MORALS OF THE ANTEDILUVIANS. 



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tranquillity is passed over as unworthy of notice, 

 till the restless passions of avarice and ambition 

 be again roused into fury, and a new set of des 

 peradoes arise, to carry slaughter and desolation 

 through the nations. For, during the short tem 

 porary periods of repose from the din of war, 

 which the world has occasionally enjoyed, the 

 malignant passions, which were only smothered, 

 but not extinguished, prevented the operation of 

 the benevolent affections ; and, of course, no ex 

 tensive plans for the counteraction of evil, and 

 the improvement of mankind, worthy of being 

 recorded by the annalist and the historian, were 

 carried into effect. 



In order to produce a definite impression of 

 the moral state of the world, I shall endeavour, 

 in this chapter, to give a rapid sketch of the pro 

 minent dispositions of mankind, as displayed in 

 the general train of human actions that we may 

 be enabled to form a rude estimate of the degree 

 in which the law of God has been recognised, 

 and of the extent to which its violation has been 

 carried, on the great theatre of the world, and 

 in the ordinary transactions of general society. 



I shall, in the first place, take a rapid view of 

 the moral state of the world in ancient times, 

 and then take a more particular survey of the 

 present state of morals, among savage and civi 

 lized nations in the Christian world and among 

 the various ranks and orders of society. 



SECTION I. 



STATE OF MORALS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



MAN was originally formed after the moral 

 image of his Maker. His understanding was quick 

 and vigorous in its perceptions; his will subject to 

 the divine law, and to the dictates of his reason ; 

 his passions serene and uncontaminated with 

 evil ; his affections dignified and pure ; his love 

 supremely fixed upon his Creator ; and his joy 

 unmingled with those sorrows which have so long 

 been the bitter portion of his degenerate race. 

 But the primogenitor of the human race did not 

 long continue in the holy and dignified station in 

 which he was placed. Though he was placed 

 in &quot; a garden of delights,&quot; surrounded with every 

 thing that was delicious to the taste and pleasant 

 to the eye, yet he dared to violate a positive com 

 mand of his Maker, and to stretch forth his im 

 pious hand to pluck and to taste the fruit of the 

 forbidden tree a picture and a prelude of the 

 conduct of millions of his degraded offspring who 

 despise the lawful enjoyments which lie within 

 their reach, and obstinately rush on forbidden 

 pleasures, which terminate in wretchedness and 

 sorrow. The dismal effects of the depraved dis 

 positions thus introduced among the human spe 

 cies, soon became apparent. Cain, the first-born 

 son of Adam, had no sooner reached to the years 



of maturity, than he gave vent to his revengeful 

 passions, and imbrued his hands in his brother s 

 blood. And ever since the perpetration of this 

 horrid and unnatural deed, the earth has been 

 drenched with the blood of thousands and of mil 

 lions of human beings, and the stream of corrup 

 tion has flowed without intermission, and in every 

 direction around the globe. 



Of the state of mankind in the ages before the 

 flood, the sacred history furnishes us with only a 

 few brief and general descriptions. But those 

 descriptions, short and general as they are, pre 

 sent to us a most dreadful and revolting picture 

 of the pitch of depravity and wickedness to 

 which the human race had arrived. We have 

 the testimony of God himself to assure us, that, 

 within 1600 years from the creation of the world, 

 &quot; the wickedness of man had become great upon 

 the earth that the earth was filled with violence&quot; 

 yea, that &quot; every imagination of the thoughts 

 of man s heart was only evil continually,&quot; or, 

 as it may more literally be rendered from the 

 Hebrew, &quot; the whole imagination, comprehend 

 ing all the purposes and desires of the mind, was 

 only evil from day to day.&quot; &quot; God looked upon 

 the earth ; and behold it was corrupt ; for all 

 flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth,&quot; 

 A more comprehensive summary of the great 

 ness and the extent of human wickedness it is 

 scarcely possible to conceive. The mind is left 

 to fill up the outline of this horrid picture with 

 every thing that is degrading to the human cha 

 racter, with every thing that is profligate and 

 abominable in manners, with every thing that is 

 base, false, deceitful, licentious, and profane, and 

 with every thing that is horrible and destructi&quot;) 

 in war, and ruinous to the interests of human hap- 



The description now quoted, contains the fol 

 lowing intimations: 1. That, previous to the 

 deluge, wickedness had become universal. It 

 was not merely the majority of mankind that had 

 thus given unbounded scope to their licentious 

 desires, while smaller societies were to be found 

 in which the worship of the true God, and the 

 precepts of his law were observed. For &quot; all 

 flesh had corrupted their ways.&quot; And, at this 

 period the world is reckoned to have been much 

 more populous than it has been in any succeeding 

 age, and to have contained at least ten billions 

 of inhabitants, or many thousands of times the 

 amount of its present population. So that uni 

 versal wickedness must have produced misery 

 among human beings to an extent of which we 

 can form no adequate conception. 2. The des 

 cription implies, that every invention, and every 

 purpose and scheme devised both by individuals 

 and by communities, was of a malevolent nature. 

 &quot; The imagination of every man s heart was only 

 evil continually.&quot; The dreadful spectacles of 

 misery and horror which the universal prevalence 

 of such principles and practices which theu 



