent on the body, 79
- Causes and ends incomprehensible, 172
- Changes compatible with identity, 78, 83
- Character
- manifested by probation, 156
- not given but acquired, 155
- what it means, note 163
- Conscience,
- how it acts, 164
- implies government, 115
- a rule, 164
- authority, 164
- future retribution, 165
- may be impaired, 168
- perverted, 168
- Consciousness an indiscerptible entity, 82
- presupposes identity, [77
- Consequences
- may sometimes be avoided, 102
- may be foreseen, 98
- show a moral government, 98
- Course of nature constant, 97
- Creatures finitely perfect, 147
- may fall, 148
- have each a way of life, 137
- Danger of wrong doing, how increased, 132
- Death
- and birth similar, 91
- enlarges our sphere, 92
- has no power over matter, [91
- is not a suspension of our powers, 91
- is not our destruction, 80
- what it is, 80
- Decay of vegetables, inference from, 92
- Definitions of identity, 77
- Delivering up of the Lord Jesus Christ, [111
- Destruction of seeds, 153
- Different states of human existence, 89
- Difficulties belong to all subjects, [96
- exercise the virtuous principle, 152
- Disadvantages of virtue temporary, 126
- Discipline, its true nature and use, [148
- Disease not destructive to the soul, 90
- sometimes remedial, 177
- Disorder produced by sin, 148
- Distress excites passive pity and active relief, 140
- Distributive justice a natural rule, 110
- Divine government a scheme, CHAP. VII.
- Domestic government, 114
- Dreams, what they prove, 86
- Earthly satisfactions attainable, 183
- Effects of actions on the actor, [143
- Ends often produced by unlikely means, 180
- Enjoyments in our own power to a great degree, 95
- Error, how spread, [96
- Evidence of natural religion, 166
- Evil, may possibly be useful, 177
- its possible origin, 147
- not a necessary part of probation, [128
- Exceptions to the happiness of virtue, 108
- Experience indispensable, 141
- Faculties, human, not perfect at first, 141
- Fall of man, 133, [148
- Fallacy in fatalism, 169
- Fallen creatures require discipline, 150
- Fatalism,—see Necessity.
- Fear a proper motive to obedience, 154
- Folly, destructive, as well as crime, 132
- Formal notion of government, 99
- Foundation of moral improvement, [108
- Future advantages, how proportioned, 93
- Future existence probable, CHAP. I.
- of brutes, [79
- Future interest dependent on conduct, 95
- Future life,
- a solemn subject, 95
- not an inactive condition, 144
- reconcilable with atheism, 94
- this life preparatory to it, CHAP. V.
- Future punishment credible, 103
- Future retribution, how proved, 125
- Future state
- different from the present, 78
- brings us into new scenes, 93
- may have temptations, [145
- social, 144
- will not require such virtues as does the present life, 154
- General laws
- govern the world, 177, [99
- produce punishment, 103
- wisdom of them, 178
- General method of God’s government, 97
- General system of religion, 124
- Gradual improvement, a wise arrangement, 141, 142
- GOD
- an intelligent governor, 106
- determined by what is fit, [166
- governs by human instruments, 111
- governs justly, [108
- has a will and a character, 163
- his aims incomprehensible, 97
- his attributes inferred from our own, [115
- his general government, 97
- his government just and good, 176
- his indirect commands, 165
- moral government of, CHAP. III.
- natural ” , ” II.
- necessarily existent, 159
- not indifferent to human actions, 125
- not simply benevolent, 106
- rewards and punishes, 169
- the only necessary being, 159
- Good actions, how punished, 111
- Good habits necessary even to the virtuous, 149
- Good men befriended as such, 112
- cannot now all unite, 121
- Good not forced upon us, [134
- Government,
- civil, an ordinance of God, 111
- considered as a scheme, CHAP. VII.
- of God, CHAP. II.
- not perfected in this world, 107
- the formal notion of it, 98
- the perfection of, 106
- Habits,
- how formed, &c., 139
- necessary to us hereafter, [145
- of resignation, 155
- often ruinous, 101
- of virtue an improvement in virtue, 147
- passive, 138
- shape the character, 141
- Happiness
- not always the immediate reward of virtue, 108
- not given promiscuously, 138
- requisites for, 137
- the result of virtue, 118
- Helplessness of man, [138
- Higher degrees of retribution probable, 127
- Hinderances to virtue, 121
- History of religion, 169
- Honest men befriend the honest, 112
- Hope and fear appeal to self-love, 153
- are just principles of action, 154
- Human life preparatory, 144
- Hume’s wonderful discovery, [162
- Human powers may be overtasked, 152
- Identity
- does not depend on the sameness of the body, 83
- of living agents, 77, 78
- not explicable, [77
- Ignorance
- acknowledged on all subjects but religion, 174
- answers objections, 175
- the argument from, 180
- total, destroys proof, 178
- Illustration of the modification of an action by its intention, [111
- Imagination a source of discontent, 154
- produces much error, 81
- Immortality of brutes, 88
- Improvement
- by discipline, 144
- by habit, 147
- of our faculties gradual, 141
- wisdom of this, 142
- Incomprehensibility of God’s plans, 97
- Inconsiderateness destructive, 102
- Inferiority of brute force, 119
- Infidelity unjustifiable, 105
- Insignificance of our knowledge, [174
- Interest coincident with virtue, 154
- not a sufficient restraint, note 146
- Interpositions to prevent irregularities, 177
- would produce evil, 178
- Intentional good rewarded, 114
- Irregularities perhaps unavoidable, 177
- seeming may not be such, 176
- Inward peace attends virtue, 112
- Kingdom, idea of a perfect, 123
- Knowledge of man insignificant, [174
- Liberty does not account for the fall, 147
- implied in our present condition, 162
- Life a probation, 128
- one part of it preparatory to another, [142
- what is it intended for, 137
- Living agent not subject to death, 79
- Living powers, see Death.
- Locke on human identity, [77
- Maimonides, his similitude, [173
- Man
- an inferior part of creation, 133
- a system of parts, [98
- by nature social, [93
- capable of improvement, 145
- connected with present, past, and future, 181
- dealt with as if free, 162
- has a moral nature, 115
- his fall not accounted for by his free agency, 147
- his helplessness, [138
- knows nothing fully, 173
- may become qualified for new states, 137
- not a competent judge of God’s schemes, 174
- requires moral culture, 145
- Mania often produced by moral causes, [85
- Materialism, its philosophical absurdity, [81
- Matter and mind not the same, [83
- affect each other, 85
- Means
- learned by experience, 176
- man not a competent judge of the fitness of them, 178
- not always agreeable, 176
- Men often miss possible temporal good, 129
- Men’s temporal interests greatly depend on themselves, 131
- Might of unarmed virtue, [121
- Mind
- influenced by the passions, 131
- is the man, [87
- its effects on the body, [85
- may survive the body, [89
- the only real percipient, 85
- uses the body as an instrument, [87
- Miracles, properly speaking, not unnatural, 94
- Miseries as contingent as conduct, 135
- generally are avoidable, 100
- Mixture of suffering and enjoyment in this world, [128
- Moral and natural government of God similar to each other, 184
- Moral attributes of God may be inferred from our own, [115
- Moral discipline, CHAP. V.
- Moral government of God, CHAP. III.
- Moral improvement, basis of, [108
- Moral world, its apparent irregularities, 176
- Mystery of God, finished, note 102
- Natural, the true meaning of the word, 94
- Natural government of God, CHAP. II.
- Natural religion,
- its evidences not affected by the doctrine of necessity, 166
- proof of, 166
- teaches the doctrine of punishment, 102
- Necessary agents may be punished, 169
- Necessary bulk of one’s self, 84
- Necessary existence of God, 159
- Necessary tendencies of virtue, 118
- Negligence and folly disastrous, 132
- Necessity
- consigns us to a fallacy, 169
- contradicts the constitution of nature, 170
- destroys no proof of religion, 170
- different kinds of, [157
- does not exclude design, 160
- doctrine of, CHAP. VI.
- not an agent, 159
- not applicable to practice, 163
- not in conflict with religion, 160
- our condition indicates freedom, 162
- reconcilable with religion, 168
- the doctrine absurd, 157
- what it means, 158
- writers for and against, [170
- New scenes in the next world, 93
- Obedience, reluctant, useful, [152
- Objections,
- against a proof and against a thing to be proved, 179
- against the scheme of Providence, 174
- analogy of plants, 92
- Christianity not universal, 169
- course of nature, 97
- destruction of seeds, 153
- difference between temporal and eternal things, [135
- discipline might have been avoided, 156
- God simply benevolent, 106
- good and evil may be mixed in the next world, 124
- gratification of appetites natural and proper, 98
- ignorance, the argument from invalidates the proof of religion, 178
- immortality of brutes, 87
- incredible that necessary agents should be punished, 169
- irregularities of the moral world, 176
- necessity destroys the proof of religion, 165
- our powers may be overtasked, 152
- probabilities may be overbalanced by probabilities, 169
- punishments are only natural events, 99
- rectitude arising from hope and fear, sordid, 153
- rewards and punishments, 95
- sin need not have entered the world, 177
- society punishes good actions, 111
- special interpositions might prevent evil, 177, 178
- to the doctrine of necessity, CHAP. VI.
- to the doctrine of future punishments, 100-103
- virtue sometimes punished, 111
- virtues of the present life not wanted hereafter, 154
- world disciplines some to vice, 153
- Obligation certain, when proofs are not, 179
- Occasional disadvantages of virtue, 117
- Occasional indulgences in wrong-doing awfully dangerous, [143
- One period of life preparatory to another, [142
- Opportunities once lost irrecoverable, 143
- Organs of sense mere instruments, 89
- Our moral nature proves a moral government, 115
- Pain, no contrivance for it in man, [110
- Partial ignorance does not destroy proof, 178
- Passions
- carry away the judgment, 131
- make our condition one of trial, 130
- may account for the fall of man, 147
- may be excited where gratification is impossible or unlawful, 146
- may remain in a future state, 147
- should be subject to the moral principle, 145
- the bare excitement of, not criminal, 145
- but dangerous, 146
- Passive habits, 138
- Passive impressions weakened by repetition, 139
- Passive submission essential, 155
- Peace of the virtuous, 112
- Perception, instruments of, 85
- possible without instruments, 86
- Perfection of moral government, 106, 107
- of an earthly kingdom, 123
- Persecution unnatural, 111
- Philosophy never arrogant, [174
- what it cannot teach, [87
- Pleasure
- not a sufficient reason for action, 98
- and pain mostly depend on ourselves, 95
- the distribution indicates moral government, 105
- Powers
- may be improved by exercise, 138
- may be overtasked, 152
- may exist and not be exercised, 80
- no reason for supposing that death will destroy them, 81
- Practical proof, what, 168
- Present existence unaccounted for by atheism, 94
- Presumptions that death will destroy us, 81
- that it will suspend our existence, 91
- Presumptuousness unjustifiable, 105
- Private vices not public benefits, [111
- Probabilities in favor of religion may be overbalanced by probabilities against it, 169
- Probation, CHAP. IV.
- applies to the present life as well as the future, 130
- does not necessarily imply suffering, [128
- implies allurements, 129
- is more than moral government, 128
- requires severe discipline, 150
- Proofs of natural religion, 166
- of religion not affected by the doctrine of necessity, 160
- Propensions necessarily create temptations, 146
- are excited by their appropriate objects, 147
- Proper gratification of the appetites, 98
- Prosperity of a virtuous community, 123
- may beget discontent, 154
- Providence, objections to God’s, 140, 174
- Public spirit a fruit of virtue, 120
- Punishment
- an alarming subject, 105
- especially considered, 100
- greater hereafter than now, 127
- in a future state credible, 103, 125
- is God’s voice of instruction, [108
- is sometimes capital, 102
- not unjust, 163
- often long delayed, 101
- often overtakes suddenly, 101
- of virtuous actions, 111
- religious and natural similar, 100
- results from folly as well as crime, 132
- the result of general laws, 103
- Quotations.
- Aristotle, [152
- Chalmers, [131, 138, 148
- Cicero, [82, 86
- Clarke, [97
- Fitzgerald, [145
- Robert Hall, [118
- Hume, [162
- Maimonides, [173
- Mandeville, [111
- Plato, [87, 113
- Son of Sirac, [137
- Strabo, [92
- Rashness, consequences of, 96
- Reason
- an incompetent judge of means, 178
- gives power over brute force, 119
- needs experience, 141
- not dependent on bodily powers, 89
- requires a fair opportunity, 119-121
- Recapitulation of the whole argument, 180
- Rectitude, is self-interest a proper motive to it?, 153
- References to other authors.
- Bates, [128
- Baxter, [88
- Bayle, [88
- Beattie, [170
- Belsham, [170
- Berkeley, [111
- Bonnett, [89
- Bramhall, [171
- Brown, [111
- Bryant, [171
- Butterworth, [107
- Calcott, [128
- Capp, [109
- Chalmers, [77, 79, 148
- Charnock, [158
- Cheyne, [88
- Clarke, 82, [81, 97, 171
- Colliber, [88
- Collings, [158, 170
- Compte, [170
- Crombie, [170
- Crouse, [170
- Davies, [109
- D’Holbach, [170
- Descartes, [88
- Ditton, [88
- Doddridge, [109
- Dodwell, [81
- Dwight, [109
- Edwards, [88, 170
- Fabricius, [128
- Fichte, [170
- Gibbs, [171
- Grove, [171
- Haller, [89
- Harris, [171
- Hartley, [170
- Hegel, [170
- Henly, [128
- Hobbes, [170
- Holtzfusius, [128
- Holyoake, [170
- Horseley, [109
- Hume, [88
- Hunt, [109
- Jackson, [171
- Konnicott, [128
- King, [98, 171
- Law, [98
- Lawson, [171
- Le Clerc, [128
- Leland, [109
- Leroux, [170
- Liefchild, [109
- Locke, [88
- Manton, [128
- Martineau, [170
- Martinius, [119
- Milman, [142
- Morgagni, [89
- Morton, [109
- Musæus, [128
- Palmer, [171
- Pearson, [128
- Polignac, [88
- Porteus, [109
- Price, [158
- Priestley, [142, 170
- Reid, [170
- Rutherford, [109, 158
- Search, [88
- Seed, [109
- Selden, [128
- Shaftesbury, 108
- Sherlock, [109
- Shuckford, [128
- Son of Sirac, [137
- South, [109, 128
- Stapfer, [128
- Strabo, 92
- Toplady, [128
- Topping, [109
- Twisse, [109
- Wagstaff, [88
- Warburton, [111
- Watts, [77, 88, 171
- Whately, [142, 158
- Willis, [88
- Wisheart, [109
- Witsius, [128
- Wittichius, [109
- Reflection not dependent on sensation, 91
- Reformation is attended with discomfort, 108
- may not prevent penalties, 102
- Relation between us and our bodies, 85
- Relations of things, limitless, 173
- Religion
- a question of fact, 165
- historical evidence of, 168
- professed in all ages, 167
- its proofs not affected by the doctrine of necessity, 170
- nor by our ignorance, 178
- Reluctant obedience profitable, [152
- Remedies often very disagreeable, 176
- Repentance may be too late, 104
- Requisites to the superiority of reason, 119
- of virtue, 120, 121
- Resentment of injuries, 114
- Resignation
- a temper consonant with God’s sovereignty, 155
- essential to virtue, 154
- the fruit of affliction, 155
- the habit necessary hereafter, 155
- Retributions are divine teachings, [108
- Revelation,
- antiquity of, 167
- not improbable, 167
- not universal, note 107
- Rewards and punishments, how distributed, 126
- Satisfactions of virtue, 108
- Scheme of God incomprehensible, 172
- Self-denial, its relations to present happiness, 134
- not essential to piety, 152
- Self-discipline, what, [148
- Self-love
- a just principle of action, 154
- appealed to, 153
- how moderated and disciplined, 155
- not a sufficient restraint, note 146
- reasonable and safe, 130
- Sensation not necessary to reflection, 91
- Senses not percipients, 85
- Severe discipline necessary, 150
- Similitude of a historical painting, [174
- Simplicity of the living agent, 83
- Sin, why not kept out of the world, 177
- Skepticism does not justify irreligion, 105
- Social, our nature essentially such, [93
- Society
- must punish vice, 110
- natural and necessary, [93
- sometimes punishes the good, 111
- Soul
- a simple substance, 82
- not destroyed with the body, 79
- not naturally immortal, [81
- Souls of brutes, 88
- Special interpositions of Providence, 177, 178
- Stages of existence, 78
- State of probation, CHAP. IV.
- State of discipline and improvement, CHAP. V.
- Submissive temper necessary, 155
- Subordinations exceedingly beneficial, 142
- Subserviencies in nature, 173
- Sufferings may be avoided, 95
- not necessary to the cultivation of virtue, [128
- Temporal and religious probation similar, 132
- Temptations
- increased by bad examples, 132
- and by former errors, 132
- intended for our improvement, 136
- involve probation, 129
- may improve or injure us, 153
- security against their evils, 146
- sources of, to upright beings, 147
- the necessary result of propensions, 146
- Tendencies of virtue, 118
- hindered, 121
- essential, not accidental, 126
- Terms “nature” and “course of nature”, [97
- Theorizing no aid to virtue, 139
- Thoughtlessness often fatal, 101
- Transmigration of souls, [87
- Trials
- manifest character, 156
- may exist in a future state, 147
- produced by our propensions, 131
- qualify for a better state, 144
- unreasonable ones are not inflicted, 133
- why we are subjected to them, 136
- Ultimate design of man, [98
- Understanding may be perverted, 168
- Uneasiness produced by former sins, 109
- Union of good beings, 122
- Unjustifiableness of religious indifference, 105
- Upright creatures may fall, 147
- need good habits, 149
- Universe and its government immense, 123
- Vice
- actually punished by society 110, 111
- must produce uneasiness, 112
- never rewarded as such, 116
- not only criminal but depraving, 149
- often increased by trials, 153
- punished as such, 114
- Vicious men lose their influence, [121
- Virtue
- a bond of union, 122
- as such, rewarded on earth, 111
- “brings its own reward”, [118
- has occasional disadvantages, [117
- hinderances accidental, 121
- how and why rewarded, 111
- improved by trials, 151
- its benefits to a community, 123
- natural, not vice, 116
- not always rewarded in this life, 108
- on the whole happier than vice, 113
- secures peace, 112
- tendencies essential, 126
- tends to give power, 118, [121
- Virtuous beings need virtuous habits, 149
- Virtuous habits a security, 147
- how formed, 139
- improve virtue, 147
- necessary in a future state, [145
- Voice of nature is for virtue, 117
- Waste of seeds, 153
- Wickedness may produce some benefits, 177
- voluntary, 136
- Will and character
- of God, how determined, note 166
- what they mean, note 163
- Wonderful discovery of Hume, [162
- World
- a system of subordinations, 173
- a theater for the manifestation of character, 156
- disciplines some to vice, 153
- fitted for man’s discipline, 150
- governed by fixed laws, 110
- Youth
- a determining period, 101
- if lost, not to be recovered, 143
- its beneficial subordinations, 142