INTRODUCTION. 



13 



which he roamed, would be transformed into a 

 spacious hell ; its beauties and sublimities could 

 not. prevent misery from taking possession of his 

 sou i \ and, at every stage of his excursion, he 

 could not fail to meet with the indications of his 

 Creator s frown. For there appears, from rea 

 son and experience, as well as from the dictates 

 of revelation, an absolute impossibility of en 

 joying happiness so long as malevolent affections 

 retain their ascendancy in the heart of a moral 

 intelligence, in whatever region of universal na 

 ture his residence may be found. 



Hence we may learn, that the highest attain 

 ments in science to which any one can arrive, 

 though they may expand the range of his intel 

 lectual views, will not ensure to their possessor 

 substantial and unmingled enjoyment, while his 

 heart is devoid of benevolent affections, and while 

 he is subjected to the influence of degrading and 

 immoral passions. If it be possible that any one 

 now exists in the literary world, who has devoted 

 his life to the sublimest investigations of science, 

 and has taken the most extensive views of the 

 arrangements of the material world, and yet 

 who remains doubtful as to the existence of a 

 Supreme Intelligence, and of an eternal state of 

 destination; who is elated with pride at the 

 splendour of his scientific acquirements; who 

 treats his equals with a spirit of arrogance ; who 

 looks down with a haughty and sullen scowl on 

 the inferior ranks of his fellow-men ; who is 

 haughty, overbearing, and revengeful in his ge 

 neral deportment, and who is altogether indiffe 

 rent as to the moral principles he displays, I 

 would envy neither his happiness nor his intel 

 lectual attainments. He can enjoy none of those 

 delightful emotions which flow from the exercise 

 of Christian benevolence, nor any of those con 

 solations which the good man feels amidst the 

 various ills of life ; and, beyond the short span of 

 mortal existence, he can look forward to no 

 brighter displays of the grandeur of the material 

 and intellectual universe, but to an eternal depri 

 vation of his powers of intelligence in the shades 

 of annihilation. 



It must, therefore, be a matter deeply interest 

 ing to every intelligent agent, to acquire correct 

 notions of the fundamental principles of moral 

 action, and to form those habits which will fit 

 him for the enjoyment of true felicity, to what 

 ever region of the universe he may afterwards be 

 transported. In the illustration of this subject, 

 f. shall pursue a train of thought which I am 

 not aware has been prosecuted by any previous 

 writers on the subject of morality, and shall en 

 deavour to confirm and illustrate the views which 

 may be exhibited, by an appeal to the discoveries 

 of revelation. 



We have an abundance of ponderous volumes 

 on the subject of moral philosophy ; but the dif 

 ferent theories which have been proposed and 

 discussed, and the metaphysical mode in which 



the subject has been generally treated, have sel 

 dom led to any beneficial practical results. To 

 attempt to treat the subject of morals without a 

 reference to divine revelation, as most of our ce 

 lebrated moral writers have done, seems to be 

 little short of egregious trifling. It cannot serve 

 the purpose of an experiment, to ascertain how 

 far the unassisted faculties of man can go in ac 

 quiring a knowledge of the foundation and the 

 rules of moral action; for the prominent princi 

 ples of Christian morality are so interwoven into 

 the opinions, intercourses, and practices of mo 

 dern civilized society, and so familiar to the mind 

 of every man who has been educated in a Chris 

 tian land, that it is impossible to eradicate the 

 idea of them from the mind, when it attempts to 

 trace the duly of man solely on the principles of 

 reason. When the true principles of morality 

 are once communicated through the medium of 

 revelation, reason can demonstrate their utility, 

 and their conformity to the character of God, to 

 the order of the universe, and to the relations 

 which subsist among intelligent agents. But we 

 are by no means in a situation to determine whe 

 ther they could ever have been discovered by the 

 investigations and efforts of the unassisted powers 

 of the human mind. The only persons who could 

 fairly try such an experiment were the Greeks 

 and Romans, and other ivilized nations, in an 

 cient times, to whom the light of revelation was 

 not imparted. And what was the result of all 

 their researches on this most important of all 

 subjects ? What were trie t -irtical effects of all 

 the fine-spun theories and suutie speculations 

 which originated in the schools of ancient philo 

 sophy, under the tuition of Plato and Socraies, 

 of Aristotle and Zeno ? The result is recorded 

 in the annals of history, and in the writings of 

 the apostles. &quot; They became vain in their ima 

 ginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 

 They were filled with all unrighteonsness, forni 

 cation, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness- 

 envy, murder, deceit, malignity ; they were back 

 biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, invent 

 ors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without 

 natural affection, implacable, and unmerciful.&quot; 

 Their general conduct was characterized by 

 pride, lasciviousness, and revenge ; they indulged 

 in the commission of unnatural 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 rf.em could agree 

 respecting either the foundation of virtue, or the 

 ultimate object toward which it should be di 

 rected, or that in which the chief happiness ol 

 man consists ; and bence it happened, that the 

 precepts delivered by the teachers of philosophy 

 had little influence on their own conduct, and 



