instruments of conveying this divine code of laws to mankind. This legislative announcement was accompanied with thunder and lightning; the smoking of the mountain; the shaking of the earthquake; the shrill voice of the trumpet; and, in fact, with every circumstance which the imagination of man can conceive, calculated to give an idea of the most perfect authority and power of the lawgiver, and of that implicit obedience and humble submission which were required of all those for whom this law was promulgated.

Thus we have endeavoured to prove that the plain declarations of Scripture teach us, that we are to look upon the commands found in the Bible, as clothed with moral obligation, from the mere circumstance of their being commanded. And supposing that there may be some speculative difficulties in demonstrating how an order or command can be morally binding, from the mere authority which imposes it; is not every theory of morals, which the wit of man has yet invented, encircled with similar difficulties? Do we see how moral obligation arises from the eternal fitnesses of things, or from sympathy, or from benevolence, or from self-love, or from a moral sense, or from moral emotion, or from association? or, indeed, from any other principle

which has been made the ground-work of a system, save the pure will of God? Let a person ponder upon these questions; let him turn them over in his mind, and view them in every possible light; he will see that there is no more difficulty involved in the theory, that the communicated will of an infinitely superior Being must be a rule of conduct to an inferior creature, than there is to be found in any theory of moral action that philosophy can produce. And even granting, for the sake of the argument, that the objections drawn from reason against the doctrine, that all moral obligation is ultimately resolvable into the will of God, be as numerous and formidable as against any other system of speculative morality; is there not a great preponderating influence given to the former theory, from its squaring in so completely with the general scope and tendency of that book, which we maintain contains that very revealed will of our Creator to us his children? Is this consideration not sufficient of itself to shew us where the superior degree of evidence lies, and to what conclusions we should come to respecting those principles on which we ought to rest our speculative opinions of moral action?

But I think I hear some of my readers urging, by way of objection to these remarks, that though

they were to acquiesce in the doctrine that the moral rules found in the Scriptures owed their obligatory character to the Divine command which accompanies them; yet this concession would not go to prove that those principles of moral obligation which are grounded on our nature, and form part of our very organization, independent of any direct revelation from heaven, ought to be referred also to the will of God. But to this it may be observed, that the laws of nature, as the natural principles of morality are commonly called, cannot be referred to any other source than to the will of the Almighty. It was from His power that they have all derived their existence; and no reason can be assigned for their existence, than that it has so pleased Him to make them as we find them. We may, and it is quite agreeable to His revealed word that we should, assume, that the glorification of His own attributes, and the ultimate happiness of His creatures, are the grand final ends of the moral arrangements of the world; but, at the same time, we would do well to remember, that the nature and degrees of this final glorification and happiness, can never be understood by us in our present condition; and, therefore, we cannot make our very limited knowledge on these subjects a foundation for all virtuous action and religious obedience.

CHAPTER XXXV.

A BRIEF NOTICE OF THE MORALITY OF THE
SCRIPTURES.

In this concluding chapter, it may prove of advantage to take a brief glance of the leading features of Scriptural morality. It is not to be expected that any thing new or original can be advanced on this subject; as it has exercised the talents and ingenuity of many eminent individuals, for numerous generations which have passed away. Without entering into any discussion on the peculiar doctrines of the Scriptures, to illustrate and explain which doctrines belong to the province of the divine; we will here hazard a few general remarks, which may not, perhaps, be considered an altogether unseasonable close to the contents of these volumes.

We are to look upon the Scriptures as the most ancient moral writings we possess; and, on this ac

count, they are justly entitled to our attentive consideration. Whatever claims other writings of a profane kind have advanced for a corresponding or even a greater antiquity, they are in all cases grounded upon such fictions and improbable statements, that we run no risk of injuring the cause of truth by discarding them altogether. There are undoubtedly differences in opinion among Christian authors, as to the precise period of time when the Scriptures were written, as well as when the principal events therein related actually took place. These conflicting opinions, however, arise chiefly from the different copies of the Scriptures, which have been taken as the foundation for various chronological systems. These copies are three in number, the common Hebrew Scriptures, the Samaritan, and the Septuagint or Greek version of them. The chronological discordances found among many writers, originate from the different statements of the Patriarchal genealogies which are given in these respective copies of the inspired books. But the reader would do well to bear in mind that the differences in statement, as to the age of the world, and time when the principal events in it took place, do not, according to the most respectable writers in chronology, extend beyond a few centu