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impenetrable darkness, and none for consolation ; when we are in despair of ever finding a comforter, so long will it be the first and principal concern of a wise man, to inquire into his nature, his duties, and his expectations; to ascertain where he ought to doubt, where to be confident, and where to submit: and these inquiries necessarily comprise the subject of Religion. 66 is wise, and he shall understand these things ? "prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways

of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in “them; but the transgressors shall fall therein." (a)

The derision with which some of your deistical companions affect to treat you, is matter of regret, but not of surprise. If their Deism be the result of supposed conviction, they are objects of pity; if, which is more likely to be the case, it be a consequence of indifference, and this deplorable indifference furnish them with a ground for boasting, they, instead of yourself, would be fit subjects for ridicule, were it proper to indulge such a propensity on so serious an occasion.

To a person of your extensive observation and contemplative turn of mind, it must appear extremely obvious, that as the vicious lives of many men make it their interest that religion in general should be “a bug

a “ bear,” and the Christian Religion especially “ artful system of delusion;" so they will too commonly be found, not only ready, but eager to believe them really such. Nor can it be expected that they should stop here. For when once a certain method of treating a subject is nicely adapted to men's humours and

(a) Hosea, xiv. 9.

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situations, it would be strange, indeed, if they did not indulge in it; particularly when they find, as they soon will, that the majority of almost every company will cordially concur with them. If you wish to be proof against sneers and laughter, when directed against so momentous a subject, consider that the mirth and pleasure of the unthinking part of mankind (by far the greater part) is almost as blind and mechanical as the actions of an automaton. Let them be but struck, and they will move as mere inert matter moves, until the effect of the impulse ceases. They are stirred, and often delighted ; though with what, or for what cause, or to what purpose, they know not. Except, perhaps, when the string of religion is roughly touched by the hand of an enemy; for then, many ignorant, and all irreligious hearts, like chords in unison, dance to the motion, and yield the same sound; just as the clank of a madman's chain, while it

a thrills to the soul of a man in his senses, shall collect around him all the lunatics in the same ward of his prison, and tempt them to dance with maniac delight, when every spectator shudders with horror.

I have heard of some modern free-thinkers, whose comprehension of mind has placed them on such an eminence, that they look down with contempt, not only upon Christians, but upon the shrivelled minds of other unbelievers, who have not yet taken such an adventurous flight: some, who not merely deride those whom half the world calls fanatics and visionaries, but who are seated in a “scorner's chair" of such peculiar

a qualities as enchants them till they sneer at the narrow

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prejudices of Hume and Gibbon, and Voltaire and Paine, whom they fancy they have discovered to be

as superstitious as washerwomen.” Others have been impelled to still greater heights in this intellectual delirium. They contemplate with delight the prospect of a world without a Creator or a Governor ; and boast of their demonstrations, by which they can convert any sensible man into an Atheist in a quarter of an hour; a transformation which, of course, would not be very difficult after they had explained to that sensible man, upon their own hypothesis, from whom he derived his sense. But the gentlemen, into whose company you are now so frequently thrown, do not, I presume, belong to either of these classes. It is more probable that some of them have embraced a kind of SEMI-ATHEISM (I cannot think of a more appropriate term); a fine-spun theory, in conformity with which they persuade themselves that the Supreme Being does not govern the universe he created; but, after having covered it with living, and many of them rational, beings, leaves them to console themselves with the cheering reflection that they are inhabitants of a forsaken and fatherless world—while HE, according to this comfortable as well as philosophical notion, like a kind of Sardanapalus, sits at ease and surveys the goodly scene. If men who endeavour to disseminate such opinions ever cease to ridicule the maintainers of opposite sentiments, and condescend to argumentation, you might ask them to explain how it is possible that a derived being can be independent ?. You might inquire of them, whether that which is derived from

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another can exist necessarily in the first moment of its being? Whether that which does not exist necessarily in the first moment of its existence, can exist necessarily in the second, or in any succeeding instant? or, whether it must not owe its continued existence to the being by whom it was at first produced ? If they be men of any acumen, they will at once perceive that, by supposing the existence of the being to continue when that on which it depended ceases, they would suppose

it to be without the cause of its existence; and thus they would, by a kind of mental felo-de-se, support their hypothesis by destroying the superstructure on which it rests : so that, if they, to this acuteness which I have supposed them to possess, unite only common candour and openness to conviction, you would, by a very short process, make them ashamed of their fashionable Semi-atheism, and compel them to acknowledge that all the creatures of God do incessantly depend upon Him for the continuance of their existence. Thus will your opponents be forced to take the ground of pure Deism; and on that ground it is that you must meet them, if you have any wish to

this momentous contest. The opinions of Deists, from the time of Lord Herbert (the first and purest of the British freethinkers) to the present period, have assumed such multifarious shapes, that it is difficult to state them in such a way as to be free from objection. (6) Nominal

(6) This extreme diversity of sentiments among the pretended philosophers who reject Christianity has not escaped the pointed notice of some of their own class. The following language of Rousseau, descriptive of their conduct and contradictions, is highly worthy of attention :

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Deism is separated into nearly as many climates and districts as nominal Christianity; so that, if Calvinism be placed in the torrid zone, and Socinianism in the polar regions of Christianity; you may with equal propriety imagine the sentiments of Herbert to occupy the equatorial regions, and those of Hume, Holcroft, and Godwin, the frigid zone of infidelity. Moderate Deists, however, and to such a candid reasoner would direct his arguments, profess to believe in one God, possessing natural and moral attributes, the former of which may be comprehended under power and knowledge, the latter under justice and benevolence; they believe, I presume, that virtue is that which is consistent with the will of God in act and motive; and yet that God has never made any revelation of his will to men; but that the collection

“ I have consulted our philosophers, I have perused their books, I have 66 examined their several opinions, I have found them all proud, positive, 6 and dogmatizing, even in their pretended scepticism, knowing every " thing, proving nothing, and ridiculing one another; and this is the 66 only point in which they concur, and in which they are right. Daring 6 when they attack, they defend themselves without vigour. If you "s consider their arguments, they have none but for destruction ; if you

count their number, each one is reduced to himself; they never unite “ but to dispute ; to listen to them was not the way to relieve myself from

my doubts. I conceived that the insufficiency of the human under6. standing was the first cause of this prodigious diversity of sentiment, 56 and that pride was the second. If our philosophers were able to dis

cover truth, which of them would interest himself about it? Each of " them knows that his system is not better established than the others ; “ but he supports it, because it is his own : there is not one amongst them 6 who, coming to distinguish truth from falsehood, would not prefer his

own error to the truth that is discovered by another. Where is the

philosopher, who, for his own glory, would not willingly deceive the " whole human race? Where is he, who, in the secret of his heart,