knew, and to practise what their fathers practised. The ennobling ideas of a supreme Creator, of spiritual worship and pious love to be exercised towards him, of an eternal state of happiness and purity;-these ideas are far beyond them their thoughts are chained down to the earth by daily wants and laborious occupations; and do not rise to higher things, except by the aid of some strong external impulse.

And yet experience proves that mankind are capable of high spiritual advancement: that laborious poverty, the common lot of the multitude, though it prevents them from discovering, does not prevent them from receiving the greatest and noblest truths; and that employments whose natural tendency is rather to depress than to elevate the mind, may yet be conducted on principles which dignify the lowest stations and the meanest pursuits. Few will venture to deny, that if men are capable of such improvement, it is desirable they should attain it, as exalting their rank in the scale of being. And this is effected by the agency of Christianity.

From its first establishment, when the Apostles ordained elders in every church; Christianity has provided bodies of men, whose business it is to instruct the ignorant; to awaken them from torpor and stupidity; to rouse their attention to matters of the highest dignity and importance'. Not to remove them from their stations and natural duties, which indeed would be impossible if it were desirable, and undesirable even if it were possible; but to inculcate principles which may soften the roughest, and sweeten the bitterest, and exalt the humblest of human labours.

Now all this is clear gain, and to be set to the account of the Gospel. Nothing of the kind was ever known or thought of in ancient times, at least beyond the narrow limits of Judea.

The benefit of the Christian system, in this respect, was so evident to Julian, that he attributed the success of the religion in some measure to the sanctity and zeal of its ministers; and supposed, that by an imperial ordinance, he could command the same qualities in the heathen priests.-See his letter to Arsacius, in Sozomen, I. v. c. 16; or Lardner's Heath. Test. c. 46.

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"Useful as we now know social religion to be to states

We are apt to forget this, and to consider advantages of this kind no less of course, than to enjoy the light and breathe the air of heaven. We are so generally accustomed to the instruction of our people, in consequence of what Christianity has done, that we forget to ascribe the benefit to Christianity. We have no idea of the mass of mankind being wholly neglected; being never exhorted to seek religious knowledge: still less of their seeking it in vain. But in the heathen world, there were none whose office it was to teach, even if there had been any who could have taught what it was most desirable to learn. Philosophical lectures were attended by some of the richer class; but by no others. One

and kingdoms, it is unlikely that any state should, merely by its own internal wisdom, have instituted a good church, with right provisions, laws, religious exercises, and discipline. Politicians would scarcely think of such a thing. Intent on wars, alliances, commerce, taxation, commodious passage of travellers, &c.; religious society must come from religious zeal, though afterwards courted by the state." Hey's Lectures. If the state, even when administered by professors of Christianity, can afford very little attention or support to the interests of religion; we could hardly expect that it should step out of its way to establish, in the first instance, religious instruction.

philosopher alone, of all we read of, seems to have been conscious of some moral obligation in the employment of his extraordinary talents 3; and he addressed himself to the higher ranks. Had it been otherwise, the philosophers in the several ages were but few; so few, that supposing they were dispersed, and that every man had the liberty of attending them, we should be astonished to calculate the average distance which a person must have travelled in order to get instruction. Further, there could be no unity of doctrine, because there was no unity of opinion. The very foundation of religion is an

3 Πρωτον μεν Sn περι θεός ἐπειραίο σωφρονας ποιειν τές συνονίας. Xenoph. de Socrate. Memorab. 1. iv. c. iii.

4 "The matters wherein the philosophers differed, were points which concern the very being of religion and virtue; and those differences rendered the motives and obligations to both, precarious and uncertain. And this shows how unjust the objection is which infidels raise upon this head from the different opinions among Christians. It will appear, that the several denominations of Christians agree, both in the substance of religion, and in the necessary enforcements of the practice of it: that the world and all things in it were created by God, and are under the direction and government of his all-powerful hand and all-seeing eye: that there is an essential difference between good and evil, virtue and vice; that there will be a state of future rewards and punishments, ac

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intelligent Creator. Philosophers could not lay this groundwork, when they disagreed about the fact; some holding the world to be the work of chance, and others maintaining its eternity. They could not teach moral duties; for besides that they were unsettled as to the nature and extent of these, the one great sanction of moral duty, the declaration of God's will, was necessarily wanting to their instructions. They could not assert a future retribution, because none believed it; all wandering in universal scepticism, or being lost in vague conjecture. The public

cording to our behaviour in this life; that Christ was a teacher sent from God, and that the Apostles were divinely inspired; that all Christians are bound to declare and profess themselves to be his disciples; that not only the exercise of the several virtues, but also a belief in Christ, is necessary in order to their obtaining the pardon of sin, the favour of God, and eternal life; that the worship of God is to be performed chiefly by the heart, in prayers, praises, and thanksgivings; and as to all other points, that they are bound to live by the rules which Christ and his Apostles have left in the Holy Scriptures. Here then is a fixed, certain, and uniform rule of faith and practice; containing all the most necessary points of religion, established by a divine sanction, embraced as such by all denominations of Christians, and in itself abundantly sufficient to preserve the knowledge and practice of religion in the world."-Gibson's Second Pastoral Letter.