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against which one's mind can strenuously revolt. To ascertain the force of this assertion, let us endeavour to collect into one point of view the chief propositions which must necessarily be included in the creed of a Deist and I am much mistaken if they will not furnish us with some cogent motives for wishing Christianity may be true, independent of all those that result from its own intrinsic beauty, value, and excellency.

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Here, again, we will suppose a Deist speaking; delivering, if I may so call it, in his own person, "A confession of his Faith." And after you have attended to this declaration, I think you will coincide with me in opinion, that the credulity of unbelievers is the most marvellous thing imaginable-the rejectors of the Gospel, the most resolute believers in the world; or with Soame Jenyns, that they "must be possessed of much more faith than is necessary to make them declared Christians, and remain unbelievers from mere credulity." The creed of a Deist so far as I am able to comprehend his principles, would run thus:

1. I believe that God is a being of matchless holiness, wisdom, power, and benevolence; that in consequence of his holiness, He "cannot look upon iniquity with satisfaction;" that His wisdom would enable him to contrive, His power to execute, and His benevolence stimulate him to accomplish, the most effectual plans for the establishment of virtue and the suppression of vice; for the extinction of mental and moral darkness, and the diffusion of mental and moral light: and yet, that God has suffered mankind in every age, and in almost every country, to remain in the grossest ignorance and darkness, for nearly 6000 years; to struggle with prejudices, to immerse themselves in the blackest and most dismal crimes, to perform the most horrid and murderous rites, and fancy them religious services; -that He makes the being who possesses the finest faculties to be the greatest enemy to his species,-and thus to plunge himself and others into the deepest miseries-and all this in consequence of His never

affording them the remotest aid,-never supplying them with any invariable principles as preservatives against error, or any specific rules by which they should shape their conduct. That is, I believe this palpable contradiction, that the goodness of God has allowed this horridly miserable state of mankind to continue for so many centuries, and has all along prompted him to refuse them any effectual aid or direction.

2. I believe that what is called the Mosaic account of the Creation of the World, and the Fall of Man, is a mere fable; and therefore I believe that God, the wisest and the best of beings, created man with the most noble, refined, and extraordinary faculties of body and mind, faculties infinitely superior to what are possessed by other living creatures; that while they eat, and drink, and sleep, unconscious of what shall befall them, he may indulge the doubtful anticipation intermingled with frequent dread of future occurrences; and that while they are supplied with all that is necessary for their subsistence without either "toiling or spinning," man, the Lord of the creation, is so circumstanced, that, " by the sweat of his brow," the labour of his hands, and the anxiety of his mind, he shall earn and "eat bread:" I also believe that the same infinitely wise and benevolent Being formed women with delicacy of perception, sweetness of disposition, tenderness of heart, and beauty of frame, far above all we could conceive, did we not witness, them, in order that "her sorrow and her conception shall be greatly multiplied," that she "shall bring forth children in sorrow," (while other animals suffer but little comparatively in bearing and bringing forth their young): and that she shall be formed exquisitely susceptible of all the emotions of love, in order that "her desire may be to her husband, and that he may RULE over her." That is, I will not believe that these are the effects of just punishment; but believe that they are marks of hard treatment from the wisest and best of beings towards the most exalted part of his

visible creation. I know there is no possible medium between these alternatives; but I reject the former because it is reasonable, and revealed in the Bible; and adopt the latter, because it is unreasonable, and revealed nowhere.

3. I believe that the book called the Bible was, every word of it, invented and written by men who had no help from God: that what are called Prophecies were not such; that what are denominated Miracles were either tricks of art, or never occurred; and that though the precepts are often admirable, and the morality pure, it proceeded from impostors, and not from God. The whole book being a collection of delusions and deceptions; which God nevertheless suffered to be accompanied by such evidence to gain it belief, as is not possessed by any other book.

4. I believe that bad men are often made better through the influence of this strange system of lies, delusions, and impostures; and that those who were good men often become bad, as soon as they are wise enough to free themselves from such influence, and to cast off the shackles with which this system encumbered them.

5. I believe that several of the best scholars, the ablest disputants, the most acute lawyers, the subtlest metaphysicians, the most cautious investigators, and the most profound philosophers, that ever lived, such as Sir Thomas More, Grotius, Hale, Bacon, Barrow, Locke, Hartley, Boyle, Pascal, Euler, Newton, and many others, were never able to detect the cheat, but lived as much under the influence of this system of bold and blasphemous deception, as the most vulgar and illiterate peasant could do ;—and were, the majority of them, very excellent men notwithstanding.

6. I believe that the different persons who employed themselves at various times, and in different places, to compose the Bible, which avows itself, by a thousand most solemn and explicit declarations, to be a collection of communications from heaven, were not madmen

(for that supposition is untenable), but all shocking liars, and deceivers; that these wicked men, who thus impiously pretended to be employed by God, when they were not so employed, did, notwithstanding, with an amazing energy, resolution, and perseverance, go about doing good, and delivering the most important moral precepts; braving, and often sustaining, the greatest present evils; not one of them ever recanting or discovering the fraud; but supporting themselves in the daily diffusion of their noble precepts and detestable impostures, and the terrible sufferings which they thereby had to sustain, by the conviction that they had no hope but of experiencing further hardships here, and the vengeance of the God whom they had insulted-hereafter.

Lastly; I believe that the Great Being of infinite perfections, who sits enthroned at the head of the universe, has seen this horrid delusion prevail more and more for nearly two thousand years; yet, instead of interposing to stay its progress, has suffered it to be accompanied with the most remarkable apparent sanctions, and has often accelerated its promulgation by surprising operations and occurrences. That is, I believe that the God of truth has, with regard to what is called the Christian Religion, most astonishingly aided imposture. All this, I acknowledge, is perfectly incomprehensible, and totally irreconcilable with the obvious attributes of Deity; but it is consistent with the principles of Deism, however repugnant it may be to common sense, and therefore I believe it.

If these and similar absurdities, my friend, result from the rejection of Revelation (and, as far as I am able to judge, they are not merely fair, but necessary consequences of such rejection), your deistical acquaintances cannot have so much reason as they suppose, to pride themselves on that noble exercise of their understanding which has freed them from vulgar prejudices and sordid restraints. Is there not, hence, too much reason to fear, that in nineteen instances out

of twenty, Deism springs more from the state of the heart than from the operations of intellect? and that it is not so much because Christianity offends the reason, as because it condemns the conduct, of men, that they affect to despise it? They commence their progress with a carelessness respecting their future interests; in the language of Young, they

"Give to time eternity's regard,

And, dreaming, take their passage for their port." Gliding along thus carelessly, it is natural enough that they should sink,-first into error,-next into vice. In such a situation, an inquiry into the evidences of Revealed Religion is not instituted under very favourable auspices; for the inquirer has his mind overgrown with the worst of all prejudices, those that are rooted in interest. How should a man be indifferent as to the truth of a system, which, if true, must condemn him? Though his life may not be grossly immoral, he knows that the tenor of his conduct is incompatible with the renunciations and requirements of real religion. He comes, therefore, to the trial, not as an impartial judge, but as a party deeply interested in the issue. He in consequence wishes that Christianity may not be true; and what a man fervently wishes, he can easily persuade himself to believe, though he should involve himself in a thousand absurdities in consequence of that persuasion.

You, my friend, have happily entered upon this important inquiry, free from the lamentable incumbrances of vice: that it may be so pursued, as to be the mean of preserving you from the deistical delusions to which I have adverted in this letter,-delusions, as derogatory to the intellectual, as they are dangerous to the moral, character of man;-is the most earnest wish of

Your sincere Friend.

Royal Military Academy, May, 1809.