EFFECTS OF MALEVOLENCE. 



57 



engaged in this capacity, would he tremendous 

 and horriMe beyond the power of description. 

 Every malevolent affection would be brought into 

 action ; every infernal passion would be raised 

 to its highest pitch of fury; every one, stimu 

 lated by his associates, would breathe nothing 

 but revenge, execrations, slaughter, and utter 

 extermination against opposing armies; every 

 engine of human destruction which ingenuity 

 could invent would be brought into the scene of 

 action ; the yell of demons would accompany the 

 fierce and sanguinary onset ; and a scene of 

 horror would ensue beyond the power of imagi 

 nation to conceive, which would n-ot terminate 

 till the one class of combatants had exterminated 

 the other ; till they had trampled down and de 

 stroyed the fruits of their ground, and turned 

 their land into a wilderness ; till they had burned 

 their villages to ashes, and tumbled their cities 

 into a heap of ruins ; till they had drenched their 

 fields with blood, and strewed them with skulls, 

 and limbs, and the mangled carcasses of thou 

 sands and ten thousands of men, women, and 

 children, thrown together in horrible confusion. 

 But it is needless to dwell on such scenes ; since 

 the history of all nations since even the history 

 of modern Europe presents us with spectacles of 

 horror, scarcely inferior to those I have now de 

 scribed, and with moral agents who bear too 

 striking a resemblance to those whose actions are 

 completely subversive of the second command 

 ment of the law, &quot; Thou shalt love thy neighbour 

 as thyself.&quot; 



Such, then, would be some of the dreadful 

 effects which would flow from a subversion of 

 the second principle of the moral law, if we could 

 suppose that organical intelligences, not endowed 

 with immortal bodies, could exist for any length 

 of time amidst such scenes of depravity and 

 wretchedness. But it is more than probable 

 that such a state of society could not long sub 

 sist in such a world as we now inhabit, and 

 among rational beings, whose corporeal organi 

 zation is constructed after the model of the hu 

 man frame. The whole mass of society in every 

 land would soon be transformed into one bound 

 less scene of anarchy and confusion ; every one 

 would flee from his neighbour as from an infernal 

 fiend ; a war of universal extermination would 

 commence ; nothing would be beheld over all the 

 regions of the globe but spectacles of rapine, 

 devastation, and destruction ; and nothing would 

 be heard among all the eight hundred millions of 

 its inhabitants but the voice of execration, and 

 the yells of lamentation, and mourning, and wo, 

 till at length every beauty which now adorns the 

 face ol nature would be effaced, every fertile field 

 transformed info a desert, every human habita 

 tion overturned, and every inhabitant of the earth 

 sunk into oblivion.* This is one of the most 



Whether sur,h scenes as some of them now de 

 scribed may be realize* in the future state of pu- 



terrible representations we can form of the hor 

 rors of the future state of punishment, where ma 

 levolent passions rage without control ; and the 

 considerations now stated demonstrate, that the 

 man who is actuated by a principle of hostility 

 towards his neighbour, is training and preparing 

 himself for becoming an inhabitant of that mise 

 rable and dreary region, &quot; where the worm dieth 

 not, and the fire&quot; of malevolence and revenge 

 &quot; is never quenched.&quot; We are thus instructed, 

 that if there be a future state at all, it must, 

 from the very nature and constitution of things, 

 be a state of misery and horror to every man 

 whose mind is under the unrestrained dominion 

 of depraved affections and malignant passions ; 

 so that there is no possibility, in such a case, of 

 escaping the &quot; wrath to come,&quot; unless the moral 

 constitution of the intelligent universe were en 

 tirely subverted. 



If, then, it appears that such dismal conse 

 quences would flow from the subversion of this 

 principle or law, it is obvious that the law itself 

 must be &quot; holy, just, and good,&quot; and calculated 

 to promote the perfection and happiness of all 

 created intelligences, among whom it is found 

 in full operation. And in a world such as ours, 

 where this law is partially violated, the conse 

 quent misery which is suffered will be nearly in 

 proportion to the extent to which this violation 

 is carried, and to the number of individuals who 

 are actuated by a principle of opposition to its 

 requirements. 



In like manner, it might be shown, that the 

 most dismal effects would &quot;be produced, were the 

 first principle of the moral law reversed, and the 

 malevolence of intelligent beings directed towards 

 their Creator. In this case, instead of assem 

 bled multitudes joining in solemn adorations of 

 the divine character and perfections, the God of 

 heaven would be blasphemed, and his name ab 

 horred in every land. Instead of reverence and 

 profound humility in the presence of Jehovah, a 

 spirit of pride and independence, and an impa 

 tience of control, would pervade every mind. 

 Instead of thanksgivings for the bounties of his 

 providence, the basest ingratitude would be mani 

 fested, and the most marked contempt of all his 

 favours. Instead of cordial submission to his 

 wise arrangements, nothing but murmurings and 

 repinings would be heard, and the most pre 

 sumptuous decisions uttered against all the dis- 



nishment, or whether the principles of the moral law 

 will be entirely subverted among the miserable be 

 ings who are subjected to that punishment, it be 

 comes not us positively to determine. But we can 

 scarcely conceive a more horrible idea thun that of 

 intelligent beings acting uniformly from principles 

 of pure malevolence, and at the same tune endowed 

 with immortal bodies, capable of sensations similar 

 to those we now feel. In this case, every accumu 

 lated wound received from malignant associates 

 would be an additional source of pain and miserr 

 which would continually increase, wi^cu. uj 

 prospect of relief from the stiOKo vi death. 



