THE 



CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Or? Cft subject of RELIGION, mankind have, 

 n all ages, been prone to run into extremes. 

 While some have been disposed to attach too 

 much importance to the mere exertions of the 

 human intellect, and to imagine that man, by 

 the light of unassisted reason, is able to explore 

 the path to true wisdom and happiness, the 

 greater part of religionists, on the other hand, have 

 been disposed to treat scientific knowledge, in 

 its relation to religion, with a degree of indiffer 

 ence bordering upon contempt. Both these dis 

 positions are equally foolish and preposterous. 

 For he who exalts human reason, as the only 

 cure guide to wisdom and felicity, forgets, that 

 man, in his present state, is a depraved intelli 

 gence, and, consequently, liable to err; and that 

 all those who have been left solely to its dictates, 

 have uniformly failed in attaining these desira 

 ble objects. During a period of more than 

 5,800 years, the greater part of the human race 

 have been left solely to the guidance of their 

 rational powers, in order to grope their way to 

 the Tempe of Knowledge, and the Portals of 

 Immortality ; but what has been the result of 

 all their anxious researches ? Instead of acquir 

 ing correct notions of the Great Author of their 

 existence, and of the nature of that homage 

 which is due to his perfections, &quot; they have 

 become vain in their imaginations, and their 

 foolish hearts have been darkened. Professing 

 themselves to be wise, they have become fools ; 

 and have changed the glory of the Incorruptible 

 God into an image made like to corruptible man, 

 and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things.&quot; 

 Instead of acquiring correct views of the princi 

 ples of moral action, and conducting themselves 

 according to the eternal rules of rectitude, they 

 have displayed the operation of the most diabo 

 lical passions, indulged in continual warfare, and 

 desolated the earth with rapine and horrid car 

 nage ; so that the history of the world presents 

 to our view little more than a series of revolt 

 ing details of the depravity of our species, and 

 of the wrongs which one tribe of human beings 

 has wilfully inflicted upon another. 



This has been the case, not only among a few 

 uncultivated hordes on the coasts of Africa, in 

 the plains of Tartary, and the wilds of America, 

 but even among those nations which stood highest 

 ui the ranks of civilization, and of science. 



The ancient Greeks and Romans, who boasted 

 of their attainments in philosophy, and their pro 

 gress in the arts, entertained the most foolish, 

 contradictory, and unworthy notions of the Ob 

 ject of Divine worship, of the requirements of 

 religion, and of the eternal destiny of man. 

 They adored a host of divinities characterized 

 by impiety, fraud, injustice, falsehood, lewdness, 

 treachery, revenge, murder, and every other vice 

 which can debase the human mind, instead of 

 offering a tribute of rational homage to that Su 

 preme Intelligence who made and who governs 

 the universe. Even their priests and philoso 

 phers indulged in the most degrading and abomi 

 nable practices,and entertained the most irrational 

 notions in regard to the origin of the universe, and 

 the moral government of the world. Most of them 

 denied a future state of retribution, and all of them 

 had their doubts respecting the reality of an im 

 mortal existence : and as to the doctrine of a resur 

 rection from the dead, they never dreamed of such 

 an event, and scouted the idea, when proposed to 

 them, as the climax of absurdity. The glory to 

 which their princes and generals aspired, was, 

 to spread death and destruction among their fel 

 low-men to carry fire and sword, terror and 

 dismay, and all the engines of destruction, through 

 surrounding nations to fill their fields with heaps 

 of slain to plunder the survivors of every earthly 

 comfort, and to drag captive kings at their cha 

 riot wheels that they might enjoy the splendour 

 and the honours of a triumph. What has been 

 now stated, with regard to the most enlightened 

 nations of antiquity, will equally apply to the 

 present inhabitants of China, of Hindostan, of 

 the Japanese Islands, of the Birman Empire, 

 and of every other civilized nation on which the 

 light of revelation has never shone with this 

 additional consideration, That they have enjoyed 

 an additional period of 1800 years for making 

 further investigations ; and are, at this moment, 

 as far from the object of their pursuit as when 

 they first commenced their researches ; and noi 

 only so, but some of these nations, in modern 

 times, have mingled with their abominable su 

 perstitions and idolatries many absurdities and 

 horrid cruelties, which were altogether unknown 

 among the Greek and Roman population. 



Such are the melancholy results to which 

 men have been led, when left to the guidaiUM 



