omnipotent Being, whom I humbly endeavour to serve, grant his blessing to my endeavours, and bestow on them that success which his freely operating influence on the human mind only can produce.

GENERAL NOTION OF RELIGION.

THE term Religion implies those opinions, sen-. timents, and affections, and that conduct which relate to Deity. It presupposes the existence of a supreme Power, on whom man depends, from. whom he has derived his existence, and to whom he stands in the relation of a creature and a subject. By this relation certain feelings and affections must be produced in his mind, and by these certain duties must be dictated. The peculiar nature of these feelings and affections, and of the duties flowing from them, must be moulded by the conceptions which are entertained concerning the Being to whom they are

directed, and by the character which is ascribed to him. If these are distorted and false-if Deity is in conception divested of his genuine attributes-if any degree of imperfection is supposed to belong to him-if he is imaged as susceptible of any human passion or infirmity, or of limited and partial views, the sentiments produced on the contemplation of the object of worship must be proportionably tainted by these misconceptions, and religion must be so far debased and perverted. Religious duties must immediately assume a complexion conformable to the erroneous opinions received and cherished concerning Deity. Modes of conciliating his favour, or of averting his displeasure, suited to the nature and character of the idol erected in the mind, though not exhibited to the senses, will be adopted, and practices established as religious, which have no connexion with genuine and vital religion, whether as conceived by reason, or prescribed by the pure standard of divine revelation. In all such cases religious duties will be separated from the practice of life, and may even have the most fatal influence in corrupting moral principle, and in dictating conduct inconsistent with every moral obligation.

From erroneous and perverse notions of Deity, have proceeded all the false religions that ever existed in the world, all the corruptions of the true, and all the abominations and horrors which these have introduced, sanctioned, and propagat

ed. False religion, instead of being, as the true manifestly is, the greatest blessing to man, has been his bane and his curse; and if the hope of its reformation were extinguished, it might be doubted whether it might not be placed on the same ground with atheism. For, a species of atheism it certainly is, in as much as it removes from view the all-perfect Deity, "glorifies him not as God," and seats on his throne a creature of human imagination. In fact, atheism and corrupt religion have many common features, as I may have afterwards occasion to show.

Whatever, then, can be justly denominated religion, must be founded on knowledge of the divine nature and perfections, must apprehend these, at least to a certain extent, and regard the Deity as the author of that intellectual and moral nature which characterizes man. As God is himself a pure spirit, in whom reside, in the highest degree and without limitation, intellectual and moral excellence, and unbounded power; and as from him is derived whatever excellence is displayed in his creatures; it is evident that he must desire that all whom he has endued with free agency, should act according to that rational constitution which is derived from him. Every attentive and judicious survey of human nature tends to convince us, that man possesses an immaterial substance united to a

a Romans i. 21.

material frame; that the dissolution of the latter involves not the destruction of the former, and that he is in fact destined for immortality. This opinion, as well as the persuasion of superior power, we find, accordingly, prevalent among all nations with whose history we are in any degree acquainted. All religions, therefore, true or false, have considered this future state of existence as the scene in which the rewards of virtue and the punishments of vice will effectually take place, and divine justice be completely manifested. It follows, that one grand branch of true religion must consist in enforcing this principle, and, as a chief spring of right conduct, invariably directing the view to this important and awful futurity.

As the right regulation of conduct is the main and grand object of pure religion, it must necessarily employ certain means of establishing in the human soul, those pious and moral sentiments and feelings which it inculcates, of giving appropriate expression to these, of imparting to them new strength and vigour, of preserving them in the breast in which they are excited, of testifying them to others, and of diffusing them through the world. In a word, it must institute and maintain the most effectual modes of invigorating the ties that bind man to his Creator, of corroborating his social and civil relations, and of fixing in his mind a strong and predominant