Excerpt from Addresses of Rev. Drs; Park, Post Bacon: At the Anniversary of the American Congregational Union, May, 1854 Every one is familiar with the distinction between the positive and the moral, as applied to laws and institutions. It is well to retain these terms in their distinct sense. There are positive enactments of men, which are not moral, having no intrinsic propriety of their own. On the other hand, there are moral duties which are not positively commanded by human governors. Under the divine administration, however, the positive and the moral do not entirely exclude each other. Laws and institutions which are positive, have an inherent fitness, although not so apparent as those which are moral. On the other hand, laws and institutions which are moral, receive the positive sanction of Jehovah, although, apart from this positive sanction, they have an authority from Heaven. It is, then, in a modified sense, that divine statutes are called arbitrary or thetical; their intrinsic value being just as real, but not as obvious, as is the inherent worth of moral statutes. Thus we denominate the Chris tian Sabbath a positive institution; for, independently of the divine command, we should be slower to detect its im portance, than the importance of supreme love to our Maker. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.