360 
155. But we are familiar with the fact that the intellec- 
tually strong, and the morally noble, increase the power 
..... of those with whom they come in contact: so 
fluenceinsome that the general truth is indisputable. In what 
respects, wa y S it might please the {Supreme Governor to 
impart this additional moral power, seeming to be at times 
a sort of spontaneous energy, we could not presume to deter- 
mine beforehand ; but it would seem to be not improbable, or 
rather it is in accordance with probability, that such mode of 
assistance should be analogous to the influences of man on 
man in the natural system of the world. 
156. The social order of things proceeds from the indivi- 
dual to the family, and from the family to the wider 
2?an Usb medTa circles of human neighbourhood. If the Religious 
rented 17 di " or( ^ er should proceed in any similar way, there would 
seem to be no objection to it. For a social being 
a social order of Religious influences would seem a kind of 
necessity. Just as the wants of responsibility, in the indivi- 
dual agent, suggested to us the need of a Supreme 
and connected Governor ; so the wants of a community of such 
Polity. uman agents lead to the belief that a true Revelation 
would touch the polity of human nature, as indivi- 
dual probation might need. 
157. But it does not belong to the present argument to 
define Revelation in minute detail. If our general conclusions 
have ground for acceptance,, special development will follow. 
Revelation will speak for itself, and hold its own ground, finally, 
in relation with the true-always. They indeed will personally 
of course, be the losers who internally reject, (as moral beings 
can,) any assistance to their knowledge of duty, or their power 
to perform it. Hence the obligation, and the wisdom of ex- 
amination in such a matter. In this respect, the rejector of 
Revelation — really such, will appear on the same 
Eepp°Dsi- footing as the reiector of virtue : each being thus 
plied. m opposition to the true-always. — It indeed a 
Revelation were only a system of opinion certified 
to us externally, the case would be different. We might 
regret that a man refused to accept it, but we could not then 
adopt towards him this tone of warning : but in proportion as 
it belongs to our moral nature, informing its ignorance, or sup- 
plying its defects, the responsibility of owning and acting on 
it is strictly moral. As assuredly as we must attach the 
gravest consequences to immorality commonly so called, so 
also to conscious irreligion. 
158. For the happiness of a conscious being must con- 
sist in his conformity, according to his power, with the 
