ment as their sphere of action, and we insist, that the verdict of the world should be formed in view of it. Infidelity has legislated for a noble action; it has originated and executed schemes of finance; it has announced its decisions on international law; it has controlled armies; it has used diplomatic correspondence. Patronage and power were in its hands. It had the full benefit of the second grand revival of European mind-the revival, that gave birth to German literature-the revival, that sent Canova to his studio, and opened the scenery of the heavens to the genius of Laplace. Surrounded by these favorable circumstances, it assumed an exalted position, and carried out its cherished plans. It perished instantly. Its political pretensions vanished. As an organized system, it has never since been known.

To judge of a system by its opposite, is not a correct method of decision. If we were to form our conception of noonday by midnight, we should certainly err. The peculiar points of Christianity admit of no contrast. The towering summits of the Alps have no valley-depths to correspond with them; and so, the dignity and purity of the divine religion cannot contemplate their adverse principles in the bitterness and corruption of infidelity. The ideal of wickedness cannot measure with the ideal of goodness. If man invoke the aid of passion, and, descending still lower in the gradations of nature, summon appetite from its animal pleasures, to assist his mind in the structure of such a system as infidelity, has he then, amid all those meaner companionships, arrived at one extreme of that intellectual and moral line, of which, Jehovah, rich in the excellence, and radiant in the beauty, of moral glory, is the other? Are the finite and the infinite to be thus considered? The positive features of Christianity must be studied, to appreciate its value. It is not the mere contrariety of infidelity; it is the embodiment of Divine Thought and Divine Love; it is too sublime to have a counterpart.

The relation of Christianity to the governmental interests of society, is as definitely marked in the sacred volume, and as perfectly illustrated in human experience, as we could expect any matter of revelation to be. If man is destined for an eternal world, all his present connexions have been so ordered and arranged as to be subservient to it. Is Christianity his infallible guide to a better home? True; but it does

not neglect his present home. A morbid imagination may undervalue temporal pleasures and scorn transient prosperity, but such is not the philosophy of our religion. The welfare of man, embracing both worlds, is the constant care of Christianity; and hence, it lives and labors to diffuse holiness and happiness over his whole career. One idea does not constitute its power. One sphere does not restrict its exertions. The popular opinion of our day seems to contemplate it as a religious system merely. If its authority be pleaded in any of the prominent departments of thought and enterprise, we are met with the charge of changing it from its rightful position. Though nothing can be clearer, than that the primary office of Christianity is to regenerate the corrupted heart, by faith in the atonement of the Divine Redeemer, yet it has a secondary work to perform. It is the social law of humanity, the sacred guardian of our rights. Intent it certainly is on fitting man for the communion and companionship of the elder spirits of heaven, but it is also intent on preparing him to be a valuable and faithful citizen of his country. The true light, therefore, in which to view Christianity, is as a system that extends its jurisdiction over all our various interests. Were it differently constituted, it would not suit our nature. We have divers relations and numerous ties. We live with and for each other. scope of our affections is as large as the world; the treasures of the universe are not greater than our capacity to enjoy them. Introduced, as Christianity has been, to govern man as man, it must be apparent that all his political connexions are identified with it. No one can view our religious concerns as isolated from every thing else. Our interests are a unit; and Christianity regards them all with the same tender affection. The ultimate authority in social organization is consequently preserved in it. Where else can it be located? Where else can it have permanency? The ima ginations of men may invent theories on the foundation of human liberty. The idea of compact may be carefully elaborated. The resignation of a portion of our original freedom for the advantages of the support and protection of society, may be urged as the true philosophy of the subject. The admirers of Burke may cherish his eloquent sentiments, and endorse them as immutable truth. Still, the difficulties are not removed: still the constitution of society is unexplained. All such theories appear to contemplate man as

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possessing a kind of natural freedom, which he partly surrenders on entering society. We must confess our utter inability to comprehend it. There is nothing like abstract liberty. There is nothing in the Divine economy like the natural freedom of the savage state. Our social sentiments are innate. The wandering life of the barbarian is not natural, but unnatural; not the law of heaven, but the curse of hell. The organization of society does not require the sacrifice of a single degree of real liberty. The unrestrained licentiousness of passion is indeed curbed by it, but that does not form the idea of true freedom. Nothing in the plan of Providence indicates that society requires the surrender of any principle implanted in us. The law of individualism is not the foundation of liberty: the law of society presents it. Our sovereignty is the sovereignty of parts and portions of the great human brotherhood. The usual reasoning is from the selfish principle to the social, but we prefer to reverse the process. Heaven has made us freemen by making us brethren. The first, highest, holiest earthly sentiment was the love of the race, and the love of liberty grew out of it, so that it is purely and emphatically a social principle. If God designed us to exist as social creatures, every thing requisite to the perfect manifestation and harmonious exercise of such a character, was undoubtedly involved in that act of creation. The beauty and power of our sympathetic nature, demand the presence of freedom. The acts of the tyrant unsocialize us, and therefore they are accursed. Whatever we may be under political oppression, we are not brethren: the bond is broken,—the sweet sympathies of the spirit have gone. The distinctive announcement of Christianity is the paternity of God, and it places us all upon the same level. If we are members of the same body, the offspring of the same Deity, we are surely equal, we are truly one. The bare existence of such system as Christianity, confirms the broadest claims of man to all his rights and privileges. If Jehovah visit his dwelling and converse with him, what must he be? if the magnitude of the universe cannot divert the Divine attention from him, what must be his rank in the scale of creation? if the principalities of the fallen world may not enthral him,-if the fires of perdition may not forge fetters for him,—who dare attempt it? The value of liberty is too great for us to imagine that it would be placed on an uncertain basis. If it

had been left to conjecture or inference, its action would have been as unsteady as the fluctuations of opinion. Secured to the wide brotherhood of our race, by the original charter of creation, as interpreted and illustrated by Christianity, the possession of liberty becomes a sacred right, associated with whatever is august in the character of God, and whatever is noble in the constitution of man. There is a sense, in which religion and freedom are identical. The fair conclusion, therefore, is, that Christianity lends no sanction to any form of tyranny. Political power is the instru ment of God, so far as it promotes the welfare of its subjects. If it neglect this object, it perverts its trust. The protection of Jehovah is then withdrawn from it, and merited vengeance must sooner or later overtake it.

The intimate connexion subsisting between Christianity and liberty, is strikingly seen in the fact, that the corruption of the one was followed by the sacrifice of the other. If the long night of Europe was signalized by the absence of a pure faith, it was also signalized by the absence of liberty. It was so under Judaism. National heresy and national degradation went together. Not only was that the result of a direct judgment of God, but the natural consequence of separating kindred objects. Had there been any thing like true Christianity during the dark ages, the conscience of the far-reaching tyrant might have been disturbed, and the slumbering energy of oppressed nations excited, by its stern and solemn voice. No wonder that the hopes of the world seemed gone, when the very charter of liberty was lost to it; no wonder, that despotism dreamed of everlasting security, when its firmest antagonist was prostrated! The last and mightiest defence of freedom is found in religion. If temporal authority fail, it announces the authority of heaven, as the vindicator of the oppressed. If the monuments of art, the treasures of wisdom, the sanctities of society, do not intercept its progress, it rears its altar and spreads its symbols in the path of arbitrary power. Let it be silenced, and what tongue may speak? Let it be fettered, and what hand may be extended towards the skies? The law of nature, however, is, that excesses destroy themselves. It is so in vice. The dissipation of the drunkard terminates his life. It is so in despotic governments. The severe exercise of power degrades its subjects until they become unfit even for the purposes of slavery. It is so in religion. The purity

of its sentiments may be corrupted to such an extent, as to render it incapable of serving wicked kings and courts. Such a state of things was effected. Such a law did operate. The sufferers in the same degradation were the sharers in the same exaltation; restored to their original alliance, religion and liberty again bestowed their blessings on the world. The history of the human race within the last three centuries, demonstrates the steady advancement of liberal principles, and establishes the brightest prospects for the future success of truth and benevolence. A better understanding of the Scriptures has exploded the divine right of kings, and ennobled humanity.

Amid the incipient movements of awakened intellect. when the foundations of old institutions were sinking, and new visions were opening, our country was settled. All other colonies, of which we have any knowledge, have been modelled on the parent nation. The policy of colonization was known to Rome, but it was essentially despotic. Persia adhered to the same principle. Spain has never departed from it. Despite of a high-toned monarchy, our colonists generally entertained the most sincere attachment to liberty, though, it must be confessed, they did not always understand wherein it consisted. The bare fact, that they were disciples of a new school, gave them immense advantages. It freed them from many old prejudices, and prepared them to attempt a great experiment.

The idea of republicanism was associated by our forefathers with religion, before it was associated with social organization. The first thing that drew their attention to it, was the position of the church under a tyrannical constitution. So it was in England. There were Robinsons, Carvers and Bradfords in the church, before there were Hampdens and Cromwells in the State. So it was in America. The congregational principles of New-England preceded resistance to unjust taxation, while, in Virginia, where a Laudean episcopacy had taken root, the prerogatives of the crown were for some time most earnestly maintained. Though, however, the new form of freedom arose from this sacred source, yet, we cannot disguise the truth, that it came near being destroyed by the same cause that brought it into existence. The two divisions of religious parties were the congregational and the episcopal. The former prevailed in Massachusetts and all the north-eastern colonies, except VOL. VII.-NO. 14.

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