HAP. XIV.] AND RELIGION. 425 



we despise on account of their immorality, we 

 shall never much attend to, even supposing the 

 precepts themselves to be good. If a precept 

 be self-evidently good; if it be an obvious duty 

 which the parson inculcates, the inculcation is 

 useless to us, because, whenever it is wanted 

 to guide us, it will occur without the suggestion 

 of any one; and, if the precept be not self- 

 evidently good, we shall never receive it as 

 such from the lips of a man, whose character 

 and life tell us we ought to suspect the truth of 

 every thing he utters. When the matters as to 

 which we are receiving instructions are, in their 

 nature, wholly dissimilar to those as to which 

 we have witnessed the conduct of the teacher, 

 we may reasonably, in listening to the precept, 

 disregard that conduct. Because, for instance, 

 a man, though a very indifferent Christian, may 

 be a most able soldier, seaman, physician, law 

 yer, or almost any thing else; and what is more, 

 may be honest and zealous in the discharge of 

 his duty in any of these several capacities. 

 But, when the conduct, which we have ob 

 served in the teacher belongs to the same de 

 partment of life as the precept which he is deli 

 vering, if the one differ from the other we can 

 not believe the teacher to be sincere, unless he, 

 while he enforces his precept upon us, acknow 

 ledge his own misconduct. Suppose me, for 



