of hie own will submitting to it; moral evil, in hie departing from that order, whether by omission or by positive action, through the l1r16vµla ( or desire for that which he has not) in a nature not regulated in accordance with that order. It necessnily follows from these considerations, that moral good and evil in man in its essence must be subjective; that the true moral character of e.n act, in the eight of him who judges the hearts of men, must be determined by the state of mind of him who com- mits it, hie knowledge, hie intentions, hie motives. "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." 1 The fact therefore that God gave laws suited to the state of moral knowledge in which those were to whom they were given, with the view of cultivating that knowledge, and restraining the evils which might be caused from l1r1011µla, does not imply that God sanctioned or even allowed man'B doing that which was immoral. 61. There are two questions to which this argument specially applies, and which will sufficiently illustrate it: namely, the law of marriage, and the sanction of slavery. (1) Our Lord's own words as to divorce apply with equal force to the whole question of the Mosaic law of marriage. "He eaith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not eo." 2 That is, a deviation from the standard of the original institution was allowed under certain restrictions, because the absolute prohibition of the customs then prevalent in the world would, through the hardness of men's hearts, which makes them incapable of at once recognising some moral principle11 without previous education, prevent instead of promoting the ends for which marriage was ordained. But the law of Moses, by requiring a writing of divorce to be given, and by its other enactments, protected the law of marriage as then understood, and restrained transgressions, and thus gradually trained the mind of the people for a higher standard and for the true ideal of marriage. Indeed, we find in the prophetical writings s the true idea of the law of marriage asserted as if it were the law itself, being indeed the real spirit of the Divine law. (2) The parallel case of the sanction of slavery was in all respects similar in principle. It is indeed a striking proof of the shock given to man's moral being by the Fall, that he so far lost the consciousness of God's image in e.ery individual of the human race as to consider hie brother man & mere chattel. It has been remarked 4 that "there seems to be somewhat in the institution of slavery which has at all times either shocked or perplexed mankind, however little habituated to reflection, and however slightly advanced in the cultivation of its more.I instincts. 'rhe compunction which ancient communities, almost unconsciously experienced, appears to have always resulted in some imaginary principle upon which a defence, or at least a rationale, of slavery could be plausibly founded." One of these was the inferiority of certain races and their natural aptitude for the servile condition. Another, which historically was the cause of much of the slavery of the ancient world, was the supposed right of conquerors over a vanquished foe. But its more legitimate origin is to be found in the patriarchal system, and in the rights of the head of the family over all its members, among whom the servant was classed, as indicated both in the Roman term" familia," and by one of the Greek words for slave, "o/,cfrrJt," "one of the household. 11 6 However, whatever be the history of slavery, it is certain that it was universal in the ancient world, and that the conscienca 1 Ja.mes iv.1 7 ; cf. Rom. xiv. 14, 20; Tit. i. 15.
3 St. Matt. xi.x. 8. 8 Cf. Ps. cxxviii.; Prov. v. 18; Ma.I. ii. 14, 1 5 .
' Maine's • Ancient Law, p. 162, &c. 5 Cf. also Hob. iii.2 - 6 and Gal. iv.1 - 7 , where the son during his minority is supposed to be on the same level as 11 _8oiiXo~ in the ~ouse. th-i INTRODUCTION TO THE PENTATEUCII.