whoever breaks through it is ipso facto worthj' of blame for so doing; another regards it as springing from the moral fitness of things; another, from conformity with reason and nature; another, from agreement with truth; and another, from expediency and promotion of the public good. A late writer has defined obligation to be " a state of mind perceiving the reasons for acting, or forbearing to act." But we confess this lias a difhculty in it to us, because it carries with it an idea that if a man should by his habitual practice of inicpiity be so hardened as to lose a sense of duty, and not perceive the reasons why he should act morally, tlien he is under no obligation. And thus a depraved man iniglit say he is under no obligation to obey the laws of the land, be- cause, through his desire of living a licentious life, he is led to suppose that there shoidd be none. Evidently a difference should be made between obligation and a sense of it. Moral obligation, w'e think, arises from the will of God, as revealed in the light and law of nature, and in his Word. This is binding upon all men, because there is no situation in which mankind have not either one or the other of these. We find, however, that the generality of men are so far sunk in depravity that a sense of obligation is nearly or quite lost. Still, how- ever, their losing the sense does not render the obliga- tion less strong. "Obligation to virtue is eternal and immutable, but the sense of it is lost by sin." Believ- ing this, we do not accept the theory of those thinkers who lose sight altogether of man's perception of rec- titude, and give undue, if not exclusive, prominence — e. g. Locke (^Life, by Lord King, ii, 12',)), Warburton, Horsley, as well as Paley and his followers — to the re- wards and punishments of a future life, as prompting to the practice of virtue. For although God, in accommo- dation to the weakness of our nature and the perils of our condition, has condescended to quicken us in the discharge of our duty by appealing to our hopes and fears, both in regard to the life that now is and that which is to come, it does not follow that self-love, or a concern for our own happiness, should be the only, or even the chief spring of our obedience. On the con- trary, obedience to the divine will may spring from veneration and love for the divine character, arising from the most thorough conviction of the rectitude, wisdom, and goodness of the divine arrangements. That this, more than a regard to the rewards of ever- lasting life, is the proper spring of virtuous conduct, is as plain as it is important to remark. To do what is right merely for the sake of everlasting life is evidently acting from a motive far inferior, in purity and power, to love and veneration for the character and commands of him who is just and good, in a sense and to an extent to which our most elevated conceptions are inadequate. That which should bind us to the throne of the Eternal is not the iron chain of selfishness, but the golden links of a love for all that is right; and our aspirations to the realms of bliss should be breathings after the prevalence of universal purity, rather than desires for our individual happiness. Self and its little circle are too narrow to hold the heart of man when it is touched with a sense of its true dignity, and enlightened with the knowledge of its lofty destination. It swells with generous admi- ration of all that is right and good, and expands with a love which refuses to acknowledge any limits but the limits of life and the capacities of enjoyment. In the nature and will of him from whom aU being and all hai^piness ])rocecd, it acknowledges the only proper ob- ject of its adoration and submission ; and in surrender- ing itself to his authority it is purified from all the dross of scllishness, and cheered by the light of a calm and un(iuenchable love for all that is right and good. Dr. Adams {Sermon on the Nature and Obligation of Virtue) has well said, " Right implies duty in its idea. To per- ceive that an action is right is to see a reason for doing it in the action itself, abstracted from all other consid- erations whatever. Now this perception, tliis acknowl- edged rectitude in the action, is the very essence of oh-
OBLIGATION, FEASTS OF 283
OBREGON
lif/aiinn ; that which commands the approbation of clioico, and hviuh the conscience of every rational be- ing." ]Mr. Stewart (-4 ct. and Mor. Poioeis, ii, 29'!) has put it in still more powerful and concise form, viz. that "The very notion of virtue implies the notion oi obliya- tion.''' See Sanderson, De Jurumenti Obliyatione, prae- lect. i, sec. 11; De Ohligutione Conscienfiw, prfelect. v ; Whewell, Moralilij, bk. i, eh. iv, p. 84-89 ; King, Essay on Eei/, I'relim. Dissert, sec; Dr. Chalmers, 7j;7(;/(/«c«/(i'r Treatise, i, 78 ; Warburton, Lefiation, i, 38, 4G, etc. ; Pa- ley, Aforul riiilos. i, 54; Kobinson, Pref. to vol. iv of Saurin's Sermons ; JNIason, Christian Morals, ser. 23, ii, 256 ; Doddridge, Lect. lect. 52 ; Grove, Philos. ii, 06 ; Cudworth, Intell. System, ii, 505, 636, et al. ; Dr. Bush- nell on the Vicarious Sacrifice, and review thereof in the Christian Examiner, May, 1866, art. v; Krauth's Fleming, Vocab. of I'hilos. s. v. See Right; Sanc- tion. (J. H.W.)