Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Perfidy And Infidelity Of The French.
faith . It is a duty which I owe my countrymen , to cautionihem against that cold and flippant scepticism , which damps our hopes , removes the sanctions of morality , chills domestic happiness , destroys the obligations of social order , and builds up the philosophy of vanity , on the subversion ofthe altars of God . This , however , is not the place to discuss the moral and political effects of reliion on the happiness
g of nations . The example of France should serve as an aweful examp le to Europe . The church was no sooner declared independent of the state , under the pretext of universal tolerance , than a flood of vice inundated the land . The tribunals , of justice received a shock , in the absence of every religious tie , and all conventions among men
were weakened or rendered nugatory . That the French should turn aside from the superstitions of the church of Rome , is a natural conclusion , in an age remarkable for the genera ! dissemination of knowledge . But that they should suddenly renounce the acknowledgment of revealed truths , from the abuses which have oppressed them , is as ridiculous in their conduct , as it denotes the impotence of their understandings . The vices and frauds of the professors of Christianity
have nothing to do with Christianity itself . To know what it is , we must look to the only proper place , THE SCIUPTUKES . The Christian religion is peculiar to itself ; it has nothing in common with the other systems of religion which have existed in the world . It has God for its founder , and reason for its basis . It is every where uniform ,
consistent , and complete . Considered as a body of ethics , it has never been equalled , and as a revealed law , it is supported by that lucid evidence which must'be satisfadtory to an unbiassed judgment . Its . promises are ail intellectual ( a remarkable instance of its simplicity ) its object is unambitious , and its moral precepts correct even to mathematical precision . . The law of nature was but darkly known to the most enlightened of ancient philosophers ; a revelation of it was
therefore indispensably necessary . Christianity supplied this defect . It descended upon the earth at a proper place and a proper time , after human philosophy had emptied itself of all its subtleties , in the most inquisitive and enlightened nations of antiquity . It has existed for eighteen centuries , throughout which W'ecaii trace its progress , without once losing sight of it ; and it will exist , as long as charity and virtue continue to be cultivated by men . What can the human
moralist substitute in its place , or what hopes will he give us when Christianity is gone ? It has been well answered ; morality without motives , laws without mercy , and governments without principle . Virtue and vice would become mere conventional sounds , determined according to the fashion of countries , and a man might' travel from one region to another , to commit vice with impunity . Thus incest he would reconcile to conscience , by the law of Persia ; adultery , by that of Sparta ; and the exposition of infants , by the codes of Lycurgus and China . The experiment has been tried in France , and it .has failed
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Perfidy And Infidelity Of The French.
faith . It is a duty which I owe my countrymen , to cautionihem against that cold and flippant scepticism , which damps our hopes , removes the sanctions of morality , chills domestic happiness , destroys the obligations of social order , and builds up the philosophy of vanity , on the subversion ofthe altars of God . This , however , is not the place to discuss the moral and political effects of reliion on the happiness
g of nations . The example of France should serve as an aweful examp le to Europe . The church was no sooner declared independent of the state , under the pretext of universal tolerance , than a flood of vice inundated the land . The tribunals , of justice received a shock , in the absence of every religious tie , and all conventions among men
were weakened or rendered nugatory . That the French should turn aside from the superstitions of the church of Rome , is a natural conclusion , in an age remarkable for the genera ! dissemination of knowledge . But that they should suddenly renounce the acknowledgment of revealed truths , from the abuses which have oppressed them , is as ridiculous in their conduct , as it denotes the impotence of their understandings . The vices and frauds of the professors of Christianity
have nothing to do with Christianity itself . To know what it is , we must look to the only proper place , THE SCIUPTUKES . The Christian religion is peculiar to itself ; it has nothing in common with the other systems of religion which have existed in the world . It has God for its founder , and reason for its basis . It is every where uniform ,
consistent , and complete . Considered as a body of ethics , it has never been equalled , and as a revealed law , it is supported by that lucid evidence which must'be satisfadtory to an unbiassed judgment . Its . promises are ail intellectual ( a remarkable instance of its simplicity ) its object is unambitious , and its moral precepts correct even to mathematical precision . . The law of nature was but darkly known to the most enlightened of ancient philosophers ; a revelation of it was
therefore indispensably necessary . Christianity supplied this defect . It descended upon the earth at a proper place and a proper time , after human philosophy had emptied itself of all its subtleties , in the most inquisitive and enlightened nations of antiquity . It has existed for eighteen centuries , throughout which W'ecaii trace its progress , without once losing sight of it ; and it will exist , as long as charity and virtue continue to be cultivated by men . What can the human
moralist substitute in its place , or what hopes will he give us when Christianity is gone ? It has been well answered ; morality without motives , laws without mercy , and governments without principle . Virtue and vice would become mere conventional sounds , determined according to the fashion of countries , and a man might' travel from one region to another , to commit vice with impunity . Thus incest he would reconcile to conscience , by the law of Persia ; adultery , by that of Sparta ; and the exposition of infants , by the codes of Lycurgus and China . The experiment has been tried in France , and it .has failed