i have before ventured my opinion on the political history of the israelites and their wars, and i wish i could not believe in them; but i fear that portion of their history is too true. the example thus set has been followed since by other nations, to wage the horrid wars in which they have embarked on the most trivial pretences, whenever their rulers found it convenient to give vent to their bad passions, wantonly to engage in them. there are many other matters related in the bible which operate as stumbling-blocks to those who otherwise revere it for the clear truths set forth in its texts. these consist in one part contradicting, or apparently contradicting, another part, and, in some cases, of making assertions which appear to be derogatory to the majesty of omnipotence. there may, indeed, be two causes assigned as reasons for these. the first is, in reading many portions of the scriptures literally which must have been intended to be understood allegorically. it surely could never be meant to be literally understood that the sun and moon stood still by the command of joshua, till he was “avenged of his enemies,” and that the regular order of nature and the universe was set aside to please joshua in his man-killing pursuits. that this was the way by which omnipotence willed the destruction of whole nations of people, does not seem to accord with the reverence with which man ought to view his maker, when, had it been his will that such nations should no longer inhabit the earth, the whole of such a people thus devoted might have been annihilated by a puff of pestilential wind, if omnipotence had pleased to do so. although it does not become us to scan what was, or what was not, his will, as we can only judge of all such matters according to our crude and weak conceptions.
the next cause for suspecting the accuracy of several parts of the sacred book arises from the supposition that these may not have been correctly translated.[40] all these seemingly contradictory passages, not being clearly understood, have been a most fertile source of employment for self-interested and bigoted men, who have attempted giving their explanations and contradictory comments and annotations upon them, and twisted them into meanings, often to bewilder the common sense of mankind, to suit certain selfish purposes subservient to their own ends. it would, i think, have been much better to have left people to judge upon these texts as well as they could themselves, rather than trust to such explanations, or to pin their faith on the sleeve of such men. i fear they have done more harm than good.
but all these and such like doubts seem trivial and light in the balance when weighed against the solid, sublime truths and valuable instructions contained in the ancient, venerable book. the mind of man thus prepared by the sacred texts laid open to him by the bible, as well as by the help of other systems of morality, which all lend their help to lead him in the paths of rectitude—in this state he sees himself surrounded by the wonders of creation, and furnished with passions given him for the wisest purposes, to spur him on to exertions without which the affairs of this beautiful world would soon be at a stand-still, and he would then soon revert to unintellectual apathy or savage barbarity, and would cease to adore god, and seek his providential care and protection. but, when the passions are not fully kept under by the reasoning guide, man feels himself to be a strange compound—a heterogeneous mixture of pure metal and base alloy, and placed in the infancy of an endless, and therefore an infinitely important and mysterious, but conscious existence. “wonderfully and fearfully made,” he views with amazement “this pleasing, anxious being”—this spirit confined in mortality with heaven’s own pilot placed within as its guide, and a soul, fed like the flame of a lamp, to enlighten his path to eternity. thus prepared by the hand of omnipotence, his reasoning powers commence their operations; his mind is then his kingdom, and his will his law as to his deeds in this life, but for which he must render an account before the justice of his maker, in another state of existence—in another world; otherwise he has lived in vain in this. if he avails himself of the reasoning power,—the choicest gift of his maker, and by which he has revealed himself to man,—then will he feel something of a foretaste of the future happiness he is preparing for himself in eternity. but if he will perversely cease to commune with his own soul, or reject its admonitions, and turn away from them, he thus puts himself under another guide, and must then become debased, degraded, and associated with sin; for he then suffers his bad passions and gross appetites to overpower his reason, and thus creates for himself an evil spirit, or a devil and a hell in his own breast, that consumes or annihilates his good spiritual guide, and disfigures the image of god within him, before it returns to whence it came. thus to appear before his maker must be a hell of itself of fearful import—not to be endured—and the greatest possible punishment the debased and polluted soul can undergo; and it may be well for us all to keep in remembrance that a year of pleasure can be outbalanced by a day of pain. to judge simply of all this, it may be concluded that those who, from pure motives, have shed abroad the greatest quantum of happiness to mankind, and to all god’s creatures, while they sojourned here, will, according to our notions of justice (beside the pleasure derived from self-approbation in this life), be rewarded, and entitled to such like but more exalted happiness to all eternity.
whatever weight these opinions of mine may have upon others, i know not; they are given with the best intentions, and they concern all men. they are on a subject which, in its own nature, forms a more sublime and important object of enquiry than any to which our intellectual powers can be applied. it is on them that religion, the life of the soul, is built. religion is both natural and necessary to man. those who reject this primary sentiment of veneration for the supreme being, only show their inferiority to other men: like those born blind, they cannot perfectly understand the nature of vision, and thence conclude there is no such thing as light in existence.
religion is of a pure and spotless nature; it is uniform, consistent, and of the same complexion and character in all nations. languages and customs may greatly differ, but the language of the pure devotion of the heart to its maker is the same over the face of the whole earth. religion, therefore, demands our utmost reverence; and, as such, that which was taught by jesus of nazareth. i revere the sublime, and yet simple, plain doctrines and truly charitable principles which christ laid down, and enforced by his own example. his life was a continued scene of active benevolence: no fatigue was too hard to be borne, no inconvenience too great to be submitted to, provided he could instruct the ignorant, reclaim the vicious, relieve the destitute, and comfort the mournful. such was the religion of jesus christ, “who went about doing good!” he spoke only of one god, and of him with the utmost reverence, as his heavenly father and the father of all mankind. christianity, in its purity, is the most liberal and best religion in the world. its inspired author preached up the cheerful doctrine of man’s reviving again after death, and of the certainty of his afterwards living to eternity, and did his utmost to persuade all mankind to live godly lives, that their souls might thereby be prepared to return to god, the author and the giver of all good, as unblemished as possible; and thus, so far as his influence reached, and his commands were acted upon, he may truly be said to be the saviour of mankind. but, there are questions connected with this subject which none but the almighty god can solve. it was by the divine will, and by the providence of god, that he appeared on earth. gifted with inspired powers, his immaculate mind thus made him the instrument befitting the mission he held, to teach mankind, then lost and grovelling in wickedness and corruption, the important lessons of religion and morality, and to reclaim such of the lost flock, high and low, as had grown up and established themselves in iniquity.
