AUTHOR OF AN ENQUIRY INTO THE ACCORDANCY OF WAR "As the will of God is our rule; to enquire what is our duty or what ABRIDGED AND REPRINTED BY THE BOOK COMMITTEE OF THE PHILADELPHIA YEARLY MEETING OF TO THAT SMALL BUT INCREASING NUMBER WHETHER IN THIS COUNTRY OR ELSEWHERE, WHO MAINTAIN IN PRINCIPLE, AND ILLUSTRATE BY THEIR PRACTICE, OF CONFORMING TO THE LAWS OF CHRISTIAN MORALITY WITHOUT REGARD TO DANGERS OR PRESENT ADVANTAGES, THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. PREFACE. TO THE FIRST EDITION. The author of this work died in the spring of 1828, leaving in manuscript the three essays of which it consists. We learn from himself that the undertaking originated in a belief (in which he probably is far from being alone) that the existing treatises on moral philosophy did not exhibit the principles nor enforce the obligations of morality in all their perfection and purity; that a work was yet wanted which should present a true and authoritative standard of rectitude-one by an appeal to which the moral character of human actions might be rightly estimated. This he here endeavors to supply. Rejecting what he considered the false grounds of duty, and erroneous principles of action which are proposed in the most prominent and most generally received of our extant theories of moral obligation, he preceeds to erect a system of morality upon what he regards as the only true and legitimate basis-the WILL OF GOD. He makes, therefore, the authority of the Deity the sole ground of duty, and His communicated will the only ultimate standard of right and wrong; and assumes, 'that wheresoever this will is made known, human duty is determined; and that neither the conclusions of philosophers, nor advant |