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Untitled Article
on the subject ot religion , is the common and vulgar error of supposing that it is connected with morals : an error mischievous to society , pernicious to morals , and nearly fatal to the cause of true religion . The morality that crafty priests wpujd inculcate is , that men shcrald imjtate the Deity ; but in no system of religion has the Deity ever been
represented , nor is it possible he ever should be , as a fit subject of imitation for mere mortals ; our notions of morals , in consequence of this absurd and impious mistake , are very confused , and many actions are loudly extolled as most virtuous , which really deserve heavy censure and sharp reproof for their immorality , whilst many others are tumultuously condemned , which are either
innocent or praiseworthy . "To combat this destructive error is the grand aim of * Truth *—to demonstrate and make plain and palpable to the most ordinary understanding , that there is no connexion whatever between morals and religion . In order to attain this noble and important end , a variety of characters are introduced . We find two
persons of extraordinary strictness of ritual , and of the greatest religious accomplishments , but of consummate wickedness and moral turpitude ; a person destitute ; of religion , but of exemplary virtue and absolute moral purity and perfection ; and , as it were , to hold the scales even , to shew that the author has no bias , that the scope and aim of the
work is , not , as the short-sighted vulgar may pretend , irreligious , and to answer that stupid objection by anticipation , a person who is , in fact , the author ' s favourite , the hero of the piece and the pride and glory of his parent , and who is , accordingly , decorated with all ornaments , and copiously endowed with
every precious gift , as to prove that , as religion and morals are not necessarily connected , so , in the author ' s opinion , they are wot necessarily incompatible , and who is , equally distinguished for piety and morality . If any proposition id clear and self-evident , U should seem to be thjfj , that religion was given to
mankind to sanctify them in this life , and to save their souls in a better , but not to teach morality in the present , or for any othrr secjijar purpose—that such a plain and broad qfc ^ U ^ ioft shoul d / be confounded , anjl the difference between mo - raHty and religion lost sight of , oupht to surprise iis , if ^ e ajd 1 not' j reroeniber ,
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Crifkql Notices . 607
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that it has always been the object of wicked and designing men to produce contusion , in order to profit thereby , an 4 to indulge a criminal ambition . Artful hypocrites gave themselves out ,
therefore , as being , by virtue of their office of religious instructors , the teachers of morality also , that they might obtain secular power , and govern the world by moulding the conduct of men , and by fashioning ethics into such a form as would best suit the narrow-selfishness
of their private ends . Men of good intentious , but of weak judgments , and who were therefore incapable of seizing distinctions , although sufficiently obvious , were misled by their sophistries , and chiefly because the moral character of the divine Founder of Christianity was , of course , exemplary , and indeed , of necessity , perfect , and they forgot that he came upon the earth to complete the
revelation of religion , and not to teach morality , or to cure moral evils : not to instruct mankind in a superior system of medicine , or to cure physical evils : although it cannot be denied that , as proofs of his mission , he healed , both in his own person and by his apostles , many sick persons and miraculously cured various diseases . So strong , indeed , is the analogy between physical and moral evil , that during many cen ?
tunes of barbarism , the former circumstance was also impiously turned to profit ; and rude statues , vile relics , and mouldering bones , the tombs of monks , and sacred springs , were falsely declared to have the power of healing the sick , and many weak persons have been deluded in this manner by the vilest impostures , to the great advantage both in
authority and wealth of sordid and tyrannical deceivers . It is more easy to detect failures in physical than in moral experiments , and the symptoms of bodily disease are more obvious than those of mental derangement ; the existence of physical impostures in religion was therefore of shorter duration ; this lucrative quackery has been almost entirely
exploded ; the professors of religion no longer meddle with medicine : their more mischievous interference with morals , at least as far as the vulgar are concerned , unhappily still subsists , but it will rapidly disappear in proportion aa religion Is purified and cleared from the practices of superstition and from worldly dross , and as knowledge is diffused amongst all ranks of society . "
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 607, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/55/
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