and vifionary mind. It is ftill more to be lamented, that any perfons who are alive to the fentiment of religion, thould be restrained by the fear of fuch derifion, from avowing boldly what they believe and feel; for they are the thoughtless and the profane alone to whom a rational piety is an object of ridicule, and we betray weakness of mind, not by refpecting religion, but by being afraid to profess it.

In ordinary life, we defpife the man who hath not the courage to maintain his principles, and to difplay them in his practice. Yet furely in no cafe whatever is fuch timidity more inexcufable than in the cafe of religion. Strange that while the profane make a boast of their impiety, and the wicked glory in their fhame! Strange! that the pious fhould diffemble a belief which hath obtained the fanction of the wife in all ages of the world, and emotions which it is the diftinction of their nature to feel!

If you believe that God is, fhow your belief by your conduct. We do not exhort you to teftify your faith by an oftentatious display of fanctity, by a flaming and intolerant zeal, or by obtruding unfeasonably on the ears of your brethren the facred truths of religion. But we exhort you to testify your faith by a regular and uniform refpect for thofe venerable inftitutions of the gofpel, in which it is no oftentation to mingle, and which were ordained as a memorial of God to all kindreds and nations of men. "Give unto the Lord,

"ye

.

"ye people, give unto the Lord glory and "ftrength. Give unto the Lord, ye migh"ty, the glory due to his name. Worthip "the Lord in the beauties of holiness."

Piety, when firmly established in the heart, is a generous, ardent, diffufive principle. Warmed by the contemplation of the greatness of God, we feel that our own folitary homage is too flender a tribute to the Being whom we adore: we wish to kindle in every creature around us, the fame devout affections with which we ourselves are infpired: we invoke the earth, and the heavens, and angels, and men, to unite in fwelling the hymn of praife. "Praise "the Lord from the heavens, ye glorious hofts "of his. Praise him, fun and moon. Praise "him, ye stars of light. Praise the Lord from "the earth, ye mountains, and all deeps. "Praife him, kings and judges. Praise him, "all ye people. Praife the Lord, O my foul. "I will go to the altar of God, to God my "exceeding joy; I will offer unto him the fa"crifice of thanksgiving in the presence of all "the people, in the courts of the Lord's house, " in the midst of thee, O Jerufalem."

II. This leads me, in the fecond place, to recommend the duty" of affembling yourselves "together," from the confideration of the regard which you owe to your brethren.

Even those who difpute the truth of religion, acknowledge its usefulness to fociety.

They

They regard it indeed, as the invention of legiflators, but as an invention wifely calculated to guard the virtue, and to improve the happinefs of mankind.

There are defects in all human laws which religion alone can remedy. The beft regulations which the wifdom of ftatefmen can devife, can ferve only as a reftraint on the outward actions of men: their efficacy depends on the attention of the magiftrate, whofe vigilance the tranfgreffor may elude; and the fanctions by which they are enforced, are punishments of a tranfient nature, which borrow their principal influence from views peculiar to religion.

But religion reaches the heart, and purifies the outward conduct, by cleanfing the hidden fource from which all our actions flow. It reveals to us an omnifcient Judge, from whofe eye no darkness can conceal us, and discloses to us an eternal state, in which " God will ren"der unto every man according as his works "have been."

These are the awful confiderations which bind the confciences, and guard the virtue of mankind. Banifh thefe from their thoughts, and the fanctions of human laws will lofe much of their falutary influence; the tranfgreffor will difregard an authority whofe vengeance he may hope to escape, and defpife the threatenings of those "who can only kill the "body, but who have nothing more that they can do."

Now

Now, though religion had no higher origin than human policy, even in this view it is intitled to your refpect. The influence which it is fitted to exert on the conduct of those who believe it, fhould difpofe you to revere and countenance the institutions by which its influence is maintained and diffufed. This is an argument which will have great force with all who are interested for the welfare of fociety; but at prefent we would address it chiefly to those who are placed in stations of diftinction, and by whofe example the multitude are apt to be guided.

You, my friends, are bleffed with many opportunities of moral inftruction, to which the lower orders of men are total ftrangers. In your early years, your minds are opened and cultivated by a liberal education. The principles of virtue are inftilled into them. A fenfe of character, and the abfence of many temptations to which the poor are expofed, will, for the moft part, be fufficient to preserve you from thofe meaner vices, which are so destructive to the comfort of fociety. On this account you imagine, and perhaps you imagine justly, that you are lefs dependent than others on the inftitutions of religion.

I fhall afterwards have occafion to fhow you, that even to you thefe inftitutions may be of much avail. But fetting afide this confideration; admitting that you need not the inftitutions of religion, and that you cannot be profited by them; yet think of the condition VOL. IV.

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of

of those who are beneath you, your dependents, your brethren, to whofe happiness and virtue fome regard is due. Think of the condition of your humbler brethren.-Toiling to procure a fcanty fubfiftence, with hardly a fufficient interval of repofe to recruit their fpirits for the renewal of their labours; thay are left, with minds uncultivated by education, to encounter the temptations of want and wretchedness, while no leifure is afforded them to review their conduct, or to think of the purpofe for which they are placed on the earth. From perfons thus circumftanced what could we expect? how barren and defolate would their minds be! how grovelling their views! how precarious their virtue! were it not for the regular return of thofe inftitutions of the gospel, by which they are raised to the knowledge of God and of their duty. To them is it not "of the mercies of Heaven," that a day is confecrated in which they are permitted to repose from the cares of life, in which they are invited to approach the temple of the Lord, to pour out their fouls before Him who made them, and to indulge their truft in that gracious Providence, which careth for the happinefs of every creature that lives? Is it not "of the mercies of Heaven" that a day is confecrated, in which they are called upon by men appointed to the task, "to confider the "things that belong to their peace;" in which they are warned of the fnares and temptations of life; in which they are instructed in the