WebSadhu

Though the stupidity of men, barbarous and uninstructed, be so
great, that they may not see a sovereign author in the more obvious
works of nature, to which they are so much familiarized; yet it
scarcely seems possible, that any one of good understanding should
reject that idea, when once it is suggested to him. A purpose, an
intention, a design is evident in every thing; and when our
comprehension is so far enlarged as to contemplate the first rise of
this visible system, we must adopt, with the strongest conviction,
the idea of some intelligent cause or author. The uniform maxims
too, which prevail throughout the whole frame of the universe,
naturally, if not necessarily, lead us to conceive this intelligence
as single and undivided, where the prejudices of education oppose
not so reasonable a theory. Even the contrarieties of nature, by
discovering themselves every where, become proofs of some consistent
plan, and establish one single purpose or intention, however in
explicable and incomprehensible.

Good and ill are universally intermingled and confounded;
happiness and misery, wisdom and folly, virtue and vice. Nothing is
pure and entirely of a piece. All advantages are attended with
disadvantage. An universal compensation prevails in all conditions
of being and existence. And it is not possible for us, by our most
chimerical wishes, to form the idea of a station or situation
altogether desirable. The draughts of life, according to the poet's
fiction, are always mixed from the vessels on each hand of JUPITER:
Or if any cup be presented altogether pure, it is drawn only, as the
same poet tells us, from the left-handed vessel.

The more exquisite any good is, of which a small specimen is
afforded us, the sharper is the evil, allied to it; and few
exceptions are found to this uniform law of nature. The most
sprightly wit borders on madness; the highest effusions of joy
produce the deepest melancholy; the most ravishing pleasures are
attended with the most cruel lassitude and disgust; the most
flattering hopes make way for the severest disappointments. And, in
general, no course of life has such safety (for happiness is not to
be dreamed of) as the temperate and moderate, which maintains, as
far as possible, a mediocrity, and a kind of insensibility, in every
thing.

As the good, the great, the sublime, the ravishing are found
eminently in the genuine principles of theism; it may be expected,
from the analogy of nature, that the base, the absurd, the mean, the
terrifying will be equally discovered in religious fictions and
chimeras.

The universal propensity to believe in invisible, intelligent
power, if not an original instinct, being at least a general
attendant of human nature, may be considered as a kind of mark or
stamp, which the divine workman has set upon his work; and nothing
surely can more dignify mankind, than to be thus selected from all
other parts of the creation, and to bear the image or impression of
the universal Creator. But consult this image, as it appears in the
popular religions of the world. How is the deity disfigured in our
representations of him! What caprice, absurdity, and immorality are
attributed to him! How much is he degraded even below the character,
which we should naturally, in common life, ascribe to a man of sense
and virtue!

What a noble privilege is it of human reason to attain the
knowledge of the supreme Being; and, from the visible works of
nature, be enabled to infer so sublime a principle as its supreme
Creator? But turn the reverse of the medal. Survey most nations and
most ages. Examine the religious principles, which have, in fact,
prevailed in the world. You will scarcely be persuaded, that they
are any thing but sick men's dreams: Or perhaps will regard them
more as the playsome whimsies of monkies in human shape, than the
serious, positive, dogmatical asseverations of a being, who
dignifies himself with the name of rational.

Hear the verbal protestations of all men: Nothing so certain as
their religious tenets. Examine their lives: You will scarcely think
that they repose the smallest confidence in them.

The greatest and truest zeal gives us no security against
hypocrisy: The most open impiety is attended with a secret dread and
compunction.

No theological absurdities so glaring that they have not,
sometimes, been embraced by men of the greatest and most cultivated
understanding. No religious precepts so rigorous that they have not
been adopted by the most voluptuous and most abandoned of men.

: A maxim that is
proverbial, and confirmed by general experience. Look out for a
people, entirely destitute of religion: If you find, them at all, be
assured, that they are but few degrees removed from brutes.

What so pure as some of the morals, included in some
theological system? What so corrupt as some of the practices, to
which these systems give rise?

The comfortable views, exhibited by the belief or futurity, are
ravishing and delightful. But how quickly vanish on the appearance
of its terrors, which keep a more firm and durable possession of the
human mind?

The whole is a riddle, an aenigma, an inexplicable mystery.
Doubt, uncertainty, suspence of judgment appear the only result of
our most accurate scrutiny, concerning this subject. But such is the
frailty of human reason, and such the irresistible contagion of
opinion, that even this deliberate doubt could scarcely be upheld;
did we not enlarge our view, and opposing one species of
superstition to another, set them a quarrelling; while we ourselves,
during their fury and contention, happily make our escape, into the
calm, though obscure, regions of philosophy.