Alphabetical Characters. 97 
But the maxim of the poet is applicable 
to the present question in another point of 
view. I believe we shall find no instance, 
among all the divine revelations of which we 
have authentic accounts, of any which have 
not had an immediate reference to the duties 
and expectations of man as a moral and reli- 
gious being. In every other case in which 
the author of our being has seen fit to open 
a direct supernatural communication with his 
creatures, it has been in order to make. his 
will and their duty known to them in cases to 
which the light of reason did not extend, or 
to enforce the practice of it, by additional and 
more powerful motives. Indeed we. should 
naturally expect to find, in every such revela- 
tion, an immediate reference to the relation 
which man bears to his Maker, sand to the 
duties which arise out of that relation; and 
it would seem not only contrary to the ana- 
logy of the other divine dispensations, but 
beneath the dignity of revelation in general, 
to unravel to mankind the mysteries of any 
art or science, or to enter into a particular 
explanation of subjects which had no imme- 
diate connection with morality or religion, 
The directions given for the construction of 
the tabernacle, may perhaps be thought an 
exception to this rule; and indeed it seems 
VoL. It. N 
