The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1870-07-03
Tho Moral Law Continued.

Tho Moral Law Continued. ;
I All systems based ON EmAnationism, or
what IL the Same thing, Pantheism, in iden.
tifying the Absolute with the relative, and
God with his works, must inevitably con.
found the subject to be governed and the
law by which it 10 to be governed in one
and the Same chance-medley, and finally
and practically result In identifying the
moral law and the free will, to which it il the
standard Of right and wrong; in extricable
and helpless confusion, which confusion,
viewed, as all confusion must be, dimly, is
extremely confounding; but met squarely in
the face, and subjected to scientific anatomy,
is easily resolved into it's original unsub-
stantiality. Pantheism, OF emanationism, in
its literal acceptation, renders morality,
and therefore merit, impossible; since it
annihilates human freedom and the divine
law which directs it, in their very essence,
in attributing alike to either the pro-
perties Of both, and thereby annulliDg both
together. The moral law, it has been
shown, is absolute, necessary, immutable
and objective, and mans will is contingent,
free, and liable to all the changes to which
his relative nature, or rather condition, is
subject. Such is the intrinsic absurdity of
Pantheism that it confounds the absolute
and the relative, and furnishes us with q
law, ready to be modified, repealed or
amended at any moment; as versatile as a
weather-cock and as capricious as the
wind and yet by that law must eur viii
be governed, while it is pronounced to be/
by those who profess this doctrine, absolute
in itself, supremely necessary and ipexor-
ably fatal. Pantheists have rare knack
at reconciling irreconcilables, and Of maxi
ing contraries meet and coalesce. They
have a certain chimerical Substantial unity
of their own, which is/ the solvent of all
contrarieties and ont of their laboratory
the finite pompogsly comes forth as the in
finite, the infinite modestly presents it's
card as the finite; effect substitutes itself for
cause, and cause very properly retires. In
other words, the creature denies it's Crea-
to-, and man, as the Yankee who enforced
the laws of God until he had time to i'm
prove on them, afirms himself God. With
the Pantheist the contrarieties of existences
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all things are ONE; and hence the freedom
of the will, and the necessity of the moral
law supposed to guide it, are substantially
identical, and any predomiaance of the
one over the other must be ascribed by no
means to the nature of things, of which
the Pantheist or nationalist is the proper
Judge, but to the proprieties or prejudices
81, L.. ,,nk I,Ol
time to explode. But since all moral con-
ceptions are founded on the distinction
which Pantheism denies, and are without
this distinction utterly inconceivable, it
follows vigorously that merit and demerit
share the fate of liberty, which disappears,
with the loss Of THE distinction, and obj
cation ceases together with the necessity
and immutability Of the law on which it is
based; the perverted affections of our ma
ture, by being one with the Absolute, are
equally legitimate with the most generous;
and the appetites the most depraved and
bestial, since they are but manifestations
of the Godhead, equally with the most
magnanimous and heroic sacrifice % them,
become all alike at once legitimate and
divine. Tie line of demarcation between
good and evil is obliterated; whatever oc-
ours (if anything can occur where all is
necessary is right, because it does occur
the right is determined by the fact, the
success by. it's material consequences; ac-
tions ,he most infamous differ not from
actions the most heroic. Cato and Hello
gubalus, Marcus Aurelius and 1iberius,
Nero and st. Paul, must be classed in the
same category, since there can be no real
or even logical difference betwixt vice and
virtue, and the victim sacrificed to tyranny
is not more innocent or guilty than the ty-
rant to whose whim he is sacrificed. Such
conclusions as these need in practical life,
no refutation; but horrible as they are, they
are the rigorous conclusions from panthe-
istic and rationalistic premises, and cannot
be rejected or repudiated as long as the
principles of which they are the scientific
deductions are maintained. Cousin had
the stupid honesty to liken Spinosa, the
honestest of modern Pantheists, to the
author of the Imitation OF Christ; we rate
our more recent Rationalists or Pantheists
as the most dishonesty stupid imitetors of
Christs internal rival, the devil. ~
Whereas no society, whether civil or do