tivate fome of the more open fields of ufeful and pleafing inftruction. I confider myfelf as affuming the office, of a Guide to the youthful and inexperienced traveller, ! and as undertaking to point out the interefting profpects of a charming country, without afpiring to the accuracy of a topographer, or the diligence: of an antiquarian. I fhall conduct him, who commits himself to my directions, from a low and narrow valley, where his views have been clofely confined, to the fummit of a lofty mountain-when he has reached the proper point of view, he will feel his faculties expand, he will breathe a purer air, enjoy a wider horizon, and obferve woods, lakes, mountains, plains, and rivers, spreading beneath his feet in delightful profpect. From this commanding eminence, I fhall point out fuch places as are moft deferving his refearches; and finally, I fhall recommend him to thofe, who will prove more inftructive, and more pleafing companions, through the remaining part of his journey. CLASS RELIGION. CHAPTER I. The Chriftian Religion. THE feeds of religious knowledge are implanted in our minds during the earlieft period of our lives. The notions of a Providence, and the various duties which we owe to God, to mankind, and to ourselves, are inculcated long before our judgments are fufficiently matured to determine the reasonableness, or eftimate the utility, of moral and religious truth. That the conduct of the inftructors of children, in thus taking advantage of the curiosity and the docility of the infant mind, is not the refult of fuperftition and credulity, but of good fenfe, and a proper regard to its best interests, and moft valuable improvement, will appear, when the faculty of judgment is fufficiently ftrengthened by time to enable a young man to examine those principles, which he has been taught from his early years to hold venerable and facred. To inquire on what account Chriftianity claims an afcendency over all other branches of knowledge, and what are the particular grounds upon which he believes it to be a divine a divine Revelation, is a duty which he owes equally to his own reason, and to the dignity and importance of the fubject itself. "Revelation claims to be the voice of God, and our obligation to attend to his voice is furely moral in all cafes. And as it is infifted that its evidence is conclufive, upon thorough confideration of it; fo it offers itself to us with manifeft obvious appearances of having fomething more than human in it, and therefore in all reafon requires to have its claims moft ferioufly examined into"." Such an examination, conducted with that degree of care and attention, becoming the infinite. importance of the fubject, will clearly prove that the Chriftian Religion conftitutes the most useful and the moft fublime part of our knowledge. It introduces us to an acquaintance with thofe fubjects, which are in the higheft degree defirable to be known as it opens the cleareft profpect, that man in his prefent state can furvey, of that Being, who is the effence of all perfection, the centre of infinite excellence, and the fountain of inexhaustible wifdom, goodnefs, and power. The knowledge of created beings is low and trivial when compared to this; for however admirable they may be in their conftruction, however ufeful in their nature and properties, and however ftupendous in their frame and magnitude, they are ftill but faint fhadows and a Butler's Analogy, p. 401. imperfect imperfect images of the glory of their Creator. The inftruction, which the Chriftian Religion conveys, is not only of the moft excellent kind, but its acquifition is above all things to be defired, especially when we confider the Almighty, with respect to the wonders of his power, and the dif penfation of his Providence-when we view him. by the clear light of the Chriftian Revelation, not only as the Maker and Governor of the universe, but as the Father of the Saviour of the world, whom he commiffioned to proclaim his divine will, to establish the certainty of a future ftate, and to propofe everlasting happiness to mankind, on condition of faith in his name, and obedience to his commands. To know Chriftianity is therefore both to underftand what the Supreme Being has revealed for our greateft good, and to afcertain what conduct we ought to pursue in order to obtain his approbation and favour. How low therefore muft the acquirements of learning and fcience fink in our opinion, when placed in oppofition to religious knowledge! But when it forms the bafis upon which they are built, they derive additional value as well as ftrength from its fupport; they are confecrated to the best purposes, and directed to their most falutary ends. Much as the knowledge of the fcholar, and the fpeculations of the philofopher may elevate and enlarge the mind, and much as they may improve and adorn it, they extend not our prospects beyond the world, they bound our views within the narrow limits of human life. But the knowledge of a Chriftian takes a more exalted and a more certain aim; it refpects a degree of felicity, which exceeds our utmoft powers of conception, and a fituation of pleafure and delight without alloy, and without end-It relates to a state of existence, when the fpirits of the juft will be made perfect, and the tranfcendent blifs of angels will be imparted to glorified and immortal man. Such being the excellence of Christianity, and fuch the important end, which it propofes, every perfon, who defires to be fully acquainted with divine truth, and to build his happiness upon the moft folid bafis, will take, with the greateft fatisfaction, a particular and diftinct view of its nature and evidences. Then will he avoid the imputation of being a Chriftian merely in compliance with the prejudices of his parents, or the cuftoms of his native country; and he will become one in confequence of a proper examination, and a rational preference . His conviction of its truth will then be "Were a man defigned onely, like a flie, to buzz about here for a time, fucking in the air, and licking the dew, then foon to vanish back into nothing, or to be transformed into worms; how forry and defpicable a thing were he? And fuch, without religion, we fhould be. But it fupplieth us with bufinefs of a moft worthy nature, and lofty importance; it fetteth us upon doing things great and noble as can be; it engageth us to free our minds from all fond conceits, and cleanse our hearts from all corrupt affections; to curb our brutish appetites, to tame our wild paffions, to correct our perverfe inclinations, to conform the dif pofitions |