THE HAPPY INFLUENCE of religiON ON CIVIL SOCIETY:

A

SERMON,

PREACHED AT

THE ASSIZES AT ABERDEEN,

SUNDAY, MAY 23d, 1779.

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SERMON III.

PROV. XIV. 34.-Righteousness exalteth a nation.

THERE is no subject on which libertines show more inconsistency, than on what regards the advantages derived from religion to civil society. When their design is to vindicate their open contempt of its principles, and violation of its precepts, they fail not to represent it as a burden both intolerable and unnecessary, and which, without yielding any benefit that can be called a compensation for so great a sacrifice, requires a degree of self-denial that nearly approaches to a renunciation of liberty. On the other hand, when they attempt to account for its origin, and the universality of its reception in some form or other throughout the world, they constantly recur to the arts of politicians, who have seen the absolute necessity of this expedient for keeping the people in subjection, and adding authority to their laws. They do not seem to advert, that these pleas are incompatible with each other; and that, in regard at least to the utility of religion, they confessedly oppose the common sense of mankind; since they exhibit the leaders, and lawgivers, in every nation, as concurring, though not by concert, in the conviction, that without the reverence of some power superior to human, man would be ungovernable. Yet the belief of the existence and agency of such a power is, on other occa sions, treated with ridicule by those sages, and represented as a principle not only useless, but extremely cumbersome. And if, upon reflection, any of them relax a little on this article, and admit that it may be of use, that the gross of mankind believe the superintendency of a supreme being over the affairs of the world, particularly over the actions of men, they ought doubtless to account those persons bad citizens as well as infidels, who by their practice, conversation, or writings, attempt to undermine such useful principles, and, as far as in them lies, to

loose the bands which, by giving additional strength to social duties, bind men more closely to one another.

Though it were easy to demonstrate, both from the nature of the thing, and from the most authentic history, that religion neither is, nor could have been, (as some have profanely represented it) a state-device for keeping the people in awe; it must be owned, that the necessity thereof for preserving the peace and order, and for promoting the happiness of social life, was very early observed, and has been universally acknowledged. But, as there may be some, who, though they admit the fact in general, may not clearly perceive the connection, and consequently may not be sufficiently fortified against the cavils of infidelity and scepticism, now so common, I purpose at this time to lay before you some of the principal arguments whereby religion is proved to be of the utmost importance to the security and well-being of civil society.

This happy tendency of the religious character to advance national prosperity, is, in my judgment, the sentiment intended to be conveyed by Solomon in my text: Righteousness exalteth a nation. For though, by the word Righteousness, sometimes no more is meant than the virtue of justice, it much oftener in Scripture-language denotes the conscientious observance of our duty resulting from the fear of God,' and in this acceptation, is equivalent to the term religion. Now to the prevalence of this principle, the wise king of Israel ascribes, in a great measure, the flourishing state of a nation or polity. To illustrate his sentiment is the scope of the present discourse.

Ye ask, "How is religion conducive to the exaltation and felicity of the body-politic or nation?' I answer, It conduces to this end in these four different ways: By the tendency and extent of its laws; by the nature and importance of its sanctions; by the assistance which it gives to the civil powers, both in securing fidelity, and in discovering truth; and by the positive enforcement of equity and good government on the rulers, and of obedience and submission on the people. Let it be observed, that though, in this discourse, I speak of religion in general, I am always to be understood as referring to the Christian religion in particular. It is indeed true, that even those religions, if we may call them so, many or most of whose fundamental