Such sentiments may seem to some to be deducible from an indistinct and
indefinite reference to our judgment after the understanding has been
improved by moral culture, when such judgment, by a mere looseness of
language, is sometimes described as if the writers confounded it with
the state of mind and moral perfectibility produced by the reception of
the Holy Ghost. Thus, Archbishop Secker, in his Fourth Lecture on the
Catechism, says:
“How shall all persons know what they are taught to believe is really
true?
“_Answer._ The greater part of it, when it is once duly proposed to
them, they may perceive to be so by the light of their own reason and
conscience.”
Now it is evident that the bishop’s answer is predicated upon the
supposition that the understanding has been cultivated in conformity to
the principles of moral truth.
But, from such hasty, perhaps thoughtless, snatches of speculation,
occasionally found in some few of the older metaphysical writers, our
author and his co-associates in this belief have drawn their materials,
remodelled the parts, and reared, even as to heaven, a lofty structure
upon a doubtful, tottering base, bringing untold social and political
evils upon society, and spiritual death, in its fall, to all who shelter
under it. But for the good of the world, in opposition to such a
doctrine, truth has erected her column of solid masonry, against which
the fanaticism and sophistry of these builders can only, like successive
drops of water, carry down the walls some useless portions of the
cement.
We repeat, how tottering must be the argument founded upon analogy where
there is no relation! We all agree that the senses make truthful
representations: all see, smell, and taste alike; vinegar will be sour
to the savage, as well as the savant. But is their judgment the same
about the moral qualities of actions? What says this moral sense, this
conscience, in the savage, who is taught to steal from his friend and
torture his enemy? Does the reverend doctor think his moral sense will
dictate the same conclusion? What right has he, then, to say, it is the
voice of nature—of God? Does he fail to perceive that the moral quality
of actions is distinguished by man in conformity to his experience, his
training, his education?
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