on
account of this and several other excellent maxims it
contains and strongly enforces, in common with other
religions, its divine origin ought to be inculcated on the
minds of those people who can believe it. But though this
kind of chastity is more comprehensive, yet its influence,
as experience shews us, is infinitely weaker than that of
the other. I believe it may be said, with justice, that
there are fewer unchaste women, even in proportion to their
numbers, among those of rank and condition, than there are
chaste among these of an inferior order, though the lives of
the first are generally lazy and luxurious, and much the
greatest part of their reading lies among modern plays,
novels and romances, which, instead of curbing and
restraining, have a manifest tendency to heighten and
inflame their passions. All these circumstances shew the
superior efficacy of the political over the religious
chastity. From the nature of things it must be so, for the
punishments of a future state are objects too remote to have
any great weight in deterring people from yielding to the
importunate sollicitations of a present powerful passion.
When once a woman has got the length to undervalue the
immediate shame, ruin and disgrace she has to dread from
being detected in an amour, religious motives never can
restrain her from indulging her inclinations. Far be it from
me, by any thing here said, to derogate in the least from
the utility of this great and fundamental article in all
religions, the commonly received doctrine of rewards and
punishments in a future state. On the contrary, I am
sensible of its utility in the highest degree, and that too
in cases where it is most necessary, by inciting men to
virtues to which no temporal rewards are annexed, and
deterring them from crimes and vices, where they have no
temporal punishments to dread, or where, from the secrecy of
the commission, they have hopes to escape the punishments
provided for them by the laws. In all cases of the last
kind, thought and deliberation are required, to contrive and
put them in execution; the mind is then cool, at least not
transported out of itself by hurrying passion, and has time
and leisure to weigh and reflect on every circumstance;
religious motives, no doubt, then exert their influence,
awaken fears and terrors, and keep many faithful and honest,
who would otherwise yield to the temptations of revenge,
ambition, and interest. For these reasons, th