CHAP. II.

Theology and its Effects.

THE impressions that are made on the human mind by the awful and tremendous powers of nature, have filled it with terror and astonishment. If by a laborious investigation of the universe, and the laws by which it is regu lated; if by an examination of our own constitution and the refined properties of our existence; if from a view of the moral and physical world, in the aggregate, we are led to the idea of simple Theism, including all possible perfection, it will nevertheless be found substantially true, that with all savage nations, aud even with the mass of the people in civilized countries, that no such sublime conception has ever formed any part of their systems of Theology. Rude, immoral, and incoherent opinions have been heaped together upon this subject, and gods innumerable have been fabricated by a distempered and disordered imagination. It is only with those who have made some progress in science, that any clear and correct ideas of Theology have been found; the god of ignorance has always been an immortal monster, whose attributes spread terror through the whole animal world.

The power

of thought, directed to the examination of the laws of nature, or to the science of ontology, is pressed by an ultimate necessity to the admission of an immortal principle, to the faint conception of an eternal being, whose perfections guarantee the existence and harmony of the universe. The essence of such a being is inconceivable ; and that mind which has no doubt on the reality of the case, is, nevertheless, incompetent to the discovery of mode, manner, or place of residence. If the material

world be excluded from constituting any share in the essence of such a being, the refinements and speculations will afterwards become extremely subtile, and conception will, perhaps, be nearly lost in the spirituality of the subject. The principle of causation is, of all others, the most difficult of examination, because it includes the idea of an infinite series in which the last point at which the mind arrives presents a new difficulty not less than the

PRINCIPLES OF NATURE.

former, and involving the idea of eternal progression. -Metaphysical reasoning on the subject is, however, reserved to occupy a place near the close of this work, where Theism and its combatants will receive a suitable share of reflection. At present it is sufficient that we refer the universe, its laws, and order, to the divinity of thought-emanating from the most perfect of all beings. It has been a great question, how far the principle of theology affects the principle and practice of virtue. It can be matter of no doubt in the first place, that a corrupt and vitiated theology has ever been the bane of morality, and produced effects of the most destructive and detestable nature. An infinite being, clothed with immoral attri butes, and yet made an object of worship and affection, will indubitably pervert the finest sensations of the human heart, and render savage and ferocious the character of man. This is not conjecture, it is verified by facts; the history of all churches prove it beyond contradiction. It is natural to expect such an effect; the being that is worshipped, is presented as a pattern, and to imitate his properties, is declared to be an essential duty. If such a being commit murder, or at any time gives orders to the human race to perform such cruel act, the order once given is the signal for military assassination, national vengeance, or the exercise of domestic resentment. The world becomes a field of blood, and man is slaughtered in the name of heaven. From the introduction of Christi. anity into the world to the present moment, there is scarcely a single war that has taken place in Europe but what has verified this opinion. The Church has always been in danger—it is in danger still, and always will be, so long as there shall be found on earth a single privileged impostor to sound in the name of Heaven the trumpet of alarm among the nations of the world. The purest ideas of the divinity are necessary for the correct operation of the moral powers of man; there cannot remain a shadow of doubt, when recourse is made to the history of the Jews and Christians, that the god or gods whom they have adored, have produced an unfavourable effect upon their moral temperament and habits. The Jewish god is denominated a god of vengeance, wrath, and fury. He

gives commands for the indiscriminate massacre of men, women, and children-declaring that not a soul should be left alive. The god of the Jews is inherited by the Christians with additional specimens of injustice and immorality. An infinite and eternal son equal to himself, becomes the object of his wrath, and on him with unrelenting severity he reaks his terrible vengeance. This awful and immoral action is considered, in the view of the Christian believer, as an excellent preparatory step to the exercise of gratitude and the overflowings of filial affections. When man makes to himself gods of such a character, it were far better that he had been destitute of all theological opinions, or that his adoration should have been offered to that resplendent luminary that enlightens the world and vivifies the productions of the earth. The principle of morality is founded in the nature of man, and modified by his reciprocal relations: this principle cannot be augmented in its force or application by a reference to those barbarous phantoms and incongruous beings which the theology of the Jews and Christians, as well as all savage nations, has presented to view. Individuals and nations will always be wicked so long as they adore a divinity of loose and immoral character. Theology must first be rendered pure, and then it will become a question of magnitude-what influential relation it bears to the science of morality and happiness of the world.

CHAP III.

Christian Theology.

BELIEVERS in the Christian system of religion, are seldom aware of the difficulties into which their theological theories have plunged them. They are in habits of bestowing on this religion the most unqualified applause, and in most cases, no doubt, the most sincere approbation ; but the errors and absurdities, the immorality, and the incorrectness of principle, have never made any serious impression upon their minds. The dreadful idea of opposing that which has been called divine, strikes with

terror the uninstructed mind, and ignorance feeds the ecclesiastical deception. Ignorance is an excellent friend to an ancient system of error, to the church, and the diffe. rent projects by which mankind have been enslaved. If you can once persuade a man that he is totally ignorant of the subject on which you are about to discourse, you can make him believe any thing. Impositions of this kind are furnished by every day's experience; and the victim of such imposition, is commonly the first to applaud the instrument of his ruin.

Nothing can be more true, nothing more certain, or im. portant, than that man owes to himself due respect, that his intellect is an object of veneration, and its result interwoven with the best interest of human society. The distorted exhibitions of imaginary beings contained in all ancient theology, ought to excite within us a strong desire to discover truth, and reclaim the dignity which nature gave to man. Fanaticism, when armed with the artillery of Heaven, ought not to be permitted to shake the throne or empire of reason; the base is immortal, and the superstructure will be augmented in beauty and excellence, in proportion to the progress of knowledge and the destruction of religious bigotry. It is remarkable that, with many honest minds, the consciousness of intellectual indepen dence has never been realized, and fear has prevented the activity of thought and the developement of truth. Names have assumed a weight and authority, which in reality does not belong to them. The church and its maxims have been revered; subordinate agents of the Creator have produced universal trepidation; the Devil has broke into the felicity of the moral world, and God himself, even with the Christian church, is an object of terror and dismay. These subjects carry along with them the most dreadful alarm, and man, amidst the reveries of superna tural theology, becomes either feeble or foolish, his power relaxed, his energy is gone, and he sinks beneath the system of fear, which it is the office of cultivated reason alone to destroy. Such are the fatal effects of all theology, but more particularly of that which is denominated Chris tian. The Christian world worships three infinite Gods,