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Scriptures. These precepts when revealed are "found upon comparison to be really a part of "the original law of nature, as they tend in all "their confequences to man's felicity. But we are "not from hence to conclude, that the knowlege "of these truths was attainable by reason in its "prefent corrupted ftate; fince we find that, until

they were revealed, they were hid from the wif"dom of ages. As then the moral precepts of "this law are indeed of the fame original with "thofe of the law of nature, fo their intrinfic ob

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ligation is of equal ftrength and perpetuity. Yet "undoubtedly the revealed law is of infinitely "more authenticity than that moral fyftem which "is framed by ethical writers, and denominated "the natural law. Because one is the law of na"ture, exprefsly declared fo to be by God him"felf; the other is only what, by the affistance of "human reason, we imagine to be that law. If "we could be as certain of the latter as we are of "the former, both would have an equal authority; "but till then they can never be put in any com"petition. Municipal law is a rule of civil con"duct. This diftinguishes municipal law from "the natural, or revealed; the former of which is "the rule of moral conduct, and the latter not

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only the rule of moral conduct, but also the "rule of faith."*

* See Commen. on the Laws of England. Sect. 2. p. 42. Thefe

These periods feem to have flipped from the pen. The Scriptures are the Revelation of divine or fupernatural truths, but of the "original law of "nature" they are only the revival, or republication. THEY plainly declare that to be the will of God which, in the times of ignorance and corruption, might rather be faid to have been obtruded upon the world, than recommended to it, as the will of God, by the philofophers; they teach that by authority which, before, reafon only dictated, or opinion espoused; fo that now every species of immorality is totally without excufe. Properly fpeaking, it is not the Divine Will, but the Divine Nature," which was "hid from the wisdom of 66 ages.' "For though we have in Scripture only the fure word of morality, yet Socrates, Plato, and Tully, as far as they taught truly, taught the morality of Scripture. In a word, Revelation is necefarily the rule of conduct, but directly and immediately the rule of faith.

The paffages juft cited interfered with the argument before me; and I am happy in the opportunity hereby given me to acknowlege my obligations to a learned and fincere friend, and to testify my high respect for the name and memory of Sir W. BLACKSTONE.

Page 144. (w) earnestly inculcated.] See GROT. 1.4.12. TULL. de Nat. Deo. l. 2-25. De Leg. 1. 2. 11. De Off. 1. 2-3. PERS. Sat. 2. v. 69. XENO. POTTER's Greek Antiq. Vol. 1.

Memo. l. 1. p. 571.

B. 2.

B. 2. ch.5. PLATO's Alci, and PLUTARCH's Infti. Lacon. CICERO pro domo fua, apud Pontif. TULL. de Leg.1.2-7. De Divinat. 1-51-57. Fragmen. Vet. Poet. p. 60. TULL. de Nat. Deo. l. 3-35. ÆSCHYLUS's Perfæ. v. 293. EURIPIDES's Hecuba. v. 954. Baccha. v. 70. SOPHOCLES's Ajax. v. 118 et feq. ÆsCHYLUS's Prom. Vinc. v. 1073. EURIP. Orest. v.821. Phaniff. v. 1206. Androm. 851. Tufc. Quæft. 1. 2. v. 21. Fragmen. Vet. Poet. p. 24, 96. &c, &c, &c. See particularly the works of Epictetus and M. Antoninus. It has been indeed, and is often alledged, that both these authors borrowed, or rather stole the best of their philosophy from the documents of Christianity. But, admitting the truth of the allegation, they adopted these principles as fit and right, and as perfectly agreable to human reafon; which is quite enough for our purpose. It is not at all material to know, whether, or how far, these, or any other philofophers, were really indebted to Revelation.

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Many writers, with a laudable defire to extol Christianity, have represented in a very strong light the imperfection and infufficiency of heathen Morals, and drawn at full length, and in the most lively colours, the errors and impurities of Paganism; but all this in manifest consistence with what has been advanced.

See particularly LowTH's Direct. for reading the

Scrip.

Scrip. Ch. 8. p. 129. 10. p. 183, &c. and WHITBY's Endeavour. p. 10.

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Page 155. (x) the Greek Dramatifts. The true God must ultimately be understood by the warng avdgwv TE OEWV TE &c. of Homer; the Divum Pater, &c. of Virgil; the Summus Deorum of Ovid; the communis conditor of Juvenal; and by him, as Horace fays,

Unde nil majus generatur ipfo;

Nec viget quicquam fimile aut fecundum. Nævius, according to Varro, calls Jupiter Patrem Optimum, Supremum, et Summum. O Eni waobe above all, is Porphyry's defcription of the Deity. Prometheus, in Eschylus, calls Jupiter, though infolently and in defiance, тov ugarævт' aa. v. 936. And in the Supplices of the fame author he is styled αιώνος κρεών απαυσε; which are almoft Jaiah's own words according to Bp. Lowth's translation. q. v. v. 584. See Ifaiah 9. 6. There is a fine paffage in the Antigone of Sophocles which represents Jupiter as neither Лlumbering nor fleeping, ✶ and as fubject to no infirmity, or decay. See v. 612. et feq. The fovereign independence of the Deity, the unfearchableness of his counfels, and the stability of his decrees, are strongly expreffed in the following places. See Homer. Il. l. 1. v. 5. Æfchylus's Supplices. v. 1056. 600. Prome. Vinet. v. 50. Agamem. v. 1496.

*Pfalm 121. V. 3, 4.

The

The Chain in Homer, Il. 8. v. 19. &c, has been remarked on by many writers; and the fubferviency of all things, paft, prefent, and to come, to the Divine will and pleasure, is exprefsly declared in the continuation of the paffage above referred to in Sophocles:

Το, τ' επειτα, και το μέλλον,

Και το πριν επαρκέσει. Vid. fupr.

The spirituality of the Divine Being is expreffed by Plato, Anaxagoras, Ariftotle, and others, under the term vas; by Cicero, and the Latin writers, by that of Mens. The divine particula aura of Horace, the etherius fenfus of Virgil, the animus as contradistinguished from the anima of Juvenal, &c, &c, unquestionably refer us to the spiritual creator. Tully, we know, delights in this argument, and handles it in a thoufand places. In one particularly, he afferts, "Nihil ab optimo et præftantiffimo genitore, animo melius procreatum ;" and in another, he fpeaks the very language of Revelation itself. "DEI, fays he, IMAGO quædam ANIMUS eft;, ex ipfo DEO delibata ac profecta.”‡ The omniscience, the omniprefence, the invifibility, and the incomprehenfible nature of the Deity, are set in a very strong light by Pagan writers. Tully, in his book de natura Deorum, cites Pythagoras affirming, Deum effe animum per naturam

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Timæus. Fragmen. Sec. 8. Confola. fub fin. † See Virgil. Æn. 1, 6. v. 724. Geor. 4. v. 221.

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