ESSAY II.

PRIVATE RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS.

THE division which has commonly been made of the private obligations of man, into those which respect himself, his neighbour, and his Creator, does not appear to be attended with any considerable advantages. These several obligations are indeed so involved the one with the other, that there are few personal duties which are not also in some degree relative, and there are no duties, either relative or personal, which may not be regarded as duties to God. The suicide's or the drunkard's vice injures his family or his friends: for every offence against morality is an injury to ourselves, and a violation of the duties which we owe to Him whose law is the foundation of morality. Neglecting, therefore, these minuter distinctions, we observe those only which separate the private from the political obligations of mankind.

CHAPTER I.

RELIGIOUS OBLIGATIONS.

Or the two classes of Religious Obligations,-that which respects the exercise of piety towards God, and that which respects visible testimonials of our reverence and devotion, the business of a work like this is principally with the latter. Yet at the risk of being charged with deviating from this proper business, I would adventure a few paragraphs respecting devotion of mind.

That the worship of our Father who is in heaven consists, not in assembling with others at an appointed place and hour, not in joining in the rituals of a Christian church, or in performing ceremonies, or in participating of sacraments,† all men will agree; because all men know that these things may be done while the mind is wholly intent upon other affairs, and even without any belief in the existence of God. "Two attendances upon public worship is a form complied with by thousands, who never kept a Sabbath in their lives." Devotion, it is evident, is an operation of the mind; the sincere aspiration of a dependent and grateful

*[We would amend the phraseology here, by inserting the qualifying term “merely”;"Not merely in assembling," "not merely in joining," &c.-B.]

+It is to be regretted that this word, of which the origin is so exceptionable, should be used to designate what are regarded as solemn acts of religion. Cowper's Letters.

CHAP. 1.]

FACTITIOUS SEMBLANCES OF DEVOTION.

91

being to Him who has all power both in heaven and in earth: and as the exercise of a devotion is not necessarily dependent upon external circumstances,* it may be maintained in solitude or in society, in the place appropriated to worship or in the field, in the hour of business or of quietude and rest. Even under a less spiritual dispensation of old, a good man "worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff."

Now it is to be feared that some persons, who acknowledge that devotion is a mental exercise, impose upon themselves some feelings as devotional which are wholly foreign to the worship of God. There is a sort of spurious devotion,-feelings having the resemblance of worship, but not possessing its nature, and not producing its effects. "Devotion," says Blair, "is a powerful principle, which penetrates the soul, which purifies the affections from debasing attachments, and by a fixed and steady regard to God subdues every sinful passion, and forms the inclinations to piety and virtue." To purify the affections and subdue the passions is a serious operation; it implies a sacrifice of inclination,--a subjugation of the will. This mental operation many persons are not willing to undergo; and it is not therefore wonderful that some persons are willing to satisfy themselves with the exercise of a species of devotion that shall be attained at less cost.

A person goes to an oratorio of sacred music. The majestic flow of harmony, the exalted subjects of the hymns or anthems, the full and rapt assembly, excite, and warm, and agitate his mind: sympathy becomes powerful; he feels the stirring of unwonted emotions; weeps, perhaps, or exults; and when he leaves the assembly, persuades himself that he has been worshipping and glorifying God.

There are some preachers with whom it appears to be an object of much solicitude to excite the hearer to a warm and impassioned state of feeling. By ardent declamation or passionate displays of the hopes and terrors of religion, they arouse and alarm his imagination. The hearer, who desires perhaps to experience the ardours of religion, cultivates the glowing sensations, abandons his mind to the impulse of feeling, and at length goes home in complacency with his religious sensibility, and glads himself with having felt the fervours of devotion.

Kindred illusion may be the result of calmer causes. The lofty and silent aisle of an ancient cathedral, the venerable ruins of some once honoured abbey, the boundless expanse of the heaven of stars, the calm immensity of the still ocean, or the majesty and terror of a tempest, sometimes suffuses the mind with a sort of reverence and awe; a sort of "philosophic transport" which a person would willingly hope is devotion of the heart.

It might be sufficient to assure us of the spuriousness of these semblances of religious feeling, to consider, that emotions very similar in their nature are often excited by subjects which have no connexion with religion. I know not whether the affecting scenes of the drama and of fictitious story want much but association with ideas of religion to make them as devotional as those which have been noticed: and if, on the other

*[Though not necessarily dependent upon them, it is nevertheless greatly assisted by them.-B.] + Sermons, No. 10.

[The justice of the remarks in the above paragraphs may be admitted, while at the same time they are far from being conclusive against the propriety of external ordinances of worship. There is nothing wrong in the mere excitement of the passions in reference to religious objects, and though there be doubtless an evil in mistaking these natural fervours for the exercises of true piety, yet the mistake is not a necessary but an accidental.-B.]

92

RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION.

[ESSAY 2 hand, the feelings of him who attends an oratorio were excited by a mili tary band, he would think, not of the Deity or of heaven, but of armies and conquests. Nor should it be forgotten, that persons who have habitually little pretension to religion are perhaps as capable of this factitious devotion as those in whom religion is constantly influential; and surely it is not to be imagined, that those who rarely direct reverent thoughts to their Creator can suddenly adore him for an hour, and then forget him again, until some new excitement again arouses their raptures, to be again forgotten.

To religious feelings, as to other things, the truth applies,-" By their fruits ye shall know them." If these feelings do not tend to "purify the affections from debasing attachments;" if they do not tend to "form the inclinations to piety and virtue," they certainly are not devotional. Upon him whose mind is really prostrated in the presence of his God, the legitimate effect is, that he should be impressed with a more sensible consciousness of the Divine presence; that he should deviate with less facility from the path of duty; that his desires and thoughts should be reduced to Christian subjugation; that he should feel an influential addition to his dispositions to goodness; and that his affections should be expanded towards his fellow-men. He who rises from the sensibilities of seeming devotion, and finds that effects such as these are not produced in his mind, may rest assured that, in whatever he has been employed, it has not been in the pure worship of that God who is a Spirit. To the real prostration of the soul in the Divine presence, it is necessary that the mind should be still:-"Be still, and know that I am God." Such devotion is sufficient for the whole mind; it needs not-perhaps in its purest state it admits not the intrusion of external things. And when the soul is thus permitted to enter, as it were, into the sanctuary of God; when it is humble in his presence; when all its desires are involved in the one desire of devotedness to him; then is the hour of acceptable worship, then the petition of the soul is prayer,—then is its gratitude thanksgiving, then is its oblation praise.

That such devotion, when such is attainable, will have a powerful tendency to produce obedience to the moral law may justly be expected: and here indeed is the true connexion of the subject of these remarks with the general object of the present essays. Without real and efficient piety of mind, we are not to expect a consistent observance of the moral law. That law requires, sometimes, sacrifices of inclination and of interest, and a general subjugation of the passions, which religion, and religion only, can capacitate and induce us to make. I recommend not enthusiasm or fanaticism, but that sincere and reverent application of the soul to its Creator which alone is likely to give either distinctness to our perceptions of his will, or efficiency to our motives to fulfil it.

A few sentences will be indulged to me here respecting Religious Conversation. I believe both that the proposition is true and that it is expedient to set it down,-that religious conversation is one of the banes of the religious world. There are many who are really attached to religion, and who sometimes feel its power, but who allow their better feelings to evaporate in an ebullition of words. They forget how much religion is an affair of the mind, and how little of the tongue: they forget how possible it is to live under its power without talking of it to their friends:

CHAP. I.]

RELIGIOUS CONVERSATION.

93

and some, it is to be feared, may forget how possible it is to talk without feeling its influence. Not that the good man's piety is to live in his breast like an anchorite in his cell. The evil does not consist in speaking of religion, but in speaking too much; not in manifesting our allegiance to God; not in encouraging by exhortation, and amending by our advice; not in placing the light upon a candlestick,—but in making religion a common topic of discourse. Of all species of well-intended religious conversation, that perhaps is the most exceptionable which consists in narrating our own religious feelings. Many thus intrude upon that religious quietude which is peculiarly favourable to the Christian character. The habit of communicating "experiences" I believe to be very prejudicial to the mind. It may sometimes be right to do this: in the great majority of instances I believe it is not beneficial, and not right. Men thus dissipate religious impressions, and therefore diminish their effects. Such observation as I have been enabled to make has sufficed to convince me that where the religious character is solid there is but little religious talk, and hat where there is much talk the religious character is superficial, and, like other superficial things, is easily destroyed. And if these be the attendants, and in part the consequences, of general religious conversation, ow peculiarly dangerous must that conversation be which exposes those impressions that perhaps were designed exclusively for ourselves, and the use of which may be frustrated by communicating them to others. Our solicitude should be directed to the invigoration of the religious character in our own minds; and we should be anxious that the plant of piety, if it had fewer branches, might have a deeper root.*

[It were to be wished that the author had either said more or less upon the subject of religious conversation. The introduction of the topic at all in this place is somewhat gratuitous, and the sweeping assertion that "religious conversation is one of the banes of the religions world" is in a high degree unwarrantable. What should we think of that "religious world" out of which religious conversation should be banished altogether? We have it upon the highest of all authority that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," nor is it intimated that it ought to be otherwise. Where religious themes are uppermost in the mind, they will, by the very law of our nature, give tone to the conversation; and unless it be wrong to feel deeply on these subjects, it cannot be wrong to converse freely and frequently upon them. The Scriptures give the most unequivocal sanction to this style of conversation. "Thou shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."-"Then they that feared the Lord spake often to one another."-" Thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts." The truth is, the conversation of the mass of mankind is governed in great measure by the current of events transpiring in the world, and the more these events partake of a religious character, the more clearly they resolve themselves into the special dispensations of Providence, as they will doubtless henceforward continue to do, the more conversation will they necessarily occasion; and who would have it otherwise? The varied efforts of Christian benevolence at the present day constitute no inconsiderable share of the actual machinery of the world; and the more there is doing in this department, the more will it be talked of, whether in the pulpit or the parlour; and he would certainly deprive the pious heart of one of its most precious sources of enjoyment who would proscribe these topics from the social circle. There may doubtless be an abuse of this as well as of every good thing, and religious conversation may degenerate into a sickly sentimental retailing of personal "experiences," upon which most persons of intelligence will agree with the author in fixing the seal of reprobation. But although the excess of the practice was no doubt that which elicited the remarks, yet his censure, notwithstanding all his qualifications, is too indiscrim inate to be just.-B.]

94

NON-SANCTITY OF DAYS.

[ESSAY 2.

SABBATICAL INSTITUTIONS.

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is."* The divinely authorized institution of Moses respecting a weekly Sabbath, and the practice of the first teachers of Christianity, constitute a sufficient recommendation to set apart certain times for the exercise of public worship, even were there no injunctions such as that which is placed at the head of this paragraph. It is, besides, manifestly proper, that beings who are dependent upon God for all things, and especially for their hopes of immortality, should devote a portion of their time to the expression of their gratitude, and submission, and reverence. Community of dependence and of hope dictates the propriety of united worship; and worship to be united must be performed at times previously fixed.

From the duty of observing the Hebrew Sabbath we are sufficiently exempted by the fact that it was actually not observed by the apostles of Christ. The early Christians met, not on the last day of the week, but on the first. Whatever reason may be assigned as a motive for this rejection of the ancient Sabbath, I think it will tend to discountenance the observance of any day, as such: for if that day did not possess perpetual sanctity, what day does possess it ?t

And with respect to the general tenor of the Christian Scriptures as to the sanctity of particular days, it is, I think, manifestly adverse to the opinion that one day is obligatory rather than another. "Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ." Although this "Sabbath-day" was that of the Jews, yet the passage indicates the writer's sentiments, generally, respecting the sanctity of specific days: he classes them with matters which all agree to be unimportant; with meats, and drinks, and

* Heb. x. 25.

[The mere circumstance of a change of the day does not surely militate with the idea of a perpetual sanctity being attached to some portion of time. Yet this, if we understand it, is the drift of the author's inference; an instance of inconclusive reasoning such as we seldom meet with in this work. It is doubtless true that upon the abrogation of the Jewish Sabbath there was not the formal institution of a new Sabbath to be enforced upon the observ. ance of Christians; and why? Such a definite injunction would probably have been under stood to transfer to it the ceremonial rigour of the Jewish Sabbath, instead of the spiritual character belonging to a Christian solemnity. If an apostolic injunction had been issued for constituting a new Sabbath, the observance of the one day would naturally have been understood to succeed precisely into the place of that of the other, and to requíre the same rigour of external solemnization. The fourth commandment, by referring the observance of the seventh day to the creation, had sufficiently the general obligation of observing a Sabbath. After the exodus from Egypt, the day was invested with a character specially Jewish, as it was referred to a remarkable deliverance of that people; and it remained for the apostles to institute, under the same original obligation, a new Sabbath of a Christian character, as referring to a Christian and spiritual deliverance, which should be observed with a heartfelt devotion, not burthened with a punctilious attention to outward regulation. Such a change the apostles accordingly authorized in the most appropriate manner, by the silent sanction of their own example, which would as little as possible afford a pretence for an outward formality, not belonging to the Christian character; and the formal observance of the Jewish Sabbath was gradually and quietly suffered to fall into disuse.

But if we have scriptural authority for the observance of a day at all, then we have, upon the same authority, grounds for its sanctified observance, which certainly involves the duty of a cessation of secular business and employments. The general views of our author on the subject of sabbatical institutions are singularly loose, for one who professes to build his moral philosophy on the basis of revealed religion.-B.]

Col. ii. 16, 17. In Rom. xiv. 5, 6, there is a parallel passage.