LETTER V.

AGREEABLE ASSOCIATIONS.

Introductory remarks upon the subject of religion.---Danger of affixing gloomy associations with the performance of religious duty.--Advantages resulting from impressions of an opposite tendency.---Illustrations.

HAVING taken a view, a slight and imperfect view we must acknowledge, of those early and powerful associations which are derived from strong and vivid impressions, we come next to consider those that are gradually fixed in the mind by frequent repetition.

To this second class we have referred all associations of the pleasurable kind. Of those, I well know the friend to whom I address myself, will agree with me in thinking that devotional sentiment ought to take the lead; and were these Letters intended for your exclusive perusal, I should proceed without hesitation or apology. But at a time when infidelity and enthusiasm so much abound; when all who are not infidels are denominated enthusiasts by one party, and all who are not enthusiasts are classed with infidels by the other; it may be necessary to assure the reader, that I am remote from either.

I have no wish to make converts to any particular creed; but I have an earnest, a zealous wish, that all who are fully convinced of the truth of the Gospel, would unite in brotherly love and pure af

fection; being fully persuaded, that were the true spirit of Christian charity to become, as it ought, the distinguishing characteristic of the Christian church, the shafts of infidelity would fall harmless to the ground. Variety of opinion is the inevitable consequence of that variety of intellect which GOD has been pleased to bestow on mankind. In the infinite variety that appears in the human countenance, every pious person acknowledges the wonder-working hand of the great Creator; and is it not the same hand who has mixed and modified the mental powers to the production of a variety as infinite? This arrogant desire of uniformity in sentiment and opinion, seems early to have made its way into the Christian church; and may easily be accounted for in the Jewish converts, from habit and association. It is, however, no where countenanced in the apostolical writings, but is often and effectually combated by the conclusive reasonings of St. Paul, and by the more simple eloquence of the other apostles. Far be it then from me presumptuously to impose my particular creed as the only passport to the favour of the Eternal. Religion I consider as essential to the happiness of mankind; not only to future but to present happiness. And when I speak of religion, I do certainly mean the Christian religion; not however confining the term exclusively to the church of which I am a member, but extending it to all who have "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, JESUS CHRIST himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the buildings fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the LORD."

Nor from this declaration let any one consi

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der me as a latitudinarian in principle. Those passages of doubtful import which have chiefly engaged the attention of theologians, and on which the divisions of sects have been founded, appear not to me to constitute the essential doctrines of Christianity. These, we are expressly told in scripture, are so plain," that he that runneth may read them." I consider that what is above my apprehension, I cannot be commanded to understand; but depending on Divine authority, I believe that what I understand not now, shall, when this fleshly veil is removed, be made clear to me hereafter. As far as I have been able to observe, I have seldom seen the spirit of theological controversy, and of christian charity united; and hope I shall not be condemned for preferring the latter.

The increase of infidelity has been so seriously lamented, and seems so universally acknowledged, by those who ought to be better able to judge than I can presume to imagine myself, that I feel great diffidence in dissenting from an opinion which seems so well established. But as in ancient Rome it was regarded as the mark of a good citizen, never to despair of the fortunes of the Republic, so is it the duty of a good Christian never to despair of the final triumphs of the gospel. Let not then my presumption be deemed unpardonable, when I recommend it to those who have taken this pious alarm, to consider whether it be not rather the number of writers upon infidelity, than of infidels, that has of late encreased. How few who now write upon the subject, have the smallest claim to originality! To two or three sources all their arguments may be traced; and these arguments, after having been rè

peatedly refuted, are again presented in a new form, and imposed as novelties on the unthinking. As novelties, they gain the applause of an hour, and then sink into oblivion; while the truths of Christianity "shine more and more unto the perfect day." Of all who embrace the cause of infidelity, how few are members lost to the Christian church! In private life we consider those who take the name of friends, while their actions discover indifference or enmity, as more dangerous than open foes. So it is with religion; whose sacred cause has suffered more from bigotry and superstition, than it is ever likely to do from the most violent attacks of infidelity. That these attacks will soon be divested of all power to do mischief, we may reasonably hope, when we consider that scepticism can no longer be looked on as a proof of superior wisdom or sagacity.

When the fetters of superstition universally bound the human mind; when the dominion of prejudice was established in every heart, and all with implicit submission yielded to her authority; then, indeed, to dare to doubt was to betray an extraordinary degree of courage and resolution. To dare to investigate, required a still superior magnanimity. In the rage for investigation, however, we may perhaps find, that inquirers were not always at the pains to separate the tares from the wheat. The errors which their sagacity discovered, were often mixed with the most important truths, without which alliance they could not so long have held their usurped dominion over the human mind. But of these the philosophers took no account: still influenced by the bigotry of prejudice, they condemned, as they had believed, in toto. Their followers

have walked in their footsteps; and as it is much easier to doubt than to investigate; to sneer at the prejudices of others than to emancipate our minds from the dominion of our own, in most of the freethinkers we meet with, we may observe that they have made but an exchange of prejudices, and are in reality slaves-while they call themselves free. (E)

Let it be our endeavour so to watch over the early association of our pupils, that in their riper years they may not be under the temptation of re jecting truth, on account of the errors with which we have entangled it; nor of implicitly receiving error, from its being found mixed with truth.

In order to render the mind superior to prejudice, it has been proposed by some philosophers, to omit every species of religious instruction, till the powers of the understanding are sufficiently ripe for comprehending all its mysteries. Religion is then to be learned as a science, a mere matter of speculation; it is to be propounded to the unbiassed judgment as an object of curiosity, almost as worthy of investigation as the laws of electricity or magnetism. But will the pupil come to the investigation with a mind equally well prepared? Has not the preceptor, through the whole course of his pupil's education, been labouring to implant the love of science in his mind? Has he not endeavoured to excite a desire for knowledge, by the stimulus of reward and punishment, praise and disapprobation, and to associate it with the ideas of honour and esteem? If this unceasing attention, this unremitted assiduity, be necessary to direct the intellectual faculties to the pursuit of learning and science, is it to be sup