Rhode-Island College: An Excerpt from the Address
You, gentlemen, have the singular fortune to complete the course of your collegiate education at a period the most alarming and interesting the world ever saw. Principles and conduct prevail, which threaten destruction to those institutions of religion and government, to which mankind are indebted for all the blessings of civilized life. In that part of Europe…where passions have been wrought up to such a paroxysm of rage that they have set at defiance the sacred obligations of religion and justice; have proclaimed open war against the Almighty, and covered the earth with blood and murder—there you behold tigers and wolves, in human form, sparing neither age nor sex. To them a Supreme Being is a chimera; immortality is unconscious sleep; and future responsibility, the frightful offspring of superstition. There the hydra of despotism, riding on her iron car, gnashes her bloody jaws, and growls destruction the world. From this horrid spectacle, turn off your eyes to your native country, where laws are regarded, where government is equally administered, where the constituted authorities are respected, where the God of heaven is worshipped, and let your full souls rise with an indignant determination to resist at all events the intruding arm of foreign domination.
When you see the pernicious effects of infidelity, atheism and unbridled ambition, learn to venerate and support those sacred institutions, which alone can render men fit subjects for moral and civil government.
Remember, there is a God.
The belief of this truth is the only security of virtue, and the only barrier against vice. For if we say there is no God, we say there is no standard of morality. We equalize virtue with vice, or rather we say there are no such things as virtue and vice. We at once annihilate all moral obligation, and with it all restraint on the sinful propensities and head-strong passions of man. It is truly astonishing that a rational being, who can endure a moment’s reflection, should be an atheist; and yet there are many who spurn at the idea of a God, and arrogantly tell you that the universe is not an effect, but a cause.
Indeed if you disbelieve the existence of God, you must believe there is not higher principle than matter. Of consequence, you must say matter is eternal, its various modifications, animate and inanimate, are the result of an inherent central and circumstantial power. In this case you will gain nothing, and will lose much; you will still be much at loss to account for this power, as you will be to account for the existence of an eternal, intelligent, uncaused Being. If you admit the latter, you can account for the origin of all things in a consistent manner; if you admit the former, you can never account for the existence of one atom, or for one modification of matter. Atheism is of all doctrines the most uncomfortable and gloomy. It renders all moral and intellectual acquirements useless; levels man to the brutal creation; destroys all order, design, and harmony in the universe. If acted out in its genuine effects, it would convert the world into a theatre of confusion, violence and misery. Never, therefore, forget there is a God. Let every breath you draw, every object you behold, remind you of this truth.
Remember that you have souls; and that these will never cease to exist. A denial of the existence of the soul as a thing distinct from matter, and of its immortality, is a natural and necessary consequence of a denial of the existence of God. In this view the state of man and brutes is the same. Both are matter, and both destroyed by decomposition. In short, the doctrine of a material soul amounts to this, man has no soul.
God has so formed you that you are obliged to rely on the veracity of your sense. If you distrust the evidence of these, or renounce it, you have no standard of certainty left. Your external senses inform you of what exists without; your internal senses, of what exists within. To doubt in either case is to do violence to nature. The soul becomes acquainted with itself and its existence, by internal sense; by the knowledge it gains from without, and by its operations concerning that knowledge. The soul has as a direct perception of itself, as it has of any object whatsoever. To doubt, therefore, whether you have souls, is to doubt whether any thing exists.
The dread which the soul has of annihilation; its dissatisfaction in the present state; its ardent desire after happiness; its capacity of unlimited improvement; the unequal fate of virtue and vice in this world; the consideration that man answers no determinate purpose here; these things render the separate existence of the soul highly probable. Revelation alone assures and confirms immortality to man. In the sacred pages, a distinction is clearly made and kept up between the body and the soul. God is styled “the God of spirit and of flesh.” Paul speaks of “the spirits of the just made perfect.” Job says, “there is a spirit in man.” David says, “into thy hand I commit my spirit.” Christ said to his disciples, “a spirit hath not flesh and bones.” Stephen, when stoned to death, cried “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” The Savior certainly taught there was a difference between spirit and matter, when he said, “fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.” In short, if you examine the scriptures, you will find that the inspired writers uniformly keep up this distinction on which I am insisting. Their faith was that death was not an annihilation of existence, but only a change in the mode of it. It is of the highest importance that you believe this doctrine; for without it, you lose the influence of all those motives with give vigor and worth to human actions.
If you admit the idea that your existence will terminate with the present life, your love of virtue will abate. As you will have nothing to anticipate, the immediate impulses of our feelings, independent of all consequences, will engross your attention.
Hope and fear are the strongest propensities by which man is actuated. If you take away the prospect of immortality, you take away the chief principles on which moral motives operate, or you weaken those principles to such a degree as to render them useless. If you regard your own interest, or that of society, never depart from the doctrine of the soul’s immortality. The consequences of a belief in the opposite doctrine are so manifestly pernicious, that you may rest assured it cannot be founded on truth.
Thirdly. Not only remember that you are immortal, but that you are accountable creatures. It is impossible for God to form a rational being, and not bind that being under moral law, so long as he shall exist. This law flows from the absolute perfection and supremacy of the divine nature. When we say that God is infinitely amiable, it is the same to say that he is to be infinitely loved. Moral obligation, therefore, arises from the nature of God; and, like that, is immutable and eternal. Do not imagine that any change in your state can exempt you from a responsibility for your conduct. The mutability of creatures can make none in God.
A sense of this will lift you above the groveling pursuits of vice, and furnish a perpetual excitement to the cultivation of those virtues which alone can render you worthy and happy. Noting can be more absurd, nothing more pernicious in its consequences, than the sentiment that men are not amenable at the tribunal of God; for if they are at liberty to conduct as they please, without a liability of being called into account; it at once becomes indifferent to them what character their actions assume.
Let me urge upon you the importance of the preceding sentiments, respecting the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and future responsibility. The world is more indebted to prevalence of these three doctrines for its order and government, than to all other causes. These doctrines, as to their full extent and influence, are peculiar to revelation. If you discard them, you enervate every virtuous sentiment; you undermine the foundations of society, and level the human to the brute creation.
You are now entering on a vast, dangerous and tumultuous theatre. A scene opens for the utmost exertions of all your abilities and talents, in support of religion and liberty. I now give you, gentlemen, my parting benediction, wishing you may live honored, respected and beloved in this world; and in the next, shine, like stars in the firmament, forever.
FINIS
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