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RELIGION. |
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to virtue, it will lead him to adopt a high standard of moral character; if it presents treble motives to virtue, it will scarcely enable him to stem the natural current of human passions, and. with the profession of Christianity- may leave him but little better than a heathen.
While, therefore, I admit the importance of definite and settled religious opinions, and commend it to every person to sustain bis own faith, that having been duly considered, with stead fastness, and on proper occasions with zeal: 1 conceive, however, that this should ever be done with a full admission that Christ's church embraces the pious of all creeds; that no one sect can claim to hold exclusively the keys of heaven's gate: and that while there are many mansions above, so there are doubtless many paths by which Christian pilgrims may reach these glorious abodes. I deem it important that parents should imbue their children, at the proper age, with these views. They will serve many good purposes: they will lead to the exercise of charity towards those who hold opposite tenets; they will induce them to look upon the bickerings of rival religious communities as collisions of the steel and flint, sharp and fierce it may be, and in such cases certainly to be condemned, but as a means which 14* K |
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