THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



pravity and of infernal agency, at which the hu 

 man mind would shrink back with horror ; and 

 would form a striking commentary on the 

 divine declaration, that &quot; the dark places of 

 the eanh are full of the habitations of horrid 

 cruelly.&quot; 



It appears, then, that a violation of the first 

 precept of the moral law is the greatest crime of 

 which a rational creature can be guilty ; for it is 

 the source of all the other crimes which have en 

 tailed wretchedness on mankind, and strewed the 

 earth with devastation and carnage. It is a 

 comprehensive summary of wickedness ; which 

 includes pride, falsehood, blasphemy, malignity, 

 rebellion, hatred of moral excellence, and the 

 basest ingratitude towards Him from whom we 

 derived our being, and on whom we depend for 

 all our enjoyments. It is a crime which, above 

 all others, has a tendency to degrade the charac 

 ter of man ; for where it abounds, the human 

 mind is sunk into the lowest state, both of moral 

 and of intellectual debasement. What a pitiful 

 and humiliating sight is it, and what emotions 

 of astonishment must it excite in the mind of an 

 archangel, to behold a rational and immortal in 

 telligence cutting down an oak in the forest, burn 

 ing part of it in the fire, baking bread, and roast 

 ing flesh upon its embers, and forming the residue 

 of it into an idol, filling down and worshipping it, 

 and saying, &quot;Deliver me, for thou art my God !&quot;* 

 And when we behold the same degraded mortal 

 sacrificing the children of his own bowels before 

 this stump of a tree, can we retrain from exclaim 

 ing, in the language of the prophet, &quot; Be asto 

 nished, O ye heavens, at this ; and be ye horri 

 bly afraid !&quot; Were idolatry to become universal 

 in the world, there is no crime, no species of 

 cruelty, no moral abomination within the com 

 pass of the human heart to devise, but would 

 soon be perpetrated without a blush, in the open 

 face of day. Had not God, in his mercy, com 

 municated a revelation of his will, in order to 

 counteract the influence of Pagan theology, 

 instead of cultivating the powers of our minds, 

 and expanding our conception of the Almighty, 

 by a contemplation of his word and works, we 

 might, at this moment, have been sunk into the 

 lowest depths of moral degradation, been prostrat 

 ing ourselves, in adoration, before a stupid ox or 

 a block of marble, and sacrificing our sons and 

 daughters to an infernal Moloch. It is one of 

 the glories of Revelation, and a strong proof of its 

 divine origin, that all its promises and threaten- 

 ings, its admonitions and reproofs, its doctrines, 

 its laws and ordinances, are directly opposed to 

 every idolatrous practice ; and that there is not a 

 single instance in which the least countenance is 

 given to any of the abominations of the Pagan 

 ^vorld. 



In the present age, and in the country in which 



See Isaiah *lv. 921. 



we reside, we are in little danger of relapsing 

 into the practices to which I have now adverted. 

 But idolatry is not confined to the adoration of 

 Pagan divinities: it has it seat in every heart 

 where God is banished from the thoughts, and 

 where pride, ambition, and avarice occupy the 

 highest place. &quot; Covelousness&quot; or an inordinate 

 love of wealth, is declared by the Apostle Paul to 

 be &quot; idolatry ;&quot; and such mental idolatry, though 

 more refined than that of the heathen world, is 

 almost equally abhorrent to the Divine Being, and 

 equally subversive of the grand principles of 

 Christian morality. If the acquisition of wealth 

 and riches be the constant and supreme aim of 

 any individual, Mammon is the god whom he 

 regularly worships, and the God of heaven is de 

 throned from his seat in the affections. Such 

 moral effects as the following are the natural 

 results of this species of idolatry : It steels the 

 heart against every benevolent and generous 

 emotion ; it shuts the ears to the cries of the 

 poor and needy ; it engenders cheating, falsehood, 

 and deceit ; it prevents the man in whom it pre 

 dominates from exerting his active powers, and 

 from contributing of his wealth to promote the 

 happiness of mankind ; it chains down his noble 

 faculties to the objects of time and sense ; it leads 

 him to love and to serve himself more than the 

 Creator ; it wraps him up in selfishness, and an 

 indifference to the concerns of all other beings ; 

 it destroys the principles of equity and justice ; it 

 blunts the feelings of humanity and compassion ; 

 and prevents him from attending to the salvation 

 of his soul, and from looking at those things which 

 are unseen and eternal. And in every other case 

 where a similar principle holds the supreme 

 seat in the affections, similar effects will be pro 

 duced. 



THE SECOND COMMANDMENT. 



Thou shall not make unto thee any graven image t 

 nor any likeness oj&quot; any thing that is in heaven 

 above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in 

 the waters under the earth : thou shall not bow 

 down thyself to them, nor serve them. 



Thejirst commandment, which I have illustrat 

 ed above, respects the object of our worship ; for 

 bidding us to substitute anv other being in the 

 room of God, or to offer it that homage which is 

 due to the eternal Jehovah. This second com 

 mandment respects the manner in which he is to 

 be worshipped. And in regard to the manner in 

 which the Divine Being is to be contemplated 

 and adored, it is expressly declared, that no im 

 age nor representation of this incomprehensible 

 Being is at any time, or on any account, to be 

 formed. This command, like the former, might 

 at first sight appear to be unnecessary, if the 

 almost universal practice of mankind had not 

 taught us that there is no disposition which the 



