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whether , without the assistance of revelation , the bulk of mankind would at any period have arrived at the conception that there is one God only , and that God a being of infinite perfection . This conception seems to us easy and simple , and the evidence on which it rests to be irresistible . But
the arguments by which it is supported , exclusive of revelation , are not adapted to the level of every mind . The fundamental proposition that contrivance implies a contriver , is indeed a proposition of which every man can perceive the force ; but much more than this must have been apprehended before we could have reached the sublime
view of the Deity which is conveyed in the volume of revelation . Perhaps it will be objected , that the great majority of Christians do not , properly speaking , believe the unity of God , and that their views of his character
are far from being consistent and honourable . This is unhappily too true . But the Christian Scriptures contain the remedy for the evil ; and the time cannot fail to come when the evil will be remedied . Nor can it reasonably be doubted but that the time will also
come when idolatry in every form will be banished from the face of the earth , and that by the sole influence of the Christian revelation . But another avowed object of
Christianity was to teach the doctrine of future life and retribution ; and this object it has most fully accomplished . Wherever its light has been diffused , it has shed its beams over the darkness
of the grave , and has inspired not only the hope , but the assurance of immortality . And this may be regarded as some presumption of its truth , if we reflect , that were we now , for the first time , informed that God had given a revelation of his will to men , our first inquiry would probably be , whether
tlua revelation professed to solve the grand problem , Is man intended to survive the grave ? And if he is in truth born for immortality , it surely were not unworthy of the Deity to interfere in an extraordinary manner to acquaint him with his high destination . It is indeed sometimes said , that a revelation was not wanted to teach
the doctrine of a future life , since this is taught with sufficient clearness ia the volume of nature , and was confidently maintained by tbe philosopher
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of old . On this subject I have given my opinion very explicitly on several occasions , and shall , therefore , not enlarge upon it now . I shall only remark , in relation to the ancient philosophers , that we have their arguments in our hands , and can therefore judge for ourselves of the conviction which they were likely to produce . I cannot , however , help adding an observation , in which I am confirmed by that great
master of reasoning , Dr . Priestley , that the ancients did not employ the hope of immortality either as a motive to duty or as a topic of consolation ia those cases where its influence would have been most seasonable and useful *
The inference from this fact ( and a fact it is ) is obvious and certain . But again , Christianity has established ci pure and perfect system of morality . This , I trust , I may consider as granted . And it deserves
observation , that the moral precepts which are laid down in the Christian Scriptures are delivered with a tone of authority which admirably accords with the supposition , that they who taught them were inspired . No premises are laid down from which certain conclusions
are drawn ; there is no trace of an intellectual process by which the truth of certain principles had been ascertained , but every precept is left to rest either on its own evidence , or on the acknowledged claims of the teacher by whom it is inculcated . And little as
Christians in general have been disposed to practise the morality of their religion , that man must have been very unfortunate in his social intercourse , who has not seen many instances in which the principles of Christianity have trained the sincere believer to as
high a degree of moral excellence as human nature could be expected to attain . Some will object , that were Christianity divine , its efficacy would * I do not mean that in the cases alluded to , they never make mention of a future existence . But when they make mention of it , it is merely as one branch
of an alternative by which they endeavour to prove that death is not to be regarded as an evil . And how little they were themselves impressed with it , may be inferred with sufficien t certainty from stress which they lay on otlver considerations which they coticei ^ ed were calculated to mitigate the poSgn&hcy of grief .
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146 Mr . Cogan on the Presumption * in favour of Christianity .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1821, page 146, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2498/page/18/
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