or, much less by any who admit his Divine authority, that these
latter precepts are incompatible with the former. Let it be remembered,
that the grand characteristic mark of the true Christian, which has been
insisted on, is _his desiring to please God in all his thoughts, and
words, and actions; to take the revealed word to be the rule of his
belief and practice; to "let his light shine before men;" and in all
things to adorn the doctrine which he professes_. No calling is
proscribed, no pursuit is forbidden, no science or art, no pleasure is
disallowed, which is reconcilable with this principle. It must indeed be
confessed that Christianity would not favour that vehement and
inordinate ardour in the pursuit of temporal objects, which tends to the
acquisition of immense wealth, or of widely spread renown: nor is it
calculated to gratify the extravagant views of those mistaken
politicians, the chief object of whose admiration, and the main scope of
whose endeavours for their country, are, extended dominion, and
commanding power, and unrivalled affluence, rather than those more solid
advantages of peace, and comfort, and security. These men would barter
comfort for greatness. In their vain reveries they forget that a nation
consists of individuals, and that true national prosperity is no other
than the multiplication of particular happiness.

But in fact, so far is it from being true that the prevalence of _real_
Religion would produce a stagnation in life; that a man, whatever might
be his employment or pursuit, would be furnished with a new motive to
prosecute it with alacrity, a motive far more constant and vigorous than
any human prospects can supply: at the same time, his solicitude being
not so much to succeed in whatever he might be engaged in, as to act
from a pure principle and leave the event to God; he would not be liable
to the same disappointments, as men who are active and laborious from a
desire of worldly gain or of human estimation. Thus he would possess the
true secret of a life at the same time useful and happy. Following peace
also with all men, and looking upon them as members of the same family,
entitled not only to the debts of justice, but to the less definite and
more liberal claims of fraternal kindness; he would naturally be
respected and beloved by others, and be in himself free from the
annoyance of those bad passions, by which they who are actuated by
worldly principles are so commonly corrod