Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

IN refpect to this belief being part of the foundation of religion; it may be fo of that which is false, but cannot of that which is true: it is certainly too bad a foundation to build any thing good upon.

As faith in God is the basis of religion, fo the belief that he is a being of perfect goodness must be the foundation of all true religion: for were he an evil being, it would undoubtedly be in vain to worship him; or, any acceptable worship could be invented, it must be of a malignant and cruel kind, fuch as bloody facrifices or the like.

if

"THE Hottentots adore an evil Deity, "whom they call Touqúoa, and look upon him

as the father of mischief, and the fource of "all their plagues. Upon any apprehenfion "of danger or misfortune they coax him "with the offering of an ox or a sheep; and at other times perform divers ceremonies to wheedle and keep him quiet

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

MANY of the ignorant Indians in America, who imagine that two great fpirits, one good and the other bad, govern the world, worship the latter but not the former, and affign this reason why they do fo: the good, fay they, cannot hurt us, but the bad will. Thefe poor people do not confider, that the

atmoft * The prefent State of the Cape of Good-Hope, Vol. I.

P. 104,

utmoft they can poffibly perform, is not at all likely to prevail with a bad spirit, of so much power and without controul, not to hurt them; and that such a being, who must be delighted with doing mischief or he would not do it, cannot be moved with pity or compaffion: on the contrary, he will laugh at their calamity, and mock when their fear cometh. When their fear cometh as defolation, and their deftruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon them, then shall they call upon him, but he will not answer.

CAN a good and true religion be founded ọn a belief, that God will not only punish multitudes of his creatures to eternity, but that he hath rendered it almost impoffible for them to escape being thus punished? Yet this is too common an opinion, and as many imagine, is grounded on divers texts of scripture.

A MAN may, and indeed must, be in the utmost fear of a being who he apprehends will make him eternally miserable: but is it poffible, that he should entertain any love, esteem, and reverence for fuch a one? Nay, fuppofing it is in the power of this being to prevent his becoming thus miferable, and he doth it not,-can he even then have any real veneration for him? If a fon believed or

knew

knew that his father would punish him with the moft extreme torments, or, tho' it were in his power, would not fave him from fuffering them, what filial refpect or veneration could he have for fuch a parent? And is not God much more intimately related to his creatures, than an earthly parent to his children? And may not creatures reafonably hope for and expect more care and affection from their Creator, than children from their parents? And is it not mens belief, that they are under the protection of the Deity, and receive from him all the good things they poffefs, and that he will bestow upon them all the happiness they fhall hereafter enjoy, which is the foundation of true religion?

Ir therefore there are any texts of scripture, which seem to threaten, that God, who is a being of infinite goodness, will punish men with everlasting torments, we shall leave divines to settle the point, whether fuch paffages, as before-mentioned, are not wrong tranflated, interpolated, or misunderstood. But however that may be, had not the learned and judicious Dr. Middleton reason to say? "It is a principle conftantly laid down by "all the expofitors of facred writ, that every

part of it must be expounded in fuch a * manner as to render it confiftent with rea"fon, and the known attributes of the Deity;' ❝ and

3

f and whatever will not admit of that inter"pretation, cannot be received as of divine "authority. If this be true," faith the fame author," it follows, that our notion of God and his attributes is not to be drawn ori

[ocr errors]

ginally from the fcriptures, but from nature “and reafon, previously to our study of fcripcc tures, which otherwife would be apt to "lead us into dangerous errors."

DANGEROUS errors indeed! For the want of obferving this rule, of drawing our fentiments of God and his attributes from nature and reason, and not originally from the fcriptures, has been one principal cause of our afcribing the human paffions, and even the worst of them, fuch as anger, jealoufy, hatred, revenge, &c. to the Deity. These paffions the fcriptures in a multitude of places have afcribed to him, " with whom," they have alfo told us, and truly told us, that there is no variablenefs, neither shadow of

turning."

DID not men entertain unreasonable and abfurd opinions of God, they would not imagine him to be cruel; and did they not suppose him to be cruel, they could not believe he would punish them with eternal torments,

Dr. Middleton's works, vol. II. p. 123.
The General Epifle of James, ch. i. 17.

or

or even suffer the works of his hands to be for ever miserable ".

To avoid the force of this argument, fome advocates for the doctrine of eternal damnation fay, that EVERLASTING MISERY is not an arbitrary punishment by God, but a natural confequence of fin, and agreeable to the

66

nature

A zealous advocate for this doctrine of Endless Torments, before quoted, tells us, "that the inhabi"tants of the old world even FORCED THE ALMIGHTY, ❝in vindication of his justice, to cut them utterly off "from the face of the earth. They had, by fuch long "repeated abominations, REDUCED HEAVEN TO THIS "UNAVOIDABLE DILEMMA, either of contending with "them by threatnings and punishments, even to eter"nity, had he continued them upon earth; or else de"ftroying them utterly out of this world, and shifting "the scene of those torments to the land of ETERNAL "HORROR." And in another place he fays, that whether the number of finners who fall under the fentence of ETERNAL MISERY "be greater or less, it does not, 66 as is pretended, at all impeach the goodness of God, "because it is a punishment which the objects of it even "FORCED divine juftice to inflict, and wilfully called "down upon themselves, in spite of every merciful me"thod of conviction a thousand times repeated. And I "doubt not," fays our author, "but the objects of this punishment will fully discover its equitableness, ac66 knowledge God's justice in this affair, and even THANK "THE ALMIGHTY that it was not, as to its kind and 66 DEGREE, of a more dreadful nature." Yet, of these torments he tells us, "that in duration they will be end"lefs, and in DEGREE INFINITELY GREAT." The Do&rine of endless Torments freely and impartially debated, &c. By John Maud, M. A. Vicar of St. Neots, &c. p. 110, 398 and 412.

66

« AnteriorContinua »