DUTIES OF THE MARRIED STATE.

INTRODUCTION.

ON THE SOCIAL NATURE AND CHARACTER OF MAN.

THE entire community of mankind is, in an allusive sense, justly represented as one grand and vast body; in the plan of the Creator, of admirable constitution, and most excelling order, and formed for the noblest purposes of reasonable life, intermingling benevolence, moral rectitude, and happiness. And from hence it follows, that the relations of men to men, and of cach to the whole, must, while the present state of things continues, be indissoluble; their dependence mutual, universal, eternal; their right to all humane and social offices unalienable; their interests strictly united and inseparable. Thus has the Almighty source of being, and Parent of good, founded and established the widely extended community of mankind, to be enlivened and cherished by a spirit of benevolence diffused through all its parts; and given it a rank suited to its powers, amongst intelligent and moral

orders, the most sublime and glorious of all his works.

What the members of the natural body are to each other, and with respect to the whole body, that the rational human members are among themselves, and as parts of the complete constitution and society of men. There are very few exceptions, that can, I think, be made to the general comparison; and scarce one perhaps, in those essential instances, on which alone the allusion is grounded. In the outward corporeal structure, there are no jarrings or contrarieties; there is no such thing as a detached member, all whose functions terminate in itself. This would introduce the utmost disorder and confusion; render the body of man, as a compound frame, quite unserviceable and useless; and blot out all the characters of adorable divine wisdom, that are now so strongly engraven upon it: nay, the consequence, in many cases, must be, the immediate and utter extinction of animal life.

On the contrary, on what does its health, its ease, its very subsistence as a sensitive machine, its ministration to the soul, and to the high purposes of reason, so evidently depend, as on the nice proportion and adjustment, and the harmonious concurring operation of its various parts? Might not a man altogether as well want a head,

a heart, eyes, hands, and the like, as not to have them united, and conspiring in their influence, for common preservation and defence?

In like manner, when man indulges narrow and contracted views, and consults and acts for himself alone, as if he were an unallied, selfsufficient, and dependent frame, are not all his benevolent affections, all his natural powers of doing good, in effect represented as absurd and vain; as fit only to be discouraged, and rooted out of the soul? Is not the life of reason lost? The social, the divine life!-employed in the most exalted pursuits, and abounding in the purest and sweetest pleasures of which human nature is capable. And if the glowings of humanity were universally checked and repressed, and the mutual communication of kind and friendly offices universally suspended, what could this open to our view, but one wide and general scene of distress and misery! What could it portend less than inevitable ruin to the whole species!

To openness of heart and mutual confidence would, then, succeed everlasting distrusts and uneasy suspicions; to delight in the prosperity of others, a malignant spirit of envy; to concord and harmony, disunion and alienation of affection; to compassion, hardness of heart. These

are the necessary attendants on a selfish, unsocial disposition. And they, in their turn, must propagate and spread the mischief much further; begetting mutual reproaches and animosities; rage, revilings, cool deliberate malice, and other inflamed and unnatural passions; which deface the light and lustre, and the strong tendencies to good, which, in the language of the son of Syrac, God originally poured out over all his rational works; and anticipate the blackest horrors of hell itself.

That mankind, therefore, are a society, or system, linked together by inviolable bonds of reason, instinct, interest, no one who has examined his own inward frame, or made observations on the general propensities and workings of human nature in others; no one, who has reflected justly on the fatal consequences of the contrary scheme, an be tempted to doubt. That this is a sentiment, which most powerfully enforces universal benevolence and sympathy; that enlarges and raises the heart above the influence of every base earthborn passion; that inspires it with great designs of public usefulness, and gives it godlike feelings, the generous and good experience, and have ever allowed. There can be no true religion, no right knowledge of God, or of his immutable laws of nature and providence, where this is not admitted

as a fundamental principle: and all the duties of social morality, may be deduced, and in a great measure, derive their obligation, from it. Accordingly, we find that St. Paul has wisely assigned it as a reason, the first and chief reason (within the scope of which, all others are comprehended) why we should put away lying, and speak every man truth with his neighbour."

To which might have been added, with equal propriety, if the circumstances of the case had required such a particular and more copious exhortation, grounded on the same principle"Be affable and obliging, modest and condescending, compassionate and tender-hearted. Rejoice with those that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." Aim in your several stations, to be as useful as possible, and to communicate the most diffusive and general good. Endeavour to instruct the ignorant, and reclaim the vicious; to revive the disconsolate, to relieve the miserable. Avoid criminal artifice and fraud, and practise strict justice and fidelity in all its branches. Let not prejudice or pride, or any views of private advantage tempt you, let not a misguided and headstrong zeal ever transport you, to violate these holy and immutable obliga† Rom. xii. 15.

* Eph. iv. 25.