Sir, the pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing, a very horrid thing

He ne'er consider'd it as loth To look a gift-horse in the mouth, And very wisely would lay forth No more upon it than 'twas worth; But as he got it freely, so He spent it frank and freely too: For saints themselves will sometimes be, Of gifts that cost them nothing, free.

God Almighty is, to be sure, unmoved by passion or appetite, unchanged by affection; but then it is to be added that He neither sees nor hears nor perceives things by any senses like ours; but in a manner infinitely more perfect.

Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be: why then should we desire to be deceived?

The principle we call self-love never seeks anything external for the sake of the thing, but only as a means of happiness or good: particular affections rest in the external things themselves.

The sum of the whole is plainly this: The nature of man considered in his single capacity, and with respect only to the present world, is adapted and leads him to attain the greatest happiness he can for himself in the present world.