Page:Characteristicks of men, manners, opinions, times Vol 2.djvu/62

RV 58 (Rh) ted, consist in reality with Virtue, or Goodness; if it either stands as essential to any moral Performance, or as a considerable Motive to any Act, of which some better Affection ought, alone, to have been a sufficient Cause.

may be consider'd withal; That, in this religious sort of Discipline, the Principle of Self-love, which is naturally so prevailing in us, being no-way moderated or restraind but rather improv'd and made stronger every day, by the exercise of the Passions in a Subject of more extended Self-interest; there may be reason to apprehend lest the Temper of this kind shou'd extend itself in general thro' all the Parts of Life. For if the Habit be such as to occasion, in every particular, a stricter Attention to Self-good, and private Interest; it must insensibly diminish the Affections towards publick Good, or the Interest of Society; and introduce a certain Narrowness of Spirit, which (as some pretend) is peculiarly observable in the devout Persons and Zealots of almost every religious Persuasion.

, too, must be confess'd; That if it be true Piety, to love  for his own sake; the over-solicitous regard to private Good expected from him, must of necessity prove a dimi-