religion consists in action, or obedience to the eternal moral law of God, we have been most gravely and venerably told, that it consists in the belief of certain opinions, which we could form no ideas of, or which were contrary to the clear perceptions of our minds, or which had no tendency to make us either wiser or better, or, which is much worse, had a manifest tendency to make us wicked and immoral. And this belief, tais impious belief, arising from imposition on one side, and from want of examination on the other, has been called by the sacred name of religion; whereas religion consists in knowledge and obedience. We know there is a God, and we know his will, which is, that we should do all the good we can; and we are assured, from his perfections, that we shall find our own good in so doing. And what would we have more? Are we, after so much inquiry, and in an age full of liberty, children still? And cannot we be quiet, unless we have holy romances, sacred fables, and traditionary tales, to amuse us in an idle hour, and give rest to our souls, when our follies and vices will not suffer us to rest?

You have been tanght, indeed, that right belief, or orthodoxy, will, like charity, cover a multitude of sins; but he not deceived; belief of, or mere assent to, the truth of propositions upon evidence is not a virtue, nor unbelief'a vice: faith is not a voluntary act; it does not depend upon the will; every man must believe or disbelieve or doubt, whether he will or not, according as evidence appears to him: so that he who believes right is never the better, nor is he who

believes wrong ever the worse. Faith then being absolutely involuntary, can never become a duty. Divine faith is justly called the gift of God, as being above all human abilities. If, therefore men, however dignified or distinguished, command us to believe, they are guilty of the highest folly and absurdity, because it is out of our power; but, if they command us to be. lieve, and annex rewards to belief and severe penalties to unbelief, then are they most wicked and immoral, because they annex rewards and punishments to what is involuntary, and therefore neither rewardable nor punishable. It appears then very plainly unreasonable and unjust to command us to believe any doctrine, good or bad, wise or unwise; but when men command us to believe opinions which have not only no tendency to promote virtue, but shall be allowed to commute or atone for the want of it, then are they arrived at the utmost reach of impiety; then is their iniquity full then have they finished the misery and completed the destruction of poor mortal men: by betraying the interest of virtue they have undermined and sapped the foundation of all human happiness; and how treacherously and dreadfully have they betrayed it? A gift well applied; the chattering of some unintelligible sounds called creeds; an unfeigned assent and consent to whatever the church enjoins; religious worships and consecrated feasts; repenting on a death-bed; pardons rightly sued out; and absolutions authoritatively given; have done more toward making and continuing men vicious than all

their natural passions and infidelity put together; for infidelity can only take away the supernatural rewards of virtue, but these superstitious opinions and practices have not only turned the scene, and made men lose sight of the natural rewards of. it, but have induced them to think, that, were there no hereafter, vice would be preferable to virtue, and that they still increase in happiness as they increase in wickedness: and this they have been taught in several religious discourses and sermons delivered by men whose orthodoxy was never doubted; particularly by a late reverend prelate, I mean Bishop Atterbury, in his sermon on these words, If in this life only be hope, then we are of all men most miserable;" where vice and faith ride most lovingly and triumphantly together. But these church doctrines, of the natural excellency of vice, the efficacy of a right belief, the dignity of atonements and propitiations, have besides

depriving us of the native beauty and charms of honesty, and thus cruelly stabbing virtue to the heart, raised and diffused among men a certain unnatural passion, which we shall call religious hatred; a hatred, constant, deep-rooted, and immortal. All other passions rise and fall, die and revive again; but this of religious and pious hatred rises and grows every day stronger upon the mind as we grow more religious; because we hate for God's sake, for our soul's sake, and for the sake of those poor souls too, who have the misfortune not to believe as we do. And can we, in so good a cause, hate too much? The more thoroughly we hate, the better we are; and the more mischief we do the bodies and estates of these infidels and heretics, the more do we shew our love to God. This is religious zeal, and this has been called divinity, but remember that the only true divinity is HUMANITY.

Married on Friday, the 23d inst., at Westham church, by Mr. Jones, Rector of Stratford, and one of the Chaplains of the Bishop of London, Mr. John Dobell, of Cranbrook, Kent, to Miss Julietta Thompson, fourth daughter of Samuel Thompson, Esq., of Plaistow, Essex. The parties being Protestant Dissenters, commonly known by the name of Freethinking Christians, presented to the minister a written protest against the marriage ceremony, in which they expressed their reasons of opposition on the following

grounds:-"1st. Because, whilst obeying the civil institutions of the country, they deny the scriptural authority of 'the Church of England' to decree rites and ceremonies, much less to impose such on those who dissent from its community. 2d. Because, whilst not disputing the civil, they do not admit the scriptural, authority of the minister by whom the marriage ceremony is performed, believing the Jewish priesthood to have been superseded by Christianity, and none after to have been instituted by Christ. 3d. Because they'

New Chapel, Stamford Street. -The Trustees, of the late Chapel in Princes Street, which was sold under the Act of Parliament for the improvement of Westminster, have nearly completed an elegant chapel on the south side of Stamford Street, Blackfriars' Road. Having failed to obtain a suitable piece of ground for the re-erection of the Chapel in Westminster, they were induced to build on the present spot, in consequence of an application from the congregation late of St. Thomas's, whose lease the Governors of St. Thomas's Hospital had refused to renew, and who will now unite themselves to the Princes Street congregation. The new Chapel, it is expected, will be opened for divine worship on Sunday, the 17th of this month (August, 1823).

rians at least will obtain relief next session. Their claims on the score of conscience were allowed by the opposers of the Bill; and it is pleasing to record, that the Unitarians were spoken of by their Lordships without any illiberality, and as an acknowledged Christian denomination. -Christian Reformer.

Chapels.

Opening of the Unitarian Meet ing-House, Great Cross Hal Street, Liverpool.-On Sunday' 8th June, (1823,) the meeting house, lately occupied by a society of Calvinist Baptists, was opened for the public worship of the One and only God, by the society of Unitarian Christians formerly meeting în Sir Thomas's Buildings. The Rev. George Harris, of Bolton, in the morning, delivered a very eloquent and impressive discourse, to a very attentive and exceedingly crowded audience. In the evening the Rev. Robert Cree, of Preston, delivered a very interesting, argumentative discourse on the Doctrine of Mystery the mark of Antichrist; the place was well filled.

The Rev. George Harris preached also on the Thursday