that have not received the sanction of their own immediate appointment.

It has ever been the misfortune of the world, to be more fond of its own inventions, than of God's commands, and there is this obvious reason for it, what man invents, has a more strict correspondence with his inclinations, than what God ordains, and hence it is, that we are so readily induced to substitute human imaginations in the place of divine institutions.

The opposers of the Established Church may be divided into two classes, those who consider the interference of the legislature for the support of religious worship, as inexpedient, and those who regard it as unlawful. To the former of these classes, I address the following observations :The legislature of every state is the proper superintendent of all its prudential concerns, and has not only a right, but is obliged by an authority, which it can neither oppose nor question, to pursue every lawful and expedient measure, for the promotion of the public welfare. To this great purpose religion in

every country, is not only useful, but indispensable; but religion cannot exist, and has never existed for any length of time, without public worship. As every man ought, therefore, willingly, to contribute to the support of whatever increases his own prosperity, he is by immoveable consequence, obliged to support the religion, which, by increasing the common prosperity, increases of course, his own. Should an advocate for the doctrine, which, I oppose, demand proof, that religion is indispensable to the welfare of a free country, this is my answer :-Moral obligation has its sole foundation in the character and government of God: but where God is not worshipped, his character will soon be disregarded, and the obligation founded on it, unfelt and forgotten. Human laws would often be of little avail, without a sense of divine legislation, and the enactments of men, have little effect, unless they were enforced by the authority of God. No duty to individuals, or to the public, would therefore be realized or performed. · Justice, kindness, and truth, the great hinges on which free society hangs, would be unpractised, because there would be no motives to the

practice, of sufficient force, to resist the passions of men. Oaths of office, and of testimony, alike, without the sense of accountableness to God, and the realizing belief of a future retribution, would become mere words of course, and be employed only to insult the Creator, deprave the juror, and cheat his fellow men. Thus with the loss of religion, all human confidence would be blown up, and the security of life, liberty, and property, buried in the ruins.

In aid of these observations, I allege that no free government has ever existed long, without the support of religion. Athens, Sparta, and Rome, stood and fell with their religion, false and gross as it was; because it contained some of those great truths, and solemn sanctions, without which, man can possess no conscience, exercise no virtue, and find no safety. To religion, Great Britain owes her happiness and permanency, and we may say to this celestial denizen in every period of our prosperity, (as the devout and humble Christian to his God),

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Having obtained help of thee, we have continued to this time."

In the history of the globe there is recorded but one attempt, seriously made, to establish a free government without religion. From this attempt has sprung new proof, that such a government, stripped of this aid, cannot exist. The government thus projected, was itself never established, but was a mere abortion, exhibiting doubtful signs of life at his birth, and possessing this dubious existence, only, as an ephemeron. During its diurnal life, it was the greatest scourge, (particularly to those for whom it was formed) and generally to the rest of mankind, which the world has ever seen. Instead of being a free, just, and beneficent system of administration, it was more despotic than a Persian caliphate; more wasteful of life, and all its blessings, than an inundation of Goths and Vandals; those who lived under it, and either originated or executed its measures, were the authors of more crimes than any collection of men, since the termination of that gigantic wickedness, from which nothing but an universal deluge, could cleanse this polluted world. These evils were the result of the only experiment ever made, of erecting a government without religion, un

til the remembrance of this experiment shall have been lost, it can never be made again.*

*To the astonishment of every sober man, France exhibited the spectacle of 25,000,000 of the human race, prostrating themselves, with religious reverence, before the word reason.

Louis XVI, the meekest and mildest monarch, ever elevated to the throne of France, was massacred with his family; and such of his subjects as were distinguished for probity and worth, were entombed in prisons, or made the food of the Guillotine. The realm was drenched in blood, and manured with the corpses of Frenchmen, murdered by Frenchmen; all the surrounding countries smoked with conflagration and slaughter. Republic after republic was blotted out of existence. In the cause and for the sake of liberty, the Bible, and the vessels of the eucharist, were paraded through the streets in mock procession, to degrade religion and its God. The former was laid on a bonfire, and the latter were polluted by a company of modern Belshazzars.

For the sake of liberty the Sabbath was abolished, and the decade instituted in its place, as a day set apart for villany and pollution, that ample opportunity might be furnished, of enjoying, without reins, the horrors of the club, or the brutism of the brothel. In fine, the souls of men, I mean of Frenchmen, (for the national convention were not, I presume, invested with dominion over the souls of other men,) were, for the sake of liberty, doomed by the legislature of France, to eternal sleep, in the dreary caverns of annihilation.

Ll