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D D D D Colourad covars/ Couvartura da coulaur r~n Covars damagad/ Couvartura andommagia Covars restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurAe et/ou pelliculAe r~l Cover title missing/ Ls titre de couverture manque Coloured mapa/ Cartaa giographiquas en coulaur Colourad ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de co(' \ I- .'"f :i5&x3 IE)IB(B^ILi®(&WI£ THE BEST ^"^yr. ^^^yp^/^/ SYSTEM OF ETBTlCa /V^^ THE RIV. WILLIAM T. WISHART, MIRIITBR or ST. ST«PHKIC'S CHURCH, ST. JOHN. N. B. PRIHTID BT J. BOWIS I84i3. ^T^li ■ ■f^ ■•■-^"^- ^J r J >1l ^ ?. -i- 3 > Ui^.'P-, TO THE i <, I REV. THOMAS CHALMERS, D. D. PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, In the University of Edinburgh. Reverend Sir, I take the liberty of prefixing your revered name to this Essay on the Decalogue. I have two reasons for doing so, — The one is, that in common with the age, I consider you beyond all comparison the brightest ornament of the Church of Scotland; the other is more pertinent to the theme j it is this — that if this Essay contains any principles likely to be useful, the praise belongs mainly to you, since it was in your Class and from your Lectures that I imbibed the elements of these principles. Sincerely hoping that God may long spare you to charm and improve your generation, I have the honor to be, Reverend Sir, Your most Obedt. Servt. And ardent admirer, W. T. WISHART. «-»jr>. 'I&1-. .J»^.5*".l ---iT=SSSS INTRODUCTION. I There was a time when science and religion were so directly oppoeed, that the followera of science were prone to think, that they could advance no stronger claim to the attention of the reflecting part of mankind, than an avowed and thorough dislike to revelation^ — whilst the votaries of religion were di^>oeed to corro* borate their pretensions to piety, by asserting in no measured language an unequivocal aversion to the speculations of science. That time is already ebbiog fast away. More than one of the sciences, has in these latter days come forward, to offer allegiance to the word of Grod, and to avail itself of the disclosures of revelation ; and several of the master spirits of theology, in our days, have derived a chief share of their strength, their eloquence, their attractiveness, and their celebrity, from this source — that they have discerned the relation which really exists between the natural and the moral world — that they have contend- (»i fin* an alliance between die two-— that they have maintained science to be the best commentates on re« ligion^ and religion to be the nataq^yd enligjhtoiied patroness of science. A2 m -'&♦'>.; Kp^S mr^ (iEOLOGV liaving at an eariy period of its career, Attacked the method of the creation detailed in the sacred volume, has gradually changed its views in proportion as it has multiplied its phenomena, and en- larged its outline, and now having grown to the height and size of a regular system, has freely confessed that the Mosaic account is that which the best corresponds with all the facts, and that which is liable to the few- est objectious. So then the word of God, and that by the admission of those who have no relish for its spiri- tual discloeurM, contains the most luminoua view of an intricate science, and unfolds by statements won- derfully few and simple the order in which the mate- rials of the world were put together, tJie manner of that catastrophe by which the original harmony was disturbed, the nature of those convulsions whereby strata were torn up and piled on one another, and maritime deposits were scattered over the surface of the earth, from its lowest plains up to the pinnacles of its loftiest mountains. BoTANT having long pursued its researchea without any correspondence with holy writ— and indeed,with. out any suspicion that ucripture could throw light on its doBi»in, after having made more than one ar- rangement and rejected it, as eironeous or incomplete, has, we are informed, discovered that the three-fold division under wlkich Moses clasafies the ve^taWe producte, is that which the beet shuts in the whole phenomena of the science. Political Ecohomt beginning iti enquiriefl in a direction at remote aa might be from revelation, and continuing these in a spirit which had no sympathy witli divine truth, has come at length to see that the smptures inv(^ve within them all that is solid or valu- able in the science — has discovered that to carry forth the plain principles of the Gospel into the manage- ment of society, is really to put into operation the doctrines of the science, is to ensure the peace and order of communities, is to promote their prosperity and opulence, is to check an excess of population, or to provide a vent for that excess, is to establish the most wholesome rules of commerce, is to plant the most liberal, enlightened and beneficent institu- tions, is to bring in the most salutary hiws for the abolition of intemperance and crime, for the relief of disease and lunacy, of suffering and pauperism. Astronomy has in many instances raised itself in direct opposition to the word of God, attacking it sometimes in its whole extent, and sometimes in par- ticular portions, — sometimes denouncing the whole plan of the scriptures as at variance with the laws which obtain in the celestial world, — sometimes aim- ing its assaults at separate portions and specific state- ments. The breach seems now to be healed. Several eminent men not man conversant with the principles of astronomf than they were with the doctrines <^ the Gospel, have shewn in treaUsea admirable alike for learning and eloquence, for acutenew and ptety that -V'Jya" ~1-i 8 there is no real discord between the declarations of scripture and the discoveries of astronomical science, nay, that there is an intimate harmony between the two — Perhaps ere long the Astronomer may ascertain that divine wisdom coalesces even more exactly with human science than be had supposed — perhaps he may soon find that scripture has anticipated his dis- coveries, and contains within it the grand arcana of his art. Anatomy, as much as any of the branches of knowledge, has manifested an infidel spirit, and has directed many sharp and malicious attacks against the word of Crod. Since the time that Paley made use of it3 phenomena to prove and illustrate the wisdom, skill, and benevolence of the Almighty, in the zoological kingdom, it seems to have lost some portion of its irre- ligious temper, — and there are various symptoms which lead to the opinion that it is on the eve of coming for- ward as an ally of the truth as it is in Jesus. Chemistrt has in some cases displayed an open enmity to revelation j and in many more has exhibited toward it a cold, jealous, and suspicious spirit. But the change which came over the other sciences has in some degree extended its infltience to this one. There are those who think that the Bible, so far from contra- dicting, corroborates the results of chemioml research. There is at least one pointed expression in the scrip- tures, that would seem to iriply an allusion to the discoveries of this art. When the Apostle Heb. XI. 3. uses the language, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things tohich do appear," he may be considered to unfold one of the leading principles of chemical philosophy, and may be understood to allude to those gaseous elements, by which out of two or more imperceptible fluids, things visible are produced. Beginning from this point, it might be that the inquirer may yet find the principles, and axioms of the chemical science mixed and blended with the doctrines of the holy scriptures. That Physical science should have kept aloof firom revelation, and should have endeavoured to appropriate to itself a separate and independent domain, is, how> ever eccentric it may seem, not so extravagant and absurd, as that ethics should from its rise down to a very recent period, have refused any alliance with revealed religion. That men should fail to perceive the relations that exist between the kingdoms of ruUure and gTvice may appear strange, considering how mani- fold and how obvious these are, as well as how frequently the two are conjoined in the scriptures. That they should be so dim-sighted as not to discern the family likeness that exists between the worlds of crecUion and redemption, more especially when inspi- ration takes such pains to point them out, may seem an uncommon instance of dulness and unbelief. But how shall we characterise in language sufficiently tiH^ii ?.i;* -'■: •■ ^wmmL^ "^n 10 energetic, the folly and ^the wickedness of that view which divorced what God had joined, which made two sciences of religion and morals which looked upon them as so wide apart that it was not possible to consider them together 1 — and yet such is the system that has prevailed in the christian world for centuries, that has been supported by the acumen, the rhetoric and the wit of many of the leading intellects of each period, that has found vogue and favour in the halls of learning and the schools of science, that has been upheld even by schoolmen and divines. Strange as it seems, when calmly considered, it is nevertheless true that the science of Ethics has generally chosen to take its stand at the antipodes of revealed religion, — that philosophy and scripture have usually been set in the broadest contrast to one another, that in the long catalogue of eminent writers on morals, few have been believers, many have been avowed infidels, and by much the larger number have had the taint of scep- ticism about them , The ancient philosophy of Greece and Rome, and that also of Babylon and Alexandria professed to be the antagonist of the popular super- stition, — and in those times to belong to the schools and academies, almost necessarily involved an oppo« sition to the general vulgar creed of the country. It was not surprising that in these circumstances, science refused an alliance with religion, since science with all its failings sincerely aimed at the improvement of human intelligence ; whereas the religion of the times was ingeniously contrived to pollute and to degrade the 11 tuindi of men. But it is very singular that since the promulgation of the Gospel,— and since the publication of a scheme divinely adapted to enlighten the mind, and to ameliorate the heart, — pregnant with all the elements of wisdom and goodness, ethical philosophy should evince the like disposition to stand alone, and the same aversion to an alliance with religion. During the early history of the Church of Christ, some symp- toms of this spirit discovered themselves, — for even then there were some who laboured to produce a separation between human and divine vrisdom, and who regarded philosophy as pure, in direct proportion as it kept aloof from revelation. As the church grew older and as vinriters increased, this opinion shewed itself with still greater boldness. Throughout the mid- dle ages it is possible to trace out a line of sceptical philosophers, who confounding the Gospel with its per- versions, gloried in standing back from the religion, or as they represented it the superstition of their times. But it is since the reformation, that this spirit has ma- nifested itself in its fullest vigour, and in its hardiest aspect. The independence of thought v^ hich that great revolution brou^t in, has displayed itself not only in thai which is goodj but in that which is evil likewise ; not only in the writings of the advocates of religion, but in those of free-thinkers and infidels. In France it may be said with almost sweeping generality that the Ethical philosophy has worn a decidedly irreligious appearance, and that from Mon- taigne, the earliest of her Metaphysical writers, down 12 to those of the present day, the authors of that country have drawn a broad line between morals and religion, and even those who have not stood forth the open assailants of revelation, have studiously avoided any alliance or co-operation with the word of God. In Germany the influence of reformed doctrines has been greater, and hence it is necessary to speak with more reserve in regard to her philosophy ; still it may be asserted with every degree of truth that her moralists have not generally been believers, that the tone of their writings has for the most part been irre- ligious, and that many of the first authors of that country have been the undisguised assailants of re- vealed religion. Britain which during the three last centuries has been above all other countries the defender of the faith, the champion of the gospel ; — ^has produced a long catalogue of illustrious writers who have acted upon the principle that there is an essential line of separation between morals and reli^on, between the philosopher and the christian, betvireen the domain of reason and the domain of faith ; Hobbes and Shaflesbury, Mande- ville and Tindal, Hume and Smith, Payne and Grodwin have handled ethical subjects with an avowed disrelish to the doctrines of revelation ; Locke and Berkely, Hutchieson and Reid, Seattle and Stewart, Brown and Macintosh have treated of morals with such studious silence in regard to our religion as might lead one to suppose that they had never heard of its ex- istence; and even such writers as Sherlock, Butler, ^i ->-.Va 13 and Paley, altho' they have «et themselves forwani aa defenders of the faith, and have avowedly spoken of ethics in connection with revelation, have yet been remote from perceiving^ the full compass of the matter, have been contented to consider religion as the help, or the adjunct or the colleague of morals, instead of asserting it to be the foundation, the point of departure^ the parent, and the umpire. The authors who have come nearest to the truth, have lived within this present century ; Hannah More and Wardlaw have had some bright views of the true state of the matter. They have not merely like Paley, called in religion to give evidence nor to act as inter- preter, when reason was obviously at fault, but they have omtended each in a measure that religion ^uld be assumed as the basis of morals. Our wish is to carry the doctrine several degrees further: In the following treatise we shall not be satisfied to regard the Bible as haviiig some bearing upon monJs, or yet to consider it as a prop, an ally or an interpreter of ethical science — we shall seek to place it on a much loftier eminence. Our endeavour shall be to prove not merely that it contains the general principles of morals, but that it sets forth a distinct system complete in all its parts, wanting in none of its particulars, pure and perfect as its (fivine artificer, eminently wholesome and beneficial in its practical results, admirably symmetrical, harmonious, orderly, philosophical in its connections and arrangements, and on all these ac- counts, loudly claiming to be considered the recognised ^mM^m^mm^ ■7'^ -r^W.: W^r^ .»»»., '*>■■»; u and infallible code of human duty. In which Attempt •hould our views prove to be sound, we believe that we shall effect something in the way of shewing reve- lation and true philosophy to be more nearly akin than intellectual men commonly suppose them to be ; and as every advance in theoretical knowledge leads to im- provements in practice, our efforts if successful, will conduct to an amelioration in the actual conduct of life. It may be that the subject will not be permitted to rest where we lay it down. Men of large volume of mind, and of acknowledged penetration, set off by commanding eloquence, will perhaps be induced to lend to it the influence of their powers, they will search out its connections, will develope its bearings, will draw out its consequences, until the Bible shall appear even to the dim-sighted a book of morals^ until sound sense and science shall be accounted synonimous, until truth shall come to be viewed a» the most wholesome metaphysics, and holiness to be considered the most sublime philosophy. es^ifr^^^^^^^^^'s^'iMf' CHAPTER I. or THE MORAL FACULTY. A topic which has caused much discussion amoog mental philosophers is, the very important question — Are men endued with the power of perceiving moral relations or are they not 1 Scepticism has found much delight in maintaining the negative position. The great variety of opinion that is to be observed in different countries and periods as to the morality of actions, is the chief ground upon which the advocates of th» doctrine attempt to build their argument. That accord- ing to the laws of Lycurgus, theft, if undiscovered was held to be no crime, that among the Greeks and Ro- mans the exposing of children was permitted by the Htate, that there are some countries in which infanti- cide is allowed and sanctioned ; others in which suicide has been held a heroic deed ; some in which an indis- criminate intercourse of the sexes has been permitted ; others in which polygamy is generally practised, and the female sex degraded to a verj"^ low condition ; some in which human sacrifices are offered to the deities ; others wherein it is held lawful to follow out an injury with the most implacable revenge ; some in which sin- gle combat is openly countenanced ; others where th« ^Ji"-^..-, Ji^ 16 nuptual tie has scarcely p.ny force and adultery is com- •nonly perpetrated : because of these and similar anom- alies in the opinion and practise of mankind, it has l)een a favorite notion with several free-thinking philo- sophers, that there is no sense of moral relations in the structure of the human mind. If the very conception of a moral faculty, necessarily implied a power wholly independent of all circumstances, and unlike the other faculties essentially incapable of variation and change, then would the above argument be quite unanswerable : but if it be reasonable to suppose, that this power like the others is liable to be affected by the accidents of natural temperament, education, position, counUy and climate then to allege these variations is but to say that it is human, and shows an analogy witii the otiier faculties. To imagine that there should be in the mind one power, which different from the others never vacillates, never varies, but performs its functions, and gives its decisions with the absolute regularity of me- chanical ACTION, is to introduce an entire alteration into the arrangements of the moral worid, is to annul the possibility of evil, is to deny the fact of original sin, is to transform man from a creature prone to transgres. sion, into one constitutionally incapable of moral wick- edness or error. To imagine a moral faculty sternly fixed, while all around it is fluctuating, is to involve all these consequences, is to banish guilt from the earth and to transmute man at once into a perfect being. «uch anomaUes in opinion and conduct are quite re- concileable with the notion, that we possess a power of '"'•^5CF^ J/*' WJ^^^ 17 discerning between right and wrong ; they are within certain limits, they never proceed to such an extent as wholly to abrogate all distinction between good and evil, otherwise society could not hold together ; some of them are practised only during peculiar crises of the community, some are permitted rather than sanctioned, many of them are regarded as crimes, and reprobated as such, by the reflecting and decent portion of the very population among which they are practised. The moral sense is neither so variable, nor so dull as scep- tics would represent it ; the practices to which they point are more the result of accidental circumstances than the deliberate expression of the moral sentiments of communities. To consider the moral faculty a plastic power, which certain influences may hurt while others may benefit it, to hold it to be susceptible of improvements by culture and education, is to suppose harmony and resemblance in the elements of the mind. But there is a plain argument, that should have entirely precluded the fancy of which we have spoken — God has addressed himself to us as moral agents ; he dis- tinctly looks upon us as endowed with the ability to distinguish between evil and good — every word of his scriptures proceeds upon the notion that we possess moral capabilities — every line of the inspired volume is a standing evidence in favour of a moral faculty : to allege the contrary is to ^leclare that the Almighty was guilty of a tissue of extravagant follies in publish- ing his revelation to men, it is to accuse him of pre- senting light to those who had no eyes, of uttering B2 '(i,^} >•?• i?\ 7*?>- ;i ;, 18 souodfl to those who had no ears, of addressing wisdom to those who were by their natural structure incapable of understanding. The existence of the Bible is an argument in proof of a moral faculty, as valid and as intelligible, as the existence of sound is an argument for a hearing faculty, — as the existence of odours is an evidence in favour of a sense of smell. Another question, bfttoneof a more legitimate nature is this : a moral faculty being granted what is that par- ticular power, which renders us capable of judging of the value of actions ? On this head there has been much ingenious trifling, and some sound discussion among philosophers. One of the most acute thinkers of modern days, has endea- voured to show that the moral power consists in a cer- tain ability to enter by sympathy into the feelings of others, — that when actions are of a virtuous nature, this syrapatliy is of a pleasurable description, — when they are of a vicious sort, an involuntary feeling of pain is occasioned ; — his view is shewn up with eloquence and ingenuity, — but it is a false and an unworthy con- ception : — it is to make an animal instinct of what surely is the highest property of the mind ; it is to render our moral decisions altogether dependant upon the mechanism of the sentient part of our constitution ; — ^it is to make men high or low in the moral scale, not in the ratio in which their moral and intellectual powers are cultivated, but in the proportion that the nervous system is susceptible or dull. Several of the %st authorities in ethical science, have been of opinion, 19 thai tlie safest and most natural method of accounting for the diflerent phenomena is, to consider that there is a distinct faculty set apart for the perception of moral relations. In favour of this view, it may be alleged, tliat it is analogous to what obtains in the other parts of our fabric. As each of the senses has an organ of its own, so it may be regarded as con- sonant to this arrangement, that so important a quality as the perception of right and wrong, should not share with some other faculty, but should have an organ pe- culiar to itself; many of the most accurate thinkers in moral philosophy have adopted this view, and have vindicated it with much force of argument. Another opinion which has enjoyed considerable credit, and which has been illustrated with much ability is, that the reason is the instrument of moral perceptions, und that it is erroneous to suppose the existence of a distinct faculty. In regard to this scheme it may be said to have the appearance of simplicity, which is a high recommendation to an intellectual system. It proceeds upon tlie principle of refusing to imagine a new cause, if an old one can by any means be made to answer. It may defend itself upon what is seen to happen in the material world, where the mechanism is invariably as simple as can be conceived, and where the Almighty never makes use of a complex structure, where a simple arrangement will as com- pletely effect the end ; on the other hand, it may be alleged with an appearance of justice, that to make the reasoa the moral faculty, is to compel one power to ■^i*t r?4 '^ :>- F^< )f L^i 30 perform too much labour, is to confound together two departments, which are separated by a well defined line. The verdict of reason, say they who maintain a separate moral faculty, is cold and passionless. It pronounces judgment under circumstance!? in which there is no room for emotion. It decides in situations, where its assent or dissent is alike calm and abstract. It judges of relations which are not calculated to excite feelings either of approbation or dislike. Whereas say they, when the morality of actions is the matter at issue, it is impossible to sustain the mind in such an attitude of indillerence. There \s a broad distinction between the states of the mind, when it perceives that the three angles of a triangle are together equal to two right angles, and when it entertains the feeling that parricide is a dark and hateful crime. In the latter case it is said, there is sometliing more than reason,— . there is an emotion superadded,— and to this complex quality they give the name of the moral faculty. One of the last intellectual systems which has attracted much attention, makes a threefold distribution of the ten- dencies of our nature, the ANIMAL, the INTELLECTUAL, and the moral. This scheme instead of assigning the reason as the instrument of moral perceptions as some hi /e done, or instead of assuming the existence of one peculiar faculty, conceives the moral structure to be composed of a union of three elements,— benevolence, conscienliousness and veneration. Where there is an excess of the first, the character is distinguished by a strong inclination toward acts of sympathy, kindlineM -M^'wrnirP^ M tl and charity, in which there is a want of exact pro- priety, and a lack of a lofty religious motive. Where the second predominates, the nature is more remarkable for rigid precision and formal decency, than for ex- pansive philanthrophy or fervent devotion. Where ♦he third has the ascendancy, the mind is borne away by the reveries of a fanaticism, not sweetened by benevolence, not tempered by propriety. When the three ingredients are well proportioned, there is har- mony in the moral fabric, it is humane, consistent and devout. To our mind this scheme which recognises a moral compartment as it were, made up of several properties or emotions, corresponds at the least as well with observation, and coalesces as well with the several phenomena as any of the other systems. However, this question is one of meta physics rather than of USE, — a subject of theory more than of practice. When the general principle is admitted, that we are endowed with a power of discerning between right and wrong, it is a matter of philosophical analysis to de- termine where that power lies, and of what elements it is composed. There is an end to all morality, unless it be distinctly understood that we possess a moral faculty, and in virtue of it are responsible beings. But we may remain ignorant of the composition, structure and mode of operation of that faculty, and yet be fully sensible to the various moral obligations. Every im- provement in theory leads eventually to improvements in practice. It would be well for abstract science, — and well for the conduct of human affairs, that men ^ St should arrive at fixed ideas, as to the composition of thft moral power ; and yet so little indispensible is it that this point should be settled, that we could conceive centuries to roll on, and the world to improve In opulence, civilization, learning and religion, whilst all the while this sliould remain a matter, which the «rth the several duties in their order, — insisting on each, — proving its obligation, — analysing the nature of virtue and explaining the mechanism of the moral fkcultv.— ^SUch a work saatxia far tn havA p.-rrApHp^ i\ii* TTA LV I '-K'' B 1 r > '^*X'-'.~' * II ' , i-^ 1 i-" 1 B Ibi T! Mmm 1 I' 28 wi»dom of these ,imea, for we do not find even « hap- hy of the East-their feas on the«, point, ^e,^ too ZTrlir"" ' *"''««'-'°» cn.de to assume 'he form of a system.-too absuM and incongruous to ' eserve ,i,e name of philosophy. Mixed up ^th * " ae mass „ fable and supe^tition, we. fertain t nents ofa nature so dissimilar, as to authorise the idea :!::^ rarn:':?ir?r'^""---*«'^^ mp„, >, 7 ""Pn.— and were particles and fra». tamed ,nto these countries by captive Jews,-or bv men of that nation whom commetL had inCd to leave .he,r native land. When these portls Je ;« ;:' ^ T^ ""^ '^'^ ^'^"^ ~ nd truth 7 T '^'"""''^' ''^™''' "f i"8enu,.y vere trrch": ^r ^'"'^""' '»<' ^'«--- Id h! '" "•'''''' ^"^"^ "-l Plato im- l"bed the elements of their systems. Gt^ece improved " "'« l--n she received. The doctrines of Z Is' -^.en they passed into the hands of her ™te. wet •""ted w,th other opmions, and were formed into -.ceristic, :s r.:rjr r^;-: steZtf :^ ""*' "''"■'"*" »fe, which u.""! "ceptt^ of the universe into, the hands of the nM.^ S9 sopher, and made him sovereign lord over all that could befal him here below. Epicurus, or his followers, surrounded a scheme of thorough scepti- cism with the decorations of eloquence and fancy, — taught in alluring language the doctrine that pleasure is the only real good, and endowed with an air of wisdom, (the very prevalent opinion,) "Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die." Aristotle with a mind of wonderful capacity and acumen, ranged over a large part of physical and moral science, col- lected his researches, distributed them in chapters, analysed each in its turn, and presented the world with a system almost encyclopediac in its dimensions, order- ly in its arrangement, acute in its distinctions, profound in its investigations, and frequently just in its conclu- sions. Yet this remarkable system which continued to be the wonder of the world during at least fifteen centuries, however complete it was in other di- rections did not attempt to classify into a finished scheme, the objects of ethical science, — what it does contain on this subject is in the form of scattered notices and irregular thoughts. Socrates more than any other heathen endeavoured to draw philosophy from idle speculations, and to direct its attention to topics of a useful and practical character which had an immediate bearing upon the conduct of men. There is more sound sentiment contained in the small remains of this philosopher, which are preserved, than in the treatises of all the other writers of his countrj'. But C2 r'aluftble, uc aaii k^^ 30 not even essayed to rear a regular structure, and to build up a system complete in all its parts. Plato endowed with a fancy more lively and an eloquence more fascinating than were possessed by his master, has adorned the doctrines of Socrates with all the graces of rhetoric, — has carried them forth into elegant disquisitions, and has enriched them with new opinions the product of his own mind, or the fruits of his re- searches into the philosophy of the East. But neither has he sketched out a system of duty with the smallest claims to a solid basis, a complete observation, an orderly arrangement, or a correct analysis. Greece improved on what she received from the East, and reared up a scheme more comprehensive, more correct, and more graceful than what she found ; yet when this scheme is subjected to the impartial scrutiny of truth, it must be acknowledged that it is remarkable more for elegance and ingenuity than for soundness — it does not proceed from certain recognised principles ; it does not emerge out of axioms and first truths in which all ac- quiesce — it is not built upon a basis on which all meet oil common ground — it does not advance with regular gradation becoming loftier and broader as it presses on — one philosopher does not take up the science where th3 other lays it down — from foundation to summit it is arbitrary and capricious, — each writer erects his own building, and frequently without reference to what his predecessors have done ; — in all its extent there is no- thing axiomatic, established, and certain. 31 Italy imported the philosophy of Greece, just as Greece had originally derived her philosophy from the East. Several minds of the first order, as well for vi- gour as for acuteness and elegance, jlpplied themselves with enthusiastic ardour to the study of metaphysics and etliics. The Roman mind however, did not seem well adapted to these pursuits. The doctrines of the Greek sages were reviewed, analysed and illustrated. Their systems were exemplified and enlarged, — and yet nothing essentially new was added to their opinions. * Cicero expresses himself with greater plainness in regard to the immortality of the soul, and the rewards and punishments of the future state than we find employed by most previous writers, Socrates not ex- cepted; yet neither he nor any of his countrymen can be said to have made any important accessions to the science, or to have given it a new aspect, or to have established it upon firmer principles, or to have found for it a more permanent basis. The Romans paraphrased on the Greek text, — they amended, and they addecl^ — but they ^id not imprint a new character on the study. During the first centuries of the christian era, philosophy was chiefly engaged in maintaining a controversy with the new religion, she found little leisure for. those pursuits which more properly belonged to her, and as happened in France about the period of the revolution, she derived her title to the name of wisdom much more from the tracts which she pub- lished in opposition to Christianity, than from her researches- in the rightful domain of intellectual and •^^'.^iv :/--' v-*- :'f. • 32 moral science. The philosophers of the first centuries were commonly angry polemics who wrote virulent attacks against the Gospel, or bitter satirists who assailed it with irony and sarcasm, or insidious hu- mourists who endeavoured to undermine it by licen- tious pleasantry. When the gospel sunnounted these attacks, and when the spirit which dictated them began to disappear, philosophy changed its attitude, and applied itself to illustrate, to embellish, or to defend the new doctrine. A large portion of those talents which in former times would have been given to subjects purely metaphysical or moral, were now devoted to subjects that sprung out of tliat new doctrine which was exerting such an empire over the minds of men. A large amount of ability was absorbed in the controversies of the Nicolaitans and Novatians, of the Essenes and Arians, of the Pela- gians and Socinians, which agitated the church for several centuries, afforded an exercise for the con- troversial talent of the times, gave rise to numberless treatises, and engaged those minds which at an earlier period would have composed systems after the manner of Zeno, Socrates or Plato. Controversial treatises in which the orthodox opinions were attacked and vindicated,— disquisitions on the Trinity,— the person of Christ, original sin, and the method of the atone- ment, — essays on mysterious doctrines such as the incarnation, and the union of two natures in Christ, discussions on wild and visionary topics, the nature of angels,— works in which the logic of Aristotle wa» ^^Ti'O •i;«'*'"^>^l- - -■: •'=^: 33 applied to the elucidation of the principles of alchymj or astrology, — of rhetoric or geography, or were em- ployed as a method of discovery in regard to the doctrines of revealed religion, — treatises on practical theology, disquisitions on airy and fanciful matters connected with the intellect or its functions,— treatisen of casuistry wherein it was attempted to bring together all the possible cases of conscience which could occur, and to set down a rule of conduct for each, — such were the directions in which the mind of the timer* loved to wander, and such the channels in which the philosophical spirit of the middle ages found its vent. In the course of those various productions every varie- ty of intelligence is exhibited — ihcre is capacity and depth, — there is acuteness and solidity, — there is mas- siveness and brilliancy ; there are works of prodigious erudition, of singular elegance, of uncommon sagacity, of admirable purity and sense. Still throughout the whole series, there is little approximation toward that sound method of handling ethical subjects of which we are in search. The same arbitary system which we have seen exercised in the schools of Greece and Italy, is to be met with throughout the middle ages. In all this period there are no symptoms to show ihat moralists had arrived at the discovery that it was pos- sible to found their science upon a basis not liable to be moved, and that they might commence from axioms and first principles that are incapable of being shaken. Nothing of this sort seems to have occurred tfk iVkgi rninna r%^ vmon in in^aA Itv'^lvP tf^i^nf «if>iAQ • iK&kv« ^" ixtv Ic^ixs^c V*. £X£\. z£ ill ii*.\,trv tTTvitv ^'Vx»tLt*iw5 | :.xxvx^ m F^?^, % ' ' '; ' ^\ 34 moral philosophy from its foundation upward is vari- ble and arbitrary ; it is without root, — without a first arrangement, — deficient in its induction, incorrect in its analyeit!. The revival of knowledge introduced great and ad- yiirable changes into the republic of letters: — The means of difTiising information became incalculably multiplied ; the literature and philosophy of Gtreece and Rome enjoyed a wide circulation ; a much larger number exhibited an interest in the cultivation of learning, and almost every branch of art and science was studied with an ardour that had never before been so generally manifested. What more than any other influenc« led to the improvement of philosophy, was the appearance of Lok.' Bacon, ^-ho drew out a set of principles whose immediate effect was to pro- duce a vast revolution in the art of thinking. The benefits of this new system have been more sensibly felt in some departments than in others. It has without question imparted a prodigious impulse to MATERIAL philosophy, which may be said without hyperbole to have advanced further during these two last centunes, than in the whole course of the many previous ages. The sciences of geometry and che- mistry, with the many branches dependent upon them, — as also astronomy, anatomy, zoology, geology, agriculture, navigation, and many other arts highly ornamental or useful, have sprung into existence, or have received remarkable improvements in conse- quence of the inductive method introduced bv Bacon. 35 Intellectual philosophy haa partaken, altho^ in a less degree, in the advantages of the new method. The principle that observation should precede conclusion applied to it, taught Locke and others to banish a mass of jargon which had passed for sense with his pre- decessors, instructed him to examine and analyse the phenomena of mind, and enabled him to construct a system more capacious and loAy, more accurate and graceful, than the world had seen before. During more than a century the system of Locke continued to be a text-book to philosophers, they commented upon it, they appended their glosses and scholiasts, they modified, retrenched, added and improved. Berkeley and Hume, Hutchieson and Smith, Reid and Beattie. Stewart and Brown, may be termed disciples of the school ui Liocke : — In their theory and leading principles they adopt his views, and it is chiefly in the accessories and minor details, that they depart from their model and express opinions peculiar to themselves. Much may be said in relation to modem philos<^hy, that cannot with justice be said in regard to that of classical times, nor 3ret of that of the middle ages. It recognises the grand doctrine that facts should be observed and classified, before theories should be formed. It is distinguished by a spirit of cautious attention to phenomena, that was rarely exhibited before Bacon introduced the new method of philosophy. It brings a copious in- duction of facts, in support of its positions. It has advanced a multitude of particulars in regard to 36 the physiology, structure and functions of the intellect, that were not understood or noticed by the writers of former times : whilst its views are generally plausible and specious, there are many amongst them that may be alleged to be placed beyond dispute. The facts which later writers have brought forv^^-ard relative to the mechanism of the senses, their simple and their combined action, the association of ideas, the laws by which this principle is regulated, the influence which it exerts upon the memory and other powers, the ana- tomy of the judgment and imagination, the mode of action of the moral faculty,— on these and a variety of other topics, so sound are their views, that they may be said to present us with certainties rather than theories. Whilst we allow this much to modern philosophy, whilst we admit that it is seldom to be seen squandering its energies in; matters entirely vi- sionary and idle, whilst we acknowledge that it has made an extensive and advantageous use of the prin- ciple of induction) whilst we confess that it has enlarged the caUilogue of interesting phenomena, and distributed its facts in an order more lucid and elegant than formerly obtained, we are far from thinking that in the whole exttmt it has pursued the right direction. On the contrary we believe that it has endeavoured to rear an edific€! without laying a foundation. We consider that it has attempted to measure without employing the right rule, to steer without the right compass, to obsei've without using the right telescope : and the result of this has been, that the science instead 37 t)f moving forward with a steady, and as we might say, innate progression has gone along an eccentric path, and has manifested that arbitrary and capricious tendency, which we have noticed as one of the leading defects in the old philosophy * Mind being a spiritual existence, it seems a conclusion both fair and natural, that the study thereof should be entered into in connection with that book which above all others discourses of things spiritual, and opens up the me- chanism of the heart. To carry on an investigation into the structure of the mind, without, founding upon this book^ without assuming its principles, without profiting by its disclosures, without even employing ir in the way of reference or illustration, appears an act of gratuitous folly, which could hardly have been looked for from such a succession of writers. On account of this studied separation between intellectual philosophy and scripture, it has happened as we con- •ceive, that philosophy in spite of the sagacity and ardour which have been brought to its illustration, and notwithstanding the patient attention with which its phenomena have b^en canvassed, continues thus fluctuating, and refuse? to coalesce into a settled form. It has already been proved more than once, that the loftiest powers will miss their aim, if they obstinately attempt to reach it by a wrong direction. If it be correct to allege, that the intellectual jpart of philosophy ought to be studied with a close preference to the word of God, there is plainly a ronger argument why the ethical portion should 38 li I \*ri be investigated in the same light : — one may imagine a sound treatise on the laws of intelligence to be composed without allusion to the doctrines of reve- lation, — but it is barely possible to conceive a rational exposition of the moral duties, or a correct analysis of the moral sentiments, written without aid from that inspired work which is the repertory of all right motives, all good principles, and which is the great theatre wherein these views are exemplified, per- sonified, embodied in the conduct of Christ and the most excellent of his saints. It may be amusing enough to listen to word play, to observe skirmishes of wit, to notice men beating the air, to see them laboriously attempting to build with- out a foundation, and to perceive them studiously en- deavouring to see distant objects without a telescope. It may be further admitted that such essays are calcu- lated to sharpen and strengthen the minds of those who practise them, and of those who carefully ob- serve their movements. But it would be much more interesting to the sincere friend of truth to see philoso- phers building on a sure foundation, and availing them- selves of the powers of that telescope which is already provided for their use, — Therewould then be no waste of energy, no loss of time, — the mental discipline would be quite aa complete, all the while that the search would be sure to conduct to solid results ; moral science would move along a straight and well defined path, in place of threading its devious way through labyrinths and mazes. The world is old enough to be wise, — 39 and sound has already been too often mistaken for sense, worda for things, and shadows for realities. In the whole catalogue of the writers on ethics, there is absolutely not one who has attempted to base the science in all its breadth on the word of God. The most have laboured to erect an edifice composed of their own wood, hay, and stubble. A few have been 9o discreet as to affect a decent regard for the scrip- lures. And even the one or two moralists who have been known to cherish a love for divine things, have been too timid or short-sighted boldly to assert the full claims of the Bible ; they have considered that it would evince a want of philosophy should they at the outset assume revelation, — and argue from its principles. They have cautiously ventured to employ it as a candle, but not until their own light failed, — to use it as a glossary, but not until they were brought to perplexity, — to make of it a telescope, but not until they were positively assured that they had pareed the range of the natural eye. We accuse such writers of the very fault which it was their intention to avoid. They exhibited a want of philosophy when they shewed themselves afraid to assume the scrip- tures as themselves philosophy. They did injustice to the high claims of revelation, from a notion that by stating its pretensions low, they might propitiate the good will of philosophy falsely " so called." In our opinion, intellectual and moral science will never cease to fluctuate, — will never fall into a method of progressive movement, — will never exercise a com- 40 ..e.„„, eo.ec.„e«, „„,. ^^ ^e .he LZ. a 'linntj- on moral topics- until „ki 1 ^ persuade,) th„ ., ^ '' ""*"' PhiloTOphers shall b^ uples and facts, s tn h<^-«,k *u ^ •^iiall become thV ^^ «cnpture8, until it 2 "v-m- ■"• '""■ '»■"•"-- WK?^ CHAPTER in. 0, X,.. MO-nVE PB«.X.D TO THE BBCALOOKK. The Bhilosophv Of mind has followed a wavering coui no 1 much for any want of mducuon, a, Tca^; that induction has not been directed toward because u centuries, that •rtettn oSion which has been applied oTatu"lcience, and which has pressed tT onward :,h wonderful s^ed, has been directed also to morai Tctn e, and in this ca«, has been attended w.th science, a. difference is owing comparatively trivial results, me ._ . ,„ .,,.en ,o this ; that in natural science induction has taken :; nee of right objects, whilst in -ral scie - t has attempted to act, without employing the r^M a lu us-the word of God ; and has endeavoured to Jco Utc the laws of the spiritual worid, without c'Sthe aid of that inspiration, which a^one can •:;„lp the mysteries of the spiritual kin^mj is owin. to an accidental circumstance, that moral iieT« contains even the litUe truth that is to be rnd within its compass-Philosopher aWio' 0, y rtudiouslv disowned any sympaUiy or ^U'*""- ."^»f t Gos'pel, could not so thoroughly discard .« ..!!,.rL^ .hei.. theories as they affected or *^ D2 fhpir ♦«,«♦• '"Hinuaiea themselves into ineir treatises, in soite of nil tu^- .. 1 ""^ ''"" ' ^'"^ "^ positions and conclusions have not teen infected with all pervading fallacv W consider the unassisted mind as Jll,- ' the first principles of Ethi/ ""™ *' heln to ,„T^ of Ethics, or as incapable without elp. to trace these principles when foumi .o their nghtful consequences, as we re«,rH .k t>vi> ii k« li ' «=' »e regard the unassreted tnstmcted as to the functions of the kT ^ fonomy stood in need of the he o of .K !', "' '" z '^^^'^ "^'-^^ -i-iVt oitr- pe-^ive Ir '"°"''"' "•'" E""" clearfv perceive the properties of scriDtnrp »„j • the foundation, the guide Zi """' " "^ •-n.pim,-from that h^^' ' 'P"'"' '""' *'>« over th; science -it'ZVr; "'T' ""' ^""^ ampled rapiditv lit L^n . "^"^ ^"'' ""«^- benignant influence 1^ l.jr"':"'" "^ '""'' " poimcl welfan, of mankinl ' ''"'"'"'' """ 43 . The first article in any system of morals, is the ' MOTIVE proposed to enforce the observance of it* precepts ; without this, a system even if in other respects it be faultless, wants that which is requisite Id press it on the attention of men. In regard to this particular there has been as much discussion and as great variety of sentiment, as we have noticed to prevail in other questions of Ethics. Some have proposed a regard to Truth, as that which should dictate an observance of the rules of morality. To make the practice of principles which are quite at variance with the natural bias of mankind, to depend upon another principle that is just as opposed to their inclination, argues a degree of ignorance that is startling enough. To imagine that the corrupt ten- dencies of men are to be held in awe by a name, that principles most unpalatable to them are to acquire a rtlish from a word, is to set up a doctrine to which every page in the history of the world loudly gives the lie. Some again have maintained that the fitness of things is the basis on which morality should be built, and the motive that should prompt to its duties :— That these duties exert a whole- some influence on the order of things here below, — that they are calculated to produce harmony in the affairs of rational beings, that they are suited to the true interests of men, are points that cannot be contested : — But it demands a considerable reach of intelligence to understand such views, — and when they are understood they are not of such a sort as to 44 I f«r-S!e^-i->*': rxercise a strong influence over the r any viobiit passions of our nature, — to propose as a motive to the mass of mankind what is quite above their capacity, — and to think of governing the most stormy tendencies by a cold doctrine of philosophy, is to exhibit a view so wide from the truth, that the Hober observer of hunian nature cannot well believe, that rational men could have ventured to propound tiie doctrine. Others have chosen to say that mo- rality should stand on this foundation, that its prin- ciples are expedient and useful. Some writers of eminent talent have advocated this opinion, — we coincide with them in all that they allege as to tlie usefulness of virtue j but we dissent completely when they seek to make this the groundwork and motive of moral performance; if the vulgar are to l>e brought within the pale, they must be addressed by a motive more palpable ; if the devilish propen- sities of human nature are to be controlled and put down, it must be by an influence greatly more energetic ; if morality is to stand so that tiie gates of hell shall not prevail against it, it must be reared on a rock, and not on a basis that is liable to fluctuate. To propose expediency as the ground- work of Ethics, is to seek and to tarnish the lustre of the Godhead, is to defame the character of virtue, is to advance a motive which the ignorant cannot appreciate, and which the wicked will not regard. Some again have spoken of the innate «ooD.VESs OF VIRTU* J as the principle which urges 46 „,«1 dutie. on the notice °f "!"• ^^ „ „eom- perfectly virt«o«..««n,ouve jouM uff ^^^ ^^^^^ condition, and with nean* ^^^^j .^. which •,. good, 'h; P-^'P;^ X, ..asn.. onlv a mockery,— or » 1 ^prewntinfi „.hich laughs at men ^J^^^^'ot^^^^ ■"''«'^" ,hem as they ought to be . ^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^ ^„. answer the purpose: they ^^^ ^^^ ,veak,-too low, or too '"^^ 'J^,^,^,,, ,„ dev,«- „«, that men should thus set thenueU ^^^^ . false ha.s fo^*-^■"JJ nti..-^ P-^^" himself had provided a sure . ^^ ^^^^. ,„ ,,.t code of divine mo^t^^J^^^^^ analysing, .s the mo.ve that .s^^_g ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^. it, claims to our ''^^>^;f „„^ „f ,„e land of God, which have brought thee ^^^^. ^^^^*'r"''':^ral::fn,eani„e-They words shut m a great am ^^^^^ involve all the at.rib.Ues tho cen^ . ^^^^^^ of Jehovah, they i-l"'"', ^^^ ^7^, Ji. related of him as he is in *"<"-". -^;: ^^^^^^ ,,„*. ,„ his rational crea.««.s. H_^„ which quality BLBNESS OR SHADOW OF ^^^^ ,^^^^ .„ him enahlesusto und«sjnd;h^t ^^^^^ ._^^^^^ which is the express transc pt ^^ ^^ be immutable in its »b"P^^°"^;7„ «C^y I say listen to the Kedeemer -*;^" ''^ "^ ^e jot or i\\\ Hpaven and eartn pase, j unto you, ^^^ *»^*^'^ . ^ fton. the Uw, til o«e tittle 4i»H »n no wise paw I 46 all be fulfilled." He is infinite in his wmoom, — and connecting himself in this open manner with hie law, this ought to be an assurance to men that it reflects this attribute, that it is worthy of its divine author, and that all its provisions may be implicitly received as the exact expression of perfect wisdom. He is absolute in power, — by the word of his mouth the heavens and the earth were created; — which attribute of the Almighty serves as an assur- ance to mankind, that he has the ability to carry into effect the provisions of his code, encourase^ them in righteousness from the consideration that he is able to confer the rewards which he has promised, deters them from evil, from the conviction that he has the might to execute the punishments which he has threatened. He is perfect in holi- ness. This quality which fornis an essential part of the divine intelligence, must enter into that system of duties of which he acknowledges himself the author, and so entering in should give it a high value in the estimation of men, should fill them with a devout eagerness to observe a law which is thus precious, should move them with godly sorrow when they are tempted to transgress its enactments. He is « A JEALOUS God," — which peculiarity of his c4iaracter, is calculated to wain men not only that they should observe his law in its larger requirements, but that they should labour to fulfil it with scrupulous attention even in its smaller stipulations. He " hatbs SIN WITH A PCRfscT HATRED," — whichfeatur* of the I / <^ ^^ ./ •< f li I 47 divine nature is well suited to inspire holy reverenco and vigilant practice into the minds of those who aro anxious to obtain the favour of God. He is " ths SEARCHER OP HEARTS^' — which attribute, taken in connection with the moral law, is well adapted to teach men to examine themselves^ is well suited to urge them to observe its injunctions with religious at- tention. — He has at his disposal rewards of so ex' alted a kind, that the mind cannot form even a distant conception of their value ; — and puiiishments of so awful a nature as quite to surpass the strongest idea which men can have of the terrible ; — which circum • stances, powerfully appealing as they do to the prin- ciples of hope and fear, must exert a mighty influence in promoting amongst men an observance of this law. He is everywhere, present, — so that we can- not if we would, escape from the sphere of his autho- rity ; — which fact viewed in reference to this code^ secures for it not a local, but a universal acceptance, and serves as a warrant that it shall be the rule of men not only in the church and the market place, but in the secrecy of the closet and the darkness of the night, in the remote wilderrtess, and on the waste of waters. Moreover, Jehovah is connected with men by many intimate bonds : — He is the " King immor- tal AND INVISIBLE," — and as such claims from them the allegiance of subjects ; — He is the supreme lord and master over all things ; — as such he is entitled to the deferential obedience of men, his servants : — He if* the maker of our bodies ; — in this capacity he deserves ■^^iy> '^ w jn 48 every mark of external regard which We can otfer, ihd service of the eyes and the lipa, of the knees and the hands :— He is '* the father of our spirits," — by which title he merits all that inward regard, reverence and love, which we are capable of bestowing: — He is our preserver,— the bounties of his providence are new every day,— He feeds and clothes, he shelters and defends us, he heals our diseases, protects us by day and night by land and sea, he confers upon us num- berless comforts of body, and countless pleasures of mind, we are living miracles of his power, patience and unwearying goodness ;— In this relation there is a cogent obligation imposed on us to return him gratitude for all his benefits, and as the best proof tliat we are grateful, to revere the ordinances of that precious law which he has given ag a rule to his creatures : Finally he is our Redeemer; Here is the strongest bond of union between God i:nd men,— and here is a very lively inducement to them to keep this law, that "God so loved the world that he spared not his well beloved Son, but gave him up unto the death for us all ;— In this view many weighty in- fluences combine to press the moral law on the attention of the true believer: It is that code of precepts that is so momentous in the sight of the most High, that to heal the breach therein it behooved the second person in the Godhead should shed his b'ood :— It is that system of duties which « God manifest in the flesh," fulfilled whilst he sojourned amongst men :— to observe this law is to set the feet 49 «51 tAst \n th« prints which Jmub left ; — to practiie these rulf s is to walk on the very path which Jesus trod, is to " put on Christ,*' is to make him the example, ia to have fellowship with him and with his saints, is to ad(Hii his gospel, is to cherish his spirit, and to set forth its fr-:t8 evidently before the eyes of men. To make this the basis of the decalogue, is to build it on a very broad foundation, and to fortify it by a motive of surpassing strength ; — in this focus all the attributes of the Almighty converge, — his wisdom and power, his purity and holiness, his jealousy of his honour and his hatred of sin, his ability to discern the heart, and his omnipresence, his power to bestow infinite rewards, or to inflict infinite punishments, his benefits as the maker of body and mind, the preserver of life, the Redeemer of the soul. This many-voiced motive addresses itself to every par- ticular principle in our complex nature ; It speaks to the lower and also to the higher feelings of mankind ; It discourses to reason as well as to the passions ; It makes an alarming appeal to the principle of fear ; It speaks eloquently to the emotions of gratitude and love. With A MOTIVE thus broad and plain, thus cogent and salutary, placed at the outset of the decalogue, it might have been expected that whatever difficulties men might feel as to ulterior matters, they would experience none as to the point of departure. When God with his own hand has placed his own divine character at the commencement of his system of morals, as the influence which is to dispel doubt, E 50 overcome unwillingness, subdue frowardness ; — a: the menstruum which is to reconcile men to holiness, and to render godliness palatable, — surely it must be re- garded as a singular instance of foolish perversity that they should exhaust their minds in fruitless attempts to invent that which is already discovered, to find that which is already found:— surely their time would have been better employed, and their efforts better di- rected had they at once closed with the principle which God has unfolded to their view, and had they instead of impi,»ualy seeking to devise a better, occu- pied themselves in shewing how good is this one, how well suited to its purpose, how worthy it is of its divine author. CHAPTER IV. K^ if I < THE COMPLETENESS OF THE DECALOGUE. The first quality which ought to be considered in any system is, how far it may be said to include all the facts which it pretends to set forth, and to answer all the purposes which it professes to serve. When God's moral law is considered from this side, its divine origin is very distinctly seen. Whilst every other system has carried within itself the principles of short life and dissolution, this bears the mould of immortality plainly stamped upon it ; whilst all other plans have lasted for thirty, sixty or an hundred years, and then have been pronounced defective or redundant, and have needed to be recast, or have been entirely superseded by a new scheme, this has already endured three thousand years, it has been tested in all the circumstances of the thirty centuries that have passed over it, it has been found to contain neitlier too much nor too little, and without one symptom of age or decrepitude upon it, it lo^ks just as regardless of the lapse of time, as is the being of that God who gave it forth ; — every other system which has been promulgated however solid it Was, seemed to men to need to be modified within a generation, seemed to require to be entirely recast within a centu- 52 ry : — this one although many centuries have gone over Its head has not begun to betray the minutest symptoms of age, Or the smallest signs as if it needed revision. In all other cases even the admirers of a system were forced to confess, that the object of their admiration had its defects,— as that it made too much of some favourite notion, that it over-charged some points and under-rated others, that it erred by excess in some in- stances and by defect in others. In regard to the de- calogue, though jealous eyes have been directed at it during so many ages, and although all the malice and subtlety of Satan and his adherents have been em- ployed in attempting to find or to forge some sufficient charge against it, it comes forth more than a con- queror from every conflict; the scrutiny does it honour, the ordeal shews its materials to be eternal, the combat proves it to be clad in impenetrable armour. There is not on record one authentic case, it which it has been shewn to be faulty as to its motive or its arrangement, as to its quantity or its quality, as to its shape or its contents j altho' by very much the briefest system that ever was pro- pounded, it is beyond all comparison the most com- plete; altho' its divisions are {ew, it includes far more than those systems whose departments were many: — Ten short principles, — so short that they m^y be all vmtten on the memory of a child, include the whole of this law— lest even this should be too cumbrous for the mind to bear, the same God who sets forth the whole system under ♦en heads, con- -•''* ,2 It -^ t 53 descends to give us an epitcnia, and reduces it to TWO chapters. This code then in ten articles and two sections, has stood the test of thirty centuries, has resisted the combined attacks of desperate, ma- licious and subtle antagonists, has endured the scrutiny of countless critics whose acumen was sharpened by abhorrence, has received no injury, has caught no taint, and has repelled all the darts of its enemies as with a shield of adamant. Of the two divisions the first in four articles exhibits our duty to God ; the second in six instances propounds our duty to men :— Four points shut m the range of duties which we owe to heaven, — six points include the duties which belong to earth. The First article propounds a doctrine, which, simple and natural as we call it, now that it is revealed, really lies so far beyond the unaided powers of men, that it could not have been known to them but by an express message from heaven. The unity of God, altho' evidently the simplest notion that can be formed as to his nature, is from this very simplicity placed quite beyond the reach of unen- lightened reason ; There is something too prodigious in the idea that one being should be able to regulate all the processes of this great and complicated world for any understanding without help to be able to come -at it. Those of the philosophers who bring forward this notion or who approach toward it, in all probabili- ty learned the doctrine from the Hebrew Scriptures, which in one shape or othtr were more generally r. 54 \ known in the old world than we are disposed to think : — the view ia notoriously too large for the grasp of the natural mind. The reason and the fancy cannot without express assistance body forth an idea so stupendous as that the whole frame of nature is under the government of one king. All that the unaided mind can do is to conceive a multitude of Gods, each of whom is somewhat larger in person and mightier in power than common men. The interval between the heroes and the gods of the heathen is something, but it is finite. The natural reason has no conception of the infinite. In order to govern the world the heathen are reduced to conjure up a multitude of petty gods, each of whom is entrusted with a separate kingdom of nature. God alone can understand his own character; he only was able to comprehend his own unity, and men of themselves were just as adequate to create the heavei^ or the earth as they were to arrive at the notion that there is but one Creator and Ruler. There is something unspeakably wholesome in this first article of the moral law : — the belief of it is cal- culated to explode a world of foolish, wild and impure opinions : — at one sweep it overturns a multitude of thrones on the earth and in the heavens, and peaces the sceptre of dominion in the hands of one great king. It dislodges the gods of the sea and the rivers, of the hills %nd the vallies, of the forests and the plains, of the sun and the moon, of the lower and the upper worlds ; — and having deposed these petty princes it 55 r vir' casts all their provinces into the dominions of one mo- narch. Perhaps it is not possible to imagine the influ- ence which the knowledge of this one article is fitted to produce upon men. Let two nations differ from one another only in this single point of faith, and whilst one of them holds the doctrine that there are many gods, let the other be informed that there is but one ; — this single difference will produce a most perceptible diversity in ail the opinions and practices of the two nations. The belief that there is but one God is a bright sunbeam darted into a country of thick darkness; — it is a portion of infinite wisdom conveyed to the intelligence of finite creatures ; — it is one wise and powerful ruler substituted in the room of a variable number of bad, weak, and yet despotic Lords ; — we cannot estimate the amount of knowledge which this one doctrine imparts to men. The Second commandment provides more fully for the fulfilment of the first, by stipulating that God will not suffer that men should think the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone, graven by art and mens device. — It provides that men should revere as it were the PERSON of the almighty, that they should abstain from reducing it to any of those forms which they are accustomed to see around them, and that the homage which they bestow upon him should be truly of a spi- ritual sort. The wisdom of this institution is best seen in those instances wherein the law is broken. Whether we turn our attention to the heathen or to the Jews, or to those who mix up idolatrous practices with y/ 56 christian doctrines, we are presented with many and shocking proofs, how degrading both to head and lieart is the worship of idols. Let any nation or por- tion of a nation holding the imth in other respects, allow this one ungodly practice to taint its worship, in the course of a single generation the intelligence and morality of that people will be terribly impaired ; — and if the practice should continue during several generations without any check, few traces will remain of the science or the moral purity which it may once have possessed. This enactment is eminently qua- lified to render the worship of God an exercise of the higher faculties of the mind, and not a service performed by the merely animal powers. It is not practicable to make a calculation how much this one enactment has done to raise and refine the intellect. The most distinct ideas of its benefits are to be learned by contrast, and we can best calculate what this commandment does for the faculties of men by comparing the moral aspect of a nation of idola- ters, with that of other nations who worship God in spirit and in truth. The Third commandment provides, that our rever- ence for the most high should be so thorough as to ex- tend even to his name. It accordingly issues a decree against every kind and manner of the sms, which consist in speaking lightly or contemptuously of the name and attributes of Jehovah. It makes provision that his holy name shall never be mentioned, save in those appointed reasons and ^r \ 57 prescribed exercises, when we are engaged expressly in his worship, or in those other instances in which it is employed to give force and obligation to tl»» solemn contracts between man and man. This enact- ment then, utters a prohibition against all those sins wherein the mouth is employed in speaking blas- phemy, impunty and maledictions, it confines the ^^ office of the lips to uttering those words that are to the praise of God and the welfare of man. The Fourth commandment erects a religious in- stitution, ordaining that one day in seven should be set apart for rest and the worship of God. Whils^t it enjoins that the seventh day should be thus em- ployed, it makes distinct provision that the other six days should be religiously consecrated to labour. The injunction that the sabbath should be a day for repose and public worship is not more peremptory, than is the enactment that the other six days should be employed in terrestrial toils; both stand on the footing of positive institutions. The decree to labour during six days, and to worship on the seventh, is fortified and illustrated by the argument with which it is associated, that in " six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it." The spiritual and temporal benefits that sjHing out of this single enactment are so various and great, that it would need volumes to set them forth. The vast and striking differences between the aspect / ? 96 and condition of christian and heathen nations arises more than any thing else from the circumstance that the seventh day is hallowed by the former, and that no such institution exists among the others. Tlie Fifth commandment expounds the first of that class of duties which relate more especially to mankind. It makes provision for the right observance of the relation subsisting between parents and chil- dren, and by so doing it lays the foundation of teiTestrial morality broad and strong. By laying an emphasis upon this duty and attaching a high reward to it, the divine lawgiver commences a system of discipline at a time when his creatures are most susceptible of impressions and provides for the ful- filment of a relation, which when well observed, gives a form to the character that no future influence can alter, and prepares men to understand and to practise the duties that flow out of all the other relations. It is not too much to say that wherever this injunction is begun early and in the right spirit, and wherever it is followed out consistently through a course of years, impressions are made which are never afterwards effaced, and a temper is formed which qualifies the man to adorn every situation in which he may be placed, and fulfil every duty w'vich he can be summoned to perform. The Sixth commandment by its injunction " thou f»halt not kill," requires us to respect our own person, and that of our neiRhbour. It does not merelv reoro. »•", %'i 59 bate outward demonstrations of violence, it does not merely condemn bloodshed, suicide and murder, but it denounces the feelings which instigate to such deeds — it stigmatises envy, wrath, hatred, revenge, and rapacity, which are the sources from which they flow. The right observance of this command directly promotes feelings of love, peace, forbearance, charity and kindness, and goes to eradicate every passion which under any circumstances would lead men to put forth the hand upon their own bodies or those of their brethren. Directing its censure against all those passions which give rise to deeds of violence, it provides for this ; that all the intercourse between man and man should proceed in a spirit of love, gentleness and forbearance. The Seventh commandment, " thou shalt not commit adultery," — ^like the former reprobates, not merely the actual transgression of its mandate, but every thought or word which implies the existence of illicit desires. Carried forth in all its extent this enactment provides for thorough purity in the inter- course between the sexes, whether in the single or connubial estate. Were this admirable appointment fully observed in any section of society, the results which would proceed from it would loudly proclaim how good and useful it is — a great addition would be made to the amount of happiness, much peace and joy would accrue to the community, a valuable accession would be made to its health, opulence and longevity, some of the cruellest diseases which sin / 1/ / vVji 60 engenders would be banished, and much of the most poignant suffeiing of parents, husbands and wives would disappear. The Eighth commandment, " Thou shalt not steal," ordains a respect for the property of our neigh- bour ; — It therefore denounces iaill that order of feelings and actions which are of a dishonest nature. Were this appointment carried out in its full extent, a measure of comfort and confidence would be intro- duced into the transactions between man and man that would render society something very different from what it is. It is owing to the circumstance that this insti- tution is already partially observed, that society holds together : — It is because of tlie circumstance that re- ligion, law and other motives have infused some de- gree of integrity into the practices of communities, that they are enabled to subsist in their social form : — If the degree of this quality was much smaller than it is, society would lose its adhesive properties, all its coherency would be abstracted, and it would be reduced into a number of wretched isolated creatures, forced by their own depravity to dwell at a distance from each other : — It is greatly owing to the fact that the commandment is carried forth in so imperfect a manner that social intercourse is tainted with so much evil ; that such large armies are maintained by nations, that such great fleets are kept up, that such onerous taxes are laid upon countries, that such nu- merous and expensive police regulations are found requisite^ that so many deeds of violence and murder ^ 61 are perpetrated, that prisons are so numerous and tenanted by so many wretched inmates, and that there are so many laws and institutions which cramp the energies of men, and indicate the great lack of confidence that prevails in society. To make this enactment universal or even general, would abolish all this : — multitudes of strong arms and useful minds that are now engaged in repressing the dishonest tendencies of men — as soldiers and sailors, as police and constables, as magistrates, lawyers and gaolers would be left firee to other and more useful employ- ments ; one fraction of mankind would not be occupied in watching over the others, — the energies of men would much more than now be dedicated to really profitable avocctions, — public burdens would be in- definitely diminished,— crime and suffering would prodigiously decrease, — wealth would flow into the commimity in large streams,— commerce would ad- vance almost without impediment, — ^the causes which at present hinder peace and harmony, would be in a great measure removed, and the whole usages of society would speedily become more easy, pleasant and kindly. The Ninth commandment, "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour," ordains a regard to the law of love as it respects the reputation of our neighbour. As the preceding inculcates an observance of truth and integrity in our conduct, so this enjoins a regard to the same quality in our words: — as the foregoing commands us to keep a watch over P 7/ I / ! I W 62 our actions, so this one inculcates a like vigilance over our tongues : — as the former demands of us that we respect the property, so this one requires that we respect the character of our neighbour : — it denounces all sins of the tongue, such as severe censures, bitter sarcasms, ridicule, harsh judgments, innuendos, slander and detraction ; and above all the crime of giving false testimony against our neighbour when on oath before a court. In so very succinct a code of laws it was necessary to observe the utmost brevity of expression, that was consistent with j.n explicit statement. We are not from this command- ment to imagine that only the most flagrant examples of feins of the tongue are forbidden ; — a striking in- stance is selected in this and others of the com- mandments, with the evident intention that there might be no doubt as to the class designed ; — we are not therefore to confine our attention to the maximum of the action or feeling, but taking it as standing for the class, we are to reason down from it, and to conclude that the minimum or smallest instance of the crime is as positively forbidden : — inasmuch as offences of the tongue are the most frequent of all sins, and are the most common source out of which spring almost all of the disorders of human society, to cut them off is to do much to introduce harmony into the affairs of men, by excluding the many evil passions which derive their aliment from this cause. 63 The Tenth commandment is as much a summary of the preceding five as it is an express additional in- stitution ; — it is placed as the fence of all the rest : — " The Apostle's reference to it Rom. vii. 7 &. 8 shews that it comprises the utmost spirituality of the law ; and it is a perpetual confutation of all those systems by which the outward gross crime is considered as the only violation of the command ; we must ? ot so much as desire any thing whatsoever, which God forbids, or which his providence withholds ; and so far from seizing violently on our neighbour's pos- sessions, we may not so much as hanker after them. We may desire that part of a man's property which he is inclined to dispose of, if we only mean to obtain it on equitable terms ; but what he chooses to keep we may not covet. The poor man may desire moderate relief from the rich, but he must not hanker after his affluence, or repine even if he does not relieve him. Men exposed to equal hazards, may agree to a pro- portionable contribution to him who suffers loss, for it accords with the law of love to help the distressed : — this exculpates insurance when fairly conducted ; — but every kind of gaming originates from an undue desire and hope of increasing wealth, by proportionably im- povCTishing othej men, and is therefore a direct vio<- lation of this law. In fine, discontent, distrust, love of wealth, pleasure and grandeur, desire of change, the habit of wishing, and every inordinate affection, are the evils here prohibited, and we know them to be the sources of all other crimes, and of man's misery. ! ! 64 This command also requires moderation in respect of all worldly things, submission to God, acquiescence in his will, love to his commands, and a reliance on him for the daily supply of all our wants as he sce» good."* The system declares its divine origin, by this among other things, that although by very much the shortest scheme of morals that ever was proposed, it is beyond all comparison the most comprehensive and full : — it contains but ten propositions, which are divisible into two chapters or tables, and yet there is positively no one article of our duty either to God or man, but has a place allotted to it within its compass : — every other system of ethics, even those which have been the last advanced, which have been written in christian coun- tries, and with the decalogue as a guide, had the authors so willed it, have erred by excess and by defect: — how- ever ample their dimensions they have undeniably omitted some articles for which they should have reserved a place ; — however distinct their analysis they have confounded what should have been kept separate, and have distinguished v/here there was no real diC rence: — however exact their arrangement they have in many instances reversed the true order of things. One error common to i 'jst of these systems is the threefold division which they make of the duties ; — to God, — to our neighbour, — and to ourselves. Specious as the arrangement looks, the decalogue disallows it, and settles an order more * Tbomu Scott. M 65 ^:?^ ^1«- succinct, more philosophical, more lovely and holy. Tt considers that duty to God and man, shuts in the whole circumference :— it thinks that one rule is sufficient for a man and his neighbour :— it has contrived a piece of mechanism with a self-adjusting power, when it has ordained that the measure which we deal to our neighbour should be just that measure which we deal to ourselves: — it has enjoined a singularly intimate union between man and man by its very silence; by making absolutely no dis- tinction between man and h - brother, by placing the two by implication in one category, it has declared more lo idly than express statements could have uttered it, that GoJ considers his creatures as forming but one family,— that he desires their intercourse to be regulated by the very highest principles of mercy and love, that he will sanction no rule inferior to his own royal law— that a man should love his neighbour as himself. The decalogue has stood the test of thirty-four cen- turies, and the result has bee a notable confirmation of the scripture, that "the law of the Lord is perfect." Charlies have been brought against it from age to age, but the ordeal has only gone to prove its materials to be of ete. aal fabric. Its armour of proof has received no dint,— its wall of adamant, has experienced no damage.— The most expert, daring, and resolute of the sons of men have been among the assailants, but the law like its author has held them in derision. There is not at this moment one of these charges on record, o«- F2 \l'\ 66 if there are any the world has ceased to regard them* The tide of public feeling is rapidly running in an opposite direction, — laws and institutions are every day approximating more nearly to this divine model : — The usages of society are fast feeling the influence of its leaven ; — and mankind seem to be on thd eve of a period when this code shall be considered as — as much the work of God as is the sun or moon, and when all nations shall look to it for light, instruction and happiness. i ij •'It i CHAPTER V. THE SYSTEMATIC CHARACTER OF THE DECALOGUl* There is a strong disposition amongst many, who are not so decided in their views as to avow a disbelief of the inspiration of scripture, to treat the Bible as a work,— which, whatever may be its pretensions to holiness, has no claim to taste, elegance, symmetry, philosophy and method. Independent of all observa- tion, it would seem an unlikely matter that the most high God, the source of all wisdom, would deliver z message to men which should be devoid of those very qualities ofform and style, which he has taught his creatures to u:3e and to appreciate, and which accord- ing to the constitution which he himself has imparted to the human mind, are requisite to render composition pleasing, impressive, or intelligible ; actual observation corroborates this supposition; the Bible is not that crude, formless, tasteless production, which free-thinkers and worldlings, would represent it ; every part of it is dis- posed with a method so exquisite, as to become more apparent the more fully it is analysed. There are ad- mirable examples of every style that could be conceived fit for such a work. The historical narratives are re- markable for clearness, precision , and frankness. The portraita and biographies are bold, striking, picturesque, 68 and touching. The didactic and axiomatic portions are singularly terse, pithy, sententious and distinct ; the odes and prophecies are in tlie very highest style of poetry ; their diction is noble, their sentiments are sublime, the figures which they employ are, by the confession of unbelievers, grander, more various, and more appropriate than anything that is to be found in the whole range of uninspired composition ; the epis- tolary portions are admirable for ease, simplicity and plainness ; the orations which are interspersed through the sacred volume exhibit all the features of the most genuine eloquence. The Rhetorician might confine himself to the Bible, might make it his text book, and would find in it not only good, but the very best illus- trations of his art in the whole range of its rules and forms. This has not always been the current opinion ; even believer^s have been disposed to allow what literary men have been accustomed to allege against the external qualities of the Bible, but different opin- ions are rapidly diff'usmg themselves, and before long it will not be accounted extravagant for a man to say, that the Scriptures are as worthy of their author as regards their order, manner and style, as they are worthy of him ill their other qualities. What has been asserted of the Scriptures in j^eneral, has been frequently said of the decalogue. It has been allowed to be a good scheme of moi.us in the main, but having no claim to ? regular plan, or a lucid disposition of parts; the accusation is quite as groundless in the one instance as in the other. c- 69 The decalogue possesBes all the qualities which shallovr thinkers deny it ; the induction is complete, for no one article has been omitted which deserves a place in such a system ; the analysis is correct, for no oppo- nent has been able to prove any confounding of things identical, or blending of things dissimilar; mar- rellously compact as to its bulk, like every piece of divine mechanism, it includes much more ihan human fabrics of much vaster dimensions. Complete in its synthesis, beautifully correct in its analysis, the materials are disposed in an order so lucid and natural that the fancy positively cannot conceive any form of greater symmetry. There is a general division of the subject into two parts ; this at least is consonant with the strictest rules of logic. Not only do these two parts stand in their proper relation to each other, the law of God holding the first place, the law of our neighbour the second : but the sections which each of these chapters comprises, are in the like thorough subordination to each other. The first commandment is a general proposition, and the three which follow may be considered to illustrate the meaning, and to unfold the contents of the first, ^hat can be conceived more agreeable to the phi- losophy of thought and the laws of logic? The four articles, three of them negative and one positive, so thoroughly shut in the conduct which the Almighty requires that men should pursue toward him, that we connot imagine any particular which is omitted! , U it not a feat of high philosophy to pack into so 70 small a bulk such an amazing amount of materials ? There is the same order, precision and compactness about the second table. It sets out with an injunction which, if acted upon in its proper extent would plant morality in childhood, would nip vice in the bud, would make the paternal dwelling the nursery of all the graces, and would eifectually hinder the per- petration of any of the crimes mentioned in the following five commandments. It was agreeable to the SOCIAL order to give this rule the first place, — it is consistent with the philosophical order to set that first, which if complied with would prevent the necessity of the injunctions which follow. In this sense the fifth commandment may also be regarded as a general position, which comprehends what the five succeeding specify and draw forth. The minor propositions, as we may term them, stand in tliat very order in which their relative importance to the well-being of Society would lead us to expect that they should be placed. The sixth commandment is an admirable specimen of that ingenious brevity which distinguishes this law. Four short words plainly denounce all that multifarious class of feelings and actions, which lead us either to think or to perpetrate any evil against our own bodies ai)d lives, or those of our brethren. — Th^ re is a check at the outset of the second table, there is another at its close. The fulfilment of the fifth article precludes the commission of the sins afterwards mentioned, — the fulfilment of the tenth has the effect not merely to 71 prevent the actual perpetration of the crimes, but the very conception of the feelings out of which they arise. — If ample induction and exact analysis, — if perspicuous method and singular compactness, — if perspicuity of expression and symmetry of form, — if depth of thought and intimate 4cnowledge of men be any recommendation to a scheme of ethics, then is the decalogue not only, not inferior to any other, — but very obviously the most scientific plan that ever was devised. CHAPTER VI. Si THB MORAL PURITY OF THE DECALOGUE. The purity of this system is remarkably brought out bv placing it in comparison with any other scheme of ethics. Some of these have proceeded on the notion, that we have no certainty as to the existence of a God, — this one starts from the position, that this doctrine is as well ascertained as any fact in the whole range of things. Some have gone on the opinion that if there were a God, it mattered not to us, for that he takes no share in the management of the world ;— this scheme is founded on the notion that God is the active ruler of all nature. Many systems v>rtre v^ritten under the impression that the government of the world is por- tioned out amongst many deities; this one is based on the dogma that there is but one God, and that it is extreme disloyalty to his name to suppose that there are more. The greater number of systems ^'\ve been put together on the idea that there is an absolute barrier between theology and ethics, between duty to God and to men ; that it argues a confusion of ideas and a want of philosophy to place them to- gether, and that ethics cannot stand on a solid found- ation unless they be kept in all their extent quite aloof from theology. This scheme is framed upon 78 the opposite view ; that they are branches of one stem, that they are twin brothers, that they are two chapters of one subject, that they must stand or fall together, that it is unphilosophical to separate them. Several systems have devoted much space to the enquiry whether men are endowed with a power of moral discrimination, — of what that power is com-' posed, and how it acts, this one proceeds directly to practical objects, avoids such serious trifling, and shews that men have such a faculty by addressing it with inducements and motives. Most systems have expended much of their strength in discussing the question, what is the proper foundation of morals, is it benevolence or sympathy, or the will of God, or the good of men, is it utility or the fitness of things, or expediency or truth? After much disquisition they have frequently proceeded on in their career with- out positively fixing on a motive, or when they have made a selection, it has been one that wanted breadth or solidity, or strength or practical influence, that was but a name or a sound. Like the Brahminical cos- mogony which rests upon an elephant, which stands upon a tortoise, these schemes were reared upon a basis which had nothing to support it. Whereas the divine law is built upon a foundation broad, sure, and that cannot be moved ; — the nature of God ; — the whole character of the most high with all its attributes, and all its bearings upon men, is affixed as a motive to the deca- logue. Then what a wholesome and purifying influence u 74 i? there in the disclosure contained in the first article that there is a God, and that he is on«._How salubriouJ compared with the dreary opinion of the sceptic, that chance or fate regulate the mechanism of the world.- How good and reasonable, compared with the doctrine ofthepolytheist, that the government of the universe IS committed to the charge of many deities—Without touchmg upon the religious aspects of this matter and .ts connection with the happiness of a future life, it is not easy to estimate the advantages which it confers upon the present life. It is by no means easy to bnng together the benefits which it confers upon man merely m an intellectual and moral capacity. Whe« the circumstances of heathen lands are considered, two opinions are commonly found to obtain in their com- pass,— the notion ofthemultiude that there is a number oi gods and goddesses,— and the notion of the few who offended by the gross views and degrading prac- tices of the multitude go to the opposite extreme, and maintain the blank, cold doctrine, that there is no God. From either opinion springs a numerous family of the worst vices.-The multitude indulging in hatred dissension, violence, murder, and war,-giving free* course to gluttony, intemperance, concupiscence, in all Its forms, mixing up their most hateful sins with the very ntes of their idolatry, justifying them by the example of their very duties, and placing the whole of their religion in outward forms, in sacrifices offered upon altars, in pilgrimages made, to shrines, in un- meaning prayers uttered before senseless idols. The 79 4 ^ * philoBophere exhibiting a little more refinement in their vices, yet indulging to a man in some of tlie blackest sins ; coldly sneering at the superstition of the people, wrapping themselves in the delusion that their own views were enlightened, and their practices comely, and standing in the midst of all the beauty, order and symmetry of creation, declaring that there was no king to this empire, or that he heeded not the concerns of his creatures. This single revelation must be consi- dered as fraught with a peculiarly powerful influence on the moral purity of men. Then how admirably calculated is the next precept to carry out the spirit of the former. Omitting from the view that the wor- aliip of idols is incompatible in a spiritual sense with all true religion, leaving out of sight that the worship even of the true God under any definite form, is for- bidden in a religious point of view, how well fitted is it to refine and to sublime the mind, that men are com- manded to maintain all their intercourse with Jehovah through the agency of pure intelligence, and are com- manded not to resort to sensible objects as if to help their minds. How much moral doctrine is contained in this enactment. Again how well suited is the com- mandment, not to take the name of the Lord in vain, to inspire in the minds of men those feelings of rever- ence and awe for the loftiest of beings. How much do such sentiments elevate and adorn the moral cha- racter, how low and tame and cold is the nature that has never been subjected to the influence of such a menstruum. Too much can hardly be said as to the # 76 effect which a faithful observance of the fourth com- mandment is directly fitted to produce on the moral practices of men : — where it is obeyed through lively faith it must of necessity produce the peaceable fruits of righteousness, — and impart a high and wholesome tone to the sentiments and conduct of a people. Even where religious principle is absent, society receives many temporal benefits from this institution, in the pro- priety, decency and order which it communicates to ihose lying round the circumference of the circle, and who do not participate in the religious feeling that prevails about the centre. One day in seven dedicated faithfully to the Lord by a portion of the community, by the general moral influence which it diffuses, entitles us to believe that the effect of the ordinance would be prodigious were it observed by all ; — if every one who complied with it externally did it from the heart, — if all who honoured it sincerely did it with all their mind and might. Even in the very imperfect manner in which it is observed in the countries the most leavened by the gospel, we can collect sufficient data to make up a landscape whica shews a very marked contrast to the aspects of the lands of scepticism or heathen superstition. The different usages and customs that are to be found in the two examples tell amongst other things, how strong and influential is the keeping of the sabbath on the moral sentiments of nations. The Fifth commandment quite as much as any of the others, bespeaks the purity of this law, and ■I 77 stands out in as high relief to the practices of the unbelieving part of mankind, ''he place assigned to it, no less than the sentiment contained in it, betokens the wisdom and holiness of the author of this code. It comes next after divine duties,— it stands in direct contact with heavenly things,— it is set in the fore-front of our terrestrial obligations. Sagacity and holiness meet together in this enact- ment. It is imposbible to conceive a view better calculated to impress upon parents a strong sense of the importance of their functions, than thus to locate the duty immediately after things heavenly, and at the very summit of things earthly. The same consideration is fitted to act with great power upon ihe feelings of children, since it tells them by implication that it is the divine order that they should honour their parents next after their God. The purity of the precept is shewn up, when it is compared with the actual practices of men. There is more than one country where down to this day, this institution is so little undei-stood or acted upon, that children regard it a part of their duty to slay the authors of" their being when age has unfitted them for earning a livelihood. In several parts of the world where heathenism assumes a mild aspect, — where the people are by comparison humane, gentle, and moderately well instructed, it is a frequent usage for the children to cast their aged and decrepit parents into a running stream, or to leave them exposed in some place where wild beasts are wont to repair. Even in G2 I 78 (hose heathen lands where the religion of Mahomeff (borrowed in a large measure from the Scriptures,) does not sanction such barbarous and abominable crimes, the conduct of men is flagrantly at variance with this pure and amiable decree : — In these im- proved instances parents are far from claiming that reverence to which this law entitles them, — far from commanding it by their precepts, far from deserving it by their example, and children even where they acknowledge some respect for this duty, are never seen to fulfil it in any degree proportioned to its high and holy stipulations. Even in the regions in which the Scriptures are received, the sabbath observed and the gospel preached, — even in those districts and among those denominations ip which the largest measure of the spirit of Christ appears to reside, — even in those favoured spots where the true leaven is purest and strongest, — where knowledge and piety are the most highly concentrated, the practice of men is removed at an amazing distance from what may be fairly taken to be required by this wise and wholesome institution. Whilst it mar Ije alleged of the greater number of the nations which inhabit this earth, that they terribly sin against the duty contained in this enactment, it may likewise be affirmed of the few remaining nations which allow the obligation and affect to obey it, that they are so far from complying with its demands, that the amount of their defalcation forms the strongest argument which we can adduce for the spirituality of the ^— .— _-. ■i^twirwr^.i 79 commandment. So impoilant is it to the temporat and eternal welfare of men, that were we required Ur single out one reason which more than any other explains the slow progress of the gospel, we should be tempted to mention the very imperfect manner in which the Fifth commandment is carried forth, in the deportment either of parents or children ; and this charge atfecting not only shallow professors, but true believers. That institution must needs be emi- nently lofty and marvellously pure which thus broadly censures the behaviour not only of the idolater or the Mahometan, — not only of the Jew or the Papist, — not only of the rationalist and of the tame professor of the gospel, but even of that peculiar people, v/hich small in number are the salt of the earth, — tlie leaven hid in the dough,^-and the lights that shed the only benignant lustre that shines upon this dark world. The Sixth commandment, brief as it is, contains within its compass more than was known to the heathen, — and far more than they practised. In theor; they considered it right to c-rry out the law of retaliation, against the persons and lives of those who had injured them, — they regarded any measure of cruelty lawful when perpetrated on captives or slaves, — they believed it to be a justifiable method of averting a war or a pestilence to immolate perhaps hundreds of human victims on the altars of their idols, — they exposed or slew their children with the sanction of the law whenever the burden seemed < li 80 to Ihem heavier than they cared to endure, — they maimed their bodies in the groves and temples of their deities, and so far from regarding the practice to be unlawful, they looked upon it rs one of the rites of religion, one of the constituents of hoHness, — they were commonly guilty of the sins of violence and assassination, — the punishment of the law often fell lightly on such offences, — the stigma of society upon them often was not deep. Suicide so far from being viewed as one of the very foulest of crimes, was positively exalted by philosophy to the rank of a lofty virtue. The sage was considered to shew his wisdom, and the hero his courage, by cutting the silver cord and shuffling off this mortal coil. The plain and peremptory language of this commandment denounced all such things ; — it set forth a purer morality ; — it made murder in ever}' one of its aspects a dark transgression ; — it issued a prohibition against every feeling and principle that was calculated in the remotest degree to conduct to this result. It promulgates a decree against the sins of anger and revenge, envy and jealousy, pride and avarice. So far from not containing the whole of human duty within its compass, each article of this wonderful code may be said more or less directly to denounce all the vices. And how can we estimate too highly an enactment which is intended to put down such a variety of the worst crimes 1 How can we speak to^ strongly as to the salubrious influence ^ of a code, one regulation of which is designed to 81 thru:t forth so much evil, and by consequence to bring in so much good ? What an important place do these vices perform in every community of human beings, — how terribly do they invade the tranquillity of societv uiid w^hat a moral revolution is it to introduce in their place, love, gentleness, charity and kindness 1 As the next offence after murder, fornication or adultery is stated. The decalogue by the rank which it assigns to this sin, as well as by the absolute man- ner in which it denouncco it, shews itself eminently wiser and purer than the views and institutions of men, even in the countries in which the Bible is openly admitted to be the word of God.— All through the world opinion in regard to this class of crimes, has been, and is, very wide from the truth. — In pagan lands there are few symptoms to shew that they are looked r.pon with much aversion. In some instances, the evil runs to such an extent that the intercourse be- tween the sexes is almost indiscriminate and without 3heck. Throughout many countries the crime inter- wove itself to such a degree with the very rites of their idolatry, tha*. it was practised to the most frightful extent in J»f- . lycteries of their religion, during iheir solemn festivals' and within the precincts of their tem- ples. In many cases the priestesses, who administer- ed the ceremcnies of worship were prostitutes. — The law-givers and philosophers o^en regarded the crime Vvith great indifference ; were themselves confessedly- polluted by it, and considered that restraint was more I* 82 a matter of expediency than a moral duty. In many heathen countries polygamy which can be regarded only as a mitigated form of the crime, was, and still is expressly sanctioned and generally committed. When the lands which call themselves by the name of Christ are surveved, the report is not much more satisfactory. In many of the most civilized, the marriage vow is so little respected, that fidelity to its stipulations must be set down as the exception rather than the rule. — Even more common is it to see the covenant regarded as of so little force, that the most trifling difference is con- sidered an adequate reason for annulling it. Through- out the whole extent, and in each particular country, illicit intercourse is so prevalent that a very con- siderable proportion of the population are not born in wedlock. In one large country it was recently estimated that one fourth of the whole population consists of bastards. To review the ideas and prac* tices whether of pagan or christian nations in this particular, is to bestow a high eulogium on the purity of the decalogue, — is to cause its comeliness to stand forth in strong contrast. It does not tamper with the sin ; it denounces it with a loud and clear voice. By placing it next after the crime of murder, it assigns it a prominent but a right position among the vices. By giving it the name of adultery in all its forms and in all its degrees, it stigmatizes it in every aspect in which it appears as one of the nioi-t hateful of crimes. Does not an enactment deserve to be named pure which bo strongly and 83 generally condemns the conduct of men ! Does not this code deal more frankly and impartially with crime, than any system of man's invention ? Each of these commandments implies much more than it directly enounces.— The maximum of the sin is stated and reprobated,— not that we should infer that this is the whole stretch of the enactment, but that we should reason downwards and account every thing to be forbidden, which in any degree is calcu- lated to engender the sin.— The injunction, « thou shall not steal," prohibits along with acts of gross theft, those feelings of avarice and rapacity which prompt to the crime, and those acts of duplicity and cunning which are employed to disguise and shelter the crime. As a proof that even this principle self-evident as it appears, is more holy than anything that w v3 practised or believed by men in their natural state, we find the wise and severe law-giver of Sparta, permitting a departure from the rule of hon- esty, and fixing it as a prinnple of his common- wealth, that theft should be regarded as blame-worthy, only where it could be proved against the offend- er. If one of the .most austerely virtuous among the heathen, held and expressed such h .se ideas in so important a matter, we may conclude very reasonably, that the views and practices of the mul- titude would fall lamentably short of this divine rule. ' When the eye is passed over pagan countries the report which it brings back Js, that tlie law of integrity is violated in a general and flagrant 84 manner. Where the people is veiy barbarous the whole community stands forward possessed by the predatory spirit, and one tribe pursues such a cease- less course of rapine upon another, as to give con- siderable plausibility to the theory of an ingenious writer, that the natural state of mankind is a state of war. Even where the nation is in a higher con- dition of political progress, it is strange to observe how many of its practices are either altogether or in a considerable degree at variance with the law of thorough honesty, how much fraud is perpetrated by the state in Its dealings with other powers, or with its own subjects,— what a prevalent disposition exists among the strong to despoil the weak,— and what a woeful absence of integrity is to be seen in the general transactions between man and man. As a still louder testimony to the purity of this law, when those countries wherein the Gospel is recognized are surveyed, along their whole length and breadth, and amongst most of the classer which compose them it will be found that there is a strong tendency to measure by a rule which is not so long or so accurate as that of this commandment.— There is a prevalent opinion that it is no heinous sin to defraud the revenue ; many of the taxes and imposts are very commonly evaded ;— in most of the professions and trades various artifices are currently practised which do not tally with the rule of complete honesty ;— and in every direction there is an inclination to pilfer, or swindle, or defraud, or to exact more than is strictly fair ; and ill this 85 4 ','*) is proved by the laws and penalties, and restriction?, and foi-nis intended to check these propensities, and to introduce ostensible integrity into the transactions of men. — How pure must be that law which stands out in such glaring contrast to the practice of mankind, even in the circumstances wherein they profess to know and to act upon the truth of God. As the eighth commandment forbids false conduct in all its degrees, so the ninth prohibits false speech in everj' conceivable situation. With a happy atten- tion to philosophical gradation, sins of the hand are placed before sins of the lips because they indicate a higher degree of guilt, and are attended generally by more pernicious results. The loose morality current amongst men prompts them to deal with great leniency toward sins of this kind. Human moralists are disposed to think that crime is not crime until it has reached its last stages, — and sins of the mouth are passed by with a slight censure, because they are not so deep or so baneful as some other crimes. The practice of the world corresponds with this lax theory. In whatever direction the eye looks, into times ancient or modern, into lands heathen or christian, men will be seen to live in manifest and general disregard of this article of the law. The sin in all its various shades and degrees, as detraction, back-biting, slander, calumny, scan- dal, perjury will be noticed to prevail wherever the human family is found. Again the impartial observer must be compelled to own, that the decalogue i> H ^ li ' 86^ higher by many degrees than the practice, and even than the speculations of men. The TENTH commandment more than any of the others has respect to sentiments. The others point their censures in some degree at least against the out- ward act,— this passes behind the veil, walks into the shrine of the heart, and demands that the interior also be in harmony with the enactments of this law. The best devised systems of legislation, even those of them which were framed within view of the decalogue, have been satisfied to prohibit external transgression, and have not pretended to control the m jchanism of the inner world. This scheme with an unfeigned desire that holiness should be seen not only in the conduct, but in the feelings, exhibits a watchful jealousy over things visible and things not seen. Thus from what- ever side, and at whatever point this system be considered, its moral purity shews manifest and striking. In its relatio ^ to God, it lays down regula- tions eminently sagacious, wholesome and philanthro- pic, admirably fitted to produce a worship of a pure, intellectual and holy character. In its relations to men it disposes the sins in the order of true philosophy, in accordance with their real enormity and their social results. It exhibits its purity by raak".ng no separation between man and his neighbour, by confirming the parental authority,— by denouncing vice not only in its extreme, but in all its shades and degrees, and above all by attacking sin at its source and by demand- ing not only outward obedience but also the service of the hea.'i. I i W CHAPTER VII. THE UTILITARIAN CHARACTER OF THE DECALOGUE. f There are minds of a peculiar cast, which quite unable and quite unwilling to look at a subject in a religious bearing, shew an exclusive inclination to try it by the test of expediency, and a disposition to value it only, inasmuch as it appears to them of immediate benefit to the present condition of men. Minds thus nnsanctified, thus gross and mundane, are in no de- gree moved by anything which can be alleged as to the moral purity and spirituality of the scriptures and the decalogue ;-^e sole argument that will take their attention, would be one which should inform them that these things have a tendency to benefit mankind in their socl/il and political aspect. With men of this sort it has been a common objection to revelation, that it is opposed to human improvement, that it is anti-social, being calculated to cherish superstition and bigotry. The most eloquent of this infidel class, has gone so far as to affirm that it is opposed to reason to believe, that any community of men could hold toge- ther, wherin the moral code of the Gospel was obeyed in all its extent. The objection, were there any truth in it, would go far to disprove the claims of the deca- logue to be considered a code of divine origin, as it 1^ u \ 88 would involve the absurdity, that God has promulga- ted a law to men, which yet is essentially opposed to the improvement of the very faculties and feelings, which he has implanted in their nature. But the ob- jection is utterly false, and in its whole extant. It may be alleged of the decalogue that it is bene- volent and useful in its tendency, — with just as much reason as it may be predicated of it, that it is complete as to its matenals, that it is pure in its motive, or syste- matic and philosophical in regard to its form. Nine- teen centuries have elapsed since the moral code of the gospel has been displayed to the general view and scrutiny of mankind, and observation collects enough of proof along that period to be able to affirm with a loud voice, that the practical operation of the system has been signally conducive to the temporal welfare and the social progress of men. It had not been long l)iuiiiiilgiiica btjfbie lis mouence in inis direction be- came manifest to the eye :— the overgrown edifice of a false and sanguinary mythology throughout many countries tottered and fell:— the vast temples which sheltered the vices and errors of whole kingdoms were desecrated and torn down. The cunning and sensual priests and priestesses who in myriads devoured the substance of countries, and ministered under the guise of religion to the most devilish propensities of men, were driven forth to share in the useful toils of their fellow-beings :— the idols were melted down or broken in pieces, — the shrines were emptied of the precious raetals that were heaped up within them, — the altars W' 1 were pulled down, and by their overthrow thousands were spared to benefit the communit>', who, had pa- ganism subsisted would have been offered up as vic- tims to propitiate the deities and avert a pestilence or a war. The mere subversion of idolatry did much to better the social condition of men :— It exploded a system filled with the most wild, fantastic, shocking and abominable ideas and practices. It removed an iron yoke which heavily pressed and cruelly galled the neck of mankind: it dispelled insane and prejudi- cial opinions on a subject of the lowest importance, and one which is closely connected with all the feel- ings and conduct of men. It dispersed multitudes of ^designing men educated on system to do the work ot the devil most effectually. It expelled rites, ceremo- nies, and festivals, that were not merely absurd and savage but that interfered very materially with the comforts and the duties of life. Wherever this divine code was published the opinion gradually sprang up that slavery was opposed at once to the welfare of men and to the will of God. Even where it did not immediately introduce the liberation of slaves, it rendered their condition more tolerable, by laying masters under a moral obligation to treat them with greater kindness. As its influence increased m any country it brought complete freedom along with it. It abolished a large number of those shocking punishments which masters were wont to inflict upon their slaves, or which the laws of states permitted to be imposed on captives and male factors. It introduced h'?^--'--r- '-:■:" - - vr?-^::^ifH. %^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // {/ ^ .A^4fc. :/. k 1.0 ■ so £121 |25 1^ i2.2 I.I ^ 140 2.0 1.25 M 116 .0 /; (^ V) A #1^ ^^> - / y /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14S80 (7!6) 372-4S03 iV «. ■6^ ^ 6^ 90 the notion that laws might be just and rigid, with- out sanctioning cruelty and tortures. It found wars general and constant, and waged with such implacable ferocity that frequently neither age nor sex were spared, whole countries had their population swept away,whilst those who had the mischance to escape the sword, were exposed to the worst torments which the most ingenious barbarity could devise. It has made a great alteration here. Wherever it has appeared, wars have become much less frequent, and much less bloody, and even in their heat and fury, every act of needless cmelty is discountenanced, as opposed to true courage and unworthy of manly combatants. — The decalogue found one sex taking advantage of su- perior strength to exercise an arbitrary and often harsh dominion over the other. It produced a great and glorious reformation here also. In whatever coun- try it was acknowledged, the idea rapidly sprung up that woman was destined to be the companion of man, to share in his pleasures, to participate in his sorrows, and to constitute one half of his existence. Thus wherever it made its appearance, it elevated the condition of one complete half of humanity, by many degrees, and by so doing improved the situation of the other half, almost in a like proportion. — This topic richly deserves that the mind should linger over it. — The benefits which this scheme of morality has conferred upon women, and through them upon men, cannot be enumerated in short space. — It raised women to the attitude of thinking beings, it liberated them from rs^f "T=ie3,j^-.?=? ijt >Tl fr> c > the degredation of^ a merely animal existence, it secuF« ed to them a participation in all the avocations and enjoyments, that are compatible with their physical and mental structure j it rendered them objects of respect and true admiration to th? stronger sex, it brought in a state of companionship wherein the one sex com- municated a portion of its peculiar qualities to the other ; it imparted to women some degree of the dignity and firmness more natural to men, it imparted to men an infusion of the gentleness and pliability more natu- ral to the female ; it introduced a class of sentiments which were almost unknown before, and which do more to render existence enviable, than all the other merely earthly emotions put together, it gave birth to that mixture of courtesy tenderness and respect, wherewith in christian countries man commonly re- gards the woman, to that union of reverence, admi- ration and affection, wherewith the woman looks up- on the man. — Among other feats which this morality achieved, wherever it was heartily received was this, that it abolished the hateful institution of polygamy, a practice which in its general influence, prevents all real affection between the sexes, renders the house- hold a scene of jealousy, disunion and violence, em- broils the dwelling with the conflicting passions and interests of several families, renders the union between the parent and his offspring very weak and uncertain, hinders the exercise of wholesome discipline over the young, effectually prevents the child from regarding the parent with the respect and love which under other 1 M 6ifcumstances he may be taught to feel, brings in a strong infusion of sensuality, mars the courage, encigy and activity of the man, destroys the delicacy of the female nature, greatly hinders the increase of popula- tion, giving rise to a weak and decrepit race, diffuses a very lax system of morals, and introduces practices too hateful even to be named.— This code has in- troduced a great variety of signal improvements into the institutions, laws, and general usages of society, in every country wherein it is received, and even partially followed out, its influence may be perceived in the laws, which are in a degree just, merciful, well proportioned and fairly administered ; in the customs which are marked by a measure of humanity, polite- ness and honesty that is in very striking contrast with the usages of heathen nations. Where this law is recognised, there is an ease in the intercourse of soci- ety, a facility in the commerce between the different classes, a tone of independence and self-respect among the poor, a spirit of courtesy and kindness among \he great, that are truly singular when compared with what obtains in regions that have not heard the joyful sound of this amiable system.— Its influence may also be seen very distinctly in another direction.— It has carried with it a spirit of mercy into all the lands into Avhich it has entered, in all such couutries there are numerous institutions which drain off the surplus af- fluence of the upper and middle classes, and trans- port it by numerous rills and conduits among the poor of the land.— The number of associations, that in 93 f 1 christian countries aim at aftbrding spiritual and intel- lectual benefits to ' the indigent, that seek to infuse among them economy, industry and temperance, that make it their business to supply them with books, apparel, food, fuel and medicine — is great ; and the sums contributed to them are immense. — Then there are institutions of many other descriptions, for receiv- ing the aged, the infirm and the maimed, the widow and the fatherless, for housing and curing the lunatic, the deaf and dumb, and the sick, for affording shelter and instruction to women who have erred from the paths of virtue. Establishments of these sorts exist in great number, consume a very considerable proportion of the wealth of a country, employ the time and talents of many of the best and wisest of the community. Without estimating what is done by christian nations to propagate religion and knowledge among the heath- en, it is truly astonishing to reflect how much is done within their own compass, to benefit men in mind, body or estate. — It is perhaps not extravagant to say that one half of the community is to be seen expend- ing a large share of its time, talents and substance for the assistance of the other half. — Little or nothing of this is to be witnessed within the compass of pagan countries. — There a spirit of gross selfishness pervades all classes. — The indigent, the infirm, and the aged are oAen liable to perish for hunger, the ignorant are left without instruction, the diseased in mind are left to wander about, the blind the deaf and the dumb have none to help them, the widow has no husband, 1 s 94 and the orphan no fltther in these regions. — ^The con- trast is palpable, and in the precise degree that it is so, is the practical excellence of the decalogue asserted ; for it is specifically owing to the morality of this code that the contrast exists. But in recounting the political advantages that flow out of the Decalogue, it would be a flagrant omission were we to keep out of view, the influence which it has exerted on the mind, and on the vari- ous sciences. — Men are wiser than they were, before this law was promulgated to the world by Christ. — The arts are greatly more advanced in christian coun- tries, than they are in the heathen regions in the same periods of time. — This moral system in the hand of the Almighty is the great agent that has wrought the difference. — There is the closest sympathy between the moral and the intellectual parts of our nature, so that whatever has the effect of improving the former has an almost equal tendency to ameliorate the latter. — The difference between the two has been exaggerated by the prejudices of sceptical intellectualists and bigot- ed theologians ; in the beginning it was not so. — ^Men show themselves wiser under tlie jurisdiction of this code, because it strikes off a multitude of follies from the catalogue of truths, beciuse it explodes a host of unw(»rthy, pernicious and superstitious fancies ; be< cause it abrogates a great variety of usages, which consumed much time and squandered much energy ; because it has freed many of the most imp. 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