GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 



115 



it an unnumbered train of blnssings, and would 

 restore tranquillity and repose to our distracted 

 world. To be contented under the allotments of 

 tho providence of God, is one of the first and 

 fundamental duties of every rational creature. 

 By contentment and resignation to the divine 

 disposal, we recognise God as the supreme Go 

 vernor of the universe ; as directed by infinite 

 wisdom, in the distribution of his bounty among 

 the children of men ; as proceeding on the basis 

 of eternal and immutable justice, in all his pro 

 vidential arrangements ; and as actuated by a 

 principle of unbounded benevolence, which has 

 a regard to the ultimate happiness of his crea 

 tures. Under the government of such a Being, 

 we have abundant reason, not only to be con 

 tented and resigned, but to be glad and to rejoice. 

 &quot; The Lord reigneth, let the earth be glad, let 

 the multitude of the isles thereof rejoice.&quot; How 

 ever scanty may be the portion of earthly good 

 measured out to us at present, and however per 

 plexing and mysterious the external circumstan 

 ces in which we may now be involved, we may 

 rest assured, that, under the government of un 

 erring wisdom, rectitude, and benevolence, all 

 such dispensations shall ultimately be found to 

 have been, not only consistent with justice, but 

 conducive to our present and everlasting inte 

 rests. Were such sentiments and affections to 

 pervade the minds of all human beings, what a 

 host of malignant passions would be chased away 

 from the hearts and from the habitations of men? 

 Restless cares, and boundless and unsatisfied de 

 sires, which constitute the source and the essence 

 of misery, would no longer agitate and torment 

 the human mind. Voluptuousness would no lon 

 ger riot at the table of luxury on dainties, wrung 

 from the sweat of thousands ; nor avarice glut 

 its insatiable desires with the spoils of the widow 

 and the orphan ; nor ambition ride in triumph 

 over the miseries of a suffering world. Every 

 one, submissive to the allotments of his Creator, 

 and grateful for that portion of his bounty which 

 he has been pleased to bestow, would view the 

 wealth and enjoyments of his neighbour with a 

 kind and benignant eye, and rejoice in the pros 

 perity of all around him. Benevolence and 

 peace would diffuse their benign influence over 

 the nations, and mankind, delivered from the fear 

 of every thing that might &quot; hurt or destroy,&quot; 

 would march forward in harmony and affection, 

 to that happier world where every wish will be 

 crowned, and every holy desire satisfied in God 

 their exceeding great reward.&quot; 



Thus it appears, that, on the observance o* 

 this law, which closes the Decalogue, and which 

 lias a reference to a single affection of the mind 

 the order and happiness of the intelligent sys 

 tem almost entirely depends. Let the flood 

 gates of Cotetousness be burst open, and let it 

 ilow in every direction without control, in a 

 Bliort period the world is desolated, and over 



whelmed with a deluge of miseries. Let the 

 current of every passion and desire be restrained 

 within its legitimate boundary, and let content 

 ment take up its residence in every heart, and 

 this deluge will soon be dried up, and a new world 

 will appear, arrayed in all the loveliness, and 

 verdure, and beauty of Eden. May Jehovah 

 hasten it in his time ! 



Thus I have endeavoured, in the preceding 

 sketches, to illustrate the reasonableness of those 

 laws which God has promulgated for regulating 

 the moral conduct of the intelligent creation. If 

 the propriety of these illustrations be admitted, 

 they may be considered as a commentary on the 

 words of the Apostle Paul : &quot; The law is holy, 

 and the commandment is holy and just and good.&quot; 

 In like manner it might have been shown, that 

 all the Apostolic injunctions, and other precepts 

 recorded in the volume of inspiration, are accor 

 dant with the dictates of reason, jind with the 

 relations of moral agents ; for they are all so 

 many subordinate ramifications of the principles 

 and laws, which I have already illustrated. 



General Conclusions and Remarks, founded on 

 the preceding illustrations. 



I shall now conclude this chapter with the 

 statement of a few remarks in relation to the 

 moral law, founded on the illustrations which 

 have been given in the preceding pages ; which 

 may be considered as so many inferences deduc 

 ed from the general subject which has now occu 

 pied our attention. 



I. In the first place, one obvious conclusion 

 from the preceding illustrations is, That the 

 laws of God are not the commands of an arbitra 

 ry Sovereign, but are founded on the nature of 

 things, and on the relations which exist in the 

 intelligent system. Many divines, especially 

 those of the supralapsarian school, have been dis 

 posed to ascribe every regulation of the Deity 

 to the Divine Sovereignty. I have been told 

 that, in one of the Latin treatises of Mr. Samuel 

 Rutherford, Professor of Divinity, in St. An 

 drews, there is a sentiment to the following pur 

 pose : &quot; That such is the absolute sovereignty 

 of God, that had it so pleased him, he might have 

 mtide every precept of the moral law given to 

 man exactly the reverse of what we now find it.&quot; 

 A sentiment more directly repugnant to the scrip 

 tural character of God, and to every view we 

 can take of the divine attributes, it is scarcely 

 possible for the human mind to entertain ; and it 

 shows us the dangerous consequences to which 

 we are exposed, when we attempt to push cer 

 tain theological dogmas to an extreme. If it were 

 possible to suppose the Deity capable of such an 

 act, it would overturn all the grounds on which 

 we are led to contemplate him as glorious, amia 

 ble, and adorable. At some future period in the 

 revolutions of eternit/, his tove, his rectitude 



