intended that Reason should control Desire, not that Desire should overmaster Reason. And in a like form might be presented some of the reasonings which we have employed. In order to establish the Duties of the Affections, for instance, we might have said, that it is plainly according to nature that men should be drawn together by Affection, and yet should possess distinct Rights ;-that therefore those benevolent Affections are Duties, which draw men together, as family affection, and the like; and those defensive Affections are also Duties, which tend to the maintenance of Rights, as indignation at wrong.

668. The acknowledgment of the Intention of the Creator, as the proper Rule of our being, implies the acknowledgment of Obedience to his Will as our Duty, and as the Source of Duties. When we include in our view the Idea of God, his Will, whether learnt from Revelation, or from reasoning, and from whatever course of reasoning, becomes the Supreme Rule of Human action, and that from which all other Rules are derived. He it is who makes our Duty and our Happiness coincide; and whether we say that Moral action will lead to Happiness because it is our Duty, or that it is our duty because it will lead to Happiness, we rest the reality and force of our Moral Rules upon the idea of God, who has established this coincidence of Duty and Happi

ness.

669. But we are not bound to God merely by the bonds of the Duty of Obedience. There are Affections which are naturally and necessarily due to him, and which further bind us to him. We are bound to him by the ties of Gratitude for innumera ble and immeasurable benefits which we have re ceived; for from him we have received all that we have or are. We are bound to him by relations of Order, as being, by the nature of things, our Sovereign Master and Lord. We are bound to him by

Love and Admiration, as containing in his essence the perfection of that Goodness and Justice which are the proper objects of Love and Admiration.

670. This, our Connexion with God by ties of Dependence, Obedience, and Affection, is often and tly expressed by speaking of him as our Father, nd the Universal Father of mankind. We are his ldren, and he is the proper object of our Filial Affection; only, that our filial affection to Him may assume, and ought to assume, a character of entire and confiding Reverence, which has no reserve, doubt, or limit; as the affection to our human parents sometimes may or must have.

671. Looking upon God as our Father, and the Father of all men, we are naturally led to look upon all men as our Brethren. All mankind form one great Family; and as all the mutual Duties and Services between the Members of a Family become manifestations and results of the Family Affections, when these are fully and freely unfolded, so all Duties and Services between the members of the Great Human Family (291) become results of the fraternal love which belongs to their condition as common children of one universal Father.

672. A sense of our Dependence, our Grati tude, our Reverence, when these feelings exist towards men, find their expression in various forms of language and other indications. God does not pre

sent himself to us as a Person to whom we can speak face to face. We conceive him as an Energy and Intelligence, producing, upholding, pervading, seeing, knowing, and judging all things. He created and unfolded, he continually preserves, continually observes us. In him we live and move. He is not far from every one of us. He is acquainted with our thoughts and feelings, as soon as they arise in our minds. Hence, when our feelings of Dependence, Gratitude, and Reverence, take any definite shape in

our thoughts, and become clothed in Conceptions and Images, we may conceive that these forms of our affection become known to him of themselves, without the use of words on our parts. But in fact, our affections cannot be very definitely clothed in conceptions and images, without at least the mental use of words; and for the most part, these forms of feeling become more distinct by being uttered and heard by men among men. Besides, in the common participation of such feelings, and in the common contemplation of the conceptions and images in which they are clothed, there is an influence by which they become more intense in men's minds, and are communicated from one mind to others. Hence, to mould our feelings of Gratitude and Reverence towards God into words, will tend to cultivate these feelings both in our own minds and in the minds of other men. Such feelings are Natural Piety; and this Piety may be promoted, by being expressed both in solitude and in the company of men.

673. But we may not only express our feelings of Piety; we may direct these expressions to God. God is a Mind, in which are Intelligence, Purpose, Will, Thought, as in our own. We necessarily conceive him as a person, and we can address ourselves to him as a Person; this address must be made in our thoughts; for though God is near to each of us here, he is far off, or rather unapproachable, as an object of outward apprehension. And our internal addresses to God must necessarily be such as to imply that entire Dependence upon him, which is the first of the affections due to him. This may be implied, by humbly asking from him some of the benefits which he can give us. Such internal address of our thoughts to God, in which our dependence is expressed by words of Petition, are Prayers. Benefits, as they come from him, and express his Benevolence to us, are Blessings. And as we pray to

God for future or continued Blessings, we express our gratitude for past Blessings in Thanksgivings. We express our admiration of God's character in Praises. Such expressions of Natural Piety have been common in all ages; although, for the most part, mixed with vague or arbitrary images and conceptions, arising from the imperfection of men's moral and intellectual, and still more of their religious culture.

674. Prayer, Thanksgiving and Praise, are properly and primarily the language of each man's thoughts to God; when the feelings of Natural Piety have been duly unfolded. A man, in his Private Prayers, asks for Blessings for himself, and especially for such Blessings as may aid him in his moral progress; for strength to resist temptation, and to elevate and purify his mind. But also, since the affections which are due to God, arise from the condition of human nature which is common to all men, men feel that a common expression of such feelings by assemblies of men is also suitable to their condition. Ac. cordingly, Public Prayer, by assemblies of men, and other public expressions of religious feelings, have been employed in all ages and nations. Such acknowledgments of the dependence of man on God, and man's reverence for God, expressed in words or by other indications, are Worship; and men have in all times and places worshipped God; although their notions of Deity have often been gross and fantastical, and their worship often inconsistent with moral and rational views.

675. Public Worship by assemblies of men necessarily implies Places and Times appointed for such Ceremonies: and these Places, Times, and Ceremonies themselves are naturally looked upon by men with a religious reverence: they are fixed by rule, and separated from all common uses; they are Sacred. Special Sacred Places, as Temples; fixed

Sacred Times, as Festivals; appear to be universa! dictates of Natural Piety. Religious Ceremonies are very various in various countries; but some. which may appear to our Reason to be arbitrary, prevailed very extensively among the ancient nations, and from the earliest times; as Sacrifices of Animals. These Sacrifices were understood as an acknow. ledgment of Sin on the part of the Worshippers, a Supplication for Forgiveness, and a Means of Propitiation.

676. The Natural Piety, of which we have spoken, is a part of our Duty; for it is a part of the Christian Piety, of which we shall have to speak. Paul spoke to the people of Lystra of God, as mani. fested to man's natural reason by the works of nature. God, he said, even before the teaching of Revelation, left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness (Acts xiv., 17). And when he preached to the Athenians, taking occasion from an altar with the inscription to the Unknown God, he said (Acts xvii., 23), Whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. And he went on to deliver the views of Natural Piety: God that made the world and all things therein...hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell upon the face of the earth; and hath determined their appointed time, and the bounds of their habitation that they might seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him till they found him. And yet he is not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are his offspring. So too the Psalms of David, which are adopted and confirmed by Christ and his disciples as a part of the Revelation of God, are full of the Recognition of God and his character, as manifested in the works of his creation. In these songs of Praise, God is constantly