1356 
and independent of our brutal part. These 
can never be carried to excess, never succeed- 
ed by corroding reflexion. Pleasing once, 
they please and delight us for ever. These 
neither birth, nor external events, nor the 
dispositions of men, nor disease, nor age, can 
affect. They attend us in society, and for- 
sake us not in solitude. When enemies per- 
secute us, they inspire us with courage, and 
endue us with strength. When false friends 
abandon us, they remain. They solace ad- 
versity, and‘enhance, and adorn prosperous 
circumstances. They lighten the burdens of 
life, and disarm death of his terrors! Com- 
ared with these affluence is poor, grandeur 
1s contemptible, sensual pleasure is disgust- 
ing. External circumstances are appropriat- 
ed to no inherent dignity of character, and 
are, often, the means Ag Ma it. But, 
religious and moral enjoyments are the pecu- 
liar privileges of the wise and good, who are 
not excluded from their share of worldly pos- 
sessions, and can enjoy them with the high- 
est relish. Still, should these be withheld, 
supported by their internal resources, by 
conscious integrity, by the exhilarating sense 
ef the divine favour, and by the glorious 
rospect of a blessed immortality, the pious- 
i wise must, even in adversity and affliction, 
be possessed of a more abundant store of 
happiness than can belong to the impious 
and wicked, placed on the summit of power, 
basking in the sunshine of prosperity, and 
resounding the loudest strains of dissolute 
mirth. Like arock towering above the deep, 
the man of piety and virtue beholds the 
storms of calamity roar around him, without 
shaking his resolution, or impairing his 
strength. When the tempest assails those 
of a contrary character, they are tossed, 
like the sand, from surge to surge, and when 
the calm returns, sink under the weight of 
their own depravity !” x 
The fourth discourse, delivered ona 
particular occasion, is worthy of being 
recommended to general attention.— 
The following passages we cannot with- 
hold: ; 
«« The present age values itself on the im- 
provement of elegant art, on the cultivation 
of literatute, and on a general civilization of 
manners.. The desire of knowledge per- 
vades even the vulgar; and a certain species 
of refinement is every where conspicuous. 
Thousands, however, who affect the philo- 
sophical spirit, and a high degree of phi- 
lanthropy, despise religion, as unsuitable to 
elegance of mind, and acuteness of under- 
standing. But, can any thing be more ab- 
surd, than to €nquire into every other cause, 
and to exclude the Supreme? Can any thing 
‘be more irrational, than. to discover and ad- 
mire the curious structure, and the nice 
adaptation of means to ends, displayed 
through evcry part of nature, and to reccive 
no impression of the original Contriver? 
THEOLOGY AND ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 
_very liftic thing ; who stretcheth out the north 
rational Christians a certain argumentative | 
Can any thing be more inconsistent, th 
to be alive and sensible to every species ¢ 
created symmetry and beauty, and to be ut 
terly callous to the spotless perfection of the | 
creating and governing mind? Can any thing” 
be more degrading, than to esteem and hoe 
nour every display of human genius, wisdom, 
and benignity, and to be insensible to , 
source from which even those are derived, — 
the Father of lights, the Author of every good 
and perfect gift ? The mountain, hiding it 
snowy head in the clouds ;_ the river rolling 
its irresistible current, swelled with all the 
waters of heaven; the boundless expanse o} 
ocean ; the raging agitations of the tempest 
—these are grand and.sublime objects, wie! 
affect the most stupid and unfeeling heart 17 
But, what are these, in comparison of Him 
who counteth the nations, as the small dust 
ef the lalance; who taketh up the isles as @ 
over the emply space; and hangeth the earth 
upon nothing 2” 
In accounting for the indifference tha 
prevails with regard to religion, Dre 
Brown very judiciously remarks : 
«© To the prevalence of this dispositio 
the attacks, made by sceptics on Christiani 
ty, have contributed in a manner which I 
recollect not to haye, hitherto, seen remark= 
ed. In conducting the deistical controversy” 
through all its branches, much acuteness o 
intellect, and copious stores of erudition 
have frequently been requisite. But, while 
the truth of religion was evinced, its powe 
and energy over the heart were, in some mea- | 
sure, suspended. Everyappearance of warmth ~ 
was avoided. Zeal was considered as blind-— 
ing the understanding, as precluding impar-_ 
tiality, as leading toa degree of animation 
prejudicial to the cause of truth, as expressive 
oi an intolerant mind, which the enemies of | 
religion were so prone to charge on its pro= 
fessors. The coldness, which is peculiar to 
scepticism, was communicated to those who 
were engaged in combating it, by detecting 
the fallacy of sophistical argument. The 
species of contest, which it was necessary to- 
maintain, introduced into the minds of many 
insensibility. Though those, whose faith 
was built on the firmest foundations of evi- 
dence, had the strongest grounds of attach- 
ment to our holy religion, yet, the tone of 
their religious feelings was reduced, and @ 
speculative and theoretical belief was some- 
times aliowed to take place of ¢hut (faith 
which is the substance of things hoped for, 
and the evidence of things not seen: that 
faith, which purificth the heart, worketh ky 
love, and overcometh the world. ‘The glow 
of piety, the spirit of devotion, the energy 
of holy zeal, were chilled by the process of 
abstract intellect, and the aflections, deprived 
of their proper objects, were allowed to sub- 
side into lethargic indifference. As, in thos€ 
