laws of abfolute wifdom and goodnefs — and the edit* 

 tinuance of our own primary being, with confcioufnefs 

 of our perfonaiity, and eternal progrefs to a more per- 

 feci: mode of exigence. 



According to my mol! firm perfuauon, thefe two 

 truths of belief, fiedfaltly thought over and refolutely 

 adhered to, in their utmoft fimplicity and purity, muft 

 have the moft beneficial influence on our intrinfic mo- 

 rality, contentment, and happinefs. It is demonftrable, 

 and has been demonftrated, that, taken in the whole, 

 they are indifpenfable to mankind : it is demonftrable 

 and demonftrated, that even the befland happier! man, 

 would be ftill better and happier by the belief of them. 

 Of them, and of them alone, may it be juftly faid, 

 what Cicero pronounces of the eleufi nian myfteries : 

 They put us in a frame to live more joyfully, and to 

 die in better hopes. ' , 



What daemon, hateful to the human race, has, from 

 the remoteft antiquity to the prefent day, been fo rna- 

 licioufly bufy as to disfigure this belief of a divine go- 

 vernment of the world, and a better irate after the pre- 

 fent lifej; to obfcure it in all imaginable ways ; and, by 

 intermixing; with it the moil: abfurd fanaticifm, the 

 moll odious fuperftitions, the moft inhuman and fenfe- 

 lefs conceits and frenzies, to turn that which lhould be 

 the fupport, the comfort, and the hope of mankind,, 

 into the means of their oppreffion and vexation ; into 

 an inftrument of tyranny, of impofhire, and extortion ; 

 into a moral object of terror; nay, even into a deftruc- 

 tive poifon, that preys as it were upon the fineft and 

 nobleffc parts of the human foul ? 



We 



