IN Johnston's Effay on the Way to reftore and perpetuate Peace, &c. (Concluded from P. 378, VOL. X.) N the chapter which treats of the influence of religion upon civil fociety, the reflecting reader will not expect much that is new from the pen of Dr. Johnfton; and he will be difappointed if he look for old truths ftated either in a new light or in a very forcible manner. The reafonings, however, are folid, and calculated to produce a good effect upon the minds and conduct of those, for whom the effay feems to have been principally intended; and the following extract demands the moft ferious attention of all orders of men in fociety. "The great body of any people will never place confidence in those perfons, who, by their contempt of God, and things facred, fhew that they have not the fear of God before their eyes, and notice which can bind them to confult the rights and the interefts of thofe perfons who have not power to compel them to their duty. They will always envy and rejoice in pulling down that man from his elevation, who in every thing holds himself forth, as of a fuperior order of Beings to the:n. But when in the obfervance of the fame fabbath day, of the fame religious ordinances in the fame church, in the fame prayers and praises to the fame God, and in taking the articles of their faith, and the rules of their conduct, from the fame Bible read and preached to them in the fame way, they (the great) "place themselves on a level with them (the great body of the people") they (the people) think themselves honored, and not debafed, by the elevation of their (the great's) rank in the world. They love them as brethren. They confide in them as powerful friends. They honour them because they fear God. The uniform fact is, that in any part of the country, where perfons of rank, and the body of the people, are regular in the fanctification of the Lord's day; they place a mutual and uniform confidence in one another, and live together in harmony, good order, and in the reciprocal performance of good offices. For more than half a century (he might have faid a whole century), "persons of rank have gone on with an accelerated motion in forfaking the ordinances, and in preferring the fabbath of the Lord. In the fame progrefs, have the people gone on in their contempt for persons of rank, and both in their want of confidence in each other. "Without intending it, perfons of rank by their profanation of the fabbath, have most effectually taught many of the people the French principles and practices of infidelity, profanity, and levelling of rights and ranks. In vain will be all their attempts to eradicate thefe, until they return to the fanctuary, to the worship and to the service of God. But when they thall return to the regular obfervance of the fabbath, men of all ranks will foon return to their mutual confidence in each other." We are forry to say that, in the concluding chapter of this effay, there is very little entitled to praife. The author feems indeed to be fully convinced of "the neceffity of religion to reftore peace, good order, ftability, and profperity, to civil fociety," and he labours with becoming zeal to imprefs the fame conviction on the minds of his readers; readers; but his zeal is not always under the controul of his judg ment. After fome preliminary obfervations on the propriety of governing beings of different orders by laws fuited to their respective natures, he affirms, that, "during the dark ages, the people were in each particular country completely fubject to the established customs of their own country, and to the mere authority of their own rulers; and that it would have been as difficult to have brought (bring) them to refift or to change these, as it is to make mere animals to act contrary to their inveterate habits." " Were this true, it would go a great way to overturn the pofition, which it is the object of the author in this chapter to establish. Were the groffeft ignorance thus favourable to eftablished authority and eftablished cuftom, how could pure and undefiled religion, which implies a confiderable degree of knowledge in those who are under its influence, be neceffary to the restoration of peace, good order, and stability in the civil focieties of Europe? But every perfon acquainted with the hiftory of the European kingdoms during the dark ages, knows that the ftate of every one of them" was the very reverse of what it is represented to have been by Dr. Johnfton. Was England a nation peculiarly enlightened, when the right of Matilda to the crown was fet afide in favour of Stephen? when the barons afterwards dethroned. Stephen and crowned Matilda? when the defcendants of the fame barons extorted from King John Magna Charta? when the populace rofe against the second Richard, under the command of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw? or, when 20,000 Kentifh men flocked to the standard of Cade to dethrone the fixth Henry, because they deemed his grandfather an ufurper? Was the age of darkness over in Scotland at that period when our author's countryman, Dr. Robertion, reprefents* diforder and rapine as univerfal in that kingdom, the government as unfettled, and the authority of laws as little known or regarded? But this turbulence and contempt of established authority was not peculiar to England and Scotland. The fame learned and eloquent hiftorian, whofe works have furely been read by his fellow prefbyter, has proved that, from the seventh to the eleventh century, the ideas of political fubjection were loft in every European nation;† and that inftead of reverence of established authority, nothing was to be seen but anarchy or rebellion, or aristocratical mifrule. It is, however, true, that a regular and fyftematical oppofition to all government is the offspring of modern infidelity and modern philofophifm. The philofophifts of France having artfully diffeminated their principles through Europe "The fashion and the fpirit of the times are changed. Habit, custom, and mere authority, have not only lost their power over the body of the * Hiftory of Scotland, Book 1ft. View of the state of Europe prefixed to the Hiftory of Charles V. people, people, but they are become the objects of their ftronger averfion. With-: out difcriminating between good and bad cuftoms, virtuous or evil habits, lawful or tyrannical authority, they attack every custom, every habit, and every authority, because they are old. Innovation and contempt of authority is the fpirit of the present times. It is this, ten thousand times more than all the armies of France, which convulfes the kingdoms of Europe. Until this is conquered, the conqueft even of France could not restore peace, good order, and profperity to the nations." This is a melancholy truth: but what is to be done to crush the fpirit of innovation? Our author does not propofe to bring the people back to their priftine state of ignorance, which would indeed be a moft ineffectual remedy; and we cannot agree with him that "they must be fhewn the fitness, the propriety, and the utility of the laws by which they are governed." To thew the people at large the fitnefs and utility of every law, would be as difficult a task as to fhew to every illiterate peafant how all the apparently irregular motions of the moon are perfectly confiftent with the Newtonian theory of central forces. We hope, however, that it is poffible to turn the curiofity of the people into another channel. If it be true, as Dr. Johnston fays, that "the rich and high now find, that by their examples of infidelity and profanity, they have raifed up an unprincipled race of men to plunder them of their eftates, of their titles, and of their property; and if it be likewife true, that the poor and low now find, that all their airy fchemes of affluence and power have vanished away, and that infidelity hath made them more poor, oppreffed, and miferable, than they were before; if they now feel what they would not be taught by faith, that infidelity and profanity increase their flavery, poverty, and mifery;" if all this be indeed true, it may furely be inferred that the high and the low have all acquired tolerably juft notions of religion, and that thefe, instead of prompting them to pry into the fitnefs of every law by which they are governed, have induced them "not to think more. highly of themselves than they ought to think, but to mind every one his own bufinefs, and to learn and labour truly to do each his duty in that state of life unto which it hath pleased God to call. him." " We are much afraid, however, that neither high nor low have yet improved to this degree, or learned righteoufnefs by those terrible judgments of God which have now been long in the world: and our author himself is of the fame opinion. "At prefent," he fays, “Divine Providence is evidently leading the nations of the earth to that real, pure, and fimple religion, which will diffuse peace, good order, and profperity over all the kingdoms of the world; but he is fully convinced that the period when all this fhall take place is yet far diftant." "In my commentary," fays he, " on the book of Revelation, published at Edinburgh in 1794, I have fhewn from many clear prophecies of fcripture, that in 200 years from the prefent time, the millenium will commence, when when pure religion, peace, good order, profperity, and happiness shall extend over all the world; and fhall experience no interruption for a thousand years!" Thinking as we do, that the reasonings of this little work are, in general, well calculated to produce a good effect on the public mind, our disappointment was great when we read this moft injudicious affertion, which will only excite the laughter of profane wits, whilft it mult check the pious labours of thofe, if there be any fuch, who fhall give it implicit credit. Not having feen the good Doctor's commentary, we know nothing of the nature of his proof, or of the fenfe in which he understands the millenium." Knowing, however, that no prophecy of the fcripture is of any private interpretation," we must think it extremely rafh thus to fix a date for the commencement of the millenium, whether by that ftate he means the actual reign of Chrift on earth after the first refurrection, or only a thousand years of univerfal peace, piety, and virtue, prior to the refurrection, fuppofing all the dead to be raised at once. Without entering at all into the very strong objections which have been urged against the millenium in either of these fenfes; we beg leave to affure our readers as well as the readers of this effay, that the queftion at iffue between the contending parties, is one, in which they can have no concern, and that the arguments urged by our author to prove the neceffity of religion to the peace and happiness of civil fociety, hold equally good, whether a millenium be decreed or Whatever is to be the ftate of the world for a thousand years prior to the confummation of all things, we are certain that if, in its prefent ftate, not. "The reftraints of confcience and of religion be taken away from those who know nothing of a principle of honour, and of the good manners of a gentleman, they will violate all the moft facred rights of God and man as foon as they (fall) have the power. For fome years, this, to a confiderable degree, hath been the fact in feveral of the nations of Europe. In France to a great degree, and in feveral other nations in lower degrees, the moft facred rights of God and of man are violated in a way, which muft greatly fhock any man, who knows and feels the eternal difference between right and wrong, between virtue and vice, between moral good and moral evil; and which must foon convince even infidels themselves from their own feelings, that their fyftem must be effentially wrong, fince it diffolves the very bonds of civil fociety, leaves men nothing which they can call their own, deftroys all the confidence of men in men, and renders men more ferocious and deftructive to one another, than the beafts of prey." We have yet faid nothing of the ftyle of this work, and are forry that we can say nothing of it that is favourable. It is neither elegant nor nervous, while it is often defective even in perfpicuity. The reader must have noticed, in the first extract which we have made from it, in the prefent number, the wonderful confufion arifing from the improper ufe of the pronoun they; but, by inferting fometimes the NO. XLIII. VOL. XI. great, great, and sometimes the people, as the author refers to the one or the other, we have rendered that valuable paragraph intelligible to every capacity. It is not so easy to say what is the meaning of the following fentences. Treating of the people's habitual reverence of established authority and antient customs, Dr. Johnfton fays-"Thefe very customs had formed in their animal part, which was the ruling part in them, the habits, which, with all the force, of a fecond nature, ftrongly attached them to thefe very customs!" Does not cuflom here fignify habitual practice? Speaking of fashion, he fays that "whenever it affects the great body of the people, it becomes the cuftom of the country, and carries every thing before it like a torrent, having defcended in many beautiful ftreams from the furrounding mountains, unites thefe all in one great deluge, which covers the great plain beneath them, and fweeps every thing before it." The meaning of the following fentence is directly contrary to that which the author intended to exprefs. Speaking of worthlefs Clergymen, he fays-" Let, in that cafe, your contempt fall where it is due, upon the man, but not upon the office, and the ordinances of religion!" By this mode of pointing and this ufe of the copulative conjunction, Dr. Johnston exprefsly defires his readers to let their contempt fall on the ordinances of religion : he means"but not upon the office nor the ordinances of reli gion." The reader is fometimes offended at needlefs repetitions, The exhortation to a due obfervance of the Lord's day occurs, very nearly in the fame words, three or four times. This however is a matter of great importance, and cannot be too frequently inculcated on the minds of the people; but it is not of fuch general importance to know where or when our author's Commentary on the Revelation was publifhed! Yet having occafion to refer twice to that work, he takes care to inform us, each time, that it was published at Edinburgh in 1794! A fecond impreffion feems not to have been called for. He calls the war an unholy war, which we confider as a very improper phrafe in a popular book, though we have no doubt of the goodnets of his meaning. Holiness cannot with propriety be predicated of any war; but furely the late war was on our part not only lawful, but neceffary, and as fuch, not offenfive to the God of Holinefs. r Dr. Johnfton fays, that, writing for truth, and the good of mankind, he will thankfully correct any deviation from either of these ends, into which he may have unintentionally fallen, when it fhall be pointed out to him, whether it fhall be by the hand of a friend or a foc.v We have taken the liberty to point out one mistake with regard to fact, fome errors in reafoning, and feveral inaccuracies in compofition; and as we are confcious that in making thefe remarks, we |