these rules are founded on immutable principles, although these principles are not philosophically explained, and are also sanctioned by all the force of divine authority, this is just what mankind require, and is, in fact, more beneficial than any moral theory can be, which is devoid of this commanding and efficacious sanction. Systems of moral philosophy are therefore highly useful; but they supersede not the necessity of the gospel, and indeed would, without it, be of little benefit to mankind.

For, first, let it be considered what has given to the modern science of ethics so much superiority over that of the ancients. It is evident that those who have written on this and other corelative subjects, have derived the greater part of their knowledge from Christian instruction, and have received their moral education in the school of Christ. Hence, they have been able to discover a variety of gross abuses which escaped the observation of pagan philosophers, and have learned to investigate the genuine sources of morality, and to connect it with pure principles of religion, without which it can never acquire a commanding energy. Their wisest rules are therefore to be regarded as a sort of Christian morality, treated in a philosophical manner. Christianity was, in fact, never intended to contract or impede our rational faculties, but is calculated to quicken and improve them; and, un

der its dispensation, all man's intellectual powers have the most ample scope, and are invigorated by many aids of which they were destitute before its introduction.

Secondly, not only has the gospel tended to refine and improve moral science, but it also preserves its purity. Without the assistance of revelation, it is to be apprehended that the human mind, indulging licentious speculation with respect to moral subjects, would relapse into much of that extravagance which was exhibited by ingenious men of pagan antiquity. As long as Christian theology enlightens and directs moral and political philosophy, this will always proceed in a safe and plain course. It is an undoubted fact, that those who reject revelation, and pretend to adhere to natural religion, have never yet been able to determine what is the precise and definite character of this last. They are both the legislators who enact its dictates, and the judges who interpret them. They extend or limit, they abrogate or suspend; in a word, they explain and apply it according to the humour of the moment. It is true that men of corrupt minds may pervert a written as well as a traditionary or philosophical law, and render the former, as well as the latter, subservient to their interests or their passions. It cannot nevertheless be denied, that the authority of divine revelation is more effectual for obviating or cor

recting those perversions than a system merely speculative. To corrupt a written code, or to maintain opinions contrary to a clear and definite record of divine truth, are matters of greater difficulty than to inculcate absurd or immoral opinions, when no standard, to which an appeal can be made, exists, and every one is left to his own undirected judgment. This last is, with the generality of men, of a very flexible nature, and can assume any form at pleasure, and adopt or reject any opinion which the fashion of the times or the humour of the passing day may sanction. All this cannot so easily happen, when a written law prescribes the nature and extent of every duty, and is enforced by sanctions which cannot be despised, with any shadow of reason, by those who acknowledge that law, or without the grossest perversion of every good and admitted principle.

Thirdly, although the law of nature recur to a supreme and universal lawgiver, and be partly founded on religious principle, yet this is not done in so evident and palpable a manner as when revelation interposes its authority. The grand and impressive doctrines of an overruling providence, and of a future state of retribution, are but imperfectly unfolded in moral treatises founded wholly on the dictates of human reason. Nor is the worship due to God there particularized and rightly regulated. The precepts of

benevolence and charity are not so extensive as in the gospel, nor are such admirable rules delivered for the moral improvement of our species. Such excellent examples are not exhibited, nor are supplied those powerful aids and motives which proceed from the divine character of Christ, from what he has done and suffered for us, and from those religious institutions which he has established for feeding the flame of piety, and for inducing his disciples to devote themselves to a life of rectitude. Such institutions, and all their concomitant advantages, could never have existed under the mere law of nature. For, that very law points out the necessity of deriving them from another quarter. In a word, whatever benefit may be derived from moral philosophy, which I am so far from depreciating, that, without the careful and successful study of it, I am of opinion that no man can be an enlightened divine; yet it can never furnish a principle of virtuous conduct so solid, so comprehensive, or so energetic, as genuine Christian piety.

Fourthly, if the philosophy of morals possess all the advantages of accurate investigation, of methodical arrangement, and of luminous illustration, these must be confined to men of cultivated minds, and are by no means attainable by the generality of mankind; and yet all men require proper and authoritative rules of life. Mr.

Locke makes, on this subject, some excellent remarks in the following passage. "The greatest part of mankind want leisure or capacity for demonstration; nor can carry a train of proofs, which, in that way, they must always depend upon for conviction, and cannot be required to assent to, till they see the demonstration. Wherever they stick, the teachers are always put upon the proof, and must clear the doubt by a thread of coherent deductions from first principles, how long or how intricate soever they be. And you may as soon hope to have all the day-labourers and tradesmen, the spinsters and dairy-maids, perfect mathematicians, as to have them perfect in ethics this way. Hearing plain commands is the sure and only way to bring them to obedience and practice; the greatest part cannot know, and therefore they must believe. And I ask, whether one coming from heaven, in the power of God, and in full and clear evidence and demonstration of miracles, giving plain and direct rules of morality and obedience, be not likelier to enlighten the bulk of mankind, and to set them right in their duties, and bring them to do them, than by reasoning with them from general notions and principles of human reason? And were all the duties of human life clearly demonstrated, yet I conclude, when well considered, that method of teaching men their duties would be thought proper only for a few, who had much