f the nature and power of true religion,
and of its influence upon his own mind:--

"I recommend," he observes, "to all sorts of men, in the most serious
manner, the study and practice of religion, as that which is the most
important of all things, and which is both the light of the world, and the
salt of the earth.

"Nothing so opens our faculties, and composes and directs the whole man,
as an inward sense of God; of his authority over us; of the laws he has
set us; of his eye ever upon us; of his hearing our prayers, assisting our
endeavors, watching over our concerns; of his being to judge, and reward
or punish, us in another state, according to what we have done in this.
Nothing will give us such a detestation of sin, and such a sense of the
goodness of God, and of our obligations to holiness, as a right
understanding and firm belief of the Christian religion.

"By living according to the rules of religion, a man becomes the wisest,
the best, and the happiest creature that he is capable of being. Honest
industry, the employing of time well, a constant sobriety, an undefiled
purity and chastity, with continued serenity, are the best preservatives,
too, of life and health; so that, take a man as an individual, religion is
his guard, his perfection, his beauty, and his glory. This will make him a
light in the world, shining brightly, and enlightening many round about
him.

"Thus religion, if truly received and sincerely adhered to, would prove
the greatest of all blessings to a nation. But by religion I understand
something more than receiving particular doctrines, though ever so true,
or professing them, and engaging to support them, even with zeal and
eagerness. What signify the best doctrines, if men do not live suitably to
them; if they have not a due influence upon their thoughts and their
lives? Men of bad lives, with sound opinions, are self-condemned, and lie
under a highly-aggravated guilt.

"By religion I do not mean an outward compliance with forms and customs,
in going to church, to prayers, to sermons, and to sacraments, with an
external show of devotion; or, which is more, with some inward forced good
thoughts, in which many satisfy themselves, while these have no visible
effect on their lives, nor any inward force to control and rectify their
appetites, passions, and secret designs. These customary performances, how
good and useful soever when understood and rightly directed, are of little
value whe