the book of his Revelation, the first day of the week had obtained the name of the Lord's day;"I was in the spirit," says he, "on the Lord's day." Rev. i. 10. Which name, and St. John's use of it, sufficiently denote the appropriation of this day to the service of religion, and that this appropriation was perfectly known to the Churches of Asia. I make no doubt that by the Lord's day was meant the first day of the week; for we find no footsteps of any distinction of days, which | could entitle any other to that appellation. The subsequent history of Christianity corresponds with the accounts delivered on this subject in Scripture.

It will be remembered, that we are contending, by these proofs, for no other duty upon the first day of the week, than that of holding and frequenting religious assemblies. A cessation upon

ment; the resting on that day from our employments longer than we are detained from them by attendance upon these assemblies, is to Christians an ordinance of human institution; binding nevertheless upon the conscience of every individual of a country in which a weekly Sabbath is established, for the sake of the beneficial purposes which the public and regular observance of it promotes, and recommended perhaps in some degree to the Divine approbation, by the resemblance it bears to what God was pleased to make a solemn part of the law which he delivered to the people of Israel, and by its subserviency to many of the same uses.

CHAPTER VIII.

Christian Sabbath is violated.

SINCE the obligation upon Christians to comply with the religious observance of Sunday, arises from the public uses of the institution, and the authority of the apostolic practice, the manner of observing it ought to be that which best fulfils these uses, and conforms the nearest to this practice.

The uses proposed by the institution are: 1. To facilitate attendance upon public worship.

2. To meliorate the condition of the laborious classes of mankind, by regular and seasonable returns of rest.

3. By a general suspension of business and amusement, to invite and enable persons of every description to apply their time and thoughts to subjects appertaining to their salvation.

that day from labour, beyond the time of attend- By that Acts and Omissions the Duty of the ance upon public worship, is not intimated in any passage of the New Testament; nor did Christ or his apostles deliver, that we know of, any command to their disciples for a discontinuance, upon that day, of the common offices of their professions; a reserve which none will see reason to wonder at, or to blame as a defect in the institution, who consider that, in the primitive condition of Christianity, the observance of a new Sabbath would have been useless, or inconvenient, or impracticable. During Christ's personal ministry, his religion was preached to the Jews alone. They already had a Sabbath, which, as citizens and subjects of that economy, they were obliged to keep; and did keep. It was not therefore probable that Christ would enjoin another day of rest in conjunction with this. When the new religion came forth into the Gentile world, converts to it were, for the most part, made from those classes of society who have not their time and With the primitive Christians, the peculiar, labour at their own disposal; and it was scarcely and probably for sometime the only, distinction of to be expected, that unbelieving masters and the first day of the week, was the holding of remagistrates, and they who directed the employ-ligious assemblies upon that day. We learn, ment of others, would permit their slaves and labourers to rest from their work every seventh day or that civil government, indeed, would have submitted to the loss of a seventh part of the public industry, and that too in addition to the numerous festivals which the national religions indulged to the people; at least, this would have been an incumbrance, which might have greatly retarded the reception of Christianity in the world. In reality, the institution of a weekly Sabbath is so connected with the functions of civil life, and requires so much of the concurrence of civil law, in its regulation and support, that it cannot, perhaps, properly be made the ordinance of any religion, till that religion be received as the religion of the state.

however, from the testimony of a very early writer amongst them, that they also reserved the day for religious meditations;-Unusquisque nostrum (saith Irenæus) sabbatizat spiritualiter, meditatione legis gaudens, opificium Dei admirans.

WHEREFORE the duty of the day is violated,

1st, By all such employments or engagements as (though differing from our ordinary occupation) hinder our attendance upon public worship, or take up so much of our time as not to leave a sufficient part of the day at leisure for religious reflection; as the going of journeys, the paying or receiving of visits which engage the whole day, or employing the time at home in writing letters, settling accounts, or in applying ourselves to studies, or the reading of books, which bear no relation to the business of religion.

The opinion, that Christ and his apostles meant to retain the duties of the Jewish Sabbath, 2dly, By unnecessary encroachments on the rest shifting only the day from the seventh to the first, and liberty which Sunday ought to bring to the seems to prevail without sufficient proof; nor does inferior orders of the community; as by keeping any evidence remain in Scripture (of what, how-servants on that day confined and busied in preever, is not improbable,) that the first day of the parations for the superfluous elegancies of our week was thus distinguished in commemoration table, or dress. of our Lord's resurrection.

The conclusion from the whole inquiry (for it is our business to follow the arguments, to what ever probability they conduct us,) is this: The assembling upon the first day of the week for the purpose of public worship and religious instruction, is a law of Christianity of Divine appoint

3dly, By such recreations as are customarily forborne out of respect to the day; as hunting, shooting, fishing, public diversions, frequenting taverns, playing at cards or dice.

If it be asked, as it often has been, wherein consists the difference between walking out with your staff or with your gun? between spending

The prohibition of the third commandment is recognised by Christ, in his sermon upon the mount; which sermon adverts to none but the moral parts of the Jewish law: "I say unto you, Swear not at all; but let your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil." The Jews probably interpreted the prohibition as restrained to the name JEHOVAH, the name which the Deity had appointed and appropriated to himself; Exod. vi. 3. The words of Christ extend the prohibition beyond the name of God, to every thing associated with the idea:-" Swear not, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King." Matt. v. 35.

the evening at home, or in a tavern? between | ligion and devotion, to express our anger, our passing the Sunday afternoon at a game of cards, earnestness, our courage, or our mirth: or indeed or in conversation not more edifying, not always when it is used at all, except in acts of religion, or so inoffensive?-to these, and to the same question in serious and seasonable discourse upon religious under a variety of forms, and in a multitude of subjects. similar examples, we return the following answer:-That the religious observance of Sunday, if it ought to be retained at all, must be upholden by some public and visible distinctions: that, draw the line of distinction where you will, many actions which are situated on the confines of the line, will differ very little, and yet lie on the opposite sides of it :-that every trespass upon that reserve which public decency has established, breaks down the fence by which the day is separated to the service of religion:-that it is unsafe to trifle with scruples and habits that have a beneficial tendency, although founded merely in custom-that these liberties, however intended, will certainly be considered by those who observe them, not only as disrespectful to the day and institution, but as proceeding from a secret contempt of the Christian faith-that consequently, they diminish a reverence for religion in others, so far as the authority of our opinion, or the efficacy of our example, reaches; or rather, so far as either will serve for an excuse of negligence to those who are glad of any that as to cards and dice, which put in their claim to be considered among the harmless occupations of a vacant hour, it may be observed that few find any difficulty in refraining from play on Sunday, except they who sit down to it with the views and eagerness of gamesters-that gaming is seldom innocent :-that the anxiety and perturbations, however, which it excites, are inconsistent with the tranquillity and frame of temper in which the duties and thoughts of religion should always both find and leave us: and lastly, we shall remark, that the example of other countries, where the same and greater licence is allowed, affords no apology for irregularities in our own; because a practice which is tolerated by public usage, neither receives the same construction, nor gives the same offence, as where it is censured and prohibited.

CHAPTER IX.

Of Reverencing the Deity.

In many persons, a seriousness, and sense of awe, overspread the imagination, whenever the idea of the Supreme Being is presented to their thoughts. This effect, which forms a considerable security against vice, is the consequence not so much of reflection, as of habit; which habit being generated by the external expressions of reverence which we use ourselves, or observe in others, may be destroyed by causes opposite to these, and especially by that familiar levity with which some learn to speak of the Deity, of his attributes, providence, revelations, or worship.

God hath been pleased (no matter for what reason, although probably for this) to forbid the vain mention of his name :-" Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Now the mention is vain, when it is useless: and it is useless, when it is neither likely nor intended to serve any good purpose; as when it flows from the lips idle and unmeaning, or is applied, on occasions inconsistent with any consideration of re

The offence of profane swearing is aggravated by the consideration, that in it duty and decency are sacrificed to the slenderest of temptations. Suppose the habit, either from affectation, or by negligence and inadvertency, to be already formed, it must always remain within the power of the most ordinary resolution to correct it; and it cannot, one would think, cost a great deal to relinquish the pleasure and honour which it confers. A concern for duty is in fact never strong, when the exertion requisite to vanish a habit founded in no antecedent propensity, is thought too much, or too painful.

A contempt of positive duties, or rather of those duties for which the reason is not so plain as the command, indicates a disposition upon which the authority of Revelation has obtained little influence.-This remark is applicable to the offence of profane swearing, and describes, perhaps, pretty exactly, the general character of those who are most addicted to it.

Mockery and ridicule, when exercised upon the Scriptures, or even upon the places, persons, and forms, set apart for the ministration of religion, fall within the meaning of the law which forbids the profanation of God's name; especially as that law is extended by Christ's interpretation. They are, moreover, inconsistent with a religious frame of mind: for, as no one ever feels himself disposed to pleasantry, or capable of being diverted with the pleasantry of others, upon matters in which he is deeply interested; so a mind intent upon the acquisition of heaven, rejects with indignation every attempt to entertain it with jests, calculated to degrade or deride subjects which it never recollects but with seriousness and anxiety. Nothing but stupidity, or the most frivolous dissipation of thought, can make even the inconsiderate forget the supreme importance of every thing which relates to the expectation of a future existence. Whilst the infidel mocks at the superstitions of the vulgar, insults over their credulous fears, their childish errors, or fantastic rites, it does not occur to him to observe, that the most preposterous device by which the weakest devotee ever believed he was securing the happiness of a future life, is more rational than unconcern about it. Upon this subject, nothing is so absurd as indifference; no folly so contemptible as thoughtlessness and levity.

Finally; the knowledge of what is due to the

solemnity of those interests, concerning which of our common nature are not altered or excluded Revelation professes to inform and direct us, may by distinctions of name, and that the characters of teach even those who are least inclined to respect men are formed much more by the temptations the prejudicies of mankind, to observe a decorum than the duties of their profession? A third finds in the style and conduct of religious disquisitions, delight in collecting and repeating accounts of wars with the neglect of which many adversaries of and massacres, of tumults and insurrections, exciChristianity are justly chargeable. Serious ar-ted in almost every age of the Christian æra by religuments are fair on all sides. Christianity is but gious zeal; as though the vices of Christians were ill defended by refusing audience or toleration to parts of Christianity; intolerance and extirpation the objections of unbelievers. But whilst we precepts of the Gospel; or as if its spirit could be would have freedom of inquiry restrained by no judged of from the counsels of princes, the inlaws but those of decency, we are entitled to de- trigues of statesmen, the pretences of malice and mand, on behalf of a religion which holds forth ambition, or the unauthorised cruelties of some to mankind assurances of immortality, that its gloomy and virulent superstition. By a fourth, credit be assailed by no other weapons than those the succession and variety of popular religions; of sober discussion and legitimate reasoning:-that the vicissitudes with which sects and tenets have the truth or falsehood of Christianity be never flourished and decayed; the zeal with which they made a topic of raillery, a theme for the exercise of were once supported, the negligence with which wit or eloquence, or a subject of contention for they are now remembered; the little share which literary fame and victory :-that the cause be tried reason and argument appear to have had in framupon its merits :-that all applications to the fancy, ing the creed, or regulating the religious conduct, passions, or prejudices of the reader, all attempts of the multitude; the indifference and submission to pre-occupy, ensnare, or perplex his judgment, with which the religion of the state is generally by any art, influence, or impression whatsoever, received by the common people; the caprice and extrinsic to the proper grounds and evidence upon vehemence with which it is sometimes opposed; which his assent ought to proceed, be rejected the phrensy with which men have been brought from a question which involves in its determination to contend for opinions and ceremonies, of which the hopes, the virtue, and the repose, of millions:- they knew neither the proof, the meaning, nor the that the controversy be managed on both sides original: lastly, the equal and undoubting confiwith sincerity; that is, that nothing be produced, dence with which we hear the doctrines of Christ in the writings of either, contrary to, or beyond, or of Confucius, the law of Moses or of Mahomet, the writer's own knowledge and persuasion:- the Bible, the Koran, or the Shaster, maintained that objections and difficulties be proposed, from or anathematized, taught or abjured, revered or no other motive than an honest and serious desire derided, according as we live on this or on that to obtain satisfaction, or to communicate informa-side of a river; keep within or step over the bountion which may promote the discovery and pro-daries of a state; or even in the same country, and gress of truth-that in conformity with this de- by the same people, so often as the event of battle, sign, every thing be stated with integrity, with or the issue of a negociation, delivers them to the method, precision, and simplicity; and above all, dominion of a new master;-points, I say, of this that whatever is published in opposition to re- sort are exhibited to the public attention, as so ceived and confessedly beneficial persuasions, be many arguments against the truth of the Christian set forth under a form which is likely to invite in- religion;-and with success. For these topics, quiry and to meet examination. If with these being brought together, and set off with some agmoderate and equitable conditions be compared the gravation of circumstances, and with a vivacity manner in which hostilities have been waged of style and description familiar enough to the against the Christian religion, not only the votaries writings and conversation of free-thinkers, insenof the prevailing faith, but every man who looks sibly lead the imagination into a habit of classing forward with anxiety to the destination of his being, Christianity with the delusions that have taken will see much to blame and to complain of. By one possession, by turns, of the public belief; and of unbeliever, all the follies which have adhered, in a regarding it, as what the scoffers of our faith relong course of dark and superstitious ages, to the present it to be, the superstition of the day. popular creed, are assumed as so many doctrines But is this to deal honestly by the subject, or of Christ and his apostles, for the purpose of sub- with the world? May not the same things be said, verting the whole system by the absurdities which may not the same prejudices be excited by these it is thus represented to contain. By another, the representations, whether Christianity be true or ignorance and vices of the sacerdotal order, their false, or by whatever proofs its truth be attested? mutual dissensions and persecutions, their usur- May not truth as well as falsehood be taken upon pations and encroachments upon the intellectual credit? May not a religion be founded upon eviliberty and civil rights of mankind, have been dis-dence accessible and satisfactory to every mind complayed with no small triumph and invective; not petent to the inquiry, which yet, by the greatest so much to guard the Christian laity against a part of its professors, is received upon authority? repetition of the same injuries, (which is the only But if the matter of those objections be repreproper use to be made of the most flagrant exam-hensible, as calculated to produce an effect upon ples of the past,) as to prepare the way for an in- the reader beyond what their real weight and place sinuation, that the religion itself is nothing but a in the argument deserve, still more shall we discoprofitable fable, imposed upon the fears and cre- ver of management and disingenuousness in the dulity of the multitude, and upheld by the frauds form under which they are dispersed among the and influence of an interested and crafty priest-public. Infidelity is served up in every shape hood. And yet, how remotely is the character of the clergy connected with the truth of Christianity! What, after all, do the most disgraceful pages of ecclesiastical history prove, but that the passions

that is likely to allure, surprise, or beguile the imagination; in a fable, a tale, a novel, a poem; in interspersed and broken hints, remote and ob lique surmises; in books of travels, of philosophy,

of natural history; in a word, in any form rather than the right one, that of a professed and regular disquisition. And because the coarse buffoonery, and broad laugh, of the old and rude adversaries of the Christian faith, would offend the taste, perhaps, rather than the virtue, of this cultivated age, a graver irony, a more skilful and delicate banter, is substituted in their place. An eloquent historian, beside his more direct, and therefore fairer attacks upon the credibility of Evangelic story, has contrived to weave into his narration one continued sneer upon the cause of Christianity, and upon the writings and characters of its ancient patrons. The knowledge which this author possesses of the frame and conduct of the human mind, must have led him to observe, that such attacks do their execution without inquiry. Who can refute a sneer? Who can compute the number, much less, one by one, scrutinize the justice, of those disparaging insinuations which crowd the pages of this elaborate history? What reader suspends his curiosity, or calls off his attention from the principal narrative, to examine references, or to search into the foundation, or to weigh the reason, propriety, and force, of every transient sarcasm, and sly allusion, by which the Christian testimony is depreciated and traduced: and by which, nevertheless, he may find his persuasion afterwards unsettled and perplexed?

surrection of damnation:"-he had pronounced a message of inestimable importance, and well worthy of that splendid apparatus of prophecy and miracles with which his mission was introduced and attested: a message in which the wisest of mankind would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, and rest to their inquiries. It is idle to say, that a future state had been discovered already :—it had been discovered as the Copernican system was,-it was one guess among many. He alone discovers, who proves; and no man can prove this point, but the teacher who testifies by miracles that his doctrine comes from God.

BOOK VI.

ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL KNOWLEDGE.

CHAPTER I.

Of the Origin of Civil Government. GOVERNMENT, at first, was either patriarchal or military that of a parent over his family, or of a commander over his fellow-warriors.

I. Paternal authority, and the order of domestic life, supplied the foundation of civil government. Did mankind spring out of the earth mature and independent, it would be found perhaps impossible to introduce subjection and subordination among them: but the condition of human infancy prepares men for society, by combining individuals into small communities, and by placing them from the beginning, under direction and control. A family contains the rudiments of an empire. The authority of one over many, and the disposition to govern and to be governed, are in this way incidental to the very nature, and coeval no doubt with the existence, of the human species.

But the enemies of Christianity have pursued her with poisoned arrows. Obscurity itself is made the vehicle of infidelity. The awful doctrines, if we be not permitted to call them the sacred truths, of our religion, together with all the adjuncts and appendages of its worship and external profession, have been sometimes impudently profaned by an unnatural conjunction with impure and lascivious images. The fondness for ridicule is almost universal: and ridicule, to many minds, is never so irresistible, as when seasoned with obscenity, and employed upon religion. But in proportion as these noxious principles take hold of the imagination, they infatuate the judgment: Moreover, the constitution of families not only for trains of ludicrous and unchaste associations assists the formation of civil government, by the adhering to every sentiment and mention of re- dispositions which it generates, but also furnishes ligion, render the mind indisposed to receive either the first steps of the process by which empires conviction from its evidence, or impressions from have been actually reared. A parent would retain its authority. And this effect being exerted upon a considerable part of his authority after his chilthe sensitive part of our frame, is altogether inde-dren were grown up, and had formed families of pendent of argument, proof, or reason; is as formidable to a true religion, as to a false one; to a well grounded faith, as to a chimerical mythology, or fabulous tradition. Neither, let it be observed, is the crime or danger less, because impure ideas are exhibited under a veil, in covert and chastised language.

their own. The obedience of which they remembered not the beginning, would be considered as natural; and would scarcely, during the parent's life, be entirely or abruptly withdrawn. Here then we see the second stage in the progress of dominion. The first was, that of a parent over his young children; this, that of an ancestor presiding over his adult descendants.

Seriousness is not constraint of thought; nor levity, freedom. Every mind which wishes the Although the original progenitor was the centre advancement of truth and knowledge, in the most of union to his posterity, yet it is not probable important of all human researches, must abhor that the association would be immediately or altothis licentiousness, as violating no less the laws of gether dissolved by his death. Connected by hareasoning, than the rights of decency. There is bits of intercourse and affection, and by some but one description of men, to whose principles it common rights, necessities, and interests, they ought to be tolerable; I mean that class of reason- would consider themselves as allied to each other ers who can see little in Christianity, even sup-in a nearer degree than to the rest of the species. posing it to be true. To such adversaries we address this reflection-Had Jesus Christ delivered no other declaration than the following-"The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the re

Almost all would be sensible of an inclination to continue in the society in which they had been brought up; and experiencing, as they soon would do, many inconveniences from the absence of that authority which their common ancestor exercised, especially in deciding their disputes, and directing their operations in matters in which it was ne

supporting the succession of his children: add to these reasons, that elections to the supreme power having, upon trial, produced destructive contentions, many states would take a refuge from a return of the same calamities in a rule of succession; and no rule presents itself so obvious, certain, and intelligible, as consanguinity of birth.

The ancient state of society in most countries, and the modern condition of some uncivilized parts of the world, exhibit that appearance which this account of the origin of civil government would

cessary to act in conjunction, they might be induced to supply his place by a formal choice of a successor; or rather might willingly, and almost imperceptibly, transfer their obedience to some one of the family, who by his age or services, or by the part he possessed in the direction of their affairs during the lifetime of the parent, had already taught them to respect his advice, or to attend to his commands; or lastly, the prospect of these inconveniences might prompt the first ancestor to appoint a successor; and his posterity, from the same motive, united with an habitual de-lead us to expect. The earliest histories of Paference to the ancestor's authority, might receive the appointment with submission. Here then we have a tribe or clan incorporated under one chief. Such communities might be increased by considerable numbers, and fulfil the purposes of civil union without any other or more regular convention, constitution, or form of government, than what we have described. Every branch which was slipped off from the primitive stock, and removed to a distance from it, would in like manner take root, and grow into a separate clan. Two or three of these clans were frequently, we may suppose, united into one. Marriage, conquest, mutual defence, common distress, or more accidental coalitions, might produce this effect.

II. A second source of personal authority, and which might easily extend, or sometimes perhaps supersede, the patriarchal, is that which results from military arrangement. In wars, either of aggression or defence, manifest necessity would prompt those who fought on the same side to array themselves under one leader. And although their leader was advanced to this eminence for the purpose only, and during the operations, of a single expedition, yet his authority would not always terminate with the reasons for which it was conferred. A warrior who had led forth his tribe against their enemies, with repeated success, | would procure to himself, even in the deliberations of peace, a powerful and permanent influence. If this advantage were added to the authority of the patriarchal chief, or favoured by any previous distinction of ancestry, it would be no difficult undertaking for the person who possessed it, to obtain the almost absolute direction of the affairs of the community; especially if he was careful to associate to himself proper auxiliaries, and content to practise the obvious art of gratifying or removing those who opposed his pretensions.

lestine, Greece, Italy, Gaul, Britain, inform us, that these countries were occupied by many small independent nations, not much perhaps unlike those which are found at present amongst the savage inhabitants of North America, and upon the coast of Africa. These nations I consider as the amplifications of so many single families; or as derived from the junction of two or three families, whom society in war, or the approach of some common danger, had united. Suppose a country to have been first peopled by shipwreck on its coasts, or by emigrants or exiles from a neighbouring country; the new settlers, having no enemy to provide against, and occupied with the care of their personal subsistence, would think tle of digesting a system of laws, of contriving form of government, or indeed of any political union whatever; but each settler would remain at the head of his own family, and each family would include all of every age and generation who were descended from him. So many of these families as were holden together after the death of the original ancestor, by the reasons and in the method above recited, would wax, as the individuals were multiplied, into tribes, clans, hordes, or nations, similar to those into which the ancient inhabitants of many countries are known to have been divided, and which are still found wherever the state of society and manners is immature and uncultivated.

a

Nor need we be surprised at the early existence in the world of some vast empires, or at the rapidity with which they advanced to their greatness, from comparatively small and obscure originals. Whilst the inhabitants of so many countries were broken into numerous communities, unconnected, and oftentimes contending with each other; before experience had taught these little states to see their own danger in their neighbour's ruin; or had instructed them in the necesBut although we may be able to comprehend sity of resisting the aggrandizement of an ashow by his personal abilities or fortune one man piring power, by alliances, and timely preparamay obtain the rule over many, yet it seems more tions; in this condition of civil policy, a particular difficult to explain how empire became hereditary, tribe, which by any means had gotten the start of or in what manner sovereign power, which is the rest in strength or discipline, and happened to never acquired without great merit or manage- fall under the conduct of an ambitious chief, by ment, learns to descend in a succession which has directing their first attempts to the part where no dependance upon any qualities either of un-success was most secure, and by assuming, as derstanding or activity. The causes which have they went along, those whom they conquered into introduced hereditary dominion into so general a a share of their future enterprises, might soon gareception in the world, are principally the follow-ther a force which would infallibly overbear any ing-the influence of association, which com- opposition that the scattered power and unpromunicates to the son a portion of the same respect vided state of such enemies could make to the which was wont to be paid to the virtues or sta-progress of their victories.

tion of the father; the mutual jealousy of other Lastly, our theory affords a presumption, that competitors; the greater envy with which all be- the earliest governments were monarchies; because hold the exaltation of an equal, than the con- the government of families, and of armies, from tinuance of an acknowledged superiority; a reign-which, according to our account, civil government ing prince leaving behind him many adherents, derived its institution, and probably its form, is who can preserve their own importance only by universally monarchical.