must be either supremely happy or supremely miserable hereafter. But I am persuaded, that a notion so repugnant to common sense, and so falsified by the phenomena which the present state of human character presents, has been a fertile source of doubt with respect to the truth of Christianity itself. Whatever, then, can tend to prove that revelation imposes no such dogma upon our faith, so far from being of dangerous tendency, serves rather to free it from what cannot but act as an obstacle to its reception by men of enlarged conceptions and reflecting minds.

But others will, perhaps, condemn all such inquiries in the lump, as being what they term unnecessary to salvation. In combating this objection, the point is not whether the speculation now proposed is in itself of importance, or not. I oppose it on the general grounds, that if every invitation to reflect upon religious subjects be met with the inquiry, whether it be absolutely necessary to salvation to entertain the point proposed; the thinking mind must be left without matter to employ or interest it: nor can any principle more effectually counteract the truth of that cheering promise of the apostle, that if we think of whatsoever things are true, and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good report, the God of peace will be with us. If, indeed,

religion begins and ends with a conviction that we are pardoned sinners, then all beyond it is, I grant, but beating the air. But if the wisdom from above include, in addition to this, all that can furnish the understanding, and fill the soul, with food convenient for their high capacities and boundless appetites; it is then difficult to know what the expression means, that this or that inquiry is not necessary to salvation. Every speculation which would raise our thoughts above this earth may be rejected, one by one, upon this principle; and thus the soul must be left to starve in the midst of plenty. It would be precisely so with our natural food. be the consequence, if we refused all corporal sustenance, unless it could be proved of each successive morsel, as it was presented to us, that it had the power, beyond all others, to sustain our bodies in life and vigour?

For what would

But allowing, as we surely must, that some religious truths are more essential than others; yet, doubtless, a jealousy about all that can be thought superfluous, argues, if a safe, at least, a very low, condition of the mind. Where man has no ambition beyond the relief of animal necessities-no object interesting or present to his thoughts, but that of keeping soul and body together; in such a state, it is admitted that he

holds the lowest possible rank in the social life. The same classification may be applied, with equal justice, to the spiritual system. And, therefore, if the man who wishes for no more than will barely save him, can be within the precincts of religion at all, it must be confessed that, like his counterpart in the social scheme, he is amongst the dregs of that system of which he forms a part. But I doubt, nay, more than doubt, whether we can concede so much. For, can the mind, which is habitually indisposed to more of religious exercise than it cannot, in its own apprehension, safely do without-can such a mind be said to be religious? Or, to ask the question in another form, can it be said to love religion? It is not, let us remember, in things congenial, but in things revolting to our tastes, that we are apt to object to what is more than necessary. Into society which we like we gladly go, or food which we relish we freely take: and in neither case do we think of asking, whether we could, or could not, dispense with doing so. On the other hand, nothing but the impossibility of avoiding it, will induce us to receive an unwelcome visitor; and dire necessity alone can force nauseous medicine down our throats.

Let those, then, who would pare down all religion to what they think the necessaries of

salvation, examine well what sort of spirit they are of. Let them consider whether they do not, by the indulgence of such a disposition, defeat the very object at which alone they aim; and whether to be thus contented with bare salvation, is not to want the essential principle of salvation itself.

ESSAY XII.

ON THE CHILDREN OF RELIGIOUS PARENTS.

THAT the children of religious parents often try the patience, and disappoint the hopes, of those most interested in their welfare, is a matter of common observation. It is true, indeed, upon a general comparison of these with the children of the irreligious, that the balance of good is abundantly in favour of the former. It is true, also, that in many instances the early seed, long in appearance dead, revives in after years, and yields a large increase; and that many a prodigal, in want and misery, arises, at the remembrance of happier days, and returns to his father's house. But still, with all these allowances, it must be granted that the children of religious parents too often fail to answer the expectations which we might naturally form respecting them. It may therefore be useful to trace, as far as we are able, the causes to which effects so much to be deplored are owing.

Before I enter into this investigation, I would, however, premise two things. 1. That no educa