lingwood was one of the most high-minded, pure, affectionate, and strictly moral men of whom the British peerage can boast; yet this man commanded the ship which fired the first English gun in the sanguinary naval conflict of Trafalgar. The common soldier is ignorant and brutal, most likely; but he, too, in the moment of action, has learned to suppress all other feelings at the mandate of duty,—the duty on which every thing then depends, that of implicit submission to his superiors. It would be a strange paradox to say, that a camp is a nursery of lofty and stern virtues; yet it certainly does foster a chivalrous exaltation of feeling, which reason, indeed, condemns as an impure mixture of false sentiment with an austere regard for duty, but which has so much of the moral element in it, that it cannot be harshly reprobated.

I am not palliating the evils of war; God forbid that I should say one word to make any human being look upon the practice of it with less horror and detestation than he now feels! I am only suggesting some reasons why it should not make us think so badly of our fellow-beings as to doubt whether they are under the moral government of God. If the distinctions here suggested do not tend at all to abate the severity of our condemnation of immoral practices, but only to render our feelings more charitable and just towards those who are engaged in them, they may well be kept in mind even by the professed philanthropists. The spirit of our religion certainly requires us to hate sin, but holds up the sinner to us as an object of compassion, kindness, and love.

I have not intended in this Lecture even to approach the great problem of the origin of evil; that remains for subsequent consideration. I have only wished to show, that, in the moral constitution of man, there is the plainest proof not only that we live under the immediate government of God, but that this government is effectual, the results produced being commensurate with the means employed. Not only is the will of God made known to us at every moment of our lives as the absolute rule of our conduct, the supreme law, but the announcement of this law

is made compatible with human freedom, and the law itself is practically recognized and observed, to a greater or less extent, by every human being. Human government, the direction and. control of organized societies of men, rest upon this Divine government, and would not be practicable without it. Property, as we have seen, is supported in the same manner. The law of God, promulgated through the conscience, and acknowledged both by the savage and by civilized man as supreme, exerts an influence that no man can measure over the life of every individual; it forms the basis of those institutions which are essential to the very existence of society; it sways the councils of nations; it governs the course of human affairs.

And the means by which these great ends are accomplishedespecially the manner in which we are perpetually reminded of the Divine command, as if by a voice from heaven, and the mode of reconciling liberty with laware as beautiful instances of contrivance, they furnish quite as striking indications of Divine wisdom and goodness, as any which the material universe affords.

LECTURE VI.

THE CONTENTS OF THE MORAL LAW A REVELATION OF THE CHARACTER OF THE DEITY: THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW.

I ATTEMPTED to prove, in my last Lecture, that the moral constitution of man affords direct and irrefragable evidence, that he is under the constant and immediate government of God. That the pleasures and pains which we experience in this life, and which proceed from regular and determinable causes, and therefore may be foreseen by us, may properly be regarded as rewards and punishments, indicating to us the will of the Deity that we should perform certain actions and abstain from others, is another argument tending to the same conclusion; but it does not seem to me so complete and satisfactory as the former one. Conscience announces to us a law of absolute authority for the guidance of our hearts and lives; its monitions are frequent, if not incessant, and the obligation which it imposes is recognized, whether we will or no, to be supreme. At the same time, it does not compel or force obedience, so that the liberty of the will is not infringed, but government is made compatible with freedom. This idea of pure and absolute obligation, or the sense of duty as such, as distinguished from compulsion on the one hand, and from a perfectly unregulated and ungoverned will on the other, is one which the intellect alone could never frame, and it does away with the apparent contradiction between liberty and law. Here, I observed, is contrivance, the indication of purpose, in

the moral nature of man, just as visible as in the curious physical apparatus by which we see, and just as clearly indicative of the intention of the Creator. The law thus revealed to us is His law who reveals it. If the fashioning of our bodies - - these wonderful but perishable tenements of clay that we inhabit for a season shows the wisdom and the purposes of Him who made them, how much more does the framework of our intellectual and moral being testify to the same effect! This is equally His contrivance, His work. It is not more evident that the ear was made to hear with, or the organs of voice to speak, or the lungs to breathe, than that the law proclaimed by conscience should be obeyed as His will; otherwise, the moral faculty is constituted in vain, and exists for no conceivable purpose.

The scheme of government, I remarked, is both comprehensive and minute; it assumes to regulate every purpose of the heart, and to mould the whole life and character. And it is effectual; the purpose which is indicated by this endowment of the mind with the power of distinguishing right from wrong is carried out and realized to the fullest extent that is consistent with individual liberty. The conduct even of the vicious and the profligate, of the savage as well as the civilized man, is daily and hourly influenced by the law written on the heart. Society itself could not exist without it, as its most important institutions, government and property, recognize it, and are, in fact, supported by it. Through the sensitiveness of our moral nature, I endeavoured to show, we are prone to exaggerate the moral disorder and depravity which are in the world and are revealed in history. If we judge men by their intentions, instead of their outward conduct, and it is the former alone which the plan of Divine government assumes directly to regulate, much of their seeming lawlessness and wickedness disappears. Even war, that great scourge of the human family, is carried on, by most of those who are engaged in it, with a high moral purpose, misdirected, it is true, but pure. I am well aware that this explanation leaves the ignorance of men, and the blinding power of their passions, as evils still to be accounted for; these remain for subsequent

discussion. At present, I am only concerned to show that there is a Divine government, not that it is a perfect government. So we have not considered as yet, except incidentally, the purport or contents of the law which is revealed in the conscience; the mere existence of such a law, and its claim of absolute supremacy, with the fact that it is recognized and acted upon, being the only points upon which stress has been laid. We have now to consider what the law enjoins. The very brief answer may be given, that it requires of us a pure heart and a virtuous life; all that is comprehended under these phrases being entitled to the name of purity or virtue only because it is required by conscience. Disinterestedness is included; for the most obvious characteristic of the voice of conscience is, that it is to be obeyed at all hazards. The obligation is perfect; no matter by what sacrifice, I must render to another that which is his own, and my word must be kept. And as no fear or hope with regard to the consequences of the act upon my own welfare should tempt me to wrong-doing, so they ought not to be my reasons for following the right. Virtue must be cultivated for its own sake; otherwise, it is not virtue, but selfishness. It is hardly necessary to say, that the law is so watchful and exacting, that it descends to the secrets of the heart, and declares what the purpose shall be, before that purpose is realized in the act; this is the primary function of the conscience. The immediate object of the law, as already observed, is not conduct, but the intention which regulates the conduct. And all these points in the law are rendered so plain and familiar, even to the uninstructed, that in enlarging upon them I must appear to you to be dwelling upon mere truisms. It is only when we come to reflect upon the marvellous constitution of our bodies and minds, considered as the work of the Almighty, and as indicating his will, that these worn truths reassume freshness and interest. At other times, we take them for granted, and intend to act upon them.

The question may now be asked, Why is it that we are enjoined to cultivate such dispositions of mind, or to act upon such intentions, in preference to all others? In one sense, the an