If the
religious spirit be ever mentioned in any historical narration,
we are sure to meet afterwards with a detail of the miseries
which attend it. And no period of time can be happier or more
prosperous, than those in which it is never regarded or heard of.
The reason of this observation, replied C/LEANTHES\, is
obvious. The proper office of religion is to regulate the heart
of men, humanise their conduct, infuse the spirit of temperance,
order, and obedience; and as its operation is silent, and only
enforces the motives of morality and justice, it is in danger of
being overlooked, and confounded with these other motives. When
it distinguishes itself, and acts as a separate principle over
men, it has departed from its proper sphere, and has become only
a cover to faction and ambition.
And so will all religion, said P/HILO\, except the
philosophical and rational kind. Your reasonings are more easily
eluded than my facts. The inference is not just, because finite
and temporary rewards and punishments have so great influence,
that therefore such as are infinite and eternal must have so much
greater. Consider, I beseech you, the attachment which we have to
present things, and the little concern which we discover for
objects so remote and uncertain. When divines are declaiming
against the common behaviour and conduct of the world, they
always represent this principle as the strongest imaginable
(which indeed it is); and describe almost all human kind as lying
under the influence of it, and sunk into the deepest lethargy and
unconcern about their religious interests.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161