292 The NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of our BLESSED LORD C H A P T E R Obfervations on the Doarine of our bred Religionhe enforced 'and inculcated: And from, the Chr f ian Life. "UV T E cannot more properly conclude V V our hillory of the life . of the bleffed JESUS, the author and finifher of our faith, nor place the great doarines taught by the benevolent Son of the Moft High, in a more confpicuous light, than by removing a few prejudices which fome, we fear too many, have formed againft the religion of the holy JESUS, and chew that his yoke is eafy, and his burden is light. There have not, perhaps, been greater enemies to the progrefs of religion, than thofe who delineate it in a gloomy and terrifying form ; nor any guilty of a more injurious calumny againft the gofpel, than thofe who reprefefit it's precepts as rigour - nos impofitions and unneceffary reflraints. True religion is the perfeaion of human nature, and the foundation of uniform exalted pleafure, of public order and private happinefs. Chriftianity is themoil . excellent and the moll ufeful inflitution, having the promife of the life that now is, and of that which is to come ; it is the voice of reafon ; it is alto the language of Scripture; the ways of wifdom are ways ofpleafantnefs, and all her paths are peace, Prov. iii. 17. And our bleffed Saviour himfelf affures us, that his precepts are eafy, and the burden of his religion light and pleafant. The religion which CHRIST came into this lower world to eflablifh, is a rational fervice, a worfhip in fpirit and truth ; 2 XLIV. Lord and Saviour: TheExcellency of the the Reafonablenefs gf, and Pleafure refulting a wor(hip worthy of the majefty of the Almighty to receive, and of the nature of man to pay. One of it's important branches is natural religion, reinforced by additional motives and new difcoveries : it's pofitive rights are few, of plain and eafy fignificancy, and manifeftly adapted to eftablifh a fente of moral obli- gations. The gofpel places religion not in abftrufe fpeculation and metaphyfical fubtleties ; not in outward (hew and tedi- ous ceremony ; not in fuperftitious aufte- rities and enthufiaflic vifion, but in purity of heart, and holinefs of life. The fum of our duty, according to our great Matter himfelf, confifts in the love ofGod, and of our neighbour; according to St. Paul in denying ungodlinefs and worldly lulls; and in living foberly, righteoufly, and godly in this prefent world; according to St. James, in vifiting the fatherl f and widows in aflillion, and in keeping our- felves unfpottedfrámthe world. This isthe confiant brain and tenor of the gofpel; this it inculcates mort earnefily, and on this it lays the greaten firfs, .as molt conducive to true and fubftantial háppinefs. If it be afked, whether the Chrifiian fyfiern is only .a republication of the law of nature, or merely a refined fyftem of morality? We reply, No certainly; it is a great deal more. It is an all of grace, a ftupendous plan of Providence, defigned for the recovery of mankind from a Elate of
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