narrow, and unattentive Minds from a just comparison of the present,
with what is future. Nor is it a wonder if we are oftentimes thus
mislead; since we frequently wander from the right way with less
excuse for doing so: Men, not seldom, going astray from Reason, when
the love of present pleasure is so far from misguiding their variously
frail Natures, that its allurements will not retain them in the paths
of Vertue; and tho' Reason only has Authority to set Bounds to their
desires, they subject both Them, and Her to an Unjust and Arbitrary
Dominion, equally Foreign to both: A thing manifest, not only in
instances here and there, but in the examples of whole Nations; who
either by positive institution, or allow'd of Custom, have
transgressed against the plainest prescriptions of Reason, in things
so far from gratifying their Appetites, as that they are contrary,
and even sometimes grievous to Mens natural desires. To account for
which, will not here be impertinent; nor (in order to the doing so) to
consider first what the Terms _Vertue_ and _Religion_ have, in their
vulgar acceptation, every where generally stood for.

_Religion_ has, I think, been rightly defin'd to be _the knowledge how
to please God_, and thus taken, does necessarily include vertue, that
is to say, _Moral Rectitude_; but as Men have usually apply'd these
Terms _Vertue_ and _Religion_, they stand for things very different
and distinct, one from another. For by a Vertuous Man, in all
Countries of the World, or less Societies of Men, is commonly meant,
by those who so call any one, such a Man as steadily adheres to that
Rule of his Actions which is establish'd for a Rule in his Country
Tribe, or Society, be that what it will. Hence it has been that
_Vertue_ has in different Times and Places chang'd Face; and sometimes
so far, as that what has been esteem'd Vertuous in one Age, and in one
Country, has been look'd upon as quite the contrary in others: tho' in