It is not the deift's business to reason foberly, and confider the weight and moment of things with exactnefs; idle ftories, rude jefts, and lewd inuendoes, ferve the purpose of infidelity much better than any argument it has yet discov. ered. They not only confufe and diftract the mind, but they alfo gratify and engage the attention of immoral men, by affording them what they deem an eafy confutation of religion.

The objections of infidels are weak, and can have little force but upon depraved minds, or on those whofe understandings are naturally weak, or made fo by an implicit refignation of their faculties, to writings which can neither improve your mind, purify your heart, exalt your virtue, nor increase your wisdom.

To doubt cautiously, till you have examined fully, and retain your affent, till you have feen clearly, are proofs of reafon and force of mind. But to doubt without any reafon of doubting, is as great a defect as to believe without any reason of believing. Both extremes proceed from an excess of imagination, which, difordering the intellectual eye, deludes the credulous to fee what is not, and blinds the infidel, fo that he does not fee what is. There is a fundamental maxim closely connected with these observations, and that cannot be too ftrictly inculcated on your minds; for want of attention thereto, weak reasoners have imposed on themselves and deluded others. Many things may be incomprehenfible, and yet demonftrable; and though feeing clearly be a fufficient reason for affirming, yet not seeing at all can never be a reafon for denying. We see many things muft be, but we cannot conceive how they are; we fee the connexion between fome truths,

but not between all; we fee a part, but not the whole ; we fee fome attributes and modes of things, but we do not fee their intimate effence. Nature abounds in myfteries, of which we may have a certain knowledge, but no clear conception; fome are too large for imagination to grasp, fome too minute for it to discern, others too obfcure to be feen diftinctly, and others, though plainly discernible in themfelves, yet remain inexplicable in the manner of production, or appear incompatible with one another.

Adams' Philofophical Lectures.

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED.

LEST it fhould be objected, that the foregoing outlines of deiftical characters are drawn by their profeffed enemies, the following ftriking defcription of the infidel philofophers, and their partizans, is extracted from the writings of the celebrated Rouffeau, and is the more remarkable, as he himself was one of the moft diftinguished chiefs of that philosophy, which he so pointedly condemns.

Thefe philofophers, fays he, are haughty, affirmative, and dogmatical; pretending to know every thing, and proving nothing; laughing at each other; and this common point appears to me to be the only one in which they are all right. Truth, fay they, is never prejudicial to men; I believe fo too; and this is, in my opinion, a great proof that what they teach is not the truth. One of the most familiar fophifms of the philofophical party is, to oppose a people of supposed good philofophers, to a peo

ple who are bad christians; as if a people of true philofophers were more easy to make than a people of true christians. It remains to be known, if philofophy, at ease and upon the throne, would reftrain the vain glory, intereft, ambition, and little paffions of man; and if it would practice well that lenient humanity which it extols with the pen. By these principles, philofophy can do nothing good, which religion does not do ftill better; and religion does many good things which philofophy cannot do. Crimes committed among the clergy, as well as elsewhere, prove not that religion is useless, but that very few people have any. The folid authority of modern governments, and lefs frequent revolutions, are inconteftibly due to chriftianity; it has rendered governments themselves less fanguinary; this is proved by facts, on comparing them with antient governments. Religion, better understood, excluding fanaticism, has given more mildness to christian manners. This change is not the work of letters; for wherever they have flourished, humanity has not been more refpected on their account; of which the cruelties of the Athenians, of the Egyptians, of the Roman emperours, and of the Chinefe, are so many proofs. What acts of clemency are the works of the gospel. Were philosophers in a fituation to discover truth, who among them would intereft himself in its behalf? Each of them well knows that his fyftem is not better founded than those of others; but he supports it because it is his. There is not one of them, who, having found truth and falfehood, would not prefer the lie he had adopted, to truth discovered by another. Where is the philofopher, who, for his own glory, would not deceive mankind. The effential point is to think differently G G

from others. With believers he is an atheift; with atheifts he would be a believer.

Avoid those who, under the pretence of explaining nature, fow defolating doctrines in the hearts of men; and whofe apparent fcepticism is an hundred times more affirmative and dogmatical than the decided tone of their adverfaries. Under the haughty pretence, that they only are enlightened, true, and fincere, they imperiously subjec us to their oppofite decifions, and pretend to give us, for real principles of things, the unintelligible fyftems of their own imaginations. Moreover, by overturning, destroying, and treading under foot, every thing respected by men, they deprive the afflicted of the laft confolation of their mifery, and take from the rich and powerful the only bridle of their paffio ns ; they fnatch from the heart both the remorfe of crime and hope of virtue; and still boast of being the benefactors of mankind.

Rouleau's Works.

SECTION XXI.

An Argument in Favour of Christianity, from its Tendency to promote Science and Useful Learning.

MR. ADDISON remarks, that

it happened very providentially to the honour of the chriftian religion, that it did not take its rife in the dark and illiterate ages of the world, but at a time when arts and sciences were at their height, and when there were men who made it the bufinefs of their lives to fearch after truth, and fift the feveral opinions of philofophers and wife men, concerning the duty, the end, and chief happinefs of reasonable creatures.

The late cclebrated George Adams obferves, that it is obvious at this day, that arts and learning flourish in the highest degree, in those countries only, which are enlightened by chriftianity.* Religion is undoubtedly the fun that gives light to the mind; the vital fpirit that animates the human understanding to its highest achievements; though many have been indebted to it, without being fenfible of their obligations, or without confeffing

* The end of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents, by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may be the nearest by poffeffing our fouls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection.- MILTON.