vision for miseries, which are not the less real because they do not obtrude upon the sight, and awaken the tenderness of immediate sympathy. This is a mechanical charity, which requires springs and wheels to set it a going; whereas real Christian charity does not wait to be acted upon by impressions and impulses.

Another cause which very much intimidates well-disposed people, is their terror lest the cha. racter of piety should derogate from their reputation as men of sense. Every man of the world naturally arrogates to himself the superiority of understanding over every religious man. He, therefore, who has been accustomed to set a high value on his intellectual powers, must have made very considerable advances in piety before he can acquire a magnanimous indifference to this usurped superiority of another: before he can submit to the parsimonious allotment of wit and learning, which is assigned him by the supercilious hand of worldly wisdom. But this attack upon his pride will be no bad touchstone of his sincerity. If his advances have not been so considerable, then by an hypocrisy of the least common kind, he will be industrious to appear less good than he really is, lest the detection of his serious propensities should draw on him the imputation of ordinary parts or low attainments. But the danger is, that while he is too sedulously intent on maintaining his pretensions as an ingenious man, his claims to piety should daily become weaker. That which is long suppressed is too frequently extinguished.

ral to our corrupt hearts, as to require none of the helps which are indispensable on all other subjects? Travellers, who are to visit any particular country, are full of earnest inquiry, and diligent research; they think nothing indifferent by which their future pleasure or advantage may be affected. Every hint which may procure them any information, or caution them against any danger, is thankfully received; and all this, because they are really in earnest in their preparation for this journey; and do fully believe, not only that there is such a country, but that they themselves have a personal individual interest in the good or evil which may be found in it.

While

A farther danger to good kind of people seems to arise from a mistaken idea, that only great and actual sins are to be guarded against. Whereas, in effect, temptations to the grosser sins do not so frequently occur to those who are hedged in by the blessings of affluence, by a re gard to reputation and the care of health; while sins of omission make up, perhaps, the most formidable part of their catalogue of offences. These generally supply in number what they want in weight, and are the more dangerous for being little ostensible. They continue to be repeated with less regret, because the remembrance of their predecessors does not, like the remembrance of formal, actual crimes, assume a body and a shape, and terrify by the impression of particular scenes and circumstances. the memory of transacted evil haunts a tender conscience by perpetual apparition; omitted duty, having no local or personal existence, not being recorded by standing acts and deeds, and dates, and having no distinct image to which the mind may recur, sinks into quiet oblivion, without deeply wounding the conscience, or tormenting the imagination. These omissions were, perhaps, among the 'secret sins,' from which the royal penitent so earnestly desired to be cleansed: and it is worthy of the most serious consideration, that these are the offences against which the Gospel pronounces some of its very alarming denunciations. It is not less against negative than against actual evil, that affectionate exhortation, lively remonstrance, and pointed parable, are exhausted. It is against the tree which bore no fruit, the lamp which had no

Nothing, perhaps, more plainly discovers the faint impression which religion has really made upon our hearts, than this disinclination, even of good people, to serious conversation. Let me not be misunderstood; I do not mean the wrangle of debate; I do not mean the gall of controversy; I do not mean the fiery strife of opinions, than which nothing can be less favourable to good nature, good manners, or good society. But it were to be wished, that it was not thought ill-bred and indiscreet that the escapes of the tongue should now and then betray the abun. dance of the heart; that when such subjects are casually introduced, a discouraging coldness did not instantly take place of that sprightly animation of countenance which made common topics interesting. If these 'outward and visi-oil, the unprofitable servant who made No use of ble signs were unequivocal, we should form but moderate ideas of the inward and spiritual grace.' It were to be wished, that such subjects were not thought dull merely because they are good; it were to be wished that they had the common chance of fair discussion; and that parts and learning were not ashamed to exert themselves on occasions where both might appear to so much advantage. If the heart were really interested, could the affections forbear now and then to break out into language? Artits, physicians, merchants, lawyers, and scholars keep up the spirit of their professions by mutual intercourse. New lights are struck out, improvements arc suggested, emulation is kin- Another cause, which still further impedes dled, love of the object is inflamed, mistakes of the reception of Religion even among the wellthe judgment are rectified, and desire of excel-disposed, is, that garment of sadness in which lence is excited by communication. And is piety people delight to suppose her dressed; and that alone so very easy of acquisition, so very natu- life of hard austerity, and pining abstinence,

his talent, that the severe sentence is denounced; as well as against corrupt fruit, had oil, and talents ill employed. We are led to believe, from the same high authority, that omitted duties and neglected opportunities, will furnish no inconsiderable portion of our future condemnation. A very awful part of the decision, in the great day of account, seems to be reserved merely for carelessness, omissions, and negatives. Ye gave me No meat; ye gave me No drink; ye took mie NOT in ; ye visited me NOT. On the punishment attending positive crimes, as being more naturally obvious, it was not, perhaps, thought so necessary to insist.

It cannot be denied that good sort of people sometimes use religion as the voluptuous use physic. As the latter employ medicine to make health agree with luxury, the former consider religion as a medium to reconcile peace of conscience with a life of pleasure. But no moral chemistry can blend natural contradictions. In all such unnatural mixtures the world will still be uppermost, and religion will disdain to coalesce with its antipathy.

which they pretend she enjoins on her disciples. | parably attached to the difficult and self-denying And it were well if this were only the misre-injunction of keeping ourselves unspotted from presentation of her declared enemies; but un- the world.' This adjunct is the more needful, happily, it is the too frequent misconception of as many are apt to make a kind of moral comher injudicious friends. But such an over- mutation, and to allow themselves so much charged picture is not more unamiable than it pleasure in exchange for so much charity. But is unlike; for I will venture to affirm, that reli- one good quality can never stand proxy for an. gion, with all her beautiful and becoming sancti- other. The Christian virtues derive their highty, imposes fewer sacrifices, not only of rational, est lustre from association: they have such a but of pleasurable enjoyment, than the uncon- spirit of society, that they are weak and impertrolled dominion of any one vice. Her service fect when solitary; their radiance is brightened is not only safety hereafter, but freedom here. by an intermingling of their beams, and their She is not so tyrannizing as appetite, so exact- natural strength multiplied by their alliance ing as the world, nor so despotic as fashion. Let with each other. us try the case by a parallel, and examine it, not as affecting our virtue but our pleasure. Does Religion forbid the cheerful enjoyments of life as rigorously as Avarice forbids them? Does she require such sacrifices of our ease as Ambition, or such renunciation of our quiet as Pride? Does Devotion murder sleep like Dissipation? Does she destroy health like Intemperance? Does she annihilate Fortune like Gaming? Does she embitter Life like Discord; or abridge it like Duelling? Does Religion impose more vigilance than Suspicion? or inflict half as many mortifications as Vanity? Vice has her martyrs and the most austere and self-denying Ascetic (who mistakes the genius of Christianity almost as much as her enemies mistake it) never tormented himself with such cruel and causeless severity as that with which Envy lacerates her unhappy votaries. Worldly honour obliges us to be at the trouble of resenting injuries; and worldly prudence obliges us to be at the expense of litigating about them: but Religion spares us the inconvenience of the one, and the cost of the other, by the summary command to forgive; and by this injunction she consults our happiness no less than our virtue, for the torment of constantly hating any one must be, at least, equal to the sin of it. And resentment is an evil so costly to our peace that we should find it more cheap to forgive even were it not more right. If this estimate be fairly made, then is the balance clearly on the side of Religion, even in the article of pleasure.

Let me not be suspected of intending to insinuate that religion encourages men to fly from society, and hide themselves in solitudes; to renounce the generous and important duties of active life for the visionary, cold, and fruitless virtues of an hermitage or a cloister. No: the mischief arises not from our living in the world, but from the world living in us; occupying our hearts, and monopolizing our affections. Action is the life of virtue; and the world is the theatre of action. Perhaps some of the most perfect patterns of human conduct may be found in the most public stations, and among the busiest orders of mankind. It is, indeed, a scene of trial, but the glory of the triumph is proportioned to the peril of the conflict. A sense of danger quickens circumspection, and makes virtue more vigilant. Lot, perhaps, is not the only character, who maintained his integrity in a great city, proverbially wicked, and forfeited it in the bosom of retirement.

It has been said that worldly good sort of people are a greater credit to their profession, by exhibiting more cheerfulness, gayety, and happiness, than are visible in serious Christians. If this assertion be true, which I very much suspect, is it not probable that the apparent ease and gayety of the former may be derived from the same source of consolation which Mrs. Quickly recommends to Falstaff, in Shakspeare's admirable picture of the death-bed scene of that witty profligate? He wished for comfort, quoth mine hostess, and began to talk of God; now I, to comfort him, begged him he should not think of God; it was time enough to trouble himself with these things.' Do not ma. ny deceive themselves by drawing water from these dry wells of comfort? and patch up a precarious and imperfect happiness in this world, by diverting their attention from the concerns of the next.

It is an infirmity not uncommon to good kind of people, to comfort themselves that they are living in the exercise of some one natural good quality, and to make a religious merit of a constitutional happiness. They have also a strong propensity to separate what God has joined, belief and practice; the creed and the commandments; actions and motives; moral duty and religious obedience. Whereas, you will hardly find, in all the new Testament, a moral, or a social virtue, that is not hedged in by some religious injunction: scarcely a good action enjoined towards others, but it is connected with some exhortation to personal purity. All the charities of benevolence are, in general, so agreeable to the natural make of the heart, that it is a very tender mercy of God to have made that a duty, which, to finer spirits would have been irresistible as an inclination, and to have annexed the Another obstruction to the growth of piety, highest future reward to the greatest present is that unhappy prejudice which even good kind pleasure. But in order to give a religious sanc- of people too often entertain against those who tion to a social virtue, the duty of visiting the differ from them in opinion. Every man who fatherless and widow in their affliction,' is inse-l is sincerely in earnest to advance the interests

of religion, will have acquired such a degree of candour, as to become indifferent by whom good is done, or who has the reputation of doing it, provided it be actually done. He will be anxi. ous to increase the stock of human virtue and of happiness by every possible means. He will whet and sharpen every instrument of goodness, though it be not cast in his own mould, or fashioned after his own pattern. He will never consider whether the form suits his own particular taste, but whether the instrument itself be calculated to accomplish the work of his

master.

cordially relish a religion which professedly tells them it was sent to stain the pride of human glory, and to exclude boasting?'

We show the rough and thorny way to heav'n, While we the primrose path of dalliance tread. Would it not become the character of a man

But though the passive and self-denying virtues are not high in the esteem of mere good sort of people, yet they are peculiarly the evangelical virtues. The world extols brilliant actions; the Gospel enjoins good habits and right motives: it seldom inculcates those splendid deeds which make heroes, or teaches those lofty sentiments which constitute philosophers; but it enjoins the harder task of renouncing self, of living uncorrupted in the world, of subduing I shall conclude these Isose and immethodi- besetting sins, and of 'not thinking of ourselves cal hints with a plain though short address to more highly than we ought.' The acquisition those who content themselves with a decent pro- of glory was the precept of other religions, the fession of the doctrines, and a formal attend-contempt of it is the perfection of Christianity. ance on the offices, instead of a diligent dis- Let us then be consistent, and we shall never charge of the duties of Christianity. Believe, be contemptible, even in the eyes of our eneand forgive me!-you are the people who lower mies. Let not the unbeliever say that we have religion in the eyes of its enemies. The open- one set of opinions for our theory, and another ly profane, the avowed enemies to God and for our practice, that to the vulgar goodness, serve to confirm the truths they mean to oppose, to illustrate the doctrines they deny, and to accomplish the very prediction they affect to disbelieve. But you, like an inadequate and of sense, of which consistency is a most une faithless prop, overturn the edifice which you quivocal proof, to choose some rule and abide by pretend to support.-When an acute and keen- it? An extempore Christian is a ridiculous eyed infidel measures your lives with the rule character. Fixed principles, if they be really by which you profess to walk, he finds so little principles of the heart, and not merely opinions analogy between them, the copy is so unlike the of the understanding, will be followed by a conpattern, that this inconsistency of your's is the sistent course of action; while indecision of pass through which his most dangerous attack spirit will produce instability of conduct. If is made. And I must confess, that, of all the there be a model which we profess to admire, arguments, which the malignant industry of in- let us square our lives by it. If either the Kofidelity has been able to muster, the negligent ran of Mahomet, or the Revelations of Zoroaster conduct of professing Christians seems to me to be a perfect guide, let us follow one of them. If be the only one which is really capable of stag: either Epicurus, Zeno, or Confucius, be the pe gering a man of sense. He hears of a spiritual culiar object of our veneration and respect, let and self-denying religion; he reads the beatitudes; he observes that the grand artillery of of their philosophy; and then, though we may us avowedly fashion our conduct by the dictates the gospel is planted against pride and sensu- be wrong, we shall not be absurd; we may be ality. He then turns to the transcript of this erroneous, but we shall not be inconsistent; but perfect original; to the lives which pretend to if the Bible be in truth the word of God, as we be fashioned by it. There he sees, with tri- profess to believe, we need look no farther for a umphant derision that pride, self-love, luxury, consummate pattern. 'If the Lord be God, let self-sufficiency, unbounded personal expense, us follow HIM.' If Christ he a sacrifice for sin; and an inordinate appetite for pleasure, are re-let Him be also to us the example of an holy putable vices in the eyes of many of those who acknowledge the truth of the Christian doctrines. He weighs that meekness to which a blessing is promised, with that arrogance which is too common to be very dishonourable. He compares that non-conformity to the world, which the Bible makes the criterion of a believer, with that rage for amusement which is not consider ed as disreputable in a Christian. He opposes the self-denying and lowly character of the Author of our faith with the sensual practices of his followers. He finds little resemblance between the restraints prescribed, and the gratifications indulged in. What conclusions must a speculative reasoning sceptic draw from such premises? Is it any wonder that such phrases as a broken spirit,' a contrite heart,' 'poverty of spirit,' refraining the soul,' keeping it low, and casting down high imaginations,' should

life.

moral and intellectual scene about us begins to But I am willing to flatter myself that the brighten. I indulge myself in moments of the most enthusiastic and delightful vision, that things are beginning gradually to lead to the fulfilment of that promise, that all the king. doms of the earth shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ.' I take encourage. ment that that glorious prophecy, that of the increase of his government there shall be no end,' seems to be gradually accomplishing ; and in no instance more, perhaps, than in the noble attempt about to be made for the abolition of the African slave-trade.* For what event can human wisdom foresee more likely to contribute to give the Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession,' than the success of such an

be to the unbelieverfoolishness,' when such humiliating doctrines are a 'stumbling block' to *This interesting question was then beginning to be professing Christians; to Christians who cannot agitated in parliament. VOL. I.

S

enterprise, which will restore the lustre of the British name, and cut off at a single stroke as large and disgraceful a portion of national guilt as ever impaired the virtue or dishonoured the councils of a Christian country.

A good spirit seems to be at work. A catholic temper is diffusing itself among all sects and parties an enlightened candour, and a liberal toleration, were never more prevalent; good men combat each others opinions with less rancour, and better manners;* they hate each other less for those points in which they disagree, and love each other more for those points in which they join issue than they formerly did. We have many public encouragements; we have a pious king; a wise and virtuous minister; very many respectable, and not a few serious clergy. Their number I am willing to hope is daily increasing. Among these some of the first in dignity are the most exemplary in conduct. An increasing desire to instruct the poor, to inform the ignorant, and to reclaim the vicious, is spreading among us. The late royal proclamation affords an honourable sanction to virtuous endeavours, and lends nerves and sinews to the otherwise feeble exertions of individuals, by enforcing laws wisely planned, but hitherto feebly executed. In short, there is a good hope that we shall more and more become that happy people who have the Lord for their God:' that as prosperity is already within our walls, peace and virtue may abide in our dwellings. But vain will be all endeavours after partial and subordinate amendment. Reformation must begin with the GREAT, or it will never be effectual. Their example is the fountain whence the vulgar draw their habits, actions, and characters. To expect to reform the poor while the opulent are corrupt is to throw odours into the stream while the springs are poisoned.

If, therefore, the rich and great will not, from a liberal spirit of doing right, and from a christian spirit of fearing God, abstain from those offences, for which the poor are to suffer fines and imprisonments, effectual good cannot be done. It will signify little to lay penalties on the horses of the drover, or the wagon of the husbandman, while the chariot wheels of the great roll with incessant motion; and while the sacred day on which the sons of industry are commanded by royal proclamation to desist from travelling, is for that very reason selected for *This was written before the French revolution!!

|

the journeys of the great, and preferred because the road is incumbered with fewer interruptions But will it not strike every well-meaning Sunday traveller with a generous remorse, when he reflects that he owes the accommodation of an unobstructed road to the very obedience which is paid by others to that divine and human law which he is in the very act of violating?

Will not the common people think it a little inequitable that they are abridged of the diversions of the public house and the gaming yard on Sunday evening, when they shall hear that many houses of the first nobility are on that evening crowded with company, and such amusements carried on as are prohibited by human laws even on common days? As imitation, and a desire of being in the fashion, govern the lower orders of mankind, it is to be feared that they will not think reformation reputable, while they see it recommended only, and not practised, by their superiors. A precept counteracted by an example, is worse than fruitless; it is ridicu lous; and the common people will be tempted to set an inferior value on goodness, when they find it is only expected from the lower ranks.. They cannot surely but smile at the disinterestedness of their superiors, who, while they seem anxiously concerned to save others, are so little solicitous about their own state. The ambitious. vulgar will hardly relish a salvation which is only intended for plebians; nor will they be apt to entertain very exalted notions of that promised future reward, the road to which they perceive their betters are so much more earnest to point out to them, than to walk in themselves.

It was not by inflicting pains and penalties that Christianity first made its way into the world: the divine truths it inculcated received irresistible confirmation from the LIVES, PRACTICES, and EXAMPLES of its venerable professors. These were arguments which no popular prejudice could resist, no Jewish logic refute, and no Pagan persecution discredit. Had the primitive Christians only praised and promulgated it the most perfect religion the world ever saw, would have produced but very slender effects on the faith and manners of the people. The astonishing consequences which followed the pure doctrines of the Gospel, would never have been produced, if the jealous and inqusitive eye of malice could have detected that the DOCTRINES the Christians recommended had not been illus trated by the LIVES they led.

POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION

THE public favour having already brought a wrong system, without so much as attempting To these observations this little essay to another edition, the author to build up a right one. has been sedulous to discover any particular ob- the author begs leave to reply, that whilst anijections that have been made to it. Since the madverting on error, the insisting on obvious preceding sheets were printed off, it has been duty was purposely omitted. To tell people what. suggested by some very respectable persons who they already know to be right, was less the inhave honoured this slight performance with their tention of this address, than to observe upon notice, that it inculcates a too rigid austerity, practices which long habit had prevented them and carries the point of observing Sunday much from perceiving to be wrong. Sensible and welltoo far; that it takes away all the usual occu- meaning persons can hardly be at a loss on a pations of the day, without substituting any subject which has exhausted precept and weaothers in their stead; and that it only pulls down | ried exhortation. To have expatiated on it,

would only have been to repeat what is already | known and acknowledged to be right, even by those whom the hurry of engagements will not allow to take breath one day in a week, that they may run the race of pleasure with more alacrity on the other six. But probably it is not the duties, but the amusements appropriated to the day about which the inquiry is made. It will, perhaps, be found, that the intervals of a Sunday regularly devoted to all its reasonable and obvious employments, are not likely to be so very tedious, but that they might be easily and pleasantly filled up by cheerful, innocent, and instructive conversation. Human delights would be very circumscribed indeed, if the practices here noticed as erroneous, included the whole circle of enjoyments. In addition to the appropriate pleasures of devotion, are the pleasures of retirement, the pleasures of friendship, the pleasures of intellect, and the pleasures of beneficence, to be estimated as nothing?

There will not be found, perhaps, a single person who shall honour these pages with a perusal, who has not been repeatedly told, with an air of imposing gravity, by those who produce cards on a Sunday evening, that it is better to play than to talk scandal.-Before this pithy axiom was invented, it was not perhaps suspect ed that Sunday gaming would ever be adduced as an argument in favour of morals. Without entering into the comparative excellence of these two occupations, or presuming to determine which has a claim to pre-eminence of piety, may we not venture to be thankful that these alternatives do not seem to empty the whole stock of human resource; but that something will still be left to occupy and to interest those who adopt neither the one nor the other?

People in the gay and elegant scenes of life are perpetually complaining that an extensive acquaintance, and the necessity of being constantly engaged in large circles and mixed as. semblies, leaves them little leisure for family enjoyment, select conversation, and domestic delights. Others, with no less earnestness, lament that the hurry of public stations, and the necessary demands of active life, allow them no time for any but frivolous reading. Now the recurrence of one Sunday in every week seems to hold out an inviting remedy for both these evils. The sweet and delightful pleasures of

family society might then be uninterruptedly enjoyed, by the habitual exclusion of trifling and idle visiters, who do not come to see their friends, but to get rid of themselves. Persons of fashion, living in the same house, and connected by the closest ties, whom business and pleasure keep a sunder during the greatest part of the week, would then have an opportunity of spending a little time together, and of cultivating that friendship for each other, that affection for their children, and that intercourse with their Maker, to which the present manners are not very favourable. To the other set of complainers, those who can find no time to read, this interval naturally presents itself; and it so happens, that some of the most enlightened men the world ever saw, have, not unfrequently, devoted their rare talents to subjects peculiarly suited to this day; and that not merely in the didactic form of sermons, which men of the world affect to disdain, but in every alluring shape which human ingenuity could assume. It can be fortunately produced among a thousand other instances, that the deepest metaphysician,* the greatest astronomer, the sublimest poet, the acutest reasoner, the politest writer, the most consummate philosopher, and the profoundest investigator of nature, which this, or perhaps any country has produced, have all written on such subjects as are analogous to the business of the Lord's day. Such authors as these, even wits, philosophers, and men of the world, must acknowledge that it is not bigotry to read, nor enthusiasm to commend. Of this illustrious group only one was a clergyman, which to a certain class of readers will be a strong recommendation; though it is a little hard that the fastidiousness of modern taste should undervalue the learned and pious labours of divines, only because they are professional.In every other function, a man's compositions are not the less esteemed because they peculiarly belong to his more immediate business. Blackstone's opinions in jurisprudence are in high reputation, though he was a lawyer; Sy denham is still consulted as oracular in fevers, in spite of his having been a physician; and the Commentaries of Cæsar are of established authority in military operations, notwithstanding he was a soldier.

* Locke, Newton, Milton, Butler, Addison, Bacon, Boyle.

AN ESTIMATE

OF THE RELIGION OF THE FASHIONABLE WORLD. There was never found in any age of the world, either philosophy, or sect, or religion, or law, or discipline, which did so highly exalt the public good as the Christian faith.-Lord Bacon.

INTRODUCTION.

THE general design of these pages is to offer some cursory remarks, on the present state of religion among a great part of the polite and the fashionable; not only among that description of persons who, whether from disbelief or whatever other cause, avowedly neglect the duties of

Christianity; but among that more decent class also, who, while they acknowledge their belief of its truth by a public profession, and are not inat tentive to any of its forms, yet exhibit little of its spirit in their general temper and conduct. It is designed to show that Christianity, like its Divine Author, is not only denied by those who in so many words disown their submission to