jected in the word of God. The crowd of pictures, and statues, and holy things, to be saluted, or kissed, or prayed to, in Popish churches, brings the mind to stone, wood, and metal, and leaves the intellect for the devil to sow all manner of vice; all these mediums naturally intervening between God and the soul. 44. Miracles said to be performed by relics and images, lead the mind from God to the wood, stone, or bone. 45. Lying legends. The holy house at Loretta, brought from Jerusalem to Italy through the air; a picture is sold there of the house flying through the air, and the Virgin sitting on the roof. A priest there said to a Protestant," Ah, sir, we do not believe it; but we are obliged to keep it up, it makes the poor people so very devout." 46. The absurdity of relics having so many pieces of the real cross in divers places, as would make more than one cross, and many bottles of the blood of Christ, the picture of the Virgin by St. Luke, &c. 47. The dreadful defect of police in all priest-ruled countries; no sufficiency of magistrates, as terrors of evildoers; a few advertisements that God sees us, and remedies to avoid bestiality, are placarded on the walls; while the country is unsafe to live in or pass through, without cautious provision by the individual for his safety, living in towns, and not travelling by night. The whole population without a principle of honesty or truth in any matter of self-interest, where lies and dishonesty may pass with impunity. done as a preparation for carnival, and the pillars of the church are covered with purple velvet and gold fringe, and often vie with the theatres in showy spectacle. 50. Exorcising the devil out of salt and out of water, to make holy water, and out of various places and things, by a written form and ceremony, as if by the priest's power. This holy water, sprinkled by the pope or priest on solemn days, or to dip the finger to make the sign of the cross, kept in fonts at the entrance of churches, by the side of beds, &c. to keep away evil, is an unscriptural invention. It is only an emblem of the washing of regeneration as used in baptism; the salt is judiciously proportioned, to prevent it from stinking. 51. Holy wax amulets hung round the neck, a superstition to gain money and exercise credulity. 52. A great number of small candles, set nearly close together, on spikes in a square board, as many as the worshipper pays for, are lighted in the churches. They have virtue ascribed to them to assist prayer, either for the living or the dead, though it is broad daylight. 53. The great tall candles lighted on the altar, and extinguished at certain times, and the lamps at the various altars and shrines of saints, have no precedent, except with Mohammedans, Jews, and Pagans. The altar at certain times is illuminated with a great number of candles, large and small, to make the ignorant and childish minds admire it. 48. Making the sign of the cross, as 54. The immense number of eca preservative, interferes with true clesiastics more than true religion prayer, and it has by abuse taken the requires, the innumerable orders of mind from the atonement, to the gib-monks, and friars, and jesuits, all bet which was commonly used by the Romans in all their executions of criminals. The banditti in Italy have crosses engraved on their guns, and the Virgin and Child on the hilts of their daggers, which they have been seen by their prisoners to kiss for luck, when they set out to rob and murder. bachelors of divinity, setting out, in the prime of their manhood, on a life of celibacy, with confidential secret influence over females, especially married women. 55. The shrines and images of the saints have lamps burning all day in the streets, roads, shops, or workhouses. A coffee-house keeper will 49. Dressing the images of the Vir-cheat and tell lies to a stranger begin in Popish churches with wigs of curled hair, rich caps, brocade petticoats, muslin sleeves, and elegant gowns, with sundry valuable necklaces, and laced flounces. The Child is also dressed ridiculously. This is hind his counter, while a picture of the Virgin over his head has three tapers burning. Blacksmiths work under such a picture with several candles all day burning. 56. The profusion of silver on an altar looks like the sideboard of a prince. AN ATTEMPT TO VINDICATE THE DOC- FEw, indeed, are the individuals, who 57. The votive offerings hung on the wall near an altar; such as, a pair of crutches, a gown, a pair of pantaloons, a wax sore breast, a pistol, a dagger, bad pictures on boards, nine inches by six, of escapes and deliveries from falling under a cart wheel, from being robbed, from an assassin who follows with a dagger, from fall-revolutions of the planetary world— ing into a well, from sickness in bed; all these in the corner have Mary or Joseph looking out of heaven, and granting the mercy. Thus is the faith in God obscured, and his honour given to another. 58. Burning of incense, at solemn times, on the altar, is a pagan custom, like the censor swung at mass by a little boy, from which a pretty smoke rises up into the air. 59. The holy week at Rome, with processions of priests holding candles, a crucifix formed of lamps inside, together with fireworks of gunpowder outside the church, is in imitation of the pagans. 60. At the festival of a saint, soldiers are marched to keep order. Forty iron tubes loaded with gunpowder are inserted in the pavement, a train of powder lets them off, like a feu-de-joie, when the ceremonies inside are over. 61. The benediction of crosses, images, and bells, as if divine virtue could be added to wood, stone, or metal. 62. The distinction between venial and mortal sin. the complicated, but at the same time, harmonious arrangements visible in the mechanism of nature, we immediately conceive all these operations to be governed by the wisdom and power of their infinite Author; but to apply the same principle of superintendence, which we so readily acknowledge to preside over the movements of the material universe, to the mighty and the minute transactions of the moral world, is, in the estimation of many, decidedly erroneous. They maintain, with a strange inconsistence, that while the Deity regulates the machinery which sets in motion the natural system, he has left the fairest and the most important part of creation to the fortuitous operations of chance. But, notwithstanding the indisposition of some men to allow that their determinations and moral conduct are as much under the authority of heaven as the world they inhabit, it not unfrequently happens, that, amidst the multiplied operations of man, incidents transpire which force them involuntarily to acknowledge, that such events must have been effected by some invisible and efficient power. Hence we often meet with those individuals who admit the fact of a presiding influence over those momentous 64. Wearing relics to cure diseases. purposes, whose accomplishment proMany churches have a printed cata-bably involves the destiny of nations logue, hung up on the wall, of all the relics they possess. 63. The priest assuming the right of hearing confessions, while the scripture directs Christians generally to confess their sins to one another. 65. The pope's coronation, at which he is adored by the cardinals who elect him. 66. Stations of crosses, generally twelve, a little distance from one another, to lead the worshipper from one degree of pardon to another. Some are in fields and gardens, others in churches. These are to serve like beads, to number the repetition of prayer, instead of permitting the word of God to be read, and prayers to be -made by his Spirit in the heart of the believer. or the fate of millions; whilst they cannot for a moment suppose, that the omnipotent God takes any interest in, or exerts any agency over, the individual and trifling occurrences of the human race. Now, it will be the object of this essay to establish, by reasoning and an appeal to fact, that the same superintendence by which the mighty Governor accomplishes signal and unfrequent events, extends even to the minutest incident which transpires in the moral system. The most striking illustration of the doctrine of providence with which we are acquainted, is to be found in movements of large communities, and to reject his intervention in the common incidents of a humble condition, involves a manifest contradiction; because it affirms of the whole, what is denied of its parts. the Jewish nation. A familiar review | liberations which guide the important of its historic annals-of the incidents and the miraculous preservations which the Jews, throughout a succession of ages, experienced-together with the extraordinary achievements they accomplished, and their happy restoration from captivity at Babylon; cannot fail to impress the mind with the conviction that they lived under | the immediate protection and care of a superintending power. Nor are other instances wanting, in which the | hand of God is not less visible. The history of revelation, from its first annunciations down to the present period; its successful endurance of every sceptical attack; its animating triumphs over the many infidel attempts to annihilate its existence; its present preservation, and its extending dispersion; present a remarkable indication of a divine and gracious interference. The progressive increase of Christian believers, from the time of our Lord's crucifixion-when their number was comparatively few-in the very centre of Pagan superstition, and amidst the mightiest moral and physical exertions to check their progress, can be accounted for in no other way, than, that the hand, which secretly guides the mechanism of nature, intervened to counteract the destructive operations of the moral world. The peculiar circumstances which originated the Protestant reformation in our own country, ought never to be forgotten. The reflection, that the desire of a monarch to gratify a brutal propensity, caused the national rejection of popery, and the entire dissipation of papal darkness, ought to lead the devout mind humbly to confide, and cordially to acquiesce, in the unerring determination of heaven. But the controversies to which this doctrine has given rise, have not related so much to its application with regard to nations, or to collective bodies of men; as to the supposition, that a divine superintendence presides over the personal operations of human life. The revolutions of empires, and the rise and fall of nations, recorded on the historic page, are candidly admitted to have been influenced by an invisible power; whilst the individual occurrences of mankind are regarded as left without the control of divine guidance. Now, to admit that the Deity influences the de If we are informed that a colony, which has lately settled, exists in flourishing and improving circumstances, we naturally conceive that each family within its pale participates in the general prosperity. Nor is it less reasonable to suppose, if the momentous decisions of a nation are controlled by a superintending agent, that each of its inhabitants must form, to a certain extent, an object of that superintendence. If this be denied, then it follows, that the actions of individuals are quite independent of an intervenient agency, and who can tell but what their separate pursuits may so combine, as to form an invincible barrier to the design the Deity purposed to effect? For, if it be admitted that the divinity has some specific object for their accomplishment, and that their actions are entirely independent of his control, there is every possible likelihood that, in process of time, their operations will clash with the determinations of heaven. But as there is no reason to conclude that this has ever taken place, the inference seems just and natural, that the Almighty Director, who presides over the prominent events of human action, condescends to modify and to influence the individual operations of private life. The usual objection which is urged against the doctrine of a personal and particular providence, is founded in the conviction that the common occurrences of human life are too trivial and minute to attract the notice of the supreme Being. Now, if we ascribe to the Deity the attributes of omnipotence and omniscience, it must be acknowledged by all who admit that ascription to be just, that he possesses sufficient power to perform, and sufficient wisdom to know, all things. On the ground, therefore, of extreme minuteness, no objection can be fairly substantiated. To assert that human transactions are too trivial to justify the intervention of heaven, is to maintain a sentiment unsanctioned by the principles of revelation. In the judgment of every reflecting mind, every pursuit in which man is engaged, and every incident which transpires, assumes peculiar dignity and importance when viewed in relation to futurity and if the threescore years and ten, the period allotted to human existence, be acknowledged a time of probation, on the due improvement of which is made to depend our eternal happiness, no action can appear trivial, no event insignificant. If the world we inhabit, and the stars which deck the firmament, whose existence is bounded by time, are the subjects of a divine power which orders their revolutions, and regulates their returning seasons; can we be lieve that man, the only rational part of the creation, and who alone survives the general wreck, forms no part of divine government, no object of peculiar care? If, to adjust the controversy, we appeal to the pages of inspiration, we there learn that not a single sparrow falls to the ground without the permission of heaven; and, that the divine providence descends to particulars so trivial and minute, as to number even the very "hairs of our head." Nor are the lively oracles of truth deficient in instances which illustrate the application of this doctrine to distinct individuals. We there read of Joseph, a youth enslaved by his brethren-imprisoned by his master-and who, at a subsequent period of life, by one of those extraordinary operations of providence which seldom occur, was elevated from the dungeon to the palace, and became the appointed almoner of heaven in the distribution of hoarded provision to almost famishing multitudes. We there learn, that the humble shepherd of Israel, although regarded as too insignificant by the members of his family to be presented to the prophet, was, however, the one chosen to sway the sceptre of the Jewish monarchy. The recorded miraculous interposition of heaven in preserving the three Hebrew believers from the devouring element of fire, confirms the pleasing and consoling fact, that Jehovah can even stay the operations of nature when they clash with the hopes and comforts of his people. But to the instances adduced, it may be replied, that they are unusual indications of a divine superintendence; which was exerted in behalf of particular indivi | duals, the frequent recurrence of which we are not justified in expecting. But the scriptures contain no sentiment to substantiate the propriety of such a remark and, in vindication of the contested doctrine, we might appeal to well-authenticated biography, which frequently contains incidents, so striking and unusual, as, if duly contemplated, would most probably exclude the doctrine of chance from the belief of the reader. In fine, we might appeal to your own individual historywe might urge you to take a retrospective glance of past occurrences→→→ to contrast your past purposes with your present notions-to compare the associations you once formed, and those you now enjoy-to recollect the entire frustration of your fondest wishes, and the sudden accomplishment of unlooked-for incidents; and also to reflect on the slight occurrences which caused these extraordinary revolutions of character; and then conclude, if you can, that no divine Being, no superintending agent, presides over the separate operations of human nature. IT is an instructive, an amusing, and sometimes a humorous employment, to notice the actions of the various and discordant characters that think they have adopted religion, because they are distinguished by some kind of profession of it. It is now the fashion to be religious, and if a man be not very extravagant, or enthusiastical, or methodistical, he need not fear much disturbance in his religious exercises. It, therefore, might be naturally expected that numberless strange individuals, and inconsistent ones too, would be found bowing in the temple of God, when almost every one does so. People are various enough, and their peculiarities sufficiently marked in common life; but when they put on a garb of religion, and still retain the passions and feelings which caused those peculiarities, it seems as if they established for themselves some point in which their varieties might be distinctly seen and marked, inasmuch as the way in which they wear this garb, and the fashion in which it is cut, are the criterions of their particularities, and therefore their strangeness, difference, and oddity are here more conspicuous. Mankind either take up religion to follow it, and submit to its regulations in forming their character, or they do so, that they may serve their own ends by making it follow them. There are persons of this first class-who have been deeply impressed with the importance, and determined to obey the dictates, and abide by the results, of the gospel. These are the only true religionists, and having adopted Christianity as the rule and guide of their lives, we shall find that in all important respects they are alike: for the intention of the Bible is to level all the moral world, and all the moral actions and feelings of mankind, to one appointed standard of rectitude; to exalt the valleys, and make low the mountains and hills, and straighten the crooked, and make plain the rough ways. But we shall also find that there are different peculiarities in all religious, and even truly religious characters, that make a distinction between each of them; and it is likewise evident, that the second class of individuals mentioned above, viz. those who have taken up religion to make it bend to their conduct and help forward their particular and private designs-seize upon these peculiarities; and these, joined most commonly to an outwardly fair reputation, form the essential qualification and only part of their piety. Thus we find a truly religious character loves to hear the word of God faithfully and skilfully preached, and in some, this love is carried to an itching desire after any individuals who do thus preach it. Well, then, here is one who naturally has a great desire after novelty, and who possesses much curiosity of nature, and having secured a religious education, or adopted religion for fashion's sake, he indulges this desire and this curiosity, by running after all the "great preachers" that come in his road. The present being an age of preaching, there are many noted and talented preachers in our nation, and, consequently, we behold flocks of these unchristian religionists, scouring over the country in pursuit of their object: and then they advance one step farther, and, from being filled with so much religious knowledge, of a superior and opinionated kind, or being glutted with talent or genius, they despise, absolutely despise, all those who cannot on a religious subject advance from the pulpit some brilliant or sparkling idea, and yet who preach the gospel sincerely and with fidelity. Thus it is not the gospel, but the genius and talent, they look for, which I will be bound to say they would find as much to their satisfaction, if the preacher would address his hearers on some literary subject, or on any astronomical, metaphysical, or political speculation, And perhaps there may be another reason why these individuals are so fond of hearing "great preachers," and posting after them thus, even in shoals. They always, you know, Mr. Editor, are dressed in their best clothes, and on such occasions cut as great a dash as they can; and I have thought a great number of the people thus assembled, were collected together, not to hear, but to see; not to be instructed, but to be seen. There are nearly as many opportunities of displaying our personal attractions in a place of worship as there are in a theatre or a ball-room, and for the purpose of such display many deluded mortals are found there. And then, I am much mistaken if these circumstances have not affected the pulpit also. There are men, who call themselves ministers of the gospel, and who point out the way of life, not to improve, but to amuse the people; and who strain their intellectual energies to help forward, what they conceive to be a beautiful simile, or to draw some unheard-of idea from a passage of God's holy word. I have occupied so much time in the consideration of the last mentioned facts, that I can only notice one other idea bearing upon the subject. There are certain pious people who are bigoted to peculiar tenets which they have chosen to consider as right, and from which they have never parted, through the whole period of their Christian life; and, as might naturally be expected, there are people of a cavilling, uncharitable, and quarrelling disposition, who have turned |