58 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



pensatious of his providence. Instead of com 

 placency and delight in his character and opera 

 tions, insults and reproaches would burst forth 

 at every display of his wisdom, justice, and 

 omnipotence. Instead of admiration of the 

 beauty and grandeur of his wonderful works in 

 heaven and earth, feelings of contempt and 

 disdain would be mingled with all their surveys 

 of the operatior.J of nature. His omnipotence 

 would be disregarded, his benevolence called in 

 question or despised, and his wisdom and intelli 

 gence arraigned. Like Alphonso, king of Cas 

 tile, they would not hesitate to affirm, &quot;If we 

 had been of God s privy council when he made 

 the world, we would have advised him better.&quot; 

 Under the influence of such diabolical disposi 

 tions, the harmony of the visible creation would 

 be attempted to be deranged, and its beauties 

 defaced, in so far as their limited powers would 

 be able to effect. The fields would be stripped 

 of their verdure ; the forests would be torn up 

 by the roots, and strewed in shapeless masses 

 along the plains ; the vegetable beauties which 

 now diversify the rural landscape would be effa 

 ced ; the rivers would be turned out of their 

 courses to overflow the adjacent plains, and to 

 transform them into stagnant marshes and 

 standing pools ; the air would be impregnated 

 with pestilential vapours; and the grand, and 

 beautiful, and picturesque scenes of nature would 

 be stripped of their glory, leaving nothing but 

 naked rocks and barren deserts, covered with 

 the wrecks of nature, to mark the operations of 

 malevolence. 



Such would be the dispositions and the conduct 

 of intelligent beings were the first principle of the 

 moral law reversed, and their actions regulated 

 by a principle of malevolence : and such, in a 

 greater or less degree, are the dispositions of 

 every man in whose heart the love of God has 

 never taken up its residence. Revolting as the 

 scenes now supposed must appear to every mind 

 possessed of moral feeling, they must be admit 

 ted to be the necessary results of malignant pas 

 sions raging without control. And if there be 

 any region of creation in which pure malevolence 

 actuates its inhabitants, we must suppose the 

 restraining influence of the Almighty interposed, 

 to preserve their malignant operations within 

 those bounds which are consistent with the plans 

 of his moral government and the general happi 

 ness of the intelligent universe. That princi 

 ples and practices have existed among mankind, 

 which, if left to operate without restraint, would 

 produce all the effects now supposed, appears 

 from the description which the apostle Paul 

 gives of the character of the Gentile world, and 

 even of that portion of it which had been brought 

 into a civilized state. He declares that &quot; they 

 did not like to retain God in their knowledge, 

 but changed the glory of the incorruptible God 

 into an image made like to corruptible man, and 



to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping 

 things,&quot; that they were &quot;filled with all un 

 righteousness, fornication, wickedness, cove- 

 teousness, maliciousness ;&quot; that they were &quot; full 

 of envy, murder, deceit, malignity, backbiters, 

 haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, in 

 ventors of evil things, disobedient to parents } 

 without understanding, without natural affection^ 

 implacable, unmerciful. Who, knowing tho 

 judgment of God, that they who commit such 

 things are worthy of death, not only do the same, 

 but have pleasure in them that do them.&quot; 

 Were practices and passions of this description, 

 which are all directly opposed to the principle of 

 benevolence, to operate without control, the 

 universe would soon be transformed into a bound 

 less scene of devastation and sterility, of misery 

 and horror, of lamentation and wo. 



Turning our eyes from such revolting scenes, 

 I shall now direct the attention of my readers to 

 a more pleasing picture, and endeavour to de 

 lineate some of the happy effects which would 

 naturally result from a complete conformity in 

 thought and action to the principles of the divine 

 law. 



SECTION V. 



EFFECTS WHICH WOULD FLOW FKOM THE 

 FULL OPERATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF 

 LOVE TO GOD AND TO MAN. 



WERE this divine principle in full operation 

 among the intelligences that people our globe, 

 this world would be transformed into a paradise, 

 the moral desert would he changed into a fruitful 

 field, and &quot; blossom as the rose,&quot; and Eden 

 would again appear in all its beauty and delight. 

 Fraud, deceit, and artifice, with all their con 

 comitant train of evils, would no longer walk 

 rampant in every land. Prosecutions, lawsuits, 

 and all the innumerable vexatious litigations 

 which now disturb the peace of society, would 

 cease from among men. Every debt would ba 

 punctually paid ; every commodity sold at its 

 just value ; every article of merchandise exhibit 

 ed in its true character ; every promise faithfully 

 performed ; every dispute amicably adjusted ; 

 every man s character held in estimation ; every 

 rogue and cheat banished from society; and 

 every jail, bridewell, and house of correction, 

 would either be swept away, or transformed into 

 the abodes of honesty, industry, and peace. In 

 justice and oppression would no longer walk 

 triumphant through the world, while the poor, 

 the widow, and the fatherless were groaning un 

 der the iron rod of those who had deprived them 

 of every comfort. No longer would the captive 

 be chained to a dungeon, and doomed to count, 

 in sorrow and solitude, the many long days and 

 years he has been banished from the light of daj 



