who has suffered it to get the ascendency in his breast if he has not often felt the innate love of liberty recoil against it? If he answers ingenuously, he will confess how often it has forced him into the worst company, the worst hours, the worst behaviour; to the wasting of his health, the killing of his time, the degradation of his rank, the impoverishment of his fortune. Beset with debts of honour, how often to satisfy these has he been obliged to postpone satisfying the debts of justice: when he is in this situation, I would ask, what is become of his Liberty as a Briton? I would ask if he still feels himself that manly, free, independent being which he was originally by his birth-right? and which no alteration in the constitution, no tyrant, but one within his own bosom, has either influenced or opprest? In like manner might the man of Gallantry be interrogated. He who, descending as little as possible from his dignity as a man, mixes a degree of sentiment with his sensual appetites, and, in the indulgence of them, preserves some delicacy of taste, and decorum of manners. I speak not of the profligate debauchee; the instance would be too gross, the proof too glaring for my purpose for in this more polished character we shall find flaws enough to abate its lustre; and be soon convinced that these pursuits have a direct tendency to servitude, even in cases (which are but rare) where they avoid infamy. There is a neighbouring Nation, the D VOL. IV. fundamental principle of whose constitution is said to be Honour, as ours is Liberty. In that country it is well known how long and how universally the spirit I am speaking of has reigned, nor are the ill effects of it less notorious for is it not there ever diverting the stream of Honour from running in its direct course? and might it not, if equally prevalent here, have the same prejudicial influence on the ampler tide of our Liberty? But, leaving this question undecided, I would ask if there is not something in the very nature of these pursuits incompatible with the dignity and freedom of man? Does it not, sometimes, tempt him to be the seducer of that innocence of which God constituted him the protector? Does it not, at other times, debase him into a station the very reverse of that which nature intended him to fill in the system of creation, and of that which policy ordained him to hold in the order of civil society? This consideration, exclusive of more cogent arguments that might be drawn from religion, is sufficient to shew that this passion can never be safely indulged, but when sanctified by the laws of God and our country, and when a sympathy of accordant hearts is legitimated by the nuptial union. This only can prevent one party from becoming a slave, because this only can fix the other a friend; for, whatever the heat of fancy may suggest, reason assures us that no alliance can be durable which is not founded on mutual and equal interest. The same sort of reflections might, with propriety, be extended to many other vices which fashion terms pleasures, and which luxury is ever apt to introduce into opulent communities. But the instances already produced prove sufficiently what was at first asserted, that every degree of vice carries with it a proportionable degree of slavery, and consequently prevents us from enjoying the full benefit of those civil blessings which our constitution enables us to enjoy. Is it then necessary to add, that we ought to oppose to these temptations, the prudent reserve and rational self-denial which our holy religion directs us to employ; and that, laying aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, we endeavour to run liberally and manfully the race which is set before us? We have the greatest encouragement to do this from the equitable form of government under which we live ; which, as it rightly entitles this nation to be styled a Land of Liberty, will appear, in examining the second proposition, to be more favourable to the true cultivation of this religious principle than any other: so much so, that where liberty is, there ought to be found the spirit of the Lord. II. It ought to be found there especially, because in such states as have liberty for the basis of their constitution, there only can the spirit of the Lord be found uncon strained; and though the community may agree in adopting and giving to some one mode of faith, the sanction of a legal establishment, yet there only can be felt the happy effects of a legal toleration. With every other form of government experience has proved that it is inconsistent; while in this, it becomes a necessary principle: for it would be a contradiction in terms to call that nation free, where the minds of men are enslaved and enslaved they must be, where opinion is made subject to penalty and persecution. : And yet, in this state of toleration, it may be objected that the Church of Rome is excepted from the general indulgence; but surely this exclusion is perfectly consistent with the most extensive freedom of religious sentiment, nay, perhaps it may appear even necessary to its very existence; for, as in the case of civil liberty, her preservation demands that a civil restraint shall be placed on the efforts of tyranny; so in the case of religious liberty, it is essential to the extent of toleration, vigilantly and vigorously to restrain a religion whose leading principle is an universal intolerance. It is only the will to enslave, that is in either case deprived of the power, or, according to the inspired prediction of our Gospel freedom, it is only "captivity that is led captive.Ӡ * See Mr. Locke's first Letter on Toleration. + Psalm lxviii. 13. How far this principle of toleration, thus intimately connected with the spirit of liberty, tends to promote the interests of true religion, will become evident from the following considerations. 1. As we have already proved that there subsists an inseparable union between the spirit of the Lord and Civil Liberty, so we may, from the whole tenor of history, stand assured, that there subsists a similar connection between Religious and Civil Slavery. The spiritual and temporal usurpers upon the rights of mankind, joined in one common interest, will mutually contribute to each others purposes; and where the secular arm has been made, or has voluntarily extended itself to be the executioner of ecclesiastical censures, and to force opinions upon mankind, it is natural to believe that unlimited obedience will be imposed as a religious tenet; that a dissent from this doctrine will be construed into impiety; and consequently that, in proportion as inordinate power is able to supersede the spirit of the Lord, all liberty to pronounce or even to inquire into his genuine dictates, will be restrained. Fear will generate a servile acquiescence, and hypocrisy, a vice, of all others, the most destructive to morality, the most abhorrent to the religion of Christ, will contribute its despicable artifices to conceal the real sentiments of the heart, or to feign an adherence to principles that it abhors. |