PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

M ol'al Obligation. 59
CHAPTER III.
THE QUESTION, WHT AM I OBLIGED TO
KEEP MT WORD? RESUMED.
LET it be remembered, that to be obliged," is )
to be urged by a violent motive, resulting from the
command . 0 f anot h er. "
~
And then let it be asked, Wfly am I GEliged _!Q
keep my wor'.!? and the answer will be, "becausflL
amurged to _ do so by 1l.xU>lent mg!iv:e" (namely, the
expectation of being after this life rewarded, if I do,
or punished for it, if I do not)." resulti!lg from the
command of another" (namely, of· God.)
This solution goes tCl the bottom of the subject, as
no farther question can reasonably be asked.
Tj!~~f~e~ _priyat~,J!~i~~ _is OU!"D;l9tiye,-.and "
the will ot God our ruie.
-Wll-enI fir~t-' turned 'my thoughts to mo"'al specu~
lations, ' an air of mystery seemed to hang over the
wllole subject; \vhich arose, I believe, from hence~ .
that I supposed, with many authors whom I had·
read, that to be obliged to do a thing~ was very differ.
ent from being induced only to do it; and that the
obligation to practice virtue, to do what is right, just,
&c. was quite another thing, and of another kind,
than the obligation which a soldier is t!nder to obey
- his officer, a servant his mastt~r, or any of the civil and
ordinary .obligations of human life. ' Whereas, from
~h~t has been said ~t a~pears, that moral .obligatioa-:
IS bk~all othe.l"._gphgatlOns j
no~hmg _mo~_Jh~n__
and -that...alLobligq!iqn is_
al!.- inmtc.eme.nL __ of .,sufficient
stt~~g~~~~~nd rcSllltiug~ some_ way, frQtu thecoII),-
m..and of another. _. __ .---
There is alway.s ,ullder.~tood to. b~ __ a difference bgtween
an act of prudence and an act of duty~ Thus, if