{ as 1 
EVIL EFFECTS of POLYTHEISM on the MORALS of 
the HEATHENS. By a Young Gentleman, an Under-graduate 
in the Untverfity of Dublin. Communicated by the Reverend 
JOHN KEARNEY, D.D. S.F.7.C.D. and M.R.LA. 
Tue divine will being the criterion of moral: reGtitude* to 
man, his conceptions of the divine nature, upon which depend 
his 
* To this it may be objected, that thus the fummit of moral rectitude in the Deity 
will differ not only in degree, but in very effence, from that which is moral rectitude 
in imperfe&t agents. I anfwer—No. Perfe€t goodnefs therefore refides in the 
Deity, becaufe he wills and ever unerringly confults the aggregate of happinefs in 
his creation, His moral creatures are the lefs imperfeét in goodnefs the more uni- 
formly they co-operate in promoting the fame end. But it is neceflary that fuch a 
moral agent as man fhould have fome other immediate ftandard for directing his 
ations than their tendency to advance the general good of the univerfe; fince his 
limited faculties muft continually expofe him to erroneous judgments, from the im- 
poffibility of taking in at one view all the dependencies of caufes and effeéts—all 
that chain of confequences, which unites the moft diffimilar events and the moft 
' diftant periods. Hence the neceflity of feeking the immediate criterion of right and 
wrong in the will of that Being who cannot err ; and hence too the neceffity that his 
will fhould be revealed. 
(F) 
Read Feb, 
135 1790. 
