which is often the case in this world; but with all their faculties in full vigour, and superior to whatever they were before; every thing valuable and amiable in them improved, and their imperfections done away; so that their society, which we shall never lose again, will be more desirable than ever. Compared with this solid ground of consolation under the troubles of life and the fears of death, what has mere reason or philosophy to offer?

5. And it is a particular recommendation of religion, that both its teachings and consolations require no acuteness of intellect. They are level to the understandings of all men. As to the precepts of religion, they are thus summed up by the prophet:

And what doth Jehovah require of thee,

But to do justice and to love mercy,

And to be humble in walking with thy God ?*

In this short compass are comprised all the great duties of religion, and surely nothing can be more intelligible!

As to the consolations of religion, they are addressed to the common feelings and principles of human nature, such as men act upon every day. It is the expectation of distant good, as a balance to present evil. Religion does not require men to give up their ease, their fortunes, or their lives, for nothing; but for a sufficient recompence. "Thou shalt be recompensed," said our Saviour, [Luke xiv. 14,]" at the resurrection of the just." All that is requisite is a stretch of thought, and a comprehension of mind, which shall enable men to contemplate a thing certainly future, as if it was present; and by this means give it its proper value, in comparison with things present, which, in consequence of being so, are possessed of an undue advantage over them. But what things that are future lose in this respect, is balanced by their real magnitude and importance. "The things which are seen," says the apostle, (2 Cor. iv. 18,) are temporal, but the things which are unseen are eternal.” It is, therefore, the more easy, by a firm faith and a steady contemplation, to give them their just degree of estimation, and to feel and act properly with respect to them; as thousands and millions have actually done, who have cheerfully abandoned every thing in life, and life itself, when the retaining of them was incompatible with their great prospects beyond the grave.

* Micah vi. 8, Newcome. See Vol. XV. p. 275, Note *.

6. It is by habituating the mind to contemplate great and distant objects, that religion enlarges and ennobles the minds of men, advancing them farther beyond the state of children, who are only affected by things immediately present to them, and from the great bulk of mankind, who do indeed look before them, but not far. They can sow and plant one year, in hope of a return in the next, and they can expend their money in the purchase of goods, with a view to sell them to advantage in a future and distant market. Also, when they labour under any disorder, they can take disgusting medicines in the hope of a cure. But this is far short of looking to a world beyond the grave; laying up treasure in heaven; making friends of the mammon of unrighteousness here, in order to be received into everlasting habitations hereafter. This is done by the help of religion, which by this means makes a man a superior kind of being to what he was before.

If great thoughts, as Lord Bacon says, make great minds, how much superior must be that man who is habitually employed in the contemplation of God, of a providence, and a future state; who sees the hand of God in every thing, and receives all the dispensations of Providence with a contented and thankful heart; whose faith is not shaken by all the distress and calamity of which he is a witness, and all that himself, his friends, his country, or the world, may suffer; and who, when he comes to die, can look back with satisfaction, and forward with hope and joy; to the man who is either wholly ignorant of these great principles, or an unbeliever in them, whose views are bounded by what he sees in this life, and who can only say, [1 Cor. xv. 32,] "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die"! To such persons life is indeed of little value. And it is no wonder that, under any particular pressure of trouble or disappointment, they throw it up, and put an end to their lives in despair.

7. Though I have represented the religious man as acting on plain and intelligible principles, and as overlooking present evils for the sake of future good, it by no means follows that he will be an interested character, and never love virtue for its own sake. It is by a rational self-interest that the most disinterested characters are formed. This admits of an easy illustration from what we know concerning the love of money. The greatest miser does not begin with the love of money as an ultimate object, or for its own sake, but only for the sake of the advantages it can procure him. And yet we see that it is possible, in a course of time, for men to

come to love money, and to employ all their powers, and all their time, in the acquisition of it, without giving the least attention to the use of it, and, indeed, without ever making any proper use of it at all; their ideas never going beyond the mere accumulation of it. Let any thing be pursued, though as a means, and in a course of time, it will come to be an end.

In like manner, let a man from any principle, habituate himself to respect the authority of God, to do good to others, and practise virtue in general, though, at first, with no other view than to his reward in a future state, and in time he will live virtuously, without giving any attention to his ultimate interest in it; and in this progress he will necessarily become as disinterestedly virtuous as it is possible, in the nature of things, for a man to be. He may begin with the mere fear of God, or a dread of his displeasure, but at length he will be actuated by the purest love, and an entire devotedness to his will, as such. He may begin with doing kind offices to others from any motive sufficient to produce the external action, but at length he will come with the apostle, [1 Peter i. 22,] to love with a pure heart fervently, taking the greatest pleasure in doing kind offices, without any idea, or expectation, of a return. He may at first abstain from sensual indulgence from a persuasion of what he may ultimately suffer in consequence of it, but in time he will have greater satisfaction in moderation than he ever had in excess, and he will readily and cheerfully do whatever he apprehends to be right, without asking why. The dictates of conscience will be with him a supreme rule of action.

This is that truly great and sublime character to which religion, and religion alone, can raise a man. Without the principles of religion, without the fear of God, which Solomon justly calls the beginning of wisdom, he wants the first necessary step in this progress. There must be a belief in the being and providence of God, and in a life of retribution to come, to give a man that comprehensive view of things, which alone can lead him to overlook temporary gratifications, and give him that due command of his passions which is essential to rational life. He must first look beyond the things that are seen, and temporal, to things unseen and, eternal, or he might never see sufficient reason for the practice of those virtues which do not bring an immediate recompence. He would never respect the authority of God, unless he had a belief in his being and providence. All his works would be done to be seen of men; and if the only

reward of virtue was in another world, which he believed to have no existence, he would have no sufficient reason to exercise it at all.

But having this faith, the foundation of right conduct, the superstructure is easily raised upon it. Possessed of this first principle, a seed is sown, which cannot fail in time to produce the noble and full-grown plant, the excellent character above described. If the mind be thoroughly impressed with the fear of God, the two great principles which comprise the whole of the moral law, the love of God, and of our neighbour, will in due time appear, and produce all the fruits of righteousness without the least view to any reward whatever; and on this account, will be entitled to, and will assuredly find, the greatest. This is to be most truly godlike, and the necessary consequence of being like God, of being perfect, (or approaching as near to it as may be,) as God is perfect, which our Saviour requires and encourages us to be, [Matt. v. 48,] must be accompanied with a degree of happiness approaching the divine.

Such being the obvious use and substantial value of religion, with respect to the conduct of life, the troubles we are exposed to in it, and at the hour of death, and to form the most exalted of human characters, it certainly behoves us to examine the evidence of it, and to do this not superficially, but with the greatest attention, as a question in the decision of which we are all most deeply interested. I may add, that a virtuous and good man cannot but wish that the principles of religion may appear to be well-founded, because it is his interest that they should be so; and if there be this bias on our minds in this inquiry, it is a reasonable and honourable bias, such as no person need be ashamed to

avow.

At the same time, the greater is the object proposed to us, the more scrupulous we shall naturally be in our inquiries concerning it. When the apostles were first informed of the resurrection of their beloved Master, it is said by the historian, [Luke xxiv. 41,] that they did not believe through joy; and it was not without the most irresistible evidence, that of their senses, that they were at length satisfied with respect to it. Let us act the same part, and not receive a pleasing tale merely because it is pleasing to us, but strictly examine the evidence of it; and this is what I propose to lay before you with the greatest plainness, without concealing any difficulties that appear to me to be worthy of much notice. Christ and the apostles always appealed to the

understanding of their hearers, and it can only be a spurious kind of religion that disclaims the use of reason, that faculty by which alone we are capable of religion, and by which alone we are able to distinguish true religion from false, and that which is genuine, from the foreign and heterogeneous matter that has been added to it.

DISCOURSE II.

OF THE

SUPERIOR VALUE OF REVEALED RELIGION.

MICAH vi. 8:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

PROPOSING to deliver a series of Discoures on the Evidences of Revealed Religion, I have begun with shewing the real value of religion in general, consisting in a belief of the being and providence of God, and of a future state of retribution. Taking it, therefore, for granted, that this faith is of real value to men, both as individuals and as members of society, I shall now endeavour to shew that the plan of communicating this knowledge, by occasional interpositions of the Supreme Being, is, in several respects, preferable to that which unbelievers boast of as superior to it, viz. the gradual acquisition of it by the mere use of reason.

But I would previously observe that, provided the great end be gained, viz. the improvement of the human character by the attainment of such knowledge, and the forming of such habits as will qualify men to be most happy in themselves and dispose them to communicate the most happiness to others, (which is the great object with God, the common parent of us all,) the means are of no farther value. That scheme or system, whatever it be, which best promotes this great end, is, for that reason, the best; and if the two schemes be equally adapted to gain the same end, they are exactly of equal value.

Religion itself is only a means or instrument to make men virtuous, and thereby happy, in such a manner as rational beings are alone capable of being made happy;