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 be something in a religion of which the effects were so visible, and the fruits so amiable; and might 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.

to believe like an apostle, and yet leads the life of a sensualist; talks of ardent faith, and yet exhibits a cold and low practice; boasts himself the disciple of a meck 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 intemperate 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 pathetically 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 stagnation of unexerted principles, on the one hand; or the danger, on the other, of their being driven down the gulf of ruin by the unresisted and confluent tides of temptation, fashion, and example.

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 In a very strict and mortified age, of may be pleaded as a palliation of the sins of which a scrupulous severity was the preothers, who either may think themselves dominant character, precautions against an safe while they are only doing what Chris- excessive zeal might, and doubtless would, tians allow themselves to do; or who may be a wholesome and prudent measure. But adduce a Christian's habitual violation of in these times of relaxed principle and frithe divine law, as a presumptive evidence gid indifference, to see people so vigilantly that there is no truth in Christianity. on their guard against the imaginary mis

This swells the amount of the actual mis-chiefs of enthusiasm, while they run headchief beyond calculation; and there is some-long into the real opposite perils of a dething terrible in the idea of this sort of defi-structive licentiousness, reminds us of the nite evil, that the careless Christian can ne-one-eyed animal in the fable; who, living ver know the extent of the contagion he on the banks of the ocean, never fancied he spreads, nor the multiplied infections which could be destroyed any way but by drownthey may communicate in their turn, whom |ing: but, while he kept that one eye conhis disorders first corrupted.

stantly 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.

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 Are not the mischiefs of an enthusiastic piof all the probable good which might have ety insisted on with as much earnestness as if been called forth in others, had his actions an extravagant devotion were the prevailing been consistent with his profession. What propensity? Is not the necessity of moderaa strong, what an almost irresistible convic- tion as vehemently urged as if an intempetion would it carry to the hearts of unbe-rate zeal were the epidemic distemper of lievers, if they beheld that characteristic the great world? as if all our apparent dandifference in the manners of Christians, ger and natural bias lay on the side of a too which their profession gives one to expect, rigid austerity, which required the discreet if they saw that disinterestedness, that hu- and constant counteraction of an opposite mility, sober-mindedness, temperance, sim- principle? Would not a stranger be almost plicity, and sincerity, which are the una- tempted to imagine, from the frequent invoidable fruits of a genuine faith! and which vectives against extreme strictness, that abthe Bible has taught them to expect in eve-straction from the world, and a monastic ry Christian. rage for retreat, were the ruling temper? that we were in some danger of seeing our places of diversion abandoned, and the en

But, while a man talks like a saint, and yet lives like a sinner; while he professes

thusiastic scenes of the Holy Fathers of the scrupulous; and actually seem to disavow desert acted over again by the frantic and uncontrollable devotion of our young persons of fashion?

their right principles, by concessions and accommodations not strictly consistent with them. They often seem cautiously afraid of doing too much, and going too far; and the dangerous plea, the necesssity of living like other people, of being like the rest of the world, and the propriety of not being particular, is brought as a reasonable apology for a too yielding and 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 delineated in

-The Seraph Abdiel, faithful found
Among the faithless, faithful only he
Among innumerable false, unmov'd,
Unshaken, unseduc'd, unterrify'd,

His loyalty he kept, his love and zeal:
Nor numbers, nor example with him wrought
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though single.
Par. Lost, B. iv.

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 his fanatical with his irreligious acquaintance, of the righteous over much with such as 'care for none of these things;' of the strict and precise 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 superstitious 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 But as soon as men begin to consider relithus aggravate his already inflamed appe-gious exercises not as a decency, but a duty; tites by invectives against an evil of which not as a commutation for a self-denying life, he is in little danger. but as a means to promote a holy temper If, however, superstition, where it really and a virtuous conduct; as soon as they feel does exists, injure religion, and we grant disposed to carry the effect of their devotion that it greatly injures it, yet we insist that into their daily life; as soon as their princiscepticism injures it no less; for to deride, ples discover themselves, by leading them or to omit any of the component parts of to withdraw from those scenes and abstain Christian faith, is surely not a less fatal evil from those actions in which the gay place than making uncommanded additions to it. their supreme happiness; as soon as someIt is seriously to be regretted in an age thing is to be done, and something is to be like the present, remarkable for indifference parted with, then the world begins to take in religion and levity in manners, and which offence, and to stigmatize the activity of that stands so much in need of lively patterns of piety which had been commended as long as firm and resolute piety, that many who really it remained inoperative, and had only evaare Christians on the soberest conviction, porated in words. should not appear more openly and decided- When religion, like the, vital principle, ly on the side they have espoused; that they takes its seat in the heart and sends out supassimilate so very much with the manners of plies of life and heat to every part; diffuses those about them (which manners they yet motion, soul, and vigour through the whole scruple not to disapprove) and, instead of an circulation, and informs and animates the avowed but prudent steadfastness, which whole man; when it operates on the prac might draw over the others, appear evident-tice, influences the conversation, breaks out ly fearful of being thought precise and over- into a lively zeal for the honour of God, and

Few indeed of the more orderly and decent have any objection to that degree of Religion which is compatible with their general acceptance with others, or the full enjoyment of their own pleasures. For a formal and ceremonious exercise of the outward duties of Christianity may not only be kept up without exciting censure, but will even procure a certain respect and confidence; and is not quite irreconcileable 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.

:

should be considered as inseparable. And there is not a more common "justification of that idle and dissipated manner in which the second half of the Sunday is commonly spent, even by those who make a conscience of spending the former part properly, than that, 'now they have done their duty, they may take their pleasure.'

the best interests of mankind, then the sin-
cerity of heart or the sanity of mind, of that
person, will become questionable; and it
must be owing to a very fortunate combina-
tion 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 has acquired that of a Chris-
tian.
But while Christian observances are con-
It is surely a folly to talk of being too ho-sidered as tasks, which are to be got over to
ly, too strict, or too good. When there entitle us to something more pleasant; as a
really happens to appear some foundation burthen which we must endure in order to
for the charge of enthusiasm (as there are propitiate an inexorable judge, who makes
indeed sometimes in good people eccentrici- a hard bargain with his creatures, and al-
ties which justify the censure) we may de-lows them just so much amusement in pay
pend upon it, that it proceeds from some de- for so much drudgery-we must not wonder
fect in the judgment, and not from any ex-that such low views are entertained of Chris-
cess in the piety: for in goodness there is no tianity, and that a religious life is reprobated
excess and it is as preposterous to say that as strict and rigid.
any one is too good, or too pious, as that he But to him who acts from the nobler mo-
is too wise, too strong, or too healthy: since tive of love, and the animating power of the
the highest point in all these is only the per- christian hope, the exercise is the reward,
fection of that quality which we admired in the permission is the privilege, the work is
a lower degree. There may be an impru- the wages. He does not carve out some mi-
dent, but there cannot be a superabundant serable pleasure, and stipulate for some
goodness. An ardent imagination may mis-meagre diversion, to pay himself for the hard
lead a rightly turned heart; and a weak in-performance of his duty, who in that very
tellect may incline the best intentioned to performance experiences the highest plea-
ascribe too much value to things of compara- sure; and feels the truest gratification of
tively small importance. Such a one not ha- which his nature is capable, in devoting the
ving discernment enough to perceive where noblest part of that nature to His service, to
the force and stress of duty lie, may inad-whom he owes all, because from Him he has
vertently discredit religion by a too scrupu- received all.
lous exactness in points of small intrinsic va-
lue. And even well-meaning men as well
as hypocrites may think they have done a
meritorious service when their mint' snd
'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 in observing the weightier matters of the law,' in the practice of universal holiness, in the love of God, there can be no possibility of exceeding, while there is no limitation in the command. We are in no danger of loving our neighbour better than But all precepts seem rigorous, all obourselves; and let us remember that we do servances are really hard, where there is not go beyond, but fall short of our duty, not an entire conviction of God's right to our while we love him less. If we were com- obedience and an internal principle of faith manded to love God with some of our heart, and love to make that obedience pleasant. with part of our soul, and a portion of our A religious life is indeed a hard bondage to strength, there would then be some colour one immersed in the practices of the world, for those perpetual cavils about the propor- and under the dominion of its appetites and tion of love and the degree of obedience passions. To a real Christian it is perfect which are due to him. But as the command freedom.' He does not now abstain from is so definite, so absolute, so comprehensive, such and such things, merely because they so entire, nothing can be more absurd than are forbidden (as he did in the first stages that unmeaning, but not unfrequent charge of his progress) but because his soul has brought against religious persons, that they no longer any pleasure in them. And it are too strict. It is in effect saying, that would be the severest of all punishments to they love God too much, and serve him too oblige him to return to those practices, from well. which he once abstained with difficulty, and through the less noble principle of fear.

The foundation of this silly censure is commonly laid in the first principles of edu- There is not, therefore, perhaps, a greater cation, where an early separation is system- mistake than that common notion entertainatically made between duty and pleasure. ed by the more orderly part of the fashiona-" One of the first baits held out for the encou-ble world, that a little religion will make ragement of children is, that when they people happy, but that a high degree of it is have done their duty they will be entitled to incompatible with all enjoyment. For surely some pleasure; thus forcibly disjoining what that religion can add little to a man's hapVOL. I.

42

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piness which restrains him from the com-able life is utterly destructive of seriousness. mission of a wrong action, but which does To instance only in the growing habit of frenot pretend to extinguish the bad principle quenting great assemblies, which is generalfrom which the act proceeded. A religion ly thought insignificant, and is in effect so which ties the hands, without changing the vapid, that one almost wonders how it can heart; which, like the hell of Tantalus, sub-be dangerous;-it would excite laughter, dues not the desire, yet forbids the gratifi- because we are so broken into the habit, cation, is indeed an uncomfortable religion: and such a religion, though it may gain a man something on the side of reputation, will give him but little inward comfort. For what true peace can that heart eujoy which is left a prey to that temper which produced the evil, even though terror or shame may have prevented the outward act.

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 That people devoted to the pursuits of a absence is so insupportable; these, by the possession of which is so joyless, though the dissipated life should conceive of religion as mere force of incessant and indiscriminate a difficult and even unattainable state, it is association, weaken, and in time wear out, easy to believe. That they should conceive the best feelings and affections of the human of it as an unhappy state, is the consumma- heart. tion of their error and their ignorance: for thus contracted from invariable habit, even And the mere spirit of dissipation, that a rational being should have his under-detached from all its concomitant evils, is in standing enlightened; that an immortal be- itself as hostile to a religious spirit, as more ing should have his views extended and en-positive and actual offences. Far be it from larged; that a helpless being should have a me to say that it is as criminal; I only insist consciousness of assistance; a sinful being that it is as opposite to that heavenly mindthe prospect of a pardon, or a fallen one the edness which is the essence of the Christian assurance of restoration, does not seem a temper. probable ground of unhappiness: and on any other subject but religion, such reasoning would not be admissible.

CHAP. VI.

diced spectator, who should have been Let us suppose an ignorant and unprejutaught 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 A stranger, from observing the fashionable up in the service of our churches, to what mode of life, would not take this to be a particular religion we belong. Let him not Christian country.—Lives of professing mix entirely with the most flagitious, but Christians examined by a comparison only with the most fashionable; at least, let with the Gospel.-Christianity not made him keep what they themselves call the the rule of life, even by those who profess best company. Let him scrutinize into the to receive it as an object of faith.-Tem- manners, customs, habits, and diversions, porizing writers contribute to lower the most in vogue, and then infer from all he credit of Christianity,—Loose harangues has seen and heard, what is the established on morals not calculated to reform the religion of the land. heart.

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 consecrated places, and performing certain hallowed ceremonies; but it is an active, vital, influential principle, operating on the heart, restraining the desires, affecting the general conduct, and as much regulating our commerce with the world, our business, pleasures, and enjoyments, our jecture. conversations, designs, and actions, as our behaviour in public worship, or even in pri-nished, if he were told that all these gay, vate devotion.

That it could not be the Jewish he would soon discover: for of rites, ceremonies, and external observances, he would trace but slender remains, He would be equally convinced that it could not be the religion of old Greece and Rome verence to the gods, and inculcated obedi; for that enjoined reence to the laws. His most probable conclusion would be in favour of the Mahometan faith, did not the excessive indulgence of some of the most distinguished in an article of intemperance prohibited even by the sensual prophet of Arabia, defeat that con

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 fashion

How would the petrified inquirer be astoprofessed a religion, meek, spiritual, self-dethoughtless, luxurious, dissipated persons, nying; of which humility, poverty of spirit, a renewed mind, and non-conformity to the world, were specific distinctions!

When he saw the sons of men of fortune,

tians, and occasionally testify their claim to this high character, by a general profession

compliance with the forms of religion, and the ordinances of our church?

scarcely old enough to be sent to school, admitted to be spectators of the turbulent and unnatural diversions of racing and gaming; of their belief in, and a decent occasional and the almost infant-daughters, even of wise and virtuous mothers (au innovation which fashion herself 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 a solemn vow that these children should be bred up in the nature 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 for the possession of wealth, and the wild misapplication of it when possessed; how could he persuade himself that all these anxious pursuers of present enjoyment were the disciples of a master who exhibited the very character and essence of his religion, as it were in a motto 'MY KINGDOM IS NOT

OF THIS WORLD!'

This inquiry must be made, not by a comparison with the state of Christianity in other countries (a mode always fallacious, whether adopted by nations or individuals, is that of comparing themselves with those who are still worse) nor must it be made from any notions drawn from custom, or any other human standard; but from a Scripture view of what real religion is; from any one of those striking and comprehensive representations of it, which may be found condensed in so many single passages of the sacred writings.

Whoever then looks into the Book of God, and observes its prevailing spirit, and then looks into that part of the world under consideration, will not surely be thought very censorious, if he pronounce that the conformity between them does not seem to be very When he beheld those nocturnal clubs, striking; and the manners of the one do not so subversive of private virtue and domestic very evidently appear to be dictated by the happiness, would he conceive that we were spirit of the other. Will he discover that of a religion which in express terms ex- the Christian religion is so much as pretenhorts young men to be sober-minded?' ded to be made the rule of life even by that When he saw those magnificent and decent order who profess not to have discarbrightly illuminated structures which deco-ded it as an object of faith? Do even the rate and disgrace the very precincts of the more regular, who neglect not public obserroyal residence, (so free itself from all these vances, consider Christianity as the measure pollutions) when he beheld the nightly offer- of their actions! Do even what the world ings made to the demon of play, on whose calls religions persons, employ their time, cruel altar the fortune and happiness of wives their abilities, and their fortune, as talents and children are offered up without re- for which they however confess they believe morse; would he not conclude that we were themselves accountable: or do they, in any of some of those barbarous religions which respect live, I will not say up to their proenjoins unnatural sacrifices, and whose hor-fession (for what human being does so?) but rid deities are appeased with nothing less in any consistency with it, or even with an than human victims ? eye to its predominant tendencies? Do perNow ought we not to pardon our imagina- sons in general of this description seem to ry spectator, if he should not at once con- consider the peculiar doctrines of the Gosclude that all the various descriptions of pel, as any thing more than a form of words persons above noticed professed the Chris-necessary indeed to be repeated, and proper tian religion; supposing him to have no to be believed? But do they consider them other way of determining but by the confor- as necessary to be adopted into a governing mity of their manners to that rule by which principle of action?

he had undertaken to judge them? We in- Is it acting a consistent part to declare in deed must judge with a certain latitude, and the solemn assemblies that they are misecandidly take the present state of society in-rable offenders,' and that there is no health to the account; which in some few instan- in them,' and yet never in their daily lives ces, perhaps, must be allowed to dispense to discover any symptom of that humility with that literal strictness, which more pe- and self-abasement, which should naturally culiarly belonged to the first ages of the be implied in such a declaration? Gospel.

Is it reasonable or compatible, I will not But as this is really a Christian country, say with piety, but with good sense, earnestprofessing to enjoy the purest faith in the ly to lament having 'followed the devices and purest form, it cannot be unreasonable to go desires of their own hearts,' and then delia little farther, and inquire whether Chris-berately to plunge into such a torrent of distianity, however firmly established and ge- sipations as clearly indicates that they do not nerally professed in it, is really practised by struggle to oppose one of these devices, to that order of fashionable persons, who, resist one of these desires? I dare not say while they are absorbed in the delights of this is hypocrisy, I do not believe it is, but the world, and their whole souls devoted to surely it is inconsistency. the pursuit of pleasure, yet still arrogate to Be ye not conformed to this world,' is themselves the honourable name of Chris-a leading principle in the book they acknow