exift fome being who had no beginning. Confidering the Deity as the author of our exiftence, we owe him gratitude; confidering him as governor of the world, we owe him obedience: and upon these duties is founded the obligation we are under to worship him. Further, God made man for fociety, and implanted in his nature the moral fenfe to direct his conduct in that state. From these premifes, may it not with certainty be inferred to be the will of God, that men fhould obey the dictates of the moral fenfe in fulfilling every duty of juftice and benevolence? These moral duties, it would appear, are our chief business in this life; being enforced not only by a moral but by a religious principle.

Morality, as laid down in a former fketch, confifts of two great branches, viz. the moral fenfe, which unfolds our duty to man, and an active moral principle, which prompts us to perform that duty. Natural religion confifts alfo of two great branches, viz. the fense of Deity, which unfolds our duty to our Maker, and the active principle of devotion, which prompts us to perform our duty to him. The univerfality of the fenfe of Deity proves it to be innate; the fame reafon. proves the principle of devotion to be innate; for all men agree in worshipping fuperior beings, whatever difference there may be in the mode of worship.

Both branches of the duty we owe to God, that of worshipping him, and that of obeying his will with refpect to our fellow-creatures, are fummed up by the Prophet Micah in the following emphatic words. "He "hath fhewed thee, O man, what is good: and what "doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, to "love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" The two articles first mentioned, are moral duties regarding our fellow-creatures; and as to fuch, what is required of us by the Lord is to do our duty to others, not only as directed by the moral fenfe, but as being the will of our Maker, to whom we owe abfolute obedience. That branch of our duty is reserved for a fecond section: at prefent we are to treat of religious worship, included in the third article, viz. the walking humbly with our God.

SECT.

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HE obligation we are under to worship God, or to walk humbly with him, is, as obferved above, founded on the two great principles of gratitude and obedience; both of them requiring fundamentally a pure heart, and a well-difpofed mind. But heartworship is alone not fufficient: there are over and above required external figns, teftifying to others the fense we have of these duties, and a firm refolution to perform them. That fuch is the will of God, will appear as follows. The principle of devotion, like most of our other principles, partakes of the imperfection of our nature: yet however faint originally, it is capable of being greatly invigorated by cultivation and exercise. Private exercife is not fufficient. Nature, and confequently the God of nature, require public exercife or public worship: for devotion is infectious, like joy or grief (a); and by mutual communication in a numerous affembly, is greatly invigorated. A regular habit of expreffing publicly our gratitude and refignation, never fails to purify the mind, tending to wean it from every unlawful purfuit. This is the true motive of public worship; not what is commonly inculcated, viz. That it is required from us, as a teftimony to our Maker of our obedience to his laws: God, who knows the heart needs no such teftimony *. I fhall only add upon the

general

(a) Elements of Criticifm, vol. 1. p. 180. edit. 5. *Arnobius (Adverfus gentes, lib. 1.) accounts rationally for the worship we pay to the Deity: "Huic omnes ex more prof"ternimur, hunc collatis precibus adoramus, ab hoc jufta, et "honefta, et auditu ejus condigna, depofcimus. Non quo ipfe "defideret fupplices nos effe, aut amet fubfterni tot millium ve"nerationem videre. Utilitas hæc noftra eft, et commodi noftri "rationem fpe&ans. Nam quia proni ad culpas, et ad libidi"nis varios appetitus, vitio fumus infirmitatis ingenitæ, patitur "fe femper noftris cogitationibus concipi: ut dum illum oramus "et mereri ejus contendimus munera, accipiamus innocentie "voluntatum, et ab omai nos labe delictorum omnium ampu"tatione purgemus." [In English thus: "It is our cuftom to "proftrate ourselves before him; and we afk of him fuch gifts ་ only as are confiftent with juftice and with honour, and fuita

"ble

general head, that lawgivers ought to avoid with caution the enforcing public worship by rewards and punifhments: human laws connot reach the heart, in which the effence of worship confifts: they may indeed bring on a liftlefs habit of worship, by feparating the external act from the internal affection, than which there can be nothing more hurtful to true religion. The utmost that can be fafely ventured, is to bring public worship under cenforian powers, as a matter of police, for preferving good order, and for preventing bad example.

The religion of Confucius, profeffed by the literati and perfons of rank in China and Tonquin, confifts in a deep inward veneration for the God or King of heaven, and in the practice of every moral virtue. They have neither temples, nor priefts, nor any fettled form of external worship: every one adores the fupreme Being in the manner he himfelf thinks beft. This is indeed the most refined fyftem of religion that ever took place among men. There is however an invincible objection againt it, which is, that it is not fitted for the human race: an excellent religion it would be for angels; but is far too refined, even for fages and philofophers.

Proceeding to deviations from the genuine worship required by our Maker, and grofs deviations there have been, I begin with that fort of worship which is influenced by fear, and which for that reason is universal among favages. The American favages believe, that there are inferior deities without end, most of them prone to mischief: they neglect the fupreme Deity becaufe he is good; and direct their worship to foothe the malevolent inferior deities from doing harm. The inhabitants of the Molucca iflands, who believe the exiftence of malevolent invifible beings fubordinate to the fupreme benevolent Being, confine their worship to the former

"ble to the character of the Being whom we adore. Not that "he receives pleature or fatisfaction from the humble venera"tion of thoufands of his creatures. From this we ourselves "derive benefit and advantage; for being the flaves of appetite, "and prone to err from the weaknefs of our nature, when we "addrefs ourie.ves to God in prayer, and ftudy by our actions "to merit his approbation, we gain at leaft the with, and the "inclination, to be virtuous."

former, in order to avert their wrath; and one branch of their worship is, to fet meat before them, hoping that when the belly is full, there will be less inclination to mifchief. The worship of the inhabitants of Java is much the fame. The negroes of Benin worship the devil, as Dapper expreffes it, and facrifice to him both men and beats. They acknowledge indeed a fupreme Being, who created the univerfe, and governs it by his Providence but they regard him not; "for," fay they," it is needlefs, if not impertinent, to invoke a "being, who, good and gracious, is incapable of injuring or molefting us."

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The aufterities and penances that are practifed in almost all religions, fpring from the fame root. One way to please invifible malignant powers, is to make ourfelves as miferable as poflible. Hence the horrid penances of the Faquirs in Hindoftan, who outdo in mortification whatever is reported of the ancient Chriftian anchorites. Some of thefe Faquirs continue for life in one posture: fome never lie down: fome have always their arms raised above their head: and fome mangle their bodies with knives and fcourges. The town of Jagrenate in Hindoftan is frequented by pilgrims, fome of them from the distance of 300 leagues, which they travel, not by walking or riding, but by measuring the road by the length of their bodies: in which method of loco-inotion, fome of them confume years, before they complete their pilgrimage. A religious fect made its way fome centuries ago into Japan, termed Bubsdoifts, from Bubs, the founder. This fect has prevailed over the ancient fect of the Sintos, chiefly by its aufterity and mortifications. The spirit of this fect infpires nothing but exceflive fear of the gods, who are painted prone to vengeance, and always offended. The people of that religion pass most of their time in tormenting themselves, to expiate imaginary faults; and they are treated by their priests with defpotifin and cruelty, that is not paralleled but by the inquifitors of Spain. The manners of the people are fierce, cruel, and unrelenting, fuch as never fail to be infpired by horrible fuperftition. The notion of invifible malevolent powers, for

merly

merly univerfal, is not to this hour eradicated, even among Chriftians; for which I appeal to the faftings and flagellations among Roman-Catholics, held by them to be an effential part of religion. People infected with religious horrors, are never feriously convinced, that an upright heart and found morality make the effence of religion. The doctrine of the Janfenifts, concerning repentance and mortification, fhows evidently, however they may deceive themselves, that they have an impreffion of the Deity as a malevolent being. They hold the guilt contracted by Adam's fall to be a heinous fin, which ought to be expiated by acts of mortification, fuch as the torturing and macerating the body with painful labour, excellive abftinence, continual prayer and contemplation. Their penances, whether for original or voluntary fin, are carried to extravagance; and they who put an end to their lives by fuch feverities, are termed the facred victims of repentance, confumed by the fire of divine love. Such fuicides are esteemed peculiarly meritorious in the eye of Heaven; and it is thought, that their fufferings cannot fail to appease the anger of the Deity. That celibacy is a ftate of purity and perfection, is a prevailing notion in many countries: among the Pagans, a married man was forbid to approach the altar, for fome days after knowing his wife ; and this ridiculous notion of pollution, contributed to introduce celibacy among the Roman-Catholic priests. The Emperor Otho, anno 1218, became a fignal penitent: but instead of atoning for his fins by repentance and reftitution, he laid himself down to be trod under foot by the boys of his kitchen; and frequently submitted to the difcipline of the whip, inflicted by monks. The Emperor Charles V. toward the end of his days, was forely depreffed in fpirit with fear of hell. Monks were his only companions, with whom he fpent his time in chanting hymns. As an expiation for his fins, he in private difciplined himfelf with fuch feverity, that his whip, found after his death, was tinged with his blood. Nor was he fatisfied with these acts of mortification: timorous and illiberal folicitude ftill haunting him, he aimed at fomething extraordinary, at fome new and fingular act of piety, to difplay his zeal, and to merit the

favour