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VIEW'S OF THE PRECEDING NOTE APPLIED TO RELIGION.

MODERATION in religion, not less than conservative principles in politics, must characterize every ecclesiastical institution that is destined to be permanent, or that aims at accomplishing the purpose for which such institutions have been appointed.

It must at the same time be admitted, that notwithstanding the constant tendency of the affairs and occupations and interests of this world to reduce the religious affections of the human mind to a calm and useful state, there are several circumstances which are, in most cases, powerfully influential in making it more difficult to attain to this natural and beneficial character of the religious emotion among the mass of a community--than to give to their political partialities and principles a corresponding quiet and practically useful tone.

Thus, in the first place, there is an idea, very generally entertained, that it is not possible that the religious feelings can be too highly excited and that it is a part of the duty of those who have the superintendence of the religious interests and habits of a people, to keep that feeling in as high and excited a state as possible. A character of obligation and of duty is thus given to this aspect of the religious character-and those men are considered to be in the most perfect state of their nature, in whom the devotional propensity is most constantly kept in exercise-and in the most elevated tone to which it is possible to exalt it.

Then, in the second place, it is to be considered, that there are, in most countries and conditions of society, a far greater number of persons to whom the religious feelings are a matter of cultivation and of interest, than the merely political principles and measures that may be in agitation---so that if a high tone of religious excitement is once introduced into any country, and has become fashionable in it, it necessarily is communicated to a much greater extent-and meets with a far more numerous and devoted

class of supporters than can be expected to take an interest in those mere worldly concerns which relate simply to the well-being of the political condition of the state.

And lastly, there is a peculiar pleasure and triumph in the occasional indulgence of religious and devotional feelings, which greatly endear them to minds of sensibility---and which even men, whose modes of thinking and feeling on such subjects are theoretically of the most moderate and rational description, may occasionally indulge in, not only without blame or detriment, but with great propriety---and with excellent consequences to the more familiar character of their minds and conduct. In fact, some of the deepest and most reverential and rapturous feelings of the human heart are connected with such occasional indulgences and as such excitement is thus at once a source of high pleasure, and invested with a character of sacredness and of duty, there is at all times a danger lest the enthusiasm may become infectious ---and at once communicate itself to the more common modes of feeling of those who indulge it—and be caught generally by the mass of the community-from the example and authority of those in whom it is observed to be attended with so many delightful and useful consequences.

But if it be thus difficult to give to the religious emotion its proper and calm tone, even during times when the public mind is least under the influence of extraneous causes of excitation, it will easily be conceived that when the feelings and sentiments of the community have undergone a shock in all other matters, it is not likely that this particular description of feelings should remain in their most just and useful state. And the fact accordingly, as verified by all history, unquestionably is, that times of great and general political excitement, have always been times, in which the religious sentiments and habits of the community have undergone a great and most deteriorating changeone portion of the community losing altogether, in such periods, their reverence for religious obligation or truth-and another running into all the follies and extravagancies which bigotry and fanaticism have so often mingled with religious considerations--and by which they have so often, and to so great an extent, retarded their influence and lessened their beauty in the eyes of men. The rarest of all things, in such times, is to meet with a

person who has formed a just estimate of the value and office of religious truth---and who gives it that quiet, but constantly operative influence over all his sentiments and actions, which at once purifies, and exalts, and sweetens life---without divesting it of that truly human character, which adapts it to the ordinary interests and affections of this world.

No person can be at a loss to perceive the application of these remarks to the present times---for the fact unquestionably is, that the moderate views and principles which, for the greater part of the last century, had guided the public feelings, both with respect to political and religious matters, were swept away almost at the same moment, and by the same kind of operation, as if they had been felt to be things of precisely the same character, though busying themselves undoubtedly in somewhat different spheres--and in their place there was substituted a style of thinking and of speaking, on both of these kinds of subjects, which the progress of taste and intelligence among our contemporaries might have led us to hope had long ago perished for ever. The taste of the time is for extravagance in diction---exciting sentiments, however, out of harmony with nature---and a style of acting in every thing regarding religion, which, in other and calmer times, would have been considered as mere petulance and folly. The truth is, that the coldness which had come over the public ministrations of the church, together with the taste which had been gradually awakened for vigour and exaltation of style in all the floating literature of the period---had afforded a favourable opportunity for that kind of preachers who have always been devoted to an extravagant and fanatical style of public ministration, to usurp the places, and to destroy the influence of the men by whom they had been previously outnumbered---and thus a taste for true vigour of language and just appreciation of religious truth has been sacrificed for the sake of mere vulgar excitement-and of notions out of all accordance with nature and propriety.

All this, however, is but one of those transition states which are common in all human changes-it has nothing natural or stable in its constitution---and whether it is to endure for a longer or a shorter period, there is at least no question, that a more moderate and just style of public ministration must ultimately

regain the ascendancy which it seems for the present to have lost.

We do not say that precisely the same state of things which has for a time disappeared is again destined to come forth--on the contrary, such violent and unnatural changes commonly lead to arrangements in some degree different from those in whose overthrow they had their origin---and the probability therefore is, that the church to which we belong is about to undergo some important alteration, which will either improve or deteriorate it for an indefinite length of time. But that moderate principles must, sooner or later, gain their natural influence, is beyond question---and the grounds on which we venture to build this confident expectation are chiefly the two following: :

In the first place, that the religious emotion is, when it is in harmony with nature-and as Providence intended it to be, essentially a calm, and reverential, though sweet and healthful state of mind-and that all departures from this condition are morbid states of that feeling, and give omen, according to their violence, of a more speedy or a more lengthened decline which the general constitution which they have agitated is destined to undergo. And,

In the second place, that amidst all the temporary excitement which literature has experienced-and by which it has been taken out from its best and most approved condition-there is a deeper and purer and more progressive state of the intellectual worldwhich will ultimately, and at no great distance of time, reject all such extravagances with disgust-and require both a literature and a state of religion more in accordance with that natural—and simple --and practical character, which has been gradually spreading itself over all the departments of human knowledge---and over all the institutions to which the advanced state of science and of policy has given occasion.

LIBERALITY AND ILLIBERALITY DEFINED.

NOTHING forces itself more irresistibly on the mind, when we take a wide and just view of the condition and opinions of mankind in past ages, than the need there is for progress in human institutions and modes of thinking---since It is evident, that the most limited and erroneous conceptions have, in past times, often gained a complete and enduring ascendancy over human opinions---and retarded both the happiness which men might have enjoyed under more just modes of thought---and the progress which the species might have made. And hence it is justly reckoned the symptom of an unenlightened or illiberal mind, to believe that human society is incapable of such progression, or that there is not at all times a vast space before mankind, which they may yet pass over in the course of improvement.

But then, admitting that this is a conviction which ought to make part of the familiar or habitual modes of thought of all minds having any just claims to enlightened views of the nature and capabilities of human society--- the following considerations must also be taken into account for preventing the admission of error into this subject.

In the first place, that it is quite possible that a man may have the deepest conviction of the past imperfections of human society ---and of the capabilities of the species---and yet entertain a most serious and just impression, that the views which have thus opened upon his own mind are not yet applicable to the actual state to which human affairs and institutions have attained. In short, the truth of such views is a completely different thing from the possibility of their application to actually existing circumstances--and there may, therefore, be no illiberality, but, on the contrary, the most enlightened and just state of mind, in the case of a person who admits at once into his views the vast capabilities of which human affairs are possessed---and the caution that must be exercised in any attempts essentially to alter the condition in which his contemporaries actually exist.

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