concurring circumstances furnish the most unclouded evidence, to every mind not blinded by prejudice, that the divine AUTHOR of Chriftianity was alfo, though by the agency of human means and inftruments, the RESTORER of it.

CHAP. XXXVI,

On the Importance of Religious Inftitutions and Obfervances.-They are fuited to the Nature of Christianity, and particularly adapted to the Character of Man.

TH

HAT torrent of vices and crimes which the French Revolution has difembogued into fociety, may be fo clearly and indifputably traced to the fource of infidelity, that it has, in a degree, become fafhionable to profess a belief in the truths, and a conviction of the value of Christianity. But, at the fame time, it has too naturally happened, that we have fallen into the habit of defending religion, almost exclusively, on political and fecular grounds; as if Chriftianity confifted merely in our not being atheists or anarchifts. A man, however, may be removed many stages from the impiety of French infidels, and yet be utterly deftitute of real

religion.

Many,

Many, not openly prophane, but even entertaining a refpe&t for the political ufes of religion, have a way of generalizing their ideas, fo as to difmifs revelation from the account. Others again, who in this laft respect agree with the former clafs, affect a certain fuperiority over the low contracted notions of churchmen and collegians. These affert, that, if virtue be practifed, and public order preserved, the motive on which the one is practifed, and the other maintained, is not worth contending for. Many there are, who, without formally rejeating Christianity, talk of it at large, in general, or in the abstract. As if it were at once to exempt themfelyes from the trouble of religion, and to escape the infamy of Atheism, thefe men affect to think fo highly of the Supreme Being, whose temple is univerfal space, that he needs not be worshipped in temples made with hands. And, forgetting that the world which he thought it worth while to create, he will certainly think it worth while to govern, they affert,

that

that he is too great to attend to the concerns of fuch petty beings as we are, and too exalted to liften to our prayers;-that it is a narrow idea which we form of his divine attributes, to fancy that one day or one place is more acceptable to him than another; -that all religions are equally pleafing to God, provided the worshipper be fincere ;that the establishment of a public ministry is perhaps a good expedient of political wifdom, for awing the vulgar; but that every man is his own prieft;-that all errors of opinion are innocent; and that the Almighty is too just to punish any man for fpeculative

tenets.

But, these lofty contemners of inftitutions, obfervances, days, ordinances, and priests, evince, by their very objections, that they are not more ignorant of the nature of God, as he has been pleased to reveal himself in Scripture, than of the character of man, to whofe dispositions, wants, defires, diftreffes, infirmities, and fins, the spirit of Chriftianity, as unfolded

in the Gofpel, is fo wonderfully accommodated. This admirable congruity would be of itself fufficient, were there no other proof, to establish the divine authority of our religion. Private prayer, public worfhip, the obfervation of the Sabbath, a ftanding miniftry, facramental ordinances, are all of them fo admirably adapted to thofe fublimely myfterious cravings of the mind, which distinguish man from all inferior animals, by rendering him the fubject of hopes and fears, which nothing earthly can realize or fatisfy, that it is difficult to fay, whether thefe facred inftitutions most bespeak the wisdom, or the goodness of that fupreme benefactor, who alone could have thus applied a remedy, because he alone could have penetrated the most hidden receffes of that nature which required it.Religion, in fact, is not more effential to man, than, in the present state of things, those appointments are effential to religion. And, accordingly, we fee, that when they are rejected, however its unprofitable gene

ralities