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but surely they ought to be closely watched, and diligently guarded against. The hand of Justice should not bear the sword in vain, but when opportunity offers, the blow should fall on the heads of the guilty offenders against the laws of Religion and Morality; nor yet be delayed too long, both in mercy to the guilty, and in pity for the deluded victims of their deep-laid snares. Should any object to this view, that it would lead to an infringement of the liberty of opinion, and the rights of conscience; we answer, that every one is free to follow his own convictions and opinions, whatever they may be, as long as he keeps his sentiments to himself, and either confines them to his own breast, or does not exhibit them in any unbecoming manner, or carry them out into any unlawful practices; and we further add, that every man is also at liberty, in this age and country, to propagate his opinions among others, so long as they are not inconsistent with the welfare and security of the State. We leave the application of this doctrine to others, as to press the subject further would be inconsistent with the object and character of the present Essay; but we must insist that there is a limit beyond which the freedom of action and expression may not pass, in any well-regulated government. When the laws of the country are set at nought-when the public authority is contemned and reviled-when the fundamental truths of Religion are openly gainsayed-and when all that is antiChristian in principle, and demoralizing in practice, is with unblushing boldness fearlessly set forth, then surely it is high time for Justice to awake from her slumbers, to brandish

her two-edged sword, and save the yet uncorrupted of the flock, at the expense of those who have justly forfeited the rights of citizens and the freedom of the state. If not for religion's sake, yet for the sake of public virtue, and public safety, it is the bounden duty of the magistrate to interfere with the liberty of that man's conscience, which leads him to interfere with the peace and prosperity of his fellow-citizens, and the laws of his country.*

But if it be the duty of a Christian government to discountenance, if not to suppress, irreligious principles, how much more is this the case with respect to immoral practices? How ought they to frown upon, and put down those habits of vice, which interweaving themselves into the national character, corrupt the public morals, and growing up with, and in spite of, every effort made to improve them, like tares among the wheat, impair the vigour and destroy the fruitfulness of every principle of religion and virtue ! What should we think of a husbandman, who not satisfied with having weeds growing naturally and spontaneously in his corn fields, should sow them himself, and reap a crop of cockle and darnel of his own cultivation or who should even go so far in his mad folly, as to carry good seed in one hand, and scatter thistle-down with the other? But, supposing such a madman could be met with, wherein would he surpass in folly (harmless his indeed, but their's most destructive) the conduct of those governors, who, while they maintain at the public expense noble institu

* Note A.

D

tions for the promotion of religion and morality, at the same time countenance and support demoralizing and unchristian establishments, avowedly and confessedly hostile to the former, and which can only flourish in their decay, and triumph in their ruin? Surely it needs no argument with religious and reasonable men, to prove that the Church and the Theatre, the College and the Race-course, the School and the Gin-shop, are incompatible with each other. It is indeed but too evident that they may go on together; but then it is only to be accomplished by the one giving way to the other, and which class of institutions is most likely to suffer from the alliance, experience has plainly shewn. The former will invariably yield to the influence of the latter, losing their proper character altogether, and, instead of a mutual concession, "the reciprocity will be" as the Irishman said, "all on one side."

Human nature is too prone to evil, in consequence of its own corruption, to need the incitements which these seductive pleasures offer to the mind of inexperienced youth. The effort to keep up religious feelings must be constantly sustained, in order to overcome that vis inertiæ, that propensity to continual declensions and lukewarmness, which even the advanced Christian is inwardly conscious of. But when to this innate tendency to decay in virtuous habits and practices, there is added the outward obstruction of close intermixture with a "world lying in wickedness," and the mind is brought into frequent collision with all its "stumbling blocks of iniquity"-its pomps and vanities, licentious maxims and dissolute gaieties, how can it be

otherwise, but that religion must suffer in the strife, unless an extraordinary supply of Divine grace be afforded to prevent it? But since this cannot be expected, without presumption, in such a case, where one is wilfully "entering into the temptation," and going unarmed into the midst of danger, the result is that the moral principle is corrupted, and if the form of godliness is retained, it soon loses all its power, and is reduced to a mere caput mortuum, 66 a name to live, while it is dead," a hollow mask of fictitious piety, which under a hallowed garb, mocks the omniscient eye with hypocritical services, and does more to debase the moral character than the most open and barefaced profligacy. What need have we then to impress upon the Legislature of our country, the imperative duty which attaches to them, in their capacity as governors, not only to promote a sound, religious, and moral education, but also to suppress, or at least to discourage, instead of countenancing and supporting those pursuits and practices, which so directly tend to impede its progress, and render its efforts abortive. The policy which has been usually adopted by Government on this subject, savours too much of libertinism, and can only be defended on infidel principles, or, what is virtually the same thing, a disbelief of the Scripture testimony, and the substitution in its stead of expediency, fatalism, or a certain necessity of conniving at vice and immorality, as if mankind were compelled to commit them, or the laws of God were too strict to be observed without relaxation, or enforced without indulgence. But what greater insult can men throw upon religion than

this, to suppose that He who created men knows not how to govern them, or that the heart-searching God would have given a law to His creatures, which a moderate insight into human nature, and acquaintance with mankind has enabled modern legislators to discover to be wholly unsuited to their condition, and inapplicable to their circumstances, at least without undergoing very important modifications? If this is not the language of downright infidelity, it is very like it, or perhaps something worse. We are bound in all reason and equity, if we would act honestly and consistently, either to submit to all the dictates of Divine Wisdom, and carry them out in all our public, as well as private acts and relations of life; or to renounce, without disguise, all pretensions to religion, and rejecting Christianity altogether, at once to repudiate the Bible as the standard of our faith and duty. It is true that some good effects may arise even from that half-confession of faith, and doubtful allegiance to Christianity which prevails amongst us. Some evils are no doubt prevented, and the cause of Religion and Morality are preserved from entirely perishing out of the land. But at the same time it ought not to be forgotten, that whilst a nation publicly assents to the truth of religion, it binds itself by a solemn contract to fulfil all its obligations towards God, and its own members, and if it neglect to perform its duty and keep its engagements, it lays itself under a far heavier condemnation, than if it had never entered into that sacred covenant, nor become a party to its conditions. We know what curses were denounced, in

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