FINIS (2)

R.

Religion, practical hints for its revival, 300—305.
— the only true support in trouble and peril, 332.
Repentance, advice for such as are disposed to, 318—324.
Reputation, true Christian’s conduct respecting it, 164—178.
— true Christian preserves, without over-valuing it, 167—170.
Richardson, mentioned, 278.
Robertson, Dr. censured, 279.
Rousseau, school of, 204, 205.

S.

Scepticism, natural history of it, 338—340.
Sceptics and Unitarians, advantage they have in attacking Christianity, 344, 345.
Scripture doctrine, importance of, to Christianity, 8—10.
— doctrine, concerning human corruption, 14—27.
— doctrine, concerning Christ and the Holy Spirit, 43, 44.
Self-deception, frequent sources of, 306—318.
— another common kind, 333—335.
Self-examination, helps in, 306.
Selfishness of common practical Religion, 121—127.
— the disease of political societies, 288.
— peculiarly counteracted by Christianity, 291, 292.
Sensibility, exquisite, how little truly valuable, and how different from true practical benevolence, 204, 205.
Sensualists class of, 123.
Sin, how spoken of in Scripture, 211.
— defective conceptions of, 207.
Sincerity, false notion of it, 10—12.
— true what, 13.
Sins, no little ones, 210, 211.
— little, what accounted such, 208.
Smith, Dr. Adam, 76. 188, 189. 279.
Soame Jenyns, his View of the Internal Evidence of Christianity referred to, 6. 281.
Sophistry, with which Religion is explained away, 133.
Stage the, proof from its being frequented by nominal Christians of their defective love of God, 221—224. 230, 231.
— proof from, illustrated by political analogy, 223.
Statutes, Religion made a set of, 131, 132.
Sterne strongly censured, 206.
Strictness of true practical Christianity, 105, 106.
— of our system, objected to, as not suited to the state of the world, 280, 281.
— the charge refuted, 281, 282.
Sunday, hints for its employment, 141, 142.
— common modes of unhallowing it, 143—145.
Supreme regard to be set on God, 60. 112—129.
Swift’s Tale of a Tub, quoted, 132, 133.

T.

Taste, votaries of, 127.
Tempers, Christian, not cultivated, 136—146.
— respecting human estimation, 165—168.
— respecting calumny and disgrace, 170.
— when too much immersed in worldly business, 201—204.
Theatres, Parisian, 223.
Theatrical entertainments prove defective love of God, 222.
Theatrical entertainments prove defective love of our neighbour, 230, 231.
— entertainments, illustrated by political analogy, 223.

U.

Unbelievers, half; a class of them, 346.
Uncharitableness, what falsely so called, 312.
Unitarianism often results from same causes as absolute scepticism, 343.
Useful lives, discussion concerning, 178.
— substituted for Religion, 179.
— value of, estimated by standard of mere reason, 185.
— real worth of, on Christian principles, 186—188.
— life, the Christian’s life the most so, 191.
— Christians urged to, 192.
— its just praise given to, 197.
— apt to mislead us, 198.

V.

Vice, some one always excused, 308—310.
Vices, outgrowing or changing them, mistaken for forsaking all sin, 308—310.
Vulgarity in Religion, as to language, to be expected from vulgar men, 56.

W.

Wealth, votaries of, 125, 126.
Women, more disposed than men to Religion, and uses to be made of this, 313.
— exalted office assigned to them, 314.
Witherspoon, 275.

Y.

Youth, simplicity of, mistaken for Religion, 313.

FOOTNOTES.

[1] It is almost superfluous to name Mr. Soame Jenyns.

[2] Exempla duo, quæ pravitatis humanæ vim animo meo luculenter exhibent, non proferre non possum. Alterum decens ille Virgilius, alterum Cicero, probus idem verique studiosus, suppeditat. Virgilius, innocuam certe pastorum vitam depicturus, ita incipit.

Cicero in libro de Officiis primo, ubi de actionibus prout inter se apte & convenientes sint, loci, temporis, & agentis ratione habita, disserit, argumentum sic illustrat: “Turpe est enim, valdeque vitiosum, in re severa, convivio dignum, aut delicatum aliquem inferre sermonem. Bene Pericles, quum haberet collegam in prætura Sophoclem poetam, hique de communi officio convenissent, & casu formosus puer præteriret, dixissetque Sophocles, O pueram pulchrum Pericle! At enim, inquit Pericles, prætorem Sophoclem decet non solum manus, sed etiam oculus abstinentes habere. Atqui hoc idem Sophocles, si in athletarum probatione dixisset, justa reprehensione caruisset, tanta vis est, & loci & temporis.”

Quomodo sese res habuisse necesse est, cum vir antiquorum prestantissimis adscribendus, philosophiam, immo mores & officia tractans, talia doceret! Qualem sibi ipse virtutis normam proposuerat, satis liquet. Vide inter alia, justa reprehensione, &c. &c; & tanta vis est, &c. &c.

[3] Robertson, Vol. II. p. 130.

[4] Robertson, Book IV. Sect. 2. Head, Condition of Women, vol. ii. 8vo. 90, 91.

[5] Job xv. 14.

[6] Job xv. 16.

[7] Psalm xiv. 2, 3.

[8] Prov. xx. 9.

[9] Psalm cxxxix. 3.

[10] I Chron. xxviii. 9.

[11] Prov. i. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29.

[12] Vide Butler’s Analogy.

[13] Heb. x. 27.

[14] Philippians, ii. 12.

[15] John, v. 29.

[16] James, i. 13.

[17] 2 Peter, iii. 9.

[18] Ezek. xviii. 23.

[19] Ezek. xviii. 32.

[20] Psalm cxlvii. 5.

[21] Rom. xi. 33.

[22] Psalm xcvii. 2.

[23] Deut. xxix. 29.

[24] Matt. xi. 28

[25] This was the motto on their banner.

[26] Title of Attila king of the Huns, whose desolating ravages are well known.

[27] Vide the testimony of West India merchants to the Moravians, in the Report of the Privy Council on the Slave Trade.

[28] Rom. xii. 1.

[29] Dr. Horne.

[30] 2 Cor. viii. 12.

[31] Isaiah, liii. 2.

[32] Philip. ii. 6, 7, 8.

[33] Luke, ii. 10, 11.

[34] Col. i. 12, 13.

[35] Ephes. i. 18.

[36] Col. i. 27.

[37] Heb. xiii. 8.

[38] 1 John, iv. 20.

[39] Dr. Adam Smith. Vide Theory of Moral Sentiments.

[40] 1 Pet. i. 8.

[41] Heb. iv. 15.

[42] Isaiah, xl. 11.

[43] Isaiah, xlix. 10.

[44] The word Comfortless is rendered in the margin Orphans.

[45] John, xiv. 18.

[46] 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

[47] Eph. ii. 1. 5.

[48] Col. i. 13.

[49] Ephes. ii. 10.

[50] 2 Cor. vi. 16.

[51] Col. iii. 9, 10.

[52] Ephes. ii. 22.

[53] Vide Dr. Doddridge’s eight Sermons on Regeneration, a most valuable compilation; and McLaurin’s Essay on Divine Grace.

[54] Rom. iv. 5.

[55] Ibid. v. 6-8.

[56] The Writer trusts he cannot be misunderstood to mean that any, continuing sinners and ungodly, can, by believing, be accepted or finally saved. The following chapter, particularly the latter part of it, (Section vi.) would abundantly vindicate him from any such misconstruction. Meanwhile, he will only remark, that true faith (in which repentance is considered as involved) is in Scripture regarded as the radical principle of holiness. If the root exist, the proper fruits will be brought forth. An attention to this consideration would have easily explained and reconciled those passages of St. Paul’s and St. James’s Epistles, which have furnished so much matter of argument and criticism. St. James, it may be observed, all along speaks of a man, not who has faith, but who says that he has faith. Vide James ii. 14. &c. &c.

[57] Vide Note Ch. iv. Sect. vi.

[58] Gal. vi. 14.

[59] I Cor. i. 30.

[60] Rev. i. 5.

[61] John, vi. 29.

[62] 1 John, iii. 23.

[63] Nec Deus intersit, &c.

[64] Vide Heb. ii. 1, &c.

[65] Any one who wishes to investigate this subject will do well to study attentively McLaurin’s Essay on Prejudices against the Gospel.—It may not be amiss here to direct the reader’s attention to a few leading arguments, many of them those of the work just recommended. Let him maturely estimate the force of those terms, whereby the Apostle in the following passages designates and characterizes the whole of the Christian system. “We preach Christ crucified“—“We determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” The value of this argument will be acknowledged by all who consider, that a system is never designated by an immaterial or an inferior part of it, but by that which constitutes its prime consideration and essential distinction. The conclusion suggested by this remark is confirmed by the Lord’s Supper being the rite by which our Saviour himself commanded his Disciples to keep him in remembrance; and indeed a similar lesson is taught by the Sacrament of Baptism, which shadows out our souls being washed and purified by the blood of Christ. Observe next the frequency with which our Saviour’s death and sufferings are introduced, and how often they are urged as practical motives.

“The minds of the Apostles seem full of this subject. Every thing put them in mind of it; they did not allow themselves to have it long out of their view, nor did any other branch of spiritual instruction make them lose sight of it.” Consider next that part of the Epistle to the Romans, wherein St. Paul speaks of some who went about to establish their own righteousness, and had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. May not this charge be in some degree urged, and even more strongly than in the case of the Jews, against those who satisfy themselves with vague, general, occasional thoughts of our Saviour’s mediation; and the source of whose habitual complacency, as we explained above, is rather their being tolerably well satisfied with their own characters and conduct? Yet St. Paul declares concerning those of whom he speaks, as concerning persons whose sad situation could not be too much lamented, that he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart, adding still more emphatical expressions of deep and bitter regret.

Let the Epistle to the Galatians be also carefully examined and considered; and let it be fairly asked, what was the particular in which the Judaizing Christians were defective, and the want of which is spoken of in such strong terms as these; that it frustrates the grace of God, and must debar from all the benefits of the death of Jesus? The Judaizing converts were not immoral. They seem to have admitted the chief tenets concerning our Saviour. But they appear to have been disposed to trust (not wholly, be it observed also, but only in part) for their acceptance with God, to the Mosaic institutions, instead of reposing wholly on the merits of Christ. Here let it be remembered, that when a compliance with these institutions was not regarded as conveying this inference, the Apostle shewed by his own conduct, that he did not deem it criminal; whence, no less than from the words of the Epistle, it is clear that the offence of the Judaizing Christians whom he condemned, was what we have stated; not their obstinately continuing to adhere to a dispensation the ceremonial of which Christianity had abrogated, or their trusting to the sacrifices of the Levitical Law, which were in their own nature inefficacious for the blotting out of sin.—Vide Heb. vii. viii. ix. x.

[66] Rev. v. 12.

[67] ib. 13.

[68] 2 Cor. xiii. 14.

[69] 1 John, iii. 17.—Rom. xvi. 18.—Compared with Philippians, iii. 19.

[70] 2 Tim. iii. 4.

[71] Matt. x. 37.

[72] Jerem. ix. 23.

[73] It will be remembered by the reader, that it is not the object of this work to animadvert on the vices, defects, and erroneous opinions of the times, except so far as they are received into the prevailing religious system, or are tolerated by it, and are not thought sufficient to prevent a man from being esteemed on the whole a very tolerable Christian.

[74] Vide Tale of a Tub.

[75] Vide Tale of a Tub.

[76] Isaiah, ii. 11.

[77] Vide Hey’s Tract, Rousseau’s Eloisa, and many periodical Essays and Sermons.

[78] Vide “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her, &c.” Matt. v. 28.

[79] The writer cannot omit this opportunity of declaring, that he should long ago have brought this subject before the notice of Parliament, but for a perfect conviction that he should probably thereby only give encouragement to a system he wishes to see at an end. The practice has been at different periods nearly stopped by positive laws, in various nations on the Continent; and there can be little doubt of the efficacy of what has been more than once suggested—a Court of Honour; to take cognizance of such offences as would naturally fall within its province. The effects of this establishment would doubtless require to be enforced by legislative provisions, directly punishing the practice; and by discouraging at court, and in the military and naval situations, all who should directly or indirectly be guilty of it.

[80] Vide, in particular a paper in the Guardian, by Addison, on Honour, Vol. ii.

[81] Vide Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments.

[82] The writer hopes that the work to which he is referring is so well known, that he needs scarcely name Mrs. H. More.

[83] See Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments.

[84] While all are worthy of blame, who, to qualities like these, have assigned a more exalted place than to religious and moral principle; there is one writer who, eminently culpable in this respect, deserves, on another account, still severer reprehension. Really possessed of powers to explore and touch the finest strings of the human heart, and bound by his sacred profession to devote those powers to the service of religion and virtue, he every where discovers a studious solicitude to excite indecent ideas. We turn away our eyes with disgust from open immodesty: but even this is less mischievous than that more measured style, which excites impure images, without shocking us by the grossnesses of the language. Never was delicate sensibility proved to be more distinct from plain practical benevolence, than in the writings of the author to whom I allude. Instead of employing his talents for the benefit of his fellow-creatures, they were applied to the pernicious purposes of corrupting the national taste, and of lowering the standard of manners and morals. The tendency of his writings is to vitiate that purity of mind, intended by Providence as the companion and preservative of youthful virtue; and to produce, if the expression may be permitted, a morbid sensibility in the perception of indecency. An imagination exercised in this discipline is never clean, but seeks for and discovers something indelicate in the most common phrases and actions of ordinary life. If the general style of writing and conversation were to be formed on that model, to which Sterne used his utmost endeavours to conciliate the minds of men, there is no estimating the effects which would soon be produced on the manners and morals of the age.