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v. 2) let us prove all things, and hold faft only that which shall appear to be good.

I might have given a curious counterpart to the hypotheses of the ancient philofophers in those of the most diftinguished of the modern unbelievers. For many of their opinions concerning the origin of the universe, its fubfequent revolutions, and other fubjects connected with religion and morals, are not less wild, incoherent, and abfurd; as every theory must be that excludes the belief of a God, and a fuperintending providence. This undertaking, however, has been executed with equal truth and ability in a French work, entitled Les Helviennes, ou Lettres Provinciales Philofophiques, in five volumes, 12mo. 1784. They are called Provincial Letters in imita tion of thofe of that title by the famous Pafcal, in which he expofed the abfurdities of the principles of the Jefuits, a work of genuine humour, to which this is, in many refpects, not inferior. It is therefore adapted. to afford equal entertainment and inftruction.

From this excellent work it will be evident that the rejection of revealed religion will be attended with all that diffoluteness of morals

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for which the ancient heathens were remarkable, there being no vice for which fome of the most eminent of modern philofophical un believers have not been advocates; and therefore that, in an advanced state of society, human reason has never proved a fufficient barrier against vice. It will also be evident that a propenfity to the unreftrained indulgence of all the paffions has been the principal cause of the prevailing difpofition to throw off the falutary restraints of religion.

Not only are the great Chriftian virtues of humility, the forgiveness of injuries, and the loving of enemies, excluded from the class of virtues, and a spirit of pride and revenge encouraged; not only is all virtue reduced to mere felf-love, the great end of human life represented to be the pursuit of pleasure in the lowest sense of the word, and fuicide recommended when this object is no longer attainable; but the very barrier between men and brutes has been thrown down by many eminent unbelievers.

All the ancient legiflators even among the heathens, confidered the laws of marriage as the first step towards civilization, and the conjugal and parental relations as, what no doubt they are, the chief fource of the sweets

of focial life. But many modern unbelievers openly plead not only for an unbounded liberty of divorce, but a community of women, and make very light of the vices most contrary to nature. What is this but reducing men even lower than the ftate of brutes? And what can we expect from the natural operation of these principles, but the preva lence of those vices, which the apostle in his fecond epistle to Timothy enumerates as a fymptom of the approach of the last times, which are elsewhere defcribed as exceedingly calamitous, 2 Tim. iii. 1, This know, that in he laft days perilous times fhall come. For men Thall be lovers of their ownselves, &c. The apostle Peter alfo fays, z Pet. iii. 3, Knowing this that there fhall come in the laft days fcoffers, walking after their own lufts, and faying, Where is the promise of his coming, &c. Reflecting on these things, we may well fay with the evangelifts, after they had related our Saviour's predictions concerning the destruction of Jerufalem, and the various figns of its approach, Let him that readeth underftand. Matt. xxiv. 15; Mark xiii. 14.

Unbelievers often complain of the difference of opinion among Chriftians, but their own opinions,

opinions, even on the subject of Christianity, are as various. The celebrated Mr. D'Alembert, in his Letters to the late King of Pruffia (Œuvres Pofthumes, tom. 14, p. 105), fays, "It appears evident to me, as it does to your

majesty, that Christianity in its origin was "nothing but pure deism; that Jefus Christ, "the author of it, was only a kind of philo "fopher, the enemy of fuperftition, of perse“cution, and of priests; who preached bene"volence and justice, and reduced the whole "law to the love of our neighbour, and the "worship of God in spirit and in truth; and "that afterwards, St. Paul, then the fathers "of the church, and laftly the councils, un"happily supported by the fovereigns, chang❝ed this religion. I therefore think it would "be doing great fervice to mankind to re❝duce Chriftianity to its primitive state, "confining it to preaching to the people the "doctrine of a God rewarding virtue, and pu"nifhing vice, who abhors fuperftition, de❝tefts intolerance, and who requires of men "no other worship than that of loving and "affifting one another."

The scheme of reducing Chriftianity to its primitive ftate, is, no doubt, excellent,

and

and this writer's idea of that ftate is not far from the truth. But his affertion that Jefus Christ taught pure deifm, is altogether unfounded. If there be any truth in his hiftory, he taught the doctrine of a resurrection, and fupported it by miracles, and Paul was far from making any addition to the doctrine of his master. He had too many enemies among Christians to have had that in his power. How Christianity was corrupted afterwards is well known, and I have fhewn the progrefs of it in my Hiftory of the Corruptions of Chriftianity.

Since the writing of this Preface, I have been favoured with a fight of the third volume of "Afiatic Antiquities," a work which promises to throw great light on the mythology, and early history, of feveral ancient nations; and one paffage in it, containing a quotation from an ancient Hindoo writer, perhaps nearly as old as Mofes, is fo curious in itself, and fuch a confirmation of one part of his hiftory, that I am perfuaded my readers will be pleased with the communication of it. The work is entitled Padma-puran, and the tranflation of it is by Sir William Jones. Though the narrative is in fubftance the fame

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