R E S I G N AT I O N and F ORTITUD E. 155 
ing, our tempers and inclinations are feldom fo good as to ren- 
der us enamoured with virtue for virtue’s fake : but taking in 
this confideration, the motives to corred the worft difpofitions 
are ftrong enough to render them fubfervient to the precepts of 
religion. Farewell. I am yours, &C. 
LETTER LL 
To the fame . 
Mada m, 
^ a ^ anc ^ n g niaxim in politics, and in war, as well as in 
I religion, that security is our greateft enemy. From 
our very make we are fubjed to fall. We could not, as free 
agents, be entitled to a reward, if we did not choofe virtue j 
and if vice were unavoidable, we could not be fubjed to pu- 
nifhment. 
Confider life as a campaign, in which mankind are equally 
engaged to bear the toils, and fubmit to the discipline of it. 
tf Learn of me,” fays the great captain of our falvation, for “ I 
<c am meek and lowly, and you fhall find reft unto your fouls.” 
You may eafily infer from hence, how entirely inconfiftent 
pride and ambition are with the chriftian religion. Confider 
attentively the powers of resignation ; you will then be fen- 
fible of the force of religion. If we refled on our own make, 
we fhall eafily difcover, that without an entire refignation to 
god, there can properly be no true religion. Chriftianity, in 
particular, depends on meekness, and a docile difpofition. If 
we do not refled on thefe things, we fhall not difcover them, 
more than we fhall understand a language without learning 
X 2 it. 
