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Sir , IN my last ( p . 137 ) I . quoted a passage from Mr . Locke : and as it is
always useful to point out the errors and inconsistencies of great men , that others may not be misled by them , I wish , with your leave , to say another word or two on the sentiment which is
there expressed . Mr . Locke maintains that all mankind without the aid of revelation could have attained an undoubting conviction of the being of a God and a knowledge of the obedience which is due to him . When Mr . Locke
expressed this opinion , he either could not have carefully considered what he meant by all mankind , or could not have had in his mind what he afterwards wrote on the existence of a God , which he regards as the most certain of all truth . Of this truth he
gives a demonstration which no doubt he thought to be the most clear and simple . This demonstration , however , he acknowledges to be complex , when he says that " he believes nobody can avoid the cogency of it who will but as carefully attend to it as to any other demonstration of so many parts / ' Of
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these parts , the first indeed is a proposition , of which no man can doubt , but the rest consist of abstract and metaphysical reasoning . If your read ers will turn to it , ( Vol . II . p . 239 et seq ., ) and then ask themselves whether the discovery of this demonstration is within the reach of a Hottentot or
Indian savage , they will , I conceive , agree with me that even that truth which lies at the foundation of all religion , whether natural or revealed , is not so intelligible to all mankind as Mr . Locke has represented it ; unless indeed they should fortunately hit upon some shorter and easier method of proof . But if
the first principle of religion is involved in obscurity , as to multitudes of the human race , what shall we say of the whole system which is to be deduced from it ? But Mr . Locke , as appears from what he says elsewhere , was misled By the opinion that it is inconsis tent with the wisdom and goodness of God not to furnish all mankind with the
means of knowing the great principles of religion . But surely we may leave in the hands of a merciful Creator thoSe to whom these opportunities have been denied . If I have pointed out ah error
in Mr . Locke , I have done nothing but what this great and good man would have wished to be done , and , perhaps , nothing but what the light which he himself shed over the world of intellect
has enabled me to do . One word more , and I have done . If the advocates of Natural Religion would content themselves with saying , that its principles may be discovered
by mea of thought and reflection , and by their means be diffused among mankind in general , they would not run into palpable absurdity ; but when thciy maintain that the truths of
thisvreligion , that is , the truths of which this religion is usually said to consist , are intelligible to every human being who will give himself the trouble to inquire into them , ( which implies that every human being is capable of conducting
such an inquiry , ) they lay down a position which is not to he surpassed ia extravagance by the wildest vagaries of the human mind- —a position which it would be the extreme of folly wilfully to misstate , and which it would be no easy task to caricature . E . . G 0 X 3 AN .
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Mr . " Cogan on Natural'Religion . 219
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r ) i code laU * dowa be enforced ia &&y thing like a spirit off sincere and active eiecuition , vain will it be to expect that the remaining colonies caa ever more be kept in a state of tranquil subordination , without alike extending
? > to them the same wild and disorganizing liberties . We may bid adieu to the security of our property , and that which is already depressed beyond measure in its value , will have but a short reign to run , before it becomes a dead and profitless waste !
Such are the actual reasonings and the loud deprecations of those who h&ve founded their views of the security of colonial interests on the existence and perpetuation of a system over which humanity sheds the tear
of its warmest sympathy , and to the abolition of which , its most fervent energies are directed . The friend of humanity , however , will hail the amelioration now granted , not mei * ely as the commencement of a reform ia a
system radically evil , but as the dawn of a day that will close in the extirpation of the system itself . ANDROPHILOS .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1824, page 219, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2523/page/27/
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