10 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION. 



Spanish colours ; when flags of truce are violated ; 

 when spies insinuate themselves into society as 

 upright men, for the purpose of entrapping the 

 unwary ; when false intelligence is communicat 

 ed to an enemy ; when fires are lighted, or put 

 out, in order to deceive mariners at sea; and 

 when signals of distress are counterfeited by ships 

 sea, for the purpose of decoying into their 

 power the ships of an enemy. 



Truth is violated in relation to God, when we 

 conceal from those whom we are bound to in 

 struct, the grandeur and immensity of his works, 

 and the displays of divine intelligence and skill 

 which are exhibited in his visible operations; 

 when we exhibit a diminutive view of the extent 

 and glory of his kingdom; when we give an in 

 accurate and distorted representation of the laws 

 of nature, and of the order and the economy of 

 the universe ; when we misrepresent the facts 

 which exist in the system of nature, and which 

 occur in the truth of providence ; when we call in 

 question the history of that revelation which he 

 has confirmed by signs and miracles, and by the 

 accomplishment of numerous predictions; when 

 we misrepresent its facts, its doctrines, and its 

 moral requisitions ; when we transform its histo 

 rical narrations into a series of parables and alle 

 gories ; when we distort its literal meaning by 

 vague and injudicious spiritualizing comments ; 

 when we fix our attention solely on its doctrines, 

 and neglect to investigate its moral precepts ; 

 and when we confine our views to a few points 

 in the system of revelation, and neglect to con 

 template its whole range, in all its aspects and 

 bearings. 



In the above, and in ten thousand other modes, 

 is the law of truth violated by the degenerate in 

 habitants of our world. The mischiefs and the 

 miseries which have followed its violation, in re 

 ference to the affairs of nations, to the private 

 interests of societies, families, and individuals, 

 and to the everlasting concerns of mankind, are 

 incalculable, and dreadful beyond description. It 

 is one of the principal sources from which have 

 sprung the numerous abominations and cruelties 

 connected with the system of Pagan idolatry, the 

 delusions and the persecuting spirit of the vota 

 ries of Mahomet, and the pretended miracles, 

 and &quot; the lying wonders,&quot; of that church which 

 is denominated &quot; the mother of harlots and abomi 

 nations of the earth.&quot; It has been chiefly owing 

 to the violation of this law, that the thrones of 

 tyrants have been supported, that liberty has been 

 destroyed, that public safety and happiness have 

 been endangered, that empires have been over 

 turned, that nations have been dashed one against 

 another, and that war has produced among the hu 

 man race so many overwhelming desolations. By 

 the pernicious influence of falsehood, the peace 

 of families has been invaded, their comforts blast 

 ed, their good name dishonoured, their wealth 

 destroyed, their hopes disappointed, and their 



bright prospects of happiness involved in a cloud 

 of darkness and despair. By the sophistry of 

 unprincipled men, literature and science have 

 been perverted, and the avenues to substantial 

 knowledge rendered difficult and dangerous ; liti 

 gations have been multiplied without number; 

 human beings have been agitated, perplexed, and 

 bewildered ; and the widow and the fatherless 

 oppressed and robbed of their dearest enjoyments. 

 Could we search the private records of ancient 

 kings, princes, and legislators, and trace the de 

 ceitful plans which have been laid in palaces and 

 cabinets or could we, at this moment, penetrate 

 into all the intrigues, deceptions, treacheries, 

 plots, and machinations, which are going forward 

 in the cabinets of despots, the mansions of prin 

 ces, and the courts of law, throughout Europe, 

 Africa, and Asia ; such a host of falsehoods and 

 &quot; lying abominations,&quot; like an army of spectres 

 from the infernal regions, would stare us in the 

 face, as would make us shrink back with horror 

 and amazement, and fill us with astonishment 

 that the patience of the God of heaven has been 

 so long exercised towards the inhabitants of such 

 a depraved and polluted world. 



Let us now consider, for a little, some of the 

 effects which would inevitably follow were the 

 law of truth universally violated. In this case a 

 scene of horror and confusion would ensue, of 

 which it is difficult for the mind to form any dis 

 tinct conception. It is obvious, in the first place, 

 that rational beings could never improve in 

 knowledge, beyond the range of the sensitive ob 

 jects that happened to De placed within the sphere 

 of their personal observation. For, by far the 

 greater part of our knowledge is derived from the 

 communications of others, and from the stimulus 

 to intellectual exertion which such communica 

 tions produce. Let us suppose a human being 

 trained up, from infancy, in a wilderness, by a 

 bear or a wolf, as history records to have been 

 the case of several individuals in the forests of 

 France, Germany, and Lithuania, what know 

 ledge could such a being acquire beyond that of 

 a brute ? He might distinguish a horse from a 

 cow, and a man from a dog, and know that, such 

 objects as trees, shrubs, grass, flowers, and wa 

 ter, existed around him ; but knowledge, strictly 

 so called, and the proper exercise of his rational 

 faculties, he could not acquire, so long as he re 

 mained detached from other rational beings. 

 Such would be our situation, were falsehood uni 

 versal among men. We could acquire a know 

 ledge of nothing but what was obvious to our 

 senses in the objects with which we were sur 

 rounded. We could not know whether the earth 

 were twenty miles, or twenty thousand miles in 

 extent, and whether oceans, seas, rivers, ami 

 ranges of mountains, existed on its surface, un 

 less we had made the tour of it in person, and, 

 with our own eyes, surveyed the various objects 

 it contains. Of course, we should remain in ab 



