is effects are not more manifest to worldly men, is because believers do not lead Christian lives. Professors differ but little in their practice from unt elievers. Even real Christians a too diffident and timid, and afraid of acting up to their principles.-The absurdity of the charge commonly brought against religious people, that they are too strict. Ir is, an objection frequently brought against Christianity, that if it exhibited so perfect a scheme, if its influences were as strong, if its effects were as powerful, as its friends pretend, it must have produced more visible consequences in the reformation of mankind. This is not the place fully to answer this objection, which (like all the other cavils against our religion) continues to be urged just as if it never had been answered. That vice and immorality prevail i. no small degree in countries professing Christianity, we need not go out of our own to be convinced. But that this is the case only because this benign principle is not suffered to operate in its full power, will be no less obvious to all who are sincere in their inquiries: For if we allow (and who that examines impartially can help allowing) that it is the natural tendency of Christianity to make men better, then it must be the aversion from receiving it, and not the fault of the principle, which prevents them from becoming so. virtues, man would still find evil propensities enough, in his fallen nature, to make it necessary that he should counteract them by keeping alive his diligence after higher attainments, and to quicken his aspirations after a better state; yet the prevailing temper would be in general right the will would be in a great measure rectified: and the heart, feeling, and acknowledging its dis case, would apply itself diligently to the only remedy. Thus though even the best men have infirmities enough to deplore, and commit sing enough to keep them deeply humble, and feel more sensibly than others the imperfections of that vessel in which their heavenly treasure is hid, they however have the internal consolation of knowing that they shall have to do with a merciful Father, who 'despiseth not the sighing of the contrite heart, nor the desire of such as be sorrowful,' who has been witness to all their struggles against sin, and to whom they can appeal with Peter for the sincerity of their desires -Lord! Thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love Thee.' All the heavy charges which have been brought against religion have been taken from the abuses of it. In every other instance, the injustice of this proceeding would be notorious : but there is a general want of candour in the judgment of men on this subject, which we do not find them exercise on other occasions; that of throwing the fault of the erring or ignorant professor on the profession itself. It does not derogate from the honourable profession of arms, that there are cowards and braggarts in the army. If any man lose his estate by the chicanery of an attorney, or his health by the blunder of a physician, it is commonly said that the one was a disgrace to his business. and the other was ignorant of it; but no one therefore concludes that law and physic are contemptible professions. Those who are acquainted with the effects which Christianity actually produced in the first ages of the church, when it was received in its genuine purity, and when it did operate without obstruction, from its professors at least, will want no oth r proof of its inherent power and efficacy. At that period, its most decided and industrious enemy, the emperor Julian, could recommend the manners of Gallileans to the imitation of his pagan high priests; though Christianity alone is obliged to bear all the he himself, at the same time, was doing every obloquy incurred by the misconduct of its follow thing which the most inveterate malice, sharpeners; to sustain all the reproach excited by igno d by the acutest wit, and backed by the most absolute power could devise, to discredit their doctrines. Nor would the efficacy of Christianity be less visible now in influencing the conduct of its professors, if its principles were heartily and sincerely received. They would, were they of the true genuine cast operate on the conduct so effectually, that we should see morals and manners growing out of principles, as we see other consequences grow out of their proper and natural causes. Let but this great spring have its unobstructed play, and there would be little occasion to declaim against this excess or that enormity. If the same skill and care which are employed in curing symptoms, were vigorously levelled at the internal principle of the disease, the moral health would feel the benefit. If that attention which is bestowed in lopping the redundant and unsightly branches, were devoted to the cultivation of a sound and uncorrupt root, the effect of this labour would soon be discovered by the excellence of the fruits. For though, even in the highest possible ex. ertion of religious principle, and the most dili. gent practice of all its consequential train of rant, by fanatical, by superstitious, or hypocritical professors. But whoever accuses it of a tendency to produce the errors of these professors, musi have picked up his opinion any where rather than in the New Testament; which book being the only authentic history of Christianity, is that which candour would naturally consult for information. But as worldly and irreligious men do not draw their notions from that pure fountain, but from the polluted stream of human practice; as they form their judgment of Divine truth from the conduct of those who pretend to be enlightened by it; some charitable allowance must be made for the contempt which they entertain for Christianity, when they see what poor effects it produces in the lives of the generality of professing Christians. What do they observe there which can lead them to entertain very high ideas of the principles which give birth to such practices? Do men of the world discover any marked, any decided difference between the conduct of nominal Christians and the rest of their neigh. bours who pretend to no religion at all? Do they see, in the daily lives of such, any great abundance of those fruits by which they have heard believers are to be known? On the contrary, do they not discern in them the same anxious and unwearied pursuit after the things of the earth, as in those who do not profess to have any thought of heaven? Do not they see them labour as sedulously in the interests of a debasing and frivolous dissipation, as those who do not pretend to have any nobler object in view? Is there not the same eagerness to plunge into all sorts of follies themselves, and the same unrighteous speed in introducing their children to them, as if they had never entered into a Bolemn engagement to renounce them? Is there not the same self-indulgence, the same luxury, and the same passionate attachment to the things of this world in them, as is visible in those who do not look for another? Do not thoughtless neglect, and habitual dissipation answer, as to society, all the ends of the most decided infidelity? Between the barely decent and the openly profane there is indeed this difference-That the one, by making no profession, deceives neither the world nor his own heart: while the other, by introducing himself in forms, fancies that he does something, and thanks God that he is not like this publican.' The one only shuts his eyes upon the danger which the other despises. But these unfruitful professors would do well to recollect that, by a conduct so little worthy of their high calling, they not only violate the law to which they have vowed obedience, but occasion many to disbelieve or to despise it; that they are thus in a great measure accounta. ble for the infidelity of others, and of course will have to answer for more than their own personal offences. For did they in any respect live up to the principles they profess; did they adorn the doctrines of Christianity by a life in any degree consonant to their faith; did they exhibit any thing of the 'beauty of holiness' in their daily conversation; they would then give such a demonstrative proof not only of the sincerity of their own obedience, but of the brightness of that divine light by which they profess to walk, that the most determined unbeliever would at last begin to think there must he something in a religion of which the effects were so visible, and the fruits so amiable; and in time be led to glorify,' not them, not the imperfect doers of these works, but their Father, which is in heaven.' Whereas, as things are at present carried on, the obvious conclusion must be, either that Christians do not believe in the religion they profess, or that there is no truth in the religion itself. For will he not naturally say, that if its influences were so predominant, its consequences must be more evident! that, if the prize held out were really so bright, those who truly believed so, would surely do something, and sacrifice something to obtain it! This effect of the carelessness of believers on the hearts of others, will probably be a heavy aggravation of their own guilt at the final reckoning :-and there is no negligent Christian can guess where the infection of his example may stop; or how remotely it may be pleaded as a valliation of the sins of others, who either may think themselves safe while they are only doing what Christian's allow themselves to do; or whe may adduce a Christian's habitual violation of the divine law, as a presumptive evidence that there is no truth in Christianity. This swells the amount of the actual mischief beyond calculation; and there is something terrible in the idea of this sort of definite evil. that the careless Christian can never know the extent of the contagion he spreads, nor the mul. tiplied infections which they may communicato in their turn, whom his disorders first corrupted. And there is this farther aggravation of his offence, that he will not only be answerable for all the positive evils of which his example is the cause; but for the omission of all the probable good which might have been called forth in others, had his actions been consistent with his profession. What a strong, what an almost irresistible conviction would it carry to the hearts of unbelievers, if they beheld that characteristic difference in the manner of Christians which their profession gives one to expect, if they saw that disinterestedness, that humility, sober-mindedness, temperance, simplicity, and sincerity, which are the unavoidable fruits of a genuine faith! and which the Bible has taught them to expect in every Christian. But, while a man talks like a saint, and yet lives like a sinner; while he professes to believe like an apostle, and yet leads the life of a sen sualist; talks of ardent faith, and yet exhibits a cold and low practice; boasts himself the dis. ciple of a meek Master, and yet is as much a slave to his passions as they who acknowledge no such authority; while he appears the proud professor of an humble religion, or the intem. perate champion of a self-denying one-such a man brings Christianity into disrepute, confirms those in error who might have been awakened to conviction, strengthens doubt into disbelief, and hardens indifference into contempt. ་ Even among those of a better cast and a purer principle, the excessive restraints of timidity, caution, and that fear of man, which bringeth a snare,' confine, and almost stifle the generous spirit of an ardent exertion in the cause of religion. Christianity may patheti cally expostulate, that it is not always an open enemy which dishonours her,' but her familiar friend.' And what dost thou more than others?' is a question which even the good and worthy should often ask themselves, in order to quicken their zeal; to prevent the total stagna. tion of unexerted principles, on the one hand or the danger, on the other, of their being driver. down the gulf of ruin by the unresisted and con. fluent tides of temptation, fashion, and example. In a very strict and mortified age, of which a scrupulous severity was the predominant cha racter, precautions against an excessive zeal might, and doubtless would, be a wholesome and prudent measure. But in these times of relaxed principle and frigid indifference, to see people so vigilantly on their guard against the imaginary mischiefs of enthusiasm, while they run headlong into the real opposite perils of a destructive licentiousness, reminds us of the oneeyed animal in the fable; who, living on e banks of the ocean, never fancied he could be destroyed any way but by drowning: but, while he kept that one eye constantly fixed on the sea, on which side he concluded all the peril lay, he was devoured by an enemy on the dry land, from which quarter he never suspected any danger. surely not a less fatal evil than making uncom manded additions to it. It is seriously to be regretted in an age like the present, remarkable for indifference in reli gion and levity in manners and which stands so much in need of lively patterns of firm and Are not the mischiefs of an enthusiastic piety resolute piety, that many who really are Chrisinsisted on with as much earnestness as if an tians on the soberest conviction, should not ap. extravagant devotion were the prevailing pro- pear more openly and decidedly on the side they pensity? Is not the necessity of moderation as have espoused; that they assimilate so very vehemently urged as if an intemperate zeal much with the manners of those about them were the epidemic distemper of the great world? | (which manners they yet scruple not to disap as if all our apparent danger and natural bias prove) and, instead of an avowed but prudent lay on the side of a too rigid austerity, which steadfastness, which might draw over the others, required the discreet and constant counteraction appear evidently fearful of being thought preof an opposite principle? Would not a stranger cise and overscrupulous; and actually seem to be almost tempted to imagine, from the frequent disavow their right principles, by concessions invectives against extreme strictness, that ab- and accommodations not strictly consistent with straction from the world, and a monastic rage them. They often seem cautiously afraid of dofor retreat, were the ruling temper? that we ing too much, and going too far; and the danwere in some danger of seeing our places of di- gerous plea, the necessity of living like other version abandoned, and the enthusiastic scenes people, of being like the rest of the world, and of the Holy Fathers of the desert acted over again the propriety of not being particular, is brought by the frantic and uncontrollable devotion of as a reasonable apology for a too yielding and our young persons of fashion? indiscriminate conformity. But, at a time when almost all are sinking into the prevailing corruption, how beautiful, a rare, a single integrity is, let the instances of Lot and Noah declare! And to those with whom a poem is an higher authority than the Bible let me recommend the most animated picture of a righteous singularity that ever was deline ated in -The Seraph Abdiel, faithful found It is not to be denied, that enthusiasm is an evil to which the more religious of the lower class are peculiarly exposed; and this from a variety of causes, upon which this is not the place to enlarge. But who will be hardy enough to assert that the class we are now addressing, commonly fall into the same error. In order to establish or to overthrow this assertion, let each fashionable reader confess whether, within the sphere of his own observation, the fact be realized. Let each bring this vague charge specifically home to his own acquaintance. Let him honestly declare what proportion of noble enthusiasts, what number of honourable fanatics his own personal knowledge of the great world supplies. Let him compare the list of his enthusiastic with that of his luxurious friends, of Few indeed of the more orderly and decen his fanatical with his irreligious acquaintance, have any objection to that degree of Religion of the righteous overmuch" with such as 'care which is compatible with their general accept for none of these things;' of the strict and pre-ance with others, or the full enjoyment of their cise with that of the loose and irregular, of those who beggar themselves by their pious alms, with those who injure their fortune by extravagance; of those who are lovers of God,' with those who are lovers of pleasure. Let him declare whether he sees more of his associates swallowed up in gloomy meditation or immersed in sensuality; whether more are the slaves of superstious observances or of ambition. Surely those who address the rich and great in the way of exhortation and reproof, would do particularly well to define exactly what is indeed the prevailing character; lest, for want of such discrimination they should heighten the disease they might wish to cure, and increase the bias they would desire to counteract, by addressing to the voluptuary cautions which belong to the hermit, and thus aggravate his already inflamed appetites by invectives against an evil of which he is in little danger. If, however, superstition, where it really does exist, injures religion, and we grant that it greatly injures it, yet we insist that scepticism njures it no less, for to deride, or to omit any of the component parts of Christian faith, is own pleasures. For a formal and ceremonious exercise of the outward duties of Christianity may not only be kept up without exciting cen sure, but will even procure a certain respect and confidence; and is not quite irreconcilable with a voluptuous and dissipated life. So far many go; and so far as 'godliness is profitable to the life that is,' it passes without reproach. But as soon as men begin to consider religious exercises not as a decency, but a duty; not as a commutation for a self-denying life, but as a means to promote a holy temper and a virtuous conduct; as soon as they feel disposed to carry the effect of their devotion into their daily life as soon as their principles discover themselves, by leading them to withdraw from those scenes and abstain from those actions in which the gay place their supreme happiness; as soon as some. thing is to be done, and something is to be part ed with, then the world begins to take offence, and to stigmatize the activity of that piety which had been commended as long as it remained in operative, and had only evaporated in words. When religion, like the vital principle, takes its seat in the heart and sends out supplies of Ale and heat to every part; diffuses motion, soul, | in which the second half of the Sunday is com. and vigour through the whole circulation, and monly spent, even by those who make a coninforms and animates the whole man; when it science of spending the former part properly, operates on the practice, influences the conver- than that, now they have done their duty, they sation, breaks out into a lively zeal for the ho- may take their pleasure.' nour of God, and the best interest of mankind, then the sincerity of heart or the sanity of mind, of that person, will become questionable; and it must be owing to a very fortunate combination of circumstances indeed, if he can at once preserve the character of parts and piety, and retain the reputation of a man of sense after he hus acquired that of a Christian. But to him who acts from the nobler motive of love, and the animating power of the christian hope, the exercise is the reward, the permission is the privilege, the work is the wages. He does not carve out some miserable pleasure, and stipulate for some meagre diversion, to pay himself for the hard performance of his duty who in that very performance experiences the highest pleasure; and feels the truest gratification of which his nature is capable, in devoting the noblest part of that nature to His service, to whom he owes all, because from Him he has received all. But while Christian observances are consider. ed as tasks, which are to be got over to entitle us to something more pleasant; as a burthen which we must endure in order to propitiate an inexorable judge, who makes a hard bargain with his creatures, and allows them just so much amusement in pay for so much drudgery -we must not wonder that such low views are It is surely a folly to talk of being too holy, entertained of Christianity, and that a religious too strict, or too good. When there really hap-life is reprobated as strict and rigid. pens to appear some foundation for the charge of enthusiasm (as there are indeed sometimes in good people eccentricities which justify the censure) we may depend upon it, that it proceeds from some defect in the judgment, and not from any excess in the piety: for in goodness there is no excess and it is as preposterous to say that any one is too good, or too pious, as that he is too wise, too strong, or too healthy: since the highest point in all these is only the perfection of that quality which we admired in a lower degree. There may be an imprudent, but there cannot be a superabundant goodness. An ardent imagination may mislead a rightly turned heart and a weak intellect may incline the best intentioned to ascribe too much value to things of comparatively small importance. Such a one not having discernment enough to perceive where the force and stress of duty lie, may inadvertently discredit religion by a too scrupulous exactness in points of small intrinsic value. And even well-meaning men as well as hypocrites may think they have done a meritorious service when their mint' and 'anise' are rigorously tithed. This reprobated strictness, therefore, so far from being the source of discomfort and misery, as is pretended, is in reality the true cause of actual enjoyment, by laying the axe to the root of all those turbulent and uneasy passions, the unreserved and yet imperfect gratification of which does so much more tend to disturb our happiness, than that self-government which Christianity enjoins. But all precepts seem rigorous, all observances are really hard, where there is not an entire conviction of God's right to our obedience and But in observing the weightier matters of an internal principle of faith and love to make the law, in the practice of universal holiness, that obedience pleasant. A religious life is in'n the love of God, there can be no possibility deed a hard bondage to one immersed in the of exceeding, while there is no limitation in the practices of the world, and under the dominion command. We are in no danger of loving our of its appetites and passions. To a real Chrisneighbour better than ourselves; and let us re-tian it is perfect freedom.' He does not now member that we do not go beyond, but fall short of our duty, while we love him less. If we were commanded to love God with some of our heart, with part of our soul, and a portion of our strength, there would then be some colour for those perpetual cavils about the proportion of love and the degree of obedience which are due to him. But as the command is so definite, so absolute, so comprehensive, so entire, nothing can be more absurd than that unmeaning, but not unfrequent charge brought against religious persons, that they are too strict. It is in effect saying, that they love God too much, and serve him too well. abstain from such and such things, merely be. cause they are forbidden (as he did in the first stages of his progress) but because his soul has no longer any pleasure in them. And it would be the severest of all punishments to oblige him. to return to those practices, from which he once abstained with difficulty, and through the less noble principle of fear. There is not, therefore, perhaps, a greater mistake than that common notion entertained by the more orderly part of the fashionable world, that a little religion will make people happy, but that a high degree of it is incompatible with all enjoyment. For surely that r The foundation of this silly censure is com-ligion can add little to a man's happiness which monly laid in the first principles of education, restrains him from the commission of a wrong where an early separation is systematically made between duty and pleasure. One of the first baits held out for the encouragement of children, is that when they have done their duty they will be entitled to some pleasure; thus forcibly disjoining what should be considered as inseparable. And there is not a more common Justification of that idle and dissipated manner action, but which does not pretend to extinguis the bad principle from which the act proceeded. A religion which ties the hands, without changing the heart; which, like the hell of Tantalus. subdues not the desire, yet forbids the gratifica. tion, is indeed an uncomfortabie religion: and such a religion, though it may gain a mau something on the side of reputation w'i give him but little inward comfort. For what true, and in time wear out, the best feelings and at. peace can that heart enjoy which is left a prey to that temper which produced the evil, even though terror or shame may have prevented the outward act. That people devoted to the pursuits of a dissipated life should conceive of religion as a difficult and even unattainable state, it is easy to believe. That they should conceive of it as an unhappy state, is the consummation of their error and their ignorance: for that a rational being should have his understanding caiightened; that an immortal being should have his views extended and enlarged; that a helpless being should have a consciousness of assistance; a sinful being the prospect of a pardon, or a fallen one the assurance of restoration, does not seem a probable ground of unhappiness: and on any other subject but religion, such reasoning would not be admissible. CHAP. VI. fections of the human heart. And the mere spirit of dissipation, thus contracted from inva riable habit, even detached from all its concomi tant evils, is in itself as hostile to a religious spirit, as more positive and actual offences. Far be it from me to say that it is as criminal; 1 only insist that it is as opposite to that heavenly mindedness which is the essence of the Chris. tian temper. Let us suppose an ignorant and unprejudiced spectator, who should have been taught the theory of all the religions on the globe, brought hither from the other hemisphere. Set him down in the politest part of our capital, and let him determine, if he can, except from what he shall see interwoven in the texture of our laws, and kept up in the service of our churches, to what particular religion we belong. Let him not mix entirely with the most flagitious, but only with the most fashionable; at least, let him keep what they themselves call the best company. Let him scrutinize into the manners, customs, ha. bits, and diversions, most in vogue, and then in. fer from all he has seen and heard, what is the established religion of the land. A stranger, from observing the fashionable mode nf life, would not take this to be a Christian That it could not be the Jewish he would country.-Lives of professing Christians examined by a comparison with the Gospel.—ternal observances, he would trace but slender soon discover: for of rites, ceremonies, and exChristianity not made the rule of life, even by remains. He would be equally convinced that those who profess to receive it as an object of it could not be the religion of old Greece and faith.- Temporizing writers contribute to lower the credit of Christianity. Loose ha. Rome; for that enjoined reverence to the gods, rangues on morals not calculated to reform the and inculcated obedience to the laws. His most heart. probable conclusion would be in favour of the Mahometan faith, did not the excessive indulg. ence of some of the most distinguished in an article of intemperance prohibited even by the sensual prophet of Arabia, defeat that conjecture. THE Christian religion is not intended, as some of its fashionable professors seem to fancy, to operate as a charm, a talisman, or incantation, and to produce its effect by our pronouncing certain mystical words, attending at certain con- How would the petrified inquirer be astonish. secrated places, and performing certain hallow-ed, if he were told that all these gay, thought. ed ceremonies; but it is an active, vital, influ-less, luxurious, dissipated persons, professed a ential principle, operating on the heart, restrain-religion, meek, spiritual, self-denying; of which ing the desires, affecting the general conduct, humility, poverty of spirit, a renewed mind, and and as much regulating our commerce with the non-conformity to the world, were specific disworld, our business, pleasures, and enjoyments, tinctions! our conversations, designs, and actions, as our behaviour in public worship, or even in private devotion. That the effects of such a principle are strikingly visible in the lives and manners of the generality of those who give the law to fashion, will not perhaps be insisted on. And indeed, the whole present system of fashionable life is utterly destructive of seriousness. To instance only in the growing habit of frequenting great assemblies, which is generally thought insignificant, and is in effect so vapid, that one almost wonders how it can be dangerous;-it would excite laughter, because we are so broken into the habit, were I to insist on the immorality of passing one's whole life in a crowd.-But those promiscuous myriads which compose the society, falsely so called, of the gay world; who are brought together without esteem, remain without pleasure, and part without regret; who live in a round of diversions, the possession of which is so joyless, though the absence is so insupportable; these, by the mere force of incessant and indiscriminate association weaken. When he saw the sons of men of fortune, scarcely old enough to be sent to school, admitted to be spectators of the turbulent and unnatu. ral diversions of racing and gaming; and the almost infant daughters, even of wise and vir. tuous mothers (an innovation which fashion her. self forbade till now) carried with most unthrifty anticipation to the frequent and late protracted ball-would he believe that we were of a religion which has required from those very parents > solemn vow that these children should be bred up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?' That they should constantly believe God's holy word and keep his commandments?' When he observed the turmoils of ambition, the competitions of vanity, the ardent thirst fo the possession of wealth, and the wild misappli cation of it when possessed; how could he persuade himself that all these anxious pursuers of present enjoyment were the disciples of a mas ter who exhibited the very character and es sence of his religion, as it were in a motto MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD!' When he beheld those nocturnal clubs, se |