On the Moral Influence of Hislorij. 355 



neral system the most regular uninterrupted 

 order and harmony are observed. It is con- 

 trary therefore, both to the general order of 

 nature, and to the order of man, which is 

 confessed by the odium which the common 

 sense of mankind annexes to it, and by the 

 aversion with which man contemplates its 

 ruinous effects. — Atheism is yet more unna- 

 tural, for every character of nature is to 

 man the proclamation of a God, of a wise and 

 designing author. But independent of the 

 scenery of nature, in the contemplation only of 

 man himself, to deny a God, is to deny 

 himself. For, man is certainly an effect, the 

 commencement of his being is a demonstration 

 of it ; but an eflbct in the very term acknow- 

 ledges a cause, and an adequate cause, and the 

 denial of the cause of his being is not less 

 absurd, than the denial of his own being itself. 

 We should pronounce the man an ideot or mad, 

 who doubted his own existence, but to be 

 uniform and consistent, this the atheist ought 

 to do. The attribute of ideotism or madness 

 would not be increased thereby. 



These observations are not impertinent or 

 irrelevant ; they arise out of the view which we 

 have taken, and prelude what is the summary 

 of the charges which 1 have brought against 

 historv," that it is one principal cause of the 



