10* 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



volution in France, a law, permitting divorces, 

 was passed by the National Assembly ; and, in 

 less than three months from its date, nearly as 

 many divorces as marriges were registered in the 

 city of Paris. In the whole kingdom, within the 

 space of eighteen months, upwards of twenty 

 thousand divorces were effected ; and the nation 

 sunk into a state of moral degradation, from the 

 effects of which it has never yet recovered. This 

 is one of the many practical proofs presented 

 before us, of the danger of infringing on any of 

 the moral arrangements which the Creator has 

 established. 



The precept under consideration is to be con 

 sidered as directly opposed to all promiscuous and 

 licentious intercourse between the sexes. And 

 the reasonableness of thi.s prohibition will ap 

 pear, if we consider, for a moment, what would 

 be the consequences which would inevitably fol 

 low were this law to be set aside, or universally 

 violated. A scene of unbounded licentiousness 

 would ensue, which would degrade the human 

 character, which would destroy almost all the ex 

 isting relations of society, and unhinge the whole 

 fabric of the moral world. One end of the insti 

 tution of marriage was, to &quot; replenish the earlh&quot; 

 with inhabitants, to perpetuate the successive 

 generations of men, and to train up a virtuous and 

 intelligent race to people the congregation of the 

 heavens. But this end would be ultimately frus 

 trated, were a promiscuous and unlimited inter 

 course to become either general or universal. 

 For, it has been found, that, wherever such in 

 tercourse partially prevails, it strikes at the root 

 of human existence, and has a tendency to prevent 

 the operation of that law which the Creator im 

 pressed on all living beings, &quot; Increase and multi 

 ply.&quot; In the haunts of licentiousness, in large 

 cities, and in all such societies as those which 

 formerly existed in Otaheite, under the name of 

 Arreoy, the laws of nature are violated, the course 

 of generation obstructed, and numbers of human 

 beings strangled at the very porch of existence. 

 So that were mankind at large to relape into such 

 licentious practices, the human race instead of 

 increasing in number, to replenish ne desolate 

 wastes of our globe, according to tl e Creator s 

 intention, would rapidly decrease ev-;ry succeed 

 ing generation, till after the lapse of a few centu 

 ries, human beings would be entirely extirpated, 

 and the earth, barren and uncultivated, would be 

 left to the dominion of the beasts of the forest. 



But, although such a distant event were to be 

 altogether disregarded, the immediate conse 

 quences of such unhallowed courses would be 

 dismal in the extreme. That union of heart, af 

 fection, and of interests, which subsists between 

 the great majority of married pairs, and those re 

 ciprocal sympathies and endearments which flow 

 from this union, would be altogether unknown. 

 The female sex, (as already happens in some 

 nations,) with minds uncultivated and unpolish 



ed, would be degraded into mere instruments (A 

 sensitive enjoyment, into household slaves, or 

 into something analogous to beasts of burden, 

 and would be bought and sold like cattle and 

 horses. The minds of all would be degraded to 

 the level of brutes, and would be incapable of 

 prosecuting either rational or religious pursuits. 

 Their bodies would be wasted and enfeebled will, 

 squalid disease: the infirmities of a premature 

 old age would seize upon them ; and before they 

 had &quot; lived half their days,&quot; they would sink into 

 the grave in hopelessness and sorrow. A uni 

 versal sottishness, and disregard of every tiling 

 except present sensual enjoyment, would seize 

 upon the whole mass of society, and benumb the 

 human faculties : the God of heaven would be 

 overlooked, and the important realities of an im 

 mortal existence completely banished from their 

 thoughts and affections. Thousands, and ten 

 thousands of infants would be strangled at their 

 entrance into life ; and the greater part of those 

 who were spared, would be doomed to a wretched 

 and precarious existence. The training up of 

 the youthful mind to knowledge and virtue would 

 be quite neglected ; and all that civility and soft 

 ness of manners, which are now acquired under 

 the eye of parental authority and affection, would 

 be unknown in society. The endearing relations 

 of father and mother, of brothers and sisters, of 

 uncles, aunts, and cousins, and all the other ra 

 mifications of kindred, which now produce so 

 many interesting and delightful associations, 

 would fail to be recognised among men ; for in 

 such a state of society, the natural relations of 

 mankind would be either disregarded, or blended 

 in (indistinguishable confusion. 



Children, neglected or abandoned by their mo 

 thers, would be left to the full influence of their 

 own wayward and impetuous passions ; they 

 would depend for subsistence, either on accident, 

 on pilfering, or on the tender mercies of general 

 society ; they would wander about as vagabonds, 

 tattered and forlorn; their hearts shrivelled with 

 unkindness, their bodies chilled with the rains 

 and biting frosts, and deformed with filthiness and 

 disease. They would be left to perish in the 

 open fields, without a friend to close their eyes ; 

 and their bodies, unnoticed and unknown, would 

 remain as a prey, to be devoured by the fowls 

 of heaven. In every land would be seen multi 

 tudes of houseless and shivering females, set 

 adrift by their seducers, wandering with their 

 hungry and half famished offspring, the objects 

 of derision and contempt ; and imploring, in vain, 

 the comforts of food, of shelter, and protection. 

 For, among human beings, in such a degraded 

 state, the kindly and benevolent affections would 

 seldom be exercised ; cold-blooded selfishness and 

 apathy, in relation to the sufferings of others, 

 would supplant all the finer feelings of humanity ; 

 which would dispose them to view the wretched 

 objects around them with perfect indifference. 



