good and wholesome notions or principles, by their parents, pastors, and tutors, or else bad notions, hurtful to themselves and others, will undoubtedly take possession thereof. Such bad notions have, for several years past, been propagated with uncommon industry in these kingdoms: they now bring forth fruit every day more and more abundant. It is to be feared, that what hath been long ripening, is now near ripe. Many are the signs and tokens. He that runs may read. * But there cannot be a higher, or more flagrant symptom of the madness of our times, than that execrable fraternity of blasphemers, lately set up within this city of Dublin. Blasphemy against God is a great crime against the state. But that a set of men should, in open contempt of the laws, make this very crime their profession, distinguish themselves by a peculiar name, and form a distinct society, whereof the proper and avowed business shall be, to shock all serious Christians by the most impious and horrid blasphemies, uttered in the most public manner: this surely must alarm all thinking men. It is a new thing under the sun reserved for our worthy times and country. It is no common blasphemy I speak of: it is not simple cursing and swearing: it is not the effect either of habit or surprise; but a train of studied deliberate indignities against the divine majesty; and those of so black and hellish a kind, as the tongues alone which uttered them, can duly characterise and express. This is no speculative heresy, no remote or doubtful inference from an author's tenets: it is a direct and open attack on God himself. It is such a calm premeditated insult upon religion, law, and the very light of nature, that there is no sect or nation of men, whether Christians, Jews, Mahometans, or even civilized heathens, that would not be struck with horror and amazement at the thought of it, and that would not animadvert† on its authors with the utmost severity. Deliberate, atheistical blasphemy, is of all crimes most dangerous to the public, inasmuch as it opens the door to all other crimes, and virtually contains them all. A religious awe and fear of God, being (as we have already observed) the centre that unites, and the cement that connects all human society. He who makes it his business to lessen or root out from the minds of men this principle, doth in effect endeavour to fill his country with highwaymen, house-breakers, murderers, fraudulent dealers, perjured witnesses, and every other pest of society. Therefore, it would be the greatest cruelty to our children, neighbours, and country, to connive at such a crime; a crime! which hath no Blasters. They (if there be any such) who think to serve the Reformation, by joining with blasters and devil-worshippers in a plea for license, are in truth a scandal and reproach to the Protestant cause. natural passion or temptation to plead for it, but is the pure effect of an abandoned impudence in wickedness; and, perhaps, of a mistaken hope, that the laws and magistrates are asleep. The question is not now, whether religion shall be established by law the thing is already done, (and done with good reason, as appeareth from the premises) but whether a reverence for the laws shall be preserved. Religion, considered as a system of saving truths, hath its sanction from heaven; its rewards and penalties are divine. But religion, as useful and necessary to society, hath been wisely established by law; and so established, and wrought into the very frame and principles of our government, is become a main part of the civil constitution. Our laws are the laws of a Christian country: our government hath been constituted and modelled by Christians; and is still administered and maintained by men professing belief in Christ. Can it then be supposed, that impious men shall with impunity, invent and †publicly utter the most horrid blasphemies: and at the same time, the whole constitution not be endangered? Or can it be supposed that magistrates, or men invested with power, should look on, and see the most sacred part of our constitution trampled under foot, and yet imagine their own dignity and authority to be secure, which rest entirely thereupon? I will venture to say, that whoever is a wise man, and a lover of his country, will not only be solicitous to preserve the honour of God sacred and entire; he will even discourage that prevailing prejudice against the dispensers of God's word, the teachers of those salutary doctrines, without which the public cannot thrive or subsist. He will be no contemner, not even of those rites and ordinances enjoined by law, as necessary to imprint and retain a sense of religion in the minds of men. He will extend his care to the outworks, as knowing that when these are gone, it may be difficult to preserve the rest. Notwithstanding the vain assertion of those men, who would justify the present, by saying "all times are alike," it is most evident, that the magistrates, the laws, the very constitution of these realms, have lost no small share of their authority and reverence, since this great growth and spreading of impious principles. Whatever be the cause, the effect is apparent. Whether we ascribe it to the natural course of things, or to a just judgment upon those, who, having been careless to preserve a due sense of the divine authority, have seen and shall see their own despised. *They who plead a right to contradict the laws, can pretend none for doing it with insolence or disrespect. + To make the cause of such men the cause of liberty or toleration would be monstrous. A man is not suffered publicly to blaspheme, therefore he may not think freely a profane miscreant is not indulged in the public worship of the devil, therefore a conscientious person may not serve God his own way is not this absurd? Darius, a heathen prince, made a decree, that in every dominion of his kingdom, men should tremble and fear before God.* Nebuchadnezzar likewise, another heathen, made a decree, that every people, nation, and language which spoke any thing amiss against God should be cut in pieces, and their houses made a dunghill† And if these things were done in Persia and Babylon, surely it may be expected, that impious blasphemers against God, and his worship, should at least be discouraged and put out of countenance in these Christian countries. Now, a constant course of disfavour from men in authority, would prove a most effectual check to all such miscreants. When therefore they are public and bold in their blasphemies, this is no small reflection on those who might check them if they would. It is not so much the execution of the laws, as the countenance of those in authority, that is wanting to the maintenance of religion. If men of rank and power, who have a share in distributing justice, and a voice in the public councils, shall be observed to neglect divine worship themselves, it must needs be a great temptation for others to do the same. But if they and their families should set a good example, it may be presumed, that men of less figure would be disposed to follow it. Fashions are always observed to descend, and people are generally fond of being in the fashion; whence one would be apt to suspect, the prevailing contempt of God's word, and estrangement from his house, to a degree that was never known in any Christian country, must take its rise from the irreligion and bad example of those who are styled the better sort. Offences must come, but woe be to him by whom the offence cometh. A man who is entrusted with power and influence in his country, hath much to answer for, if religion and virtue suffer through want of his authority and countenance. But in case he should, by the vanity of his discourse, his favour to wicked men, or his own apparent neglect of all religious duties, countenance what he ought to condemn, and authorise by his own example what he ought to punish; such a one, whatever he may pretend, is, in fact, a bad patriot, a bad citizen, and a bad subject, as well as a bad Christian. Our prospect is very terrible, and the symptoms grow stronger every day. The morals of a people are in this, like their fortunes; when they feel a national shock, the worst doth not show itself immediately. Things make a shift to subsist for a time, on the credit of old notions and dying opinions. But the youth born and brought up in wicked times, without any bias to good from early principle, or instilled opinion, when they grow ripe must be monsters indeed. And, it is to be feared, that age of monsters is not far off. Whence this impiety springs, by what means it gains ground among us, and how it may be remedied, are matters that deserve the attention of all those who have the power and the will to serve their country. And although many things look like a prelude to general ruin; although it is much to be apprehended, we shall be worse before we are better; yet who knows what may ensue, if all persons in power, from the supreme executor of the law, down to a petty constable, would, in their several stations, behave themselves like men, truly conscious and mindful, that the authority they are clothed with, is but a ray derived from the supreme authority of heaven? This may not a little contribute to stem that torrent, which, from small beginnings, and under specious pretences, hath grown to such a head, and daily gathers force more and more to that degree, as threatens a general inundation and destruction of these realms. |
