longer acknowledge you for my father, for my protector, for the comforter of my sorrow, the support of my weak|ness, the rewarder of my fidelity? You would then be no more but an indolent and fantastical tyrant, who sacrifices mankind to his insolent vanity, and who has brought them out of nothing, only to make them serve for the sport of his leisure, and of his caprice.
When the general rules which deter|mine the merit and demerit of actions, come thus to be regarded, as the laws of an All-powerful Being, who watches over our conduct, and who, in a life to come, will reward the observance, and punish the breach of them; they necessarily ac|quire a new sacredness from this consi|deration. That our regard to the will of the Deity, ought to be the supreme rule of our conduct, can be doubted of by no body who believes his existence. The very thought of disobedience appears to involve in it the most shocking impro|priety. How vain, how absurd would it be for man, either to oppose or to neglect the commands that were laid upon him
