118

PERSONAL AND GOVERNMENTAL RIGHTS.

Bad laws, however, we ought not to obey, if our conscience declare it criminal to obey them; and such laws seldom exist in regular society.

All the divine laws are good, and guarded by the most awful sanctions; so that to obey them we are under the strongest obligations, natural and moral.

[Whewell's Elements of Morality.] 271. The following declaration of rights, personal and governmental, is made in our celebrated Declaration of Independence:—

66

'We hold these truths to be self-evident:-that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

its

Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they have been accustomed.

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

263. Upon what necessity are the rights of government founded, and what is their nature?

264. Where are these rights exemplified?

265. In whom may the supreme authority of a nation reside?

266. What are the various forms of civil government?

267. What are the various branches of a well-regulated government?

268. What offenses against the rights of government may be committed? 269. How is law distinguished?

270. How has the obligation of law been distinguished?

271. What declaration of rights personal and governmental is made in our celebrated "Declaration of Independence?"

INSUFFICIENCY OF LIGHT OF NATURE.

119

BOOK V.

RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF NATURAL AND REVEALED MORALITY.

CHAPTER I.

INSUFFICIENCY OF THE LIGHT OF NATURE.

272. In whatever manner it is accounted for, the fact cannot be disputed, that no persons, ancient or modern, who had only the light of nature to guide them in their researches, have attained to the true knowledge of the unity of God; or have formed such notions of his worship, as were suitable to his majesty, holiness, and spirituality; or have composed a system of morality, founded on just principles, and enforced by sanctions of such efficacy, as to insure obedience to its precepts; or have established by convincing arguments the doctrine of the future existence of the soul.

Perplexed with doubts, and sensible of the weakness of their reason, the heathens themselves, not the vulgar only but philosophers, have acknowledged the necessity of a divine revelation.

273. Yet modern infidels, in proof of the sufficiency of reason, among other things, allege that they can produce a system of natural religion complete in all its parts, and supported by incontestable evidence. But to what cause shall we attribute their superiority to the wisest men of antiquity; to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle? Does nature now speak with a louder voice, and are her lessons written in more legible characters? No; but the circumstances of our modern infidels, and of the philosophers of antiquity, are exceedingly different. The latter felt their way amid the dubious twilight of nature, while the former walk in the sunshine of revelation. When an infidel boasts of the clearness and extent of his ideas on the subject of natural religion, he is a dwarf mounted on the

120

EXCELLENCE OF SCRIPTURE MORALS.

shoulders of a giant and vaunting that he sees further than a man of ordinary stature. He is a thief, impudently attempting to rival or eclipse the splendor of another man, by a display of those riches which he has previously stolen from him. It is to the Scriptures, either directly or indirectly, that he is indebted for the greater perfection of his system.

274. If human nature is depraved, as both history and experience prove, the same knowledge will not suffice us, which would have been sufficient in a state of innocence. Although reason were able to discover all the articles of natural religion, it would not have been a competent guide, because the new circumstances of man, in consequence of his sins, required the knowledge of new truths, which lay beyond the range of its inquiries. Reason could give us no adequate information respecting the means of recovering our innocence, and regaining the favor of our Maker.

We need to know whether God will pardon our offenses, and on what terms he will pardon them; and it is manifest that on these points none can give us information but himself. On the supposition of a remedial scheme, or a divine interposition in our favor, there must be new duties incumbent on us, of which the light of nature could give us no notice, because they are the result of a new dispensation. [Dick on Inspiration.]

272. Is the light of nature found sufficient to teach us our duty, and to conduct us to happiness?

273. What do infidels allege in proof of the sufficiency of reason; and how is their allegation to be met?

274. What proof of the insufficiency of reason in matters of duty and religion, may be drawn from the universal depravity of man?

CHAPTER II.

SUPERIOR EXCELLENCE OF THE MORALITY TAUGHT IN THE SACRED SCRIPTURES.

275. WHILE infidels object to some of the details, and most obviously have no real desire to promote the interests of morality, they nevertheless allow, that "the Gospel is one continued lesson of the strictest morality; of justice,

EXCELLENCE OF SCRIPTURE MORALS.

121

of benevolence, and of universal charity," and declare that they would preserve Christianity, for the sake of its moral influence on the common people.

276. The morals of the Scriptures embrace all that was really good in the ethics of heathen sages, and in the dictates of natural religion; and reënact them with greater clearness and authority. The scattered fragments of moral truth, which original revelation, or the moral nature of man, or the labor and study of philosophers have dispersed up and down in the world, are found to be comprehended in the Bible.

277. There is a completeness in the Bible code of precepts, found nowhere else. They insist on every virtue and duty for which man was originally formed; and forbid every vice and sin contrary to his real relations and obligations. There is nothing omitted of the duties which he owes to himself, to his neighbor, and to Almighty God; nor, as in heathen and Mohammedan systems, is there anything impure or debasing intermixed with its code.

278. The STANDARD OF DUTY contained in the sacred scriptures, is embodied in these words :- "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." When Jesus Christ uttered these memorable words, he raised the true and intelligible standard of morals, which places even a child in a Christian country far above, in this respect, the greatest moral philosophers of the ancient or modern world.

279. It follows from this, that the Christian code omits many false virtues of heathenism, and insists on many real ones unknown to it.

Christianity rejects from its catalogue of virtues, vanity, pride, the love of fame, jealousy of honor, resentment, revenge, hatred of enemies, contempt of the low and miserable, self-confidence, apathy under suffering, and patriotism in the sense of pushing conquest and upholding the interests of one nation to the hatred and injury of

others.

Christianity inserts humility, meekness, the forgiveness of personal injuries, self-denial, abstraction of heart from earthly things, sympathy with the poor and mean, renunF

122

EXCELLENCE OF SCRIPTURE MORALS.

ciation of confidence in self, cheerful resignation under affliction.

280. The Christian code requires an abstinence from the proximate causes of evil, and demands what is right in motive and intention, as well as in the overt act.

Human laws chiefly deal with the manifest action, when capable of proof. They argue back very feebly to the intention, which they still do aim at reaching as they can. The divine law lays the restraint upon the intention, the first element of the moral action of man; it considers nothing to be virtuous, unless the motive, as well as the material action, be right.

281. Christian morality regards all outward forms of devotion and piety as means to a higher end, and as only acceptable to God when connected with that higher end. In this it stands opposed to all false religions, which invariably connive at the substitution of ceremonies and ablutions, for moral duty.

282. The Christian morals go to form a particular sort of character, of such excellence as no other system of ethics ever aimed at.

They go to form a character perfectly attainable, and yet altogether new and lovely; they tend to form a temper and conduct so excellent and praiseworthy, and yet so unknown to heathen moralists, as to stamp upon Christianity the seal of its heavenly origin.

283. The sacred writers placed duty upon its proper basis, the principle of piety, a sacred regard to the will of God; whereas other moralists found it upon the deductions of reason, the fitness of things, and views of private and public good. Separated from piety, morality is merely a matter of decorum or of interest: but in connection with it, morality is the homage of creatures to their Creator.

284. The peculiar excellence of the moral precepts of Scripture, furnishes a convincing argument to prove their divine origin.

The argument is thus clearly presented by Professor Dick:

The Christian law is perfect: it embraces all the duties of man, and lays the foundation of the highest attainments in virtue; and were it universally obeyed, the innocence of the golden age would be revived, and the earth would