ural crimes; they were actuated by restless ambition, and they gloried in covering the earth with devastation and carnage.

It is true, indeed, that some of the sects of philosophers propounded several maxims and moral precepts, the propriety of which cannot be questioned; but none of them could agree respecting either the foundation of virtue, or the ultimate object toward which it should be directed, or that in which the chief happiness of man consists; and hence it happened, that the precepts delivered by the teachers of philosophy had little influence on their own conduct, and far less on that of the unthinking multitude. Where do we find, in any of the philosophical schools of Greece and Rome, a recommendation of such precepts as these, "Love your enemies; do good to them who hate you; and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you?" In opposition to such divine injunctions, we can trace, in the maxims and conduct of the ancient sages, a principle of pride insinuating itself into the train of their most virtuous actions. It has been reckoned by some a wise and a witty answer which one of the philosophers returned to his friend, who had advised him to revenge an injury he had suffered; "What (says he), if an ass kicks me, must I needs kick him again?" Some may be disposed to consider such a reply as indicating a manly spirit and true greatness of soul; but it carries in it a proud and supercilious contempt of human nature, and a haughtiness of mind which are altogether inconsistent with the mild and benevolent precepts of Him who, in the midst of his severest sufferings from men, exclaimed, 66 Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

It appears somewhat preposterous to waste our time, and the energies of our minds, in laboured metaphysical disquisitions, to ascertain the foundations of virtue, and the motives from which it is to be pursued; whether it consists in utility, in the fitness of things, or in the regulations of states and political associations, and whether it is to be prosecuted from a principle of self-love or of benevolence, when every useful question that can be started on this subject may be immediately solved by a direct application to the revelations of heaven, and an infallible rule

derived for the direction of our conduct in all the circumstances and relations in which we may be placed. Even although the moral philosopher were to reject the Bible as a revelation from God, it would form no reason why its annunciations should be altogether overlooked or rejected. As an impartial investigator of the history of man, of the moral constitution of the human mind, and of the circumstances of our present condition, he is bound to take into view every fact and every circumstance which may have a bearing on the important question which he undertakes to decide Now, it is a fact that such a book as the Bible actually exists that, amidst the wreck of thousands of volumes which the stream of time has carried into oblivion, it has survived for several thousands of years-that its announcements have directed the opinions and the conduct of myriads of mankind-that many of the most illustrious characters that have adorned our race have submitted to its dictates, and governed their tempers and their actions by its moral precepts-that those who have been governed by its maxims have been distinguished by uprightness of conduct, and been most earnest and successful in promoting the happiness of mankind -that this book declares, that a moral revulsion has taken place in the constitution of man since he was placed upon this globe-and that the whole train of its moral precepts proceeds on the ground of his being considered. as a depraved intelligence. These are facts which even the infidel philosopher must admit; and, instead of throwing them into the shade, or keeping them entirely out of view, he is bound, as an unbiassed inquirer, to take them all into account in his researches into the moral economy of the human race. In particular, he is bound to inquire into the probability of the alleged fact of the depravity of man, and to consider, whether the general train of human actions, the leading facts of history in reference to all ages. and nations, and the destructive effects of several operations in the system of nature, have not a tendency to corroborate this important point. For the fact, that man is a fallen intelligence, must materially modify every system of ethics that takes it into account. Should this fact be entirely overlooked, and yet ultimately be found to rest on a solid foundation, then, all the speculations and theories

of those moralists who profess to be guided solely by the dictates of unassisted reason, may prove to be nothing more than the reveries of a vain imagination, and to be built on "the baseless fabric of a vision."

Agnes 6. Bevan

722°1830

CHAPTER I.

ON THE MORAL RELATIONS OF INTELLIGENT BEINGS TO THEIR CREATOR.

SECTION I.

On the primary or most general idea of Morality.

I CONCEIVE, that the first or most general idea of Morality is, ORDER,-or, that harmonious disposition and arrangement of intelligent beings, which is founded on the nature of things, and which tends to produce the greatest sum of happiness.

. Physical order, or the order of the material universe, is that by which every part is made to harmonize to the other part, and all individually to the whole collectively. Thus, the adaptation of light to the eye, and of the eye to light; the adaptation of the structure of the ear, and of the lungs to the constitution of the atmosphere, and its various undulations; the adaptation of the waters, the vegetable. productions of the field, the minerals in the bowels of the earth, the colours produced by the solar rays, and all the other parts and agencies of external nature, to the wants and the happiness of sentient beings; the adaptation of day and night to the labour and rest appointed for man; and the regularity of the motions of the planetary bodies in their circuits around the sun-constitute the physical order, or harmony of the visible world; and it is this which constitutes its principal beauty, and which evinces the wisdom of its Almighty Author.

Moral Order is the harmony of intelligent beings in respect to one another, and to their Creator, and is founded upon those relations in which they respectively stand to each other. Thus, Reverence, Adoration, and Gratitude, from creatures, correspond or harmonize with the idea of a

self-existent, omnipotent and benevolent Being, on whom they depend, and from whom they derive every enjoyment, and love, and good-will, and a desire to promote each other's happiness, harmonize with the idea of intelligences of the same species mingling together in social intercourses. For, it will at once be admitted, that affections directly opposite to these, and universally prevalent, would tend to destroy the moral harmony of the intelligent universe, and to introduce anarchy and confusion, and consequently misery among all the rational inhabitants of the material world.

The following brief illustration, by way of contrast, may, perhaps, have a tendency more particularly to impress the mind with the idea of order intended to be conveyed in the above stated definitions.

Suppose the principle which unites the planetary globes in one harmonious system, to be dissolved, and the planets to run lawlessly through the sky-suppose the planet Jupiter to forsake his orbit, and, in his course to the distant regions of space, to impinge against the planet Saturn, and to convulse the solid crust of that globe from its surface to its centre, to disarrange the order of its satellites, to shatter its rings into pieces, and to carry the fragments of them along with him in his lawless career, suppose the sun to attract his nearest planets to his surface with a force that would shake them to their centres, and dissolve their present constitution, suppose the moon to fly from her orbit, and rush towards the planet Venus,—the earth to be divested of its atmosphere, the foundations of its mountains to be overturned, and to be hurled into the plains, and into the ocean; its seas and rivers to forsake their ancient channels, and to overflow the land, and its human inhabitants, swept promiscuously along with the inferior animals, into dens, and caves, and crevices of the earth, and into the bottom of the ocean :-in such a scene, we should have presented to our view a specimen of physical confusion and disorder; and it would form an impressive emblem of the state of rational beings, whose moral order is completely subverted.

Again, suppose the rational inhabitants of our globe to be universally set against each other, in order to accomplish their misery and destruction-suppose the child ris