An Enquiry into the Origin of Honour, and the Usefulness of Christianity in War | Page 3

same Manner and for the same
Reason, that Panic signifies Fear.
That this Conjecture or Opinion of mine, should be detracting from the
Dignity of _Moral Virtue_, or have a Tendency to bring it into
Disrepute, I can not see. I have already own'd, that it ever was and ever
will be preferable to Vice, in the Opinion of all wise Men. But to call
Virtue it self Eternal, can not be done without a strangely Figurative
Way of Speaking. There is no Doubt, but all Mathematical Truths are
Eternal, yet they are taught; and some of them are very abstruse, and
the Knowledge of them never was acquir'd without great Labour and
Depth of Thought. Euclid had his Merit; and it does not appear that the
Doctrine of the Fluxions was known before Sir Isaac Newton
discover'd that concise Way of Computation; and it is not impossible
that there should be another Method, as yet unknown, still more
compendious, that may not be found out these Thousand Years.
All Propositions, not confin'd to Time or Place, that are once true, must

be always so; even in the silliest and most abject Things in the World;
as for Example, It is wrong to under-roast Mutton for People who love
to have their Meat well done. The Truth of this, which is the most
trifling Thing I can readily think on, is as much Eternal, as that of the
Sublimest Virtue. If you ask me, where this Truth was, before there was
Mutton, or People to dress or eat it, I answer, in the same Place where
Chastity was, before there were any Creatures that had an Appetite to
procreate their Species. This puts me in mind of the inconsiderate Zeal
of some Men, who even in Metaphysicks, know not how to think
abstractly, and cannot forebear mixing their own Meanness and
Imbecillities, with the Idea's they form of the Supreme Being.
There is no Virtue that has a Name, but it curbs, regulates, or subdues
some Passion that is peculiar to Humane Nature; and therefore to say,
that God has all the Virtues in the highest Perfection, wants as much
the Apology, that it is an Expression accommodated to vulgar
Capacities, as that he has Hands and Feet, and is angry. For as God has
not a Body, nor any Thing that is Corporeal belonging to his Essence,
so he is entirely free from Passions and Fralities. With what Propriety
then can we attribute any Thing to him that was invented, or at least
signifies a Strength or Ability to conquer or govern Passions and
Fralities? The Holiness of God, and all his Perfections, as well as the
Beatitude he exists in, belong to his Nature; and there is no Virtue but
what is acquired. It signifies Nothing to add, that God has those Virtues
in the highest Perfection; let them be what they will, as to Perfection,
they must still be Virtues; which, for the aforesaid Reasons, it is
impertinent to ascribe to the Diety. Our Thoughts of God should be as
worthy of him as we are able to frame them; and as they can not be
adequate to his Greatness, so they oughts at least to be abstract from
every Thing that does or can belong to silly, reptile Man: And it is
sufficient, whenever we venture to speak of a Subject so immensly far
beyond our Reach, to say, that there is a perfect and compleat
Goodness in the Divine Nature, infinitely surpassing not only the
highest Perfection, which the most virtuous Men can arrive at, but
likewise every Thing that Mortals can conceive about it.
I recommend the fore-going Paragraph to the Consideration of the
Advocates for the Eternity and Divine Original of Virtue; assuring
them, that, if I am mistaken, it is not owing to any Perverseness of my

Will, but Want of Understanding.
The Opinion, that there can be no Virtue without Self-denial, is more
advantagious to Society than the contrary Doctrine, which is a vast
Inlet to Hypocrisy, as I have shewn at large [1]: Yet I am willing to
allow, that Men may contract a Habit of Virtue, so as to practise it,
without being sensible of Self-denial, and even that they may take
Pleasure in Actions that would be impracticable to the Vicious: But
then it is manifest, that this Habit is the Work of Art, Education and
Custom; and it never was acquired, where the Conquest over the
Passions had not be already made. There is no Virtuous Man of Forty
Years, but he may remember the Conflict he had with some Appetites
before he was Twenty. How natural seem all Civilities to be a
Gentleman! Yet Time was, that he would not have made his Bow, if he
had not