Under every possible aspect in which infidelity ean be viewed, it extends the dominion of sensuality: it repeals and abrogates every law by which divine revelation has, under such awful sanctions, restrained the indulgence of the passions. The disbelief of a supreme, omniscient Being, which it inculcates, releases its disciples from an attention to the heart, from every care but the preservation of outward decorum; and the exclusion of the devout affections, and an unseen world, leaves the mind immersed in visible, sensible objects.

There are two sorts of pleasures, corporeal and mental. Though we are indebted to the senses for all our perceptions originally, yet those which are at the farthest remove from their immediate impressions confer the most elevation on the character, since in proportion as they are multiplied and augmented, the slavish subjection to the senses is subdued. Hence the true and only antidote to debasing sensuality is the possession of a fund of that kind of enjoyment which is independent of the corporeal appetites. Inferior in the perfection of several of his senses to different parts of the brute creation, the superiority of man over them all consists in his superior power of multiplying by new combinations his mental perceptions, and thereby of creating to himself resources of happiness separate from external sensation. In the scale of

enjoyment, the first remove from sense are the pleasures of reason and society; the next are the pleasures of devotion and religion. The former, though totally distinct from those of sense, are yet less perfectly adapted to moderate their excesses than the last, as they are in a great measure conversant with visible and sensible objects. The religious affections and sentiments are, in fact, and were intended to be the proper antagonist of sensuality; the great deliverer from the thraldom of the appetites, by opening a spiritual world, and inspiring hopes and fears, and consolations and joys which bear no relation to the material and sensible universe. The criminal indulgence of sensual passions admits but of two modes of prevention; the establishment of such laws and maxims in society as shall render lewd profligacy impracticable or infamous, or the infusion of such principles and habits as shall render it distasteful. Human legisla tures have encountered the disease in the first; the truths and sanctions of revealed religion in the last of these methods; to both of which the advocates of modern infidelity are equally hostile.

So much has been said by many able writers to evince the inconceivable benefit of the marriage institution, that to hear it seriously attacked by men who stile themselves philosophers, at the close of the eithteenth century, must awaken indignation and

surprise. The object of this discourse leads us to direct our attention particularly to the influence of this institution on the civilization of the world.

From the records of revelation we learn that mar riage, or the permanent union of the sexes, was ordained by God, and existed under different modi. fications in the early infancy of mankind, without which they could never have emerged from barbarism. For, conceive only what eternal discord, jealousy and violence would ensue, were the objects of the tenderest affections secured to their possessor by no law or tie of moral obligation; were domestic enjoyments disturbed by incessant fear, and licentiousness inflamed by hope. Who could find suffici

enable him to plan or

ent tranquillity of mind to execute any continued scheme of action, or what room for arts or sciences, or religion, or virtue, in that state in which the chief earthly happiness was exposed to every lawless invader; where one was racked with an incessant anxiety to keep what the other was equally eager to acquire? It is not probable in itself, independent of the light of scripture, that the benevolent Author of the human race ever placed them in so wretched a condition at first: it is certain they could not remain in it long without being exterminated. Marriage, by shutting out these evils, and enabling every man to rest secure in his enjoyments, is the great civilizer of the world: with

this security the mind is at liberty to expand in generous affections, has leisure to look abroad, and engage in the pursuits of knowledge, science and virtue.

Nor is it in this way only that marriage institutions are essential to the welfare of mankind, They are sources of tenderness, as well as the guardians of peace. Without the permanent union of the sexes, there can be no permanent families; the dissolution of nuptial ties involves the dissolution of domestic society. But domestic society is the seminary of social affections, the cradle of sensibility, where the first elements are acquired of that tenderness and humanity which cement mankind together; and which, were they entirely extinguished, the whole fabric of social institutions would be dissolved.

Families are so many centres of attraction, which preserve mankind from being scattered and dissipated by the repulsive powers of selfishness. The order of nature is evermore from particulars to generals. As in the operations of intellect we proceed from the contemplation of individuals to the formation of general abstractions, so in the developement of the passions in like manner, we advance from private to public affections; from the love of parents, brothers, and sisters, to those more ex

panded regards which embrace the immense society of human kind.*

In order to render men benevolent, they must first be made tender; for benevolent affections are not the offspring of reasoning; they result from that culture of the heart, from those early impressions of tenderness, gratitude, and sympathy, which the endearments of domestic life are sure to supply, and for the formation of which, it is the best possible school.

The advocates of infidelity invert this eternal order of nature. Instead of inculcating the private affections, as a discipline by which the mind is prepared for those of a more public nature, they set them in direct opposition to each other, they propose to build general benevolence on the destruction of individual tenderness, and to make us love the whole species more, by loving every particular part of it less. In pursuit of this chimerical project, gratitude, humility, conjugal, parental and filial affection, together with every other social disposition, are reprobated-virtue is limited to a passionate attachment to the general good. Is it not

* Arctior vero cogligatio societatis propinquorum: ab illa enim immensa societate humani generis, in exiguum angustumque concluditur, nam cum sit hoc natura commune animantium ut habeant libidinem procreandi prima societas in ipso conjugio est, proxima in liberis, deinde una domus, communia omnia. Id autem est principium urbis, et quasi seminarium reipublicæ. Cic. de Off.