curates were to undertake fuch a work; I doubt not there are many com petent to the task; and I am perfuaded the booksellers would treat with them on liberal terms. For my own part, I am ready to co-operate with my brethren in fo defirable a work, and to take any share in the labour of which I may be capable; patient attention, and diligent collation, are all that are wanting to the putting out an edition of this kind. I am, Gentlemen, yours, &c.

March 8, 1802.

A LONDON CURATE,

AN ESSAY ON INFIDELITY;

With OBSERVATIONS on the GENIUS and SPIRIT of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

By the late Rev. MR. SAMUEL BADCOCK.

THE HE world is divided between two forts of people-Men of business, and men of pleasure. The former, in general, content themselves with a paffive acquiefcence with the modes of that religion in which they have been educated. They have too much of other matters on their hands, to give themselves any farther trouble about it. "It was good enough for their ancestors, and is good enough for their betters; and furely they should be accounted more nice than wife, did they difpute or reject it." Thus they go on in the dull and even tenor of their way; may read a chapter in the Bible of a Sunday morning, now and then, if they should happen to get up early enough; but they read it like children for a leffon, without examining into its meaning, where it is obfcure; or taking care to practise it, where it is plain. As for your men of pleasure, it would be paying them the worst compliment in the world, to fuppofe that religion ever feriously enters their heads. "Let it frighten the timorous, and amuse the weak; but it is not for men of bravery and spirit to believe or tremble."

That the Bible contains cautions to check the rage of pleasure, and propofes higher objects than those of the world to win our affections, and animate the pursuits of virtue, is an objection fufficient with perfons devoted to libertinifm to deter them from reading it. They cannot bear to be croffed in their inclinations, or impeded in their career; and as they know by fome means or other, that the Scriptures point all the dread me naces of future judgement against the vices and licentiousness of mankind, it is not at all to be wondered at, that they should hate it or dread it. But as a state of uncertainty is fo inaufpicious to pleasure; and to be haunted with this thought, "What if the Scriptures should be true?" must at times dath the mirth of the most chearful, and make cowards of the braveft, they are generally neceffitated to feek relief in the moft fophiftic reafoningsmagnify trifles-multiply objections, and torture plain fenfe to fupport infidelity. For how can a bad man be happy, whilft he believes the Bible? Every page confronts and threatens him. To eafe himself of this perplexity, he hath only to give up the Scriptures, as the dream of fuperftition, or the invention of prieftcraft-a trap for credulity, and a bugbear for the timorous. If, by marshalling objections arifing from ill-founding texts, and fetting Chriftians a quarrelling with one another, he can withdraw from the motley and confufed fcenes of folly, linked with devotion and faith hand in hand with perfecution, and fix his ftation in the green pastures, where liberty ranges without fear or restraint beside the fill waters, where

the

the cup of oblivion drowns care and confcience together, who would not envy the infidel's ftate? And enjoying it, who would think any thing of a heaven beyond it? But ferioufly, without jeft or ill-nature, if a man can well and comfortably get rid of the Scriptures, we may leave him to himfelf to get rid of every thing else that he counts a burthen. Give up religion as an incumbrance, and morality will fit fo very light and loofe, that, as occafion ferves and inclination fuits, a man will find no great difficulty in giving up that too. Your wife and knowing men of this generation, who are above believing the word of God, are not above crimes which are below human nature: and tho' they pretend to be free from fhackles which enflave the vulgar, yet they are frequently faft bound by those which would be a disgrace to the meaneft. I think a tame finner to be a thousand times worse character than a tame believer. If the one is ridiculous, the other is hateful. The one creates mirth, but the other mifchief. The one is the jeft, the other the bane, of society. Indeed, there is no comparison to be made between the weak in faith and the wicked in practice, which will not turn of the fide of the former. I think it is frequently owing to their own prefumption and confidence, more than to real merit, that those who have argued or finned themselves out of all sense of religion, should be esteemed more wife and liberal-minded than the good Chriftians they affect to defpife. I have feen the moft blundering ignorance, as well as the moft daring impiety, at the foundation of infidelity. A text of Scripture that hath been accompanied with fome image to which it is poffible to affix fome abfurd idea, hath been thought a fufficient objection against the authority of the whole. Seeming inconfiftencies and peculiarities of fpeech, adapted to the ages in which the Scriptures were written, and to the cuftoms of the people to whom they were originally addreffed, have been esteemed invincible arguments to difprove their title to divinity. Thus, for want of learning, and a patient inveftigation of facts, many have turned infidels, and claimed the flattering title of free-thinkers; vainly attributing that to their fuperior penetration, which was in reality the very effect of their ignorance and indolence.

Every perfon who hath ftudied the Bible muft confefs, that there are a number of difficulties attending the ftudy. The fyftem of revelation, like the great fyftem of Providence, is complex and various. The fecret fprings of the Divine Agent are folded up in obfcurity; and they are only dif covered by their effects. The volume of grace, like that of nature, is opening its views upon the mind wider and wider, in proportion to the accomplishment of its great designs, and our induftry in discovering them. The difpenfations of Providence and revelation have all one great end, and are regularly conducted forwards by the fame omnipotent hand to gain that end. But we cannot regularly trace the steps of Providence in all; we cannot fee how one event bears reference to another, and how all, however oppofite to our prefent limited views, will center at laft in that one point, where the glory of the Creator is best displayed in the happiness of men. It is an indifputable fact, and an acquaintance with ancient and modern history muft convince us of it, that Christianity being the great support of virtue, is the honour and ornament of a nation. According to its true influence, fo are the difpofitions of mankind humanized; and in proportion as its fpirit is diffufed and prevails, fo proportionably are men fitted for, and difpofed to, actions becoming the dignity of human nature, and fubfervient to the interefts of individuals and communities. The

fpirit of it is frank and liberal. It encourageth the purfuit of whatever truly benefits mankind; and reftrains from nothing, but what experience hath long taught us to be the ruin of a people. Wrong fentiments of it may damp the noble ardor of the mind, and contract and freeze its powers. But what is this to be attributed to? Not to its genuine principles, when freely explored by a mind divested of the fhackles of education and prejudice, and purfuing natural and honeft methods to difcover them; but to the corruption, ignorance, and partiality of mankind, by which they have been fhamefully perverted; to that load of party lumber, thofe heaps of fectarian rubbish with which the pride of fome, and the policy of others have encumbered them. Popery was undoubtedly convinced that naked revelation by no means favoured its pretenfions; it was conscious there was no more agreement between the reigning fpirit of one and the other, than between light and darknefs. The priests having the art to dif cover this, and afraid left the people fhould get at the fecret, and become as wife as themselves, took the most effectual method to blind the intellectual eye, and obftruct the rays of knowledge, by depriving them of the free ufe of their Bibles. Thus "Wisdom at one entrance was quite thut out." Now this was a declaration, as plain as actions could fpeak, that Popery and Christianity were very opofite religions; and that if the pretended picture was compared with the genuine original, the moft ignorant would be able to detect the impofture.

In proportion as the Scriptures became known, and were freely read, the fpirit of enquiry was excited, and the genius of men received a keener edge for intellectual difcipline from year to year. The light which had been for fo many centuries obfcured by the clouds of Popery, advanced fafter and fafter to the height of noon. As men faw it, and by it judged of the nature of things and objects around them for themfelves; arts, long buried in the rubbith which Goths and monks had thrown up, revived. Nature was ftudied by no fanciful or arbitrary ftandard, and the operations of it were narrowly watched and infpected. Hence philofophy, divested of ideal and unnatural drefs, ftood firm on its own immoveable bafis. Hence religion, ftripped of the foppith garb of fuperftition and ceremony, and the dark and awful cloke of myftery and anathema, fhone in fimplicity and fmiled in love. Hence the genius of politics was called up from the gloomy cells, where defpotifm had confined and chained it; whilft LIBERTY bleft and hailed them all, and bid them be free with her. If I mistake not, these are facts which hiftory and obfervation concur to demonftrate:

The tendency of Chriftianity is undoubtedly good. Its morality is pure and refined, benevolent and exalted; its religion fuch, as approves itself to our understandings as worthy of a being wife and good, and fuitable to the nature of reasonable and free agents, who are conftituted to perceive what is juft, beautiful, and worthy. Its fimplicity, as to pofitive inftitutions, is one of its moft ftriking recommendations, unencumbered with ceremonies; it draws your attention to the capital object; and making that object a man's own perfonal concern, it interefts the affections in it, and more trongly enforces an attachment to it. Amidft the abundance of facrifice à man is too apt to forget mercy. By a fcrupulofity about "the tithing of mint, and anife, and cummin," a man is frequently apt to plead a difpenfation from "the weightier matters of the law; judgement, mercy,

and

and truth." This is, and hath always been, the cafe with the fuperftitious, who mistake the means for the end, and rest on the fteps, without afcend ing to the temple of virtue. The Chriftian religion hath provided against all mistakes of this kind, as being the moft dangerous of human infatuations, by enforcing on the mind more ftrongly the fenfe of perfonal morality and intellectual purity, which can be more effectually fupported by a few plain and fimple institutions, adapted immediately to the nature of man and the defign of religion, than by a thousand needlefs ceremonies, which diftract the mind, and divert the attention from the main object; and which feem devised for no other purpose but to catch and cajole the vulgar, and thus fupport the high claim of the priesthood. Every Chriftian is a prieft to himself; his body is his temple; his heart, the altar: virtue is the facrifice, and devotion the incenfe, Hoc curo, hoc rogo, et omnis in hoc fum.

BISHOP HORNE's LETTERS ON INFIDELITY.

(Continued from Page 91.)
LETTER III.

IT may ftill perhaps be afked, Dear Sir, how it fhould happen, that when Mr. H's principles were fo bad, his practices should be no worfe? Let me offer the folution given of fuch a phænomenon in the intellectual world, by a very ingenious and fagacious writer, who had not only ftudied mankind in general, but, as it fhould seem, had bestowed fome pains upon the very cafe now before us.

"This fact hath been regarded as unaccountable: that fober men, of morals apparently unblameable, fhould madly unhinge the great principles of religion and fociety, without any visible motive or advantage. But by looking a little farther into human nature, we fhall eafily refolve this feeming paradox. Thefe writers are generally men of fpeculation and industry; and therefore, though they give themselves up to the dictates of their ruling paffion, yet that ruling paflion commonly leads to the tract of abftemious manners. That defire of diftinction and fuperiority, fo natural to man, breaks out into a thousand various and fantaftie fhapes; and in each of thefe, according as it is directed, becomes a virtue or a vice. In times of luxury and diflipation, therefore, when every tenet of irreligion is greedily embraced, what road to prefent applaufe can lie fo open and fecure, as that of difgracing religious belief? Efpecially if the writer help forward the vices of the times, by relaxing morals, as well as destroying principle. Such a writer can have little else to do, but to new-model the paradoxes of ancient fcepticism, in order to figure it in the world, and be regarded, by the fmatterers in literature, and adepts in folly, as a prodigy of parts and learning. Thus his vanity becomes deeply criminal, and is execrated by the wife and good; because it is gratified at the expence of his country's welfare. But the confolation which degenerate manners receive from his fatal tenets, is repaid by eager praise :" and vice impatiently drinks in and applauds his hoarfe and boding voice, while, like a raven, he fits croaking universal death, despair, and annihilation to the human kind."

But taking the account of Mr. H's manners, as his friends have given it, to fay, that few of the profeffors of Chriftianity ever equalled him in morality, humanity, and the government of their pattions," is certainly going a great deal too far. Thousands, in the firft ages of the Gofpel, gave all their goods to feed the poor; renounced, in deed as well as word,

the

the world and the flesh, and joyfully met death in its most horrid forms, for the love of their Redeemer. On the fame principle, unnumbered multitudes, in every fucceeding age, have manfully fuftained the heaviest calamities of human life, and with faith unfeigned, and hope that maketh not afhamed, yielded up their fouls into the hands of their Creator. Scenes of this kind are daily and hourly paffing in the chambers of the fick and dying, as they, whofe office it is to visit those chambers, well know. To others they must remain unknown, for want of biographers to record them. Every Chriftian who lives in piety and charity, does not favour the public with HIS OWN LIFE. Every Christian, who expires in peace and hope, has not the happiness of a Dr. Smith to pen the ftory of his death

Full many a gem of pureft ray ferene,

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And wafte it's sweetness in the defert air.
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble ftrife,
Their fober wishes never learn'd to ftray;
Along the cool fequefter'd vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

"Chriftianity," fays a learned writer, has in every age produced good effects on thousands and ten thousands, whofe lives are not recorded in hiftory; which is, for the most part, a register of the vices, the follies, and the quarrels of those who made a figure and a noife in the world; infomuch that Socrates, at the clofe of his work, obferves, that if men were honest and peaceable, hiftorians would be undone for want of materials."

But, whether the profeffors of a religion be many or few; whether they be influenced by the spirit of it, or not; whether they be fincere, or hypocrites; whether they be detected, or undetected, the religion is ftill the fame; it does not change with the changing tempers, difpofitions, and interefts of mankind, in different times and places; nor is it to be charged with the guilt of practices, against which it protefts in every page. No

demonftration in Euclid can be clearer than this.

To account for the oppofition often fo visible between the lives and the opinions of Chriftians, one muft enumerate all the various methods, by which, in matters of moral and fpiritual concern, men are wont to impofe upon themselves. Appetite and paffion, floth and intereft, will work wonders in this way-wonders, of which he has no idea, who has not been accustomed, with this view, to contemplate the conduct of those around him, and impartially to scrutinize his own. The religion of many a perfon, profeiling Chriftianity, is, by thefe means, laid by, like a best coat, for Sundays and holidays. Not a fingle thought cccurs of the neceflity there is for its being brought into the daily and hourly concerns of common life. It is a fpeculative belief, depofited in the understanding, to which its owner recurs, when he has nothing elfe to do, he finds it where he left it, and is fully fatisfied with its being there, inftead of bearing it always about him, in his heart and affections, as an active principle, ready for ufe, to operate at all feafons, and on all occafions. He wil even spend his days in difcourfing and difputing upon the fublimeft doctrines, and most holy precepts of religion, his own life ftill continuing un

reformed.