Page images
PDF
EPUB

all these authors, throughout all these treatises, had absolutely no meaning at all to their words, or a meaning merely chimerical; from our natural sense of gratitude, which implies a distinction between merely being the instrument of good, and intending it; from the like distinction every one makes, between injury and mere harm, which Hobbes says is peculiar to mankind; and between injury and just punishment, a distinction plainly natural, prior to the consideration of human laws. It is manifest, great part of common language, and of common behaviour over the world, is formed upon supposition of such a moral faculty; whether called conscience, moral reason, moral sense, or divine reason; whether considered as a perception of the understanding, or as a sentiment of the heart,* or, which seems the truth, as including both. Nor is it at all doubtful in the general, what course of action this faculty or practical discerning power within us ap

* We find this sentence printed "as a sentiment of the understanding, or as a perception of the heart." As Stewart however observes, there is surely a typographical error.

proves, and what it disapproves. For, as much as it has been disputed wherein virtue consists, or whatever ground for doubt there may be about particulars; yet, in general, there is in reality an universally acknowledged standard of it. It is that which all ages and all countries have made profession of in public: it is that which every man you meet puts on the show of: it is that which the primary and fundamental laws of all civil constitutions over the face of the earth, make it their business and endeavour to enforce the practice of upon mankind, namely justice, veracity, and regard to common good."*

Is not this conclusive?

Because controversies have been carried on in regard to the moral sense, Paley dismisses the question; and taking what he calls a surer road, proceeds to his maxim of expediency. This doctrine of expediency he applies, to the establishment, for example, of such a principle as that of gratitude. Now certainly so high a principle is worthy of all the support by which it is

* Butler. Dissertation "Of the Nature of Virtue."

possible to maintain it; and therefore, as auxiliary we may take what Paley gives: still do we not needlessly surrender what altogether belongs to us, unless we directly and strongly assert this principle, as at once recognised by that faculty which recognises justice and benevolence?

While touching upon this point, I will take the opportunity of adding, that in the succeeding pages, recourse has been had to any source which was open for the establishment of the principles asserted. Thus natural reason and Scripture, considerations of justice and expediency, other men's ideas as well as my own have been jointly applied. It has likewise frequently been my endeavour to support and illustrate my arguments by analogy. For (as says a learned writer*) from "the numerous similitudes and analogies which our Lord employed on all occasions to convey His supernatural truths to men, we may infer that this method of reasoning is especially consecrated to the service of religion."...... In the kingdoms both of nature and of grace, the God of all truth is wonderfully

* Tatham. Bampton Lectures.

consistent in the mode of its dispensation: and analogy is the intellectual instrument, by which in one no less than in the other, man is enabled to ascend from earth to heaven. From the curves and motions of projectiles, we have beheld the astronomer rising by a sublime analogy to those of the celestial bodies:" and thus in the moral world we naturally ascend from earthly things to heavenly. Let it be allowed then to establish and illustrate our truths in every possible manner. Though "the rain descend, and the floods come, and the winds blow and beat upon a house," still as its foundations are stronger, the greater is its stability. Accordingly, the more firmly moral and religious principles are established in the human heart, the more probable is it that man will overcome the difficulties and temptations, to which, by the permission or decree of a wise Providence, he is perpetually exposed.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »