LETTER XII.

Practice of nominal chriftians. Theory of religious affections. The christian fabbath.

MADAM,

MR. Wilberforce having in the laft fection "en"deavoured to ascertain the effential character of "true practical christianity," proceeds, fect. 2, "to "investigate in detail the practical system of the "bulk of profeffed chriftians among ourselves." And here he feems to have drawn a faithful portrait of many perfons, who, profeffing to be chriftians, complying with the external forms of religion, and abstaining from grofs vices, flatter themselves that they have fulfilled the requifitions of the chriftian law, while their hearts are devoted to "the love of "eafe, of diffipation, of pleasure, of pomp and pa"rade, of wealth and ambition, of the pleasures of "taste and imagination, of fcience and literature, "of reputation," and the like. And where any of these are made the primary object of pursuit, in preference to the love of God and the practice of duty, it must be allowed that the character falls short of the standard of the gospel. It is also much to be feared, that a great part of the christian world come under this description, and that many are in circumstances of extreme danger who flatter them

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felves

felves that they are perfectly fecure. Indeed, confidering the influence of felf-love, and the danger. ous confequences of self-deception, it is the part of true wisdom to be always vigilant, and to admit no principle of action which will not bear the feverest examination. Christianity fuffers not its profeffors to reft fatisfied in any thing fhort of perfection of character, and he is certainly not a real christian who does not aspire after it.

It is however wife to guard against fuperftitious

fears. We think most rationally of God when we view him under the relation of a Father, whofe fole defign is the welfare of his offspring, and who impofes no hard and unreasonable fervice. We cannot injure his character more than by conceiving of him as an austere and rigorous mafter, continually laying fnares to entangle his fervants, and ever on the watch to punish with undue severity the least deviation from duty. We are fure that we please him beft, when our conduct is most conducive to our own and others' happiness. And if this be our habitual character, we need be under no apprehenfion with respect to our final acceptance.

In a true chriftian, the love of God, and devotednefs to him, is the governing principle of action. But we cannot always be exprefsly thinking upon God; and a virtuous man is performing his duty to the Supreme Being, as really, and as acceptably, when he is pursuing the proper business of life, or

even when enjoying its innocent and decent amufements, as when he is offering direct addreffes to him in the clofet, or in the temple *.

The obfervation, p. 191, that "heavenly things "are ftated in fcripture as recommending them"felves to the feelings of the true chriftian, by "being fuited to the renewed difpofitions of his "heart," is the language of the theory which reprefents religion as the " fupernatural implantation of a new principle," p. 162. The truth is, that religion confifts, as the author himself elsewhere obferves, p. 184, in " habits of mind." And there is no reason to think that religious habits are formed differently from other habits, which are known to be the refult of frequent acts. A habit of devotion is neither instin&tive nor fupernaturally infused; it is generated by frequent exercises of religious worship and contemplation; and a habit of doing good, by acts of beneficence.

Many writers upon morals, and amongst them our author, exprefs themselves inaccurately concerning the love of virtue; as though virtue could have no existence where it is not practised for its own fake. This is tantamount to affirming, that virtue cannot exift but in its most perfect state. Virtue must always be approved by the understanding, but the practice of it is not always originally

* For God is paid when man receives:

To enjoy is to obey.

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POPE.

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pleafing

pleafing. A vicious man begins to forfake his criminal courfes from a conviction of their folly and danger. He enters upon the path of virtue from a fenfe of duty or of intereft, not without fome degree of reluctance. By degrees difficulties fubfide, and uneafineffes vanish. That which was originally indifferent, or difagreeable, becomes tolerable and pleasant; he begins to love virtue for its own fake, and pursues the path of rectitude, not so much on account of the end to which it leads, as for the pleafure he finds in it. The beginnings of virtue are often painful, efpecially when habits of vice have been previously contracted. And it is neither just nor wife to maintain, that there can be no virtue without a difinterested love of it. It tends to difcourage attempts at reformation in those who are defirous of forfaking their vices, and of becoming truly virtuous and religious. This may be a confideration of little weight in the estimation of perfons who expect no change of character without an "orie "ginal" fupernatural impulse. But they who look only to the operation of natural and moral causes, for natural and moral effects, will rather choose to represent abstinence from vice, from a sense of duty and intereft, as a confiderable advance towards a virtuous character; and the love of virtue, though not at first perceptible, as gradually growing from the habitual practice of it.

"Let no man judge you," fays the apostle,

Col. ii. 16, "in respect to the fabbath day;" that is, Regard no man's cenfure for not obferving the fabbath. "One man," fays the fame authorised teacher, Rom. xiv. 5, "efteemeth one day above "another; another efteemeth every day alike. Let

every man be fully perfuaded in his own mind,” or, as Dr. Doddridge renders it, "let every man "freely enjoy his own fentiment." Such is the apoflolic canon: and the ground of it is, that chriftians who differed in thefe points were equally influenced by the fame principle, namely, regard to the authority of Chrift; and therefore were equally acceptable to God. "He that regardeth the day regardeth it to the Lord, and he that difregardeth "the day difregardeth it to the Lord.”

This is the decifion of St. Paul: how different from that of Mr. W. who, p. 193, in contradiction to the apostle's rule, directs men to judge of their fincerity and proficiency in religion, by the pleasure they take in the fabbatical observance of the first day of the week, and who pronounces, p. 199, a severe fentence upon those who do not think it neceffary to obferve the Sunday with that strictness and feve rity which neither Jefus nor his apoftles, but a miftaken fpirit of devotion, has impofed, and with which, it tells us, "we ought to be delighted." "All these artifices," fays Mr. W. p. 198, (referring particularly to family parties, where neither mufic