same relative condition with his Maker he ever did stand,
since man existed; and that it is his greatest consolation to
think so.

Let him believe this, and he will live more consistently
and morally, than by any other system. It is by his being
taught to contemplate himself as an out-law, as an out-cast,
as a beggar, as a mumper, as one thrown as it were on a
dunghill, at an immense distance from his Creator, and who
must make his approaches by creeping, and cringing to
intermediate beings, that he conceives either a contemptuous
disregard for everything under the name of religion, or
becomes indifferent, or turns what he calls devout. In the
latter case, he consumes his life in grief, or the affectation
of it. His prayers are reproaches. His humility is ingrati-
tude. He calls himself a worm, and the fertile earth a dung-
hill; and all the blessings of life by the thankless name of
vanities. He despises the choicest gift of God to man, the
GIFT OF REASON; and having endeavoured to force upon
himself the belief of a system against which reason revolts,
he ungratefully calls it human reason, as if man could give
reason to himself.

Yet, with all this strange appearance of humility, and
this contempt for human reason, he ventures into the boldest
presumptions. He finds fault with everything. His selfish-
ness is never satisfied; his ingratitude is never at an end.
He takes on himself to direct the Almighty what to do, even
in the government of the universe. He prays dictatorially.
When it is sunshine, he prays for rain, and when it is rain,
he prays for sunshine. He follows the same idea in every.
thing that he prays for; for what is the amount of all his
prayers, but an attempt to make the Almighty change his
mind, and act otherwise than he does? It is as if he were
to say -- thou knowest not so well as I.

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