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    tions , its indulgences , and the whole catalogue of its horrible tyrannies ? what if he brought forward

    the Inquisition , in all its terrors , sentencing to the stake numbers of innocent victims , and spreading the terror of its name through the whole world ? Would not the

    Christian reply , that in this he was attacking only the corruptions of Christianity , but that the religion of Jesus was pure , mild , and endearing to all the tenderest affections ? How then can a

    Christian use an argument against natural religion , which , if turned against Christianity , he would regard as in the highest degree unfair ? If we take a view of all

    antiquity , and search the annals of the remotest nations , we shall find natural religion no where encumbered with errors greater than those which have disgraced

    Christianity . How ; much rather ought the Christian to observe the precepts of the founder of his creed , when they are open to his inspection , than the heathen , who has no other guide but what the light of nature affords him . No argument then can be drawn from the

    state of mankind , destitute of revelation , but what is equally applicable to Christianity . We ought not to regard the actual state of natural religion among

    the heathens , but to inquire what degree of perfection it might ultimately attain . In the progress qf natural and revealed religion , there appears a striking resemblance ; they were both at their

    commence me nt m the most perfect state , whi ^ h they retained for a short period only , when the belief in the unity of the Deityugave place to Polytheism . The Itatfrish hierarchy is Sot inferior Wfttefrfo .

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    ism in superstitioir and idolatrous ceremonies , and both equally tend to encourage the most absurd ^ nd grovelling ideas . But as we proceed farther , reformation on

    reforremoves its corruptions ^ and almost restores it to its primitive purity . Yetyif a conjecture may be allowed , why might not natural religion have prevailed once ipoxe in the world , and the same reformation have taken place

    as in Christianity ; the book of nature Was open to the otie , the Bible to the other . If Christians , with the revealed will of God , could plunge iftto such gross superstition , how much ratjier might

    the heathen world , which did not possess their advantages ; and it seems very probable , that if a , revelation had not been made , yet that a gradual improvement in the opinions of mankind would

    have taken place ; this is confirmed by the manifest alteration of the heathen world , from the earlier records to the most enlightened periods of the Roman empire * The heathen ceremonies , in the

    time of Cicero , began to be very much neglected ; Homer was censured for the manner ir ^ which he introduced his gods , and men began to have clearer notions of the Supreme Befng , and hi $ perfections . This affords a presumption

    that man might at l ^ st a e to the important truths of natural religion , and that they mighj ; - $ s clearly be understood by the multitude , -as those of Christianity are at present . There is nothing in the morality of the Bible but whkt reason can teach ^ fcnd a to ts

    jie ^ r approximation i . precepts may be discovered in the vv r tings X > i rhfc'heathen philosophers . TM ^^ igUDfttttt does not ice ia ve

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    An Apology for Natural Religion . 451

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1810, page 451, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2408/page/27/