civil union, no political community, no form of government, could long subsist. This position has been supported by arguments unanswered and unanswerable; and the invariable practice of all the great legislators in the world, who have constantly made religion a component and essential part of their new institutions, has been always appealed to as a proof of the universal opinion of all wise men on this subject. It has also been affirmed, and has been found by actual experience to be true, that of all the religions that have ever yet appeared in the world, none were ever so well adapted to promote the welfare of society, and the great ends of civil government, as the christian revelation; and that therefore it is the obvious interest, as well as the indispensable duty of every state, to support and encourage this religion, to the utmost of their power.

On the contrary, it has been asserted by those, who dignify themselves with the name of philosophers, that all this is nothing more than the language of priestcraft, bigotry, and superstition; that religion, especially the christian religion, instead of being an advan

tage,

tage, is a real incumbrance to the state, and has been productive of nothing but mischief, misery, and desolation; that the true ally, the true support of government, is PHILOSOPHY; that to this every improvement, every blessing we enjoy, in civil and social life, is entirely owing; and that if religion was proscribed, and philosophy substituted in its room, and advanced to a proper degree of pre-eminence, we should soon see a most astonishing and most happy change in the face of human affairs.

Here then is the great question, between CHRISTIANITY on the one hand, and PHILOSOPHY on the other. The parties are fairly at issue together, and the point in contest between them is the most interesting and the most important that can possibly engage the attention of mankind. It has so happened, that this contest has been decided, most completely decided in our own times, and under our own eyes. A new government has suddenly arisen in Europe; and this government had the courage to try an experiment at its very first outset, which has never once, since the beginning of time, been tried be

fore.

fore. It actually tried to govern mankind without any religion at all; to make reason the only object of worship, and philosophy the only guide of life. What the consequences of this experiment have been we all know too well. I will not wound your ears, nor pain your hearts, with a recital of those scenes of complicated misery which this new system produced: nor need I recal to your minds those blessings which this country derives, and that unbounded humanity and benevolence which here continually flow, from a contrary system, from the doctrines and the precepts of our divine Master. I shall only observe, that never was any thing so complete and perfect as the TRIUMPH OF RELIGION on this occasion, and that the question respecting the comparative utility, and the na tional importance of philosophy and of chris tianity, is now set at rest for ever.

Here then we have an advantage which none of our predecessors ever possessed, and which it will be our own fault if we do not press to the utmost. We have the advantage of proving, by fact and by experiment, by events passing immediately under our own observation

observation both at home and abroad, this most important truth; that the christian religion is, in the highest degree, conducive to the prosperity of the state; and that whenever it is publicly and generally renounced, that moment the peace, the order, the comfort, the security of civil government are for ever gone, and a door is opened to the admission of every thing most dreadful to human nature, and most destructive to human happiness.

A proof so obvious and so demonstrative as this cannot fail to operate most forcibly on the minds of men, cannot fail to convince them, more than a thousand speculative arguments, that by a firm belief in the divine truths of the gospel, and a uniform obedience to its laws, they are not only promoting their own individual happiness here, and hereafter, but are doing the most essential service to THE STATE; and that therefore they are bound by the most sacred ties, public as well as private, to cultivate every christian grace and virtue; as the surest test of a genuine love of their country, and as the only certain security against those terrible calamities and evils, which a rejection of the gospel, and a

violation

violation of its most sacred commands never fail to bring along with them.

Upon the whole, my brethren, the present times and the present scene of things, in almost every part of the civilized world, are the most interesting and the most awful that were ever before presented to the inhabitants of the earth; and such as must necessarily excite the most serious reflections in every thinking mind. Perhaps all those singular events to which we have been witnesses, unparalleled as they undoubtedly are in the page of history, may be only the beginning of things, may be only the first leading steps to a train of events still more extraordinary; to the accomplishment possibly of some new and unexpected, and at present unfathomable,, designs hitherto reserved and hid in the counsels of the Almighty. Some we know there are who think that certain prophecies, both in the New Testament and the Old, are now fulfilling; that the signs of the times are portentous and alarming; and that the sudden extinction of a great monarchy, and of all the splendid ranks and orders of men that supported it, is only the completion in part of that prediction in the gospel,

that