with that of the idols which his master worshipped, "In this thing let the Lord pardon his servant." But, in this case, the hypocrite degrades the Supreme Being as much as the most superstitious, fanatical, or bigoted of the human race, with this important difference, that these last are under the influence of delusion, while he acts with calm deliberation of mind. I suspect that this was the case with the statesmen and philosophers of antiquity, and is still the case with all who render religion subservient to political or privately selfish purposes. They consider it as a mere profession, or entertain no real belief of a Deity.

In fine, it may be observed of all the corrupt forms of religion now considered, that superstition is favourable to priest-craft and despotic power; fanaticism, to licentiousness; bigotry, to the permanence of any creed, however absurd, already adopted; hypocrisy, to every species of corruption, as far as any one is consistent with the vile purpose which it has in view. All false forms of religion have a tendency to persecution, one of their most horrible results; but, most of all, hypocrisy, in the exact proportion of its indifference to all genuine religious principle, and to every regard for integrity.

Having thus considered the four different classes to which all false and corrupt religion may be reduced, I shall now endeavour to fix the

a 2 Kings v. 18.

proper notion of that which has been termed natural, to evince its reality, to ascertain its extent, and to point out its insufficiency.

CHAP. III.

OF NATURAL RELIGION.

NATURAL RELIGION is justly considered as the foundation of revealed: for, all revelation supposes a Deity as its author; and unless the existence of God is antecedently acknowledged, it is absurd to attempt to prove his existence by an appeal to revelation. This is evidently to argue in a circle. It is first to suppose that revelation derives its authority from God, and then to prove that existence by the very thing which implies it. To attempt to convert an atheist by an appeal to the scriptures, is as absurd as to endeavour to convince a person of the genuineness of a writing which he maintains to be spurious, and never to have proceeded from him whose name it bears, because no such person exists, by telling him that the writing positively professes to be his, the very point which the opponent contests. The only mode of proof must, in this

case, be to establish the existence and character of the person whose deed the writing is asserted to be, and then to prove that it bears every mark of the genuineness alleged. Lord Bacon, therefore, justly observes," that there never was a miracle wrought by God to convert an atheist, because the light of nature might have led him to confess a God; but miracles are designed to convert idolaters, and the superstitious who have acknowledged a Deity, but erred in his adoration; because no light of nature extends to declare the will and true worship of God." He might have added, that revelation is also intended to convince and instruct those who are ignorant of the true nature and attributes of Deity.

There is, indeed, a collateral proof of the being and attributes of God, which may be derived from the history of providence recorded in the sacred scriptures. For, as by the contemplation of nature and of the wonderful contrivance which its entire fabric displays, we are led to the acknowledgment of an omniscient and omnipotent author of it; so, by considering the series of events detailed in the sacred oracles, the uniformity of plan which they exhibit, the progress towards its consummation, and the astonishing means employed for this end, and by re

a Bacon on the Advancement and Proficiency of Learning, book iii. c. ii. sect. 1.

flecting that no just solution can be given of these phenomena, on the ordinary principles on which human affairs proceed; we are led to acknowledge both supernatural power and supernatural wisdom in the conduct of this mighty scheme. This species of collateral proof I have endeavoured briefly to illustrate in another work.a

Those who have of late rejected all idea of natural religion, have been misled, both by erroneous conceptions of what these terms properly imply, and of what we ought rightly to understand by the term revelation. By natural religion cannot be understood that there has ever existed in the world such a scheme or system of religious doctrine, as has been adopted and acknowledged as a rule of faith and manners by any society of men united in a political capacity, or has been established by any public sanction nor even that any considerable number of men have ever clothed with appropriate external religious expressions the principles which the religion of nature dictates. Wise and good men have in all ages reprobated the absurdities of all the popular religions established merely by hu man authority and imposture, and adopted by vulgar credulity. To discover these absurdities, and to reprobate them, although they dared not

a

;

Essay on the Existence of a Supreme Creator, &c. book i. ch. viii.

to oppose them publicly, they must have possessed certain notions of Deity, dictated by reason, and certain sentiments of human duty, resulting from the consideration of the human frame and constitution. These conceptions and notions, such, for example, as we find in the writings of the best heathen moralists, may be considered as the elements of natural religion, implanted in their minds, without doubt, by the author of human nature himself. These and the conclusions which legitimately flow from them, when embodied and collected into one scheme, may, and do furnish what is justly termed the religion of nature, as distinguished from revelation.

That a due consideration of our own internal frame and constitution,-of the circumstances in which man is placed,―of the vicissitudes to which he is continually exposed, and of the admirable structure of all the parts of the natural world, and of the various animals by which it is inhabited, leads to infer an almighty and omniscient author of the universe, cannot be rationally contested. A proper use of the intellectual powers of man may also lead to the discovery of the principal attributes of this Being, and of the duties which man owes to his Creator, to those of his own species, and to himself, I I say not that these discoveries have ever been complete, and much less that a perfect system ofre