effect on the character necessarily follows. It presents a history of wondrous love, in order to excite gratitude; of high and holy worth, to attract veneration and esteem: It presents a view of danger, to produce alarm; of refuge, to confer peace and joy; and of eternal glory, to animate hope.

SECTION III.

THE reasonableness of a religion seems to me to consist in there being a direct and natural connexion between a believing the doctrines which it inculcates, and a being formed by these to the character which it recommends. If the belief of the doctrines has no tendency to train the disciple in a more exact and more willing discharge of its moral obligations, there is evidently a very strong probability against the truth of that religion. In other words, the docpatrines ought to tally with the precepts, and to contain in their very substance some urgent motives for the performance of them; because, if they are not of this description, they are of no use, What is the history of another world to me, unless it have some intelligible relation to my duties or happiness? If we apply this standard to the various religions which different nations have framed for themselves, we shall find very

2.5

little matter for approbation, and a great deal for pity and astonishment. The very states which have chiefly excelled in arts and literature and civil government, have failed here most lamentably. Their moral precepts might be very good; but then these precepts had as much connexion with the history of astronomy as with the doctrines of their religion. Which of the adventures of Jupiter or Brama or Osiris could be urged as a powerful motive to excite a high moral feeling, or to produce a high moral action? The force of the moral precepts was rather lessened than increased by the facts of their mythology. In the religion of Mahomet there are many excellent precepts; but it contains no illustration of the character of God, which has any particular tendency beyond or even equal to that of natural religion to enforce these precepts. Indeed, one of the most important doctrines which he taught, viz. a future life beyond the grave,-from the shape which he gave to it, tended to counteract his moral precepts. He described it as a state of indulgence in sensual gratifications, which never cloyed the ap

petite; and yet he preached temperance and self-denial. It is evident, that any self-restraint which is produced by the belief of this doctrine, must be merely external; for the real principle of temperance could not be cherished by the hope of indulgence at a future period. The philosophical systems of theology are no less liable to the charge of absurdity than the popular superstitions. No one can read Cicero's work on the nature of the gods, without acknowledging the justice of the Apostle's sentence upon that class of reasoners,-"professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."

As the principles and feelings of our nature, which are addressed in religion, are precisely the same with those which are continually exercised in the affairs of this world, we may expect to find a resemblance between the doctrines of a true religion and the means and arguments by which a virtuous man acquires an influence over the characters and conduct of his fellowcreatures. When a man desires another to do any thing, that is the precept; when he enforces it by any mode of persuasion, Example

that is the doctrine.

When the Athe

nians were at war with the Heraclidæ, it was declared by the Oracle, that the nation whose king died first should be victorious in the contest. As soon as this was known, Codrus disguised himself, went over to the camp of the enemy, and exposed himself there to a quarrel with a soldier, who killed him without knowing who he was. The Athenians sent to demand the body of their king; which so alarmed the Heraclidæ, from the recollection of the Oracle, that they fled in disorder. Now, let us suppose that Codrus wished to inculcate the principle of patriotism in his countrymen. If he had merely issued a proclamation, commanding every citizen to prefer the interest of his country to his own life, he would have been giving them a moral precept, but without a correflesponding doctrine. If he had joined to this

proclamation, the promise of honour and wealth as the rewards of obedience, he would have been adding a very powerful doctrine, yet nevertheless such a doctrine as must have led much more directly to patriotic conduct than to patriotic feeling and prin