“RELIGION! thou the soul of happiness; And groaning Calvary of thee! There shine The noblest truths; there strongest motives sting; There sacred violence assaults the soul; There nothing but compulsion is forborne.” NIGHT THOUGHTS. Its advocates have not been in general either “many, or mighty, or noble, or wise, according to this world;” but, on the contrary, riches, strength, philosophy, and opulence, have distinguished its enemies. Hypocrisy hath assumed its mask, to give religion its deepest reproach, to wound it in the house of its friends, and to arm its adversaries with plausible objections. And yet, amidst all the attempts of men of different complexions, to destroy or deny its existence, to abuse or blaspheme its doctrines, to pervert its nature, to divest it of its essence, or to obscure its lustre; still, religion is a glorious reality, and, like its divine Author, from whom it derives its origin and influence, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. An attempt, at least, to illustrate, if not to prove this position, is the design of the following pages. The arrangement I propose, is, to consider religion in its _origin_, its _foundation_, its _nature_, its _influence_, its _fruits_, and _evidences_; and recommend it, principally from a consideration of its _importance_, its _consolations_, its _loveliness_, its _end_, and _prospects_. 1. As to the _origin_ of religion, it requires little argument to prove it divine. As the very word itself implies something that binds the heart under the strongest ties of love, homage, and obedience to the Supreme Being; what can produce this disposition, and give force to those obligations, but that system of infinite grace which God himself revealed unto man immediately after the fall? which, in subsequent and brighter discoveries, formed the basis, and invigorated the principles of that religion, which distinguished the character of Old Testament saints, and afterwards attained its meridian lustre under the clear economy of the gospel, and in the lives of that noble army of martyrs; the history of whose sanctity, sufferings, and conquests, even unto death, is, in fact, the history of true religion exemplified in its influence, its origin, and its triumphs.