Hor. But what is all this to the Origin of Honour? What Reason have
you to think it to be of Gothick Extraction?

Cleo. My Conjecture concerning Honour, as it signifies a Principle
from which Men act, is, that it is an Invention of Politicians, to
keep Men close to their Promises and Engagements, when all other Ties
prov'd ineffectual; and the Christian Religion itself was often found
insufficient for that Purpose.

Hor. But the Belief of an over-ruling Power, that will certainly
punish Perjury and Injustice, being common to all Religions, what
pre-eminence has the Christian over the Rest, as to the Civil Society
in Temporals?

Cleo. It shews and insists upon the Necessity of that Belief more
amply and more emphatically than any other. Besides, the Strictness of
its Morality, and the exemplary Lives of Those who preach'd it, gain'd
vast Credit to the mysterious Part of it; and there never had been a
Doctrine or Philosophy from which it was so likely to expect, that it
would produce Honesty, mutual Love and Faithfulness in the Discharge
of all Duties and Engagements as the Christian Religion. The wisest
Moralists, before that Time, has laid the greatest Stress on the
Reasonableness of their precepts; and appeal'd to Human Understanding
for the Truth of their Opinions. But the Gospel, soaring beyond the
Reach of Reason, teaches us many Things, which no Mortal could ever
have known, unless they had been reveal'd to him; and several that
must always remain incomprehensible to finite Capacities; and this is
the Reason, that the Gospel presses and enjoins Nothing with more
Earnestness than Faith and Believing.