derates our attachment to it, she holds forth to us, and bids us habitually to afpire after, the fplendours of that better ftate, where is true glory, and honour, and immortality; thus exciting in us a juft ambition, fuited to our high origin, and worthy of our large capacities, which the little, mifplaced, and perifhable diftinctions of this life would in vain attempt to fatisfy.

into

of

IT would be mere wafte of time to enter any laboured argument to prove at large, that the light in which worldly credit and eftimation are regarded, by the bulk of profeffed Chriftians, is extremely different from that in which they are placed by the page Scripture. The inordinate love of worldly glory indeed, implies a paffion, which from the nature of things cannot be called into exercife in the generality of mankind, because, being converfant about great objects, it can but rarely find that field which is requifite for its exertions. But we every where discover the fame principle reduced to the dimenfions of common life, and modified and directed according to every one's fphere of action. We may difcover it in a fupreme love of diftinction, and admiration, and praife; in the univerfal acceptableness of flattery;

9

"

SECT.

Hattery; and, above all, in the exceffive valuation of our worldly character, in that watch-.fulness with which it is guarded, in that jealoufy when it is queftioned, in that folicitude when it is in danger, in that hot refentment when it is attacked, in that bitternets of fuffering when it is impaired or loft. All thefe emotions, as they are too manifeft to be difputed, fo are they too reputable to be denied. Difhonour, difgrace, and fhame, prefent images of horror too dreadful to be faced; they are evils, which it is thought the mark of a generous fpirit to confider as excluding every idea of comfort and enjoyment, and to feel, in fhort, as too heavy to be borne.

THE Confequences of all this are natural and obvious. Though it be not openly avowed, that we are to follow after worldly eftimation, or to efcape from worldly difrepute, when they can only be pursued or avoided by declining from the path of duty; nay, though the contrary be recognized as being the juft opinion; yet all the effect of this fpeculative conceffion is foon done away in fact. Eftimating worldly credit as of the highest intrinfic excellence, and worldly fhame as the greatest of all poffible evils, we Q 2

fome

IV.

CHAP. fometimes fhape and turn the path of duty itself from its true direction, fo as it may favour our acquifition of the one, and avoidance of the other; or when this cannot be done, we holdly and openly turn afide from it, declaring the temptation is too strong to be refifted.

Various proofs of

the truth of our repreof the opi

fentations

nions on

this point

of the bulk

Chriftians.

Ir were easy to adduce numerous proofs of the truth of these affertions. It is proved, indeed, by that general tendency in Religion to conceal herfelf from the view, (for we might hope that in thefe cafes fhe often is of nominal by no means altogether extinct) by her being apt to vanish from our conversations, and even to give place to a pretended licentioufnefs of fentiments and conduct, and a false fhew of infidelity. It is proved, by that complying acquiefcence and participation in the habits and manners of this diffipated age, which has almost confounded every external diftinction between the Christian and the Infidel, and has made it fo rare to find any one who dares incur the charge of Chriftian fingularity, or who can fay with the Apostle that "he is not afhamed of the Gospel of Proof from "Chrift." It is proved (how can this proof be omitted by one to whofe lot it has so often fallen to witnefs and lament, fometimes he

the House

of Com

mons:

fears

fears to afford an inftance of it?) by that SECT. quick refentment, thofe bitter contentions, those angry retorts, thofe malicious triumphs, that impatience of inferiority, that wakeful fense of paft defeats, and promptness to revenge them, which too often change the character of a Chriftian deliberative Affembly, into that of a stage for prize-fighters: violating at once the proprieties of public conduct, and the rules of focial decorum, and renouncing and chafing away all the charities. of the Religion of Jefus!

BUT from all leffer proofs, our attention is From Duelling drawn to one of a ftill larger fize, and more determined character. Surely the reader will here anticipate our mention of the practice of Duelling: a practice which, to the difgrace of a Chriftian fociety, has long been suffered to exist with little restraint or oppofition.

THIS practice, whilft it powerfully supports, chiefly refts on, that exceffive overvaluation of character, which teaches that worldly credit is to be preferved at any rate, and difgrace at any rate to be avoided. The unreasonableness of duelling has been often proved,

Q3

IV.

Duelling,

wherein its

guilt chiefly confifts.

CHAP. proved, and it has often been fhewn to be criminal on various principles: fometimes it has been oppofed on grounds hardly tenable; particularly when it has been confidered as an indication of malice and revenge (a). But it seems hardly to have been enough noticed in what chiefly confifts its effential guilt; that it is a deliberate preference of the favour of man, before the favour and approbation of God, in articulo mortis, in an instance, wherein our own life, and that of a fellow-creature are at ftake, and wherein we run the risk of rufhing into the prefence of our Maker in the very act of offending him, It would detain us too long, and it were fomewhat befide our prefent purpose, to enumeratę the mifchievous confequences which refult from this practice. They are many and great; and if regard be had merely to the temporal interefts of men, and to the wellbeing of fociety, they are but poorly counterbalanced by the plea, which must be admitted in its behalf by a candid observer of human nature, of a courtefy and refinement in our modern manners unknown to ancient times.

(a) Vide Hey's Tract, Rouffeau's Eloifa, and many periodical Effays and Sermons.

BUT