unless indeed he be so little informed of the requisitions of morality, that he does not, upon this subject, perceive the distinction between right and wrong. The man of honour therefore should pay a gambling debt, but he should not send a challenge or accept it. The one is permitted by the Moral Law, the other is forbidden.

Whatever advantages may result from the Law of Honour, it is, as a system, both contemptible and bad. Even its advantages are of an ambiguous kind; for although it may prompt to rectitude of conduct, that conduct is not founded upon rectitude of principle. The motive is not so good as the act. And as to many of its particular rules, both positive and negative, they are the proper subject of reprobation and abhorrence. We ought to reprobate and abhor a system which enjoins the ferocious practice of challenges and duels, and which allows many of the most flagitious and degrading vices that infest the world.

The practical effects of the Law of Honour are probably greater and worse than we are accustomed to suppose. Men learn, by the power of association, to imagine that that is lawful which their maxims of conduct do not condemn. A set of rules which inculcates some actions that are right, and permits others that are wrong, practically operates as a sanction to the wrong. The code which attaches disgrace to falsehood, but none to drunkenness or adultery, operates as a sanction to drunkenness and adultery. Does not experience verify these conclusions of reason? Is it not true that men and women of honour indulge, with the less hesitation, in some vices, in consequence of the tacit permission of the Law of Honour ? What then is to be done but to reprobate the system as a whole? In this reprobation the man of sense may unite with the man of virtue; for assuredly the system is contemptible in the view of intellect, as well as hateful in the view of purity.

Or the two classes of Religious Obligations-that which respects the exercise of piety towards God, and that which respects visible testimonials of our reverence and devotion, the business of a work like this is principally with the latter. Yet at the risk of being charged with deviating from this proper business, I would adventure a few paragraphs respecting devotion of mind.

That the worship of our Father who is in heaven consists, not in assembling with others at an appointed place and hour; not in joining in the rituals of a Christian church, or in performing ceremonies, or in participating of sacraments, all men will agree; because all men know that these things may be done whilst the mind is wholly intent upon other affairs, and even without any believe in the existence of God. "Two attendances upon public worship is a form, complied with by thousands who never kept a Sab

It is to be regretted that this word, of which the origin is so exceptionable, should be used to designate what are regarded as solemn acts of religion.

bath in their lives."* Devotion, it is evident, is an operation of the mind; the sincere aspiration of a dependent and grateful being to Him who has all power both in heaven and in earth: and as the exercise of devotion is not necessarily dependent upon external circumstances, it may be maintained in solitude or in society, in the place appropriated to worship or in the field, in the hour of business or of quietudo and rest. Even under a less spiritual dispensation of old, a good man "worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff."

Now it is to be feared that some persons, who acknowledge that devotion is a mental exercise, impose upon themselves some feelings as devotional which are wholly foreign to the worship of God. There is a sort of spurious devotion-feelings, having the resemblance of worship, but not possessing its nature, and not producing its effects. "Devotion," says Blair," is a powerful principle, which penetrates the soul, which purifies the affections from debasing attachments, and by a fixed and steady regard to God, subdues every sinful passion, and forms the inclinations to piety and virtue." To purify the affections and subdue the passions, is a serious operation: it implies a sacrifice of inclination; a subjugation of the will. This mental operation many persons are not willing to undergo and it is not therefore wonderful that some persons are willing to satisfy themselves with the exercise of a species of devotion that shall be attained at less cost.

A person goes to an oratorio of sacred music. The majestic flow of harmony, the exalted subjects of the hymns or anthems, the full and rapt assembly, excite, and warm, and agitate his mind: sympathy becomes powerful; he feels the stirring of unwonted emotions; weeps, perhaps, or exults; and when he leaves the assembly, persuades himself that he has been worshipping and glorifying God.

There are some preachers with whom it appears to be an object of much solicitude, to excite the hearer to a warm and impassioned state of feeling. By ardent declamation or passionate displays of the hopes and terrors of religion, they arouse and alarm his imagination. The hearer, who desires perhaps to experience the ardours of religion, cultivates the glowing sensations, abandons his mind to the impulse of feeling, and at length goes home in complacency with his religious sensibility, and glads himself with having felt the fervours of devotion.

Kindred illusion may be the result of calmer causes. The lofty and silent aisle of an ancient cathedral, the venerable ruins of some once honoured abbey, the boundless expanse of the heaven of stars, the calm immensity of the still ocean, or the majesty and terror of a tempest, sometimes suffuses the mind with a sort of reverence and awe; a sort of "philosophic transport," which a person would willingly hope is devotion of the heart.

It might be sufficient to assure us of the spuriousness of these semblances of religious feeling, to consider, that emotions very similar in their nature are often excited by subjects which have no connexion with religion. I know not whether the affecting scenes of the drama and of fictitious story, want much but association with ideas of religion to make them as devotional as those which have been noticed: and if, on the other hand, the feelings of him who attends an oratorio were excited by a military band, he would think not of the Deity or of heaven, but of armies and conquests. Nor should it be forgotten, that persons who have habitually little pretension to religion, are perhaps as capable of this factitious devotion as those in whom religion is constantly influential; and surely it is not to be imagined, that those who rarely direct reverent thoughts to their Creator, can suddenly adore Him for an hour and then forget him again, until some new excitement again arouses their raptures, to be again forgotten.

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To religious feelings as to other things, the truth applies-- By their fruits ye shall know them." If these feelings do not tend to "purify the affections from debasing attachments;" if they do not tend to "form the inclinations to piety and virtue," they certainly are not devotional. Upon him whose mind is really prostrated in the presence of his God, the legitimate effect is, that he should be impressed with a more sensible consciousness of the Divine presence: that he should deviate with less facility from the path of duty; that his desires and thoughts should be reduced to Christian subjugation; that he should feel an influential addition to his dispositions to goodness; and that his affections should be expanded towards his fellow men. He who rises from the sensibilities of seeming devotion, and finds, that effects such as these are not produced in his mind, may rest assured that, in whatever he has been employed, it has not been in the pure worship of that God who is a spirit. To the real prostration of the soul in the Divine presence, it is necessary that the mind should be still: "Be still and know that I am God." Such devotion is sufficient for the whole mind: it needs not-perhaps in its purest state it admits not-the intrusion of external things. And when the soul is thus permitted to enter as it were into the sanctuary of God; when it is humble in his presence; when all its de

sires are involved in the one desire of devotedness to him; then is the hour of acceptable worship—then the petition of the soul is prayer-then is its gratitude thanksgiving-then is its oblation praise.

That such devotion, when such is attainable, will have a powerful tendency to produce obedience to the Moral Law, may justly be expected: and here indeed is the true connexion of the subject of these remarks with the general object of the present essays. Without real and efficient piety of mind, we are not to expect a consistent observance of the Moral Law. That law requires, sometimes, sacrifices of inclination and of interest, and a general subjugation of the passions, which religion, and religion only, can capacitate and induce us to make. I recommend not enthusiasm or fanaticism, but that sincere and reverent application of the soul to its Creator, which alone is likely to give either distinctness to our perceptions of his will, or efficiency to our motives to fulfil it.

A few sentences will be indulged to me here respecting Religious Conversation. I believe both that the proposition is true, and that it is expedient to set it down-that religious conversation is one of the banes of the religious world. There are many twho are really attached to religion, and who sometimes feel its power, but who allow their better feelings to evaporate in an ebullition of words. They forget how much religion is an affair of the mind and how little of the tongue: they forget how possible it is to live under its power without talking of it to their friends; and some, it is to be feared, may forget how possible it is to talk without feeling its influence. Not that the good man's piety is to live in his breast like an anchorite in his cell. The evil does not consist in speaking of religion, but in speaking too much; not in manifesting our allegiance to God; not in encouraging by exhortation, and amending by our advice; not in placing the light upon a candlestick-but in making religion a common topic of discourse. Of all species of well-intended religious conversation, that perhaps is the most exceptionable which consists in narrating our own religious feelings. Many thus intrude upon that religious quietude which is peculiarly favourable to the Christian character. The habit of communicating periences" I believe to be very prejudicial to the mind. It may sometimes be right to do this: in the great majority of instances I believe it is not beneficial, and not right. Men thus dissipate religious impressions, and therefore diminish their effects. Such observation as I have been enabled to make, has sufficed to convince me that, where the religious character is solid, there is but little religious talk; and that, where there is much talk, the religious character is superficial, and, like other superficial things, is easily destroyed. And if these be the attendants, and in part the consequences of general religious conversation, how peculiarly dangerous must that conversation be, which exposes those impressions that perhaps were designed exclusively for ourselves, and the use of which may be frustrated by communicating them to others. Our solicitude should be directed to the invigoration of the religious character in our own minds; and we should be anxious that the plant of piety, if it had fewer branches might have a deeper root.

SABBATICAL INSTITUTIONS.

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"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves toge ther, as the manner of some is."* The divinely authorized institution of Moses respecting a weekly Sabbath, and the practice of the first teachers of

• Heb. x, 5.

That

And with respect to the general tenor of the Christian Scriptures as to the sanctity of particular days, it is I think manifestly adverse to the opinion that one day is obligatory rather than another. "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the newmoon or of the Sabbath-days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."* Although this " Sabbath-day" was that of the Jews, yet the passage indicates the writer's sentiments, generally, respecting the sanctity of specific days: he classes them with matters which all agree to be unimportant;-with meats, and drinks, and new-moons; and pronounces them to be alike "shadows." strong passage addressed to the Christians of Galatia is of the same import: "How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain."+ That which, in writing to the Christians of Colosse, the apostle called "shadows," he now, in writing to those of Galatia, calls "beggarly elements." The obvious tendency is to discredit the observance of particular times; and if he designed to except the first day of the week, it is not probable that he would have failed to except it.

Nevertheless, the question whether we are obliged to observe the first day of the week because it is the first, is one point-whether we ought to devote it to religious exercises, seeing that it is actually set apart for the purpose, is another. The early Christians met on that day, and their example has been followed in succeeding times; but if for any sufficient reason, (and such reasons, however unlikely to arise, are yet conceivable,) the Christian world should fix upon another day of the week instead of the first, I perceive no grounds upon which the arrangement could be objected to. As there is no sanctity in any day, and no obligation to appropriate one day rather than another, that which is actually fixed upon is the best and the right one. Bearing in mind, then, that it is right to devote some portion of our time to religious exercises, and that no objection exists to the day which is actually appropriated, the duty seems very obvious-so to employ it.

Cessation from labour on the first day of the week, is nowhere enjoined in the Christian Scriptures. Upon this subject, the principles on which a person should regulate his conduct appear to be

• Col. ii. 16, 17. In Rom. xiv. 5, 6, there is a parallel passage. + Gal. iv. 10, 11.

these: He should reflect that the whole of the day is not too large a portion of our time to devote to public worship, to religious recollectedness, and sedateness of mind; and therefore that occupations which would interfere with this sedateness and recollectedness, or with public worship, ought to be forborne. Even if he supposed that the devoting of the whole of the day was not necessary for himself, he should reflect, that since a considerable part of mankind are obliged, from various causes, to attend to matters unconnected with religion during a part of the day, and that one set attends to them during one part and another during another-the whole of the day is necessary for the community, even though it were not for each individual: and if every individual should attend to his ordinary affairs during that portion of the day which he deemed superabundant, the consequence might soon be that the day would not be devoted to religion at all.

These views will enable the reader to judge in what manner we should decide questions respecting attention to temporal affairs on particular occasions. The day is not sacred, therefore business is not necessarily sinful; the day ought to be devoted to religion, therefore other concerns which are not necessary are, generally, wrong. The remonstrance, "Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath-day?" sufficiently indicates that, when reasonable calls are made upon us, we are at liberty to attend to them. Of the reasonableness of these calls every man must endeavour to judge for himself. tradesman ought, as a general rule, to refuse to buy or sell goods. If I sold clothing, I would furnish a surtout to a man who was suddenly summoned on a journey, but not to a man who could call the next morning. Were I a builder, I would prop a falling wall, but not proceed in the erection of a house.

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Were I

a lawyer, I would deliver an opinion to an applicant to whom the delay of a day would be a serious injury, but not to save him the expense of an extra night's lodging by waiting. I once saw with pleasure on the sign-board of a public-house a notice, that "none but travellers could be furnished with liquor on a Sunday." The medical profession, and those who sell medicine, are differently situated; yet it is not to be doubted that both, and especially the latter, might devote a smaller portion of the day to their secular employments, if earnestness in religious concerns were as great as the opportunities to attend to them. Some physicians in extensive practice, attend almost as regularly on public worship as any of their neighbours, Excursions of pleasure on this day are rarely defensible: they do not comport with the purposes to which the day is appropriated. To attempt specific rules upon such a subject were, however, vain. Not every thing which partakes of relaxation is unallowable. A walk in the country may be proper and right, when a party to a watering place would be improper and wrong.* There will be little difficulty in determining what it is allowable to do and what it is not, if the enquiry be not, how much secularity does religion allow? but, how much can I, without a neglect of duty, avoid?

The habit which obtains with many persons of travelling on this day, is peculiarly indefensible; because it not only keeps the traveller from his

The scrupulousness of the "Puritans" in the reign of Charles I., and the laxity of Laud, whose ordinances enjoined sports after the hours of public worship, were both really, though perhaps not equally, improper. The Puritans attached sanctity to the day; and Laud did not consider, or did not regard the consideration, that his sports would not only discredit the notion of sanctity, but preclude that recollectedness of mind which ought to be maintained throughout the whole day.

church or meeting, but keeps away his servants, or the postmen on the road, and ostlers, and cooks, and waiters. All these may be detained from public worship by one man's journey of fifty miles. Such a man incurs some responsibility. The plea of "saving time" is not remote from irreverence; for if it has any meaning it is this, that our time is of more value when employed in business, than when employed in the worship of God. It is discreditable to this country that the number of carriages which traverse it on this day is so great. The evil may rightly and perhaps easily be regulated by the Legislature. You talk of difficulties :-you would have talked of many more, if it were now, for the first time, proposed to shut up the General Post-Office one day in seven. We should have heard of parents dying before their children could hear of their danger; of bills dishonoured and merchants discredited for want of a post; and of a multitude of other inconveniences which busy anticipation would have discovered. Yet the General Post-Office is shut; and where is the evil? The journeys of stage coaches may be greatly diminished in number; and though twenty difficulties may be predicted, none would happen but such as were easily borne. An increase of the duty per mile on those coaches which travelled every day, might perhaps effect the object. Probably not less than forty persons are employed on temporal affairs, in consequence of an ordinary stage coach journey of a hundred miles.*

A similar regulation would be desirable with respect to "Sunday Papers." The ordinary contents of a newspaper are little accordant with religious sobriety and abstraction from the world. News of armies, and of funds and markets, of political contests and party animosities, of robberies and trials, of sporting, and boxing, and the stage; with merriment, and scandal, and advertisements- are sufficiently ill adapted to the cultivation of religiousness of mind. An additional twopence on the stampduty would perhaps remedy the evil.

Private, and especially public amusements on this day, are clearly wrong. It is remarkable that they appear least willing to dispense with their amusements on this day, who pursue them on every other: and the observation affords one illustration amongst the many of the pitiable effects of what is calledthough it is only called-a life of pleasure.

Upon every kind and mode of negligence respecting these religious obligations, the question is not simply, whether the individual himself sustains moral injury, but also whether he occasions injury to those around him. The example is mischievous. Even supposing that a man may feel devotion in his counting house, or at the tavern, or over a pack of cards, his neighbours who know where he is, or his family who see what he is doing, are encouraged to follow his example, without any idea of carrying their religion with them. "My neighbour amuses himselfmy father attends to his ledgers-and why may not I?" So that, if such things were not intrinsically unlawful, they would be wrong because they are inexpedient. Some things might be done without blame by the lone tenant of a wild, which involve positive guilt in a man in society.

Holydays, such as those which are distinguished by the names of Christmas-day and Good-Friday, possess no sanction from Scripture: they are of human institution. If any religious community thinks it is desirable to devote more than fifty-two days in

There is reason to believe that, to the numerous class of coachmen, waiters, &c., the alteration would be most acceptable. I have been told by an intelligent coachman, that they would gladly unite in a request to their employers if it were likely to avail.

the year to the purposes of religion, it is unquestionably right that they should devote them; and it is amongst the good institutions of several Christian communities, that they do weekly appropriate some additional hours to these purposes. The observance of the days in question is however of another kind: here, the observance refers to the day as such; and I know not how the censure can be avoided which was directed to those Galatians who "observed days, and months, and times, and years." Whatever may be the sentiments of enlightened men, those who are not enlightened are likely to regard such days as sacred in themselves. This is turning to beggarly elements this partakes of the character of superstition; and superstition of every kind and in every degree, is incongruous with that "glorious liberty which Christianity describes, and to which it would conduct us.

CEREMONIAL INSTITUTIONS AND DEVOTIONAL

FORMULARIES.

If God have made known his will that any given ceremony shall be performed in his church, that expression is sufficient: we do not then enquire into the reasonableness of the ceremony, nor into its utility. There is nothing in the act of sprinkling water in an infant's face, or of immersing the person of an adult, which recommends it to the view of reason, any more than twenty other acts which might be performed: yet, if it be clear that such an act is required by the Divine Will, all further controversy is at an end. It is not the business, any more than it is the desire, of the writer here to enquire whether the Deity has thus expressed his will respecting any of the rites which are adopted in some Christian churches; yet the reader should carefully bear in mind what it is that constitutes the obligation of a rite or ceremony, and what does not. Setting utility aside, the obligation must be constituted by an expression of the Divine Will: and he who enquires into the obligation of these things, should reflect that they acquire a sort of adventitious sanctity from the power of association. Being connected from early life with his ideas of religion, he learns to attach to them the authority which he attaches to religion itself; and thus perhaps he scarcely knows, because he does not enquire, whether a given institution is founded upon the law of God, or introduced by the authority of men.

Of some ceremonies or rights, and of almost all formularies and other appendages of public worship, it is acknowledged that they possess no proper sanction from the Will of God. Supposing the written expression of that will to contain nothing by which we can judge either of their propriety or impropriety, the standard to which they are to be referred is that of Utility alone.

Now, it is highly probable that benefits result from these adjuncts of religion, because, in the present state of mankind, it may be expected that some persons are impressed with useful sentiments respecting religion through the intervention of these adjuncts, who might otherwise scarcely regard religion at all: it is probable that many are induced to attend upon public worship by the attraction of its appendages, who would otherwise stay away. Simply to be present at the font or the communion table, may be a means of inducing many religious considerations into the mind. And as to those who are attracted to public worship by its accompani ments, they may at least be in the way of religious benefit. One goes to hear the singing, and one the organ, and one to see the paintings or the architecture; a still larger number go because they are