CHAPTER I. 



ON THE MORAL RELATIONS OP INTELLIGENT BEINGS TO THEIR CREATOR. 



SECTION I. 



OH THE PRIMARY OR MOST GENERAL IDEA 

 OF MORALITY. 



I CONCEIVE, that the first or most general 

 idea of morality is, ORDER, or, that harmo 

 nious 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 

 round 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 intelli 

 gences of the same species mingling together in 

 social intercourses. For, it will at once be ad 

 mitted, 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 inha 

 bitants 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 plane 

 tary 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 for 

 sake their ancient channels, and to overflow the 

 land, and its human inhabitants swept promis 

 cuously 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 sub 

 verted. 



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 rising in opposition to his 

 parents, the wife plotting the destruction of her 

 husband, the brother insnaring his sister, and 

 decoying her to ruin, teachers of all descrip 

 tions inculcating the arts of deception, of revenge, 

 and of destruction, and representing every prin 

 ciple and fact as contrary to what it really is 

 falsehoods of every description industriously 

 forged and circulated as facts through every rank 

 of society rulers setting themselves in opposi 

 tion to the populace, and plotting their destruc 

 tion, while they are at the same time actuated 

 by a principle of pride, of envy, and malice 

 against each other tlie populace setting^ them 

 selves in opposition to their rulers, exterminating 

 them from the earth, subverting every principls 

 of law and order, gratifying, without control, 

 every principle of revenge, avarice, lascivious 

 ness and sensual indulgence, and enjoying 



