This is the religion with which the ingenuous hearts of youth should be warmed, and by which their minds, while pliant, should be directed. This will afford a "lamp to their paths," stronger, steadier, brighter than the feeble and uncertain glimmer of a cold and comfortless philosophy.

CHAP. IV.

Other Symptoms of the Decline of Christianity-No Family-Religion-Corrupt or negligent Example of Superiors-The Self-denying and Evangelical Virtues held in Contempt-Neglect of encouraging and promoting Religion among Servants.

It was by no means the design of the present under

taking to make a general invective on the corrupt state of manners, or even to animadvert on the conduct of the higher ranks, but inasmuch as the corruption of that conduct, and the depravation of those manners, appear to be a natural consequence of the visible decline of religion; and as operating in its turn, as a cause, on the inferior orders of society.

Of the other obvious causes which contribute to this decline of morals, little will be said. Nor is the present a romantic attempt to restore the simplicity of primitive manners. This is too literally an age of gold, to expect that it should be so in the poetical and figurative sense. It would be unjust and absurd not to form our opinions and expectations from the present general state of society. And it would argue great ignorance of the corruption which commerce, and conquest, and riches, and arts necessarily intro duce into a state, to look for the same sobermindedness, simplicity, and purity among the dregs of Romulus, as the severe and simple manners of elder Rome presented.

But

But though it would be an attempt of desperate hardihood to controvert that maxim of the witty bard,

that

To mend the world's a vast design ;

a popular aphorism, by the way, which has done no little mischief, inasmuch, as under the mask of hopelessness it suggests an indolent acquiescence; yet to make the best of the times in which we live; to fill up the measure of our own actual particular, and individual duties; and to take care that the age shall not be the worse for our having been cast into it, seems to be the bare dictate of common probity, and not a romantic flight of impracticable perfection.

Is it then so very chimerical to imagine that the benevolent can be sober-minded? Is it romantic to desire that the good should be consistent? Is it absurd to fancy that what has once been practised should not now be impracticable?

It is impossible not to help regretting that it should be the general temper of many of the leading persons of that age which arrogates to itself the glorious character of the age of benevolence, to be kind, considerate, and compassionate, every where rather than at home; that the rich and the fashionable should be zealous in promoting religious as well as charitable institutions abroad, and yet discourage every thing which looks like religion in their own families: that they should be at a considerable expence in instructing the poor at a distance, and yet discredit piety among their own servants-those more immediate objects of every man's attention, whom Providence has enabled to keep any; and for whose conduct he will be finally accountable, inasmuch as he may have helped to corrupt it.

Is

Is there any degree of pecumiary bounty without doors which can counteract the mischief of a wrong example at home, or atone for that infectious laxity of principle which spreads corruption wherever its influence extends? Is not he the best benefactor to society who sets the best example, and who does not only the most good, but the least evil? Will not that man, however liberal, very imperfectly promote virtue in the world at large, who neglects to disseminate its principles within the immediate sphere of his own personal influence, by a correct conduct and a blameless behaviour? Can a generous but profligate person atone by his purse for the disorders of his life? Can he expect a blessing on his bounties, while he defeats their effect by a profane or even a careless conversation?

In moral as well as in political treatises, it is often asserted that it is a great evil to do no good: but it has not been perhaps enough insisted on, that it is a great good to do no evil. This species of goodness is not ostentatious enough for popular declamation; and the value of this abstinence from vice is perhaps not well understood but by Christians, because it wants the ostensible brilliancy of actual performance. But as the principles of Christianity are in no great repute, so their concomitant qualities, the evangelical virtues, are proportionably disesteemed. Let it however be remembered, that those secret habits of self-controul, those interior and unobtrusive virtues, which excite no astonishment, kindle no emulation, and extort no praise, are at the same time the most difficult, and the most sublime; and if Christianity be true, will be the most graciously accepted by him who witnesses the secret combat and the silent victory: while the splendid deeds which have the world for their witness, and immortal fame for their reward, shall perhaps cost him who atchieved them

less

less than it costs a conscientious Christian to subdue one irregular inclination; a conquest which the world will never know; and, if it did, would probably despise.

Though great actions performed on human motives, are permitted by the supreme Disposer to be equally beneficial to society with such as are performed on purer principles; yet it is an affecting consideration, that, at the final adjustment of accounts, the politician who raised a state, or the hero who preserved it, may miss of that favour of God which, if it was not his motive, will certainly not be bis reward. And it is awful to reflect, as we visit the monuments justly raised by public gratitude, or the statues properly erected by well-earned admiration; it is awful, I say, to reflect on what may now be the unalterable condition of the illustrious object of these deserved but unavailing honours; and that he who has saved a state may have lost his own soul !

A Christian life seems to consist of two things, almost equally difficult; the adoption of good habits, and the excision of such as are evil. No one sets out on a religious course with a stock of native innocence, or actual freedom from sin; for there is no such state in human life. The natural heart is not, as has been too often supposed, a blank paper, whereon the divine spirit has nothing to do but to stamp characters of goodness: no! many blots are to be erased, many defilements are to be cleansed, as well as fresh impressions to be made.

The vigilant Christian, therefore, who acts with an eye to the approbation of his Maker, rather than to that of mankind, to a future account, rather than to present glory, will find that, diligently to cultivate the" unweeded garden" of bis own heart; to mend the soil; to clear the ground of its indigenous vices, by practising the painful business of extirpation, will

be