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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. Accordingly, 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 universal 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 acknowledgment 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 manifested 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

spoken of, as alike declared to us by the visible heavens and earth which surround us, and by the moral law which is within us; as in the nineteenth Psalm; The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy-work; and a few verses later, The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. And Jesus Christ himself speaks to us of God who clothes the lilies of the field, and without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground. Thus the convictions of Natural Piety are adopted as a fundamental part of that belief which Christ and his Apostles taught.

The dictates of Natural Piety, in so far as they direct us to fixed times, places, and forms of worship, are also adopted and carried into detail by Christian teachers, as we shall hereafter see.

CHAPTER XI.

OATHS.

677. THERE is another expression of our feelings and convictions respecting God, which has found a place among the usages of all nations, and may therefore be considered as a result of Natural Piety. I speak of Oaths. As we have already said (318), we may make, or may wish to make, a promise or a declaration in a manner more earnest, more considerate, more solemn, than ordinary. Natural Piety suggests, as the most solemn way in which this can be done, the doing it with express reference to our belief in God, in the presence of other men, in some form of this kind: I promise, or I declare, in the presence of God; as God is my Witness; as God is my Judge. We stated that, in the violation of a solemn promise or declaration, the transgression of morality

is very great, because we have willingly and purposely rested a great share of our moral progress upon our truthfulness in this instance. It is consistent with this view to confirm a solemn promise by an Oath. For in the eye of the religious man, the end and aim of our moral progress is the happiness which God makes to be the consequence of moral progress rightly pursued. By acting as in his presence, by purposely referring to him as our Witness, and as our Judge, we involve in the consequences of our acts, so far as we can, our total future happiness in this world and the next. If we transgress, we renounce our claim to the happiness which God will give to Truthfulness, without which no character can be otherwise than depraved.

678. It may perhaps be objected to the use of such expressions as this; In the presence of God ; and the like, we make a difference between one action and another, which we ought not to make; since a religious man will do all things as in the presence of God. But to this the reply is obvious; that the use of such words brings the thought more home to us, for the moment, however familiar it may commonly be; and that such public references to the truths which we believe in common with other men, are among the means by which the belief becomes specially effective on our actions. We may add, that in those acts which especially consist of words, as promises and assertions, the religious thought, which ought to accompany our words, may very justly be also expressed in words. To avoid sins of thought, may be enough that we think ourselves in the presence of God: but when we have to speak, we may utter this thought among the rest, and say that we speak as in the presence of God.

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679. As an Oath implies hope of the happiness which God gives to virtue; it implies also fear of the unhappiness with which he will punish falsehood, and

especially falsehood committed in a case in which he has been thus appealed to by an Oath. God is regarded as the avenger of Perjury. And this has sometimes been expressed in the Oath; God being spoken of, not only as the Judge of men, but as the Punisher of Falsehood. In some cases, there have been added Imprecations, that is, prayers for evils upon the swearer, if he break his Oath. But it is more suitable to the Reverence which we owe to God as our Judge, that we should leave the details and mode of his Justice to him. On the other hand, an oath seems to imply a prayer for Divine assistance to enable us to keep our Oath. Man's command over his future actions, still more over his affections and wishes, is not absolute; and temptations may occur, when the assistance, which religious men seek to obtain by prayer, may be needed, in order that the sworn man may keep his Oath inviolate. This appears to be implied in the phrase used in many Oaths, So help me God; ita me Deus adjuvet.

680. It has been said by some, that these phrases mean: On that condition alone, and no other, may God help me: If I break this oath, may he cease to help me, and leave me to misery. On this view, the Clause, So help me God, has been spoken of as a kind of Imprecation. But it is difficult to accept this view. If this were the sense intended, the more proper expression would be, So bless me God, So reward me God, or, So save me God; expressions which are not commonly used in Oaths. The expression, So help me God, agrees very well with the view which we have given of a solemn promise, that upon our truthfulness in this instance, we are willing to risk our whole moral progress; or, as the religious man rather views the matter, our favour in the eyes of God, and the happiness which he can give. For in incurring such a risk, a man may well say, "May

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