an action of baseness or cruelty would be as great violence to THEIR
self, as much breaking in upon their nature, as any external force.
Persons of this character would add, if they might be heard, that
they consider themselves as acting in the view of an Infinite Being,
who is in a much higher sense the object of reverence and of love,
than all the world besides; and therefore they could have no more
enjoyment from a wicked action done under His eye than the persons
to whom they are making their apology could if all mankind were the
spectators of it; and that the satisfaction of approving themselves
to his unerring judgment, to whom they thus refer all their actions,
is a more continued settled satisfaction than any this world can
afford; as also that they have, no less than others, a mind free and
open to all the common innocent gratifications of it, such as they
are. And if we go no further, does there appear any absurdity in
this? Will any one take upon him to say that a man cannot find his
account in this general course of life as much as in the most
unbounded ambition, and the excesses of pleasure? Or that such a
person has not consulted so well for himself, for the satisfaction
and peace of his own mind, as the ambitious or dissolute man? And
though the consideration that God himself will in the end justify
their taste, and support their cause, is not formally to be insisted
upon here, yet thus much comes in, that all enjoyments whatever are
much more clear and unmixed from the assurance that they will end
well. Is it certain, then, that there is nothing in these
pretensions to happiness? especially when there are not wanting
persons who have supported themselves with satisfactions of this
kind in sickness, poverty, disgrace, and in the very pangs of death;
whereas it is manifest all other enjoyments fail in these
circumstances. This surely looks suspicions of having somewhat in
it. Self-love, methinks, should be alarmed. May she not possibly