body, liable to be misled by temptation without, and impeded by corruption within, he stands in need of every supplemental aid, to remind, to restrain, and to support him. These, therefore, are not helps which superstition has devised, or fallible man invented. Infinite Wisdom, doubtless, foreseeing that what was left dependent on the choice of mutable human will to be observed, would probably not be observed at all, did not leave such a duty to such a contingency, but established these institutions as part of his written word; the lawgiver himself also sanctioning the law by his own practice.

It would be well if these men of large views and philosophical conceptions, would consider, if there be nothing in the very structure of the human mind, we had almost said, in the very constitution of nature, which might lead us to expect, that religion would have those grosser and more substantial parts and relations, which we have represented; instead of being that entirely thin and spiritual essence, of which they vainly dream. It was reserved for a philosopher of our own nation to shew, that the richest possessions of the most capacious mind are only the well-arranged and variegated ideas which originally entered in through the medium of the senses, or which we derive from contemplating the operations of our own minds, when employed on those ideas of sensation. But, if material bodies are the sources from whence general knowledge is derived, why is every thing to be incorporeal which respects religion? If innate ideas have no existence in the human mind, why are our religious notions not to be derived from external objects?

Plato, the purest of heathen philosophers, and the nearest to those who derived their light from heaven, failed most essentially in reducing his theory to practice. He seems to have supposed,

possess certain ready-framed notions of every

thing essential to moral happiness; and that contemplation of the chief good, and subjugation of animal nature, were all that was necessary to moral perfection. Is it not then most worthy of attention, that the holy scripture differs from the plan of the Grecian sage, just where he himself differs from truth and nature, as developed by their most accurate observer, the sagacious and venerated Locke? Man, according to this profound reasoner, derives the original stock of his ideas from objects placed in his view, which strike upon his senses. Revelation, as if on this very principle, presents to man impressive objects. From the creation to the deluge, and still more from the call of Abraham, when we may say that our religion commences, to the giving of the Holy Ghost, after our Saviour's ascension, the period in which we may deem its character completed, we are instructed, in a great measure, by a series of facts. In the earlier period, especially, we do not meet with theoretic descriptions of the Divine nature, but we see the eternal God himself, as with our mind's eye, visibly manifesting himself to the patriarchs, exemplying his attributes to their senses, and, by interpositions the most impressive, both in a way of judgment and of mercy, training them to apprehend him, in the mode of all others the most accommodated to the weakness of human nature.

Thus we see a religion, in some degree, a matterof-fact religion, growing gradually to its completion; until He, who, at sundry times and in divers manners, had spoken to the fathers by the prophets, spoke in these last days by his Son."

And, thus we observe the first preachers of Christianity, not philosophizing on abstract truths, but plainly bearing witness to what had been transacted in their presence.- "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld his glory,

the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.” And, again," That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you."

This, then, is the particular characteristic of Christianity, that from its origin to its final consummation, it considers man critically as he is; and that is, not as he was deemed by the most enlightened sages of earlier times, but as he has been discovered to be, by one of the most penetrating minds in the world, seventeen hundred years after the Christian æra. To this, now universally acknowledged notion of man, every thing is adapted, both in what is recorded and what is enjoined in the scripture. Every observance relates to facts, and is fitted to impress them. To strip Christianity, therefore, of any of the observances, which are really of scriptural appointment, would be to sublimate it into philosophical inefficacy. In common life we see the affections little engaged in abstract speculation. They then only are moved when those sensible images, which the laws of nature have made moving, are aptly pre

sented to them.

What, for example, could all the mathematical truth in the world do, in exciting our affections, compared with a tale of human misery, or human magnanimity, even though known to be fabricated for our amusement? When Christianity then is so obviously, in a great measure, a business of the affections, that we are then only under its influence, when we love and delight in, as well as assent to, or reason upon its principles;-shall we cavil at that religion which alone accomplishes its end, on account of those very features of it, which, on every ground of philosophy, and by every proof of efficacy, were the fact to be candidly investigated, render it such as it must be, in order to answer its purpose?

There cannot be a more conclusive internal evidence of our holy religion than this, that in every

principle which it establishes, in every lesson which it inculcates, and in every example which it offers, there is throughout one character that invariably prevails, which is, the truest and soundest good sense. The scripture, while, in the main, so plain and simple," that he may run that readeth," has accordingly been ever most prized by its profoundest and most sagacious readers. And the longer and more attentively such persons have studied it, the higher has their estimation risen. We will not adduce cases from that constellation of shining lights, the learned churchmen, whose testimony might be objected to, from the very circumstance which ought to enhance its value, their professional attachment, because the naming of Bacon, Boyle, and Locke is sufficient.

It will be found on the most impartial scrutiny, that that plan or practice which is clearly opposed to scripture, is no less really hostile to right reason, and the true interests of man. And it is scarcely to be doubted, that if we could investigate the multiform history of individuals in the Christian world, it would be indisputable, that a deep impression of scripture facts and principles had proved, beyond comparison, the most successful preservative against the worst evils of human life. Doubtless, it has been found most difficult to retain such an impression amid the business, and pleasures, and entanglements of the world; but so far it has been retained, it has been uniformly the pledge of regularity in the conduct, peace in the mind, and an honourable character in society. Thus much by way of introduction to the following chapter.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Of the established church of England.

CHRISTIANITY then only answers its end, when it is established as a paramount principle in the heart, purifying the desires and intentions, tranquillizing the temper, enlarging the affections, and regulating the conduct. But, though this alone be its perfect work, it has subordinate operations, which are not only valuable for their direct results, but seem, in the order of providence, to be preliminary to its more inward and spiritual efficacy.

When we observe how extensive is the outward profession of Christianity, and how obviously limited is a consistently Christian practice; the first emotion of a serious mind is naturally that of regret. But a more considerate view will give occasion to other feelings. It will be seen, that that outward profession of our holy religion, which is secured by an establishment, is an inestimable blessing to a community; that the public benefits which result from it are beyond reckoning, besides the far greater utility of affording to each individual, that light of information, and whose means of religious worship, which, duly used, will ensure his eternal salvation.

That there should therefore be a visible, as well as an invisible church, an instituted, as well as a personal religion, and that the one should embrace whole communities, while the other may extend to a comparative few, appears not only the natural consequence of Christianity, as a religious profession, spreading through society, and necessarily transmitted from father to son, but it seems also that kind of arrangement which Divine wisdom would sanction, in order to the continuance of Christianity in the world.