THE HISTORICAL MIRROR. RELIC CHAP. I. OF RELIGION. ELIGION is fuch an humble fenfe of the . divine glories and perfections, and fuch a feeling conviction of our numerous and unmerited obligations to the Deity, and our conftant and intire dependence upon him, as engages us to think upon him at all times with reverence and love, to praise him for every bleffing we enjoy, to fupplicate his affiftance, and confide upon his goodnefs under all our wants and distresses, to fubmit with patience to every dispensation of his providence, and to conduct all our words and actions, and even our very thoughts and inclinations, in fuch a manner as we have reafon to believe will be most agreeable to his will, B A true A true fenfe of Religion will be the most cffectual restraint upon our paffions and appetites; our firmeft fupport and beft confolation in adverfity; our fafeft guard and most delightful companion in profperity; and our greateft fecurity against the numerous fnares and temptations we must expect to meet with in our paffage through life. It must therefore be acknowledged, that the most useful and important part of education, is to imprefs the minds of youth with the most early and affecting fentiments of piety; and every parent or teacher who neglects to do this, must be guilty of a moft infamous and destructive inattention to the future happiness of those children whom Providence has committed to their care; for, as Solomon has obferved, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!" Devotion opens the mind to great conceptions, and fills it with more fublime ideas than are to be met with in the most exalted fcience; and, at the fame time, it also warms and animates the foul more than the highest gratifications of fenfe, or the liveliest flights of imagi nation. The most illiterate man, who is touched with actrue fenfe of devotion, and ufes himself to the frequent exercife of it, infenfibly contracts a greatnefs of mind, mingled with a noble fimplicity, which raises him not only above those -of of the fame condition, but above the proudefti heroes and conquerors whofe names are recorded in the annals of fame: It is fcarcely poffible it fhould be otherwife; for true devotion naturally impreffes fuch an earnest attention to a better and more important ftate of existence, as makes the brighest or the darkeft paffages of life of too little confequence either to over-heighten or deprefs the mind; fo that a perfon who is infpired with this, will neither appear mean and dejected under the lowest circumftancès, nor vain and infolent in the higheft. To imagine that Religion is an enemy to mirth and chearfulness, is a very great mistake; for, on the contrary, there can be no true and substantial joy without it. Our Saviour, therefore, even in the most rigorous exercifes of devotion, commands his difciples to anoint their faces, as was used to be done at public feasts and entertainments, and, by all means, avoid the proud and affected folemnity of the Pharifees. Religion is fo far from being an argument of a weak understanding, that it has been the delight and the glory of the greatest and wisest men in ages and countries. all EXAMPLES of PIETY and RELIGION. (1.) The brave Agefilaus, king of Sparta, distinguished himself, upon all occafions, by his particular B 2 particular veneration for the gods. The nobleft, circumftance of his victory over the Athenians and Baotians, at Charonea, was his facrificing, his refentment to the honour of religion: For, a confiderable number of the flying enemy hav-. ing thrown themselves into the temple of Minerva, and application being made to him to know in what manner they should be treated, he gave ftrict orders that none of them should be touched; though he then laboured under the anguifh of feveral wounds he had received in the action, and was visibly exafperated at the oppofition he had met with. But his veneration was not confined to the temples of the Greeks. When he made war upon the Barbarians, he was equally careful not to profane the images of their deities, nor offer the leaft violation to their altars. In the fame manner, Alexander the Great, when he demolished Thebes, paid a particular attention to the honour of the gods, fuffering none of their temples, or any other religious buildings, to be plundered; and afterwards, in his Afiatic expedition, which was purposely undertaken to humble the pride, and retaliate the ravages of the Perfians, he was remarkably cautious not to injure, or fhew the smallest contempt of, their places, of worship; though the Perfians had been notoriously guilty this way, when they invaded Greece+[NPOS and Po YBIUS. (2.) Nothing (2.) Nothing boastful or vain-glorious disgraced the lips of Timoleon. On the contrary, when he heard his praifes refounded from street to ftreet, and from city to city, he only replied, that he rendered his most humble thanks to the gods; that, when they had decreed to rescue his country from the ufurpation of tyrants, they condefcended to make him the happy inftrument; for he was of opinion, that all human occurrences are conducted by the influence of heaven. We are likewife informed, that he had in his houfe a private chapel, in which he conftantly paid his devotions to the goddess who reprefented Providence. To reward his piety, few men have been more wonderfully protected by the deity than he was, in feveral inftances of his life, but particularly in the following.-Three perfons had entered into a confpiracy to assasfinate him, as he was offering up his devotions in a public temple. To execute their horrid plan, they took their several stands in the moft convenient places for the purpose; intending afterwards to conceal themselves (as, indeed, they might have done very easily) by mixing in the croud which flood about him; but while they were watching for an opportunity, a stranger fuddenly fell upon one of them, and stabbed him to the heart. The other two confpirators, concluding from this that their plot had been difcovered, and measures taken to prevent the execution 1 B 3 |