Jenks' Portland gazette. Maine advertiser. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1802-1803, 1803-02-14

t1!rf TOR Gftfjn, and 6f6e;HicdI SsVeTn-
merfs, are now laying hold of and cling
ing TO dtifn and, as failors fay, are
endeavourirg TO jag ard beiy there
Many chriaians, thro' miltaken notion
of the liberty of confidence and the
right of thinking freely. are daily fecili-
tating this work, as might eaiily be
dcncnh-ated,
Religion appears TO me as ehential
10 man, as gravity is 10 matter; and
that all ahociaiions of men in the forms
CT government, and the lefs peifeet
union of favage tribes will always ma
nifell It ia fome fiape or other, as Ger.
taniy as all bodies naniieit a tendency
towards the earth. If for a moment
this principle did not operate in France
it was not becaule it is not natural TO
man but, as in certain tremendous
conculIions Of nature, the bodily ienlas
feem not 10 let into the mind their
ufual ideas, 70 here all the feelings Of
the nation were 70 worked up with a
falie notion Of liberty and equality, as, for
an infant, to fufpend the religious
principle But the fad proves it was
no. extina; and the nation no fooner
came to their fenfes than the religious
principle begins to operate.
notwithstanding the found realoning
and Rrength OF argument Spiutext has
made uGe Of, or The explanation he has
given to the petition which his con-
mentator in the republican gazette, calls
the jabtrfuqe and iggic Of federal 7uriterJ,
/ mutt acknowledge, that the old fai6ioa
ID notion, g that civil iniiiiutions Of CO.
!" vernment cannot live long, in any
" country, unlefs they are connected
" with religion" or to ufe his own
pirate, Incorporated on ,skgiOus kg5,"
appears to me a corred petition. And
it alto is very clear to my mind, that
the civil in(iitution, or contribution of
government Of this commonwealth, is
both connected with and incorporated
on the CHaisTiAN RELIGION.
This connection or incorpor alton is
70 far from being abhorrent to my mind,
or Of thofe am particularly acouaint
ed with, and we all live under the 90.
vernment created by the voice of the
people, that We look upon it among
the belt articles of the conltitu,ion
and, for myfelf, to express more fully
nv own conviction of the propriety of
this connection, if | mutt loie tkis or
the elective quality in one of the branch.
es of the government out OF the con(itu-
ton, and leave it TO leg AAtive expedi
ence, ! think my Judgment would tel
me TO FAY, farewell to this annual choice
Of one Of the branches, let it be herdi-
tary, annual, bi4nnral, or at any other
period the fovereign people, by their
Legislature, may determine bat BY no
means let go the cozRituiional right We
the people have to the CHRISTIAN Re
LTGIoE.
Imua fuppofe that Spin,ext and bis
eulogiG, if they live IN MaIachnletts.
are very usealy, qOrefebed beings, becaufe,
according to their own account Of what
is abhoIrent to their feelings, they al.
ways have fuch an objea before them,
in the contribution of this common
wealth and probably the confant &C
ton Of this aJ5srrsd objed upon them
helps to excite the nalignity they dif
cover, in all their Writings, againa re
hgion and the minihers Of the country.
There is 70 much evidence to con
vince an unbiahed mind that the high
Gate Of civilization, arts and moral per-
fiction, which Europe aud America
have reached, and which faems capable
Of progr-dion, rs owing 10 peculiar
manner, and above all collateral cautes,
to the ehrillian religion, that ferioully
apprehsnd. if Jagai5n's foytbejlm or
Paias's dej6m were to prevail over il,
thcie happy countries mat retrogade,
in lefs than eighteen hundred years,
the period required to bring them to
their prelent pitch, to tate of dePra-
witty bot little better than that they were
in at the commencement ofthe ohrillian
ara. IF people could be perfuad:d
upon 70 examine the temporal effects
chriRianity has had on the human cha
raaer, where il has been acknowledged
Of divine origin, tho Profefed in various
degrees Of perfection, and politely none,
for many centuries, in its mott perfect
Gate, il is certain that no attachment to
particular man however elevated, or
whatever Bis Politics might be, could