are they, or so weakly armed for the fight, that they are invariably found turning their weapons upon themselves, and most unmercifully slashing and hacking the unhappy phantoms of their own imaginations. Philosophers of all sects in antiquity, as I have often repeated, differed: the Christian religion alone has taught consistently. It has taught, if I may be permitted again to say it, better and nobler truths, and with more clear-*· ness and authority, than philosophy ever did. It is the telescope, as it were, which brings to nearer view, and sets in a fuller light, those sublime verities, which the naked eye of reason could never distinctly, and sufficiently discern. It embraces, in the bands of love, the whole human race, not only of every country, but of every age. It is that which would prepare happiness for those who now sleep in non-existence, and for those future generations with whom we shall have no connection. In a word, it is that which inspires us with the consolation to know, that though life may have been long enough for much personal and immediate evil, rather than for much personal and immediate good, yet, that at our last moments we do not die insol VOL. VI. M vent: vent; but that we die in hope, and leave a glorious inheritance to posterity. Let no man conceive, then, that there is any thing forbidding in the Christian character. There is no dignity of soul, no perfection of nature, that is not cherished by its genuine doctrines. They inspire, they command every thing essential to the good of man, in his individual, as well as in his collective capacity. They alone give that consistency and stability of character, which can be acknowledged universally beneficial. The true Christian, without witnesses, and with the most seductive temptations in his way, acts with as rigid uprightness, as if he had the whole world spectators of his conduct. He is not sullen; no gloom hangs about him, no melancholy austerity, tending to withdraw him from human society, or to diminish the exertions of active virtue. To all moral virtues it adds a venerable and authoritative dignity. It renders the virtuous character more august: to the decorations of a palace, it joins the majesty of a temple. "But it makes men cowards," says the historian of the Roman empire. Thus, as every act • Blair. act of dissimulation must be painful to an ingenuous spirit, the profession of Christianity encreased the aversion of Julian for a religion, which oppressed the freedom of his mind, and compelled him to hold a conduct repugnant to the noblest attributes of human nature, sincerity and courage." Marechal Turenne, on the opposite side observes, "A life truly Christian, is not incompatible with the profession of arms. Piety is so far from enfeebling valour, that it on the contrary augments it." "In the day of battle, it has been remarked," says even a Heathen, "that those feared the enemy the least, who most feared the gods." Which is the most competent judge among these contending authorities, I shall not determine. It was Celsus, however, who first had the sagacity to observe, that Christianity makes men cowards. But it never was attempted to be argued, that a religion of peace should afford us directions for the arranging of fleets and armies. As well might it be supposed to comprehend the circle of the arts and sciences. Religion is one thing, policy is another. Religion opposes itself to vice, policy to violence. Hence the precepts of a doctrine which tends to make us affectionate parents, dutiful children, faithful friends, and worthy citizens, * Gibbon. M 2 + Xenophon. citizens, must promote virtue; and virtue, I should think, cannot but make us brave.* But observe, I do not deny, that Celsus might have been a brave man. It is not, however, from the prejudiced imagination, man is to look for the noble and independent energy of action. I am not to learn, it is not exclusively in the ideal world, we are to seek for the means of acting in the material world. It is in common sense, in experience, and in truth, we must chiefly search for those things which are really useful and advantageous to society. If we be desirous of forming good citizens, brave, faithful, industrious, and zealous for their country, we certainly shall not labour to inspire their infancy with ill-founded fears of death. On the contrary, wé shall speak to them of the immortality of gallant and courageous souls. We shall press on their conviction, that immortality as the divine reward of honourable labour and patriotic service. We shall instruct them, that the virtuous and the great man is not only to enjoy the love and admiration of his contemporaries, but that his ashes are ever to be venerated by those, from whom alone approbation is to be desired. A book * Bishop Watson, A book of disastrous notoriety, to which we have too often been obliged to advert, closes its baneful argument with a pious burst of philanthropy, which it would fix upon the world, as the wholesome fruit, the bright product of its own chaste deductions. But never was there a more futile attempt. To forgiving Christianity it owes the only truths it is able to bring forward. To Christianity, in the hour of its sterility and need, it stretched forth its hands, and thence, as from the common source of all, drew forth those comforts, which it would willingly force the world to believe the offspring of its own barren incredulity. "O man,” says this pretended philanthropist, give yourself up to nature and humanity. Scatter the way of your life with flowers. Cease to think of what is to be in futurity. Live for yourself, and for your fellow-creatures. Look into your own mind; look into those you are to live with. But leave those divinities, which can afford nothing to augment your felicity. Be just, for equity is the prop of the human racę. Be good, for goodness binds all hearts. Be indulgent, because, feeble yourself, you live with beings equally feeble. Be sweet tempered, for * M 3 Syst. de la Nature. sweetness |