GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 



117 





that it leads to injustice, cruelty, murder, ob 

 scenity, and the most revolting abominations. A 

 breach of the fifth involves a principle which 

 would sap the foundations of all government and 

 moral order, and transform society into a rabble 

 of lawless banditti. The violation of the eighth 

 is connected with falsehood, treachery, and cove- 

 iousness, and leads to oppression, robbery, plun 

 der, murders, and the devastation of empires ; 

 and the violation of the tenth, though consisting 

 only in the indulgence of an irregular desire, is 

 the origin of almost every other species of moral 

 turpitude, in relation either to God or to man. 

 In like manner it might be shown, that the strict 

 and regular observance of any one precept is ne 

 cessarily connected with a regard for all the other 

 requirements of God s law. 



III. It appears, from the preceding illustra 

 tions, that a universal violation of any one of the 

 six precepts of the second table of the law, would 

 lead to the entire destruction of the human race, 

 [n the case of the sixth commandment being sup 

 posed to be reversed, or universally violated, this 

 effect would be most rapidly produced ; but the 

 destruction and complete extirpation of human 

 beings from the earth would be as certainly ef 

 fected, in the course of two or three generations, 

 by the universal violation of any one of the other 

 five precepts. Some of the circumstances which 

 would necessarily produce this effect, are alluded 

 to, in the preceding illustration of these pre 

 cepts. And as the first principle of the moral 

 law, love to God, is the foundation of the precepts 

 contained in the second table, it is obvious, that 

 the same effect would ultimately follow from a 

 Universal violation of the first four precepts of the 

 Decalogue. 



IV. It follows from what has hitherto been 

 rtated, That the moral law has never yet been 

 tniversally violated, nor has any one of its pre- 

 lepts been completely reversed in the conduct of 

 the inhabitants of our globe. Every individual, 

 of all the millions of mankind that have existed 

 since the fall of Adam, has, indeed, in one shape 

 or another, broken every one of the command 

 ments of God; but such breaches have not been 

 constant and uniform, and running through every 

 action he performed. Falsehood has always 

 been mingled with a portion of truth, theft with 

 honesty, cruelty with clemency and mercy, an 

 archy with subordination, and licentiousness with 

 chastity and purity. It is owing to this partial 

 obedience to the dictates of the law of nature, 

 impressed upon every human heart, that the 

 world of mankind has hitherto been preserved in 

 existence. The partial violation, however, of 

 the divine law, which has characterized the ac 

 tions ot mankind, in all ages, has been the source 

 of all lit* calamities, miseries, and moral abomi 

 nation:, under which the earth has groaned from 

 generation to generation; and, in proportion to 

 the exttot of this violation, will be the extent of 



wretchedness and misery entailed on the human 

 race. That a universal violation of God s law 

 has never yet taken place in any region of the 

 earth, is not owing so much to any want of en 

 ergy, or of malignity in the principle of disobe 

 dience which is seated in the hearts of men as to 

 the restraining influence of the moral Governor 

 of the world, and to the physical impediments 

 which he has placed to prevent the diabolical 

 passions of men from raging without control. 

 Whether it be possible for any class of intelligent 

 organized beings to subsist for any length of time, 

 under a complete violation of the moral law, it is 

 not for us positively to determine ; but it is evi 

 dent to a demonstration, that in the present phy 

 sical condition of the human race, such a viola 

 tion would unhinge the whole fabric of society, 

 and, in a short time, exterminate the race of 

 Adam from the earth. 



V. The greater part of the precepts of the De 

 calogue is binding upon superior intelligences, 

 and upon the inhabitants of all worlds, as well as 

 upon man. For any thing we know to the con 

 trary, there may be worlds in different regions of 

 the universe, and oven within the bounds of our 

 planetary system, where their inhabitants are 

 placed in circumstances similar to those in which 

 man was placed in his paradisiacal state; and, 

 consequently, where the precepts which compose 

 their moral code may be exactly the same as ours. 

 But, it is highly probable that, in general, the 

 inhabitants of the various globes, which float in 

 the immensity of space, differ as much in their 

 moral circumsfances and relations, as the globes 

 themselves do in their size, their physical consti 

 tution, and their natural scenery. I have already 

 shown, (p. 78, &c.) that there are seven pre 

 cepts of our moral law which are common to the 

 inhabitants of all worlds, namely, thejirst, second, 

 third, fourth, (seep. 114,) the sixth, the ninth, 

 and the tenth. And, if there be no portion of 

 the intelligent system in which subordination, in 

 a greater or less degree, does not exist, then, the 

 fifth precept of our code must also be a law com 

 mon to all intelligences. It was formerly stated, 

 (p. 102,) that the seventh precept is in all proba 

 bility, a law peculiar to the inhabitants of the 

 earth, during the present economy ofProvidence ; 

 and, perhaps it is the only one which is not ap 

 plicable to the other inhabitants of the universe. 

 So that the moral laws given to man may be con 

 sidered as substantially the same with those 

 which govern all the other parts of the universal 

 system. 



VI. From the preceding illustrations, we may 

 infer, the excellency and the divine origin of the 

 Christian Revelation. The Scriptures contain 

 the most impressive evidence of their heavenly 

 original in their own bosom. The wide range 

 of objects they embrace, extending from the com 

 mencement of our earthly system, through all 

 the revolutions of time, to the period of its terrai- 



