4016.0.36. A NEW EDITION, REVISED & CORRECTED BY J. CAHUAĆ. "Philosophy teaches us to seek in Nature and the knowledge of world." "Happiness, in its full extent, is the utmost we are capable of, and "I'll not be made a soft and dull ey'd fool, "Prove all things."-1 THESS. vi. 21. TO WHICH IS ADDED, THE LIFE OF DAVID. London: RE-PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN CAHUAC, BOOK- AND TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. GOD to remove his ways from human sense, MILTON. THE first and second edition of this work having met with a rapid sale in America, the editor has been induced to offer this third edition to the British public, with a most ardent desire that it may serve to strengthen the great cause of moral virtue, and extend, in some small degree, the empire of human happiness and felicity. The establishment of theological systems, claiming divine origin, has been among the most destructive causes by which the life of man has been afflicted. History furnishes an awful picture of the sad and fatal effects of fanaticism among the nations of the earth; but history furnishes only the exterior; there is a deeper internal wound, which superstition has inflicted in the bosom of society, subversive of all moral sympathy and the fairest traits in the character of man. The sincerity with which many upright minds are attached to the Christian religion, can form no substantial objection against an unqualified investigation into its truth or falsehood. If it be founded in truth, it will stand the test of every examination-it will stand the test of all future ages, and become immortal. It is a point of justice to observe, that this work has been written under the misfortune and embarrassment of a total loss of sight. This, in the estimation of candid minds, will form at least a partial apology for verbal incorrectness, or the want of better arrangement in the construction of sentences; but it is not offered as constituting any kind of apology for errors of opinion or principle. On this head the fullest examination is invited; and, if any one can point out in what respect the princi. ples herein advanced are inconsistent and erroneous, the author will be among the first to reject and condemn them. But this must be done upon the ground of evidence, and not of authority, as the latter bears no relation to truth. The great moral and political questions which now agitate the world, cannot be settled by an appeal to the authority of law books, theological books, or the decisions of ecclesiastical councils; they rest upon the broad basis of evidence, and by this principle alone they must be determined. The circumstance that the author was once a public speaker in the cause of Christianity, which is here opposed, so far from forming a reasonable objection against the perusal of this work, ought to become an additional motive of attention; for it was by a candid and attentive investigation into the character of revealed religion, that he became convinced that it was neither true nor divine. It was, therefore, a duty which he owed to the integrity of his own mind, and what was deemed the best interests of human society, to abandon that system, and assume a higher and better ground-that of Nature, and the immutability of her laws. If any one should be disposed to censure on this account, let him remember that there is more honour and much more utility in the relinquishment than in the retention of errors. The new chapters contained in this edition are intended to awaken a spirit of philosophic inquiry in every description of adherents to the ancient regimen, and to induce them to pass once more in review the religious theories to which they have been so strongly attached. The principal design of the author, through the whole of this work, has heen to give to moral principle a basis as durable as time, and as immortal as the specific succession of human existence; and to render the sentiment of virtue, as far as possible, independent of all the theological reveries of 8 JY61 antiquity. 1 |