for another, while the moral being
continues unchanged. True religion is seated in the heart, and sends out
from thence a purifying influence over the whole character. In its
essential nature it is a contest within, open only to the eye of Him who
seeth in secret. It seeks not, therefore, the applause of men; and it
shrinks from that spurious religionism whose prominent characters are
talk, and pretension, and external observance, often accompanied by
uncharitable censure. Like its divine pattern, it is meek and
lowly,--"it is pure and peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated, full
of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy."
It aims not at an ostentatious display of principles, but at a steady
exhibition of fruits. Qualities, which it cultivates with especial care,
are humility, and charity, and mercy,--the mortification of every
selfish passion, and the denial of every selfish indulgence. When thus
exhibited in its true and genuine characters, it commands the respect of
every sound understanding, and challenges the assent of all to its
reality and its truth, as the highest principle that can regulate the
conduct of a moral being.

PART IV.

OF THE MORAL RELATION OF MAN TOWARDS THE DEITY.

The healthy state of a moral being is strikingly referred, in the sacred
writings, to three great heads,--justice,--benevolence,--and a
conformity of the moral feelings to a reverential sense of the presence
and perfections of the Deity;--"to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with thy God." The two former of these considerations lead us to
the duties which a man owes to his fellow-men;--the latter calls our
attention to that homage of the mind and of the heart which he owes
peculiarly to God. For the duties of the former class we are equally
responsible to him, as the moral Governor of the universe, but their
immediate reference is to our connexions with other men;--those of the
latter class respect our relation to the Deity himself, and consequently
consist, in a great measure, in the purity and devotedness of the mind.
In human systems of ethics, attention has been chiefly directed to the
obligations of social and relative morality;--but the two classes are
closely associated in the sacred writings; and the sound condition of
the moral feelings is pointed out as that acquirement which, along with
a corresponding integrity of character, qualifies man, in an especial
manner, for int